Ryan looked at the crying Emily and sighed. 'I guess it's time to give it up.'
Deactivating his pleasure aura, he reached for the hood of his cloak but was stopped by one of Velmuuth's women.
"Halt!" the guard shouted, pointing their spear at Ryan.
'On second thought, the guards could use some training too,' Ryan mused.
Even though the training tower was a perfect training environment, it couldn't simulate a real fear of death since one would always be teleported out before that could happen.
Ryan started laughing, making the guard tense up.
The guard didn't know their attacker was a man, so they assumed Ryan was a woman under the mask.
The guard suddenly realized that if their attacker could kidnap Emily, the attacker could most definitely deal with them.
But to Ryan's surprise, the guard didn't retreat like he thought she would. Instead, she stood her ground and shouted, "Free the young miss, or you'll be headed to an early grave."
Ryan was impressed by the woman's bravery and activated his loyalty skill on the knight.
[Jassard Kile]
[Loyalty: 84]
'Not bad,' Ryan had to admit.
While he was looking at Jassard's loyalty, she wasn't wasting time like him and had already alerted Velmuuth of her find.
Soon Ryan was surrounded by guards.
"Give it up. You're surrounded. No matter how strong you are, you're no match for all of us," Velmuuth said, stepping forward.
"Oh?" Ryan raised an eyebrow.
Hearing the confidence in Yan's tone, Velmuuth got a sinking feeling in her chest, and she once again reached out to Ryan.
"Why are you messaging me when you can just talk to me, Velmuuth?" Ryan suddenly said, causing everyone except Velmuuth to frown.
"M-My Lord?!" Velmuuth gasped.
Ryan removed his cloak and started speaking. "I have seen how lax you are in your training. We'll have to work on this as we move forward."
Turning to Emily, Ryan continued. "And my beloved Emily, you should have the power to at least react when I attack. I am, after all, a lower rank than you."
On the ground, Emily sighed in relief but then shook in indignation as she realized what Ryan had just put her through.
"Why would you do something like that?" Emily questioned, ignoring Ryan's statement.
Seeing that she avoided his question out of embarrassment rather than an unwillingness to answer, Ryan allowed her tone to slide as he had been slightly out of line.
"I did it because soon, you won't get a second chance to get it right," Ryan said solemnly. "We're going into battle against the strongest cultivator on the planet, someone not even I can face. For that, we need to be strong."
Ryan shook his head. "But besides the bravery I saw from Jassard. I am seeing nothing but weakness right now."
Jassard blushed, seeing that the Lord knew her name.
Ryan always used his loyalty skill to see other people's names, as remembering one's name is a guaranteed way to get more loyalty from them. 'At least, according to Aliza.'
Ryan then clapped his hands. "Alright, it's time we got a move on, we're wasting daylight, and we've got a long road ahead if we want to reach Kheaweth.
===
Two weeks later (7 days until the wedding…)
In these past two weeks, Ryan didn't make much progress in cultivation, as his ability to rank up at the speed of sound had massively fallen.
He was currently A-Rank, while his harem members had risen to S-Rank across the board.
He had arrived in the Kheaweth Empire only to find that there wasn't much to be done before the wedding.
The forces under Sienna and Ester were working like clockwork and had almost entirely moved their massive fortunes out of the Kheaweth Empire.
Becca Kheaweth, the current but useless Empress of the Kheaweth Empire, was also trying to siphon off some wealth from her family, but Ryan had suggested she keep it at a bare minimum.
Her power didn't come from the forces she controlled, as she practically possessed none. It came from herself.
Ryan had suggested she go and train, and that's exactly what she had done, which caused her not to gain cultivation ranks, but to increase her battle experience.
He would have loved to send Grace to train with her, but Becca insisted on training alone.
She had a shadow over her since she discovered her mother's betrayal, so she wasn't trusting anyone.
Besides the developments inside the Kheaweth Empire, Ryan had heard of a massive string of attacks against the Zol'Gan Empire, which caused them to suffer heavy losses.
While one could not destroy or take over a heavenly blessed kingdom without an invasion pass, they could cause chaos, and that was precisely what the Kheaweth Empire was doing.
But the matter with the Dawn Pavilion was undoubtedly the most significant development in the past two weeks.
The framing of the Dawn Pavilion was an act that sent shockwaves through both the Holy Alliance and the secret alliance of the Zol'Gan and Dawn Pavilion.
The counterattack was nothing short of devastating from the Holy Pheonix Empire, killing every staff member of the Dawn Pavilion in the Holy Phoenix Empire.
Millions lost their lives, as the Holy Phoenix Empire housed the second most Dawn Pavilions besides the Kheaweth Empire.
While Ryan felt it was a shame he couldn't isolate the Kheaweth Empire from the Holy Phoenix Empire in the upcoming war, he knew it was a long shot from the beginning.
Now he just had to plan for the upcoming wedding, which was why Ryan was currently at a table with everyone involved with the upcoming wedding, including the illusive and mysterious Aurora.
His harem members, Lizzy, Izzy, Emily, Grace, Zoey, Sienna Vanroth (Duchess Vanroth), and Ester Frost (Frost General), sat on one side of the table. In contrast, Becca Kheaweth (Kheaweth Empress), Komma Argallod (Zol'Gan Empress), and Aurora sat on the other side of the table.
The two groups looked at each other before Ryan started to speak. "Welcome to the first gathering of the war against the Kheaweth Empire."
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