Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2957: Chapter 2958: Preparations Complete

Julie nodded: "That’s right, the Earl indeed brought back a half-length mirror... Are you here for the half-length mirror?"

As Julie spoke her last words, she scrutinized Angel with a probing gaze.

Under such scrutiny, Angel felt a strange sensation within him. It seemed that his thoughts were being explored.

Was it Julie’s ability?

Mind Reading, or perhaps a form of validation?

Angel wasn’t sure, but he was completely defenseless at this time, and there was no way to defend himself. In this anomalous world, he was just an ordinary person, or even weaker than that, as he was now only the size of a thumb. Even ordinary people could crush him, let alone a clearly supernaturally powered creature.

He could only passively accept everything, including being scrutinized.

Angel calmed his thoughts, trying not to engage in wild musings, then proceeded to explain his purpose.

He concealed nothing, nor did he need to.

"You say you ended up in the Teapot Country because of the half-length mirror?" Julie’s face showed confusion.

Angel nodded: "That’s right, the last thing I saw before entering the Teapot Country was a half-length mirror."

Julie: "That’s really strange, usually those who accidentally enter the Teapot Country do so through teapots; you came through a half-length mirror this time?"

Julie spoke while looking at the Rabbit Cha Cha, trying to get confirmation from Cha Cha.

Rabbit Cha Cha: "He did indeed suddenly appear in the Black Tea Forest. As he arrived at my doorstep, he had just shrunk to half-size."

As Rabbit Cha Cha said this, he looked at Julie: "How did the Black Tea Earl come by the half-length mirror?"

Julie: "The Earl picked it up on his way back, near the edge of the Black Tea Forest."

Rabbit Cha Cha looked surprised: "Picked it up?"

Julie nodded: "I can confirm it was picked up; at the time, the Earl was riding me back from Black Tea Town. Halfway through our journey, the mirror suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of us. The Earl found it very peculiar and picked it up."

Rabbit Cha Cha rubbed his chin: "So, he might indeed be telling the truth."

The mirror appeared suddenly, and so did Angel, with both being in close proximity. Most importantly, if Angel were a fraud, he wouldn’t be able to mention the mirror at all.

Julie now believed Angel a bit more, but having witnessed human cunning, couldn’t help but ask: "Do you have any other evidence?"

Angel: "I don’t know what evidence you want to see. I also don’t know if finding the mirror will enable me to return to my own world, but I must attempt it because there are people and affairs in my world I cannot forsake."

Upon saying this, Angel jumped down from the hay.

Using his feet as a pen, he began drawing the shape of a half-length mirror on the soft ground.

The rough outline resembled a large vertical portrait, but with rounded corners, woven with Arcane Platinum, water patterns, and cloud patterns. Even in this simple sketch, its elegance could be discerned.

"This is the half-length mirror that brought me here. Could this be considered evidence?" Angel stared directly at Julie, drawing the mirror not just to answer her question but as a gamble.

He’s betting that the mirror the Black Tea Earl encountered is the same one.

Angel had some confidence in this, after all, Julie mentioned that the Earl only found the mirror today, and both the mirror and himself had appeared out of thin air.

These circumstances, in Angel’s view, were evidently not coincidences.

Upon Angel’s depiction of the half-length mirror, Julie also entered a moment of contemplation. After some time, under Angel’s gaze, she softly nodded: "Indeed, this is the same half-length mirror the Earl encountered today."

Angel’s eyes lit up, the previous feeling of suppression dissipated entirely... his gamble had paid off!

Since this mirror appeared within the anomaly, it was undoubtedly the core of the anomaly!

In other words, if the anomaly were compared to an instance, then the key item of this instance is this half-length mirror.

"Can you tell me where this half-length mirror is now?" suppressing his excitement, Angel asked Julie.

Julie: "I don’t know, I can’t enter the castle. But, I can give you three possible locations."

"First, the storage room. Second, the study. Third, the Treasure Vault." Julie: "Of course, the Earl might also place the mirror in the hall or corridor, but since it’s an unknown item, it might not be displayed outside so soon. I personally lean towards suggesting the first two places."

The storage room is a place where miscellaneous items are kept, so even if the mirror has issues, it won’t cause significant trouble.

The study also holds great potential, as the Black Tea Earl might study the mirror there.

As for the Treasure Vault, it’s less likely, but who knows, the Earl might have already discovered the mirror’s trait, deemed it valuable, and placed it in the Treasure Vault.

Anyway, based on Julie’s understanding of the Black Tea Earl, the half-length mirror was likely in one of these three places.

Although Angel didn’t receive a definitive answer, narrowing down the possible locations was still very useful to him.

Rabbit Cha Cha: "Shall we head to the castle now?"

Angel didn’t refuse; it’s best to begin the search for the mirror promptly.

However, as Angel and Rabbit Cha Cha were about to leave the stable, Julie quietly remarked: "This mirror is quite mysteriously acquired, so if it suddenly disappears, the Earl probably won’t care too much."

"But, you better not cause a big commotion, and be sure to cover your tracks, otherwise, if the Earl discovers someone attempting to steal the mirror, the consequences will be vastly different."

Angel nodded, this indeed is something that must be managed carefully.

"Go then, be cautious."

Angel expressed thanks, and upon giving Julie a chest salute, he and Rabbit Cha Cha left the stable.

...

Rabbit Cha Cha seemed very familiar with the castle. After exiting the stable, he immediately pulled Angel into the bushes, using the foliage to conceal their figures.

The castle after nightfall was eerily quiet. Only a few places were alight across the entire castle.

At first glance, it seemed like a haunted castle.

"Are there no people in the castle?" Angel whispered.

Rabbit Cha Cha: "People? No humans appear in the Black Tea Earl’s domain. In fact, there are few places within the Teapot Country that can accommodate humans."

Angel: "I didn’t mean humans, I was referring to whether there are servants in the castle? It seems so quiet."

Rabbit Cha Cha whispered: "There are servants, similar to the puppet guards, the servants here are also puppets. However, don’t underestimate these puppets. Puppets only serve as constraints for their real bodies."

Angel curiously asked: "Then what are their real bodies?"

Bunny Cha Cha: "I don’t know either. But I heard Julie mentioned that she saw Black Tea Earl unseal some puppets before, among them were snakes and giant trolls, anyway, they are not something we can mess with."

"You must remember, as soon as you hear the footsteps of the puppets, we must hide in advance and never expose ourselves to their sight."

Angel nodded. Previously, with Julie as a shield, the puppets wouldn’t detect her body, but now that they had left Julie, they could only rely on themselves.

"What do these puppets use to detect?" Angel asked, "Smell? Vision? Hearing? Or do they use something like spiritual power to sense the surrounding environment?"

For his own safety, Angel now had to understand the situation with the puppets.

Bunny Cha Cha: "You actually know about spiritual power? How could an ordinary person know about spiritual power, are you not ordinary?"

Facing the suspicious gaze of Bunny Cha Cha, Angel shrugged: "If I weren’t ordinary, would I have ended up here? I just read about some secrets in books."

Bunny Cha Cha thought about it and agreed, seeing Angel as very transparent, just a very ordinary human.

As for the "books" Angel mentioned, Bunny Cha Cha didn’t delve into it. The matters of the human realm were too distant from Teapot Country, and there was no need to care.

"Different puppets have different sensing abilities. Among them, the puppet guards have the strongest senses, mainly relying on vision, hearing, and spiritual power, with a weaker sense of smell. The other puppets in the castle only have one or two senses comparable to the puppet guards."

Bunny Cha Cha explained what it knew about the castle’s puppets.

Overall, their senses vary in strength, but no matter how you say it, they are stronger than humans. Facing this group of puppets requires utmost caution.

The fortunate thing is that in the castle, puppets generally don’t use spiritual power to sense the surroundings, as it might offend Black Tea Earl.

However, if they make a mistake and are discovered by the puppets, the puppets fully activating their spiritual power sensing will become their nemesis, shrinking their chances of survival significantly.

In other words, they must be extra cautious from now on.

"Will we leave pheromones along the way?" Angel couldn’t help but ask after hearing Cha Cha’s description.

"What do you mean by pheromones?" Bunny Cha Cha didn’t understand at first but gradually understood through Angel’s explanation: "Do you mean the human scent left behind? Ah, this..."

Bunny Cha Cha had never really considered the issue of pheromones before, because it naturally wouldn’t leak any scent, so there was no need to worry about pheromones being detected. But for Angel, being a human, human scent is quite easy to detect in Teapot Country.

If Angel hadn’t reminded them, this might have become the source of their exposure.

Thinking of this, Bunny Cha Cha felt a bit fortunate.

Fortunately, this human thought about it thoroughly, otherwise, even if the puppets couldn’t find them, Black Tea Earl definitely would, and if any problem arose, it might implicate Julie.

Bunny Cha Cha became more fearful as it thought about this, but was relieved that Angel brought it up first.

It pondered for a moment, then said to Angel: "Wait here for me."

With that, Bunny Cha Cha quickly ran back in the direction they came from.

Angel waited in the dark bushes for about five minutes before Bunny Cha Cha returned. When it came back, it was holding a small piece of soft fur.

"Wrap this around you, and your scent shouldn’t leak anymore. Even if a bit does, those puppet servants shouldn’t pay attention," Bunny Cha Cha handed the fur to Angel, signaling for him to put it on.

Angel touched the fur; it was soft and lightweight, wrapping around him like a large cloak.

"What kind of fur is this?" Angel asked curiously.

Bunny Cha Cha leaned close to Angel’s ear and whispered, "I got this from Julie, it’s a piece of saddle blanket."

Saddle blanket? Saddle blanket!

Angel’s expression gradually turned pale.

Originally stroking the fur, his hands slowly became stiff.

A saddle blanket is placed on top of a saddle to prevent dust and make the rider comfortable.

In other words, its past purpose was... Black Tea Earl’s cushion.

Thinking about its purpose and the parts it had once come into contact with, Angel felt awful.

No wonder Bunny Cha Cha said with certainty that wearing this would prevent exposure even if scents leaked, as even if it leaked, it would carry the scent of Black Tea Earl. The castle’s servants wouldn’t dare to investigate even if they sensed it.

Although Angel didn’t smell anything odd on the saddle blanket, he still felt a bit uncomfortable.

However, discomfort aside, Angel still honestly wrapped it around himself. Safety took priority over psychological discomfort.

Especially since he was currently unable to use any abilities, weaker than a mortal. With this, he could at least reduce the risk of being discovered.

"You’ve considered more than I have. Think once more about anything we need to pay attention to avoid being discovered," Bunny Cha Cha acknowledged Angel’s more thorough consideration at this point.

Angel numbly replied: "Footprints, sounds, scrape marks, climbing marks..."

As Angel listed each item, Bunny Cha Cha considered each of them.

A few minutes later, Angel had changed into a new outfit, which included new shoes, soft elastics, and a pipe that could suppress breathing and sound.

One could say that Angel was armed to the teeth.

After confirming everything was in order, Bunny Cha Cha raised a hand, pointed at the castle, and called out quietly: "Let’s move out!"

Strangely enough, Angel felt that Bunny Cha Cha seemed more excited than he was about exploring the castle... Given Bunny Cha Cha’s previous glow when talking about castle infiltration, Angel was silently relieved.

Bunny Cha Cha apparently knew the castle very well. In a few quick steps, it led Angel past the puppet guards’ surveillance and arrived at a hidden water channel outside the castle.

"This is the drainage channel used during rain. It hasn’t rained in a month, so it’s quite clean inside. We can climb through this channel to the top floor."

Angel didn’t raise any objections and began climbing into the water channel with Bunny Cha Cha.

With his current stamina, it was difficult for Angel to climb straight up to the third-floor roof in one go. Fortunately, the channel had segments, with small joints at intervals for resting and recovery.

After a full quarter of an hour of stopping and starting, Angel managed to climb to the rooftop.

After a brief rest, Angel continued to follow Cha Cha forward.

The building they climbed belonged to the living quarters of the guards and servants, it had windows but no balcony, and the rooftop was sealed.

So, from here, they couldn’t enter the castle interior.

However, their target wasn’t this building, but the one a dozen meters away.

Bunny Cha Cha: "That is the side building, we can walk along the edge to get there. The side building usually isn’t occupied, only when guests visit does it get occupied, and the rooftop of the side building has a chimney, which is our entrance into the inner castle!"