When Angel emerged from seclusion, it was already the morning of the third day.
Pushing open the laboratory doors, the first thing Angel saw was Shali, dressed in a full Magician uniform, leaning against the corridor wall and listlessly teasing the little otter Gulu.
At the sound of the doors opening, Shali had not even straightened up before Gulu wore a startled expression, leapt from Shali's palm, landed on the mouth of the Rose-Pattern Teapot floating in midair, and plunged inside in one smooth motion, vanishing from sight.
Only after Gudu completed that entire sequence in one breath did Shali belatedly turn around.
"Mi... my lord, you're out?" Shali froze for a moment, but quickly put on her trademark professional smile, and her voice became much smoother.
"Why are you here?" Angel asked flatly.
"I'm here because..." Shali secretly glanced into the laboratory. She had heard that Angel had been conducting alchemy inside. She did not know what he had been crafting... Could it have been something for her?
"Hm?" Seeing that Shali remained silent for so long, Angel frowned and shut the laboratory doors as well.
When the laboratory doors closed with a bang, regret flashed through Shali's eyes. Under Angel's suspicious gaze, she coughed. "I came here on Lady Gloria's orders."
"What does she want with me?" Angel asked as he headed outside.
Shali hurried after him. "Yesterday morning, Witch Yada came to the manor. She brought the alchemy requests of the top three contestants in this New Star Tournament. But since my lord had been in seclusion in the laboratory these past few days, she handed them over to Lady Gloria instead."
Yada was the surname of the Beast Emperor Rosen. The only person who could be called Witch Yada was Rosen's daughter—Melantha.
"Lady Gloria instructed me