Warlock Apprentice

Leonrick quickly walked up. He invited Angor to take a seat while he introduced himself.

Angor looked around the table. Cyndia nodded politely and accepted Angor’s inquiring gaze, while Margot blushed and lowered her head.

Leonrick pointed to the middle-aged lady to his right. “This is my wife, Cyndia.”

Next, he moved his finger to Margot and sighed a little. “What are you doing, Margot? Come and apologize to sir.”

Margot stood up and did a curtsy, bashfully. “Sir, last time I-”

Angor looked away from her and addressed Leonrick. “No need. I’ve already punished her, so let’s settle it there.”

Margot froze in the middle of her gesture.

But still, there was no reason for him to agree right away.

Leonrick found this to be a great and pleasant surprise, and he quickly explained what was on his mind.

“I’m not going to ask for my own gain, sir,” Leonrick said with a sigh. “On the outside, Water Grasse is a bright and prosperous city. Yet as the true manager of it, I know there are too many things that are hidden in the dark, which I have no control over. I’m hoping to ask you for help, to deal with these unreachable troubles.”

“You mean underground offenders? Baal?”

“No, sir. Every city and village should and must have its own dark side. Baal isn’t my concern at all.”

“Then… Magician?”

Leonrick shook his head. “I do not have the courage to ask you to go after another wizard. I’m talking about something we mortals cannot solve, which might be easy for you.”

“Something mortals cannot solve? Do tell.”

“It all started a year ago…”

One year ago, a citizen of Water Grasse suddenly encountered a strange disease and was sent to the Golden Cross Academy of Medicine. He showed no particular symptoms at the beginning. But as time passed on, he grew weaker. First, it was his muscles. Then, he slowly lost the ability to talk. His eyes gradually lost the luster of emotion. In the end, he was only “alive”. But that was about it—none of his other body functions worked, apart from basic reactions.

Today, there were over a hundred patients that were hospitalized in the facility.

“All researchers in Golden Cross are searching for a cure. A family even offered their patient to us as a test subject. But a dissection test yielded no results—everything on him looked healthy. Can you help us with this, sir?”

Angor didn’t expect such a request. If there wasn’t any fishy business, then this Leonrick man was a really decent leader and an uncommon nobleman, especially after one considered how nobles usually treated their people.

Angor basically knew nothing about curing diseases. He did learn some western and eastern medical theories, but he mostly had to rely on guesses to actually treat a patient. He did not back out though. After all, he hadn’t even agreed to it yet.

“How can you tell if it’s the special disease and not some other common conditions?”

“Good point, sir. You noticed it so soon. We can tell because all of the patients share a common symptom—they’ve all lost their shadows.”