Now that he had purchased and formed a seal with Blitz his new bolt stag companion, Marcus drove his carriage onto the main road and head back towards the Lush Villa.
As Marcus drove his carriage along the streets many people gazed at Blitz who was pulling the carriage and wondered who must be the powerful noble or wealthy merchant inside the carriage.
Of course, if they knew that the only one inside was just an eleven-year-old girl that currently had no title or relation to a powerful organization they would started spitting up blood.
It was not every day that a carriage was pulled along by a rare grade magical beast and anyone who recognized the bolt stag were immediately envious.
Even the other nobles who were meandering around the town looked at the bolt stag with greed in their eyes.
Believe it or not even with the greatest wealth and social standing without the power to back them up no one could make a rare grade beast bow not even a king.
After traveling down the streets at a good pace while attracting the attention of many onlookers, Marcus and Lilia arrived back at the Lush Villa with a few tails who were hoping to find out the identity of the people in the carriage.
Unfortunately for the people that had followed them, Marcus pulled the carriage into the Lush Villa's garage area where guests could store their vehicles and beasts.
Once they were inside the member of the staff that was guiding them brought them to an area the was filled with expensive looking carriages and located a spot for them to park.
Once Marcus had parked his carriage, he got off the coachman stand and began detaching Blitz from the harness.
During this time the man that had escorted them came up and started chatting up Marcus.
"Hello there miss, it is rare to see such a beautiful coachman such as yourself, how about when you have finished attending to your lord or lady I treat you to diner. I know the chef and can get the best meals for the two of us."
Marcus looked at the man flabbergasted he did not think he was going to get propositioned for a date as soon as he entered the Lush Villa.
'Huh, maybe I should start wearing a veil or something, I understand that I look attractive, and my ghostly qualities give me an ethereal beauty, but I am tired of getting these offers.'
"No thanks, and I think there may be a bit of confusion, I am not the driver for some noble I am the owner of this carriage and the only one inside is my little sister."
The man looked at Marcus with a look of doubt he figured that this was just a way of being turned down without having his feelings hurt.
That was until he saw the door to the carriage open and the only person that came out was a young girl.
At that moment the employee of the Lush Villa felt a sense of dread since he realized that he had just propositioned one of the guests and not just one of their employees.
Upon realizing his mistake, the man bowed deeply and said, "I am sorry if I offended you my lady, please forgive."
A cold sweat began to run down the man's face since if one of the guest put in a complaint about him at the very least, he would be demoted and have his pay docked or even get fired.
Marcus let out a sigh and said, "Raise your head, I have not intention of taking any action against you so just lead us to where I can leave Blitz and we will be on our way."
The man nearly collapsed on the ground in relief, but still managed to collect himself and lead Marcus to the area he could house Blitz.
Once they arrived Marcus could see that the area was a large outdoor pen with dozens of beast in it from normal horses to powerful magical beasts.
As Marcus lead Blitz inside he sent it a mental command to play nice and not cause any trouble since it was the strongest beast that was currently there.
Blitz gave Marcus a nod and went to rest under the shade of one of the trees finding a nice spot and laying down.
With that out of the way Marcus reentered the premises and was walking with Lilia back to their room when he heard a loud growl come from Lilia's stomach.
Lilia then blushed a bit since the noise was quite noticeable, but it actually made Marcus realize he had skipped lunch in the excitement of purchasing a magical beast.
'I need to be more careful from now on, just because I do not get hungry and have to eat does not mean Lilia doesn't.'
Marcus turned towards Lilia and said, "I think I am a bit hungry how about we try out the restaurant here and get a little food."
Lilia looked up at Marcus and gave big nod with her head right before her stomach let out another growl.
The two of them then proceeded to the restaurant on the second floor of the hotel and stood in front of the waiters station.
It was not long before a member of the staff came and wrote down their room number and led them to a table.
Once they were seated the waiter brought them a couple glasses of water and asked if they would like anything else to drink.
Marcus looked over the drink menu thinking about ordering some wine but when he saw the prices put the drink menu down and said, "Just water is fine."
The waiter bowed his head and went away to serve other quests while Lilia and Marcus picked out what they wanted to eat.
Looking over the menu Marcus felt his wallet screaming in pain. Now that he did not have what seemed like an infinite amount of gold, Marcus was beginning to revert to his frugal ways.
Once he had finished perusing the menu, he looked at Lilia and said, "Do not get anything that cost more than one gold."
Of course, what Marcus did not know was that Lilia was having an even harder time with the prices on the menu since more than a few copper was a fortune to her.
'The difference between the lower and upper society really is vast, you could easily get through a month with just the price of one of these dishes.'
Soon the waiter came back to their table and asked them if they had decided what they wanted to order, and both Marcus and Lilia had gotten the cheapest meal on the menu that only cost twenty silver.
The waiter nodded and went back to the kitchen to deliver there order.
After waiting for thirty minutes their food had arrived and sitting in front of them was a fish on a bed of rice covered in a light lemon sauce surrounded by a medley of vegetables.
With the food in front of them both of them began eating and the delicious food began to leave their plate's fast.
However, when they were about halfway done with their meal, the lights in the restaurant dimmed before a spotlight hit the curtains on the stage in the room and a voice resounded through the entire restaurant.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a special surprise performance from her lady Maryam Valorre, the diamond of the frost."
After that announcement the curtains on the stage pulled back and a stunning woman with hair and skin as white as snow walked on stage and began singing.
The song immediately caught the attention of the surprised guest and everyone was enraptured by the lovely voice.
Even Marcus could not help but stare at the beautiful woman singing on stage as the lovely melody washed over his ears.
It even took him a moment to notice that Maryam Valorre was not human but when he saw her long pointy ears, he could immediately tell she was an elf.
Her song lasted for a good five minutes and when it ended the entire room broke into a round of applause.
Maryam Valorre's singing was know far and wide throughout Borealia and some people would stay at her hotel just to hear her sing.
She then procced to perform two more songs for the lucky few that were currently in the restaurant and when she was finished, she trained her eyes right on Marcus and walked towards him.
Marcus was surprised to see her coming right for him and even more so when she sat down at his table.
"Hello there, I am the owner of this hotel Maryam Valorre, it is an honor to have the new hero of River Landing stay at my establishment."
Marcus looked at her dumbfounded, he wondered how she knew who he was, especially since it was Wade who had prepared the rooms.
Maryam seeing the apprehension on Marcus' face said, "No need to worry, of course I would know when someone famous enters my hotel, in fact this impromptu show was put on especially for you. I have something I want to talk to you about so if you would not mind would you and your little sister accompany me to my room where we can talk in private."
Hearing this Marcus was astounded, he had no idea what she could want with him but, not wanting to anger the proprietor of the establishment he was staying at followed her out of the restaurant with Lilia in toe
When they entered Maryam's room, they were wide eyed and gawking at the majesty of the place that looked like a room fit for a queen.
However, Marcus quickly focused on the task at hand and sat down across from Maryam who was looking at them expectantly.
Once all the parties involved were sitting Maryam looked at Marcus and said, "I have heard good things about you from my sources and am glad I got the opportunity to talk to you before the other nobles. Let me just get right to the chase I want to join our families; you are a hot topic at the moment and your abilities are widely praised. I have even heard rumor that you may possess a blessing."
Marcus was astonished, he thought he might get a few proposals at some point after he received his title, but he was not expecting to be ambushed before then.
Sighing Marcus said as politely as possible so as to not anger Maryam, "I am flattered by the offer but I still have not even officially become a noble and marrying someone is the farthest thing from my mind. I have a number of goals I want to accomplish and stopping to get married is not one of them."
Maryam expression shifted to one of realization startling Marcus a bit before she said, "Oh I am sorry, I did not mean to make you believe I was trying to arrange a marriage with you, I was talking about you sister. My youngest grandson is currently ten this year and I was hoping to arrange for him to be betrothed to young Lady Lilia here."
As surprised as Marcus had been so far, hearing this nearly made his brain overheat. He had certainly expected some suitor to come for him, but Lilia, he had not even thought about it.
Lilia herself was looking quite confused and afraid, for a commoner like her that had lived out in a small logging community her entire life the prospect of an arranged marriage was horrifying.
Marcus got up from his seat and slammed his hand on the table and said, "I am not giving my little sister over to anyone, she is free to choose for herself who she loves when that time comes. She is way to young to think about marriage right now."
Marcus then stormed out of there dragging Lilia along, he hated the notion of using her as a political tool and even the mere mention of it had set him off.
'Well, that was an utter disaster, but it was a long shot. However, there are other way to get what I want so it is time for plan B.. I hope you are prepared Irene; you have jumped into a pool of sharks and many of them will do what ever it takes to get your blessing of iron.'
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶