Chapter 311 - Ode (1/2)
The next month and a half flew by, sometimes the convoy was attacked by magic beast or bandits, but that lessened significantly once they were out of the Prious pass, from there it was smooth sailing, they were only attacked about once a week, so Mercury and Marie had lots of time to flirt around (While still taking care of Max of course) soon they were able to see the walls of Ode, their destination though it looked like they had to spend one last night outside as they were unable to reach the gate before it closed for the day
”And there…”
Mercury finished setting up the tent, something he was quite used to by this point, then he looked over to the campfire and saw Marie playing with Max and showed a smile that then slowly disappeared from his face as he thought
'Right, Max… What to do about him… If we could find his parents it would be for the best… What to do… Guess me, Julia and Marie can adopt him in the worst-case scenario…'
”No that sounds wrong… We can adopt him”
Mercury nodded to himself, he was quite fond of Max and so was Marie
'Though I am not sure that Julia likes children… Guess I'll ask her once we meet again…'
Mercury looked towards the city walls that were in the distance before he sighed and walked over and sat down next to Marie
”The tent's been set up”
”Okay Mercury, good job”
Mercury showed a smile before he teased Marie
”You know it's not that hard to do once you get the hang of it”
Marie pouted, so far she had attempted to set up the tent a total of 6 times… And she had failed a total of 6 times, Mercury laughed out loud which made Marie pout even more, Max looked at the two of them before he asked Mercury
”What's so funny Mercury..?”
”Well you see Max, Marie is bad at setting up the--- Ouch, stop I got it I won't make fun of you an--- Ouch!”
Halfway through explaining it to Max Marie began pinching his arm, after leaving a few marks on Mercury's arm Marie let him go and stood up and attempted to walk over to the tent, but was grabbed by Mercury that pulled her down into his embrace before he spoke to Max
”Looks like we have a pretty deep frown here, Max begin tickle treatment!”
”Yes, Mercury!”
”No please, no tick--- Ahahah---”
Mercury and Max began tickling Marie that struggled in vain, from afar they looked just like a happy family…
The next morning Mercury woke up first, as usual, he woke up before the horn had sounded out, but he figured that it wouldn't be long before it did so he crawled out of the sleeping bag and began massaging his injured leg to help the blood flow
'...Looks like it's healing well… Though it'll still take a few years before the muscle mass is back to normal…'
Mercury sighed before he rolled down his pants again and put on a shirt before he sneaked out of the tent without waking the two that was still sleeping, then he walked over to the edge of the road and, well took a morning piss, after rinsing his hands with some water from his waterskin he walked back to the campfire to get warmed up a bit, soon he was joined by Max that sat down next to him, he seemed a little uneasy so Mercury asked him
”What's wrong Max?”
Max was silent for a bit before he asked
”Are you going to leave me in Ode..?”
”No, not unless we find your parents there”
”...But I want to stay with you”
”Okay Max, if that's what you want, then we'll do it like that”
Max nodded, even though he acted quite mature for his age Mercury could still see him wiping his tears of joy in the corner of his eyes, Mercury showed a smile and ruffled Max's hair as he spoke
”Don't worry kid; I won't abandon you somewhere”
”...Thanks dad”
Mercury showed a smile as he watched Max run back to the tent in embarrassment from calling him dad, Mercury showed a smile and nodded to himself
'Guess I am a parent now… Parent…'
Mercury suddenly felt his ears ring and his eyes blur as the word 'parent' began repeating in his head louder and louder each time until finally, it was nothing but noise
'Shit…'
Flashing images passed through his head at high speed before he suddenly blacked out…
When Mercury could see again he was looking into a sterile room standing at a control panel, on the other side of a screen was an operating room with a person on the table with an open stomach were robotic arms reached into and operated, 'Mercury' let out a yawn before 'he' continued chanting
”Immortal, Immortal, Immortal, Immortal, Imm---”
Mercury woke up with a set, he was shaken by what he had just seen, he felt cold to his core
'Was that… Me?'
Mercury looked around, he was inside a tent
'Where is this again..? Oh right, outside of Ode…'
Mercury crawled out of his sleeping bag and opened the tent to look outside, he looked up at the sky and saw it was around midday and sighed when he saw that the convoy was still there, he quickly got out of the tent and walked over to the convoy where Marie stood along with Max, Hann, some of the mercenaries and Hannibal, the head merchant, they looked surprised when they saw Mercury walking over, Marie ran over and asked him sounding a little concerned