Angor curled his lips. He could not win in a fight, but since that man could not leave his tent, so… A yelling contest? Bring it on!
Angor prepared his own insults.
“Shut your trap, Ebony. This isn’t Blackberry where you can do whatever you want. Do you want to play ‘bird’? When we reach our place, I’ll help you with it.”
A mature, seducing female voice came from the other side. Angor’s neighbor Nausica was speaking.
Ebony quickly gave up his rude talks. He gave Angor a final, thoughtful look, and lowered his curtain.
With his “flame of war” put out by the lady, Angor was not sure whether he should feel lucky or disappointed.
“That’s Ebony. He used to be a swordsman under my command. Don’t mind him,” said Nausica. She released smoke from her pipe before saying, “He’s all talks. No one knows how much trouble he ever created, and he won’t change that attitude in the wizarding world.”
Swordsman under command?
Angor looked at Nausica’s armor and tried to guess who she was. She won in the death matches using her raw strength, and she had a swordsman who was also a winner…
Nausica said that there were only two individuals who won by strength – Nausica and Balba. Ebony was not one of them.
So how did he make it? By insulting people?
Angor was more interested in Nausica now. She was really strong and had a follower like Ebony. Could she be the military general of a country? A female general. Amazing.
Nausica was just as curious about Angor’s identity. When she saw the masked weirdo who had been serving the great wizard was now being very polite to Angor, her curiosity deepened.
Maybe Angor was a bastard son of the great wizard and was just brought back?
It was only a wild guess. Nevertheless, the wizard must have regarded Angor as someone important. Ebony used to be her underling. The man might have some problems with his attitude but they fought on battlefields together for many years. She should prevent him from offending Angor who “may have a big background behind him”.
Her scolding was more like a warning to Ebony.
…
The next early morning.
Angor was sleeping on his bed. It was a bit hot, so he kicked his blanket off and lay on his side.
Toby slept on its own tiny bed. Its wings and legs spread open in four directions. The bird definitely did not look like a bird.
As the strange pair was sound asleep, the cloud whale suddenly stopped in its tracks and stared at something using its giant eyes.
A deep rupture slowly opened up in the air.
When the rupture appeared, all light within hundreds of kilometers was sucked into it.
Even the moonlight which shone through the thunderclouds clearly changed course and flowed into the rupture.
On the cloud whale, Goode was standing in a dark hall while giving orders to his Phantom Servants. The fires on the candles in the hall abruptly shifted and dimmed. Goode realized something and vanished from the hall quickly.
Nausica was sleeping, but she woke up for some reason she did not know. She could not fall asleep again, so she took out her pipe and tried to get some smoking done. When she brought up her lighter, the orange fire on it blinked and turned into a dark blue ember.
The same situation happened in several places.
It was barely past midnight and the sky was still dark, so only a few people noticed the strange sight.