5 - Chapter 5

What Burris wanted to talk to the princess was about getting younger. Getting younger would bring him unlimited benefits, but it would also add a lot of unavoidable troubles. For example, how should he explain this to the outside world?

If he were the kind of lonely mage who stays at home all year round, then he wouldn’t need to worry about this, but he was not.

Before he was sixty years old, he was the speaker of the Arcane Federation. He was the only necromancer researcher who had ever served as speaker, it can even be said that he was the only necromancer who had not been excluded by his knowledge. The reason why he was not excluded is both simple and complicated: it is because he was not only a necromancer, but he also had more roles. He was inventor of new magic spells, designer of military golems, the head of the Magic Weapon Factory, the permanent consultant of the Adventurer’s Guild, the director of the Trading Company of the Confederation of Spellcasting Materials of the Ten Nations, and the director of the two big Arcane Academies of North and South…

The role of ‘necromancer’ may not be very honorable, but Burris was not just a necromancer. His titles were so prominent, no one could treat him as an ordinary mage.

Now comes the problem. It is impossible for Burris to disappear; he has to continue working and researching. He talked with Estel for a while, and they came out with several solutions, but none of them were perfect.

The first method: pretend that young Burris is the descendant of the “old mage”, and then claim that the old mage has died… This is not difficult to do. The problem is that many people know that Burris is lonely and has no children. If a descendant emerges immediately after his death, his identity will definitely be doubted by everyone.

Burris will have a sizable ‘heritage’. Even if the ‘young offspring’ can get credible proof, it is hard to guarantee that there won’t be people with evil intentions who will deliberately instigate to oppose him. Burris was not afraid of disputes, but those messy things took up too much energy, and he didn’t want to delay his normal research life.

The second method: reduce unnecessary meeting activities. In the occasion that he must be present, he will use magic to change himself back to his eighty-four-year-old face. Not an illusion, but a real physical transformation spell. This is a good way to reduce many unnecessary explanations, enough to cope with business activities… But what if it’s a meeting with a group of mages? Many senior mages attach detection magic to their lenses and even their eyes all year round. They will definitely find out that Burris’ face is rippling with endless spell waves…

The third method: directly explain to outsiders that Burris has become younger. Commercial organizations will definitely not react, they would just think, oh, after all, he is a mage, especially a necromancer, they won’t be surprised with what he has done…but his colleagues are not so easy to deal with. Other necromancers would definitely find ways to find out what method he used. It’s not an illusion, it’s not a time-limited change technique that is limited to the skin, and it’s not a corpse transformation… What else could that be? What can be done to really reverse the aging of the body? So far, no mage has been able to do this. If Burris told the truth, even if he said it was confidential, he would have been harassed by his peers for the rest of the days to come.

In the end, Burris could only choose to take one step at a time, mixing several different lies according to the situation. Estel is the princess of the Sago Empire, and she could also help Burris to arrange some convenience for explaining his identity when needed.

“After all, we must conceal the fact that the Skeleton King has regained his freedom.” Burris sat at the desk, holding his forehead. “He is a mixture of three kinds of life, ancient gods, infernal life, and necromancy resurrection. Common people don’t know what he is, but the mages and priests in the temple must have found traces of him in ancient books…Although those people probably won’t believe that he can really regain freedom.”

Estel thought for a while and asked: “Speaking of him…Mentor, in fact, I don’t quite understand, what kind of benefits the Skeleton King can bring to you? I know you have your reasons. Would it be convenient for you to explain it to me?”

Just now Burris had been frowning because of his appearance problem. When he heard this question, a smile appeared in the corner of his eyes. “It’s hard to say.” He shook his head. “Estel, you’ve read a lot of records about the Skeleton King, haven’t you?”

“Yes, I have read a lot.”

“Just looking at his identity, you should be able to imagine how many mysteries he has…It’s not easy to list out the benefits one by one. It’s not easy to say it in one or two words clearly. Research has to be done step by step.”

“I see.” Estel nodded. From what she knew about Burris, she could hear that the answer was only perfunctory. It seemed that Burris did not want to explain the detailed purpose to her at the moment. Estel was not in a hurry, studying magic made her understand the value of patience. She will know the reason sooner or later, so there is no need to rush things.

So, she changed to an equally important topic: “Mentor, about the Skeleton King…There is one more thing I don’t know if I should say… “

“You mentioned it. Can I not let you say it?”

The princess raised her head and looked at her mentor’s 20-year-old face in a complicated way: “Yesterday, after we returned to the tower, he carried you to the lounge.”

“Is that so?…That is really a bit of a surprise.” Burris pretended to lower his head and flip through things in the drawer. “I thought you carried me there with a floating disc…”

“What’s more, it was not Willis who helped you change your clothes, but the Skeleton King…”

Burris paused searching for things. He was silent for a second or two, then smiled unnaturally and said, “Oh…this is not surprising. I have many magic items on my body, and there are protective spells on my robe. They will protect me from harm when I lose consciousness…Fortunately it was him. If it were you or someone else, you might have been injured by my spells.”

Estel said: “He did trigger the spells on you. He was undressing you in the hallway, triggered all the spells that could be triggered…but nothing happened to him. He seemed to be immune to those spells.”

“That is not surprising… ” Burris murmured. He didn’t know yet that Estel was about to say something more unbelievable.

Estel lowered her head and squeezed her eyebrows and said: “It’s more than that. After doing that, he carried you to the sofa, and… then kissed you several times…on the lips.”

Burris was frozen in his seat, trying to maintain a calm expression on his face.

“And…he called you baby.” Estel added.

Burris coughed dryly and said, “Okay…I see. But Estel, why did you tell me this specifically?”

“The reason is simple, don’t laugh at me.” Estel said, “I haven’t had any dealings with otherworldly creatures, so I don’t know if his behavior is normal, but from my own standpoint…If I fainted and lost consciousness and I were kissed and touched unconsciously, I would like someone to tell me afterwards and let me know what happened during that period. Whether I want it or not, let me know the truth. If necessary, this bystander can testify for me… These thoughts have nothing to do with magic, they are probably just a kind of vigilance of women. “

Burris had a faint stomachache and a fever on his face. It seems that in Estel’s eyes, yesterday her mentor was not the spellcaster who passed out in the collapse of the plane, but a palace maid who fainted after drinking for the first time…Young and naive, not in the least guarded against the dangerous man who had just been out of prison a few hours ago and she wasn’t even aware he had taken liberties with her.

“Um, I see, thank you for your carefulness.” Burris said as calmly as possible. “I guess the Skeleton King is not too familiar with the way people communicate. I will talk to him in the future. “

“By the way, he said his name was Roth…” Estel said.

“Yes, he told me. It’s a very simple name.”

“Now he…”

“He said he’s going to go out for a walk, maybe he will be back in the evening or tomorrow morning.”

Estel was surprised by her mentor’s imprudence: “You just let him go out alone?”

“He has been trapped for so long, so he should relax.”

“That’s not the problem…Aren’t you worried that he will do something excessive?”

That kind of smile appeared on Burris’ face again –Estel had always suspected that this kind of smile was quite meaningful, but she didn’t know how to ask about it.

“It’s all right. He’s not the type of person who’s difficult to communicate.” Burris said. “I don’t think he’ll give me any trouble.”

“Do you have the confidence to control him?”

“No, it’s not about control. I’m just…”

As he spoke, Burris just looked down at his finger. At the age of twenty, he had a pair of white and slender hands. The only drawback is that the joints of these hands are a bit big, and the tips of three of them are a little twisted.

Burris’s eyes seemed to go through time and space, and see these hands on the snow, slowly sinking into the snow.

“I just… know him a little bit.” His smile gradually faded as he finished the second half of the sentence.

After Estel left, Burris rectified his emotions and reinvested in daily research. In the past few years, he has been developing new magical weapons, but because recently he has been busy building golems and visiting the other world, this research has been put on hold. Now it is time to get everything back on track.

He had a healthy body, dexterous hands, got rid of unstable blood pressure and osteoporosis; he should be able to improve a lot his efficiency in the experiments. But after spending more than an hour in the laboratory, he gradually realized that…something was very wrong.

Not only did he fail to improve his efficiency, but he might be facing a huge trouble.

When he tried to cast a high-level spell on the spell pool, he failed. The spell was correct, the materials were complete, and there was no problem with the casting process, but he just couldn’t evoke the corresponding power in his soul.

This was pretty dreadful sign. He immediately remembered what he felt when he entered the study: the magic around him still recognized him and served him, but his body felt abnormal fluctuations.

He immediately tried several other spells. From the necromancy method he is best at to the elemental force field he is not good at, from the highest level of magic he can cast to the low-level spells of the same method…the experiment continued until dusk, and Burris had a preliminary answer in his heart.

Now he could hardly cast any high-level spells.

Any magic that a true twenty-year-old mage could use back then can also be successfully used by him now; whatever he hadn’t learned back then, he cannot use it now.

To his little relief, he had no problem with his memory and knowledge. In a sense, he did not ‘lose’ those spells. All the incantations, techniques and spirituality were still in his mind. The problem was that his body and soul could not be completely synchronized. Even if he made a perfect casting process, his body could not establish the connection between the spell and its final effect.

By this time, Estel had left the tower and returned to the princess’s honor guard. Burris wanted to call her back, but he gave up the idea before releasing the messenger bird. Estel was a princess after all. The outside world only knows that she needs to see a necromancer for medical treatment for a long time, but they don’t know that she is also a mage. It was not a good idea to let her contact magic constructs in front of servants and knights. What’s more, even if she came back, it would be useless, her knowledge was not enough to help Burris in the predicament he’s facing.

Maybe the Skeleton King could help him. Burris wrote several summons runes and sent them to Roth, who was having fun outside. He wished he could come back quickly, even though those many kisses.

The author has something to say:

I’m not happy if I don’t weaken the protagonist.