Sumesh closed his eyes and took a moment to savor the tea.
“Bitter at first, mild sweetness that follows behind, which leads to the taste of nature. The refreshing energy contained within remained behind to mend my body! Please, tell me, Granny, what is the name of this tea?”
“This is Morning Dew. Angor gave it to me.”
“Morning Dew… such a brilliant name that fits its nature! This is one of the best tea I’ve had in so many years.” Sumesh praised and suddenly frowned in confusion. “Wait, Angor again? He gave you this?”
Iron Granny nodded. “Correct. This should have been a gift for you, or so he said. He asked me to appraise it first and see whether you like it.”
“Of course I like it!”
“Too bad you missed him. I’m afraid you have to wait until he returns to get more of Morning Dew.”
Sumesh looked a bit sad. As a “tea addict”, he felt awful for not being able to enjoy his drink.
“Should I go after him? He didn’t leave for too long.”
“Oh, stop it. Even though it has only been an hour since he left, his Gondola isn’t something that you can catch up with easily. I think he’s well out of Parmigi Highlands at this moment.”
“Gondola?”
“The name of his flying boat. Trust me, it looks like an excellent piece of art. Your professor tended to show off the amazing vehicle to others and earned a lot of envious enemies because of this. Then those wizards forced their students to study alchemy. And as we all expected, few succeeded.”
“A flying boat?” Sumesh considered and created a small illusion above their table. “This is ‘Gondola’?”
“Oh ho, that’s a very neat Truth Manipulator illusion!” Iron Granny praised before carefully checking it. “That’s the one. You ran into Angor?”
“I saw him on my way back. I thought it’s a standard device given by the organization and that I can ask for an extra one. So it was Angor’s?”
“Stop dreaming. Just look at the stubborn Rein Mute and his ‘crystal ball transmitters’. It will be such a miracle for him to suddenly decide to give our members new equipment.”
Sumesh also remembered Rein’s terrible taste and shook his head. “You’re right. I shouldn’t expect that.”
Wait… He suddenly remembered something important. So this Angor crafted a unique flying vehicle, which meant that the young man sitting on the boat was him.
Goode said that the professor found him three years ago. Three years… a level-3 apprentice? An alchemist who nearly created a Mystery item??
Sumesh now knew why Iron Granny adored Angor so much. It was like mixing several impossible achievements onto the same person.
“I need to see him.”
…
Swiftly, the Gondola penetrated clouds and mist.
Angor was casually reading a storybook written by a wizard. He was interrupted when he heard Toby’s voice from beneath the boat.
He put the book on a desk and looked down from over the railing.
Toby had been enjoying his cruise alongside the boat, but the bird was now calling toward the ground for some reason. A moment later, Toby returned to Angor’s shoulder and whispered something.
“There’s someone down there?” Angor read Toby’s bird language and frowned.
They were currently around the edge of Parmigi Highlands, which was some distance away from the Evernight Kingdom. No one would come here except for supernatural beings who were traveling past the area.
Following Toby’s hint, he lowered the Gondola’s altitude and saw a group of mortals traveling into Parmigi Highlands while carrying a lot of packs and luggage.
“Why would mortals go there? Are they trying to trade with the local tribes?”
He once heard about certain primitive tribes living at Parmige Highlands who would exchange resources with other civilizations nearby. He wasn’t interested in this, so he decided to disregard the matter and kept flying to the Evernight Kingdom.
However, he was beginning to see more and more people moving to the highland area, fully packed and loaded. It was barely a hundred kilometers, and he had already seen ten huge crowds.
Also, the occasional women and kids who were left behind suggested that these people weren’t traders.
“Is there a war somewhere? And people are fleeing from their homes?”
He observed for a moment and made sure these were refugees.
He already saw a moderate-sized city in the distance, which was covered under a “black dome”, while the dome was slowly expanding outward. The refugees were leaving the city and heading toward different directions. Those heading to Parmigi Highlands were only a part of them.
Angor recognized the black dome as the same one that covered the Sleepless City. But… this was not Sleepless City. It was still pretty far.
He also saw supernatural individuals flying toward the black dome and setting up defenses in the air.
A middle-aged level-2 apprentice in a blue wizard robe suddenly approached him and showed the look of greed upon seeing his Gondola. As soon as the man failed to ascertain Angor’s true strength, he put up a more polite manner.
“Sir, please do not approach there. We expect ‘parasites’ to attack the surrounding area soon, and even wizards won’t be able to resist them. If you wish to head north, I suggest you take another route.”
“When did that thing appear? Is there any sign or warning beforehand?” Angor frowned. Before leaving Brute Cavern, he had carefully researched his route, and there was no mention of a black dome blocking his way.
“Sir, may I know—”
“Call me Padt. I’m from Brute Cavern.”
“I see, Mister Padt from Brute Cavern.” The apprentice silently exclaimed how a large-scale organization was so generous to their students. “I’m a member of the Edge of Night. You can call me Rando, Mister Padt.”
Rando looked a bit worried as he explained, “Surely you heard about the disaster that struck Sleepless City, Mister Padt? We thought the dome would remain there and expand slowly. However, the same thing appeared at this Snowrange City last night. My organization sent some manpower to this place to keep visitors away so that they don’t get possessed by the parasites.”
“Last night? So that’s why Brute Cavern didn’t receive any message. Are there a lot of these domes around the Evernight Kingdom?”
Rando shook his head. “It’s only Sleepless City and Snowrange, as far as I know. But… no one knows what will happen later.”
The black dome at Sleepless City was growing slowly, which might take it a long time to reach the other places. However, since a new one suddenly popped up somewhere completely unexpected… it was very likely that the Edge of Night would become its victim one day.
The Edge of Night used to be happy to see its greatest rival—Sleepless City—being chased away from their home, but it seemed that it would soon meet the same fate.
“What’s the situation in the Edge of Night?”
Rando didn’t look pleased because Angor was almost pointing out that their organization would get attacked.
Angor realized his mistake and quickly added, “I’m heading to the Edge of Night to use the teleportation station.”
Rando looked a bit relieved. “Edge of Night is fine, sir. But… people are on edge. It should be no problem if you’re just passing through.”
Rando told Angor how to choose a safer route and returned to his job.
Angor was wondering why the Nightmare Realm wanted to set up so many “outposts” in the wizarding world. But one thing was for sure, that these nightmare monsters were no longer acting stealthily.
The “outpost” in Pocratee was placed somewhere no one would ever visit. But this…
Angor glanced at the black dome again before steering his Gondola away.
He did not run into any other obstacles along his way, except for one time when he saw a shiny parasite enclosed in a “nightmare energy shell”, which was lingering not far from him.
The parasite escaped the moment it sensed Angor coming.
The parasite had wondered somewhere thousands of kilometers away from Sleepless City, which meant these creatures were able to reach most parts of the Evernight Kingdom.
Angor felt his heart sank—perhaps most of the Evernight Kingdom had already fallen. And as its closest neighbor, Brute Cavern wouldn’t remain so safe either.
He shook his head to get rid of the unnecessary concerns. This wasn’t something he should be worrying about, nor was it something he had control over.
