Roaming Wonderland

The instant Angel touched the Talent Orb, a dazzling flash of red light flickered across its surface.

"Red, red, red, red... red light!" Everyone stared dumbstruck at the Talent Orb. Had a gifted one truly appeared this time?!

Delight burst into Leon's eyes. He had never expected Angel to possess talent! Excitement he could not suppress welled up from the depths of his heart, and Leon could not help clenching his fists. If a family servant possessed talent, he might be pleased, but talent belonged to someone else after all. At most, they could ride on that connection and gain a little temporary convenience; but Angel having talent was different. They were from the same family, and their relationship was the closest of all. So long as Angel could become a wizard—even if he stopped at the rank of wizard apprentice—the Pat Family would reap immense benefits!

The surprise on Count Eaton's face vanished in a flash, while contemplation gradually gathered in his eyes. There was no doubt about it: the Pat Family was about to rise. If the Mone Family extended an olive branch ahead of time during this foreseeable rise, perhaps they could gain even more connections among the extraordinary in the future?

Alan and Irene did not think as much as their father did about Angel being gifted. No expression could be seen on Alan's chubby face; he merely tilted his head as he looked at Angel, a trace of curiosity in his eyes. Irene, however, curved her lips into a smile and beamed foolishly and sweetly at Angel. The thought of being able to study magic alongside Angel in the future filled her with joy. Even her initial resistance to leaving her homeland had vanished completely, leaving only anticipation for the future in her heart.

A flicker of surprise also passed through Moro's eyes, but he soon calmed down.

Meanwhile, Angel, the focus of everyone's attention, had fallen into a strange feast...

After touching the Talent Orb, Angel discovered that his body had begun to float. Excitement surged through him. Wasn't this unusual sensation of floating proof of "change"?

.

So he did have talent? Angel was instantly overjoyed.

But just then, Angel heard waves of drums and music coming from outside the storeroom, as though a massive choir were singing hymns.

Huh? Hadn't his brother told the band to leave? Why had they started playing again?

Angel was about to ask Leon when, as he turned his head, he discovered something bizarre.

Aside from himself floating in midair, the entire storeroom was empty. There was not a single person inside. His brother was gone, Mr. Moro was gone, and Count Eaton and his children were gone as well.

Angel noticed something else. Though everyone was gone, the Talent Orb remained on the table, and the candles still burned quietly. Everything seemed perfectly normal.

At that moment, the music outside grew even more pleasant. Frowning, Angel slowly floated to the door and pushed open the storeroom's door.

Beyond it lay a corridor, lavishly decorated, with elegant drapes and large oil paintings hanging from the walls on either side. Walking through it, one would occasionally see suits of armor and statues at the corners. This extravagantly aristocratic style was Old Pat's favorite, and after his death, neither of the two brothers had changed it.

The curtains were lifted by the night wind. Angel quietly glanced out the window, but outside was silent and pitch-black.

How strange... truly strange. Everything before him was clearly familiar—from the furnishings to the decorations, it was all no different from usual—yet why did it feel inexplicably unfamiliar?

Every door in Pat Manor had Lionheart lamps on both sides. Lionheart was the Pat Family's crest. Every day, the servants filled them with oil, and at night they lit the flames, which would burn brightly until dawn, signifying that "the fire of Lionheart shall never be extinguished."

Yet now, there was not the slightest glimmer of fire outside. Even the lamps that should have been lit on the iron gates beyond the castle remained dark.

Where was this? Was this really Pat Manor? Where had everyone gone? Doubts could not help rising in Angel's heart.

The melodious music grew even sweeter, yet to Angel's ears now, it carried several more shades of eeriness.

Angel looked out the window again and, to his surprise, discovered that the sky was filled with stars—many constellations he had never seen before. One had to know that in Gelu Town during the Month of Frozen Earth, very few stars could be seen with the naked eye at night. Those visible were basically only pinpricks of light from stars countless light-years away. On a clear night, seeing seven or eight twinkling stars was already considered a great many. Yet now, the sky outside was blanketed in stars, just as it was in Gelu Town during high summer!

Fear slowly rose from the depths of Angel's heart without him realizing it.

Everything was too out of place. Perhaps he was no longer within the real Pat Manor.

Angel took a deep breath and prepared to return to the storeroom. No matter how bizarre the current situation was, he still felt that the storeroom would put him more at ease.

Just as Angel was heading back, two enormous playing cards suddenly appeared ahead of him.

The Old Earth Continent had no concept of playing cards, but Jon had once made a deck and given it to Old Pat. Old Pat had been extremely fond of this novel card game, and for a time it had been wildly popular throughout the manor. Yet what puzzled Angel was that playing cards had never spread beyond the manor... Could this place be connected to Earth?

The two cards before Angel looked very much like the deck Jon had made. Even their intricate bordering patterns were identical, except they had been enlarged several hundred times over—

Playing cards the size of adults. One bore the ace of hearts, while the other was also an ace—only, it was the ace of spades.

.

What left Angel most dumbfounded was that both playing cards had limbs like bamboo poles. They swayed from side to side as they moved. The ace of hearts carried a cross sword and a lance, while the ace of spades held a round shield and a flail.

The playing cards moved incredibly fast. While Angel stood there stunned, they had already charged before him. By the time he reacted and tried to flee, it was too late.

The next second, Angel was sandwiched between the two playing cards.

The two cards seemed not to have noticed him and continued onward. But their bodies were simply too broad, leaving Angel no room to dodge, and he was swept along with them.

Angel desperately tried to avoid them. Even floating in midair did him no good, because the two playing cards occupied far too much space. Left with no choice, Angel could only give up resisting and advance alongside the card soldiers.

Before long, Angel discovered that the two card soldiers had brought him into the great hall. That melodious music was coming from here. Music played upon the stage. Angel looked over and found that no one was performing. The instruments were playing by themselves because several teacups carved with heart symbols were hopping about in front of them.

Teacups could even play instruments and make music? Before Angel had recovered from one shock after another, he discovered that the swordsman of hearts and the guard of spades who had brought him in had already disappeared.

Now that he had reached the great hall and was directly facing this bizarre, fantasy-like world, Angel had grown somewhat bolder than before. He no longer thought of immediately returning to the storeroom, instead drifting toward the center of the hall.

The hall was brilliantly lit, and all manner of strange objects were each busy doing different things. Besides the music-playing teacups he had seen earlier, Angel found block soldiers that could move on their own, green-furred owl toys playing near the crystal chandelier, dragonflies painted in dazzling colors patrolling the air in rows, and unknown moon gems and sun gems shifting through different hues...

As he encountered more and more strange things, Angel's nerves remained taut, but much of his fear had faded. He had noticed an interesting little detail: the "creatures" here seemed to turn a blind eye to him. Earlier, he had floated beside the colorful dragonflies to observe them, but they did not even acknowledge him before flying away.

Was it because they could not see him, or because they had no interest in him? Angel did not know.

After floating for a while longer, he vaguely saw fabric swaying from a chair at the main dining table in the distance, its back facing him.

Was someone sitting there?

Angel carefully controlled his floating body and drifted toward the dining table.

The closer he came, the more convinced Angel became of his judgment. He could already faintly hear the clink of knives and forks against porcelain plates during a meal, as well as the rustling of pages being turned.

Reading while eating? Angel suddenly became very curious about what sort of person was sitting in that chair.

He now had a vague guess: perhaps he was no longer in Pat Manor, but in a parallel dimensional space. His mentor had once mentioned parallel worlds, though on Earth they remained only a hypothesis. This place was not Earth, and perhaps was not even in the same universe as Earth. If so, what was strange about a real parallel world appearing here?

In this parallel world, there was a Pat Manor, but no Pat Family.

Perhaps the person sitting in that chair was the master of Pat Manor in this parallel world? Angel guessed wildly.