short, simple, and to the point at the moment. A clear sense of humor that lines up with me quite nicely, and a decent mix of story and gameplay. I've already got a few theories on the lore based off of what we've seen so far, of course, my most clear theory being, and forgive those who'd see this is a spoiler for some reason...
Given his flashbacks and cementing of a hero mentality, 'Merc' is either the actual former hero removed and 'retired' from the party to be replaced with someone else, or in a more realistic outcome, a former member of the hero's party after a sour argument had them split up. It'd tie in quite effectively with Autumn's father and his affiliation, sparking more intrigue and personal goals from the both of them when it comes to the potential big confrontation. I've already got a theory or two about potential content in the next few chapters, including the ironic twist of Merc avoiding the hero's party, and le stranger eventually meeting up with the two and revealing where he left to. Cue internal discourse followed by a reveal of what kind of history merc and the hero had.
But once again, this is all intense speculation based on the patterns and plot contrivances of most other stories.