Chapter 136: Skirmish (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Angele closed his eyes and grunted after a while. The room was silent. The only noise was made by the waves. Velvet, who was nearby, waited for Angele to talk. She stared at Angele nervously, not knowing whether to ask again or not.
"How’s Yuri? You disembarked the ship together with him, right? I think he went to the White Tooth Castle," Angele suddenly questioned.
"Yes, but I haven’t talked to him in a while," Velvet responded right away.
"But I heard he went to the border with a team of Wizard apprentices."
Angele nodded in response. He opened his eyes and looked at Velvet without any expression.
"Sorry, I can’t take you in as my servant," he replied in a light tone.
After finishing his words, Angele saw the change in Velvet’s eyes, which was now filled with despair instead. Her flustered face had gone pale within seconds.
"Is that your final answer…?" Velvet was trembling, and her voice shaky.
"I apologize." Angele shook his head.
"To be honest. Your talent level is too low. If I take you in as my servant, it’ll be my responsibility to train you using all the resources I possess. I just became a formal Wizard and I don’t have that much spare time for you. You need a long time and a lot of resources to rank up. So… I’m sorry."
Velvet’s face turned even paler upon hearing Angele’s explanation.
"You’re not satisfied with my body? I can do whatever you want me to! Seriously! Please!" There were tears in her eyes, and she was trying her best to beg Angele.
"You’re my last hope. My family… My father…" Velvet sobbed. Her words were incoherent.
Angele looked at Velvet without saying anything. He was waiting for her to calm down.
"From what I know, your father is a formal Wizard, right? You have his blood. What happened to your talent level?" Angele’s eyebrows creased as he asked again.
"I don’t know." Velvet shook her head.
Angele suddenly recalled something.
"What’s your father and mother’s relationship before they got married?" he questioned.
"My mother is my father’s elder sister," Velvet muttered.
Angele had realized that it could’ve been a consanguineous marriage. It was a common custom between Wizards’ families. They wanted their lineages to be pure, so their children could be born with high talent levels.
However, the probability of success was low. Most Wizards chose to reproduce with their relatives, and only a small percentage of their children had extremely high talent levels. The rest was worse than an average mortal. Some of them were born with disabilities and low talent level. They could not even train in sword skills.
This custom had never changed in the Wizards’ world as most of the large families were connected through marriages.
Velvet probably had many sisters or brothers, but she was the only one gifted with talent.
‘Her father was quite unlucky,’ Angele thought.
‘Velvet probably is the only hope of her family at the moment.’
"Where’s your father?" Angele wondered.
Velvet hesitated for a second and she looked a bit depressed.
"He’s dead."
Angele stopped asking after seeing Velvet’s crestfallen face. A lot of things must’ve happened to her family, but he did not want to get involved.
"I’m sorry to hear that. Although I can’t take you in, you and I are still friends. I have a Potion of Tranquility here. It can increase your mentality." Angele took out a small glass tube from his pouch. The liquid inside looked like a cloudy orange juice.
It was a potion he concocted recently using the actual materials instead of the substitutes. It was more effective than the ones he had used on himself. Although the materials were expensive, he had plenty of magic stones left. He wanted to sell it for more later.
Angele placed the tube on his wooden desk. Its appearance was not appealing under the dim light of the oil lamp.
However, Velvet knew how valuable this potion was. The despair in her eyes was long gone. Now, it was almost as if she was looking at the most beautiful item in the world.
She put her hands on the short skirt and started to lift the edges up slowly. Velvet was shy, but she looked attractive with her actions.
"Take it and you can leave." Angele furrowed his brows and muttered.
"I’m not doing this for your body."
Velvet was a bit surprised. She lowered her head and just stood there for several minutes before grabbing the tube from the desk.
"Thank you for the potion. I’ll be leaving now." She lowered her voice.
"Take care." Angele nodded and started writing again.
Velvet turned around and picked up the cloak. She then opened the door and left quietly.
Angele could hear her crying after the door was closed again. After some intense footsteps, Velvet returned to her room.
Angele shook his head.
"There’s really nothing I can do for her." He sighed and focused on the paper again.
***********************
A lonely blue ship was sailing on the endless sea. Three white sails were shaking slightly as the wind blew.
The ship looked like a white sesame on a large blue curtain, and it was struggling in the strong waves.
There were eight people standing beside the railings, overlooking the sea. Sailors were busy with their assigned works. Some were repairing the mast, and the bald man was controlling the helm.
Angele stood beside the railing quietly in his black robe with Tymoral. They just finished discussing ways on breaking through different types of forcefields.
"Actually, I need you to do me a favor." Angele turned around and said.
"What do you need? Is it about the girl who sneaked into your room several days ago? She did for money? Haha." Tymoral blinked his eyes and chuckled.
"Well, I didn’t even touch her. She’s just a friend. I’m wondering if you can help her family after we reach Andes Alliance? I don’t know the details, but I want to do something for her."
"Fine. You’re really boring." Tymoral shrugged.
"She’s just a rank 1 Wizard apprentice. You can do whatever you want to her. Also, she came to you herself. It’s not like you forced her to have sex with you or something. I really don’t understand you. Just ask her to go to your room at night and you’ll have something to do on this long trip, eh?"
"I’d rather spend the time doing researches," Angele responded in a light tone.
"What? Why? We’re Wizards and we’re at the top of the world. We live much longer than those mortals and we have plenty of time to progress. For example, I have this aunt. She’s just 39 years old, yet she already has 15 male servants. Just follow your instinct as long as it’s not against the code." Tymoral was a typical Wizard. He did not care about mortals at all. Angele could hear the arrogance in his words.
"Well, maybe I’m just weird." Angele smiled. He did not want to argue with Tymoral since he knew that people’s opinions varied.
"Alright, I’ll do you a favor. After we arrive at the Andes, I’ll talk to my friends about it." Tymoral gave up after realizing that Angele was not interested in the topic. He took out a black crystal pocket watch and checked the time.
"Two already. I must go meditate. I’ll talk to you later."
"Sure." Angele turned around as he responded.
He stayed at the railings and looked at the beautiful sea.
Angele heard rumors about him and Velvet from the sailors. They heard someone saying Angele forced Velvet to be his sex slave and Velvet went to his room every night.
Angele decided not to explain anything to the crew because rumors like this could protect Velvet. She would be respected by people if she had a relationship with a Wizard. Mortals feared the Wizards due to the tales they had heard and usually stayed away from anyone or anything related to them.
The waves became smaller after sailing for a while and the sailors catching fish with the fishing nets.
"One, two, three! Pull!"
"One, two, three! Pull!"
"Pull harder!"
"Tom! Hurry up!"
"Aye! Another batch! Ha!"
A muscular sailor shouted in joy. Several sailors were pulling the net together while yelling and laughing.
An entire haul of fishes and prawns netted were thrown to the deck, and the water from the sea left gray stains on the deck.
Angele saw some silver fishes, translucent prawns, and strange red creatures the size of a meatball.
Angele crouched and pointed at one of the meatballs.
"What’s this?"
"Sphere Fish, Red Sphere Fish, master." A sailor approached him and answered politely.
"It’s good for fish soup, and adding some eggplants will make it even better."
The rest of the sailors all stopped what they were doing after realizing Angele was talking to them. They bowed to Angele, respect and fear etched all over their faces.
"Red Sphere Fish?" Angele never heard of something like that.
He poked this fist-sized meatball with his finger.
Its surface felt like a leather ball, cold and elastic. The fish had a dark red skin, and its skin was covered in wrinkles.
Angele did not find any eye, nose or ears on the meatball. The only thing he saw was a large mouth on the middle. Its lips were thick, which looked like two parallel sausages.
"Master, please be careful. This fish will attack you with water beam and sand…" a sailor warned.
Angele nodded and tapped the fish’s mouth. Its body suddenly flattened as it sprayed Angele with a water beam.