Gondola arrived at Saint Sem City at midnight.
The whole place almost shared the same aesthetic style as Freighting Town, just on a whole other level. Instead of water fountains and plazas, a large river ran across the middle of the city, where bards chanted their ballads on their boats under the stars. And thanks to the overall culture of the city, these performers seemed rather natural, when they would appear somewhat embarrassing if they were at “less aesthetic” places.
Every single pedestrian was enjoying the serene setting of the city. Even shopkeepers and patrols on night shift were dressed in decorated uniforms, which seemed to be taken straight out of stage dramas.
Compared to others, Angor and Freud instead became the odd sight in the city.
While Freud was still fine since he had the general getup of local royalties, Angor’s unkempt middle-aged image would probably earn him a boot out of the city because he looked more like a homeless beggar.
“Why do you use such a look, Mister Padt?” Freud was sure that all the passersby would truly adore Angor’s usual appearance if Angor decided to show it.
“To avoid trouble. Do you think I care about what others think of me?”
Freud decided not to ask what Angor meant by “trouble” and simply followed Angor toward the royal palace in silence.
Songs on the riverbanks, music from pubs, artists who recreated stars and beauties on their sheets...
“Now I kinda know why apprentices would like to spend their time here,” Angor commented.
If not to consider his supernatural powers and duties, Angor would admit that he loved this place. Artfulness had no bounds in this world. Even wizards who highly despised mortals still appreciated mortal artists no matter where they originated from.
“Saint Sem is also named the ‘Brightest Pearl of Civilization’.” Freud introduced his home country a little proudly. “Rumor has it that the legendary ‘Magic Painter’ used to live here.”
“Really? The great wizard who can connect his paintings with the very reality?”
“Yup.” Freud nodded. “But as I said, rumors.”
“Rumors need at least SOME evidence to exist. Did this Magic Painter leave something interesting at the Central Empire? Like his drawings?”
“Dunno about that. I heard the rumor from Neya when I was studying at the Tower of Hurricane.” Freud looked into the distance. “About a hundred years ago, Neya was the princess of Silverheron Clan. Then she became a student of White Witch. Despite all the care she received from her teacher, she never made it past her limit and stayed as an apprentice. She then returned to the Central Empire to spend the rest of her life. If I’m not mistaken, she’s among the court wizards.”
Angor suddenly remembered something he heard a long time ago.
Silverheron Clan...
When he was heading to Fey Continent together with Mara, there was a showy-looking nobleman on the ship from Silverheron called Dove Silverheron. Dove was later murdered by his former servant, Easley. That was when Easley was revealed to be the first recruit who became an apprentice among everyone, who also had an extremely high spiritual power level that allowed him to study “Optic Confusion” ahead of time and used it against Dove.
Lady Merlin, one of the guardians stationed on The Redbud, gladly accepted Easley to her organization, and nobody cared about the death of Dove.
As far as what Angor heard back then, Easley killed Dove for some old grudge.
“Do you know Easley?”
“Easley?” Freud held his chin. “I think... that was a genius apprentice who came to the Tower of Hurricane some years ago. He received attention from many wizards. You know him too, Mister Padt?”
“Not really. We were on the same recruiter ship when I was still a mortal.”
Freud shook his head. He was just reminded of the fact that Angor was a mortal just three years ago, while he, as someone who had trained on wizardry for almost twenty years, had completely no hope of besting Angor in a fight.
Damn. Lady Merlin is only a level-3 apprentice. I’m afraid Angor has way surpassed everyone on that ship. Why must people be so different?
“Could Neya be the one who looted the orphanage?” asked Angor.
“It’s... possible. If she’s still alive and in charge of the court wizards, she can definitely do such a thing.” Freud frowned. “This means we’re going against a level-3 apprentice at the top of her condition. Are you sure about this, Mister Padt? We can always find another option...”
“That’s not necessary.” Angor would not waste any more time. As long as he wasn’t fighting a real wizard, he could just let Toby handle everything.
Freud nodded without speaking further.
Upon arriving at the palace, without going stealthily, Angor floated straight into the palace grounds and took out a small vial with a drop of blood inside.
The blood was taken from the “blood prison” around Sunny. According to Narda’s Vision, the blood came from a tree-like humanoid creature and contained rich energy of life, which was highly effective when used against lingering souls. Also, it seemed whoever used this blood injected extra component in it, which was intended to turn Sunny into an undead faster.
Now Angor could use this blood to track down who built the blood prison.
He uncapped the vial and freed a stream of energy from it.
“Hey, Toby, can you follow the smell and find its owner?” Angor tapped his partner, who had been spacing out on his shoulder.
Toby rolled his eyes and slapped Angor’s cheek.
Angor chuckled and rubbed the small bruise on his face. Of course he didn’t seriously ask for Toby’s help—he just wanted to pass the time with some small jokes.
As long as the owner of the blood was inside the palace, they would come and investigate the source of the smell. Angor simply needed to wait here and capture his target.
While waiting, Angor found an armchair in the yard below and casually munched on some Moocher Meat as a snack.
Ten minutes later, Angor looked up at the empty sky.
“Come out already. You never learned how to conceal your aura, did you?”
No response.
“Sigh.”
He knuckled the desk nearby and released a series of energy ripples into the environment. It was a quick Acoustic Illusion.
Everyone within the range of the effect instantly felt their ears ringing badly.
A brief moment later, several dozen armored guards showed up around the yard, and a figure wearing a particularly shiny golden armor was looking right at the small vial beside Angor.
...
An hour ago.
After Angor left the orphanage, Jebra followed his scent here and realized that Angor had gone elsewhere together with a soul he didn’t recognize. But instead of continuing to follow Angor, Jebra decided to investigate the small building because he saw Angor spend a lot of time there.
“He used an illusion to cover it up? What for? Did he find someone’s soul here and took them away?”
He decided to go inside and look for himself.
It wasn’t difficult to find a way inside the illusion, but before Jebra could enter, he heard strange voices that seemed to consist of the laughter of children and adults as well as... animals?
“Let me see what you’ve got here...” Jebra grinned and stepped into the mist-infested area ahead.
The first thing he sensed inside the illusion was another creepy giggle right next to him. He even felt someone’s breath right beside his ear.
But when he took several steps away to check, he didn’t find anyone.
Then he heard strange noises again, which came from a tree nearby.
A white face with stretched fangs emerged from the crown of the tree, and before Jebra could do anything, it rushed at him.
Jebra didn’t prepare any means of defense and could only see the monstrous face dive straight across him.
When he had time to react, the strange face had vanished, and he didn’t feel anything actually wrong with him.
When he heard rustling noises behind him, he quickly turned back and unleashed a cantrip he had been preparing, turning a shadowy figure who was moving to stab him in the back into a puddle.
“It’s an illusion again... weird. I almost can’t tell before I actually hit it. Did he learn such amazing art from Mister Phantom? But why is he doing this? Did he want to build a ghost house here to scare off mortals?”
He considered and applied a stealth effect to his body before he floated into the sky to observe the orphanage from above.
There, he saw something very interesting.