Warlock Apprentice

Sunders locked himself in the study for the next two days, during which Angor tried to talk to him but was rejected every time.

Meanwhile, Flora would occasionally enter the study. Each time she left, she moved so fast that Angor never had a chance to talk to her.

Angor was worried that something bad might have happened to his professor in the Nightmare Realm, but he wasn’t going to meddle too much when Sunders told him not to. Besides, he just told Hobbiton that “everybody had his or her own business”.

The Phantom Island was troubled by rain several times recently. Goode would usually come and ask Angor whether they should move the island to somewhere better, but the sky would clear up before Angor could make the decision.

Angor was now sitting on a chair near the Krakoks’ room while reading Alchemy Material Collection: Shallowtomb Plane Edition with the help of the sunlight. In order to acquire enough knowledge to study Narda’s Vision, he had been fully focused on reading different alchemy books without having any sleep.

He could feel his brain enriched with more knowledge by the day, and that it wouldn’t be long before he reached the “minimum requirement” for learning the spell. He knew he just needed several more days.

He was so concentrated at his reading that he never noticed Hobbiton coming to him several times with a hesitant expression. Hobbiton was probably going to ask about Ananda and Peter Pan again.

For the first time in a while, Angor looked up from his book when he heard the sound of flapping wings approaching.

He had not seen Toby for a few days. While he was studying at Phantom Island, Toby had been wandering elsewhere. Angor didn’t try to look for Toby because he thought the bird did not want to run into Greya.

“What, you’re not afraid of Lady Greya today?” Angor joked. “Where’s your panda suit? That hat though… made from flower petals? Nice.”

Toby peeked left and right. Once he made sure Greya was not around, he revealed a relieved look.

“Lady Greya doesn’t have time for you recently.” Angor chuckled at Toby’s silly reaction. “What are you up to? Any longer and I might have to ask Mister Tree Spirit to look for you.”

Toby flew in front of Angor’s face and said something using wing language.

Angor frowned. “You brought that little partner you mentioned here?!”

Toby looked down. He felt a little ashamed.

“It’s waiting outside the island right now? Man, you didn’t give me any time to prepare… Fine, I’ll come with you.”

While walking through the forest that surrounded the mansion area, Toby explained what he had been doing these days.

Apparently, Toby was going after his “little partner” who betrayed him. During the previous Twilight Auction, a music box called “Land on the Sky” stirred up the participants for good. The music box was originally Toby’s, but Toby lent the item to his new friend, who then sold it to others.

Angor’s plan of confronting Toby’s new friend didn’t go well last time because the disaster in Midnight Sovereign occupied him, which then threw him into a plane passageway and forced him to another plane, followed by a series of events.

According to Toby, this “little partner” was a tiny, fairy-like creature with a pair of translucent wings, who smelled like flowers.

Angor wondered why Toby would bring the “betrayer” to Phantom Island. In fact, Toby didn’t look angry at all. Did enemies end up as best buddies?

Later, Toby said that it wasn’t his new friend who sold the music box. It was its master, who took it by force. Because of this, the fairy was left abandoned.

Toby had been observing the fairy and decided to mend their relationship yesterday. His new petal hat was a token of their regained friendship.

Angor highly doubted it since it was very likely that Toby was being fooled again. He would like to see this fairy in person before making judgments.

A moment later, they arrived at the edge of Phantom Island. Toby looked around for a while and landed beside a pile of broken stones.

Angor saw a small figure hiding behind a rock, shivering.

He couldn’t tell the creature’s gender because it looked ambiguous, but he would admit that the fairy looked rather good. That tiny, gender-neutral face looked handsome and charming.

Toby introduced it as the “Moonlily Fairy”. It had not fully developed its intelligence, and neither could it speak. Without a master, it isolated itself from everything and would probably hide in the woods forever had Toby not found it.

Angor made sure the story was truthful before asking Toby, “So, what are you going to do with it? Are you thinking about keeping it at Phantom Island?”

Toby waved his wings around, head lowered.

“You want ME to find a home for it?” Angor held his chin and considered.

He would have rejected such a request right away if Toby’s partner was a different creature. However, since he didn’t think the little fairy could do him any harm, he decided to provide a little help.

He read books about these creatures before, so he knew flower fairies were usually kind-natured unless they were tainted by evil energy upon birth, which was obviously not the case for this seemingly young one.

It was probably true that someone else was responsible for taking Toby’s music box away.

“I guess you can stay… but what are you going to do from now on?” Angor stood in front of the fairy and asked in a soft voice.

It seemed the fairy could understand human speech just fine. However, Angor needed Toby’s “translation” in order to comprehend the fairy’s weird sign language.

“You know how to brew Moonlily Honey and Moonlily Perfume? But they aren’t anything special…” Angor muttered.

The fairy looked down in fear. It also knew that the human in front of it was the only hope.

Angor took a moment to evaluate the situation, and after receiving another of Toby’s pleading looks, he nodded. “Fine. You don’t take much room anyway. Follow me.”

The three of them entered Phantom Island together. The Moonlily Fairy floated alongside Toby using its petal-like wings.

Along their way, Angor carefully thought about where to put the new guest.

He could ask the Phantom Servants to take care of it, but he then considered it improper since the Phantom Servants were supposed to be Sunders’ personal attendants. He couldn’t ask such a thing without getting Sunders’ approval.

According to Goode, Nano seemed unoccupied these days, so giving Nano a new job was another option. But then he was worried that Nano’s bad temper might turn the fairy into an annoying imp instead.

In the end, he made up his mind to entrust the fairy to the Krakoks. Surely these innocuous folks could accommodate a new friend of the same size just fine.

Besides, the Krakoks were once named “Fairies in the Attic”. At least they had something in common.

With this in mind, Angor took Toby and the Moonlily Fairy to the flower room, which was a temporary residence for the Krakoks.

After introducing the fairy to the Krakoks, who listened curiously, Angor summoned Papaya’s grandmother and told her to teach the fairy how to read, as well as the basic social rules necessary in this world. The old Krakok did a perfect job educating Dodoro, so Angor had no trouble entrusting the task to her.

Also, this wouldn’t burden her too much since she usually didn’t have any work to do.

Angor watched the Krakoks welcoming the fairy as if accepting a new family member. He then tapped Toby’s head. “All good now?”

“Tweet!” Toby hopped onto Angor’s shoulder and kissed his cheek.

“Aren’t you a generous one,” Angor mocked and left the flower room.

However, he wasn’t fully comfortable about leaving someone he didn’t know well with the Krakoks. To be safe, he asked Goode to send a vacant Phantom Servant to watch over the Krakoks. While it was unlikely, Angor still told this servant to kill the fairy as soon as it was necessary.

He also left an illusion around the flower house so that the fairy did not wander off.

Toby saw everything and did not protest, for he knew that he would be blamed if the fairy caused harm to Phantom Island.

After getting everything in order, Angor said to Toby, “Did you ask the fairy about its master? By ‘abandoning’, I assume that whoever chased it away did not remove the servant mark from the fairy so that they can summon it back. We need to get rid of the mark so that it won’t give us any surprises.”

Toby nodded and flapped his wings a little angrily.

“A female apprentice? Well, this should be your problem, so try to solve it on your own. Just stay out of danger.”

Angor wouldn’t take more jobs for himself right now since he had enough to do. He believed that Toby was more than capable to deal with the matter.