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Chapter 38 – Glenna’s arrival

Dollan Empire. Spy corps headquarters.

???: “Is this information reliable?”

???: “Yes, lord general. Our spies have confirmed Klausna Kingdom’s crown Prince has died. The official statement is that he died in an accident, but the rumors in the capital indicate otherwise.”

General: “It was an assassination, then.”

???: “That seems to be the case, in addition, one of our own managed to infiltrate the Palace disguised as a sixth rank water magus, and found proof of it.”

General: “Wait, wait a moment there, Thor! How is it possible that our spy found evidence of the assassination and the people of the Palace didn’t? Something doesn’t add up in that story!”

Thor: “Lord general, I think it will be better if you directly read the report!”

He gave the parchment with the detailed report to the general and quietly waited for him to finish reading it. When the general was done, he put the parchment aside and closed his eyes without saying a word. Thor didn’t dare to break the heavy silence that had invaded the room and waited for the general to speak again.

General: “Do we have any information on this ‘Council of ten’ organization?”

Thor: “I’m afraid we don’t have any, lord general. It is either a newly formed organization, or an organization of which there has been no record so far, which means they are really good at concealing themselves, but such an arrogant move against Klausna’s Royal family, doesn’t look consistent with that concealment level!”

General: “It is unlikely that it is a newly formed organization, it takes a long time to train a professional to that level and once you do, you won’t let go of him easily! That means the organization has maintained a concealment level never seen before on this continent. However, they have gone out in the open to commit this assassination. Why…?”

The general took the parchment again, and reread the part of the messages on the walls. Then, he looked at Thor, and thought of any possible reasons an organization, which had worked so to leave no record of its existence anywhere, could possibly have to act so publicly.

General: “Thor! Do we have any information regarding the woman mentioned in the message? Her background should definitely be not simple if her death led to such a secretive organization to act so publicly!”

Thor: “We tried to check her background, but she was like a ghost, she appeared in the capital about a year before marrying into the Zircon family, but the information on her before her arrival is non-existent! It’s almost like she appeared out of thin air! It seems that the only ones in the whole capital who knew about her background were the actual members of the Zircon family.”

General: “And they were all massacred… The woman is a dead end, then. What about the boy? How is he related to the ‘Council of ten’? Why is he under their protection?”

Thor: “As stated in the message, there was an assassination attempt on the boy. The maid that was with him died in his place, but the killers still managed to poison the boy. The boy is favored by the King Dollan Shephiran, to the point of being given a fiefdom due to his martial prowess, many powers had their eyes on him after his display of ability and strength. Until not long ago, his father was the exclusive swordsmanship instructor of Shephiran’s princes.”

General: “Do we know why he was targeted? It doesn’t look like a kid could pose any problem for them in the near future!”

Thor: “Lord general, Klausna Kingdom was preparing for war against Shephiran Kingdom, and the boy’s fiefdom was an strategical location which could impede the advance of Klausna’s troops in the most direct route toward Shephiria.”

General: “Klausna triumphing over Shephiran is against our interests… What is the current situation of the boy?”

Thor: “We looked into the records of the Healers Guild, and the reports of the healers who went to cure him state that the boy presented symptoms similar to those of The Plague, caused by a poison never encountered since the end of the Great Magic Era. They don’t expect him to recover!”

General: “What a pity…”

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Another 3 weeks passed and Ragnarök resembled more to the city Merlin had originally designed. There had been some problems of people rioting due to the order of not letting anyone without a soul or blood contract anywhere near the construction site. Nevertheless, some of the soldiers from Dorka Garrison were helping the newly appointed city guards in securing the perimeter around the construction site, so the riots were easily suppressed.

Everyone was marveled by the pace the city was being built at, what would usually take more than a year to build, had been built in Ragnarök in few weeks. Not only was it a sight to behold, the pace was far superior than any other on the continent. That situation had been created by the nature of the workers. In other places, contracted workers would barely do the minimum required amount of work, trying to delay the completion of the projects in order to increase the pay.

In contrast to them, the workers in Ragnarök were highly motivated to build the city because it was going to be their city, the place where they would settle down and form a family, and where their children would grow up. They were building their homes and their city with their own hands, they didn’t ask for a salary and they would get a house for free in return. That, coupled with the fact that they had magi among them helping with the construction, made the building pace insanely fast.

Sadly, when people see someone else obtaining something remarkable, they tend to long for it, and rumors of special methods of construction being used in Ragnarök started to appear. Those rumors made many kinds of people appear in Ragnarök to see it with their own eyes, and after confirmation on site, they attempted many different approaches to obtain the rumored special methods of construction, some of them were to create the riots, trying to sneak into the construction site and steal them.

Little did they know that those special methods only existed in their imagination. Even the King had sent an envoy after the insistence of the minister of war, who thought those special methods should be classified top secret and used by the military to construct forts in times of war. That envoy was the only outsider allowed to enter the construction site, but after he did, he wished he hadn’t.

He was looking forward to see the so called special methods, but when he discovered the true nature of their speed, he was thoroughly disappointed and a little fearful, for he didn’t know how his superiors would react after reading his report.

When he returned to the capital and gave his report, the minister of war thought the envoy was a shameless man who had obtained the information and wanted to keep it for himself, but the King understood that what was going on in Ragnarök was due to Merlin’s influence and decided to let it go. He also asked the royal alchemists to look into the archives of the Palace for any information related to the poison known as “The Devil’s Scythe”.

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Emelyn and Leyla were making preparations to receive Glenna’s family. They were supposed to have arrived to Laklostia two weeks before, but they had been forced to delay their departure from the capital due to unforeseen circumstances. Today, Glena’s family would arrive to Laklostia, but they still didn’t have a house in Ragnarök or Laklostia, so Emelyn and Leyla decided to accommodating them in their home until a house was assigned to them.

A few hours later, a carriage stop at the door of the Pendragons’ home, Glenna’s family had finally arrived. After the presentations were done, Glenna noticed that there was something amiss: Merlin wasn’t present.

Glenna: “Emelyn, Leyla, where is Merlin?”

Leyla: “…”

Emelyn: “About that… Glenna, we have a lot to talk about. Adelle, Lupa, and Bastet. Give Tessa a tour of the back yard and play with her while we adults have a talk!”

The 3 girls didn’t say a word and went toward the back yard. Tessa hesitated for a moment and looked at her mother, after Glenna nodded, Tessa followed the girls. Glenna then followed Leyla and Emelyn into the house.

Glenna: “Well, girls, could you please explain to me why we have sent the girls away the very second I mentioned Merlin?”

Emelyn: “Merlin has already 3 fiancées, no one of them chosen out of his free will, we can’t choose a fourth one without his consent. We just can’t!”

Leyla: “Sorry, Glenna. Please, understand!”

Glenna: “Hahaha!”

Leyla: “Glenna…”

Emelyn: “What is so funny?”

Glenna: “Sorry, the whole thing about Tessa and Merlin’s engagement was something I said out of convenience. As you two already know, Richard’s father is a baronet. My father-in-law wants to have ties with the high nobility and when Tessa was only two years old, he tried to have her engaged with Marquis Thogra’s youngest son…”

Emelyn: “Then, that means…”

Glenna: “Yes, it’s as you think. I remembered our conversation years ago, and to save Tessa from being used as a tool by my father-in-law to further his agenda, Richard and I decided to inform his family that we were going to uphold our promise to you, and have Tessa marry your newborn son, Merlin.”

Emelyn: “Then, you want to have Merlin and Tessa be engaged in name only!”

Glenna: “Yes.”

Leyla: “That means you don’t plan on actually making her Merlin’s fiancée! This is good, now we don’t have to worry about Merlin running away from home after he wakes up!”

Glenna: “That was the original plan… ”

Emelyn: “What do you mean, ‘the original plan’?”

Glenna: “Well, you know how the women in my family tend to fall for strong warriors… Tessa was among the public when Merlin fought those 6 royal guards a few months ago, and she said that instead of being Merlin’s fiancée only in name, she wanted to become his fiancée for real!”

Emelyn: “I don’t plan to force Merlin to accept her as his fiancée. If she really is serious about it, then she must earn that right by making Merlin fall for her! You must forbid her from telling anyone that she is his fiancée!”

Glenna: “Fair enough! I’ll explain it to her in a way that she understands. Now, can I meet my future son-in-law?”

Emelyn: “You seem to be quite confident in her success!”

Glenna: “Hahaha! Of course I am, she’s my daughter!”

Leyla: “There is a slight problem with you meeting him…”

Glenna: “A problem? What do you mean?”

Emelyn: “It will be easier to show you… Please, follow us!”

Glenna followed Emelyn and Leyla to Merlin’s room, and she was surprised when she saw the boy on the bed. Glenna was about to touch Merlin’s body with her left hand, when she noticed the lack of mana in his body. Frightened, she retreated 3 steps and looked at Leyla and Emelyn.

Glenna: “Why didn’t you tell me he has The Plague?!”

Emelyn: “It’s not The Plague, when we requested help from the Healers Guild, the healers who were sent here confirmed it. There was an assassination attempt on him a few weeks ago, our maid died and Merlin was poisoned. The poison was something called ‘The Devil’s Scythe’, and its symptoms are similar to those of the plague. It’s an ancient poison from the Great Magic Era.”

Glenna: “Why would someone try to kill Merlin? Albeit a genius, he is just a child!”

Leyla: “…”

Emelyn: “Well, the things he has done so far have caught a lot of attention… Someone probably felt envious or threatened by his potential, and ordered his assassination. That’s just the kind of world we live in. I was afraid of something like this might happen in the future, but I never expected it to happen so soon!”

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