As Marcus looked at his stomach thinking about how much money the meal was worth, Wade said, "No need to fret, you can consider this the reward from me for your service to River Landing. Since you were technically working under me during your heroic leap into danger, your merits become mine as well and I am sure to receive substantial rewards for bringing you into the fold."
Hearing this Marcus realized like everything Wade did had an angle to play and this meal was just another way to stay in Marcus' good graces or even make him feel indebted to Wade.
'I need to be careful not to get roped into anything long term. I have no intention of staying in this kingdom forever, so getting attached to the government or having a bunch of people rely on me is not a good idea.'
After making sure to caution himself to not get too comfortable Marcus went over to Lilia who was still in shock from hearing the cost of the meal she just ate and picked her up.
Marcus then said that he was going to bring Lilia back to her room and call it a night.
Walking down the hallways and back up the stairs Marcus soon arrived in front of Lilia's room and opened the door and entered.
He placed Lilia down gently on the bed and pulled the covers over her and made his way to exit the room.
However, as he was leaving Lilia grabbed ahold of his hand and said, "Would you mind spending the night with me, it had been hard to get to sleep since the slavers abducted me."
Seeing the pleading look on her face Marcus went to the other side of the bed and got under the covers with Lilia.
He then proceeded to sing a few lullabies he knew from Earth to Lilia as she slowly lulled into a peaceful sleep.
For just a few moments Marcus laid there watching Lilia's slightly smiling face before deciding to go to sleep himself.
During that night for the second time since he had come to Mirrion Marcus had a dream. However, this was not a dream of his memories but of Irene's.
The dream started out with him crawling around an unfamiliar house only to come across two people he did not recognize at first but soon came to realize were Irene's and Lilia's parents.
He watched as days then years went by as Irene's memories played out before him, her hopes, dreams, and feeling were no longer a blur but becoming a true part of him.
After what seemed to be an unending amount of time the scene of Irene dying having her neck snapped and thrown away like garbage played forth one more time, except this time Marcus felt every moment of it as if it happened to him.
As he lay there lifeless Marcus thought the dream would end but it did not.
What happened next were the events after Irene's soul latched onto his, expect he now viewed it from her perspective.
He basically watched his entire life on Mirrion replay from the point of view of the fragment of Irene's soul until the time when he killed Ander.
At that point he felt the overwhelming rage both he and Irene felt at the time and their two souls stitched together.
However, while they had joined, they were still two separate entities and Marcus watched his life play out again until the point where he met up with Lilia in River Landing and his soul and Irene's began to fuse together into one.
He then shot awake feeling an immense pain throughout his entire begin as his and the fragment of Irene's soul finished fusing into one.
When the pain had subsided Marcus felt like a different person. He was no longer just Marcus with some of Irene's memories he was more of a true fusion of both of them.
Marcus' soul though had still been the dominant one and the majority of his personality was the same, but he could tell immediately that certain things felt different.
It no longer felt slightly unnatural for him to adopt Irene's form in fact it felt like he had always been like this since he could remember.
He could also feel his connection to Mirrion strengthening while his wish to return home seemed to no longer linger in his mind.
He had finally come to except that he had died and would probably never find his way back home.
While he had not been actively searching for a way back home Marcus had felt that he would immediately leap at the chance to abandon Mirrion and return to Earth.
Though he still had the want to go back to Earth, he now felt he could no longer do so at the expense of abandoning his new world, especially because he had someone who relied on him now.
'Everything seems so much brighter now; I feel as if I lived here for the entire nineteen years of my… no Irene's life. I know I definitely started out as Marcus, but I also feel like Irene. I had to experience so much suffering at the start when I first got here but now, I have experienced how beautiful this world can be through Irene.'
With his newfound look on Life Marcus turned ethereal and floated out of the bed as to not wake Lilia.
He then floated out of the room and back to the dinning room where he found the entrance to the kitchen.
Floating inside Marcus began looking for certain ingredients to make a special breakfast with.
After looking around for a while he managed to locate everything he was looking for and got to work.
He started moving instinctively as if he had made this meal many times before even though it was actually his first time.
After a few hours of getting everything prepared Marcus looked at his work satisfied and was about to go get Lilia for breakfast when Freid walked in.
He looked at Marcus surprised to see him in the kitchen, but more surprised to realize that Marcus' presence had not alerted him since he must have passed by his room to arrive at the kitchen.
"Good morning Lady Irene, I see that you have gotten up early and prepared something to eat even ahead of me."
Nodding his head with a smile on his face Marcus said, "Yeah it is a special gift for my little sister. Ah, since you are here if you would not mind waking Lilia and Wade up, we can all eat breakfast together."
Freid being the perceptive man he is, noticed right away that something was different about Marcus, he seemed more cheerful and less reserved than he was before.
However, he quickly wrote off the slight personality change as the difference between just having fought a massive battle and having had a good night's rest.
Once Freid had awoken both Wade and Lilia he led them back towards the dinning room and found that Marcus had already finished setting the table and prepared a large serving of the meal he had made on everyone's plate.
Lilia who had been rather tired and was still waking up let off a long yawn, but when she saw what was on the plate, she became completely alert.
She saw something she had not seen in over a year sitting on the table. It was the breakfast that her family had always prepared for her on her birthday which she had missed this year since the slavers had abducted her three weeks before her birthday.
Lilia moved towards the table almost in a trance and sat down. She then took a knife and fork and cut of a piece off the goat sausage and took a bite.
As soon as she took a bite of the large goat sausage, Lilia began crying as it tasted exactly how she remembered.
She then started gulping up the honeyed porridge and the roasted tree nuts and the single piece of white toast topped with goat cheese.
While the meal would be considered quite simple in comparison to the noble feast they had eaten yesterday, when Lilia still lived with her parents, every year they would use some of the scant amount of money they earned to splurge and buy the ingredients for Lilia's birthday breakfast.
As Lilia sat there eating and crying Marcus came up from behind and gave Lilia a hug and whispered in her ears and said, "I know it is a bit late but happy birthday Lilia."
Lilia turned towards Marcus and began hugging him back while balling her eyes out while both Freid and Wade looked around awkwardly.
Marcus turned towards them and said, "Go ahead and eat, while it may not be much compared to what you usually have it has a great meaning to the two of us."
Wade shrugged his shoulder before heading to his seat and once he sat down, he gestured to Freid who had be restraining himself to sit down and eat.
The four of them all sat down at the table eating and while it certainly was not the tastiest food they had eaten; it certainly was the best meal.