Extra To Protagonist

The hall stretched long and empty ahead.

His boots barely made a sound now. A ghost moving through stone veins.

Merlin made it to the next archway before the footsteps caught up to him.

Not fast. Not urgent.

Just persistent.

He turned his head slightly.

A figure approached from the side corridor.

Not a professor. Not a council member.

A student.

Older than him by a few years at least.

Combat track uniform. Sleeves rolled to the elbows. An armband that marked him as a squad leader in the second-year dueling groups.

Sword slung casually at his hip.

The boy smiled as he drew closer.

Too wide. Too easy.

Merlin's fingers twitched near Keryx's hilt.

Reflex. Nothing more.

"Everhart, right?" the boy said, stopping a few meters away.

His tone was light. Almost friendly. But the eyes were wrong.

Sizing. Measuring. Waiting for a crack to show.

Merlin said nothing.

The boy didn't seem bothered. He shifted his weight lazily, thumb hooking under his belt.

"They said you were impressive during the breach," he continued. "Rumor is you took down half the creatures alone."

Merlin tilted his head slightly.

Not agreement. Not denial.

Just… listening.

The boy grinned wider.

"But rumor also says you're a cripple now."

The words hit the stone like stones themselves.

No one else was around. The halls swallowed the sound.

Still, Merlin did not speak.

He watched.

Waited.

The boy's grin sharpened.

"You don't look like much without your magic," he said. "Just another weakling playing hero."

'Seriously? Again..?'

A slow step forward. Deliberate. Testing.

Seeing how far he could push.

"You know," the boy mused, tapping his sword hilt lightly, "some of the others are wondering if you're still worth respecting. Or if you're just a charity case now."

Merlin's knuckles cracked faintly as his hand closed into a loose fist.

Not a battle stance. Not yet.

But the boy noticed.

He laughed.

"Relax. I'm just saying what everyone's thinking."

Another step.

"Maybe you should go back to wherever you crawled out from. Leave the real fighting to the rest of us."

'I'll just finish this.'

Merlin's head tilted slightly.

Not a flinch.

Not an angered snap.

Something colder.

The boy didn't see it in time.

Merlin moved.

Not fast. Not explosive.

Just efficient. Precise.

A hand caught the boy's collar.

Dragged him forward into a brutal knee strike to the gut.

The air left the boy's lungs with a choked sound.

Before he could double over, Merlin stepped forward again, planting a palm into his shoulder and slamming him back against the nearest wall.

The stone cracked faintly under the impact.

The boy gasped, coughing. His hand scrabbled weakly at his sword hilt.

Merlin did not draw Keryx.

He didn't need to.

He leaned in, voice low and steady against the boy's ear.

"I survived inside the breach," he said. "Do you really think you'll be the one to beat me?"

The boy froze.

Merlin stepped back, letting the boy slide down the wall to sit, wheezing, on the ground.

"You're not worth the blade," Merlin said quietly.

Then turned.

And kept walking.

No mana. No flash of power.

Just presence.

He left the boy slumped in the corridor behind him.

The academy moved on as if nothing had happened.

Students passed by. Professors glimpsed him from afar.

No one stopped him.

No one dared.

—

The corridors thinned out.

Merlin kept walking, past the gardens, past the north wing archways, past the study halls buzzing faintly behind thick doors.

His fists still ached.

Not from damage.

From restraint.

He was halfway across the outer courtyard when someone fell into step beside him.

Not loudly.

Not cautiously either.

Just… naturally.

"Was that you, back there?" Nathan asked, voice low.

'He's here again..'

Merlin didn't look at him.

He didn't need to.

Nathan shoved his hands into his pockets, keeping pace easily.

"Kid had it coming," he said after a moment. "Still, you could've been a little less dramatic."

Merlin exhaled through his nose.

Nathan grinned, tilting his head slightly as he glanced over.

"You know," he continued, conversational, "when I heard there was a brawl in the east corridor, I figured some idiots finally tried to pick a fight with Adrian again. Imagine my surprise when someone said it was you."

Merlin said nothing.

Nathan's smile didn't fade. But it dulled a little.

"You're worse at hiding it than you think," he said, softer.

"The way you move now."

Merlin's jaw tensed.

But still he didn't answer.

Nathan kicked a loose pebble ahead of them.

It clattered against the courtyard stones.

"You're not okay," Nathan said. "You're pretending real hard. I get it."

Silence.

The wind caught the edge of Merlin's coat, snapping it lightly against his legs.

Nathan kept walking beside him anyway.

Like he had nowhere else to be.

Finally, Merlin spoke.

Voice quiet. Flat.

"Are you going to make me talk about it?"

Nathan gave a short laugh.

"No. I figured I'd just annoy you with my company until you either snap or realize you like having me around."

Merlin gave him a sideways look.

Nathan shrugged.

"Worked before."

It had.

Merlin remembered.

The way Nathan never pushed, never demanded, just stayed.

Just enough to be felt.

Not enough to be overwhelming.

They passed under the outer gate.

The Academy's high walls rose around them, golden in the sinking afternoon light.

Nathan jammed his hands deeper into his pockets.

"By the way," he added, voice deliberately casual, "if you ever decide to beat up another idiot, let me know first. I want front row seats next time."

Merlin huffed a breath that might have been a laugh if he wasn't so tired.

Nathan grinned, victorious.

He bumped Merlin lightly with his shoulder.

"See? Still human after all."

Merlin let the contact happen.

Didn't shove him away.

The sun dipped lower.

Their shadows stretched long behind them.

For now, that was enough.

They didn't need to talk about missing mana.

Or lost strength.

Or what was waiting in the cracks of Merlin's mind.

They just walked.

Two figures against the dying light.

And for a little while, Merlin almost remembered what peace tasted like.

—

The courtyard blurred into deep blues and muted silver as the sun finished sinking.

The faint glow of the fountain behind them made the air cooler, sharper.

Merlin sat with his arms braced loosely against his knees.

Still.

Silent.

Nathan sprawled beside him, humming tunelessly under his breath.

Like they were not sitting on the fragile edge of something they could not name.

Elara was opposite them now, back straight, one hand resting lightly on her spear.

Eyes steady.

Quiet.

Watching everything.

Merlin's fingers flexed slightly.

'Still too weak.'

The silence stretched longer this time.

But it was a different kind of silence.

Less like a wound.

More like a promise.

Nathan finally cracked it, voice light.

"So. When are you going to admit you're dying inside?"

Merlin didn't bother looking at him.

'He's such an idiot.'

"I'm fine," he said aloud.

Nathan snorted. "Yeah. And I'm a celestial dragon in disguise."

Merlin exhaled once, a short sharp breath through his nose.

Not a laugh.

Not quite.

He leaned back slightly, letting the chill of the stone bite into his spine.

'At least he is still the same.'

Elara shifted, just enough for her shadow to stretch over the fountain's rippling edge.

She said nothing.

But she did not look away from him either.

'They just aren't forcing me to say it.'

For now.

Nathan tilted his head back, looking up at the stars beginning to bleed into the indigo sky.

"Y'know," he said lazily, "I bet if we stacked all your issues together, they could build a second tower for the Academy."

Merlin let his eyes drift half-closed.

'Maybe they could. Maybe they already have.'

He did not answer.

He did not need to.

Nathan's grin widened anyway, bright and easy and infuriating.

A breeze kicked through the courtyard.

It stirred Elara's hair and fluttered the ends of Merlin's shirt against his ribs.

For a long while, none of them spoke.

They just breathed.

Listened to the sound of water gurgling against ancient stone.

Let the night close in.

It should have felt heavy.

Crushing.

But somehow, it didn't.

Merlin tilted his head back, staring up at the sky where the stars burned quietly overhead.

'Still so far away.'

Nathan shifted, tapping the side of his boot against the stone rhythmically.

"So," he said again, voice lighter than it should be, "what now?"

Merlin's jaw tensed.

He thought about it.

Really thought.

The broken mana.

The things still hiding at the edge of this world.

The rot he could feel seeping through the cracks no one else noticed.

'There is never peace. Not really. There is only the space between disasters in this world..'

Finally, he spoke.

Low. Steady.

"Now we wait."

Nathan gave a low whistle.

"Fantastic plan. Very detailed."

Elara's voice drifted across the space between them, soft but firm.

"It is enough."

Merlin lowered his head again, staring at the worn cracks in the fountain's marble.