Transmigrated as a Ghost

Having finished up his gathering with Clarisa, and Charles, Marcus headed back to Mrazivý's room.

Except when he arrived, he found an unexpected group had gathered there.

Among them were all of the princes and princesses in the same faction as Mrazivý and it seemed they were having an intense discussion.

"Ah perfect timing Marcus. We have some last-minute details to iron out." Frostine said as he entered.

Sitting down, Marcus listened to what they had to say, and nodded along.

"So, at tomorrow's reception after the meeting you will go around with Mrazivý and myself, and we will introduce you to the nobles on my side. That way everyone will know where your allegiance lies." 

"Understood." Marcus said.

He knew that Frostine wanted to show him off as the mysterious new honorary prince the king surprised everyone with. This would tell all of the nobles that Marcus, who seemed to have won the current king's favor, was supporting Frostine to be the next monarch.

"We may drive a few nobles away that hate you for bringing down Permafrost, but your mysterious alure will bring plenty more forward. Oh, and Mrazivý, I recommend you stay close by, you know how shrewd those nobles can be. I am sure that plenty of them will want to marry their daughters to him." Frostine said winking at Mrazivý.

However, instead of the hot-headed reaction that Frostine was looking for, Mrazivý just sighed and said, "There is no need to worry. Even if they dangled a bunch of helpless stunning women in front of him, he would not take the bait."

Hearing this Mrazivý's siblings thought that this was her way of saying that Marcus was undyingly loyal to her, but at this point Marcus realized it was about his own lack of making a move.

"Hm, well stay close anyway. The guild master of the adventures guild is going to be in attendance tomorrow and having you with us will help smooth things over."

After saying that the meeting slowly wound down, as the night was getting late, and everyone wanted to get some rest for the coming day.

Thus, everyone soon left, and Marcus retired to his guest bedroom, and decided to sleep, more to pass the time quicker than anything else.

'Just a couple more days and this will be over. Then there will be the auction and I can get my hands on some premium materials.'

With his main reason for being at the meeting already over Marcus was now thinking about his next endeavor. 

He had been working hard towards growing his funds for the auction that was coming ever closer.

'Looking at past records and talking to Thabon, I have figured out I am going to need probably at least around thirty-thousand gold coins for a winning bid on one of the sets of adamantine bars. However, to make everything I want I will probably need at least two, but ideally I would come away with three.'

However, all Marcus had on him currently was around seventy thousand gold, but he still had a few ventures that would make him some decent money.

First were the items he currently had for sale in the Blazegram Forge's shop, and the other would be the weapons and armor he was putting up for auction.

He estimated that after receiving the money from these two sources he would have somewhere around a hundred thousand gold.

'Still even with that amount it may be difficult to secure three sets. Also, I should try to conserve some money in case a very rare item catches my eye. I already know that there are secret items not listed in the catalog meant to draw out bigger spenders. Maybe I should try to maximize my wallet. I have a decent number of natural treasures I could sell, though I was holding on to them for Blitz and Lilia.'

While Marcus was toiling over what to do for the upcoming auction, the time soon got away from him, and he did not realize that it was time for them to go until Mrazivý came an entered his room.

"Hurry up the meeting starts in thirty minutes, and you need to be there, or it will seem disrespectful when you show up tot eh reception afterwards." Mrazivý said as she saw Marcus laying around lost in thought.

Getting himself together, Marcus got dressed into his suit, and met Mrazivý at in the front room of her suite.

"I am ready, let us go." Marcus said seeing Mrazivý was waiting for him.

After that the two of them headed towards the grand hall and made it to the entrance where the members of the royal family would be entering.

Of course, as Marcus stood there next to Mrazivý he received plenty of stares from some of the royal members, especially the ones who did not know him.

Luckily the awkward scene did not last long, before the meeting began and Marcus walked on stage and sat down with he other royal family members, taking his place next to Mrazivý.

'Well at least today I have no role in the meeting and can just sit here and think.'

Soon the day's meeting began.

The second day was the one most nobles considered the most important as they negotiated important resources, from magic core supplies, to troop placement.

"The town I govern has had an influx of population. We need a greater disruption of food."

"Wait, just because the city my family governs has not been attacked in thirty years does not mean we need less cores. We demand that we receive our share. What would we do if a monster or beast rampage happened?"

"River Landing recently had to defend against a massive siege from an ice ant colony. The town was nearly overrun because our defenses are not up to par. We may be situated far in the north and are not threaten by the kingdom to the south, but this recent event goes to show we are far too under protected. The Great Gome Woods is teeming with powerful beasts and monster within its depths, and while it may not be common for any of them to come down to River Landing. This recent incident shows just how vulnerable we are."

Discourse along these lines continued for hours as the nobles argued about what resources they needed, or about who was paying more or less taxes. 

Certainly, the royal family who was the heart of the kingdom did their best, but in the end, there are always limited resources even for a prosperous kingdom and some territories were upset about how little they had received.

"Ahhhh-hhaaaa" 

Letting out a big yawn, Marcus could care less about what was going on.

Even though he was a noble, he had no territory of his own and had no need to receive any sort of resources from the kingdom.

Still, he did get a good kick out of watching the viceroy of Loursend, Marquis Krenston squirm as troops, magic cores, and food supplies were diverted away from his city.

This came from a two-pronged problem, one from the mass exodus from when the giant beam of light and darkness hit Marcus and scared a number of people away from the city. And the other came from allocating more resources to River Landing, that was the first major settlement in between the kingdom, and the wilds to the north.

Eventually the day's meeting came to a close as the allocation of resource had been settled, leaving some nobles satisfied while others were steaming.

And with the second day's end came a reception where people could talk amongst each other and enjoy the hospitality of the royal castle.