Angor glanced back at the funny man in a white bear costume who just showed up from a path nearby. He had a black-painted cane in his hand.
Angor frowned a bit. He was not dressed as “Baron Milk” today, so this man probably did not recognize— Hey wait, he’s coming right this way with a smile!
The white bear stopped beside Angor and still smiling innocently.
“Fate let us reunite.” His chubby face revealed a joyful expression.
The word “Reunite” probably meant White Bear knew who Angor was.
“Excuse me, what are you talking about?” Angor turned to face the man.
“Oh, nice. You finally spoke to me like normal.”
“Do I know you? I’m afraid you’ve mistaken me for someone else,” said Angor as he kept up his good manner.
“It cannot be. I do not find people with my eyesight. Fate has always been guiding me,” said White Bear as he bowed down. “I believe you got the wrong idea about me last time, mister. I simply want to befriend you.”
“Last time? Which time?”
“Before your match against Blackjack, of course. Trust me, I know who you are, Baron-ahem. Pray rest assured, for I’ll not tell anyone about it.” White Bear lowered his voice when mentioning Angor’s title.
Now, Angor was certain White Bear really found him out. Unlike before, Angor was getting curious about this individual. This man always talked about “fate” this and “fate” that. Was there really “fate” in this world?
Angor neither admitted nor declined White Bear’s assumption. He only tried to observe the man’s expressions carefully. “Guidance of fate, huh? What did it tell you?”
White Bear scratched his head embarrassingly when Angor stared at him with scrutinizing eyes.
“Fate told me that my life is full of troubles, and the only way to escape from all the trouble is to become supernatural. Following the guidance, I’ve arrived here.”
“Here?” Angor was not sure if this man was referring to him, or Brute Cavern in general.
“I was birthed in Goman Kingdom. Following the guidance of fate, I spent 13 years on my travel and finally came here.”
Thirteen years? From a quick look, Angor believed White Bear should still be in his 20s, which meant… he had gone through quite a journey, and he had to have run into many incidents, either good or bad.
However, none of these had anything to do with Angor himself.
“Then?”
White Bear expected Angor to at least say something about his story, or maybe show disbelief. Yet Angor did not. In fact, Angor did not seem interested at all.
“Then… I’m out of trouble!” White Bear chuckled in a silly way. “I joined Brute Cavern, thus avoiding troubles.”
What White Bear said still did not concern Angor. Since Angor was no longer the unfriendly Baron Milk now, he tried to respond just to show courtesy.
“I see. Good for you.”
White Bear noticed that Angor was losing patience. “Once I’ve become supernatural, fate guided me again. It told me if I wish to proceed farther on the path of supernatural and return to my home, I need to meet someone…”
“And that ‘someone’ is me?”
“I don’t know. Fate never showed me clear images. I only saw someone unclear, as well as a bird… your bird.” White Bear gestured at the sky, then at Angor’s shoulder.
Angor was now sure that White Bear was talking about Toby. He did not bring Toby today because the bird could easily give his identity away.
“Fate must be telling me about the owner of the bird.” White Bear concluded.
Angor nodded. “I guess so.”
“You do? Wonderful. So are we friends now?”
It seemed there were many steps missing before they could become friends. However, Angor did not really care.
“Nice story. I’m sorry to tell you that Toby-oh, I mean the bird who refused your ‘proposal’, is not my bird. His real owner asked me to take care of him for the moment.”
White Bear was taken aback when he failed to find any will to lie in Angor’s eyes. Had he been looking for the wrong person?
“I’m sorry, I’m not the one you’re looking for. May I ask how you recognized me?” Angor always wanted to know the answer. He was confident that only wizards were powerful enough to notice his true identity. However, reality had proven him wrong more than once.
The first one was Saka, who could sense his soul, which was totally understandable. Now White Bear did it again. Unlike Saka, White Bear was only a level-1 apprentice. How did this man find out?
White Bear was still thinking about whether he got the wrong man, and responded out of instinct, “Fate has guided us together once more.”
“Fate. Again,” Angor sneered. “If fate does exist, she must be someone really busy who worries about you every day regardless of whether it was important or unimportant matters.”
White Bear finally realized that Angor was being sarcastic, and quickly shook his head.
“I was… referring to something else just now. Please don’t get me wrong.”
“But I didn’t. Your story doesn’t necessarily concern me. You’re looking for Toby’s owner, and I can tell you that she’s not in the wizarding world right now,” Angor believed he had told White Bear enough and decided to leave.
“The ‘fate’ which has been guiding my path in my life is a very mysterious sequence of the world, while the ‘fate’ that asked me to come to you is this.” White Bear pointed at the black cane in his hand.
“A wooden cane?”
“It is. But to us ‘Fate Walkers’, it’s called the Telltale of Guidance.”
Fate Walker? Angor remembered reading about something similar.
“You’re a Prophet?”
“Yes.” White Bear nodded. “I’m an apprentice studying Fate knowledge under the subject of Prophet. I used a Prophet cantrip to locate you. It’s called Guidance of Fate.”
Angor finally figured out what was going on.
“I see. Still, you came for the wrong guy. The one you’re looking for is a real wizard, while I am only an apprentice who just came here. Please don’t use your Guidance of Fate on me again. It felt like I was being constantly stalked.”
With that, Angor turned away.
“Can we be friends?” White Bear yelled.
Angor pondered. Toby seemed pretty agitated around White Bear, while Angor himself did not really mind. A Prophet apprentice as a friend might be able to help him predict disasters.
“Of course. Name’s Angor.” Angor’s voice came from afar since he already walked some distance.
“Hobson! I’m Hobson Seeley!” White Bear shouted back.
Angor was already nowhere to be seen, and White Bear did not know whether he was heard.
White Bear was still wondering whether Angor was the man he had been looking for. Unintentionally, he used his Telltale of Guidance to inspect Angor’s fate string.
“It’s gray…” He frowned. “Looks like this new friend of mine’s having a tough luck today.”
…
Angor was now too far to hear White Bear’s mumbling.
Since he failed to learn anything about Nausica, he could only return to apprentice town.
It was nearly dusk. Both the mountains far away and the structures in the town were coated under an orange aura.
Dave said he would come in the evening. Angor decided to check out the questing hall when it was still bright. According to Dave, the hall provided many quests which asked to buy alchemy weapons.
It was ten days away from the grand auction in Twilight Well, and Angor really needed some money. He did not wish to keep asking Dave to help sell stuff, so he planned to see if he could accept some quests on his own.
Speaking of questing hall… Angor never went there since he joined Brute Cavern.
The questing hall was located in the middle of Tree Spirit Garden. Angor took a sky bus. There was another young apprentice on the bus with him. However, Angor failed to notice this since he only spaced out on his seat in his own thoughts.
The young apprentice drew Angor’s attention by exclaiming loudly as the bus climbed high in the sky along the tree and was surrounded by clouds.
Angor looked his way and noticed the apprentice was looking outside the bus through the window.
He was exclaiming when a middle-aged witch in a black wizard robe and moon-tattooed wizard hat flew past the bus on a broomstick.
“Nice. I wish I have a vehicle like that too! But it’s so expensive…” The young apprentice deflated a little while he stared at the flying witch.
Vehicle? Angor listened to him and considered whether he should get one of those as well. He could use a sky bus in the mirror world to travel around, but there would always be a time when he had to go outside.