Chapter 26 - Assassins

Merlin’s POV:

Damn! I really fucked up this time! Not only was I heavily reprimanded by my parents for overexerting me and collapsing, they even threatened me with a mana-sealing bracelet! And to make matters worse, the fiancée trio is now super clingy with me, to the point they haven’t let me meditate for a whole week! I understand they were worried about me, but isn’t this a little too much?!

Fortunately, the construction of the city has advanced enough to start digging the underground complex with the mining crystals… I think we’ll be done in another week, and then, I’ll finally able to train in seclusion for three months, without being annoyed by the overclingy trio! I really can’t wait to start! I like being around them, I mean, it’s fun and I enjoy it greatly because I didn’t have that during my infancy in my past life, but when they go and switch into the overclingy-mode… I just can’t deal with them!

If only those three would put into training the same amount of energy they put in following me around, they would have already achieved the same strength I had a couple of months ago. At the beginning of their training, they put their best effort because it was something new to them, and they quickly learned the stances, but now that it’s all repetitions, repetitions and more repetitions… it bores the hell out of them, so they’ve lost all their interest in the training. And to make things worse, even if I tried to make them understand about the oncoming war and the reasons why they should get stronger, they are way too young to get the whole picture… 

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Night fell and all the members of the Pendragon household went to their respective rooms to slumber, with the exception of Merlin, of course. Frustrated for not having been able to meditate for a week, he waited until the girls were asleep and then snuck out of the bed and went to the backyard to meditate. After a while, he started dozing off due to the fatigue of the day, he suddenly noticed a presence next to him and saw Jasmine, in her hands a blanket and a smile on her face.

Jasmine: “Lord Merlin, you shouldn’t come out in the night like this, you might end up catching a cold!”

Merlin: “It’s ok, Jasmine. Thank you for the blanket, and you don’t have to address me as lord, you can continue addressing me young master Merlin, as you did before…”

Jasmine: “I wouldn’t dare, lord Merlin. Now that you possess your own title of nobility, how could this lowly maid address you in such an informal manner?!”

Merlin: “Whatever, I won’t argue with you! Uh? Did you hear something, Jasmine?”

Jasmine: “I’m sorry, lord Merlin. I didn’t hear anyth-AAARRGGG!”

Merlin: “Jasmine! NO!”

Without giving Merlin any time to react, a black dagger had embedded itself into Jasmine’s heart, robbing her of her life and future. Merlin tried to reanimate her, but upon realizing her death, Merlin relived past traumas and something broke inside him…

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Assassin vice-captain’s POV:

Finally, hahaha! This damn brat had us on a goose chase for months and I promised myself that I’d slaughter his family before his very eyes as punishment for making us lose time like that! He should have stayed at one place and died quietly and without giving us extra work! That maid seemed to be quite close to the boy, now that’s the expression I wanted you to show me boy! Despair and helplessness! I love when my targets show those emotions in their faces just before I take their lives! Hahaha!

Eh?! Why am I the only one laughing? The others should be enjoying the show… Wait a second! What the hell is that?! MOMMAAAA!

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Emelyn’s POV:

I was peacefully sleeping when powerful mana fluctuations nearby woke me up! I tried to go see what it was, but my new personal maid, Argenta, didn’t even allow me to approach the door. Soon after, Leyla came into the room asking if it was me who was causing those mana fluctuations in the air… They are similar to mine when I lose it and go berserk against my enemies, so I can’t blame Leyla for thinking that way.

A flash of light outside the window drew our gazes towards whatever it was that caused such a phenomenon… And it turned out to be my youngest son, Merlin. He is a gifted boy, but I’m sure that he’ll be able to win against those assassins… Wait, assassins?! 

Emelyn: “I have to hurry and save Merlin! Those are trained assassins! He’s only six, he can’t possibly contend against trained assassins! Let me go, please!”

Leyla: “Calm down, sis! He’ll be fine, remember that he can compete on equal ground with royal guards!”

Emelyn: “It’s not the same, those royal guards underestimated him and didn’t aim to kill him! But this is different, those are assassins, trained to kill, and aiming for the killing blow from the beginning! Nooo,-sob- Merlin,-sob- don’t die, please! -sob-”

Argenta: “You should calm down lady Emelyn, the boy has got everything under control… I’d even dare to say that he’s scaring the assassins shitless! Hahaha!”

When Emelyn and Leyla heard Argenta’s words, they looked at each other without being able to understand the meaning behind her words.

Emelyn and Leyla: ““Eh?!””

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The assassins thought Merlin was an easy prey, they couldn’t have been more wrong! In physical prowess they’d be about the same, but they committed a fatal mistake which they’d have to pay with their lives: they had killed Jasmine in front of him, just because they could, and because they wanted him to grieve her before he himself got killed. 

Never would have they imagined that their actions would be the trigger which allowed Merlin to tap onto Lokiseth’s divine power. When he did, Merlin’s eyes turned golden, his red hair spiked upwards and traces of lightning coiled non-stop around his whole body, while levitating two feet over the ground. For anyone witnessing it, Merlin would appear to be a god who had descended from the Heavens to exert his wrath upon the puny mortals who had dared offend him, which actually wasn't that far from the truth.

Needless to say, the assassins were very scared of him, so much so, that they lost control over their bowels, and a pungent odor reached Merlin’s nose. He ignored it and created a wall of mud between his position and house his family members were observing from. Once he had obstructed their view, he soundproofed the area around the house so that no sound entered the ears of his family, for he didn’t want them to have nightmares about what he was planning on doing.

Although Merlin’s family was spared from the cries of the assassins as Merlin dealt with them, that wasn’t the case of the rest of the people in a 5 mile radius, who heard the shrieks and had horrible nightmares for a whole month. Merlin killed them in the most torturous and gruesome way he could think of, that’s how much they had pissed him off. Merlin wouldn’t usually show such cruelty against his enemies, but those assassins had touched a sore spot! 

He had a psychological trauma due to being unable to save Sheena and Leyla from going through hell and back, and when he saw Jasmine getting killed next to him because he had been unable to react fast enough, he just snapped, abandoned any concept of morals and took it all out on them, every feeling of regret, sorrow, fury, powerlessness, he took them all out on the assassins, to the point that when he was done, their bodies couldn’t even be recognized as such anymore.

When Merlin came to his senses, he was horrified by the scene he himself had created. He didn’t mind killing people as long as they had given him a reason to do so, but this was plain slaughter and extreme cruelty, it didn’t give any dignity to the opponent, this was the kind of fight Merlin abhorred the most, yet he was now the perpetrator of one. Not knowing what else to do, Merlin stored the bodies in his ring and cleaned the back yard. Then, he undid the soundproofing of the house and the mud wall. Having entered the house, Merlin found his family waiting for him, so he confirmed Jasmine’s death to them, and said that he had managed to fend off the attackers, luckily for him they didn’t pry any further on the matter.

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In his room, Merlin pondered his current situation, his berserker state was very powerful, but it was equally dangerous, he was lucky this time, but had there been someone present, aside of the assassins while he was in that state, he would have probably attacked them too. Fortunately, the trigger for that state seemed to be the death of someone he cared about in front of his eyes, and that wasn’t a situation he came across very often.

Trying to recall his memories from the time he was in the berserker state, Merlin only managed to remember little bits of information, but they were really disturbing. Apparently, the one to order the hit on him, had been the current King of Klausna Kingdom, who was worried about the possible plans Merlin might have had about closing or fortifying the border. It seemed that Klausna Kingdom was making preparations to go to war against Shephiran Kingdom, and their plans also included the annexation of Merlin’s territory to their own. 

The power boost that came with the berserker state hadn’t completely dissipated yet, about half of the power still remained within Merlin’s body. Realizing that, he decided to put an end to the chase and making the mastermind of the operation against him understand that attacking him wasn’t worth the trouble. Merlin wanted to finish the problem once and for all, but he lacked a good plan. The only one he currently had was to use what remained of the power boost to put on a show and make Klausna’s King afraid of going against him, but since it had been precisely him being too outstanding the origin of his current predicament, he immediately discarded the idea.

After thinking about it for a while, Merlin had yet to come up with a plan. Then he saw his medal of the “Council of ten” and had an idea: if he couldn’t show his own power, he could make it look like a powerful organization was protecting him in the shadows… After all, there is nothing more nightmarish for a paranoid person than ghost who can strike him down when he least expects it… If Merlin really managed to pull it off and have Klausna’s King believe that he had a powerful organization backing him, he could kill two birds with one stone, making Klausna’s King stop scheming against him, while at the same time, creating a great reputation in the underworld for the “Council of ten”. 

An additional benefit of the said plan was that the paranoid King would probably suspect everyone of belonging to the organization he’s afraid of, which in turn would create political instability in the upper echelons of Klausna Kingdom. The King might even think the organization had some kind of inside help, or that some members of the nobility were colluding with them to have a chance to seize the throne. Huge benefits could come from just a little action, unfortunately, the risks involved on the operation were just as great. Merlin was well aware of that fact and he didn’t want to take any chances, but since the success of the plan relied on the remaining power that Merlin still possessed in his body from the previous power boost, and he didn’t know when that power would disappear, roughly in a few hours, the window of opportunity for his plan was actually quite short.

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