Chapter 297 - Dust Butterflies

After walking through the desert for about a week the two lovebirds reached the edge of the desert, the first thing Mercury did when he saw a tree was to run up and hug it, confusing Julia to no end

"Come on Mercury it's just a tree…"

Mercury ignored her and rubbed his face against the bark for some time before he thanked the tree

"Thanks for providing us with precious oxygen"

"What are you even saying, Mercury..?"

After that little episode, the two of them entered a town called Hosenes that was situated on the edge of the desert which specialized in exploring desert wares to the rest of the east continent so it was quite a large trade hub with lots of inns for travelers that were either leaving exporting wares or entering the desert to get weres, also it seemed that Julia happened to have come from the east so she had passed through the town before so she happily showed Mercury around the town for a bit before the two of them settled in an inn and spent the night…

"Mercury… Wake up"

Mercury opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Julia's sky blue eyes and her usual child-like smile, she was laying on top of him as usual, Mercury was beginning to find her weight comforting instead of bothersome so he showed a smile and asked

"What's up?"

Before Mercury could ask anything else Julia kissed him all of a sudden, when she drew back her smile had widened a little more as she spoke

"Good morning Mercury"

"Yeah, good morning Julia"

Julia got off Mercury and began getting dressed giving him an eyeful of her for a while until she suddenly got shy and covered herself and pouted as she complained

"Don't just leer at me, you get dressed too"

"Yes ma'am, certainly ma'am"

Mercury got out of bed and began getting dressed when he noticed that Julia was staring at his face

"Do I have something on my face?"

"...Yeah, your tattoo"

"Wait… I have a tattoo?"

Julia sighed before she asked

"Do you even know how your own face looks, Mercury?"

Mercury tilted his head slightly before he spoke honestly

"...No?"

Julia sighed, not once but twice before she looked at Mercury again and asked

"And it never occurred to you too, you know maybe find out?"

"....No, not really?"

Julia let out her third sigh of the morning before she turned around and began looking through her luggage, eventually she pulled out a hand mirror and handed it to Mercury

"Take a look for yourself"

"...Sure"

Mercury took a look in the mirror and saw… Well himself, he had short brownish-black hair, brown eyes, a tattoo under his right eye that looked like an ancient Egyptian character, besides that he looked rather young, around 20 years old, Mercury looked at the mirror then at Julia and then at the mirror again before he nodded and spoke rather arrogantly

"I can see how you would fall for me, I am rather handsome"

Julia looked blankly at Mercury for a few moments before she began giggling

"Yes, Mercury… you are rather handsome pfftt!"

Mercury didn't even flinch at Julia's bullying he simply changed the topic and asked

"How long do you want to stay in this town, Julia?"

"For a bit, they serve this fantastic grilled mutton here, they get dust goats from the desert and the spices from the mashes and it's just… So good! Especially with beer!"

"Oh… Then we certainly have to try it"

"Yeah… Though it's rather expensive so we might have to take some work here at the city's guild to afford it"

Mercury nodded before he agreed

"Yeah let's find some work today then"

While the two of them had a sizable amount of cel at hand that was reserved for living expenses, so they had decided to work if they wanted some leisure, after wearing her armor Julia took out her automatic magazine fed crossbow that was strapped to the back of her rather big backpack and swung it over her shoulder before she turned to Mercury

"Let's go?"

"Sure"

Mercury offered his hand to Julia that showed a smile and grasped it before she walked along with him out of the inn and out onto the main road where the two of them asked for directions and eventually arrived at the local guild and walked in, inside the guild was filled with other adventures that were mostly around the request board looking at the new request that a guild employee was currently posting, Mercury and Julia looked over the request and eventually settled on a rather hard request

"Dust butterflies?"

"Yeah, they are a real pain, its a particular kind of butterfly that has the wingspan of a few meters, the real pain is not their size though it's the fact that their dust is poisoned and that they spread it around with their wings, thus the name"

"I see… But how are we going to be safe from the poison?"

"A simple bandana will do… That said we should stop by the temple on the way back and get detoxed there, just to be safe"

"I see, well then let's go"

"Yeah, let's"

And thus the two of them headed out of the city and walked along the highway west a little bit before they left the highway and headed out into the fields that sounded the city, after that Julia tracked the dust butterflies from the dead crops and eventually the two of them spotted about 5 or 6 of them eating some half-decayed crops on the ground

'So they eat what they poison?'

Mercury found this interesting but alas Julia wasn't about to observe any more and fired off a bolt from her crossbow that after flying through the air for a bit landed right in the middle of the dust butterflies startling them into the air as they took flight, this made them easy targets for Julia's crossbow bolts as she displayed the auto-loading mechanism of the crossbow as she let loose a few more bolts that hit two of the dust butterflies killing them at once before she called out to Mercury

"Here they come"

"Yeah… I am about ready for them too"

Mercury had not been idle while Julia showed off her marksmanship, he had been making hardened dirt spears out of the soil around him and made it float into the air before he fired it at the remaining 4 butterflies that were coming towards them while letting out shrieks, after only half a second of flying time the spears of hardened dirt did their job and struck down the remaining butterflies that then fell to the ground 

"Nicely done… Now let's get the antennas as the proof of subjugation"

Mercury drew his sword and nodded…

"...There, that's both of you detoxed, that'll be 50 cel per person"

Mercury took 100 cel out of his money pouch and handed it to the priest that had detoxed them with a smile

"Thanks"

"You are welcome, good job on hunting down those pesky dust butterflies"

"Thanks"

Mercury and Julia left the temple behind and walked towards the guild where they turned in the 6 pairs of antenna for 200 cel each or a total of 1200 cel

"Nice, let's go Mercury, I know a place"

"Sure, lets"

The two of them made a pit stop at the inn so that Julia could change out of her armor, while she changed she spoke to Mercury

"We should get you some armor too sometime Mercury"

"...Yeah, though I kind of like the casual style, I do realize that I need some armor at some point"

Julia patted Mercury on the head all of a sudden as she spoke

"That's a good boy"

Mercury paused and tilted his head slightly before he asked

"What?"

Julia showed a smile

"Even though you're half immortal you realize the importance of armor"

"Well yeah, trust me, dying sucks"

"...I trust you Mercury, don't you worry about that, now let's go get some mutton"

"Yeah let's go"

Mercury took Julia's hand and the two of them soon found themselves at a local restaurant where Julia ordered them some grilled mutton for a staggering price of 1000 cel, Mercury was a little skeptical until he actually tasted it and found out how wrong he was as he muttered

"Damn I am happy to be alive…"

Julia that heard him burst out laughing before she handed him a mug of beer

"Don't get all poetic, here try it with some beer too"

Mercury did as she recommended and found himself in food heaven for a few moments before he spotted something out of the corner of his eyes and suddenly stood up

"What's wrong Mercury?"

"Nothing I just spotted a familiar face"

Mercury saw a very ragged looking Molly walking on the streets, no doubt life had been hard on her since the two of them split up a few weeks back

"Now what to do...?"