Chapter 175: Apology Gone Wrong

Chapter 175: Apology Gone Wrong

Mercury pranced around the house. Their house. His house, partially. Zyl and him signed the ownership deed together. Mercury's handwriting had been a little messy, controlling the pen with <Telekinesis > certainly was an experience, but he was used to making it work like hands, so it went just fine at the end of the day.

A little ugly. Like most signatures.

Zyl's, though, was elegant. Because of course it was. Full of little swirls and flourishes, and a big swoop at the end. Mercury stared at him for a full second, but the dragon just gave him a faint smile.

The house was nice. It had a second story, though it wasn't very tall despite that. The floor was made from dark wood, though much of it was covered with carpets now. Mercury liked the feel of the soft fabric against his paws. His claws also stuck to it , and he could pull at the fabric. Lightly, of course, he didn't wanna break anything.

There were also a few more carpet and platforms on the walls, one of which Mercury quickly hopped up to. For most cats, they would have been a bit big, but with his size… they were just right. Long enough that he could properly lay down on some, and use others simply for stepping past.

There was even a small hammock there for him to lay down in. It was made from a full piece of colourful, rainbow dyed fabric. Yes, he'd gotten himself a pride-flag-bed. No, he didn't regret it for even a moment. A smile played across his face.

That time of the day came, and rays of sunlight shone in from a window next to him, covering his fur in golden light. Warmth soaked into his bones. A dozen minutes drifted by before he got up again.

He hopped over platform after platform, carefully maintaining his balancing. Past the small kitchen aisle in the entry area, past the doors to a pantry and the two different doors for bedrooms, then up the stairs.

Of course, given the wall decoration, he didn't have to take the stairs. He followed along a series of little platforms on the walls instead, hopping from one side of the stairway to the other once, just for fun.

Upstairs, there was a living room area. The dining area was downstairs, with the kitchen, but here there were a bunch of small chairs around a coffee table. Though they'd made the coffee table with leg space. Mercury remembered sitting on tiny couches in front of tiny tables as a human and having to keep his legs angled for hours; whoever decided coffee tables shouldn't allow for leg space was a bad person in his book.

There was also a guest bedroom upstairs, and some more storage space. The living room felt big, since it was where the slanted roof was highest, and the guest bedroom had plenty of headspace, but most other spots in the upper part were kinda cramped. For humans.

To Mercury? Well, he fit in quite snugly in some of the corners. Hence why there were small catbeds strewn around the place.

Comparing them to his log would obviously have been unfair, so he didn't. But, no, the anchor of Logston remained kindly within his inventory, where it would be forever safe. That log would only die if he died, he was sure of it.

Regardless of how incredible his log was, though, he loved the house. Genuinely. It was comfortable, warm, and had many nice sunny spots for him. It smelled like home. He could probably stay there for a while. Have friends over, travel a bit away, then come back here. Maybe he would, too, if no trouble came to find him.

Learn more from Yasashiku. Become a skilled smith. Do things that he wanted to do, or something.

Zyl came upstairs when he was still in thought. "Up early?" the dragon asked.

He wore loose fitted clothing today. A simple t-shirt, not even buttoned up, and trousers that were wider at the bottom of the legs than the top. It was winter, certainly, but he looked dressed for spring. His hair was styled back, and he wore his telltale white gloves. There was even some makeup on his face. Lipstick, eyeshadow, the works, and he wore a pair or circular golden earrings.

"Morning, handsome," Mercury said.

"Same to yourself. Up for a bit of breakfast? We still have some slices of cake," Zyl asked, his smile bright as the sun.

"We got cake?"

At that, Zyl giggled. "Sese, yes. We got cake. We got it late last night, you know?"

Last night. Hm. There was a dim memory there, kind of. "No, yeah, sounds good. What kinda cake."

"Strawberry!" Zyl was already walking down the stairs, leading Mercury to follow. "It's great. Lots of cream. From that same confectionary Avery showed us."

"Right! That one!" Mercury did remember the building, though he still didn't remember ordering cake from it. He hated memory gaps. "Did I drink a lot last evening, Zyl?"

The dragon looked back and gave a halfhearted shrug. "I'm not quite sure. I think so. We had a bit of a housewarming party with the others."

That he did remember.

When they signed the deal, they spent all day shopping around for furniture. Things to decorate the house with. Then they invited most acquaintances over. Avery, Lucia, Iris, Marcel, Yasashiku, Yvette, most everyone they knew decently well. People from the Mages' Guild, too, and even Jirluc came. Introducing the sipisc was a little strange, but it worked out well enough in the end. Him and Yvette took well to another, drinking and talking.

It was nice. More than nice, even; he'd loved it.

The cake was, of course, Avery's idea. He'd asked them in the morning, knowing what was to come, and placed the order. Well. Marcel placed the order. Avery was busy-busy doing things for the guild. Filing away reports of monster sightings, which group they came from, preparing for quests to be put up, that kind of thing.

And so, Marcel was called in from his rest day to… order cake. Well, it was for a party he would be attending, and he got to at least vet the cake. He loved strawberry, though, so that was fine.

Why did this world have strawberry, too? Mercury thought to ask that question. They even called it berry, too, despite it not being a berry at all! And yet, there was no good explanation. Perhaps strawberries simply transcended time and space. Maybe, one day, the entire universe would return to strawberry.

That day would not be today.

Mercury proved his obvious superiority over the "berry" by eating the cake. Absolutely wolfing it down. He had multiple slices, and he cherished each and every one of them. It was delicious cake, in even more delicious company.

He laughed. He showed off his new magic. He cried, telling stories from back on Earth.

He talked about his parents, his family. Because these were people he felt comfortable enough telling. His experience with conversion therapy and the church back at home. How his parents forced him to go to church. How he was allowed no freedoms, because he couldn't be trusted.

For so long, he kept in the closet, until they stole his diary from underneath his mattress - he didn't keep it under his bed because they checked there every night - and read it. Page by page.

The next week he was off in a tiny car, off to the most miserable experience of his life.

Now? He'd been through dying in a mindscape, and those were two different kinds of horrible, but he couldn't honestly bring himself to rank them.

Then, eventually, the sad talks stopped. Zyl had lit a fire in the stove, easier than a snap of his fingers. The house warmed up. He had more cake.

… He had way more cake than was reasonable, and that was fine.

Happy stories were shared for some time, then sad ones again, and so it changed. Over and over, into the late hours of the night. They drank. He uh… drank a lot.

Ah. That's where the memory of the cake went.

The fog over yesterday's memories faded as his Skills ran their course. His high vitality made it so that he was able to simply wake up, not feeling the adverse effects.

Some of those emotions from yesterday still lingered. Maybe that's why he'd been so thankful to have a home. Someplace that just felt right.

A smile found its way onto his face. "Yeah. Let's have more cake."

Zyl smiled. "Of course, love."

They took it from the fridge, an enchanted box with runes to keep the heat out and the cold in, and ate more of it. There was still quite a bit left, but they'd eat that over time. Soon enough, at least. Especially if Mercury kept up his appetite.

He knew he could, too. <Nutritional Preservation> was quite a nice Skill to have. First of all, it let him eat anything he really wanted to eat. Secondly, he could store calories outside of his body, to be drawn on fur sustenance, letting him go very long without food.

What the Skill description didn't explicitly mention, was that he could have anything he digested go directly to the extra storage. And, in addition to that, he could discard energy from said storage at will, out into the world. Which meant as many sweets as he would like!!

Honestly, he was quite excited about what that Skill would turn into once it evolved. But there was still much time until that happened.

Instead of that, he focused on the then and there. Looking at Zyl. Smiling at the fact that he had such a beautiful partner.

It was still early in the morning. Soon, sometime after breakfast, he'd head over to Yasashiku. Practice smithing. There were… some Skills associated with it, but fewer than one may think. There was the whole <Weaponmaking > line, as well as <Armormaking >, which could eventually be combined into a type of <Creation > line. Though the exact Skills differed for each person.

What Yasashiku had was… well Mercury didn't know. And the old man wouldn't tell, either. Something about Mercury and needing to learn more beforehand.

According to him, it wasn't even out of malice. Knowing the exact nature of the Skills of others could, somehow, confuse you. Make it harder to follow your own path exactly. So he didn't wanna tell.

Mercury thought he was just being coy about it, though.

About halfway through his third slice of cake, with Zyl already leaning back and enjoying the sunlight on his face, there was a knock at the door.

Three small sounds of knuckles hitting timber. "I'll get it," Mercury said, quickly hopping off his chair. With a swift use of <Telekinesis >, the door opened, him behind it.

- - - - - -

"I think this is a horrible idea," Midas said.

"We both decided it was our best shot." Despite her words, Zagan did not seem to be any more thrilled than the golden man next to her.

Midas rolled his shoulders, seemingly uncomfortable as they walked through the streets. "And you're sure we should bother them in the morning?"

Zagan gave him a confused look. "It's barely even morning anymore."

"Super early."

The demoness eyed the sky. "It's so bright. The sun is up. Surely, they'll be, too?"

Midas gave a long sigh, running his hand through his hair. Tiny strands of gold clung to his fingers, far more dense than the hair surrounding them. "Okay. No. Not necessarily. We're getting a gift beforehand."

"Why would we get a gift?"

"They just got a house," Midas said exasperatedly.

"So what?" Zagan asked, still confused. They'd found a place to live in. What did that have to do with anything?

The old king shook his head at her. "Alright, Zagan, listen. In human culture, homes are important. This isn't them finding a roof over their head, this is about them finding a place to anchor their lives at."

"Why would anyone want that?" she asked, cocking her head a little too far.

"You reign over your city, yes?"

"Of course, yes," she readily agreed.

"When someone comes to visit your city, do they compliment you on how beautiful it is?"

"Certainly!"

"So when it was just established, did anyone bring you anything?" he asked again.

"Indeed. Decorations for my palace, and such." A thick smile planted itself on her face as they walked through the streets. It was empty still, the sun barely in the sky yet.

"So, imagine that the dragon has just acquired a new palace. Would you like to bring him a gift?"

Zagan paled. The blood ran cold in her veins. "Yes," she said, suddenly very convinced. "It might be prudent to bring something."

"So we will," Midas nodded, glad to have saved his neck for yet another day.

The two had quite a bit of time before it was reasonable to actually visit Zyl and Mercury, and midas intended to use it all. He didn't know much about either of them, but he could guess. Hopefully, none of the gifts would seem disrespectful, otherwise, well, maybe he shouldn't get too attached to his neck, just in case.

Zagan also wanted to buy things for them, but her taste wasn't quite… up to par, in Midas' eyes. He had to stop her from buying spider memorabilia multiple times. Why she was so obsessed with arachnids right now he didn't understand.

Occasionally, she'd blink open extra eyes on her human form, too, but Midas very quickly pointed those out and asked her to please keep them mostly shut. She obliged, grumpily. Her next attempt of gifts were garden gnomes. Mercury and Zyl did not have a garden, really, so that idea was tossed as well.

In the end, Midas ended up making the choices instead. He decided on a box of chocolates, as well as some paintings of nature. A waterfall one, and a second depiction of a lakeside flanked by grassy hills with mountains in the background. Mercury would have probably said that they looked a little as though painted by Bob Ross.

Finally, he also picked up a bottle of a champagne-equivalent. It wasn't called the same, but for the purposes of the story, it shall be named such.

Then, when the sun was higher in the sky, at around what might have been 10 a.m., they finally headed towards the dreaded house.

It was made of warm, dark wood. The type that seemed inviting. There was a stone chimney for the stove, which had spat out countless small plumes yesterday, yet stood empty now.

"You're really sure about this?" Midas asked again. They were close to the house now, maybe fifty steps away. Still, despite the reasonable distance, he whispered.

"Stalling will not make it better."

The finality in those words left Midas to do not much other than grumble to himself in unresolved tones, but even that quickly ended.

He went quiet fourty steps away from the house.

At thirty steps, he started walking quietly.

Ten steps away, he started holding his breath.

Then, they were in front of the door, that dreaded wooden door. Midas was almost certain he would die. Despite his grievances, Zagan raised her hand, and tapped the wood thrice.

A second later there was a soft tap on the wooden floor, and Midas felt as though the grim reaper was approaching. Half a dozen more seconds passed as he held his breath, then the door swung open. There was nothing behind it. Shit he must already have moved behind them ready to cut his head o-

"Hello? Who's this?"

The voice came from closer to the floor. Midas slowly lowered his gaze, happening upon a mopaaw. It wasn't normal by any means, snow white fur interlaced with stripes that seemed like the night sky, except filled with so many more purple stars and swirls.

Ah. The mopaaw. It spoke to them. Of course. He- he knew that.

Yet, both of them stared in silence.

"Uhm. This is starting to get kinda awkward, you know?"

Fuck. He had to speak. What to say, what to-

Zagan spoke before he could. "Holy shit, it really talks."

THAT WAS NOT THE RIGHT THING TO SAY!!!

Midas was just about ready to die and fall out of his skin when the mopaaw talked again. "Okay, uh. Kinda rude? No, really rude, actually. I#m no "it", I go by he/him. My name is Mercury. Who are you?"

Shit. They'd fucked up. Midas bit his cheek, hard, for a moment, to get some clarity back in his head. Zagan seemed stunned, so he quickly spoke before she made another blunder. "We apologize about that, Mercury. We were just… surprised. That's all. See, we have some prior relationship with your… partner," he picked that, as a safe word, "lord Friaminth."

"It's just Zyl, here!" a second voice yelled from behind.

"You heard him," Mercury replied, wearing a succinct smile. "But given your tone of voice, I don't imagine you were pleasant acquaintances. Do you want to threaten us? Blackmail?"

"NO! Gods, no. No, we do not. Please. We may have started off on the wrong foot-" he pleaded.

"I don't know," Mercury hummed. "I think we started off the same way most people like to start talking to me. And that's talking down."

"I wish to apologize," Zagan said. The words hung in the air for a bit.

"What for? Being rude?" Mercury asked, cocking his head.

"An attempt on your life," Zagan replied.

Midas had wanted to stop her. But there was no stopping a demon once they got talking.

Suddenly, the quiet house didn't feel quite so quaint anymore. There was a pressure in the air, a dense, heavy, certainty of death.

Where Midas held his breath before, he suddenly couldn't breathe. Not for a moment.

The old King looked through the doorway, and above the mo-, above Mercury there hung a shadow of death itself.

Killing intent leaked from in between warm wood, crashing down on him like a tsunami on an ant.

Heavy steps on the wood followed. A man, clothed in white, with ahri the colour of blood and fire and death, stood in the doorway. He looked down at Midas.

Down. Because the old king, and the demoness, had both fallen to their knees. No air entered their lungs. Their muscles didn't work. Their gifts clattered from their hands.

Silence hung heavily as moment after moment of existential terror drifted in front of Midas. His life drifted in front of his eyes. Maybe he shouldn't have accepted the gift of gold, maybe he-

"You tried what?"

The voice that spoke those words came from the man who was death himself. They were calm, yet spoken with untold fury. Fuck. A tear ran down Midas' eye. He was really going to die here. He was-

"Answer."

"I-" Zagan choked next to the old king. "I am Zagan. Of the demons. I was involved in the ploy for your spark. One of my people was sent after your…" she paused, and simply gestured wildly at Mercury.

"Oh! One of those!" That mopaaw sounded chipper during all this. How did he sound happy?! Another chill ran down Midas' spine when he realized there was little empathy in those unfathomable eyes. He was at the height of Mercury's face. He met his eyes, saw deep within them, and he saw the flashes of his life flicker out an die against a bottomless hole.

What the FUCK was he looking at?!

"Zyl, let off the pressure already. They're clearly not here to do harm, or they're completely unable to make a decision smart enough to get close to us. Either way, they're not gonna do anything."

"I will not let this go unpunished."

"Zyl, please."

"... fine."

The pressure let up. Midas gasped. Retched. Pulled in dregs of dusty air.

"Alright you two. My <Intuition > tells me you won't harm either of us. If you do, prepare for a swift and immediate retaliation. Now, come on in. I guess we got some talking to do."