Toby fluttered his wings and arrived at the middle of the corridor.
There was a door on either side of him.
The door on the left was an utterly ordinary wooden door. If Angel saw it, he would recognize it as the front door of the villa where he had lived in Apprentice Town No. 8 of the Mirror World when he had still been a junior apprentice.
As for the door on the right, it had no actual door panel concealing it. Gray mist served in its place. The mist filled the doorway, constantly shifting between thick and thin. Even before stepping inside, it already made one feel uneasy.
Toby gazed longingly at the left. He knew perfectly well that behind that wooden door lay dried fish, pretty clothes, and beautiful music—a true paradise. Yet although his eyes were fixed on that "paradise," his reason and his movements urged him toward the door on the right.
When Toby reached the gray mist door, he secretly told himself, Once I overcome this trial, I can go celebrate behind that other door. Little Master should grant me such a tiny request, right?
With that wish in his heart, Toby steeled himself, beat his wings, and rushed into the gray mist on the right.
As Toby entered the mist, Angel, who stood atop Skyvault Tower in the outside world, suddenly drew his gaze away from the Heart House and looked up out the window.
Outside had been a brilliant blue sky, but then a thunderous boom rang out. Vast clouds blotted out the bright sunlight, and the sky gradually dimmed. Within those thick black clouds, lightning writhed like snakes.
Drip, drip—
"It's raining." Frod looked out the window, then turned to Angel, whose brows were tightly furrowed. "My lord, has something happened?"