23 - Chapter 23

After being examined by the Skeleton King himself, they found out that the corpse had a rare curse. To create such a resurrected corpse, the deceased must die in the place they were born, and their position deviation must not exceed ten miles. Before they die, the caster or their assistant must leave an emblem on the deceased and wait. After being buried for thirteen days, the corpse will open the tomb and return to the caster to await orders.

In general necromancy, the raised corpse either has no intelligence or has self-consciousness. As for which one is, it depends on the specific operation of the caster. This spell was different. It could make the corpse have intelligence during the execution of the command and return to the state of no intelligence automatically after their task ends or fails. In this way, the caster can not only let the corpses execute complex instructions, but also ensure that they will never betray them, and can prevent them from revealing their secrets if they fall into the enemy’s hands.

The Skeleton King knew what the emblem looked like. For the convenience of observation, Burris took out a book and asked him to draw the appearance of the emblem.

Prince Lanto continued to pace back and forth, looking at Roth from time to time: “Just now you said you can perceive the location of the caster?”

“Yes, I perceive it.” Roth just wanted to draw the landform on Burris’s book, but he thought it was too small to draw. So, he held up a charcoal pen and drew in the air: “if this is the royal capital, that position should be like this first, then this way, then northward…this way…about where is this?”

Burris didn’t understand at all. The king and the prince guessed the location Roth was referring to. After all, they had experience in leading soldiers to fight and had a very good imagination for terrain and space.

“You seem to be talking about…. The Moonset Mountains?” Asked King Passia.

“The caster is in the Moonset Mountains?” Prince Lanto was even more nervous than before. “The Moonset Mountains…maybe the person behind the scenes is a creature on the other side of the mountain. They want to use this sorcery to control me and find a chance to seize my fortress…”

But King Passia didn’t think so: “My brother, do you really think so? On the other side of the mountain is the territory of the barbarians and orcs. Can they cast such complicated spells? Even if they do, since they have mastered such terrifying spells and means, and also sent people…sent corpses into the palace, then why didn’t they just assassinate the king and the prince? If they can control me, wouldn’t it be a greater victory for them?”

Prince Lanto sighed: “It makes sense… But the thinking of those races is different from ours, maybe our guess is not true…”

“He wants to control you, maybe not for power at all.” Roth interrupted unruly. “I mean His Royal Highness. The caster must have a personal grudge against you. Just now Burris…his apprentice said that the deceased will wake up as a puppet after being buried for 13 days. If you die and you climb out of the tomb in silence after being buried for 13 days, can your army still listen to you? Can your family still trust you? Will they return the power to you? No, it would be strange if they didn’t burn you. The enemy does not want your status as a prince and your military power, what he wants is you!”

“There are many people who hate me.” Prince Lanto sneered. “Especially in the Moonset Mountains…After all, I was the commander-in-chief of that battle.”

Hearing this, Burris had to ask: “Your Royal Highness, there may be many barbarians and orcs who hate you, but how many spellcasters hate you?”

Prince Lanto immediately thought of the name: “The Red Vulture?”

“Do you think that warlock might have mastered this spell?”

“How would I know….?” The prince finally stopped pacing, pulled his chair and sat down dejectedly. “I don’t know much about magic, so I was looking for you… originally we wanted to find your mentor, but now no one knows where he is…”

The prince was depressed, and his eyes flickered. Burris felt that he wasn’t telling the truth…or he only told part of it, hiding some parts that he thought was difficult to tell.

“Mage Kreve.” His Majesty Passia said. “Prince Lanto and his family are about to leave the capital. I hope you can follow them to the Moonset Mountains. At this time, there must be some evil lurking in that land that we don’t understand…”

Burris had already understood what they meant. He was very willing to go, because he was also very curious about who was the caster who wanted to assassinate the prince, and that person might have a power that the outside world doesn’t understand.

“I’ll go too.” Roth took a step forward.

“Of course.” Prince Lanto was probably thinking about something else and was a little absent when he spoke. “Since you are also Burris’s friend, let’s go together. I also invited another…”

Burris suddenly had a bad feeling: “Who else is going to be involved in this matter?”

“One of my comrades-in-arms.” Said the prince. “Perhaps you know him? He is also a disciple of the mage Burris. He participated in that battle, and he knows the terrain of the mountains well.”

“Heisong?”

“Oh, you really know him.”

The group hit the road early the next morning. The prince and the guards were at the forefront, the eldest son Nollard and the second son Charles rode behind, and Burris shared a carriage with the thirteen-year-old Tarina. Roth got a docile and strong horse. He spent most of his time with the princess and the wizard, and sometimes ran forward and backward very lively.

At the end of the line was a prison cart sealed with iron sheets, packed with several dead but not stiff assassins. The most peculiar part of the whole procession was the necromancer Heisong, who did not ride a horse or carriage, but sat on a huge bone chair and floated with the procession.

Most of his old chair was broken. This new chair was bigger and weird. It used bison bones, rhino bones, elk bones, and even the bones of underwater creatures. A string of unknown creature skulls hanged on the back of the chair. Only Burris knew what it was—it was nothing. It was artificially fabricated from bones. There was no such creature in the world.

Both the king and the Prince did not agree that the terrible chair appeared in the capital, so Heisong specially stayed in the suburbs and joined the entourage after it left the city. When he saw Roth, Heisong obviously trembled and held on to the armrest with both hands. Burris saw this scene through the gap of the carriage curtain, which was somewhat strange.

Burris wished his spellcasting ability would recover quickly. If he could recover, he definitely would have opened a teleportation circle to reach their destination instantly. The bumps were a trivial matter. What was more tiring is that he had to take care of the little girl in front of him… He used to take care of 13-year-old Estel, who was also a bit naive and sick at that time. But generally speaking, she had a strong aristocratic temperament, which was relatively firm and optimistic. In this regard, the thirteen-year-old Tarina was completely different from her.

Before leaving the city, Tarina thanked ‘Kreve’ in a soft voice and talked about the weather and not essential topics. After leaving the city, she gradually stopped talking, and Burris did not take the initiative to raise any topics, and just concentrated on reading. It didn’t take long before Burris was startled by the sound of soft sobbing, and when he looked up, he saw Tarina leaning on the cushion of the carriage seat, pale and with tears streaming down her face.

Burris asked her what was wrong, and the child’s answer was far beyond his expectation: “Sir Mage, leave me alone. I am such a child who is not blessed by the gods… I have been cursed since I was a child. I have lost my mother, and I have no friends…I was almost killed by a durian… Even if you save me, my life is meaningless. I am not as smart as Nollard, nor as healthy as Charles. and not as beautiful as her highness Estelin…I can’t do anything well. I don’t know how to ride a horse. Even if I ride a carriage, I feel so uncomfortable that I don’t want to live… You see, what is the meaning of my life…boo hoo…”

What’s wrong with the kids now? How old are you to be talking like that? Burris wanted to educate her in a few words but felt that he should not be nosy to teach the Prince’s daughter. Tarina cried all morning, and Burris wanted to cry for help.

During noon break, Tarina was helped by the maid to rest on the lawn. Just as Burris was about to get out of the carriage, the prince’s eldest son, Nollard, suddenly got in.

As soon as he came in, he took the mage’s hand and kissed it. In the narrow carriage, this action was not gentlemanly at all, but it seemed very wretched…After that, Nollard used his good eloquence for several minutes, complimenting Burris’ green eyes several times. After talking hastily for a while, Nollard left the carriage and ran to Roth, and began to praise his blue eyes and ‘black hair like crow feathers’…When Burris sat on the lawn to straighten his legs, the eloquent eldest son got close to Heisong, sighed loudly for the amazing aura of the bone chair, and flattered Heisong’s white skin, black hair and beautiful apricot eyes…

Burris sat on the grass under the shade of the trees, watching the busy servants, and took a few deep breaths of fresh air. There was a familiar sound of footsteps around him, and he knew that Roth came over without needing to look up.

“It’s an interesting family.” Roth sat down beside Burris. “Each of them has different symptoms. It’s overwhelming.”

Burris rubbed his neck and said: “there are two days to go. I don’t know what to do…”

“Because that child is crying so much?”

“Isn’t it?” Burris sighed. “I have no children myself. I really don’t know how to comfort children. Estel was different back then. She was more sensible and didn’t need me to say anything.”

Roth suggested: “If you really want to be alone, I’ll take the carriage and you’ll ride a horse?”

Burris lowered his head embarrassedly: “My lord, I can’t ride a horse.”

“Then you can only watch her cry.” Roth looked at another shade of the tree. Tarina was still crying. The maid handed over the handkerchief at a loss, Charles stood by with a worried face, and Prince Lanto walked over to ask his daughter if she was unwell.

Seeing all this, Roth narrowed his eyes: “I don’t think that girl is well…”

“What’s wrong?” Burris asked.

“Her mental state is not right. There are more crying and noisy children in the world, but few children can keep crying all morning. And if you look closely, her eyes are extremely desperate, her complexion doesn’t look well, and she often twitches and trembles at a small frequency… This is definitely not a pretense. Also, look at the maids around her, they are so anxious that they are about to cry. If the little girl used to cry so much every day, they should have become accustomed to it.”

Mini Pig’s Paradise here:

Hi everyone! I hope you are enjoying the novel. This is an early (or late?) update, because somehow I forgot I’m still a student and I have exams and some homework that I totally forgot. I don’t think the updates are going to be delayed, but in case that happens it’s better to let you know the reason.

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Also, I’m translating another novel by the same author. It shares the world of this novel, but it’s set before Burris’s time (I’m not too sure about this, but it’s very probable). It’s darker and more serious than this story, and sometimes it’s very angsty (for me) and well, I started reading it last week and decided to translate it. Anyway, Burris’ novel is going to be my priority, with the chaotic updates it always has.

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