Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! Chapter 14: 14-A Jack Of All Trades

Read chapter 14 of Reader Mage-Stubbing August 10! by A_Random_Turtle on NovelPedia.

Merlin had tried meditating twice since he’d received its corresponding Quest, but he’d always fallen asleep right after. Perhaps it was because he was not quiet enough, as the Quest had told him to be, or maybe because he was just too quiet. He didn’t know. What he did know, though, was that he had no idea how the mechanics of meditation worked, and Singularity Mage had been of no help with that either. Parts like that were skipped. Merlin had never hated timeskips more than now. He had also tried searching the net for something, but the methods not hidden behind paywalls were anything but useful—at least, to prevent him from falling asleep. And because of his roadblocks concerning this Quest, he had been unable to progress, and had decided to keep it on the back burner for now, until he had found a solution for that problem of his. Which had surprisingly been a lot closer than he had thought. “I didn’t know boxers valued meditation,” muttered Merlin as he stared at the ginger-haired young man with freckles all over his nose, seated cross-legged on a mat. This person was Sunny, and he had warned them to not make a sound, by placing a finger over his lips, as soon as they’d entered his…domain? Merlin wasn’t sure what to call the place. They were not exactly in Sunny’s house, but in something of a barely lit studio that smelled with the intensity of incense and burning candles, seated alongside a bowl of artificial fruits on the only furniture in the room—a low wooden table with a white cloth draped over it. The scenery gave Merlin the vibe of a shrine’s, particularly, that of a Shaman’s. Was Sunny both a boxer and a Shaman? Fascinating. That would explain the hand-drawn talismans pinned crookedly to the walls, and the wannabe ritual-look his robe of mismatched colors and scarf gave him. “Meditation is part of life as a whole,” replied Janeth to Merlin’s observation. “At least that’s what Sunny says.” Despite what Merlin thought of Sunny from his first impression, he supported that claim fully. The man wasn’t wrong. Merlin did believe that meditating was an important aspect of life, it was just that he felt stronger about sleeping. Maybe that was why he always dozed off. “You know, I still don’t get why I was dragged along?” Nora grumbled from Janeth’s side, arms folded, nose wrung up, and wildly uneasy. Merlin was well aware of his sister’s troubles. It was not that she didn’t like the smell of incense or being in a shrine, she just wanted to be on her way home as quickly as possible. However, what was she doing asking that question? All he had done was tell her of his plans while they headed to the gym; and after their workout, she had followed him and Janeth of her own accord. No one had forced her or anything. Was she suddenly out of it? “What?” Nora noticed Merlin’s stare. “Technically, you did drag me along. It’s not like I can just let you wander off to a stranger’s place now, can I? No offense, Jane—” “…None taken.” “…It’s just the duty of an elder sister to watch over her baby brother.” They were twins. “Shhhhhhh!!!!” Sunny placed a finger over his lips, shushing them the same way he had done as soon as they’d waltzed into his place; this time, though, with a lot more intensity. His eyes were still closed, so thankfully he couldn’t burn through them with a furious gaze. Janeth, on the other hand, just had a smile on her face. She was enjoying this, wasn’t she? Merlin didn’t have any problem with waiting for Sunny to conclude his meditation before attending to them. After all, he did want something from the man, and he couldn’t be too pushy about it. There was also the fact that he was trying to make use of this opportunity to gain one or two ideas about how meditation worked. But so far it remained fruitless. Sunny was doing the exact same thing he’d done whenever he had tried to meditate. He was sitting loosely cross-legged, his palms placed gently on his thighs, and his breath as even as they could be. Merlin had don