Merlin's POV (clone of Leylin Blight)
It's been 4 years since I reincarnated in this ruthless universe, and so far, things are going well.
I'm currently in a small town under the jurisdiction of the Leslie family. My residence is a heavily guarded mansion.
In this life, I don't have a living mother, and I've only seen my father a few times. Our conversations were always similar: he asked questions about my studies and inquired about my health.
Apart from my extremely absent father due to his work and experiments, I lack absolutely nothing in this life.
"Young master, it's time ," declares the man who is currently my supervisor and also my butler.
His name is Bradley. He's a slave with the rank of grand knight and is responsible for looking after me and the residence with the other "special" servants.
"Excellent..."
I stop observing the landscape and follow him. I'm not allowed to leave the town and especially not to leave the domain under the Leslie family's control.
Other than that, I have a lot of money and can live in luxury superior to the nobles of the region.
These flies are like attracted to honey and keep sending their daughters of similar age to mine to have tea with me.
They just want to forge ties with an official magus through his only son, alias me.
"Young master, I don't understand the little game you're currently playing."
During the ride in the "special" carriage to the orphanage, Bradley starts a conversation. He seems to think I'm suffering from loneliness due to Kroft's absence and that I'm unnecessarily torturing children in various orphanages for my pleasure.
"Bradley, I appreciate your concerns, but I hope you won't continue to be too interested in my affairs," I say with a polite smile while drinking juice from a glass.
(Image)
Slaves are broken people trained by various means to obey an individual. I don't want this kind of subordinate, and I'm too weak to keep them under control by magic for now.
I'll have to use the Rudeus Greyrat or Orochimaru method for now. I have confidence in my brainwashing ability.
Bradley nods and turns his attention back to the landscape. We arrive a few minutes later at a slum orphanage.
Yes, I could have looked for some subordinates in a more "decent" place, but I prefer subordinates who value things and not those used to these things (money and power).
"Hello sir, have you come this time to adopt?" A middle-aged woman approaches Bradley, adopting an extremely humble attitude.
"It's not me you should be addressing this time, but young master Merlin," Bradley calmly replies, motioning for me to take the lead.
"Hello miss, I'd like to collect my "friend" that you've warmly kept here."
As usual since my reincarnation, I wear my mask of adorable, polite, and well-educated child, but especially in front of strangers, I add some naive expressions.
"Oh... of course, please follow me."
She seems taken aback by my attitude and glances at Bradley before leading us inside. She gathers the children and signals me to choose who I want to take with me.
Of course, she discreetly points to a particular girl.
Currently, I'm just a 4-year-old kid and I've lost a large part of my supernatural powers, but I'm still part of the soul of a rank 7 being.
I have a great sensitivity to spiritual energy and I can still enter my mind to meet my "inner" version.
So I'm far from ordinary.
"You, what's your name?" I stop in front of a girl who seems to be 11 years old. She has messy black hair and emotionless red eyes.
I can also see that she suffers from a severe lack of nutrition and sleep, but I'm interested in her for a reason other than her appearance.
(Image)
She's a girl with the talent to be a magus. I don't know what level of talent she has, but she's one of the few orphans I've spotted in this town with a talent to become a magus.
I had paid the woman who runs this orphanage through Bradley so she could torment her and encourage other children to do so. The reason? I wanted to appear as a savior to her, a person who was there when she needed it most.
"Vivianne..." Her voice is dry from dehydration and I can see that the other children look at her with repulsion.
She's clearly a victim of harassment and must have been isolated by the other children. It seems that the middle-aged woman has indeed done her job correctly.
"Vivianne, do you want to follow me and become my "friend"?"
I reach out my hand to her. At that moment, I can see in her eyes that she's confused and surprised.
It only lasts for a moment before she desperately grabs my hand and nods.
"Yes..." she says with her voice which, once you get used to it, isn't really unpleasant.
She just needs water to fix that and good nutrition as a bonus.
"Wonderful, you'll have to work hard but in return, I'll never abandon you."
Now that the prey has been found, I need to create a relationship of emotional dependence and for now, my "Ichigo Kurosaki" is on the right track.
After leaving the orphanage with Vivianne, I returned to the mansion holding the young girl's hand.
During the journey, Vivianne seemed against the idea of letting go of my hand and sometimes glanced towards the orphanage with a persistent expression of fear.
I'll have to have the middle-aged woman assassinated, she knows too much about Vivianne.
"Give her a bath and food."
Despite Vivianne's meager resistance, I leave her in the care of the maids and go to my room to write a letter to Kroft.
It simply states that I'm doing well and that I've made a friend I'd like to introduce to him.
I'm sure he'll come after months, but by then, I'll have time to completely take control of Vivianne and she'll have solid foundations to start her path as a magus.
"In 1 or 2 years, there will be a war between the black magi and those of light. I'll be too young and weak to participate, but Vivianne and her future colleagues will be old enough."
Eliminating Leylin Farlier during this war is unfortunately out of the question, he'll just be too strong for a rank 1 magus and it'll be a miracle if Vivianne could reach an equivalent level at that time.
"I must be patient, Leylin Farlier will eventually kill the son of the rank 3 magus and that's when I must act."
There's no question of letting him escape to Twilight Zone.
....
Willow's POV
"I'm sorry my little Amber, your mother left me."
Simon, my father in this life, was crying while holding me in his arms.
It's been 3 years since I came back to life or reincarnated. I had forgotten the feeling of having a mother in my life as Willow and I'm grateful to have experienced it temporarily again.
A few months ago, before my 3rd birthday, my father came back with an object he had apparently obtained from an old docker in another country.
I had felt that this object wasn't ordinary, but I hadn't realized it would cause so much damage in my new family.
"Don't worry father, I'm still here, right?"
I tried to comfort him. I need to study this object and if possible weaken its influence on my father.
If only I had my strength from before my death, I would just have to combine Oracle magic and potions to enter father's head to fix the situation.
Besides the case of my mother's disappearance, I could feel an unknown source of energy that day in the house.
I haven't found any clues to explain this yet, but there's another dangerous object that father has in his possession besides this strange crown.
A book named "Enchiridion". There are a lot of things written in it in an unknown language at the "beginning", but I could feel that the book emitted energy similar to magic and I could read its content which became in English.
My magus instinct pushed me to hide it from Simon. It's my only lead to study the magical world of this place and possibly return to see Leylin.