2 The Wizard's Magic and Phosphorus

The chief guard mustered the strength to look up and calm down. He ran and caught up with the prince. "Your Highness, he must be real. He must be real. I witnessed him releasing flames."

Richard, who had arrived at the deepest part of the dungeon, paused in his tracks when he reached the last cell. Inside was a black-robed man who was dressed like a wizard. He looked extremely mysterious, however he was also in a very awkward state. He had been tied up with four iron chains, one on each hand and leg, and he could not move freely at all. A rope was stuffed in his mouth, supposedly to stop him from chanting spells.

At that moment, the man's expression was quite calm. No fear written on his face. He was different from the other three captives he had seen earlier. However, from his sharp gaze, Richard could tell that he might know some tricks and strategies. As such, the chances of him being a real wizard were near to zero.

"Your Highness, someone lodged a complaint about him stirring up trouble at a saloon. He refused to pay after eating, spread rumors about seeing a huge fire dragon, and claimed that he was a wizard. That caught my attention, so I led the soldiers to capture him.

"I witnessed him releasing flames when I captured him. He almost burned one of our soldiers. He's definitely a real wizard," the chief guard said. The next moment, the chief guard took a bag from his subordinate and carefully showed it to the prince. "Your Highness, these are his belongings. Inside are short staffs and all sorts of strange materials for casting spells."

At this juncture, the captured wizard in the cell spoke. Although a rope was stuffed in his mouth and his words were muffled, he still managed to threaten, "Y- You better release me… O- Or you will suffer my wrath. L- Let me tell you, I am a wizard. Do you know what a wizard can do? I can ride a fire dragon and easily kill you with my spells."

Richard ignored the wizard and reached for the bag. What greeted him after opening it were a few black wooden sticks, each with a length of over 20 centimeters, and a width of about one centimeter. The rest were bottles of unknown materials.

Richard opened one of these bottles and discovered a yellow wax-like substance inside. It gave off a faint smell akin to garlic. He could not help but let out a mocking laugh.

"Your Highness, you—"

"Is this the flame you saw?" Richard asked. As he spoke, he took out a short staff from the bag, dipped it in the yellow wax-like substance and struck it on the stone wall beside him.

The strong friction increased the temperature. Boom! A ball of fire emerged at one end of the short staff. At this moment, the entire staff looked like a large matchstick.

The chief guard's eyes popped out immediately. "Your Highness, could it be that you… know magic too?"

"What do you think?" Richard retorted. "I want to get to the bottom of magic and answer some other questions. But we need to be logical. Magic is magic, and tricks are tricks. If I could do magic, would I still need to waste time by getting you to capture people?"

"But you…" The chief guard could not help staring at the burning staff in Richard's hands.

"This is just phosphorus," said Richard. As he spoke, he threw the staff into a small puddle of water on the floor to extinguish the fire.

"Phosphorus?"

"Yes, phosphorus." Richard explained, "This yellow wax-like substance is called phosphorus. Its melting point is 44.1 °C, and it can be ignited at 34 °C. Even under humid conditions, it can ignite at around 40 °C, like what just happened. It can be used to produce matchsticks, smoke grenades or similar items. It has got nothing to do with the magic from the legends. So you've captured the wrong person again."

Richard gently patted the chief guard's shoulder as he spoke. Strangely, as Richard's hand landed, the chief guard's body sank further and further. He ended up sitting on the ground with a ghastly pale face, drained of any color.

He looked up with a terrified expression. Glancing at Richard's stoic face, the chief guard's heart froze with fear. Bang! The chief guard began to hit his head against the ground. "Your Highness, I did wrong, I did wrong. Please give me another chance. I will definitely capture the person you want."

"This will be the last chance."

The chief guard was in daze. He then nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes."

Richard took a step forward and held the fake wizard's bag, prepared to leave. But suddenly, his eyes swept across something, and he took out an item from the bag.

It was a piece of snake skin. Richard touched it, and it felt warm, as if it had just been roasted in front of a furnace. It looked very extraordinary, like the kind of item he had been wanting for.

Richard's eyes sharpened. He turned around and walked back to the cell. Holding the snake skin, he questioned the fake wizard, "Tell me what this is."

Unexpectedly, the fake wizard thought that he now had some bargaining power. He looked up with a proud expression, his nose high in the air, and refused to respond.

The chief guard tried too. "Your Highness, how should we deal with him?"

The wizard in the cell cast a murderous and vicious glance at him, seemingly saying, "How are you going to deal with me?! Let me go soon, or I'll make you pay for it."

Richard smiled coldly. He took out another stick from the bag, dipped it in phosphorus and ignited it with a strike against the wall. And he then threw the staff inside.

The flaming stick streaked across the air, traversed the iron bars of the cell, and landed in the cell of the locked up wizard. Upon contact with fire, the hay on the floor started burning. Very soon, flames and puffs of black smoke rose into the air.

Under the terrified gaze of the wizard, Richard turned around and said to the chief guard, "How do we deal with useless people? Release the sick people that you've captured. As for this prisoner… I am very annoyed with him. So burn him to death."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Good."

Tap, tap, tap. Richard walked to the exit. Behind him, the muffled grunts of the wizard gradually turned into words.

"Young man, you… come back.

"Let me go.

"Please.

"Your- Your Highness. I was wrong. I'll tell you about what you just asked.

"Your- Your Highness, I know you're interested in wizard-related stuff. That thing is the skin of a flame python."

Tap.

Richard suddenly stopped walking. Beside him, the chief guard had not even come to his senses when Richard ordered, "Put out the fire."

"Uh?" The chief guard was stunned. He hurriedly turned around and hollered furiously. More than 20 soldiers stumbled to them, each of them carrying a wooden bucket of water. They ran to the fake wizard's cell and threw the water into it without a moment of hesitation.

Splash, splash.

The fire was not big, so it was completely extinguished with about 10 buckets of water. Of course, the chained up wizard had also become a drowned rat.

Click. The cell doors opened. Richard stepped across the wet hay and entered the cell. He glanced at the wizard and signaled to the chief guard. Taking the hint, the man moved forward and removed the rope from the wizard's mouth.

The wizard heaved a sigh of relief. Before he could speak, Richard said, "You have one minute to convince me not to kill you. If what you say doesn't convince me, don't worry, your impending death will definitely be more miserable and painful than being burnt to death."

The wizard trembled all over. "I—"

"You have 50 seconds left."

The wizard understood immediately that his life was entirely up to him now. He said hurriedly, "Your Highness, I will tell the truth. I am not a wizard. I am just a swindler. I—"

Richard was disinterested in his honesty. He was expressionless when he reminded him, "40 seconds."

The wizard's voice got higher. "I know you're interested in wizards and magic. A few days ago, I witnessed a flame python. It must be of some use to you. The skin in the bag is one of the many pieces of the python skin that I picked up. I sold the rest of the pieces."

"You've seen the flame python? Tell me, when was this specifically?" Richard asked, staring into the eyes of the wizard.

The next moment, the wizard's eyes unknowingly moved down and to the right. Richard knew that this was a subconscious reaction when trying to recollect an event. As such, he was most probably telling the truth. He said, "It happened three days ago."

"Morning or afternoon?"

"Uh… Afternoon."

"How was the weather? Sunny or rainy?"

"Sunny."

"Where is the sun? Is it in front of you, behind you, to your left or to your right?"

"Uh… Left."

"How did it look?"

"Similar to an ordinary python. Just that it was in flames."

"What was its color?"

"Red."

"Body length?"

"More than three meters."

"How much more?"

"About… half a meter."

"Specific location."

"On a small hill about 10 kilometers from the city."

…

After a long time, Richard stopped interrogating him, and the chief guard whispered, "Your Highness. "

"Release him and tie him on a horse. Prepare a team of men and leave the city with me immediately."

"N- now?"

"Now," Richard said. "If we capture the flame python that he mentioned, we'll release him. If not, we'll cut his flesh piece by piece and feed it to the hounds."

"Er…"

"Your Highness, Your Highness!" the wizard yelled, terrified about getting killed. He reminded hurriedly, "Your Highness, you have to be well prepared to catch that python. After all, it's a living thing that went through a magical transformation."

"I'll get my men to bring more bows and arrows then." After pondering it, the chief guard added, "And a huge net—"

"That won't work. You can't use a net," said the wizard anxiously. "The python's entire body can turn into flames, the net will get burned."

"Tell me how then?"

"I…" The wizard's voice immediately softened.

"Bring the necessary, and select the smarter soldiers to come along," Richard decided. "Also..

"Go to the KGB [1. The KGB, translated in English as the Committee for State Security, was the secret police force that was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until 6 November 1991.] store and notify them to send their third steward to come with me in the search for the flame python. Ask him to bring the items I ordered."

"Yes."

…