Chapter 74: Arc 2: Chapter 29: Christmas Present Pt. 1

"Wow! The latest edition female wizarding robe!"

In Merlin's hotel room, young Hermione who had finally returned from her holiday trip screamed excitedly while holding an embellished black wizarding robe.

Like the women who had just seen the latest LV handbag.

This was Merlin's Christmas Present to her, it was now 17th December 1992, and Christmas was but a few days away.

"I saw this in Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, it's of the latest trends."

Hermione holds the robe in her hands and looks at Merlin, she says:

"It's much too expensive, I can't keep it."

As she spoke, she handed the robe back to Merlin with a reluctant expression, the latter reaches out and strokes on Hermione's head, Merlin says with a smile:

"My gratitude cannot be measured by mere presents, young Hermione, keep it. Plus, I heard from Mr. Arthur that you promised to date a silly child for me, that's too big of a sacrifice."

Hearing this, Hermione blushes and replies shyly:

"Roan's fine, just a tad silly, a tad reckless, and a tad poor, but he is a descendant of a pure-blood family, holding a high position in the wizarding world. And compared to other pure-blood families, the Weasleys are quite friendly."

"Alright, enough of that."

Merlin reaches out and points at the mountain of magic cat food at the edge of the room, Crookshanks was lying on its cat-food with a blessed expression of its ugly face, it guarded its Christmas present like it was guarding heaven.

"Those are for Crookshanks, can you bring them back?"

"Uhh, it's slightly inconvenient for me."

Hermione holds onto her new robe and tells Merlin:

"But I can get some help, my friend Harry has a spatial pocket his father left him, and it can easily store all these."

"Mmm, alright then."

Merlin looks at his watch, then he grabs the backpack and trolley case behind him and tells Hermione:

"I'll be off then, young Hermione, my friend is waiting for me in Paris. I'll give you a call the next time I come to London."

"Leaving already? Merlin."

Hermione says to Merlin reluctantly:

"You're not staying to have dinner with me and my friends?"

"Not this time, young Hermione."

Merlin shakes his head and gently says:

"Like your friends who're waiting for you, I have friends who're waiting for me too."

"Wait, Merlin, you went to Diagon Alley, did you get a wand?"

Hermione suddenly remembers and asks curiously:

"Merlin, can I look at your wand?"

"Sure."

Merlin smiles, he takes out Lola from the special box hanging on his waist and puts it in front of Hermione, attracting the exclamation of the young girl.

"Wow! It's red! And it has claws!"

Hermione tips her feet and takes a closer look, her eyes widen as she exclaimed:

"How cool!"

She raises his head and looks at Merlin, anticipation flashes in her eyes:

"Mr. Merlin, can I touch your wand?"

"Sure."

Merlin hands Lola to Hermione and warns:

"Ollivander said that Lola has a bad temper, so...be careful!"

As Hermione's finger came in contact with Merlin's wand, a small flash of red lightning springs out of the wand and strikes at Hermione's unsuspecting finger, the large impact of the mana slams into the young wizard and sends her flying.

"Shwa"

Merlin's figure dissipates and reappears behind her, he spreads out his arms and catches the flying Hermione. The dizzy young wizard was unharmed, though she was quite frightened.

"Mmm, your wand does have quite the temper...it's my first time seeing a wand with such character."

Hermione looks at the levitating wand fearfully, she tells Merlin:

"It's called Lola?"

"Yes, it's called Lola."

Merlin waves his fingers, the red wand lands on Merlin's hand and he places it back into its specialized box on his waist.

"Your wand is as weird as you are."

Hermione pouts her mouth and says so indignantly. But the young wizard was not angry, she carried Crookshanks who didn't want to leave its food pile, and sees Merlin off at the hotel entrance.

Merlin sits in the car and waves his hand at Hermione who was waving vigorously behind him and lets down the car window.

In the driver's seat in front of him, the driver, who wore a coat and non-smiling face, lightly says:

"Mr. Merlin, I'll take you directly to Heathrow Airport, a ticket has already been bought for you. Officer Garrett is waiting for you in pairs."

"Mmm, alright, thank you."

Merlin smiles at the driving agent and stops speaking, he closes his eyes and leans against the seat, seeming to be resting.

But in fact, he was memorizing the magic spells and spell models he had read this morning, after acquiring his wand, the mana in his body circulated more smoothly, and the corruption of the dark mana to his soul had slowed significantly; this meant that Merlin did not need to worry about losing control of his mana for the time being.

Ah, finally some peace and quiet.

A few hours later, the plane Merlin rode landed in Paris, and as usual, Garrett was waiting for him in the airport lounge.

When Garrett saw Merlin, who wore a grey casual suit and frameless glasses which made him look like a young business owner, he gave him a hug.

He reaches out and takes over Merlin's luggage and pats on Merlin's shoulder, the elderly cowboy smiles and says:

"Looking good. Merlin, it seems your condition has improved?"

"Yeah, I met a good doctor in Brighton."

Merlin smiles, he reaches into his backpack and takes out a pack of cigars, then he hands them to Garrett, saying:

"Merry Christmas, my friend."

"Mmm? How kind of you. Though you'll be disappointed since I did not prepare a present for you."

Garrett takes the pack of cigars and examines it, asking confusingly:

"How come I've never seen this brand of cigars before? Where did you buy it?"

"You can't get this anywhere else."

Merlin laughed and said:

"This is some really good stuff, enjoy it. Right, Garrett, can I ask you to send some things to Fury? I bought gifts for them as well."

"Of course!"

Garrett led the way and told Merlin:

"We have an internal mailing system that can deliver mail to all bases around the world, I wanted to treat you to some dinner, but it seems we'll have to drop by the base for now."

You are reading story The Path of Shadow in American Comics at novel35.com

"Alright, lead the way."

---

A few days later, in the 'Island Prison' somewhere on the map.

Agent Barton holds a box in his hand as he returned to his room confusingly; in this highly confidential prison, his living quarters had large open space, but the walls of the room are made of steel, looking less like a resting place and more like a heavily guarded prison.

"Merry Christmas!"

Hawkeye Barton opened the box with his knife, in it was a card with words written on it, signed by 'Merlin Reilly'.

Barton nods understandingly, he places the card aside and takes out the content of the box.

It was a pair of slightly worn-out hand-guards made of some type of leather, it had paled like it was used by others over a long period of time.

An odd Christmas present, it made agent Barton frown.

He thought this was a prank by Merlin, but thinking again, under the situation when everyone needs to lay low, it's not likely for something Merlin had sent him using internal methods to be some mere 'prank'.

A few minutes later, agent Barton takes a sharp pair of paper cutters and roughly cuts on the hand-guards, yet it left no scratch.

This made Hawkeye widen his eyes, he takes the combat knife from his waist and heavily stabs it into the gloves in front of him using both hands, yet it didn't penetrate, there was only a scratch.

And as Barton watched, the white scratch had disappeared like a healing wound within a short dozen seconds.

"A weird item."

Hawkeye comments and puts on the gloves, it was different from the fingerless gloves he usually wore; as an archer, his fingers needed to be in contact with the arrow to better control the force of the flying arrow, so usually, he didn't wear full coverage gloves.

But the old gloves Merlin had gifted to him were different, when Barton put them on, he could move his fingers freely, he felt like he wasn't even wearing gloves.

But it was there, and it was tough, agent Barton assumes that not even bullets can penetrate it.

It was the best pair of gloves an archer could ask for.

"This thing is good."

Hawkeye moves his fingers and exclaims, but then, the not-so-talkative Barton frowns again.

"Should I send him a return gift?"

"What should I send?"

As he thinks, Hawkeye could not think of something which Merlin would need, eventually, he stood up and walked towards the suitcase he always brought with him; he opens it, and takes out a sheathed blade.

He looks at the blade in his hand, eventually, he shakes his head and puts it back into the suitcase. He then picks up a Colt Pistol from the suitcase and closes the suitcase.

As Agent Barton walked out of his room to send Merlin his return gift, he sees Black Widow Natasha walking towards him.

Normally, Barton would just greet her coldly, but today, he couldn't help but look at Natasha again; not that Natasha had any changes in her appearance, it's just that her face seemed especially natural today, it appears that she didn't use makeup, but she looked radiant, like she had gotten younger.

And most surprisingly, Natasha also had a box in her hand.

"Clint."

Natasha looks at Barton and the gun in his hand and asks:

"What're you holding a gun for? I thought you don't use guns?"

"Christmas Present."

Clint summarizes his words:

"For Merlin."

"Oh, a return gift."

Black Widow lets out an odd expression, she waves the box in her hand at Barton and says:

"Me too, let's go together."

"Mmm."

Barton nods and heads to Island prison's communication area along with Natasha.

"Do I look exceptionally pretty today?"

"..."

"Come on, I need someone else's comment, I wonder where Merlin bought those face creams, they're exceptional."

"Alright, you do look pretty."

---

As Barton and Natasha receive their Christmas Presents, in an apartment somewhere in New York Brooklynn, Fury who had just finished his dinner, sits in front of his desk and opens the box in front of him.

"Merry Christmas!"

He looks at the card Merlin wrote, a smile flashed on his face, though it was faint.

Merlin puts the card aside and takes out the first gift in the box, it was a pair of old-fashioned sunglasses, if Fury was right, his father who partook in WWII wore the same glasses.

Fury could see multiple scratches on the frames of the old-fashioned sunglasses, which meant that this wasn't a new pair of sunglasses, and it had been used by others.

This made Fury somewhat unhappy.

"Can't even gift a proper gift."

Fury snorts and puts the sunglasses aside, he takes out the second gift in the box.

It was a black flight jacket, it too was old-fashioned, this made Fury feel even more depressed, and he almost started cursing.

"This ain't a fun prank!"

A few minutes later, an angry Fury takes the pair of sunglasses to the balcony as his wife prepared dinner.

Fury's wife was a mysterious woman, Fury had kept her well hidden and well protected, never getting her involved in his dangerous secrets.

The level 3 non-military agent of SHIELD stands on the balcony and looks at the aged pair of sunglasses in his hand, he wanted to throw it away. But it was Merlin's gift, so Fury didn't throw it away, instead, he sighed:

"As worn out as it is, it is a classic, I'll forgive you just this once."

As he finishes, he puts on the sunglasses, and then, Fury's vision turns as clear as day...

A faint trace of mana intertwines on the lenses, making it so the darkness outside would never become a hindrance to his line of sight.

Fury stands on the balcony, stunned; he turns his head and looks around like an idiot, everything he saw was as bright as day. He could even see the couple 'dating' in the middle of the garden downstairs.

A few seconds later, Fury abruptly takes off his sunglasses, his line of sight becomes pitch black, he puts them on, takes them off, repeatedly for 4, 5 times...then, Fury was certain.

This was not a prank, Merlin had delivered him a real gift, and its function wowed even Fury.

"Shit!'

"I'll have to prepare a return gift."

 

T/L Note: I assume the 'Lone Island' here is 'The Fridge' from Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, So from now on, I'll translate it to 'Fridge'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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