Carveline gasped.
She didn’t want to believe her assumption about Angor’s true strength. She couldn’t believe it! Even though they were both level-2 apprentices, she owned Pastor’s Garb! The legendary artifact!
Yet she couldn’t deny the truth, which had already happened in front of her eyes.
She sighed and dispelled her butterfly dress, which then slowly turned into the armored skirt she had earlier.
“Heh. The student of Mister Phantom lives up to his name...” Carveline comforted herself and used Angor’s mighty professor as an excuse.
Previously, she was confident that they could defeat Angor if both she and Sinehowze used their best moves.
They could not.
Truth was, they still had some secret tricks up their sleeves. However, what Angor showed them already confirmed to them that those moves would not help.
With a bitter mindset, Carveline went to assist Sinehowze.
“We lost. Just ask what you want to know and I’ll tell you,” said Carveline.
Sinehowze took out two magic scrolls from her necklace. “We can’t defeat you, true. But you can’t stop us from running. How about we end this thing with a good talk and be on our ways?” Sinehowze looked at Angor with a terrified expression. There was still blood around the corners of her lips. Unlike Carveline, she knew how powerful her summoned skeleton was. That was one of the deadliest helpers she could call using her Gourmet meals.
But Angor broke it with one hit. ONE HIT. She couldn’t muster any courage to resist right now.
Sinehowze tried to calm herself down as she revealed the scrolls she had.
Angor frowned at the familiar runes on the scroll, while Shan and Keely looked at each other helplessly.
Teleportation scrolls.
They had seen such things for a second time today.
Angor wondered if every elite apprentice who came to the garden held these things. Their professors probably prepared the scrolls as a means for them to escape.
He thought about the day when he went looking for Sunders to ask for something, but Sunders didn’t even grant him permission to enter the study.
Angor sighed in distress. Sinehowze was right that they could always get away. Besides, Angor was not in his best condition either, since that gravity hit he used to kill the skeleton just now emptied a great portion of his soul energy.
He knew he could attack the skeleton’s ethereal form if he also entered his soul form, but his plan would come at a great cost.
Angor quickly made up his mind and nodded to Sinehowze with a smile. Then he took out a necklace from his bracelet, which had a pendant shaped as an ink-colored butterfly.
“Sure, since you’re a customer who bought my necklace.”
Angor meant to find an excuse to step out of the conflict while maintaining his neutral standing.
Sinehowze looked at Angor’s necklace. She then looked at her own with her mouth agape.
She didn’t know if Angor was speaking the truth, but she did know that the two necklaces definitely came from the same crafter, and Angor probably had no reason to lie about it.
“Oh I... love it!” Sinehowze forced a smile on her face. “So, you made this thing? This is fate I guess. Just ask me anything. Come on.”
Keely didn’t protest about the ending and canceled her bloodline effect.
She would accept Sinehowze’s surrender too if she were the one making decisions. Carveline came from a certain clan who dealt with Abyss Demons before. They also possessed Pastor’s Garb, an artifact that held a demon’s true power. Keely would avoid provoking them without any good reason.
Angor didn’t know any of this, and since neither Keely nor Shan disagreed, he decided to get on with the questioning. “Okay, I want to know where Shiliew is. The woman that fought against you guys at Tulip Palace.”
“That woman with blue hair? She... isn’t THAT beautiful, so how did you two—” Sinehowze saw Angor’s eyes twinkling ominously and quickly changed her words. “She fell asleep in front of us, so we took her to Jebra.”
“Heh. The daughter of the Pastor Family would sup upon Jebra’s wealth?” Keely humphed.
Carveline glimpsed at her. “Why would I refuse something good that I can use? Suppose someone gives you a Blaze of Purgatory and asks you to kill a rat, will you do it?”
Keely didn’t reply. Carveline spoke the truth.
“I don’t know why Jebra wanted that woman. Since it’s easy money, I decided to help him.”
“Where is Jebra?” Angor asked.
Sinehowze took out a deep-blue scale from her necklace and tossed it in Angor’s way.
Angor didn’t catch the item. It was Shan who asked Gank to take the scale.
“This came from Jebra’s horned whale. Use it if you want to find him,” Sinehowze said. She looked unsure about something. “I kept this thing so that I can use it against Jebra one day... but I’ll give it to you since you’re looking to get him.”
Luna went to take a sniff at the scale and nodded to Keely, which meant it had registered the location of their target.
“Last question. Have you seen her?” Angor displayed Nausica’s image with an illusion.
“Ah, so she’s the one you’re actually looking for?” Sinehowze gave Angor a thoughtful look and pointed to Shan. “No. I didn’t see her after she and this little one left Tulip Palace.”
Angor felt disappointed, but he didn’t say anything further.
“I do love your Pink Butterfly. I bought it from an auction though. Hope you can design one just for me next time.” Sinehowze chuckled and left with Carveline.
...
“We let them go so easily!” Shan complained.
“The Pastor Family... Let’s leave.” Keely moved first.
They continued moving forward while following behind Luna.
“Who is Pastor?” Angor asked. It had been bothering him for a while.
Keely shook her head and whispered, “They’re a clan that shared some connections with Abyss Demons, and don’t ever get them angry. It is said that the power of a grand demon is deadly to all except for legendary wizards.”
Even wizards wouldn’t want to speak about the grand demons, much less Keely. Therefore, she ended the topic with those words alone.
Angor did know about the grand demons, but he never expected that Carveline was someone related to them.
Why would the other wizards allow such a clan to exist in this world at all?
He gave up thinking about it soon since it wasn’t something he should meddle with.
After traveling for some time, Keely suddenly said to Angor, “When we find Jebra, just leave him to me. You get Shiliew and I’ll deal with Jebra myself.”
What Keely meant was obvious—she didn’t want Angor to earn another enemy who belonged to Song of the Deep and “God of Seas” himself, both of which were mighty entities that they couldn’t afford to anger.
Angor disagreed.
“I’m not sure what that man wants from Shiliew, but since he offered something that even a member of the Pastor Family accepted, do you think he’ll let Shiliew go easily? You think he won’t mind if I take Shiliew away?”
He meant to say that, by rescuing Shiliew, he would naturally become Jebra’s enemy. And if so, there was no point holding back.
Jebra might have come from a grand organization, but Angor was no nameless commoner either.
All in all, Angor wasn’t afraid of Jebra in the least.
“Suit yourself...” Keely said in the end.
Keely glanced at both of her partners and felt excited about the coming challenge, while Angor looked at Shan, who had been lost in her own thoughts.
“You never told me what happened between Shiliew and Jebra. What did you guys do? Why did Jebra want to capture Shiliew?”
Angor was only trying to ascertain the situation. He felt it strange that Shan couldn’t give him a sure answer.
“I don’t know... I said Shiliew wounded Jebra, right? I didn’t lie about it. But I never understood why Shiliew did it in the first place. And when I asked her, she said ‘I don’t know’.”
“She didn’t know?” Angor was getting more and more confused. Is Jebra actually... innocent in this?
Shan lowered her head as she explained, “Well, every time Shiliew saw Jebra, she would be like another person. She wouldn’t... be herself anymore. But once Jebra left her sight, she would return to normal. Neither I nor Nausica knows what’s going on. “