Chapter 26 Sacred Grove (5)
[…] … no.]
Then a gloomy voice was heard.
The harsh, muffled voice came from Merlin’s mouth.
[I can’t take that sword!]
[Come on, wait, Sir Merlin!]
Ignoring Nimue’s suggestion, Merlin ran to me. It was Sura’s face.
I roll sideways, get up and pick up Excalibur.
As if losing his temper, Merlin raised up all nearby branches and shot them at me. It was a different number than before, and it was a fierce momentum.
Against Merlin approaching with ferocity,
“I don’t take it.”
Unwound Excalibur’s weave.
Quad Duck!
Merlin’s branches pierced me and dug to the ground. Selena’s eyes widened next to her.
[this… … .]
Merlin was unbelievably embarrassed. He hadn’t even thought of killing me.
However, as I thought, I didn’t die. There were no wounds.
“It doesn’t work.”
I don’t get hurt by Merlin’s branches.
Because in my eyes, Merlin’s ‘dream’ is clearly an illusion.
[How, this… … .]
“I see it in my eyes. Because what I create is an illusion. The trees and wild beasts you have created, and also.”
I saw Nimue. with warning eyes.
“Even Excalibur.”
[…] … !]
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Nimue opened her eyes at my words.[What does that mean?]
Merlin asked. It was a lower voice.
“… … Sir Merlin.”
I shut my mouth for a moment. The moment I was about to tell this story, a complicated mind tainted my insides.
“For whom does Sir Merlin guard the lake?”
[What does that mean?]
“The sword sleeping in the lake, to whom are you guarding it?”
Merlin looked at me and rolled his wrinkled eyes.
With a face asking for something obvious, he said to me.
[Hey, this is King Arthur. I am waiting for him to come.]
“uh?”
It was Selena who made the noise. Merlin’s answer doesn’t make sense to her.
I closed my eyes and opened them.
“Sir Merlin.”
and said
“King Arthur is dead.”
* * *
Merlin was an archmage, sage, and prophet.
He was given a prophecy.
A time will come when King Arthur needs a ‘second sword’.
When that time comes, we must wait for him to hand over the sword.
But Merlin doesn’t know how long he will live. What if he wasn’t dead when Arthur came to visit? If there is no one to protect the lake then.
So Merlin carved his ‘dream’ on the lake.
Even if he died, in order to fulfill his promise.
To become the last sword to support the king’s back, to protect the lake.
“You are the one who was created in that dream.”
I told Merlin.
The Merlin in front of me is a single personality that Merlin, an archmage of the past, installed in a ‘dream’.
… … That is, it is an illusion. He just believes himself to be Merlin.
[…] … her.]
Merlin let out a smirk.
[I thought I was manipulating dreams, but even I am an illusion.]
[Merlin. don’t believe it It’s an attempt to confuse you. It’s nonsense, isn’t it? Sir Merlin, have you forgotten your promise to King Arthur?]
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Nimue said quickly.I approached Merlin. In the meantime, Nimue was talking hard.
“Would you like to try it? Touch me.”
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Now I can perceive Merlin as a complete illusion.Anybody else could touch Merlin without a problem, but not me.
[…] … .]
Merlin moved his hand without saying a word.
I waved from top to bottom to touch the hand I reached out towards him.
ugh-
Merlin’s hand just passed me.
Truly like a ghost.
“… … .”
Everyone who watched the scene was speechless. Even Nimue, who was talking hard next to him, shut his mouth.
I saw Nimue.
“Mr. Nimue. A sword at the bottom of the lake.”
Shhh, Nimue looked at me and took a breath.
“You said it yourself. ‘The black cannot be pulled out. No one.’”
[That, of course, except for King Arthur—]
“In this age without King Arthur, who are you waiting for then?”
At my objection, Nimue bit her lip. I tried to say something with those quivering lips. that repeat.
Selena, who was watching, opened her mouth.
“Then the black embedded in the lake, eventually… … ?”
“It’s fake. Two traditions have been mixed.”
The lake is real.
In other words, only the lake is real here.
The sword that King Arthur pulled out of the rock was clearly different from the sword that the woman of the lake handed over.
Although both of them are called ‘Excalibur’, that is just a name to call them.
[…] … all.]
At that moment, Merlin’s tightly closed lips opened.
[Do you all know? you are.]
“Well, roughly.”
[Then tell me everything. the truth.]
Merlin was calm despite being told that he was a ‘fake’.
Is he really an archmage? Even Merlin, who was born within him, maintained an attitude of wisdom and contemplation.
I took a deep breath and started talking.
The target was Selena. It was too much of a burden to speak to Merlin.
“This is a dream Merlin made up, but it probably wouldn’t have grown this far. At that time, there was an intact forest here, and it must have been the realm of humans.”
However, as time passes enough to be called an ‘era’, the situation changes.
As the realm of humans becomes narrower, the power of monsters becomes stronger, Merlin expands his dream to protect the lake.
“The trees, animals and plants in this forest are all too pretty and beautiful. But none of them exist in reality. As time goes by, dreams change. It’s a sign of ‘beauty’.”
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No monsters enter this forest. Rather than not coming in, there is no reason to come in.Monsters are also creatures that eat and live, but eating the things here has no meaning. Besides, Merlin himself kicks him out.
“No monsters enter, the forest is maintained as a forest, and now all we have to do is wait for King Arthur to come here someday. But there was one problem.”
“What?”
“Merlin doesn’t have Excalibur.”
“… … !”
In the Arthurian legend, Merlin is not originally the role of giving Excalibur. He is King Arthur’s colleague and advisor, a lamp that illuminates his path.
Selena asked again.
“Then why did Merlin in the past designed the ‘dream’? I don’t have Excalibur, how are you going to hand it over?”
“… … You believed in Nimue. Because she has Excalibur.”
During his lifetime, Merlin believed in Nimue and designed his dream. Before King Arthur arrives, to defeat others who invade the lake, and to select someone who would be suitable for Excalibur if King Arthur dies.
“But you lied to Nimue. ‘It is stuck at the bottom of the Black Lake. Only those who are worthy will get the sword’. What was it like that?”
[All, you! If you don’t do it right… … !]
Shh!
I shot the spear with a weave in the air. The spear brushed the side of Nimue.
“Shut up. Because I already know that four years is ‘real’. How long would you not have thought you could cheat?”
I said intimidation, but of course I have no intention of really killing Nimue. Although she is a witch, she is a necessary witch.
“Anyway, Merlin believed it. Merlin, the master of dreams, believed the lie, and at the bottom of the lake a sword was truly born. At least in this forest, Excalibur in the lake is ‘real’. Of course, I can’t pick it up.”
“… … But the real Excalibur belongs to Nimue.”
“okay. Even now.”
Hearing our conversation, Nimue stepped back. I rode the lake and back away, and stood ready to fight.
[All, you. If you’re thinking of taking Excalibur, never-]
“Don’t take it.”
I answered with a single knife. Nimue made a silly sound, “Uh-huh.”
“You saw it before. I already got it.”
Having said that, he woven Excalibur once again. And immediately canceled.
I pretended to be calm, but I was worried about Mana.
“Merlin can’t get out of this forest. Because it’s in a dream. But not in Nimue. As a fairy, she knows how the world has changed. But I didn’t tell Merlin. King Arthur was still alive, and he kept telling me that he would come here one day.”
Here, Merlin is just a personality created to protect the lake. Because of this, his thinking is not as perfect as a human being.
Just as we don’t doubt anything in our dreams when we’re in them.
Merlin in her dreams does not doubt anything as long as she is in the forest.
“And I ordered a monster to attack Tayburn.”
“Yes? Are you going to Nimue?”
“okay. No, to be precise, rather than attacking Tayburn, I would say that the timing of the monsters to be attacked was adjusted anyway.”
Whether or not Nimue is present, outside demons will invade the Tayburne.
However, as in the recent case, frequent small-scale attacks that hindered the restoration of the wall, and the general offensive that penetrated when the barrier was at its weakest, was driven by Nimue.
There is no need to be on the side of a monster or rise to the position of a leader. If you use magic to send useful information to the monsters, the high-intelligence outer monsters will move on their own.
“Why, why would you do that?”
“Yeah. Because there is a barrier in the forest.”
“Is that a problem?”
“Then Merlin finds it strange. ‘Why can’t King Arthur come after the human realm has been restored here?’”
“… … ah.”
To stop it, Nimue attacked Tayburn.
To prevent the human realm from coming to the North any more. ‘King Arthur couldn’t come to the forest because he was too busy to block the outside monsters.’ To make this kind of lie work.
… … In the game, Nimue’s actions like this eventually became the worst, and the demons broke through the barrier and swallowed up Tayburn.
Of course, Nemu had no intention of doing that, but of course, the anger of gamers who learned the truth at the time was enormous.
“So, the only thing that really exists in reality is the lake and the lake lady called Nimue. Everything other than this is an illusion created by Merlin and falsely nurtured by Nimue.”
After that, I looked at Merlin.
“This is the truth.”
Merlin didn’t respond after hearing those words.
But after a while, he lifted up those old eyes and swept through the air with his more transparent eyes.
[is it.]
That was it.
For many years, he had lost his existence and meaning, but even after learning all the truth, Merlin was simply plain.
“… … Let’s go, Selena.”
“yes? Are you like this?”
“Now we have nothing to do. Above all, there is no time It’s a dream here, so time goes by a little slower, but it’s dangerous.”
Even now, the wall must be splattered with blood from the all-out offensive of demons.
Even if Nimue stops contact with the monsters, the monsters just don’t use their strategy, but the crowds are the same.
At least this attack should be stopped.
I climbed on Cassian’s back. Selena glanced at Merlin and Nimue before getting on behind me.
“Let’s go, Cassian.”
Cassian moved without delay, and I glanced behind me as I ran.
The appearance of Merlin and Nimue moving away from each other was like a still screen.
What a plot twist.