With the second day's meeting over, the nobles and royals in attendance, began making their way out of grand hall and to their respective destinations.
Some had small meeting to attend, others simply wanted to go and rest after the long day, but most were heading to the reception that was being held.
And along with those majority of people was Marcus, being dragged along by Frostine's group.
This was their time to show off Marcus as supporting them, and it was also his first public appearance. Well, his first as himself.
'This is going to be a pain, but I will have to make it through. At the very least I can finally be myself again.' Marcus thought as he entered into the reception hall.
Immediately his group that consisted of the royal siblings that were supporting Frostine, were assaulted by nobles of all sorts trying to talk to them, and especially find out more about Marcus.
This went on for quite a while and Marcus was pretty much paraded around the reception to make the acquaintance of the nobles that had thrown their support towards Frostine.
However, not all of their encounters were completely cordial, as eventually Marquis Krenston came over to them, a glass of wine in his hand and his face red.
"You seem to be enjoying yourself, Prince Ferrous. To think that you would have a beautiful princess on either side of you. You must be a truly blessed individual." Krenston said, not hiding the displeasure in his tone.
Sighing Marcus put on a fake smile and looked at the pest that had just appeared and said, "Sorry I do not believe we have met before. I am indeed Prince Ferrous, and who might you be?"
A vein bulging on his forehead, it was obvious that Marquis Krenston was livid to see Marcus pretend not to know who he was, when he had stolen away his son's fiancé.
"You know damn well who I am. I know that you were scheming with her, and somehow got the king to break of her engagement with my son." Krenston said pointing a finger at Mrazivy and practically frothing at the mouth.
His anger had been stewing inside him ever since he got the message from the king that Mrazivy would not be marrying his son. And now that alcohol had lessened his inhibitions and the objects of his fury were right in front of him, he had lost control.
Still his outbursts were not winning him and sympathy from anyone as every noble knew that this was not the time or place to voice grievances such as these.
"Oh, I see you must be Marquis Krenston. Yes, Mrazivy did tell me she was to be engaged but that she convinced her father that her talents would be suited better elsewhere than being some no names trophy." Marcus said, an innocent smile on his face not admitting to being involved in anyway.
At this Krenston lost it and lunged at Marcus. He was already on edge from losing so many resources normally sent to his territory, and he knew he was now going to have less money to fuel his lavish lifestyle.
This along with the broken engagement were enough to already have him livid, but Marcus' commits were the straw that broke the camel's back, and the alcohol in his system prevented his better judgment.
Except even as Krenston lunged at him, Marcus made no move. He had already collected some information on Marquis Krenston and knew he was only level twenty-seven, and that he was by no means a fighter.
His level had been attained by having his knights subdue monsters for him to kill, giving him an inflated level that did not actually represent his actual strength.
So, as Krenston slammed into Marcus, he just stood there like a rock and the marquis bounced off him in an almost cartoonish manner.
"Are you okay there, Marquis Krenston, it seems that you have tripped." Marcus said, not even acknowledging that he had attacked him.
Shakily standing back up, Krenston looked at Marcus angrily trying to think what to do next, when a hand appeared on his shoulder.
"Marquis Krenston, are you doing all right? It appears that you took a nasty fall there."
Looking back at this newcomer, Marquis Krenston notices that it was Duke Fealltoir, and his face went pale.
He and the duke were in the same faction and Duke Fealltoir was the leader of it, and not a man to upset.
Coming to his senses a bit, Marquis Krenston nodded his head and excused himself, fear of Duke Fealltoir overcoming his anger.
"It appears that the marquis has had a bit too much to drink. Allow me to apologize on his behalf," Duke Fealltoir said, to Marcus, Mrazivy, and Frostine.
After that he quickly left himself, catching up to Marquis Krenston and making sure he did not embarrass himself again.
"Well, that was certainly odd and unexpected." Frostine said.
Nodding their heads, Marcus and Mrazivy could only agree but decided to just leave it be, as there was nothing the Krenston could really do could do at this point.
After that they continued moving around the reception talking to different nobles either to solidify or gain support.
"Oh, there he is." Frostine said spotting the guild master of the adventures guild main branch within the royal capital.
Meeting with him today was one of her main goals as she wanted to foster a good relationship with him.
"Looks like we have found him at the right time too. He seems pretty happy talking to knight commander Darius." Mrazivy said, seeing that the two of them were talking together like old friends.
The three of them then approached the duo whose statuses kept most people from coming near, and Frostine said, "Hello Knight Commander Darius, and Guild Master Leonard, it is good to see the two of you again."
Turning towards Frostine both of them smiled and Darius gave a slight bow before he said, "It is good to see you as well Princess, did you need something from me."
"Oh no, it just seemed that the two of you were having a lively conversation, and I had not greeted either of you yet. So, what were the two of you talking so excitedly about?" Frostine said, integrating herself into the conversation.
Darius then nodded towards Leonard urging him to continue the conversation.
"Oh, we were just talking about some of our past encounters together. I believe we had just started talking about when we battled that Ice Behemoth that went on a rampage some twenty years ago. Maybe you heard about that Princess Frostine?"
Nodding her head Princess Frostine definitely remembered it since she had been a young teenager when it had happened, and it had caused quite the uproar in the kingdom.
"Oh yes I recall that event. It was quite terrifying to here that a small town in the eastern part of the kingdom had been completely leveled by a terrifying monster. Luckily the two of you spearheaded an assault against it, Darius leading the kingdom's troops and Guild Master Leonard brining in reinforcements from the adventurers guild. And if I remember correctly after it was defeated it was not long before you were given the title of knight commander."
"That is sort of what happened, though the records certainly do not say how close we were to all being wiped out. I mean when a level seventy-three monster goes on a rampage it can be difficult to stop." Leonard said, laughing as he remembered the experience.
"Yes, if it weren't for Popsco wrestling with it for a couple minutes while we recovered our strength for one last attack, I am sure we would have been finished." Darius said with a nostalgic look.
"There you go again talking on about that big bear of yours. Yes, he is an impressive beast, but at the end of the day he was not even able to put a scratch on that Ice Behemoth, and only held out for so long because of his heavy resistance to cold and bludgeoning attacks."
Yet as the two of them seemed ready to gear up for a long argument about the usefulness of the knight commander's beast companion, Frostine cleared her throat to get their attention and said, "Ah I almost forgot. I need to introduce my sister and her friend to you Guild Master Leonard. This is Mrazivy my sister, and her friend Marcus Ferrous. Though I am sure you already know of them."
Stepping in Frostine managed to prevent the two old warriors from going on a long tangent, and swiftly brough Marcus and Mrazivy into the conversation as the two had kind of just been standing there awkwardly.
"Ah yes I have certainly heard of both of you. You have done some fine work for the guild Princess Mrazivy. I heard that you even recently took out all three boss monsters in the Ocean Bluff Temple, which is quite impressive. I do not believe anyone has done that since Makoto Yamada, did it around thirty years ago." Leonard said with a smile on his face, obviously having a good impression of Mrazivy.
However, when he looked at Marcus a somewhat greedy expression appeared on his face as he said, "And certainly I have heard about you, the new honorary prince of the kingdom. You caused quiet the uproar from what I heard with that mythic grade magical beast egg you found. If only you had gone to Joras at the Loursend branch the guild certainly could have helped you to smooth things over.. Though from what I heard, everything has worked itself out so if you wish to come back to the adventurers guild, we would be more than welcome to have you."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺