With their planning to take down Permafrost finished, Marcus and Wade had the headmaster lead them to where Lilia was being held.
As the door to the room was opened Marcus could see Lilia sitting at a desk that she was chained to while talking to the guard posted in the room to watch her.
But when the door opened and she looked over to see Marcus entering, she abruptly stood up from the desk pulling the chain connecting her to it, and actually yanked out the desk that was bolted into the floor.
The guard in the room seeing this pulled out his sword and got ready to get in between Lilia and the people that had just entered, but the headmaster held up his hand and said, "Stand down, she has been proven innocent so there is no reason to hold her anymore. Also, you are dismissed, please give us the room."
Sheathing his sword, the guard did as the headmaster commanded and left the room.
With the guard now gone the headmaster unlocked the restraints on Lilia and said, "As the headmaster of this academy please accept my apologies that a member of our staff attacked you. Naturally there will be no penalty towards you for defending yourself, and all of the damages will be covered by the school."
After saying that the headmaster left Marcus and Wade alone with Lilia. He had a lot of work to do, and the academy was about to face a decent amount of backlash when it got out that one of their top professors was actually a criminal that kidnapped and killed students.
Unfortunately, there was nothing the kingdom or school could really do to cover it up, since a number of the students witnessed the ending parts of Lilia and Avery's fight, as well as the extensive damage caused by Lilia's tier four spell.
Now that the headmaster had left, the first thing that Lilia did was to jump into Marcus' arms and give him a hug as she cried.
As much as she had put on a brave face during her fight with Avery and while she was being held by the academy, there was no doubt that what she just went through was quite scary for an eleven-year-old girl.
Lilia had been abducted once before and having it almost happen again brought up those horrible memories.
Luckily now she had the power to defend herself, and this time instead of being dragged from her home as a slave, she had beaten her assailant within an inch of his life.
"It is okay now Lilia. I am sorry that this happened to you because of me, but I am glad you are fine. And do not worry, Wade and I are going to make sure that the people that attacked us never get the chance to do so again."
Patting Lilia on the back, Marcus got her to calm down and she looked towards Wade and said, "Thank you for helping me again, Sir Wade."
Shacking his head Wade responded saying, "Just doing my job, and if you want to thank someone, thank my great grandmother since she is the one who really helped you out."
The three of them then took a few minutes to get reacquainted with each other, since it had been many months since the last time they had seen each other.
"So Wade, what was that count talking about when he said that your wedding was coming up."
His expression turning bashful, it was apparent that Wade did not want to discuss it, but Marcus just kept looking at him waiting for an answer not willing to relent.
Sighing Wade said, "Yes I am getting married in a month's time to my fiancé."
It seemed that Wade was hoping that would be enough to satisfy Marcus, but it was not.
"Oh, and who might you be marrying. When we met last in River Landing, I am pretty sure you were not in any relationship let alone engaged."
Seeing that Marcus was not going to let this go, Wade finally came clean and said, "Yes my fiancé and I reconnected after the ice ant attack. I believe that you met her once, Thora Drevon."
A shocked expression appeared on Marcus' face hearing this. He had no idea how Wade and the haughty and overbearing Lieutenant Drevon had ended up together, but now they were even getting married.
However, Marcus quickly remembered a jab that Aria had made at Wade about him always tormenting the girls he liked and how he had done so to Thora Drevon in the past.
"I see good for you. It looks like you finally managed to learn how to express your feeling instead of trying to manipulate people." Marcus said with a smirk on his face.
Groaning Wade almost wanted to try arresting Marcus for insulting a royal investigator.
Very few people ever talked to him like this because of the power he wielded, but he knew that he had already lost since this was just the way Marcus acted.
He was normally polite in formal settings but as soon as he was alone with people, he was familiar and comfortable with, he threw social status and norms out the window.
"Anyway, we are getting off topic. Now that we have made sure that Lilia is safe both of us have work to get to. I need you to get me those documents that you promised as soon as possible. And in the meantime I am going to have to mobilize every royal investigator in the capital as well as a team of elite knights to deal with all the arrests we are going to have to do." Wade said desperately trying to change the subject.
Nodding his head Marcus knew that now was not the time to further tease Wade as they both had work to get done.
"Okay first I need to take Lilia home, since her room was recked in the attack and I need to make sure she stays safe while we clean up Permafrost."
After that Wade said goodbye to Marcus and Lilia as they went their separate ways, with Wade heading back to the royal investigator's headquarters and Marcus and Lilia going to her room.
The two of them then gather up Lilia's belongings before exiting the academy.
Luckily, they had the full cooperation of the headmaster, so they were able to move around without issue and plan a date for Lilia's return.
"Sorry that this happened right when you got back to school Lilia. But after this is over in a few days everything should go back to normal."
Smiling up at him Lilia responded, "It is no problem. I know that with you on the case everything will turn out fine."
The two of them along with Lilia's beast companion left the Academy and met back up with Blitz who they rod back to Marcus' estate.
When they arrived, they surprised the maids and new guards, but after a quick explanation of what happened, the two of them retired to their respective rooms for the night.
Or at least that was what it seemed like, but while Lilia truly was in her room, Marcus slipped back out in his ghost form.
The night was still young, and he had a lot to accomplish before the members of Permafrost had time to take any actions.
The first thing he did was head towards the prison where his maids were being kept.
Time was of the essence since as soon as it was discovered that Marcus had killed Obadiah and his guards, Permafrost would dispose of his maids.
Luckily when he arrived, he found them chined up in a cell still alive.
Unfortunately, they both looked worse for wear, each of them missing a hand and obviously having been treated poorly.
Reappearing in the dark hall where their cell was located, Marcus whispered saying, "Grace, Jenna I have come to get you out."
The two captive maids hearing this abruptly roused, and recognizing the voice said with a tinge of hope, "Lady Irene?"
Hearing their hoarse voices, Marcus felt a pang in his stomach since they had suffered so much just because they worked for him.
But he could not change what had happened to them, and all he could do now was to break them out and fix them up.
"Yes, it is me. I am going to get both of you out of here so just wait a second."
However, as Marcus was about to break into the cell Grace said, "Lady Irene please leave us. This place is dangerous, if you get caught there is no telling what they might do to you."
But as touched as he was by the concern of his employees, Marcus was not going to leave them here to die and he was already confident that he could get them out with ease.
Activating his mana body skill, Marcus enhanced his right hand that was now teeming with strength before grabbing the lock on the cell and squeezing.
The steel lock quickly began to buckle under Marcus' strength, until he had crumbled it up like foil and the cell swung open with no resistance.
Naturally this left both of his maids stunned since no normal person could bend steel with their bare hands, but since the day he had arrived on Mirrion, Marcus had stepped far away from the realm of normal.
"Again, I am here to break both of you out of here and I am not taking no for an answer. If you continued to refuse, I do not mind dragging you out kicking and screaming." Marcus said in a stern tone.
Seeing as how Marcus had no intention of abandoning them, both Grace and Jenna began to cry a bit in relief, since they honestly thought they were both going to die down here.
Doing the same as he did to the cell's lock, Marcus ripped apart the chains attached to both of his maids, freeing them from their bonds.
"Now we need to get out of here quickly before we are discovered. I have already figured out the best escape route so let us go."
After saying that Marcus led his two maids out of the cell they had been confined in, but down the hall they saw an approaching light.
It appeared that Marcus had gotten unlucky, and the patrolling guard had made his way down into the area his maids were being kept.
"Hey you, what are you doing down here." The guard said as he spotted Marcus just exiting the cell his maids had been in.
Yet the guard did not have time to say anything else ever again, as Marcus exerted his phantom pressure killing him instantly.
The now dead guard slumped over and crashed into the ground causing a loud clattering sound to resound through the cell block.
Hearing this many of the other people being held prisoner here began to make a commotion, some of them noticing Marcus and begging him to save them as well.
However, he was no hero and he had only come here to rescue his maids.
"We need to run; it is only a matter of time until more guards come to investigate."
Running down the halls Marcus quickly made his way towards the nearest exit, but as they were getting close a number of Permafrost guards piled into the hallway and blocked their escape.
"Darkness Drill."
Firing off his tier four darkness magic spell, Marcus turned every guard in his way into mincemeat as his spell plowed through them like paper.
Naturally, none of those guards had been above level thirty and they had no way to resist Marcus' overwhelming power.
Running by the heaps of corpses that Marcus had just made, both Jenna and Grace felt sick to their stomachs, but their survival instincts kept them going as they ran past the bloody mess.
Continuing through the prison, Marcus blasted away a few more groups of guards with no resistance before they finally made it to the exit he had been aiming for.
However, as he opened the door his danger sense went off like crazy, and he noticed a number of attacks coming his way
"Radiance scales."
Quickly deploying his strongest defensive spell, Marcus grabbed both Jeana and Grace and brough them close to him to keep the protected as well.
A number of bolts, arrows, and spells then crashed against Marcus' spell, destroying a couple of the shimmering scales around him but still causing no actual harm.
"Oh, consider me impressed. To think you would have such a powerful defensive ability. However, you have been surrounded, so I will give you one chance surrender or die."
Looking out at the man who was giving him an ultimatum, Marcus saw someone that was quite prominent in Obadiah's memories since he was the man who oversaw this prison and one of the strongest members of Permafrost.
"Sorry I am afraid that surrender is not an option since I will be killing all of you no matter how much you beg and scream for mercy."