Chapter 373 - Coronation

The group returned to Mars' palace at once and got the festivities started, Mercury's memory got a little fuzzy around the 1-day mark as that's when Mars brought out his very secret liquor collection, overall the atmosphere was harmonious as the 4 of them drank and made mary…

Mercury woke up, he lifted his head and looked around before he remembered

'Oh right, Mars sent me back…'

He was indeed home in the castle of Juliantia, he was in his private room and had so far been working on sleeping off 3 days of heavy drinking headache

'You know what… I'll keep doing just that…'

Mercury rolled over and tried to fall asleep again… Of course, life wouldn't be so kind to him as the door opened as soon as he closed his eyes again and Julia walked in as she spoke

"Good morning Mercury"

She walked over to the bed and bent down before she gave him a kiss on the forehead before she whispered into his ear

"If you don't wake up I'll pull a prank on you"

Mercury showed no signs of getting up, as such Julia showed a mischievous smile before she circled the bed and dove into it, and soon she laid hugging Mercury from behind as she whispered into his ear

"Wake up~"

"Alright… You win, I am awake"

Mercury opened his eyes and sighed before he muttered

"I have a heavy hangover though…"

"I know, you could barely walk straight when you got home yesterday"

Mercury closed his eyes again, right now the very presence of light that streamed in from the window was making his eyes hurt, the two of them laid there for a bit before the door opened again, this time it was Asma that walked in, she closed the door after herself and showed a mischievous smile before she dove into bed too and hugged Mercury from the font as she spoke

"Warm…"

Mercury opened his eyes again and for a bit, he gazed into Asma's eyes, she stared back at him blankly for a bit before she spoke

"Good morning..?"

"Yeah… Morning…"

Mercury closed his eyes again before he rolled over on his back with Julia and Asma now hugging an arm each, some time passed before the door opened once again, this time it was Marie that walked in, she showed a frown when she saw Mercury and the two that were supposed to wake him up still in bed, then she sighed before she walked over and crawled on top of Mercury and laid there for a bit before Mercury opened his eyes slightly and spoke

"Good morning…"

Marie nodded before she gave him a kiss, then she spoke

"We need to get up Mercury"

Mercury let out a groan in protest, Marie sighed before she showed a smile and looked over at Julia and spoke

"Help a little Julia, it's your brother that's getting coronated"

Mercury opened his eyes before he asked

"Wait, that's today?"

"...Yep"

"Yeah~"

"Yes it is"

Mercury sighed before he muttered

"Why did it have to be today..?"

Half an hour later Mercury was showered, dressed, and ready to roll

"Alright… Let's get this over with…"

Mercury was dressed in a formal officer uniform, he looked over at Julia that was dressed in a red dress, then at Asma that was dressed in a green dress, and then finally at Marie that was dressed in a light blue dress before he concluded that he really was blessed in this life…

The coronation was a long tedious event consisting of formal rituals and finally, the handing over of the crown to Julia's brother, Anton whom Mercury had met briefly with where the two of them had discussed Mercury becoming golem craftsman which was an honorary position after the coronation was over Mercury attended the party to keep the girls' company, as he was chatting with them the new king arrived and called out to Mercury

"Brother-in-law, do you have some time right now?"

Mercury nodded and followed after Anton out to an outdoor balcony where Anton leaned against the railing for a bit before he spoke

"It's about the golem craftsman position we discussed previously… It looks like Juliantia is going to need some golems rather quickly I am afraid..."

Mercury turned serious before he asked

"Is it war?"

Anton showed a slight smile before he shook his head

"It's rebellion… Or at least the precursor to rebellion"

Mercury nodded before he spoke

"So how many do you need and by when?"

Anton's smile widened before he asked

"You're not going to ask who's rebelling or why?"

Mercury sighed before he spoke plainly

"I am not good a politics and prefer not to get involved in them"

"I see… Let's discuss the exact details tomorrow, there are too many ears around here"

Mercury nodded before he promised

"Then I'll stop by your office tomorrow"

Anton nodded, then Mercury showed a smile and congratulated him

"Congratulation on your coronation, King Anton"

"Thank you, golem craftsman"

The next day Mercury received the details from Anton, it was a lot lighter than Mercury had expected, it was some group of island lords that hadn't shown up to the coronation, while sounded trivial it was actually a big deal as it showed that the realm wasn't completely unified, as such king Anton proposed a show of force, one of such shows of force would be formally accepting some golems into the army and navy, Mercury eventually agreed to this and proposed to make a new schematic that could be put into mass production, the only thing could not be mass-produced was the most important part, the golem core, for the time being, Anton respected this as Mercury's power as a golem craftsman, Mercury returned to the royal forge and began drawing up a schematic with Marie helping him

"Why are you so apprehensive about making humandiod golems, Mercury?"

Mercury paused, he was currently designing an airborne long-range carrier for the model 'Sparrow' this would increase the model 'Sparrow' effectiveness greatly as it would allow it to stealthy deploy over a city, Mercury quickly came back to the question and answered simply

"The human form is… Well limiting?"

"Explain"

"Well… It's not specialized? It's a jack of all trades, the only good thing I can see about the humanoid form is crowd control"

"I see… Well, then why not go completely crazy and make some special?"

Something flashed in the eyes of Mercury before he nodded and began drawing on a new piece of schematic paper for a bit, the more he drew the more astonished Marie looked and when he was done drawing Marie showed a smile and nodded

"Yep, exactly like that!"

On the piece of schematic paper was a mythical beast drawn…

A few days passed before finally, the Hygieia cradle finished synthesizing the soul gem, the reason why Mercury knew was that Ida informed him at once, they had been sitting in the underground medical room and watching the Hygieia cradle intensely ever since they arrived, like a child before Christmas, Mercury stifled a yawn as he arrived in the underground medical room and found Qutil twirling around, Mercury walked up to the counsel and inspected the stats on the Hygieia cradle for a bit before he nodded and spoke

"Yeah, we can bind it into the tissue we've designed earlier Qutil"

[REALY!?]

"Yeah, it's strangely compatible…"

Mercury inspected the stats a bit more before he nodded again, then he initiated the process of the tissue binding into the two bodies they had produced previously, the whole would take a little over a week so Mercury worked on the golem design in the meanwhile… Then finally it was the day that the Hygieia cradle was scheduled to be finished with binding the tissue with the soul gem, Mercury watched Qutil enter the new body before he pressed a button to begin the reanimating process, then he sat himself down on a chair and waited, a few minutes passed before the newly created body sat itself up and let out a laugh

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!! I have REVIVED!"

Then she began coughing, Mercury sighed before he picked up a water bottle from the table, walked over to the cradle, and handed it to Qutil

"Here"

"Thanks!"

Then she took the water bottle and began chugging the water for a bit before she also choked on that and coughed water for a bit before she spoke a little embarrassed

"Drinking is hard…"

Mercury showed a smile

"Well you're just out of practice, Qutil"

Qutil nodded, her new body was female and was on the slightly small side with long purple hair and vertical split purple eyes, while she wasn't able to take dragon form she had a large number of implants, including an Adamintuim alloy subterminal armor that laid just below her skin, a set of deployable mana receptor wings on her back, various weapons were also implanted including but not limited to knuckle blades, knee and elbow spikes, overall her body was a highly lethal weapon, just as she had requested