A few days passed as Marcus and Mrazivý enjoyed some more leisure time in the castle. Until it was time for Marcus to return back to his own estate, and for Mrazivý to head out on her next adventure.
“I hope you enjoy yourself in Tralenstein. I know you will be with Lyra and running their high-level dungeon along with Quillon but try to be careful.” Marcus said as they were about to separate.
Mrazivý had wanted to get stronger, and she inquired with Lyra if there were any good training spots in Tralenstein and somehow ended up forming a party with her and Quillon who caught wind of this when Mrazivý asked their master for advice.
“No need to worry. Lyra and Quillon will have my back and I will have there’s. Just you wait, I am going to catch up and pass you by again.” Mrazivý said with confident expression.
She really did plan to push herself to level up and get much stronger now that Marcus had shot in front of her.
“I look forward to it. Then after our engagement party our group can get together again and take on the special dungeon during the summer.” Marcus said.
The two of them then gave each other a long hug and kiss before saying goodbye and going their separate ways..
‘Time to get back into character.’ Marcus thought as he switched his form back over to that of Irene.
Soon Clara came by in the carriage beign pulled by Blitz and Marcus made sure to thank her, and give his long-time beast companion a large number of natural treasures as a snack.
“Are you ready to go Lady Irene?” Clarisa asked once he had sat down in the carriage.
Nodding his head Marcus gave his agreement and the carriage took off back towards his estate.
When he arrived, he was immediately met with a surprise as Roxene and Intent came running up to him.
“You are finally back Roxene. You sure took your time. But why is Inten still with you? It should have been safe for him to return home.” Marcus asked.
‘Hmph, I told you that I was going to be cleaning up the beasts and monsters that were going on a rampage in wake of that Doomsday Worm. And Inten is now my loyal retainer.’ Roxene said with her head held high as usual.
She was noticeably bigger now than when Marcus had last seen her, and she was close to the size of an actual wolf now, though she was still an adolescent for her species.
Inten was also acting differently.
Before he did not pay much heed to Roxene, but during their journey together it appeared that she had put him in his place and taken him as a follower.
‘It is as Lady Roxene says. I have been shown what true power looks like and was outclassed. I have no choice but to follow the strong and my savior. Oh, but I plan to repay you as well. I still have not done enough to erase the dept I have to you for sparing my life all those years ago.’ The diamond mouse said to Marcus.
Roxene then elaborated that an incredibly strong monster nearly killed Intent in a fight, and she had taken the monster down by using her supreme and unique skills. Causing Inten to now be following her to repay her as well.
‘He is useful and just strong enough to warrant keeping him under me, and by extension you. I believe it will be in our benefit to keep him around.’ Roxene said.
Shrugging his shoulders Marcus really did not care if Inten wanted to stick around. It was true that the diamond mouse was a legendary grade beast and had a relatively high level, so he was certainly useful.
“Sure, that is fine. I will inform the staff about him. Though I wonder how they will take it? A level fifty plus legendary grade beast does not just show up every day.”
As it turned out, when Marcus informed them about Inten some of them went wide eyed in shock and even fainted since they figured he was just an ordinary mouse that Roxene had been playing around with, and not an intelligent legendary grade beast that could raze an average city to the ground.
“That did not go as well as I planned.” Marcus said as he saw the nervousness around his maids.
He had also informed them that Blitz was an intelligent beast and at the epic grade now, which caused them to be more fearful of him even though everything had been fine up to this point.
‘I guess when you know that the beast you are caring for is that strong it is bound to bring about at least a bit of hesitation.’
At the very least Marcus still kept the truth about Roxene a secret, so they all thought she was still just an epic grade beast. Though they had always treated her well, as they had known her since she was just a newborn pup.
‘I am sure in a little bit of time everything will go back to normal.’
Heading back out after informing everyone Marcus caught up with Inten and Roxene who were playing around.
Though while it was playing for them it was actually more like a sparring match.
“I have something I want to discuss with the both of you.” Marcus said.
The two beasts quickly came over and Roxene looked a bit annoyed to have been interrupted.
“Inten how would you feel about entering into a contract with me, and obtaining a mutual seal?” He asked the diamond mouse. “And Roxene, do you think this is a good idea?”
Before answering Inten turned towards Roxene and she just looked completely disinterested while saying that it should be fine.
‘If my lady says it is fine, I would be more than happy to form a mutual seal with you just as she has. It will allow me to finally be of some use to you.’ Intent said with a pleased gleam in his eyes.
With that Marcus now had the agreement of a legendary grade beast to become mutual partners.
“That is great. We will need to set up the process carefully though. I doubt that we can just walk into a store and just have the seals created done. Last time I did that I caused quite the stir.” Marcus said remembering what happened with Roxene.
He had ended up causing a panic in Loursend and getting himself put on the wanted list. And while he did not figure that would happen this time, he would definitely cause quite the stir if it became public knowledge that he had contracted with a legendary grade beast.
‘I know that there are other people that have formed seals with legendary grade beasts like James even if they are few and far between. I am sure that if I contact Kalt he can help me out here and have something set up. It is in the kingdom’s interest to prevent any sort of uproar as well.’
Having figured out what to do, Marcus sent a letter to the castle and waited to hear back before doing anything else in this regard.
“Now how about I make you something special for your return Roxene. You worked hard so I think that is the least I can do.”