When the carriage arrived at their house, Merlin’s brothers were training in the garden under Leyla’s and Jasmine’s watch. When they saw the carriage, they run towards it and jumped to hug their mother as soon as she descended from it. Leyla and Jasmine also approached, but they were surprised when, after Merlin jumped down from the carriage, he helped Lupa and Bastet descend from it. Arnold, Josh and Bly tried to touch the tails of the girls, but before they could do so, they hid behind Merlin. Seeing that, and that Merlin was starting to get mad, Emelyn told them to stop bothering the girls.
After they entered the house, she explained that the girls were Merlin’s fiancées, and that they would start living with them from that day forward. Then, Emelyn tried to assign the guestroom to the girls, but they stubbornly said that they would sleep with Merlin and, as she realized that it was impossible to convince the girls to do otherwise, she gave up and decided to move the guestroom’s bed into the basement. Anthon arrived a couple of hours later, and after being told about Merlin’s new situation with the girls, he just thought *Like father like son. Way to go kid! * and couldn’t help but smile.
A week has passed since Merlin and the others returned to Sephiria, as usual, Merlin woke up between Lupa and Bastet. He had tried out every method he could think of to have them stop sneaking into his bed, but nothing worked, so he ended up making things easier for them: instead of the girls sneaking into his bed, cramping it, he started sleeping in theirs, which was twice as big.
Of course, he made the girls promise they would never tell anyone, and they gladly agreed. He also locked the door so that no one caught them in bed together, which gave the girls a sense of complicity with him, as well as a “love nest”, which was what Lupa and Bastet had started considering the basement.
Merlin was eager to use the teleportation stone to go train in the well, but he decided not to do so until he had done Lupa’s and Bastet’s Magic Awakening. He sneaked out of the bed without waking them up, unlocked the door, and went to have breakfast. He wanted to go to the library to check on the books related to the customs of the beastmen. He could have asked Lupa and Bastet to tell him, but he preferred to look at some books first instead. He considered that directly asking them would be way too embarrassing for him, so he refrained from doing so.
On his way to the library, Merlin went through a back alley behind the slave-market. There, fallen behind a pile of trash, he discovered a small cage which contained a little fairy, who looked at him with great surprise. Given the price fairies could fetch on the market, someone had probably stolen it and hid it there with the intention of recovering it at a later time.
Fairy: “Your Highness, I’m aware that this humble servant isn’t worth your time, but could you please open the door of the cage and free me?”
Merlin: “Hello there little fairy, I don’t know who you’re mistaking me for, but I’ll help you regardless!”
He opened the cage and set her free.
Fairy: “Thank you so much, your Highness!”
And the fairy left in a hurry, leaving Merlin speechless and looking to the horizon. When he recovered, he went to the library.
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Fairy forest, two hours later…
???: “Your Majesty, scout Lizzara is back!”
Fairy Queen: “It was about time! She should have come back three weeks ago!”
Lizzara: “This humble servant greets your majesty!”
Fairy Queen: Lizzara, what took you so long?
Lizzara: “I’m sorry, your Majesty! This humble servant got captured by the humans, until his Highness freed me just a couple of hours ago.”
Fairy Queen: “What do you mean “his” Highness? We only have three princesses, we don’t have a man, which could be addressed in such manner!”
Lizzara: “But, your Majesty, that human boy had your Royal Bloodline’s imprint on his soul! I know what I sensed, and there is no room for doubt!”
Fairy Queen: “If you really are so sure about it, I’ll have to send someone to investigate this matter. Lizzara, take another two scouts with you and find out who that human really is!”
Lizzara: “Yes, your Majesty!”
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The following morning, Merlin decided to do Lupa’s and Bastet’s Magic Awakening, so he took out the Magic Awakening Stone and looked at the sleeping faces of the girls. After he woke them up, he told them what he had planned for them and they gladly accepted his proposal. The first one to receive the Magic Awakening was Lupa, she touched the stone and a blinding bright light filled the whole basement.
Merlin was a little surprised, for what he knew, the Magic Awakening Stone shouldn’t react like that, which made him think this particular stone might be a little different from a regular Magic Awakening Stone. Right after the bright light dissipated, Merlin asked Lupa to try feeling the mana of the different elements, which without an element affinity tester was the easiest way to know one’s own affinities.
Lupa said that, aside from a strange feeling, she only felt mana of water attribute. Merlin thought that, given that her mother had been a Rank 5 Light-Water-Space-Time magus, it was strange for her to have affinity for just one attribute, so he used his “Analytical Observation” on her to see her status.
*Ding*
Status WindowNameLupa PendragonAge4RaceBeastman (Wolf clan)Level1GenderFemaleHealth390/390Health Regen.0.003 / SecMana1 671Mana Regen.0.007 / SecMagic Attribute affinityFire (minimal), Water (extraordinary), Wind (minimal), Earth (minimal), Space-time (high), Light (high), Darkness (minimal), Non-attribute (minimal)Skills
* “Marked mate tracking (lv. 10)”
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Despite having seen it with his own eyes, he couldn’t believe it. She also had an affinity to all eight attributes, although any element other than those inherited from her mother had an affinity level of minimal. Unfortunately, she only seemed to sense her strongest attribute, but that could be changed through training. He had a theory for this phenomenon, but he needed more information to see if he was right in his assumptions, so he hurriedly told Bastet to prepare for her own awakening.
When he approached her with the Magic Awakening Stone and she touched it, a blinding bright light filled the whole basement again. At that same moment Emelyn opened the door and entered the basement, closing the door behind her. Merlin, who didn’t notice her, immediately checked Bastet’s status without even asking her to feel the mana of the different elements.
*Ding*
Status WindowNameBastet PendragonAge4RaceBeastman (Cat clan)Level1GenderFemaleHealth410/410Health Regen.0.0025 / SecMana1 738Mana Regen.0.008 / SecMagic Attribute affinityFire (extraordinary), Water (minimal), Wind (high), Earth (minimal), Space-time (minimal), Light (minimal), Darkness (high), Non-attribute (minimal)Skills
* “Marked mate tracking (lv. 10)”
After confirming Bastet’s affinities, Merlin discovered that his suspicions were right. When “Orb” had told him that in the past everyone had affinities to all attributes to some degree, he had thought it was strange that in just a few millennia people had lost those capabilities… Besides, souls were made of elements of all eight attributes, so even if they had become weaker, like “Orb” had said, that’d affect the strength of the affinities to the attributes, not their existence… Which meant that the problem was elsewhere and for what he had just experienced, it was probably a problem with the Magic Awakening Stones. Merlin was lost in this train of thoughts when a shout froze his very soul…
Emelyn: “MERLIN!”
Merlin: “Yes, mother? Is there a problem?” *Fuck, I’ve been caught red-handed*
Emelyn: “A PROBLEM?! WHY DID YOU USE HIGH LEVEL MAGIC? DO YOU WANT TO BE DISCOVERED THAT BADLY? I’VE HAD TO CAST A HIGH LEVEL FIRE BARRIER AROUND THE HOUSE TO MASK YOUR MAGIC! TWICE! AND WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT LIGHT JUST NOW? MERLIN PENDRAGON, EXPLAIN YOURSELF!”
Merlin: “Yes, mother… “
Realizing that he couldn’t hide it anymore, Merlin chose the second best option: trying to gain an adult ally, so he came clean to his mother and he didn’t left any detail out. He told her about “Orb”, about his findings inside the well, about his Magic Awakening, about his affinities to all eight attributes… And finally he explained to his mother that with the stone he had found in the well, he had just made the ritual for Lupa’s and Bastet’s Magic Awakening.
Emelyn felt like she was about to faint… it had been too much information at once, and she had previously thought that her son was a genius for being capable of controlling magic of water attribute at the age of 5… only to find out he had extraordinary affinity to all eight attributes, and the girls were tri-elemental magi, with minimal affinities for the other five attributes at the age of 4… The situation really was mind-blowing for her…
After she recovered, she told the girls to go eat breakfast. Once they were gone, she asked Merlin what plans he had for the future, for him and for the girls. He answered that, for the time being, the three of them would train in the well, because the age requirement to enter any of the academies in the kingdom was 12 years old. The only exception were the little geniuses, dual-elemental and tri-elemental magi, who were recruited into the magic academies at the age of 9. One way or the other, they still had 4 or five years before enrolling anywhere, and he didn’t plan to stay idly.
Emelyn was glad that Merlin had thought about his future and the girls’, but she couldn’t help being worried about them, if people ever learnt about their true abilities, only the gods knew how far they would go to ensure the trio’s cooperation… Fortunately for her mind, Merlin didn’t allow her to continue thinking about those things. Instead, he asked her for help to eliminate a problem which was endangering the unity of their family. The second he said that, Emelyn tensed up and looked at Merlin with disbelief, for she thought he was talking about getting rid of the baby. He understood his mother’s reaction and he explained to her what his plan actually was.
After hearing Merlin’s plan, she was really embarrassed because of her misunderstanding. When she finally regained her composure, she agreed to his plan, for the sake of their family, and told Merlin he had her full cooperation. The plan itself was quite simple: Merlin would use a permanent disguise magic on Leyla’s unborn child, so that regardless of who the father was, the child would look like its mother, with the eye-color of Merlin’s father. The spell would be cast in a way that, despite Merlin being the caster, as long as the baby was alive, the spell would feed on its mana, independently of Merlin’s situation. That way Anthon and Leyla would be happy, and the Pendragon family wouldn’t break apart.
The only problem with the implementation of this plan was Leyla’s awareness of magic, when Merlin used the spell on the baby, Leyla would detect the magic signature of the spell even if she was unable to identify its nature. That was the reason why Merlin needed Emelyn’s help to do it, he needed her to cast a powerful magic at the same time he cast his spell, that way the magic signature of Emelyn’s spell would hide his. They decided to execute the plan later that day, during the dinner.
With all the excitement of making preparation for the execution of the plan, Merlin forgot something he had seen on the status screens of both Lupa and Bastet, that their family names had changed to his, indicating that despite everything he had been told, to this world’s system, he had already married them. He would realize that point several days later, when checking their training progress, and he would hysterically laugh for an hour before calming down.
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