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Chapter 41 – Mental holodeck

It was late in the night and dozens of soldiers enjoyed the warmth of the several campfires that had been lit in the camp. Merlin looked around him and observed them, it had been a long war, and his numerous enemies had tried to get rid of him on many occasions. He knew that someone among the men in the camp was a spy working for his enemies, but he didn’t know his identity.

Soldier A: “Young master, you should take this soup before it gets cold!”

*Strange. I was just about to get up to get my share, why would this soldier bring me the soup? I wasn’t even planning on taking it right now… It is very suspicious…* thought Merlin. He looked at the soldier, but aside from being nervous, he didn’t make a gesture out of place that could identify him as a spy. 

Merlin turned my attention towards the soup, it really was the soup that had been served to the rest of the soldiers in the camp, however, that precise serving the soldier had brought to Merlin had an extra ingredient: poison. The poison “Caldtera” kills the victim with a heart-attack 12 hours after its ingestion. Realizing the soldier had tried to poison him, Merlin quickly stood up and beheaded him on the spot.

Soldier B: “Young master, why did you kill that soldier? He only brought you the soup, you could have just dismissed him if you weren’t hungry right now…”

Merlin: “That bastard had poisoned the soup! All of you, take turns and go to the healer, have him check if any of you have also been poisoned by that bastard!”

All soldiers: “Yes, young master!”

Soon dawn came, and with it, the forest woke up. All the soldiers in the camp had already gone to the healer’s tent for a check up, fortunately, no one of them had been poisoned. There were some wolves moving among the thickets surrounding the camp, so Merlin instructed the soldiers to prepare some traps. He went back to his tent, took out a map, and extended it on the table. 

A few minutes later, his direct subordinates entered the tent to discuss possible strategies with him. Merlin didn’t know the number of enemies that were waiting for them outside of the forest, but there was one thing that was crystal clear for him, they wanted him and his men dead, and they would go to any lengths to obtain that result.

Merlin ordered the soldiers to put the traps in place and tell him when the wolves had been caught. His idea, although naïve, was very simple: to catch the wolves in the traps, alive, and then free them on the border of the forest, while setting them on their enemies as a vanguard for the attack planned by Merlin’s forces.

Midday arrived and it was lunch time. Merlin ate his share, and went to do his business at the latrine in a hurry. Having relieved himself, Merlin’s mood changed for the better. Suddenly, he started to feel numbness all over his body, he realized he had been poisoned, and tried to reach his tent to take an antidote. However, when he arrived to the center of the camp, where the food was being served, he saw all his men on the ground. He checked several of them for a pulse, but they were all dead.

*Who did this? I killed the man who tried to poison me! Why have we all been poisoned?* thought Merlin. Then, he saw the cook going out of the tent and Merlin called out to him.

Merlin: “Max! What happened? Why is everyone dead? Did that bastard from yesterday poison any of our supplies?”

Max: “He didn’t poison any of our supplies, I did.”

Merlin: “He didn’t poison them. Then, how did our soldiers…? No way, you!”

Max: “Hahaha, you really are slow, young master! That fool you beheaded yesterday, only brought the soup to you because I told him you had asked for it. I was the one who poisoned your soup, not him! Oh, man, how I laughed after seeing his corpse… Hahaha!”

Merlin: “Why, Max? Why did you betray our kingdom?”

Max: “Why? Because I hate your goddamn kingdom to the core! My father was a soldier, but after his death on the front, the soldiers of your beloved kingdom pinned the fall of the fort on him, the hero who died defending it! And, do you know what takes the cake?”

Merlin: “What?” 

Max: “My mother and I were evicted from our house, and forced into debt. My mother even became a debt slave, and due to some shady deals of the slave dealer, she ended up being sold to a brothel. I, on the other hand, was left to rot in the streets of the slums! That is the kingdom you said I betrayed, but the truth is, your kingdom betrayed me first!”

Merlin: “That might be so, but all those soldiers were innocent! They weren’t the ones who betrayed you! Why did you have to kill them?”

Max: “You don’t have much time left, so there is no harm in telling you… They offered me 2000 gold and a fief, just for killing this company, which I intended to do regardless of their offer. It was killing two birds with one stone!”

Merlin: “You are a shameless bastard!”

Max: “That might be so… but I am a rich shameless bastard! And you are a dead man talking. Good bye, young master!”

Merlin’s vision started to blur while seeing the traitorous cook walking away, his body had stopped responding to him and he could feel his life escaping his body…

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Merlin opened his eyes, only to see Lokiseth’s fist rapidly closing the distance with his face! After crashing against the wall of the cave, Merlin heard Jasmine’s giggles and faced Lokiseth.

Merlin: “Master, why did you punch me?”

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Lokiseth: “Because of your idiocy! There are a little less than two months left before the 5 years in this realm are up, but 2 times out of 10 you still lead yourself by your hotheadedness!”

Merlin: “Master, I…”

Lokiseth: “No excuses! We have been doing these exercises with the illusions for more than 2 years, now… but you still make rash decisions, and the point of these exercises was precisely to correct that and to teach you how to conduct yourself in real-life situations!”

Merlin: “I know, master, but I…”

Lokiseth: “I said no excuses! Tell me, what were your mistakes in the last exercise?”

Merlin: “I didn’t identify the main threat and had all the soldiers killed.”

Lokiseth: “No! You hotheadedly killed the soldier who brought the poisoned soup to you, without even trying to analyze the situation first! Had you bothered analyzing the situation, you would have realized that soldier was a new recruit and was nervous because that was the first time he had met his commander, you!”

Merlin: “…”

Lokiseth: “Any little amount of investigation would have led you to discover the traitor, that cook! However, what makes me the most furious, is that the day you died within the illusion, you didn’t even check the food for poison before eating it! Didn’t I teach you that was the first thing you must do whenever you are served food or a drink?”

Merlin: “I know, master. I’m sorry, it won’t happen ever again!”

Lokiseth: “You better make damn sure it doesn’t! In the illusion, if you fail, you can start again from the beginning! But in the real world, there are no redoes, if you happen to die, you’ll be dead for good! Prepare yourself for the next illusion!”

Merlin: “Yes, master!” *I hate this fucking mental holodeck! More than 2 years doing this crap and I still haven’t gotten used to it! Every time I die, I feel it!*

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The time for Merlin to get out of Lokiseth’s pseudo-realm was drawing nearer by the day. 

While he was busy dealing with the illusions Lokiseth was trapping him in, in the outside world, Glenna was lovingly giving the four girls her torturous training in ladylike manners. They had received her training for a few months, and they had also been taught common sense, which in the case of Lupa and Bastet was highly necessary.

In Glenna’s opinion, the four girls were almost ready to be introduced to the high society, without bringing any shame to their families or to Merlin. 

Emelyn had given birth to a girl whose name was decided by Adelle, and she named the baby Lizza. Emelyn had told the Adelle, Lupa, Bastet and Tessa to come with a name for the baby, but the four girls were unable to come to an agreement, so they ended up deciding the name by playing rock-paper-scissors and Adelle was the one who won.

When Lilith was born, Leyla and Emelyn didn’t allow Adelle, Lupa and Bastet to take care of the baby without their supervision because they were too young for it. Nevertheless, the situation had changed with the addition of Tessa to the group, the four girls had matured under Glenna’s strict instruction, and the youngest among them was already 6 years old. That meant they were old and mature enough to take care of a baby while the mother was busy elsewhere. 

Of course, Emelyn wouldn’t separate from her newborn daughter that easily, but in the few moments she had to go out to solve some problem and Leyla and Glenna couldn’t babysit Lilith and Lizza, they allowed the girls to do the job. The four girls, on the other hand, took those few babysitting moments like a sort of special training for when they became mothers themselves.

The last few months had marked a significant increase in the trade with Ragnarök, but so had increased the bandit attacks on the caravans that made the route Ragnarök-Shephiria. The instigator of the attacks was, of course, Baronet Linus. His idea was to unsettle the merchants, making them fear for their security, and have them return to their previous route, the one which had the commercial town of Katra as one of its stops.

Baronet Linus’ plan backfired, due to the protection given to the caravans by the guards provided by Ragnarök, instead of unsettling the merchants, they were shown that choosing the Ragnarök-Shephiria route instead of the Katra-Shephiria one, was not only more profitable, even the security provided by Ragnarök was better than any other they could hire privately.

The whole situation was giving Baronet Linus a headache! *How is it possible that the more I try to disrupt the commerce towards that goddamn city, the more they receive, and the more my income suffers?* he thought. 

The answer to his question was actually quite simple: he was a money-grubber. When the only existent route was the Katra-Shephiria one, Baronet Linus sent bandit groups to attack the caravans, and on top of that, the tariffs imposed to the merchants to enter the commercial town of Katra were the highest in the kingdom. However, the tariffs for the merchants when entering Ragnarök were practically non-existent, while the security of the new route was of the highest grade, so the very moment the new route was open, most of the merchants chose to use it.

Being in a mess of his own creation, Baronet Linus couldn’t help but curse his bad luck, but as they say, there is no medicine for regret on the world, so the only thing he could do then, was to regret and deal with the consequences of his own actions. 

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Unlike any other day, there was no one In Merlin’s room aside from him. The door quietly closed itself without anyone pushing it, and strange fluctuations started to appear in the air. Merlin’s body started to shine and levitate over the bed, but after a while, his body descended back on the bed and the shine disappeared along with the fluctuations in the air. Suddenly, Merlin opened his eyes…

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