32 - Chapter 32

The knights of the realm surrounded the wooden house, and the two mages, Burris and Heisong, inspected the house. Heisong looked at the blood on the “young mage” with disgust. Burris also sighed at Heisong’s screaming behavior just now.

“You really are worthy of being…” The elf murmured.

Burris asked: “What am I worthy of being?”

“It’s true that you are worthy of being master Burris’…Uh, can I tell you the truth?” Heisong was looking at the flowers with a magnifying glass, waiting for the observation result. “You are related to him by blood, as I have seen for a long time. You are like him in every way… For example, he has a leisurely personality, a rather casual aesthetic, and a very weak temperament…”

Is that what my apprentice thinks of me? Burris couldn’t help asking: “Have you always seen him like that?”

“He is certainly like that, isn’t he?” Heisong said. “Of course, I know that our mentor is amazing. His knowledge level is unspeakable, his spellcasting ability is even more powerful, but he is special… Well, how can I say it? he lacks a sense of majesty. Little Mage, have you seen the current speaker of the Arcane Federation? You are so young, I guess you have never seen her. She is a particularly coercive human being. Although she is a skinny old lady, as long as she stops there, you can’t help but bow to her…”

Heisong was talking about Deloriete, who worked in the same laboratory as Burris. At that time, the Speaker of the Arcane Federation was Burris.

Then Heisong immediately said: “Before her, mentor Burris was the speaker. You already know that, don’t you? He resigned when he was about 60 years old, and he took the initiative to give up re-election. You see, our mentor is a great person, but he doesn’t have the temperament of a great man. It’s not that I speak ill of him… He is so careless that even the bookworms in the Tower of Truth of the Royal Capital look more powerful than him. He looks like an old man in the post office who writes letters for others.”

“He’s just more pragmatic…” Burris hadn’t seen the old men writing letters at the post office very much, and he didn’t know what those old men were like, or whether Heisong’s words were complimenting him or cursing him.

“I said you are like him, right?” Heisong honored him with talk and the next detection spells were basically done by Burris. “Your way of thinking is also very similar to him. For example, let me ask you something…”

“What?”

“What’s the name of Burris’s Tower?”

Burris was stunned: “Does that tower even have a name?”

“Can’t answer? Our mentor has never given a name to the tower! You see, the official mage tower in the capital of Sago is called ‘Truth’, and there is a wizard archmage in Quintilia, whose residence is called ‘The Tower of the Sea Abyss’. The three towers of the Hilda Academy are called ‘Daylight’, ‘Eternal Night’ and ‘Forest Spirit’. They are used to pay tribute to the Three Good Gods…The Training Institute on the Five Towers Peninsula also has several towers. Their naming is more arbitrary; they are called the first training tower and the second training tower…Anyway, they still have names. But our mentor, his tower has no name at all!”

Burris had never thought about such a problem. He felt it was incomprehensible what Heisong said. “That tower…it’s called Burris’ Tower. Of course, public institutions and teaching institutions need to be named. Why should a private tower be named? Do people name their homes, too? Not ‘so and so’s home’, but ‘Turquoise two-story cabin’?”

Heisong looked at the sky, dreaming happily: “The mage tower still has to have a name to be like that… If I have my own tower in the future, I will paint it white and then paint some lines to imitate the texture of bones, and the top of the tower must have a white dragon head… Uh, even if it’s really the first level, I can ask someone to sculpt one out of plaster. I want to call it the Pale Tower, which is a tribute to the ‘Icefield White Tower’…”

“Don’t do that.” Burris interrupted him coldly when he heard that words. “Do you know what the Icefield White Tower is all about?”

Heisong looked at the little mage nonchalantly: “Of course I know. There are many books about Yriel, and our mentor also mentioned him.”

“Then you should know that the Icefield White Tower was not a good place; it is not worth remembering.”

“Maybe, I haven’t been there.” Heisong shrugged. “After all, Yriel was famous. He ruled the frost plain, and the savages and necromancers there bowed to him. The Knights of Northern Star City sent several teams to kill him, but in the end, almost all the troops were destroyed…You know, when this happened, I was still preparing health potions in the Alruben Forest. Just hearing those legends made me shiver… Did our mentor tell you? He had met Yriel, and he dealt with him with the knights…”

When Heisong said the last sentence, Burris stood up abruptly, and the elf subconsciously took a step back. He didn’t understand why… The little mage looked at him calmly and coldly, his eyes piercing his heart.

“If you remember what our mentor said,” Burris said slowly, “then you should also remember that Yriel was a mad tyrant, not an idol of necromancers. The nomads on the frosty plains were captured by him, the displaced necromancers were his slaves, and none of those Knights of the Northern Star City who died received a merciful death.”

Heisong wanted to say something again, but Burris did not give him a chance to speak: “Can you understand what it means to be ‘captured’, what is a ‘slave’, and what is a ‘no good death’? It’s not that the lord smiles evilly and others just kneel and shiver. You have also seen wars, but have you seen the frail among the captives being ground into meat on the spot and fed to the giant beasts of another world? Have you ever seen a man skinned alive to make a skeleton warrior? When Yriel conquered an area, do you know what he would do first?”

“He would kill all the strong laborers and turn them into undead creatures. The undead are more loyal and they only know hard work. Women and children may survive, but it is not because Yriel was kind. He needed a woman’s uterus to give birth to various experimental organisms for him. And children are a mother’s weakness. For the sake of their children, those women didn’t dare to succumb and could only endure this kind of life. As for the other necromancers on the Ice Field…what do you think it means to obey? Does it mean yelling ‘Great Lord’ flatly? No, that means your life is in his hands, and he can tear your body and even your soul into pieces at any time.”

Heisong shuddered, and looked at the little mage blankly, unable to respond for a while.

Burris took a few deep breaths, and his tone eased a little: “In history, there were many mages who did terrible things for ambition and knowledge. This is normal, but Yriel was different. He was not pursuing anything else; he was just enjoying. Can you understand, he was enjoying the cruelty itself. I… Our mentor should have told you… Yriel was not a hero, but a shame among us. The Icefield White Tower is not just a dark symbol, it represents the fall of thousands of lives, and it represents countless souls that cannot rest peacefully.”

“Uh…I know…” Heisong twisted his robe nervously, as if returning to the first time he saw Burris.

It was many years ago, he had already mastered many spells, and he came to Burris to seek further study. When he first saw him, his arrogant and joking attitude towards others caused Burris’s displeasure. That was the first time Burris was angry with him, and it was the only time.

Burris banned him from using the floating disc, suppressed his ability to cast spells, forced him to hike up and down the tower every day, and made him sleep in the underground laboratory, taking care of corpses of various degrees of corruption…After several weeks of struggling with the loss of magic, he took the initiative to apologize to the servant whom he had mocked and frightened… and Burris lifted his punishment.

Now Heisong also wanted to apologize very much, from his soul. But when the words came to his lips… he couldn’t speak. After all, the one standing in front of him was not his mentor, but Kreve, an apprentice.

Even if Kreve is his mentor’s own son, even if he is right, even if he looks like his mentor in every aspect… but he is a young human apprentice! Heisong knew that he had said something wrong, and didn’t want to be humble to an apprentice…

“I’m sorry, I’m lecturing you.” At this time, Burris apologized first, and his imposing manner was weakened when he just said this. “I know some friends from the north, so I know more about these things…More than my mentor told me. As soon as you mention that tower, I feel really bad…”

Heisong quickly said: “It’s alright, it’s just that I spoke without thinking… Well, what’s next? This house seems to be alright and is not dangerous.”

Heisong hurriedly walked away, feeling extremely grateful. Fortunately, the little mage has a soft personality, and fortunately his mentor is not here… If my mentor hears me mentioning the Icefield White Tower, he is sure to make me clean the tower again without using magic…

After confirming that the wooden house was safe, the two mages let Charles and his sister go in and rest. Warlocks do not like making magic traps. For ordinary people, a warlock’s cabin is much safer than a mage’s residence. The only preset spell in the room is soothing. The warlock used it to soothe his body that was always impacted by elements. It had a certain alleviating effect on Tarina’s condition.

In this process, Roth unexpectedly did not participate in any discussion. He was standing beside Prince Lanto, and the two seemed to be discussing something in a low voice.

Prince Lanto’s face was as pale as Heisong. When talking to Roth, he kept staring at the flowers in the fence outside the house and had never walked into the cabin.

“Mage Heisong, come here.” The prince shouted after a while. “I need you to go back to Silver Falcon Castle.”

Heisong immediately stood beside the prince like a loyal old friend. He had long wanted to go back to the city, but he didn’t want to take the initiative to speak out.

Roth walked to the elf: “You have seen the Red Vulture, haven’t you?”

“I have seen him…” Heisong was nervous. This ‘ancient undead demon dragon’ just stared at him and made him shiver.

“If there is a conflict with him, can you defeat him?”

“Yes.” He said. “A warlock is just an arsonist.” Anyway, the ‘ancient undead demon dragon’ is not a real warlock and this would not offend him.

“The Red Vulture is different now.” Roth reminded him. “His appearance has become younger, and he is likely to have some power that does not belong to this world and is no longer just an arsonist.”

“No matter what power he has, his offensive mentality will not change. I have worked with him.”

“Alright.” At some point, Roth turned out to be the one who gave the orders. “The warlock Red Vulture was here just now. After we showed up, he escaped, and now he is probably in Silver Falcon. The Prince’s eldest son, Nollard is in danger, you have to go back and find him.”

At this time, Prince Lanto, who had been in a daze, said: “I will go back with the mage…I have to go back too.”

Roth held his shoulders: “Forget it, Your Highness. The Red Vulture hates you most, what if you meet him?”

Prince Lanto looked at the frightened kids in the house and shook his head. “It’s better to see him. Maybe I should have a good talk with him…Charles stay here, and accompany Tarina to rest first… The mages said the house was good for her illness. I will take half of the soldiers back to the city, and the others can stay to protect Charles and Tarina. Charles, these people are under your command.”

Charles looked at his father from afar and nodded solemnly. The prince said to himself: “You are safe to stay here. Those corpses may be fearful of the Red Vulture, so they dare not enter his house…”

Burris stood aside, full of doubts and unable to ask questions. After the prince and Heisong disappeared in the forest, he called Roth out of the courtyard and walked to a distance where the people in the house could not hear their conversation.

“My lord, did you just say that the Red Vulture hates Prince Lanto the most?” the mage asked. “Should the grievances between them not only be about durians?”

Roth’s eyes lit up: “You know what, the prince confessed a big secret to me!”

“Why would he confess a secret to you?” There were goosebumps on Burris’s body. Wouldn’t the Skeleton King kiss the Prince to cast a spell…

“Let’s make it clear first, I didn’t kiss him!” Roth saw through Burris’ concerns. “Remember the theory I once said? The theory of ‘people need to talk after suffering’. The same goes for Prince Lanto. At this point, what he needs most is someone to dig into his inner secrets step by step. The more sincere you dig, the more comfortable he will release his secrets.”

Burris glanced at the cabin: “I had a guess before. The Red Vulture…that is, Rosey Green. Is he related to the deceased Royal Highness?”

“So smart, worthy of being my mage.” Roth also looked at the rose bush in front of the house. “Rosey and Sinig are siblings. Before they met Prince Lanto, this was their home.”