GOR Chapter 244: How Did You Know That?

“This little bit will do? Are you certain?”

Chen Xiaolian clenched his fist tightly. He had made a cut on his palm and his blood dropped down into the cauldron.

After roughly ten plus drops, Merlin opened up his palm and handed a piece of dirty cloth over.

“Wrap it up yourself.”

“And here I thought…” Chen Xiaolian regarded the dirty piece of cloth and showed no hesitation in throwing it aside – if he were to use it to wrap his wound, he might end up contracting tetanus.

“Did you think I would be using a lot of blood?” Merlin gave a harrumph. “I am a warlock, not a vampire.”

“There are over 8,000 men in this army. Even if a little bit of my blood is needed for each, I think there won’t be enough to go around even if you suck me dry,” said Chen Xiaolian with a wry smile.

“You are mistaken.” Merlin shook his head, but his eyes remained fixed upon the cauldron.

After the drops of blood were added inside, the potion that had turned bluish green in colour gradually turned clear.

However, it still had that unpleasant smell.

“Will this stuff really be of use?” Chen Xiaolian frowned. He asked, “How do you plan on using it? Could it be you are going to get the soldiers to line up here, pinch their noses shut and gulp it down?”

“I only have this one cauldron. Pinch their nose and gulp it down?” Merlin pursed his lips to the side and said, “This cauldron had used up all of my herbs. Besides, it would be impossible to give this to every soldier in the army. I can only give priority to William’s personal guards and the elites from the Norman army.”

Chen Xiaolian keenly noticed that Merlin had said ‘William’ and not ‘King William’!

It would appear that the relationship between him and King William was not simply that of a monarch and his subject.

“Right, you haven’t said why you’re here.” Merlin finally pulled his gaze away from the cauldron and looked at Chen Xiaolian. “Did you find me for something? It would be best that you tell it to me now. I presently still have some time.”

“… how do you plan on winning this battle?”

Chen Xiaolian hesitated for a moment before speaking out his thoughts, “I have calculated the strength of both Harold’s and our armies. Our forces are about equal. However, even though we have mounted soldiers, even if our soldiers are somewhat more elite in comparison, this is Harold’s home turf. We might be able to beat him once or twice… but as long as he can hold on, he can use his position as King to mobilize even more troops. There is a very high chance of us being whittled down.

“As for your plan of mauling his personal forces and shaking his rule…

“That is certainly a plan. However… that is very risky.”

Merlin kept his mouth shut and he carefully regarded Chen Xiaolian. His eyes were gradually lighting up!

After a while, Merlin said in a low manner, “Garen from Demacia… you really don’t seem like a normal mercenary!

“You are literate, capable of reading military maps and even have some knowhow in leading soldiers – don’t look at me that way. After returning from the last battle, I had sent some men to ask the mercenaries that were following you and found out about how you dealt with those lazy and disorderly fellows.

“These are by no means qualities that a mercenary should have!

“Additionally… your thought process have now risen to greater heights! That opinion of yours had begun knocking upon the doors of military strategies.

“Tell me, all those knowledge, where did you learn them from?”

Chen Xiaolian mumbled inwardly: The Chinese Qidian website, do you know of it?

I’ve read hundreds of those novels of the historical and military types. I have also written quite a bit about those topics.

Just because I have never eaten pork doesn’t mean I have never seen a pig run about.

“I refuse to answer that question,” Chen Xiaolian said without any hint of timidness in his voice. “You too have not told me where you learnt your witchcraft.”

Merlin was silent.

He suddenly moved over until he was beside Chen Xiaolian. Then, he picked up a short knife that had been tossed down by the cauldron.

That was the knife given to Chen Xiaolian to make the cut on his palm.

Merlin held onto the knife and gripped it tightly!

“What now? Do you want to fight?” Chen Xiaolian smiled.

“My heart is telling me… you know a lot of things!” Merlin narrowed his eyes. “Even the question that you forwarded earlier on how to win this battle! Surely you already have an answer to that question!

“Don’t ask me how I know; I just have this strange feeling!

“Do not forget, I am a warlock! I have the ability to make predictions!

“Garen!”

Chen Xiaolian did not say anything.

Merlin suddenly turned the knife and positioned the blade toward his palm. He gently gripped it and took a deep breath. Then, he said, “It is possible for me to not ask you where you come from. It is possible for me to not ask you where you learnt of all these strange abilities. I can also ignore why you would appear in our army. I will also not ask you why you would be loyal to William!

“However… I know that you are a capable person, Garen!

“Back in the last battle, you did not fully display all your capabilities!

“You also know more!

“My intuition tells me that as long as you choose to go all out… perhaps, the key to us winning this war… would be you!”

Chen Xiaolian maintained his silence.

“I ask of you… help us!” Merlin suddenly bit down on his lips and spoke out those words!

“… I have always been standing on your side.”

“No! What I mean is for you to truly put your heart and all to help us!” Merlin inhaled deeply and said, “Display all of your abilities! Not just by standing on our side. Don’t hold anything back!

“I am certain that you have more skills that you can unleash!

“As long as you help us… we might truly be able to win this war – what I mean is a complete victory!

“Allow William to ascend to the throne of England!”

Chen Xiaolian pondered those words and turned toward Merlin. Looking into his eyes, he said, “My method is very simple… kill off Harold!

“Tomorrow, in the battlefield, kill off Harold!

“As long as Harold dies, then… all the problems would be solved. As long as Harold dies, even if there are still soldiers in London, once King William arrives before the gates of London, they will obediently open the gates and surrender!

“Harold is the soul of our enemies. He is the backbone! He is the one every soldier in the army gave their allegiance to. As long as he dies… everything would end!”

A highly astonished look appeared upon Merlin’s face.

“… this… is your method?”

"Yes."

“… … …”

Merlin suddenly laughed out and he said, “Ha ha ha… did you think that thought never crossed our minds? Oh, my God!

“At present, Harold is surrounded by a roughly 7,000 to 8,000 strong army! Additionally, he is now the King of England!

“As the King, he will not personally charge forward. He will be staying behind the army to give orders to his soldiers!

“In order to kill him, we will need to fight our way through an 8,000 strong army! Only then would we be able to reach him.

“After that, we will have to face his most elite personal guard army, the Dragonflag Army!

“Garen, this is your method?

“This would be the equivalent of looking at a drought and saying: Solving this problem is easy, we just need it to rain.

“Everyone knows that!

“However… how can we make it rain?!”

Chen Xiaolian narrowed his eyes and said, “You’re a warlock who knows magic… you can just make it rain.”

“Bloody Hell! Warlocks are not all powerful!”

Merlin abruptly shouted out.

“It’s the same as what you felt about me.” Chen Xiaolian deliberately used a faint tone of voice to speak, “I also feel that what you have shown so far is way beneath what you can actually do! Your true abilities should be far stronger than what you have shown so far.”

“… … …” Merlin was silent.

“I think, perhaps… we will need to build up the trust between the two of us first,” said Chen Xiaolian coolly. “I feel that there are a lot of secrets upon you. Naturally, you too feel the same about me.”

Merlin continued his state of silence.

Chen Xiaolian suddenly laughed out and he said loudly, “It seems… I came here for nothing. Since that is the case, I’ll take my leave.”

After saying that, Chen Xiaolian turned around to leave!

However, as he approached the entrance to the tent, Merlin suddenly spoke up!

“Wait.”

Chen Xiaolian turned around.

Looking at Merlin, he found that his face was, at the moment, seemingly scary!

“Truth be told… the first time I saw you, I thought… you are somewhat terrifying.”

Chen Xiaolian frowned. “Me? Terrifying?”

“That is a personal feeling,” said Merlin. He shook his head and a hint of perplexity appeared on his face. However, he soon recollected himself and his face returned to its solemn and cold state. “I… from the depths of my heart, this feeling rose. I reject you! I have this strong feeling of vigilance and fear toward you!

“In fact… for some unknown reason, I also felt traces of hatred toward you!

“I even… secretly made a divination on you.

“After that, the divination gave me an absurd result.”

“What is the result of the divination?”

“You want me to be totally honest? If so… fine! The results of my divination states that you…” Merlin stared at Chen Xiaolian and continued, “In the future, you will kill me.”

Me?

In the future, kill… Merlin?

Chen Xiaolian was shocked.

"That's ridiculous."

Chen Xiaolian said with a nervous voice.

“No, there is something more ridiculous.” Merlin revealed a peculiar smile and said, “The real results of my divination is that… actually… you have already killed me. I myself do not understand why that is the result.

“According to the results of my divination, I believe you will at some point in the future, kill me.

“Surprisingly, even though you are now standing before me, I have yet to die.

“And then there is the real result of the divination… you have ‘already’ killed me.”

“… I do not understand.” Chen Xiaolian shook his head. “You are making me confused.”

“It means, you’ve killed me. Yet, for some unknown reason, you reappeared in front of me. And the present me is not dead,” Merlin said coldly. “Don’t ask me. I also do not know how to explain it.

“Thus… every time I see you, I will feel a chill running down my spine. I get the feeling that you are a very dangerous person!

“Correct, dangerous!”

Listening to his words, Chen Xiaolian was unable to say anything else.

“All right, I have already told you the truth,” Merlin said coolly. “Since we are to speak the truth, both of us should do it. Now, I have already revealed one of my secrets. It’s your turn, Garen… right, I believe that is not your real name, right?”

Chen Xiaolian took a deep breath and said, “All right, my real name is Xiaolian (little face). [1]”

“A very small face?” Merlin was temporarily shocked and he smiled, “Quite the well deserved name. Then… I believe that this Demacia…”

“Naturally, that was also a made up place.” Chen Xiaolian shook his head and said, “My companions and I came from a very special place. Due to certain reasons, I am unable to tell you about it. However, I can tell you that my companions and I truly wish to help you. We want to help King William win this war and ascend the throne… mm, that is my secret.”

After saying that, Chen Xiaolian stared at Merlin and said, “Now, it’s your turn again.”

“Me again?” Merlin thought about it and he gently spoke out. “The others all say that I am an eccentric who came from the forest.

“Truth of the matter is, they are right.

“I grew up in the forest.

“In the stories, I was raised by the witch of the forest. There is also a story about how I was raised by a fairy of a lake.

“I can tell you this, I am indeed an orphan. My earliest memories were of me growing up in the forest.

“I was raised by a woman, she was a witch.

“However…”

When he spoke up to there, Merlin’s eyebrows knitted tightly together and he spat out, “She is this world’s most vicious, most terrifying and most despicable woman!

“I was abused by her for 27 years!

“A full 27 years!

“She used all kinds of terrifying witchcraft to abuse me. To her, I am just a test subject that she found!

“My earliest memories was of me being locked up in a scary little dark room every night. The only source of ventilation was a small hole the size of a fist. I cried and wailed in there!

“However, what I feared most was the coming of dawn!

“Because once dawn arrived, that terrible woman would wake up and… what awaited me was an entire day’s worth of torture! Various types of witchcraft were used on my body!”

Chen Xiaolian was shocked.

“In the end, as I gradually grew bigger, she gradually grew older… I learnt to be submissive and to conceal my feelings. I secretly learned up on her witchcraft! Then… one night, I finally managed to cut down one of the bars of my holding room and I crawled out – I used up to 2 years to cut off that bar!

“That very night, I personally slit her neck! I watched as she lay on her bed, clutching on the wound on her neck as she bled to death!

“She died before my very eyes. But before she died, she cursed me. She said: One day, I will be killed by another witch in a forest using this very same method.”

When he heard that, Chen Xiaolian was startled!

Because…

According to the widely accepted Western legends…

Merlin, the most famous magician in Western legend faced such an ending!

In the end, he was tricked by a witch. He was trapped inside an oak house within a forest and then killed!

“Do you know? Due to this curse, I have always refused to have any woman come by my side!

“You could say… the thing I hate the most is women!”

Those words were uttered out with utter coldness.

Suddenly, Chen Xiaolian’s face twisted!

The thing he hates the most… is women!

Wait! Wait!

Wait!

Several thoughts suddenly flashed through Chen Xiaolian’s mind!

Proficient in herbs…

Proficient in the field of medicine…

Uses witchcraft!!!

Hates women…

Merlin…

The Ripper… Jack!

Chen Xiaolian turned to look at Merlin. There was a bitter taste in his mouth.

“You… your name is Merlin. What about your full name? Could it be that there is the word ‘Jack’ in it?”

Merlin’s face twisted!

“You… how did you know that?!”

…

1 The name he gave Merlin is ‘小臉’ (little face) while his real name is ‘小練’ (little training).↩