Warlock Apprentice

Shadows?

Angor was surprised. Turning into a living dead could still be caused by some kind of virus, but losing one’s shadow was definitely something supernatural.

No wonder Leonrick asked him.

Before Angor could ask something else, he suddenly heard something.

“What was that?”

“Pardon me?” Leonrick seemed confused.

“Someone’s laughing?” Angor carefully listened and released his spirit feelers.

With his strengthened senses, he heard the strange laughter more clearly. It sounded sharp and a little bit painful to his ears. It was as if he were listening to a metal scratching on something.

“Man… that sounds terrible.”

Leonrick followed his example and paid attention. However, he didn’t notice anything. He was wondering if this young wizard was doing a prank or if something really happened.

There were footsteps coming from the second floor. Leonrick looked up and saw Cyndia, who usually acted polite and composed, running down the stairs with a panicked look.

“Margot… Something’s wrong with Margot!”

“What happened to her?” Leonrick yelled.

Cyndia shook her head. “I’m not sure. I was lecturing her, and she said I was rambling too much, then I felt faint. When I came to, I saw Margot lying on the floor. I can’t wake her up!”

Leonrick frowned. “Calm down. Ask our guards to bring her to Golden Cross. I’ll go after you once I’m done talking with Mister Mask.”

Cyndia looked between her husband and Angor. She then nodded.

“Don’t mind me, Count Leonrick,” Angor suddenly said. “Please go and check her out. By the way, that laughing I mentioned came from the second floor.”

Leonrick felt his heart twitching. “I… Yes, I’ll go then. Should I ask the chefs to prepare a meal for you in the meantime?”

“No. I want to find out what just happened too. We should go together.”

As an overprotective father, Leonrick usually would never allow another man into his daughter’s room. Now, however, he didn’t hesitate for one bit.

“Thank you, sir!”

“No need to. I’ve no experience in healing. I’m just… curious about that noise earlier.”

They followed behind Cyndia. As they moved closer to their goal, Angor frowned because he could no longer hear the laughter. He was sure it came straight from Margot’s room one second ago.

Behind a beautifully decorated door, Angor quickly saw the unconscious Margot laying on the floor.

She lay on the pink fur carpet, and her eyes were shut tight. Her face looked pale too, and her mouth was moving a little as she mumbled something. But when Angor listened closely, he only heard incomprehensible murmurs.

Then he looked around the exceptionally “girly” room. It was too pink. The carpet was pink, the walls were pink, and even the furniture was painted in pink as well. There were also a number of plush toys and expensive-looking dolls placed around.

However, the smiles on the dolls only looked creepy in such a situation.

Leonrick checked Margot’s face and sensed her heartbeat. He noticed his daughter’s life wasn’t in danger, but he was still worried. How was it possible that someone who looked energetic just a second ago suddenly went out cold like this?

Instead of calling for his guards, Leonrick held Margot in his arms. “I’ll take her to Golden Cross.”

“Hold on,” Angor said. He grimaced as he said, “Her shadow… It’s gone.”

He then pointed toward the floor.

Leonrick looked down, and just as Angor said, the oil lamp in the room failed to create any shadow of Margot. There was only the shadow of Leonrick who lifted his arms… but no Margot.

Both Leonrick and Cyndia panicked. They looked at each other in disbelief before Cyndia slumped down and cried.

Their own daughter had contracted an incurable disease that troubled even the most renowned medical professors.

Cyndia already began to imagine how her daughter would turn into a “living dead”.

“How… How did this happen… Why my daughter… Our only child…”

She and Leonrick had been a loving and faithful couple. Losing Margot meant losing the root of their family!

Leonrick quickly knelt down and pleaded.

“Mister Mask! My daughter… my daughter! Please help her, I beg of you!”

Cyndia also realized that a legendary “wizard” was with them. Like a drowning man who had just found a lifebuoy, she looked at Angor with great passion and… didn’t say anything.

Because she couldn’t.

Leonrick also found himself unable to speak all of sudden. More panic and fear quickly crept up his face.

Angor lifted a finger in front of his lips and carefully sensed around the girl’s room with his spirit.

Abruptly, he gazed at the girl’s bed, where a 3-heads-tall curly doll with a creepy smile was placed.

One of the many toys in the room.

“Got you.” Angor’s Hand of Spell was already out. In a blink of an eye, he slapped the toy away.

A small shadowy figure was exposed. It was hiding behind the toy earlier.

The figure was about the size of a child’s hand, which was around 10 centimeters long. It was too black to present any recognizable feature. There was a pointy part on top of it, which looked like a head. Meanwhile, it was carrying a tiny gray sack behind its back, which had been shifting about, as if something alive was trying to get out.

The tiny figure jumped and waved its limbs around after being found out. No matter how it moved, the small sack remained tightly on its back.

Without giving it any time to react, a gray-feathered bird lashed out from Angor’s pocket and rushed at the black figure immediately.

The shadow jumped again and began to chant something in a strange language.

It managed to create a small door that was only large enough for itself to get through. Before Toby could get it, it jumped into the door and closed it.

Toby failed to catch anything. The door vanished.

Angor kept sensing and did not register any energy residue.

“Damn. I let it escaped so easily!”

He calmed down and tried to recall what he just saw. That thing mostly looked human-ish. Maybe something that resembled humans. Yet he couldn’t be sure.

What he could determine was that the strange laughter had to have been made by that shadowy thing, since those chants sounded exactly the same.

Angor sighed and looked around, only to find both Leonrick and Cyndia watching the ruckus with widened, terrified eyes. They seemed to want to talk, but they couldn’t.

Angor snapped his fingers and recovered the trace of the nightmare illusion that was hanging around the couple.

“I sensed something. I had to mute you both to ascertain its location. But I… still let it slip,” he explained.

Leonrick gulped. “Mi-Mister Mask, oh god, whatever was that thing? Did it do this to Margot?”

“I don’t know whether it’s connected to the shadowless condition. But I assume it has something to do with it. There must be a reason for it to show up in your daughter’s room at the moment your daughter fell ill.”

He thought about the small sack. Could that thing contain the lost shadows?

Leonrick looked down. Even if they learned about the true culprit, mortals couldn’t do anything to something with obvious supernatural abilities.

“Can you save Margot, Mister Mask?” Cyndia tried to ask. Her eyes looked both desperate and hopeful.

Angor moved closer and inspected Margot. It seemed her body was fine, and her soul was still intact.

“I do not know,” Angor said in the end.

It wasn’t a sure answer, but it was enough to break Cyndia’s last hope. The woman sat on the floor and sobbed sadly.

Angor looked at Leonrick next. This man looked equally sad, but at least he still retained his ability to reason.

“This is your request, right?” Angor shook his head. “I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do.”

Leonrick smiled painfully. “It… It’s okay. I understand, sir.”

“I can’t cure your daughter, but I still want to look into the small shadow. Can you show me the other patients?”

Leonrick’s eyes brightened up again, and he quickly nodded.

“But of course! Shall we go there immediately?”