8 - Chapter 8

“He meant he is an ally of our mentor.” Burris put the drink on the small table. He didn’t intend to hand it to Heisong himself.

“Oh…” The elf continued to look at Roth. “Judging from your appearance… Are you a warlock?”

Roth was a little surprised. Before opening the door, Burris expected that Heisong would ask this. Why did Burris guess so accurately? “Mhm, I am a warlock.” He replied happily. Over the elf’s shoulder, he saw Burris staring at him sadly.

“Sure enough, it’s a warlock…” Heisong floated back to the hall, seemingly not interested in Roth anymore. “Tsk, our mentor is so kind-hearted, helping any stranger, vampires, orcs….and warlocks. Little mage, what does this warlock stays here for?”

Burris replied: “I can’t speculate about our mentor’s intention.”

Heisong took a few sips of the drink, took out a few notes and a small bag and put them on the table: “Let’s talk about business. I want to give these things to our mentor, but he is not here, so you can keep them for him. Little mage, remember, these things are very important, you must not break them. This book records some magic theories I found in my adventure recently and there are three valuable ambers in the bag. A Trident Scorpion from Spearhead Island is bound in an amber, which is an extremely rare magic conduit….”

The scorpion was very ugly and was already dead, but even if it was alive, it was useless. This kind of amber looked interesting, but it had no magic value… Burris nodded seriously on the surface, silently saddened by his apprentice’s insight.

Heisong continued: “It’s a pity that our mentor is not here, I’m really out of luck. There should be available rooms in the mage tower now, so how about this? I can stay here until our mentor comes back. Since I can’t go up to the upper floors, the guest rooms on the first floor will be fine for me.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible.” Burris said. “Our mentor told me that no one, including other apprentices, could stay in the tower except the warlock and me.”

Heisong floated around in a his impatiently: “You are just a new little mage; you don’t even know the complicated relationship between master Burris and me. Go and help me clean up a room!”

“Really, that’s not possible.” Burris was grimacing. Child, what is the complicated relationship between you and me? Isn’t it just coming to me to cry if you are wronged or asking me for money if you don’t have? It’s really complicated to think that you’ve lived more than 200 years and you are not as mature as Estel in her twenties.

Burris approached the little round table, inwardly criticizing him. He took away the drink that had been drunk by Heisong. At this time, Heisong finally noticed the carnelian ring, which was always worn by Burris, and almost represented Burris himself. If Burris gave the ring to another person, then that person would also get dominance over the golems and the demi-hollow servants, which meant that he is almost the second master of the mage tower.

Heisong thought for a moment and asked: “Little mage, who actually are you…to master Burris?

“An apprentice.”

“You manage this tower, and you have the authority to handle many things for our mentor?”

“Our mentor allows me to make less important decisions.”

Heisong said with a smile: “Then I won’t wait for him. I’ll tell you first. This time I came back, mainly because…I would like to report my recent achievements to our mentor and ask him for his suggestions on future research. The Arcane is like a deep sky, and knowledge is endless, but the ability of ordinary life is limited by practical factors. Some things seem easy to do, but even when you try your best, you will encounter obstacles due to some unexpected reasons… such as the huge cost of exploration, such as the large amount of investment required before obtaining results…”

It’s coming, it’s coming, finally asking for money . Burris immediately answered: “Speaking of this, our mentor did leave something for you. I haven’t had time to give it to you.”

“What is it?” Heisong was so excited that even his accent temporarily changed back to Sago.

Burris handed the prepared gold coins and magic gems into the hands of the elf. Judging from his facial expression, Heisong was overjoyed for ‘getting money without needing to see his mentor’, but he was a little bit regretful about the amount.

“Thank our mentor for me.” The elf nodded to the ‘young mage’ and sat back on the bone chair. “Thank you too, little mage, thank you very much for your hospitality. It’s a shame not to see our mentor, but it has been a worthwhile trip to know a friend like you. Well, I still have important things to do, so I won’t stay in the tower.”

Burris followed the elf and opened the latch for him, watching him floating out of the tower.

He felt a little strange…Burris wore the ring mainly to shake Heisong and make himself look like a “person whom the archmage highly valued.” His goal was indeed achieved, but Heisong’s attitude was not normal…

Under normal circumstances, Heisong would stay a little longer after he got the money. If there were young apprentices present, he would have to boast about himself for a long time before he left…But today he was anxious to leave, and there was a serious and worried look in his eyes.

Just as Burris was about to close the door, Heisong, who was drifting far away, couldn’t help turning back: “Little mage, you…you really look like our mentor. Don’t worry, I will protect his reputation.”

What? Burris was stunned, and the elf’s chair had disappeared from view. The mage closed the door with a sigh. As soon as he turned around, Roth appeared behind him silently.

“Burris, you’re done.” Roth relied on his size, squinting at Burris condescendingly, with very deliberate pity in his eyes.

“What?” The mage’s face was blank.

“You lost your virtue in old age [1].” Roth said. “Didn’t you realize? Your acting was a bit too much, so the elf misunderstood you…”

“What’s the misunderstanding? He didn’t recognize me at all.”

Roth shook his head: “Did you not understand the meaning of his last sentence? Even I understood. He thought you were your son!”

This was too ridiculous! Burris said: “I have never been married, and I have never had a girlfriend, and even if I had a fleeting romance…My son shouldn’t have been around twenty! Otherwise, that could be said if I was in my sixties…”

“That’s why you lost your virtue in old age.”

“No, I’m more like my grandson.” Burris himself felt that this was strange. “At least the age is more appropriate…”

“But if you are your grandson, why should you cover up as an apprentice? What is there to be ashamed for an old mage taking in a grandson? No matter how the grandson came, no matter what your son or daughter went through, there is nothing to be ashamed of as a grandfather. You are not an aristocrat. Accepting illegitimate children can only show your kindness and compassion, no one will laugh at you. For a rich and influential person like you, only when you get an illegitimate child in old age is it worth disguising him as an ‘apprentice’ so that no one will laugh at you for being a dirty old man.”

Burris thought about it and found that Roth had a point. “Perhaps you are right…I lost my virtue in old age.” He raised his head towards the elevator disc. “Heisong will definitely tell others…And as far as I know, there are two halflings among his adventurer friends…”

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Roth continued: “That’s also good. In any case, you need to find a way to explain your appearance. It’s better to use their tricks against them, you will be your son.”

“Then what the original me is going to do?”

“Slowly think about it again. You are in your eighties, and in a few years, you can pretend to be dead and live as a son. ”

The floating disc rose slowly, carrying the two back to the study. “My Lord Roth, I think it’s wonderful.” Burris said. “You have been confined to a different plane, and you can only come back for seven days every 100 years. Why are you so familiar with worldly affairs and things like that?”

Roth paused after hearing the question. Burris perceived a tense atmosphere and quickly added: “I’m sorry, my Lord, perhaps my question has upset you. I just said it casually. It was a little abrupt…It wasn’t a question; you don’t have to answer me.”

“It’s all right.” Roth waved his hand and followed him into the study. “This question reminds me of a lot of regrets, but I am willing to answer you. Seriously, I have been waiting for you to ask me this, but you just don’t ask, you are suffocating me.”

Since you want to say so, can’t you take the initiative to talk to me? Burris resisted saying this sentence and sat down at the desk.

Roth sat down on the single sofa in front of the desk, and then said: “When a man gets out of trouble and is in a safe and happy environment, he wants to talk. The contents of the conversation may be very brief, or it may be embellished, that will change with the man’s personality…But in short, everyone needs to talk. Many men will say, ‘No, no, no, I don’t want to talk’… Do you think he really doesn’t want to talk? Then you are wrong. He just hadn’t found the most comfortable opportunity to do it. Deep down in his heart, he felt that it was a kind of weakness and shame to pour out his sorrow and dig into the past, so he didn’t want to dig it himself. It was better to let others take the initiative to dig…but not everyone can dig. It has to be someone who makes him feel good. It is best if this person is caring for him and is kind, and then he can follow the other person’s thinking and start talking about himself. In this way, he won’t appear weak anymore. He can say, ‘you asked me, I haven’t told anyone.’ After the conversation, the intimacy between the two persons will be greatly improved. The listener can get the pleasure of redeeming the other, and the talker will be very happy. He not only releases the pressure, but also gains the listener’s further trust by exposing his weak points slightly…”

Burris looked at Roth in a daze. For the first time, he saw someone expose himself so ruthlessly that he had shaken the motives behind the conversation clean before he started talking.

Roth looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then suddenly looked at Burris: “So you started asking me, right?”

“Mhm, yes…” Burris was almost embarrassed for him.

“Your question is, I can only be free for seven days every 100 years. How can I understand all aspects of the world? In fact, if you think about it carefully, it will be obvious. You have lived for more than 80 years. The first ten years you are basically ignorant. How many hundred years have I experienced? How many seven days? I can’t even calculate. Even if I just add those seven days together, I have experienced quite a long time.”

“It’s true.” Burris responded. “I realized that after I said it.”

“I don’t really understand the so-called ‘worldly affairs.’ “Roth continued. “The ‘seven days’ time and time again is like a drama to me. I stand far away and look at the stage, and learn about the world through those ‘dramas’… There are some things I can know without personal experience, but only the surface. I can understand what hatred is, what is love, what is sadness, what is happiness. I can describe the outline of snowy mountains and islands, and I know how war and conspiracy look. I can even make up a story of gratitude and enmity myself… but I have not really experienced them. I know a lot about this world, but I have experienced very little. It can be said that it is both familiar and unfamiliar to me.”

Burris discovered an interesting thing from these words: “You mentioned dramas. So, have you ever watched a real stage performance?”

“Yes, in some ‘seven days’ long ago.”

“What kind of drama was that?”

“I can’t remember the content; I just remember that the actors were very ugly. In fact, I have read a lot of books, all of which were found and brought back in those seven days, time and time again. It’s a pity that they were corrupted too quickly in the other world. They had rotten to pieces after a few decades, and it’s been impossible to store them.”

“How do you read?”

“Isn’t this question a bit insulting to my intelligence?”

Burris smiled apologetically. “No, I didn’t mean that. I mean…Since I first saw you that year, I have been collecting all kinds of documents that mentioned you. As far as I know, you are immune to many types of arcane magic, and completely immune to divine arts. Not only that, you can also understand all languages in the world…This is a kind of natural understanding, you don’t need to study certain words deliberately.”

Roth nodded, and Burris vaguely interpreted a strong sense of satisfaction in his eyes. “Yes.” Roth deliberately switched into Elvish and said: “Actually, I don’t know how many languages and signs exist in the world, but as long as I come into contact with a certain civilization, I can directly understand their language.”

“Your elvish is amazing.” Burris picked up his quill and wrote down the main points of the conversation in his open notebook. “Modern elvish, supplemented by the ancient elvish accent, is the most respected accent among elves today. Can you be more specific about magic immunity? ”

“Magic immunity? Have you talked about the part you are most interested in?” Asked Roth.

“That’s not what I am most interested in…”

“What are you most interested in?”

“This… I don’t know. Let’s talk about magic immunity first, all right?”

“No.” Roth again began to digress forcibly. “I can talk about magic immunity, but I am particularly curious about which aspect of me you are most interested in, just say it!”

T.N

[1] 晚节不保: This is an idiom. It means to lose one’s virtue or integrity in old age.

I’m very sleepy, sorry in advance if there are mistakes, please tell me.

Thanks for reading ?