Perhaps it was not Ian's imagination after all.
After all.
Though the witch looked enraged to the absolute limit, she ultimately chose not to make a move, merely glaring at Pandero and Ariana with a pair of eyes that seemed ready to spit fire.
"Ian! We're here to save you!"
Pandero brandished a longsword with an aggressive momentum.
Perhaps.
Only Ariana, with her slightly more delicate sensibilities, saw that Ian and Mara inside the grand hall did not look like prisoner and captor, and she wore a sheepish expression that said, We've really gone and done it now.
"Pandero... Ian doesn't look like he was dragged here..."
She quietly reminded Pandero.
"Huh?"
Pandero wore a puzzled expression.
"How is that possible! I heard she loves eating little children!"
The hyper-aggressive Juggernaut still insisted on his own judgment.
"Clack clack clack~"
That was the sound of Mara gnashing her teeth.
"Sorry, teacher, it's my fault for forgetting to go find them and tell them my situation here." After coming to his senses, Ian hurriedly stepped out to smooth things over.
"Get your friends out of my territory!"
The witch transferred a portion of her anger onto Ian, yet judging by this display, she indeed seemed full of apprehension toward Pandero, who had barged into her domain.
"Huh?"
No matter how slow Pandero's reaction time was, he heard Ian's address toward Mara, and his gaze instantly grew dazed, his face visibly flushing a deep red.
"I actually guessed wrong..."
This "old ghost" with the appearance of a boy was at a loss for a moment.
Drawing his sword to look around, his heart felt completely lost.
At that moment, it felt like there should be a concrete picture.
The momentum he had previously possessed, as if he wanted to hack everything to pieces, had long since vanished.
"Madam Mara, I'm sorry, we'll help you repair this place." Ariana, filled with utter shame, directly began bowing frantically and apologizing to Mara.
"Just with his empty brain, and you, this ignorant little creature? You'd be lucky if you could create a chair that people can sit on!"
With a gloomy expression, Mara turned her head to look at Ian once more.
"Make them leave! They are not welcome here!"
Having spoken.
The witch turned around with an unsightly expression and walked deep into the castle; although her formal gown was not dragging on the ground like a floor rag, the missing corner was still exceptionally conspicuous.
"I don't want to stay here! The monster is coming again!"
"So terrifying! So terrifying!"
"He must be plotting to harm us again!"
Tables, chairs, and benches all grew legs and trailed closely behind the witch.
"This woman has quite a temper!"
As soon as the witch left, Pandero immediately began to complain.
"Pandero, say a little less. After all, we were in the wrong, and we damaged a lot of her property." Ariana reminded him from the side in a weak voice.
"Hmph, she wanted to capture me before anyway, so this at most calls it even."
Yet Pandero remained somewhat unconvinced.
Clearly.
He and Mara had dealt with each other before.
"I think Teacher Mara isn't that bad, right? She taught me quite a bit of knowledge." Ian curiously walked over to the main entrance, and only then did he clearly see the scene outside.
Scattered everywhere were armor fragments lying helter-skelter, along with a few halves of armor miserably crawling along the ground, frantically trying to get as far away from Pandero as possible.
"Perhaps, or maybe it's just that when I was alive, she and I were enemies?"
Pandero spoke with some uncertainty.
Much like Ariana.
Regarding his affairs before death, he only remembered that he was here waiting for someone.
Yet he had never waited.
The longer they stayed in Limbo, the more blurry the souls' memories of the mortal world became, until they finally forgot entirely, at which point the souls would be forced to embark on the next leg of their journey.
"Regardless, we've definitely managed to cause a massive disaster this time."
Ariana sighed with a nervous expression.
"At worst, we'll compensate her with a dragon-just the one we encountered in the north. It had a vicious appearance and only died a few years ago. It's definitely much more majestic than this pile of junk of hers."
Even though Pandero continued to put up a stubborn front, he was not entirely unaware that he had made a mistake.
"I'll find a way to compensate Teacher Mara."
Ian patted Pandero on the shoulder.
He was quite moved by the two of them coming to "rescue" him.
No matter what.
Being able to care so deeply about his safety certainly qualified them as true friends-though perhaps these two friends hadn't realized that no one could imprison him in Limbo?
As long as the time came.
He would, after all, be forcibly sent back to the real world...
"Are you studying magic by following Madam Mara?" Ariana asked out of curiosity.
Ian nodded.
"Teacher Mara is profoundly knowledgeable, and she's helped me get a head start over other young wizards at the starting line of learning." He wasn't just spewing empty flattery either.
"That's wonderful."
While feeling happy for Ian, Ariana also felt a trace of envy.
"Perhaps I could bring some magic textbooks in for you."
Ian remembered that Ariana had always held a certain yearning for Hogwarts.
"Teaching her is useless. In this place, magic has no meaning whatsoever."
Pandero shook his head from the side, speaking in a rather proud tone, "You'd be better off learning swordsmanship from me; whatever you want to hack, you just hack."
As he spoke.
The hyper-aggressive Juggernaut even gestured with the utterly unremarkable sword in his hand.
"Back then, I hacked my way through Limbo with no rival in sight, and even that... that Godric Gryffindor from your school could barely trade a few blows with me!"
Goodness gracious!
He had even crossed swords with a Hogwarts founder?
"Do you know Godric Gryffindor?"
Ian grew curious.
Even though Teacher Mara seemed exceedingly wary of this friend of hers, how could Teacher Mara compare to Gryffindor? That was the legendary Hogwarts Juggernaut!
Although there were no historical records detailing just how strong Gryffindor's swordsmanship was, he was, after all, a legendary wizard evolving toward a "Gandalf", and ordinary swordsmen were generally unlikely to be his match.
"Ran into him a few years ago, but he left pretty soon. That fellow's swordsmanship has a couple of tricks to it, so I remember him."
Pandero proudly tilted his chin up, began continuously waving the longsword in his hand once more, twirled out a few flashy sword flowers, and turned to urge Ariana to learn swordsmanship from him.
"You've both been dead for goodness knows how long; aren't swordsmanship and magic both pretty much useless now?" Ian's pinky toe almost got clipped by the sword Pandero was swinging.
"That's true."
Ariana nodded helplessly from the side.
As for the souls here.
They didn't mind discussing the fact that they were already dead.
"There will definitely be a time when they're useful, trust me."
Pandero spoke full of confidence.
"Uh, when you led me up the mountain just now, you also told me to trust you..."
Ariana, however, was left crying and laughing beside him.
"It's different, it's different."
Pandero awkwardly chuckled.
Perhaps to change the subject.
He immediately turned his head and looked at Ian with bright eyes.
"Hearing from Ariana that you've started learning magic, we went and found an admission gift for you. Take a look-this is good stuff, and I wouldn't waste that kind of time on just anyone!"
With that.
Pandero pulled something from his chest-it was an apple, looking as though it were forged from gold, radiating a dazzling brilliance even within the dim castle.
It seemed like a fragment of the sun left behind in the mortal realm, or perhaps a masterpiece crafted with the ingenious craftsmanship of the gods.