Chapter 177 - 176 Meeting With The Duchess

It was now the day of his meeting with Duchess, and Marcus was still hard at work making the gift he had planned to give the high ranking noble.

Marcus knew he could not just give her anything, as a duchess there was little she could not obtain herself.

But if Marcus made her something exquisite like the pair of weapons he had made for Clarisa, it would come off as him almost trying to bribe the family for political favor. However, too small of a gift would be and insult, so Marcus had been working painstakingly on a gift that had the Goldilocks Factor, neither too hot nor too cold.

'Finally, it is done. When I set out to make this, I never thought it would have been more difficult than the pair of swords I made Clarisa, but I had to test out dozens of formations I was making from scratch. Luckily the enchantment is pretty simple it just required a lot of trial and error to get where it is.'

Examining the finished product he had painstakingly worked on, Marcus gave it a quick once over, testing to see that it worked properly, and when he was satisfied by its effect stored it in a small gift box he had prepared.

'Now I need a bath, I am covered in soot and flacks of metal.'

Putting his hard made gift into his item box, Marcus exited his workshop and made his way back to his mansion and straight to the bath.

After washing himself off, Marcus entered the massive tub filled with warm water and slid in letting out a relieved sigh.

Sitting in the bath and relaxing, Marcus opened up hist status and went to the skill menu to look for certain types of skills.

After fighting against Amara, Marcus realized that he needed some form of detection skill since invisible opponents could cause him difficulty if he only relied on danger sense.

'Hm there are a number of good skills that could help me like enhanced hearing or heat vision. The only problem is I only have three skill points and they are too expensive right now. Ah wait here is one that only cost three skill points for me.'

Coming across a skill called life sense, Marcus quickly read through its description and purchased the skill immediately.

With his new skill acquired Marcus activated the ability and he could now pick of the signatures of living beings within a ten-foot radius.

'Well, there is nothing giving me a signal within ten feet, but I suppose that is to be ex- wait I just felt something.'

Looking over to his right Marcus saw a small beetle crawling across the bathroom floor and had just entered the effective area of his ability.

'Hm, it did not make much of a signal, but I suppose the life force of a beetle is not high. Well at least I know the skill works.'

Content with the skill he had picked up at the expense of the rest of his skill points, Marcus continued to soak for another few minutes before getting out and drying off.

Now clean and relaxed, Marcus went back to his room where he picked out a light blue dress to wear to his meeting with the duchess.

With his clothing picked out Marcus made his way downstairs where he found Clara who was ready to accompany him to the Ophiria estate.

Walking out the front door Marcus already found Blitz hooked up to his carriage with Amy acting as the coachman.

Entering inside along with Clara, Marcus sat down and tried to calm down since he was beginning to get a bit nervous, since he was still not sure what the duchess wanted to speak with him about.

Traveling along the streets of the city after for nearly an hour the estate of the Ophiria family came into view, and Marcus looked out at the massive building that dwarfed his own.

'Wow, the mansion looks like it is bigger than one hundred thousand square feet. Actually, scratch it being a mansion that is a palace. They could easily fit three of my homes inside theirs and mine used to be owned by a Marquess which is only one rank lower.'

Staring at the massive building that was the biggest he had seen since coming to this world, Marcus could not help but gulp. The massive size of the palace showed just how much power and wealth the Ophiria family had.

Driving up to the main gate, Amy who was acting as the coachman stopped and a pair of guards approached her asking what business she had here.

At that point she handed over the letter of invitation Marcus had received from the duchess, and a minute later when the guards had verified the authenticity of the letter the gates opened, allowing Marcus and his accompanying maids entered the premises.

Riding along it was not long before his carriage stopped in front of the main entrance and Marcus and Clara got out leaving Amy to go and park the carriage.

Approaching the front door, Marcus was quickly greeted by a number of servants who led Marcus and Clara through the palace that was far grander than anything Marcus had ever seen.

Walking down a couple of hallways, Marcus was led to the drawing room where he saw the duchess sitting with four servants around her and a large man decked out in full armor behind her.

In fact, the man behind her was radiating a certain aura and Marcus did not even need to appraise him to know he was quite high level.

'A full suit of mithril armor, and his weapon is made out of adamantine. He is strong, I am not sure I could beat him even if I went all out.'

While looking over the obviously powerful knight standing behind the duchess as her protector, Marcus felt Clara give him a slight push on the back urging him to continue walking.

Recovering after having stopped and stared at the duchess' guard, Marcus made his way into he room where he bowed and said, "It is an honor to meet you Duchess Ophiria and thank you for the invitation into your home."

Waiting for the duchess' reply, Marcus continued to bow until she said, "Yes, it is also nice to meet you as well. I have heard much about you from my grandmother and Wade. Though your reputation has also gotten around since you have been accepted as Thabon Blazegram's apprentice. Now feel free to sit down and make yourself comfortable, I have much I wish to discuss with you."

With the duchess' permission Marcus sat down on the couch that was facing her and Clara took up a position behind him.

"Ah but before we get into any discussion, I have brough a gift for your grace."

Taking out the little gift box from his item box, Marcus placed it on the table that situated between the two and slid it over to the other side.

Once he had done that one of the maids that were around the duchess went and picked it up before handing the box to the knight standing behind her.

He then began examining it for a few moments before opening the box and checking the contents inside.

While this was going on Duchess Ophiria smiled towards Marcus and said, "I hope you understand that Sir Dru is just looking out for my safety. Every gift I receive has to be inspected first since while not common, other people have sent trapped boxes or cursed gifts in the past."

Nodding his head, Marcus made sure to keep that in mind for the future in case he ever received any dubious gifts in the future.

A bit under a minute later Sir Dru was satisfied that the item Marcus had given was harmless and handed the box to the duchess.

The duchess took the gift out and examined the mithril hairclip that Marcus had made for her.

"My this is a lovely hairclip; it is even made out of mithril and the craftmanship is excellent. Where perchance did you get this, most artisans would not use mithril for such an item."

Happy to see the genuine curiosity on the duchess' face, Marcus said with a proud expression, "Actually I made that hairclip personally and it is also an enchanted item. If you wish, clip it to your hair and apply a bit of mana to it."

The duchess with an inquisitive look put the hairclip in her hair and applied some mana, and in just a few seconds her hair actually arranged itself into a perfect bun.

The duchess looked wide eyed as she brought her hand up to her hair and then look at Marcus in disbelief.

She then applied some more mana, and her hair went back to normal, before changing into a braid.

With an astounded face the duchess looked at Marcus and said, "Lady Irene, however, did you make such an item. I have never even heard of something similar. And there are even ten more formations on this clip what other styles does it do."

Marcus seeing the duchess' interest told her that the clip allowed her to change between eight different hairstyles and could also change the color of her hair to blonde, brown, red, or black.

After his explanation the duchess began playing around with the hairclip going through the options of hairstyle and hair color.

This went on for another three minutes before one of the maids bent over and whispered into the duchess ear and she looked at Marcus with a slightly embarrassed face.

"Sorry about that Lady Irene, I seem to have lost myself in this fantastic gift you have given me. I must say that it is truly an ingenious item, and your reputation as a genius may not be just for show. Ah but now how about we get down to business.. I have asked you here today because I would like you to come and work for the Ophiria family as our personal forgemaster."