“Miss Flora said they returned to the Cloud Whale in the early morning,” Angor considered.
Could that have something to do with what happened? Also, he noticed the thunderclouds covering Devil’s Water began to fade almost at the same time. Could be worth noting.
Angor typed his assumptions into his tablet. He could not do anything to prove those ideas now, so he had to write them down and wait until he gained enough resources.
As always, he put away the Alien Eye into his inner pocket to keep it close.
Maybe the Alien Eye underwent an unexpected change. Good or bad, Angor must face it. He could not discard the object anyway.
For now, Angor set the light spot incident aside.
It was near dusk. Angor had nothing to do after dinner. After he read a chapter of one of the novels saved in his tablet, he went to sleep.
As the sky grew bright in the next day, a giant steam airship approached from the distance and stopped near the hill. There were spell runes shining on the ship, which looked identical to those on the robes of the Phantom Servants. Invisibility spells.
The door of the airship opened up and revealed a small-sized old man with gray hair. Next, two figures appeared near him.
Sunders and Flora.
“Alas. Only ten talents this time? The Wallace Faction is going to hubbub about it again,” said the old man. He closed his eyes and sensed for a second, which was enough for him to see everything inside the cave.
“I won’t mind that. Those people should have known that we are going to recruit only a few with our approach. They are going to yell at us just for the sake of it,” said Flora. She seemed unconcerned.
Every wizard organization had to recruit talents. To most wizards, such a task was always difficult to handle. Without new recruits, there would not be fresh blood for them, but on the other hand, such task occupied them too much time. So people usually shirked this task around until an apprentice took it. When Sunders agreed to do it this time, he shocked the hell out of everyone.
Naturally, the academism representatives from the Wallace Faction strongly objected the idea because Sunders would certainly use the most extreme method to recruit, such as “deathmatches in nine chambers”. Talents were already scarce; if they went through the deathmatches, how many would be left?
Those who were recruited to Brute Cavern would end up as their underlings. In other words, free human labor. Fewer recruits meant fewer people to command around. That was why they did not want Sunders to do the recruitment.
Sunders was going to look for Greya. Recruiting talents was just a side job along the way. As Flora recalled, when the Wallaces opposed him, Sunders only said one thing, “I see. Then I’ll leave the task to you.”
Those words scared every wizard away like the deadliest weapon. Aggressive pragmatism wizards, moderate academism wizards… they all refused to accept the task and slipped away. Even Old Wallace himself remained in an embarrassing silence and went away with the excuse that his old legs were not feeling well.
In the end, the task of recruiting talents still fell upon Sunders.
“Oh my! Miss Flora didn’t call them ‘infidels’ this time. Wallace will feel wonderful if he’s here,” said the old man with an exaggerated expression.
Flora spread her hands as she said, “Well, I can’t help it. My dear teacher found himself a pupil who is totally academism, from head to toe. I need to get rid of saying ‘infidels’ so we can stay good friends. Oh, I almost forgot. Mister Ness, you were wrong. We didn’t find ten recruits. Only eight.”
Flora pointed to Angor’s room and said, “That’s teacher’s new student, Angor. He’s not considered one of the recruits.”
Then she pointed to another direction and said, “That mix-blood from another world isn’t one either.”
The old shortie Ness did not care whether they found ten or eight talents. Instead, he gaped at Sunders, who was still wearing his cold and calm expression.
“Mister Sunders found a student? An academism?! Unbelievable. Am I dreaming?”
Sunders glanced at Ness. The simple gesture instantly removed Ness’ exaggerated attitude and replaced it with fear.
“Don’t waste time now. Let’s move,” said Sunders.
Ness nodded quickly. “Ahem. Since The Savage has arrived, let’s get those talents aboard!”
…
Angor followed all the talents onto The Savage.
Probably because they felt restrained in their tents all these days, the talents gathered on the deck of the airship to enjoy the cold air in the sky, as well as the temporary freedom.
Most people witnessed an airship for their first time. They began to discuss how the ship flew in the air. Someone said it used spells, others believed it was alchemy or special magic arrays. The discussion became quite heated.
“I think none of them is the answer,” Sailum spoke in a serious tone with his beloved book in his arms.
“So what’s your opinion?” asked Nausica who was leaning against the safety bar on the deck and was smoking her pipe. The cold wind brought her long hair up and created clanking noises on her scale shoulder armor.
“I’m not sure. I think it could be some connected devices, like those in clocks,” answered Sailum.
“What about you, Angor?” Nausica asked.
Angor gave them a noncommittal answer, “Maybe Sailum was right.”
Angor was thinking to himself. He believed Sailum was half-right. There must be mechanical elements inside the steam airship. However, to maintain such a stable and fast flying course, there should be something related to Occult Art as well.
Nausica noticed Angor was not being serious, but no one would care. They were only enjoying the sky without any particular purposes while finding random stuff to talk about.
“Acho!” Sailum sneezed. He added, “The wind’s too strong. We’ll catch a cold like this.”
Nausica looked at Sailum’s running nose and shook her head as she said, “You also need to get some training.”
Angor felt chilly as well. When he heard Nausica, he felt a bit embarrassed.
He took out a handkerchief with his family emblem—a lion heart—on it and handed it to Sailum. “Use this. It sure is cold, let’s head down.”
Sailum nodded. He would rather read his book than feeling the wind. Same for Angor. Compared to the cold wind, the occasional attention from the talents around him made him feel worse regardless of whether they meant good or bad.
“Not me. I haven’t enjoyed the fresh air like this for a long time. Gotta seize the chance,” said Nausica.
Angor and Sailum went through the hallways full of mechanical elements. Brute Cavern usually put several people in one room. Since Sunders only recruited nine people aside from Angor, they could use single rooms, and there were still free ones left. Angor’s and Sailum’s rooms were on different floors. Angor’s room was on an upper floor.
After saying goodbye to Sailum at the stairway, Angor saw a small figure in front of his door.
He walked closer and noticed it was a tiny demon falcon.
The creature had a golden beak, black feathers, and blood-color eyes. It looked bright and pretty. As Angor tried to figure out why the creature was here, a familiar voice came from it.
“Angor, that’s my alchemy familiar. Follow it to my room.”
That was Sunders’ voice. Angor was wondering what the man wanted. However, he did not dare to neglect Sunders’ order. He left Toby in his own room and hurried behind the demon falcon.