In the evening.
Angele was invited to the resplendent palace with a well-decorated meeting hall. He met many ladies from high-rank noble families, and they all looked beautiful in their luxury dresses.
He spent most of his time declining the offers from those noble ladies since the kings that invited him here had left after talking with him for several minutes. Angele also met several princesses and daughters of the dukes and viscounts.
The reason why they approached Angele was obvious, but he had no interest in them. The royal families and high-class noble families sent their daughters to this party, hoping this way to develop a deep relationship with Angele. Tymoral had already warned him about the upcoming awkward situation back on the ship.
He was the center of the party and people were trying to talk to him all the time, so it was impossible for him to leave early without being noticed.
Also, those noble ladies and princesses had high social statuses, so although Angele was a formal wizard, he could not just simply ask them to stay away from him. He had to talk to them one by one with respect. The ladies in the hall were all beautiful and polite, but he got tired after seeing too many of them.
Angele jumped into the carriage sent by the Sage after the party was finally over; he was exhausted.
It was a black carriage with a black horse and the coachman was an old man in a black suit, the whole thing looked like a dark shadow that was slowly advancing on the road.
"I'm Malfoy, master Angele, should we head back to the high tower now?" the coachman asked.
Omicade had kindly asked Angele to live in his high tower during his stay in Arias, because he knew Angele wouldn't want to be disturbed by other random visitors.
Angele smelled the scent of some flower-based perfume as he sat down in the carriage. Under the dim light from the oil lamp, he saw a cute blonde girl with a clean white dress quietly huddled in the corner of the opposite seat. Her face looked familiar.
"Caitlyn?" Angele did not expect to see her here. It felt quite strange.
The original Angele Rio had fallen off the horse and died for this girl, his body then later being taken over by Ye Song. Angele had had his revenge before leaving the school and thought they would never meet again.
A voice came from outside the carriage.
"Master Angele, Prince Justin asked me to tell you that the girl inside is a gift for you. She was the girl you loved the most, right? Enjoy your time, haha."
It seemed like Malfoy wasn't just a coachman, otherwise, the Prince wouldn't have told him so much information and asked him to pass the message.
Angele sat on his seat, looking at Caitlyn; he could see the fear in her eyes. Justin must have thought Angele hadn't liked the two girls he prepared so he collected some intel and found Caitlyn for him.
Caitlyn's attractive body was well displayed by her tight dress. Her long legs and smooth, clean skin gave her an elegant look. She had all the characteristics one could find on a charming young lady.
"Master… Angele…" Caitlyn lowered her head while trying to find something to say.
She was captured by Justin's guards in the school and sent to Angele as a gift. Never had she thought that there would be a day she would have to serve the young man she looked down upon. But she had no other choice, her family background wasn't strong enough for her to fight against the Prince's order. If she couldn't make Angele happy, something unfortunate would probably happen to her family members after.
Angele looked at her for a second, then suddenly grabbed the palm-sized bronze tag on her neck. Several words were engraved on the front of the tag, saying: 'Angele Rio'.
On the back, there was another sentence: 'If missing, please contact any noble family in the Andes Alliance'.
It was the tag that was used to label slaves. With the tag on her neck, Caitlyn became Angele's private property, her rights as a citizen taken away by the Prince.
"What's the point of this? Why can't the nobility spend their time doing something actually meaningful?" Angele sighed and mumbled.
"Move, to the high tower," he shouted out.
"Aye," Malfoy responded, and the carriage lurched into movement as he whipped the horse.
In a room on the third floor of the high tower. Bright white oil lamps were burning quietly on the walls—they were the source of the gentle light in the room.
Angele lay on the bed and looked at the night sky through the window. Two crescent moons were hanging in the sky, partially blocked by some tiny clouds.
Caitlyn covered herself with a white blanket beside Angele; she had gotten tired and fallen asleep after a little fun experiment. There were some scratches made by nails on her right shoulder, and her soft golden hair tumbled around the pillow.
Angele slowly moved his fingers through Caitlyn's smooth hair, feeling relaxed.
'Father made the right decision.'
Angele remembered things Baron Karl had told him back home.
After the intercourse with Caitlyn, he realized it was almost impossible for him to reproduce after checking Zero's report. The Rio Family did need someone else to continue the family line.
Caitlyn woke up as he thought, grunted, and opened her eyes. Angele took his hand back, got off the bed, and quickly put his clothes on.
"Stay here. I'll ask someone to send you back to the school. You're free now. Nothing has changed. Don't worry."
Angele looked at her. With a flick of his finger, some thin green smoke hit Caitlyn's head.
Caitlyn's eyes rolled back, and she fainted before being able to respond.
The green smoke returned to the tip of Angele's finger right after. He put on the black robe and headed to another bedroom on the same floor.
It was the room he used for meditation. A simple bed was the only thing in the room. Since he had already confirmed his assumption about reproduction, he decided not to waste any time on it for now. Although meditation would not help him that much anymore, it would still increase his mentality a bit if he could keep doing it for years.
Several days later…
In the morning.
A small gray carriage left Arias City and passed through the guard post. It did not stay on the main road for too long, the carriage turning to the right and entering a silent path after advancing for several minutes. It seemed like the carriage was heavy. Although there were three strong horses pulling it, it was still moving slowly.
Vibrant green trees were on both sides of the path, and the road was full of bumps and hollows. A young man with long brown hair sat in the driving seat, wearing a brown leather suit which failed to hide his muscular body.
It was Angele, who'd left the city without notifying anyone.
He had the reins in his hands, not controlling the horses with energy particles. Birds and random animals were driven away by the noises made by the wheels. Water splashed to the sides of the path as the carriage went over tiny pools.
Time flew. Angele traveled non-stop until noon with dark clouds gathering in the sky.
It was about to rain.
The chilling wind was howling through the trees when Angele reached a straight path after turning several corners. He held the reins in one hand and took out a piece of wood from the pouch with the other.
He carefully checked the words written on the wood piece and returned it to the pouch. The sounds made by the rolling wheels were extremely loud in such a quiet forest. Suddenly, Angele heard a man singing ahead. His voice mixed with the howling wind, often being drowned out, so Angele could only hear a part of the lyrics.
"… Deer… She's behind me, she's behind me…
"Once, twice, and then… The fruity moon, shadow-black hair of hers is so attractive."
The voice got clearer as Angele got closer. He scrunched his eyebrows because the lyrics had absolutely no meaning to them, and the song was weird.
After several minutes, Angele saw a short middle-aged man sawing a large pine tree. He had tied his coat around the waist, and sweat was dripping down his face. Angele thought that the man was probably just shouting random words while sawing the tree, and somehow those words sounded like lyrics of a song.
"Hey! You! Can you come help me? Please," Angele yelled out, stopping the carriage.
The short man wiped the sweat from his forehead with a piece cloth and looked at Angele. He was surprised by seeing a noble traveling deep into the forest alone. He then dropped the saw on the ground and quickly walked to Angele.
Stopping beside the carriage, he bowed, and asked, "What do you need, Sir?"
"Where's the Shadow Forest?" Angele asked in a light tone.
"Shadow Forest? Go along this road and you'll reach it in two days. It's not too far from here, but the place is full of dangerous creatures. I saw a head-sized black spider moving out of the forest once, and it was killed by a Knight from Arias."
"Have you ever heard of a place called Arida's Nest?" Angele questioned.
"Sorry, I never heard of it…" The man shook his head. "But I know there's a cliff in the forest where many swallows built their nests, not sure if that's the Arida's Nest you're talking about."
"Well, can you mark it on my map?" Angele took out a leather map and asked the man to mark the location of the cliff for him.
"Wait, why are you here alone? Don't you just said there are many beasts close by?" Angele asked after returning the map to his bag.
"I'm a hunter and I live here. I'm preparing the materials for my wood house, but I've lost my axe so I have to saw," the man responded, scratching his head. "See, there's a watch tower on the left that was abandoned by the city. Beside it, there's a small bridge. It can bring me to the other side of the Jonah River. If I build my house there, I'll have a place to get some rest after a day of hunting."
Angele looked in the direction the hunter was pointing at. There was a watch tower with a red top between the gaps of the trees, and beside it, there was a wooden bridge.
The sun was almost covered by the thick clouds. Angele blinked his eyes, suddenly seeing a young girl walking over the bridge quietly.
"Huh? Is that your daughter? Why would you take her here?" Angele's eyebrows furrowed.
"My daughter?" The hunter turned his head around, looking confused. "No sir, I came here alone. There's no way I'm bringing a young girl to a forest. It's too dangerous here."
"Really? Who's she then?" Angele pointed at the bridge, but the girl had already left.
"I see nothing, sir…" The hunter had no idea what had happened.
Angele lowered his hand and rubbed his chin as thunder seamed to crack the air.