"Was Nausicaa all right?"
The moment Nis landed, he heard Angel's question. His deeply wrinkled forehead bunched up at once, and he complained in an aggrieved tone, "The moment I get here, you ask about that girl. Is there really nothing going on between you two? Why don't you ever ask how I'm doing?"
Angel fell silent for a moment, then said slowly, "You're already standing in front of me."
Nis: "...I took Nausicaa to Cindy and the others. It's relatively safe around there."
At the mention of Cindy, Feiluo seemed to remember something. "You went to Reefrock Island? How are Cindy and the others?"
Nis shot him an irritated glare. "Now you ask about them? You're the wizard leading the team, yet you left them there without a word. You have the nerve to ask?"
Feiluo gave an awkward smile. "I left the Login Device with Cindy, didn't I? Besides, you found them, didn't you?"
Nis snorted and couldn't be bothered to answer him.
Knowing Nausicaa was safe eased Angel's mind a little. He asked Nis about the help he had sought. "Didn't you say you'd asked for outside help?"
As he spoke, Angel glanced behind Nis... There was no one there.
Nis had returned alone.
At the mention of "outside help," Nis's old face puckered like a daisy about to bloom. Displeasure was written all over it.
"There are usually plenty of people at Savage Cave, but when I went today, I couldn't find a single one!" Nis said, helplessness and resentment mingling in his voice. "I really took a loss this time."
If he had found no one, how had he taken a loss? Angel looked at Nis in confusion and waited for an explanation.
With a sigh, Nis told Angel everything that had happened when he