Chapter 109 - 108 Equipping Lilia

Marcus and Lilia quickly went down the halls of the Lush Villa heading back to their room.

When they entered Marcus slammed the door shut and brought Lilia with him to one of the couches in the living area and said, "I am sorry about that Lilia, I should have foreseen something like this happening, but you do not need to worry I will never force you to marry someone even if I have to fight an entire kingdom."

Lilia looked up at Marcus still a lingering tinge of fear in her eyes and said, "Thank you Marcus, I got a bit scared there at first but when you reacted just like Irene would have it made me feel happy. I am glad that you care about me so much even though you are not really my sister."

Hearing this Marcus felt his heart start to calm down and he said, "Lilia, I may not really be Irene, but I have recently inherited all of her memories and experiences. I have her feelings with me and the strongest one she left was her love for you. I had my own sister back on my original world and I feel the same love for you as I did for her, I am your real sister."

Marcus then brought Lilia in for a deep hug as the two of the embraced each other for a few minutes before Marcus pulled away and steeled his heart for what he had to do next.

"Lilia, we are going out, I will not always be within arm's reach to protect you and you are going to have to be strong by yourself. There are many things that you need to do and learn and some of it is going to be very difficult, but know that everything I do for you is for your sake. I had planned to do this later when you had gotten a bit older but what happened today has changed my mind."

Seeing the serious look in his face and the tone of his voice, Lilia put on a resolute expression and nodded her head, she knew that if she wanted to stay by Marcus' side, she would have to get stronger.

The two of them exited their room and went back to the pen that Blitz was currently staying in and took him out.

Marcus then had Blitz get down and he put Lilia on his back and then jumped on.

"Okay Blitz we are going out for a bit, make sure to not go to fast, this is Lilia's first-time riding on the back of a beast and if she falls off because you are too rowdy you will regret it."

Blitz looked back at Marcus and Lilia and gave a knowing nod since it could feel how serious Marcus was.

Soon the two of them were back on the streets of River Landing and heading for a certain shop.

After a few minutes of clopping down the street Marcus had Blitz stop in front of a familiar store.

"Blitz stay here for a few minutes we will be back soon and try not to get into any trouble."

Marcus and Lilia dismount and walked into the weapon shop where he had previously purchased his scythe.

When he walked inside the proprietor of the store immediately recognized him since how could he forget someone as striking as Marcus.

"Ah you are back, and I see you have brought someone with you this time. Are you here to get a weapon for the little miss here or are you looking for another weapon for yourself?"

Seeing the jovial shop owner Marcus went up to him and said, "The first thing I am looking for are a pair of training gauntlets for my little sister here and I suppose if you have another good quality scythe, I could take it."

The owner started laughing and said, "I can get you the training gauntlets pretty easily but a scythe better than the one you already have is probably going to have to be custom made since it is a pretty rare weapon, anyway, do you not still have a perfectly good scythe."

With a slightly sad face Marcus shrugged his shoulders and said, "I broke it."

The owner looked at Marcus with a face of disbelief before he said, "You broke it, that scythe may not have been enchanted but it was made by a master, how could you possibly break it. Were you trying to mine with it, what were you doing that broke that scythe?"

The owner who had sold Marcus the scythe looked genuinely angry when he heard that Marcus had broken the scythe he had carried in his shop for years and could not fathom how it could have broken.

Marcus simply shrugged his shoulders again and said, "It worked well but when I fought against the ice ants it broke when I intercepted the flying royal guard."

The owner stared at Marcus in disbelief when he recalled the story one of his guard friends told him about a beautiful girl who jumped off the wall wielding a scythe and covered in darkness, and how she clashed in midair with a massive ice ant.

"Wait are you saying you are the one that is being called the darklight princess that became famous for defending River Landing."

Marcus reluctantly nodded his head before saying, "Yeah that was me, but that nickname is really embarrassing so just call me Irene."

With a proud smile on his face the owner said to Marcus, "Well as long as that scythe was put to good use and saved a lot of people, I guess I can forgive you for breaking it, and to think that someone as famous as you was using a weapon that I sold you."

"Well now that that is out of the way how about those training gauntlets, I still have a lot to do today so if we could get this done quickly, I would be appreciative."

"Okay no problem, now if you would follow me little lady, we can pick out a pair of gauntlets for you."

Lilia looked towards Marcus wanting conformation that it was okay to follow the owner and Marcus nodded his head to signal that it was fine.

Lilia then followed the owner into the back room of the shop where they began trying on different gauntlets.

While they did this Marcus looked at the couple of scythes that were in the shop, but they were all made out of pure iron or steel and would probably break pretty quickly under Marcus' strength.

'Guess I will have to make one for myself like I thought, if I had proficiency with a more common weapon like a sword, I would probably have a near infinite number of choices but alas I have to deal with the hand I was given.'

After about twenty minutes Marcus saw Lilia and the owner come out from the store's back room and Lilia was holding a pair of small leather gauntlets that were studded with bronze.

"Are those the ones you want?"

Lilia nodded her head and said, "Yeah they fit well, and I think they feel good."

With Lilia's choice of gauntlet chosen Marcus looked at the owner and said, "So how much are these going to cost."

After thinking for a few moments the owner said, "Sixty copper, while they may be made pretty well the material is a bit cheap so they are not expensive."

Marcus nodded his head and handed over sixty copper glad that this transaction was not going to break the bank.

With their business concluded Marcus and Lilia thanked the owner and exited the shop and when they did, they saw that everyone was giving Blitz a wide berth afraid to get within fifty feet of him.

As Marcus got closer, he could see a scorch mark on the pavement near Blitz and figured that someone got a bit too close, and Blitz gave them a warning.

Marcus quickly mounted Blitz and helped Lilia up in front of him before giving Blitz the command to head north towards the town's exit.

When they came up to the front gate that was still in sorry state from the ice ants' assault, they could see a number of people working quickly to repair the damage.

When Marcus approached one of the guards came up to him and said, "I am sorry miss, but you are not currently able to leave out of this north gate until the soldiers make sure that the danger is completely dispersed."

Hearing this Marcus clicked his tongue in displeasure but soon an idea formed in his mind and he said, "Actually maybe you do not recognize me but I am… the darklight princess and I happened to lose my weapon during the fight and was hoping I could and search for it."

Hearing this the guard's eyes widened with recognition and many of the other guards around started to clamor.

It was not long that the commotion garnered the attention of the knight that was currently in charge of the gate who came to investigate.

"What is all the ruckus going on here?"

However, when he saw Marcus sitting atop Blitz his eyes widened and he lost all of the bravado he had.

He could immediately feel the power of Blitz and was enchanted by Marcus' beauty.

"Hello there, my lady, it is an honor to make you acquaintance my is Sir Nicolas Graven, what might your name be and is there anything you need."

Seeing Nicolas's reaction Marcus immediately keyed in on his infatuation and put on his most enchanting smile and said, "Actually when I was fighting in defense of River Landing, I happened to lose my weapon beyond the wall and was hoping I could go and retrieve it and my name is Irene."

Sir Nicolas nearly agreed instinctively to Marcus' request, but he managed to catch himself and remember his duty and said, "I am sorry Lady Irene I really am not allowed to let any civilians out of the town right now, if you want, I can get a few soldiers together and have them look for it."

Marcus not willing to give up so easily batted his eyes and said, "Please sir, I fought hard to protect this town and am more than capable of defending myself, I just want to retrieve my weapon, I lost it when I bravely leapt into the air to save this town."

When he heard this Nicolas immediately recognized Marcus and any defense he had against him crumbled.

"Well, if it is for the beautiful darklight princess I suppose it could not hurt to make an exception, just try not to take too long okay."

Nicolas then had the guards remove the makeshift barricades to allow Marcus through and right before he left Marcus said with a mischievous smile, "Well then I will be back in a couple of days see you when I get back."

He then ordered Blitz to run forward, and before Sir Nicolas could retort Marcus was already far out of earshot as Blitz bounded away.