Chapter 384: The Path To Redemption - Father and Son
Marlon who sharpened his resolve, was traveling across the hidden route in the slopes of Ourea. Because Arabella was expecting, only Galahad and Bener along with the Eagle Team, volunteered to escort Marlon to the alternative land route. After that, Galahad returned to Calma, while Bener and the Eagle Team secretly followed Marlon and his group.
When Asael and Bener were wrongfully accused, and the Eagle team learned that they were rescued, they left the capital and moved south. They knew that the Norse generals would be heading back to Calma and they wanted to meet them there. And they did and had pledge their allegiance to Prince Alaric.
...
At a hidden campsite behind the boulders of Mount Roca, Merlin Norse brooded inside the war tent. The flicker of the sunlight painted his face in sharp angles, revealing a man both regal and weathered beyond his years. His long, unkempt hair hung over his eyes as he studied the map sprawled across the table. Carles. Mount Roca. The enemy’s banners were marked in red ink, their guards position on the walls were marked by red flags.
Merlin’s hand trembled as he traced the lines. He hated that tremor—hated that weakness had become his father’s favorite word when speaking of him.
"Merlin, he is indecisive," Marlon had once told Odin, thinking him out of earshot. "He feels before he thinks. A leader who bleeds too much for others will bleed out before his army does."
Those words had cut deeper than any blade.
But Merlin was not soft. Not anymore. Or so he told himself.
Outside, his soldiers, or rather, his father’s soldiers —mercenaries and loyalists both—waited for orders. Some were veterans of the campaign from two years ago, their faces hardened by years of steel and death. Others were farmers pressed into service, their hands still raw from plows rather than swords. They did not follow his father out of love. They followed because he bore the Norse name and the promise of coin.
Merlin turned to the man standing in the shadows of the tent. General Hector Valuz, his father’s second-in-command, was watching him with wary eyes. He wanted to turn him over to the court but Merlin convinced him that he would rather die claiming back Carles than rot in prison.
For once, Merlin has earned Hector’s admiration so he permitted him to stay with him disguised as one of his soldiers.
"Your father, should be arriving soon. Let us await him, before we move."