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Chapter 28 - Infiltration

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

D. Risme: “Wh-what do you mean, to become a king?”

Merlin: “Well, it’s as it sounds, I’m offering you the opportunity of seizing the throne of Klausna Kingdom. I won’t be immediate, of course, and although you will be the king, it will be my organization who shall govern from the shadows, but we’ll pretty much allow you to act independently. Do you like that deal?”

D. Risme: “It sounds too good to be true, where is the catch?”

Merlin: “The catch? I have already told you! You get to be the king, but it’s us who govern from the shadows. We’ll change this kingdom together, what do you say?”

D. Risme: “Your proposal is tempting for sure, but what are your reasons for doing this? You said the King was also your enemy, why is it? Why do you hate the King so much?”

Merlin: “Let’s just say that a good and honest woman related to our organization ended up dying because of the selfishness of your King. Isn’t that more than enough reason to step up and make that bastard pay for his crimes? Some of the higher-ups in the organization wanted to erase this kingdom from existence… only after being convinced that doing so would result in the deaths of many innocents, did they change their minds!”

D. Risme: “A good and honest woman died? Erasing this kingdom from existence” *The good and honest woman who died must be the Zircon woman who threw herself from the tower after being forced to become a concubine of the King’s. But what’s that about erasing this kingdom from existence? Just what kind of monsters belong to his organization, to have the power of thoroughly destroying kingdoms like that?*

Merlin: “So, what is it going to be?”

D. Risme: “Can you assure me that if I were to join you, you will make the King and the crown Prince pay for my daughter’s murder?”

Merlin: “If everything goes as planned, the crown Prince won’t survive the night. The King, on the other hand, will survive for a while to grieve for the death of his son. He will die in two years time, meanwhile you will make the due preparations to seize the throne. For starters, try to increase your influence among the nobility, and rope in those who had good relations with the Zircons, they will be more willing to join you than others.”

D. Risme: “Why wait? If you can get to the crown Prince, couldn’t you also get to the King and kill both of them in the same attack?”

Merlin: “We could, but we don’t want to. How could the King suffer and grieve the death of his son if he were dead too? Besides, in the two years until his death, the management of the kingdom will be far worse than it already is… that will engrave a desire for a new king in the hearts of everyone in the kingdom, even in the nobility, which will make the transition of the throne to you go more smoothly.”

D. Risme: “You really have thoroughly planned this, haven’t you?” *Just what was that woman’s true identity? For their organization to retaliate wanting to make the King suffer as much as possible, her background was definitely not a simple one! With their help, I’ll be able to avenge Amanda’s death!*

Merlin: “Should I take that question as an affirmative answer?”

D. Risme: “Yes, you should!”

As soon as the duke accepted his offer, Merlin told him to bring his wife so that they could discuss further plans and the concrete details of the “let’s seize the throne” plan. The first thing the duchess did after entering the room was sizing Merlin up, after showing her approval, she sat down to the table, and inquired about the reasons behind Merlin’s plans. Satisfied with the answers, she didn’t pry any further, and started talking to Merlin about the specifics of his plan.

Half an hour later, Merlin had learned more about the internal affairs of the Klausna Kingdom, than what he had learned about the internal affairs of the Shephiran Kingdom in his 6 years of life. He was pleasantly surprised to discover that the duchess was a good strategist, and after explaining his plans to her, not only did she understand them very quickly, she even pointed out a couple of flaws which could put him in danger.

Having finished his visit to the duke, Merlin went to the square where he expected to find the hidden exit of the tunnel. He had an unexpected harvest in the house of the duke, his father-in-law had been the one to design the new camouflage of the exit of the tunnel, and the duchess having visited her father at work at the time knew its precise location, which in turn saved Merlin a lot of time and reduced the risk of him being caught wandering around when searching for it.

He found the hidden exit exactly where the duchess had told him he would, in a corner, behind the poison ivies that covered the wall. Then came the tricky part, he had to open it without anyone noticing, it would have been far easier for him to blow it up, but that would have been a really big giveaway, and would have endangered the whole operation. There was no mechanism to open the exit’s door from the outside, but that wasn’t going to stop Merlin.

Merlin used a new spell of his “Sonhologram” to see what kind of mechanism opened the door from the inside. He had custom-made this spell, based on the sonographic technology used on Earth: he used the sound manipulation ability of the wind attribute to send ultrasounds into an object and perceive its interior, and then used the light manifestation ability of the light attribute to translate the information received from the ultrasounds into a 3D image of the object, allowing a more thorough examination of it.

This spell “Sonhologram” would make any thief or explorer envious, because it would allow anyone able to use it to look inside the walls of a room in search of secret rooms, passages or a hidden safe, or inside a labyrinth, it would allow adventurers and explorers to find hidden traps, saving lots of lives. Unfortunately for them, Merlin didn’t plan on sharing, besides, the spell required a wind-light dual element magus to cast it, and they weren’t that common.

Merlin observed the hologram for a while, becoming familiar with the mechanism that opened the door. Once he knew the ins and outs of the mechanism, he proceeded to open the hidden door externally. While using “Sonhologram” to have a live feed of what was going on in the interior of the door, Merlin used earth manipulation to temporarily change the shape of the door around the mechanism and carefully exert pressure on its key points, opening the door like the mechanism had been activated from the inside.

Merlin closed the door behind him after entering the tunnel, he was about to cast a “light ball” when suddenly the torches on the walls of the tunnel lighted up one after the other, illuminating his path for as long as he could see. Ten minutes later, Merlin arrived to a fork, which offered him 4 paths to choose, among them, 2 paths didn’t have any distinctive markings, whereas the other 2 had the royal seal of Klausna Kingdom in their entrances.

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Merlin’s POV:

Ok, I have 4 paths in front of me and only one leads to the royal chambers… the question is, which one? The royal seals are placed in such a way, that they would go unnoticed unless you use the tunnel to go up to the Palace, you wouldn’t see them when going down to the square… This probably means the markings were put there to help the soldiers when retaking the Palace after it was captured by the enemy, making use of this tunnel as a means of counterattack the enemy forces, catching them with their guards down!

If my assumption is correct, then the path leading to the royal chambers must be one of the two with a royal seal marking, but where does the other one lead to? Well, it doesn’t matter, I have around 5 hours left, so if I take the wrong path I just have to come back here and take the other one! *Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers, let him go. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Out goes YOU!* Ok, I’ll take the path on the right!

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At the time Merlin was making his way through the tunnel, back in Duke Risme’s mansion, the duke was talking with his wife and wondering about Merlin’s true identity.

Duchess: “I wonder who that dwarf was. He was quite the strategist himself, and that organization he belonged to… I had never heard about it before!”

D. Risme: “Dear, I honestly don’t care about who he is or who is backing him up. As long as we get to avenge Amanda’s death, I would make a deal even with a devil worshipper!”

Duchess: “Gods, no! Don’t even joke about that!”

D. Risme: “Dear, I know your family comes from the Dollan Empire, and they witnessed the demon worshipper hunt that occurred there a couple of centuries ago, but this is Klausna Kingdom, a few words won’t send me to the torture chamber and being publicly executed, the hunt ended centuries ago!”

Duchess: “You can’t know that! Besides, the hunt never ends, the worshippers of the devils still exist, hidden in plain sight!” *The ancient records of my family show it clearly, the hunt never ends, because as long as devil worshippers exist, it can never end!*

D. Risme: “Sorry, dear. I didn’t know you were going to get like that just for a few words… Ok, I won’t say those words again! Calm down, please!” *What the hell has gotten into her? Even our daughter’s murder didn’t put her in this state! I was just joking around, but could it be that there is some terrible secret related to those devil worshippers? Hers is an ancient family rooted in the Dollan Empire for several centuries, if there is something else to the devil worshippers hunt than what was let known to the public, her family is definitely aware of it! What could it be?*

Duchess: “Oh, I’m VERY CALM! Now, back to the topic, are you really going to accept their offer of seizing the throne in two years?”

D. Risme: “Why not? That bastard of a King is going to lead this Kingdom to its destruction! Rumors have it that he plans on making a war against the kingdom of Shephiran in 3-5 years' time! Do you even understand what that actually means, in people and resources? A lot of people will die because of the King’s selfishness, and many more will starve to death! For Gods’ sake! He even crushed the Zircons, an ancient noble family, and one of the main military forces in the kingdom, just because he had fancied a woman!”

Duchess: “Oh, I’m surprised that you have thought about that, but the current situation is far worse than that! My family has informed me that, as soon as the news about the destruction of the Zircon family reached the Court, the Dollan Empire sent troops on standby near the border with this kingdom, as soon as the King makes some idiotic move like attacking Shephiran Kingdom, Klausna Kingdom will become part of the Dollan Empire in a year's time. Whether you use this information for your own benefit, or you tell the King, is up to you! You would make a good king, though!”

D. Risme: “You’re quite the schemer, aren’t you, dear? Do you think that ‘Council of ten’ is trustworthy?”

Duchess: “It’s a good trait for a future queen, don’t you think? I don’t know if we can trust them or not, but we probably can. The fact that they dare to attack a royal family to avenge the death of one of their own speaks for itself. They could probably seize the throne at will, without any help whatsoever, we are just lucky that they took pity on our circumstances and offered us a chance to avenge Amanda!”

D. Risme: “I understand, dear. Although I dislike the idea of being a puppet king, this Kingdom will fare far better with one than it is doing with its current monarch!”

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