After obtaining the fragments of the Red Hilt Sword, Iver began preparing the ritual to summon Merlin.
In fact, no such ritual existed. However, when Iver had met Merlin before, Merlin had given him a prayer for calling him, which counted as exchanging phone numbers.
Although Iver was not a Grand Wizard, his attainments in rituals were far beyond those of an ordinary person.
With that prayer as the ritual's core, Iver could directly construct a ritual for summoning Merlin:
The core information was that Merlin was a "knight," a "Half-Demon," and a "mage."
For that reason, the key numbers for summoning Merlin were four for wisdom, seven for strength/authority, and eight for transcendence. Combined with the information that Merlin liked mysterious, beautiful things and traveling, that he liked fine food, beautiful women, and fine wine, and that the word "Merlin" meant "prime minister" in some places, the materials for constructing the ritual were settled as well.
Iver prepared flowers with four, seven, and eight petals, mixed them together, and planted them in fresh soil. He also repaired the white cane that Minister Hermes, then still Minister of Royal Affairs, had broken when Isabel ascended the throne. Beside it, he moved in a statue of Sister Sasha that he had used before.
When the time reached four in the morning, Iver began the summoning ritual.
He added sapphire powder, which deepened his resonance with the Path of Wisdom, to transparent wine and sprinkled it over the statue of Sister Sasha. He sprinkled the tiny remainder over the cane.
At the same time, he faced the direction of the rising sun and softly recited, "Answer me!
"Wise Philosopher's apostle, sage of the Round Table! "The traveler without bonds, the sage who counsels kings in dreams, the one who loves everything in