Silence—
A dead silence fell over the dragon's nest.
Irene and the lich sitting on the ground stared blankly at each other, neither of them even blinking.
After a long moment.
Irene was the first to break the silence.
“What... did you just call me?”
“Gah...” The newly resurrected lich still seemed unaccustomed to vocalizing. After letting out a few raspy, duck-like quacks...
He seemed to gradually adapt to his deceased body.
His voice slowly became much smoother.
Though it was still incredibly hoarse and unpleasant, sounding like fingernails scraping a blackboard, or two pieces of dry, old bark rubbing together.
“Ma...”
Seeing Irene's face gradually darken, the lich converted from the Gold Rank Archmage hesitated before changing his words. “Mo... Mother?”
Hearing this, Irene buried her face in her hands in exasperation.
She shook her head, feeling rather dejected.
She thought she had pulled a top-tier SSR, but it turned out to be a legendary idiot.
Heavens have mercy. By dragon standards, she was still a young dragoness in the flower of her youth, yet she had suddenly become a mother for no apparent reason.
And the main issue was the guy in front of her...
With his white beard and dry, wrinkled skin, he looked old enough to be her great-grandfather based on appearance alone.
To Irene, such a bizarre and twisted scene was practically a moral degradation and a complete distortion of humanity!
“Your Grace,” Fido, who was standing guard nearby, spoke up at the perfect moment. “Do you need me to handle this?”
As he spoke, he raised a hand and made a slicing motion across his neck.
His meaning was self-evident.
“Never mind. Let me take another look. All those materials can't go to waste,” Irene lowered her hands, her golden eyes staring at the lich, who was curiously scanning his surroundings.
“Besides, being able to communicate means he possesses intelligence, which isn't something ordinary low-tier undead can do. I think... it should be considered a success. I just don't know what went wrong to make him look a bit slow.”
Then, Irene squatted down, meeting the newly resurrected Rudolf's gaze, and asked, “Do you still remember who you are?”
“Uh...” Rudolf opened his mouth but didn't answer immediately. Instead, he pondered for a moment before saying hesitantly, “Am I your eldest son?”
‘Dammit! I don't have a son as old as you!’ Irene grumbled inwardly. Keeping her face calm, she said, “No, what I'm asking is, do you still remember your name and identity from when you were alive?”
Fearing this rather dimwitted lich wouldn't understand, Irene added, “Meaning, how much do you remember of your life before you became like this?”
After saying this, Irene stared sharply at the lich.
She had spent so many materials to resurrect this guy precisely to gain a talented subordinate for her own use.
Gar's power of imagination was too mystical, and he fell short in many areas. To put it simply, he had plenty of creativity but lacked a solid foundation.
If there were someone with a rich foundation of knowledge to cooperate with him, they could probably achieve a one-plus-one-equals-three effect, which would greatly accelerate their research into ancient beastkin technology.
And rapidly boost their overall strength.
If this guy had lost his former intelligence and became a brainless lich, what use would Irene have for him?
She might as well scrap him and try again to see if she could restore his memories.
“I... I...” A look of contemplation appeared on Rudolf's face, his expression gradually twisting as time passed.
In the end, he clutched his head and shook it violently.
Then he suddenly stopped, staring blankly at Irene with a sorrowful expression. His mouth opened and closed a few times, emitting a hoarse and apologetic voice:
“I'm sorry... Mother... My memories of when I was alive... seem to be missing...”
“Missing memories?”
Irene's eyes flickered as a possibility occurred to her. She pushed herself up with her legs, stepped forward, and pressed her hand onto the crown of Rudolf's head.
An invisible wave of mental power poured in through her palm.
Receiving such stimulation, Rudolf clearly sensed it. Although he had just been resurrected and his strength was far from its peak—in fact, he was still very weak—
But liches naturally possessed powerful mental strength, so he easily noticed Irene probing his soul fire.
Yet Rudolf did not resist. He merely strained his eyes upward, looking up along her black-and-red magic robes, his gaze lingering on Irene's face.
He couldn't help but think to himself: ‘Mother looks so young...’
A few seconds later, Irene withdrew her hand from Rudolf's head.
She let out a frustrated sigh.
“How is it, Your Grace?” Fido stepped forward two steps, asking with concern. “Did something go wrong?”
“Sigh...” Irene waved her hand. She looked down at Rudolf, who was tilting his head and staring at Fido, and said in a slightly disappointed tone, “A portion of his soul is missing.”
“I don't know if it's because he lost his heart, because he was frozen for too long, or because of the hundred-plus failed resurrection attempts.”
“In other words, before he was resurrected as a lich, his original soul was already full of holes. The moment he was resurrected, this shattered soul was patched back together and ignited into a soul fire, making it a brand-new soul.”
“So... aside from remembering some common knowledge, his memory is basically no different from that of a newborn child.”
“In that case, isn't he useless?” Fido looked Rudolf up and down, speaking with a mix of regret and indignation. “To think he wasted so much of Your Grace's energy. This is absolutely unforgivable!”
“Not necessarily,” Irene placed her hand on her chin. She raised her eyes to look at Rudolf, who had crawled up from the ground and was now circling Fido, occasionally poking and prodding him. “I recall he risked his life to send away a Silver Rank warrior back then.”
“Hmm... I believe his name was Moses?”
“Yes,” Fido grabbed Rudolf's head as the latter attempted to claw at his power armor. He straightened his arm to keep Rudolf at a distance, preventing him from touching him, and turned to continue speaking to Irene:
“Back then, Your Grace ordered that the man might still be useful, so we dug a dungeon and locked him up. We've been providing him with food and water daily to ensure he doesn't starve to death.”
“If nothing unexpected has happened, he should still be locked in the underground dungeon.”
“Hmm...” Irene bit her lip with her sharp dragon teeth and said, “Bring him here. Let's see if we can trigger some memories in our little lich.”
Rate on N.U.
