Chapter 66: Back to more Problems (Patreon)

Chapter 66: Back to more Problems

/Think of rifts like of Australia, literally anything you find in there will try to murder you./

A conversation between the narr- ... me? And my wife? Wait, how the fuck did that get in here?!

- - - - - -

As per the usual, a full night of sleep alleviated a lot of fatigue. And equally as normal, Mercury still woke up tired. This was really part of his daily routine by now. He was so thoroughly exhausted after every day from practicing his magic, that he simply fell to bed floored, and then got up to realize how floored he had been yesterday. Then he did it all over again.

Things were quiet, sure, but that wasn't exactly an excuse for him to waste time, was it now? After all, his friends weren't going to revive themselves, and his kingdom wasn't building itself. Though he was thinking on reconsidering the monarchy part, after all, he didn't really want to take agency away from the people. Maybe he'd be more like a guardian? That sounded like it could be fun.

Still, all in its own time. For now he needed to drag himself out from in between the sheets, and somehow find his way downstairs. Marcel and Elliot were already up and eating, while José was out feeding the horses Gilah was apparently still napping, the Black Yinks having done her in a bit better than they had expected.

Mercury quickly ordered himself some bits of raw meat. He actually got them on the house, since they had done their part in clearing the rift, so that was pretty cool of the inn. He didn't quite get it, since the guild and Nevarzahri in general would still pay them for it, but he appreciated the gesture nonetheless. Maybe he'd tip a little to make up for it? Yeah, that seemed fair.

This was really a predicament. Should he accept the hospitality of the people and respect their choices, or should he stick to his guns and decide to give them their gifts back, in an effort to not seem arrogant? Why did he have this debate with himself every time someone tried giving him something for free?

Ah well, for now he might as well enjoy his meal.

"Elliot, if you try petting me I can and will bite your hand off," Mercury calmly said as the boy kneeled down to him.

His words seemed to have some effect, seeing as the mage withdrew his fingers again. "Sorryyyyyyy," he mumbled, insincerely.

"I will only warn you so many times," Mercury calmly responded in between bites. "Still, it's fine. We're all a little on edge after yesterday, so it's not too unexpected."

"Yeah, I suppose that's right," Elliot gave a wry smile smile and nodded. "How did you sleep?"

"Like a dang rock, man. Wouldn't've woken up if the village burnt down. No offense," the cat replied with a small nod towards their hostess.

"Heh, that's nice. I could barely close my eyes," Elliot half sighed, something Mercury had not heard from him before.

"Kid kept me up as well," Gilah said, coming down the stairs. "Fairly sure he rolled around so much he dropped on the floor a couple times."

Elliot turned a little red as she spoke. "Sorry," he mumbled again, this time much more sincere.

"Don't sweat it, kid," Marcel said. "The hag's exaggerating I'm sure."

"Who're you calling a hag, huh?!"

"I thought it was pretty obvious," Marcel said, wearing his customer service smile. "I'm referring to you, dear Gilah of the Mages' Guild."

"Oh, and you've the rights to judge me, when yesterday you were whipping down monsters while laughing about your revenge? You prim psycho."

Mercury couldn't help but chuckle at his friends' antics, watching them pat each other on the back while messing around.

"Shouldn't we break it up?" Elliot asked.

"Nah, this is their way of expressing friendship. Marcel is like that to any adults."

"I'm really not that young, you know?" Elliot pouted.

"I'm 37, Marcel is in his late twenties, and Gilah is a dang hag. You're a kid, buddy," the cat quickly replied, still wearing a smile. "Nothing wrong with that, nothing to worry about. Time catches up with all of us soon, enough, so try to keep it about you."

"That's sweet of you to say," Elliot replied with a smile and reached out to hug Mercury.

"... Just this once."

- - -

Bit by bit, the morning went by. José spent some more time organising the trunk of the carriage to make sure everything was properly secured, tied down, and wouldn't cause any problems during travel. He stored the meat in runed cooling boxes, that were quick to wash out, and kept the pelts rolled and packed, so they could be processed later.

Things were a bit packed, but the seats were still free enough, so his passengers wouldn't have any time travelling. He shook his head at the thought of them again. As a porter, he'd seen plenty of seekers, but their party certainly was among the stranger ones. Most of them were decent fighters, who spent all their money on drinks and partying, but them?

A kid, a mopaaw, a drunk, and a psycho. What an adventure.

He shook his head once more at the thought, petting one of the terrezays' neck. The beasts were tame around him, and when laid down, the scales were smooth and soft. Gentle animals, really, José thought. He liked them a lot.

Time to check up on his gaggle of door-clearers.

"Chicos, you all ready to head back out?" he asked, stepping back into the restaurant. "When will we be leaving?"

"I'm ready whenever," Marcel said.

"Give me a minute, I still am a little through the wringer."

"If the hag throws up during the ride, I'll pay you extra," the receptionist said, raising his brows at their porter.

"Children, please," Mercury shook his head with a dumb grin. "Your antics are funny enough, but please. We actually have to make it back sometime. I'm good to go, Gilah is being dramatic. You all packed Elliot?"

"5 more minutes," the young mage responded, already heading up to get his stuff.

"You heard the kid," Mercury said, looking back at Marcel and Gilah. "We're going back in about 5 minutes. I'll pay for your meals if you're ready to head off by then."

"I would like to order three bottles of wine for the road!"

"I already regret my decision," Mercury calmly replied. "Luckily I said food."

"Shit!"

"Old people and their hearing," Marcel poked at her again, shaking his head exasperatedly.

"I will strangle you someday, Primmy."

"Primmy?"

"Yeah, 'cause you act all proper, except when you're actually being useful," the old barkeep said with a slight smile on her lips, still buying the wine she ordered. Maybe just as a souvenir, but Mercury could also imagine her downing at least one of them during the ride.

"Ah... That's gonna be all in my system now, huh?"

"In your system? Oh, right, there was a nicknames tab, wasn't there?"

"Yup, there is. It helps, because new things pop up when rumors spread about you," Marcel explained, dropping his attitude for the moment. "Especially when you rise through ranks really quickly and people start talking about you. Thing fills up pretty quickly, though the nicknames have to be decently cemented for them to show up."

"Primmy. Primmy. Primmy. Primmy. Primmy. Primmy. I'll do this all day if that's what it takes," Gilah said, wearing a victorious smirk.

"Whatever," the receptionist said, shrugging it off. "Not like it's inaccurate."

"I'm done!" Elliot yelled, sprinting down the stairs. Before hitting the floor he actually jumped off, took two steps in the air, and soared all the way out the door.

"Seems like you're paying for yourselves," Mercury said, taking on the expenses for his own meals.

The way back to Stormbraver was just as uneventful as the way to the village from there. They hadn't talked to the locals that much either, so there wasn't really anyone to say goodbye to. After all, it was a pretty simple village, not too keen on having many outsiders there, unless they were doing a job. Though the owner of the inn had been very nice.

Still, after a couple more hours of riding, the whole group of them arrived back in Stormbraver. It was late in the evening already, so Gilah and Elliot decided to quickly head back to the Mages' Guild, and Marcel wanted to check in with the wounded once more before he finally headed off to bed. He complained about it, of course, but he still decided to do it of his own free will.

If Mercury was a weeb he'd probably call him a yandere or something. Yeah, he was sure that was the term.

The cat himself decided to check up on some of the people he knew. It had been quite some time since he'd last seen Lucia, and he was sure that there was no harm in at least swinging by. She was busy, certainly, but at the very least she'd be able to spare a moment for him, surely.

"Hey there big fella," someone called out at the mopaaw from an alley. "Wanna come take a look over here for a second?"

"Hm? What is it?" Mercury quickly replied, turning his whole body to face whoever called out to him. It was two guys, looking like very typical thugs. Greasy shirts and hair, one of them bald. Tattoos all over, and generally looking pretty scary.

"Just come take a look over her for a moment," the bigger of the two said with a sinister grin. He was wearing a white tank-top, his skin tanned, at least that was what Mercury would guess based on the little light he had.

"We've heard about you before ya see," the other one said. He was a little smaller, more slim, and stood slightly hunched. His hair was dyed half silver, half black and messy.

"Are you gonna rob me?" Mercury asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What? Us? Neverrrrr."

"Seems trustworthy enough," our hero replied with a shrug, and simply walked into the dark alley. Of course, he was already coursing his mana through his veins, and readying all the stamina he could muster, readying himself for confrontation as the two of them drew closer...

- - -

In the end, Mercury had a lovely time with the two! Turns out he had killed a northerner who was chasing after the big fella, Ron's, sister. The slim guy, Jules, had been working under the boss Mercury took down, and his new employer was much better. It had even netted him a promotion.

To show their thanks, the two of them just wanted to invite Mercury over, and show him an access point to the underground that the city guard didn't know about yet. Of course, this was for his personal use, since the people down there didn't do any real dark dealings, and instead offered goods that they didn't want to pay taxes on.

Honestly, compared to slavery or weapon's trade, the untaxed ice-cream stand they showed him had been rather harmless. He had even gone out for some tea with the fellas. Ron explained that his tattoos were of scenes that had impacted him a lot. A bull grazing in the wilderness, showing raw power he emulated. The name of his little brother, his late mother, and a simple empty note from his pops.

Lovely people, really, but in the end Mercury had to excuse himself and continue on his journey to Lucia, though he did buy a thermos with some tea for her. He promised to meet the boys again some other time, before heading off.

After a couple more minutes of walking, he arrived before the cathedral. Since he was finally not there as part of a trial or anything else, he could really appreciate the building now.

Mercury had never been very interested in buildings, but his grandpa used to be a mason, and always talked about carving stone. He was sure the old man would be stunned enough by the building to immediately have his lung cancer cured from bliss, and a heart attack from shock.

... Maybe that metaphor was a little too macabre. The cat sighed in his own head at his antics. He was here to pay a friend a visit, not to mess around for the entire day.

Wait.

It was night time.

Why the hell would they be open?

Regardless, Mercury still walked up to the building, crossing the short stretch of greenery before arriving in front of the door. It was closed, as he expected, but still, the guy decided to knock at the vey least.

...

...

Yeah, alright, no one was going to answer him. Where exactly did Lucia live again?

Mercury took a couple steps back from the wall again, before gazing up the length of the building and searching for any window with some light. It took him some time of walking around but eventually he found one.

- - - - - -

Lucia was peacefully sitting in her chair, staring out at the night sky, when she heard some tapping on her window. It almost scared her enough to jump out her nightgown, as she frantically looked for the noise.

Next, there was some muffled talking, but she couldn't quite understand, until she saw a very furry face pressed up against her window.

"What the hell...?" she mumbled to herself, slowly walking up to whatever was outside. For a while, her forehead was very wrinkled, until she recognized the thing outside, and her face went from confused to shocked. Immediately she swung the frame open, and pulled her nightly visitor in, before shutting the cold out once more.

"Hey there, Lu-"

"HOW DID YOU GET UP HERE?!"

"Yeah, alright, that's fair, actually. So uh-"

"Whyyyyyyyy?!?!"

"I pride myself on keeping in touch with my friends," Mercury said, pushing out his chest. "So hello, good evening, and thanks for letting me in."

"No, I mean, why not knock!"

"I knocked."

"We have a specific knocker! The metal ring! It's magic, so the priests hear you, why not use that?!" he woman half screamed at his face.

"I mean, I didn't wanna wake anyone up," Mercury replied calmly, lying as naturally as he breathed.

"... You really didn't see it?" Lucia asked him in shock, falling back into her fluffy chair.

"I didn't," Mercury admitted without hesitation.

"Sigghhhhhh, congratulations. You are now among the very few people to have been in my room, beast," she said, slowly bringing her wits about her again.

"I brought you tea," Mercury said, giving his nicest smile and bringing forth the thermos he had gotten just moments ago.

"Huh? Oh, thank you, I suppose. So, what really brings you here, I suppose you have a favor to ask?" she said, taking a sip from the hot drink, feeling the warmth spread throughout her blood.

"Oh, no, I really just wanted to swing by. Any place I can sit? I didn't bring a chair for myself."

"What, nothing? Uh, I suppose you could take one of my pillows-"

"On it," Mercury replied, already dragging one of them off the priestess' bed, onto the floor, then in front of the chair. As soon as he had arrived at his destination, he sat down on it, and simply stared at the woman.

"..."

"This is really awkward," he said, sighing. "Look, I just wanted to swing by. No favors, no questions. I'm not upset, or pissed, or anything else. I was worrying, because you hadn't been out in a while, and usually your personality is a little more fiery than it has been. Have things taken a toll on you?"

Lucia looked at the mopaaw in front of her for a long while. The beast-... Mercury had quite some nerve to barge into her personal chambers like he did, and yet he spoke with such honesty. He didn't even comment on her clothing, like a couple other men might.

For a couple more moments she pondered on how genuine he was being. She slowly took another sip of the tea, simply meeting the mopaaw's eyes as she thought. He never withdrew his gaze or let it wander, perhaps he was truly being truthful.

"It's Iris," Lucia finally relented. "She's been gone."

"Let's head off any save her, then."

"I know, I know, it's not your problem, it's just- huh?" once more the priestess looked at Mercury in surprise. "Did you..."

"Yeah, I mean it," he said, giving her an honest nod. "I came out of concern for you. Me and Iris are friends, and so are you guys. She had mine and Avery's backs when trouble was abound. It's our turn to also have hers, right?" The cat gave her another sincere smile. He meant what he said.

It's not that he liked getting himself into trouble, but... He wasn't the youngest anymore. He had made friends and lost them, met coworkers, and fought with them. He had been there for others, and he had others be there for him.

Quite frankly, as a person, this was what he believed. It's not like he was the most genuine person ever, or as though he was flawless, but when it came to friends... He had made many mistakes with people in the past, and he had grown because of it. When doing a boring job, he had gone through the ups and down, the times when he was angry with every moment at work, and the times when he simply pondered on things there.

This was a conclusion he had reached, yet never had a chance to actually employ. If you're friends with someone, you have their back. If they're half the person you think they are, they'll have yours too.

"... You really are strange, beast."

"Mercury," the cat smirked. "My name is Mercury."

"Fine then, Mercury. What do you propose we do?"