Transmigrated as a Ghost

Frowning, Marcus was hoping to string things out a bit more and meet somewhere in the middle, but the king seemed to want to end this quickly now, and with Marcus working for the kingdom for eternity no less.

However, Marcus was not going to just roll over to this if he did not have to. As much as he liked the kingdom, and forging was a passion of his, he did not want to do it every day at the kingdom's beck and call.

"How about this. I will work for the kingdom in whatever regard you want of me for a year. I can forge items, fight monsters, heck I am even adept at gathering information. But I have no intention of being nailed down for eternity."

Putting his foot down Marcus was not willing to be chained to the kingdom and be there forging dog.

He wanted Mrazivý to be happy, but he did not want to build up resentment for either her or this kingdom should he be forced to do something he did not want for the rest of his existence.

Of course, if it came down to it, he could just wait it out until he became too powerful to ignore, and threaten the entire kingdom, but he really did not want to do that.

Stroking his chin, the king though about Marcus' offer for a bit before saying, "How about fifty years. A single year of service is not enough no matter how talented you are. Maybe if you had some accomplishments under your name, like say winning our tournament, it would be worth it. But unfortunately, it is too late for that."

The king taking a jab at Marcus losing in the tournament, was trying to make him feel down and give in.

Unfortunately for him this simply made Marcus angry.

'Fifty years, as if. I may live forever, but I have not even been alive for fifty years yet, and I do not plan to spend that long tied down.'

Shaking his head Marcus responded and said, "Sorry fifty years is far to long even for me. For most people that would be the majority of their lives. At most I will give you two. I am sure you realize I can get done in two years what it takes most to do in ten. I have no need to sleep or eat and with my skills can go near infinitely. I am sure that having someone like me at your disposal for even just two years would benefit the kingdom greatly."

Putting his foot down Marcus was not willing to sacrifice fifty years of his life, even if he could live forever.

The king seeing this began thinking once more before a devious smile formed on his face.

"Now that I think about it, I do believe that someone named Marcus Ferrous is a wanted man. Something about having a very dangerous egg in his possession, which could hatch into a beast powerful enough to threaten the entire kingdom. In fact, I do believe that you fit this individual's description perfectly."

After saying that the king took out one of Marcus' wanted posters, which he obviously had prepared earlier.

"Yes, it appears to be a perfect match. So then how about you hand over the egg or the beast that hatched out of it, or I will have to have you, and anyone associated with you arrested for the sake of the kingdom's security."

Hearing this Marcus became abrasive and then angry.

He thought that the king might bring up Roxene, but his response was quite a bit more cutthroat that he thought it would be.

However, after the king said this, for the first time the woman Gwyneira spoke up and said, "Aaren, I think that he has already showed his resolve. There is no need to continue to bully him, when we already came to a conclusion on what to do before this meeting began."

The king who had been acting high and mighty and full of bravado, suddenly started sweating and became much meeker after what Gwyneira said.

Naturally Marcus picked up on this and wondered who Gwyneira really was, but he did have some idea.

He had heard rumors of it before, though they were unfounded, but now he thought it was likely seeing as how it seemed that even the king was not above this person.

"You are not a human, are you? You must be the legendary grade beast that I heard is the royal family's guardian." Marcus said with confidence.

Smiling Gwyneira looked at Marcus and said, "You are half right and half wrong. I am the guardian beast of the royal family, but I am actually at the mythic grade. Now bring out your beast companion I would like to speak with her."

With surprise all over his face, Marcus was astonished to hear that sitting across from him was a mythic grade magic beast, and that she would admit it so openly.

'Roxene, what do you want to do?'

'Ugh, I guess I have no choice but to come out. But if things get hairy, I may make a mess of things in order to escape.' 

After saying that Roxene popped out of Marcus' companion storage and looked Gwyneira right in the eyes.

For a moment Gwyneira even flinched backwards, feeling the strength of Roxene's bloodline, which was far greater than even her own.

"To think that a beast such as yourself could actually exist. You truly are beyond that of any beast I have ever come across." Gwyneira said while looking at Roxene almost in a daze.

Roxene not paying mind to Gwyneria's words sniffed the air a couple of times before using her telepathy while targeting everyone in the room, and saying, 'You are some type of dragon, right?'

With a bit of surprise on her face Gwyneira nodded her head and said, "I am surprised that you picked up on that when I am doing my best to conceal my true nature. Yes, you are correct. I am a frost lindwurm, a true dragon."

'I see, so what did you want from me.' Roxene asked.

"Oh, I just wanted to ask you why you are here, and what you want. A beast like you should not exist in this world as far as I know."

'You are right I should not be here, but certain circumstances forced my parent to send me here. And for the reason I am here is simple. I am to get stronger before going to reunite with my parents who are not from this world.'

"I see, so you are not planning to take over this kingdom, or harm it in anyway." Gwyneira asked sternly.

Roxene taking a nonchalant attitude began scratching her ear, before saying, 'I could not care less about this kingdom, or world for that matter. I am simply going to stick with Marcus and aim to get stronger.'

Smiling Gwyneira said, "Very well then, I have determined that you will not be a threat to this kingdom."

After saying that she turned towards the king and said, "Now Aaren, please give Marcus the terms we came up with for breaking off Mrazivý's engagement.. You have already done enough to test his resolve and pushing him too far will bring us no benefit."