Worried about her reaction, Merlin looked at his mother, but she didn’t seem interested in pursuing the matter any further than that. Her reaction, or more exactly her lack of it, surprised Merlin, but he didn’t point it out. 

Nevertheless, he started to have an ominous feeling, like if he was in the clutches of a demon from hell without any way to escape. Merlin looked around the room but no one else seemed to feel the same way and he dismissed that feeling as a figment of his imagination. 

Emelyn: “How much do your friends know about you?”

Merlin: “Much less than they will in a while, mother.”

Will and Camille didn’t understand those words. It was true that they didn’t know much about Merlin aside from what little he had previously told them and that he was their benefactor. However, Merlin had just called that woman “mother” when he was supposed to be an orphan, which showed the siblings that the little information they had about him was actually wrong.

Emelyn: “Aren’t you going to tell them?”

Merlin: “Now that it has come to this I don’t have a choice, do I?”

He turned to look at the siblings and showed a defeated smile.

Merlin: “Well, guys… It’s time to come clean! As you probably have guessed already, I’m not who I said I was. My real name is Merlin Pendragon and this is my mother Emelyn.”

Camille: “Wait a second, did you just say Merlin Pendragon? As in the Merlin Pendragon who became an Earl at the age of 6?!”

Merlin: “Yep, that’s me!”

Camille: “But you are 12 years old, not 7!”

Merlin: “Actually… I really am 7 years old, Camille.”

Will: “You should stop the joke now, Merlin. You clearly are 12 years old, not 7! It’s ok if you want to joke for a while, but it’s no good to dwell in such delusions!”

Seeing how the siblings didn’t believe Merlin’s words, Emelyn smiled wryly and decided to intervene.

Emelyn: “He has spoken the truth.”

Camille: “Eh?”

Will: “Say what?”

Emelyn: “Merlin is my son and I gave birth to him 7 years ago, even if he looks like that, it doesn’t change that fact!”

Camille and Will looked at her in disbelief. Their reaction wasn’t that surprising, after all that Merlin had done so far and the way he conducted himself, they had trouble believing he was only 12 years old… and now they just heard that he actually wasn’t 12 but 7, it was only natural for them to have trouble digesting the truth.

Merlin: “Around a year ago, I fell in a coma after suffering an assassination attempt.”

Camille: “Yeah, we heard about that. Actually, I doubt there is anyone in the continent who didn’t hear about it!”

Merlin: “Well, what you didn’t hear about is how during that coma, my body grew from that of a 6-year-old to that of a 12-year-old.”

Will: “Are you for real?”

Merlin: “Yes, I am. Since such a weird thing happened, we decided it was better to keep that fact a secret. We put on a show for other people, making them believe I had become a reclusive young boy who never leaves his room while I am actually adventuring around the kingdom under the name Merlin Lefey.”

The siblings felt inclined to dismiss his words as a delusion, but they ended up believing him because his story checked out and it also explained the inconsistencies they had found in Merlin’s behavior. 

It was an incredible story, so incredible that they understood why Merlin and his family had decided to hide it from the public. The siblings felt they were being shown a lot of trust by being told the truth, and decided that, no matter what, no one would ever hear that story from their mouths.

Camille: “Thank you for trusting us this much!”

Merlin: “It would have been an almost impossible task to keep you two in the dark after bringing you here.”

Camille: “…”

Emelyn: “Ok, now that that’s out of the way, let’s go downstairs to have dinner.”

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

In the underground training facility under Ragnarök…

Shin: “Aimi, I just learned Merlin is back. Don’t you want to go see him?”

Aimi: “He’s back!?”

Aimi couldn’t hide her surprise and delight hearing the news her brother had just told her, unfortunately, she was well aware that if she were to see him again so soon, she would be unable to let him go adventuring without following him.

Shin: “So, don’t you want to go see him?”

Aimi: “Yes brother, I do want to go see him… but I’m not strong enough to do so!”

Shin: “What do you mean?”

He truly didn’t understand his sister’s words because he had been observing her and, since Merlin’s departure, Aimi had progressed a lot in her training. What Shin had failed to notice was that when she said she wasn’t “strong” enough, she meant it in a sentimental way, not in a physical way.

Aimi: “I’m not ready, ok? Let’s just leave it at that!”

Shin: “Ok, as you wish.”

He didn’t understand why his little sister was acting like that, but he knew that even if he continued asking, she wouldn’t answer, so he could only drop the matter and wait till she wanted to talk about it. He couldn’t even understand his own wife’s mind, trying to understand the mind of a 9-year-old girl… He gave up even before trying.

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

After having dinner with his family, Merlin and the siblings went to get some sleep. Merlin was about to sink into dreamland when he noticed someone opening the door and getting inside the room. The one who entered was Emelyn, she walked to the bed and shook Merlin awoke.

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Merlin: “What is it, mother?”

Emelyn: “Sorry, I know you were falling asleep, but we need to talk!”

Merlin: “I already apologized for not using the communication stones while I was away.”

Emelyn: “Merlin, although I’m mad about that, I’ve come to speak with you about a different matter.”

Merlin: “What is it, mother?”

Emelyn: “There have been several unconfirmed rumors lately, if we were to pay any heed to them, several noble houses from Klausna Kingdom are getting together with the intention of deposing the current king… If that truly happened and a civil war occurred, Ragnarök might be attacked.”

Her answer made Merlin smile inwardly. How could Emelyn know that she was talking with the original instigator of those actions some Klausna’s nobles were taking in order to depose the current king? It had only been a little over a year since he spoke about his plans with Duke Risme, and now there were even rumors about it…

Merlin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Having rumors running around about their operation in Klausna Kingdom could only mean two things, either the nobles implicated hadn’t been careful enough to avoid leakages or the nobles implicated had so much influence in the kingdom that their actions couldn’t go unnoticed.

If it was the latter, it was great news to Merlin, for it implied they had gathered enough forces to depose the current king without causing much of a civil strife. However, if it was actually the former, not only would it allow the current king to take countermeasures, it would lead to needless casualties and bloodshed when the people revolted against the King in a civil war.

A civil war in Klausna Kingdom wasn’t something Merlin wanted to see. It wasn’t just a matter of him not wanting to see innocent people die, if a civil war truly took place, a lot of refugees would come into the Shephiran Kingdom, and as one of the cities in the border Ragnarök would have to serve as a buffer zone and regulate the influx of people through the border.

Merlin didn’t want that to happen because it would destroy the plans he had for the city. He was glad that his mother had brought those rumors to his attention, now he had to hasten his visit to Mandy. Although he didn’t need to go in person and could just use the communication stones, he felt it would be better if he went to visit her, that way he could also meet with Duke Risme and learn the actual situation among the nobles.

Merlin: “Thanks for telling me this, mother.”

Emelyn hugged him and didn’t let go, which resulted in almost choking him to death. Only after he started coughing, did she let go of him.

Emelyn: “Sorry Merlin I got a little too emotional. This was the first time you have been away from me for so long, so I missed you a lot while you were away.”

Merlin: “Well, mother. This has proved the saying ‘there are some loves that can kill’…”

Emelyn couldn’t answer due to her embarrassment, but she had told the truth. As Merlin was her youngest son, he was the one she doted on the most, and she had missed him way more than he could ever imagine. 

After saying good night to Merlin, Emelyn left the room. Merlin wanted to get some sleep but now that he knew about those rumors, his sleepiness had faded away and he couldn’t help but start to think of different scenarios and how to deal with them, were a civil war to occur in Klausna Kingdom. 

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

Hexenwunder Royal Academy, headmistress’ office…

A woman was writing in a parchment when she noticed the crystal ball on her desk glowing red and showing a shady figure moving fast through the grounds of the academy. The crystal ball was an artifact she had unearthed in some ruins in her younger days as an adventurer. 

The artifact was pretty much useless on its own, but when connected to a barrier, it allowed its perfect control and that of everything within. The orb glowing red meant that there had been an unauthorized entry through the barrier protecting the academy.

The said barrier should be able to deter anyone under a Rank 6 magus, which showed that the intruder was quite powerful, for a regular magus. After all, compared to her most Rank 7 magi were like children without a good grasp of their own magic.

Headmistress: “Well, well, what do we have here? A little rat trying to sneak around in my academy? You are a thousand years too early!”

The woman murmured a spell and the intruder shown in the crystal ball fell to the ground unable to move. Then, the woman opened a window of the office and jumped down, descending to the ground bellow with the grace of a feather.

Once on the ground, she leisurely walked toward the location in which the intruder had been immobilized by her spell. She didn’t feel any hurry, nor was worried that the intruder might break free from her spell and escape. 

The only way the intruder could escape was if he had a talisman or artifact with a magic canceling effect, but even those would be rendered useless as long as she had control of the barrier around the academy. Once an intruder came in and got caught, he could forget about ever going back out.

The woman approached the intruder and looked down at him. The intruder couldn’t stop cursing in his mind, the mission’s instructions were very simple: going in, kidnapping the girl and going out. They were simple instructions and he was a professional with a 100% success rate, he never thought he would get caught that easily.

The result was evident from the beginning, though. He thought it was an easy job, after all, a young female student who just entered the academy couldn’t give him any trouble, but he failed to take into consideration under whose protection his target was. 

Would the headmistress allow any of the students in her academy suffer any harm from outside forces? Definitely no! But greed tends to make people blind to obvious facts, and such was the case of this intruder, who had been blinded by the gold of the reward and forgot to consider the punishment he would suffer in case of failure.

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