“A flaming griffin... You’re Angor?!” the robed man yelled in shock, which also caused Angor to stop his movement.
Taking the chance, the whale shrank to palm-size and moved to a white figure who just showed up on the water.
Angor saw the man in a white hooded outfit and the “fish scale tattoo” on the forehead. “Jebra, so you’re behind this?”
Jebra lifted the black-robed man by the collar and pressed a hand against his head. Soon, the body of the puppet shattered into dust and disappeared into the air.
Jebra dusted his hands casually and comforted the now smaller blue whale. “I knew I saw that birdy from somewhere before... And what’s going on with your face? Oh, I know. Glamor, is it?”
Angor quietly prepared his magics without speaking.
“Don’t be like that. Of course I’m not stupid to harm the student of Mister Phantom. Just saying hello. Besides, we aren’t enemies.” Jebra waved a hand and canceled all the aggressive water energy around the area.
Angor’s body went blurry and reverted to his original looks.
“What, not going to mind me being a stalker?” Angor raised an eyebrow.
“I know you’re going to Old Earth. We should have no... conflict of interest. But I’m still curious about why you’re following my puppet?”
Angor inspected Jebra and found no trace of lying. According to the member of Centipede Guild he captured, it was expected that people from Song of the Deep knew his destination.
“I see.” Angor maintained his poker face. “Glad those losers from Centipede Guild told me the truth.”
By this, he meant to tell Jebra that the guild members, who were imprisoned and then released by Song of the Deep, had failed their mission.
Personally, Jebra would also like to maintain good terms with a bright alchemist rather than offending him. For one, he might need the service of an alchemist one day. And secondly, he had a plan regarding Shiliew’s matter. This was why he wasn’t going to accuse Angor of following him. Instead, Jebra offered to explain why they freed the guild members.
“While it was me who let them go, it wasn’t my decision, but Mister Sliv’s. You know him, right? Mister Sliv isn’t exactly friendly to Mister Phantom, but he cannot get so low as to attack you personally, so he sent the guild members away to make it convenient.”
Angor was somewhat glad to see Jebra willing to have a friendly talk. He didn’t believe he could fight against “Child of Ocean” Jebra right here even if he fully used his sequence power.
Since Jebra would like to make it peaceful, Angor would also avoid an unnecessary fight.
But he wasn’t going to admit defeat yet.
“I thought I could find someone from the Centipede Guild again so that I could wipe them out for good. Wasn’t expecting it was you.” Angor found an excuse.
Jebra didn’t comment on this one. Angor’s intention didn’t matter to him as long as it wasn’t something about the “mysterious dimension”.
“Well, since we’re good, how about we return to Yothur and have a drink? I need to head there too,” said Jebra.
“We’re good? Not yet. You know I’m going to Old Earth, that’s fine. But what are YOU doing here?”
Jebra felt his suspicion growing stronger. “I’ll only tell you that you’d better stay out of this business. My professor is heading to Devil’s Water, and he’ll not be so friendly. Sniff around more, and you’ll get yourself killed.”
Jebra saw Angor still wondering something and added, “I also know that Mister Phantom is at Abyss Plane right now, which means he won’t have enough time to save you from trouble. Are you sure you’re still in?”
Angor noticed that Jebra might be willing to tell him the secret, but it might cause a lot of bad outcomes, and thus, he decided not to ask for now.
Jebra sighed in his mind. Similarly, he didn’t wish to fight Angor head-on.
What he didn’t know was that Angor had learned a lot from what he revealed already.
Previously, Angor thought that only a bunch of apprentices were looking for the clues left behind by a dead mortal. However, Jebra just told him that “Sorcerer of Big Fish” Sliv and “God of Seas” Flunza were also involved in this matter.
Flunza was a veteran truth-finder no weaker than Sunders, if not stronger!
These famous wizards are interested in a mortal now? Angor felt REALLY curious now.
He then simply turned away and left without accepting Jebra’s offer for a drink.
Jebra was fine with this. After he saw Angor leaving for real, he put a finger on his fish scale tattoo, which then released several pulses into the air.
The pulses disappeared into the whale’s horn like signals.
“He performed a talent test for a bunch of mortals at the mayor’s mansion?” Jebra grinned. “So he’s heading home while on a recruiter quest... Typical. This means he has no idea about the secret dimension. But why do I have this strange feeling? Nah. I should forget it.”
He shook his head and melted into the sea.
...
Angor returned to Erwin’s department and began leaving several new theories on his notebook.
It was past midnight. He glanced around and saw Toby huddled on his tiny bed while gazing at the moon without sleeping.
Toby seemed sad for some reason, and Angor had a hunch that his partner felt sorry for exposing his position to Jebra.
While under the effect of Infinite Reticence, even wizards would have a hard time locating Angor’s presence. The most probable explanation for why Jebra found them so easily was that Jebra saw Toby through that alchemy puppet.
Angor moved to Toby and smoothed his feathers. “Don’t worry about it. I was too careless when I asked you to follow the robed guy. He’s not an apprentice but Jebra’s puppet. Who’d have thought?”
Toby tweeted in protest since Angor’s inattentive gesture messed his feathers rather than helping.
Toby was always too carefree to suffer from frustration for too long. When Angor promised to make several new suits for him, Toby instantly forgot what happened.
After soothing Toby into sleep, Angor returned to his desk and checked the recent events. He just realized that Toby might be another reason that helped Centipede Guild locate him.
He managed to solve all crises that came to him, but it could not go on like this. He had to think of something to hide Toby from detection as well.