Chapter 23 - Aftermath and Festival

When Marc woke up, the first thing he felt was the unfamiliar bed he's laying in that felt like sleeping on concrete. Never in his life or the previous, has he seen such a shitty bed before. He would rather sleep in the wild like him and Rofta has been doing the last few months.

"Fuck, whoever put me on this bed wanted revenge. I can't feel my back, I think the bed crippled me." Marc complained internally before he tried to get off the torture apparatus, but before he could get off a hand pushed him down.

"You shouldn't get off the bed, you should rest some more." Marc heard the owner of the hand's voice and it was Lisa. She wanted him to lie down and rest more, but Marc had other thoughts.

"Woman, do you want me to die? I'm positive if I'm on this bed for much more I would look like The Hunchback of Notre Dame. My back is killing me and I'm not even 16-years old yet god, dammit." Marc didn't take Lisa's concern kindly.

"!?" Lisa didn't know what to say after hearing Marc's outburst. She wondered if the bed was that bad as he said, and couldn't help sitting on it. Her curious nature was fully released when she was with Marc. Any other time she would hide it, but she somehow didn't feel the need to it in front of him.

After sitting on the bed and found nothing wrong with it, she mumbled "The bed is not that bad? It's just a normal bed...And what's The Hunchback of Notre Dame?"

Although she mumbled it, Marc heard and understood it. He couldn't help having a wry smile and say "You actually call this a bed? It's harder than Antonio's pavement I wreaked the other day, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a story about a deformed baby who grows up…" And Marc told her the story to distract her and get off the cruel bed, but when he got off, he felt something was wrong and he could feel a breeze between his legs. He looked like a superhero who just defeated the villain in bed with his hands on his hips and chest up...and completely naked with his butt on display for Lisa to see.

Marc looked down and what greeted him was Marc jr. He stood still and felt a little awkward because Lisa hasn't said anything and just sat on the bed frozen.

Marc turned his head over his shoulder and looked at her before saying with a big smile "It is fine now. Why? Because I am here!" And he squees his butt muscles, unfreezing her.

"KYYYYAAAAA…" And she screamed her lungs out with a girly cry, that took out this world's first symbol of peace before she ran away…

…

5 minutes later Marc felt someone kicking him with not so much force, and when he looked up he found Rofta looking at him weirdly because he laid on the ground butt naked with his ass in the air. Rofta heard Lisa scream and run out of the room and stormed in to see what happened. But what he found was out of his expectations, or maybe not.

"What the hell are you doing? And what happened to that Heartfilia lady?" Rofta couldn't help asking while still kicking Marc.

"Sigh, she couldn't take the majestic view of the symbol of peace, and got bashful." Marc shamelessly replied while still laying on the floor, trying to stop Rofta from kicking him.

"Pfft...You? The symbol of peace? That won't happen ever!!" Rofta couldn't help finding it ridiculous and wondered how Marc can spout so much crap.

"Maybe not. It also comes with too many responsibilities so I already quit." Marc didn't protest about his claim and just got up from the floor.

"So what happened with you and Genno? Did you fight too?" With a curious expression, Marc asked.

Rofta's eye twitched before he sighed "It couldn't even be called a fight. Genno instantly killed one of the three assassins with his Wind Magic and caught the other. I fought the last one but it was too easy because he moved like a puppet without a will. Against my Inverted World Magic, he stood no chance, so I just used him to test a new technique I have been working on." Rofta explained with a disappointed voice about what happened on his end while Marc was fighting.

"What a bummer for you~. I had a good fight against somebody who used Shadow Magic to make multiple hands, though, in my opinion, his use of daggers was much better than his magic. He always stopped me from touching his body by trying to slash my wrists. Oh, and he used poison on his daggers." Marc said with a smirk on his face that Rofta wanted to punch away.

"…Is that so. By the way how long are you planning to be naked, wear some cloth…" What was even more annoying was that Marc was still naked while smirking?

"What? Are you some bashful virgin girl too or something? Or maybe me questioning your sexuality was spot on? It shouldn't matter if I'm in my birthday suit while talking to you, that's what real friends are all about. Bro's before hoes, if you know what I mean. Though I would properly not follow that saying, as a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do…" Marc began spouting bullshit again and justified his actions. Rofta tried to ignore his usual crap, but when his sexuality was questioned yet again, he couldn't hold back from punching him.

10 minutes later both Marc and Rofta had bumps and bruises, a black eye each, and a bloody nose from brawling. Marc had no problems with his body after sleeping for over 6 hours.

"Have you heard about the Adventurer's Guild?" Rofta asked after they calmed down.

"Adventurer's Guild...? No what's that?" Marc knew about the guilds that will be established in the future but his knowledge is outdated if it could be called that? When he read Fairy Tail's manga, he always wondered if guilds existed before Fairy Tail was created by Mavis and her friends, so he feigned ignorance even if he already had many ideas about it.

"Genno told me about the Adventurer's Guild..." and Rofta began retelling the things he was told by Genno.

.

.

.

.

.

"LET'S JOIN!!" Marc energetically yelled, making Rofta block his ears.

"QUIT YELLING!!" Rofta yelled himself before they began discussing when to travel to the capital and join the Adventurer's Guild. They decided to leave on the second day of the festival.

...

The days quickly went by and it's already the first day of the festival that Master Fatman gracefully 'promised' to sponsor Maquarry City.

Marc just planned to spend the money he won from playing Antonio. Yesterday Marc realized that going to a festival with empty pockets would be a waste so he rather easily baited Antonio and some of the other employees of Calcul-Stone Company into gambling with money and other things.

And let's just say Marc's pockets aren't empty anymore and Antonio lost everything on him. Yes, everything.

He won enough pocket change to taste every food stall, or so he thought until a blonde bombshell of a woman decided to follow behind him without saying anything. Marc felt awkward just stuffing his mouth with such good food while she just watched. He had no idea why she didn't say anything or bought something for herself. After the first few stalls, he just ignored her, but the food began somehow began losing its taste and he knew just why.

"Fuck, are you just going to follow behind me the whole time or what? Sit down and eat this." Marc had enough of this awkward atmosphere and ordered Lisa to sit down. She wanted to protest and say she was fine, but Marc forced her to sit down on a bench and shut her up by forcefully putting a roasted chicken leg in her moth.

She looked like a cute stuffed hamster and was surprised by Marc's actions. He just enjoyed the look of the cute animal for a few seconds before he sat down beside her, eating his own roasted chicken leg.

After both of them ate it, Marc spoke up "I haven't had enough food yet, let's go to another stall." Marc and Lisa then proceeded to devour food from each stall, though it was mostly Marc who ate 4 times more than her. She wondered how he could eat so much when he doesn't have as much Magic Power as her. More Magic Power means a person needs more energy taken in to use.

While they were eating soup, Marc warned Lisa after he himself has eaten 8 bowls "You should be careful, you will get fat if you continue eating like that!" She had only eaten two portions from this stall, but Marc began finding more dirt than money in his pockets, so he wanted her to be conscious of her weight and eat less from now on.

"Hmph, you don't have to worry. I won't ever get fat with my high Magic Power." Obviously, she got dissatisfied when he mentioned her weight as any other lady would, but she had an idea of what he's was trying to do, after all his expression turned sourer and sourer when he found it hard to fish up money.

"Can I get a bowl more?" Lisa asked Marc and he couldn't say no because people were looking at them standing out in more than one way. Marc because he looked like a little glutton with and an endless stomach. Lisa because of her beauty that was fully shown as she was wearing a cute white summer dress and a pair of sandals matching his.

"…Sure," Said Marc downcast while using his last Jewels to buy her a bowl of soup. Then he continued to eat his last bowl of soup very slowly. He wanted to enjoy it while it lasts, but when he hit the bottom of the bowl, he looked like a mistreated puppy. When Lisa saw it, she couldn't help feeling she did something bad to him and completely forgot he mentioned her weight and said "You can eat more, I will pay from now on." Marc didn't need to hear that twice immediately ordered a few portions more. The puppy and hamster then continued eating from every stall they saw while occasionally trying some games like Water Coin Drop, Bobbing for Apples, and Spin the Wheel. Marc wondered if Morgan Freeman (God) would give him new magic if he won the jackpot, but sadly he didn't.

***

(A/N: I was called in for work starting today so I didn't have time to post this earlier, but as they say "Better late than never". I will release future chapters about this time from now on too, so make sure to save some Power Stones for this story if you like it.)

(Words: 1851)