"Yo Caster…"
The legacy's eyes narrowed as Merlin walked closer to him.
"Merlin, how long have you been hiding?" Caster asked.
Merlin stopped an arm's length away from Caster and answered.
"Long enough to hear what I needed to hear, I guess some people are never meant to leave the forgotten shore"
He shook his head then continued.
"Don't mind me I'm just here to tie up loose ends" he smiled at the legacy and finished "well in your case it's more of a cutting off loose ends"
Caster's eyes narrowed more at his words, he was getting ready to attack despite his immobility, but Merlin just ignored him and walked towards the desk in the room.
As he got there he opened a book, flipped through a few pages then tore out one and held it in his hand.
Seishan watched from the sidelines, she still felt a little fear from Merlin who turned Harus into a horrid corpse, she watched him walk towards the table in the room, she also watched as he tore a page out.
'Does he plan on writing something… no Merlin's too cunning to do something like that' her thoughts roamed as she watched him turn to face Caster.
Swish…
The sound breezed into her ears as Merlin flicked the paper to the legacy Caster, she saw the once soft paper fly through the air like a hardened disc, it moved at an almost unavoidable speed and pierced right at its target.
Seishan stared wide eyes, her shoulders stiffened as fear crawled through her spine, the paper tore into the unexpecting legacy's throat, she watched him try to stop the bleeding but to no avail, he choked and gurgled on his blood until his body became pale and limp as he fell to the bloody ground, the proud legacy of the Han Li clan died so pitifully.
She stared at Merlin, the same Merlin who had been laughing with his group and now just killed the same member of their cohort in cold blood without a hint of anger or guilt in his face.
As He turned to face her, Seishan's body shivered as she nearly fell off the chair.
"You're lucky you made the right choice" with those words and a snap his body turned to flames as he disappeared from the room.
"Huu… where did a monster like that come out of, should I really bring him to our side" Seishan sighed as she stared at the corpse.
The blood on the ground made her flaw stir up, but as someone who had been starved of blood by Merlin, she was able to easily resist.
She stepped out of the room and called one of the guards to clean up the body secretly and she made her way to her quarters.
…
After killing the legacy, Merlin made his way through the castle until he arrived at a door.
Knock… knock…
He knocked on the door waiting for an answer, after a few rustling from inside the room, a voice answered.
"Please come in"
He walked into the room and saw Cassie sitting on a bed, her room was relatively empty and the few things in the room were kept at a corner that wouldn't restrict her movements, as he walked in she immediately got up from the bed and walked quickly into his arms.
"Merlin… it's really you" Cassie said with a light voice as she hugged him.
"That's because you haven't met a nightmare creature who would knock on the door before coming to eat you" Merlin chuckled as he held her in his arms.
"Can't you just forget that I ever mentioned nightmare creatures" Cassie pouted.
"Nope, sorry it's too good of a memory to forget" Merlin replied then stayed silent.
After a few seconds Cassie that was still in his arms spoke up.
"Thanks Merlin, you really changed my vision"
"I told you I would… but there's something else I want to talk to you about" Merlin said as Cassie left him and walked to the bed.
He followed and sat beside her then continued.
"It's about Sunny and Nephis' battle in the crimson spire…"
Cassie shuddered slightly at his words then spoke up in a solemn voice.
"Neph's going to say Sunny's true name, it's all my fault… I should've known better"
"Hey hey… don't get so sad about it, I told you I would change it so I will" Merlin ruffled the hair of the blind seer and continued "I already have a plan for that, I'm just saying that things will turn out different from what you expect so don't get sad about it"
"Okay I trust you" Cassie nodded.
"But you have to promise me one thing… from now on, any and every important vision you have should be discussed with either me, Sunny or Nephis before you start planning anything okay" Merlin said as he turned to her.
Cassie stayed quiet for a while then nodded with an "okay"
Merlin stayed with Cassie a little while longer, then left her room to meet with Nephis, as he arrived, she was still in the middle of state affairs.
'I'm so happy I handed this stuff over, reality definitely isn't tensura where country building is as easy as walking'
"Hey Nephis" Merlin said as he walked into the room.
"Hello Merlin" Nephis offered a light smile then dropped what she was doing to listen to him.
"Well to cut the long story short, I already killed Caster, he was planning on gathering allies to ambush you"
Nephis looked surprised for a second then it disappeared immediately replaced with faint gratitude.
"Thank you… I'll remember your help"
"Yeah no problem, I'll tell the others about it later, I want to know how we are on the siege" Merlin said as he sat opposite her.
Nephis thought for a moment then replied.
"I've already tasked Genma with preparing the sleepers and getting them weapons, there's also Kido who's in charge of making the net for flying nightmare creatures and other sleepers are simply training and absorbing soul shards for the battle"
Merlin nodded "well that's reassuring, I've done my best on the outside of the crimson spire but there's still a lot of abominations roaming the area"
He took a nap from the side and drew a line from the bright castle to the crimson spire, the line curved at certain places.
"Based on my scouting, this is the safest route to the crimson spire, although it's a little longer than the rest, it'll save us the energy of constant battling nightmare creatures"
"Alright I'll relay it to the others… thanks Merlin" Nephis took the map and folded it.
"Anytime Neph, see you later" Merlin said as he got up and left the room.
He walked around until he found Effie's room (closest to the cafeteria), he knocked twice on the door and after a few seconds the door swung open.
"Oh it's you pretty boy… what's up" Effie smiled as she looked at Merlin.
"Nothing Effie, I just want to talk, can I come in?" Merlin said softly.
Effie's smile turned a little mischievous…
'Here we go again'
"Hoo… I'm sorry Merlin, you might be cute but I don't offer those services" Effie teased.
'Says the same person who got pregnant during a literal nightmare creature campaign' Merlin rolled his eyes inwardly.
"You don't have to worry Effie, if I'm interested in those services, there are a lot of handmaidens around for that" He replied flatly and in doing so gave Effie another reason to add to his problems.
"Oh~ looks like we have a little playboy with us, does the princess know about your little deeds?" Effie's teasing smile was almost reaching her ears.
Merlin's eyes twitched slightly, his pride had taken a substantial hit, he was interested in the deeds but that would be when he wasn't in the middle of the hell named forgotten shore.
"You know what Effie, I give up… you win, I'll just take this free memory I was about to offer you and be on my way" Merlin did a turn pretending to leave.
Effie held his shoulders in place and gave a very fake genuine smile, as for how fake and genuine got into the same sentence, that's Effie for you.
"Now wait there Merlin, it was a joke you see, a little harmless joke here and there won't hurt anyone"
He sighed and shook his head.
"Sure I'll give you the memory but you'll have to do one thing for me" he raised a finger.
Effie's smile turned into the look of someone who was deceived.
"Hey you said it was free, where did the one thing come from"
"Calm down and listen Effie, all you have to do is spar with me a few times and the memory is all yours, plus you get a free chance to beat me up" Merlin said with a convincing smile that almost reached his ears.
Effie's eyes squinted at his words, the deal sounded good, a little too good, as members of the same cohort they usually had friendly spars and nine out of ten times Merlin always won, only Nephis had managed to beat him in combat, so now that he requested a spar for a memory…
'Something's definitely up'
"Sure I'll humour you, when do we leave?" Effie said as she stretched.
"Well the earlier the better, I'll be at the castle training grounds in ten minutes, don't be late" Merlin said as he walked away.
"Oh and you'll get the memory when you arrive"
…
Half an hour later and Effie walked into the training room, in her hand was meat she probably got from the cafeteria.
"Hey there pretty boy, you ready?" Effie said as she threw the last piece of meat into her mouth and wiped her oily hands on her armour.
"Effie, I said ten minutes and you took thirty…" Merlin shot her a deadpan look as he walked towards her.
"Hey a lady's business takes time, especially if it's one as beautiful as me" She spoke as if she literally didn't just summon a memory and spend the remaining time feasting in the cafeteria.
Merlin didn't reply, he just walked to her and transferred the dusk shard to her then turned towards the weapon stand to pick out two wooden spears, the reason for the so-called spar was because he wanted to learn to use other weapons too.
He had already learnt the sword from Nephis and Saint, his famous gauntlet worked with his original hand to hand combat style, he had trained with Seishan on how to use the hammer, sunlight shard and now he was interested in learning spearwork.
Merlin walked back with the two spears and threw one to Effie, she seemed surprised as he didn't pick a sword.
"Hey pretty boy, are you interested in using a spear?" Effie asked him, staring at the weapon in his hand.
"Yeah, I'm just exploring different types of weapons" Merlin said as he got into an awkward stance that made Effie almost laugh.
"Pfft… oh this is going to be good, I'll have a good time beatin… cough… I mean training with you" Effie said as she struggled to hold her laughter.
Effie got into her battle stance, and Merlin immediately corrected himself from her stance, the previous one he took was a fighting stance for using the long spearlike hammer and because of the uneven distribution of weight it was noticeably different from a spear stance.
Effie eyes sharpened subtly as Merlin's brain translated the action as 'you about to get your ass beat', as if to prove his thoughts right, Effie immediately lunged at him with a light stab to his shoulder, he tried to deflect but he was still hit squarely and he skidded back a little.
"Hey pretty boy, it's a spear not a sword, you move the entire weight of the weapon even if it's for something as simple as deflecting a strike" Effie explained his mistake as she took a step back and got into her stance again.
Merlin mirrored her and learnt from her words. Effie opened with the same attack and this time he successfully deflected it only to be hit on his torso by the other side of the spear that Effie had spined.
"Always keep your guard up, A spear has two attack sides unlike a sword, and its reach is also long so always keep your eyes open" Effie lectured like a good teacher if you just ignore the obvious look of excitement on her face.
'This girl is obviously enjoying my suffering'
Merlin got into position again and blocked two attacks before getting a smack to the head. He could've sworn that third hit was personal, but Effie gave a very reasonable explanation about reflexes and movement.
Then came the fourth hit__
He learnt__
Then another__
He adapted to her movements__
He blocked__
He deflected__
He dodged__
He stabbed__
He got hit__
He got up again__
He attacked__
He got hit again__
He stood up__
Attack after attack and Merlin was adapting, he had gotten the general feel of it and he worked his way up from there, coupled with his clown's body control, he was a genius in the making.
Currently he was sprawled on the floor, Effie who noticed his improvement just handed him a barrage of attacks, he blocked some with his spear and blocked the rest with his body, his pride wasn't hurt, yeah it definitely wasn't. His entire self ached as he struggled to stand up.
"Gee I know I'm talented Effie but why did you have to go full style on me, are you trying to cripple my talent" Effie said as he stretched his aching shoulder.
Effie who stood on the side wiping a few drops of sweat scoffed.
"Talent, if you call that just talent then talented people would look hopeless in your eyes… it's like you were adapting in real time"
"Guess you should call me Eight-Handled Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga" Merlin chuckled.
"Eight what??" Effie asked, confused.
"Nothing…"
"Well it's none of my business… I've successfully beaten… cough… trained you and gotten the memory, so now I'll be on my way" Effie then threw her weapon to him then left the room.
Merlin returned the weapons to their place and left the training room, he returned to his room and tended to his bruises before heading to bed to rest, by tomorrow he would catch up with Sunny concerning Weaver's mask.