Neptunia: Merc's Involvement

Chapter 13: Lowee - Rom's Uncertainty

"Uh?" Said Rom as she raised her head and before her expression turned into slight fear after seeing Alex. "Eeek! It's the bad guy!"

Seeing she was starting to panic, the young boy placed his hands in front of him to try and show he had no intention to harm her.

"H-Hey wait calm down! I won't do anything bad!" He said.

"Y-You won't?" She asked.

"Yes I promise! Let's just, please not make a scene out in public okay?" Pleaded the boy.

After a bit of waiting, Rom's uneasiness and fear went away as Alex sighed with relief before kneeling in front of her and extending his hand towards her to help her get up.

"Come on now. The floor's too cold to sit on." He said.

Rom looked at his hand and hesitated for a moment before slowly reaching out and grabbing it as the boy helped her up.

"There we go." He said while brushing the snow off of Rom's shoulders.

Alex looked around and noticed she was alone which was quite odd considering the twins would never leave the house without the other.

"Are you, by yourself Rom?" He asked as Rom nodded.

"Mina asked me and Ram......to buy some things….and Ram didn't want to." She said.

"Why not?"

"She said something about, um............a bucket and mud."

'Mud? Jesus Christ. Just what lengths is that girl willing to go to.' Thought Alex as he closed his eyes and sweat dropped.

After opening his eyes, he saw Rom picking up some of the cans lying around and decided to help her.

Once they picked up all of them and put them back into the bags, Alex looked at her again.

"I think that's all of them." He said while counting them.

Rom looked inside the bags, counted the cans as well and nodded.

"Yes..." She said.

She then picked up the large plastic bags again and lifted them.

While standing back up, Alex saw Rom had difficulty carrying the bags and extended his hand towards her again.

"Let me carry one." He said.

"B-But..."

"It's hard carrying too many bags at once, right?" He said while keeping his hand extended out. "Besides, I was heading back too. Might as well help you while I'm at it."

Rom was slightly doubtful at first, but agreed to accept Alex's help and gave one of the bags to him. Both of them then faced the castle once again and walked towards it.

On the way there, Rom looked at Alex a few times before she finally mustered the courage to speak to him.

"Um, Mr. Alex?" Asked Rom.

"Just Alex is fine Rom." Said Alex while turning his head to look at her.

"Then, Alex?" She said.

"What's up?" Responded the boy.

"Are you, really here to help Lowee?"

This question definitely caught Alex off guard as he didn't expect Rom of all people to ask that.

"Well, yeah obviously. I'm a mercenary. It's my job to help the people out." He responded.

"Then, why are you helping people? You're a kid like me and Ram right?"