“Heeheehee. Look at that, such a big nightmare stone. It’s my lucky day!”
A voice suddenly reached everyone’s ears on The Redbud. It sounded like a child about the age of seven, only without the childishness. It was strangely charming.
Angor saw the deck outside getting restless. A sailor exclaimed, “Impossible! The Mirror Veil failed!”
Looked like Flora, the Blood Witch, who could put fear into the hearts of all apprentice wizards, had already descended to the ship.
Angor tried to peek out of the window. Before he could stand up, Aleen dragged him back firmly. She was shaking her head with tears in her eyes. She kept silent, but she definitely meant to say something like – Don’t. You’ll die.
Alan was holding onto Angor’s sleeve as well, completely terrified.
Angor curled his lips. Cowards.
What he did not know was that when Flora floated past the Mirror Veil barrier created by the nightmare stone, a magic current began shifting in the air like water waves. All common people on the ship were repressed breathless by the aura. The aura sowed the emotion of “fear” and “escape” into the minds of them. This should be the effect of Mirror Veil, but since the spell was broken, such effect dispersed into the air, and small volume had seeped into the bodies of ordinary people.
The Mirror Veil was only an inferior spell cast by an apprentice, but to common folks, even the weakest supernatural aura seemed like an imposing mountain to them.
This was why Alan and Aleen were getting an indescribable fear. Several sailors even leaped over the ship rails and joined the bottomless Devil’s Water.
Angor however, was not affected by the aura. The reason was yet unknown.
As Angor silently complained about the cowardice of Alan and Aleen, someone let out an angry yell outside, “Stop it! Flora, you should know that taking the nightmare stone means defiance towards the Floating Mech City?”
“Floating Mech City? Hehe. I was wondering what kind of rich man was behind this. So this is your ship? Ahh, I see, three groups of random wanderers… This is a guide ship? Pity, I don’t smell blood at all. Such kind of ship will only find apprentices as soft and weak as you lot.”
Angor, the reserved student of a “wanderer group” wiped some sweat drops from his forehead.
As the discussion went on, Angor quickly collated the information he could get.
The one talking against Flora was obviously not from the Three Major Wizard Groups. There was no way a mere apprentice would dare to oppose a formal wizard. When Flora called them “random wanderers”, all they could do was to nod.
Only a formal wizard of the same level could talk to Flora like that.
“The Floating Mech City,” Angor spoke in his mind.
Mara mentioned that someone powerful was behind The Redbud. That must be why the ship could sail on dangerous waters without worry.
I heard there was a formal wizard on the ship, so the one talking to Flora must be him, a wizard from the Floating Mech City.
Everyone on the scene was struggling to breathe right now. Angor was the only one free enough to think about this.
The discussion outside faded. It seemed Flora and the wizard on The Redbud reached an agreement. They left before Angor could hear anything.
When Angor finally stood up to the window to look, he saw two figures flying towards the cloud whale.
One of them was a bulky male. He must be the wizard from the flying city. Of course, the other smaller woman wearing a long, red dress, black veil and a delicate umbrella must be Flora.
As he looked carefully, Angor felt as if a black shadow was following just behind Flora.
Maybe he was just seeing things?
Before he could think again, the other two kids beside him began to scream.
Alan and Aleen knew that the danger had gone. They had been holding back, but now they finally fully released their fears by screaming out loud.
Angor rubbed his temples and took out a silk handkerchief from his skirt. He began comforting the kids in a low voice while suppressing his urge to leave right away.
The door of the lookout room was pushed open. Mara walked in with a pale expression, frowning. He seemed worried.
Looking at how Angor was trying to comfort the other kids, Mara’s expression towards Angor became gentler.
“Is—is she gone, grandpa?” Aleen sobbed.
Mara nodded. He did not explain about Flora, and only stroke Aleen’s hair to soothe her. When Alan and Aleen stopped crying, Mara led the children away.
Aleen asked carefully, “Grandfather, why did the wizard come here?”
Mara shook his head. “We’d better not think about what those great wizards are up to.”
Upon entering the cabin, Mara took Alan and Aleen away to “inspect their training on Triangle Channeling”. Angor quietly returned to his own room after saying goodbye.
While on his way, Angor kept scratching on his back. He felt itchy all of a sudden.
The itchy area was exactly where the poker queen cut Angor using her nails when Angor escaped from the strange world during his talent test.
On that day, Angor checked himself in front of a mirror and saw nothing where he was hurt. There was no wound.
But why did he feel itchy now? He reached for his back and still did not get anything. His skin back there was smooth as usual.
After scratching a bit more, the feeling stopped.
Angor thought it must be some kind of bug bite. With that in mind, he decided to take a bath in the bathhouse tonight.
…
Meanwhile, on top of the Cloud Whale.
A miniature manor like a ranch was constructed on the vast back of the whale.
There were tents of different sizes inside the manor. A giant, beautiful one with a round roof stood in the center.
Inside the tent, the bulky man from The Redbud—a formal wizard from Floating Mech City, “Mad Bear” Sabot—was speaking to a slim, middle-aged man. The moniker “Mad Bear” was not really worthy since Sabot had been talking to the man with the utmost care and manner, whereas the slim man was not even facing him.
The middle-aged man was wearing a black tailcoat, white, lace shirt and a top hat. He had green, curly hair and a tender, cultured face. He appeared to be an educated noble.
No one would believe that this elegant man once made himself known and feared upon the entire southern region all by himself. A Level-2 Wizard, “Phantom Master” Sunders.
Sunders obviously was not even paying attention to Sabot. He was watching an ongoing experiment on one side through his gold-rimmed monocle. Smoke was rising from his hand, which showed various illusions. Sabot only took a small peek, and his eyes instantly ached, so he never dared to raise his head again.
Sabot continued, “… Barbie’s Restaurant doesn’t have a fixed location. We have been traveling on the Devil’s Water for a couple of weeks, and we didn’t see Lord Greya’s presence on our ocean locator.”
Sunders crumbed the illusion in his palm like popping a bubble. Then he turned around to look at Sabot.
“It’s natural you can’t find Barbie’s Restaurant now. Greya loves hide-and-seek. Well, she’s a gourmet wizard, but she enjoys that iffy stuff loved by prophets. We need some hard luck to find her,” Sunders shook his head. He smiled and said, “Welp, Mr. Sabot, if you have time, I’ll leave it to you.”
Sabot froze, then he looked up at Sunders, only to see a half smile.
“What? You have a question?” Flora asked. She was sitting on a high bench nearby, without wearing shoes. Her bared feet were swaying in rhythms, in a carefree manner. When she spoke, however, the brief cold look in her eyes terrified Sabot deep to his heart.
“No! Of course, I’ll do it. Gladly. I’ll ask the captain of The Redbud to patrol the surrounding waters and look for Barbie’s Restaurant until we find it,” Sabot could only agree in the end since the situation was beyond him now. He might be from the Floating Mech City, but that would not help him right away, so he could only move along and see. Sending the talents back to the south was not an urgent task anyway. Why Sunders was looking for Barbie’s Restaurant was none of his business. At least The Redbud would be safe before they could actually find the restaurant.
When Sabot left, Flora muttered in a low voice, “He’s smart enough. Or else…”
Sunders only shook his head without speaking. He returned his attention back to his experiment.
Suddenly, he frowned and looked towards outside, “Huh?”
“What is it, teacher?” Flora asked.
Sunders did not answer, but a doubt already emerged in his mind.
“Strange. Why did I feel something from the nightmare realm?”
Sunders looked down and thought, “Could it be that an unknown passage to the nightmare realm is hidden in Devil’s Water?”
If this is true…
Joy briefly went past Sunders’ expression.
He closed his eyes to carefully get a feeling about the aura, which was almost from the same origin as him. After a while, he re-opened his eyes. More doubt had replaced his joyful expression.
The aura from the nightmare realm vanished quickly. He could not sense anything now.