Chapter 184 - 183 To The Dungeon City

After having made his little excursion to check on Lilia at school, Marcus had made his way back to his estate where he began final preparation for the journey he was going to be making the next day.

He made sure that all of the supplies were in order and when he was satisfied with what he had, he went to the kitchen and asked the maids there to make a massive bulk of food for their journey.

'Okay I think that is everything we need for our journey. I made sure to get a good supply of the puff cow meat for Roxene, and I cannot wait to see Lilia's face when I give her the new items I got for her.'

With everything for his trip coming together, Marcus quickly ate a simple meal that the maids had prepared for him and took a nice relaxing bath before going to bed.

Waking up the next day Marcus could feel the anticipation welling up inside of him and he could not wait to get going.

Rushing out of bed and heading to his closet, Marcus stored a number of his combat outfits into his item box along with one formal dress just in case.

'Now once I put the extra magic fridge and the food stored inside it into my item box, I can collect Blitz and Roxene and go pick up Lilia.'

Going down stairs Marcus found the new magic fridge he had recently purchased stocked full of food ,and when he was sure everything was there stored it inside his item box.

Afterwards he found Clara and gave her a bit of extra money to keep things running while he was away.

"Please be safe on your trip Lady Irene, and are you sure you do not want to take at least one of us with you." Clara said, with a bit of concern in her voice.

However, Marcus was not going to budge on this and with a confident smile said, "No I want this trip to just be Lilia and me, like before we came here. I am sure we will be fine on our own, both of us know how to handle ourselves and with my abilities few enemies on the road are going to be a threat."

After having turned down an escort by one of his maids for the last time, Clara reluctantly let him go and as Marcus got onto the coachman's stand of the carriage attached to Blitz, and all of his maids except the one currently manning the gate came to wish him goodbye.

"I will be back in a little under three months until then keep this place in tip top shape and make sure things continue to run smoothly."

With that last announcement Marcus began heading down the path of his estate towards the city's main roads.

Getting to the gate Marcus found Violet talking to a strange middle-aged man who was in an expensive get up and had three other people around him.

As Marcus got closer, he heard the man saying to Violet, "Please allow me to speak to Lady Geist even for a moment. She has sent refusal letters to all of our attempts to have a meeting, but we really must talk to her about important business."

The man continued to pester Violet as she refused him as per Marcus' instructions, until one of the men with him tapped his shoulder and pointed towards me.

'Great now I am going to have to deal with this guy. Whatever, I will get it over with quick and then go and pick up Lilia.'

Driving up to the gate, Violet opened it for Marcus and the man who had been harassing Violet moved on to his main target.

"Lady Irene Geist it is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Ryker, and I am a representative for the Cattivo Trading Company. We specialize in the private disruption of arms across the kingdom and were wondering if we might be able to form a contract with you for a stable supply of high-quality weapons made by yourself, the famed newest apprentice of Thabon Blazegram. Of course, we would be willing to pay you quite generously if you would work with us."

Groaning, Marcus looked at the man in front of him that looked shady and was currently stalling Marcus from the trip he had been looking forward to.

"Sorry I have no interest in signing a contract with any company, especially one I do not know about. Now if you would not mind getting out of my way, I have somewhere important to be."

However, Ryker did not move and continued to block Marcus' way trying to plead his case.

"I only ask for a short amount of your time to discuss the details of how such an arrangement would benefit both of us. My superiors are very impressed by your work, and I have been tasked to get in contact with you. Our group is very powerful and working with us would bring you a number of benefits. Please if you would just spare an hour or two."

Seeing the obstacle in his way was not going to willingly move and seemed ready to stand in front of him until he got what he wanted, Marcus sent a telepathic message to Roxene who was currently sleeping next to him.

Getting the message and looking at the man who was ruining her nap, Roxene stood up and did as Marcus asked and unleashed her intimidating presence towards him.

The man seeing the little wolf look at him with such malice suddenly felt fear for his life and began breathing heavily as he instinctually back up a few feet away from the carriage and fell flat on his ass.

The man in his terror of Roxene even began to wet himself as fear overwhelmed him.

When Marcus saw this, he told Roxene to let up and he urged Blitz to go onwards now that Ryker was no longer blocking his path.

Riding by the heavily embarrassed man, Marcus paid him no more mind and went on his way to pick up Lilia.

After Marcus had passed by, one of Ryker's men approached him and helped him up.

Ryker then looked out towards the fading silhouette of Marcus' carriage with pure rage.

"I am going to make sure you regret this for the rest of your life for embarrassing me like that Irene Geist." Ryker mumbled under his breath with fury building up inside him.

…

Traveling along the city streets, Marcus made his way to the capital's royal academy and soon the large campus came into view.

Going up to the front gate, Marcus identified himself to the guard using his noble silver plate ID and was promptly let into the grounds and guided to where he would meet up with Lilia. 

Marcus of course had already made prior arrangements for Lilia to take a break from school to go and train.

Luckily the school's spring break was coming up soon so Lilia would not be missing too much class.

Following the guide, Marcus was soon brought to a lavish waiting room where one of the school administrators "entertained" him until Lilia was brought to him.

Seeing Lilia walk in, Marcus got up and gave her a hug since it had been a while since they had seen each other last (not counting Marcus' ghostly surveillance).

"Are you ready to go Lilia. It is going to be just like old times when we first made our way to the Royal Capital."

With a bright smile Lilia nodded her head and said, "Yep and maybe we can pick up something special for Alaric and Vania. Especially Vania she is incredibly jealous that I am going to a dungeon since she wants to be an adventure."

Marcus agreed with Lilia nodding his head saying they could probably pick up some gifts for her friends.

With Lilia now back in his custody, Marcus thanked the academy administrator that had done the paperwork for Lilia's leave of absence, and the two of them exited the royal academy. 

Heading over to the carriage Lilia went up and hugged Blitz' neck before greeting Roxene for the first time. 

Marcus had already told Lilia about his new beast companion and had devised a plan to get Roxene to like her.

Before they had gotten to the carriage Marcus had given Lilia a large piece of puff cow meat he had prepared earlier and told Lilia to give it to Roxene as a gift when they first met.

"Hello there Roxene, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am sure you have already heard about me, but I am Marcus' little sister Lilia, oh and I have special treat to give you in light of our first meeting.

At that Lilia took out the still steaming puff cow steak and pushed it towards Roxene who began wagging her tail and wolfed down the steak happily.

Marcus seeing this smiled since his plan seemed to have worked pretty well and Roxene was already opening up to Lilia a little bit.

'I knew that the best way to my gluttonous little companion's heart was through her stomach.'

Once they had finished up their initially greeting, Marcus got back up onto the coachman stand and Lilia sat next to him while Roxene lay in his lap.

"Okay let's begin the journey to the Dungeon City Lethallan."