35th chapter : changing paces .

A cliff change suddenly hit the recent event in red mermaid, making Marco in need to leave in order to get his thoughts well prearranged. And same goes for red mermaid members, especially after reading Marco’s recent reports about what he was doing. Besides what they’ve read, Marco marked many things that would get a liking of Alice and the rest, that made them troubled trying to find him no matter what.

Two days later, 24th May 19xx,

“Any trace for him, master?” Alice asked as they were in the office waiting.

“Nothing seems to get in my radar. He’s pretty good, I guess his bluff of re awakening isn’t completely wrong” Emilis responded with a sigh.

They all looked at him then looked down, getting upset about it.

“How’s Carla?” Alex asked as she noticed that she didn’t come to work though the restaurant is closed.

“She’s been staying with Sophie and Arthur since that moment. She is fake smiling again but none of the two realized yet. Want me to call for her,” Shoko said as she was giving them something to drink.

“Man!! But going for three months is truly a thing to do, he’s more determined than what I thought” Xavier complained while looking at the papers.

After taking the whole day helping with the paperwork, they lost sense of time leading them to stay in the office at midnight. They all laid down taking a rest.

“In your opinion, where he may be right now!?” Zack asked as they were laying on the sofas, looking at the ceiling.

“Uhm, I bet he’s somewhere dark with many mercenaries trying to fight them in order to get money, that would be pretty cliché!!” Alice responded and giggled after that.

The others rose a little looking at her giggling while the situation was serious. Alex sighed then as she was about to speak they all suddenly heard a familiar voice.

“Seriously, I can kill without a second thought, But I don’t think that I would go to such a place unless they have a good money prize” Marco responded as he entered from the window.

In a moment of shock, they stood there surprised, jaws dropped to the floor, not knowing what to say, Marco looked at them with the usual blank expressionless face

“Eh!?! Heha he!!!!” Alex was unable to talk the most.

“Is there something on my face?” Marco asked as he passed by them to the desk, putting his bag down.

“What happened to the three months training?!!!” Xavier asked first.

“Huh, I thought we were going to train all together?” Marco looked as if he wasn’t being troubled by what happened two days ago. “Wait, these are my paper notes , master brought them here?” Marco was calm as usual.

The others looked at him then took a deep breath, “ Marco!!!”.

Alice called for him as they all bowed, making him surprised.

“We deeply apologize , we misunderstood your attitude. And we misunderstood your objectives, We hope you forgive us!!!”.

They all said with a sad look on their faces.

Marco glared at them then held his bag taking out a strange bubble, without a second thought Marco blew it releasing the water inside at them.

“You!! you want to be dead!!!” They were pissed as Marco sighed at their face with an annoyed look.

“Now that’s the spirit. Since when you guys apologize to me, man, I wasted a funny item I was planning to give Sophie. Thank goodness I bought two from that place” Marco ignored their apologies straight in their faces.

Seeing how he reacted, Emilis started laughing out loud.

“I guess you got the answer for your questions!!!” he said then grinned a satisfied smile after that.

“Questions? Well, I don’t really care about it. Anyway from now on I decided to do what I want ! I’m a red mermaid member too and I’ll get my seat and sit on top along with everyone here. We don’t really give a shit about what the others say anyway” Marco said as he took a seat sipping coffee for himself.

“Sigh, I guess you got all our bad habits and mixed them up inside you, I like that!!” Xavier took a seat next to him, grinning a smile first.

“Since you’ll be going like that I guess, It’s better to punish you!!”.

Alice yelled as she sipped coffee on his head from behind while Alex slapped his cheeks after kneeling to his side, then Zack pinched his ears as Shoko yelled in it.

“That is what you deserve when you mess with us. Tomorrow’s training will start at ten, you gotta prepare yourself and same goes for Carla, it’s ok to prank her if you want” Alice talked to him as he was cleaning his head.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Ok, I’ll see what I can do. Can I bring Sophie and Arthur with me?”

Marco responded and asked at the same time. Alice and the rest thought it was strange since up to now he was only trying to get them out of the image of the euro society so they can stay safe, however that sudden suggestion cleared his image as well. It showed that he was fully aware of what he needs to do now.

“They’re the most welcomed, after all they’re red mermaid family members too!!” Emilis responded as he gave Marco back his notes.

After that small punishment, Marco returned home taking Shoko on his way too. He made them far more relieved from what they were thinking about his situation so far, they talked through the stuff before heading out and so Emilis told him it was best to keep stuff until tomorrow.

“I guess, they’ll be asleep so I’m gonna open the door slowly” Marco mumbled as he was talking to Yuna.

She was still laughing as much as she could because she was there the whole time.

“The lights are on. Strange….”

Marco said as he slowly opened the doors. He was surprised to hear the laughs of the three of them from the living room.

“Gahahaha!! you can’t beat me if I have all that soap in my arms!! Sophie, that’s not fair!!!” Arthur was roaring with laughs in his face playing with Carla and Sophie.

The three of them moved some space in the living room and covered the rest of the furniture so it wouldn’t get wet.

“Seems like they’re having fun and didn’t notice me yet, I’ll get something to drink”.

Marco passed through the kitchen to the hallway so he could get to his room. On his side, he took a can of soda then went ahead, he put down his bags then got back to the kitchen, taking a seat at the table watching calmly. He realized that they didn’t notice him because of his silent movements.

“Ahahaha!! I can’t go any more!! let’s see, it’s this late….”.

Carla was laughing while catching her breath. She looked at the watch on the wall above the door of the kitchen as she saw Marco drinking his soda. He was pretty much calm as he was having a poker face on him.

“Marco nii returned!!!” Sophie said as she saw him too.

Marco didn’t really react to what Sophie said as he looked aside to Arthur who was gulping his breath from fear. Marco drank his soda all at once then took out from his pocket the same bubble as earlier. Carla didn’t say a thing then Sophie rushed to Marco so she could hug him, he patted Sophie’s head without saying a word then tapped her head to make her look at the bubble.

The next moment that Sophie and Carla looked at the bubble it splashed in their faces.

“There’s no way you’re gonna sleep without cleaning all of this, the three of you,” Marco said as he was catching Arthur with his chains.

Sophie pouted but Marco looked at her with a calm look, as if he was threatening her and so she calmed down doing what he wanted along with Arthur.

“Marco… I!”.

Carla was about to explain herself and apologize for what happened two days ago therefore Marco slapped her cheek. She flustered, holding her face.

“Eh?! Why did…?!?!!”.

Before she could speak again Marco slapped the other side too.

“You!!!!!? Ahh!!!” She was about to speak again but Marco slapped her again.

“What tha?!” Arthur said but Marco looked at him with the same look from earlier.

“So you got back to your senses?” Marco addressed Carla who was caressing her cheeks.

“You damn!! bastard!! Why did you slap me!!?” she asked in a flustered way trying to hold her words in front of Sophie and Arthur.

“That’s because you said some really hurtful words that made me discouraged for a small time. I decided to slap your cheeks every time you would say that or belittle me” Marco responded while taking another soda “And same goes for you two there, playing with water and soap while I’m not here is really a hit of something” Marco said with a bad tempered voice however somehow he wasn’t angry but more like just surprised and at the same time mad at what they did.

The next day,

“Ugh, I’m tired!! Although, I wasn’t expecting you to return so suddenly, what’s gotten into you?!” Carla asked as she seemed to be back to her usual high spirit self.

“I told you I needed some time to think. I went cleaning some dungeons in a different land. It was, I guess, some foreign country” Marco responded as the two were eating breakfast.

They went to sleep late so Arthur and Sophie were still asleep.

“Huh?! A foreign country?! Are you kidding me?!”.

She didn’t believe him at first but looking at how he kept using the bubble pocket to splash water in her face, that made her believe him.

“Fine!! How did you get there anyway in two days too?!”

Carla asked then Marco stopped eating.

“That’s a bit of my own secret. Wake them up so we can head to the restaurant now” Marco responded, finishing his food quickly to get another round.

“You’re really eating way too much recently, aren’t you looking after your body again?” she said after noticing that he added more meat.

“Hmm? Slurp! Well, I’m constantly training on something that consumes euro particles, I’m eating to replenish stamina” Marco responded with no more explanation.

“At least try to eat with no weird noises, sighsss!!”.

Carla didn’t understand but she kept calm on his acting. After eating a large breakfast, Marco closed the house’s door, going out last.

“Marco nii!! Is there a party again?! I wanna help!!” Sophie said as the four of them were walking.

“Well, we are going to train our bodies today!! like we used to do with the old man!!” Marco responded then patted her head.

Seeing how Sophie reacted when she heard Marco’s words, Arthur and Carla looked at each other trying to figure out what he meant. In the end, they reached the restaurant and entered from the backdoor.

“Good morning!!!” Sophie said happily as she met with Alice.

“Good morning!! Sophie chan!!” Alice greeted her back.

“You’re late the four of you, and I said that you forgot” Xavier came from the other door taking some dirty cups.

“Sorry, we didn’t sleep early so it wasn’t in our hands,” Carla responded, putting her coat on the chair.

“Forget it. Master said that the training ground is not off limits but we need to minimize the use of euro so it’s up to Alex to determine our daily training program” Alice finished her cup of coffee standing.

“Means that we can have some action!! Yosh !!” Arthur was also enthusiastic about it, making Marco feel something was off.

On the other side, Xavier and Alice looked at him feeling that he was just acting out of a child's feelings, being happy to see explosions and stuff, little did they know what he holds within him.

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