A letter to Irene from Wick, "Dear Irene, I have talked to all three of the suspects that you informed me about. One of their energies did not align with the truth, in particular your sister. As requested by you, the queen was not informed of Princess Lily's involvement. Other than you and I, and perhaps Lea Sweet, everyone believes and it is reported as; Allen killed Harry Truman. We will arrive to Merlin Kingdom within the hour of you reading this. I have most likely initiated a large distance teleport spell." Irene held the letter in her hands as she stood in the halls of Merlin castle.
The gray colored walls of the castle surrounded her as the splatter of rain encassed the castle. As she read the remaining lines of the letter, the letter faded away into ashes that fell onto the spotless white marble floor. Irene let out a relieving sigh as she took in her surroundings of her old home. She paced herself down a hall as she felt the rough rocky walls. She smelled the greenery of the courtyard masked with the smell of raindrops. As she looked out into the courtyard from the open hallway, the boom of thunder echoed throughout castle. 'I hope I didn't burden Lily, she already seemed stressed.'
Irene's mist in her purple eyes began leaking out as a loud and rambunctious voice intruded, "Why if it isn't our bitch of a sister. The first child born from the irrelevant wife. The second daughter of the Merlin Kingdom. Irene Merlin the Witch!"
A man dressed in clean steel armor skipped over to Irene with a smile on his face. His head was oddly shaped, he had a straight jawline and lifted cheekbones. His nose was the longest of the Merlin children, some have measured it to be protruding outward around 6 inches in length. The top of his head was shaved completely, his eyebrows were bushy and purple. His eyes were a glistening purple that reminded Irene of Lily.
"Johan, I see you're as noisy as ever."
"Irene, what brings you back home? Was espionaging for 7 years too much to handle."
"Johan, you have no right to speak when your ass hasn't been promoted in years."
"Oh right, like you've gotten very far."
"I have actually. I'm a cardinal."
"Bullshit."
"I heard you're struggling to become a captain. Now how on earth will you become a commander."
Johan stayed silent as Irene walked up to him and stared him down. They were around the same height of 6 foot.
"At least Akhil can become a commander, and you two are the same age."
"Geez, can't we just have some silly banter, you're a buzzkill like Briana."
"Strange genes we got I guess," she said backing away from Johan. She turned her gaze towards downpour, "Where is dad?"
Meanwhile on the main road to the Merlin Kingdom, Wick and Allen sit together in silence as the rain picks up speed. Allen taps with his feet against the ground in a rhythmic pattern that matched the humming he was doing. After a few seconds of Allen doing his solo of boredom, he stopped and looked at Wick who just stared at Allen. "So, when do I get out of these?" Allen pointed with his head towards his bindings.
"Can you not burn them off of you?"
"These aren't anti-magic bindings?"
"We don't own such things."
"Hm, interesting," Allen went back to his bored solo, but it was shortly interrupted by Wick.
"Why don't you do it?"
"Do I have a reason to?"
"Intriguing... Oh! Allen, I'm sorry for not informing you eariler, but there has been a change of plans. The Queen's energy did not align with the weather today and she felt as though it was inappropriate to have a court with you."
"What happened?"
"Do you know of the abilities of the dragonborn?"
"I can summon fire from nothing."
"Wrong. There is no such thing as a coincidence, you say your fire comes from nothing, it comes from somewhere."
Allen's eyes widened, "I steal fire from other people! It all makes sense, I always felt some of my flames being hotter or colder than usual. Is it because I take fire from people in freezing cold weather. That's been my working theory since Lily taught me equivalent exchange."
"No, why did she teach you equivalent exchange."
"She said to apply mana, you need to give up enough mana to get enough back reaction."
"Do you know what you're talking about, that made zero sense. Your energy was in the right place, you were giving off a scent of intelligence with the energy. However that scent practically evaporated when-"
"Alright, alright, I get it, now tell me more about the dragonborn."
"You see Allen, the dragonborn have both capabilities of a dragon and of a human. However it has been scientifically proven that there is no way for a dragon and a human to mate in any way, shape, or form. All hybrids die, is that a coincidence? Of course not, so how are dragonborns born? Dragonborns are an anomally, therefore their abilities should be an anomaly as well. Call that equivalent exchange. The dragonborn, I mean sorry, has the ability of being the embodiment of fire. Fire comes not from nothing, but from you. Also for some uniquely different and special reason, you have the ability to attract dragons. No one else is able to do this Allen, that's why we need you."
Allen's ears perked up at certain words throughout Wick's explanation, he seemed to forgive and forget the mistake Wick made and apologised for while talking. "Need me for what?"
Meanwhile, inside the Merlin Kingdom, on a street just a few blocks away from the castle, was a large park that children, elderly, and the peasantry went to spend their days. The park had little to no trees, instead it had a small stage at the epicenter of it. The stage was decorated with a purple cloth and white flowers hung from the cloth that drapped over the foundation of the stage. The rain poured down on the green park, giving the park an atmosphere of dullness and repetitiveness.
On July 13th, 924 years after the death of the first dragon. Around 2:30 in the afternoon, 50,000 people gathered around the small stage. Immediately surrounding the stage was 2 walls of knights completely geared up and hungry for action after spending the last few weeks playing games. The crowd began forming 10 minutes prior, as the appearance of Matthew the advisor to King Merlin caught many at the park off guard. Matthew was on the skinny side, he seemed to have gotten a recent haircut and stood awkwardly at the center of the stage. Despite the pouring rain, Matthew stood relatively dry, from up close you could tell that his brown eyes had a faint white glow to them.
After a few monents of just standing around, Matthew took out a piece of paper, it was filled with magical text that began glowing. He then rolled it horizontally and yelled through it, "People of Merlin," his voice reached the ears of the people. "I apologize for the inconvenience made by the weather. However your King wished to address you all about the recent incident at the Truman Farm. Sir Harry Truman, the insect hunter, has fallen to a dragon. He was 75 years old."
Murmurs and whispers erupted throughout the crowd, "I didn't even know we had a farm. Who is Harry? Insect hunter, they might as well call me that. They got us in the rain to tells us about this? A dragon? I thought dragons were extinct. Maybe endangered. Maybe we should leave."
"Please," Matthew continued, "Let us have a moment of silence to honor the fallen." Almost every member of the crowd bowed their head. Many in the crowd began leaving, some started sneezing, thinking, 'I should have brought an umbrella, everyone else brought one.' Others started a conversation with the nearest person to them, commenting on the politics of the world, criticizing the King, nobles and hunter system. Matthew, on the other hand, slowly backed off of the stage, and between the layer of knights that guarded the stage. He unfolded the paper and made his way to the King who sat on a makeshift throne with an umbrella attached to the top of it.
"You're already done?"
"There wasn't much to say. Can you explain to me why it was so important to do this today? I've been telling you that we should have waited a week or until it's a little bit drier."
The Merlin King, rose from his wooden makeshift throne. He stood at a height of nearing 7 feet. He wore a cape made out of zebear fur and lightweight armor reminiscent to that of a knight. He smiled, making his grand purple beard stretch and enlargen. "Matthew," he looked down at Matthew with sparkling purple eyes, Matthew saw a shadow lurking behind the King's eyes that made him shiver. "You're cold, you can go back home." The King took Matthew's paper, then took his path onto the stage. He walked with an exaggerated swagger as he commanded the knights. "Knights! It's time for a performance!"
There was silence between the knights, "which performance are we doing?"
"I don't know, maybe the fire one?"
"It's raining."
"Maybe he wants the streaks of water."
The knights whispered amongst themselves as the King made his way to the center of the stage. His thundering footsteps scared the people, who stopped having their "moment of silence" to notice their ruler. He grinned as he adjust the crown on his head so it wasn't falling off. He dropped the paper that Matthew held to make his voice louder.
He then screamed at the crowd, "I will now begin the Eulogy of Sir Harry Truman! When I was only 17 years old, he helped me find my place in life. In exchange I gave the rest of his lineage freedom to do whatever they wanted. I am a generous man, and I believe my people are generous people. I do not do this often, but I must tell you all a secret. A secret that I've kept for so long that I want to share it out to you all today. This secret comes from a vulnerable time, when I struggled to lead properly. It was the time my brothers and father died."
The crowd gasped and whispers exploded. "At that time, I was but a lonely hunter," The King unclipped his cape and threw it at the ground. "I heard the news that insects, the size of humans invaded the Merlin Kingdom while I was at the Land of Ra. I hurried back home only to find my family being eaten alive. For a moment, I could not move, I could not act. I couldn't even get avenge my fallen family. What could I do, but become depressed at my own inability. If only I knew sooner, if only I acted faster. Now I ask you, my people, have you ever felt this way?"
The crowd gave mixed answers, mostly leaning towards yes. "People of Merlin! Who am I, but a human. Who are you, but my family! Harry Truman was like a grandfather to me! You may not know him, but you WILL know his name! A dragon killed him, it ate him alive. Yet we could not act fast enough, if only we knew sooner of the dragons. I'm asking you all to donate to the Hunter's Guild, to help me, no your family in getting revenge. If a dragon can show up at a farm, who is to stop it from coming here! Who can stop them, but the Hunters! Hunter's Guild listen up, I now issue a quest, hunt down and exterminate the remaining dragons of the Merlin Kingdom! The reward pool, 100,000 gold."