Thud, thud...
Ralph saw Kumur’s mother groveling at the wizard’s feet, while the other villagers also went to express their thanks, leaving Tulu behind.
This looked so sad.
Tulu was silently keeping his wound pressed without doing anything else in particular. Yet Ralph felt as if Tulu carried a strange semblance that kept everyone away.
There were still a few people staying with him, but they did nothing other than giving him sympathetic looks.
After a long silence, two streams of red tears ran down Tulu’s cheeks.
Yet Tulu was still completely quiet, even when weeping.
Ralph considered and decided to say something at least, “Tulu, you need to patch up that cut, or it’ll become nasty at this rate.”
Tulu slowly looked up, but he did not respond.
Ralph helped Tulu up and assisted him back to the village.
Several villagers came and offered to provide medicine, while most people, including Kumur’s mother, were still praising Angor’s name.
“Go and give your gratitude to Tulu. And don’t forget to apologize too,” said Angor.
Kumur’s mother was surprised by it. She suddenly remembered Tulu’s courageous act earlier and showed an awkward look.
Then she picked her unconscious son and went to address Tulu.
“Is Kumur okay?”
That was the first thing Tulu said since he got back ashore.
The woman stroked Kumur’s head, who was slowly waking up. “He’s doing well! Kumur, say something to your savior!”
“Tha-thank you, sir... Wahhhh...” The kid began to cry loudly.
Again, Tulu remained speechless with a blank look.
In his view, losing a body part was too much a cost to pay just to help a kid he didn’t know well.
And it all started from a blasted prank...
He wished to vent out his grievance by slapping the little devil in the face as hard as he could. But he couldn’t—no one forced him to help Kumur. He made that judgment all by himself.
In a sense, he was just like Kumur who foolishly threw himself into danger. Both of them would have been dead if Angor weren’t here.
When he looked at Kumur without speaking, the other villagers all assumed that he was furious with the child. No one did anything since everyone else would also like to give the troublemaker several punches and kicks.
Kumur’s mother kept pleading for forgiveness, which wasn’t helpful to Tulu’s condition whatsoever.
As everyone believed that Tulu would treat Kumur with lifelong hatred, Tulu suddenly spoke in a weak voice, “Don’t call me ‘sir’. Not gonna remind you again. I’m not that old...”
This was enough to show his attitude.
He then pushed Ralph away and knelt in front of Angor. “Thank you for saving my life, Mister Padt.”
His action caused everyone to look at Angor again, either in awe or fear. Now that the ruckus was over and they fully realized that a “powerful wizard” was among them, they suddenly lost the courage to make any sound. Even Kumur’s crying was forcefully muffled by his mother.
“No need for that.” Angor gave Tulu a cold look. “I already told you about ‘equivalent exchange’ before. Don’t make me wait too long.”
Tulu slowly nodded with a pale look. He had been working under Roman for some time, and he fully knew that Angor could have watched him die as a bystander.
“Everything ends for you if you die. I hope the experience has shown you the value of life.”
Angor then asked Ralph to take Tulu back and do something about that running hole on the head.
Again, he didn’t treat Tulu using magic yet because he hoped to let Tulu relive the painful memory.
Losing an ear or even a limb was no big deal in the wizarding world because there were many ways to solve this problem, such as getting a transplant. Compared to this, being too naive and ignorant was more fatal.
One by one, the villagers bowed to Angor to show respect and returned to their homes.
Only Kumur and his mother were left behind in the end.
Kumur was crying at the top of his lungs again as if he felt wronged for not getting any attention after so much suffering. Instead, everyone looked angry at him.
Angor shook his head and released a small trace of nightmare energy at the kid’s forehead, causing him to instantly go quiet.
Kumur’s mother widened her eyes in fear when she saw something blurry going for her child. Out of the instinct of a mother, she held Kumur closer to her chest.
“An endless nightmare as a punishment for the severe consequence he caused,” explained Angor in a cold voice. “It will go away when he learns his mistake.”
When Angor turned away and headed to the village, Kumur’s mother anxiously checked on her child but without finding anything wrong.
“Nightmare? Is Kumur going to have bad dreams at night?”
Angor suddenly stopped moving and looked back again. “I forgot to ask. When you were struggling right in front of that monster, how did you stay afloat instead of going down?”
Kumur tilted his head as he failed to understand Angor.
His mother, who was also wondering why her child had better stamina than trained adults, repeated the question in more detailed words.
“I-I don’t know, sir.” The kid shook his head. “I think there was something under my feet that kept me there. But-but I looked! I didn’t see anything.”
“I see...” Angor pondered. Something kept him in place? Was it the monster? It went through so much effort just to attract more people to it?
He looked at the direction of the sea. The monster’s corpse was nowhere to be seen. It had probably sunk somewhere and become food for other creatures.
...
At the depth of the sea, Jebra held his chin and muttered, “That was pretty close... Guess I shouldn’t do such things too often and risk getting discovered.”
...
At the entrance of the village, Angor saw the talkative old man still there.
“Hoi there, traveler! Ah, so you’re a wizard told in the legends! I heard the whole story. Kumur... that little brat! I’ll think of a punishment fo’ him later!”
Again, Angor patiently listened to his rambling since Tulu might need some time to rest.
A while later, a stubbled man, who was supposed to be the old man’s son, came to them and looked at Angor in fear.
“This traveler here is a kind soul,” said the old man as he put a hand on his son’s shoulder. “Make sure you show your hospitality, kid. You take it from here. I’m checking out how Scott’s son is doing.”
The old man gave his son another meaningful look and headed back into the village.
Angor noticed their eye contact and easily understood what the old man was trying to do.
The middle-aged man stammered something and explained that he was the mayor and that he would like to invite Angor to dinner.
Angor simply accepted the offer. He did need a proper meal right now. And since this was a fishermen’s village, they should have a lot of nice treats for Toby.
While on their way, they saw all the houses tightly shut, and the occupants would peek at them through their windows before looking away and pretending nothing happened.
“Ugh. Now I feel like some big villain,” Angor complained.
His original plan was to quietly bring Tulu away as a passing traveler, but that wouldn’t work now.
Likewise, the dinner proceeded in a somewhat awkward manner.
But compared to this, Angor was more annoyed at the food, which was all about unspiced soup that tasted a little... fishy. Even so, Toby didn’t seem to mind the boring dishes at all. The bird even asked Angor to take the Moonlily Fairy out so that they could enjoy the meal together.
Of course, Angor rejected the bad idea since the fairy was mostly a veggie who fed on honey and greens. Eating fish didn’t sound right.