In the quiet room, Ruger steadied himself. He had been about to begin meditating.
Silent ripples touched the walls and rebounded toward another corner, wave after wave. Wherever the room's owner was and whatever he was doing, he would sense that someone had come to visit.
Ruger gave a light cough and straightened his robe. Although there was no one here to hear him, he had already connected to the stone door with his mental power as he walked toward the sitting room.
He did not walk quickly. As he went, two figures flashed through his mind: Lord Green the Path Seeker, and Soldrich, who belonged to the same Demon Wizard lineage as he did.
The person standing outside should be one of those two.
As the stone door began to move, he happened to round the corner.
The smile on his face was soon put to the test. But after a brief, abrupt falter, his fairly good composure allowed him to preserve that gracious, charming smile despite his surprise, like a true old wizard who had weathered countless storms.
Big Head was emerging through the gap in the slowly opening stone door.
Ruger looked at this fellow in some surprise, while the visitor remained equally silent.
Seeing that they were about the same height, Ruger instinctively formed a guess. If the visitor was not of some special race and had no abnormalities of body or bloodline, then this was probably someone quite young.
No sooner had that instinctive thought crossed his mind than he caught himself. Big Head's abnormally large head was simply too conspicuous, drawing his gaze straight to it. Looking at a head like that, it was difficult to claim there was nothing unusual about the visitor's body or bloodline.
Even the sound of the sliding stone