Chapter 22 – Giving the good news

The teleportation point in Laklostia chosen by Merlin, was located in a secluded section of the woods behind the village. He could have directly teleported into the garden of their house, but that would have raised suspicions about how they had gotten past the guards of the village without being seen. In order to avoid that, he decided to teleport into the woods and then enter the village in the carriage.

Merlin took the carriage out of the ring and after the horses were in place, the three girls went inside, while Merlin and Emelyn sat on the coachman’s seat. Then, they finally proceeded to go out of the woods and enter the village. Emelyn was surprised to see that the village guards had been replaced by soldiers, but she understood the reason when she remembered her son’s new aristocratic position. She wondered how much the village would change in the next years.

Merlin had originally planned to greet the chief of the village and the captain of the guards, and then go home with his family, but it didn’t go as planned. The chief of the village had told him about the freed slaves who had arrived in the village the previous day, they were camping outside of the village, waiting for his orders. Merlin had entered the village through the opposite gate, so he hadn’t seen them camping. He went to their camping site and after gathering them around him, he spoke to them.

Merlin: “Hi everyone, I’m Earl Merlin Pendragon, welcome to my territory! The works for the expansion of the village will begin in a few days, so you will soon have your own houses, but before that… Tomorrow, I’ll come here again and register your names, age and abilities for a better management. Also, if a certain number of you prefer to live together, it may be arranged. So please do say so before a place to stay is assigned to you. Ok, that’s all, see you again tomorrow!”

At that moment, Merlin didn’t notice their reverent gazes, not only had he freed them from slavery, he even planned to give them work and to provide them a place to stay… to them, he was their savior and they would die for him. He had already attained with them what rulers usually can’t with their subjects, he had obtained their undying loyalty, but Merlin wasn’t aware of that, yet.

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Pendragon house…

Anthon: “What did you just say?!”

Leyla: “Wow! Congratulations sis!”

Emelyn: “Thanks Leyla!”

Anthon: “B-but… A-are you sure you are pregnant?”

Emelyn: “Do you seriously think that I’d have cut short Merlin’s travel, come here, and told you… if I hadn’t checked beforehand?!”

Anthon: “I-I k-know… It’s just that I didn’t expect it, that’s all… After all, it’s been 6 years since the last time… so I didn’t even think about that possibility…”

Emelyn: “I’ll kill you later, now let’s tell the kids!”

Anthon: “Y-yes, ma’am”

After that, they gathered the children and told them the news. Merlin, Lupa, Bastet and Adelle knew about it beforehand, so they didn’t act out like Merlin’s brothers. After having dinner, they all quickly went to sleep. Merlin couldn’t wait to try out his new time-dilation spells in the training room, but he was too tired, so he went to sleep and left the experimentation for the following day.

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Somewhere in Shephiria…

???: I’m sorry, captain. We didn’t manage to find the target. Rumor has it that he left for the Lakium forest more than a month ago. I’ve sent people there, but I still haven’t received any report on the situation of the target!

Captain: So much for an elite squad of assassins! You aren’t even able to find a single 6-year-old child! What am I supposed to tell His Majesty when I see him? Luckily for us, I heard a rumor this morning, and if it’s true, the target should arrive to Laklostia in a month or so. Take your men there, and wait for him, then eliminate him and report back to me!

Assassin: Yes, sir!

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The following morning, Merlin woke up earlier than usual, took a parchment and started to write down the list of facilities he wanted to build in his territory: a library, barracks for his future private army… and also the things which would take priority to build in the immediate future: a barrier on the frontier, a centralized system with migration and commerce control… Merlin realized he was trying to do too many things at the same time, but the clock was ticking!

After thinking about it for a while, he came to the conclusion that his project was impossible in Laklostia, so he decided to build a new city from scratch a mile away from the village. For the construction of the city, he’d focus on efficiency over tradition and make a city which suited his future plans. As for the barrier around his territory, he wanted to give priority to it, but he didn’t have the means yet, so he could only wait, and for the moment, he’d just make a wall around the new city and then extend it to the frontier… it was just a temporary thing which would help to conceal his real intentions.

After making up his mind, Merlin started to think about how to build his city, and when he tried to picture it, the first thing which came into his mind were the medieval towns from Earth… along with their sanitation problems. Actually, in this world of magic, the sanitization wasn’t really a problem in big cities, because they had covert channels running next to the houses with engraved runes which negated the bad odor and prevented any disease from spreading, villages, however, weren’t usually that lucky. Laklostia was an exception among villages, probably due to being located in the same spot that the former capital of the kingdom of Avalon, this village had the same covert channeling as the big cities, despite being just a simple village.

*What should I do? * wondered Merlin, *What kind of city should I create? This city shall become the capital of my territory, therefore, it will become a symbol which represents me… That being the case, it can’t be something normal, it must be something which everyone will want to see at least once in their lives! * With that determination, he started sketching a city which would later be known as “The Palace of the Gods”, and he decided to name it “Ragnarök”.

Merlin took this name from the Norse mythology from Earth, he considered it an appropriate name, for what it implied, and because he planned to use this city as his base of operations to stop it from happening in this world, when the battle against the worshippers of the ancient devils came to it. He knew that if things went south and nothing else worked, he’d need a stronghold to protect himself and those he held dear. He also planned on making this city self-sufficient, so that even after years under siege, it would remain standing and allow its inhabitants to lead normal lives.

It was a very ambitious project, but he might be able to pull it off… At least that’s what Merlin hoped. When he was done sketching, he went to have breakfast with his family, showed them his sketches for the new city, and told them about his plans for the development of the city. Their reactions to his words weren’t quite what he had expected: his brothers and the girls didn’t understand anything, but the girls still considered the sketches “pretty”, Merlin’s parents on the other hand…

Anthon: “Did you really make these?!”

Emelyn: “Do you think this is really doable? It’s really beautiful, but I’ve never heard of a city built like this…”

Merlin: “That’s the point, mother. It has never been done before, it’s precisely this uniqueness that will attract the attention of the people towards the city… and make them miss what is underneath!”

Emelyn: “I see that you have thought this through… Ok, you have my support for this, but how do you plan on making the subterranean facilities without anyone noticing?”

Merlin: “I’ll show you something!”

Then Merlin ran to his room, took a wooden box and ran back, he put the box on the table and asked that everyone else than his parents went out of the room. Once he was alone with his parents, he opened the box and showed the contents to them.

Anthon: “Hmm, Merlin? These are just colored stones…”

Emelyn: “I don’t know, Anthon, this is Merlin we are talking about… I doubt this colored stones are that simple…”

Merlin: “Hahaha, you’ve got good eyes, mother. These stones are called ‘tunnelling stones’, they are color-coded and enchanted with runes, which gives them different effects, such as a tunnel upwards, a tunnel downwards, a small room, a big room…”

Emelyn: “Oh, with those you won’t have any problem… I understand now…”

Anthon: “Where did you get those?”

Emelyn: “Don’t ask him that, Anthon! Merlin, dear, put those away and hurry up… It’s already the time to go talk to the freed slaves and distribute the works for them.”

Merlin: “Ok, mother. I’ll be ready right away!”

After Merlin went out of the room, Anthon couldn’t resist anymore and asked Emelyn.

Anthon: “Emelyn, why did you stop me when I asked him about the origin of those stones?”

Emelyn: “Anthon, unless you want to put your whole family in danger, there are things that you are better not knowing… besides, don’t you think that others would have the same idea as you if they learnt about the stones?”

Anthon: “… Ok”

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Emelyn’s POV:

*My husband is definitely an idiot! * That’s the first thought I had when I woke up this morning. Yesterday, when I told him I was pregnant, he wasn’t just surprised, he even looked at me like I was either tricking him or it wasn’t his. *Idiot! I’m a faithful wife, who else’s could it be? * Granted, I haven’t gotten pregnant in six years, but it’s not like I had taken any measure to prevent it, the gods just didn’t deem it opportune! And now that idiot behaves like that, I swear to the gods, if he weren’t my husband I’d have already killed him!

*Ups! That’s not good, Emelyn, you’ve got to control your temperament…* Fortunately, I have my son Merlin to distract me from that kind of thoughts. He is a little genius and, albeit a little strange sometimes, he is brilliant. He takes after his father regarding women, though. Well, luckily for the girls on his little harem, he doesn’t seem to have lustful thoughts about other girls and when he accepts the love of a girl, he wholeheartedly reciprocates it… his father could learn a little from him on that respect!

(A/N: Well, Emelyn, what exactly did you expect from a 6-year-old boy? Besides, he is someone whose mental age is 31, how exactly did you expect him to have lustful thoughts towards three 5-year-old little girls, or other girls in their group age, for that matter?)

We went to have breakfast, Merlin was a little late, and when he arrived, he showed us something which left us speechless… He had made sketches depicting a new city, but it wasn’t anything like what I’ve ever seen before! If I had to describe it… it was like a jewel sculpted in the form of a city… If he really manages to build it, I don’t think there will be anything in the world which could possibly rival it!

As I continued to watch the sketches, there was one which picked my curiosity. It seemed to be an underground complex, it looked simple but I realized it was just the schematics for a really complex underground facility… almost like an underground city in itself. I really don’t understand what use this could have for Merlin or the city, but I know better than to ask him. Fortunately, Anthon didn’t realize that and simply thought it was the little boy’s secret base to play around…

My idiot of a husband asked Merlin how he intended to make the underground complex, because even with magic of the earth element, it would take him several months to make it… well, he was right on the money of that, except it wouldn’t be just several months but several years if he were to make the whole complex from the schematics… Actually, I was quite curious about that too. Then Merlin brought a wooden box with several enchanted stones inside, I guess he obtained them in the secret room in the well he had told me about.

The eyes of my idiot of a husband started shining when told about the enchanted stones… *Why is it that military-minded people are always thinking about the possible tactical use of whatever they are shown? * I scolded him and warned him that unless he wants to put our family in danger, he better keeps his mouth shut about this matter! Then, we finished breakfast and went with Merlin to see the freed slaves.

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