Ruger and Mahama had, without anyone noticing, taken up positions that hemmed Lord Isaac in between them.
Ruger glanced at him, then at the pitch-black castle gates. He no longer felt there was any need to be nervous. Ever since Wizard Jillian had asked that question, Lord Isaac had sunk into deep thought. He looked so focused he was only a step away from being utterly lost, as though he were trying to recall his entire life—like an old man already on his deathbed.
"Lord Ruger, aren't you nervous?"
The tall female wizard apprentice beside him looked at him curiously.
"Oh, sorry. You probably don't know my name yet. You can call me Varin, like they do," the wizard apprentice Varin said softly. "When I first began taking part in Demon Hunter incidents, I was so nervous I'd trip while walking. I couldn't even control the fluctuations of my spells properly. Of course, that was two years ago."
Ruger shook his head. He truly was not particularly nervous—partly because of his confidence in himself, and partly because of his confidence in Wizard Jillian. Besides, he still had a Return Stone Wizard Jillian had given him.
Unless disaster was bearing down on him, he would not be afraid. And even if he was afraid, that did not mean he had to panic.
"Lady Varin, you must be a genius girl!"
Ruger said earnestly.
Varin waved her hand and forced a smile, offering no answer.
Ruger blinked. By his reckoning, ordinary level-five peak wizard apprentices were all old hands who had weathered storms. They might look young, but they would never be immature. They could feel fear and nervousness, but they would never be so nervous they tripped over stones on the road, much less so nervous that they could not control