Angor wasn’t confident in the final outcome because the illusion presented by an alchemy omen tended to differ from what he originally made.
For instance, he didn’t hear any music during the challenge. And as far as he could remember, he placed the “Goddess” on top of a giant turtle and used his nightmare illusions to create the shadows of many other mermaids and sea monsters to compose a storyline for the illusion. But none of these showed up.
Nevertheless, he should check his music box to find out its quality.
Since the challenge appeared to be pretty difficult and even had a time limit, he wondered which tier his music box ended up at.
Excited, he stepped out of the exit.
...
Outside, Angor suddenly opened his eyes and saw his music box quietly floating in front of him. As he watched, the item absorbed the visible energy streams around it that were left behind by the alchemy omen.
Slowly, the aura of the item grew so strong that Angor felt as if he were looking at the sea.
It appeared the music box contained the will of the ocean.
He had not used Narda’s Vision to check the item yet, but he already knew that he just created something better than expected.
As the last strand of energy fully entered the music box, the thick fog covering the area quickly shrank and condensed into a pale-blue droplet that hovered above the music box.
Next, a distant cry of lament was heard from the item’s position.
The sound was not loud. But strangely, all men and beasts alike within hundreds of miles all heard it. Even the seaweed at the bottom of the sea slowly bowed down to appreciate the otherworldly voice, which seemed to be from unreachable deities.
The mermaids and mermen below were all mumbling in a strange language, heads on the floor. They were praising the sea—their creator, their mother.
Further below, Jebra was forced out of his bubble camouflage as soon as the strange moaning was heard. Never once did he feel so repulsed by the sea before, and he simply couldn’t understand what was going on.
Just like the mermaids, he looked at Angor’s direction in fear.
...
“God of Seas” Flunza managed to sense a tiny portion of the unusual energy from afar but without being able to ascertain its nature.
He considered and dispatched a secret message sequence into an unknown dimension before he returned his attention to the piece of parchment on his table that had a line of odd characters written on it. This was another message he just received from Brilliance Plane.
[Location of Mystery item lies within the prophecy-prevention area. Pray excuse my incapability.]
It was one of the “Eighteen Overseers” of Starliege Temple, “Innocence” Seurat, who sent the note.
“Even an Overseer failed to tell its whereabouts? It might be true that an organization has already claimed it...” Flunza mumbled with a grim look and sighed before he burned the note and discarded the ashes into a space rift.
...
At Blackberry Waters, Angor was still wondering where the strange voice came from.
The floating water drop was now slowly descending until it dropped onto the closed lid of the music box. But instead of causing a water splash, the water fully covered the outer frame of the item under a hazy film and gave the shiny music box a more modest look.
Meanwhile, the illusion around Angor began to crumble because of all the aggravated water elements in the area. Angor paid it no mind—he no longer needed the illusion anyway.
When the area became completely clear, the floating music box gently landed in Angor’s hand.
Instead of checking on the beautiful item right away, Angor held back his excitement and put it away in his bracelet. He had to deal with other matters first.
First, he looked at his Gondola, where Tulu was still staring his eyes out.
“Wait for me there.”
Then he looked down at the giant turtle. On top of its back, the mermen and their princess were still chanting their praise with their heads lowered.
Angor slowly landed on the turtle. The mermaid princess played an important part in his earlier creation, and he decided to provide her with some reward. He did send a voice transmission to tell her to continue her song earlier, and the mermaid followed through and kept singing for almost the entire night.
At the very least, Angor would obey the rule of equivalent exchange and pay compensation.
For a brief moment, he noticed an inconspicuous energy signature coming from under his position.
Is that a monster lurking about?
He considered and decided to put that concern aside for now because he already reached the mermen guards.
As he came down, Toby also descended from the sky and stepped onto his shoulder. The bird looked a bit worn out after watching over him throughout the night. However, it seemed that Toby didn’t wish to sleep yet since he was happily tweeting at the mermaid princess.
“Toby said you have a very lovely voice.”
The mermaid heard Angor’s friendly voice and lifted her head.
Her guards realized that they had a stranger approaching and quickly put themselves in front of their princess. However, the mermaid simply pushed a way out of their formation and addressed Angor with a polite bow.
“Please accept my humble greeting, honorable wizard.”
Her tone sounded a bit odd, probably because she wasn’t used to speaking the universal tongue. However, this wasn’t a problem when her pleasant voice was more than enough to make up for it.
Before Angor could reply, Toby beat him to it and began twittering non-stop in front of the mermaid while dramatically waving his wings.
Apparently, bird language wasn’t among the mermaid’s dictionary, so she only stared at Toby at a complete loss.
Angor cleared his throat to interrupt Toby’s speech. What Toby was saying was quite simple but embarrassing. Toby wanted the mermaid to join him so that he could listen to her songs all day, and he would provide fish snacks in return.
Of course, Angor wasn’t going to translate it.
“Ahem. He’s... Toby. He loved your performance. He meant to offer his most sincere compliment just now.”
Toby yelped in protest, only to get forcefully stuffed into Angor’s pocket.
“Thank-thank you very much...” The mermaid blushed slightly.
“Are you a royalty of your people?” asked Angor.
“Yes. I am Valli, the princess of Blackberry Rogges.”
“So, Princess Valli, your music helped me greatly during my task. Here, I’ll satisfy one of your requests, as long as it’s within my power. Please feel free to ask now.”
In Angor’s view, offering such a favor in exchange for that inspirational song sounded like a good deal.
Ahh... that stranger’s voice spoke the truth! Valli exclaimed in her mind. Just like he said, Sir Wizard is granting me a wish! But... am I really supposed to make a request?
She listened to Angor’s order and kept singing just to gain the friendship of a wizard, which would help her win a better position back at the capital of Rogges. She also knew about “equivalent exchange”, which seemed to be a common convention among all wizards.
But she wasn’t sure how much she should ask as a “payment” just for presenting a song, which she would do every day.
A strange voice earlier told her to go with the “deal” and ask for a reward frankly, in which case she might lose the chance for earning Angor’s friendship.
As she tried to make a decision, Jebra observed her reactions quietly from underwater.
“Sir Wizard... may I know the name of the music you played earlier?”
Jebra grinned in delight.
“That’s your request?” Angor raised an eyebrow.
Valli nodded. “I have never heard of such a style. It sounded so... soothing, like taking a bath in the embrace of mother ocean as a little child. I wish I could learn it. This shall be my request, Sir Wizard.”
Angor nodded in acknowledgment. That sounded pretty reasonable—all mermaids loved music more than anything else.
“It’s called ‘Aphrodite’,” explained Angor. “It’s the name of a goddess born from the sea, as told in a story I read before.”