Chapter 323 - Departure (1/2)
The day of departure soon arrived, Max seemed a little sad to say goodbye to his friends but at the same time he seemed a little excited to travel by ship, the group stood on the dock and looked at the ship they would be traveling with, to Mercury this looking like an early steamship, or in other words: an ironclad, the main batteries peaked out from the upper part of the hull, the ship seemed to be outfitted with both a boiler and two masts with a smokestack standing in the middle of the ship, currently, the ship lay anchored to the harbor
”Come let's go”
Julia lead the way forwards, the two crusaders seemed oddly serious as they escorted Julia to the boarding ramp where an elderly man with the spirit of youth and a face covered in a white beard stood with his back straight as he greeted Julia
”Greetings princess”
”Hey old man Darius, this is Mercury, my boyfriend”
Mercury straightened his back as the eyes of the old sailor scanned him before he nodded and spoke approvingly
”A fine choice, a spirited young man”
Mercury showed a smile and spoke with respect
”I am glad that you approved of me elder”
Darius laughed before his eyes sharpened and he asked
”Then what would you do if I had not approved of you?”
Mercury showed a slight smile
”Nothing, your approval is not why I made Julia my woman, while it's nice to get it's not necessary for me to live”
”Oho~ He's got a mouth on him, this one… And who might this miss be?”
Darius looked over at Marie and scanned her with his eyes as she spoke up a little nervous
”My name is Marie, I am Mercury's girlfriend… I have heard tales of you 'White shark' and it's an honor to meet you in person”
Darius laughed once again before he kneeled down and looked at Max before he spoke
”Is this your child Julia?”
Julia showed a smile and nodded
”Yes, Mercury picked him up and adopted him, his name is Max, he's a little shy”
Darius ruffled Max's hair as he spoke in a friendly tone
”Max huh, what a fine name for such a spirited young man”
Darius stood up again and gestured for the group to board as he spoke
”Come on board, we have a long journey ahead of us”
Soon the group boarded, Mercury asked Marie about the whole 'White shark' nickname and found out that it was Darius' official title which he had earned after exterminating a group of vicious pirates
”---Apparently he hunted them down with fleet half their size and defeated them with minimal casualties”
Mercury looked ahead and saw Darius chatting with Julia before he thought
'He seems like any friendly old man though…'
Since the wind was good the ship soon set sail with the boiler on minimum output, Mercury walked up the Bow of the ship along with Marie and Julia and looked out over the waves and soon the open sea, soon Max returned from exploring the ship with Darius, then Darius spoke
”If you all would follow me to the cabins I'll show you to your rooms”
After being shown their rooms the group returned up on deck where Darius showed a map of the route they would be taking, along the route they would be resupplying two times, beyond that there were four places where they would need to be cautious, two of them was known pirate hotspots and the other two were more naturally challenging with one benign a reef and the other being something called the 'devil's reef', Mercury quickly asked
”...Why are we crossing these dangerous hotspots?”
Darius showed a smile as he explained
”Time is of the essence, plus… You really think that this ship under my command will be done in by mere pirates?”
Mercury showed a smile and nodded
Time passed quickly on the ship, Mercury spent the days flirting with Julia and Marie and playing with Max, he even sneaked some booze onboard which he drank with Ben. Overall, he spent his days in peace, they even passed the first pirate hotspot without being attacked, Mercury awoke one morning and exited his cabin to find some food in the mess hall, after securing his meal he went topside to eat as he looked out over the sea Darius walked up next to him while he was stroking his beard
”Good morning Mercury”
”Morning Darius
The two of them looked out over the sea for a bit before Darius spoke up
”We'll be crossing the devil's reef in a few hours, could you go down and wake the princess and Marie?”
”Sure thing”
”Thank you, Mercury, as confident as I am there's no way I would normally cross the devil's reef… Sadly we're pressed for time”
Mercury nodded before he asked
”What is the 'devil's reef' even?”