Chapter 22: Strange Seabirds

In the days that followed, Moro made no further appearance. Irene and Allen began practicing the Triangle Guidance Technique, while Angell immersed himself in the problem-solving logic laid out by Jon.

Moro had said that knowledge is a wizard's most important asset. Angell did not know if Professor Jon's knowledge would be useful, but he knew that such knowledge could enlighten wisdom and prevent his horizons from being confined to the mundane struggles of the present.

Whether it was useful or not did not matter to Angell.

Angell wrote feverishly; page after page of complex formulas and numbers became yesterday's drafts. Every day, Angell had new insights into solving the problems. From molecules and atoms to magnetic fields and wavebands, different perspectives brought him different surprises.

As time passed, Angell knew he was getting closer to the correct answer.

On this day, Angell set down his quill and rubbed his temples. His brain had been operating at high capacity for nearly half a month. He was solving more and more problems and was getting closer to the final answer, with only ten problems left to go. However, the continuous intense concentration was making his head struggle to cope. Especially this morning, he had even experienced tinnitus and blackouts. This was a sign that his body was sending him warnings.

No matter how impatient he was to check the answers, Angell stopped. He was fourteen this year and still in puberty; if a moment of recklessness caused an internal imbalance and led to an abnormality during the most important period of his life, he would have nowhere to cry.

He had heard Mentor Jon say before that during his own adolescence, poor lifestyle habits had caused him to fall seriously ill, after which his height had stagnated at 165 cm. Angell didn't know if his mentor was telling the truth or making excuses, but it was better to believe it than to ignore it, wasn't it?

Angell yawned, stretched his arms, and straightened his legs. He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall; it was exactly two in the afternoon.

Clocks were rare on the Edge Islands, also known as the Old Continent. Even back then, the Pat Manor still used hourglasses, but on the Great Continent, clocks had long been known to the general public.

Pushing open the circular cover on the wooden wall panel, Angell immediately smelled the briny scent of the ocean.

This circular wooden cover was a porthole. The mid-level guest cabins of the *Bauhinia* had these ventilated windows, but the rooms on the lower decks did not receive such treatment.

The sun was bright, and the ripples on the sea surface were so dazzling they made his eyes ache. The outside air flowed into the cramped room, and Angell didn't mind the slight fishy smell. He lazily closed his eyes, feeling the soft sea breeze, as his thoughts began to wander wildly.

Angell recalled the beautiful memories of his childhood: his parents' love, his elder brother's care, his mentor's teachings, and then the green youth immersed in the ocean of knowledge day and night. Angell's memories always made him smile involuntarily. When he left Pat Manor, he took nothing with him; only these memories could stay with him for a lifetime.

Angell had decided to follow Moro to the Great Continent to become a wizard not just to cure his mentor, but because, deep down, he also harbored the desire to revitalize his family. On the Old Continent, even a wizard apprentice received treatment far exceeding that of royalty or nobility.

Moro had once said that a formal wizard's lifespan was at least measured in five hundred years, and if one made further breakthroughs, a thousand years would not be difficult. Angell had no extravagant hope of guarding his family for a thousand years; at least ensuring that within a hundred years, his kin would prosper through three generations would be enough.

The sea was calm outside, and since Angell wanted to relax, he took a bag of tea bags from his luggage.

The tea bags contained "After-Rain Morning Dew." Back then, Angell had divided all the Morning Dew from the manor into two parts: one part went to Moro, and he kept the rest for himself.

Although Angell did not particularly like drinking this slightly bitter tea, he remembered Moro saying that this type of tea was considered a low-level magical plant. Since he was about to step into the mysterious world of wizards, drinking it occasionally should be beneficial, right?

As Angell sipped the tea, the corners of his eyes were soft and the corners of his mouth slightly upturned. Even though no one was around, his every movement and detail—even the straightness of his back when lifting the teacup—appeared extremely elegant. This aristocratic temperament had clearly been buried deep in his bones. Coupled with the years of cultivation through poetry and books under Jon, Angell's temperament also possessed a touch of refined grace, the combination of which made him radiate a charming allure.

*Well, if I were a bit older and my face a bit more mature, it would be even better,* Angell muttered to himself in front of the mirror.

As he finished the cup, just as before, the Morning Dew brought Angell nothing but bitterness and a scent of grass. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't necessarily delicious either.

As for the magical effects Moro mentioned, they likely had nothing to do with him.

*Ji-gu, ji-gu—*

While Angell was lost in thought contemplating the three flavors of the tea, a bird's cry came from outside the window, followed by the sound of flapping wings.

Angell looked up and saw a strange seabird perched on the windowsill, having appeared from out of nowhere.

The seabird was roughly the size of two palms, with grayish-brown feathers, red talons, an orange beak, and glowing green eyes. All of these fit the basic characteristics of a seabird, but the reason Angell called it strange was that the bird was actually wearing decorations!

It wore a white top hat on its head and a blue-and-white bib around its neck, which featured a reflective pattern. Most strikingly to Angell, a small blue bag hung diagonally across the seabird's body, making it look like a carrier pigeon postman from a fairy tale.

The seabird chirped *ji-gu, ji-gu*, its glowing green eyes staring intently at Angell, as if it were trying to converse with him.

Angell laughed, his eyes darting around. Thinking that there were no outsiders in the room, his youthful nature took over again, and he began to talk to the seabird with a pouty, mock-serious expression.

The seabird let out a *ji-gu*.

Angell smiled: "So your name is Ji-gu? How interesting. Who is your master, to have dressed you in such style!"

The seabird narrowed its eyes and gave a disdainful *ji-gu*.

Angell reached out a slender finger and lightly tapped the seabird's small head: "I say you have style, and you even cock your tail up at me."

Hearing Angell's words, the seabird tilted its head, intending to fly away. But after hesitating for a moment, it stayed, turning back to chirp incessantly as if it wanted something.

Unaware of this, Angell continued to play with the bird cheerfully. During the process, Angell also noticed that the small blue satchel on the seabird had the same pattern printed on it as its bib.

The pattern seemed to be in the style of a crest. In the center was a purple-haired lady with voluminous curls, so fat that her face had several layers of flesh. This lady possessed fiery red lips, a small nose, seductive eye makeup, and a mole on her chin; had it not been for the fat, she would surely have been a beautiful woman. Unfortunately, while white can hide a hundred flaws, fat ruins everything. On either side of the pattern, a knife and a fork intersected.

It looked quite peculiar; he wondered what it meant. Could it be a family crest? Angell smiled; if it truly was a family crest, this family must have quite the nerve.

If it wasn't a crest, what could it be? Angell was puzzled, but he didn't dwell on it; the question had barely surfaced in his mind before he tossed it to the back of his head.

While it is said that curiosity is the first virtue of a learner, he preferred to apply his curiosity to the exploration of truth.

Angell also noticed that the seabird's small satchel was bulging, meaning it definitely contained something. However, Angell did not reach out to take it; he wasn't the type to take things without asking in front of the host, even if the owner of the bag was a seabird.

The seabird continued to chirp, but Angell was talking past it. The bird seemed frustrated, pacing restlessly back and forth on the windowsill.

"Little Ji-gu, what did you come here for? Are you hungry or thirsty?"

Hearing the name "Little Ji-gu," the seabird almost wanted to roll its eyes at Angell, but upon hearing the following question, its eyes lit up, and it nodded rapidly, its small head bobbing like a bird pecking at grain.

"So you are hungry. How clever, you even know how to find food yourself." Angell pulled a food bag from a drawer, took out a flatbread, and began to crumble it while muttering, "I wonder who your master is, to have trained you to be so obedient; you can even understand human speech and respond."

Angell looked out the window at the boundless sea. "I don't see any islands nearby... could you be kept by a transcendent being living on the top deck of the *Bauhinia*?"