“You meant it?” Sailum was unconvinced.
“I did!” Nausica looked firm.
“Yeah, right. Huh!” Angor commented.
Nausica preferred to end the topic regarding why she did not wear a bedsheet, so she quickly diverted the topic.
“So, Angor is an apprentice now?” She asked.
Angor nodded. “Broke through last week.”
“So that’s why you weren’t here last week when we came looking. You must be in the resource hall to get your bed—your equipment,” said Nausica. She almost slipped. She realized Angor’s eyes began to show fire of rage again, so she worked her brain quickly and asked something else, “Are you heading to Phantom Island?”
Angor was surprised a little. “Yeah. You’re going there too?”
Nausica nodded. “That’s right. Almost every apprentice is there now. Even both of our professors. We were going to the apprentice town to ask you together.”
Angor felt a little embarrassed. The pair came looking for him when there was a chance to find destiny. Yet Angor never did something like that for them.
He cleared his throat uneasily. “Just about time then. Let’s go together. I also have something to tell—wait, so you came for me last week?”
“Yeah, you asked me to come with Nausica, didn’t you?” Sailum spoke. The boy was smiling brightly again. Seemed like he had already got over the previous frustration.
“Let’s talk along the way,” Nausica suggested.
The trio headed toward a sky bus stop.
“You were in tough luck. I only left my house once in these months, and you came at the exact timing,” Angor said.
“Angor, you wanted to see both of us last time. For what?” Sailum asked him. Nausica looked at them out of curiosity as well.
Angor paused at the question. Then he looked around carefully. The Sorcerer’s Garden on Phantom Island would be opened soon, so many apprentices had come out. Big crowds emerged from Cave Field and rushed in one direction. There were people everywhere.
Angor frowned and did not respond.
When Sailum tried to speak again, Nausica pulled his hand and said, “Let’s do this later.” Nausica thought Angor wanted to ask something about that killer, but it seemed not the case since Angor was being so careful. As someone extremely perceptive to people’s reactions, Nausica decided to stop Sailum’s question.
“You don’t look good. Are you ill?” Nausica changed the center of the topic.
Angor shook his head, considered a bit, and nodded instead. “It’s not an illness, but… close. Or I’ll not go out with a bedsheet on me. I need to use this thing to cover myself up.”
Sailum was still wondering why Nausica stopped him. When hearing these words, he quickly forgot his previous question and showed a worried look.
Angor noticed Sailum’s expression and felt warmth in his heart. “Don’t worry, a week or two and I’ll be good as ever. Nothing serious.”
“Glad to hear it. Do you want me to help out at your house?” Sailum still looked anxious.
“Come on. It’s not like I can’t get off the bed,” Angor complained.
When they reached the bus stop, it finally became quieter. But there were still small groups around them.
“I wonder what kind of destiny lies on Phantom Island. Everyone says there’s destiny, so we want to check it out too. But I still have no idea what exactly we’ll find,” Sailum spoke.
“I happen to know something. But I can’t tell you what kind of destiny because I don’t know it either,” Angor replied.
Sailum’s eyes brightened. “Oh yeah! The master of Phantom Island is your mentor! You must know something we don’t!”
Nausica paid attention as well. The kids did not see destiny as important, but she did.
Angor did not hide anything. Most apprentices already knew what was going on anyway. Nausica and Sailum just became apprentices and did not have many sources of information yet.
“… is what happened. Butler Goode said a destiny will come around when the Sorcerer’s Garden is finished. But I don’t know what the destiny would be,” Angor explained Sorcerer’s Garden along with everything he knew.
“Sorcerer’s Garden huh? I don’t know what that is, but it sounds amazing,” Sailum tried to comment using an experienced man’s manner.
Nausica was also curious about the garden now. “The Sorcerer’s Garden has a law that benefits the human body?”
“Yes, but the law is random. A harmful law can appear too. We can’t control it,” Angor replied.
“I wish we get a beneficial one. Maybe we’ll have a chance to get in,” said Sailum as he looked at the sky.
“Forget it. Why would Mister Sunders let strangers into his private Sorcerer’s Garden? Well, maybe Angor could,” said Nausica as she snuffed out Sailum’s little hope.
“I don’t know… My professor has a really weird character. I can never understand him,” Angor said.
“He should be. All wizards are unpredictable. We apprentices will never know what they’re thinking,” said Nausica. When she thought about her own professor, she quickly got a headache.
A sky bus arrived at their stop.