Inside the small building in the courtyard
Ang turned on the magic lamp in the room, and warm light immediately filled the entire space. As he took off his Shadow Robe, he carefully examined the intruder tied to the pillar. The man's eyes were full of shock and disbelief; he had clearly recognized the Shadow Robe in Ang's hands. Robes made from the fur of rare Shadow Leopards were exceedingly scarce on the market. For an ordinary magic apprentice, owning one was simply unimaginable.
Although the man's limbs had been immobilized by the Paralysis Potion, Ang did not dare let his guard down. He worried that the intruder might be able to resist the potion, so he had deliberately reinforced the restraints when tying him to the pillar. With his limbs powerless, the intruder was practically hanging from the pillar, looking utterly miserable. Ang stepped forward and inspected him closely. He even checked the man's mouth, worried that he might have hidden poison and planned to kill himself in an emergency. After all that fuss, however, Ang found nothing unusual in the intruder's mouth. The only result was that the man became even more uneasy.
"Where are you from? What's your name? What do you want?" Ang asked calmly, firing off a string of questions.
However, the intruder's response irritated Ang somewhat. The man stared at him coldly without uttering a word, wearing an expression that said, "There's nothing you can do to me," as though he would not answer no matter what Ang asked.
Ang's gaze gradually turned stern. "You're my prisoner now. You need to cooperate with me, understand? If you don't, I can't say what methods I might use to 'entertain' you." His tone remained calm, but an undercurrent of menace ran through it.
Yet the intruder