"Yo… Cassie" He greeted with a smile and a short wave.
"Hello Merlin, or is it Jayson?" Cassie replied with a smile.
"It's Jayson on other days, however for today, I'll go by Merlin…" He walked forward and sat down opposite her.
He looked at the pile of paperwork on the desk as he thought back to his days as the bright lord on the forgotten shore.
"Must be tough…."
"It's alright… I usually have help, but it's not like I can do it now, anyways… what are you doing?" She said calmly, making Merlin stop his hand.
"I was planning on touching your nose…" he retracted his hand and nodded his head.
"Why?"
"I wanted to confirm something…" he replied with a sigh.
Cassie smiled at him and said.
"I can't use my powers on you… no matter how much I try I can't see through your eyes"
He nodded, "It's like I expected… so, are you ready to leave here?"
She stood up and extended her hand.
"Sure… let's go"
He chuckled and immediately used 'Blink' to reappear beside her, then he took her hand and entered the spirit world.
"Wow… it feels unreal" Cassie commented as she felt her feet disappear from solid ground.
"It's fine, it'll be over soon" he held her closer as they both moved upwards.
A few seconds later, they passed through the gray fog above, and arrived at his soul sea, he released her as her feet touched the floor of his soul sea, he could feel his essence drain increase, but he didn't mind, with the rate it went down, he could essentially keep Cassie here for two weeks, and that was if his body wasn't constantly absorbing essence, but since he was, he could potentially keep her in his soul sea forever, as long as he doesn't go fighting battles.
"Merlin… where are we?" Cassie asked.
"She couldn't see yet, although in his soul see her flaw was negated, the reason she couldn't see was quite different.
"Here… let me help" he stood in front of her and removed her blindfold.
As he did, Cassie's eyes brightened as she looked around, then her eyes locked with his, since he entered his soul sea, he had returned to his regular appearance, so he was just his regular self, she stared right into his eyes for a few seconds, then she smiled and turned around.
"Thanks…" she said in a low voice.
He chuckled and ruffled her hair.
"Your ears are red Cas…"
Cassie blushed some more, then as if remembering something, she turned to him and asked.
"Merlin… how are we in your soul sea with our body?"
He looked around and answered.
"There isn't only one way to my soul sea… in fact they're three in total"
He continued.
"The first is the regular way we all use, the next is using the ability of my aspect legacy, and the last isn't something I can achieve now, when I get to that level, I will be able to directly enter with my body even without using any abilities"
"I see… things about you are very weird" She chuckled.
"It's not exactly my fault though…" he shrugged.
"So… let's get this thing going, please step back a little" he stepped forward as he summoned the cloak, then with a snap of his fingers, the fog around shook, and immediately started retreating, as it retreated, the surrounding was replaced with a green fields, a blue sky, a few trees and benches around.
A perfect picnic view, well, that is if you ignore the eerie looking castle in the distance.
He turned around to see Cassie looking around in awe as she tried stomping on the ground a few times.
"This is nice…" she smiled.
"Yeah… and by the way, I forgot to tell you, your dress looks good" he complimented her.
Cassie avoided his gaze and nodded in response, she was wearing a long flowing white gown with a short sky blue jacket that matched her eyes.
He chuckled at her response, then he took out a large material from his dimension ring, and laid it right on the ground and sat down.
"What are you waiting for?" He gestured to her.
Cassie walked forward, then she sat down beside him, he smiled and brought out the ice cream and other snacks he bought, then he arranged them in front.
"By the way, why is there so much ice cream?" Cassie asked as she counted the ice cream.
"Well I promised myself I'll get you ice cream" he replied.
"Why's that?"she tilted her head.
"Well the thing is, I might have blamed the fact of how I knew so much about Seishan on your visions, so to make up for it, I'll buy you ice cream" He explained in an embarrassed tone.
"Ah… I understand, it's not like you can tell her that you know the future" She nodded.
"That's right… anyways, enough of the boring stuff, let's eat ice cream" He peeled off the cover of one of the ice creams and gave her one of the spoons.
They took turns tasting the ice creams, while occasionally chatting about the taste of them, after finishing a few, they moved on to the snacks he bought, then the drinks.
In the end, it was a lively picnic, after eating some more ice cream, they finally gave up and left the remaining food.
Merlin laid down on the material with his eyes closed, while Cassie sat beside him, her eyes focused on his face.
He spoke with his eyes still closed.
"It's peaceful… just laying around and not worrying about anything else makes me feel better"
Cassie smiled lightly and placed her hand on his forehead.
"You should rest… sometimes you should stop thinking about others and focus on yourself"
He smiled softly, he didn't open his eyes or move her hand either,"There's nothing about me to worry about, my case is… different, I prefer not to think about myself, or I'll just end up drowning in my mind"
"Merlin… will you tell me more about yourself?" Cassie asked in a light tone, "You don't have to if you don't want to"
He took a breath and answered.
"It's fine… it's just that, you might not understand it at all"
"It's okay, I'll still listen…"
He still kept his eyes closed as he started.
"Well I come from somewhere very far away, back there, I lived with my Mom, and my little Sister, my Dad wasn't usually at home, he had to work overseas most of the time"
"When I was seven, my mom gave birth to my baby sister, and my parents decided that I'd be the one to name her… honestly it was a lot of pressure to put on a seven year old kid, but although I was seven, I was smart, too smart in fact, I spent two hours thinking, not of a good name, but of what would happen if I picked a bad one…."
"Would she hate the name? Would she hate me for giving her the name? Will her future friends laugh at her name? Countless thoughts made me nervous, and my mom noticed, she held me in her arms and told me that I should just look inside my heart and I'll be fine…"
"Haha… when she said it at the time, I had absolutely no idea what it meant, however, I just nodded as if I did, then I picked a name… 'Aurora', that was the name I picked for my sister"
"A few months later, she said her first words, she was right in my arms when she said it… 'Ba' that was her first words, not exactly a word, but it still counts, although I was trying to teach to say Leblanc, it was still progress, so we cheered and celebrated…"
"A few years later, and my sister grew, she became this really cute little girl that would make anyone love her, however that was the side she showed to people, whenever she was with me, she would pester me to play games with her, my mom said it was because she liked me, but I knew that she just wanted to keep my eyes off my video games…"
"So I designed the 'Put Aurora to sleep schedule…', I would play games that took a lot of physical energy with her, and she loved it too, however her four year old body couldn't keep up with mine, so whenever she was tired, I'd return to playing games…"
"A few years later, a friend of mine moved to the house nextdoor, so everyday we'd sneak out and play, iconically, he wasn't much of a morning person, and so was I, so while we did our different things during the day, we'd sneak out at night and play, we'd tell scary stories, play fake camping, and we'd even try to catch sleeping birds…"
"A year later, me and my friend got more friends, and we turned out to live in the same neighborhood, so we usually went everywhere together, we all did everything together, we'd choose days of the week to spend in each other's houses, and our night charades got a lot wilder…"
"We kept hanging out with each other, but soon, times caught up with us, our group soon went their separate ways… but we still kept in touch, we lived far away, but we still made time to meet up…"
"Since I had things to do, I didn't really interact with people much, I made a few new friends, but they weren't that close, I stuck with doing my things, while reading light novels and playing games…"
"My life was good, great even… however, in just one day, I lost them all, I found myself somewhere far away, somewhere I knew but didn't understand, and my family was gone… my friends were gone, everyone and everything I ever knew and loved, swept away by an invisible hand, and now, everything just keeps falling apart…"
His voice died out at the end as he kept his eyes tightly shut to keep his tears from falling down, however that didn't work well as a tear fell from the side of his face.
Cassie caressed his head and wiped the tears from his face.
"I understand… thank you for tell me Merlin"
"It's fine…" he sighed and he brought his hands to his face.
Cassie held his hand and laid down beside him.
"Is that why you don't like others worrying about you, so you put on a brave face?"
"Being too smart isn't a good thing Cas" he chuckled as he turned to face her, his reflection visible in her blue eyes.
"Why do you always go out of your way to help us?" Cassie asked not turning away from his gaze.
However, he turned and faced the sky, keeping his two hands behind his head.
"The future that I knew, the future that was originally supposed to be… I wasn't there"
"Huh?" Cassie tilted her head.
"Yes I wasn't, and as so, it was horrible… the cohort we have now, wasn't the cohort in the other future…" he explained.
"Can you tell me about it? The other future that is…" Cassie asked as she faced the sky too.
"Well… starting from the forgotten shore, when you had your vision, you asked Sunny if he would do anything to protect Neph, and he said 'no'..."
"Then you held on to the fear of your vision, while Sunny's view of you guys' friendship changed, then you guys got into the Bright Castle, then after a week you guys came out, then Neph decided to start hunting for the outer settlement…"
"Everything proceeded as usual, until Sunny caught up to Neph's plan, the one of brainwashing the sleepers of the forgotten shore and using them to fight through the crimson spire…"
"Then Sunny got angry and stormed off to the dark city, abandoning Neph and her plans, however before that, he had accidentally told his true name to Harper and killed him…"
"You got a vision about the true name and told it to Neph, hoping it'll save her from your vision, and you made that decision based on the 'no' that Sunny said over three months earlier…"
"Sunny spent a while in the Dark city, and when he returned, he returned with Kai, then things happened, he joined Neph again, albeit not supporting her, then you guys got the shard memories, and unlike my pattern of taking over the Bright Castle, Neph's method was filled with bloodshed, just like your vision, a lot of sleepers died, and even more so when you guys conquered the Crimson Spire…"
"Then at the end, Neph and Sunny fought just like your vision, and Neph used Sunny's true name against him, and in the worst way possible, at that point he felt betrayed by the only two people he ever trusted, and unlike your intentions, Neph stayed behind on the forgotten shore, Sunny returned, and he hated you, the cohort broke apart, except for a few meetings, then after a while, Sunny's hate for you reduced to a considerable extent…"
"But then you get your visions again, and then manipulate him into releasing Mordret, conquering the second nightmare, all in the name of you're doing it for his good…"
"Then after the second nightmare, a while later, Neph returns, and Sunny's rage returns with it, then he talks for a while until he can't hold himself back anymore, then he has an argument with her, and leaves for Antarctica…"
"But even there, you were still manipulating him into gaining a few useful memories, including the one that makes him run mad, then you guys challenge the third nightmare, and at the end of the third nightmare, you reveal the things you've done to Sunny…"
"And honestly, till today I'm still surprised he didn't kill you on the spot, but things happen, he hates your guts again, and he leaves, and his fate gets stolen and he gets forgotten by everyone, his entire existence in exchange for freedom, all because you were scared of one of your friends getting hurt on the forgotten shore…"
As Merlin finished the story, the entire place was quiet, then after a few seconds, Cassie opened her mouth and said.
"Damn…"
"Huh?" He tilted his head confused as he turned to her, "where did you learn to swear"
"From you ofcourse…" Cassie smiled, then it disappeared almost immediately.
"Thank you for not making me go down that path…"
"That's alright… honestly you really should try your best too" he spoke with a serious voice "I'm not Sunny, there's little room in my heart for forgiveness, if I somehow find out I'm being toyed with by someone without my knowledge, even if it was for my own good, I wouldn't take it so well… honestly, if I were Sunny in the third nightmare, I would've snapped your neck immediately you finished talking"
Then he reverted to his calm smile.
"So don't go being like that Cassie alright… I prefer the current you"
Cassie gulped at his words then nodded.
He started laughing and patted her head, "I'm joking Cas, don't be so serious…"
He laughed it off, however, he wasn't joking in the slightest, Celestial Worthy and his future self was already his limit, add one more and he'll start dropping bodies.
Cassie chuckled and replied.
"Don't worry, I'll try my best… So thanks for keeping our cohort together"