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.