Chapter 305 - The Morning After

A night of rain passed, Mercury opened his eyes slowly, the first thing he saw was Marie's face, she lay at his side with her face facing him on her stomach, she was nude like himself, on the sheets was a red stain, proof that Mercury had made her a woman last night

'Welp… Things got a little heated, but I won't regret it… Not going to put Marie through that…'

Mercury laid and looked at Marie for the best part of an hour, as he did he got a little nervous about how he should mention Julia to her, but as he looked at her peaceful sleeping face he got the feeling that it was going to be okay in the end, soon Marie stirred in her sleep and opened her eyes, she looked blankly at Mercury for a few moments before she blinked a few times, then her face seemed to heat up gradually before she then buried her head into the pillow and began screaming in embarrassment as she kicked her legs

'How cute…'

Mercury showed a smile and got the urge to tease her so he moved his head close to her ear and then he blew into it making her jump up from the bed as she stammered

"W-W-W-Why did you do that!?"

Mercury didn't answer he simply enjoyed the view for a bit, then Marie looked down and realized that she wasn't wearing anything and went into full meltdown as her face flushed fully and she hurriedly dove back into the bed and covered herself, then she began throwing stuff at Mercury and by stuff I mean the pillow, then she found herself out of ammunition and proceeded to bury her face into the sheets again as she kicked with her feet and let out an embarrassed yell, she kept going for a bit before Mercury decided to stop teasing her and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the cheek

"Good morning Marie"

Marie eventually took her head up from the sheets and greeted him back as best she could for her embarrassment

"G-Good morning Mercury…"

Mercury showed a smile and asked her

"What do you say that we take it slow today?"

Marie looked blankly at Mercury for a bit before she blinked once and showed a smile

"What are you talking about? We still have 27 blades to smith"

Mercury smiled before he asked

"Then what about tomorrow? Do you want to just walk around the city for a bit?"

Marie nodded and pulled the sheets up in front of her mouth as she blushed slightly and nodded

"That would be nice…"

"Okay, then we got no time to waste!"

Mercury jumped out of bed and began putting on clothes but paused once he was finished putting on his pants and looked over at Marie that watched him with a flushed face, then he teased

"You lewd girl~"

Mercury's comment got another pillow thrown at him in response

Later when the two of them was working Evelin stopped by, she 'glanced' at Mercury, then at Marie before she showed a smile and spoke

"I am glad it worked out okay"

Marie nodded, she seemed a little shy, Evelin walked over and dragged Mercury to the side before she asked him

"Have you told her yet?"

"...No I plan to do it after work today"

"Okay… Good luck"

"Thanks"

After that short visit, Evelin said something about not disturbing the lovebirds and left again, Mercury and Marie worked until the evening and after washing up the two of them sat down to eat, there Mercury decided to drop the bomb, he had not been able to think of a subtle way to do it so he simply said it

"Marie"

"Yes?"

"I… Already have a girlfriend"

"Oh… Then I am number two?"

"No, wait you're not angry?"

Marie tilted her head slightly before she spoke plainly like saying the sky was blue

"It's perfectly normal to have more than one lover for men of high status"

"...Wait a moment…"

Mercury massaged his temples for a bit which resulted in a concerned comment from Marie

"Do you have a headache?"

"Yeah, a bit"

"Did I say something strange?"

"No, I guess not?"

Mercury quickly gathered his thoughts before he asked

"So are you cool with me having another girlfriend?"

"Yep, though I can't promise I won't get jealous sometimes"

"I'll try and make sure that won't happen"

"So..:"

Marie leaned forwards and asked

"What's her name?"

"Her name is Julia, she a judicator like Evelin"

"Oh… I see, where is she right now?"

"In Ode, east of here… She was taken by some people, though I don't think they are going to hurt her… Well I am going to kill one of them so anyway"

"Why is that?"

"Because he killed me once, saying something that it was the best part of the job"

Marie paused before she asked

"Wait you died once?"

"Yeah, I am immortal, or as close to it you can come"

Now it was Marie's turn to massage her temples for a bit before she asked

"Why are you immortal? Don't tell me you sold your soul to a demon or something?"

"Nah, I am a living god, the living god of metal"

"A living god..? What's that?"

"Hmm… What was it Light said again..? Oh right 'A living god is a semi-immortal being that is tasked with wandering the world of Alfan bringing subtle changes to the world… That said you have no obligations and a free to do as you want' or something like that"

Marie looked blankly at Mercury for a bit before she asked

"So if you are the living god of metal then what can you do besides being semi-immortal?"

"Well… Not much, for now, the skill I showed you the other day is part of it, I was only born 2 months ago after all"

Marie fell silent before she showed a smile

"Thank you for telling me this Mercury"

"Well it's a given, you are my woman now after all, and I'll never let you go"

Marie blushed and lowered her head slightly with a happy smile on her face

"Oh right, if you have some waste metal I'll happily take it off your hands"

"Sure I have some in storage that hasn't been picked up for recycling, but what do you need it for?"

"Well I am the living god of metal, I grow stronger by absorbing metal with a skill, or more precisely I get some points I can use for new skills and grow stronger with for the metal I absorb"

"Then let's look at it after we're done eating?"

"Sure"

After they shared a meal (Which took way too long due to flirting and generally admiring each other) Marie showed Mercury to the storage room, he had been in here before when he picked the ingot for his first blade only this time they went further into the back of the storeroom where a bunch of metal slag lay

"This has been here since I was born and my dad still reforged ingots"

Mercury nodded, this was the first time Marie had mentioned any of her parents so he cautiously asked

"...Are your dad still around?"

"Yeah, he's fine, we just don't talk all that much since my mom died"

"I see… I would like to meet him sometime, you know introduce myself"

Marie suddenly showed a very distant look before she nodded, then she changed the topic

"Anyway, you can do what you want with this slag"

"Sure thing, then let me work my magic…"

Mercury walked over and put his hand on the pile of slag before he muttered

"[Metal assimilation]"

Marie watched with awe as the metal slag turned to dust in front of her, meanwhile, Mercury nodded as he mumbled

"245 points… Not bad, [Essence shop]"

[Essence shop]

Current essence: 31.827

Available skills: none

Available purchases: [Metal gamble, cost: 1.000] [Advanced chunk of Living metal Assimilation, cost: 100.000]

Random status point, cost: 100

Specific status point, cost: 500

Level up, cost: 1.000

"Hmm... "

Mercury looked at the floating text in front of him for a bit before he decided to try out a new feature, he held out his hand and spoke

"[Metal gamble]"

Then a chunk of metal seemed to face into existence on top of his palm somewhat scaring Marie in the process, then she approached and looked at the metal chunk

"Hmm… My metal appraisal says it's normal iron"

"Huh… A dud"

Mercury absorbed the metal chunk with his [Metal assimilation] and received an abysmal 200 points

"Welp… Gambling is bad"

After that experience, Mercury didn't really feel like gambling with his essence points instead he asked Marie

"Should we begin forging that adamantite?"

"Sure, though first, we have to reforge the ingot to raise its grade, this will waste some of the metal it's worth it in the end"

"Then let's do that"