He stood staring at the cheering crowd, after a minute, he raised his hand and the crowd quieted down again, as he did, the rest of the cohort with Silver and Ariel walked out and stood behind him.
"Alright… since we're all here, I'll try my best to settle your curiosity, so if you have any questions, please just raise your hand, and also, professional questions only" He spoke in a soft voice, but he used an illusion to make sure that his words reached everybody.
Immediately multiple hands shot up, and multiple meaning everyone in the crowd.
"Okay I'll choose… you over there, your question?" he pointed to a random looking guy.
The random guy perked up as he asked loudly.
"Ascended Merlin, how are you feeling after such a long time in the dream realm?"
A probing question to test his mental state, but he still answered.
"Honestly I'm a little tired, but overall I'm okay I guess"
"Next question…"
Hands went up again, and Merlin pointed to another lady.
"Ascended Merlin, what do you have to say to the people who came together today to celebrate your return?" The lady asked as cameras captured and journalist wrote.
Merlin spread his hands sideways (Aizen style) and loudly proclaimed.
"People of NQSC, your saviour has returned!"
The cheers erupted again as the crowd shouted in joy, then he pointed to another person.
"Ascended Merlin, according to your previous words just now, why do you consider yourself a saviour?"
'Because Emperor Roselle said it…' he retorted in his mind, then he answered calmly.
"That's because all awakened have a duty to fight for humanity, and I, as the strongest of my rank, will not be any different"
"Next question… you there…"
"Ascended Merlin…" the man spoke, then he took a breath and continued "are the rumors about you killing over a thousand nightmare creatures singlehandedly true?"
"One hundred percent true" he answered.
"How did you achieve such a feat?" A woman asked.
"That's a secret…" Merlin smiled calmly 'if you want one of your own, just go meet CW…'
"Ascended Merlin, how was your journey navigating through unexplored areas of the dream realm?"
"It was honestly not interesting, for more details about my experience, you can meet the government for the official version, or you can wait till I write an official exploration report detailed with even painted pictures attached…" he answered calmly, at some point, the crowd had stopped cheering and began listening to his words.
"Next question"
"What is the highest rank creature you have killed during your exploration?" A journalist asked.
He thought for a second then answered truthfully.
"During my second nightmare, I killed a Great Monster, but that wasn't the most difficult creature I fought, the most difficult was a Corrupted Demon"
The crowd went quiet at the sheer weight of his words, after all a Great Monster wasn't something even Saints could kill on a regular basis, but a sleeper just declared that it wasn't even his most difficult fight.
What they didn't know was that said Great Monster was already on 0.5 hp when that kill was achieved, and if not for Jeffrey distracting it enough for him to complete a flame jump, he would've been the one dead, well not really dead considering Ariel's gift, but he would probably have to face a Great Monster and a Corrupted Demon at the same time, though he guessed that if he was pushed to the brink, Ariel would pull another card from her sleeves.
"Next question?"
"Ascended Merlin… how did you kill a Great Monster?" A reporter asked in a shaky voice.
"That… is also a secret" he smiled calmly. 'Yeah… let's just blame it all on the secret card I have, hidden somewhere…'
He pointed to a random person and she asked.
"Ascended Merlin, are you in a relationship?"
Now talk about tension destroyers, with those words, every single ounce of tension created from his previous declaration dissolved into pure gossip energy.
"..." He stayed quiet as his lips twitched 'I've only been in this world for less than three years, and most of those was spent surviving, how exactly am I supposed to form the relationship huh?'
"No…" he answered calmly "I am not in a relationship"
"Do you have anyone you like currently?" Another person asked.
He smiled and answered.
"Not yet…"
A young child raised his hands and asked in his small voice.
"If you and Lady Changing Star fought, who would win?"
The crowd immediately focused on his reaction, he could hear Effie chuckling from behind, he struggled to keep a straight face as he answered.
"Nephis is strong, she's really strong too, but in terms of stronger, she's only in third place of the strongest masters currently, the second place goes to a shadow friend of mine, but if they fought it would be equal to some extent, as for the strongest, that's undoubtedly me, so if me and Neph fought, I'd win"
The reaction of the crowd was as he expected, cameras flashed, journalists wrote, people cheered, Effie laughed, Nephis stared at Sunny, Sunny averted his eyes, Kai sighed, Ariel watched calmly from behind Silver, and Silver just stared at Merlin with a helpless gaze.
"Lady Nephis, what do you have to say about Ascended Merlin's words…" A reporter asked.
'Hiss… asking this shy kid to talk on a main stage, that's not something I want to see' Merlin thought as he turned to Nephis.
And just like he expected, she had the words confusion written in capital letters right on her face, Nephis took a deep breath, then she turned to the reporter and answered curtly.
"I've never killed a Great Monster…"
Her words were short, but they still passed the message that needed to be heard.
"Ascended Merlin, who is this shadow friend of yours?" A journalist asked.
Merlin smiled and answered before anyone could say anything.
"He prefers to stay unnoticed, after all, shadows are not to be brought to the light"
The journalist wrote down and other spectators cheered, then a few more questions were asked, until finally he got tired of answering.
"Alright that's enough for the press, I'll be seeing you around…" he did an exaggerated bow and he immediately disappeared in flames that left the words 'peace out'.
As he did, Sunny also dissolved into shadows and both of them reappeared in a street corner not far away.
"Alright I guess that's all for questions, now we really should get going" Merlin sighed as he turned to Sunny.
"Yeah, but how are we going to get you to my place without this… crowd of people following us?" Sunny asked as he turned back to the crowd in the distance.
He chuckled as he said.
"Well I hope you haven't forgotten that I disappeared and reappeared with Silver"
He sighed and looked at the cohort who were about to start leaving.
"Well it's time to get going then…"
He placed his hands on Sunny's shoulder, then he immediately appeared inside the hospital.
"That… was all levels of uncomfortable" Sunny spoke as he looked around.
"Uncomfortable? How?" He asked, according to what he knew, travelling wasn't supposed to be physically disturbing.
Sunny as if guessing his thoughts explained.
"It's not like you think, it's just that the change of view from my shadow sense left me uncomfortable…"
"Oh… I'll give a heads up next time" he nodded then turned to the others that just walked in.
"Okay we'll have to separate from here, you guys will meet with us at Sunny's place, I'll go directly with Sunny, Silver and Ariel. He explained as Ariel ran into his arms.
He picked her up on his back, then he gestured to Silver to hold his hand, She held his hand without complaint, then he placed his free hand on Sunny's shoulder.
'This… is definitely going to cost me some essence, hopefully the distance isn't that far'
Before he left, Effie spoke up in a confused voice.
"Wait… if you're going to leave, what's with all the holding hands?"
He sighed and turned to Sunny.
"Start thinking about your apartment, and keep your eyes closed please"
While Sunny was doing that, he turned to the others and said.
"Well, see you around…" and with that, he disappeared from the room, then into the spirit world, then using Sunny's thoughts as coordinates, he reappeared in a slightly furnished building.
"Woah… that was cool, big brother do it again" Ariel cheered as she shook around on his back.
"Sure, I'll do it some other time…" he chuckled as he brought her down from his shoulders "nice place you got here Sunny"
"It's okay, I guess, it's… comfortable to say the least" Sunny answered as he walked into the kitchen.
"Since we're celebrating your return, I'll have to prepare something, and lots of it for Effie, there's another room upstairs, just in case you need to change"
"Alright sure…" Merlin answered then he walked up the stairs to the room, Ariel and Silver followed him.
"Hey Sunny, do you still have those clothes we borrowed from the dark castle?"
"They're inside the closet in that room, I don't even know why I haven't burnt those stuff" Sunny answered from downstairs.
"Okay you guys can change first, I'll just wait downstairs, and Silver, please take care of Ariel" He said as he brought out Ariel's clothes from his soul sea, the wish Supreme Merlin made covered all the things Ariel owned in the nightmare.
"Alright" Silver answered curtly.
He stepped out of the room and moved down stairs, as he was walking, he saw a door that led to the basement of Sunny's house.
'Looks like that's Sunny's training spot'
He casually used the apprentice's ability to walk through the door, then entered the basement, on the far end was two pods, one for entering the dream realm and the other was probably for entering the dreamscape.
'Speaking of dreamscape, that's going to be a very good place to use the Scribe abilities to stack up attacks… looks like I'll have to get one of these soon'
He turned his eyes away from the pods and focused on the remaining parts, and just like he expected, it was a real training ground, the scratch marks and cracks were evidence of serious battles.
'I wonder who's stronger now, in pure swordsmanship, Sunny or me?... I'd probably lose in technique, but at least I make up for it in versatility, that's what Azarax's style is mostly about, and also subtility that is Eurys whole thing, speaking of Eurys, I should check if he has gotten to the Shadow realm yet, we can't just abandon Sunny's character development'
He sighed as he walked out of the basement, he wanted to confirm something about Sunny's shadow sense, so he concealed his presence just like Eurys had thought him, it felt more like depersonalization, as if he was watching himself from a shell, his emotions were calm same with his breathing.
In this state, he walked towards the kitchen, as he walked inside, Sunny was still focused on cooking whatever it is he was cooking, he smiled as he watched, he wasn't sure if it walking, so he moved closer for confirmation, after closing the distance, and Sunny still hadn't turned around, he spoke up.
"Hey there Sunny…"
"Gah!... Damnation!" Sunny jerked as he took on a defensive stance.
As Sunny saw who it was, he relaxed slightly and then looked confused and asked.
"How?"
"How what?" He asked back with a smile.
"How did you get here, and how are you doing that?"
Merlin chuckled and answered.
"Well as for how I got here, I walked here, and what am I doing?"
"I can't exactly tell, it's like you're here and you're not here, I mean I can see you, but I can't sense you through shadow sense, even just keeping my eyes on your body feels difficult" Sunny explained as he lowered the flames of the food on the fire.
"Oh this… it's kind of like a skill I picked up on the way, I just wanted to test it" he said as he returned to normal, then he looked at Sunny's feet "oh and congratulations, it seems like you're a devil now"
"Yeah… honestly it was really difficult, Neph's already a terror" Sunny answered as he returned to his cooking.
Merlin sighed as he found a chair in the kitchen and sat down.
"Looks like you guys had an eventful time without me, but that seriously threw things sideways, so I'll have to get things back on track"
He turned to Sunny and asked.
"Hey Mongrel, where can I get a dreampod?"
Sunny turned and asked.
"You know about that name? Oh wait… nevermind, damnation, I knew I shouldn't have been famous, first Effie, then Neph, now you too"
He chuckled and spoke again.
"You know what, I'll just leave the getting of the pod to you, and don't bother about getting a dreampod, I can head to the dream realm without it"
"Sure sure… I'm not even going to bother understanding you anymore…" Sunny muttered without turning around.
A few minutes later, the two upstairs finished their clean up, and came downstairs, he met them in the living room as Ariel rushed into his arms.
"Big brother, showering with sister Silver is so fun…" Ariel cheered happily.
"Sure it was fun alright, it'll be fun for anyone too" He muttered, and suddenly the temperature of the room dropped by a few degrees, he looked up slowly to see Silver staring right at him, he disappeared immediately, using blink to escape upstairs.
"Damn… that was a close one"
He sighed as he walked into the bathroom to freshen up waiting for the cohort to arrive.
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A/N: Any thoughts on the name of his dreamscape identity?