Chapter 32 - The price of the power

As soon as Merlin was done writing the two letters, he put them on his desk and laid down on the bed to get some sleep, there were still two hours before dawn and he didn’t want to have to explain to his mother why he had bags under his eyes. He fell asleep soon after closing his eyes, but his peaceful sleep didn’t last long. Half an hour later, Merlin woke up when a sudden pain invaded his whole body, but he was paralyzed, as a matter of fact, he couldn’t even open his eyes.

He could feel nothing but an insufferable pain, and despite knowing that he had brought it into himself, he cursed his luck. *Fuck! I never knew that the price for that power boost would be this much pain, had I known it beforehand, I wouldn’t have used it!* What he ignored was that even if he had known about it beforehand, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome in the slightest, for it was the consequence of his actions, not of the choices he had made.

However, even though he was feeling pain all over, Merlin’s outward appearance continued being that of a young boy peacefully sleeping on his bed. Three hours quickly passed, and the three girls, who thought it was very unlike Merlin not having woken up at down, went to wake him up. Seeing that Merlin didn’t wake up no matter what they tried, they started crying and went to ask for help from the grownups. 

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Emelyn’s POV:

I wonder what is wrong with Merlin, his little harem came crying into my room, saying that they tried to wake him up for ten minutes, and that he didn’t wake up no matter what they did. Adelle, Lupa and Bastet looked very scared, so I don’t think they are faking it, they don’t joke around when it comes to their relationship with Merlin, they try to act like adults when they are around him, fortunately, my son knows where the limits are and doesn’t take advantage of them… more like the other way around, actually. 

It is quite cute, and fun, seeing him all flustered when they try to make adult advances on him… I didn’t expect them to take that to the point of making out with him, though. *I wonder if I should look for an etiquette teacher for them, after all they are going to be noble ladies after marrying Merlin… They have to learn how to behave as such!* Well, let’s go see what Merlin has done to worry them to such extremes… If this is just a prank he played on the girls, I’ll make sure he will remember the punishment for the rest of his life!

As I entered the room, I noticed something very strange, there was no mana movement. Even among the magi, I possess a special sensibility to mana movements, a fact that has saved my life in many occasions. Every living being has innate mana, the only difference is that those capable of interacting with it are able to use magic and the others aren’t. The point is that all living beings produce a slight mana movement with their respiration, but in Merlin’s room there was no movement… *Don’t tell me… Was he injured when he fought against those assassins and hid it? Please, gods! Don’t allow my child to die!* 

I run to his side, and hurriedly checked whether he was still alive or not. I exhaled a breath of relief, Merlin was still breathing. Actually, if it weren’t for the lack of mana movement in the room and that he wasn’t waking up, there was no sign of something being wrong with him. I tried to inject my mana into his body to see where he was hurt, but I discovered that his body had no mana left inside instead. As far as I know, Even if someone is suffering of mana depletion, or had his mana sealed, there should still be some mana left inside the body, the only exception to that would be The Plague.

What is known as The Plague, was something which occurred in both central continents around two thousand years ago. A very ancient tomb was discovered, and the explorers who were mapping it brought out an artifact which caused an absolute mana depletion and death in those who touched it. They were thought to be isolated cases, but soon the plague spread and it continued killing people for the next decade, when it mysteriously disappeared, leaving the death count in the millions. *How could he have contracted The Plague?!* I quickly made everyone go out of the room and sent Leyla looking for a healer. The group sent by the Healers Guild to set up a guild branch in Ragnarök arrived yesterday, by good luck, otherwise we wouldn’t have had a healer to whom to turn right now. 

I had only asked for a healer, but soon after Leyla went to look for one, the whole group came back accompanying her. They frowned upon seeing Merlin and I’m afraid of asking them… If Merlin really has The Plague, there is no known cure for it, he would have to be moved into complete isolation and left to die, then the room and his corpse would have to be set ablaze to prevent any contagion. I saw the healers gesturing to me to enter the room and I went to hear their diagnosis.

Emelyn: “Is it…?”

Healer 1: “It is not The Plague. Although the complete mana depletion is consistent with it, the boy still lives, whereas an infected of The Plague would already be dead at his stage. We are unable to tell you much else.”

Emelyn: “It is good that it isn’t The Plague, but what is it then? Could you tell me what is going on with my son?”

Healer 2: “We are very sorry, but the honest answer to your question is that we don’t know. We have never encountered this kind of symptoms in a patient, and outside of The Plague we can’t think of any disease with similar symptoms. It is very strange.”

Healer 1: “Strange indeed, but not impossible. I can think of a possibility, but it is so far-fetched that I almost don’t dare to voice it out.”

Emelyn: “And what might that be?”

Healer 1: “The Devil’s Scythe. It is a vicious poison from the Great Magic Era, it reportedly causes the same symptoms the boy is showing, but it was supposed to be long lost and no healer has ever encountered it since the end of the Great Magic Era, even I only know about it because it was mentioned in a diary of a healer from the Great Magic Era passed down in my family… To wickedly use such a terrible poison in a child… This might be unbecoming of a healer to say, but the person responsible for this should be put to death in the most torturous way possible!”

Merlin was poisoned with such a terrible thing? *I’ll find whoever is responsible for this and make him pay!* The face the old healer was making showed that he would probably tear to pieces the person responsible for Merlin’s poisoning if he were to be put in front of him, this made me grateful to the old healer, but at the same time, it made me fearful for Merlin’s state. 

Emelyn: “Is there any way to cure him? Since you know about that strange poison, do you happen to also know about its antidote?”

Healer 1: “It pains me to have to admit it, but no antidote is known for that poison, and even if it once existed, it was long lost in the waves of time. Unfortunately, any kind of magic used on him to try to heal him would only worsen his current state.”

Emelyn: “Is there really nothing that can be done?”

Healer 1: “You can pray to the gods in his behalf, maybe he is lucky and survives the complete magic depletion caused by the poison. If he happened to survive it, he would be unable to use magic and he would have a delicate health for the rest of his life… but he would be alive.”

What the old healer told me struck me like lightning, Merlin, who isn’t even 8 years old, is one of the greatest magi I have ever met. At his young age, he has even surpassed me, but it now seems that his future looks quite dark. He is my son and I will never cease to love him, I just hope that the girls won’t have a change of heart after learning the news. 

I’m not very worried on that regard, those girls are madly in love with him, they are too young to be in a relationship, but at the same time, that is exactly what will allow their love to fully blossom, since they won’t have to fight against the prejudices we adults usually have when it comes to relationships. Furthermore, their affection will probably have a healing effect on Merlin once he wakes up and discovers his new reality and what it implies…

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Mina suddenly woke up when she felt a sharp pain in her chest, like somebody was stabbing her heart with a knife. The pain subsided after a couple of minutes, and she looked around trying to identify its cause, without any success whatsoever. The more she thought about it, the less she understood why she had felt that sudden pain in her chest. Not finding any reason for it, Mina dismissed her worries about the pain and just thought that as long as it didn’t happen again, pointlessly thinking about it was a waste of time. 

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Klausna Kingdom capital. Duke Risme’s mansion…

Mandy clutched her chest due to a sharp pain piercing through it. Despite the pain quickly subsiding, she knew that something was wrong, so she tried to find the cause for the sudden pain. After discarding other possibilities, she thought of the young assassin who rescued her and with whom she had made a soul contract. She couldn’t help but to grow anxious about his well-being, after all, when she ruled out any other possibilities, she concluded that the sharp pain was a kind of warning she had received through the soul contract: Merlin was in danger!

Fighting against her impulse of using the communication scroll to get news on Merlin’s current state, in the end she chose not to, after all, the communication scroll was legendary ranked item, and Merlin had given it to her for emergencies, as a life-saving item. In addition to that, the scroll established a one-way communication, so even if she used it, it was unlikely she would get the information she wanted. Besides, the assassination of the crown Prince had already been discovered, so the guards in the capital had started conducting a door-to-door search, looking for anyone who didn’t reside in the capital and might be a skilled assassin. 

Mandy didn’t look the part, but the guards might take her away for questioning nonetheless. Even though she was still worried about Merlin, she decided to wait for news of him and focused on her task at hand: becoming useful in the Risme household. She had always been considered a genius back when she was with the Zircon family, but she had been sheltered from the outside world, and no one aside from her parents and siblings knew how brilliant she actually was. 

That fact would surely play in her favor if she was ever discovered being a genius of the Risme household, because no one would make a connection between a seemingly normal girl who is supposed to be dead and a genius recently adopted into a family who just lost its only child. In addition to that, with the exception of her foster parents, she wanted to be low-key and let the world think she was a harmless and spoiled little girl.

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A/N: To those who might feel like dropping this novel because of Merlin's current situation, be reassured, this is not the end of Merlin's magic.

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