On Chongwu Mountain, there was a bird shaped like a wild duck, but with one wing and one eye. It was called Manman. One bird was blue, the other red; only when the two flew wing to wing could they take flight, hence its other name, the Paired-Wing Bird.①
Even at Puji Island First University, Manman was an exceedingly rare Magical Creature, and much beloved by witches. Thus, it was understandable that the two wizards fled the instant they got into trouble.
They simply did not know that every move they made had Fallen On the watchful gaze behind a slightly open window on the top floor of the nearby Office Building.
"To chop a handle with a handle, one looks at it and still thinks it far away."②
The old wizard muttered under his breath, withdrew his gaze, turned around, and slowly made his way behind the desk by the window, leaning on his silver wolf-headed cane. His voluminous black robes billowed over his slight frame like tides, stirring gusts of wind that swept toward both sides of the office and filled the room with low moans like the sobbing of ghosts.
It was a vast office. From the desk to the heavy wooden door at the far end of the room was a distance of several hundred meters. Two Cthulhu Fires were set into the walls on either side of the entrance, their bluish-white flames casting an unusually cold light over the room.
At equal heights along both walls, matching magical torches stood every dozen or so meters. Beneath them sat stone sculptures of Magical Creatures: Gargoyles by the door, then Vampires, Werewolves, centaurs, Minotaurs, merfolk, Fox People, zombies, and more. They extended all the way to the foot of the steps before the desk, where a Sphinx