Three months have passed since Emelyn helped Merlin to cast the disguising spell on Leyla’s unborn child. The whole Pendragon family was preparing for the imminent birth, but despite the whole family’s visible happiness, there were two people who barely could hide their uneasiness. Those two were Anthon and Leyla… after the birth they’d know whether their worst fears had become true, or they had been lucky and the baby was Anthon’s. Leyla had resigned herself to her fate, while Anthon didn’t know how he would react if the baby wasn’t actually his.
Finally, a couple of days later, Leyla went into labor. After the baby was born, Leyla and Anthon finally calmed down. It was a girl, she had Leyla’s fiery red hair and Anthon’s blue eyes. What convinced both of them that the baby was definitely Anthon’s was that she had a minuscule purple dot in the blue pupil of her right eye, which was a family trait Anthon had inherited from his mother’s side. This trait hadn’t manifested in any of his other children, but seeing it in this newborn child was for him the greatest proof of fatherhood he could ever have.
Leila: "How are we going to name her?"
Anthon: "I’m not sure. I was so nervous about the baby that I completely forgot about choosing a name…"
Leyla: "What do you think, Emelyn? What would be a good name for my daughter?"
Emelyn: "She's your daughter, I’m in no position to name her."
Leyla: "Come on, sis! Please help us out!"
Emelyn: "Ok, ok… Then how about “Lilith”?
Anthon: "Lilith… It does have a nice ring to it!"
Leyla: "Thank you, sis!"
Moments later, Emelyn brought all the children into the room to introduce their new sister to them. Merlin felt a strange sensation when he looked into Lilith’s eyes. He felt compelled to protect this baby with his life, and he also felt a strong familiarity with her, as if she were some kind of long lost companion of his… Well, it wasn’t that strange, he had always longed for a little sister, both in his original world and in this one, that's why feeling overprotective of her was only natural.
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A week passed, and the Pendragon family started to settle down. Then a messenger came from the Palace, summoning the whole Pendragon family before the King. The faces of Anthon, Emelyn and Leyla showed great worry, because they didn’t recall having done anything for the King to summon them to the Palace. Seeing that, the messenger hurriedly explained to them that the King had learned of Lilith’s birth through his sons, Anthon’s disciples, and wanted to congratulate him in person.
They became the focus of all the stares, or more exactly, Lupa and Bastet did. Despite the royal decree that the king had issued a few years back, giving beast-people the same rights as the other races in his kingdom, the majority of the nobility still saw them just as slave-material and livestock. That’s why most of the nobles present were staring at the two girls with disgust, and some even were offended because they were being “forced” to breath the same air as those two “slaves”.
Among the old nobles there were a couple which looked at the two girls with a stare of contained lust, the young nobles, on the other hand, weren’t that skillful at hiding their desires, so it was obvious that some of them wanted to make the two girls their playthings.
Boy 1: "Those are some nice slaves you have there. I wonder how good they’ll be after a little training… Hand them over, now!"
Boy 2: "Brother is right! Those two slaves are a waste in the hands of a low level family like yours! They’ll be great after a little training… So give them to us!"
Two boys, whose ages seemed to be between 11 and 13 years old, approached the girls and tried to grip their tails. They were confident that they could get the girls, because they belonged to the high nobility, which meant that if their family put pressure on the Pendragon family, they would have no choice but to surrender their two slaves.
This abuse of authority between high and lesser nobility was a common occurrence, even more so when it came to slaves. They could just buy the slaves from the lesser nobility, but they enjoyed using their position to obtain what they wanted for free. The two girls felt them coming, but they didn’t know how to react because the two boys were nobles. Merlin didn’t have to think, as soon as they were close enough to touch the girls, he acted without saying a word.
The people present was dumbfounded by how the situation unfolded. They saw the two boys trying to touch the girls, and the next second they saw them rolling on the floor, crying in pain, and they had each a little knife stabbing the hand used to try to touch the girls. Right after that, Merlin pulled up one of them by the collar and broke his nose with a jab. The other one saw him coming and peed himself and run screaming towards the door.
After they recovered from the shock, the nobles started to make a ruckus, because a third son of a lesser noble had dared to attack and harm children of the high nobility, and had also disregarded their orders about the slaves. At that moment, the King entered the room, and, seeing all the people acting like that, asked what had happened there. When he was told about Merlin’s actions he was troubled, he had personally invited the Pendragon family, but after the altercation, Merlin would have to be punished for his actions against the high nobility, there was no way around it, so he started squeezing his brain trying to find a solution. He spoke to the people in the room:
King Dollan Shephiran: "Hear me, nobles! The Pendragon family has been personally invited by me to this banquet. As a matter of fact, they are the very reason this banquet is being held, to celebrate the birth of their daughter Lilith! So I would very much appreciate it if you stopped bothering my guests!"
The nobles looked confused, they knew they had been invited to a banquet with the king, but they hadn’t been informed of the reason why it was being held.
K. Dollan: "To make such a ruckus just because of two slaves… you should respect more the place you are in! Now, the slaves… Uh, what is it boy? Do you know what you are doing?"
When the king tried to approach the girls, Merlin had jumped in front of the girls with a knife in his hand and said:
Merlin: "Do not approach them. I don’t care whether it is a noble, a king, or a god, nobody will touch my family!"
K. Dollan: "Boy, I don’t know why you care so much about those two slaves, but by wielding a knife in my presence and even threatening my life, by the laws of the kingdom I must order your execution…"
Anthon: "Your Majesty, please be lenient with the boy, those two girls aren’t slaves, they are his fiancées. My son has already been marked as their mate. That’s why he is acting that way…"
King Dollan thought deeply about the situation, he had wronged the girls by treating them as slaves, just because they were beast-people he had assumed they were slaves, just like the rest of the nobles in the room. What made his actions even worse was that he was responsible for the royal decree giving the beast-people equality of rights with the other races, yet he still thought like the people who opposed that royal decree.
The problem was Merlin’s actions, he had acted in front of the nobility and his actions were punishable by death, and Dollan, as the King, had to uphold the law and execute the boy… He wanted to give the boy a way out, but he couldn’t think of a way… Then Laurenz recognized Merlin and whispered in Dollan’s ear: [Your Majesty, I don’t know how it is possible, but that boy is the one who saved me and Adelle in that alley months ago…] When the King heard that, his anxiousness dissipated and made his decision:
K. Dollan: "Boy, by your actions here today, I should have you executed in accordance with the law. However, the courage and the disregard for your own life for the sake of your loved ones have touched me, so I’ll give you an opportunity to prove yourself… I’ll have you fight royal knights in three stages. First, you’ll fight against only one royal knight, if you win, you’ll be pardoned from any crimes you may have committed today. After that will come the second stage, in which you’ll fight two royal guards. If you win, you’ll receive a thousand gold and a scholarship to the best academy of the kingdom, for you and three other people of your choosing. In the third stage you’ll be fighting three royal guards, if you manage to defeat them, I shall concede upon you a title and a territory. The first stage is mandatory, the second and third stages are not. Now tell me, are you up for the challenge?"
At that point, everyone in the room except Merlin, Laurenz and the king were dumbfounded. The King was proposing a child who wasn’t even six years old to fight against royal guards! They were starting to think that the King might had lost it… but, then again, the boy had committed a crime punished by execution, so they understood the King was trying to give him a way out… but they didn’t think the boy would make it.
Merlin: "Thanks for the opportunity, your Majesty! Where do I fight them? Here or elsewhere?"
Now it was the young boy who shocked them, he hadn’t hesitated at all and accepted the challenge proposed by the King, some of them pitied him, while some others thought that he was just an idiot who didn’t understand the real meaning of what he was saying, after all, he wasn’t even six years old…
K. Dollan: "You’ll fight them elsewhere, of course. This room is too small and too cramped to hold that kind of fights. You’ll fight in the arena of the royal knights’ training ground. Don’t worry, it’s close to here."
The nobles started going out of the room to go to the arena of the royal knights’ training ground. Most of them brought their children so that they would learn what happens when people thoughtlessly act up against high nobility and royalty. On the other hand, some of them went to enjoy the sight of Merlin getting killed, those were, of course, the members of the family to which belonged the boys who wanted to take away Lupa and Bastet. Then, when the only remaining people in the room were the Pendragon family, Laurenz and the King, Anthon went over to the king and tried to change his mind about Merlin’s challenge:
Anthon: "Your Majesty, I know my son offended you, but getting him to fight royal knights… He isn’t even six years old yet, he can’t possibly win!"
K. Dollan: "Sir Pendragon, haven’t you already started training him? You should know his strength best and understand why I chose this kind of challenge for him."
Anthon: "That’s precisely the problem, your majesty. I start training my kids at the age of 6, Merlin won’t be 6 years old until next month, so I haven’t trained him yet! That’s why I’m begging you to change your mind about the challenge!"
K. Dollan: "Hmm…" *He hasn’t trained the boy yet? That’s strange. Could it be that Laurenz is mistaken and this is not the boy? No, that’s unlikely… The eyes may be different, but Laurenz wouldn’t make that kind of mistake… Could it be that someone else has trained the boy without his father’s knowledge? That seems to be the case… Well, I’ll confirm with the boy before departing to the arena and if it is indeed him who saved Adelle, I’ll allow him to participate in the challenge, if he isn’t, I’ll think of something else…*
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