Prome already made up his mind that he would build a good relationship with Angor, so he tried his best answering Angor’s questions. If something involved his unique technique, he would just explain in an implicit way.
By the time Dave came back, Angor had already learned the basics of synthesis.
Angor took his ticket and prepared to leave.
“I’m going to make some weapons and make some money to attend Wizard Fair. You want to tag along?” Angor spoke to Dave before leaving.
His intention was to make money this time, so Angor did not have specific plans for the weapons.
Dave considered. “Alright. I have to keep the shop during the day so I’ll join you in the evening.”
After leaving Prome’s Alchemy Shop, Angor headed toward Cave Field instead of his villa.
He had been concealing himself during his tower challenge and did not contact Sailum and Nausica in a long time. Now that he was done, Angor planned to say hello, while telling them about the Twilight Well.
Angor felt a bit sorry when he failed to fulfill his promise of taking his friends to the underground market. He still felt bad even though they went there by themselves. Now he wanted to “compensate” them by inviting them to Twilight Well instead.
Angor believed that his peer did not know about Twilight Well just like him. Truth to be told, by shutting himself away from everyone else like an old wizard despite his young age, he had always been the “exception” among people.
The caves welcomed him with hot and damp air. Angor saw many of the room doors were wide opened, and the apprentices inside had all left their upper bodies bared. These people now looked more like laborers working in shipyards rather than talented supernaturals.
The mirror world always had a moderate environment, but it still had different seasons. It was the Month of Soothing Wind (July). The outside still felt nice, yet the interior of these caves was moist and frowzy. Living here for too long would gradually cause people’s bones to “rust away”.
“They should have made some savings by now. I should tell them to get out of here as soon as possible,” Angor thought.
Unfortunately, both Sailum’s and Nausica’s doors were shut tight. Seemed like they were both away.
“Are they doing quests again?”
There was nothing Angor could do at this point, so he decided to head back.
Before reaching the exit to the caves, he ran into Fosah and Laffitte again. The pair also had no idea where Sailum and Nausica had been.
“Maybe you should go ask Orlando. That guy seems pretty close to them,” Laffitte suggested.
Sailum did mention Orlando’s name several times. As Angor remembered, the information about how Hookdick kept slandering his name also came from Orlando.
Angor still had time to spare today, so he agreed to check out Orlando.
He rejected Fosah’s offer of leading the way. Last time when trying to find Balba, Sailum already took him to Orlando’s room, so he still knew the way.
About fifteen minutes later, Angor stopped in front of one of the doors.
The door was slightly ajar, revealing faint candlelight inside, as well as the sound of someone snoring. For some reason, it sounded pretty rapid as if someone just came back from strenuous exercise.
Angor was going to knock on the door, but his hand stopped when he thought about what could possibly be going on inside the room.
Of course, he should not knock if there were two people who just finished their “exercise”. He wondered if he should use his spirit feelers to check the room first.
Someone suddenly mumbled in the room.
“Roffig… I want more…”
Roffig?
The image of a giant man with handlebar mustache flashed in Angor’s memory. Roffig was Orlando’s great friend. But according to Sailum, Roffig was assigned to somewhere outside the mirror world. Was he back already?
Nevertheless, nothing could go wrong if Roffig was with Orlando, so Angor decided to knock on the door anyway.
No response.
Next, Angor spread his spirit feelers through the opening of the door, only to see Orlando alone in the room, snoring heavily while sprawling in an awkward manner on his bed. His moving lips suggested that Orlando was dreaming of eating something delicious.
“Mmff… roast lamb… so nice. Roffig, more please…” Orlando’s nose twitched. He was probably enjoying the smell of his nonexistent feast.
Angor facepalmed himself outside the door. He could not believe what he just thought about. Maybe he needed to do something to cleanse his mind of funny ideas.
Since the man he was visiting was sound asleep, Angor decided to leave for the time being…
Not!
He cast Hand of Spell and picked out a sock from Orlando’s boot. It was a greasy, yellowish sock which obviously was of a brighter color when it was in its better days.
“Ughhh. And I thought he was a composed and cultured young guy. Well, at least his sock is ‘cultured’ for good.”
It seemed studying Hand of Spell was a REALLY good choice since Angor could move a hazardous object around without worrying about getting affected.
While still outside the door, Angor moved his Hand of Spell and placed the stinking sock on Orlando’s nose.
Orlando was still inside his sweet dream of enjoying his “roast lamb”, but his olfactory already did its job by sending a terrible signal to his brain.
And his sweet dream instantly turned into a nightmare.
Orlando’s body twitched a little. His eyeballs began to move around madly behind his eyelids.
Angor noticed Orlando’s reaction and quickly hid the sock back into the boot.
In the next second, Orlando bounced up from his bed while panting heavily like someone who barely escaped the fate of drowning.
Angor felt a bit sorry while looking at Orlando’s overreaction. Using a “chemical weapon” was not really a good way of greeting someone.
When Orlando’s breathing finally calmed down, Angor knocked and pretending that he just arrived.
Orlando looked toward the door with a blank expression. His eyes were still watering a little. “Come on in.”
“Good day. Am I interrupting something?” Angor pushed the door open and “surprisingly” saw Orlando’s condition. “Oh…”
Angor decided not to ask “what happened” since he was not really good friend with Orlando yet.
Orlando rubbed his nose, still not sure what just happened. “Ah, Angor. Something you need?”
Angor was finished with his “performance” and put on his usual smile. “I want to ask something. Do you know where Sailum and Nausica went? They aren’t in their rooms.”
Orlando was still torturing his nose until it became red. “Those two? On a quest, I guess. I haven’t seen them for days. Nausica always goes to the underground market now and then. I don’t know what she’s up to though.”
Angor believed he had an idea about that.
“Oh, thank you. I’ll not take more of your time then, sleep well. ”
He knew well he was the one waking Orlando up.
“Why are you looking for Nausica?” Orlando asked before Angor could leave.
Angor briefly explained the auction which was about to start in Twilight Well, and Orlando suddenly brightened up. “You’re going to the grand auction too? Nice. But I heard the tickets for the seats are pretty expensive. I’ll have to watch from the screen outside the hall. It’s fine though. I’m not really buying stuff anyway. I’ll go there because I get to meet with my partner! Partner, you know?! Roffig! His dishes are sooo good! And he’s so kind to me…”
Orlando began to chatter non-stop. Angor never found a chance to cut in again. It seemed that as long as someone was listening to him, Orlando did not care who he was talking to.
Sailum mentioned something to Angor before; ever since Orlando was separated from Roffig, this guy had been harassing others with his teary speeches all day long. Even Hookdick was not spared from it. When Orlando asked where Angor lived, Sailum did not tell him, which saved Angor a lot of trouble.
Now Angor invited trouble by coming here on his own.
He really regretted replying to Orlando’s question. He should have left when he could.
Angor felt really relieved when he finally left Orlando’s room. He would rather chat with a flock of squawking crows than talking to Orlando again. At least crows would not expect answers. Orlando, on the other hand, always assaulted Angor by asking whether Angor agreed with his comment on Roffig. Angor had to keep his attention so as not to give the wrong answer, which would cause Orlando to repeat his prolonged speech again.
But the experience was not harmful. Angor was glad he found Orlando becoming friendlier with him.
People tended to keep away from that man. But at the same time, Orlando did not receive any foul treatment from them because he was quite the socializer and was never discouraged by people’s unfriendly gazes. Those who were troubled by Orlando might feel like kicking his ass, but they could not really find a reason to.
Angor did not know about Roffig. However, this did not prevent him from admiring this particular figure. Anyone who managed to become Orlando’s best friend would not be anyone ordinary. At any rate, Roffig should at least possess great patience.
…
Next, Angor went to underground market again and headed to Sky Tower. He just decided that he would never come here again a week ago… but now here he was, not as the notorious “Baron Milk” but as another bystander.
He came here looking for matches Nausica participated recently.
The dense crowd on the first level of the tower caught him by surprise. They were all fighters who were waiting for their matches since the waiting room could not take in any more people.
Angry yelling, unfriendly grumble, heated quarrel… the entire main hall felt like a chaotic wet market.
“Oof. The information about the garden was a bomb. It blew so many chilling apprentices out of the water…” Angor complained while pushing his way toward the inside.
It took him a lot of effort to finally find a worker. However, this worker was too busy dealing with other people to give him any information about Nausica.
Before he could do anything else, the crowd slowly forced him outside again.
Angor looked at the terrible human wave in the tower from outside and sighed in frustration. “Geez. Guess I’ll come later when the effect of the news dies down a bit.”
As he turned around, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind him.
“Fate has guided us together…”