With the unknown goblin threat dealt with, Marcus and Lilia made their way back into the village and gathered the attraction of everyone who was working.
Many of the villagers came up and greeted both of them asking how their trip was and if they had any trouble with the goblins.
Yet the two of them decided to keep silent about the huge horde of goblins so as to not worry the villagers and said that the path was now peaceful.
Of course, they were not lying about the path being safe now, since the goblin population in this part of the forest had been reduced by ninety-nine percent.
Soon the village chief heard of their return and came to greet them, and said, "I am glad you managed to get back to say your farewells. I know that this has been hard on the two of you, but I am glad that both of you are now prospering."
After thanking the village chief for his kind words Marcus went with him to the village's meeting hall so that they could discus the feast they had been planning, while Lilia went off to play with her friends.
"Chief, are you sure we can afford to slaughter twelve goats. I know that Irene did us a great service, but we have to think about our stores for the winter." One of the more economically conscious villagers said.
However, the chief just shook his head and said, "Irene here has already given us more than enough funds to replace any goats we might use. Once the soldiers come to clear out the woods, we can send some people back to River Landing in their wake to pick up some more."
Yet a few of the people were still a bit concerned with how extravagant the feast the chief was planning to prepare.
Of course, they did not know how much money that Marcus had just given the chief since if they did, they would all be in shock.
Coughing to get everyone's attention, Marcus waited for everyone to get quiet before saying, "I actually have a large store of meat that I need to use before it goes bad anyway, so we can use that instead of the goats. It is far too much for me or Lilia to eat so I would be grateful if we could use it so it would not go to waist."
Wording it so it seemed like the village would be doing him a favor to take all of the meat he had on him off his hands, the varying villagers all came into agreement though many of them wondered where Marcus was holding so much meat.
That was until he started emptying out dozens of pounds of the elephant meat he had in his item box, wowing everyone around.
Most of them had never anyone with an item box skill or even a magic bag for that matter, so to see so much meat come out of nowhere was astounding.
A few of the villagers even began to become envious of Marcus thinking that if they had such a power, they could make it off just as well.
Naturally none of those people knew of how hard Marcus had fought for his current abilities and just how close he had come to being destroyed on many occasions.
"Are you really sure that you want to give up all of this meat?" The village chief said as he looked at the hundreds of pounds of meat Marcus had pulled out.
This was already considerably more meat than the entire village would eat in a month since they were only able to eat meat sparingly as it was quite expensive.
"Yeah, it is fine, I still have plenty more so go ahead. I needed to open up some room in my item box anyway."
After that a number of surprised and happy villagers took away the scores of meat Marcus had given them, and the planning for the feast was quickly finished up and gotten underway.
Marcus tried to help with the cooking, but everyone said he had already done enough and to just sit down and relax.
With nothing else to do Marcus decided to sit down and look over the atlas he had bought and plan out possible nations he would want to visit later.
Soon enough though the village had finished up the preparations for the feast to thank Marcus for healing their injured.
"Today we are here to thank Irene for helping to heal our injured. It was a true miracle that we could have never imagined to be possible for folks such as us. Also, we celebrate the return of Lilia and Irene who were part of the horrible tragedy that happened to our sister community in the woods." The village chief said as he raised a mug of beer that he had specially brought out.
The other villagers then followed suit and the feast began.
Everyone began to eat the food and mingle around most of them wanting to talk to Marcus about his time since leaving the village.
"Do you think that we could become powerful adventures like you." A group of children around Lilia's age asked.
All of them had stary eyes hoping that Marcus could help them to realize their dream of adventure.
However, Marcus knew how hard it was to actually make it as an adventurer and unless he helped guide them and make sure they did not end up dead like he had with Lilia, it would be likely for them all to die.
"Anything is possible if you work hard at it, but being an adventure is dangerous with death waiting around every corner. There is a reason that not everyone becomes one and that is because it is perilous. If any of you really want to be an adventurer, I recommend you wait until you have reached at least level fifteen. I know this seems like a difficult level to achieve but otherwise being an adventurer is really just too dangerous."
After making sure that all of the children that dreamed of adventurers understood it was not some charmed romantic life, but incredibly dangerous, Marcus continued to mill about and talk to the numerous villagers.
Talking, eating, and drinking, the feast continued on, and the village was able to have some much-needed revelry after all of the hardships they had faced.
Yet the fun could not last forever and soon night began to descend upon the village, and everyone made their way back to their respective homes, while Marcus and Lilia went to the chief's house where they would be staying the night.
But before they went to sleep Marcus had something important, he wanted to discuss with Lilia.
"Lilia, I want to know if you wanted to stay here. I know that this is not your original home, but you know everyone here and have a number of friends that you grew up with. So, if you want to stay, do not feel like you have to come back to the capital with me."
Hearing this Lilia's expression quickly went fearful and sad. She thought that maybe Marcus wanted to get rid of her, but those thoughts quickly left her since she already knew how much he cared for her.
He really just wanted to know what she wanted as he always did.
"I want to stay with you. As much as I like it here, it is still not home. You are the only family I have left so of course I will be going back with you." Lilia said with an unwavering demeanor.
Nodding his head Marcus said with a smile, "Good, I would have been sad to go back without you, so I am glad that you want to stay with me since you are also my only family, however, there is still something else I need to tell you."
Marcus then let out a deep sigh as he steeled himself before saying, "Lilia I want to ask you if you remember when we were in River Landing and we stayed at the high-class inn where the owner put forth the marriage proposal between you and her grandson."
Confusion in her eyes, Lilia wondered why Marcus was brining this up, but she nodded her head in acknowledgment remembering the fearful experience.
"Well, when I met with Alaric's parents, I found out that he is the grandson that Maryam Valorre and that he had been told to make friends with you. But I also must tell you that other than that nothing else about him is being forced. I may have spent a couple of days to observe both of you after I learned about this, and I can tell that he really does care about you. Also, I might have possessed that girl that was being mean to you and been the one to have her slap the daughter of that duke."
Lilia's eyes then went wide. Marcus had given her a lot to think about all at once but the first thing that came to her mind was, "You were spying on me."
Lilia looked a bit hurt to realize that Marcus had been watching her with his ghost form since she thought he trusted her.
However, seeing this Marcus frantically said, "No I was just making sure that Alaric did not have anything nefarious planned. And it was only for two days, I promise other than that I have never invaded your privacy, I just would not have been able to live with myself if something happened to you because of my inaction."
Pleading his case Marcus quickly managed to get Lilia to understand and she said, "It is fine, please just tell me in the future if you are going to be watching out for me."
Nodding his head Marcus agreed to that but now Lilia had to deal with the other facts that Marcus had laid out for her.
"So, Alaric is only my friend because he was told to be."
Saying it out loud Lilia felt her chest start to hurt a bit, Alaric was like her knight in shining armor that had given her a place to be among the majority of nobles that shunned her for having been a commoner.
Yet Marcus had assured her that Alaric really did care about her even if it had been his families orders that brought the two of them together.
Seeing the conflicted expression on Lilia's face Marcus pulled her close and said, "I can understand how you feal hurt Lilia, but that also shows how much you care. I have actually seen a similar situation to this before back on my old world. Two friends made a bet to see which one of them could win over this one girl, and one of them eventually did. However, he soon found that he actually deeply cared about the girl, but of course she found out about the bet and was understandably angry. Yet that did not change that fact that the two of them had fallen in love and after a time they got back together. So, if you really do care about Alaric just give him a couple of good slaps and start over."
After saying this to Lilia, Marcus could see that she was visibly doing better.
"Now you will have all the time during our return trip to think about this further. I know you are hurt but do not let a few moments of pain make your decision for you. I only want you to be happy, and whatever makes you so is fine by me."
The two of them then gave each other one last big hug before turning in for the night and with both of them a lot to think about.
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