Chapter 310 - Max (2/2)

”What's your name?”

”...Max”

”I see… That's a nice name, I am Mercury”

A few seconds of silence followed before Mercury asked

”Can you wash yourself or should I help you?”

”...Please help me”

”Okay then, let's get you clean”

At night Mercury sat by the fire, next to him sat Max, the only thing he knew about Max, or rather the only thing that Max seemed to remember was that he was 11 years old and his name, memories of his parents had long since faded as the curse had nearly eroded his sense of self, it was a miracle that he was able to remember the things he was, Max had long unkempt black hair that reached his shoulders, he didn't know what color his eyes were as Max was always hiding them

'And I don't want to break the small amount of trust I have built up so far just to see his eyes…'

Besides that, Max was thin, way too thin, and overall he was very weak so Mercury was carrying him around, and despite the fact that he was sleepy after eating he still insisted on staying with Mercury, Mercury himself was thinking about what to do with Max as he looked into the fire, soon Marie poked him on the shoulder and whispered

”He's fallen asleep… Maybe you two should go to bed before he catches a cold?”

”Sure…”

Mercury picked up Max and carried him into the tent and put him into a sleeping bag before he laid down beside him and soon drifted off to sleep, though with one arm outside of the sleeping bag since Max was latched onto his hand still

The next morning Mercury woke from the horn that signaled a wake-up or emergency call for the whole convoy, Mercury quickly stuck his head outside the tent and looked around

'...No emergency… Good…”

Mercury, still inside his sleeping bag laid back down again and looked up into the roof of the small tent before he felt a small hand tug his arm and looked over and saw Max

”Oh morning Max…”

”I need to pee…”

Mercury quickly got dressed and helped Max get dressed before the two of them walked out into the underbrush where Max did his business before Mercury picked him up again and Mercury walked back to the convoy with Max in his arms, when they returned they found Marie sitting by the fire trying to warm herself up, Mercury sat down next to her and used his free hand to rub her back as he greeted her

”Good morning”

”Yeah morning Mercury, Max”

Max raised his hand to greet Marie, but quickly got embarrassed and lowered it again, over the next 2 weeks Mercury did a full checkup on Max and concluded that he was recovering well (though he had still not seen his eyes as Max hid them by closing his eyes whenever Mercury asked to see them) Max was even starting to walk on his own again a few hours a day under orders from Mercury that insisted it would help build up his stamina, on an otherwise dull day the horn was suddenly blown as a group of bea-like magic beasts attacked the convoy

”Earth bears! They're class 4!”

Mercury nodded and made a mental note about the Earth bears which looked like regular brown bears, only they were half a size bigger and had rocks covering their backs, they were also surprisingly agile for their size, though there was only 4 of them, Mercury was about to hand over Max to Marie when Marie's eyes lit up with glee as she pointed to one of the bears and yelled

”That one's mine!”

Mercury looked over at the poor Earth bear that had been called out by Marie and sighed as he spotted some ore on its rocky parts

'No wonder she's so fired up…'

Marie ran forwards while spinning her spear around behind her back, once she reached the Earth bear it slapped downwards with its giant paw, Marie jumped to the side, dodging the paw before she landed she trusted out with the butt of her spear and landed on it, then like a pole vulture she propelled herself into the air and swung down with the tip of her spear as she yelled

”[Forging blow]!”

The tip of her spear stuck down like a hammer before something amazing happened, the shell made of rock on the back of the Earth bear shattered completely (Along with its spine) sending it smashing into the ground, Mercury sighed again

'That poor bear didn't know what hit it…'

He showed a wry smile as he watched Marie hold the piece of ore above her head with a gleeful smile on her face as she yelled to him and Max

”It's grade 7 copper!”

Mercury realized that this was the point where he should cheer on his cute girlfriend and showed a smile and yelled back

”Love you, dear”

”Are you sure you don't want to put it in the carriage?”

”Yes!”

Mercury sighed for the nth time today, he knew Marie was going to sleep well tonight, as for how he knew this was simple, she insisted on carrying the copper ore in her hands, the piece of ore weighed around 40 kilograms and she had been lugging the thing for about 10 kilometers already, Though he did find her expression rather cute as she rubbed her face against the smooth part of the copper ore

'....Never have I been so jealous of a price of rock'