Transmigrated as a Ghost

After leaving the castle, Marcus quickly went into his ghost form and began flying north at full speed.

There was a lot of ground for him to cover, and truthfully, he was a bit worried about the people in the village he had originally come across.

They had helped him a great deal when he first came to this world, and without them it is likely things would have gone vastly differently for him.

'If I push it, I should be able to arrive by the end of the day.'

Quickly as he passed over the streets of the royal capital, and within a matter of minutes had exited the area of the largest city in the kingdom and continued out over the countryside.

Hours went by as he made his way up to River Landing, and just as he expected, the large town came into view just as the sun began to set.

Flying into the city he found a quite alley not far from the army's headquarters and reappeared in his form as Irene.

'This place is still as grand as ever. The pristine nearly glistening white stone really is impressive. It truly stands out from the rest of the buildings here.'

Once he had taken in the sight of the kingdom's northern army headquarters, he began walking up to the front entrance where a couple of soldiers were stationed.

Looking at both of them Marcus could tell that they were on edge, probably expecting some sort of mass monster and beast attack to come to the town any day now.

Likely the ice ants' incursion was still fresh in their minds, as it had only happened around two and a half years ago.

When they saw Marcus approaching, both of them were stunned for a moment.

They then began whispering to each other for a couple of seconds before approaching him with reverence in their eyes.

"It is you, isn't it? You're the Darkligth Princess, Lady Irene Geist, right?"

Hearing the nickname he was not fond of, Marcus shuddered since he had not been expecting to be addressed this way again.

It had been quite a long time since he had last heard anyone call him this, but it quickly all came rushing back to him.

He got that nickname here when he joined the defense against the ice ants, so almost every soldier and guard in River Landing knew who he was.

"Yes, I am Lady Irene Geist." Marcus said, not acknowledging his nickname.  "I have come here to speak with General Erastalven, on behalf of the crown."

Marcus then handed over the emblem the king had given him that proved he was an agent of the royal family as well as a letter prepared by Kalt.

However, just seeing the emblem was enough to make these two soldiers' eyes go wide, and they began scrambling around.

"I will go and inform the general immediately." They both said as they turned around to go into the building.

Yet in their frantic rush they slammed into each other and fell over.

Now the two of them were sprawled out on the ground, looking far from the professional soldiers they were supposed to be.

Stifling a chuckled, Marcus had not expected to see such a comedic scene.

"How about one of you lead me to the general, and I will inform him that I have arrived." Marcus said as he pulled the two soldiers up.

Turning back to face him, the two of them had gone red with embarrassment from what had just happened.

Still, they bounced back quickly, and said at the same time, "I will lead you to the general."

After they said this, instead of turning around abruptly again. They both glared at each other, obviously both wanting to lead Marcus around.

"Maybe I can just go find him myself." Marcus said under his breath.

Hearing this, both of the soldiers' faces paled, and they said, "There is no need for that Lady Geist. Give us just a moment to decide who is most worthy of escorting you."

The two guards then began playing some game with their hands that Marcus did not recognize, in order to see which one of them would have the honor of leading him to the general.

Sadly for them, Marcus was pretty fed up with this, as amusing as it might be. And simply went over to another passing solider and explained who he was and why he was here.

The new soldier Marcus had talked to quickly led him inside through a side entrance, while the two at the front entrance looked out in despair as he walked away.

Soon Marcus was waiting outside the general's office as the soldier who escorted him here explained the situation.

"General Erastalven will see you now Lady Geist." The soldier said as they exited the room.

Heading inside, Marcus saw the general reading over a stack of reports that littered the entirety of his desk.

Also standing next to him was another soldier who was obviously the general's aid, and had the rank of lieutenant from what Marcus could see from his uniform.

Putting down the report he was reading, general Erastalven rubbed the bridge of his nose before looking up towards Marcus.

'Damn when was the last time he slept?' Marcus thought seeing the dark bags under the general's eyes.

"It is good to see you again Lady Geist. Please come up here and take a seat."

Sitting down in front of the general, Marcus pulled out his emblem and letter, and handed them over to Erastalven who quickly looked them over.

"You certainly move fast don't you. These orders were only written today, and yet here you are already." Erastalven said with surprise on his face.

"Yeah, I can fly, so it is no problem for me to zip on over here."

Chuckling lightly, Erastalven could not believe how absurd Marcus was.

Even most people that could fly could not cover that level of distance in a single day, but he said it like it was no big deal.

"Well anyway, I will write you a letter to inform the captain in charge of our emergency troops who you are. As for what is happening, it is getting worse. More monsters and beasts are amassing in the Great Gome Woods, and we fear it is only a matter of time until they burst out. For now at least, the strongest ones have not made any move but a number of the lower leveled ones have been attacking the settlements up on the edge of the woods, and a few have even made it here and attacked the town. Unfortunately, our troops are spread thin, and I really do not know what is happening up there right now."

With a harrowed look on his face the general rubbed the back of his neck, and it was quite obvious that he was very stressed out by the current situation.

Of course, why would he not be.

Currently they were dealing with an unprecedented situation that threatened the entire northern region of the kingdom. Which simply did not have the manpower to deal with an outbreak of this size and magnitude.

Erastalven himself was the strongest warrior at the kingdom's disposal within a hundred miles, and he was only level forty-three and quite old.

Normally the kingdom simply did not need many personnel to handle their northern frontier, since there were no nations bordering them here, and the strongest creatures in the Great Gome Woods normally stayed there.

But now that something was happening, the usually peaceful region was in danger of being overrun by threats they honestly had no chance against.

Unfortunately, the kingdom was in a bind defending Tralenstein to the south as well as their other areas, spreading their forces thin. Not to mention that it being winter made it nearly impossible to move a large number of troops at once.

"So where is the captain stationed right now?" Marcus asked.

"He should be within the vicinity of Norr Village which has been taking the most attacks from beasts and monsters. Though he may have moved since then, as the last time he checked in with his sending stone was this morning."

Nodding his head, Marcus made sure to remember where the captain was since he was likely to have the most information on how the situation was up there.

"Well thank you for your help General, and I am glad I got to see you again. Hopefully I can resolve what is happening up here quickly and take a weight off your shoulders." Marcus said as he stood up to leave.

Standing up himself, the general reached his hand out to shake Marcus' hand. and said, "I want to thank you for what you are doing here. I know you received orders to do so, but it means a lot to have someone as capable as you helping us out here. I heard about your impressive display in the kingdom's tournament, and it appears that you have grown much stronger than you were when we met during the ice ant incident. It brings me a bit of ease to know that someone at level fifty-two is here."

Smiling, Marcus thanked the general for his kind words, before leaving the building and heading towards the northern gate of the city.

Passing over the walls in his ghost form, he made a beeline for the village that was the closest thing left to Irene and Lilia's original home.

He wanted to check in on them before going to visit the captain in Norr village, since he was afraid that they might be in danger. Since while Norr was where the most activity was, the two villages were not far from each other.