Merlin quickly took out his medal of the “Council of ten”, and marked the wall before leaving another message for the King on the wall. The purpose of this message was to mislead the King into thinking that the death of his son was unrelated to his pedophilic tendencies, which would draw suspicion away from Duke Risme.

[Klaus Klausna,

Let the death of this pedophile son of yours be the price for delaying your execution two years. Please, be smart and don’t make us add interest.

Ps: Your Palace really lacks in security, we didn’t even have to kill our way in…]

This was Merlin’s application of Sun Tzu’s principle “all war is based on deception”. The last phrase was intended to mislead the King into thinking that the assassin had somehow bypassed the guards and killed his son, then bypassed the guards again and escaped, which sounded the most logical, and would make the King to completely forget about the tunnel which led from the royal chambers to outside the Palace. Its second function was to piss the King off out of his mind.

As soon as he finished writing the message, Merlin severed the head of the corpse and put it on its navel. Then he went towards the sleeping girl, gently took her in his arms, and abandoned the room without even caring about closing the door behind him. Merlin went back to the room of the King and hurriedly entered the secret tunnel while carrying the unconscious girl. After shutting the door of the secret tunnel, Merlin descended to where the fork was and stopped there to rest. The girl had started to show signs of waking up along the way, but she still hadn’t opened her eyes.

The very second she did open her eyes, she crawled back to the wall of the tunnel and started bawling like there was no tomorrow. Merlin was surprised, he had never expected her to react that way after waking up, but what took priority at that moment was to make her stop crying so loudly, he didn’t know if she could be heard or not, but better safe than sorry, if they were discovered because of her cries, Merlin’s effort would have been all for naught.

Merlin tried to talk to her, but she was terrified, and didn’t dare to look at him. He realized that for a 7-year-old girl, seeing a strangely clothed man right after waking up should be quite frightening, even more so, given the situation she was in before falling asleep. Merlin quickly removed his mask and took the hood down. Speaking some words, he tried to put her at ease.

Merlin: “See? You don’t have any reason to be afraid of me! My name’s Merlin, what’s yours?”

???: “M- Mandy… You… You are a kid!”

Merlin: “Hello there, Mandy. Nice to meet you! I see that your powers of observation are intact! I am indeed a kid, and so are you! I would really appreciate it, though, if you could keep my appearance, age and race a secret, otherwise you would be putting my life in danger!”

Mandy: “Ok. I promise I won’t tell anyone!”

Merlin: “Ok. Let’s take you somewhere safe!”

Merlin put back on the mask and the hood, and took Mandy towards the hidden exit of the tunnel. They were about to go out, when Merlin suddenly realized the mistake he had almost made.

Merlin: “Mandy before going out there, there is something you must know. You are not a slave anymore, but everyone in the Palace knows how you look like, and they might send people looking for you. I’ll have to alter your appearance with a disguising magic, but the effect will be permanent unless I personally dispel it, are you ok with that?”

Mandy: “Will I look like a little girl even as I grow older?”

Merlin: “No, the altered features will remain, but the disguising magic will adapt them to your current age.”

Mandy: “Then it’s all ok! Please, go ahead and cast the magic!”

Merlin complied to her wishes and cast on her the same kind of disguising magic he had previously used on his cousin Lilith. He didn’t really change her much, just enough so that no one who had seen her before would ever be able to recognize her, unless she admitted being the crown Prince’s former slave, which she would not!

Merlin: “Say, Mandy… Do you have any family, or any place to return to?”

Upon hearing his question, Mandy bit her lower lip, closed her fists and looked down before giving him an answer. The desperate and enraged tone she used gave him shivers.

Mandy: “My family is dead, I’m the only one remaining of the Zircon bloodline. I was visiting a friend in a village a few miles away from the capital when my family was massacred under the orders of the King! But my luck wasn’t much better! The village was raided by bandits and most of the people was caught and sold to slave dealers, me included! The most ironic thing is that the slave dealers sold me to the very person who ordered the massacre of my family, and I was unable to avenge them!”

At that point it was obvious that she was seething with rage, but her disconsolate tears made crystal clear that even though the resentment she was harboring against the King was something she could never get rid of, she was far too weak to act on her feelings and make the lustful bastard pay for his crimes, which was filling her with despair!

Merlin: “So, your family name is Zircon, eh? That’s good, I think I can arrange a good place for you to stay, and even help you to get payback from that bastard King, but you will have to forsake your family name, sorry!”

Mandy: “Don’t be! It’s good enough that you are going to provide me with a place to stay and save me from starving to death on the streets… You even said that you will help me get back at the man who gave the order to slaughter my family! Forsaking my family name is a small price to pay if I am able to avenge them! I would even willingly become your slave if that helped me avenge their deaths!”

Merlin: “Hey, hey, hey! Don’t go around offering yourself as a slave, idiot! What if it was someone else instead of me and accepted your proposal? It’s good that you are so determined to reach your goal, but sometimes, the line between determination and foolishness is very thin… and you almost crossed it just now! Don’t you EVER do that again!”

Mandy: “Ok, I understand, Merlin.”

Merlin: “That’s good! Now, I’ll be taking you to…”

Mandy: “But I still wish to serve you!”

Merlin was confused, he understood how he had gone from saving her to promising her to help her avenge her family, what he couldn’t figure out was how they had gotten to the point in which Mandy offered herself as a slave to him! And despite him rejecting her offer, she still insisted on serving him! He didn’t know what was happening anymore…

Merlin: “Mandy, why are you so willing to be at my service, be it as a slave or as a servant?”

Mandy: “I don’t have a clear reason, I just feel safe by your side, and think that you are the only one who can bring me happiness, besides, I want to be of use to you, and the easiest way to be useful to you is becoming your servant or your slave!”

Merlin: “Look, Mandy, I’m not fond of slavery, so I won’t make you my slave!” *I just saved her, so I understand that she needs to lean on someone for support, but I must stop this before her gratitude turns into mad love like it happened to the other girls! Oh! I got it! This might work!* “I also don’t intend to make you my servant, however, I can make you a member of my organization and someone who reports directly to me! Would that be acceptable?”

Mandy: “YES! Please do that! Thank you very much!” *YES! This way I’ll be able to repay him, be useful to him and make him happy! Thank the gods! Thanks!*

Merlin prepared a magic circle to make with Mandy a soul contract with similar terms to the one he had made with Mina. After successfully making the contract, Merlin took out an enchanted piece of silver and gave it to Mandy for her to bond it, once she did, it changed into a medal of the “Council of ten”, making her an official member of the group. However, her medal had a subtle difference if compared with the medals of the original members, that subtle difference on the engravings of the medal indicated that she was a direct subordinate of Merlin’s, but she wouldn’t learn about that until much time later. Finally, he passed a memory stone to her, which left her astonished when it turned to dust after imprinting into her mind the language of the council.

Merlin: “Ok, now that we have resolved that matter, it’s time to go to the place you will be staying at! Follow me closely!”

Mandy: “Yes!”

They left through the hidden exit of the tunnel, which closed again behind them. A poison ivy entangled in Merlin’s left arm when he was making way for Mandy, but he cut it and stored it in his ring. He wouldn’t have bothered storing it away in different circumstances, but nobody approached the poison ivies, sometimes an alchemist might cut a part of one for a concoction, but they usually grew their own, so a cut poison ivy on the ground would attract attention, even more so given its function on that particular location.

Merlin guided Mandy towards Duke Risme’s mansion, which greatly surprised her when she saw their destination. Moving in the shadows as much as possible, making a few stops to avoid the guards making their rounds, they arrived to the east wall of Duke Risme’s mansion. Mandy tried to go to the main entrance of the mansion, but Merlin quickly stopped her, after the commotion at the Palace, the King would probably send guards to ask around about any suspicious activity that night, and Merlin didn’t trust the guards in the mansion. *All it takes to make my plans of revenge crumble and send the hounds against the Risme family is a loose-tongued guard of the mansion who saw a little more than he should have!* To avoid that situation, Merlin took Mandy on his arms and jumped over the wall, he would have been unable to do it in his normal condition, but with the remnants of the power boost it was doable for him.

After landing on the other side, Merlin didn’t stop and went straight ahead to the study-room where he had left the duke and duchess 3 hours before. He found them exactly where he had left them, it seemed that they were so anxious about the execution of Merlin’s plan, that they didn’t even dare to step out of the room, just in case he came back hurt an needed some urgent medical help. Only when Duke Risme loudly cleared his throat and signaled something to Merlin’s chest, did he realize that he was still princess-carrying Mandy, whose face was beet-red from embarrassment. Not wanting to give her any more reasons for a misunderstanding, Merlin immediately let her down and introduced her to the duke and duchess, leaving them speechless.

Merlin: “Duke Risme, duchess… Please allow me to introduce to you Mandy Zircon, the last surviving member of the Zircon family. I would like to request of you to take care of her while I am away making some necessary preparations for seizing the throne two years from now.”

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