Chapter 328 - Departure

Mercury's sleep-deprived face showed happiness boarding on full-on ecstasy as he looked at the metal dog in front of him as he spoke to Marie that was busy jumping up and down beside him

"Have you marked the last modifications to the blueprint?"

Marie stopped jumping for joy and spoke reassuringly

"Of course, I've even drawn the entire thing over on a new piece of paper"

Mercury nodded before he kneeled down in front of the metal dog that was wagging its metal tail from side to side, then he spoke as he reached his hand out to it

"Paw"

*Woof*

"Good, the other one"

*Woof*

"That's a good dog"

"What are you even doing Mercury…"

"Confirming its ability to take voice commands"

"Geez Mercury… Don't you think it's time to get some sleep?"

Mercury nodded before he spoke

"I'll inform the king first, follow"

"Who? Me or the dog?"

"Both of you"

Marie sighed before she rolled up the blueprint and followed after Mercury along with the metal dog into the residence where Albert and Kathrin was sitting on the couch and chatting with Julia and Max, all four of them turned their heads when Mercury, Marie, and the metal dog walked in, Kathrine looked at the metal dog and spoke

"My~ How cute!"

Mercury showed a smile before he introduced the new model 'hound'

"Model 'Hound' total weight: 63.550 grams, outfitted with jaws powerful enough puncture half a meter of steel in under two seconds, main roles are scouting and frontal assault with a built-in bay for 4 model 'sparrow' golems, it is highly resistant to conventional attacks such as slashing due to its full-body steel frame, also has a built-in spike cannon, though has limited ammunition"

"My… How not cute"

Kathrine looked very deflated after having heard that the metal dog in front of her was a specialized war machine, Albert's face lit up a bit though, Mercury noticed that he was feeling down and showed a serious expression before he asked

"How's the war going?"

Albert sighed before he spoke

"All efforts in taking back Ode has failed… We can't even get close to the city due to the fact that there appears to be one of the weapons unearthed at the underground pyramid stationed in the city"

Mercury paused, he once again regretted that he had not broken the wooden weapons instead of just leaving them in the pyramid before he asked

"Can you describe the effects of the weapon?"

Albert shook his head, then Mercury nodded and spoke

"So no survivors… What shape were the… corpses in?"

Albert sighed before he stood up and gestured for Mercury to follow him, from there the two of them walked out of the residence and into the hallway before they followed the hallway before they reached the king's office where Albert stepped in and walked over to the sturdy wooden desk and dug through some reports before he handed a report to Mercury only to pull it back at the last moment as he asked

"Have you eaten yet, Mercury?"

"...No I have not"

"That's good… Anyway, here's the reason why I lost my appetite yesterday…"

Mercury looked the report over, including the very detailed magically imprinted pictures before he put down the report and sighed and muttered

"Napalm… No, a Fuel-air-explosive… Tch, I really should have broken those weapons..."

"Fuel-air-explosive? What are you talking about Mercury..?"

"It's a type of explosive that uses the surrounding air as a fuel, it's real nasty work… I won't go into details as you have already seen the details"

Albert looked at Mercury a bit before he sighed and asked

"So… You really come from that tomb?"

Mercury nodded

"Yeah, I was sealed there as the most terrible weapon of all"

Albert sighed and spoke with an aura befitting of a king

"Then as befitting of your title of weapon I'll have to ask you to deploy… and even though it pains me I'll have to ask you I need you to show your value as a weapon"

Mercury nodded

"Sure… Though I have something I want in return, I want Julia's hand in marriage"

Albert seemed to turn off his king aura as he showed a smile befitting of a happy middle-aged man before he spoke

"You sure are bold"

Mercury showed a smile

"Well fortune favors the bold"

Albert's smile widened slightly before he clapped Mercury on the shoulder

"I'll definitely steal that… 'Fortune favors the bold' That's good, very good… Then what do you need to take back Ode?"

"Hmm… A ship and... a large cannon"

Mercury woke up in a large fluffy bed, he didn't move for a while, he simply lay in pure bliss from the softness of the bed, as well as the softness that surrounded him from the two lovers that lay beside him, showing a calm  smile Mercury gave up his entail plans to play some sort of lewd joke on them and snuggled up and pulled them close instead

'After all, this is the last time in a while I'll be able to do this in a while… In this kind of bed anyway…'

It had been decided that Mercury and the girls would return and retake Ode, or rather Mercury would the two women insisted on following him, as for Max he would enroll in an academy for young noble children in the capital, soon Marie woke up, she looked at the side of Mercury's face for a bit before she showed a smile and nestled into his embrace and spoke

"Today's the day huh…"

Mercury nodded

"Yeah.. So let's enjoy the moment…"

The two of them went back to sleep again, as for Julia? She slept through the whole thing and only awoke when they did again as they were woken up by a wake-up call from a maid, Julia sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed her eyes before she suddenly slapped her cheeks lightly and nodded, then she stood up from the bed and quickly picked out some clothes, they were men's clothes though, more specifically Mercury's clothes, then without saying anything she began to dress him with swift and precise movements, soon he was dressed up in a blue shirt and a pair of black cloth pants only then did Mercury ask Julia

"...Why did you dress me?"

Julia showed a wide smile and tilted her head

"Because I wanted to?"

Mercury showed a smile and gave Julia a kiss before he spoke to her

"You should get dressed too, wearing only a white dress-shirt makes my reason points go down continually"

Julia showed a slightly lewd smile as she adjusted the dress-shirt and asked

"What happens if your 'reason points' goes too low~?"

"...Then you'll awaken the beast"

"My~ oh my~"

Mercury suddenly felt a pull on his shirt and looked to the side and saw Marie with a slight blush and a pout on her face as she pulled the edge of his shirt while she spoke

"Don't flirt by yourselves please"

Mercury showed a wry smile before he quickly gave Marie a kiss to appease her, then Julia quickly lashed onto Marie and rubbed her check against Marie's as she spoke

"You're so cute when you're jealous Marie~"

"Geez… Wait, where are you touching!"

"Don't mind me~"

"Of course I mind, get your hands off me!"

"Come on, let me give you some love Ma-ri-e~"

Mercury watched the two of them do… Well whatever it was Julia was doing, for a bit, right before he was about to join in he remembered that there was a maid in the room and let out a fake cough and spoke

"Why don't you get dressed, you two, we have a busy day ahead of us…"

"Dad!"

Mercury kneeled down and caught Max that came running into his embrace, then he picked him up and put him on his shoulder, Max let out a happy yell as he spoke

"I am so high up!"

Mercury ran around in circles a bit with Max laughing on his shoulder, through suddenly Max's laughter faded before he asked

"...Do you really have to go, dad?"

Mercury put Max down on the ground and kneeled down in front of him and ruffled his hair as he showed a smile

"Yeah, I do… Don't worry though, your dad is immortal so I'll be back before long"

Max nodded before he suddenly hugged Mercury tightly, Mercury patted him on his back for a bit before he spoke

"We still have half a day before departure, so let's walk around the city for a bit"

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'll always make time for you Max"

"Then let's go quickly so you don't miss your ship!"

Max quickly pulled Mercury along that followed after him with a smile on his face, the two of them walked around the city for a few hours before they ate at a cafe and then returned to the castle where they arrived at an inner courtyard where a sky carriage stood ready, the royal couple stood and chatted with Julia and Marie when Mercury and Max arrived, and after a brief chat Mercury, Julia, Marie, and the two crusaders Jey and Ben boarded the sky carriage that then took off, Mercury waved to Max that waved back at him, then the carriage flew into the air and soon disappeared from the view of Max that held back his tears as he yelled

"Be safe!"