Warlock Apprentice

Are they building more of such camps so that they could take over this world slowly? But… there are many different planes out there, they can’t just focus on the wizarding world!

“Uh, good choice, here.” Angor nodded nonchalantly. “But why do we have so many humans here? They are… rowdy, you know?”

Fox covered her mouth with her white paw and winked at Froggy[1].

Froggy cleared his throat. “I-I don’t have the moon or the Queen to listen to my songs, so I… croak!”

Fox laughed out loud. “He called them here so that he could get at least some audiences.”

“I see. Yes, a good vocalist needs his deserved attention.”

Froggy puffed up his chest proudly. He loved his new title.

“I very much hope to keep admiring your arts,” Angor continued, “but… it’s not a good choice to do so with so many lousy peasants nearby.”

Angor spoke while carefully observing the expressions of the monsters. “Surely your masterful music isn’t for anyone to audit?”

Froggy considered and quickly understood what Angor meant. “Yes, croak! Lord Shava is right. How could such lowly bumpkins fathom my aesthetic musical skills! Hey, Fox, let’s drive them out already so that we can present Lord Shava a private and more proper performance!”

Fox bowed to Angor. “As you wish.”

The fox lifted her harp and plucked at the strings softly using both paws. Following gentle melodies, a number of white strings appeared around the animal, which then created a giant shadow of a fox above them. The “fox shadow” ascended into the sky and disappeared into the black vortex.

When Angor wondered what that meant, he saw light coming from behind him.

He looked back and saw the path through which he came in reappearing in the darkness. The street lamp just outside the “invisible barrier” was providing its comforting brilliance not far from him.

“Get out, croak! Didn’t you hear that Lord Shava is tired of your petty presence? This means our Queen will not want to see you lot!” Froggy yelled in a loud voice that echoed around the entire area.

The crowd of clowns moved in unison. Perhaps they also would like to obey Shava’s order, so they were moving faster on “less clownish” steps.

“Tell them to slow down. I want to find several assis—I mean, slaves, for later use,” Angor said a little hesitantly.

From what he learned up until now, Angor knew that this “Shava” figure was someone pretty influential to these monsters. He tried making a request to see how much “privilege” he could enjoy from Froggy and Fox.

Froggy immediately agreed while giving another order to the clowns so that they walked in front of Angor before leaving, whereas Fox gave Angor a timid nod without showing any suspicion.

Angor was glad that his somewhat clumsy attempt went through just fine. Since Froggy and Fox did not react to his request, which appeared a bit bold and sudden, he believed that either Froggy and Fox didn’t know Shava well, or they simply would not disobey Shava’s words as long as it did not go against their queen’s creed.

The running clowns slowly gathered into another formation and presented themselves in front of Angor one by one.

Angor floated into the air to observe them, while Toby held a lamp just above the clowns so that they could look at their faces better.

While possessed, all these people were showing inhumanly creepy expressions that might even prevent their best friends from recognizing them. Angor didn’t really need to check their looks; he only had to keep an eye out for Nausica’s metal arm.

He swiftly dragged out a short figure among the clowns who were making funny faces while walking. The girl was wearing a large colorful robe which definitely wasn’t her size.

After being taken away by Angor, the girl trembled in fear.

“This is Shan…” Angor whispered before giving her an “order”, “Stand behind me and don’t run off.”

The possessed Princess Shan looked nothing like her usual self as she shivered badly. However, she still listened to Angor’s command.

“But where is her big guy?” Angor looked around and failed to notice Shan’s slave, Gank, who should be pretty noticeable among all the people.

A moment later, Angor picked out someone else—a woman with curly blue hair who was trying to walk on stiff legs as if she were suffering from muscle convulsions.

It was Shiliew.

The disgusting colors on her suggested that she was possessed as well. But even then… she was sleeping. It seemed that even the parasites could not wake her up when her particular talent was working its wonders.

After putting the snoring Shiliew beside Shan, Angor kept looking.

He believed that Nausica was here since he found both Shiliew and Shan. Yet he did not find her when most of the people had left.

Did Nausica not come into this “interlayer” area?

Toby called out to him and interrupted his thoughts. The bird had used his gravity power to drag a sexy-looking woman away from the leaving clowns.

Angor checked the woman who showed a similarly twisted expression as the others.

“Is that—”

Before Toby could answer, the woman’s expression suddenly turned normal. She then thrust a hand at Angor’s chest.

Angor almost fell for the attack if not for his gravity power. While in his soul form, he always kept his sequence of gravity ready just in case.

While Angor retreated to a safe distance, the attacking woman yelled in pain. A single white string had pierced both her hands and her shoulder blades, locking her in place.

Fox floated to them while playing her harp. “Are you hurt, Lord Shava? This one has used a trick on her soul, which fooled our parasitic seed into coexisting with her.”

On her soul? Angor carefully checked the woman again.

Without the pretended expression, Angor easily noticed that the “woman” had a square face and a dark stubble, which definitely did not sit well with her fine body.

“You’re Hookdick!”

The woman panicked when her name was revealed, or rather, it was her old name.

She could not tell why Angor was working with these monsters, but she knew she should NOT admit her identity in this situation.

There was a secret art she learned from “Soul Soil”, which allowed her to keep some consciousness when possessed by a parasite. She was trying to find a way out while blending in with the other clowns, but she never managed to penetrate the strange darkness, so she had no choice but to temporarily allow the parasite to “control” her body.

She was glad to see the darkness giving way to an exit, but she was extremely displeased to see that it was Angor who created that exit. She could not show her true emotion yet when a chance to escape was just within reach.

She thought that Angor wouldn’t recognize her since the parasite in her body had twisted her physical form greatly. But that accursed bird ruined everything!

That very same bird saved Angor’s life back at Twilight Town when he tried to murder Angor for the first time, and here it was again!

“You mistook me for somebody else. We’re both humans, right? How about we cooperate and get out together?” Hookdick tried while enduring the great pain caused by the string[2]. He intentionally emphasized “humans” so that he might alienate Angor’s relation with those monsters.

But it didn’t work.

Froggy and Fox did not respond to his attempt. Well, except that Fox was using that harp to summon more strings, which looked rather terrifying in Hookdick’s view.

Hookdick quickly pretended to have a timid look and cried, “I-I’m just a poor woman desperate to survive. I didn’t mean to attack you. Let me go, please!”

When enhanced by the Bloodline of Succubus, Hookdick’s alluring attempt was pretty effective against ordinary men even with his miserable face.

However, he picked the wrong target to use his charm on.

Putting his grudge against Hookdick aside, Angor’s soul form could not produce the necessary substance that stimulated that kind of business anyway.

“Release her,” Angor said to Fox.

Fox was a bit surprised at Angor’s decision, but she still listened.

Hookdick saw the white string disappearing and thought his “seduction tactic” worked, so he kept up his performance while calling Angor “dear handsome” affectionately.

Angor approached him while trying not to throw up on the spot.

As Hookdick believed Angor fell for his trick, a gray energy ray came from Angor’s hand and pierced through his heart.

[1] It wasn’t explicitly mentioned before, but to avoid confusion, for now, Fox’s gender is female while Froggy is male.

[2] Changing the pronouns for Hookdick to “he” since it is confirmed that the “woman” is Hookdick