Chương 9: [9] Merlin

It is noon, and three people are already standing in the nearby vast grassland. Two people stand together, facing each other and holding a wooden sword in their dominant hand.

The other was sitting on the grass, staring at those two, who appeared to be beginning their sparring by already taking their own stance.

"Do not lose your focus." Kay issued a warning.

"I would say the same to you, brother." Artoria smiles slightly as she responds to the warning.

Both of them stood at their place for a few seconds, allowing the breeze to. They shook their hair slightly.

Akira, who sits in the audience not far from them, can see that there was no sibling in his eyes, but rather two knights in their sacred duel.

Whoosh.

In an instant, two of them moved, and the dull sound of a clashing wooden sword echoed throughout the area.

Both demonstrate their sword skills well; every movement they make is not wasted. Clash after clash occurs between the two of them.

There's no exchange word between them because they put all their focus into their opponent. Both know that they would lose if they lost their focus, even for just one second.

One second.

In a knight's duel, all it takes is for one side to overwhelm the other. Still, Akira, who sat nearby, could not help but sigh quietly.

"Slow." He murmured.

He said this because, in his opinion, their movement was too slow, and he could easily read their ten or fifteen movements in one glance.

Yes, Akira was surprised knowing this, as his adaptability was terrifying due to the talent he injected into himself. At the same time, his hand kindled to hold the sword and had spar with one of them.

He wants to see how BUG his talent is; he has never held a sword in his life and wants to see how far he can show off his new sword skill, which he can adapt with a single glance at them.

"Oh well, let's wait for them to be done before asking about it." He smiled, then relaxed himself to watch his king, as this was part of her journey as the king of knights.

It's not long before two of them halt their sparring, where in the end it was the victory of Artoria, where Kay lost his sword due to the rapid strength of Artoria's growth day by day, even though she was just in her fifteen right now.

Still, as in the past, Kay always claimed that he had won in their training, and Akira could not help but laugh because the man's pride was too strong to accept losing to his younger sibling.

Artoria, who was an innocent girl, nodded blatantly and accepted the reason for her loss, saying she thought she would never make the same mistake as today tomorrow.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Both look at the source sound; they forgot that it's not just them today where there was another who sat as an audience looked at them.

"Well done both of you!" Akira praises them honestly, despite the fact that he was kind of complaining earlier.

Artoria and Kay exchange glances before smiling helplessly, as it is unusual for them to train while being observed by everyone except Sir Ector, their father.

"Thanks for watching, I think?" asks Kay. While Artoria tried to grab the clean rag in the nearby box that they bought with them.

"Hey, it's not often I can see open sparring between siblings." Akira shrugged with a slight smile.

"You're not wrong... Oh, thanks, Artorius." Kay received a clean rag from Artoria to clean the sweat from his face.

"From what I see, Kay, you must be a knight, right? Artorius too?" Akira tried to open the topic.

"Well, I wasn't a knight, but I would be a knight in the future, as I've prepared for it for years." Kay explained while wiping his face.

"As for me, I am also training to be a knight. Yes." Artoria responds, but her words are unclear.

"Ohhh, I think it's remarkable you two still don't be a knight with your sword skill." Akira tried to praise them, increasing their morality and confidence.

Hearing the praise did not make Kay and Artoria jump with happiness, but it's nice to see someone who believes in them to be part of the Knights of Britain.

"Kay! Artoria! Sir Ector seems to call both of you!"

Three of them look at the source of sound where an adult stands not far from them and shouts their name.

Kay and Artoria looked at each other before nodding.

"Me and Artorius are going to our father first; sorry to leave you like this," said Kay.

"Yeah, sorry, Akira." Artoria nodded.

"Relax both of you, hurry up; it seems there's something urgent that made that person seem hurried to call both of you." Akira smiled and nodded at them.

Kay and Artoria nodded once again before running to the person who shouted at them before the three walked away from the sight of Akira.

Akira, who always smiles while looking at their back with a smile, slowly turns into flat and, while snorting softly, rolls his eyes as he already detects the presence of a bastard magician appearing out of nowhere.

"What you want, O mighty wizard?" Akira asks with a sarcastic tone before opening his eyes and looking lazily at the direction of the wizard's position.

"Oh my, I don't think we ever met before O'stranger one to make you instantly hostile to this poor one." Merlin smiled despite Akira showing blatantly his hostility and dislike for him.

Akira exhaled, as he never thought it would be this fast for this annoying wizard to face him. It seems there's already a movement where Alya and Gaia made their movement to investigate the fluctuation that made the string of fate that originally controlled the timeline that happened in this time.

"Smear that annoying smile of yours, Merlin. You and I know why you suddenly appear at the right time; those two left me alone in this place."

Akira turned his body to face Merlin, where they are now face to face with eyes straight to eyes.

That annoying non-harm of his that has always been ilustrating by TYPE-MOON has slowly been disaperating, replaced by the confused look at curiosity at the person in front of him.

Merlin, who possessed outstanding clairvoyance and was already seeing far how the fate would fall into the country, especially into Artoria Pendragon, was now confused when suddenly there's a strange variable that disturbed the vision he had and made him unable to use his skill to predict the future again today.

At the same time, there's an entity that seems to have tried to connect with him and tried to tell him about a singularity that would change history and would affect the future.

Just from the explanation, it was already obvious that the singularity that entity mentioned was the man in front of him.

"Who are you exactly? What your reason appears in this place?" Merlin asks with a serious face; there's no playful or casual personality that she always shows in front of Uther, Princess Igraine, and Artoria.

From the question, Akira already know well that Alya and Gaia seem already connect into bastard in front of him.

Outstanding Clairvoyance + Message from the collected consciousness of humanity.

What a perfect combination to detect an invader like him.

If tomorrow there's a magus with a female heroic spirit with pink hair with a hairstyle that closed one of her eyes while bringing a giant shield in the arm.

It would be a perfect set to defy him and his selfishness to fulfill the wish of his king and see her happiness.

"Me?" Akira closed his eyes; anger cannot help but boil. "I'm no one..."

He then opens his eyes, where his black pupil is already replaced with the blue velvet-shine eyes with a combination of clock and door in the middle of it.

"Just... an selfish entity." He walked closer until there's just a few centimeters of distance between him and the wizard.

He stared at the wizard with an impous and serious gaze. "That would do everything to fulfill my selfishness, to bring the joy and fix this imperfect ending story of a girl that cannot even choose how her life is going to be before even he is born into this ugly world."

"You..." Akira increases the fierceness of his gaze, where his eyes seem to be more shine than before. "O'great wizard Merlin that always been praise by others."

"You and whoever the entity that would approach you and send a warning to you, I would not stop, and no one would stop me and my selfishness."

•••

A/N: Question! How many words should I make per chapter? Like Min. 2000 words? Like this chapter contains 1450+ words. It's feel too short for you or what? Need serious feedback.