The mirror... world.
Arthur looked out at the invisible water sphere, watching the noisy crowd outside. They were still cheering for the nearly finished fight, completely unaware of the three people standing here.
Night Eagle stroked his beard, not at all curious about how Arthur could see the mirror world that others couldn't. He wasn't a wizard and didn't have much interest in wizardry or the academic side of it. Instead, he continued the conversation with Parish that had started before Arthur arrived:
"So, you found the traitor, huh?"
Parish nodded. "I intentionally left some clues, and sure enough, Rastel from the Arbitration Bureau came looking for me. But luckily, I'm much stronger now."
Rastel... from the Bear Squad of the Arbitration Bureau? Night Eagle, although he had never left 114 Typler Street, knew everything about the official organizations' personnel and information. As the owner of the underground fighting arena, he had all the intel.
"Why did they come looking for me?" This was what truly concerned the giant wolf. He and Parish had met eleven years ago, just a month before the Rose Manor was burned down.
Eleven years ago, an eleven-year-old Parish was walking across the Tari Plains, the southernmost part of the Hiss River near Brighton City, right on the boundary between human and beast territories. The blazing sun hung high in the sky, and the Tari Plains were known for their barrenness. Parish had already been walking for four hours, unable to find anything to eat, let alone water or even a single blade of grass.
If he hadn't become a water wizard capable of communicating with nature, able to gather water molecules from the air, Parish would have already been dehydrated and roasted by the sun. "If I don't hurry... I don't know what Uncle Joe will think..." Wiping away the sweat from his brow, Parish used his somewhat unfamiliar water magic language to gather the evaporating sweat back into his body, trying to keep himself from collapsing.
"That's disgusting." A voice with a strong accent startled the fading consciousness of Parish. When he tried to retreat, his legs couldn't support the sudden movement, and he fell to the ground, only able to move backward with his hands.
The speaker was a giant wolf with blue and white fur, wearing brown human shorts. This was the Night Eagle of eleven years ago. He was carrying a bundle and standing on a nearby boulder, looking down at Parish, whose lips were cracked and face pale from exhaustion.
"Human, you know you're closer to beast territory here, right? You could easily get eaten," Night Eagle mocked, laughing even more when he saw Parish's skinny arms and legs.
"A wolf... a werewolf? Why are you here? Aren't werewolves supposed to be in the tribe near Sunset Town?"
"I'm more free and I like human life. I'm heading to Brighton City, which I think you're heading to too. Want to join me?" Night Eagle jumped off the boulder without hiding his intentions, extending a hand to Parish. "By the way, you seem like a wizard, right? That language I overheard, it's the wizard's language."
Parish instinctively took a step back, wary. Wizards were not people who could easily live among the various races, especially humans. For humans, wizards were uncontrollable, and uncontrollable meant dangerous.
"Oh, oh, don't worry," Night Eagle spread his hands, showing he wasn't carrying any weapons and meant no harm. "I have no prejudice against wizards, especially since we're currently in the Angusna Rift in the Tari Plains. This is beast territory, and surviving here is tough. Since we're headed in the same direction, why don't we travel together?"
Parish still didn't lower his guard, continuing to form the word shape of the only offensive spell he knew in his mouth.
Seeing Parish still not responding, Night Eagle sighed, "Forget it, I was hoping for someone to watch my back, but I can go alone." He turned to leave.
"Wait." Parish finally spoke up, and Night Eagle, thrilled, jogged over to help Parish up from the ground. "You should've said something sooner. Let's go, my human brother. I'm Night Eagle, what's your name?"
"Parish, Parish Aylanton."
Fast forward to the present, Night Eagle asked Parish, "What do you need from me?"
Parish didn't immediately respond to Night Eagle, instead, he looked at Arthur. "I need your help to go to the ruins of Rose Manor."
Rose Manor? Arthur, who had been distracted by the magical water sphere, was stunned. Wasn't that the place the Hebrew family had lived in eleven years ago? How did it relate to him? Arthur clenched his fists—was Parish an enemy or an ally? What could he do?
"Rose Manor? You mean the one burned down eleven years ago? What happened there? Isn't that a noble's estate?" Night Eagle didn't know any specifics about it. Old Ford had said that all information about that night had been sealed by the Human Alliance. Most people only knew the manor was destroyed by a fire and that it had never been rebuilt or renovated, still left in ruins.
"Yes, remember Hobik?"
"The dwarf? What happened to him?"
"He found a key among the Houston family's relics."
Night Eagle and Parish chatted casually, not at all noticing Arthur's presence. But their conversation was packed with so much information that Arthur couldn't keep up, except for one word that made him feel uneasy—Houston family. That word triggered something deep within him, like the first time he had heard the term "fall of the gods." He recalled seeing several bearded dwarves hammering something in front of a furnace, using hammers much larger than their size.
A sharp pain struck Arthur's head, making him break into a cold sweat. Why did this feel so familiar? Why could he remember these things, even though they weren't his memories? Suddenly, a fragment of a memory froze in his mind: his grandfather holding him as a baby, and there was something he had placed in his hand. What was it? The headache grew worse, and it felt like his skull would split open. He had to figure out what it was his grandfather had given him.
The word "Elykrom," the god of the giant wolves, echoed in his ears, and then a ringing filled his head. Arthur lost consciousness again, collapsing to the ground.
Night Eagle, still discussing the Rose Manor issue with Parish, didn't notice Arthur's sudden fall until it was too late. He quickly lifted Arthur and cradled him in his arms. Blood was pouring from Arthur's face, more gruesome than when he had fought with Jess earlier.
"Get him to the resting room. I can fix him," Parish opened the door to the resting room, and Night Eagle rushed in, with Parish extending his mirror world magic to cover the entire room, making it invisible to anyone outside.
Arthur didn't stay unconscious for long. Under Parish's water magic healing, he only needed five minutes before he regained consciousness.
"What happened? Arthur, water magic shouldn't cause you harm, why…?" Night Eagle wasn't sure how to describe Arthur's condition, so he wiped his face and pointed at Arthur's face, "This is terrifying?"
Arthur shook his head tiredly. He had lost so much blood that he didn't even have the strength to sit up. Parish cast more spells, restoring the blood that had spilled from Arthur's face back into his body. It looked disgusting, and Night Eagle stuck out his tongue, pretending to gag.
Parish snapped his fingers, pointing at Arthur:
"The blood in your brain pooled more than usual. You were having abnormal brain activity just now. What happened?"
"Why are you so curious about an ordinary kid? Everyone else would be speechless by now."
"Ordinary?" Parish almost couldn't hold back his laughter. "He may look ordinary, but his identity is anything but."
Parish looked sideways at Arthur, who was gasping for air, and then said something that made Arthur's heart stop:
"Right, Hebrew."