Advances

The next day was the day that Mereo would be getting her Grimoire. The ceremony was held with some other minor Nobles, but the majority of people came to show support or try to build a repertoire with the Vermilion family. Merlin also came as a show of support, representing himself and House Caliban.

Once the ceremony began, dozens of Grimoires appeared above everyone's head with different Mana signatures being emitted from them. Activating his Mana eye, Merlin looked through the batch of them and saw one that had the most connection to fire Mana.

'That must be hers.' Merlin thought, seeing it float down towards Mereo as she grinned widely and took it into her arms. Her Grimoire was red in colour with the 3 leaf clover on the front of its cover. On the back of her Grimoire was a magic circle formation.

Everyone who was spectating applauded the people who received their Grimoires, as Mereo made her way towards Merlin and the Vermilion family.

"You have your own Grimoire now, you must be wanting to use it straight away, right?" Merlin said with a smile.

With an arm on her hip, she raised the Grimoire in front of Merlin and said, "Hah! With this, I'm only going to get even stronger. And it seems that I'm in need of a sparring partner to try my spells on."

"You can save that for later, sis. There is still a banquet that has been prepared in celebration for you. You are also welcome to join us, Merlin. House Silva should also be attending." Fuego said to Mereo and Merlin.

"Ugh, there's no way in hell that I'm going to do that. Too many of those snobbish Nobles would be present that it's going to be suffocating. I'm going to go out into the wilds and test out my spells, I'll see you later!" Mereo said, walking away.

Merlin shook his head and said to Feugo, "Well, I guess she's set to leave. I wonder if there are any pretty girls around-"

*bamp*

A lion's paw made of fire then landed on Merlin's head, as Mereo shouted from in front, "Don't even think about it, you're coming with me!"

"Oh my, looks like I've been kidnapped once again. Can you let your mother and father know that we're probably going to be late to the banquet?" Merlin said as he was dragged off by his head behind Mereo.

Fuego sighed and said, "Just don't stay out too late, and good luck. I'm afraid I'll need to inform mother and father."

Merlin only smiled wryly as he was brought next to Mereo who dropped him back to his feet and said, "Here, we're out of everyone's view. Now take me to the forest! I'm dying to test out these spells!"

"As you command, my lady," Merlin said with a chuckle. Raising his staff, he tapped the ground below them lightly. Out of thin air, pink flower petals rushed up and around them, encasing the two. When the flowers gave way, they were now standing in the middle of a forest.

"Here we go. Just for this one time, you can do whatever you want as I'll restore the land back to its original form once you're done. Treat it as a gift from me." Merlin said as he floated up into the air above Mereo and manifested a broom to sit on.

Mereo gave a toothy grin and joked, "As expected of my chosen mate, I'm going to go all out!" With that, her aura exploded outwards, destroying the ground beneath her and setting some of the tree's on fire from the fierce Mana aura that she was emitting.

"Oh, seems like I'll need to put up an illusion as well," Merlin said. Waving the staff in his hand, a zone made out of Mana expanded outwards and surrounded the forest. From the outside, everything would seem normal, however when inside of the illusion one would see flames and debris flying everywhere as Mereo was constantly laughing as she sent out spell after spell.

Observing her for a while, Merlin closed his eyes and expanded his awareness through the flow of Mana that was all around there. Wherever Mana was, Merlin was able to see through even the tiniest hole as though it was magnified.

Retracting his consciousness, Merlin opened his eyes and shouted towards Mereo. "Hey! There are some rabid bears over to the right if you're up for something more challenging!" The bears of course had magical properties too, but not so much that they would pose a big threat to someone like Mereo. It was merely just something she could test out her abilities on.

"I was getting tired of just hitting nothing," Mereo said as she charged over to the direction that Merlin pointed.

Looking over the destruction that she left behind, Merlin waved his staff towards the ground, resulting in petals manifesting in a circular motion. The land then started to reform as the Mana from the air was being pulled down into the ground, restoring the damage that was caused, making it seem as though nothing had happened here in the first place.

Once that was done, he flew on the broom while sitting sideways on it to where Mereo was and saw her battling 7 feral bears at once that were twice her size.

"Good! Come at me with all you've got, beasts!!" Mereo shouted as she stomped on the ground and charged forward, punching a bear in its stomach with her fist covered in mana.

Watching over her, Merlin conjured an apple and started to snack on it, leaning the staff on his shoulder. The battle between Mereo and the bears continued for a while more, with her taking some hits as well but still being able to fend them off and defeat them.

The bears were then piled on top of each other as she jumped to the top of it and laughed, "Hahaha! That was a great workout! I've still got some places to improve on, but soon I'll be able to take on 20 bears without breaking a single sweat!"

Merlin floated down and clapped his hands, saying with a smile, "Good job, you were quite impressive there. Although, you did still take some unnecessary risks that caused you to be hit in turn."

"Yeah yeah, I already learned from them so no need to lecture me. I wonder what these would taste like." Mereo said, patting the bears beneath them.

"No matter how it tastes like, we need to head back before your parents get mad at you for being late to your own banquet. I also heard that Acier would be there." Merlin said, waving his staff over Mereo, cleaning her up and healing her wounds as a light glow of Mana surrounded her body.

Holding her hand, he said, "Alright, let's go back." With a wave of his hand, the two disappeared and reappeared inside Mereo's bedroom.

Mereo gave a sly grin and said, "Are you trying to take advantage of me now?"

Merlin smiled and cupped her cheek, causing Mereo to pause and blush at how forward Merlin was being, as it was usually her making the advances.

Bringing his face closer, Merlin whispered into her ears. "Consider this as payback." He then abruptly drew back and exited the room, leaving Mereo standing there stunned, only to throw into a fit of rage and punched the door down, looking for her Merlin, but he was nowhere to be found.

"M-My lady? What's wrong?" A servant asked her, scared that she might antagonize her even more.

Mereo scoffed and went back into her room and replaced the broken door with a spare that she kept in a room. She stood still for a moment before fishing out the locket she wore around her neck, lost in thought as she ran her fingers over the Lion's head that hung on it, with the words "To My Dearest Mereo" engraved on the back of it.

Downstairs, Merlin met up with Fuego as the two chatted about what he and Mereo were up to in the forest.

"Merlin, it is so nice to see you again." From behind, Fuego's mother approached Merlin with a servant next to her. From her stomach, you could tell that she was a few months into her pregnancy.

"Madam Vermilion, it is also a pleasure to be able to see you again," Merlin said with a small bow of courtesy.

"You don't have to be so formal with me, Merlin. You can just call me Victoria, I've known you since you were very little since both of my children love to play with you, always begging me to head over to the Caliban Estate." Victoria said, with a nostalgic look on her face as Fuego coughed from embarrassment.

"Mother, are you sure you should be out here mingling with the others? Something could happen-" As Fuego tried to warn his mother, Victoria shot back at him.

"I've given birth 2 times already, I think I would know how to take care of my own wellbeing. But thank you for your concern, Fuegoleon, you're too sweet." Victoria said, stroking Fuego's hair as he dodged to the side out of embarrassment, trying to keep his serious disposition for as much as possible.

"Ah, Merlin, there you are." Behind them, Acier approached Merlin, Fuego, and Victoria with Nozel and Nebra in tow. The siblings were now taller, with Nozel being around the same height as Fuego and Nebra's height reaching Fuego's elbow. Nozel was 12, while Nebra was 7.

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Authors Notes:

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