Crossing over a large stone bridge Marcus turned his gaze outside the carriage window and looked down at the manmade lake they were going over.
Last time he was here had been for the party that he had attend with Mrazivý. During that time, he had made quite the show by crashing the party in his form as Marcus and dancing with her.
It was a pretty special memory for him since it was around then that he had started to realize his feelings for her.
‘There are beasts in the water.’ Marcus thought feeling the presence of a few relatively powerful entities swimming around.
From the feeling he was getting from his life sense he could feel that the ones in his range were probably from level fifteen to twenty-three.
Certainly not any threat to him, but for the majority of people this would be more than enough of a counter measure to prevent them from reaching the shore of the island where the viceroy’s castle was.
Soon enough though the water was out of range of his life sense skill, and they arrived in front of the viceroy’s castle.
Waiting for them was a retinue of servants that all bowed towards Marcus as he stepped out.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThen the one in the lead who was a fairly old man walked up and addressed Marcus.
“Lady Irene, I am my lord’s head attendant Bastian, and will be showing you to the parlor where his is waiting for you. Should you need anything, please do not hesitate to ask me or any of the other staff. You are our lord’s esteemed guest, and we will do whatever is necessary to make your visit here comfortable.” The butler named Bastion said.
‘Damn! His name is close. He almost has the stereotypical butler’s name you see in tons of media on Earth.’ Marcus thought as he heard the butler’s name which was close to Sebastian.
Though he quickly pushed this pretty much meaningless thought aside and followed the many servants into the castle.
Swiftly Marcus and Clara who was his only attendant were taken to a beautiful parlor with an entire wall made out of crystal glass that allowed a lot of natural light in and looked out onto a stunning garden.
In the room already waiting was the viceroy of Lethallan, Count Vendrick.
Along with him were two guardian knights and a few more servants.
When Marcus entered, the man in question got up from his seat and hastily moved over to greet him
‘This is unusual.’ He thought seeing this.
Normally as the one of a higher station Count Vendrick should have waited for Marcus to greet him, but he instead made the first move.
“Lady Irene, it is a pleasure to meet you again after all this time. I was very surprised to learn that you were in my humble city. Please have a seat and enjoy the refreshments my servants have prepared.” The count said as he personally brought Marcus to his seat.
After that Clara acted as a poison tester for the cakes, cookies, and tea in front of Marcus.
Of course, he had no need of this, as no continental poison could affect him since he was not a body of flesh and blood but simply a solidified soul. Still appearances had to be kept up.
‘Hm pretty good stuff. Though I wonder what he could be buttering me up for.’ Marcus thought while enjoying the refreshments.
For a few minutes the viceroy just talked about idle things and asked Marcus about what he had been doing in Lethallan, before getting to the reason that he had asked him here today.
“I am sure by now you know how famous you have gotten Lady Irene. It is said that you are now as good if not even better than you master Thabon at forging and have even recently had multiple contracts from the royal family.” The viceroy said with a serious look while he met Marcus’ eyes.
“Yes, I have gotten fairly good at my profession and can say that my skill level in forging has reached eight. Though whether I am better than my master might be a stretch. He still has many more years than I do under his belt as a forgmaster.” Marcus said in response.
However, hearing that Marcus’ skill level was at level eight took the viceroy’s breath away.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmAnyone having a skill at level seven was already considered pretty legendary, but for most they would never even meet someone with a level eight skill.
“Truly you are more talented than I had imagined. And to that end I was hoping that you would fulfill a request of mine.” The viceroy said as he motioned over to Bastion.
Quickly the old servant did as his master commanded and brought him a small pouch that was clearly a magic bag.
“Recently my second son who is an exemplary knight came back with his company that had entered the Great Gome Woods Dungeon. It was a six-year long campaign and dunging that time they managed to take down five boss monsters. Among their spoils was this.”
Opening up the bag the viceroy took out a gleaming purple ingot that immediately garnered Marcus’ attention. Before him was the unmistakable strongest metal in the world, amethros.
It was so rare that he had only gotten three ingots from Tralenstein’s royal vault and Borealia only had around two dozen.
Holding out his hand, Marcus asked if he could examine the ingot and the viceroy happily handed it over to him.
‘Yep, it is definitely amethros.’ Marcus thought as he channeled some mana into it.
There was no other metal that conducted the energy that all beings had which could be used to strengthen one’s body, cast magic spells, and all manner of other things.
Once he was satisfied, Marcus put the ingot back down and handed it back over to the viceroy.
“So, what is it that you want me to do? I doubt that you plan on just giving me this ingot.”