Warlock Apprentice

Somewhat dazed, Angor stared at what existed in front of him.

He had done the experiment—the Nightmare Domain failed to combine with the empty illusion as he expected. However, something else did happen.

A teacup who was playing piano in midair was dragged out from the castle hall and into the illusion.

The poor little thing realized it was separated from its partners, and its already terrible piano noise became worse. The bouncing musical notes it created turned into jagged and barbed objects as if someone trimmed them with an iron saw.

“Stop it!”

Hearing Angor, the pianist teacup turned around and “looked at” Angor by facing Angor with the heart mark on it.

Next, the teacup visibly brightened up. “Shava!”

It rushed to Angor and began to run in circles.

The piano did not stop here. With the teacup closer, Angor only felt his eardrums being tortured badly. He managed to pull the teacup back into the Nightmare Domain.

When the noise was no more, he held his chin and thought about what just happened.

He still did not know how to use the Nightmare Domain, but at least he could take advantage of the teacups. He knew they could reflect attacks from wizards, which meant… he could use them to defeat mighty wizards!

Still, he had to do something to make sure.

Two hours later, Angor left his room with a sad look.

Of course, things did not go that well. He spent two hours testing the teacups as well as the toy soldiers, but the result was dissatisfying.

Similar to otherworldly visitors, the creatures had lost most of their strength under the effect of the rules of the wizarding world as well as the world’s consciousness. It happened probably because Angor had shut off the passage between the Nightmare Domain and the Nightmare Realm.

The teacups could still block attacks—level-0 cantrips. Anything beyond that would cause damage. During his test, Angor broke the hand of one of the teacups using his Trigger Crossbow. The “victim” did not respond, yet Angor still felt sorry for it.

They could reflect attacks too. Some of Angor’s golden bolts were bounced back on the instruments. But Angor did not know how many attacks they could take, so he never tried anything more powerful.

In terms of defense, the toy soldiers seemed more “solid” compared to the teacups. They could actually absorb energy from the attacks into their weapons. It was still useless though.

He had already given up on the idea of using these creatures to help him fight.

Angor took the ticket from Dave and walked to the door. “Let’s meet at the airship later, I need to do something first.”

He could not tell them he was going to watch Phantom of Festivity. That would be so embarrassing.

In order not to get recognized easily, he added a cloth mask over his face and chose a hooded robe.

However, he was stopped by someone again before he could leave Wizard Fair.

It was not just “someone” this time. Twilight came personally and blocked his path with a horribly angry expression.

Angor grimaced hard when he felt suppressed by the aura of a real wizard.

He tried to think of something to escape when he saw Flora walking between them.

“As I said, you need to get past me first if you want to harm Angor.”

Meanwhile, Flora winked at Angor madly to tell the boy to get the f*ck out of here.

Angor had no idea why the woman suddenly changed her mind—she totally did nothing during the auction. Still, Angor knew there was no way for him to go against Twilight right now unless he reopened the nightmare passage once again.

He needed time for that though, and obviously Twilight would not allow him to do it.

Determined, Angor saw a chance and bolted for the wall entrance.

Flora moved again to stop Twilight from going for Angor. A red aura was seen around her body. “Heehee… I haven’t seen blood for a while now. Do you wish to fight, Twilight?”

Twilight possessed the unique Mystery Item in Darkivil Empire, the Fulalle’s Tear, while Flora could wield the Crimson Nightmare Domain. If they were to start fighting here, no one could say for sure who would win.

“You can’t protect him forever. We’ll see,” said Twilight as she decided to quit for now.

Flora spat on the ground as she said, “I’m not going to do that. Heck, I wouldn’t be here at all if it wasn’t professor who asked me to take care of the boy.”

Twilight knew what Flora meant—it was a small warning from Sunders. And she knew full well to keep that in mind. If they provoked Sunders, the entire Twilight Auction House would be in trouble.

Twilight clenched her fists. She could not kill Angor… for now.

“Come, little boy. Let’s see if you can keep hiding behind your almighty Sunders.”

…

Going through the wall, Angor entered Midnight Sovereign, leaving Wizard Fair behind.

He sat in a corner and panted heavily to wait out the surging adrenaline in his veins.

The aura of a real wizard was truly terrifying to him. He had to stay put against a wall for half an hour to calm his heartbeat.

“Being too weak is a sin…” He hid his head between his legs and muttered.

He could not find the tiniest courage to oppose Twilight when faced with that woman, and he knew that there was nothing he could do to cross that giant gap.

A level-3 apprentice could already give him real trouble now, let alone a wizard.

Angor closed his eyes in sorrow and wondered how many decades it would take for him to grasp his own fate.

He sat until the Enchanting Theater grew bustling with people before he slowly stood up and walked away on uncertain steps.

The colorful crowds around the theater helped him cool his mind.

Most people were here in pairs. They were wearing their formal attire as if they were attending a ball party. However, they were all smirking for obvious reasons.

Among such people, Angor’s hooded robe was extremely out of place. He attracted lots of curious gazes.

He sighed and lifted his hood before he walked inside the theater only with the mask covering his face.

A waiter allowed him inside after checking his ticket. His strange clothes were no reason for the waiter to deny a customer.

Angor walked inside while removing his robe.

He knew the robe was useless if Twilight wanted to find him. There were many ways for wizards to find someone—stalking, special spells, prophets, and so on.

He might as well get rid of the unnecessary burden.

Angor decided to find time later and look for a crafting draft for wizard robes. There should be something useful in the books he recorded in the Nightmare Realm. He never checked them because he thought sewing was for women.

Now, however, he was desperate to find a robe which could help him to avoid detection or anything that drew enemies to him, or he would never be truly safe.

His seat was pretty remote. It was a corner between the gate and the side wall. Anyone who watched the show from this spot had to have good eyesight.

The show was not on yet, and he already heard all kinds of disturbing noises in the hall. Some pairs began to kiss each other, while someone from the private rooms above his current floor was huffing loudly.

He thought he was only here to watch the show as a bystander. Now he could not help blushing.

“Thank goodness I came alone…”

Phantom of Festivity started right at seven in the evening. At first, Angor watched with fair enthusiasm. But soon, his plain expression turned into a tight frown, and his curiosity became indifference and disgust.

The story was extremely dull. It described how the leading actress balanced her way among a group of guys. There were only insignificant twists and turns which drew some insincere applauses. Most of the time, Angor only felt distaste from the boring show of sheer human desire.

It was just a badly-written harem story that used a woman as the main character.

He left the theater before the midpoint of the drama.

The entire theater had become a messed-up gathering place for sexually-thirsty creatures. Angor’s conscience would not allow him to stay for another second.

It was almost eight now. He planned to head to the train station which would take him to the airship landing. Leaving earlier also saved him the pain of struggling inside crowds, which might cause him to miss his trip.

He walked away from the entrance of the theater and sighed deeply.

When he planned to head to the train station whilst enjoying the refreshing night breeze, someone appeared in his way again.