Chapter 111 - 110 A New Family Name

Soon two days had passed and if anyone saw Lilia now that had known her before, they would be able to tell that something had changed.

Her normal more innocent expression was gone and the glint in her eyes seemed a bit dimmer.

However, she now had an aura of strength and reliability around her that she did not previously have.

In fact, in these two days Marcus had managed to get Lilia up to level eight from level three which was quite the tremendous increase for such a short amount of time.

Unfortunately, Lilia had still not quite gotten the hang of circulating her mana, but she had managed to increase her skill with her gauntlets as well as her experience in fighting.

'These past two days have certainly been rough on her, but the progress is undeniable. On the way to the royal capital I can have her finish up learning magic circulation, and then we can practice magic and enhancing her body and weapons.'

With their time training in the woods over Marcus and Lilia mounted Blitz and headed back to River Landing.

It was not long before they could see the familiar walls of River Landing and the huge mass of people trying to get inside.

Seeing this Marcus realized that this was the first wave of people that were a part of the mass exodus that he had caused.

'Looks like they are finally starting to arrive, I guess we will pop in to receive my title and then get the hell out of here. River Landing was already over capacity from the refuges escaping from the north and now it is going to get even more cramped.'

Seeing that the line was not getting any shorter Marcus had Blitz hurry up so he could enter the town as soon as possible.

After waiting in line for over two hours Marcus was beginning to get nervous that he was going to be late since the time he was supposed to have his title awarded was only an hour away and the line had barely moved.

'Damn it, if I was on my own, I could just slip through the walls but with Lilia and Blitz I cannot do that. I suppose I could leave them here, but then I know something is going to go wrong.'

While Marcus was trying to think up solutions to his current dilemma a guard who was doing rounds along the line to make sure that things stayed civil noticed him and said, "Miss Irene what are you doing here, I heard through the grapevine that you were getting your rewards for protecting the town today."

Looking over Marcus saw one of the guards he had fought side by side with during the time he protected River Landing from the Ice ant invasion.

An idea then popped into Marcus' head and he said, "Yeah I am supposed to receive a title today, would you mind escorting me into the town, I am afraid I will be late if I continue to wait."

Of course, the guard immediately agreed to help Marcus since they had fought hand in hand and Marcus had certainly saved his life.

Marcus then followed the guard past the long line of people waiting to enter, many of them looking at Marcus and Lilia with envious and hateful glares.

Soon they reached the still broken front gate who's repairs were having to be put on hold due to the mass influx of people, and Marcus and Lilia with the help of the guards that recognized them slipped back inside River Landing.

They immediately made a beeline for the office of the Viceroy where he was going to be receiving his noble title form the kingdom of Borealia.

Soon the two of them arrived and the two knights that were serving as guards readily let them in.

They then followed a secretary to a changing room where both Marcus and Lilia changed into formal clothing.

Marcus then took out a blue and white dress which were the colors of the kingdom and began putting on the dress.

And unlike last time now that he had fully integrated with Irene's memories Marcus had no trouble putting on the dress.

Marcus and Lilia then did each other's hair with Lilia putting Marcus' up into a bun while Marcus braided Lilia's into one long braid.

When the two of them were ready to go they both exited the changing room and were escorted to the chamber where the viceroy would conduct the conferment and title transfer ceremony.

When they entered the large hall where the ceremony was going to take place, their escort took Lilia to an area where family members were sitting, and Marcus was lead to the front of the room where those receiving titles were awaiting the viceroy.

Once Marcus was placed next to the other half a dozen other people who were also getting a title, he noticed a familiar magical device on top of a platform.

Sitting there was the same device that they used to check someone's status and print out identification.

However, this one was much larger than the ones that Marcus had seen in the guard stations when he had previously had IDs made.

'I wonder what this one does, hopefully it does not expose my status as a ghost since if that were the case, I am not sure I would be able to get both myself and Lilia out safely.'

Marcus was starting to get a bit nervous, but the viceroy soon entered the chamber, and the entire room went quiet.

Marcus then watched as everyone bowed towards the viceroy and following their lead Marcus did as well.

Once the viceroy had taken his place at the front of the hall, he gave everyone permission to raise their heads and Marcus got a good look at him.

He was an old man that looked around seventy and in his hand was some type of scepter, except at the end of the scepter was something that looked really familiar to Marcus.

He then realized what it was, at the end of the scepter was what appeared to be a small tablet.

'What the hell is something like that doing in this world, so far I have not seen anything that looks like modern technology but that is undoubtedly a computer tablet. So then, that must be what allows them to change people's names.'

"Good day to you brave young ladies and gentlemen, for your courageous and invaluable service to the kingdom each of you will be receiving a title as a show of appreciation from the kingdom. And for you young men and women who are inheriting your parent's titles the kingdom looks forward to your continued service towards bettering the land and its people."

The viceroy with his announcement completed walked forward towards the first young man in line and placed the scepter over one shoulder and then the other.

Then he pulled the scepter up towards his face and touched the screen of the tablet a couple of times before saying, "Rise, you are now the new head of the Drenstal family, Baron Havan Drenstal."

As the new Baron stood up the viceroy hit his tablet one more time and a soft blue light covered the new baron.

The ceremony continued as the viceroy conferred titles onto the next five people one of whom began crying since he was only receiving the title of knight because his father died during the ice ant incident.

Then it was time for Marcus' turn, and he kneeled down and allowed the viceroy to bring the scepter over each of his shoulders and when he was done the viceroy asked him, "And now what shall your family name be henceforth for your new house."

Over the last few days Marcus had thought almost nothing of what name he was going to take he had been to busy dealing with other things like buying Blitz and training Lilia.

Of course, he had quickly thought of a name before the ceremony since not having one was not an option.

"From this day forward my family name shall be Geist."

The Viceroy was slightly taken aback by the unusual name but simply shrugged it off and continued the ceremony.

He then made a few strokes on the tablet and the blue light that had enveloped everyone else before also enveloping Marcus.

The blue light left as quickly as it had arrived and that was when Marcus suddenly received a notification from the system.

'Title detected, unlocking title subsystem. A noble title has been detected; all stats increased by one percent.'

Hearing this Marcus' jaw nearly dropped, he had no idea that such a thing was going to happened when he received his title. He nearly opened his status to check on what had changed, but since he was the last one to receive a title the next part of the ceremony was beginning.

"Rise, you are now the head of the Geist family, Baronetess Irene Geist."

Marcus quickly stood up wanting to get the rest of this ceremony over so he could take a good long look at his status.

Unfortunately, he had to wait until the end of the next part of the ceremony where each of the new nobles that had received a title got a new ID which was now instead of parchment made from a plate of silver.

When it was Marcus' turn, he placed his hands upon the device and watched as his status appeared.

Marcus immediately looked at his status making sure that it did not display his race as ghost and to his relief it still had him labeled as human. And after he looked it over thoroughly, he noticed that both of his exalted blessing were also omitted from his status.

'Hm, I wonder why the information is not completely accurate, maybe it has to do with my personal status unique skill, or it could be a bug or something. Oh well no use looking a gift horse in the mouth."

Marcus then took his new head of a noble house ID and walked back over to Lilia now that the ceremony had concluded.