Merlin started to put his plan into motion. He went downstairs and asked not to be disturbed that night, which meant that the girls, instead of sleeping in his room, would be sleeping in the guest room. It pained Merlin to see the faces the girls made when they were told they’d have to sleep in the guest room that night, but there was no way around it, for no one could notice him disappearing in the middle of the night.

Back in his room, Merlin locked the door and changed into a more appropriate attire for the actions he intended to take that night. If someone of his generation in his previous world were to see him at that time, they would have probably recognized his new attire. It was very similar to the Assassin’s Creed outfit he had once worn in Hallowe’en. And he thought that, given the role he was going to play that night, few attires were more appropriate than that one.

From the information he had obtained of the assassins, he had a fairly clear idea of the layout of the Palace in the capital of Klausna Kingdom. Although it wasn’t perfect, he was convinced of being able to get to the Palace without getting lost. Entering the Palace was a different matter, he knew for the assassins where the entrance to a secret tunnel was located inside the royal chamber, but he only had a general idea of the area where he could find the exit of the said tunnel.

Merlin couldn’t help but appreciate the advantages of having inside information *It sure comes in handy knowing a way to enter the Palace bypassing all the guards… The troublesome part now is to find the hidden door of the tunnel’s exit, if the assassins knew of its exact location, that would have saved me some time. Too bad they were blindfolded when they were taken there…*. However, when he used Lokiseth’s divine power to search the minds of the assassins, part of the information obtained was fragmented, and he only caught glimpses of their memories, which meant that he had enough to use the teleportation stone to go to the capital of Klausna Kingdom, but that was as far as the information was going to take him.

Palaces usually had anti-teleportation barriers, which made impossible for Merlin to use the teleportation stone to appear directly inside the royal chambers. The second best option, then, was to find the hidden exit of the secret tunnel and use it as an entrance. Merlin’s choice was clear, the second option gave him more chances of succeeding, so he took it.

Had he chosen to directly teleport into the royal chambers, he could encounter unforeseen circumstances and get caught without even having the chance of realizing his plan. Take a different timing in a change of guards, for example, or even the king having a nightmare and being awake when he materialized there out of thin air… Going through the tunnel would make unforeseen events easier to deal with!

After he put on a mask under the hood, Merlin went out of the room through the window, he made sure everyone else in the house was already asleep and then left through the back yard. Once he was at a safe distance from the house, Merlin took out the teleportation stone and disappeared from Laklostia. A few seconds later, he materialized in the shadows of an alleyway close to the east gate of Klansa, the capital of Klausna Kingdom *It sure comes in handy to have a teleportation stone… I’m very lucky to have one!*. He was going out of the alleyway when he heard the rhythmic sound made, but the city guards coming his way. It startled him at first, but he then heard their conversation and relaxed.

Guard 1: “Hey, guys, have you heard the latest news?”

Guard 2: “What are you talking about? If it’s about that kid who got himself made into an Earl and given a territory on the border with our kingdom as his fief, then that’s old news!”

Guard 3: “Seriously, what was that king thinking when he did that?!”

Guard 2: “I don’t know, but it sure will help us if the rumors of a new war with the kingdom of Shephiran in a couple of years turn out to be true… After all, what kind of countermeasures for an eventual war could a 6-year-old prepare? That’s just as gifting that territory to our kingdom!”

On his hiding spot, Merlin snickered at the statement of the guard and thought*That might be true if it were a normal 6-year-old, but if you underestimate me that much, then you’re in for a big surprise, pal!*

Guard 1: “It wasn’t about that!”

Guard 3: “What news were you talking about, then?”

Guard 1: “You guys know that my wife works as a maid in the Palace, don’t you?”

Guard 2: “Yeah, we know. That’s how you end up knowing all the juicy rumors of the Palace before anyone else! Now tell us what it is, you are killing us with the curiosity!”

Guard 1: “Do you guys remember how a few months ago the King crushed the noble house of Zircon, just because he wanted to make its heir’s newlywed wife his concubine?”

Guard 2: “Everyone heard the Zircons were done for, but none knew the specifics… So that’s what actually happened, no wonder she threw herself from the tower of the Palace a couple of weeks later…”

Guard 1: “Yeah, it really stirred uneasiness among the nobility! But that’s nothing compared with what the king did 3 days ago!”

Guard 3: “3 days ago? Does it have anything to do with the dressing contest of young ladies? Or is it about the crown Prince’s birthday?”

Guard 1: “It has to do with both, actually. I suppose both of you are well aware of the crown Prince’s special preferences when it comes to women…”

Guard 2: “Everyone knows he is into little girls, all slave-dealers in the capital reserve their best slave girls aging between 6 and 9 for the crown Prince… It’s really disgusting, but there is nothing we can do about it, let’s just hope he doesn’t ever get the chance to actually sit on the throne… ”

Guard 1: “Shhh, don’t say that out loud! You never know who hears you… back on the topic, the dressing contest was actually something the King had set up to choose the crown Prince’s birthday present!”

Guard 3: “You don’t mean…!”

Guard 2: “Oh, fuck! That’s sick! Instead of punishing that pervert, he’s encouraging him!? Who was the poor girl?”

Guard 1: “Yes, it’s as you have already guessed… The winner of the contest, Amanda Risme, was given to the crown Prince as his birthday present! She was only seven, and she didn’t manage to survive the night… Duke Risme almost took his personal troops to attack the Palace! Hadn’t it been for his wife convincing him not to do it, he most likely would have gone through with it!”

At that time, Merlin saw one of the guards drop on his knees, as if all strength had abandoned his body. The guard seemed to be in shock, his face was devoid of any color, and he was trembling. Merlin didn’t understand that kind of reaction to what they had just heard. It was shocking to learn about the disgusting misgivings of the crown Prince, yes, but it wasn’t that shocking, after all, it was a world where those with power could trample on those beneath them at will.

Guard 2: “Hey, are you ok?”

Guard 1: “What has gotten into you all of a sudden? You were fine a second ago!”

Guard 3: “My… my daughter Amelia participated in that contest, and she’s 7 too! It could have been her the one taken by the crown Prince!”

Guard 1: “But she wasn’t taken, so calm down and let’s go back to the barracks, it’s time for the change of shift!”

Merlin came out of the shadows as soon as the guards left, and he started thinking about what he had just heard. *What do you know? That was quite the interesting information! The King is a despotic tyrant, and the crown Prince is a damn pedophile! The political instability among the nobility might come in handy in the future, if used correctly, it might give Shephiran Kingdom a leverage over Klausna Kingdom… By my calculations, I still have roughly 6 hours before the power boost completely dissipates, I think I can spare 1 hour to put a side-plan into motion.* Merlin finally decided on a plan of action, however, he didn’t go straight to the Palace, he went to the mansion of Duke Risme, instead.

It wasn’t too hard for Merlin to infiltrate into the mansion, which surprised him a little. *So much for being heavily guarded! If you only guard the gates, but neglect the perimeter, it’s like inviting an assassin to go for your head!* He took a mental note of advising the duke on that regard later and moved on. Merlin didn’t know the layout of the interior of the mansion, but it didn’t take him much to find the room where the duke was, the cries and the sounds of pottery breaking didn’t leave much room for a mistake.

Merlin stealthily went towards the room and saw the duke, drunk, with a bottle of wine in his hand, crying, and making a mess out of the room. The duchess wasn’t in the room, but her soft cries could be heard coming from the bedroom on the opposite side of the hallway. *This is a thoroughly broken family… They only had a daughter, but they have just lost her and can’t do anything about it. The duke seems to be quite hot headed, and his wife is the one with the brains… I could use them for my plan.* It was against his old principles to make use of the sorrow of a family to advance in his plans, but he was well aware that their participation in his plan was their only way to get payback for their daughter’s murder.

He entered the room and threw sleeping powder to the duke’s face. After verifying he had been knocked out, Merlin tied his hands and legs, and put a gag on him. Making sure he didn’t make a sound, Merlin blocked the door and turned around to speak with the duke. He had woken him up and administrated him a remedy for the hangover.

The duke was puzzled by Merlin’s presence in his house, if the King wanted to kill him, he would do so in a public manner, to make an example out of him. In the unlikely chance that the King wanted to secretly get rid of him, there were other ways, besides, the little man in front of him wasn’t wearing the official assassin outfit of the kingdom. All those facts allowed duke Risme to calm down enough to notice the peculiarities of the little man in front of him. His face was masked and under a hood, impeding the duke to ascertain the race of his mysterious guest.

Merlin’s height was 4ft, which was the average height of an adult male dwarf, and that led the duke to think Merlin was actually a dwarf, but he still had no clue about Merlin’s presence there. At that moment, Merlin introduced himself to the duke.

Merlin: “Good night, Duke Risme. I am a member of the ‘Council of ten’, you probably have never heard about us, because we are an organization which works in the shadows. We don’t usually show ourselves to people unrelated to our organization, but in this case we have a common enemy, your King.”

The duke didn’t know about the organization, and he wasn’t sure of wanting to know, but given the skill of the man in front of him, he was sure of one thing: no matter who those people were, they probably could help him to avenge his daughter’s death. Even that being the case, Merlin’s next words surprised him so much, they made him fall from the chair he was sitting on.

Merlin: “How would you like to become a king, Duke Risme?

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