After Merlin appeared, the course of Lion El’Jonson’s life changed.
Unlike the Lion Merlin knew, who believed that “Loyalty is its own reward,” this Lion now carried many emotions she had never possessed before.
And it was precisely those emotions that, during the Rangdan Xenocides, allowed a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch to whisper doubts into her heart.
Those seeds of doubt took root and continued to grow until—
Let the stars fall.
Let the seas of stars boil.
Let the galaxy burn!
The Lion El’Jonson Heresy had begun!
“Ah!”
Merlin jolted awake.
The thick wood surrounding him quickly reminded him that he was still in the jungles of Caliban.
More precisely, inside a hollow carved into one of Caliban’s enormous trees.
After meeting the female Primarch Lion El’Jonson not long ago, Merlin no longer had to worry too much about his immediate safety, but the problem of being stranded in the wilderness remained.
He had no idea where any human settlements were.
After wandering aimlessly through the forest with the young Lion El’Jonson for quite some time, Merlin eventually had her use her Primarch strength to carve out a hollow high inside a giant tree so they would have somewhere to stay.
It was crude, but compared to Lion El’Jonson’s previous habit of simply sleeping on the ground, a tree hollow was clearly much more comfortable.
“Mrrr…”
Beside him, Lion El’Jonson had also been startled awake.
She stretched, then looked at Merlin with obvious displeasure.
The tree hollow was cramped, and Merlin’s sudden movement had dragged her straight out of a deep sleep.
So it was only a dream…
Merlin’s wildly beating heart finally began to calm down.
That scared the hell out of me.
Judging from the faint starlight filtering in from outside, not much time had passed.
The Ring of Sagittarius was still sitting intact on the finger of his right hand.
“…Something isn’t right.”
Merlin stared at the Ring of Sagittarius, thinking about the dream he had just experienced.
It was too much of a coincidence.
Having a dream like that on the very first night after meeting a Primarch made it difficult to believe it was meaningless.
“If I get too close to Lion El’Jonson, the Chaos Gods might exploit those feelings…
Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
This was troublesome.
If their relationship became too close, Chaos might find a weakness to exploit.
But if he deliberately kept his distance, then his mission would amount to nothing, and his final reward would probably be terrible.
No matter what Merlin did, it seemed like there was a chance he would only make things worse.
In this damned Warhammer universe, who could he trust?
“Mrrr…”
Another dissatisfied growl came from beside him.
Lion El’Jonson was struggling with the coat Merlin had put on her.
The cramped tree hollow made it difficult for her to turn over while wearing it.
That had happened not long ago.
After Merlin had spent some time rubbing her head, and after the young Lion El’Jonson had finally confirmed that he meant her no harm, the first thing he had done was give her a bath in the lake.
Primarch physiology might have kept her body cleaner than an ordinary human’s, but Lion El’Jonson had spent years hunting through the wilderness.
So she still smelled a little…
Bad.
Once she had been washed clean—and had used her Primarch speed to shake the water off herself—Merlin had draped his coat over her.
No matter what, he couldn’t just let a girl keep walking around naked.
Unfortunately, Lion El’Jonson didn’t seem to appreciate the gesture.
“Rrrah!”
Apparently tangled in the coat while trying to get up, she growled in irritation and immediately tried to pull the troublesome garment off.
“Don’t.
Just leave it on for now.”
Merlin quickly reached out to stop her.
Don’t take it off.
Once you understand human society, you’ll regret this.
Seriously.
Trust me.
Merlin had no desire to be quietly executed by the Inner Circle ten thousand years later on the grounds that he “knew too much.”
“Awoo…”
When Merlin stopped her, the young Lion El’Jonson shook her head in the same way she had seen him do earlier, making her dissatisfaction perfectly clear.
She couldn’t understand it.
While hunting in the forest, she had never needed useless things like this hanging from her body.
Her Primarch physiology meant that she didn’t suffer from the cold simply because she lacked clothing.
Worse still, clothes could be caught by the fangs or claws of Great Beasts in battle, creating openings that otherwise wouldn’t exist.
They could also become soaked in blood and slime, leaving behind a scent that made it easier for other beasts to track her.
Lion El’Jonson didn’t like clothing.
For a superhuman like a Primarch, clothes really did seem rather useless.
Of course, Primarchs normally weren’t so feral that they refused to wear anything at all.
Before their creation was complete, their creator, the [Emperor of Mankind], had already filled their minds with an enormous amount of human knowledge, from the most basic aspects of everyday life to advanced mechanics, physics, philosophy, and countless other fields.
Unfortunately, the Emperor’s first son—
No.
His first daughter now—
Didn’t seem particularly interested in digging through that knowledge.
Even after living and hunting alone in the wilderness for years, Lion El’Jonson still behaved far more like a beast than a human.
“Sigh…
forget it.”
Merlin withdrew his hand helplessly.
“Hmm…
It’s a little complicated to explain, but we humans—”
He pointed at the thin shirt he was still wearing.
“We wear clothes.”
When the Ring of Sagittarius had dragged him into this simulation, Merlin never would have imagined that his first task would be teaching a female Lion El’Jonson how to bathe and get dressed.
Was this really not some elaborate Tzeentchian scheme?
Or a Slaaneshi trap?
“As for why…
you’ll understand when you’re older.”
“Hu…
man?”
Lion El’Jonson suddenly stopped struggling.
She tilted her head, looked at Merlin, then pointed first at herself and then at him.
It was the first proper word she had spoken.
“That’s right.”
Merlin nodded.
“We’re humans.
Humans wear clothes.”
He suddenly felt like a Commissar trying to explain basic instructions to an Ogryn.
Naturally, he kept that thought firmly to himself.
He had no desire to discover how far his head would fly if she punched him.
“Mm…”
Seemingly understanding at least part of what Merlin meant, Lion El’Jonson gave a quiet murmur, pulled the coat up, and wrapped herself in it again.
In truth, Merlin’s clothes carried a scent she found pleasant.
And when she slept wrapped in the coat inside the tree hollow, she felt…
Safe.
Safer than when she slept alone in the forest, where even in dreams she had always remained ready to wake and fight.
“Human…”
Lion El’Jonson looked down at herself.
“Become…
human.”
She didn’t understand what clothing had to do with being human.
But somewhere deep inside, she felt that becoming human was something she was supposed to do.
It was the purpose for which she had been created.
Of course, the young Lion El’Jonson didn’t understand any of that yet.
All she knew was that the scent surrounding her made her feel strangely at ease.
Before long, she curled up beneath the coat and fell asleep again.
“…”
Merlin, meanwhile, stared out at the night sky, too uneasy to immediately follow her.
He had no idea what would happen once they finally left the forest.
With Lion El’Jonson’s personality—and considering how many things he already knew that he probably wasn’t supposed to know—his future hardly seemed reassuring.
And the dream had felt like a warning.
If becoming too close to her would only create an opening for Chaos to exploit, then what was he supposed to do?
What choice would actually lead Lion El’Jonson toward a better ending?
Merlin had no answer.
Still…
After her bath, Lion El’Jonson’s golden hair had become soft and fluffy, and she actually smelled quite nice.
Listening to her quiet breathing beside him, Merlin slowly felt his thoughts grow hazy.
Everything else could wait.
For now…
Sleep.
It really helps the fic grow!