Voice 1: Who is Merlin Rose?
Voice 2: The head of the Rose Family.
Voice 1: And?
Voice 2: The first 'Rose' of the Rose Family.
Voice 1: What! How old is she?!
Voice 2: Hmmm… About 700 years old.
Voice 1: Damn man! How did she live so long?
Voice 2: She had learned a special art beforehand. It's called the Sacrificial Exchange of the Blue Water.
Voice 1: Sounds Ominous! Did she like… kill people to absord their lifespan?
Voice 2: Ah! No. You misunderstood. Actually, it had to do with energy… or more accurately, the energies. There actually exist two special kinds of energies in this world. Honestly, what I know is purely a theory as there was no way of proving it, but according to the book of 0th Knowledge about Death, there was a conjecture about life span related to Two Special Energies.
Voice 1: What were those energies?!!!
Voice 2: Life Energy and Death Energy.
Voice 1: Like Light and Dark Mana?
Voice 2: No. These are different from normal Dark and Light Mana or even different from Life Mana, which is normally connected to the life span of many creatures. These energies governed the amount of life one person had and are generally present from birth.
Voice 1: Not sure I get it, but okay, continue.
Voice 2: Well, easily put. Merlin had the ability to absorb people's Life Energy ever so minutely so that on one would notice and just like that, she was able to live longer than others.
Voice 1: Hmmm.. so more or less, she stole something that people didn't even notice and lived so long?
Voice 2: yeah, that sums it up.
Voice 1: Since she had lived so long, she must be a really mature and wise person.
Voice 2: Yeah, I guess. However, she died within the next few upcoming years. At least in the previous timeline, she did.
Voice 1: How come?
Voice 2: Her death energy ran out.
Voice 1: ??
Voice 2: Well… death energy and life energy are like the two sides of a coin you need both to live normally in this world. If you don't have any death energy left in your body, you will be deemed an abnormality and will be eradicated by nature itself.
Voice 1: Sounds scary! But wait! How come she died then? I mean, couldn't she have just taken someone's death energy and lived longer?
Voice 2: Well, she did not know… and even if she did, her skill, Sacrificial Exchange of the Blue Water, was only limited to Life Energy and not Death energy.
Voice 1: It just got a bit complicated for me to understand.
Voice 2: Well… There was a guy who had the ability to take Death Energy but he kind of died earlier than he should have so, it's kind of-
Voice 1: All right. All right. I understand. Back to topic. What kind of person is Merlin Rose?
Voice 2: She is like a wise grandma, who wants her family to bloom and always smile and be happy. She doesn't tolerate anyone poking their nose into her family and kind of is a… scary psychopath if you stand against anyone in her family.
Voice 1: Zero interfered with her family, eh?
Voice 2: He sure did.
Voice 1: What kind of power does she possess?
Voice 2: She possesses the power of Aura of the Deep Sea that allows her to talk to beings of the sea or night. She has a wide communication with the fishpeople who live deep in the sea as well as powers related to Night Mana Manipulation, that is, to manipulate the mana that exists during the night.
Voice 1: Sounds powerful.
Voice 2: That she is. Her power level scales SSS-Rank and before she died, I believe she did reach SSSS-Rank. I think it was just a few weeks before she died, as I remember a celebration being held for her advancement.
Voice 1: Why is she hiding again?
Voice 2: To hide her skill and be a trump card to the family. Though the real reason is, basically because people don't know about her existence, that is, the real Merlin Rose. Their enemies and the allies, keep thinking that the Merlin Rose, who is within that place, is either an Artefact that holds the soul of Merlin Rose, or maybe someone of a different species pretending to be Merlin Rose and controlling the family, etc.
Voice 1: Does that change anything?
Voice 2: Yeah. Kind of everything. It's like the difference between knowing your enemy and just taking a guess. If you don't even know whether your enemy is human or not, then you don't even know what kind of strategy you should use against it.
Voice 1: Like if it is an artefact, then what kind of artefact.
Voice 2: If it is a different species, then which one.
Voice 1: Like a weapon, then what kind of weapon!
Voice 2: Now you are getting it! Anything else to ask?
Voice 1: Hmmmm… yeah! What does Zero want from Merlin? I mean, I know he is going to bring her to his side, because of all the Parasites and all, but I wonder if there is more to it than what it seems.
Voice 2: You seem awfully keen today.
Voice 1: So there really is something!!!
Voice 2: Yeah. He wants to see if there is anything related to Merlin and Luna or not. While Elizabeth was taken by Lunas later on, Zero thinks that there was more to it than what it seemed. He doesn't believe that it was a coincidence that Elizabeth just happened to go to Lunas when Elizabeth's brother obliterated the entire family.
Voice 1: Seems like it. Though, will he be able to do that? I mean, it's an SSS- rank we are talking about. As far as I know, Zero can, at max, go to peak S-Rank right now. Should he be really meeting her right now?
Voice 2: Well… He honestly doesn't have time. If he doesn't do this right now, he might never get the chance to do it again.
Voice 1: Let's hope he doesn't anger Merlin or else that would make things complicated.
Voice 2: Let's hope he doesn't.
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