@Dezaki @JWChibi Well, there's no need to turn on him. He's about as distant from the political front as possible. Maybe he likes it, but it is odd that he's teaching children in some backwater when he's basically the top of his field. It's like having a Nobel prize winner teaching in some underfunded public school.
Merlin, or a spittin' image descendant, is on the cover alongside what is presumably the next incarnation of the MC 400 years later, so that's possibly interesting. Especially since she probably isn't a slouch in the magic field herself, I'm curious how the study of magic could lose such ground.