Another 5 weeks passed inside Lokiseth’s pseudo-realm. Merlin’s physical condition had noticeably improved, and Lokiseth had started to teach him the basics of the Pendragon Clan’s martial arts. The knowledge he inherited from the legacy left in the orb included the original Merlin Pendragon’s special techniques and his understanding of them, but as always, “The way to the acquisition of the knowledge is the acquisition of the knowledge”. Despite having inherited the techniques in the legacy, he was unable to access them due to not having prior knowledge of the Pedragon Clan’s martial arts.

The orb had all the knowledge the previous Merlin Pendragon had accumulated during his whole life, but the capacity of the orb was limited, so what he put into the orb was his personal knowledge, the knowledge that was supposed to be passed down in the generations of the clan had been left out.

That was the case with the martial arts of the clan, they were the base of the original Merlin Pendragon’s special techniques, but as they were supposed to be passed down, he didn’t bother putting them in the legacy of the orb, for he hadn’t expected his clan to decline.

Merlin had finally gotten used to hunting to survive. That day’s catch had been a three-eyed deer, and Lokiseth was teaching Merlin what was the best way to cook it. Merlin had been pondering about something for some days already, and he had finally decided to ask Lokiseth about it.

Merlin: “Master, can I ask you a question?”

Lokiseth: “You already have… But you can ask another one.”

Merlin: “Master, I was wondering… couldn’t you do something to shorten the time I need to be here? I’m afraid that if I spend a year here, without any kind of nutrition for my real body, it will be ruined.”

Lokiseth: “Oh? As expected from someone whose medical knowledge is superior to the current one in Klantea!”

Merlin: “Huh?”

Lokiseth: “The people in Klantea has also found that problem with the people in a coma. They use the nourishing pills from the Alchemy Association to avoid the problem you were talking about, not that you need them anyway… in fact, right now, your real body can’t even take those pills, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

Merlin: “But that’s horrible! How am I supposed to avoid the ruin of my body when it is unable to take those nourishing pills?”

Lokiseth: “Eat.”

Merlin: “What?”

Lokiseth: “I said ‘eat’. Have you forgotten where you are? This pseudo-realm is a pocket dimension where everything is real. Why else do you think that you need to eat and drink here? The food and water is real, as it is the nourishment they provide to your body, and when I say your body, I mean your body, not only the version of your body inside this pseudo-realm. That’s why I said that you don’t need to consume nourishing pills to avoid the ruin of your body during your coma, you are currently consuming real food and water. Why would you need an alchemic compound?”

Merlin: “Thank you for explaining it to me, master. I won’t have to worry about that problem anymore.”

*****************************************************

A week after sending the letter to her friend Glenna, Emelyn received her reply. She was reading it when Leyla walked in the room. When she saw her sister turn pale while reading the letter, Leyla run toward her, worried that there might have been a problem with the baby and Emelyn wasn’t feeling well.

Leyla: “Emelyn, you are pale! What is it? Is there something wrong with the baby?”

Emelyn: “It was a joke… it was meant to be a joke…”

Leyla didn’t understand the meaning of Emelyn’s words, but she realized that her reaction should be related to the letter she had in her hands. She took the letter from Emelyn’s hands and read it.

[Dear Emelyn,

It has been a while since last time we met, I was beginning to think that you had forgotten about me. Your letter came just in time, I recently quit teaching the children of baron Lerz, or more like they terminated the contract when they learned of my beastman and elven heritage.

It was very satisfying, though, learning that your boy, Merlin, had taught those children a lesson after they bullied his beastman fiancées. Talking about fiancées… is about time that Merlin and Tessa met each other. When she was two years old, my husband and I were discussing about her future, and I remembered a conversation I had with you back when I was still an adventurer, you said that it would be nice if I had a girl and she married one of your sons… so we decided that she should do exactly that!

This is just to say, I accept your offer. We still have to put some things in order on our end, but we should arrive there in 7 - 10 days after you receive this letter.

Kisses and hugs for everyone.

Glenna.]

Leyla felt her thoughts going haywire. She was agape and she couldn’t say a word, she hadn’t actually expected that what her sister said jokingly a week before, had suddenly become a reality.

Leyla: “Emelyn, did you really speak with Glenna about having your children married?”

Emelyn: “We talked about it only once, but that was years ago, Merlin and Tessa hadn’t even been born at the time. I never considered the possibility of her remembering that promise and trying to uphold it, when even I had completely forgotten about it!”

Leyla: “It’s a fortunate thing that Merlin is currently in a coma, it will give us some time to sort out this mess. Now, seriously, how could you do such a thing, Emelyn?”

Emelyn: “It was a conversation we had 15 years ago! How was I supposed to think that a casual conversation with a friend 8 years before Merlin’s birth would end up getting him another fiancée?! Leyla! Please, help me think of something, if not, Merlin will probably escape from home when he wakes up from the coma!”

Leyla: “First, Tessa hasn’t met Merlin yet, so she’s still not his fiancée, which gives us a chance to get out of this mess without him knowing about it. Second, it’s your mess, you think of a solution for it! And lastly, I originally came in here to ask you if you think that we should teach life magic to the girls.”

Emelyn was surprised by Leyla’s suggestion. Life magic, was a series of basic spells, convenient for the everyday life (hence its name), which could be used by everyone, even non-magi, the only requisites were to know the chants and to possess mana inside the body, it didn’t matter in what quantity. All living beings had a minimum amount of mana inside their bodies, so with the exception of rare cases, everyone was able to use it, as long as the incantation for the spells was known.

However, in spite of it being usable by anyone, not everyone knew life magic. The reason was simple: money. Everyone could use life magic, but not everyone was taught. Those who knew life magic usually asked for a fee to teach the chants to others, and that fee not always was affordable, so few normal people, aside from those belonging to noble families, knew life magic. Half of the merchants and low ranked adventurers didn’t know it either, on the other hand, it would be difficult to find a magus who didn’t know life magic.

Emelyn: “Why do you want to teach life magic to the girls?”

Leyla: “Every magus has to know life magic, the girls would become jokes as magi if they didn’t!”

Emelyn: “I already know that, Leyla, what I mean is: why now? We can teach them life magic at any time, why have you suddenly decided that you want to teach them now?”

Leyla: “It’s just… you now… they pass most of their time by Merlin’s side, feeling powerless… I just thought that if we taught them life magic, they could use ‘clean’ on Merlin in our instead, that way they would feel they are doing something to help with his situation, and they wouldn’t feel so down.”

Emelyn: “You know, Leyla, that might actually be a good idea!”

Leyla: “Thank you, sis! And about that other matter…”

Emelyn: “You just had to remind me, didn’t you?”

**************************************************************************

Klausna Kingdom. Royal chambers.

K. Klausna : “30 fifth rank water magi, 13 sixth rank dual-element magi, and even a seventh rank tri-elemental magus, and nobody, NOBODY IS ABLE TO ERASE THOSE MESSAGES IN FIRE FROM THE WALLS?! THE FIRE DOESN’T EVEN BURN!”

3-E magus: “We found mana traces, Your Majesty. We know it is a fire-based spell, but we aren’t able to decipher its composition, like… I don’t know… like it doesn’t have any!”

K. Klausna: “Alright, listen up. Not only does the Queen not come to my room, even my concubines refuse to come anymore! I don’t care how you do it or how much it costs, I want those messages removed from the walls!”

3-E magus: “Yes, Your Majesty.”

After that, the King left the Royal chambers and went to the conference room. Making sure no one could see him, he turned the torch holder on the wall to the right, and a secret door opened. Having closed the door behind him, he went through the passageway and entered the secret meeting room belonging to the head of Klausna Kingdom’s spy corps.

K. Klausna: “Zador!”

Zador: “I’m here, Your Majesty.”

K. Klausna: “Zador, have you found any information regarding that so called ‘Council of ten’?”

Zador: “I’m afraid I have failed you this time, Your Majesty. I have put to use all of the resources available to the corps, but in the end, we have found no information about the said organization, not even in the underworld of the neighboring kingdoms. We have yet to confirm the findings in Dollan Empire, but at this point in time… I don’t hold any hopes of finding anything there. They are like ghosts, we don’t even know how they bypassed our guards to commit the murder and bring the bodies inside the Royal chambers!”

K. Klausna: “How is that even possible? No matter how good an underground organization is at keeping their secrecy, they are bound to leave behind some kind of evidence of their existence… And given how they acted here, they are not exactly low-key when acting against those who offend them, someone out there should have some information on them!”

Zador: “Your Majesty, if I may… It certainly is as Your Majesty says, someone out there is bound to know something about this organization, if it exists…”

K. Klausna: “If it exists?”

Zador: “Your Majesty, with the current information we have on that organization, or better said, the lack of information on them, we can come to two possible conclusions, either the said organization doesn’t exist and they wrote that on the walls to mislead our investigation, or…”

K. Klausna: “Or…? Could you please finish your sentences?”

Zador: “Yes, sorry, Your Majesty. The other possible conclusion is that the organization actually exists, but they are so damn good at their job that there is no record of them anywhere, and those who know about them are too loyal to the organization, or too afraid, to talk.”

K. Klausna: “If you had to guess which of the two possible conclusions is the correct one, what would be your guess?”

Zador: “I’m afraid Your Majesty wouldn’t like my answer.”

K. Klausna: “Please, go ahead. Tell me your guess.”

Zador: “My guess would be that the organization actually exists.”

K. Klausna: “May I ask you why?”

Zador: “Well, Your Majesty, there are several facts that support that conclusion. First, there have been some assassination attempts in the past by foreign spies, but nothing of this kind. Second, if this was really done by a foreign spy in an attempt to mislead our investigation, it would have been more logic to point toward an enemy kingdom, not toward some organization no one has ever heard of. Third, the professionality of the job is far superior to the one of the known spy corps, which clearly points to a new enemy. Fourth, the writings in fire on the walls were made with an unknown spell no one has ever seen before, which also points to a new enemy never encountered before. And...”

K. Klausna: “There is still more?!”

Zador: “...And lastly, infiltrating an enemy Palace to conduct an assassination, taking the time to leisurely knock out the guards and Your Majesty, calmly writing on the walls with an unknown fire-based spell, and leaving Your Majesty alive while insinuating they can take Your Majesty’s life anytime they want… that takes a special kind of arrogance, the kind of arrogance that someone has when knowing that no matter what you do, you will never get caught! As far as I know, not even Dollan Empire has that kind of professionals!”

K. Klausna: “What do we do then?”

Zodar: “The only choice Your Majesty has left, is to tighten the security in the Palace, and pray that Your Majesty doesn’t offend the ‘Council of ten’ organization any further.”

K. Klausna: “To think the current situation really is that bad… Do I really have only two years left to live?”

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