“Too slow.”
By the lakeside near New Spring Town, Lion El’Jonson, now the leader of Caliban’s knightly orders, frowned as she effortlessly parried Merlin’s sword.
“You can’t attack recklessly like that.
You’ve forgotten again.”
With a flick of her blade, she turned toward Merlin.
The hilt moved at a speed ten—no, perhaps a hundred—times slower than it would in a real battle, gently striking him on the forehead.
Unfortunately, even then, Merlin couldn’t react in time.
Clang!
“Ouch!”
The poor wizard was struck on the forehead by the hilt and knocked straight to the ground.
Too weak.
Lion El’Jonson fell silent, narrowing her eyes.
She had tried countless times to teach Merlin swordsmanship, passing on everything she knew as a master duelist in hopes of making him at least a little stronger.
And yet the results were still terrible.
Hopeless.
With a resigned expression, Lion turned her gaze toward the magnificent fortress visible through the gaps in the distant forest.
New Spring Town.
Calling it New Spring City—or even New Spring Fortress—would probably be more appropriate now.
Ever since Lion had led the Order of the Round Table to become the leading force among the united knightly orders, years of development had transformed what had once been a muddy settlement of barely a thousand people into a large city comparable to Aldurukh.
Unlike the traditional knightly orders, where only those of noble birth could become knights, the Order of the Round Table upheld equality.
Noble or commoner, birth did not matter.
Only character and merit counted.
Young people from across Caliban came here hoping to become knights, rise through the ranks, and join the great crusade against the Great Beasts and the human traitors who fought beside them.
But although the Order of the Round Table had recruited a great number of young knights, the war against the Great Beasts had already continued for years.
Ever since the Order of the Crimson Grail had led Great Beasts in attacks against human settlements, several other knightly orders had willingly fallen to their side, using excuses such as “returning to the wild” and obeying the “World-Soul of Caliban.”
Merlin really hadn’t expected that Warhammer would have not only feral Aeldari, but feral humans too.
And during the early days of the alliance between the knightly orders, those humans who had voluntarily sided with the beasts had placed enormous pressure on them.
The Great Beasts possessed overwhelming strength, and now they had human minds directing them.
Their attacks against settlements and fortress-monasteries were almost unstoppable.
But once Lion El’Jonson finished consolidating the knightly orders and personally entered the war, the balance immediately shifted.
Swift, direct strikes against enemy commanders had always been her most efficient tactic.
Whenever Lion El’Jonson appeared on a battlefield, the result was practically decided.
The enemy commander would be killed, the opposing force would collapse, and the Great Beasts, deprived of human direction, would eventually be isolated and destroyed by the united knightly orders.
Ten years into the crusade—now—almost all of Caliban’s Great Beasts had been wiped out under her command.
“And even after all that, I still haven’t managed to teach you how to pick up a sword and fight properly.”
Lion felt frustrated by Merlin’s complete lack of progress.
Humiliating.
This was a humiliation unlike anything she had experienced since the day she was born.
“Merlin, why exactly are you so weak?”
“I…”
Merlin personally felt that he had improved quite a lot.
Unfortunately, in Lion’s eyes, that amount of progress was clearly nowhere near enough.
He could only blame Caliban for being such an absurd place.
On a world where beings with strength approaching that of demigods seemed to appear everywhere, there was only so much an ordinary person could achieve through hard work alone. Follow the newest chapters on novelping . com.
Ignoring Merlin’s attempt to defend himself, Lion walked over, crouched down, and cupped his cheeks in both hands.
“Hm?”
“Stop going ‘hm’ and look at me.”
Merlin obediently met her gaze.
Lion’s emerald eyes stared directly into his.
A strange mixture of pleasure and pity rose within her.
What was this feeling?
First came nostalgia.
She remembered the time when she had understood nothing.
Merlin had been the one to lead her out of the forests of Caliban.
He had taught her how humans lived.
He had taught her what it meant to be human.
And now…
Everything about Merlin depended on her.
In her hands, he had no ability to resist at all.
She could do almost anything she wanted with him.
She controlled nearly everything about his life.
A strange sense of superiority, almost like that of a creator looking at her own creation, slowly grew inside Lion’s heart.
Perhaps the only imperfection was that Merlin still had several little secrets she hadn’t uncovered.
But the Lion of today was completely confident that she could keep Merlin from ever escaping her grasp.
She genuinely wished he could become stronger and learn how to fight.
And yet…
Sometimes, she actually liked how weak he was.
She enjoyed the feeling of having complete control over everything about him.
It was an unexpectedly wonderful sensation.
What a twisted way of thinking.
Even while enjoying it, Lion silently mocked the darker side of her own nature.
Put simply—
She was possessive.
But her thoughts didn’t stop there.
No matter what happened, she, Lion El’Jonson, was the most important person in Merlin’s life.
Without her, everything Merlin had would disappear.
And if one day she lost her temper—
Although Lion believed that, with her self-control, such a thing would never happen.
But just imagine it.
If one day she suddenly acted willfully and ignored him…
How pitiful would Merlin look after losing everything?
How desperately would he beg her to come back?
The dependence and suffering he would show…
Wouldn’t that be worth savoring?
Hiss—
Lion’s gaze toward Merlin gradually became more intense.
Or perhaps…
What if she stopped being a knight who upheld justice?
What if she became a beast again?
An untamed beast.
Punching his head off!
A cruel thrill suddenly surged through her.
Feeling his warm blood spill out…
Tasting the despair of his final moments…
Then this weak mortal would belong to her forever.
No one could ever take him away from her.
No person.
No entity.
No possibility.
Everything she feared would disappear.
She would never need to worry about losing him again.
Never—
“No.
What am I thinking?”
Realizing that something was very wrong, Lion hurriedly shook her head and forced those images out of her mind.
“Lion?”
Merlin’s gaze shifted awkwardly.
There had been something disturbingly intense in Lion’s eyes just now.
Hopefully, he had imagined it.
“Any instructions, Mentor?”
“Mentor” was a title Lion herself had strictly required him to use.
“I think…”
Lion glanced around again.
With a Primarch’s senses, there really shouldn’t have been any need for such caution.
But according to Lion, this was a little secret between the two of them, and therefore it had to be protected with the highest possible level of secrecy.
Still…
She could always faintly feel someone’s gaze.
As though, from the very beginning, some mysterious presence had been hiding among the bushes and quietly watching everything.
Lion: “…”
Perhaps it was only her imagination.
She turned back toward Merlin and placed the sword in front of herself.
“I think…
I…”
The words seemed to catch in her throat.
Forget it.
She decided not to say it.
Lion paused for a moment before changing the subject.
“There’s something I’ve always been curious about.”
“Merlin…”
She looked down at the sword.
“Does this sword really not have a scabbard?”
It really helps the fic grow!