by Weiqi Wang
‘Okay, we can pay you, but how quick can you do it?’ Rodka was prepared for this. ‘We don’t want to leave the egg here.’
‘Of course. It won’t take long.’ The magiman took the egg, rolled it in his hands, and noticed that there were actually some letters on the surface that he could not recognise. Strangely, the next second, the magiman shook and staggered, as if it was going to fall over.
‘Wow, easy, man!’ Rodka hurried forward to support the magiman. ‘You don’t want to drop the egg!’
‘My apologies! I guess that’s why I’m called Blamer.’ The magiman got back its balance and started to check the egg. After a while, the magiman gave the egg back to the crew. ‘This egg looks strange. I’ll need to do a thorough check with devices, if you don’t mind?’
The crew went with the magiman to the identification room and saw another magiman working there as an assessor. The two magimen looked almost identical, but the assessor was wearing a gown. The assessor took the egg and walked to the table, where several crystal balls were placed in a circle. With a slight whirring, the assessor’s gown waved while he was turning; the assessor then put the egg into the centre of the circle.
‘These crystal balls are here to identify the egg; each of them has memorised the features of different eggs.’ the assessor explained to the crew while the crystal balls started working. Soon enough some words emerged from the crystal ball, and the assessor drew a conclusion accordingly. ‘Wow, it’s a mix!’ the assessor asked the crew to read the crystal ball themselves. ‘As you can see, two crystal balls responded; one says boa and the other says falcon. That means it’s a wingedsnake, a level 7 magimal!’
‘Really?’ everyone looked at Halgon. ‘It’s a wingedsnake?’
‘Yes, congratulations!’ The assessor let the crew check the egg and the crystal balls. ‘Whose is it, anyway?’
‘It’s mine, thank you.’ Soarame took the egg for Halgon, who looked furious about the results. Before they came here, Halgon had asked Soarame to pretend to be the owner of the egg, because he wanted to stay low key as always. Just when Soarame was about to ask again, Halgon tugged his arm. ‘That’s great to know, let’s go!’
‘Wait, you guys forgot something.’ The assessor coughed. ‘The payment.’
‘Oh, there you go.’ Rodka took out a bag of gold coins. ‘A hundred, you can count it.’
‘That won’t be necessary.’ the assessor smiled. ‘I trust you. See you soon.’
‘Halgon, the egg is a wingedsnake? I thought’ — Catheray couldn’t help asking as soon as they walked out of the shop.
‘Shh…’ Halgon stopped Catheray. ‘Let’s get back to the dorm first.’
‘Halgon, what’s wrong?’ The crew followed Halgon all the way down to the Libral Gate, walking past the cheering visitors as fast as they could.
‘Believe it or not, the egg was replaced!’ Back in the dorm, Halgon looked really upset. ‘My bad, I didn’t expect this guy to be a professional thief! He swapped my duckbear egg with a wingedsnake egg.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Vivarin didn’t buy this. ‘That was the biggest magishop in Cylone City, and we all watched everything. You must be paranoid!’
‘Vivarin, calm down.’ Rodka cut in; although he had doubt about Halgon’s words too, he knew this boy wouldn’t make things up. ‘Halgon, how could you prove that?’
‘The letters changed.’ Halgon pointed to the letters on the egg. ‘These are faked.’
‘They don’t look fake to me.’ Rodka took out his emblem, casting the hologram of the original egg into the air — He had specifically prepared for this. Everyone had to agree that the original egg in the hologram looked exactly the same as the one in front of them.
‘You can’t check it like this — the letters are a special kind of magical code in my family, only I can tell the difference.’ Halgon shook his head. ‘You guys pay any attention to the gown on the assessor? Why would a wooden puppet need a gown?’
‘Because it looks better?’ Catheray answered. ‘I don’t think it can hide the egg in the gown; it’s too big and we would have noticed that.’
‘Of course not inside the gown, but inside a space-ring!’ Halgon’s words confused everyone. ‘That assessor had a space-ring on its hand; the gown was just a cover to make the ring inconspicuous!’
‘What space-ring?’ most of the crew never heard of this before; but luckily Rodka had, so he hurriedly explained. The crew looked at each other in bewilderment, not sure what to say.
Space-ring! Soarame was struck to hear this. He instantly recalled what his master told him about the space-ring — it looked like a normal ring but had a storage space in it, and was very rare. Moreover, there had been a bad guy who used a space-ring to steal an important item from the Druids; his master went after that guy until Volsta got badly injured!
‘I believe Halgon.’ Soarame had never been this serious before. ‘I did see a ring on the assessor’s hand, but I didn’t think any more about it.’
‘Even if that’s really a space-ring, the egg was always in his hands.’ Dileys was trying to recall the scene. ‘If the magiman swapped it we would have noticed, right?’
‘Unless it turned around and the egg was behind its body for a moment — remember the slight whirring when it turned?’ Halgon was really mad. ‘The swap only took a blink of time with a space-ring!’
‘Halg, all this made sense but it’s still a guess.’ Rodka took a deep breath. ‘Is there any evidence you can show us?’
‘Yes. The letters on my egg won’t come off however hard you try to wipe it, because they are actually a magic seal that my Dad put on — it is to prevent the egg from hatching.’ Halgon used a wet towel to wipe the letters on the egg in front. ‘However, look at this one.’
‘Okay, we trust you.’ The crew took time to make this decision, but they finally made it — they drew together and noticed that the letters did become a bit lighter; this would never happen to a magic seal. ‘Halgon, why didn’t you say this when we were back there?’
‘Do you think we can fight him?’ Halgon asked back as a reply. ‘We needed to get out first to be safe.’
‘Wait, you really think we’ll get hurt in a big store in Cylone downtown?’ Vivarin didn’t buy this. ‘I’m not scared of him! I’ll go back there and ask for the egg back.’
‘No we can’t.’ Omifo interrupted Vivarin. ‘You really think a fraud would admit what he had done?’
‘Then let’s report it to the school!’ Dileys suggested. ‘Or maybe the Cylone City council!’
‘It won’t work.’ Halgon shook his head. ‘We can’t prove it, so no one will believe us because we are just kids.’
‘But we can’t just let this happen and do nothing!’ Catheray was very angry now she was convinced of Halgon’s evidence. ‘You do know today is the last day to go out, right? If we don’t do something today, we will never get it back after a week!’
‘There will be other ways, and I’ll ask my family to help.’ Although Halgon was upset, he was not as anxious as the others. ‘Remember the seal on the egg? Max won’t be able to hatch the egg anyway; and if he sells it to another person he will have more trouble, because the buyer will come back to complain.’
‘Halgon, you are unbelievably mature.’ Rodka couldn’t help admiring this quiet boy. ‘Seriously, I wouldn’t believe that you were a teenager if I didn’t know you.’
Because I’m not. Halgon cracked a bitter smile. ‘I’m calm because no one can break my dad’s seal. If it’s like a weak library seal on that biography, I would be crying by now!’
The crew didn’t sleep well that night. Everyone was thinking about what had happened at MagiMax and they were all indignant to think that they had been swindled. Halgon got up in the middle of the night to take a leak, but noticed that Soarame’s bedroom was open and vacant; meanwhile he heard some noise downstairs in the living room. So he went downstairs and saw Soarame by the table, with a canvas on it.
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sp; ‘Painting at midnight?’ Halgon smiled and walked over to Soarame, but froze halfway — he was sensitive enough to notice that Soarame was different from normal; the boy was mind-painting but with his eyes closed, which he had never done before. Halgon said hello to Soarame again, only to find himself being completely ignored.
Dream-walking? Halgon was startled to reach this conclusion after carefully observing all around Soarame, and couldn’t help being amused. When you wake up I’ll tell you this creepy and funny story. However, after looking at the canvas, Halgon suddenly became serious — the painting was so clear, detailed and delicate, in sharp contrast to Soarame’s work yesterday of a piggy-like Snower. If Halgon weren’t watching Soarame painting in real time, he wouldn’t have believed that this was his mind-painting work.
What is going on here! Halgon was shocked to see this unbelievable scene right in front of him. Looking at the painting again, Halgon recognised right away that it was the assessor in MagiMax; the wooden puppet was wearing a gown and holding an egg, with the letters on its surface. Halgon looked carefully at the letters, and was surprised to see that they looked exactly the same as the real ones; this meant that Soarame’s mind-painting was so rigorously accurate as to have captured all the details in his mind — well, his dream in this specific case.
Halgon was completely out of sleeping mood. He stood aside quietly and watched his best friend painting, until the other hand of the assessor was painted — there was a ring on its finger. After Soarame painted some letters on the ring, the work was finished, and Soarame fell over on his back at once.
‘Hey, Soarame!’ Halgon pounced towards Soarame and grabbed him before he banged his head on the floor. ‘Are you okay?’
Soarame was silent; Halgon hurriedly checked his breath and heartbeat, finding that Soarame was in a deep sleep. Astounded at what he had witnessed, Halgon carried Soarame back to his dorm, deep in thought.
Soarame didn’t wake up until dinner time the next day, to find that everyone had circled around his bed. He didn’t believe what they told him at first but was finally convinced — after seeing his delicate painting work. After Soarame took his time to accept the dream-painting story that he was completely unaware of, he started to think why this would happen. The most likely reason would be that he had been exhausting himself trying to recall the detailed scene in MagiMax, after Halgon talked about the space-ring. As Scankeen had told him, a space-ring was a very rare thing to see, even among the top-ranking wizards; if Max possessed one, that meant he was not just a shop owner.
‘Soarame, this is unbelievable!’ The crew marvelled at the high quality of the work — it looked just like it had been taken by a mamera, only without colours. However, when Soarame tried to do another mind-painting of Snower again, it came back to the piggy style that amused everyone so much — it seemed that having a dream-painting doesn’t mean mastering the art when he was awake. Snower was making him feel awkward about it too; she kept looking into the mirror to verify that she didn’t have a snout and wasn’t really as fat as a pig.
Holding his necklace in his hand, Soarame wondered if there was a way to contact his master, but the token seemed not to have a messaging function and Soarame still didn’t know what exactly it could do. On the other hand, Halgon was very confident about his father’s seal on the duckbear egg and urged everyone to keep it quiet and leave it to him, despite the fact that he chose to let Sachastain know about it when the man visited them again days later —
‘MagiMax? Space-ring?’ after hearing the story, Sachastain was as surprised as the friends were. However, he didn’t have any useful advice, but only agreed with Halgon that they should hold on until there was some evidence. ‘But are you sure Max can’t break the seal? He seems to be a high-levelled wizard.’
‘He must be, but the seal is specially designed and only my family knows how to unseal it, so it’s not just about the power.’ Halgon was not worried. ‘So that egg is safe in that sense, unless he physically destroys it.’
‘That’s great to know.’ Sachastain nodded. ‘So Max will have it sitting in his house, but won’t be able to hatch it or sell it. I wonder what that feels like.’
‘Crap! Crap!! Crap!!!’ Inside MagiMax, a half-bald man was answering Sachastain’s question — Max. Max had performed a thorough check on the duckbear egg after he got it, and realised that there was actually a magic seal. This was not good news; if an egg cannot be hatched, it will never turn into the magimal, however rare it would be, thus its value pretty much equalled zero. Max spent days and nights trying to break the seal, only to find out that he couldn’t do it.
‘What the heck is this?’ Max was mad. ‘Who did this? Why can I not break it?’
However unbelievable it was, the fact was that Max continued to fail no matter what he tried. In the end, he had to give up and take a break, trying to sort out what had happened since he saw the egg days ago —
‘Interesting.’ In a dark room, a few days earlier, Max was looking at a crystal ball through a thick pair of glasses. The crystal ball was showing the vision from the magiman, in which Soarame and his friends were handing over an egg. Seeing the unrecognisable letters on the egg, Max instantly stood up with a pen, but he was too fat and his belly almost knocked the table over.
‘Damn it!’ the fat man was worried that the shaking of the crystal ball would have caused the magiman to fall over and crack the egg, but luckily that didn’t happen —
‘Wow, easy, man!’ by the magiman’s side, Rodka hurried forward to help. ‘You don’t want to drop the egg!’
‘My apologies!’ Max relieved a breath. ‘I guess that’s why I’m called Blamer.’
After that, Max walked over to a shelf and fetched an egg that looked identical to the kids’ egg, and wrote the same letters on the egg as the ones he had seen in the crystal ball. Although he didn’t know what language these were in, he could still capture all the details of the letters and copy it; he was a skilled old hand at forgery.
Max was satisfied with his work; he opened the door and let in a magiman. Max then took off a ring from his own hand, and put it on the magiman; pondering a bit, he fetched a gown and put it on the magiman too.
‘Smart kids, huh?’ Sending the magiman out, the fat man sneered. ‘Just not enough for me…’
— The owner is called Soarame? Max came back from his memory. Such a brat can’t be the creator of the seal. He probably doesn’t even know about it. The question is: where did he get the egg?
Max strolled back and forth in the room, frowning. It was really stupid for him to have played such a swapping trick for this egg; it was probably his worst move ever. Due to a fortunate coincidence back in the old days, Max had got the space-ring that he was wearing, and hence was able to do the swapping trick ever since. He had always been lucky so far; half of the magimal eggs he owned were from the same trick — one of lower level for one of higher level; the value difference was usually a factor of ten or sometimes even more. But this time Max found himself running into a brick wall, which made him really upset.
So, that boy is the key here, Max pondered. I must get him somehow.
‘Blamer! Are you in?’
Just then, a voice passed through the crystal ball in front of Max — it was the voice that the magiman heard at the entrance of the shop.
This kid, what’s his name again? Max looked at the crystal ball and saw a yellow-haired boy, tall and thin. Oh yes, he’s Casavin, also from Libral.
‘Yes Casavin, how can I help you this time?’ By the gate of MagiMax, a magiman bowed to the boys surrounding Casavin.
‘This wooden robot really knows your name!’ A friend of Casavin was surprised. ‘That’s awesome!’
‘Of course, I’m a VIP client here.’ Casavin walked in the building. ‘Blamer, have you got anything new?’
‘Sure I do.’ on the other side of the crystal ball, Max sighed. Libral students are out there; that means a week has passed? I’ve spent a whole week on that
bloody egg?
‘Some new gowns, wards, crystal chips, and an… that’s about it.’ The word ‘egg’ almost slipped out but Max swallowed it in time.
‘That’s it?’ Casavin curled his lips in a sneer. ‘I thought you sold magimal eggs too? You do or you don’t?’
What the hell? Do you have to remind me of this word? Max pulled his hair and the magiman’s voice sounded unhappy. ‘Why are you guys suddenly all interested in magimal eggs anyway?’
‘All interested in?’ Casavin was startled to hear that. ‘Who else asked about magimal eggs?’
‘Some students from the same school as you, but you probably don’t know them anyway.’
‘Try me! There’s hardly anyone that I don’t know.’
‘Okay… Soarame, as I recall.’
‘Soarame?’ Casavin and his friends all knew this name for sure. ‘He came to buy magimal eggs? Did he not have one already?’
‘Yes, he had one. He came to check the species of his egg.’
‘Well, that must be a cat… Wait, what? It’s an egg? Another one?’ Casavin had heard rumours about a cat-like magimal belonging to Soarame — there was no way for Snower to be in Soarame’s dorm for months without some people hearing about it.
‘Another one?’ Max was also surprised. ‘That kid has more than one?’
‘Well, he seemed to have a high-ranking, cat-like magimal that hatched a while ago.’ Casavin was jealous. ‘What’s the egg this time?’
‘It’s a duck… no, a wingedsnake.’ Max’s surprise was beyond words. This little boy, with low magic power, capable of nothing, how the hell could he have so many high-ranking magimal eggs?
‘Crap, this kid is too damn lucky.’ Casavin and his friends were all making sour faces. ‘How does he deserve that?’
‘It’s not a big deal, it’s just two eggs.’ Max, although was even more jealous than these kids, had to put on a careless tone of voice.
‘Yeah, just two eggs, one of them is a level 7 and the other one may just be a Baron.’ a boy complained in a weird tone.
