I broke up with Merlin [Comprehensive]

Merlin hadn't seen the last of Cyril Cornwall.

According to the previous thinking, if the duke failed to be persuaded to stay, he should still go to the present world.Not for anything else, at least, for the past 20 years of watching from far or near.

The first time he saw Cyril in a dream, he didn't know who the ignorant child was.At that time, Cyril was five years old.

Five years old, until 25 years old, exactly 20 years.

After a rough calculation, what he saw with his own eyes was the life of that man-made youth.

And the only person who got him to wait and see so earnestly was Cyril Cornwall, except for Arthur, the King of Destiny who had already written in the future.

That's why I said that Merlin should take a look at it, both emotionally and rationally.

— But the truth is, he didn't go.

When the Duke left without looking back, Nightmare, who was rejected so forcefully for the first time, was still sitting by the lake, not moving for a long time, and seemed to be in deep thought.

The fairy in the lake who had previously been hiding and didn't want to show up pushed her up from the lake, surrounded Merlin, poked his back, tugged at his hair, and asked curiously who the soul he brought was. Come, why not stay?

"He...well."

Nightmare, who hadn't woken up from the shock for a long time, thought for a long time before giving an evaluation:

"It's a soul that is unwilling to be silent."

After speaking, he felt that such an evaluation was not appropriate, but for a moment he didn't know how to say it better.

The fairies were not satisfied with Merlin's answer, they quarreled with him for a while, discussed the beautiful appearance of the strange soul they had quietly observed, and returned to the lake bored.

Merlin was still sitting there, stood up after a while, and returned along the way he came.

When he came, the person who punted the boat was gone, and he crossed the swamp by himself, and walked into the sea of ​​flowers that he had walked with that person not long ago.

The tower at the end that I had agreed to see still stood in the distance, and the spar like fragments of stars slowly rotated around the tower.

Merlin stopped in front of the tower, looked up, not only sighed, but also mixed with other emotions.

"Is it that obvious?"

He suddenly said to himself.

"I am not a human being, no matter how much I cover up, I still..."

In the middle of speaking, Merlin paused again, all because he temporarily realized that using the reason of "not human beings" as an explanation for being completely seen through did not seem to work.

There is a stark counterexample ahead.

"Your Excellency Cyril, you are indeed the biggest exception. No matter in terms of the process or yourself, I am extremely surprised."

And now, anyway, the "accident" is going to disappear.

Once the variables disappear, the future will proceed smoothly as expected, and Merlin, as the promoter, should be happy.

However, it is also very strange.

Merlin was puzzled to find that he didn't have any emotions similar to gratification or joy.

Instead, he lingered for a long time near the tower in Paradise, and after unaccountably delayed so long, set out from Avalon.

After going out, he didn't go directly to the castle that he was already familiar with, but returned to his disciple first.

Wang, who was still a young girl, sat behind the table, and the dim light of the oil lamp shone on her face, but she looked so dim.

She had just finished writing a letter, and as she was writing, for some reason, the ink splashed from the tip of the pen stained the corner of her sleeve.

At this time, the king, who was staring blankly at the letter paper, finally noticed the teacher's arrival.

Artoria raised her head, frowning tightly, but her eyes were blank.

"Teacher." She asked: "I always feel that something happened, but I can't find it anywhere. Just now, I felt a burst of heartache."

Merlin opened his mouth, he should have comforted her, or told her the truth directly.

However, the words did not come out. He just glanced at the desktop and said calmly, "This is also a letter to the Duke of Cornwall? It just so happens that I——help you deliver it."

"Okay, sorry to bother you."

Arturia didn't think much, packed up the letter, sealed it, and handed it to the teacher.

However, I don't know if it was a sudden thought, but before Merlin received the letter and was about to leave, Artoria suddenly asked him: "Mr. Merlin, you often go to see Your Excellency Cyril, he is really in good health." ?"

"..."

What an embarrassing question.

Artoria's intuition was very accurate, and she might have received an early warning of the departure of her blood-related relatives without her knowing it.

Merlin didn't answer.Before long, she will know the answer.

After making such a big circle and dawdling on the road for a while, Merlin finally came to a familiar place with the letter.

He seemed to have delayed too long.

When they arrived, the people who left behind him had already arrived.

Although their "earlyness" is only relatively speaking, the real situation is that they are still late.

On that day, it rained heavily.

The narrow and dense rain like a long line cut through the sky and fell on the muddy ground, and the clanging sound was like the saddest sonata.

Wearing a cloak, the magician stood in a dark place where people in front would not notice, watching the people gathered on the hill from afar.

The Cornwall family belongs to this cemetery for generations, and in the cemetery that has been silent for a long time, there is a new tombstone that is wet by rain and the writing on it is almost invisible.

The few people standing at the front of the crowd could tell from their armor and sword-holding attire that they were all knights.

However, the respected knights--

Whether it's the blond knight with a stiff face, or the black-haired knight who turned his face away from the front, or the two younger ones.

The heavy rain like a waterfall wet the cloak, making water droplets cover the sword hanging straight to the ground, and there was no dry place on the whole body.They stood in the rain for three days at a time, like statues that could not move, and the whole person was petrified in front of the really rigid tombstone.

Merlin didn't want to find out how those people were feeling at the moment, it had nothing to do with him.

He has always only cared about the ending of the "story", not the process.

However, when he also stood in the rain for three days, and finally waited until everyone left, he walked to the tombstone step by step.The strange feelings that had puzzled him not long ago resurfaced.

Not only has it emerged, but there seems to be a growing trend.

Can't understand, he really doesn't understand.

The letter written by Arturia was no longer read, and Merlin put the useless paper that had been blurred by the rain, together with the flowers he brought, on the flat ground in front of the tombstone.

"Cyril Cornwall."

He recited the name silently again, and somehow lifted the hand that held the flower, and landed on a corner of the white robe.

The position touched by the fingertips just corresponds to the faintly aching heart—if the nightmare also has a heart.

"Until the end, you seem to want to tell me something... What I overlooked, what I don't know, what I haven't noticed, what you want to remind me, what exactly is it?"

This question was unanswered.

The blond young man who could answer him was already buried under heavy soil.

Merlin thought, he has seen him bloom, and he has seen him wither...

No, Cyril Cornish was forced to wither without even waiting for the day to bloom.

Merlin left silently with the confusion that was still incomprehensible.

What happened after that generally followed the normal trajectory, but there were still many lamentable details.

Merlin was still wandering outside as a bystander, and those so-called subtle things were all in his eyes.

The death of the Duke of Cornwall caused the grief of millions of people across the country.

Except for the title that no one can inherit, and a portrait he painted that year, there are very few other things related to the Duke himself, and almost nothing remains.

He didn't touch any of the wealth passed down by the family, and gave it all to his sister Morgan.His nephews also received separate gifts.

And these years, the private property that he has managed by himself, the Duke's will stated that he distributed these things to everyone around him, and the most important share was given to the knight commander for him to use. Take care of refugees who remain in the territory.

How can such a duke not make people feel extremely sad, and how can the living people not admire him?

Because of this, even though he had passed away for quite a long time, people still remembered him and continued to praise the duke’s name, and poets praised him with poems. Presumably, the historical records of later generations will also have his own strong A pen of ink.

Let's go back in time to the present, which is not so far away.

No one cared about the title, because of the death of the Duke, the once bustling castle gradually became deserted and empty.

Morgan was the first to leave.She took the only portrait of the Duke of Cornwall, oh, and Mordred.

Since then, no one has seen the woman again.

Only after the woman's crazy revenge was exposed many years later, Morgan's name, as a representative of the terrible witch, was branded into the long river of history together with the fragmented and subjugated country.

The duke's nephews, all without exception, were members of the later famous Knights of the Round Table. They arrived two days late by accident and did not see their uncle for the last time.

During the past few years, they were completely kept in the dark, and they didn't even know that their uncle's health became so bad day by day after they left.The remorse and pain in it are beyond words.

The Duke's funeral was organized by Agguiwen. After the funeral, the many chores of the Duke's mansion, which lost its master and person in charge, were also handled by Agguiwen in turn, and the other three helped in silence.

It took several days for the sad news to reach the ears of His Majesty the King who was thousands of miles away.

Arturia couldn't come. After all, she was the commander-in-chief of the first army, and she had to be alert to the enemy's movements, so she couldn't escape at all.

But even so, Wang, who had never been ill, was still seriously ill.

She didn't know that this severe pain, like a piece of her heart being cut off, was not only because of the death of a friend who had supported her and trusted her in the past few years, but also had a deeper reason.And for this reason, she didn't know about it from Agguiwen - and her own teacher - until Gao Wen and others came back.

It turned out that Cyril Cornwall was her half-brother.

Artoria finally understood why, on that sunny afternoon, when she saw the blond young man waiting under the tree, she felt a strong sense of intimacy in her heart.

But it was too late to know.

The passing of the Duke was not buried by time.Regardless of other things, his impact on the living can be said to be quite large.

Agguiwen became extreme when others didn't know it, Gareth was far more silent than before, and Gareth seemed to lose his innocence all of a sudden during those three days and three nights of standing still.

Gao Wen, who looked the most normal, as if he had not changed much, only said to his younger siblings in private: "I broke my promise again."

"My promise cannot be fulfilled."

"The gap between life and death, how can I cross—ah, yes, there is... no chance."

Not only him.

They are all.

The war dragged on for ten years before it ended with difficulty in King Arthur's victory.

In the fifth year, the Duke of Cornwall died of illness.Five years later, the mighty knight army returned to the royal city victoriously, receiving warm cheers from the people along the way.

The king and a few knights temporarily left the team halfway, went to another place with only tombstones, and came back the next day.

Gawain and the others are still the King's Knights of the Round Table, because Uncle hopes that they will replace him to assist the King who can bring peace to Britain.

However, for some reason, the brothers and sisters seldom get together, and even if they reunite, there seems to be an invisible barrier.

A few years later, a small figure appeared among the knights of the round table.

A blond-haired, blue-eyed knight who looked somewhat like the king—and a certain deceased lord. His name was Mordred.

after that.

The picture that once appeared in the clairvoyant eyes of the onlookers happened step by step.

After a period of relative peace and stability, Lancelot in the Knights of the Round Table had an affair with the queen, and Agravin was killed by Lancelot first.During the hunt, Gachris and Gareth died at Lancelot's hands one after another.

In the end, even Gao Wen, who was full of grief and indignation to avenge his younger siblings, was killed by the knight.

Immediately afterwards, when King Arthur assembled his army to prepare for a crusade, Mordred, who had been hiding for a long time, launched a rebellion, which plunged the whole country into bloody chaos, and was finally divided again by the land unified by King Arthur.

King Arthur and the rebellious knight himself also died in that battle.

……

This is the "ending" before the eyes of the magician.

Sure enough, he still didn't delve into it, and didn't explore the ups and downs of the people in the story.He just saw the faces that were enough to reflect his heart.

For example, when he saw the corpses of his younger siblings, the Sun Knight's complexion was instantly covered with deep gloom.

"Once upon a time, I swore by my uncle's side that I would definitely protect my important relatives. However——again! This is the second time, and I broke the oath!"

For another example, on the sword hill, facing the seriously injured King Arthur, the rebellious knight who will bear the notoriety from now on has an expression equivalent to nothingness on his face.

"Mother's wish, I think I have fulfilled it. I will overthrow you and pull you down from the throne. But, why! I don't feel happy at all."

Morgan once swore that in order to take revenge on Merlin and Uther, she would take away everything they had tried so hard to get.

This has nothing to do with Artoria directly, but because she was involved in the plans of those two people, and Britain was also included in "everything", Morgan didn't care so much.

If the Duke of Cornwall was still alive, even if the hatred was still there, Morgan would not have made such a decision, and it had completely become a matter of venting his anger.However, the Duke of Cornwall died so early.

However, Morgan thought that he took revenge on Merlin - in fact, he didn't.

Only Merlin knew that his purpose was not to protect Britain, which was doomed to collapse, but to follow the development and push history to a relatively happy ending.

He sighed at most, the only ones who would be really affected were the people in the game who were still in this world experiencing separation and separation.

No one came to stop Morgan.

No one can act as a link to ease the grievances and grievances of these complicated people, and no one will care about them in a timely manner and become their backing for progress.

If the Duke of Cornwall is still alive, the situation will not develop to this point, at least, he will not allow Mordred to become Morgan's revenge tool - from another perspective, you will find that if there is no Duke of Cornwall , the ending will not change, but the process should reduce a lot of entanglement and grief.

and so……

——Is the appearance of that Your Excellency a good thing or a bad thing for 'them'?

This question surfaced in Merlin's mind, at first it was only by chance.But later, because no reasonable answer could be found, it kept surfacing.

Is it bad?

Because no matter how you look at it, those connected with Cyril Cornwall suffered far more than they "used to be".

Merlin thought so for quite a long time.

But he didn't expect that he would leave alone before seeing Artoria's final ending.The reason is that I don't want to "see" for no reason.

He thought again of the blond youth whose life had been lost in the past.

The shriveled but still beautiful young man said to him, Your Excellency Merlin, you always look down on us from a high place, watching what happens before you with a cold eye.

This time, as if the disciple's face similar to that of the young man aroused a deep pain in his heart, Merlin suddenly didn't want to witness it anymore.

He returned to Avalon, wandered in the sea of ​​flowers, and before he knew it, he came to the tall tower deep in the sea of ​​flowers.

——Will you be able to see the end of the fairyland by climbing that tower?Ah, just thinking about it makes me look forward to it. The scenery seen from a high place must be quite different from the one seen on the ground.

It seemed that the voice of the old man, softer than the wind, sounded in his ears.

At the same time when this thread of imagination came into being, Merlin suddenly regretted it.

He thought that that day, when the duke visited the wonderland with him, he should be the first to accompany him to the tower.If he could come here that day, maybe the Duke would have one less regret...

……

Sorry...?

The white-haired magician who climbed the tower alone looked through the narrow window and looked into the distance, and the slight pain in his heart reappeared.

He doesn't understand.I have always been puzzled by the feeling at this time.

After entering the tower, Merlin never went out again.

He blocked himself, on the one hand, to reflect on what he had done. After the young man-made man he had watched and the disciple he took care of came to an end one after another, he finally realized the mistakes he had made.

On the other hand.

Merlin belatedly realized that it was fine before, but after spending some time in the Tower, he thought of the Duke of Cornwall more and more.

His endless life as a nightmare, although more than a hundred years have passed now, the people he met and the things he saw can be remembered by infinity.

Countless faces, including the moving and pretty faces of his own favorite human women, have passed by in these years without leaving a deep imprint.

This is because Merlin always remembers that he is an alternative that is incompatible with human beings, and there is a certain reason.However, it is still related to his own character.

I don't know "love", and I don't have a nightmare of a human heart. I have never missed a specific person so frequently, and this person is long gone.

For the first time, it was so clear.The outline is not blurred at all, but the more I think about it, the deeper it becomes.

Merlin couldn't forget the garden that was always full of flowers.

In the corner of the garden, there will always be a quiet and serene figure in the small independent shade of trees.

Yes, Your Excellency the Duke... Excluding the few times when stubbornness and a little bit of anger are exposed, they are like tulips blooming peacefully in the garden, elegant and peaceful.

When he was still there, Merlin liked to chat with him very much, telling stories that happened all over the world tirelessly, it was not troublesome at all, let alone boring.

The magician at that time didn't realize that his purpose was not as pure as it was in the beginning when he came so diligently many times.

Now, Merlin seemed to be aware of it, aware of it.

"Your Excellency, what you wanted to remind me of, something that I might have overlooked...I think I finally found it."

"Did you understand at that time? No, you should have just discovered my absent-mindedness. You would not have thought that it was covered by absent-mindedness, and it was just a budding feeling at that time."

"It's ironic."

Nightmare in the tower smiles.

Ironic.

He claims to be an indifferent creature no different from an insect, just like the duke said, he always looks down on everyone from above.

However, this is him——unknowingly fell in love with him when he came into contact with an exception that shouldn't exist.

This is "love".He finally realized it.

The eternal burning flame in the depths of the Duke's soul melted the ice layer erected by Nightmare to isolate himself from others, and burned his heart extremely intensely.

"...Letting you go is the most correct thing I have ever done."

Nightmare was still smiling.His fingertips stretched out of the window and touched a ray of sunlight with a slight warmth.

"However, for myself..."

"It seemed like the worst thing I've ever done."

From now on, he will stay here, quietly looking at the unchanging sea of ​​flowers, and at the same time, savoring the sweet and tingling taste he got for the first time.

until……

——The day when the loved one reappears in the distant view.

Merlin never imagined that that day would really come.

……

……

Thousands of years later, in a certain narrow secret room.

The tabletop and the ground were in a mess, and the air was filled with the strange smell of the crucible explosion.

There is no doubt that this is the scene of the accident where the potion failed to brew—the culprit and the victim who caused the accident fell to the ground motionless at this moment, as if he had lost his breath...

Oh no.

The lost breath actually came back in the slow flow of time.

"..."

"..."

"Well……"

Accompanied by a very light moan leaking from the mouth.

The young man lying motionless on the ground trembled unexpectedly with his fingers blackened by the explosion.

Then.

Slowly, he raised his extremely heavy eyelids, revealing half a dazed green.

--I……

--how can that be possible?