“Hurry up and finish cleaning so we can leave. I don’t want to be stuck here awkwardly staring at each other.”
Merlin heard that unfamiliar voice echo in his mind once again.
“What a headache. Why did my memories only come back now? I’ve actually transmigrated into a book. Although this seems like just an ordinary Western fantasy world, Greno Academy is so famous, how could I possibly misremember it? The protagonist of this book is a guy named Merlin, right?”
Merlin:
Merlin’s mind was completely blank. He even felt like he couldn’t understand what the other person was saying. Each word on its own he could recognize, so why, when strung together, did he find himself unable to grasp what was going on?
What transmigration into a book? What protagonist?
Merlin felt as though his comprehension had instantly regressed to that of a three-year-old. He was utterly stunned by the revelation, perhaps because he himself was unwilling to accept it, which was why he couldn’t process the other’s words at all.
In the brief moment after hearing the voice in his head, it seemed no other sound could reach Merlin’s ears. He could only hear the faint rush of his own blood flowing, as if, in that instant, he no longer existed in this world.
When Merlin finally snapped back to reality, he felt cold all over, his hands and feet numb, and he nearly lost his grip on his staff.
He understood what the other person had said.
But was it really true? Perhaps the person inside was suffering from some absurd delusion such things had happened before. Certain potions and spells could produce such effects.
And even if it were true, the novel’s protagonist being named Merlin was most likely just a coincidence of the same name. There was nothing particularly special about his name.
Just as Merlin was consoling himself with these thoughts, he heard the voice in his mind again.
“That handsome guy is really hot! But I wonder if he can compare to the protagonist Merlin from this book. Ugh, I don’t know where the plot is right now is it when the teacher gets killed, or when the sister dies? Or even when the academy is about to be destroyed? Why does even a satisfying power-fantasy protagonist have to lose so much?”
Merlin was once again floored by the new information that surfaced. At this point, he wanted to curse. What kind of absurd thing was unfolding before him? Was this really not some trap specifically designed to target him?
Merlin tightened his grip on his staff, feeling as though he had fallen into some bizarre illusion.
He couldn’t help but cast a mind-detection spell on himself no problems found.
Merlin felt both disappointed and relieved. Disappointed because the voice in his head seemed to be real, and relieved because his own mental faculties were intact.
But what if the other person’s mage level was higher than his? In that case, even if he tried to detect it, he wouldn’t be able to.
And was the voice in his head really that person in the washroom?
Merlin, who had a fair amount of experience, still didn’t let his guard down.
Yet, involuntarily, his mind began to analyze the other’s words.
This protagonist named Merlin had a teacher and a younger sister conditions that seemed exactly the same as his own. But such conditions were common enough. Anyone who attended school would have all kinds of teachers: mages had their magic instructors, cultural classes had their academic teachers, and knights had their own knight instructors.
And his sister in the Kingdom of Lemen, whether noble or commoner, families had many children, hoping that one might possess exceptional magical or knightly talent and elevate the entire family’s standing in society.
The combination of an older brother and younger sister was also quite ordinary.
As for academies know this: anyone with even a hint of magical talent would be sent to an academy to study, but how far they could go depended entirely on their own effort and magical aptitude.
Take Merlin himself, for example. He had progressed through the Elementary Mage Academy, the Intermediate Mage Academy, and the Advanced Mage Academy, finally passing the entrance exam for Grenor Academy of Magic. All of these institutions could be called academies.
Some remote academies might be destroyed by monster attacks, or leveled by magical duels between mages though in the latter case, the culprits would eventually pay hefty compensation, and if they had no money, they’d be seized by the Mage Association and forced into hard labor.
Yet the thought that his teacher or his sister might come to harm still weighed heavily on Merlin’s heart.
But then another thought struck him was this perhaps exactly the effect the other party intended to create?
Didn’t this feel a bit like a scam?
He recalled similar schemes explained in the academy’s anti-fraud awareness campaigns. Some shoddy mages, desperate for money, would claim to possess a unique gift for prophecy, but that because they’d foreseen some noble’s tragic future, they’d been persecuted and reduced to their current pitiful state of poverty. Now, having seen that you were destined for a great calamity, their conscience wouldn’t allow them to remain silent.
If you asked in shock what kind of calamity awaited you, they’d shake their heads and say your parents would die, or you’d die young, be cuckolded, fail to graduate, and so on.
When you were stunned into a daze, they’d say they couldn’t bear to see your future turn so miserable, and that they had a way to solve your problem.
If you’d believed everything up to that point, of course you’d press them for the solution, offering to pay.
And just like that, you’d fallen into their trap.
Reflecting on his earlier experience and the absurd words he’d just heard, had he already fallen into a trap?
No he was worse off than those victims. If he actually believed this, he’d lose both his money and his dignity!
If he didn’t believe it, then at worst he’d just slept with someone.
These swindlers were utterly ridiculous. To use such deceptive tactics on a college student like him, what a waste!
Merlin couldn’t help but sneer. Now that he understood exactly how this scam worked, there was no way he’d be fooled. He would expose the fraud and then beat the bastard senseless he wasn’t the kind of man who could be bedded for free!
He’d just have to see how this character planned to keep up the act!
“But the typical power-fantasy protagonist on that website always follows this formula parents sacrificed at the start, relatives and friends sacrificed along the leveling path. Merlin’s situation seems pretty normal, actually. It’s just a pity about his sister, dying at only fifteen, not even of age. But then again, her bloodline was problematic to begin with. I’ve forgotten what exactly her lineage was, but anyway, her frail body couldn’t withstand the fierce bloodline awakened from atavism, and eventually her body collapsed and she died bleeding from all seven orifices. This author is absolutely vicious, how could he do that to such a young girl!”
What “website”? What “formula”?
But upon hearing the latter part of the conversation, Merlin instantly clenched his fists this person was clearly setting a trap specifically for him. Was he cursing his sister to die early?
How could such a person exist in this world?!
Merlin didn’t want to endure it any longer. He planned to blast the bathroom door to pieces and give that person a thorough beating!
“Actually, I think Merlin’s sister and the snake she keeps have quite a bit of chemistry. I think the snake’s name is Strawberry it’s a flame snake. It can serve as a heater for his sister and even roast food for her. Its cooking skills rival Merlin’s!”
Merlin’s hand, about to swing his staff, froze.
How did this person know about that?! He had just received a letter from his sister yesterday, in which she said she had recently acquired a flame snake named Strawberry. She said holding it while sleeping was like hugging a little furnace, and the snake could even spray flames to roast meat for her the taste was actually on par with his own cooking!
He had only learned about this himself yesterday, how could this person already know?
Had someone secretly read the letter his sister sent him?
But his sister’s letter was sealed with a magical wax stamp, and Merlin had checked there were no signs of it being opened by anyone along the way!
Could it be that this person was still monitoring his sister’s situation?
Merlin took a deep breath, struggling to suppress the violent rage rising in his heart. The thought of someone threatening his sister’s safety near her made it impossible for him to stay calm.
But if this was true, he couldn’t act rashly!
He needed to extract information from this person to find out what kind of spy they had planted near his sister!
“But what’s even more of a ship is Merlin and his staff. That plain, natural-wood staff he used since childhood is his first love clean and simple. But later it was destroyed when his teacher died, which is like his first love, his purest flame, dying. The staves he used afterward all bore some resemblance to that first one all natural wood but later they were inlaid with gems. Those were just flashy distractions, far too ostentatious.”
Merlin:
Merlin couldn’t help but look down at the plain wooden staff in his hand. No who on earth would think of a staff as their first love?
Wait, something was wrong with that person inside. How could anyone think of a person and their staff as a couple?
Would someone with a sound mind become a con artist?
But thinking about what they said regarding “first love” and “flashy distractions,” Merlin felt goosebumps rising all over his body. He even felt a slight aversion to the staff in his hand. His first love hadn’t even appeared yet it had nothing to do with his staff!!
And what was all that about “flashy distractions”? A staff was just a mage’s weapon don’t anthropomorphize objects!!
“That handsome guy still hasn’t woken up, right? I need to get dressed and get out of here quickly. Otherwise, when he wakes up, we’ll just be staring at each other in awkwardness. I don’t even know how this happened, I only ate one chocolate! Could I be drunk on chocolate?”
What is chocolate? That was the first thought that crossed Merlin’s mind.
But then he heard the sound of a doorknob turning. Merlin quickly stuffed his “first love” staff into his pocket, though the position allowed him to draw it out easily for action.
He then sat down directly on a nearby chair, pretending as if he had heard some noise, and turned his head to meet the gaze of the other person who had just walked out through the open door.
Merlin’s own memories from yesterday were rather hazy; he only vaguely recalled that the other person had rare green hair and red eyes.