Chapter 243 - 243 The Viceroy’s Party (2)

"Agh my foot."

Yelping out at having his foot crushed, the viceroy's third son flopped over onto to the floor and held his foot.

Seeing this display a few people came over to investigate what was going on when the viceroy's son looked murderously at Marcus and said, "That bitch just broke my foot."

Many people began looking at Marcus, but he feigned ignorance and said, "I do not know what he is talking about, we were dancing and then he just suddenly fell over."

The viceroy's son then went to take of his shoe off and show everyone his broken foot, but when he did his foot actually was fine.

Marcus could only internally sneer since at the same time as breaking his foot, he had applied a healing spell so that there would be no lasting damage.

After that everyone just ignored the viceroy's son since he was already a black sheep, and his father came and apologized to Marcus before chewing his son out.

Having freed himself of the viceroy's son, Marcus headed over to where the food was being served, but before he could get there, a group of young nobles approached him and asked if he would like to dance.

Groaning internally, Marcus agreed since it was part of the job he had unknowingly signed up for and kept the young men away from the princess.

Having danced for an hour, a break in the music finally gave Marcus a reprieve, and he headed over to eat some of the food since it looked incredibly good.

While eating Marcus pulled up his status and like he thought his dancing skill had already gone up to level three, being one of the fastest skills he had ever leveled up.

Of course, at level forty-two and with a high agility stat getting the hang of dancing had actually been pretty easy once he got into it.

'Hm, I wonder what is going on.'

As his eyes wandered around the room Marcus with his enhanced vision caught sight of Mrazivý standing alone on a balcony with Diana in front of it keeping anyone from disturbing her.

Walking up to the balcony Marcus denied a number of requests to dance and made his way over to where Mrazivý was.

"Diana, would you mind if I talked to Mrazivý." 

Thinking about it for just a moment Diana nodded and said, "Sure go ahead, I am sure she will be fine if it is you."

Opening the balcony doors Marcus moved up right next to Mrazivý and said, "How are you doing?"

Putting on a smile Mrazivý said, "Fine, I just needed a break. Even with you and Diana helping me out there is no shortage of people seeking my attention."

Mrazivý then looked up into the sky at the stars and three different colored moons in the sky with a longing look.

"Marcus, do you ever wish that you could sprout wings and fly away into the horizon and leave everything behind."

Hearing this Marcus was a bit taken aback by the princess' question, but he just looked off into the sky with her and said, "Yeah sometimes I do. I have moments when I just want to go to far off lands and see everything this world has to offer. But I have things I need to take care of here first, but once that is done, I probably will fly off into the horizon."

With a couple tears running down her face Mrazivý said, "So you do have a set of wings and are not bound to the ground like me."

At this point Marcus understood that Mrazivý was not talking literally and that something must have happened.

She had been showing signs of being down all day so whatever was bothering her must have happened earlier.

"Iron Wings of the Archangel."

Casting his tier five Iron magic spell, six large wings made of iron feather appeared from Marcus' back and he moved over and towards Mrazivý and said, "If you ever want to fly, I am willing to lend you my set of wings."

Seeing this gesture that Marcus had given her, Mrazivý gave him a big hug as she started crying.

She had still not told Marcus what was bothering her, and it seemed she had no intention of doing so, but Marcus was fine as long as he was able to give her some level of comfort.

After about a minute Mrazivý pulled back, wiped away her tears, and said, "Thank you for the offer, but I still have a chance to make my own wings, so for now go ahead and keep yours. Now I need to head back into the hall before too many people notice I am missing and start to talk."

With that, Mrazivý composed herself and headed back to the party leaving Marcus alone on the balcony.

However, he did not go in immediately right after her, instead he disappeared turning back into his ghost form.

He then found a quite area where no one was around and got ready for one last gesture to help Mrazivý out.

Once his preparations were complete Marcus floated back up to the balcony he had left from and appeared once again.

Slowly opening the doors so as to not attract attention Marcus slipped back into the hall and quickly located Mrazivý.

She was currently dancing with some older gentleman and while she had a smile on her face her eyes seemed cold and dead.

Activating his phantom pressure for less than an instance, Marcus caused the old man to feel as if death had just knocked at his door, and the man began to breath heavily and excused himself saying he needed to sit down.

Then with the opening made Marcus walked confidently onto the dance floor and said, "Could I have this dance."

Yet instead of being in his form as Irene, Marcus had switched back over to his original self.

"Marcus?!" Mrazivý said, with a confused and astounded expression.

Smiling at her confusion Marcus just held out his hand and said, "Even if you do not want to fly away, how about I at least lift a slight burden off of your shoulders for tonight."

A smile appearing on her own face after the initial shock was over, Mrazivý took Marcus' hand and the two of them began to dance together.

Of course, Marcus' sudden declaration to dance with the princess had gotten a number of people's attention as they began whispering amongst each other trying to figure out who the young man dancing with the princess was.

"Are you not worried that someone is going to recognize you, you are technically a wanted man." Mrazivý said playfully.

"That is why I took the precaution and changed my hair color. I doubt many people would have recognized me here anyway, but now it is even more unlikely."

The two of them then continued to dance for nearly an hour, Marcus making sure that no one else bothered Mrazivý.

Unfortunately, the viceroy himself eventually had the music discreetly stopped early, so that he could question the young man dancing with the princess that he did not know.

"Excuse me your highness might I inquire with whom you have been dancing with." The viceroy asked while directing a bit of hostility at Marcus.

He knew for a fact that he had not invited him to his party, and that he had not shown up with any of the guest, therefore must have been an infiltrator.

However, he had still been dancing with the princess like the two were familiar with each other, so he was trying to be civil.

Yet even though the viceroy had directed his question at Mrazivý, Marcus stepped in front of her and said, "Oh, where are my manners, I should have introduced myself earlier. You can call me Cheshire and I am afraid that I arrived uninvited and decided to charm the prettiest girl here, but it appears she was a princess and I attracted too much attention. Well, I think I have perhaps overstayed my welcome so I will be taking my leave now."

The viceroy hearing this immediately moved to attack Marcus who he now believed had cast some type of spell on the princess.

Seeing the punch coming for him Marcus was actually quite surprised by the speed and force behind it since most nobles were not actually that strong.

But what he did not know was that Count Vendrick used to be a general in the kingdom's army and was level forty-five.

Still, it did not really matter to Marcus as he simply disappeared going back into his ghost form and letting the punch pass harmlessly through him.

The viceroy then looked around trying to find Marcus but when he did not, he called for the guards.

But before he could get out any instructions the viceroy felt a sense of danger and he noticed Marcus reaper right behind Mrazivý and say, "I had a lovely time dancing with you tonight, but it appears that we will have to say our farewells, so I will remove the spell I cast on you."

After making sure to play up some theatrics for the crowd, Marcus once again disappeared right before a spell from Diana would have pierced right through his head.

Guards then began to rush into the room and the count told them to search the entire grounds for the one calling himself Cheshire.

Of course, the party was also put to an early end and even after searching for hours no sign of the mysterious being that had infiltrated the party was found.