"So? Where do we start?" Merlin asked with a light smile.
"I want to hear everything… the rumors and news released by the government and other sleepers have probably gone through a lot of filtering, so I'm genuinely curious about the information from your perspective" the puppet replied calmly.
"My perspective huh…" He muttered as he nodded, then he began to describe his experience right from when he arrived at the forgotten shore, he skipped a few parts that involved possible secrets about the cohort, but he still managed to keep it understandable.
He told the story till their arrival in the bright castle, then his days of hunting, then his encounter with Seishan, during that period he noticed that Ki Song had a question, but he didn't stop, probably because he knew what she was going to ask.
He continued till the part where he killed Harus, Gunlaug and Tessai, then the occupation of the bright castle.
Then he reached the part where he killed Caster, and at that point Eubin made the 'I have a question face', but he ignored them again, questions came after the story.
He moved on to the pre-war part, then the post war part, and finally, he skipped the battle that happened at the top of the crimson spire, and just went straight to how he stayed behind because of the condition of the citadel, before he finally ended his forgotten shore arc.
"... And that's how the forgotten shore ended… now you may ask your questions" Merlin concluded with a smile.
"First, I want to know, what made you feel the need to start hunting nightmare creatures near the crimson spire in the first place?" The puppet asked.
"I was broke… basic survival rules, have food, have water, have money, and if you don't have any, be strong enough to get them" Merlin replied, although his answer was simply brushing it off, it didn't really matter, everyone knows that in mental warfare, the first question is always a test, if you pass, then the one who asked will have to think more on how to extract information, and if you fumble, then that's that.
'At least that's what the movies said…'
And as he expected, Ki Song merely nodded, not caring about the answer, then she continued.
"So you got into the bright castle, and instead of joining a faction or staying as a resident, you decided to be a performer, why is that?"
"After I got into the bright castle, I already had a general idea of how things worked, the oppression on the lower class and the outer settlement, I knew of Changing Star's plan, and I knew the Bright Lord would cause a lot of problems, so I decided to keep him busy, keep his attention away from the outer settlement, and it worked, although it was only for a brief while, it still did" he answered composedly.
"And when your performance wasn't working well enough, you moved on to becoming the 'Ghost of the Castle' is that right?" The puppet asked.
He nodded.
"That's about right, I figured since being in the open didn't do much, I'll be hidden, placing pressure on him from both sides, and that was more than enough to keep him occupied"
"I see, and when you felt like the time was ready, you killed Gunlaug and his followers, and brought the rest on to your side, and took control of the Bright Castle" the puppet spoke softly.
Merlin shook his head, "Well I didn't plan on killing Gunlaug, that was supposed to be Neph's job, my plan was to pull some of his trusted followers to my side, then when she was ready, we'll just stage a coup, then take over the Bright Castle"
"Since that's the case, what made you change your mind?"
Merlin sighed as Annie's face flashed through his mind, then he replied.
"When I came to negotiate with Seishan and the rest, they said that they wouldn't join because they were scared of Harus, so I killed him, then Gunlaug placed a bounty on me, so I decided, since I've already killed one, why don't I just kill the rest, and I did…" he finished with a smile.
The puppet nodded, then her voice became serious as she asked.
"And the war, you singlehandedly killed half of the nightmare creatures, I'm already sure you won't tell me how, but I want to know why? You've already gone out of your way to hunt them before"
She paused then continued.
"I'm sure using that method cost you a lot, after all, Seishan told us you were bleeding quite heavily after, so why risk it?"
"Honestly, I did it because I wanted to, save many now and maybe they'll save you later…" Merlin replied calmly.
"Based on my observation of you, you don't seem like you care a lot about the people around you, after all when I came to you in the form of a dead child, you didn't even show any emotional reaction, so why did you actually go out of your way back then?" The puppet spoke softly as her eyes scanned him.
Merlin's brows furrowed slightly at her words, then he realized that she was right, albeit slightly, when Ki Song showed up earlier, although he knew it was her, he should've still felt something towards the little child that got turned to a puppet, but he didn't his mind didn't even go towards it.
'It seems Celestial Worthy knew what he did when he refused to return Hope's attribute, if she didn't point it out I wouldn't have noticed it either'
His eyes dimmed as he turned to her and replied.
"Caring about the dead won't bring them back, but saving the living is at least worth it, as you said I don't really care about the lives of others, but there are those whose lives I care about, and if the death of others put their lives at risk, then that's on me, so maybe I didn't risk myself for the sleepers of the forgotten shore, but I did it for my cohort, and in the end it was simply a win win"
The puppet nodded then proceeded to ask, "and deciding to stay behind was also for your cohort… are you really that selfless?"
Merlin thought about it for a while, then he confidently replied.
"Yes"
If it was before, then his answer would've been the opposite, after all the cohort might be his close friends, but not close enough to risk his life for when he knows he doesn't have a chance of survival, but currently, he could confidently say he would risk his life, after all, his current life was worth only one soul core, if he died, then Merlin would lose a soul core, and if Merlin died, he would lose six cores, so in terms of being selfless, he who has two bodies was currently the most selfless person ever.
'As expected of the cowardly pathway, even finding loopholes between selfishness and selflessness' he chuckled inwardly.
His pathway was seriously made for it.
You killed a beyonder of the Error pathway?
You didn't… that was an avatar.
You killed a beyonder of the Fool pathway?
You didn't… that was a marionette.
You killed a beyonder of the Door pathway?
You most definitely didn't, not only are they hard to kill, what makes you think that wasn't a projection made by the blink ability?
That's basically what it's like to have his abilities.
Ki Song, who wasn't aware of his reasoning looked surprised for a second, then asked.
"Why is that?"
"I guess that's what it's like to take responsibility for someone" he shrugged.
"I see… now then" She smiled, "I'm even more curious about a few things. First, how did you know about Seishan's flaw? I'm sure she must have kept it quite a secret"
"Some time during my secret exploration mission inside the Bright Castle, one of her handmaidens pricked her finger, and the way Seishan's eyes were fixed on the injuries, I had a feeling that it wasn't normal, so I guessed that her aspect probably used blood, or her flaw demanded blood, and it turned out I was right…" Merlin lied with a straight face.
"I see, now I want to know, when Seishan described your blood, she said it was completely different from any other she had, so what's so special about your blood?" She asked.
"Well let me put it like this, my blood holds the essence of gods, in a way it's a good thing and a bad thing, good in the sense that if I ever get a divine lineage, I'd probably be able to bring out the absolute best in it, and it's bad because my constitution makes me a perfect vessel for gods to descend in, at least I should be, except the gods are dead" Merlin explained truthfully, he purposely revealed the information because he wanted to make Ki Song know that his body was something that was appealing to gods, and although the gods are dead, they aren't the only divine creatures, the daemons once existed, unholy creatures also existed, and there were a few secrets in this world that they knew nothing about, so having him was equivalent to holding a double edged sword, and to make sure she wasn't going to kill him for it, he made sure to say the fact that the gods were dead.
"That's indeed a rare but incredible constitution, now moving on…" She continued, "how exactly did you know so much information about Seishan, when she had not even been officially announced as a blood sister? And how did you know of her possession of the memory?"
"Cassie" he gave a short answer, after all that could cover most of his explanation 'Don't worry Cas, I'll buy you ice cream later…'
"The seer… I understand, why did you kill Caster despite knowing he was part of my vassal clan?" The puppet asked.
"He wanted to kill Neph, though he was under orders, Neph was still under my responsibility, so I killed him, you should be lucky Seishan even refused, if she didn't… heh" Merlin replied with a calm smile.
He wasn't scared of what would happen even though he threatened Seishan in front of her, after all can she enter the spirit world? If not then she wasn't really a threat to him, and even if she could, then she just made a huge mistake, after all above the spirit world was his soul sea, and in there he was equivalent to a Sacred Titan, and if she could still threaten his life there, then he would just throw her to the other side of the giant wall of fog, let her deal with Celestial Worthy.
So he wasn't bothered at all, even his backup plan had a backup plan of its own.
"You're incredibly bold, however I won't hold that against you… now" as she spoke, she released her pressure slightly as she asked while watching him closely.
"How many Supremes do you know?"
He thought for a moment, then answered.
"Four… one of them is currently mad, his name is Azarax, he's my teacher"
She ignored him and asked.
"Who's the other three?"
"That would be you, Anvil and the other guy on the moon" he answered with a smile.
"It seems you know a lot…" the puppet smiled, "and which of them are you loyal to?"
"Well I'm currently submitting an employment letter to one, and it seems the interview is going well" he smiled.
"I see, and since you never said 'his' name, it seems you know a lot about him, is that right?"
He nodded, "not much, but I know well enough to not go blabbing his name around"
Her eyes sharpened as she asked.
"And how exactly did you come to be aware of this information? I'm sure it was hidden quite well, and how much more information are you aware of?"
He shrugged, "I know up until the point that he's a wicked Sovereign and he's up to no good so you guys sent him up to the moon, and now you lot are out here planning to send another Supreme off, but this time to the grave… as for how I know, well there's no way I'll tell you that right"
The pressure released from Ki Song increased as she said seriously.
"Do you think this is a joke?"
Merlin chuckled as he spoke.
"You know Thorax… the Cursed Terror, he was once a champion of the Beast God, and although the gods have fallen, he feels that with my body, the Beast God can still be revived, but I'm curious, what exactly will he do once he finds out that you hold the Beast God's lineage, will he help you till you become Divine, or will he think you're an usurper and completely go feral on this city… although I'm curious, I really don't want to find out, so trust me when I tell you, If I'm ever pushed to a corner, I don't mind releasing a Cursed nightmare creature on this world"
He sighed then answered in a calm voice.
"Everyone has secrets of their own, my secret is mine and mine alone, so is yours, so as long as we don't pry into my secret, I have no problem. I know what you're worried about, but I'm not a thrall if 'that guy', in the first place, if I don't want to, mental attacks can't even work on me, so you don't have to worry about me being the dreamspawn's spy"
Merlin spoke with all seriousness, and although his words were abstract, they had a simple meaning 'Don't threaten me or we all die, and I will not tell you how I got my information', he also added the fact that he had no relations to Asterion, after all her mind was probably pointing in that direction.
"Using threats on a sovereign, you really are bold… I'll be the one to decide if you're a spy or not, as for your secrets, I won't pry any longer, but know this, if you bring harm of any kind to my domain, I will ensure that I kill you" The puppet spoke with a serious voice as she withdrew the pressure.
"Although killing me is currently impossible for you, I promise I won't bring unnecessary danger to your domain, in return, I suggest that when you're dispatching me to war against Valor, make sure they don't send more than one Saint after me" he replied with his regular smile.
Ki Song scoffed, "you say I cannot kill you, yet you are not confident in a fight against two Saints, you really underestimate the power of a Sovereign"
He shook his head as he explained.
"It's not that I'm scared of fighting two Saints, it's just that if they show up, without enough preparation I will not be able to win, however that doesn't mean they will be able to kill me, if there's something I'm confident in, it's my ability to escape, same with you, if you try to kill me, I can't fight you, but you can't stop me from escaping"
The puppet thought for a second then asked.
"This method of escaping you speak of, is that how you escaped the Cursed nightmare creature?"
"Yes…" he nodded.
"Then if what you're saying is right, I may not be able to kill you, but are you willing to run away forever?" She asked calmly.
Although he could simply change his face and take up a new identity, he didn't mention it and simply shook his head.
"It seems you still have some composure…" She smiled "as long as I determine your identity and there's no problems, you'll be welcome into the Song domain"
"Looks like there's no problem then…" he nodded, "now for the rest of my story…"