Chapter 119 - 118 Back On The Road

Now that he had gotten the general rundown from the mayor of the town he was in, Marcus had a pretty good understanding of what had happened.

'To think that just a single monster only a few levels over thirty could take over an entire town. This world really does have a huge disparity in the power one can have.'

Shaking his head Marcus pushed the thoughts in his head about how cruel this world could be and got back down to business.

"I think I understand what happened and I am glad that I was able to help you all out by killing the vampire. I would also like to apologize that during my fight with the vampire a few of your buildings were destroyed, I do not know if anyone inside those buildings survived but you should probably get some people together to search for survivors."

The mayor and the other town's folk hearing Marcus' statement finally took a good look around and saw the full destruction that Marcus' fight with the vampire had caused.

Many of them started crying since this was a small town and the recognized the buildings that were now mostly ruble and knew the people that had lived in them.

Some of them even began glaring at Marcus since they had no one else to blame since the vampire was already dead.

However, this did not last long as the mayor turned around and said, "All of you I know that these have been difficult times, but Lady Irene here is our savior, now go and find if anyone survived, if we stay here lamenting our situation any longer more people that we could have saved may die."

The few dozen town's people around hearing their mayor's words got themselves together and separated into groups and went over to the destroyed and damaged buildings hoping that their friends had somehow survived.

Soon it was just Marcus and his party along with the mayor and two of the remaining town's folk that had remained behind by his side.

Seeing that the mayor was looking at him and waiting for Marcus to continue the conversation, Marcus with great effort walked over towards the mayor and said, "Here this is not much but I hope that it can help your town recover from some of the damage I caused."

Marcus then took fifty gold coins out from of his item box and handed it over to the town mayor who stared at the bag and then Marcus in disbelief.

The mayor was completely stunned by Marcus' selfless action, the mayor had actually been expecting Marcus to ask for some form of compensation for being attacked by a monster in the mayors town. The mayor had not even put it past Marcus who was a titled noble to ask for his head since it was ultimately his failure as mayor for what had happened.

The mayor overwhelmed by emotions began crying again and in between his sobs said, "Lady Irene there is no way that the town can except this gold from you, in fact we should be the ones rewarding you. You came into our town expecting to find shelter but instead had to fight a life and death battle against a fearsome monster. Please allow the town to gather an appropriate recompense for your inconvenience and saving the entire town. If you would only give us a few days, I am sure we can gather up a reward suitable for your achievements.'

Marcus then watched as the mayor tried to shove the pouch of money Marcus had given him back, but Marcus really did not want to stay any longer in this town and he had given the mayor the money more out of guilty than out of good will.

Sighing Marcus looked at the mayor and said, "I already gave you the money, so I have no intention of taking it back nor do I plan to stay here any longer. I have somewhere I need to be soon, and I really just want to leave, so I am going to be on my way."

After giving his last words to the mayor Marcus turned around and shakily walked back to the carriage attached to Blitz and got back on the coachman's stand.

The town's mayor tried to request Marcus stay and allow the town to reward him and acknowledge his actions, but Marcus did not care to stay any longer since he figured it was going to be a hassle.

The mayor continued pleading with Marcus to stay up until the last moment even getting on his knees and begging, but Marcus did not want to become some local hero and ruffle the feathers of the noble that ruled over this territory, or worse get a marriage proposal.

Once he had situated himself on the stand Marcus handed the reins to Lilia even though she had very little experience directing the carriage since Marcus was too tired to even drive the carriage.

Marcus then gave Blitz the command to head back to the area where he had finished off the vampire, and the carriage began moving towards its destination.

Soon Marcus arrived back at the spot where his epic battle with the vampire had concluded and he quickly found the two objects that he was looking for.

On the ground where the vampire had died was the pitch-black wicked sword the vampire had used and a vibrant green magic core.

Using his spectral arm since he was too worn down to bother getting up, Marcus brought the two items over and stored them into his item box.

However, before he stored them into his item box, Marcus noticed that the magic core was not pure green like the other ones he had obtained, but had a few red lines running through it.

'That is odd, it must be because it came from a vampire. Maybe certain monsters have cores with special properties, though this is only a hypothesis at this point.'

Shrugging his shoulders Marcus put the core into his item box unaware that in a place far away someone had been watching him through this magic core.

…

In a dark room sitting on a large black throne sat a beautiful girl who appeared to be in her early twenties with dark black hair and eyes. In her hand she was holding a crystal ball and was looking at Marcus who was currently inspecting the vampire's magic core.

'Such and interesting ghost. I have never seen or even heard of one like it. It is not bound to a place nor does it seem to be pursuing some sort of dying goal, and it can even freely take a solid form. This ghost is far too intriguing even having the abilities of both light and darkness.'

As the beautiful black-haired girl continued to watch and replay the events that had happened during Marcus' fight with the vampire, a smile creeped onto her face revealing two long canine teeth.

Once she was satisfied with having watched the fight a few times she snapped her fingers and a young woman with blonde hair and red eyes appeared out of the shadows, and said, "What do you need of me my lady."

With a big smile the black hair beauty said, "I want you to go to the kingdom of Borealia and keep an eye on this ghost for me. Make sure that none of the other courts try to make a move on them, ah but no need for you to do anything else unless you feel it necessary."

With a slightly confused expression on her face the blonde vampire looked at her master and said, "You do not want me to avenge Vesairous, that ghost is the one who killed him. I know he was only one of your many probationary retainers, but do you think it wise to let this ghost go unpunished."

Smiling mischievously the empress of the Draayer Court said, "Normally you would be correct but, in this case, Vesairous died because of his pride, he could have simply fled when he was pushed onto the back foot, and this ghost could be far more valuable in the future than the need to avenge Vesairous. Now then you have a long journey ahead of you so go ahead and get ready, once you arrive keep me regularly updated on this ghost, and once I have a full grasp of their true nature, I will decided what I want to do."

The blonde vampire while not agreeing with her master's decision bowed her head before disappearing back into the shadows.

'Now I wonder what secrets you are hiding and how far you are going to be able to go.'

…

With his spoils from the fight against the vampire secure Marcus told Lilia to drive the carriage towards the southern part of the town so they could continue on there way.

Marcus wanted to get to the kingdom's capital as soon as possible and staying in this town any longer was only going to delay them further.

Luckily, they managed to get through the town without obstruction as the majority of people were still inside their homes and the ones that were roaming outside were too busy rummaging through the destroyed buildings looking for survivors to further bother Marcus.

Soon they managed to make it to the outskirts of the town where the southern gate was left open and unguarded.

Passing through the gate Marcus and Lilia exited the town, using the light from Marcus' floating lantern spell to light up their surroundings, the three of them continued their journey heading down the road to the royal capital.