BXBX NOVEL Chapter 559 Winter’s Work
After Marcus’ and his groups return to the royal capital of Borealia, time quickly went by.
James and Fallon soon went back to their respective roles leading the kingdom’s elite sky knights, while Quillon and along with him Aerial headed back to the sword savant.
Lyra stuck around through the rest of the summer to enjoy her break away from her duty in Tralenstein. Though a good amount of her time ended up being spent networking in Borealia, until she ultimately had to return to her home.
As for Lilia, Marcus and Mrazivý, made sure to stay close and help her get through her inner crisis.
Of course, once Lilia headed back to school and they were sure she had recovered for the most part they had their own duties to attend to.
During the end of the summer and all through the fall, Marcus in his role as the honorary prince. Had to make a large number of public appearances along with Mrazivý and the other members of the royal family.
That way when their engagement was going to be announced it would not come completely out of nowhere.
For now though, the kingdom was making sure to take it slow and establish Marcus before coming out and saying her and Mrazivý was engaged..
This was mostly to minimize backlash from Marquis Krenston and his faction. Since Mrazivý’s former engagement to the marquis’ son was still fresh on their minds, and it would be best to wait a bit longer so that it was not so obvious that the engagement was broken off because of Marcus.
And when Marcus was not out increasing his connections and making his presence known, he was at the Blazegram forge helping Thabon out as Irene.
It had been quite some time since he just taken a large amount of time and worked as a forgmaster.
It was a welcome change of pace from his hectic life that had been pretty much going full steam ahead since he had gotten involved in the civil war in Tralenstein.
While there, he completed a number of high-profile commissions. One of which was making a new crown for Frostine for when she would ascend to the throne in a few years.
Naturally it had not been a normal crown. It had been made from amethros that was provided by the kingdom, and given a number of powerful enchantments to protect the future monarch of Borealia.
Along with that he had received a few requests for adamantine armor and weaponry from some of the most prominent and wealthy families in the kingdom, as well as a few mithril rank adventures.
Still, once autumn had wrapped up and winter began. It was time for Marcus to hold up his end of the contract he signed with the king in order to break off Mrazivý’s original engagement.
Last year he had gotten a pass since he was acting as the kingdom’s agent in the civil war in Tralenstein, but this year he was going to be working in whatever capacity they needed him in for the next three months.
Currently he was being led through the corridors of the castle to meet with whoever was going to be handling him.
However, when he was brought to the room where they were waiting, he was surprised to see who it was.
“Deputy King Kalt, it is good to see you again.” Marcus said with a slight bow.
Smiling and waving, Kalt beckoned Marcus to join him inside the room.
Following his direction, Marcus walked into the room and the knight that had been escorting him closed the door behind him.
Now the two of them were completely alone as far as Marcus could tell which surprised him.
Normally someone as high ranking as the deputy king would have a guardian with him at all times.
Though Marcus was also quite surprised that his handler was going to be Kalt who held one of the highest stations in the kingdom.
“Would you like some tea.” Kalt asked to Marcus as he got up and began making a pot of tea.
Yet Marcus just shook his head and moved over to the cart where Kalt was preparing the tea, and said, “Wait your highness. I could not ask you to make the tea. Please allow me to do it for you.”
Hearing Marcus say this, Kalt just laughed and said, “No it is fine. I enjoy making tea when I so rarely have the chance, so just sit down and relax. Also, there is no need to call me your highness or act formal right now. I already know about your engagement to Mrazivý, so you are practically part of the family.”
Seeing that Kalt was not planning to act within the normal etiquette for nobles and royals, Marcus relaxed his demeanor and sat back down. If the other party had no intention of being formal, he was more than willing to stop acting.
‘Whew, I have been moving in these circles for too long. I practically reflexively said what I just did.’
Soon the deputy king had finished brewing a pot of tea, and he served some to Marcus, who took a sip and was pleasantly surprised.
‘It is pretty good. Not quite at Stella’s level, but for a member of the royal family I am surprised he is this competent in making tea.’
Once the two of them had sipped their tea for a few moments, Kalt pulled a sheet of paper out of his item box and slid it over to Marcus.
Picking it up, he read over it and found that it was a report from soldiers up in the northern part of the kingdom.
It detailed an uptick in monster and beast activity, much of which were species that normally lived farther north.
Luckily so far none of the settlements up there had been destroyed, but some of the villages and small towns had incurred casualties in some skirmishes with these monsters and beasts.
But there were also sighting of powerful creatures that were likely in the level forties or higher that were amassing in the Great Gome Woods.
“I see this is quite disconcerting. But if it is just a matter of needing extra fighting power, why not just send up a few high-level mages and knights to deal with the problem.” Marcus said, wondering why he was being shown this.
Anyone with a higher level could just exterminate some beasts and monsters, but he had a skillset that was unique and had plenty more uses.
He had figured he would be sent on a covert mission, or maybe be used to transport large amount of goods since the snow and ice made it difficult to move supplies during the winter.
Sighing, Kalt said, “Yes that is a possibility, but the majority of our highest-level fighters are currently in Tralenstein securing it from the countries to the south. They are trying to make advances now that they know it is only a matter of time until we integrated Tralenstein into our kingdom. They want to take off whatever chunk of Tralenstein they can. Forcing us to send in our best personally to rebuff them.
“Anyway, while we do want you to help protect our northern frontier and thin out the beasts and monsters a bit, it is also your investigative talents that we want to make use of. It is imperative that you find out the cause of this mass migration. We do not know why these creatures have begun venturing south, but there is certainly an underlying cause that could spell disaster for the kingdom if we do not address it.”