Chapter 23 – New allies?

Merlin arrived to where the freed slaves were staying at, and saw that they were all already waiting for him. The one who was in charge of preparing the list Merlin had asked for, handed it to him. Merlin took a look at it and let out a sigh. *I know I asked them to make the information the most complete possible, but pointing out whom of the girls was a virgin and who had been abused… that’s a little too much! It’s good that they are so eager to follow my orders, though. It seems that I’ll have to be more careful in the future when giving out orders to them… * Emelyn took a peek at the list and then understood why Merlin had sighted.

Out of all the names in the list, there were nine which stood out: Vania Kopek, Janus Aureus, and Argenta Lerion, former spies who were abandoned by their different kingdoms and fell into slavery; Shin Ryu, Akemi Ume, Sayuri Ryu, and Aimi Ryu, members of a fallen clan in the barbarian islands of the East who fell into slavery after the destruction of their clan; Sokar Winter, a dwarven craftsman who fell into slavery for the enormous crime of not revealing the secrets of his trade to the kingdom who captured him; and Mina Nosferati, a 13-year-old variant vampire who doesn’t need to feed on blood and can walk under the sun without any problem whatsoever, she fell into slavery when she was kidnapped and sold by one of her suitors whom she had previously rejected.

Aside from those nine, the rest of the people on the list were quite ordinary, several craftsmen, several foreign soldiers who fell into slavery after becoming prisoners of war… and the rest were just villagers who had fallen prey of the greed of bandits and slave dealers, most of them being women who didn’t have anywhere else to return to, or were too ashamed to go back after having been defiled by men of low morals.

Merlin: “I hate long speeches, so I’ll try to make it short! You have all come here for a reason, you either wanted a chance to start anew or you had nowhere else to go, and just went with the flow. The reason doesn’t matter, you are here and that’s a fact! So, now you have to make a decision which will determine your fate! That magic circle is a soul restriction contract, once you accept it, you will never be able to remove it till the day you die! The rules of the contract are as follow: 1-Never betray me, my family, or the city of Ragnärok. 2-Anything pertaining to the city that is said to be secret, mustn’t be told to outsiders. 3-You must follow me until the day of your death. Any breaking of the rules will lead to the death and destruction of the soul of the said individual. Any questions?”

Villager X: “Will you take our lives if we don’t enter the magic circle?”

Merlin: “Absolutely not, I won’t coerce you to enter the magic circle, however if you refuse to enter, you won’t be involved in the construction of the city, and your house, when built, will be located outside of the city walls, aside from that, you’ll get an assignment outside of the city, that’s all.”

Villager X: “I was just asking!”

The villager immediately stepped inside the magic circle, and the rest of the group followed, only 9 people remained outside of the circle. Merlin looked at them, and they were precisely the 9 people he was most interested in. He decided to talk to them and ascertain their reasons for not stepping inside the magic circle. He thought it really had gone way too smoothly with the others, for serving someone for life or dying isn't an easy choice to make, so he wasn't really surprised... he actually expected the number to be higher!

Merlin: “Looks like you want talk about something, let’s go inside a tent… the three ex-spies will go first, then the fallen clan, then the dwarf and finally the vampire girl!”

**************************************************************************

Merlin: “Well, seems like you three have a lot on your minds… speak up!”

Vania: “It’s just that we have already worked with people in power, and as long as we were useful they helped us, but when it stopped being convenient, they left us to die. Once is enough, we don’t need to go through that again! That of following you till our deaths… it doesn’t go well with us!”

Janus: “Vania is right, this contract makes us risk our lives, but you risk nothing!”

Argenta: “My thoughts exactly, it’s too risky for us!”

Merlin: “THAT I DON’T RISK ANYTHING?! YOU FUCKING MORONS! I RISK DYING JUST BY CREATING THAT KIND OF MAGIC CIRCLE! I’M DOING THIS BECAUSE A FUCKING WAR IS COMING, AND IF I DON’T DO IT, I RISK LOSING MY WHOLE FAMILY! YET YOU DARE TO SAY I RISK NOTHING?!”

The trio was at a loss for words, they just didn’t like the idea of being tied for life to someone so young, but they didn’t expect him to react so strongly. Besides, the words he said… A war was coming? He was risking his life trying to do the contracts? He was trying to save his family? The three of them didn't fully understand the situation, but they could definitely relate to that! After all, that was the very reason they went into the spy business!

Janus: “What you just said about a war… is it for real?”

Merlin had managed to calm down and answer Janus’ question. Fortunately, he had set up a sound barrier around the tent so, despite his shouting, the people outside didn’t hear a thing.

Merlin: “You’ll know about it in due time… that’s it, IF you join me!”

The three of them silently walked out of the tent, and Merlin looked at their statuses right before they stepped inside the circle.

Status WindowNameVania KopekAge25RaceHumanLevel58GenderMaleHealth1400/1400Health Regen.0.003 / SecMana5 372Mana Regen.0.008 / SecMagic

“Wind Magic”

Attribute affinityWind (high)Skills

“Stealth (lv. 7)”

“Assassination (lv. 8)”

“Espionage (lv. 8)”

“Hand-to-hand combat (lv. 8)”

“Sword mastery (lv. 7)”

Status WindowNameJanus AureusAge28RaceHumanLevel63GenderMaleHealth1600/1600Health Regen.0.004 / SecMana4 091Mana Regen.0.007 / SecMagic

“Wind Magic”

Attribute affinityWind (medium)Skills

“Stealth (lv. 9)”

“Assassination (lv. 7)”

“Hand-to-hand combat (lv. 8)”

“Espionage (lv. 8)”

“Conning (lv. 6)”

“Knife mastery (lv. 6)”

Status WindowNameArgenta LerionAge25RaceHumanLevel72GenderFemaleHealth1800/1800Health Regen.0.011 / SecMana5 372Mana Regen.0.009 / SecMagic

“Wind Magic”

Attribute affinityWind (high)Skills

“Stealth (lv. 5)”

“Assassination (lv. 8)”

“Espionage (lv. 9)”

“Sex technique (lv. 8)”

“Hand-to-hand combat (lv. 8)”

“Poison mastery (lv. 7)”

*******************************************************************

The next to enter into the tent were the members of the fallen clan.

Merlin: “Well, it seems that you have a lot in your mind… Speak up!”

Shin: “I’m Shin Ryu, Akemi is my wife, and Sayuri and Aimi are my sisters. Despite being grateful for your help back then, I’m afraid we can’t follow you for life, sorry!”

Merlin: “May I ask why you feel that way?”

Shin: “We need to take revenge on those who massacred our Ryu clan!”

Sayuri and Aimi: “That’s right!”

Akemi: “Those bastards should all drop dead!”

Merlin: “So you’re unwilling to join me because that would interfere with your plans of revenge… It’s not that I don’t understand your position, but aren’t you forgetting something?”

Shin: “And… what would that be?”

Merlin: “Your numbers! You are only 4 people and one of you is even a little kid, while your enemy is a whole clan, do you really plan on engaging your enemies in those conditions? That’s just suicidal!”

Shin: “Like you’re one to talk! You’re a little kid too!”

Merlin: “That’s beside the point! You’ll not be able to have your revenge like that!”

Shin: “What would you suggest then?”

Merlin: “Well, why don’t you join me and create a martial Sect? You could find and train people, and when the time and the numbers are right, you’ll be able to have your revenge!”

At this point, the four didn’t know how to answer Merlin’s question. In this world, mana and ki were one and the same, as proven by Merlin’s “Ki strengthening technique”, so he assumed that if martial clans existed, martial sects would too. The problem was that, contrary to Merlin’s assumption, martial sects didn’t exist in this world, so the concept of passing down the clan’s techniques to outsiders was foreign to them, and even taboo.

Merlin was surprised when he was told they didn’t know what a martial sect was, so he proceeded to explain to them the organization and working of the martial sects in the xianxia novels back on Earth. He tweaked the story a little, though, and said that the distribution was: the core family, inner disciples and outer disciples. The core family having the best techniques, while the outer disciples would learn the more trashy ones. Also, the outer disciples could advance to inner disciples and vice versa, based on their progress, but the core family was a closed circle.

When heard about it, a strange light flashed in the eyes of the four clansmen, but Shin felt something was amiss, and when thinking about it, he realized what it was! Merlin was giving them the way to build up their forces and have their revenge, but he didn’t say what he expected in exchange or how he would benefit from it!

Shin: “And, what exactly do you get out of this? Besides, I thank you for the idea, but I could establish a martial sect elsewhere, why would I need to follow you for the rest of my life and establish it here?”

Merlin: “Well, I certainly plan on learning the secret techniques of your clan, as for why here and not elsewhere, that choice is yours to make, just note that to establish your sect in any piece of land of the continent, you must first ask for permission to the lord governing that area, and you are a foreigner in this continent, so it would be really tricky for you to attempt it elsewhere… besides, to catch your enemies off guard, you can’t create the martial sect in plain sight, I can provide a place which suits your needs best, but only IF you join me!”

Shin: “Are you really a 6-year-old?! Damn! Fine, we’ll follow you! Not that we have a choice anyway!”

Merlin took a peek at their statuses as they were leaving the tent, and was very pleased by what he saw.

Status WindowNameShin RyuAge16RaceHumanLevel65GenderMaleHealth1900/1900Health Regen.0.009 / SecMana5 624Mana Regen.0.010 / SecMagic

“Wind Magic”

“Darkness Magic”

Attribute affinity

Wind (medium)

Darkness (high)

Skills

“Stealth (lv. 7)”

“Assassination (lv. 8)”

“Hand-to-hand combat (lv. 8)”

"Ryu-style ninjutsu (lv. 8)"

“Sword mastery (lv. 7)”

“Staff mastery (lv. 3)”

"Knife mastery (lv. 7)"

Status WindowNameAkemi UmeAge16RaceHumanLevel61GenderFemaleHealth1600/1600Health Regen.0.008 / SecMana3 982Mana Regen.0.009 / SecMagic

“Wind Magic”

“Darkness Magic”Attribute affinity

Wind (medium)

Darkness (medium)

Skills

“Stealth (lv. 9)”

“Assassination (lv. 7)”

“Hand-to-hand combat (lv. 8)”

"Ume-style ninjutsu (lv. 5)"

“Staff mastery (lv. 6)”

"Knife mastery (lv. 8)"

Status WindowNameSayori RyuAge17RaceHumanLevel52GenderFemaleHealth1500/1500Health Regen.0.015 / SecMana4 589Mana Regen.0.011 / SecMagic

“Darkness Magic”

Attribute affinityDarkness (high)Skills

“Stealth (lv. 5)”

“Assassination (lv. 8)”

“Hand-to-hand combat (lv. 8)”

"Ryu-style ninjutsu (lv. 5)"

"Knife mastery (lv. 5)"

“Poison mastery (lv. 9)”

Status WindowNameAimi RyuAge8RaceHumanLevel31GenderFemaleHealth1100/1100Health Regen.0.009 / SecMana2 037Mana Regen.0.012 / SecMagic

“Wind Magic”

“Darkness Magic”Attribute affinity

Wind (medium)

Darkness (high)

Skills

“Stealth (lv. 6)”

“Hand-to-hand combat (lv. 5)”

"Ryu-style ninjutsu (lv. 4)"

"Knife mastery (lv.4)"

****************************************************************************

Aimi’s POV:

I’m glad that my brother accepted that little boy’s offer, although I don’t think “little boy” fits him… he certainly is a year or two younger than me, but the way he conducts himself resembles an adult’s. Ever since the first time I saw him, my heart starts racing when I think about him, and I feel compelled to serve and protect him… A young girl would usually think this is love at first sight, but I was raised in the Ryu clan, so I know what this sensation actually is…

Since its creation, our Ryu clan has specialized in stealth, intelligence and assassination. We are called – correction: were called – a martial clan, because we were living in barbarian territory, and that’s how they usually call the clans which specialize in fighting. There is a total of 29 martial clans in barbarian territory, of which, 6 clans – currently 5 – specialize in stealth, intelligence and assassination, while the others just fight their opponents head-on, barbarian style. Despite the fact that those 6 clans are called “The 6 Shinobi clans” inside barbarian territory, outside of it, they are grouped together with the other martial clans.

Back to what I was feeling about that boy, Merlin… my mother once told me that the women in our bloodline have the innate ability to detect great leadership, meaning that if I ever felt that from a person, it meant that person would do great things in the future. Mother said that if the person I felt it from was a woman, I should befriend her and follow our shinobi code while serving her. But if the person I felt it from was a man, aside from befriending him and serving him, mother said that I should also try to become his mistress… but I don’t know what a mistress is… mother told me she’d explain it to me when I grew older, but she has already passed away and, now, I’ve started feeling this from that boy… I’ll guess I’ll have to ask big brother later to properly explain to me what a mistress is…

________________________________________________________________________________

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