Angor arrived at George’s office and found the sheriff busily writing on something, while his son, Jordan, was looking at him with an anxious look.
“Just a moment, Angor!” George looked up from his desk and quickly returned to his paper.
Two minutes later, George slid the paper inside an envelope, waxed it, then gave it to Jordan. “Find the fastest horse. Send this letter to Sheriff Byrne in Waterford.”
Jordan nodded. He saluted Angor while leaving through the door and disappearing into the stable.
“Mister George? Did something happen?” Angor noticed the sheriff was not in a good mood.
“Sigh... Them government dimwits in Waterford can’t take in more refugees, so they want to send’em to smaller places. Grue Town included. It’s not that we’re not helping. We have people who send food and clothes to their camps every day. But some of those a*sholes don’t know when to get fulfilled. They always come into town and steal from people. Then they tell their families to do the same. How can we let these thugs in our ranks?
“Besides, we don’t have any spare houses for them in Grue Town. All Waterford’s doing is using their tongue to issue an order, and they’ve no idea how difficult it is for us. That letter I sent is to argue with them.”
Angor was not someone to take care of such business, so he didn’t offer any advice. “I’ll talk to my brother later and see if he can come up with an idea.”
“Yar, we’d better let the viscount decide. This is about the whole town. So Angor, did something bad happen in your home? When you went there the other day, I heard freakin’ explosions.”
Angor thought about the “fight” between him and Eureka and realized George was referring to the destroyed mountain.
“It’s nothing. Look, I’m in one piece.”
“Glad you are.” George stroked his beard and showed a curious expression. “What’s going on at the manor? Why’s everybody silent and never talks about it?”
Seeing Angor not responding soon, he quickly added, “You don’t have to tell me if there’s trouble. Nothing bad happened to the town anyway. Yet.”
“It’s not too serious a problem. Just, we have an important guest who doesn’t like being bothered by common folks.”
George gave Angor an “I know what that means” look and changed the subject by asking what Angor was doing today.
“Looking for Tulu? The man’s in the next room.” George took out another envelope from his drawer that contained several silver coins. It seemed Head Maid Mana came the other day and left the money to compensate for Tulu’s lodging at George’s place.
“Oh, you can keep the money or return it to Mana if you wish,” said Angor as he headed to Tulu’s room. The room was originally Jordan’s, but it had Tulu as an extra guest recently.
When Angor entered the room, he saw Tulu napping on the fur carpet on the floor.
The sound of the door woke Tulu up, and he slowly looked around with sleepy eyes until he recognized Angor’s “original look”. Then he jumped up with a start and quickly went to greet Angor.
Angor explained that he had to stay at Grue Town for probably a very long time and asked whether Tulu wished to stay with the sheriff or live in Padt Manor.
Tulu decided to choose the latter, as the sheriff always got lots of visitors, especially when so many refugees were around. All these would make it hard for him to train on his meditation.
While on their way back to the manor, Angor told Tulu not to approach the stilt house or Eureka, and that Mana would take care of his daily needs.
The owl watching over the manor’s entrance, that would usually attack any intruders on sight, didn’t make a sound when it saw Angor bringing Tulu inside. It could almost see through Angor’s chest pocket inside which Toby was giving it a threatening stare.
Of course, Angor also told Tulu not to provoke the owl in any way.
After taking Tulu to Mana, Angor headed to the main hall of the manor castle, where Leon and Auri were waiting for him.
Leon gave him a brother’s hug before asking, “Where’s Mana? I told her to wait for you at the door.”
“I sent her on her way to arrange a room for Tulu, who’s going to live here for the time being.”
It should have been Leon who went to pick up Tulu, but he didn’t do so because he wasn’t sure whether Eureka was okay with this.
“Is this alright?”
“Not a problem. I’ve already told Miss Eureka.”
They found a seat as Angor first told Leon about the sheriff’s concerns.
Leon rubbed his temples. “They’re stealing under broad daylight now?”
“Yeah. Old Parsel told me his farm animal got stolen and roasted.”
“I used to hear people yelling at each other, but I didn’t think things would escalate so quickly.” Leon considered. “Alright, I’ll go and talk to George later.”
“What are you going to do with the refugees?” Angor was worried that making this decision was a very taxing job for his brother. There were too many factors to be considered.
“I... already have some ideas I need to tell George first. And we need to see the attitude of Waterford.” Leon then gave Angor a curious look. “What will you do if you’re in my shoes, dear brother?”
Angor answered without giving it much thought, “This is too easy in the views of supernatural beings. We build a new town to accommodate them. Or we can solve the problem by unplugging its source, meaning, we get rid of the entire Heylan Imperial. That will remove the refugees fast enough.
“If we must stick to normal means, then I’d suggest using some quick moves to assassinate the more outstanding troublemakers among the refugees so that the rest of them will know to obey us.”
Leon gave Angor a thoughtful look. “You changed. This is something you’d never say before.”
“This is ‘adaptation’, brother.”
“It’s a good thing though. I used to get worried that you’ll bump into all sorts of unfair troubles because you’re too kind. Now I can see I didn’t have to.” Leon stretched his arms. “I’m thinking about similar things actually. They say that the refugees have nothing to lose, right? Then we shall see if they are ready to give up everything for real.”
A moment later, Head Maid Mana also joined them in the room, as Angor requested.
“I need to tell you something since you’re both here,” said Angor, which caused Mana and Leon to fully focus on him.
They waited for Angor to continue, but instead of speaking, Angor waved a hand in the air. A tiny figure suddenly appeared on the table in front of them.
The figure looked like an ordinary housewife who was slightly overweight; only that she was as big as an adult’s palm.
“Uh, sir, what is—” The small woman looked at Angor, confused.
“If nothing else happens, this will be your new home, Kumomo.”
Kumomo was Kudodo’s mother and the third Krakok who offered her loyalty to Angor back in the Soul Genesis Garden, after Papaya and Kudodo.
Also, Kumomo used to be in charge of scheduling workers back in her village. With Papaya away, Angor asked her to take care of their Krakok clan as the secondary leader.
Kumomo looked rather excited when looking at the spacious human room, which was huge for her. Even if she had enough food and a house in Angor’s bracelet, she still preferred more freedom.
“What is-I mean, who is she, Angor?” Leon pointed to the small Krakok with a finger, while Head Maid Mana was too shocked to say anything.
While mortals at the Fey Continent were used to seeing all kinds of humanoid creatures, people at the Old Earth couldn’t say the same, especially those at a remote town.
“She’s like a fairy in the tales!” Auri’s eyes twinkled in both excitement and delight.
“You’re actually right about that.” Angor chuckled. “They have another name for them, which is the ‘Fairies in the Attics’.”