Chapter 371 - 371 Preparing For The Auction

Having agreed to go and talk to Forlorieous and see if he could help out, Marcus and Mrazivý left the atrium and went back to her room, to get some rest after a long day.

…

A week quickly passed by as Marcus and Mrazivý, relaxed around the castle enjoying their time together before they would be going their separate ways.

However, as Marcus was about to leave, having retaken his form as Irene since that was how he had arrived, another person was upset to see him leave.

"Are you sure you have to leave Irene, could you not stay just a bit longer." Princess Eis said, latching on to Marcus.

During his stay he and Mrazivý had played with the youngest princess a few times and they had all gotten pretty close together.

Still Marcus knew he could not stay any longer as the auction he had been looking forward to was being held tomorrow, and Mrazivý apparently had something she needed to do as well.

"Princess Eis you are making this difficult for Lady Irene. She has matters she needs to attend to and cannot stay any longer." Sir Hinsen said as he pulled Eis off of Marcus.

"It is okay Eis, Irene here will be coming back in a few more days and we can all hang out again then." Mrazivý said trying to console her little sister.

"But after that you said you would both be leaving again and would not know when you would be returning. Once the two of you are gone, I will be alone again." 

Eis then looked as if she was going to cry, so Marcus bent down, getting at eye level wither and said, "Eis, we may not be able to be with you for a while, but that does not mean that we will not see each other again. Anyway, you are not alone you have Sir Hinsen her to take care of you, so try and cheer up."

Curbing her tears and sniffling, Eis tried to remain tough, and nodded her head.

"Ah, here, take a couple of these, I know that you like them." Marcus said, pulling out a few natural treasures and handing them over to Eis.

Seeing the fruits Eis hastily took them knowing how good they tasted, but though she wanted to eat them right then, she put them away for later, so she could properly say goodbye.

"See you later big sister, and Irene. When you come back in a few days make sure to come and play with me." Eis said waving as Marcus and Mrazivý headed out.

Smiling Marcus waved back, but at the same time he thought, 'I wish I could help her, but there is nothing I can do.'

After their first meeting with the young princess Mrazivý had told Marcus that Eis was born for a singular specific purpose.

Her mother was a princess herself, of the kingdom to the south Tralenstein, and during the bloody succession that happened when the current king took over, she had fled here.

That was when the king made her one of his wives and had Eis. That way should the opportunity present itself, she could be used as a tool for Borealia to take over Tralenstein.

'And with the unrest that is currently going on, it seems more likely that Eis may soon be used as a political pawn.' Marcus thought, regretful that there was nothing he could do.

He had already stuck his neck out as far as he wanted to for Mrazivý, and he could not save everyone from what fate had in store for them.

Shaking his head, and putting those thoughts to the back of his mind, Marcus turned his attention back towards Mrazivý and asked for the dozenth time, "So what are you planning to do? You said that you have some important business to attend to, but you still won't tell me."

Putting on a devious smile Mrazivý responded, "Nope, I am not saying. Just know that it is a big surprise for you."

Shrugging his shoulders Marcus gave up on trying to get Mrazivý to tell him and turned his focus towards the auction.

"Well, I will see you in a few days before we are going off on our respective journeys. Take care until then." Marcus said, as he boarded the carriage that was going to take him back home from the castle.

Yet instead of back to his residence, Marcus asked to be dropped off at the Blazegram Forge so that he could see his master and collect any of the money he might have received from the sales of his items.

"Oh, Lady Irene you are back." The apprentice manning the front counter said.

Smiling Marcus greeted this apprentice and asked them how their forging was going since they were one of the newbies he had given a lesson to.

"It is going great. I have been practicing what you taught me, and my skill level is now at two, and I am sure it is only a matter of time until it reaches three." The apprentice said happily.

"Good for you. Keep at it and you are sure to reach your goal. Oh, and when you get your skill up to level three, come find me and I will give you another lesson." Marcus said wanting to motivate his junior.

"I will do my best." The apprentice said enthusiastically.

After that Marcus moved into the forge proper and greeted everyone there before heading to Thabon's room.

"Master it is me, you got a minute." Marcus said knocking on the door.

A few minutes later, Thabon opened up, shirtless and sweating profusely, obviously having been working hard on something special.

"Wow master this is the first time I think I have seen you sweat. I thought you were pretty much immune to the heat." Marcus said surprised to see Thabon suffering the effects of heat.

"Yeah, it is unusual. Come on in and I will tell you about it."

"I see, so you are making some sets of armor out of crimson ore. Now that I think about it, I have never worked with it or seen anyone work with it, but all of our best furnaces are made out of it." Marcus said realizing he had never learned anything about it.

"Oh, I guess I never explained it to you. Oh well, it is not like it matters much anyway. Unless you are making something that needs to be incredibly heat resistant it has no other function. It is far more brittle than mithril, so it is not really used for weapons or armor very often. Still, a group of mithril rank adventures are going to explore a volcano and wanted some armor that would completely protect them from the heat." Thabon said gesturing towards the armor he had already made.

Though as Marcus looked at it, he thought it looked more like a diver's suit rather than armor.

"But I am guessing that is not why you are here. So, what is up." Thabon said.

Marcus then explained that he was here to collect the money from the items he had put up to sell a few weeks ago.

"That is what I figured you came here for, and I have good news for you. Your items have become a hot commodity after your last battle in the tournament. In fact, we have sold almost everything you left."

Perking up hearing this, Marcus practically had dollars signs bouncing in his eyes, since the amount of money he was about to get was more than he was expecting.

"But before that I also found some reputable buys for the other top tier weapons you made. The sale is pretty much as good as done if you say yes. And since you are trying to gather as much money before the auction as possible, I would be willing to pay you now, out of my own pocket."

Going wide eyed, Marcus shook his head profusely, and thanked Thabon for his generosity.

"Ha ha, no need to thank me. You have done a lot of good work for me, and I enjoy having such a passionate and talented apprentice around. Anyway, as I said the sale is already a done deal, so I will get the money and be back quickly.

After saying that, Thabon went deeper into his room where he kept a safe and pulled out eighteen thousand gold coins and gave them to Marcus, who in return handed over the three weapons.

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot to mention, but Gurrom has headed off on a journey to better himself, and I do not know when he will be back. Do you think you could pick up some of the slack while he is gone." Thabon said, hoping that Marcus could help alleviate some of his workload.

Unfortunately, once the auction was over Marcus planned to go and see the Great Spirit of Nature Forlorieous, and after that he was going to meet back up with Mrazivý in the Delvien Swamp.

"I see. Well, when you have the time please come back and help. Without Gurrom, only me and Conall can work on high level items." 

Nodding his head and telling Thabon that he would come and help out when he could, Marcus said goodbye to his master and headed towards the shop to collect the money from his sales.

"Forty-one thousand three hundred ninety-six gold coins." The shop manger said to Marcus as he went through the record and found how much he had earned.

Hearing this Marcus' jaw nearly dropped since he had made what could be considered an outrageous sum in such a shot amount of time.

In fact, only high-ranking nobles or powerful merchants with many lucrative business interests would normally be able to make this amount of money

'To think I could earn this much in such a short amount of time. And this is after the forge has already taken their cut.'

Of course, Marcus forgot to take into account the value of the materials he had used to make all of these items, but he had still made a sum of money that would make most jealous.

"Here you go Lady Irene. I have placed your earnings into these five magic bags. The first four have ten thousand gold in each of them and the fifth has the remainder." The store manger said being as transparent as possible.

Even for him it was rare to pull out this much money and give it over to one person.

Still, he could not be happier with Marcus, since he had brought their shop a huge influx of business and made them a lot of money.

"Thank you very much." Marcus said, as he grabbed the bags of money while feeling quite giddy.

'Now I have nearly one hundred thirty thousand gold which should be enough. And I should be able to get at least twenty-five thousand from the items I have up for auction. I highly doubt anyone will have as much and be willing to pay top dollar for those adamantine bars.. They are as good as mine.'