The next morning, when Agnes swung open the door, she was greeted by a chaotic scene. There, sprawled across the floor in the study, lay a figure snoring loudly as if oblivious to the disarray around him. Books were scattered in every direction, their pages askew and bindings askew—a stark contrast to the ticulous order she always maintained.
Agnes paused, one eyebrow arching in exasperation as she took in the ss. "I swear, if I have to clean up after you one more ti," she muttered under her breath. Despite the frustration etched on her face, there was a hint of amusent in her eyes.
With a deep sigh, she stepped into the study and picked up the parchnts she was looking for. She then silently closed the door and left.
When Ethan finally stirred awake, the soft light of late noon filtered through the study's window, revealing a scene of utter disarray.
Groggily, he sat up, his eyes blinking away the remnants of sleep as he took in the scattered books and strewn parchnts. With a tired yawn, he swung his legs over the edge of the desk and began to gather the loose papers, carefully stacking them as best he could. Enjoy more content from My Virtual Library Empire
"Thank god. The old hag must be busy with sothing. Otherwise, she would have killed for this."
As he tidied, mories of the previous night's studies flooded back, and he rembered he had actually found sothing important before he ended up falling asleep.
That's right. The disguise spell.
His heart quickened at the thought. The books he had read mainly talked about magic events and magic theories and so on. They had very few actual magic spells or magic words. The few that were talked about were high-tiered spells, which he needed more mana to cast.
But then he ca across the disguise spell. He quickly went back to the bookshelf to take out that particular book and flipped to the page he knew had the details of the spell.
"Vestis mutare, faciem novam,
In umbris abscondere,
transfiguro!"
Ethan repeated it a couple of tis. He morized the hand signs required for the spell and then gave it a try.
For a second, nothing happened. It made him wonder if the spell was successful at all, but then his face started itching. Itching a lot. This was followed by pain.
Ethan quickly ran over to a mirror that was in the corner of the room. When he caught his reflection, he nearly gasped.
His face, which had been so familiar just monts ago, was now in the throes of a strange transformation. At first, his skin had taken on a subtle, almost imperceptible shimr, but now it pulsed with an eerie, shifting glow.
His features—his eyes, his nose, even his jawline—seed to blur and warp in the dim light as if they were lting into sothing unrecognizable.
A sharp pang of pain shot through him, forcing him to press his hand against his cheek. The itching had escalated into a burning sensation.
Fuck! Did he just screw up badly?
"No, no, no..." he muttered, panic creeping into his voice. Had he mispronounced the incantation? Had he made an error in the hand gestures? Every possibility raced through his mind as he stared, wide-eyed, at the shifting reflection.
Slowly, the changes began to stabilize—though not in the way he had hoped. He looked… in a word. Ugly. It was not that he was very handso before. He had an ordinary, forgettable face, but this new appearance…
His face was longer. He had a lot of pimples. His nose was bulged in the center. He might as well say oink, oink and get over with it.
"Ah fuck, whatever. It gets the job done. No one should be able to recognize now." He turned to finish cleaning up the room and leave when suddenly the door opened.
Agnes froze in the doorway for a split second, her stern expression transforming into uncontrollable laughter. "Ba ha ha ha! Ba ha ha!" echoed her cackle through the house as she took in the sight of Ethan's altered face.
Agnes wiped a tear from her eye and stepped fully into the room, still chuckling. "Oh, Ethan," she managed between giggles, "you really outdid yourself this ti! I haven't seen a face like that since—well, ever! You are a really talented fellow, aren't you?"
Ethan shifted uncomfortably, his face still tingling with residual pain. "It—uh, it was supposed to be a disguise spell," he stamred. "I was aiming for unrecognizability, and I got it."
Agnes shook her head, still laughing. "Unrecognizable? My dear, if you wanted to hide, you've made a masterpiece of absurdity! Now, you're so ugly even the King would look right past you." She stepped closer, her amusent not lessening at all. "You do know that any mage worth his salt would see right through you."
Ethan wryly smiled. "I guess that is to be expected."
"When there are spells to hide, there are spells to expose." Agnes laughed. "But as for fooling the city guards, you should get by just fine."
Agnes gave a final shake of her head and, still cackling like a witch, headed toward the door. "Now, go on. Clean up this ss properly, and try not to scare any more books off the shelves. And rember. Water my damn plants before they start to wilt. Do I have to keep telling you every day?"
As the door closed behind her, Ethan looked at his reflection one last ti. He let out a sigh and hurried to finish all the tasks. Naturally, he first called Lia aside and told her to be extra careful not to let Luna outside on her own.
He did feel bad about house arresting a small kid, but he wanted to practise a couple more tis before he used the spell on Lia and Luna. With that, he ran to the fields to take care of the watering. Without Luna helping him, the load was going to be heavy today.
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