10 - Chapter 10

Roth chuckled and threw the towel back into the water, but Burris was sullen, staring at the sleeping elf.

“There are some troubles…”

“What troubles?” Roth asked. “Are you afraid that he won’t go when he wakes up?”

“That’s one trouble, of course.” Burris frowned. “He was attacked nearby, so it’s very likely that he would not dare to leave when he wakes up. Although he dresses himself like this, he is actually very timid…”

“A necromancer and still timid…”

“He is really timid, although he won’t admit it.” Burris sighed.

Roth thought for a while and asked: “Is Holly Village safe now?”

“It’s safe under normal circumstances…But now I’m not sure. You see, this brings me to the second trouble –I still don’t know what attacked Heisong.”

“Why don’t we do this?” Roth asked. “You go to rest and I’ll take the elf to Holly Village before he wakes up, and tomorrow I’ll make him wake up in a tavern room with a confused look. It just so happens that I can patrol the neighborhood by the way, and if there are any abnormalities, I can find out in time.”

“But…”

“Did you forget? I am immune to magic.” After saying that, Roth suddenly carried Burris in his arms to the door and opened it with his foot. Burris felt that it was inappropriate, and he awkwardly rejected it several times, but Roth would not let go of him.

“There is no one else in the tower.” Roth stood on the floating disc. “What’s wrong with a human being helped by a demigod? It’s all right, that’s not shameful at all. By the way, it reminds me of the past…I remember when we were walking in the snow…”

Burris leaned in his arms and smiled bitterly. “I’m too useless to speak about that. I haven’t made any progress after sixty years.”

“Don’t be modest. Outstanding people are not sincere when they are modest.” Roth said. “At that time you were hurt by other people, and this time it is you who want to save your apprentice; at that time you had nothing, and now you have become a very famous mage…. Can this be regarded as progress?”

The floating disc stopped on the living floor. Roth didn’t go to the lounge this time, instead he went straight to Burris’s bedroom. Anyway, those protective spells didn’t work on him, and no princess would dissuade him now.

There was nothing special about Burris’s bedroom. The decoration style was simple, and the furniture was plain without decoration, and it wasn’t as spacious and magnificent as Roth’s room. The only special thing in the room was the huge glass bay window, facing Burris’s bed. Thick blankets and cushions were stacked on the bottom of the wide windowsill. Silvery grey metal carvings on the window supported large pieces of glass that extended to the roof and formed an arc, blending with the curved ceiling. Standing in front of the window, you could look up the bright moon from different angles at any time, or you could also bathe in the first rays of the morning sun.

Roth looked at the delicate window and couldn’t help but mutter to himself a few words of admiration. Burris took advantage of this opportunity to break away from his embrace and sat on the bed by himself…It was too weird to be embraced and put on the bed. Fortunately, he found a chance to avoid this.

Roth approached the window and touched the glass: “It’s amazing… Burris, is this the one you mentioned…”

“What?” Burris’s mind was a little slow now.

“You mentioned it, one of your many dreams. ‘The huge window goes up to the ceiling, and you can sit and relax by the window and read a book’…. You really did it!”

“Oh, that” Burris lowered his head embarrassed. “I was almost talking nonsense at that time and you remember it so clearly.”

Roth laughed and shook his head. “That wasn’t nonsense, you spoke very coherently at that time…. By the way, what do you do in summer? Don’t you think it will be hot with too much glass?”

Burris was considering how to change the subject, it always made him a little uncomfortable to talk about the past…it was good that the Skeleton King’s ability to stray from the subject made him not worry about that anymore.

“It’s not hot in summer, my tower has a constant temperature in all seasons. What’s more, look—” Burris reached out his hand and touched one of the pieces of glass with magic. With a movement of his fingers, the glass he touched changed its color, from completely transparent to a translucent dark brown, from dark brown to opaque pure white, and then from white to transparent.

Burris explained: “I can change the light transmittance of each piece of glass, and I can also adjust the degree of sound insulation. Of course, there is a continuous protection outside the tower and there will be no unauthorized objects approaching the glass from the outside. In fact, this window is not made of glass, this material is called Clear Spring Crystal, it’s a special mineral very suitable for magical improvement.”

“That’s good.” Roth nodded. “Is it expensive?”

“Do you want to install this kind of window?”

“I don’t need such a high window. Just replace the glass of ordinary windows with this material. Is it expensive?”

“Objectively speaking, it’s expensive.” Burris said. “But it’s actually not much money. If you want, I can arrange for someone to prepare it…But, you know, even if you install it, you can’t control it yourself. You…can’t you only cast spells with a kiss? I don’t know if you can also deal with objects…”

“This glass has to be manipulated by magic?” Roth’s shoulders slumped.

“Yes. The most basic magic touch will do, junior apprentices also can do it. In short, you must use magic, it’s useless to touch it directly with your fingers.”

“Forget it, I can’t cast spells on the window, it doesn’t have a mouth.” Roth said. “Burris, help me open it.”

“What?”

“Can this window be opened? Help me open it.”

Burris helped him open one of the compartments, and the cool air slipped in. “No, no, a bit bigger.” Roth gestured with both hands. “The grid next to it is bigger, help me open it.”

“What the hell are you going to do?” Burris had the answer in his mind, he just couldn’t believe that the Skeleton King was going to do such an inexplicable thing.

Roth straightened his clothes in front of Burris’ floor-to-ceiling mirror. “I’m going out for inspection; didn’t we just agree on that? I’m going to the nearby forest to have a look, and then I’m going to come back and carry the elf to Holly Village. After that, I’m going to visit Holly Village and several other far away places…Burris, don’t speak, I know you have questions, you must want to ask me why I don’t go out through the main entrance.”

“Yes, why? Do you have a hobby of jumping from towers?”

“No. It’s like this…Although my ability to cast spells is limited, I have many special abilities that you humans have never seen before. I mean, my body’s own abilities, like walking, running and jumping, are like the breath of a dragon and the gaze of a water spirit; they are not magical, so they are not restricted. The reason why I plan to jump from the tower is because I want to show you one of my abilities…”

“What kind of ability do you want to show me? You…. can you fly directly up to the sky?” For Burris, that wasn’t hard to guess.

“Yes, I can fly. I know that you mages also have flying spells. Flying is not a strange thing. I mainly want to show it to you. The point is to show it ‘to you’, not ‘fly’. Can you understand that?”

No, I can’t understand that …Burris nodded for the moment. Roth saw that he didn’t understand, so he explained again. “Well, it’s like the plot in a literary work I read before…People often deliberately show something to someone in a close relationship, even if it’s not special. For example, a child asked his mother, mom, do you think I run fast? Hasn’t his mother seen anyone running? Or does the child think his mother can’t run? Also, for example, a man deliberately strips off his shirt in front of a girl and chops firewood to show her his muscles. Is this because the girl has never seen muscles? Or is it because the man’s body is so perfect? None of them! Behind these two examples is nothing more than people wanting to see praise in the eyes of those close to them. This is one of the many common weaknesses of people –it’s not enough to run or have muscles, those who care must praise these things to satisfy them. “

Burris tried to interrupt several times without success. At last, he understood what Roth was trying to say.

Again, he was surprised by the honesty of the Skeleton King. The courage to expose one’s inner purpose before taking action is indeed extremely difficult to see among humans.

“Well, open the window!” Roth urged.

Burris raised his hand. Because of fatigue, his fingertips were a little numb now, like after drinking alcohol to the point of being slightly drunk or having cervical spondylosis. He opened the window and a cold wind poured in, causing the bed curtains to flutter. Roth stretched his shoulders against the wind in front of the window, and a smaller version of dragon wings appeared behind him out of thin air.

Burris had seen these wings. Before leaving the other world, the corpse of the dragon behind the Skeleton King Throne absorbed countless fragments of white bones, forming a complete dragon. The shape of this dragon did not belong to any known type of real dragon, it looked like a picture in an epic fantasy picture book… It had the characteristics and majesty of a dragon and combines the advantages of all known dragons in appearance, but lacked the rationality of details and limb structure.

Perceiving the surprise in Burris’s eyes, Roth shook his wings contentedly: “You should have found out that it is not a real dragon. It is a part of my power –the part that cannot be fully represented in human form. In that long and boring time, I shaped it into the form of a dragon, because I like their appearance and they can fly. ”

Burris couldn’t help but point out: “But… I guess your flying ability does not rely on wings; you just need to activate this part of your power… Wings are completely ornamental.”

“Yes, but it looks so good.” Roth’s answer left no room for refutation

With that, he jumped out of the window lightly, hovered in the air, and turned around to blow a kiss to the mage in the room…Burris thought he would disappear into the night like a meteor, but he didn’t.

The Skeleton King opened his dragon wings, turned to the front of the tower, and began to levitate and move at a speed similar to that of a mosquito foraging.

Burris closed the large piece of glass, leaving only a small square open, and the books and bed curtains in the room finally ceased to rattle. He tried his best to resist tiredness and moved to the window, shouting from the small window: “My lord…is this normal?”

“It’s not normal…but…it’s normal. To put it simply….my power has temporarily deteriorated.”

No wonder you had to ride a horse the last time you went out … “In that case, why don’t you go out on horseback this time?” the mage suggested.

“Well, that’s what I decided just now.”

The Skeleton King with dragon’s wings on his back rotated slightly and fell slowly to the bottom of the tower.

Finally, chapter 10 is out. I edited some of the previous chapters, but minor things. The most important is that I decided to leave the name of the elf as it is, Heisong.

Thanks for reading, I hope you are enjoying this story, and as always, tell me if there is a mistake 🙂 😀