Mercury and Marie''s dad worked the forge for about half an hour, as they worked Mercury could only feel genuine respect for Marie''s dad, he worked with close to perfection, his every hammer strike was filled with immense strength, still, the blows hit the metal the exact right places, in fact, Mercury felt that he was learning something every time his hammer descended, all too soon Marie''s dad was done working and grabbed the finished blade with a pair of pliers and dunked it in an oil bath before the turned to Mercury and Marie with a smile on his face as he spoke and gave a thumbs up


    "You pass Mercury… Looks like I don''t have to break your legs"


    ""Eh..?""


    Both Marie and Mercury looked confused at Marie''s dad that seemingly ignored their looks and reached out his hand to Mercury


    "Name''s James, it''s nice to meet you kid"


    Mercury decided to ignore the part about breaking his legs and reached out and shook James'' hand, the rest of the day was spent getting to know James, mostly by helping him at the forge while Marie watched them with loving eyes


    The next day Mercury had set off to spend all day with Marie, she had not left the Ingrid forest before so he figured it would be a good idea to spend some time to preemptively lessen her homesickness, so most of the day was spent walking around the city as Marie told stories about her childhood, she was 37 this year, but thanks to her elf genes she looked like someone about 20 years old, Mercury was a little surprised when he learned her actual age but kept a poker face, after all, he didn''t want to appear rude to his girlfriend and timely commented "I thought you were younger" which earned him a happy smile form Marie, after spending most of the day walking around the city the two of them went to bed early, after all, they had a long journey ahead of them, the next morning Mercury awoke first and spent a non-creepy amount of time watching Marie''s sleeping face before he woke her up by gently calling her


    "Marie… Marie, wake up"


    Marie stirred in her sleep, her long black hair flowed out over the bed like a long black river, soon her eyes opened, though rather slowly, she looked at Mercury for a few moments before she blinked once and called out


    "Mercury?"


    Mercury showed a smile and reached out to draw some hair away from her face as he greeted her


    "Good morning sleepy head"


    Marie showed a smile and sat herself up on the bed before she stretched, she wore her polka dots pajamas which made her look very cute as she rubbed her eyes and asked


    "What time is it?"


    Mercury got out of bed and walked over to the window and opened it and looked at the sky


    "...It''s just before sunrise, we have some time to get ready still"


    "Then let''s get ready at once, meeting early is a good look"


    Mercury nodded and threw his plans of cuddling out the window before he began getting ready, soon the two of them locked the front door to Marie''s workshop and walked off towards the meeting place caring their backpacks, Mercury glanced over at Marie''s spear which she was caring over her shoulder and asked


    "How long have you been using a spear?"


    Marie shugged


    "Since I was old enough to hold one, dad was very adamant about me learning how to defend myself"


    Mercury nodded, this was indeed a good idea, he knew himself how unsafe this world was, his eyes once again looked over the spear, it was black with a red gem embedded in one end of the spear and the long spear tip at the other end, Mercury figured that the red gem had something to do with a function of the weapon, soon the two of them arrived at the meeting place at the east gate of Ingrid and was surprised to see not only the king there but also Evelin that both stood and seemingly waited for them, Mercury showed a smile as he greeted them


    "Tivan, Evelin, come to see us off?"


    Tivan showed a smile and nodded


    "That and put in a good word for you, we can''t have the merchants treating you like some common mercenary"


    "Marie~"


    "Evelin~"


    As Marie and Evelin rubbed their face against each other Mercury chatted with Tivan for a bit


    "So… Are you returning at some point?"


    Mercury nodded


    "Definitely, this has become like a home for me… Unless something unexpected happens we''ll be back in around a year from now"


    "Okay… Then you have to tell me the whole story of your journey by then"


    "Sure"


    Soon a human man in his 40''s walked over, he bowed to Tivan before he asked while looking at Mercury


    "Is this the person you talked about your majesty?"


    "Yes, please take good care of him on the journey to Ode"


    The man turned to Mercury and introduced himself


    "My name is Hannibal, I am the head merchant of this caravan"


    Mercury shook his hand with a calm smile on his face


    "My name is Mercury, please take care of me Hannibal"


    Hannibal laughed out loud as he nodded


    "Will do Mercury, will do"


    After Mercury introduced Marie to Hannibal the rest of the mercenaries started to arrive, they were very surprised to see an unknown person chatting with not only their client but also a judicator and the king of the Ingrid forest like they were old friends, soon the king and Evelin said their goodbyes and left, after Marie and Mercury chatted a bit more with Hannibal, Hannibal called out loudly


    "Alright, gather around people!"


    The mercenaries gathered around rather quickly, then Hannibal spoke up again


    "Good day to your all, I am Hannibal the head merchant of this convoy heading to Ode---"


    Hannibal quickly went over a few things, mostly about how loot would be distributed and even under which conditions the mercenaries were allowed to flee from the caravan, after speaking for about 2 minutes he answered some questions before he gave the okay for the mercenaries to load their baggage into a few empty carriages, then without any suspense, the convoy started moving, Marie looked up at the gates as they passed through and as they walked along the dirt road she glanced back a few times before she eventually took Mercury''s hand, Mercury didn''t say anything he simply gave her hand a squeeze


    In the evening the convoy stopped and began making camp, they were still inside the Ingrid forest so it was a rather safe environment, Mercury and Marie sat beside each other and looked at the campfire when Hannibal came over


    "Good evening Mercury, Marie"


    "Evening Hannibal, do you need something?"


    "Yes… Actually, It''s time to fulfill a request from the king, I need the two of you to follow after me"


    "Okay?"


    Mercury and Marie got up and followed after Hannibal that walked into the forest, after walking for about 5 minutes he stopped and took out a leather pouch he was caring before he spoke to Mercury and Marie


    "Please don''t act violently, they mean us no harm"


    Mercury nodded, he could feel something nearby and there was a lot of them, they were watching their every move, soon one of them emerged ahead of Hannibal


    ''A gorilla?''


    It was indeed a gorilla, with jet black fur and green eyes, Hannibal bowed to the gorilla that suddenly spoke using human words


    "Good evening Hannibal, Who are those two you have brought with you?"


    Hannibal wasn''t at all surprised by the gorilla speaking and answered the question undisrupted


    "This is Mercury and Marie elder… Tivan told me to introduce them to you"


    "Tivan huh… Well then"


    The gorilla pointed to Mercury and spoke


    "Come closer child"


    Mercury nodded and walked over, the giant gorilla that was about 5 meters tall reached out and touched Mercury on the head before it spoke again


    "Strange…"


    "Elder?"


    "No, it''s nothing… I suppose I should introduce myself, I am the elder of my pack, we are the guardian beasts of the Ingrid forest"


    Mercury bowed his head, as did Marie as they greeted the elder


    "My name is Mercury"


    "And I am Marie"


    The elder nodded before it received the pouch from Hannibal and gave it a sniff before it nodded and thanked Hannibal


    "Thank you once again for the medicine Hannibal, a few of the young ones owe you their life"


    "It''s my pleasure elder"


    "Well then, Hannibal, Mercury, and Marie, I hope to meet you all again, safe travels"


    "Thank you elder"


    Hannibal bowed, so did Mercury and Marie as the elder left, soon the presence of the others also disappeared and the three of them raised their heads as Marie spoke out in wonder


    "The guardian beasts of Ingrid… My mother told me stories about them, but I never really believed them… To think I would see a class 10 magic beast in my life and live to tell the tale..."


    Mercury nodded before he also sighed… As the elder let away its pack it muttered


    "Strange… knowledge of a contact by mixing my mana with that child… Well whatever"