“Your professor also mentioned that the Centipede Guild is onto you? Those thugs are known to use absolutely any dirty tricks to get what they want. Do be careful.”
Greya suggested as she handed Toby a bag of Mana Flowers. “If their leaders are so shameless as to come personally, use the full power of your Griffin Form and take Angor away.”
Toby put the bag into his storage with a serious look.
“Lady Greya, aren’t you going to let Toby stay with you?” asked Angor.
Toby quickly started giving Angor pleading looks. No, please, don’t!
Greya saw it and giggled. “Of course I want Toby by my side...”
Toby trembled.
“... But on second thought, he grows stronger quicker if he goes with you. It’s only several years, but he got the sequence of gravity and his Griffin Form, you know? Just take him. I don’t want to burden Toby’s future just because of my blind love.”
Angor agreed. Even if not considering Toby’s strength, he didn’t wish to get separated from him.
Greya was talking to Toby when she suddenly saw Angor showing a weird look.
“What’s the matter?”
“A... friend, just arrived at the island. I need to see him.”
When in charge of Phantom Island, Angor was allowed to see every detail that was happening around the island, such as a figure pacing back and forth at the edge of the island right now.
“Go ahead then.” Greya nodded.
As the “manager” of the island, Angor quickly traveled through the forest and reached the outer beach while everything moved out of his way.
He saw his target and moved ahead with a smile. “Fate has guided me here, Hobson.”
Hobson saw Angor coming and showed his signature coy smile. “Fate has—”
He then realized that Angor already stole his line, so he scratched his “bear ears” in embarrassment.
However, instead of his original white bear costume, he was wearing a panda suit today.
“What happened to your clothes?” Angor chuckled. “Thank goodness Toby is not here, or he’ll kick you again.”
“White Bear” Hobson put a hand on his panda hood and said, “It’s the same one, but I dyed the eyes and limbs black. And it looks good!”
Angor decided not to talk about Hobson’s new look. He went straight to the point. “So, what are you doing here? Did your fate tell you to look for me again?”
Hobson looked down. “Trust me, it’s true. Perhaps fate meant to let me come to you, my friend.”
He put his short cane on the ground. When he released it, the item tilted toward Angor but without falling flat.
Angor didn’t comment on this one. He was suspecting if White Bear was using this fate stuff as an excuse just to befriend him. “Okay, I see. Did fate tell you why?”
“This time, it’s Dodoro who told me to come.”
Angor was a bit surprised at the answer. “Didn’t he go to Starliege Temple with Miss Maya? And if he told you something, why did you mention fate and all that?”
“It’s... both fate and Dodoro.” White Bear sighed. “I must say that Dodoro’s potential is exceptional even though he came to Maya ten years later than I did. I know fate always asks me to speak to you, and this is the proof,” he said as he pointed to his short cane, which was still pointing at Angor.
“As for Dodoro... he predicted something, which is related to both you and me.”
Usually, Angor wouldn’t care about White Bear’s cryptic nonsense. However, he decided to pay attention since Dodoro was involved in this, and he knew Dodoro’s “predictions” were rather accurate.
“Dodoro doesn’t really do prophecy, and even if he did, he won’t reveal it... except that when the prophecy concerns you. He told me to come here at this moment, which means he saw something about you. Also, I felt it too, that fate wants me to come.”
Angor felt a giant headache already. “Just... tell me what Dodoro told you to do.”
“He asked me to give my ‘most precious treasure’ to you.”
“Huh?”
White Bear looked at the sky and began unbuttoning his suit. “I didn’t know what that meant exactly, but I still came. Now I think about it, apart from my memories, my ‘precious treasure’ should be my... virginity.”
Angor quickly took several steps back and prepared to activate the island’s barrier to knock this freak away the moment he saw it necessary.
“However, my virginity was already gone ten years ago, when my aunt took it from me. Then her daughter came and did it again...”
Angor felt his head dizzy with the overwhelming fact he just heard. “What the heck is going on with your family?”
“So... what is my most precious thing?” White Bear was almost singing now. “I know it now. It’s my bone card! It holds all of my savings! But Dodoro couldn’t have told me to give you my savings since you probably aren’t short of money. Which means... I’m supposed to give you this.”
White Bear removed his costume and looked at Angor’s position with a bright smile, only to find that Angor was no longer in his view.
There was only the forest, which served as the island’s first protection, sand, and cold wind.
“Leave it there if you want to give me something. I need to deal with another matter. Will pick it up later,” Angor’s voice reached his ears.
“But—”
I spent so much time practicing my “final confession”! Why do my attempts always end up like this? Am I being too aggressive?
He sighed again and looked at the inner lining of his suit, where a small charm was affixed. It was a miniature toy white bear, which grew a bit yellow due to the passage of time.
White Bear looked at a square pendant that was hanging on the toy’s neck and showed a sad smile.
He made sure Angor wasn’t coming back before placing the toy bear on the sand along with a piece of note. Once he was done, he walked away.
Angor showed up from among the trees once he saw that White Bear was gone.
He never left the area—he simply hid in the forest, fearing that White Bear would show him something unsightly. But it seemed that he was worrying too much.
He went onto the beach and picked up White Bear’s “gift”.
The palm-sized toy looked poorly made—even its two eyes were made of differently colored and wrong-sized buttons. Yet somehow, Angor could feel that whoever made this toy put a lot of effort into it.
It was like a parting gift given to a traveling child by his mother.
There was a rectangular pendant weaved onto the toy’s bow-tie. Angor flipped it open and saw a stamp-sized portrait inside. The portrait showed a smiling boy who was holding a white bear toy while a tall woman was holding his shoulders. She was also looking at the “camera” as well, but the woman’s face was all blurry.
The boy should be Hobson. But... who’s that behind her?
Confused, Angor picked up White Bear’s note.
[This is my answer—my “precious treasure”. I think. I’ve been carrying the toy since childhood, and I never let go of it. I don’t remember who gave it to me, but I... like it.
[It’s probably the lady in the picture who gifted it to me. But I don’t know who she is. My family, maybe? But everyone in my family died 13 years ago.
[I’m not sure why Dodoro wanted you to have it, but there must be a reason. Like I said, fate also convinced me to do so. Otherwise, I really do not wish to part with it.
[Please take good care of it.
[Hobson Seeley]
Angor could tell that the bear toy meant a lot to Hobson, which was also proved when Hobson kept glancing back when he was walking away from the beach. That white bear costume might have something to do with it too.
He carefully put away the toy in his bracelet since it was Dodoro’s intention.
Also, he was thinking about someone else after looking at Hobson’s pendant. He was thinking of Flowey, the lonesome soul of a little girl who lived under a dried-up well outside Dark Castle.
Angor discovered a pendant inside Flowey’s coffin, which came with a piece of silk that had the image of Flowey and her brother.
Later, Flowey took the picture back and asked him to keep the pendant.
He checked and noticed that although these two items used different materials and had different designs, the chains on them looked exactly the same.
Don’t tell me Flowey and Hobson are related in some way?