Chapter 323 - Departure

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?"

"It's a particular place, you'll see once we arrive"

"Okay…"

Mercury quickly finished his food, then he walked down below deck and knocked on the door to Julia cabin first before he opened the door and stepped in, inside he closed the door after him, there he found not only Julia but also Marie sleeping in each other's arms on the same bed, they had clearly said something about girls talk last night, Mercury showed a slightly lewd smile and walked over before he slowly lifted the covers

'Those are some cute pajamas indeed'

Resisting the urge to dive into the bed himself Mercury poked Julia's check and when she showed signs of waking he poked Marie's check, then the two of them woke about the same time, the first to open their eyes was Marie that found Julia a little too close to her and quickly backed up a bit, then Julie opened her eyes and saw Marie blushing slightly, then she showed a slightly teasing smile as she wrapped her arms around Marie and pulled her close before she began rubbing her cheek against Marie's

"Marie, you cutie~"

"S-Stop Julia, Mercury's watching!"

Julia's teasing smile widened slightly, now she looked just like a cat toying with a mouse as she spoke

"So all those things you said yesterday were all a lie? *Sniff* I thought iI was your friend Ma-ri-e"

Marie began panicking and quickly spoke

"N-No It's true that I love you, Julia, you are a very dear friend to me… Wait what are you making me say!"

Mercury and Julia locked eyes before both of them spoke

""Lewd""

Marie's face reddened slightly before she began pouting and muttered 

"You two always play with me…"

""Lewd""

"Geez! Would you two drop it already?"

Mercury signaled Julia before the two of them quickly closed in and rubbed their cheeks against Marie's as Julia spoke

"Marie you're so cute when you're angry, I could almost eat you up~"

Marie was about to complain when Mercury quickly sealed her lips with his, she struggled a bit before she melted into his embrace, after a bit the two of them parted, Marie's eyes looked slightly distant as a blush spread on her tanned face, then Mercury gave Julia a good morning kiss before he pulled back and sat on the edge of the bed and spoke

"As much as I want to continue, we can't right now… Darius said that you should come topside"

Julia nodded then she poked Marie that still were in a daze waking her up from said daze as she quickly asked

"What's happening since we need to be topside?"

Mercury shrugged

"We're entering the 'devil's reef' apparently"

Marie nodded and so did Julia before she commanded Mercury

"Wait outside while we get dressed"

"... Yes Ma'am!"

Mercury waited outside the room and soon the two emerged from within, both of them were dressed in leather armor, Marie carried her long spear and Julie her self-loading crossbow, Mercury showed a smile before he and the two walked up topside and joined Darius at the helm, he greeted the two newly awoken girls

"Good morning princess, miss Marie"

"Morning old man~"

"Good morning Darius"

Then they all looked ahead, spreading out in front of them were funnels made of metal emitting fumes at the top like chimneys, Mercury's eyes widened before he showed a smile and spoke

"Jackpot"

Darius looked over at Mercury and asked

"What do you mean Mercury?"

Mercury showed a smile as he explained

"I have a skill that allows me to absorb metal"

Darius' eyes widened a bit before they quickly returned to normal

"Oho~ Then you should be on the scout boat"

"Scout boat?"

"Yeah, we need to scout ahead for a route since the funnels grow all the time changing the routes… If you could absorb some of the funnels it would be a lifesaver and drastically cut down on the time we need to pass through this area"

Mercury showed a smile and nodded

"In that case, I'll do my best"