Erwin’s home was located at the “rich zone” of Yothur City where most of the biggest buildings and high-class gathered.
It was a 4-story apartment, and Erwin owned the top floor. The busy street below the building was called Marcel District. Both ends of the street had a statue of a crouching man with wings behind his back. Most people who entered the street would remove their hats and pay respect.
“The statue is Marcel. Rumors say that he’s some herald of heaven who descended upon Aureum and civilized the initial tribes into the city you see now.” Tulu carried some hot water onto the balcony where Angor was inspecting the mortal city with a curious look.
“So you don’t believe that rumor, I take it?”
“Who will? Don’t mind those people bowing and kneeling to the statues. It’s kind of a rule around here. The royal court of Aureum believes the story, then the nobles follow them. They made up family titles after Marcel and built his statues everywhere just to show their loyalty to their ruler. Next, traders and common citizens who wish to join their rank also copied their ways.” Tulu rolled his eyes. “Most of them never believed this sh*t. Seriously, maybe even the current king of Aureum pretended it.”
“I don’t know about the others, but I’m sure the king trusts the legend,” said Angor.
“Er, why’s that, sir?”
“I sense supernatural energy coming from the statues. Maybe a wizard placed them around the nation to gather the power of faith. And since the rulers allowed this wizard to spread the religion...”
“The power of faith? You-you can collect that?”
“Of course you can. There are demons from Abyss Plane who absolutely love such a thing.”
Tulu knew about demons since the basic knowledge told by Angor included foreign plane and their relationships with the wizarding world.
“You mean... Marcel did some business with demons? So he wasn’t a herald of heaven, but the Abyss?”
“Nah, we don’t know yet. Judging from their conditions, the statues had been left in the city for centuries, and nothing bad happened here, right? Maybe it’s only a curious wizard who built them.”
Angor then entered the room and put the matter behind. Even if a demon from Abyss was plotting something in the city, it had nothing to do with him.
The fourth floor of the apartment had a dozen rooms, all belonged to Erwin. Usually, he and Tulu lived here when they were off-work.
Erwin arranged a relatively small room for Angor, but this one had two balconies that allowed Angor to look at Marcel District and a serene park on the other side.
Although whatever Erwin would like to achieve didn’t work out since Angor wasn’t planning on spending much time enjoying the view. He was only briefly interested in the statues of Marcel upon his first arrival, after which he never used the balconies.
The next day, he became a complete shut-in who did nothing other than studying Empty Ballad in his room.
During noontime on the third day, Erwin returned to the department with a depressed look and went to look for Angor.
“Mister Padt, I’ve shown the ‘proof’ to the inspector, and he wants to meet you in person.”
“Meet me?”
Angor would like to refuse and continue with his work, but on second thought, he decided to provide a little bit more help since the faithful captain did help him reach Ferran.
“Alright. Lead the way.”
Erwin quickly arranged a carriage that would take them to the office department of the White Clam Association.
“Oh, sir, about that matter you asked to check... I still need more time to confirm the details,” Erwin whispered while on their way.
“Just do your best. Don’t worry if you can’t find anything.”
Their vehicle arrived at the destination almost at nightfall since the office was pretty far from Erwin’s place.
Angor was asked to go into a guest room where he met with the “inspector” in private.
However, it wasn’t the uniformed man he saw at the port. Instead, he was welcomed by a bald and bulky guy named Bismarck.
“It’s an honor to see you, Mister Padt.”
They spent a brief moment exchanging formalities.
“I heard that you wield brilliant illusion skills, Mister Padt, and right now, I cannot ascertain whether the proof filmed in the crystal ball is an illusion, so we need you to help us confirm the evidence.”
“My help?” Angor was a bit annoyed since what Bismarck said sounded slightly offensive. “What should I do exactly, Mister Bismarck?”
“The association sent an expert who’s on his way. I hope Mister Padt can stay at Yothur City in the meantime. When he arrives, you can talk about this matter.” Bismarck looked more respectful when talking about their “expert”.
Both Bismarck and Angor were level-3 apprentices, so they maintained basic manners while talking to each other. By this, Angor assumed that this “expert” might be a wizard.
“How long am I supposed to stay? Several days or months?” Angor looked at Bismarck in the eyes.
“He departed not long ago, but it won’t take him too long to reach here since he didn’t need to cross Devil’s Water,” Bismarck replied without noticing Angor’s impatience. “About three months, I’d say.”
“That’s no good. I have my own missions to do. I can’t remain at Ferran for that long.”
“Please don’t make it hard for me, Mister Padt.” Bismarck suddenly changed his tone harsher. “Or are you afraid to have your forged evidence found out?”
“Heh. Are you playing dumb on purpose or are you dumb for real?” Angor slowly released his power. “Don’t you have someone who can identify the reliability of the crystal ball? Yeah, maybe you can’t. But there must be loads of wizards from Floating Mech City stationed at Ferran. What about them? You think I played a childish trick on the evidence? Come on, I thought you can find a better excuse.”
Bismarck grimaced. “You’re right, Mister Padt. I mean, we can use truth-detection spells for this purpose, but I’m afraid you still have to wait for our expert to perform the spell.”
“I showed the evidence to Floating Mech City, and I’m not afraid of anything you might do with it. Since none of us is the stupid one, I should ask this question more clearly, what are you keeping me here for?”
Bismarck remained quiet.
“Heh. Not that it matters. Since you don’t want to talk, I’ll not waste any more time here. We both know whether the evidence is trustworthy or not.”
Bismarck’s expression turned cruel when he saw that Angor was about to leave the room. When he found a chance, he quickly lifted his hand and released two golden chains toward Angor’s back.
Angor already had a cantrip prepared in his mindspace. After an ice wall blocked Bismarck’s chains, he instantly deployed a number of illusion nodes around him.
Despite his level, Bismarck had been spending his time in peaceful places, which made him an “academism”. He was trapped in Angor’s mist without putting up a fight.
“I was going to have a peaceful talk with you since you’re with the Floating Mech City, but since you made the first move... don’t blame me for some legit self-defense.”
Angor expressed his killing intent for Bismarck to hear, then he asked Toby to harass Bismarck without actually killing him. He still would like to know why someone from Floating Mech City wanted to keep him in the city.
As for the evidence part, Angor never believed it. Even Bismarck seemed pretty embarrassed when making up that lie.
While Toby left more and more wounds on Bismarck’s flesh, Angor also used his nightmare energy to break down Bismarck’s spirit defense.
However, Bismarck’s lips remained tight.
It was until Angor used a powerful “Nightmare Fear” cantrip, which finally caused Bismarck to lose the mental fight. But the man never mentioned any coherent information while in such a state.
From the limited words, Angor managed to know that Bismarck wasn’t helping the Centipede Guild. Other than this, there were only two names worth noticing—Roman and Leviathan.
Angor wasn’t going to check what was so special about Roman since Roman was dead. And when there was nothing else to learn, he unleashed a simple but deadly attack at Bismarck’s forehead.
There might be all sorts of hidden facts and misunderstandings, but he had enough reason to kill Bismarck now.
However, his attack was blocked by a sudden energy wave that came from Bismarck’s body.
“Who dares to harm my student?!” A shadow appeared beside Bismarck and unleashed its wizard-level might at Angor.
A wizard left his spirit barrier on this b*stard?! Angor cursed in his mind. Even Sunders never gave me such protection!
No matter what he did next, the wizard must have seen him through the mark left on Bismarck. And Angor definitely did not want to provoke a vengeful wizard who would either hunt him down personally or send assassins without an end.
As he wondered whether he should force his way through the protection and finish off Bismarck, the shadow suddenly spoke again in a smaller voice, “This illusion is... weird. It feels familiar.”