I want to just drift through life in Type-Moon.

Page 39

Le Zhengling was startled by the words she uttered, but the sense of incongruity quickly disappeared, as if it were already commonplace.

"I've said I don't acknowledge you as my Master, and I could never become your Servant, but to save face for everyone, please give me a Chaldea employee registration... Profession: chef, please~"

He spoke to Olga Marie in an arrogant tone, and Leonardo da Vinci, observing this being whose personality was completely different from that of someone he had just spoken with, began to form some guesses—

If two parallel world counterparts get close, the consequences could be unimaginable. Even if one of them has appeared before the other appears later, the residual information will still have a huge impact.

However, without any reference or comparison, my current understanding is merely speculation.

Actually, Da Vinci misunderstood. Yue Zhengling's current personality and her previous thirst were indeed due to Ji Ling's influence, but not because of any residual information, but because of the influence of fate.

Without a physical body, Yue Zhengling was not summoned as a Heroic Spirit, but was pulled over from somewhere else. The Command Seals on Olga Marie's hands were just decorations, an illusion created by some white-haired online swindler.

Ji Ling is a living person, while Yue Zhengling is a soul. The two were connected by fate without knowing why, so Yue Zhengling regained hunger, thirst, and some desires that a normal person should have.

This impact is equal, but in reality, Yue Zhengling is more affected. After all, the physical impact involves the most superficial survival and physiological needs, while the impact on the soul is not as severe and will get better in time.

Olga Marie looked at the Servant she had summoned, who completely ignored her, with tears in her eyes, her heart filled with despair.

The other party had explained it so clearly, and there was nothing I could do but nod in resignation.

After all, she knew that there were very few people in Chaldea who truly acknowledged her, and even if she were to become assertive and demand that Yue Zhengling be imprisoned, she felt that Leonardo da Vinci, Romani, and Lev would definitely stop her.

She was, after all, just a teenage girl. No matter how high her magical achievements were, modern magicians simply couldn't defeat this heroic spirit. (...you can all just pretend you know nothing).

Seeing Olga Marie's cooperative attitude, Le Zhengling nodded in satisfaction. Just as he was about to continue talking to Leonardo da Vinci, Olga Marie seemed to suddenly remember something, took out a small bottle from her bosom, and carefully handed it to him.

"Someone asked me to give this to you and told you to drink it as soon as possible..."

As if possessed, Yue Zhengling took the bottle and tickled Olga Marie's palm, startling her so much that she quickly withdrew her hand as if she had been electrocuted.

"Who gave you this?" Yue Zhengling, completely unaware of what she had done, asked, looking at the bottle in her hand.

Olga Marie remembered that Merlin had said before he left that no one except Yue Zhengling should know about him, so she looked at the others with difficulty and then lowered her head.

She had originally intended to have the bottle examined by Leonardo da Vinci, but now she no longer had that plan.

Thankfully, at that moment, Fou jumped from Mashu's arms onto Yue Zhengling's shoulder, sniffed the bottle, and then called out to Yue Zhengling, "Fufo~~ (It smells like that bastard)."

Upon hearing Fufu's words, Yue Zheng frowned, realizing that things were not so simple. Merlin had actually intervened; what had happened?

"What's the use of this?" he asked Olga Marie, shaking the liquid in the bottle.

Olga Marie hurriedly shook her head, indicating that she did not know.

"What a hassle... Oh well, it shouldn't be a problem. I'll just see what he's up to." With that, Yue Zhengling walked up to the cup of black tea brewed by Da Vinci, uncorked the small bottle, and was about to pour the entire bottle of unknown liquid into it.

But after frowning and thinking for a moment, he carefully tilted the bottle, letting only a drop fall into the black tea, then resealed the bottle and placed it on the table.

When the drop of purple liquid fell into the cup of black tea, the color of the entire cup of black tea did not seem to change much, but Yue Zhengling smelled a familiar aroma—the same aroma as the tea he often drank with Merlin.

Knowing this, Yue Zhengling picked up the cup without suspicion and drank it all in one gulp.

"The black tea tastes pretty good." After licking his lips, Yue Zhengling gave Da Vinci a thumbs up. After saying that, he felt his eyelids drooping and his whole body weak, and he swayed.

"As expected... a sedative... black tea..." Although she had anticipated it, after drinking this renowned beverage, Yue Zhengling still tried to struggle, "Da Vinci... don't let anyone touch me..."

After saying that, he fell to the side and landed on Olga Marie.

Olga Marie froze for a moment, then was overjoyed when she realized that the Heroic Spirit was already asleep. Just as she was about to order someone to take him to prison, Leonardo da Vinci stepped forward, looked at her, and gently shook his head.

“Since the child has already said that, I hope you will leave the rest to me... Your relationship can be built up slowly, so don’t do anything foolish, Olga.”

Having said that, ignoring Olga Marie's flushed and pale face, Leonardo da Vinci picked up Yue Zhengling and carried her to the sofa. Then, she clapped her hands and looked at everyone, saying:

"Alright, everyone else, leave now. Chief, you should also deal with this child's identity issue. We can ask him about the rest when he wakes up."

Chapter Ninety-Six: Reunion with Merlin

After Yue Zhengling fell into a deep sleep he hadn't experienced in a long time, he soon dreamed of that familiar place.

He sat at the table atop the Tower of the Distant Land, and a smiling white-haired man opposite him greeted him: "Long time no see, Ling. How have you been?"

"That's good, at least they didn't die," Yue Zhengling said calmly.

"Ah, the reaction is a bit different from what I expected... I thought you were going to rush over and beat me up." Merlin scratched his head habitually, and petals kept falling off.

"So you actually have some self-awareness, huh?" Yue Zhengling looked at him with the eyes of someone who had discovered a new continent. "Alright, enough nonsense. You contacted me through Olga Marie, aren't you afraid that Goetia will find out?"

Merlin gave a bitter smile, looked the person opposite him up and down, and remained silent for a long time.

"?" Yue Zhengling tilted her head, puzzled, and asked, "Is there something wrong with my face?"

"The problem is quite big... Now that the people are burning down, it's a minor matter. I never expected you to have such a powerful background." Merlin rubbed his forehead, looking extremely troubled.

"What do you mean by this?" Yue Zhengling's eyes turned unusually serious.

Merlin shook his head and remained silent.

"Don't you know that people who keep others in suspense usually don't end up well?" Yue Zhengling said with his fingers clasped together, his tone full of dissatisfaction.

"I'm doing this for your own good... and you wouldn't understand anyway." Merlin sighed repeatedly, touching his chest. If he hadn't escaped quickly, he would have had a penetrating wound there.

With a huge question in her mind, Yue Zhengling looked at the nightmare she had been living with for many years and said, "Merlin, do you know that when someone refuses someone with the excuse 'you wouldn't understand even if I told you,' they actually don't want to say it."

He narrowed his eyes as he spoke, concealing the suspicion within them, "And statements like 'I'm doing this for your own good' often carry a strong sense of subjective bias—"

"The most selfish thing to say in this world is, 'I'm doing this for your own good.' People who say this are often not considering 'you,' but are thinking more about themselves."

He closed his eyes completely as he said this. "So, don't let me hear those two sentences from you again, and don't give me the chance to hate you... Merlin, you are my first friend, and I think our friendship can continue."

Hearing these words, which sounded like a deep self-analysis, Merlin's heart couldn't help but flutter. The word "friend" was probably the first time he had ever heard it in his life.

To King Uther, he was merely an assistant; to Arthur, he was merely a teacher; to the others at the Round Table, he was merely an unreliable mentor.

However, the fact that someone now calls him a friend deeply moves him. He knows how terrible his personality is, and he knows that as a non-human, he is incapable of opening his heart to others. He can only silently watch everything unfold, silently leave those around him, or let those around him leave him.

He was a loner, a heretic who had resolved to watch humanity perish in Avalon, but even so, the sudden joy of having someone acknowledge him as a friend was something he had never experienced before.

“Sometimes, I really feel that your mental age doesn’t match your appearance at all… You’re still in your childhood—well, now you’re in your growth stage, so why can you always spout a bunch of grand principles?” Merlin sighed, giving a wry smile.

"Alright, I'll tell you about what happened during the 120 years after you went to the Lake Fairy's place..."

"Wait! You said I've been with the Lake Fairy for many years?" Le Zhengling's composure crumbled, and he stared wide-eyed at Merlin in disbelief.

"You heard me right, you did stay there for one hundred and twenty years." Merlin looked at him with pure eyes. After putting his mind at ease and telling him everything, Merlin returned to his usual self.

"Wait, wait, wait! Let me catch my breath! How is this possible! I was just taking a nap back then! How could 120 years have passed!" Unable to accept it for a moment, Yue Zhengling reached out and stopped Merlin from speaking.

“I say, do you really need to be so surprised? Time means absolutely nothing to us,” Merlin said, looking at him with amusement.

"What do you mean it's meaningless! I'm just an ordinary person! Suddenly they're telling me I took a nap and over a hundred years have passed! That's longer than all my previous lives combined!"

He stood up irritably and paced back and forth across the table, unconsciously biting his thumb.

"You should adapt as soon as possible. Whether you admit it or not, you have to change your mindset and gradually get used to it," Merlin advised in a tone of someone who had been through it all.

“Alright, now I’ll continue, just listen.” Merlin then explained to Yue Zhengling.

After bringing the materials into the Lake Fairy's territory, Merlin entered into a long, lonely old age, spending his days quietly wandering around Avalon while using his Clairvoyance to spy on everything happening outside.

One day, a very important person, who was seriously injured, suddenly arrived here. Upon seeing him, the important person immediately asked Merlin to help him fend off the pursuers, as he had to go to another world to deal with some very important matters.

Merlin, realizing the situation was complicated, initially wanted to refuse, but based on some kind of agreement, after the important figure agreed to provide him with assistance, Merlin still followed the rules of the deal and blocked the pursuers for him.

However, upon seeing the pursuer, Merlin's mind was instantly captivated by the opponent's unique allure, and he was struck head-on by a magic cannon, nearly leaving him critically injured and on the verge of death.

Fortunately, the woman from another world arrived later, and the two of them used illusion magic to deceive that person. Then, Merlin told Merlin about the person who looked exactly like the one she knew.

The person named Ji Ling exists in the timeline of Merlin's story, and Merlin knows very well what exactly happened in Merlin's timeline—

That was a world that had been in the age of gods for a long time, and even now it is still a world with abundant resources and a highly developed, mysterious culture.

She also told him that the important figure was seriously injured by Ji Ling, but it was through a sneak attack. As for why Ji Ling would attack that important figure, even Mei Li didn't know.

After Merlin and Merly quickly exchanged information, they decided that Merlin would find a way to expel the other party from Avalon. Although Ji Ling was strong, she was still just a human. If they could take advantage of this, Avalon, which did not welcome humans, would definitely be able to expel her.

Chapter Ninety-Seven: Cause and Effect

"Wait, the person who injured you was that Ji Ling who looks exactly like me? And the expulsion you mentioned, you wouldn't be using Chaldea's summoning system, would you?"

Recalling Leonardo da Vinci's earlier mention that Chaldea summoned another woman who looked exactly like him before summoning him, Yue Zhengling connected all the dots at this moment.

“Ah, so you already knew. That makes things easier. That’s right, the one who injured me was a woman named Ji Ling.” Merlin looked at him with a troubled expression. “If she didn’t look exactly like you, how could I have been influenced by her charm in the first place?”

Le Zhengling squinted at him. Although he didn't know what abilities the other self from another world possessed, listening to this old lewd old man talking about seduction and such made it sound as if he was the one seducing him.

"Don't look at me like that~ That girl's allure is innate, not something she deliberately tries to pull off, but..." Merlin stroked his chin, looking him up and down, "But I really didn't expect that someone with the same appearance could possess such an indescribable charm! If you dressed up a bit, wouldn't you..."

"If you miss, just say so, and I'll grant your wish." Yue Zhengling narrowed his eyes expressionlessly.

"Haha, just kidding, just kidding~ I was just trying to lighten the mood." Merlin laughed awkwardly, turning his face away guiltily.

"So, how did you manage to trick Ji Ling away using Chaldea?" Yue Zhengling knew how unserious Merlin was, so she didn't dwell on it too much.

"Well, you know I'm skilled in illusion, while Merry is a master of magic. It was only through our combined efforts that we finally succeeded."

Merlin looked terrified as he said this.

“That girl named Ji Ling is really terrifying. At the beginning, Mei Li clearly wanted to lock her in another dimension, but she discovered our plan first and completely avoided the portal. When I used illusion magic to trick her and thought I had successfully locked her up, she actually blasted open the space and walked out.”

Merlin felt a pang of heartache at the thought that Ji Ling had used the Gem Sword to blast open that enclosed space and left a huge wound next to the Tower of the Distant Lands.

"Later, we discovered that her eyes were special; they were very similar to our clairvoyant eyes. After we learned this, we used my illusion magic to temporarily block her eyes, which gave us the opportunity to do other things."

"So that's how it is. So you deceived Olga Marie and made her activate the summoning system?"

Yue Zhengling already had some understanding of Merlin's next move, since, based on Da Vinci's words, it was impossible to deduce how Ji Ling appeared in Chaldea.

"Since the other dimension can't hold her, we have no choice but to forcibly send her away. That's when I thought of using Chaldea's summoning system! Besides, there are people in Chaldea who can control her, so she'll definitely be fine!"

"Your trick of sacrificing your fellow Daoist for me is quite good~" Le Zhengling looked at him with disdain.

"There was really no other way at that time, and if we didn't get rid of her, the entire Avalon—no, the entire Inner Sea of ​​the Stars—would be destroyed!"

Merlin stood up excitedly, wanting to explain something to Yue Zhengling, but then he shut his mouth when he thought about the bead.

That's a bottomless pit. As a friend, Merlin didn't want Yue Zhengling to step into it. Besides, judging from his current appearance, he didn't know anything, so he shouldn't know.

Thinking of this, Merlin sat down again, letting out a helpless sigh.

Le Zhengling looked at Merlin strangely. Actually, he also had a question to ask: why was the magic in the air so thin when he returned to the Tower of the Distant Lands? However, he thought it was probably due to the aftermath of the battle.

At this moment, he was unaware that it was caused by the glass bead in Ji Ling's hand, nor did he know that in his original world, the boundary ring also exhibited similar power.

At that time, as a basic soul, he could only see, not hear or feel. Although he saw the plants on the ground wither, he was unaware that even the magic in the atmosphere was being drained, and he could not hear the conversation between the two Twenty-Seven Ancestors.

He doesn't have the ability to see the glass bead now, otherwise he could have made some connections.

"After that, there's not much to say. As you know, dreams are my domain. I contacted the director of Chaldea through dreams and had her initiate the Heroic Spirit Summoning Ritual. Then, I acted as the intermediary and dragged Ji Ling out."

Merlin intentionally skipped over the middle part of the process, not letting Yue Zhengling know too much.

"And what about me? What happened to me?" Yue Zhengling pointed to himself and asked unhappily.

Merlin frowned in confusion, because if he were to speak, he would have to delve into another, much deeper reason.

"Ah, because you're too weak. That level of combat is beyond your capabilities. Besides, that girl named Ji Ling is far too dangerous. For your safety, that's why I had Meili send you away."

As expected of someone who lives a long life, Merlin came up with an excuse in the blink of an eye.

Actually, during the battle, Merlin was barely managing to cope with the activated [Heaven's Will] when he suddenly felt Yue Zhengling reappear. He was almost scared to death, but he didn't expect it to be a turning point.

He was well aware that alternate-world counterparts would influence each other in the same world, because he and Merry were the best example of this.

When the two are in the same world, both Merlin's magic and Merry's swordsmanship are greatly enhanced.

Moreover, her personality and behavior have changed. Previously, because Yue Zhengling was in the lake of the Lake Fairy, which is considered a small world in Avalon, Ji Ling's ability to act and make judgments was weakened after he reappeared, and she became uninterested in everything.

Even more strangely, the moment Yue Zhengling appeared, [Heaven's Will] stopped the retrieval process, which puzzled Ji Ling and gave Merlin an opportunity to use illusion and magic to enter the alternate dimension together to buy time so that Chaldea could carry out the summoning.

Finally, when Yue Zhengling returned to the distant tower, Meili took it upon herself to send him away.

Later, Meryl stopped contacting him, and he couldn't reach Meryl either.

Because the event happened so suddenly, he was too busy fighting and strategizing to have time to think.

After everything was over, Merlin discovered that Merly had sent Yue Zhengling away. Only then did he realize that Merly had her own plans, and that the appearance of Ji Ling and Gemstone Weng in this world was not a coincidence.

Chapter Ninety-Eight: The Pleasure of Pranks

However, when Merlin tried to find Yue Zhengling, he discovered that she was no longer there. He knew that the Tower of the Distant Lands had been activated, but the tower's ability was only to break through the inner walls and reach the outer surface world. However, he searched every corner of the surface world but could not find the person he was looking for.