Veiled | JHS | ✓

Baby J

Hoseok came short just before the entrance of the cave beside Sia and gaped as he saw exactly what she was pointing at.

The wizard from before, they had met at the marketplace, the one who had insulted Sia and informed them where to find the sorcerer was in there fumbling around in pajamas as he collected various pieces of glitters and gift wrappers from a messy mound of household articles inside the cave.

"Ah, you guys are here? You're late! Now, I'm late for that birthday party!"

Jung Hoseok stood and stared at the awful contrast between the wizard he saw yesterday and the wizard who stood before him, frolicking about with a unicorn horn on top of his messy ash-blond hair. The heck kind of duality was this? Was it even the same person?

"Nice to meet you, by the way. I'm Great Sorcerer V and I know exactly why you both are here."

Pulling out a tattered old plushie from within the mound of articles, he gave a satisfied grunt as he wrapped the paper around it in a messy ball.

Sia was the first one to snap out of her shock. "You are the Great Sorcerer V?"

"Just V would be fine and yes, I am. Also, my apologies for the way I behaved yesterday. I was only testing how good the 'good soul' standing over there was. Good news for you, he passed my test ."

"You were testing me?" Hoseok asked softly and the sorcerer gave him a nod. "Mhm. The Vile One's been ruining the reputation of us wizards for centuries now and I couldn't be sure, the evil rascal wasn't playing pretend inside there, scheming whatever crazy plots he was planning to trick everyone. "

"Then why didn't you just tell us that you were the sorcerer? Why did you make us come up here?" Sia asked, apparently unsatisfied with the apology.

The sorcerer paused in thought before he shrugged. "Just because."

"Just because?" Sia began but Hoseok cut her off before she could make things worse, "If you know why we came then..."

"Yup. Sorry to break it to ya but I can't help. There isn't much I can do cuz you both should find out the solution yourselves." The sorcerer replied nonchalantly.

"What?" Hoseok breathed in shock, unable to digest anything. "What do you mean?"

He had come so far. He'd gone through so much only to find out that the person who was supposed to be his savior can do nothing to help him. Was everything in vain?

"Then did we go through all this to come to find you for nothing?" Sia voiced out his thoughts as disappointment settled inside of him.

"Well..." The sorcerer dragged in a childish drawl. "It does seem a little unfair, isn't it?"

"A little?" Sia bit out, looking about ready to tear off the head of the wizard who drew a few steps back, apparently as affected as Hoseok gets when her burning gaze finds him.

"Fear not! I'll come up with something to make y'all happy. There should be something around here." The sorcerer went back to his mound, looking over the broken pieces of utensils and artifacts that had seen better days. Throwing stuff over his head, he murmured under his breath. "Not that. No, not that either..."

Finally, he let out a delighted squeal as he fished out a black toy sword from within the depths of the mountain. Looking towards Sia, he beckoned her forward. "Come here."

Sia scowled at him but did not move. He huffed, getting up from the ground and walking up to her himself. He shoved the toy sword into her hands, "There you go. This is a very important artifact. This is the deadly weapon they call 'The longsword of Obsidian' of a wizard or as I like to call 'The Sorcerer's Sword'."