Merlin’s POV:

Almost eight weeks have passed since we left the village of Sameru, and we’re just a day away from the Lakium Forest. Over the course of the last few weeks, mother has tried to convince the girls of stopping to French-kiss me. Good luck, mom! Actually, she tried to convince me first, but after she realized that the instigators of those kisses were the girls, she stopped lecturing me and tried her luck with the girls. She thinks she has managed to stop them from doing so because, in public, the girls have passed from French-kissing me to simply kissing me in the lips, which is more appropriate for our age… little does she know that, at least once per week, they sneakily French-kiss me before going to bed, as soon as she falls asleep.

I’m annoyed by their conduct, I mean, it’d be different if they were fully developed women, and I was a fully grown man, but we’re kids, even if we kiss that way, there is no way for us to go any further, and that leaves a bad aftertaste, so I’d be glad if mother succeeded in convincing them to wait until our bodies have developed enough, before kissing me like that again! Anyway, I have just finished the rings, so I have to give them to the girls before a situation like the one a month ago happens again.

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Delia City, a month ago…

After several weeks of visiting villages on their way to the Lakium Forest, Emelyn and the kids arrived to Delia City. Fortunately to the group, in the rest of the villages they had been in, there was no evidence of any activity whatsoever from the cult of Abaddollyon, as for the occasional bandits who had the unfortunate idea of trying to assault their carriage, they were quickly dealt with magic.

They rented a room at an inn and then Emelyn said she had an errand to run, so she gave them a couple of silver each and told to go look around, but forbade them from going too far from where she was. She was back in half an hour, but that was enough for Lupa and Bastet to go missing. They had gotten separated from Merlin and Adelle when they run looking for sweets, and they still hadn’t come back. Emelyn enlisted the help of the city guards to look for them, and informed of the situation to the city lord. When he learned about Merlin’s status, he immediately ordered a lockdown on the city.

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Lupa’s POV:

Ugh? Where am I? My head hurts… The last thing I remember before passing out, was that weird man who threw some kind of powder to my face and to Bastet’s… Oh, gods! Don’t tell me we were kidnapped! Looks like Bastet is still unconscious, that’s good, she’d probably be hysterical by now otherwise… Hahaha. Damn, he’s seen me awake… I don’t want to have to deal with that man, I just want to take Bastet with me and go home with Merlin…

???: Oh? What do we have here? Your little friend over there hasn’t woken up yet, but that doesn’t matter. Do you see this here? This is a slavery collar and it is for you, your friend is already wearing one…

Lupa: No! Why are you doing this to us? *Please, Merlin, save us! Hurry up!*

???: Why? I’m a slave dealer, and you and your friend are some high quality material, so I can sell you for at least 2 white gold coins each.

Lupa: You can’t kidnap and enslave people just like that!

Slave dealer: Shut up fucking animal! You’re just livestock! A commodity, and a way for people like me to make a lot of gold!

There is also this kind of human… I got so used to Merlin and his family that I forgot the treatment beastmen usually get in human territory. But I never thought we’d be made into slaves… Huh? That’s strange, the slavery magic from the collar should have worked already, but it hasn’t… why? I don’t know why it didn’t work, but I can’t let that dealer realize that fact. Merlin, hurry up! I don’t know for how long we’ll be able to stall him…

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Merlin’s POV:

Lupa and Bastet are nowhere to be found, we did split when we were looking for sweets, and despite having agreed to come back before mother came out, they still haven’t come. They have disappeared. I’ve felt a burning sensation on my mating mark… Let’s hope it’s unrelated, I don’t want anything to happen to those girls…

It’s been an hour since the city is lockdown, but there isn’t any lead to where Lupa and Bastet might be… The burning sensation on my mating mark has returned, and it gets stronger by the second… I feel like I’m missing something… I’m gonna open my status window to check if there is something wrong with me…

*Ding*

Status WindowNameMerlin PendragonAge6Race**** HumanLevel8GenderMaleHealth1200/1200Health Regen.0.031 / SecMana172 891Mana Regen.0.061 / SecMagic

“Imagination Creation Magic (lv. 3)”

"Status Window Spell (lv. 2)"

"Analytic Observation Spell (lv. 10)"

“Elemental Magic (lv. 5)”

Attribute affinityFire (extraordinary), Water (extraordinary), Wind (extraordinary), Earth (extraordinary), Space-time (extraordinary), Light (extraordinary), Darkness (extraordinary), Non-attribute (extraordinary)Skills

“Otherworldly Martial Art: Aikido (lv. 8)”

“Otherworldly Martial Art: Karate (lv. 8)”

“Otherworldly Martial Art: Taekwondo (lv. 9)”

“Lotus Crescendus” (lv. 8)

“Ki Strengthening Technique (lv. 8)”

“Marked mate tracking (lv. 10)”

“Intermediate Compounding Av.In (lv. 10)”

Ok, nothing’s wrong with me… Wait, what?! I’m an idiot! How could I forget about that?! All this time looking for them, and I could have used the skill provided by the mating mark! So that’s why I have that burning sensation on it. It was trying to tell me that I should use that skill!

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After Merlin realized that he could track the girls’ location through the mating mark, he told his mother and used the skill.

* *

*

*Ok, found them!* thought Merlin. He told his mother that the girls seemed to be in a basement in a street next to the red light district. Emelyn was going to tell the city lord so that she could borrow some city guards and raid the place, but Merlin considered that the risk of the people responsible escaping was too high, and if they had a way to escape, then it was likely that they could bring Lupa and Bastet with them, so he decided to go in alone, because with him being a kid, the enemy would drop their guard and they wouldn’t immediately escape.

Emelyn: Merlin, I won’t allow it! You’re just a little kid, as your mother there is no way I’m letting you do this!

Merlin: Mother, please understand this is the only way we can make sure that Lupa and Bastet are there, and that they’re safe. They won’t suspect me and they’ll probably even try to catch me too, that’s precisely what makes this plan so perfect!

Emelyn: I still don’t want you to do it! Look Merlin, no mother would ever want her son to put himself in a dangerous situation, and I’m no different! I know your plan is the safest way to do it, but I can’t bring myself to let you do it!

Merlin: Lupa and Bastet are my fiancées, they’re important to me, and… I think I love them… anyway, I’m gonna do this, with your approval or without it!

Emelyn: Ok, if you’re going to be like that, let’s have it your way, but I’m going to keep a close watch and if I consider that the situation has become too dangerous, I’ll intervene with the help of the city guards! That’s the only way I can compromise and allow you to go ahead with your plan!

Merlin: Ok, mother. I understand. Thank you!

Emelyn still didn’t want him to do it, but she had seen that he was dead set on doing it his way to save the girls, she also was aware that Merlin’s plan would greatly reduce the chances of the girls getting hurt, however, as a mother, it was very difficult for her to let her 6-year-old son put himself into danger. She complied with Merlin’s wishes, but it didn’t mean she could shake off the uneasiness she was feeling…

As soon as he entered the basement, a man, who Merlin assumed would be the guy in charge of guarding the door, went towards him and threw sleeping powder to his face. Merlin recognized the sleeping powder and acted accordingly, however, the sleeping powder didn’t have any effect on him, thanks to his practice of alchemy, Merlin had acquired immunity to a few common poisons, which included the Morpheus Weed from which the sleeping powder was extracted.

Merlin’s acting fooled the guard, who brought him to the room where Lupa and Bastet were being kept. Bastet had just woken up and although she didn’t fully understand the situation, when she saw the guard bringing a supposedly unconscious Merlin into the room, she started weeping because she was afraid for him. Lupa on the other hand…

Lupa: MERLIN, NO! DON’T YOU DARE TO TOUCH HIM!

Slave dealer: Oh?! Somebody is hysterical! …Wait, you’re wearing the slavery collar, so how come that you can talk despite having been ordered not to? And who is this Merlin boy?

Merlin: Earl Merlin Pendragon, not at your service! Thank you for taking so good care of my fiancées, I’ll have to reward you for that!

Slave dealer: What? How are you awake? Weren’t you knocked out by the sleeping powder?

Merlin: SURPRISE! No, I wasn’t knocked out by it, that kind of thing doesn’t work on me, but that doesn’t matter right now, we should concentrate into the matter at hand: punishment! Today, my dear pupils, you are going to learn what is to be punished! Didn’t anyone ever tell you that there is someone you never should piss off if you’re smart, if you value the continuance of your own existence, if you have any hope of having a future, there is someone you never ever should piss off…

Slave dealer: And who would that be, you, little boy?

Merlin: A powerful magus! And, yes Mr. Slave dealer, in this case, ME!

Just as Merlin finished saying those words, a shriek reverberated through the basement, and all the slaves who were imprisoned in the other rooms of the basement couldn’t help but have goosebumps, for they knew that it had been the voice of the slave dealer. Merlin had reduced his family jewels to ashes with a fireball, while he had frozen the guard guy transforming him into a block of ice, which he then proceeded to shatter, killing the man inside. Then, Merlin turned to the girls, he used a spell of Space-Time attribute to age the materials of the collars to the point they became dust, and freed the girls.

When the orb transferred the inheritance to Merlin, it also gave him a protection against mind control-related magic (obviously, it would be really bad if someone controlled his mind and obtained the knowledge from the inheritance for the benefit of a third-party), and for what the girls had told him, the slavery collars had only nullified their magic, they hadn’t controlled the minds of the girls, which meant that, somehow, his protection against mind control-related magic had been passed to the girls through the mating mark, that was the only theory that made sense to Merlin.

When the slave dealer finally regained consciousness, he found himself surrounded by soldiers and arrested for kidnapping, rape and illegal enslavement. In the kingdom of Shephiran, slavery was legal, but very restricted. There were two kinds of slavery: debt slavery and crime slavery. Slaves of debt had the same rights as normal people, with the exception that they had to serve their owner until the debt was cleared, and the owners couldn’t force them to do anything which went against those rights (such as, the owner couldn’t order a slave of debt to lose his/her chastity).

On the other hand, slaves of crime didn’t have those rights and were treated the same as animals. In both cases, slavery was regulated by the law. The kidnapping and forceful enslavement of people outside of the law was punished with crime enslavement, in other words, by kidnapping and putting a slavery collar on Lupa and Bastet, once caught by the guards, the slave dealer had directly become a crime slave himself.

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Back to the present…

After that incident of Delia City, Merlin had thought of what he could do to prevent that situation from happening again, and after several days, he came up with an idea: enchanted rings. He had bought a ring for the girls at a stall, back in Delia City, and he had yet to give them to the girls, so before doing so, he decided to enchant the rings so that they would provide some protection to the girls.

For Lupa and Bastet he enchanted the rings with the effects: minor healing and slavery magic nullification. Adelle’s ring had two additional enchantments to the ones the other rings had: location and mind control nullification. That first enchantment would allow Merlin to find Adelle in a similar way as how he was able to locate the other girls through the mating mark. Had it been Adelle the one kidnapped instead of the girls, he wouldn’t have been able to find her and save her, and that simple thought terrified him. He didn’t know if it would prevent any problem in the future, but at least giving the girls some kind of protection would put his mind at ease, for now.

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