Angor went back to his room to continue with Jon’s puzzles. He even missed several meals. In the following ten days or so, Angor heard about the story between Easley and Dove: A nobleman humiliated a young girl to death, the girl’s childhood friend rose up in anger, lived a hard life while bearing the great hatred in mind, and finally changed his fate and killed the nobleman by his own hand.
That was a lot of déjà vu, yet very acceptable. The laws were against the poor, and nobles were free to do whatever they like. Justice was only brought up when people were from the same class.
Angor actually sympathized Easley upon hearing the story. Angor was a noble himself, but he always received education from the Earth and did not consider his class as important. However, another story he heard next changed his attitude towards Easley.
Dove went to the dining hall alone that day, because Easley had already slaughtered every single one of Dove’s followers. Some of the victims were smaller families from the Central Empire who clung to big families for protection, some were new followers Dove recruited on the ship, some were even pretty girls or talented people Dove brought here by force. The second and third types of people did not even have anything to do with Easley, and several of them were just like Easley himself. Yet Easley still killed all of them.
Angor did not like such cruelty. Though he did not develop hatred towards Easley, only less sympathy, more caution.
The wizarding world was even more brutal than he expected.
Time went by. The Redbud passed the Whalebone Sea peacefully and moved into the most dangerous area in rumors—Devil’s Water.
This place was full of vicious pirates, giant sea monsters, and strange weathers. Some even said there were ghost ships here.
For civilian ships, the Devil’s Water was a natural barrier that could not be crossed. However, the Redbud was protected by wizards who could repel evil.
When the ship was halfway across the Devil’s Water, Aleen, who had been away from people for nearly half a month, came to Angor’s room.
Her face was pale, and her expression down. Those usual energies around her were nowhere to be seen. She came to the room and slumped onto a bench near the window.
“Brother Padt… I’m so dumb. I don’t know who can help me. My brother already felt his spiritual power the day before yesterday, but me… My meditation did nothing over an entire month. I can’t find a single trace of spiritual power, let alone feeling any mana.”
Aleen talked about her meditation training during the month without minding whether Angor was listening. As she spoke, her nose blushed, and tears appeared around the corners of her eyes. She seemed quite aggrieved about this.
Angor let out a sigh. He did not know how to comfort girls, so all he could say was “You will make it. Only need some time”.
That made Aleen cry harder. Not only Alan, but someone from a poor class like Easley had already shown their great talent. Compared to them, Aleen could not control her sadness. She even began complaining about how boring meditation was and all kinds of emotions were interfering with her training.
But she still kept her reason by not spilling out Triangle Channeling.
However, Angor still learned a lot from her words, about the possible problems during meditation training.
When she finished pouring out her feelings, Aleen wiped away her tears and blushed in embarrassment. She was just venting out her emotions at Angor like talking to a tree. Now she was done, she felt very “un-ladylike”… Would Angor see her as a spoiled girl?
There was silence. Aleen pinched her hands with uneasiness and tried to think about how to get rid of the atmosphere. It would be best if Angor could forget what she just did.
“Hey, Brother Padt, what are you writing about?” Aleen looked at the piles of papers filled with characters on the desk and asked in curiosity. She saw those characters before, in the stilt house back at the Padt Manor. They were called something like “Hanzi”.
“My diary. All I did these days were reading and sleeping, I need something to pass the time.” Angor gave her a small lie. He was doing puzzles, but that would be too complicated to explain, and he might give away his teacher’s secrets. Thank goodness that Angor and Jon were the only ones in this world who could read Chinese, and he did not need to worry about his lie being found out.
Aleen watched the papers for some more and realized she really could not understand any, so she simply gave up. Time to find other topics to ease up the mood.
What she talked about next was only chitchats among noble women, and Angor grew bored quickly. Before he could stop Aleen, however, the ship shook violently.
The pair did not panic. Instead, they quickly grabbed onto the iron rails on the wall to steady themselves.
A ship on the sea was sure to run into some big waves and strong winds. Not mentioning that they were currently on Devil’s Water, where the most strange weathers could be found, so the occasional swings and shakes no longer surprised them. This was also why Angor only kept some papers and quills on his desk.
The shake lasted five minutes. A small one, compared to what they experienced since the beginning of their trip.
Thanks to the sudden rough ride, they forgot about the embarrassment just now. Aleen tidied her messed up hair, while Angor pulled down his short shirt to cover his exposed stomach. They exchanged a smile.
The peace did not last long. Before they could say anything else, a lot of footsteps came from the ceiling above them. They were hurried and chaotic as if many people were running around.
“What’s going on up there?” They both asked in unison.
Aleen leaned over the window to check the outside. Then she yelled, “Brother Angor, look! Quick!”
Angor listened and joined her.
The outside was dark. A giant creature had blocked the vast sky. Angor tried to see what it was, but it was so big, and he could not make out which side was the head and which was tail.
Angor felt a sudden terror, and quickly said to Aleen, “Let’s go outside!”
If such a giant creature decided to attack The Redbud, staying inside the cabin would ensure a faster death. Aleen knew this too, so she followed behind Angor without any hesitation.
When they left the room, they saw all the other doors were open. Everyone was running towards the deck, either nervous or terrified.
When they reached the deck, they saw it was already full of people. Talents, handymen, sailors… They all joined their own groups to look at the large creature floating in the sky.
Angor also noticed that most talents were worried or scared, but sailors and handymen working on The Redbud were mostly amused, without any trace of fear in their expressions.
Angor calmed down a bit. Since sailors who had been working on the ship for many years were not afraid of the situation, the giant creature must be harmless to them.
With that in mind, Angor put away his fear and carefully inspected the large creature in the sky.
He could not get a good look of it back in the cabin. Now he could do it on the deck.
It was a floating, giant whale at least 200 meters in length. The pair of fins on its sides were like wings, each flap could create some gust. That wave earlier must have been caused by the strong wind.
The whale’s eyes looked like sapphires which reflected a blurring gleam like those reflected by sea waves. A single horn stood atop of its streamlined forehead which appeared as if surrounded by the clouds.
“So the legendary Cloud Whale lives in the Devil’s Water!” Someone exclaimed.
“A Cloud Whale is usually a gentle creature. However, we should be prepared for the worst,” said someone else. Not far from the crowd, the second-in-command of The Redbud gave orders to the sailors, then looked at the three figures standing behind him.
“Milord. We need to activate Mirror Veil on The Redbud. Please assist,” said the vice-captain in knight armor. He half knelt before the three “lords”.
The “lords” were escorts from the three major wizard organizations who had been stationed on The Redbud. One woman, and two men. The woman was wearing graceful attire, Lady Merlin, the Level-3 Apprentice Wizard from the Tower of Hurricane, whom Angor saw the other day.
One of the two males was a young man who possessed a handsome look. Black hair, hazel pupils, soft leather armor. A Level-2 Apprentice Wizard from the Gravity Forest, Komoen.
The third one was an elder wearing gray hair and gray beard, yet full of energy in his eyes. The escort from White Coral Floating Island Academy, a Level-3 Apprentice Wizard, Mr. Florent.
An old man in a black robe and another young man were standing behind Florent. When Aleen saw them, she quickly brightened up and began waving her hand towards them.
She had not seen Mara and Alan in a long time.