64 Scheming or Foolish

While Marcus was resolving himself to face the world, Skyler and Patriarch Aramin continued to speak as if he wasn't even there.

By now, Skyler was reaching her mental limit of dealing with Aramin and so she tried one last ditch effort to separate the patriarch from her target.

"Earlier, hadn't the guards mentioned that you didn't know who this boy was?"

To this, the both of the guards' reactions changed instantly. Despite them being the supposed guardsmen of the Uceris Kingdom, they too wanted to stay out of the way of these to power houses. After all, ants had no place fighting amongst lions and dragons.

Aramin rubbed his chin and stared into the air thoughtfully. He clearly had no intention of rushing his answer and he wanted to let Skyler know it.

"I don't recall my ever saying I didn't know him."

"Then you'd be willing to tell me his name then," Skyler replied quickly as to not give the man any more time to think.

It should be known that Skyler was well aware that Patriarch Aramin had no intention of allowing Marcus to die and was only speaking to annoy her. The only reason she was keeping up this charade at all was because she too was waiting for her own patriarch to present herself. The domain Aramin created was sure to draw the woman's attention and all she had to do was keep them here.

However before Aramin could even speak, something no one expected to happen occurred.

Marcus ousted himself.

"This man and I are indeed strangers."

Silence.

This was all that was heard in the surrounding area when Marcus spoke. No one in the crowd said a thing and the same went for Skyler, Mia, and Aramin.

Aramin looked down towards Marcus with a stoic expression not revealing anything to him or the people around him. Meanwhile, Marcus completely ignored the man's gaze because he felt that if he looked up, he'd feel a pressure even worse than the one he was feeling now.

Meanwhile, Skyler, who'd asked the question, instantly recovered from her stupor and commanded the guards to seize Marcus.

The guards, who were also looking at Marcus as if he were some idiot were late to react to Skyler's words and this earned them an earful from the beautiful white haired woman.

"Guards? Did you not hear me," Skyler spoke in a demonic and low tone of voice.

Both guards looked up to meet Skyler's stern gaze and it was the skinny looking guard that moved first. It was unknown as to whether he did it because he feared the woman or if he was eager to please her.

Whichever the case may be, it was a foolish choice, and he found out why once he reached Marcus and more importantly, the man standing beside him.

The fat guard, who'd reacted slower on purpose, sighed inwardly at the fact he wasn't the first to react and was grateful not to be in his colleague's position.

"...U-U-Umm Sir Patriarch sir. I-"

The guard couldn't even utter a complete sentence as he stumbled over the Patriarch's name.

Meanwhile Aramin didn't even give him the time of day as he continued to stare at Marcus who was beside him. His hand was still placed on his shoulder, though his grasp couldn't be said to have been firm.

However, though this was the case, Marcus knew it would be foolish to try and escape the man's grasp. He may have been bold enough to execute the first part of whatever plan it was he was following, but whether or not the Patriarch released him was up to luck, well mostly.

Marcus continued to stare at Skyler fiercely because he knew she was probably his only chance to get out of the man's grasp.

At that exact moment too, Skyler felt the omen's gaze on her. She couldn't see Marcus's eyes, but she knew that he was looking towards her with.... expectation?

This made her frown.

"Hah... so that's your play," Skyler mumbled to which only Mia, who stood beside her, could hear.

While all this was happening, Mia had never moved from beside Skyler and was only keeping up the same quite girl persona she'd always have when she was in public. Although, this was in direct contrast to her inner thoughts. Right now, she may have been the most confused after hearing Skyler's earlier comment. She couldn't seem to understand what 'play' Skyler thought the omen before her was concocting.

As the guard stood their awkwardly waiting for the Patriarch to acknowledge him, Skyler was about to speak, but was interrupted before doing so.

Aramin didn't utter a word, he only lifted his arm from Marcus's shoulder, but this was all he needed to command those around him into silence. This was truly a case of where actions spoke louder than words.

The previous somewhat teasing persona vanished, and Aramin only turned to walk inside.

At that exact moment, the fat guard who had stood only a few paces behind his scared companion pounced at the opportunity to apprehend the omen and please the woman behind him.

The guard aggressively turned the omen in front of him around and slapped a pair of purple cuffs, with weird engravings, on his wrist, and as soon as he did this, Marcus started to feel tired and lethargic. It was like all the strength in his body had left him as he was manhandled to the ground with the fat guard's foot on his face.

At that moment, the surrounding crowd broke out of the spell of fear that hung over them and started to cheer that the little monster before them was finally apprehended. The skinnier guard could only curse his bad timing as his counterpart stood their proudly over the omen.

Amidst the cheering crowd, Marcus could only grit his teeth as the weight of the fat guard threatened to crush his head like a watermelon.

Luckily, or unluckily at that exact moment, two pairs of exquisitely armored shoes graced Marcus's greyed vision.

"Remove your foot," a calm yet authoritative voice rang out that made the fat guard remove his foot from the side of Marcus's face.

The fat guard stood their awkwardly in front of Skyler like a recruit awaiting their sergeant's orders.

"Pick him up."

The guard lifted Marcus to his feet to face the two owner's of the armored shoes he'd seen earlier when he was on the ground.

By now, the right side of Marcus's face was caked in mud and pieces of grass remained in his hair. His attire was already thoroughly worn out and the additional dirt and grass made him look to be no more than a simple beggar.

Although, Marcus hardly cared as he stared back at the woman, who'd previously attempted to kill him.

Even while staring into Skyler's beautiful white eyes, Marcus showed not even an once of fear and merely awaited the verdict of the woman in front of him. Not even the cheering of the crowd seemed to catch his attention as he silently stared at the woman before him, and after what seemed to feel like no more than a minute, Skyler spoke.

"Guards. Take him away."

Instantly the skinnier guard jumped to follow the beautiful woman's orders and this earned him a glare from his chubby colleague, but he hardly cared as he grinned from ear to ear while stealing glances at both Mia and Skyler, who didn't care to address the guard.

As the two headed inside the gates, everything returned to normal and the crowd dispersed to once again form a line to enter the gates.

Only Skyler and Mia still stood in the exact same spot looking towards the direction Marcus was now headed before eventually heading into a separate direction themselves.

It seemed that the commotion the omen had finally caused was over and everything had finally returned to how it should be. Peace and quiet had returned to those that were present and no one thought twice about the little monstrosity.

However....

In the future, most of the inhabitants of the mighty kingdom of Uceris would come to rue this day because...

It was the day they'd let a monster into their homes.