5 The Voyage
The trip went smoothly so Merlin arrived at Duke Cowe’s castle in a few days just as he had expected.
As soon as the carriage stopped in front of the castle, a kid walked out. In spite of his young age, his face revealed true grace and beauty. He was wearing neatly-tailored silk clothing, blue and white, a display of aristocracy, differing himself from commoners.
This boy was nobody else but “Aragon Arthur,” the oldest son of Duke Cowe of Aragon.
Aragon family had been the rightful ruler of the Aragon Kingdom for thousands of years.
Duke Cowe was one of the two greatest Dukes of the kingdom. Potentially, either one of these two Dukes would become the next king of Aragon Kingdom in the future.
“King Roland,” the present king had no heirs but he still had two younger blood brothers: now Dukes of the kingdom.
They were Duke Cowe and Duke Willem; one of these two might be appointed heir to succeed to the throne.
King Roland of Aragon was a mighty man. Throughout his reign of more than ten years, Aragon Kingdom had had a peaceful, blessed livelihood.
More than that, King Roland was a great, powerful individual. He was a wizard—a high-ranking archwizard. And at his sides were eight other archwizards who were appointed “Aragon’s Knights of the Round Table.”
The Knights of the Round Table were very powerful figures. They were pillars of the kingdom. Their magics were all at the archwizard rank.
Apart from The Knights of the Round Table, the kingdom also had a guardian.
Guardian of the Kingdom was a great, long-run position; its authority was equal to the king’s.
The main reason was that the guardian had to be the strongest person in the whole kingdom.
The name of Aragon Kingdom’s guardian was “Ceres,” a dominant elderly man. Rumors had it that his magic was archaic and robust. He was the guy who wore the golden magical cloak.
The golden color singled out the ones with the extent of Supreme Wizard power.
All wizards were ranked by the colors of their cloaks; the magical cloaks were not common objects. They were made of fairy spirits that were connected to the users’ magical powers. Their colors were the symbols showing their magical powers which were ranked as follows:
“Magic Practitioners” had “red” cloaks.
“Sorcerers” had “gray” cloaks.
“Wizard Warriors” had “white” cloaks.
“Archwizards” had “silver” cloaks.
“Supreme Wizards” had “golden” cloaks.
As for the Magic Emperor level, among the five kingdoms, since the old days until now, there had never been a record of someone ever reaching that level before.
The mythology of the Great Kingdom creation stated that before kingdoms were separated, there was an individual who could combine the lands of humans and beasts into one.
He was named the Great Emperor; both men and monsters yielded to him.
This Great Emperor was “Solomon,” he was a personage who could enter the level of Magic Emperor. The tale went on that his magic cloak was colorless, it just shined out the rainbow shades.
Back to now
At that moment Merlin’s master, Arthur, walked out of the castle. It could just be the perfect timing for Merlin’s carriage had just arrived.
The pretty boy glanced at Merlin and then shouted,
“What are you waiting for, dumbo! Follow me!”
Hearing Arthur’s voice, Merlin knitted his brows.
“But I’ve just arrived...” Merlin argued.
He did not even have a chance to finish the sentence when the forceful voice of the commander screamed out.
“That’s your business, not mine. If you do not haste and follow me now, I will have you run after the carriage.” Finishing his speech, Arthur walked straight to the carriage that had been prepared for him, then stepped up to sit inside.
“Huh! You spoiled bastard. What an unreasonable person.” Merlin could not help swearing in his head.
But with his position now, he could not disobey this boy.
Merlin took a seat as a carriage driver immediately. Surely, he had to drive it. Putting all his belongings to the side, he did not bring along a lot but that was not such a big problem for him.
Merlin drove out of the castle at once.
His moods now had to rely much on patience. Because in the past life, he used to be a powerful person. Everywhere he went, there were always people respecting and indulging him.
But now, having to live as a servant, in a way, upset him. Reminiscing the past, he had experienced even tougher hardships, although unhappy, he could suppress those feelings.
He understood quite well that in life, humans could not always live as they liked. There were factors that required humans to have patience. And those were the things that would make them successful. It was a part of the path to prosperity.
Merlin’s cultivation was now at the highest limit of Qi accumulation level two. When arrived at the rest point, he aimed to get away to practice his cultivation so he could drill level three of Qi accumulation.
He needed to hurry the level-drilling because it was the only guarantee of his survival.
When a practitioner drilled each Qi accumulation level, they would benefit the practitioner a great deal.
When a practitioner drilled level one, his or her body would gain a tremendous amount of power.
Level two: the body would gain more strength.
Level three: the body would gain movement and attacking speed.
Level four: the body would be able to seal Qi essence (reinforcement seal).
Level five: the body would be able to beam out Qi essence (accumulate Qi for a long-distant attack)
Level six: the practitioner would be able to control objects with Qi essence.
Level seven: the practitioner would be able to weld Qi to one’s body by turning Qi, a vital essence, into a life force resulting in never feeling hungry again. As long as that person still had Qi, he or she could live without food or drinks.
Level eight: the practitioner’s body would expand the Qi storage.
Level nine: the concentration of Qi—the practitioner would be able to blast out the energy as a harsh attack.
All these were called the creation of the nine pillars of the practice. When a practitioner finished building the nine Qi pillars in the body, he or she would be able to drill levels to get to the stem-building stage.
The carriage drove out of the city into the forest to cross to the Church of Light’s sacred territory, which was where Waldecian Academy was located.
It had not been a day yet since Arthur’s carriage set out, but suddenly, in the middle of the forest area…
BOOM!
An explosive sound rumbled. Looking at a close distance ahead of him, Merlin saw another Carriage was getting robbed.
AHHHHHH!
Someone screamed out from that vehicle. A girl in a pink dress with blood stains was running in fear to their carriage.
Behind her was a group of four armed goblins. With knives and worn-out swords, as well as grenades, hanging on their bodies, they were chasing the girl.
“What’s going on?”
From inside the carriage, Arthur opened the curtains to see the situation. Merlin controlled and halted the horses then said,
“It seems that people in front of us are getting raided by some beasts.”
After Merlin had finished the words, without saying anything, Arthur jumped out instantly.
“What are you doing?” Looking at Arthur, Merlin asked.
“I am a virile gentleman, seeing people in trouble, do you expect me to ignore it, you dumbo?!”
Arthur yelled madly. After saying that, he pulled out his sword and rushed to the Goblins.
Merlin did not try to intervene; he just watched the boy trying to be a hero with his calm eyes.
“Huh! This child is acting brave and all, trying to rescue a beautiful girl. Well, let’s see what you’ve got.”
Merlin sat at ease in the driver's seat watching the fight.
