Transmigrated as a Ghost

He began racking his mind for some way to recover this blunder, but thankfully his better half was quick to bail him out.

"Oh, sorry about that, this guy with me is actually Irene. She obtained a unique skill that allows her to disguise herself, and currently she is acting as my husband to ward off and unwanted advances that would be coming our way if we arrived without partners."

Novak looked befuddled by this explanation at first, but it seemed that he bought it after a moment of thought. There were plenty of unique skills out there, and one that allowed someone to disguise themselves would be considered fairly tame.

Of course, a good part of what Mrazivý had said was a lie. While Marcus was also Irene, he was not currently in disguise, nor did his form changing have anything to do with a unique skill. Plus, they really were married.

"I get it now. Good to see you again Irene." Novak said, looking a bit awkward about the whole situation.

"Likewise, Novak. Ah, but while I\'m in this form, please call me Marcus. Also, please try to keep my identity a secret."

Novak nodded his head and said his lips were sealed. And thus, another person sort of became privy to Marcus\' double identity.

With the initial reunion conversation over, Novak brought Marcus and Mrazivý over to the rest of his party.

Clay, who was in the middle of stuffing his face, was the first to recognize Mrazivý and his expression morphed into one of utter shock.

Novak\'s other party members, Emerie, Jovie, and Landyn were similarly surprised. Though, they did not have their mouths filled to the brim with food, so their reactions were not nearly as pronounced.

"Wow, now this is a blast from the past. Honestly never thought we\'d meet you again Princess Mrazivý. But who\'s the dude standing next to you?" Clay said after choking down the food he had been eating.

Marcus quickly introduced himself to them, but unlike Novak he made sure to keep his identity as Irene a secret. It probably would be of little consequence if they knew, but more people being privy to the secret made it likelier that it would leak.

"Wow, married to a beautiful princess. You\'re a lucky guy." Clay said, patting Marcus on the shoulder in a friendly manner.

"Still, what is a foreign princess from another continent doing over here in Houten? I know you\'re an adventurer, but I\'m surprised that your family let you leave your nation." Jovie, a dwarven woman with long dark brown hair and a couple of battle scars on her face asked.

"Well, I\'m only the thirteenth princess. I don\'t really have many responsibilities. Plus, my father wants me to focus on keeping up good relations with the adventurers guild. This job will help on that end."

Hearing Mrazivý\'s explanation, the members of Novak\'s party seemed to understand. It was undoubtedly storage for a member of a royal family to be an adventurer in the first place, but it was clear that Mrazivý thought of herself as such more than being royalty.

The seven of them continued to converse for a while and soon began talking about what they had bene up to since they last met. Novak\'s party had continued to tour around the nations on the same continent that Borealia was on and reached a high enough level to achieve Mithril Rank.

Marcus and Mrazivý told them a bit about what they had been up to but kept to the tamer stuff. Certainly, they were not going to tell Novak and his party about what they had just gotten up to on Haze Island.

Once they had talked for nearly an hour, Novak offered to introduce them to some of the other adventurers at the banquet that he and his party already knew.

Naturally Marcus and Mrazivý were not going to refuse and happily accepted.

"Whew. Networking sure can be difficult." Marcus said, before downing a large glass of chilled wine

He and Mrazivý had just finished making their way around the banquet and speaking with around seventy percent of the adventurers present.

Most of them had been friendly enough, but some of them seemed a bit too bloodthirsty and tried to intimidate them.

Thankfully none of the other mithril rank adventurers they met were anywhere near as powerful as they were. Without using an appraisal skill Marcus could not know for sure, but he gauged most of the other mithril rank adventurers to range from the low fifties to low sixties level wise. A few had seemed a bit stronger than this, but not by much. Certainly, none of them had been up to level seventy.

Nevertheless, there was one party that they had not yet met. The only adamantine party was not currently present.

Marcus\' curiosity reaching its peak, he decided to ask Novak if he knew anything about the highest-ranking party that would be participating in the operation to reclaim the former capital.

"I\'ve seen them a couple of times since arriving in Houten, but we haven\'t spoken. I\'m pretty sure that they were here earlier but went off to speak with some bigwigs in private. They\'ll likely be back at some point though." Novak said.

When pressed for more details, he told Marcus and Mrazivý what he knew about them.

They were only a party of three, but apparently all of them were incredibly powerful. Each of them was quite famous among adventurers and even had nicknames.

"Their leader is a man named One-Stroke Kill Sato Tachibana. While the other two members are known as Annihilation Spear Lisa, and Unbreakable Bastion Adonis." Novak said, giving the names and epithets of the three adamantine rank adventurers.

Immediately Marcus was drawn to the name of the leader since it was almost certainly that of someone from Earth or the descendant of one. Plus, it also seemed oddly familiar. He felt that he had heard it somewhere before.

However, Mrazivý seemed far more excited about them when she heard the names. As a seasoned adventurer, she already knew about them. In fact, they were among those that she looked up to.