Transmigrated as a Ghost

"I see, so that has finally caught up with you." Mrazivý said a scowl on her face.

Marcus had just finished relaying his recent encounter with Relia and how she had come to collect on the debt he owed her and her vampiric master.

Naturally Mrazivý had already known about the two previous times Marcus had been saved by Relia, and both of them knew that this was something that could come up at any time.

Miguel looked a bit confused by what Marcus was saying at first, but quickly got the gist of it.

"I guess that you are hoping for us to assist you, right? I'm not really sure how well I will do around vampires, but I want to help if I can." Miguel said, a resolute look in his eyes.

Mrazivý likewise nodded her head and assured Marcus that she would go with him and do whatever she could.

Yet, despite their determination, Marcus only shook his head and asked them not to come with him.

"I still cannot be sure what their intentions are and the less people I care about getting involved the better. However, there is something else I want you two to help me with. If your up for it that is." Marcus said, addressing his last statement mostly to Miguel. He was sure Mrazivý would be coming with him to Houten no matter what.

"I already decided to stick with you guys for a little while at least. It is not like I have anything better to do right now anyway, so I'll come along and help you out. Though, Houten huh. For some reason that name sounds familiar." Miguel said, wearing a ponderous expression.

For nearly half a minute he looked lost in thought, before abruptly making a face that made it clear he had remembered exactly what he was trying to recall.

"Yes, I believe I heard Grand Master Valerious talking about that place. If what I recall is correct, they recently joined the adventurers guild around a half a year ago. He was grumbling about it because it is split almost cleanly in half between the Northern Quadrant and Western Quadrant. There were apparently disputes on which Quadrant would govern the nation."

This bit of information came as a surprise to Marcus and Mrazivý. When they had initially gotten their information about a possible ghost king residing in Houten's former capital from Daniel, he had not mentioned anything about the nation being involved with the adventurers guild.

However, when they looked back on their conversation with the lich that ran the Chelmer Resort from the shadows, both Marcus and Mrazivý realized that it had been more than six months ago. At the time Houten was not a nation that had a partnership with the adventurers guild.

'I suppose that makes entering the nation a lot easier. I had planned on simply sneaking in if it proved difficult to enter legally, but as Mithril Rank adventurers we can go to any nation within the guild's sphere of influence.' Marcus thought.

He asked Miguel if he had any more information, but this was unfortunately all he knew about Houten. He had only heard a little bit in passing from Valerious' grumblings.

"Well, no matter. I am sure we can find out more at the main guild hall here in Borealia's capital." Mrazivý said. "If we are lucky a teleportation circle has already been established in Houten and we can arrive instantly without having to worry about crossing the ocean by boat or flying."

Agreeing that stopping by the adventurers guild would be a good idea, Marcus added it to the list of places to visit today.

Still, he did not want today to be all about work, so he made sure to insist that they stick to their plans of showing Miguel some of the sights around the city. There was plenty of time before he would have to worry about Relia coming to collect on his debt and a single day of leisure was not going to cause any harm.

To start out their day, Marcus and Mrazivý brought Miguel to one of the largest concert halls in the city. Inside was beautiful architecture and paintings on the ceilings which were as much of a draw as the performances that were put on.

After finishing up a tour of the concert hall, the three of them listened to a performance by the concert hall's premier orchestra.

"Wow, I did not know that this world had such sophisticated and beautiful music. Though, I am pretty sure that a couple of those songs did originally come from Earth." Miguel said animatedly at the end of the performance.

Ever since he had been transmigrated to this world, he had not done much more than work as an adventurer or sit around and read in between jobs. He had not really soaked in the culture of the Mirrion despite having lived in it for several years now.

"Yeah, you will find little bits of Earth's influence around. I suppose since this kingdom was founded by a transmigration like us, it is more apparent here than some places though." Marcus commented.

Once they had finished up at the concert hall, they made their way towards Sublime Fantasia, which was one of the best restaurants in the city.

Normally it would have been impossible to get a table on such short notice, but last time he was at the restaurant Marcus had helped out with an intitled high ranking noble that was terrorizing the staff and won the owner's favor. Should he want it, a table was always open to him.

"Wow! This is pretty good." Miguel said as he took the first sip of the restaurant's soup of the day.

"Yeah, they have a skilled kitchen staff and use the best ingredients around. Other than the royal castle, I haven't found another place in Borealia with food of the same quality."

"There is actually another place that I can think of. Whenever you are cooking your home has food that is just as good." Mrazivý said, a smirk on her face.

Miguel quickly followed suit, saying that the best food he had ever had was during the feast Marcus had made following their victory over the colossal robot. Though, in this case, the fact that Marcus had made several nostalgic dishes for Miguel likely played a large role in his favoritism.

When they had finished with their food, the three of them continued on their tour of Borealia's royal capital until they eventually found themselves outside of a particular store.

"Welcome to the best armor and weapon store as well as forge in Borealia." Marcus said, presenting the Blazegram Forge to Miguel.

It had been a while since Marcus had been back and he figured that he would visit Thabon and the others while showing Miguel around at the same time.

"Oh! Irene, you're back!" The receptionist on duty said the movement Marcus walked in.

The young man that Marcus had given some pointers to in the past did not seem to even notice Mrazivý and Miguel who entered at the same time and rushed up to Marcus excitedly.

It wasn't long before most of the apprentices and seasoned veterans came out to greet Marcus before he could even head back into the forge proper.

"It has certainly been a while. How've ya been Irene." Gurrom said, pushing through the throng of people sounding Marcus.

"I've been doing well for the most part. A few unfortunate things happened recently, but that is life. I managed to pull through, though not completely unscathed." Marcus said, pulling the blade of his scythe out of his item box.

The moment that the few forgemasters that were in the know saw the gleaming purple blade, they went wide eyed in shock. Before them was a legendary piece made of amethros. The rarest and strongest metal in the world and something all great forgemasters aspired to work with.

"What is that?"

"I don't remember ever seeing a metal like that. Do you think it is mithril that has changed color from being forged with other materials?"

Among the apprentices and less seasoned forgemasters, questions like these spread quickly. While amethros was not really a secret, it was so rare that few knew about it.

"This is without a doubt a masterpiece." Gurrom said, eyeing the scythe blade. "But it seems that the handle has been entirely destroyed. You're telling me you went up against something that could break such a powerful weapon?"

"Yeah, it was completely unexpected, and I nearly lost my life. Still, I managed to scrape away with only my weapon being broken. I want to repair it, but I don't have a personal facility capable of working with amethros. I could use the royal family's if I asked, but there are some other things I want to discuss with Thabon.

so I figured I might as well come by here instead." Marcus said, explaining one of his reasons for being here.

He then pointed towards Mrazivý and Miguel who were patiently waiting for the clamor to die down.

"I get it, you want to show them around the facility. Normally that would be a no go, but since it is you, I doubt that Master Thanbon will have a problem with it. He is in his personal room right now, busy as usual. But I am sure if I tell him you are here, he'll come out to meet you." Gurrom said, turning around and heading into the heart of the facility to fetch Thabon.