Merlin stood over Ahri's sleeping form and gently stroked her head. When his hand brushed her fox ears they twitched slightly which Merlin always found cute, however, this time her reaction didn't put a smile on his face.

Ahri's hair was now entirely white and he could only imagine what could cause that. After Merlin sighed her eyes began to flutter, she started to sit up but Merlin quickly pushed her back down and told her to rest.

He asked "are you alright" once she had completely come to.

Ahri wore an obviously fake smile and tried to reassure Merlin that she was okay.

Her expression left him feeling as if a needle was piercing his heart. "after you recover get your things we are leaving" Merlin gently said.

Ahri jolted and quickly retorted "but wasn't I supposed to stay in the dungeon"

Merlin calmly replied, "I originally sent you here because it would keep you safe from the nobles that have started to become more active, but there is no point avoiding the nobles greedy hands if your dead".

Ahri rolled her eyes and snapped back, "I was never afraid of any nobles greedy hands, it's not like they could offer me anything I want anyway"

Merlin sighed and replied "that attitude is exactly why I'm worried. Do you think the mages we had just dealt with in the university wanted anything to do with the nobles, they were old men with plenty of life experience but they still got entangled so what about you"

Ahri pouted, an expression she only shows Merlin and after a moment she said, "I received the beast gods blessing so I'm going to stay in the dungeon"

Merlin grimaced and told Ahri "the dungeon is dead, there is no reason to stay here anymore"

Ahri blankly stared at Merlin as she coldly replied "the dungeon is dead like the red light district is full of demons right", Merlin laughed dryly at being so easily caught in a lie. Ahri continued "Although I felt my connection to Lucifer sever for a moment if I concentrate it's still faintly there, and I can feel it getting slightly stronger over time"

Merlin said "If the dungeon is not dead now he will be soon" he gestured around "as you can see the attacks won't stop because the secret is already known and we can't stop it"

Ahri simply replied "then why don't you go over to the dutchy and kill the King who knows, we both know how useful it is to have a dungeon as an ally"

Merlin sighed once again and stated "it's not that simple, you've never been to war before or sieged a city so you don't know how difficult it is to breach walls defended by mages, and if you think I should just wander on in the city by myself then think again, would there be any foreign Kings if a single person could just barge into an enchanted palace and kill whenever they pleased.

BUT more importantly, the Duchy is filled with spies from other powers including the other Dutchies.

I would be surprised if the Magedom on the other side of the mountain range didn't learn of this sentient dungeon with a year. Swadia could only just defend itself from the Magedom with the King in good health, and that was only because the mountain range splitting the continent in half is nearly impenetrable by humans"

Ahri replied "Then get the dungeon to heal the King so he can defend the borders"

Merlin was starting to get irritated he spoke more harshly than he intended, "when Swadia fragmented not only did we lose almost half our land, most of the army died in the process. There is no way we could defend against the Magedom--"

"I am staying, I have the beast gods blessing" interrupted Ahri as she stood up unsteadily.

Merlin's shoulders slumped and he replied "Look I know after what happened you are looking for meaning in your life but this isn't the time or place"

Ahri roared "what happened, WHAT HAPPENED. MY WHOLE CLAN WAS SLAUGHTERED and after years of painful training when I went to get my revenge THEY WERE ALREADY DEAD"

Merlin flinched at the outburst even though he was expecting it when he brought it this touchy subject. he stared directly into her red eyes that threatened to spill over and gravely added, "The dungeon has already told us to go, so I'm going to move the University to the edge of the continent out of the way and wait until the storm blows over, The Magedom will take or destroy the dungeon and leave, The arcane university doesn't involve itself in political affairs so the loss of a single newly built city is no loss for us".

Tears streamed down Ahri's face as she shouted "You sent me here to be away from nobles well you did a good job because I was far away from you", she turned around and stormed out of the room as fast as her shaky legs could take her.

Merlin watcher her leave with a pained expression. He knew that it would be pointless to try and speak to her when she is like this so he decided to start preparations. Merlin only hoped that she would not get caught up in this new "meaning of life" she was so desperately clinging to, beast god or no beast god.

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