When leaving Apprentice Town Eight, Angor saw two people coming out of the Cave Field and heading his way.
The shorter figure covered in a white blanket robe without using his hood was Sailum. The other one was Nausica. She did not use her “blanket uniform”. The lady still wore her usual soft leather armor. Her slim, cowhide boots displayed the curves of her legs to their perfect extent.
Due to their directions, the pair did not see Angor yet.
Are they going to the town to look for me? Angor suddenly got a playful idea. He asked Toby to take off to the sky while he put on his hood and walked toward the two people with his head lowered.
When they walked past each other, Angor noticed that Sailum and Nausica were talking about him.
“… I wonder if Angor already left… I don’t want to miss him again…”
Angor smiled. He intentionally cleared his throat aloud.
Sailum did not react, but Nausica stopped in her tracks and turned around with a puzzled look.
“Miss Nausica? What’s wrong?” Sailum asked.
Nausica did not respond. She stared at the black-robed figure not far from her for a moment, and called out in an uncertain voice, “Angor?”
Angor slowly removed his hood and revealed a smiling face. When Sailum stared at him in shock, Angor snapped his fingers and signaled Toby to land on his shoulder.
“Angor!” Sailum quickly replaced his surprise with joy. The boy rushed at Angor happily, his white blanket robe flipping in the wind. If this was in the middle of the night, the sight would be quite terrible.
Sailum hopped around Angor like a rabbit. Nausica joined them as well.
“That’s our uniform robe. So you successfully broke through?” Sailum lifted Angor’s robe. Before Angor could say anything though, Sailum revealed a disgusted look. “Why does it look like a bed sheet on you?”
Angor froze. He then blushed and retorted, “Look at yourself! I already thought that way last time I saw you coming, but I didn’t say it. Now you said it first!”
Sailum looked really shocked. “It can’t be! I look good! Miss Nausica even said I looked mysterious with the hood on! Right?”
Sailum turned around and decided to drag Nausica into their debate. Nausica’s praise was why the boy always went outside with his robe on.
Nausica face-palmed herself and revealed an “I have nothing to do with this” expression.
Realizing what just happened, Sailum displayed a sad face.
Angor humphed. “Just think about it. The uniforms only have one size. I’m taller than you, and the robe is already too big for me. You look like a kid playing the sheet he took from his bed.”
Sailum understood the description. Angor’s shoulders were broader and overall, bigger. Yet Angor looked miserable in this robe. As for Sailum himself… yeah, maybe he did look like a blanket-covered child.
Thinking about how he had been wandering about with the “bedsheet” on, trying to tell everyone that he was an apprentice now… Sailum felt his face burning in embarrassment.
“Nuts!” Sailum quickly dragged his hood on and revealed an “I’m ready for any disaster the world throws my way” manner.
The happiness when friends united with each other was totally ruined by the two bedsheets; one black and one white.
They found a tree near the road to rest under. Nausica had been trying to hold back her laughter. She could not get rid of the funny scene in her mind where two kids quarreled with each other over two bedsheets.
Sailum seemed irritated.
“Why didn’t you tell me the truth? I thought I looked good in it,” Sailum asked Nausica. He did not even use “Miss Nausica” this time, which meant he was really bothered.
Nausica forced up a serious expression as she said, “To be frank, I really think you looked good.”
“Oh, stop it,” Angor interrupted. “Why didn’t you wear it then?”
Angor and Sailum secretly decided to join an alliance called the “Bedsheet Union”.
“Why didn’t I use it…” Nausica looked away and rolled her eyes, trying to find a good answer. “It did look fine, but it’s too loose and can’t show my body shape.”
“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.