Chapter 330 - 330 Banquet

Seeing the look in Mrazivý's eyes and the rack of dresses behind her, Marcus wanted to turn around and run away.

He had seen this look before and last time it had ended up in him being put into over two dozen different dresses.

As much as he had gotten used to acting as a girl in his guise as Irene, Marcus took no joy in being used as a dress up doll and found it quite tedious.

In fact, he was currently working with the same magical weaver that had made his current set of combat clothes to develop a shapeshifting outfit, just so that he would not have to worry about picking out clothes.

Unfortunately, Marcus was unable to put up any real resistant and was soon dragged over where Aisha, Mrazivý's maid began pulling out dresses and helping him into it.

Luckily, he was only put into four different dresses before convincing Mrazivý and Aisha that they had found the right one.

"Well, I guess this one does look good on you. And it plays to your theme, right, Darkligth Princess." Mrazivý said in a teasing tone.

Internally groaning, Marcus knew that he was unlikely to ever live down the nickname he hated, but he knew he could get back Mrazivý some other time.

'At least this dress is not as flashy as the last one she put me in.'

Marcus was grateful that his current dress was not very revealing and was a pretty standard formal gown.

Though it was a bit odd in that it was two colors both black and white, which was not common as most gowns were one color.

"Well, I think we should be ready, yes? We do not want to be late so let us hurry up and go." Marcus said trying to get out of here before they decided to dress him up some more.

Nodding her head Mrazivý said, "Okay. Aisha, could you go and get the carriage ready for us."

"As you wish your highness." Aisha said as she gave a slight bow to Mrazivý.

After that Aisha left the room and Marcus could see Sir Heward still standing outside the door, and even just from his back Marcus could tell he was fuming mad.

Then as Aisha closed the door and Mrazivý was certain they were alone she came up and hit Marcus in the arm and said, "What were you thinking passing through the door as a ghost. If Aisha had seen you, it would have raised a whole bunch of questions."

Naturally Mrazivý was a bit concerned with Marcus being found out even further, but he simply shrugged his shoulder and said, "I wanted to use the door, but your guardian knight did not want to let me in."

Sighing Mrazivý looked exasperated since she was already tired of Sir Heward and Marcus' hostility towards each other.

"I will try talking to him again but maybe next time try to give him a bit of consideration. He has been my guardian knight since I was four."

"Okay I will try to make nice, but he thinks I used some sort of brainwashing power on you and the king, so you should probably set him straight before he does something drastic."

Nodding her head Mrazivý agreed that she would work things out with Sir Heward.

Soon Aisha came back and said that the carriage was ready for their departure, and Marcus and Mrazivý began making their way to it.

However, along the way Sir Heward interposed himself in between the two of them, making it difficult for Marcus and Mrazivý to hold any type of conversation.

Still once they made it to the carriage that was pulled by two pure white horses, Mrazivý ordered Sir Heward to sit on the coachman stand to better look out for any threats.

Then her and Marcus piled into the carriage and Mrazivý gave Marcus a conflicted look and said, "It is worse than I thought. He does not just dislike you; I am pretty sure he wants to kill you."

Sighing Marcus responded and said, "I told you it was bad."

The two of them then talked about how Mrazivý would convince Sir Heward to stop hating him, before moving onto some of the prepared answers they had for questions they were expecting.

"Oh, is that it." Marcus asked as they were closing in on a large ornate building that had banners flying on top of it."

"Yep, that should be it. The Boreal Hall. It was the first king's original palace, but it has since been converted into a building exclusively for holding large events in the outer city."

Looking out his window Marcus took in the sight of the large palace that was now basically an event center as they continued getting closer.

Shortly they pulled up to the front of the building where plenty of carriages were already pulling up, and a number of nobles, merchants, and competitors were getting out.

Exiting their carriage, both Mrazivý and Marcus gained the attention of a number of people.

Naturally after the tournament they were both quite recognizable, and Mrazivý being a member of the royal family had her attracting even more attention.

Marcus even noticed a few of them whispering to each other and looking over at them with surprised eyes.

'Hm, I wonder what that is about.'

Straining his ears Marcus tried to listen in on the conversations that a few people were certainly having about him and Mrazivý, but unfortunately none of them were within ear shot, and as they got closer these people switched up their conversation topics.

A number of people then bowed towards Mrazivý and greeted her, showing respect to her status as a princess.

Luckily, there were not too many people still milling about outside, so after just a bit of pleasantries Marcus and Mrazivý were able to enter the banquet's venue, and head to the main hall where the event was being held.

Once inside, a much greater number of people could be seen, and Marcus guessed that in this massive room that there was a bit over a thousand people milling around and talking to each other.

'Oh, a familiar face.'

Spotting an acquaintance he wanted to talk to Marcus, began heading over to them, while bringing Mrazivý in toe saying she would want to talk to this guy.

"Hey Novak, good to see you again." 

Novak who was in the middle of stuffing an entire leg of some type of bird into his mouth looked at Marcus a bit stunned, before hurriedly scarfing down the food in his mouth.

"Ah, sorry about that Irene. I don't get to eat food this good most of the time." Novak said a bit embarrassed by being seen with his mouth completely stuffed.

"No problem I understand how hard it is to not want to devour delicious food. Oh, and this here is my friend Princess Mrazivý Borealia." Marcus said gesturing to Mrazivý who was next to him.

Then looking at Mrazivý as if he just noticed her Novak smiled and said, "Nice to meet you your highness. My name is Novak a traveling adventure."

"Nice to meet you as well Novak. I am Mrazivý Borealia a platinum rank adventurer."

Hearing this Novak was a bit surprised, but his grin just grew wider, and he said, "Same rank as me. You must be pretty strong then."

Hitting it off almost immediately Marcus knew that Mrazivý would appreciate Novak's straight forward character, and the fact that he was also an adventurer gave them all plenty to talk about.

"Hey Novak, they have the best meat I have ever had you got to try some." 

Looking over at the newcomer that had just arrived Marcus recognized him as Clay one of the guys he beat in his preliminary rounds, and a member of Novak's party

And as Clay looked at Marcus and Mrazivý who had been talking to Novak he nearly dropped his plate full of food.

Naturally how could he forget Marcus who had handily beaten him in his final preliminary match.

"Clay you are back. Good timing, I was just chatting with Irene and her friend here. So where are the others I would like to introduce them." Novak said while looking around.

"Huh. Um yeah while we were all getting food some rich merchant approached them saying he was impressed by their display in the tournament. Though he did not want anything to do with me since I got taken out in the preliminaries." Clay said while moving his head around and looking at Novak and Marcus trying to get a read on the situation.

Still after a bit of initial fluster, Clay integrated himself into the conversation well, and the four of them quickly began telling each other stories about their adventurers.

Of course, Marcus and Mrazivý were actually very interested to here from Novak and Clay since neither of them had ever been outside of the kingdom of Borealia and these two had explored an entire other continent.

Unfortunately, their conversation was sort lived as an unwanted pest approached them getting right in front of Marcus and saying, "You must be Baronetess Irene Geist.. It is a "pleasure" to meet you, I am Viscount Mudak."