Chapter 144 - 143 Rest After The Battle

With the band of ice trolls that had been attacking the town of Klopot vanquished, Marcus who had defeated the most of anyone and was standing in the middle of the battlefield began collecting the fallen trolls' magic cores.

Starting with the leader's, Marcus collected nearly two dozen cores before the members of the Eternal Queens joined him and began collecting their share.

Soon the forty-three magic cores had been collected and Marcus and the eternal Queens divided them up based on how many they killed.

Marcus having killed thirteen trolls including the leader received that many cores, while the members of the Eternal Queens estimated that they killed around twenty and decided to give the other ten to the town for their collective effort.

Walking back towards the wall now that they had collected their loot, the guards on top of the wall that they had fought side by side with began cheering once again.

Getting back to the wall Marcus jumped right on top of it before reaching his arm down and helping the Eternal Queens up.

Back on top of the walls many of the guards ran over to Marcus and began complementing him on his fight against the dozen trolls and then the troll leader.

They would say things like "I have never seen anyone fight like that." Or "Lady Irene you are impeccable, with your strength you could become a general easily."

Marcus feeling a bit uncomfortable said to the guards that had begun surrounding him like a fan club, that he needed to meet back up with the baron and his knights and that he would talk to them later.

Slipping away Marcus was quickly found by both Vincent And Xander who were looking at Marcus with guilty expressions.

"Lady Irene I would like to apologize for my outbursts earlier today when you first arrived in the town. Truth be told I felt angry that the baron would so shamelessly ask for you and the Eternal Queens help. It made me feel like he was belittling my skills while I thought too highly of myself. I thought that since you were a group of adventures that you were beneath me, that if you had any true skills you would have been chosen as knights of the kingdom. I now realize how wrong I was, every member of the Eternal Queens is as strong as if not stronger than a knight. And you, I was also jealous of you, when I heard that you were five levels above me and only nineteen, it made me feel like my efforts had been trampled on. I convinced myself that you must have had a powerful family backing you and that they tied down monsters letting you powerlevel exp without any effort on your part. However, after watching your fight, I realize now that you must have experienced arduous training and any number of hardships to get to where you are. Again, I offer you my apologies."

Xander then bowed his head deeply with Vincent following suit since he, while not having been vocal about his displeasure, had certainly had similar thoughts to Xander.

Marcus who had not really cared what either of these two had thought of him simply said, "No need for that, if you are sorry then everything is fine. Now then I believe we have all had a long night and could use some rest so if you do not mind, I will be heading back to my room in the baron's mansion."

Walking past the two bowing knights, Marcus made his way through the town heading towards the baron's mansion.

However, on his way numerous people who had been awoken by the clamor caused by the ice troll attack, began coming out of their houses and as they saw Marcus some of them recognized him as one of the adventures that had come through earlier today.

Many of them wanting news of the battle rushed towards Marcus asking him what had happened.

Sighing Marcus quickly explained that the battle had been won and that all of the trolls had been killed.

The town's folk hearing that the threat that had been looming over the town for two weeks was finally over began cheering as well, all of them coming up and thanking Marcus for his help.

'This is what I was trying to avoid, while I do not mind crowds, I do not like being the center of attention.'

Stealthily leaving behind the growing crowd of people that were joyously talking about the end of the ice troll threat, Marcus made his way back to the baron's mansion.

Once inside, Marcus quickly found his room and sat down on top of the bed before pulling out his scythe and looking it over.

'Not even a nick. Mithril really is strong material. And the enchantments seem to work properly without taking any damage from the battle.'

Satisfied that his scythe had performed well and was going to make an excellent weapon for the foreseeable future, Marcus stored it back into his item box.

With his inspection of his scythe completed, Marcus laid down in his bed and let unconsciousness take him since he had nothing else to do until the next day.

Waking up from a peaceful rest, Marcus looked out the window and saw that the sun was well into the sky.

'Hm guess I slept a bit longer than I thought I would. Oh well we will probably rest here for today and tomorrow and then head out towards the mine.'

Getting out of bed, Marcus exited the room he had been staying in and quickly located a servant before asking them where he could find a bath.

The servant who was a bit nervous, told Marcus that it would probably take at least an hour to prepare him a bath, but Marcus simply said, "No problem I can get it ready myself if you just show me where it is."

However, the servant tried to stop Marcus saying that it would look bad on the baron if someone of his status was forced to prepare their own bath, but Marcus did not care and after a few minutes finally convinced the servant to lead him to the bath.

Following behind her, Marcus was led to a small room that had a single claw footed bathtub in it.

Sighing Marcus realized that the baron of this estate must not have been a bath lover like him.

'Whatever, it is still a normal sized tub, I cannot expect everyone to have a massive room just for enjoying a bath.'

The servant still hesitant about leaving Marcus to prepare the bath alone said, "Please at least allow me to gather the materials for you Lady Geist, it will only take me a few minutes to gather some of the other staff."

Marcus hearing this simply smiled back at the servant that was trying to help him, and then allowed water to begin flowing out of his item box.

The servant seeing this stared in shock as Marcus filled the tub with gallons of water from seemingly out of nowhere.

In just a few moments Marcus had done the equivalent of dozens of minutes of work carrying buckets of water back and forth from the estate's well.

However, what he did next shocked the servant even more as Marcus quickly chanted a few words and a floating ball of intense flame appeared.

Using that ball flames Marcus quickly heated up the water and in just a minute had a hot bath ready.

Marcus looking at the dumbfounded servant and said, "I am fine now so if you would not mind leaving, I would like to enjoy my bath in peace."

The servant still shocked by what Marcus had done, just robotically nodded he head before leaving.

Now that he was alone, Marcus slid into the bath and let the warm water relax him for almost an hour before he decided it was time to get out and fine the members of Eternal Queens.

Asking around Marcus soon found that all of the Eternal Queens were currently in the dining room eating with the baron.

Walking into the dining room Marcus saw the baron personally thanking each of the Eternal Queens while having a number of fine dishes served.

But, when he saw Marcus enter the dining room, he immediately rushed towards him at a quick pace, nearly running.

Taking a deep bow, the baron said, "Thank you Lad-, Irene. For what you have done for this town I can never repay you, but know you are welcome here in Klopot at all times."

Marcus looking at the baron said back to him, "No need for all of that, we were just passing through and it would have been impossible to get some rest if the trolls destroyed the town."

After getting the baron to stop bowing towards him Marcus sat down and began filling up a plate with the food that was beginning served at the table.

Taking mostly dessert items since Marcus was in the mood for something sweet, he first took a bite of what appeared to be a chocolate éclair

'Mmm, that is pretty good. I have not had many pastries since coming to this world, but I think I should have the maids at my manor learn how to make some.'

Eating a bunch of desserts, Marcus garnered a few stares but since he was the person with the second highest status in the entire town, no one was going to question his eating choices.

When he had finished eating at least one of each dessert item available, Marcus turned his attention towards Bridget and began discussing their game plan for the next couple of days.

"So, Bridget how long do you need to rest, I figured that we rest today and tomorrow and then head out to our destination."

Bridget looked towards the other members of the Eternal Queens and none of them showed any discontent and were nodding their heads indicating that would be plenty of time for them to recover.

However, the baron hearing this frantically said, "Please wait! I have been planning to throw all of you a celebration for your heroic victory against the ice trolls, but we need a couple of days to prepare.. I know that it may be inconvenient, but it would hardly be a celebration without the town's heroes in attendance, could you maybe stay until after the celebration."