Warlock Apprentice

Freud said that his old home was located at the depth of Dison Alley.

Angor took a peek and noticed that the path ahead looked rather desolate despite its tidy look.

He then took out a gold coin and gave it to the young guide.

When they stepped into the town, this young man immediately recognized them as travelers and offered his service, and Angor decided to hire him rather than asking for Freud’s help.

The boy seemed to come from a poverty-stricken family too, so Angor also meant to offer a token of kindness.

The small guide was more than happy to receive the hefty coin. Instead of leaving right away, he considered and offered another piece of advice, “Sir, everyone living at Dison Alley has moved away. If you’re looking for people, you should check out the civil service.”

“Moved away?” Angor was going inside the alley already, but he suddenly stopped moving. “Why?”

“It’s um…”

The guide looked between Angor and the piece of gold coin that was enough to keep him fed for an entire year.

“The mayor forbids people from talking about it. But, but I guess I can tell you, generous sir.”

He then checked around and made sure no one was looking.

“I-I only know a little, which I heard from several drunk patrons at the pub. Oh, my name is Piney, by the way. I work at Surfing Pub at night, part-time.”

Piney proceeded to explain what he heard about Dison Alley.

There was an abandoned orphanage at the end of the alleyway where no one would visit. The mayor involved that part into a town expansion construction plan and intended to commence the project later. But due to some “financial problems”, the project was never started, and the orphanage was left unattended for over ten years.

Nothing particular happened to the place until two years ago, when a team of inspectors went there to examine the condition of the building.

“It’s haunted?” Angor raised an eyebrow.

Piney nodded slowly. “Trust me, sir. I never saw it myself but many customers including the city inspectors were talking about it. They saw the ghosts of kids or something. And that some members of their team never came back out. Later, the residents around that part started hearing children crying at night, so they all ran away. The alley was left there deserted ever since. Even hobos and beggars wouldn’t go in there.”

“Huh…” Angor stroked his chin as he just remembered that Freud was also referring to an orphanage when speaking of his “old home”. Piney was probably talking about the same place.

“Is that all you can tell me?” Angor saw Piney still waiting for his response patiently and returned the courtesy.

“That was everything I know, sir.”

“Thank you for your time. It’s nice to hear such a story for a change.” Angor smiled gently. He rubbed Piney’s broken newsboy cap and turned away.

“Um, you-you’re going in there, sir? Aren’t you afraid?” Piney asked in surprise while fruitlessly tending to his hairstyle.

“Well, I’m afraid of a lot of things, but ghost surely isn’t one of them.” Angor’s voice reached Piney’s ears even though he had already disappeared into the path.

Piney spent a minute looking at where Angor and Tulu went, doffed his cap, and headed away.

“Wait… There’s something else I forgot to tell him!”

Several months ago, the Central Empire sent a team of royal knights to check the orphanage house in order to deal with the unsettling rumors. However, they later retreated from the town without solving anything.

“Guess it doesn’t matter to a traveler. That mister’s not going to actually enter the orphanage… right?”

…

Angor was currently staring at a rusty iron fence gate. There was an iron sign hanging on the fence wall nearby, which was fluttering in the wind because most of its nails had fallen off.

Angor wiped some dust off it and revealed a line of gray characters:

***are Orphanage.

He couldn’t make out the full name because whatever was written at the leftmost side had rusted away.

According to Freud, he used to live here during his childhood even though he wasn’t an orphan. It was because his father ran this place.

“Do you need something from here, Mister Padt?” Tulu was peeking into the fence gate with a curious look, but he could see nothing other than growing weeds and dust-covered bricks.

Several untended trees were growing wildly to the extent of blocking most sunlight from the structure, causing the whole place to look eerily creepy even though it was daytime. There were several playground implements such as rocking horses and slides, all fully covered under thick dirt and filth. The house’s wall looked extremely unrepaired and had green moss growing on it.

“Yeah, I need to find something,” Angor replied without considering this to be a secret. As a “pointless” Mystery item, Dream Whelk was only sold for ten thousand magic crystals at Sky Auction several years ago. He didn’t believe anyone would come and mug him for it.

After all, if there were any muggers, they would be more interested in his alchemy skills.

Tulu knew he wasn’t supposed to ask too much about Angor’s business, so he chose to mention something less important. “That name… what was this place called before? Welfare Orphanage? Or is it ‘Aftercare’? Wait, that doesn’t sound right…”

Angor pushed the unlocked gate open while answering Tulu’s question. “Your first answer was actually correct. This place was supposed to be the ‘Welfare Orphanage’,” he said while recalling Freud’s description. “It was the manager who came up with this name before it was abandoned. But… those lived here all preferred to call it the ‘Nightmare Orphanage’.”

“Nightmare? That’s… Did they like, hate this place or something?” Tulu flinched.

“Yeah. In fact, many people died here. This is how this world always is. You find the worst evil hidden beneath bright masks that appear to be innocent on the outside.”

Compared to Tulu, Angor heard more secrets about this place, and he knew the whole matter was more complicated than it appeared to be.

As they walked deeper inside and under the shade cast by the trees, Tulu shivered when he felt a sudden chilliness.

“Mi-Mister Padt, do you think there are ghosts here, like that kid told us?”

Angor closed his eyes. “There… are entities that radiated energy, but I don’t find them to be hostile. Perhaps there are wandering souls inside the building. Normal souls.”

“Glad-glad to hear it…” Tulu sighed in relief.

“Normal souls don’t necessarily mean good ones,” Angor added. “Even if they are not undead, they can always do bad things for various reasons. Maybe the missing inspectors Piney mentioned were killed by them.”

Tulu started trembling again and suddenly released a faint water barrier around his body.

“That water isn’t going to help you with anything. Are you trying to look scary?” Angor glanced at Tulu’s trick.

Tulu nodded. “I’ll tell them that I’m no powerless mortal they can mess with! If anyone’s watching us, that is.”

Angor chuckled. Putting the useless trick aside, he could see that Tulu’s water-based potential was improving VERY rapidly. And Tulu wasn’t even an apprentice yet.

They stopped in front of the three-story building, which also reflected the general architecture fashion of the town, just with a way more ominous look.

Tulu saw Angor already entering the main entrance and could only follow behind.

The inside of the building was unsurprisingly dark. In order not to bump into things, Tulu took out a Luminous Stone as a light source, which slightly illuminated the area with a faint green light, causing the environment to look even more unpleasant.

“Where-where-where are we going now, Mister Padt?”

“The basement.”

Following Freud’s instructions, Angor walked behind the stairs and opened a door to the storage closet, causing a small cloud of dust.

“But that’s not the way to the basement, is it?” Tulu moved his light closer and looked into the jumbled room.

Angor looked at the narrow space with a frown without speaking.

“What’s the matter, sir?”

“Someone has been here. Recently. There was too little dust for a place neglected for several years. Now look behind you.”

Tulu complied and found himself staring right at a pair of glowing green eyes. Terrified, he stumbled several steps back, lost his balance, and fell on his butt.

Angor rolled his eyes. “It’s just a toy. You really need to do something about that jumpiness if you want to stay alive in the wizarding world.”

Tulu looked again and saw that he was only looking at a doll figure with a red dress sitting on top of a pile of garbage. It was just that, that emotionless smile looked hideous in the green light.

“*Gulp* I’ll be more careful from now on, sir.”

Without minding Tulu’s words, Angor pointed at the toy. “There are unusual prints on that thing. Someone touched it lately and wiped some dust off.”

He then moved to carry the toy away and uncovered a broken wall lamp hidden behind.

Click!

When Angor pulled the lamp into another position, the floor beside Tulu suddenly slid open and revealed an entrance.

“That’s the way to the basement, I guess,” Angor muttered.

He knew this entrance because Freud told him, but from what he just saw, someone else had gone into the basement very recently.

Did they come and take the Dream Whelk already? Angor thought.