Chapter 100 - 99 Heroic Reward

After everyone had finished eating the special breakfast Marcus had prepared just for Lilia, Wade wiped his face of with a napkin and looked towards Marcus and said, "Well, thank you for cooking Irene, while I may not know why this meal was so important to the two of you, I can appreciate the sentiment. Though now it is time to get back to business, the Grand Archmage Aria wants to talk about the rewards she will be giving you on behalf of the kingdom and sent me a message earlier asking me to bring you to the kingdom's government office."

Nodding his head Marcus said, "Yeah that sounds good I am wondering what kind of reward she had in mind for me. Also, when should we get going."

Marcus stared at Wade waiting for and answer when Wade abruptly stood up and said, "The first rays of light are starting to come through so I suppose we should leave immediately."

Wade then looked towards Freid and said, "If you would not mind preparing another outfit for Irene here, one appropriate for meeting some one of Grand Archmage Aria's status."

Freid stood up from his seat and gave a nod of conformation to Wade before heading off into the depths of the manor to find some suitable clothing for Marcus' meeting with Aria.

Hearing this Marcus remembered one of the questions that had been on his mind the day before and said to Wade, "That reminds me, where exactly did you get the dresses me and Lilia wore yesterday, I cannot imagine that they are yours."

Marcus looked at Wade with a judging stare waiting for his response when Wade started laughing before saying, "Ah yes, I had nearly forgotten that you are a commoner. I have those outfits for the rare occasions that I have to host important guests and for some unfortunate reason they damage or dirty their clothes. In those situations, it is better to be prepared with a spare outfit than to anger the person by forcing them to leave or continue wearing their damaged or dirty clothing."

After Wade had finished his explanation Marcus finally understood why Wade had these clothes and could find no flaw in his logic. If he happened to have a noble lady over and she spilled something on her dress she would of course have to change out of her dirty dress into a new one.

'Okay I guess Wade is not as much as a creep as I thought, this is a different world from Earth and they are bound to have different customs and cultures, so I need to try to keep an open mind.'

Soon Freid came back and said, "I have prepared a few outfits for you that I have left in your room, feel free to try them on and pick the one you like."

Marcus thanked Freid for his help and got up and headed back to his room.

Going back down the hallway and up the stairs Marcus came back to the room that had been prepared for him which he had not actually used yet.

Walking inside he saw a rack of clothes standing in the middle of the room filled with a few different outfits to choose from.

Going over and inspecting his options Marcus found that there were around a half dozen different dresses which he really was not in the mood to wear so he slid those to one end and perused the rest of the clothes.

He soon found a pair of black pants and a royal blue blouse that went well together and decided that they were what he would wear.

After putting them on Marcus went to the mirror and admired how he looked and was quite happy with his appearance.

With his outfit chosen Marcus exited his room and walked back down the large entryway of the house and found that everyone was their waiting for him.

Looking at Wade, Marcus could see that he had put his royal investigator uniform on and was ready to go.

Once Marcus had walked down the stairs, he approached Lilia and said, "I am heading out but once I get back, we can start making preparations for our next move, I already have some plans in mind, but I want to here about what you want as well."

Lilia looked up at Marcus with a bright smile and said, "Yep when you get back big sister we can talk about the future."

The two gave each other a quick embrace before Marcus let go of Lilia and walked towards Wade who then opened the door and began leading the way to the kingdom's government office.

Walking down the roads of River Landing, Marcus could see that the life of the town was slowly coming back after the crisis with the ice ants.

People's trepidation was starting to subside and normal activities such as the backer hawking his fresh products and merchants roaming the streets looking for deals.

As they continued to walk Wade looked back towards Marcus and said, "It is not to late to join the royal investigators. I can promise you that the pay and benefits are good, and you will even hold a status above a knight and in certain situations even above higher-ranking nobility."

Marcus gave Wade an uncaring look before saying, "I have a good idea about what it is you do and while I may have some skills that would make me good at it, I have to think about Lilia. I am all she has left, and I need to be there for her, and I already know how being a royal investigator can put a target on your back. So, thanks again for the offer but I already know what it is I am going to be doing from here on out."

Wade let out an exasperated sigh and shrugged his shoulders giving up on recruiting Marcus for now.

The two of them walked down the streets of River Landing and soon came to a large white stone build that had scores of people running around.

When they walked into the building, they could see things being even more hectic as any sort of civil work had been put on hold while the ice ants were sieging the city.

Wade after a cursory glance around made his way towards the back of the building where there is a set of double doors that were situated behind a desk with a man sitting at.

As Wade and Marcus approached the man noticed them and seeing Wade's royal investigator uniform stood up at attention and said, "Sir, her grace Grand Archmage Aria is waiting for you in the noble waiting room, I will lead you to her now."

However, Wade shook his head and said, "No that is fine I was just leading the darklight princess here since she is the one Grand Archmage Aria wants to see."

Marcus gave Wade an incredulous look since he had not expected him to use the nickname the guards and soldiers had come up with.

At the same time the man's face lit up and he looked at Marcus with a face of reverence and said, "Ah yes I heard some of the soldiers and guards talking about you achievements, it was your daring heroics that prevented the wall from being breached."

Marcus gave a slight sigh before saying," Yeah that was me, but my name is not darklight princess it's Irene."

Unfortunately, the man did not pick up on Marcus' dislike of the nickname darklight princess and said, "Well, then darklight princess Irene if you would follow me, I will take you to Grand Archmage Aria."

Wade gave Marcus a mischievous smile before taking his leave since he did not want to interact with his great grandmother right now.

Following the man through the double doors Marcus walked to the end of the hall and to another door.

The man then opened the door and inside Marcus saw Aria and the two mages that had come with her sitting in the room.

Aria was at the moment sipping some tea while eating a pastry and actually had a book floating in front of her face.

When she saw that Marcus had entered the room a soft smile appeared on her face and the floating book fell down and rested in her lap.

She then put down her pastry and tea and said, "Irene it is good to see you again, come sit and let me introduce you to my students."

Marcus gave a slight bow before sitting down and Aria began introducing her students.

"On my right here is Jared Kasrong and on my left is Diana Grenvine."

Marcus looked at the two of them and recognized them as the mages that had fought the ice ant queen and her guards, until at the last moment the knight commander jumped in and stole their kill.

Looking them over Marcus figured that Jared was probably in his late thirties or early forties while Diana seemed to be in her mid-twenties.

Marcus then introduce himself and said, "Nice to meet the two of you I am Irene."

Both of them gave quick nods of acknowledgement before Aria started speaking again.

"Well let us get right down to business then.. It is time we figure out what to give you as a reward for your heroic actions of defending River Landing during its time of need."