Warlock Apprentice - Chapter 390
Chapter 390: Familiar Accent
“Greya?!” An image of a bulky woman flashed through Angor’s mind. He shivered and quickly tried to get rid of the fat figure from his head.
Greya’s the “big sis”?! That’s a terrible joke!
Angor couldn’t believe that this girl actually met with ‘Warrior Barbie’ Greya, the famous Gourmet Wizard. But… what if? The Fairy World was the home base of Fairytown, and Candy House was administered by Fairytown. It made a lot of sense if Greya would show up here.
According to Sunders, Felicia found a prophet in Brilliance Plane so that she could go find Greya. Did she succeed already?
With that question in mind, Angor created another illusion. This time, it was about Greya.
Dramatic pose, purple, curly hair, flame-red lips, a nose too tiny for her face, overdone eyeshadows… Greya actually looked not bad… if not for her overgrown body and fat jaw which hung loosely in front of her neck.
Even if it was an illusion, Angor still felt hard to breathe in front of the overwhelming image.
“Is she your ‘big sis’?” Angor pointed to Greya’s phantom.
The girl quickly stepped back. Here, Greya’s image probably looked like an evil queen out of some child’s ghost tale.
“No, no mister.” She shook her hands quickly. “Big sis looks pretty! And she’s only a little taller than me. She’s not so fat!”
Angor held his chin. So it wasn’t the Greya he knew, but someone with the same name?
He removed the illusion and smiled gently. “I’ll go now. May I know your name, young lady?”
The girl looked disappointed at the idea of being alone again. When she realized Angor just addressed her as a “lady”, she blushed.
“I’m—” She pulled her dress and was going to do a curtsy, only to stop midway. “I-I forgot my name too, mister.” She looked down sadly. “I’ve forgotten a lot… I can’t even remember my brother’s name.”
“Brother” was probably in reference to the other figure drawn on that silk. Although that part on the silk was broken.
“Don’t think about the past then,” Angor comforted her and thought about the terrible sight in the graveyard. It was probably a good thing for the girl to forget what kind of torture she went through.
The little girl felt unsafe because she no longer knew who she was. At this rate, she would have no future as well.
“Shall I give you a nickname for now?” Angor made up another decision. A proper name was the first step for the girl to see further.
The girl nodded slowly.
Angor said “nickname” because he couldn’t simply give the girl a real name. According to the disciplines of nobles, naming someone meant he had to be responsible for the individual’s future. This was why noble clans usually didn’t properly name their servants and slaves.
Angor considered and thought about the girl’s reaction when referring to her pet bird.
“Flowey. I’ll call you Flowey.”
“Flowey…” The girl muttered, “I am Flowey?”
“Yes. Hello, Flowey.”
The girl suddenly held her head and trembled madly. “Flowey… I’m Flowey… Ahh…!”
Angor wasn’t sure how to react at first. He was glad that the girl calmed down a while later, but for some reason, she started crying again.
“Um, you don’t like that name? I’ll find you another one.”
“Mister… I remember something. There was… someone. Someone dear to me. He’s calling me Flowey too. Am I really Flowey before?” The girl put up a determined look. “I’ll use this name!”
Such a coincidence…
“Nice,” Angor said. He smiled again. “Miss Flowey, I’ll leave for now. Can you stay—”
He suddenly stopped talking. He couldn’t really imagine how the girl could remain happy in this dark place.
After careful consideration, he began to release more mana. As the girl watched in confusion, the cave suddenly grew brighter. The dark underground space slowly turned into a cozy, girlish bedroom. Pink walls, animated plushies, wind chimes, and toy soldiers… Across a large French window, they could see floating petals and lively lake water outside.
“This is so nice!” Flowey went to open the window. As she admired the vivid illusion, she asked, “Can I go outside to play?”
“Um, better not. You can only watch,” Angor replied, a little embarrassed.
Flowey realized that everything was fake and smiled back at Angor. “Thank you, mister. This looks better than my home when I was… um…”
Angor thought the girl would refuse the fact that she was dead, but it looked like she had always accepted her fate.
He pointed around at several objects in the illusion. “You can play with the toys and read the books if you feel like it.”
Granting fake objects their original properties was one of the basic tricks about nightmare illusions. As for the content of the books… They were all old books that Angor had read when he was a child. It wasn’t difficult to recreate them.
Flowey grew visibly excited when she learned that she could actually use the objects.
“Thank you so much!” She happily picked up a stuffed bunny.
Angor considered and decided not to ask how the girl died. That would definitely bring up painful memories.
“Goodbye now!” Angor left two high-quality magic crystals behind as the power source of the illusion. The illusion wasn’t used for defending or hurting people, so the crystals would last for a long time.
“Can I know your name too, mister?” Flowey suddenly called.
“Padt. Call me Padt.”
With that, Angor waved goodbye and left the cave.
Two magic crystals were very cheap in exchange for a Soul Orb… even if he wasn’t sure whether he would come back for it.
On his way out, Angor carefully thought about the brief encounter.
He felt something familiar and friendly when speaking with the girl, which made him act gentler. He didn’t realize why he felt that way until he reached the gate of the graveyard, where someone’s face suddenly flashed through his mind.
It was a handsome yet naive-looking face—Dodoro.
“Their accent…”
Flowey’s childish voice prevented Angor from noticing certain details in her tones. Now that he had time to think carefully, the townish voice and certain upturned pronunciations sounded exactly the same with Dodoro’s voice.
He immediately entered the graveyard again. Instead of going back to the well, he first moved to Flowey’s coffin.
Last time, he was attracted by the heart-shaped pendant, so he didn’t pay much attention to the skeleton. And if his assumption was right, Flowey might have “tail bones” too, just like Dodoro.
However, he didn’t find anything like that after careful examination.
“Maybe they are from different places after all?” Angor considered. Also, he already found Dodoro’s accent to be familiar before, as if he heard it from somewhere.
He decided to ask about it before leaving the graveyard for real.
He placed Flowey’s coffin inside his bracelet and headed into the well again. Then he left the coffin somewhere near the entrance and walked deeper inside with the necklace in his hand.
Flowey might not want to see her own corpse.
Upon arriving, Angor saw Flowey gazing through the window while holding her stuffed bunny.
“Mister Padt!” The girl saw Angor and stood up happily. “You’re back!”
“Is this yours?” Angor showed her the pendant.
Flowey immediately cried out again. “Yes. My brother gave it to me…”
“I saw it just now, so I think I should give it back to you.”
Flowey tried to accept the necklace and failed—the item went through her hand and dropped on the ground.
Angor shook his head. Flowey was a soul now, and she was not powerful enough to interact with the physical world.
Flowey scratched her head. “I forgot, after playing with all the toys… I can’t pick up stuff now. I’m already dead, right?”
She could pick up items from the illusion because Angor’s nightmare illusion convinced her so. But in reality, she couldn’t touch anything.
Angor picked up the necklace. “I’ll leave it on your bed then, so you can watch it all the time.”
“Mister Padt, there’s a secret on the necklace. Can you help me take something out?”
Angor nodded and skillfully exposed the secret chamber.
When Flowey looked at the piece of silk, she smiled. “I only want to have this drawing, Mister Padt. You can have the necklace. Thank you very much for the amazing gift. I love it!”
The girl looked around the illusionary room and smiled in happiness.
The necklace was only an ordinary trinket without much value. Since Flowey insisted, Angor decided to accept it.
“Thanks,” he said as he put it away into a corner of his space storage. “Now, Flowey, do you remember where you used to live when you’re younger?”