Greya looked at Angor’s mark and felt memories flowing back into her mind.
That helpless and terrified boy who was threatened by wizards in my restaurant... He’s grown so much. None of those bastards would have believed that Angor was such a great alchemist.
And that guy, “Mythril Innovator” Jellal. He entered my restaurant all thanks to Angor’s invitation, and then he forced the boy to order Section Ephemera.
How long was it, three years? Angor is as famed as Jellal now. Heh, how things have changed.
“Geez. Sunders recruited a future master alchemist under my nose for free. Lucky fool.”
Greya inspected the lion emblem again and decided to keep it in her mind even though she had no idea what it meant.
As far as she saw until now, “Twinning Wings” had masterful design and material choices. But compared to these, Greya was more concerned about its actual effect since it was supposed to be an alchemy item.
“I wonder how well Angor satisfied my requests...”
After activating the magic crystal, Greya curiously waited for her vision to change.
Angor was an apprentice. If he wished his illusions to completely work on a wizard like Greya, Greya would have to lift her spiritual defenses first.
Typically, no wizards would do such a thing. However, Greya had no trouble with it since she knew how the previous “illusion earring” made by Angor worked.
She opened her mind and welcomed the illusion to invade her.
At first, everything went dark.
Greya heard the distant noise of blowing wind.
The original smell of lake water in her hut was soon replaced by the scents of grass and trees.
It was still all dark, but Greya noticed that a lone moon hung above her head was slowly sending silver light around her.
She wondered what Angor wanted to show her by using such a sight.
She tried looking around, but she could not see anything when the moonlight barely illuminated her surroundings.
“So my night vision doesn’t work in here...”
She knew it had something to do with Angor’s “sense removal” abilities, but she did not forcefully resist Angor’s trick as that might spoil the fun.
She remained still and let her eyes slowly adapt to the dark.
It didn’t take very long for her to register something else in the area.
She was standing on a narrow but well-kept path, where both sides were dense woods. The moonlight managed to brighten the crowns of the trees, but what lay under them was still covered by the darkness.
“This path...” Greya crouched down and noticed that the path looked extremely smooth, which appeared similar to the streets constructed out of polished cut stone she saw in the nation of Evory.
But the current path seemed to be made from many different materials mixed together.
“Uhm. Strange...”
Since she could not see anything ahead of her, she looked behind.
There was a mountain behind her position. She couldn’t tell how high it was in the dark night, but she saw the path she was standing on leading all the way to an artificial cave on one side of the mountain.
“That cave looked pretty neat too. Kinda like the underground tunnels used by steam trains, but... even better. Can mortals make something like that?”
Following the unstoppable curiosity stirring in her mind, she walked to the entrance of the cave and saw a small stone stump.
There were several ropes bound around the stump, which had strange-looking bells hanging on them. Also, she saw some plates scattered around the place.
“Are these for preparing offerings for an idol?” She moved away and entered the cave.
A moment later, she returned to the stone stump with a frown.
There was a cave-in not far from the entrance, which stopped her from proceeding. However, she noticed that the path inside the cave was just as smooth as the way outside, and she saw no railways.
So this cave isn’t for trains but for ordinary carriages? That’s so wasteful.
Since this direction was a dead end, Greya decided to head to her starting point.
But before she could leave, she felt mountain wind coming from her back, and the bells behind her began jingling.
The chimes sounded loud and clear in the quiet environment. Also, they were becoming louder as the wind grew stronger.
The trees on the sides were swaying back and forth and dropping their leaves. For a moment, Greya found her vision blocked by too many floating tree leaves and fluffy clusters, which looked like willow catkins.
A pair of vehicle lights suddenly emerged from behind the snowlike curtain of nature.
While feeling blinded a little, Greya quickly grew nervous.
But that cave was blocked off! How could a vehicle show up from there?
Also, Greya felt the ground shaking a little, which definitely was not caused by carriages pulled by horses. It felt more like a giant monster running at full speed.
Are those the monster’s eyes but not lights?
As she braced herself for potential danger, she suddenly heard the sound of a train whistle, as if whatever was coming was trying to tell her “I’m a vehicle”.
Greya watched in shock when she finally saw the source of the ruckus.
It sure looked like a monster... but at the same time, it was a vehicle too.
She was looking at a large, striped ginger cat, and the cat’s eyes were shining brightly like headlights.
The strangest thing was, the body of the creature was hollowed out like a carriage.
The giant cat stopped in front of her. Before Greya could figure out what to do, the “door” around its waist area opened up, which revealed the furry space within.
After releasing another round of whistle sound, the cat spoke to Greya in a strange tone.
“Cat Bus at your service, beautiful lady.”
...
Angor was now looking at Iron Granny inside the Iron Fortress.
Using gentle moves, Iron Granny picked up a porcelain teacup from her table, took a sniff of the scent that she never experienced before, and drank the tea water that sent mild and soothing energy down her throat.
She closed her eyes and took a moment to enjoy the aftertaste of the tea. This was the first time for her to consume this unknown magical plant, but she was beginning to like its taste already.
The first thing she saw upon reopening her eyes was Toby, who looked rather thirsty while eagerly gazing at her teapot.
The bird’s master, Angor, was trying to calm the bird with an embarrassed look, but it was obvious that his effort could not beat Toby’s nature of a gorger.
“Excuse me, ma’am. This tea was what helped me meet with Toby, and I never showed it to anyone since then, so...”
“It’s fine.” Iron Granny smiled and beckoned to Toby. “Come, you’re free to have some. Your young master left a lot of it at my place, so you may come and enjoy it at any time.”
“Um, ma’am, don’t spoil him please!”
“Oh relax. This old soul just wants dear Toby to spend more time with her.”
“I... see.” Angor sighed and took out more Morning Dew from his bracelet. “Thank you for taking care of Toby, but please don’t give him too much of it.”
Iron Granny put Angor’s gift away and chuckled. “Speaking of coddling Toby, you’re doing a better job than anyone as his master. Toby was so lucky that he met you.”
“Yes! I’m glad we became best friends.” Angor scratched his head. “So how’s the tea, ma’am? Will Mister Sumesh like it?”
“I can tell you that this tea is top-class. Whether Sumesh enjoys it or not, he’d thank you for the gift.” Iron Granny showed a gentle look when speaking of Sumesh’s name. “I think this tea possessed a similar effect as the White Orchid Potion while having minimum drawbacks. For this, it could be considered a very valuable magic plant.”
“You know about Apothecary too, Granny?”
“No, I don’t. But I did once use White Orchid Potion. A... friend, gave it to me.” Iron Granny saw Angor’s curious expression but did not let him ask anything. “So, how did you find Toby using your tea?”
Angor explained their fated encounter on The Redbud.
...
About an hour later, Angor left the Iron Fortress and watched the wonderful legged house hopping down the mountain path.
He quickly thought about the “Cat Bus” he placed in the illusion of Twinning Wings, who also traveled over distances and obstacles on all fours—he got the strange idea from a certain film in his hologram tablet.
His illusion had many different sections, and the Cat Bus was responsible to help people travel among them.
I wonder if Lady Greya had run into one already. She totally should. I left a lot of bus stops for her!