Coming out of the back alley he had been practicing his new spells in, Marcus could see what appeared to be a large parade of people shouting out cheers of excitement. In the middle of this parade were a group of people in flashy armor that were holding up a bunch of rare looking items.
'I wonder what is going on, who are those people, they appear to be decked out in magical equipment and they are showing off rare items like skill orbs in the street.'
Far too curious about what was going on Marcus approached a random onlooker and asked them what was going on.
"You mean to tell me you do not know who they are, have you been living under a rock. They are the strongest adventures in Loursend, Royal Frost. They are lead by the thirteenth princess of the kingdom and they have just come back successfully from their expedition to slay the boss of the second level of the Ocean Bluff Temple."
Hearing their conversation another random person decided to be noisy and give his two cents.
"I am afraid I have to disagree with you, while Royal Frost may be the most famous adventures in Loursend, it is undisputable that Unmovable Sea is stronger than them."
As more people started to join in on the conversation of which of the top parties in Loursend were the strongest Marcus quickly excused himself, regretting the flame war he had somehow started.
'These people sure are passionate about the higher-level adventure parties, they are acting like people did on Earth about their favorite sports teams.'
Deciding he wanted a better look at Royal Frost Marcus quickly ran ahead and caught up to them and unleashed his creature appraisal skill. To his expectation the first four members he tried to appraise came back with the message cannot appraise but when he moved his focus to the blue haired princes the results came back appraisal blocked. However, this is not what shocked Marcus the most, what had him really on edge was that the princess stopped and stared back at him. She then put on a chilling smile and started to approach him, panicking Marcus felt like he needed to run away but he was surrounded by a crowd of people that slowly began to part as the princess grew nearer to him.
"Hello there, I could not help but feel that probe you sent out, did you not know that it is rude to try to appraise random people, especially royalty. However, I am willing to forgive you if you tell me your name, aren't I generous."
Marcus felt the pressure that the princess was emitting and sensed that she was willing to kill him if he did not answer her.
Bowing his head and giving off his most apologetic voice Marcus said, "My, name is Irene I am sorry for disrespecting your highness, I am just a country hick that does not know manners, I swear it will not happen again."
The princess then started laughing and slapping Marcus on the back as the tension in the air began to fade.
"Ah ha-ha, thanks for the good laugh Irene, walk with me back to the guild I would like to talk with you some more."
Nervously Marcus walked back to the other members of Royal Frost who all had quizzical looks but ultimately just shrugged their shoulders used to the whimsical nature of their leader.
'What the hell is going on, how did this happen, is this a cruel lesson from the universe to not stick my nose where it does not belong. I do not know what type of interest this princess has in me, but I cannot imagine it is anything good, the second I find a chance I need to escape.'
While it would normally have been a short walk back to the guild hall, with the added fanfare it took nearly an hour. During that time Marcus had to awkwardly stand with the members of Royal Frost while they regaled the tale of their fight with the four headed hydra floor boss and people gawked at them and the items they had won from the dungeon. Eventually though the group moved inside the guild and the branch master came down and had a private room readied for the members of Royal Frost. During this time Marcus tired to get away but the princes grabbed his hand intent on keeping him there. Dragged into the private room Marcus realized he had nothing to do but be resigned to his fate or use his ghost form to escape.
'I really do not want to go ghost since I will never be able to use Irene's identity again, but if they try to do something horrible to me, I always have it as my trump card.'
Soon an official for the kingdom came into the private room and started inspecting the goods that Royal Frost had obtained from the boss of the second floor of the Ocean Bluff Temple. Even though he was uncomfortable Marcus still was amazed by the items he saw. When he was reading about the Ocean Bluff Temple, he came across how when one of the floor bosses were defeated rare treasures would appear. This allowed Marcus to recognize the ingots of mithril, ice gems, and other valuable materials that the group had. Though what could be considered the most valuable were the skill orbs and stat increasing treasures. Marcus almost wanted to jump out and store the rare treasures into his item box and run away but contained himself realizing that would probably get him killed.
After the kingdom official had finished appraising the goods, he handed the princes a list of what items he would buy and for what prices. The princess then handed over all of the materials that could be used for making magic items but decided to keep the stat boosting items and skill orbs. Marcus watched as the kingdom official took out a chest containing thousands of gold from his magic bag and handed to the princess.
'Damn, that is a lot of money, I understand that those were rare materials but there must have been at least five thousand gold in that chest. From what I read the boss of the second floor is usually between level twenty-four and twenty-eight, but they are always of a higher quality than most creatures at that level. I was kind of hoping I would be able to take a crack at it, but it will not respawn until the end of the year when the dungeon's formation resets. I guess I could attempt the boss of the lowest level but it is usually between level twenty-nine and thirty-three and is the strongest monster in the whole dungeon so I doubt I could beat it.'
While he was thinking of his grandiose plans to fight the boss of the Ocean Bluff Temple's third level the kingdom's official left and a private party started for the members of Royal Frost and Marcus.
'Uh, when are they going to let me leave if they just wanted another person to party with, they could have just grabbed anyone else.'
After a while, the thirteenth princess came back over to Marcus and started talking to him.
"Hey there Irene, why do you look so glum, this is a celebration, have some wine, enjoy the food, you are not going to be able to have quality products like these every day."
Looking up and from his cup Marcus finally ran out of patients and decided he wanted to know what the princess actually wanted.
"Okay thirteenth princess what do you want from me, I have other things to do, and I realize I should not have tried to appraise you earlier but if you want to torture or kill me can you just get it over with."
The princess then stared at Marcus blankly for a few moments before she burst out laughing and did not stop for over a minute before she responded to Marcus.
"What made you think I was going to do something awful like kill or torture you, have people been spreading weird rumors about me or something, and there is no need to address me so formally you can call me by my name."
"You never told me your name and if you are not going to kill me can I leave."
The princess shook her head a bit before standing up from her chair and saying, "You must not have been lying when you said you were from the countryside. Allow me to introduce myself I am Mrazivý Borealia, but you can call me Mraz and I am sorry I gave you the impression I was going to kill you, I just wanted to get to know the person my cousin Wade thought so highly of."
Breathing a sigh of relief now that he finally knew why the princess had been so interested in him, Marcus let the tension release from his body.
"So, you heard about me from Wade, that makes more sense. I seriously thought I had offended you and you decided to make me suffer for it."
"No, if I killed every person that tried to appraise me there would be a mountain of corpses around the kingdom, I normally just give them a disapproving glare and move on with my life but when I saw you, I thought of the girl my cousin had told me helped him catch Ivar. That is why I wanted to know your name to make sure, and low and behold it really was you. Wade normally does not talk so passionate about the people he meets and if I did not know him better, I would have thought he was in love with you by the mountain of praise he heaped onto your shoulders."
With his misunderstanding cleared up Marcus let himself go and drank and ate to his hearts content while talking to the princess and before long the day soon turned to night and Marcus left to go back to his inn.