40 - Chapter 40

Rosey Green was released by Nollard.

Perhaps out of a sense of debt, the prince arranged Rosey in a good cell. This cell was semi-underground, with windows, decent tables and wooden beds. Only civil servants and female prisoners had been held here before. Anyway, Rosey was wearing special shackles and couldn’t escape using magic.

In the early hours of the morning, Nollard went to visit Rosey. He ordered the guards to retreat to the two gates and chatted with Rosey alone for a long time.

A few minutes ago, the guards heard a scream from Nollard, and when they rushed to the door of the cell, the prisoner Rosey was gone. Nollard sat on the ground against the wall, the iron railing of the cell window was bent in two.

After looking at the scene, Roth was quite sure Rosey was released by Nollard. Nollard had studied in the Mages’ Academy anyway. Although his ability was average, he should still be able to bend two thin iron bars…The main thing was the iron bars were too thin! Even without magic, strong soldiers could bend them with their bare hands.

Nollard must have been waiting in the cell for a while, making sure Rosey was far away before he started screaming. Roth was very curious about what they were talking about, and maybe even what they were doing… After all, Nollard had been in the cell for a long time.

“Siegfried, help me find him.” The Skeleton King left the lord’s mansion and stood on the quiet street in the morning.

After receiving a response, he closed his eyes and opened them again. His blue eyes turned into scarlet flames: “Siegfried, show me what you see and feel.”

Now, what the Skeleton King sees are no longer empty streets, but cities and mountains and forests overlooking from the sky. Siegfried’s eyes led him across the entire Silver Falcon Castle, coiled a few times in the mountains, and suddenly dived down, stopping on the human warlock in front of a dead tree on a crossroad.

The wind pressure as the griffin landed shook Rosey. He looked at Siegfried in shock, his legs were weak, and he was unable to stand up. Although he had absorbed many elements of hell, he had never seen this huge crimson griffin with his own eyes.

“Rosey Green, where are you going?” The voice of the Skeleton King came out of the griffin’s mouth.

Rosey curled up behind the dead tree. “What are you? You…you are not a living creature…”

The griffin roared (at the suggestion of the King), his red and black hellish eyes fixed on Rosey, urging him to answer questions.

“Where am I going…?” Rosey whispered, “Yes, where am I going… I don’t even know.”

The Skeleton King said through Siegfried: “It is my power that helped you regain your youth.” Anyway, Siegfried’s power is also his creation, “Even if you can’t cast spells now, you should be able to feel this.”

Rosey closed his eyes intently and nodded slowly. He hadn’t read any books, and he didn’t know exactly what hell was and what was a plane of exile, but he could clearly feel that the creatures in front of him and their power definitely did not belong to this world.

“Your body is getting younger and your strength is growing, but you’re only thinking about revenge on your personal grudges?” The king sneered, “even if you kill that man and make him a corpse puppet, he can’t become your imaginary lover. Even if you kill his bloodline, destroy Silver Falcon and even the entire Sago…Sinig will not be able to return to you again.”

In fact, if Sinig had just died, she might have been resurrected…If she had not yet crossed the Black Lake and had not entered the realm of Otarot, he would have been able to forcibly drag her soul back. Although she could only be a soul returned in a corpse after coming back… it wouldn’t work now. She has been dead for so many years, and it is impossible for any sorcery or divine magic to find her again.

“Then what should I do…” Rosey leaned sullenly on the dead tree, and relaxed a little more now, “All these years have passed… I love them less and less, but I hate more and more. Indeed, I used to have some unrealistic fantasies about Lanto, but now… not anymore… I might even not love Sinig anymore. I just want Lanto to be tortured…why should I suffer alone?”

The Skeleton King sighed, and let the griffin take a few steps forward. “Rossey Green, don’t you ever want to leave this fate? Look over there –”. The Griffin looks up to the West. There is a huge black stone standing on the mountainside. “If you don’t wear this handcuff, can you cast a spell to break that stone?”

Rosey squinted and said, “It should be possible…”

“That’s it. You have such amazing power, but you don’t want to do anything, just want revenge on your brother-in-law or seduce your nephew!”

“I didn’t seduce my nephew!”

“You first use magic to tempt your little niece, and you want to perform the scene of the ‘Sister Abandoning her Brother’ again; then you use your body to seduce your nephew, and ask him to take you into the castle and make him help you escape.”

“You are right about Tarina, but I didn’t seduce Nollard!” Rosey yelled angrily, “Obviously he seduced me first! I… I did use him, I really just used him. That’s it…”

The griffin looked surprised, but humans could not distinguish the expression of a griffin. The Skeleton King’s tone was taunting, and it did not match the griffin’s expression. “Tsk, tsk, you blushed, what a shame, you are his uncle…”

Rosey wanted to say something, but the griffin stepped a front paw on the dead wood, and he swallowed it back. Being looked down by a huge otherworldly creature, the warlock who cannot cast spells was like a rabbit trampled by a wolf.

“I’m not here to laugh at you, warlock.” The Skeleton King made great effort to suppress his desire to stray from the subject, “Now you have a young and healthy body, your mind has returned to normal, and you have gained more strength…You should take a broader path, rather than go deeper and deeper in narrow grievances. I ask you, how does it feel to manipulate elements of another world? Is it interesting?”

Rosey didn’t speak, as if to relive the feeling. From the look in his eyes, the answer is of course yes.

The Skeleton King said: “The element you perceive comes from hell, and I can let you enjoy more…For example, the elements of the Divine Realm. Mages love to pursue their careers, and I don’t believe that warlocks have no ambition. As far as I know, in ancient times, it was warlocks who first became aware of Divine Magic, and then the priests were able to reconstruct their connection with the gods. Later, it was also the warlocks who discovered islands outside the mainland and helped people develop navigation technology. Some warlocks even took the initiative to use the power of elements to sail on ships…The power of those warlocks back then was average, maybe not as good as you, they could do so many things, you should be able to do more.”

Rosey listened quietly, his eyes getting more and more focused, and his expression was not as depressed as before. After listening, he nodded to the griffin. “Can I do something for you, lord from another world?”

“Yes. I really need your help,” said the king. “You have a keen sense of the elements, and I need you to be a ‘sniffer’ to find magic disturbances and thin spots for me, especially those with unknown elements. You need to find them, record their location and characteristics, and report to me regularly. I have a few of my men doing these things, and maybe you have to help each other when you need to. You’re a human warlock, and Warlock abilities are sometimes useful.”

Rosey frowned. “But… it’s dangerous. Elements from another world will erode warlocks. This time I just got a blessing in disguise. I don’t know what will happen next time…”

The King said: “I will give you an amulet. If you encounter unfamiliar energy again, the amulet will protect you from harm. In this way, you can enjoy the disturbance without worry, and I can get the information I want.”

Rosey immediately agreed, “Alright, I would love to, but how can I report to you?”

“Stretch out your hand.”

The warlock stretched out his shackled hands, and the griffin stuck his beak forward. Rosey flinched, but finally resisted the fear and did not retract his arm.

With a stroke of its beak, the griffin snapped the shackles that forbid casting spells into pieces. Just as Rosey was about to take back his hand, the griffin suddenly grabbed his right wrist and left a horizontal blood mark on it.

The wound is not deep, it looks no different from a normal cut… It even looks like a sign of suicide failure.

The Skeleton King said: “It’s going to heal very quickly, and then it’s going to leave a clear scar. With this scar, my subordinates and I can “see” you and find you at any time. Everything you report to my subordinates can be passed on to my mind. At the same time, this trace is also the amulet I just mentioned.”

After thinking about it, the King added: “Don’t get me wrong, I mean we can ‘see’ you, not that we have to look at you all the time. We also have our own lives; we are not so idle.”

The warlock gave a weak smile and slowly stood up with the dead tree. The griffin retreated a little and moved its wings. “Finally, I want to tell you. You must keep all this in secret, and do not disclose today’s conversation or my whereabouts to others. Don’t forget, we can see you any time.”

Rosey bowed. “I understand. After all, I have to hide my identity and whereabouts.”

The griffin nodded, flapped his wings and jumped into the sky. he Warlock silently bowed and dived into the dense forest.

****

In the evening, Prince Lanto revoked the order of arrest and recalled most of the knights to the castle.

The prince didn’t seem to mind letting the Red Vulture escape, but Nollard was more persistent about it. He led a small team to search the mountain forest day and night, and later stayed in the cabin for a few nights.

It is said that he was almost able to catch Rosey: During the days when he lived in the cabin, the soldiers took turns to watch the night at his command. One night, everyone was inexplicably sleepy and fell asleep until noon the next day. After waking up, he found that something was missing in the house, such as a backpack, clothing, and medicine. It must have been Rosey who came back.

Burris and Heisong were responsible for returning all the corpses to the graves, and they had to sew the broken corpses back to their original form. These things must be done at night. Directing the corpses during the day will scare the farmers in the fields.

The two mages spent seven or eight days upside down day and night, and finally finished everything.

Before leaving Silver Falcon Castle, Heisong talked to the ‘Apprentice Kreve’ for a long time. The general idea was that he hoped that the little mage would speak more kindly of him in front of his mentor, and don’t tell Burris about his stupidity. Burris agreed happily.

“Little mage, will you go back to the Mountains of No Return?” Heisong asked while waiting for the carriage. The bone chair was blown to pieces again, and he had no time to make a new one, so he could only choose to travel in a carriage for the moment.

“Yes. How about you?” Burris was also waiting for the carriage, and he hired one enough for six people, so that the skeleton king would not have reason to squeeze close to him.

Heisong fixed his hair and adjusted his image to be as gloomy as possible: “Not long ago, my old friends got an old treasure map. The text on it comes from a long-lost civilization. I need to help interpret it…”

Burris translated it in his heart: There is a barbarian, a Quintilian Island Elf, and two halflings among the adventurer friends of Heisong. All four are illiterate, speak lingua franca but cannot read and write, so Heisong is their senior cultural advisor. Oh, that island wizard is literate, but only in his native language.

Heisong said: “If our journey will pass through the Airuben Forest, I may have to go back to my hometown to take a look. I haven’t been back for a long time, I’m afraid many elves won’t recognize me. The last time I went back, they even suspected that I had some evil purpose… “

Burris continued to translate silently: You do have an evil purpose, and you plan to go home and ask for money. After you ask me for money, you have to go back to your hometown and ask for money again. our father is a frontier general in the forest settlement, and he often doesn’t live at home. Your mother has a very soft heart and will give you money every time. You make your image so gloomy that ordinary elves really don’t recognize you. Even if they recognize you, they will pretend not to know you.

Heisong looked sadly into the distance, and the carriage he hired seemed to be coming.

“Actually… I still want to find Odile,” he said affectionately, “I have been thinking a lot recently, and I can’t give up on her easily. You know, it’s hard for mages to be attracted to others. We’re too lonely and ambitious, and most of our energy is focused on magic… But once the mage is tempted, the flame in his heart is hard to extinguish. Because mages are very stubborn, mages are very good at persistence and patience.”

The carriage stopped in front of the mansion, and Heisong finished his deep speech. He adjusted his hood and said goodbye to the ‘Little Mage’ and the servants in the castle.

Heisong’s carriage drove away, and Roth’s voice suddenly sounded behind Burris. “The elf spoke well; it seems that he did not live in vain for so long.”

“My lord,” Burris pointed to the carriage that turned out of the street corner, “The carriage we hired has also arrived…”

Roth doesn’t get distracted. “Mages are very stubborn, so some mages never talk about emotions openly, even if you encourage him.”

The carriage stopped in front of them, and the two coachmen graciously helped them carry their luggage and open the door. After getting on the road, Roth sat comfortably on the spacious soft seat and looked at Burris on the opposite side with a smile. “Also, the mage is very good at persistence and patience. That’s why it took him more than sixty years to fulfill his promises and take the initiative to pull me into his current life.”

Translation notes:

Hi everyone! I hope everyone is doing okay. I had in mind to tell it before, I have been translating 炼狱 lian yu as hell, even though it means Purgatory. It was a decision based just on adaptation, because the place they always name doesn’t seem like “Purgatory”and phrases like “Purgatory on Earth” just feel wrong. Besides, demons inhabit lian yu in this novel, not souls waiting to be cleansed and then move on (The Black Lake is that place in this world). I know that in some cases lian yu can be translated as suffering, misery and even hell, so I left it like that. If you have a suggestion on this, please tell me.

If you see any mistake please tell me ?