Chapter 9: Illusion

 J_Squared  Editor: J_SquaredHolding the odd relief sculpture, Merlin did not look closely at it again. It was too odd to think that it could cause hallucination. He thought that it was better to study it when he was back home safely.

Anson chose a palm-sized jade product but Nathan gave a price up to a hundred gold coins. Although Anson was born into a noble family, he still had two brothers before him. He could not use more than thirty gold coins in a month. One hundred gold coins were more than what he could use.

Thus, Anson could only give it up regrettably. Meanwhile, Carice chose a jade bracelet but it was priced even higher at one hundred and twenty gold coins. Exquisite jade ornaments from the Molta Empire were trendy amongst the nobles so Nathan would not worry about being not able to sell it due to the price.

Carice wore an emerald earring and a jade bracelet on her right hand. She appeared to adore jade ornaments. Even if this jade bracelet cost more than one hundred gold coins, she still bought it with gritted teeth.

Gutt approached her and offered to buy the bracelet for Carice. It was obvious that fatty Gutt truly liked Carice. However, she declined the offer without much thought, making Gutt rather disappointed.

“Hey, fatty. Carice is gone. What are you still looking at?”

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Seeing his disappointed look, Anson laughed sneakily.

“Anson, who is this Mr. Nathan? His antiques obviously come from a questionable source. Even though he does it discreetly, it’s impossible that the Defense Troop doesn’t know. Why haven’t they taken any action?”

Merlin asked in a low voice.

“Hehe, why would the Defense Troop come here? Mr. Nathan is the only person out front. The boss behind this place is the…”

“…?”

Merlin was surprised but he calmed down soon. If Nathan answered to the…, then the Defense Troop would naturally not check this place.

In Blackwater City, the noble of the highest title was only Baron. The … was strictly controlled by the Augustin family. Even though he was a Baron as well, his influence was the greatest in the city. Under normal circumstances, the nobles in Blackwater City would have slightly lower status than the Augustin family. Just like the Defense Troop, though it was meant for the city, it was the private troop of the Augustin family.

They walked out of the passage. Just when they reached outside, a cold breeze blew, freezing them to their bones.

“Look, it’s snowing!” Anson shouted.

Merlin squinted his eyes and looked at the sky. As expected, the cold raindrops before had turned to white snowflakes now.

‘Snow in September? This weather was unusual!’

“Hu… so cold, let’s go home quickly! Bloody hell, snowing in September. Oh right, Merlin, I will send you back to Wilson Castle first.”

Fatty Gutt pulled his coat closer and dived into his carriage in a lightning speed.

The carriage slowly came to a halt in front of Wilson Castle. Merlin alighted from the carriage. Even with a cashmere coat, he still felt like he was freezing.

“Merlin, see you tomorrow. D*mn this weather!”

Anson and Gutt waved goodbye to Merlin. After seeing the carriage trotting away, Merlin walked into the castle.

“Hu…”

As Merlin entered the castle, he heaved a sigh of relief. He saw that there were maids building fire at the firepit, so the house was warm. He took off his coat and patted the snow off it lightly.

“Hmm, the relief sculpture?”

Merlin’s eyes fell on the relief sculpture that was fed into his coat. After looking around and taking note that no one was paying attention to him, he headed straight upstairs into his own room.

After shutting the door, Merlin took the relief sculpture out from his coat.

“Let’s try it one more time.”

Merlin rubbed his eyes lightly, then focused his attention on the relief sculpture. Then, he stared at the pattern on it from up to bottom.

“Hoof.”

The whole relief sculpture seemed to tremble slightly then the familiar sensation hit him again. Merlin felt the world was swaying and the naked man on the relief sculpture came alive. Right before Merlin’s eyes, he was starting to do an extremely awkward action.

The movements were complicated, and they almost stretched the human’s body to its extent. In a daze, Merlin felt his body starting to copy the movements of this naked man.

“It hurts…”

Merlin could not help but yelp. At this moment, Merlin came back to his senses, only to realize that he was now lying on the floor. The relief sculpture was dropped to the floor but to his surprise, it did not break. Merlin was maintaining an extremely odd yet complicated pose.

Merlin quickly stood up and broke out in cold sweat thinking about his action.

“Something is wrong with this relief sculpture! Terribly wrong!”

Merlin was still panicky. He did not dare to look at the relief sculpture. The feeling of not being in control of his own body was terrifying and it made him shiver thinking about it. This relief sculpture was truly odd.

After half an hour, Merlin calmed him nerves completely. Even though he did not look at the relief sculpture again, he had totally noted down that awkward pose in his mind.

“What use does this pose has?”

Merlin thought about it. He still felt that he should have tried to replicate that complicated pose when he was fully conscious. It was as if this movement was unbelievably attractive to Merlin.

The move was complicated. It required the person to do it slowly step by step. Merlin was lucky that he had remembered the move in his mind, so without using much time, he was able to pull that move off completely.

This time, Merlin was no longer in a trance and he was fully conscious. He could carefully feel the specialty of this pose.

“Hmm, I was a little cold earlier, but I feel warm now. My muscle also seems to be tight.” Merlin felt the changes in his body.

After maintaining this pose for half an hour, Merlin did not feel anything wrong with his body. It was just that his muscles were tightened. It became more obvious with time and seemed as if something was stirring up.

One hour, two hours, three hours…

The sky slowly darkened. Merlin seemed to have completely absorbed himself in this posture as he experienced this odd feeling.

“Bang, bang, bang!”

Suddenly, a series of urgent knocking sound came from the door.

“Merlin, what are you doing hiding in the room?”

Merlin was surprised by the noise. It was Macy. He opened the door and saw that the sky had gone totally dark at this hour.

Macy stared at Merlin in confusion, then the smell of sweat hit her. She saw that Merlin was drenched in sweat.

“Merlin, what are you doing? Why are you sweating so much?”

Merlin also noticed that he was covered in sweat but there was this sort of warm and energizing feeling in his body where he did not feel exhaustion at all.

“Nothing, it’s already dark, huh. I will go down soon.”

Macy was still trying to sneak a glance in the room but Merlin was blocking right at the door so she could not see anything. She could only cover her nose and said, “Let Lucia prepare some hot water for you. You should take a bath before you go down.”

Merlin nodded and agreed that this stench was undoubtedly too much. Even he himself could not stand this smell.

After a while, Lucia had prepared hot water in the bathtub. Merlin took off his drenched clothes and jumped into the bathtub. The warm water almost made him moan with pleasure.

Merlin soaked himself in the bath without moving a muscle. His head leaned on the side while his eyes stared unfocused at the ceiling of the room.