Chapter 297 - Dust Butterflies (1/2)

After walking through the desert for about a week the two lovebirds reached the edge of the desert, the first thing Mercury did when he saw a tree was to run up and hug it, confusing Julia to no end

”Come on Mercury it's just a tree…”

Mercury ignored her and rubbed his face against the bark for some time before he thanked the tree

”Thanks for providing us with precious oxygen”

”What are you even saying, Mercury..?”

After that little episode, the two of them entered a town called Hosenes that was situated on the edge of the desert which specialized in exploring desert wares to the rest of the east continent so it was quite a large trade hub with lots of inns for travelers that were either leaving exporting wares or entering the desert to get weres, also it seemed that Julia happened to have come from the east so she had passed through the town before so she happily showed Mercury around the town for a bit before the two of them settled in an inn and spent the night…

”Mercury… Wake up”

Mercury opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Julia's sky blue eyes and her usual child-like smile, she was laying on top of him as usual, Mercury was beginning to find her weight comforting instead of bothersome so he showed a smile and asked

”What's up?”

Before Mercury could ask anything else Julia kissed him all of a sudden, when she drew back her smile had widened a little more as she spoke

”Good morning Mercury”

”Yeah, good morning Julia”

Julia got off Mercury and began getting dressed giving him an eyeful of her for a while until she suddenly got shy and covered herself and pouted as she complained

”Don't just leer at me, you get dressed too”

”Yes ma'am, certainly ma'am”

Mercury got out of bed and began getting dressed when he noticed that Julia was staring at his face

”Do I have something on my face?”

”...Yeah, your tattoo”

”Wait… I have a tattoo?”

Julia sighed before she asked

”Do you even know how your own face looks, Mercury?”

Mercury tilted his head slightly before he spoke honestly

”...No?”

Julia sighed, not once but twice before she looked at Mercury again and asked

”And it never occurred to you too, you know maybe find out?”

”....No, not really?”

Julia let out her third sigh of the morning before she turned around and began looking through her luggage, eventually she pulled out a hand mirror and handed it to Mercury

”Take a look for yourself”

”...Sure”

Mercury took a look in the mirror and saw… Well himself, he had short brownish-black hair, brown eyes, a tattoo under his right eye that looked like an ancient Egyptian character, besides that he looked rather young, around 20 years old, Mercury looked at the mirror then at Julia and then at the mirror again before he nodded and spoke rather arrogantly

”I can see how you would fall for me, I am rather handsome”

Julia looked blankly at Mercury for a few moments before she began giggling

”Yes, Mercury… you are rather handsome pfftt!”

Mercury didn't even flinch at Julia's bullying he simply changed the topic and asked

”How long do you want to stay in this town, Julia?”

”For a bit, they serve this fantastic grilled mutton here, they get dust goats from the desert and the spices from the mashes and it's just… So good! Especially with beer!”

”Oh… Then we certainly have to try it”

”Yeah… Though it's rather expensive so we might have to take some work here at the city's guild to afford it”

Mercury nodded before he agreed

”Yeah let's find some work today then”

While the two of them had a sizable amount of cel at hand that was reserved for living expenses, so they had decided to work if they wanted some leisure, after wearing her armor Julia took out her automatic magazine fed crossbow that was strapped to the back of her rather big backpack and swung it over her shoulder before she turned to Mercury

”Let's go?”

”Sure”

Mercury offered his hand to Julia that showed a smile and grasped it before she walked along with him out of the inn and out onto the main road where the two of them asked for directions and eventually arrived at the local guild and walked in, inside the guild was filled with other adventures that were mostly around the request board looking at the new request that a guild employee was currently posting, Mercury and Julia looked over the request and eventually settled on a rather hard request