12 - Chapter 12

Burris was immersed in the memory when Roth suddenly opened the door of the study happily: “Is this dog good-looking?”

“What dog?” The mage raised his head from the spread notes, pretending to be reading and writing carefully.

Roth held up a chubby brown puppy. “This one. I asked Anya for it.”

“Who is Anya?”

“A widow in Holly Village, the one with the orchard at home. There are many dogs in her family. One of them gave birth to eight puppies a few days ago. I wanted one.”

Burris’s expression distorted gradually at a speed so slow that was almost invisible to the naked eye. He was shocked. The Skeleton King was so adaptable that he had already made friends with the residents nearby and even met the young widow.

“You…what do you want a dog for?”

“Nothing. It’s just that this kind of dog is very cute. Don’t you have a lot of dogs in the yard behind your tower? One more is not too much. Besides, you have dedicated golems servants to take care of the animals, I believe they are very serious and professionals. There are too many dogs in Anya’s family. This one is in poor health and sick, and in her house most of them can’t survive.”

“Can we raise it?”

“Yes. I kissed it and gave it a little bit of my power. It will grow up healthily. ”

“All right…” Burris frowned. This was a dog that had received the power of a demigod. “I believe it will indeed be extremely healthy in the future. It will be terribly healthy…”

“Can you give it a name?” Roth stepped forward and presented the pup to Burris. Burris immediately snapped his fingers and closed all the notes that were spread on the table. Roth was amused by the mage’s reaction and he took the dog back into his arms and stopped it from approaching the desk

Burris looked at the puppy. “I can’t think of a good name, you can decide.”

He didn’t mean to be perfunctory; that was the truth. There were two cats in his tower, one was a real cat, and the other was a resurrected cat that was transformed by magic when he was in his forties. The live cat’s name is Kitten, and the dead cat’s name is Xiaohei [1], because it was black. The horses in his stable have no names, only numbers. The three dogs in the kennel are called wolf, bear and leopard…Surprisingly, Burris was particularly fond of naming his golems. Each one of them had a human name and he even distinguished them by gender.

Roth asked him about that the other day. Burris said that because living beings have self-awareness, even beast know how to settle down and live, so humans don’t have to worry too much about them. Presumably, animals have their own real ‘names’ in their calls, what humans give them is only a pronunciation so that they can recognize their call, so there is no need to think of names for animals. But golems are different. Golems have no self-awareness at all, and they are not living creatures. They accompany the mages every day—especially those who are developing secret projects and must fight alone. In some cases, the mage cannot bring human assistants into the secret laboratory and can only let a golem to provide assistance. If you have to be accompanied by a golem every day, then the golem should be given some anthropomorphic qualities and the mage himself would benefit from this. You will hypnotize yourself and feel like being accompanied by a living person.

At that time, Roth still was very emotional and said that he would accompany Burris himself. Burris refused him fearfully and politely –he could not help at all; it would only be a distraction.

Roth thought for a moment with the dog in his arms. “Let’s call it Count Hrolf.”

“Why ‘Count’?

“I conferred the title upon it.”

“All right…”

As soon as the mage’s voice fell, Count Hrolf suddenly barked at the window. The puppy’s barks were not very deterrent, but he still frightened the metal raven who was about to fly into the window.

Burris saw the bird hovering outside the window and marveled at the dog’s keenness. This dog was no longer an ordinary dog. It received the power from a demigod, so it became particularly sensitive to the sudden appearance of magical creatures.

Roth appeased Count Hrolf like a competent master. Burris opened the window and the raven landed on the bookshelf. The raven was Princess Estel’s messenger. Estel also had her own special quirks in making magical constructs. She deliberately let the metal raven have the habits of real animals, so it could be perfectly integrated into nature.

After stopping, the raven began to speak in Estel’s voice. “Mentor, I have something to report to you…Recently, some rumors about you have spread everywhere, some of which are really very…”

"

"

Burris hadn’t answered yet and Roth spoke first: “He lost his integrity in old age, right?”

“Are you still there?” The princess asked in surprise. “Ah, no…I mean, I didn’t think you would actually still be in the tower.”

“Of course I am. Let’s not talk about this yet. Your Highness, go ahead, what are the rumors about Burris? Does it mean that he has illegitimate children?”

Estel was silent for a while, as if she had guessed the whole story: “Mentor, have you seen Heisong? Did you see him with your current appearance?”

Burris sighed: “Yes. But he didn’t know I was myself.”

“I suspected it was him.” Said the princess. “Your appearance has been misunderstood as the ‘illegitimate son of Master Burris’. Many people say that you harassed a female apprentice when you were in your sixties and threatened her with her studies. She and you… Later, after she became pregnant and gave birth to a child, you left behind the baby and drove the female apprentice out of the tower… This is the simplest and most widespread version of the rumor, but not the most vicious…”

“What? There is a more vicious version?” The Skeleton King once again took the lead. “Go ahead! I’m so curious!”

Burris could imagine Estel’s expression at the moment and hoped that the frail child would not suffer from migraines. Estel sorted out her emotions and said: “It’s like this… Some bards like to make up dark and bloody stories to attract people’s attention. In the stories of those poets, although you are unmarried for life, you often take the girls from the mountain village back to the tower. They said that you and the girls had many children, and then you would take those poor mothers and children to do experiments…. In the end, only one child survived. The child’s personality was cruel and selfish. He didn’t care about the humiliation of his mother, he just wanted to get your trust and teachings…”

Burris sneered. “I wish I were so versatile. I have to experiment and catch young girls and have them give birth to many children…Unfortunately, people’s energy is limited.”

“There is another version.” Estel continued. “They said that the mage Burris fell in love with a woman when she was young, and then abandoned her in pursuit of magic, and at this time she was already pregnant. The child grew up beside his mother. After his mother died, he went to find his father alone. After all his hard work, he finally found the mage tower, but was unfortunately killed by the magic on the gate. When the mage found out, he was so remorseful that he picked up the bones and turned the child into a resurrected corpse… So even though the necromancer himself is over eighty years old, his son still seems to be only a teenager…”

The Skeleton King shook his head and said: “This version is not exciting and is not vicious either.”

Burris was not interested in evaluating the level of the playwright and didn’t want to listen to all the versions. He frowned and asked: “Estel, you definitely didn’t contact me just to tell me stories…did these rumors affect you?”

As her mentor, he knew Estel very well and his guess was very accurate. “Yes.” Said the princess. “When the rumors were spreading, I was dragged in somehow…The Sago people know about the alliance between my father and you, so some people think that I and the ‘mage’s illegitimate son’ have been secretly engaged. They also say that I often go to the mage tower not for medical treatment or visiting the old benefactor, but for meeting with the young man… ”

“You must suppress this rumor.” Burris said. “It can’t hurt me, nor you as a mage, but it will definitely affect you as a princess.”

“That’s what I’m worried about. I’m sorry, mentor. Maybe I shouldn’t disturb you with such stupid things, but I can’t discuss it with others, I can only tell you…”

“It doesn’t matter. Do you have something in mind?” Asked Burris.

Judging from her tone of voice, Estel was probably gritting her teeth: “I can catch Heisong… He is in Sago right now. He doesn’t know me, at least he doesn’t know I am a princess. I can contact the temple privately with some familiar officials, send a team of judgement knights to keep him under control, and find any reason to keep him in custody for ten days and a half month. I will specially arrange for him a prison with a strictly forbidden magic field…”

Burris clicked his tongue and shook his head. “It’s too late for you to catch him. What’s more, if you think about it, the rumors caused by Heisong will only spread among adventurers. As for nobles and common people? They are not interested in ‘the son of the necromancer’ at all, what they are really interested in is the love affairs of the princess. What you should extinguish is not the rumors about me, but about yourself.”

Estel immediately said: “You are right! In case Sir Naylor believes this…”

Upon hearing this, Burris interrupted her: “Sir Naylor? Sir Naylor of the Knights of the Black Cliff Castle? Why did you mention him all of a sudden? You haven’t separated yet? Are you still with him? It’s unbelievable!”

The princess was obviously feeling guilty: “I just said… If he believes the rumor, it will be very troublesome. He is loyal to my father and we get along quite well. He has a large number of troops in his hands, and I have to guarantee that he will always support me instead of becoming my enemy…”

Burris said: “Don’t quibble, I have lived more than eighty years old and have seen countless young people fall in love. I can see that you have always liked him. Estel, as I said many years ago, your relationship with him can only stay as one between monarch and minister, you can’t even be ordinary friends. Sir Naylor is an old-fashioned Otarot [2] believer, once he discovers that you are a mage, or even a researcher of necromancy… Do you think he will continue to support you? You have to alienate him so that he can always be loyal to you.”

“But mentor…”

“I want the best for you, think about it yourself.”

Roth poked Burris on the shoulder. “Don’t interfere if the other child is willing. People who really love each other will not be stopped by faith.”

Burris said: “You are right, but there are not so many people in the world who ‘really’ love each other. Most people talk about love just to make their lives more comfortable. Under this premise, Otarot believers and necromancers cannot tolerate each other.”

Unexpectedly, this time the Skeleton King who loves to stray from the topic didn’t insist on arguing.

“Mhm, so it is…” He sat on the edge of the table and looked out the window thoughtfully. Count Hrolf was already asleep in his arms.

T.N

[1] 小黑 : It means little black, I decided to let the name in pinyin.

[2] 奥塔罗 : It could be Austarot, Otarot, Ostarot. I really couldn’t find anything on this name. I think the author probably named this god inspired by the name Astaroth.

Thanks for reading, and as always, tell me if you spot a mistake 🙂