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Chapter 62 - Returning home

Two weeks passed in a flash, and the trio were nearing their destination. They didn’t encounter any more trouble after the bandit attack in the forest. Any fear they might had of being chased by the Dushe Consortium, completely dissipated when they realized that if someone was after them, they would have caught up to them by then.

Upon waking up, the siblings had been surprised by being tied to the horses, but Merlin’s explanation had quickly calmed them down. Merlin’s appearance was calm on the outside, but he had some doubts in his heart… Were those people truly plain bandits?

That region should have been wiped clean of bandits, so it made more sense to think those men were people in training. Merlin sighed. Although the last two weeks had been uneventful, they were really tired due to being on guard 24/7. In that time, Will and Merlin had finally started to get closer, to Camille’s delight.

*It has been more than five weeks already, hasn’t it?* thought Merlin.

It was just a simple thought which had crossed his mind in a moment of idleness, however, that stray thought led to a sudden realization which made him shudder.

*Fuck! I completely forgot! I’m dead meat, mother is going to kill me… I said I would come back in a month, but it has been more than five weeks and I have yet to show my face back at home…* Merlin cursed in his mind for a while before calming down.

True enough, since Emelyn knew of the existence of the teleportation orb in Merlin’s hands, before his departure, she had told him to come back home at least once a month. It had been more than five weeks since he left home, yet he hadn’t returned even once. It was no longer a matter of him being scolded, his whole family should be worried sick!

*The most I can do now, is to go back right away! If I delay this any longer, the situation back at home could escalate to the point in which I won’t be able to use this identity anymore!* thought Merlin worried.

Setting up a new identity had been easy for him because nobody knew him, but that was no longer the case. If his current identity was seen through and his true identity was exposed, then he would be unable to continue being an adventurer, for his past actions in the Adventurers guild had made him quite famous.

Deciding to do some damage control as fast as possible, he quickened his pace and went to tell the siblings about his plans of returning home for a quick visit before continuing the mission. Will and Camille were surprised when they learned about his situation, and expressed some doubts about having to turn around when they were so close to their destination.

Will: “Merlin, I don’t know about this…”

Merlin: “What do you mean, Will?”

Camille: “I think I know what he means… It hasn’t been easy to come this far, and going back right when we are so close to the location indicated in the mission isn’t exactly enjoyable!”

Will: “Camille is right. We are so close, yet you want to give up the mission and go away for months? Although it is true that we have no say in the matter because we are just tagging along, it is frustrating spending so much time travelling to get here, just to turn around and go away from here!”

Hearing them, Merlin understood where they were coming from. Because he still hadn’t told them about the teleportation orb, they mistakenly thought that all their effort since leaving the city until that moment had been all for naught.

They didn’t know that one of the requirements for using the orb, was to have a clear image of the place you were going to, in other words, you should have visited or seen your destination at least once! That meant they had spent weeks to get to their current position, but now that Merlin knew the place, they could get back there at a moment’s notice.

Merlin: “Will, Camille. Have you ever heard of an artifact called ‘teleportation orb’?”

Will: “Of course, who hasn’t?”

Camille: “Merlin, don’t tell me you…”

Merlin: “That’s right, Camille, I possess one!”

Merlin chuckled after seeing their dumbfounded expressions. They reacted more strongly than he had originally expected, but then again, it is not everyday that someone tells you they have a “teleportation orb”, an artifact that people would usually kill for.

One would have thought that after having spent some time with Merlin, the siblings would have gotten used to his way of doing things, and they wouldn’t be surprised anymore, no matter what he did. However, thinking like that would be a mistake.

In spite of Merlin’s unique way of doing things, he had never before taken out an artifact like that. Even when he gave them the witch weapons with the array to soul-bind them, they hadn’t been that surprised. They, once more, wondered about Merlin’s identity.

Camille and Will were well aware Merlin wasn’t using his true name when he registered with the guild. It wasn’t obvious at first sight, but after spending some time with him, they realized he was a little stiff whenever the surname “Lefey” was used, almost like he had to remind himself that it was his. They didn’t pry on it, but it made them curious, so they decided that it was a good chance to discover who Merlin really was.

Merlin: “Ok, now that you now my secret, go and prepare. We will depart at midnight.”

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Will: “Hmm, Camille.”

Camille: “What is it, Will?”

Will: “How do you think Merlin got his hands on that teleportation orb?”

Camille: “I don’t care and you won’t do either. He is our benefactor, and that’s all we need to know.”

Will: “Do you think he might be a prince? If he is then it wouldn’t be so strange for him to have access to an artifact like that!”

Camille: “Look, Will. I don’t care who he is or what he does… I would choose to stay by his side even if he was an ancient devil! Now, stop the useless chatter and help me tie this!”

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Laklostia, house of the Pendragon family.

The women in the house were starting to get hysterical because of Merlin’s disappearance. The last few days had been agonizing for them. Merlin didn’t contact them for a month, and when he was supposed to come back and visit, he didn’t appear, and that had been several days ago.

Merlin’s fiancées didn’t move from Merlin’s room for several days while Leyla and Emelyn focused on playing with their young daughters, but they didn’t go out of the house. Merlin, who didn’t realize he had made his family worry that much about him, was in for a beating when he returned home.

Leyla: “Sis, do you think we should go to the Adventurers guild and ask for information on him there?”

Emelyn: “I’m afraid we can’t do that, Leyla. He wasn’t going to register with the guild under his true name, and we don’t know the name he chose for the registration, so even if we wanted to ask for information in the guild, we can’t.”

Leyla: “What should we do then? He had to arrive here more than a week ago! I don’t want anything to happen to him, he is so young!”

Emelyn: “He is still alive, but he might not be after I give him a piece of my mind and a good scolding! To make us worry like this… Hmph!”

*Merlin, please be safe… but don’t come back home! Sis is in her scary mode again!* thought Leyla while shivering.

Emelyn was mad, and Leyla knew it, but it wasn’t the normal kind of mad, it was the kind of being mad that would make someone have nightmares when sleeping at night! But, then again, Merlin had given a communication stone to his mother before his departure, yet he had never spoken with her, not even once. It was only natural that his mother was mad at him.

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Oblivious to what was expecting him back at home, Merlin wandered around trying to figure out where was the most suitable place to use the teleportation orb. He wanted it to be a hidden location, so that no one would see them disappear on thin air, or appear out of it when they came back. It would be disastrous for Merlin’s group were someone to learn about the orb.

He had until nightfall to find such a place. Merlin wanted to find a secluded place, and after several hours searching, he finally found one. He actually found it by accident, because he had misstepped on a rock and fallen into the bushes on the side of the path. The bushes couldn’t support his weight and he fell into what seemed to be a small hidden valley in the mountain.

Merlin stood up and looked around him. It was a pleasant surprise for him to discover that the hidden valley he had fallen into was exactly the kind of place he was looking for. The surrounding foliage made it almost impossible to peek at what was happening inside without exposing yourself first, and that made easier to check if there were any unwanted witnesses present.

Merlin quickly found the way out of the valley and returned where the siblings were waiting for him. The looked dejected because they didn’t manage to find any location which met Merlin’s requirements. However, as soon as Merlin told them about the hidden valley he had found, their spirits went up again.

They didn’t lose any more time and Merlin led the siblings to the hidden valley. They had to make it there before sunset, because the way to enter the hidden valley was tricky, and Merlin wasn’t confident on going the right way in the dark.

There was, of course, the option of falling into the bushes to get into the valley, but the horses would get hurt from the fall, and Merlin’s bottom was still sore from the previous one, so he wasn’t exactly willing to repeat the experience. They carefully led the horses into the valley and calmly waited for the sunset.

As the night fell, the group came together around Merlin. He took the teleportation orb out and activated it. The orb shone and they vanished from the hidden valley.

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Y. Master: “Virca, did you see that too? Or did I just imagine it?”

Virca: “I saw that too, young mi-master.”

Y. Master: “Virca, do you know the invisibility spell they just used?”

Virca: “I don’t, young master. However, I don’t think that was an invisibility spell at all, I think they simply teleported away.”

Y. Master: “Teleported away? Come on, Virca. Don’t joke like that, to teleport their group away they would have to use a teleportation orb! That’s an artifact, you know!? They don’t grow on the trees! They are kids like me, how could they have a teleportation orb?”

Virca: “…”

Y. Master: “Are you serious?”

Virca: “I don’t know how they could have one, but they did.”

Y. Master: “Too bad they are gone now… I would have liked to meet such interesting people…”

Unfortunately, Merlin hadn’t discovered that on one side of the hidden valley there was a cave and that there were two people in it. Those two people had seen everything that had happened in the valley ever since Merlin fell inside. Whether they harbored ill intentions toward the group or not, no one knew, but one thing was for sure, that was precisely the kind of unwanted attention Merlin wanted to avoid.

Fortunately for the group, they had vanished from the valley and the other party didn’t know their destination, but there might be some trouble if the people in the cave were still there when Merlin and his companions teleported back to the valley.

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