It was an unspoken statute in the wizarding world, that knowing something you weren’t supposed to know could be a fatal mistake.
Unfortunately, even though Angor tried his best to pretend that he wasn’t interested in the love affairs between Thewis and Eureka, they wouldn’t let him go so easily.
“Why are you together?” Eureka looked between Angor and Thewis curiously.
“I saw him on my way back so... Might as well tag along?” Thewis was still using that tender smile, much to Angor’s surprise.
As far as he heard, Thewis was a merciless hunter who would finish off his targets without a word!
Eureka was also feeling surprised for a different reason. Previously, when she spoke to Thewis using a special transmission, Thewis told her that he would come back and find out all of Angor’s secrets. By force, if necessary.
Eureka planned to warn Thewis to be fully prepared before attacking Angor since Sunders might be watching. She wasn’t expecting to see Angor and Thewis traveling together on Gondola and even remained relatively friendly to each other. In Eureka’s view, Thewis was never someone who would treat an apprentice peacefully without a good reason.
When she talked to Thewis’ avatar the other day, Thewis was still unaware of who Angor was. Could it be that Thewis got to know Angor only recently?
She couldn’t bear with so many questions lingering in her mind and simply asked Thewis upfront, “Do you know Angor all along?”
“Why, it’s strange if anyone doesn’t know him. An upcoming Mystery Alchemist!”
“What?!” Eureka looked between Angor and Thewis with a completely dumbfounded look.
Before Thewis could explain further, however, Angor heard Auri calling his name from below and looked that way.
When he lowered Gondola to the ground, the maid hurriedly came to him while lifting her maid dress so that she didn’t trip.
When Auri noticed that Eureka and Thewis were also here, she jumped in fear and quickly went down on both knees.
“What’s the matter?” Angor frowned. “I saw our knights and Mana leaving Grue Town. Something urgent?”
“It’s the viscount! Viscount Leon is missing!”
According to Auri, Leon would often head to the Kozan Waterfalls to train alone. Since he told everyone that it was nothing dangerous and that he would always return before lunchtime, the servants in the manor usually didn’t ask what exactly he was doing out there.
But today, Leon had not come back when it was almost time for supper.
It was no big deal if Leon would stay longer outside and skip a meal, but things grew complicated when one of Leon’s personal guards saw Leon’s armor, clothes, and possessions left unattended near the waterfall, while Leon himself was nowhere to be seen.
The waterfalls were pretty huge and could be dangerous if common people got close to them. When the guard failed to find Leon in his view, he quickly came back and informed Head Maid Mana.
“Leon trains at Kozan Waterfalls?” Angor knew about that place since his childhood. The only impression he could remember was that the entire place was marvelous and terrifyingly ear-deafening.
When Jon could still travel around, he also claimed that the Kozan Waterfalls were as breathtaking as the largest waterfalls back in his homeland.
“The training method I instructed him is called ‘iron will’,” said Thewis. “To put it simply, he puts his physical limits to extreme tests in order to improve his spirit power, and he must keep that up until he’s qualified to become a talent, or the improvement will revert. I didn’t ask him to use the waterfall, though. He chose the place by himself.”
Angor grimaced upon hearing the true nature of Leon’s training. If he had known that Leon gained a spiritual level of 10 by suffering so much, he would have given Leon the Potion of Austere Night and spared Leon all the torment.
This didn’t matter now. He had to make sure his brother was safe.
When he started up Gondola to head to the Kozan Waterfalls, Thewis stopped him.
“I’ll find him. He’s my student after all.”
Thewis expanded his powerful spirit in the direction of the waterfalls and saw the scenery several kilometers away in an instant.
“I don’t see him. Let’s go and check that place out.”
Upon arriving at the training site, Thewis cast “Remove Delirium” to trace back what happened around this spot recently.
He then moved to a flat rock directly under one of the falls and pointed to it.
“There. I saw blood.” He looked at the top of the waterfall. “Leon was sitting here. Something came and distracted him, so he was knocked off by the water. The blood might come from a scratch when he fell. I’d say he went into the lake pond below.
“It was... about 7 hours ago. If nothing else carried his body away, we would find him soon by walking along the lake. Or his body, if luck did not favor him.”
Angor didn’t protest. It was common logic.
For now, he would not consider what could have become of Leon. Everything had to wait until Leon was found.
He released all the scout puppets he kept in his bracelet into the water to help him look.
Two hours had passed, but none of the puppets showed him anything useful other than sharp and deadly-looking stones on the lake bed.
He suddenly wanted to blame himself. It had been over half a year since he returned to Padt Manor, and the only thing he cared about was Jon. He never tried to learn what kind of “training” his brother had been going through.
He never thought such a misfortune would strike Leon so soon, when he could have prevented it.
By some miracle, one of the puppets finally sent him a clue at midnight before his grieving thoughts could burden him too much.
Leon left traces inside a swamp area where nobody would usually approach. From the vision sent by the puppet, Angor saw his brother being restrained by a green cocoon-like object while many sharp thorns trapped him in place.
Countless bleeding wounds on Leon’s body were enough to suggest that he was in great danger.
Thankfully, Leon was breathing. Just barely.
Angor immediately activated his gravity power and arrived at Leon in a blink of an eye.
The first thing that greeted him was an unbearable stench in the air.
He looked around and saw the corpses of unknown beasts scattered all around the place, including rotten ones.
This spot was at least two hundred meters from the edge of the lake. Leon probably had no reason to move all the way here, which meant some kind of creature dragged him here as food.
After making sure he didn’t sense the culprit nearby, Angor quickly floated to Leon’s side.
When moving closer, he realized that Leon’s condition was worse than it appeared to be. Many of Leon’s bones were broken, which in turn lacerated several organs in Leon’s body.
It was strange that Leon didn’t appear to be in pain. Instead, Leon was smiling slightly.
After trying and failing to wake up Leon, Angor moved to cut the thorns off so that he could treat all the bleeding first.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Thewis’ voice suddenly came from behind his position. “Touching the thorns will immediately trigger the poison left by the spate spider. It’s almost impossible to cure him if the poison spreads all over his body.”
Angor looked back and saw both Thewis and Eureka nearby. Whereas Thewis was also looking at Leon, Eureka was off somewhere while checking the giant cocoon with the look of disgust.
“Thorns that trigger spider poison?”
He wasn’t an Apothecary or anyone good at poison-related knowledge, but he did once hear the name of the spider Thewis just mentioned.
The Spatebog Spider.