Warlock Apprentice

Tavier stared at the floor as she said, “He sent a monster to our palace before.”

“Monster?” Angor frowned.

“It was a giant, human-like… thing. About three to four meters tall, I think. A long muzzle like an alligator. It has sharp teeth, gray skin, and bulging blood vessels. It doesn’t have a nose, but it has five tiny holes on its face. And one single, large eye.”

Angor considered something and created a miniature image of a monster in front of him by using an illusion.

“This one?”

Tavier almost jumped from her sofa when Angor explained that it was only a harmless illusion.

“It’s close. But the monster I saw looked a lot darker compared to this,” Tavier said while pointing to the small illusion curiously.

Angor nodded and asked her to keep going.

“Well, it came and started attacking everyone in sight using that pair of deadly claws. It took people’s hearts and ate them. That night… we lost a tenth of our guards within a single night.”

Angor was almost sure of his theory by now.

“It’s a ‘Gomito’, or in simpler words, a Heart Gorger.” Angor tapped his temple. “It shouldn’t exist in this world under normal circumstances, but people can summon them using special means. It’s not very intelligent, nor is it good-looking, about which you already witnessed. Wizards don’t usually use such a useless creature unless they have very special tastes, or… it is a rogue wizard who didn’t learn more useful arts.”

“Rogue wizard? Is he powerful?” Leon quickly asked.

“Of course not, or the entire empire would be dead by now. Take Miss Eureka for example. If she truly wished to harm Goldspink, she needed only a week at most to eliminate every city and town. If she only went after the emperor, it would only take her a few minutes.”

Tavier shivered.

“Since Miss Shannon said that the Heart Gorger was of darker color, we’re probably talking about a rather aged specimen near its limit. Speaking of wizards who might summon such a weak monster… It might be that we are not dealing with a wizard at all. A level-1 or level-2 apprentice, at best. He’s very likely to be a wandering apprentice who doesn’t belong to any organization because he’s so openly interfering with a war among mortals.”

Angor described the monster as useless and weak, but a monster like this was still enough to wipe out groups of mortals with ease.

Common blades and spears would have a very difficult time penetrating the creature’s hardened skin. Telling from how it could easily assassinate General Morn inside a well-protected military harbor, there was no one else in Goldspink who could fight it off.

Angor was now curious about a certain matter. “A Heart Gorger doesn’t stop killing once it goes all-out. I didn’t hear anything about the Shannon Clan suffering from great loss yet, which means you chased it away after it got some of your guards. How?”

Tavier remained silent for a while before she spoke, “We have a treasure stored at the palace. It protected us from the monster.”

Leon raised an eyebrow. “Then why didn’t you use it against Heylan?”

“It… has several restrictions, and it can only be used by people who have Shannon blood. Each time it’s activated, we must offer someone’s life as a sacrifice. To deal with the Heart Gorger, we lost our third brother. Our clan is already short of hands at this rate. We cannot afford to use the treasure unless absolutely necessary. Besides, I think the summoner of the monster can bring more of his minions to wear us down. We won’t defeat him at all even if the entire clan was wiped out.

“Mister Wizard.” Tavier suddenly went down on one knee. “Save our empire, save our home. I beg of you.”

Instead of answering her, Angor was taking his time to think about the strange treasure he just heard.

It sounded so strange. The terrible cost of using the treasure seemed to be something related to bloodlines. However, putting such a restriction on the item meant the creator of it wished to prolong the existence of their family and allow their blood to be passed down. Why would they kill the users?

Tavier didn’t have any reason to lie about it, which meant the treasure did exist. Then who gave such a problematic tool to the Shannon Clan?

Angor looked at Tavier again and asked another question, “You haven’t told me why the monster attacked. You didn’t know the monster’s name before I told you. How did you know it was summoned by a supernatural?”

“Right… did you see the culprit before?” Leon added.

Tavier hesitated for a bit and decided to tell the truth anyway. “Before the monster came, my father received a letter, which was sent by the summoner. He required us to hand over our treasure, and my father simply discarded the letter in fire. Since that day, the Heylan Imperial suddenly began taking over more of our territories, and we would occasionally hear about commanders and leaders being killed by a monster. I’m certain that the summoner sided with Heylan in order to get what he wants. He isn’t strong enough to invade Goldspink on his own.”

Angor wasn’t interested in the monster or its master at all. Compared to these…

“He asked you to give him a treasure. The same one you used to repel the Heart Gorger?”

“Not the scroll… I mean, he was asking for another item.”

Angor didn’t pay much attention to Shannon’s strange wording and kept asking what exactly the unknown apprentice wanted.

Shannon looked uncertain again. “It’s supposed to be a secret, sir. I… can tell you, if you agree to help us.”

Angor didn’t say anything about it, but Leon was getting impatient pretty fast.

“You are bargaining with us now?” Leon stood up from his sofa.

Tavier looked up and suddenly began to tremble badly. When looking at Leon’s towering figure, she felt as if she were being stared down by a fierce beast.

Angor was also looking at his brother curiously because he also sensed the solid pressure emitting from Leon’s form. In fact, Leon now appeared way more menacing than Nausica, from before Nausica joined Brute Cavern.

I wonder what kind of “training” he went through… Angor wondered.

Tavier replied in a trembling voice, “I didn’t mean to press you, Mister Viscount. My father thought it improper to ask for a wizard’s help empty-handed, so he allowed me to use our treasure as a bargaining chip.”

Leon wanted to give the woman more pressure, but Angor stopped him.

“Let me take a guess then,” said Angor as he pointed to the broken sword on the table. “That secret treasure has something to do with this?”

“Yes.” Tavier nodded.

Angor held his chin as if trying to make a decision.

His action confused Leon. While discussing the refugee problems, Leon could see that Angor wasn’t interested in the war and what the Goldspink Empire would become at all. As Angor’s brother, Leon knew that Angor wasn’t someone to change his mind so easily.

Was there something special about this broken sword?

Unable to contain his desire to know, Leon asked the question using a whisper.

“Yeah, there’s something about that sword that concerned me,” answered Angor.

Tavier anxiously waited for Angor’s final answer with a pleading look. Having a wizard on their side would determine the outcome of the war, no doubt. As long as Angor helped them get rid of the monster, Tavier was confident that they could chase Heylan away in a fair fight.

“Alright.” Angor nodded. “I’ll offer assistance, on one condition.”

…

Two hours later, Angor began heading to Moonwater City on his Gondola. According to Tavier, the major force of Heylan Imperial had gathered on the sea not far from the city, which meant they were going to attack soon.

Telling from the previous battles, the Heart Gorger would come ahead and kill all higher-ups in charge of the city before the soldiers of Heylan fully commenced their assault when the city’s defense was in disarray. This was how Heylan won most of the fights until now.

“As you asked, we’ll handle the rest of the battle on our own,” Tavier said to Angor respectfully.

Angor nodded in acknowledgment. As they agreed, his job was to get rid of the apprentice helping Heylan. He didn’t want to waste time killing mortals for nothing, even if they were the enemies of Goldspink.

Also, he promised that he’d finish the job within two days.