After having successfully accomplishing his revenge against Viscount Poulsen, Marcus floated out of the viscount's residence and began heading back towards his own.
Floating over the streets, once Marcus was a good distance away from Poulsen's estate he found a quite corner and took on his tangible form.
Walking leisurely down the street Marcus could not help but smile slightly since he had finally managed to get rid of the person that had tried to kill him.
'That is a huge weight off my shoulders. Now I will not have to worry about him coming after me again.'
Letting out a sigh of relief Marcus continued down the street and soon was standing in front of the gate that separated his estate from the rest of the city.
Reaching for the key to the gate Marcus heard a shout coming from the guard station saying, "You there, this is the estate of Baronetess Irene Geist. Back away from the gate and state your business."
Hearing this Marcus looked up and saw one of the maids he had hired standing in the guard station wearing leather armor and having a sword attached to her hip.
Marcus smiled seeing this and said, "Amy it is me, I have come back after completing my business."
Amy the maid who was currently on guard duty took a good look in the dim light and recognized her master.
"I am sorry Lady Irene I did not recognize you immediately, please allow me to get the gate for you."
Amy quickly came out of the guard station and opened the gate before giving him a slight bow and saying, "Lady Irene would you like me to accompany you back to manor."
Marcus simply shook his head and said, "No that is fine, I will be okay on my own, you stay here and continue the good work."
Marcus left Amy to her post and began walking down the path towards the front of his mansion and could see that the path had been groomed and was no longer overgrown with grass.
Walking onto the front porch Marcus approached the front door and opened it allowing the light inside the mansion to flow out into the outside dusk.
Looking into the entryway Marcus could see that the chandelier that was hanging from the ceiling was actually lit up and lighting the entire area.
As Marcus walked into his home that he had been away from for two days, he could immediately tell that the place was different.
The atmosphere of the place felt completely different, and the building appeared to be spotless.
It was not long before Marcus was found by one of the maids, who quickly bowed and welcomed him home.
"Grace, I would like to thank you for your hard work. I can see that you and the others have gotten this place into pretty good shape. Ah and would you go find Clara for me I wish to speak to her."
Grace gave slight bow before going off in search of Clara, and after three minutes, had come back with Marcus' head maid.
"You called for me Lady Irene."
As Clara gave him a slight bow Marcus smiled and said, "Yes if you would not mind could you give me and update on how the restoration of the mansion is going."
Clara then informed Marcus of all that they had accomplished in the last couple of days.
'They really have been busy. They managed to clean the entire place, have gotten a few pieces of furniture delivered and are waiting on some more, the kitchen is now fully stocked. And they found a basement I missed on my first time though that actually has a mana furnace that provides power to the entire mansion.'
Marcus was quite impressed since the eleven maids he had hired were working incredibly hard and had already accomplished quite a bit and were soon to have the place back in pristine condition.
Unfortunately, the disconcerting thing was how much money they had gone through. In the last two days they had already spent a bit over a hundred gold, but Marcus knew that owning a mansion was going to be expensive.
Thanking Clara for getting things in order, he began walking down the halls and stood in front of Lilia's room.
Opening the door Marcus saw Lilia currently studying under the instruction of Riley.
However, when they both saw the door open and Marcus walk in, Riley gave a polite bow while Lilia ran up to Marcus and gave him a hug.
Marcus patted Lilia's head while saying, "I am glad to see you are working hard, I know that this has been difficult and new for you but just know that you do not have to work hard to please me, just do whatever you want."
Lilia looked up at Marcus and said, "I know, I am really enjoying learning new things, while things were peacefully back in the forest, there are so many new and wonderous things for me to learn here."
Nodding his head, Marcus told Lilia to keep at it and do her best before leaving to find his room and deciding to get some rest since he had nothing else he needed to do today.
Waking up the next day Marcus went down to the kitchen and found Jenna cooking breakfast.
Smelling the delicious food that was being prepared Marcus headed to the dinning room and waited for the food to be served.
After breakfast Marcus had everyone gather in the main living room where he said, "I would personally like to thank you all for you hard work during these last two days. Now then I need to inform all of you that I will soon be going to learn the art of the forge and may be gone for an extended period of time. However, I will stick around for the next three days and make sure that everything goes smoothly."
All of the maids looked a bit surprised when Marcus said that he was going to learn how to forge since it was not a common profession and was incredibly hard to peruse, especially as a noble.
However, they could see the confidence in Marcus' expression and knew it was not there place to give any unwanted advice.
As such the next three days went by and many people came in and out of Geist Manor, some bringing in furniture, a few fixing broken windows, and the most important in Marcus' view was the troop that had fixed the plumbing.
Sitting in a nice warm bath, Marcus began planning out how he was going to approach learning how to forge weapons and armor.
He had the letter from Aria that would recommend him to the best forgemaster in the kingdom, but from the way she had put it Marcus imagined this person to be hardheaded and eccentric.
'I just hope they do not look down on me because of my dainty form as Irene, if I could still go as Marcus that would not be a problem, but I really do not need to be chased after bounty hunters and the kingdom right now.'
Sighing since Marcus could already picture the forgemaster he was going to see to be a large burly man that would say things like "Forging is a tough man's job, get back into the kitchen and start cooking."
Of course, these were just cliches that Marcus was imaging and likely to be pretty far from reality since on Mirrion one's level determined their strength.
Getting out of the bath Marcus dried himself off and put on a sturdy set of black clothing that would not get damaged easily.
He then quickly checked the items he had in his item box, and when he was certain that he had what he needed Marcus said goodbye to the maids and Lilia.
Standing on the front porch Marcus called Blitz over and when he arrived Marcus jumped onto his back and began heading towards the gate.
Having the maid on duty open up the gate Marcus entered onto the streets of the kingdom's capital, Boreas.
Many people around looked at Marcus with inquisitive gazes. At this point the news of Marcus inhabiting the cursed mansion had circulated around and many people were intrigued to get to know the new noble that had appeared out of nowhere.
However, no one had had the guts yet to be the first to visit Marcus' mansion and were waiting a bit longer to make sure that something bad did not happen.
Pulling out the map of Boreas Marcus had recently procured. He looked at the possible routes he could take and after deciding the best way to go Marcus directed Blitz down the road.
Speeding through the city streets Marcus traveled quite quickly with Blitz's speed, and soon he was parked in front of a large building that had plumbs of white smoke and steam coming out from the top of it.
'This should be it, Blazegram forge.'
Looking out at the place he was hoping to learn how to forge at, Marcus dismounted Blitz and tied him off before entering the building.
Walking inside Marcus was greeted with a wave of heat and he saw deeper inside the orange glow of flames.
Sitting in front of a large desk Marcus saw a gruff man currently sharpening a dagger and as Marcus walked up to him the man said, "What will it be, are you here to pick up and order, do you want to have something commission, or do you want to look through our readymade items."
Marcus hearing this shook his head and said, "I am actually here to see Thabon Blazegram."
The man stopped sharpening his dagger and for the first time looked directly at Marcus and was surprised to see such a beautiful young woman standing in front of him.
However, this did not change his response as he said, "The owner does not see people unannounced and unless you are his secret lover or something, I doubt he is going to see you at all. If you were hoping to have something made by him, you should give up, he only makes weapons for people he likes and will even turn away royals. There are plenty of other young talented forgemasters that do good work if you were looking to have something made."
Marcus just continued to shake his head and pulled out the letter that Aria had given to him and said, "I actually have a letter of introduction from Grand Archmage Aria, and I have come here to try to be Thabon's apprentice."
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