61 61 Take it slow

Mark stood there beside his bed in the largest room of the castle staring blankly at the young girl dressed beautifully in her wedding dress. He had been in a daze since yesterday when the Duke suddenly arrived in fanfare at the gates of his castle when he announced the surprise wedding.

Even the girl Francine was stunned that she was like a statue during the ceremony where the Duke did not even ask for permission from Mark. Both of them wanted to refute but they could not speak what was on their minds as they were dragged suddenly by many handmaidens who dressed them and presented them in front of the town.

Mark did have some moments that he wanted to speak but the Duke just played it off or spoke like he would be disrespecting the man if he refuses. Sure he has enough strength to back his words up if he refused but he just got his stability, he didn't want to lose his hard earned peace by being stubborn. Being married to a beautiful girl does sound great but Mark still has that modern mentality where he was reluctant to marry an under-aged girl.

Francine was stunned as well but like what she had been thinking she wanted to know Mark better and even have some romantic experience. Now all she could think of is that Mark might despise her saying that she used her position as daughter of the Duke to arrange the wedding. So she felt like she cheated and couldn't find the courage to look at Mark.

Mark could feel the tension in the air as he looked at the girl which he could now call his wife. He did plan to gain some political marriage during his time here as he knew that he might be seen weird by the people should he stay single for years. And Francine was one of the leading candidates, he just never thought the Duke would resort to this underhanded way of forcing the wedding.

Sure the Duke would face a lot of criticism from the other nobles that planned to tie a knot with Mark but when they saw that the Duke still has his fearsome prowess and even led his men to clean his own realm of the scheming nobles made them rethink their future actions. But they were not worried as they knew the Duchy still haven't found a way to balance their upkeep.

Sure the Duke earned many during this time's raid but that would still be used up in the end. This was why Mark was not averse with the marriage but just the fact the girl is still 15 years old. His estimates were that the Realm would have four years of stability from all the wealth the Duke might have plundered from the 'rebels'.

That was why he had aimed to gain ship and establish trade to Erengrad and have that as a ship to use when he proposes for the hand of the Duke's daughter. But who would have thought the Duke was in a hurry himself, it seems Mark gained another promotion as he was now a landed Earl. Sure the territory is still the same but his authority is now higher and has more rights on recruiting more soldiers.

The Duke also knew the Duchy of Chardonnay was responsible for the trouble in Mousillon. And having a vacuum in the nobility of the Duchy meant that there would be a severe decrease in security of the populace. That means that even if the finances are now currently stable, trouble will brew when the populace is discontent.

Thus Mark realized why the Duke was in a hurry to marry his daughter to him. He wanted Mark to be the shield against the enemy as his feats would surely deter the other side. And not having Mark the chance to gain more if the Duchy is struggling meant that his plans for the future have become null. He wanted to curse but right now he must calm the fidgeting girl knowing she might be shocked too.

"Uhhm… It seems we are now married huh?" 'No shit Sherlock!! Why am I being awkward here?!' Mark said as he thought of how dumb he sounded just now. Sure he has experience with modern girls but he does not know how to calm down medieval under-aged girls.

"Y-yes, so it seems…h-hu-husband." Francine said meekly which made Mark stunned as he stared at the frail actions of the girl.

'The f*ck!! Why is my heart so doki-doki right now!! Why is she so cute!? But she is still too young!! Why you heartless Duke?! Why?!' Mark was screaming internally but his face was still impassive as he acted serious by clearing his throat.

"It seems we have been unaware of the plans of the Duke but since the die has been cast then we should find ways to handle the situation." Mark was serious as hell in his face but seeing the trembling figure of the young girl made him look at her gently and said.

"I know you are confused right now and must be thinking of how this is so different from what you expected. I am just as confused as you are and to be honest I did find you attractive lady Francine. So I think before we do anything we have no idea at, why not we sit down and talk first." Mark sat at the side of the bed and patted the open space b.

Lady Francine was tense in her actions but she visible relaxed a little as she sat beside Mark. She exhaled all that built up tension on her being as she looked up and saw the handsome chiseled face which now has a short beard on it. She like Mark when he was shaved before but the beard now gave him a more mature and serious vibe that she felt attracted to.

She blushed as she could feel the warm breath of Mark which she found to be quite minty, she was distracted by this as she never knew that a person's breath could smell as fresh like that. She then covered her mouth thinking that hers might not be pleasant to Mark. Mark was confused by her action but he didn't mind much.

"Francine, can I call you that?" Mark asked as he looked at the girl gently. Francine nodded as she did not mind how he addressed her at all as they were now technically married.

"I know things are going fast for both of us so why not take things slow. Let's fill up on things that we missed after jumping several steps on our relationship." Mark held the hand of Francine as gently tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear,

(A/N: Eww.. holding hands? That's too lewd!! Kids don't read this as it is too much for you!)

"If that is your wish my husband, I too did think it was hasty of my father to do this. But I am genuinely attracted to you so let us get to know each other better from now on." Francine might be shy but she was not dumb enough to not understand what her father planned. While she did find and interest in knowing Mark, she understood that it was not in her power to decide whether to refuse the arrangements of her father.

Not like she could get to complain as she did get married to the only man she got interested in. Though the ones that courted her in the Royal Academy would be discontent, she does not care, they were all sniveling wimps hiding behind their family's success anyways. But as she started to undress, she was immediately stopped by Mark.

"Whoa whoa why are you taking off your clothes?" Mark was confused as to the reason.

"Well husband did say we should get to know each other more so isn't intimate actions a good way to know each other?" Francine was confused as this was what her mother told her. She was confused as to why her husband didn't want to know her better when he just said his words earlier.

"*Sigh* This is not what I meant about getting to know each other… How about this, I speak of things I like then you tell me about what you like. To me I like to forge my own weapons, what about you?" Mark felt exasperated at how forward the people of nobility thought about relations between people.

"Uhhm… What I like? Well I like to draw, like how to sketch people's faces. But I do not like to paint…" Francine was confused but somehow she relaxed as they started to talk all throughout the night about what they like and things they experienced.

The newly-wed couple spent their first night together talking about mundane stuff but it made them a bit closer. The next few days were like what Mark did before but only with the added time of spending it with Francine, that vampires were quite confused as to why Mark did not protest with the wedding at all.'

But they were not against it anyway; they had thought that maybe their new liege has peculiar taste since he could stay in control of himself when he is around them. It even made them question their attractiveness as they thought that Mark might have been a dictator and a hedonist when he only showed mercy to the female vampires.

There were cases when some males would be accepted in the Lahmian command but Mark just killed them all. Even the male thralls or servants of the vampires were not spared, as well as the undead ones that were already rotting. Mark said that he only needs them so it did pass in their mind that they might be 'assaulted' by their new liege.

But he controlled himself, so hearing that he got married made them think that he might not be interested in them. Even if they are vampires they are still women who pride themselves beautiful, so it made them resent their new mistress a little seeing she got first in line. But they did not mind as they felt that they could gain a seat besides Mark in the future.

He was immortal and ageless like them anyways so there are still centuries for them to take action. Thought some were quite bold in approaching Mark like Melissa, Maria and mostly the members of the inner circle of the Lahmian Sisters that swore fealty to Mark. The Carriage which was now travelling went on a journey to get all of the Lahmian Sisterhood under Mark's command.

His actions he did not even hide from the vampire queen which Mark learned to have left her castle from the Countess of Gamay County who was a vampire also and was one of the few Lahmian Vampire that was with Neferata before the fall of Lahmia. She said to Mark that from what she had known, Neferata has no power to fight against him when he went Waybig to the poor Countess.

Even Mark was worried as he was collecting hot women like pokemon left and right by gathering the Lahmian Sisterhood. But the Countess was one quite tricky too as she only swore fealty as long as he show mercy to Neferata. Mark did promise but he said something that ticked the countess a bit but also surprised her as she only said to Mark that she was with Neferata since she started to make the sisterhood.

Mark said that it was rude of him to be harsh on a woman almost four thousand years old but it made him appear as mysterious too at how he had knowledge of how long the Vampire Queen had existed. She thought like the other vampires that maybe Mark just learned of them from investigating but not to this extent that he knew Neferata tried to groom a child that was technically a nephew or grandchild of hers to become her husband or king with her in Lahmia.

There was also Vashanesh who was Neferata's Husband but did not stay as he went to buy some bloody milk, jokes aside he was thought to have become Vlad Von Carstein but that was not yet truly known. This Countess was quite talented as she was able to walk on daylight and even has silver on her blood making her immune and only Melissa as well as Ingrid(The concubine of the First son of the Baron of Westerland).

Mark even made them realize that using curses or magic was ineffective to Mark since he had learned to cover his body with mana. It was a skill he manifested when trying to cultivate as he used the mana to become the substitute for Qi. Before he was affected as Vampires like Lahmians tend to exude an aura that made them irresistible to mortal men.

The reason Mark is having vampires under his command is that they are one of the few races that the Chaos would not want to connect with. They are immune to the corruption of Chaos and if they die their incomplete souls would not go to Chaos or to the God of Death Morr's domain.

Khorne's worshippers think they are thieves of the blood that was meant for the blood god, they are immune to sickness and plagues which Nurgle did not like at all, Tzeentch want change yet the Vampires were very hard to change age and behavior wise. Even now Mark is only open to Melissa of other secrets while the others are just slowly being hypnotized by him, they were cooperative due to fear and their innate respect for the strong.

They were also quite hopeful as they always knew that any symbols of gods were lethal to them even the chaos ones so seeing Mark who has godlike abilities gave them hope that they might not suffer any more from the curse of un-death. Their Queen only wanted to go back to her old ways of decadence and pleasure which made Slaanesh want to swoon the vampires yet as it was said, they do not change. Rather they want to stay in their idealized past like Neferata wanting to revive Lahmia again, so they don't go explore new sensations and pleasures which Slaanesh find distasteful.

But with Mark gradually changing them meant that he must find ways to not make them interesting to the eyes of the Chaos gods. The Change was small but gradual and their new experiences were limited only to be inside the backyard which was a separate dimension so the Chaos gods don't discover the vampires on his command.

Besides that Mark was also able to fuse with the Datura Snake without killing it like how the MC of another Soul Land fused to get the best of the creature and even might improve his Spirit Ring. It made him now able to control his Blue Silver Emperor Grass easily with added toughness and flexibility as well as some paralyzing neurotoxins on the grass.

That alone was able to raise his base power to equal a B-Class creature, and his potential rose to S-Class as he knew that cultivating was one broken piece of cheat. But he was not complacent, as much as he wanted to travel to Marvel or DC to meet some of the heroes he knew, his strength was not enough to survive there.

Only upside of this Warhammer Fantasy world is that the Gods do not go to the mortal world on a whim as there are things that forbid them to do so. Sure the Goddess Myrmidia did try too reincarnate as a mortal to experience the life of one but that was a special circumstance and she did not even use her godly powers.

Some gods could influence the weather like Maanan the God of the Sea or Tor the god of lighting of the Kislevites who wields a hammer only he could carry and has great strength. Why does that sound familiar? There's Sotek who likes snakes, also sounds familiar and there was also the Lady of the Lake but hers is just meeting the questing knights after they were successful in their oaths.

Mark could say there were only a few that could threaten him but he was not helpless. Yet in DC or in Marvel is it safe there? The beings with cosmic level power there are so fickle, from what Mark did realize on the newspaper form Marvel is that the X-men are active and the plot did not follow the movies at all.

He just saw last month's(yesterday in Marvel) news and there was a picture of the black bird with the X-men and Jean Grey is still there. The sighting of the phoenix might have been just red neck hoax that was circulated by some idiots. But he did not want to draw conclusion yet as he still needs to investigate.

He needs some assurance to make sure that no eyes would be drawn to him even when his identity might have been circulated on the underworld of both universes. He did read that Wonder woman was able to apprehend Cheetah on DC's side so it meant that concentrated Catnip worked, the picture of the feline woman looked baked which made Mark laugh.

He also opened the 10 Bronze chest which gained him some random summons which resulted in animals but the good side is that he got four new skeletons which he added to his crafting group. He spent a long time programing their souls which Mark could not understand yet but the system helped with it.

He also got random equipment too which he added to the shop that somehow expanded on its own magically. He placed anything he felt like it on the shelves like pigments for painting, crossbows, sex toys, whips, ropes, statues of random things, food, wine which Mark stole from the various mansions corrupt nobles he did not like, jewels unpolished and polished, a random automaton he made that only says "f*ck you" once you crank it and many random shit as he only received strangers most of the time.

One thing he noticed is that he always has what the people need like when an old guy just wanted to find a good cane, Mark placed as stick which was exactly perfect for the old guy. He did not charge much as he now got another source of income, which was stealing from the corrupt noble he searched using the intelligence learned from the vampires.

There was a queer that bought a lot of virgin coconut oil, olive oil, rapeseed oil as well as other oils which Mark displayed. From then on Mark banned putting oils on his shop as he was weirded out by look that macho guy with a moustache dressed like Queen

There was a girl that wanted a pet because Mark had put a terrarium on one side of the shop. Then he gave her a rabbit yet he was paid by a half-eaten candy. As well as an old man that wanted some flexible wood and paid him with a skill for playing pool. Then a young Asian boy that wanted a friend so he gave him an aquarium with fish and was paid with a skill of playing various instruments, this was one Mark was satisfied with.

There was also a woman who bought a long curved wooden sculpture while giving Mark suggestive looks but he stayed in character since he was seen as a Devil and he was paid with another skill for 'massaging' women. Three weeks of constant cycle in handling the things he owned and the Three ships now arrived at Erengrad. He had the bought a large estate near the Docks which earned the attention of the City Lord which was a large blonde man with a Russian accent.

Mark introduced himself as a noble in Brettonia selling food harvested in his lands. This made him welcomed by the Kislevites as they were now indeed need of food, being tough men of the north made them know that the arable lands are few so crops that grows on cold climates are few in between.

Mark also secretly bought a large area by the seaside of Norden, a region in Ostland that was just besides Kislev. He did not want others to think that his ships had unlimited food which were mostly harvested from his backyard. Three weeks was enough for Mark to make all people on the Ships loyal to him that even the Slaves were now dressed like sailors.

The Orcs, Beastmen, Minotaur, troll and Ogres were not included thought but they are now under the command of Torgu and the First Minotaur he controlled. The Elves and Dwarves were also brought back the backyard as they were now indoctrinated by the resident beastmen in worshipping Mark.

They did so instantly as Mark's feats made them think he is a god, taking things out of air and even showed the dwarves the workshop that made them fall in love with science. Mark even taught the elves and dwarves from time to time as he slowly used hypnosis techniques to make them more open to new knowledge.

It was one of the obstacles in for Mark as they were quite stubborn in their old ways, but slowly they too became fervent believers of Mark. He did not mind them seeing him as a god, it might even be beneficial as the thoughts of every being in Warhammer is closely connected to the Chaos or maybe known in the future as the Warp.

And with the help of the dwarves and the large muscled creatures the construction went very fast. Mark even transform as XLR8 or Four Arms and even Waybig to hasten the time needed to build the power generators. This gave more awe factors that made the integration of Mark's ideas on their heads faster and he was even now called a god of Wisdom which Mark thought to be a problem against Myrmidia as she was the Goddess of wisdom.

So he said he was just the bringer of change as his presence would change the future of the beings in the Old world and beyond. If he could make trouble by taking an aspect then he will take the aspect of a Chaos God as his own, though his system might point him to war which would face against Ulric, Khaine and Khorne in the Future.

But he was not even sure of his system as even now it has not given him any ideas of its prime purpose. As much as he'd like to use it without repercussion, he tended to lean to the fact that nothing is free in this world. He only did the bare minimum need by handling the shop and doing the quest. Sure he left his fate to the system knowing that someone or something gave him something so powerful without a price.

But he did use the backyard as it would be essential to his plans in the future, this place is very large, large like a small country and with four seasons full of resources that regenerate means that this place is something very important. But it would be useless if there is no one to exploit it thus the slaves which Mark planned to also repopulate and become citizens of this large island.

They did say it was his divine domain which might not be false as the other gods here did have their own places with their own soldiers. And it even added to the percentage of the mission he has, they were treated as part of the biodiversity so it went up to 80% now. It did slow down which made Mark confused but understood it later as he still has the large predators in his inventory.

He would introduce them once the population of the other things here swell up, Mark also did sell some furs as the rabbits give lots of these with their uncontrollable reproduction rate. As he was spending time going place to place while dating and flirting with his new wife. A customer which he did not think he would see arrived, someone that made Mark want to squeal like a teenage kid meeting his idol.

Blade…