355 Their Pride

Heinrich smiled with bright eyes the moment Elizabeth entered the study room. He placed down the ink pen and strolled over with his arms open wide to embrace his wife. 

"Did you find yourself a mistress while I was gone?" Elizabeth asked shortly after noticing the black luster of a ring on Heinrich's hand. Her sharp aura surged immediately.

Heinrich's arms froze awkwardly as he nearly keeled over from the shock. 

"W-What are you talking about? I've been so busy with kingdom affairs, I have barely any time to cultivate. Where would I get the time to find a mistress?" Heinrich smiled ruefully. 

If he did go and find himself a mistress while his wife was working hard fighting on the frontlines for the kingdom, wouldn't she break his dog legs when she finds out? 

Noticing a few strands of grey hair on Heinrich's head, Elizabeth could tell that work had been stressful and not easy for Heinrich either. She would rather fight on the frontline than be stuck behind a desk drowning in paperwork. 

Nevertheless, she could not relent and pressed, "Then how do you explain the black ring on your finger?" 

"The black ring on my finger?"

Heinrich did not whether to laugh or cry when he heard this. Such a precious gift from their son had been mistaken for—Haiz, forget it.

Heinrich rubbed his head ruefully and helplessly said, "My Queen, this is priceless treasure personally forged and gifted by our dear son."

The ring in question was precisely one of the interspatial artifacts refined by Leon. Although the ring was unrefined in design and looked like a metal nut. It was an interspatial artifact, nonetheless.

"Our son made this?" 

"That's right." Heinrich affirmed before saying, "Speaking of this, our son has made a few items for you and the two little ladies too." 

Three sets of weapons and interspatial artifacts suddenly appeared in front of Elizabeth. Heinrich passed one set to her before he proceeded over to the two ladies, who were yet to be familiar with the king, Leon's father.

"Aria and Lynne, right? These are for you two." 

Heinrich passed the other set of rings and swords to them before quietly watching the three women inspect their gifts with interest. 

Aria and Lynne accepted the gifts with willingness and anticipation. They would not reject anything from Leon, especially when it is personally passed to them by the king.

A metal nut of a ring and a sword of simple design.

"Pft. Is this supposed to be our engagement rings?" Lynne jokingly asked. Despite that, she happily wore it on her ring finger with glee.

Aria did not express an opinion, but it was clear that she was also delighted from the way she wore the ring. 

Contrary to these two, Elizabeth naturally thought differently. As Leon's mother, it was too scandalous and outrageous if she thought her son was also giving her an engagement ring.

"How did you do that?" Elizabeth asked Heinrich with surprise.

Heinrich naturally knew what his wife was talking about and proceeded to explain with a nod, "En, I was just about to explain their usage." 

"To use the interspatial ring, you need to channel Spirit Energy into them before you can sense the existence subspace and items stored inside. If you have achieved some success in the publicized breathing technique, manipulating Spirit Energy should be easy for you."

"I have not practiced that breathing technique before," Elizabeth said with her brows.

She believed that only by focusing on a single cultivation path would people have hopes of reaching the zenith. As such, she had never practiced the technique, not even once. 

Never had she expected that because of this, it would stop her from being able to use the priceless gift her son had forged for her.

Fortunately, Leon had anticipated that this might be the case and gave his father a detailed explanation of the World Tree's importance.

"You don't need to worry too much. You might not be able to use it now, but you definitely will be able to soon enough. Our son said that the World Tree is overflowing in this so-called Spirit Energy. As long as you practice the breathing technique there, you will be able to achieve success in refining Spirit Energy very quickly."

"The same goes for you, girls. If you haven't already—"

"Oh, this is interesting! The sword disappeared inside!" Lynne excitedly exclaimed. She grew increasingly fond of the interspatial ring.

Heinrich shook his head and wryly smiled, "It seems my words were unnecessary."

At the same time, Aria had also learned to use the interspatial ring freely as the gifted sword disappeared and reappeared before her repeatedly. 

She could not quite put her finger on it, but it seemed almost second nature to her despite being her first time using an interspatial artifact.

"These girls… are very talented!" Heinrich could not help but say.

He felt a little helpless, seeing how freely they were able to use the interspatial rings. It took him several attempts before he could successfully store his first item into the interspatial ring.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Elizabeth gave a few practice swings of the sword before her eyes lit up. She traced the long blade with her fingers in appreciation as she praises, "This sharpness, weight, and solidity. This is an extraordinarily good sword! Startear is nothing compared to this sword."

Startear was the name of her other sword.

Swordsman knew their swords, and Elizabeth was not an exception. A quick inspection was all she needed for her to understand the quality of the sword. It was tiers above the sword she previously used in battle!

Heinrich was a little dismayed when he saw all the paperwork on the desk blown around by the gust of wind generated by his wife's sword. 

After a moment, he shrugged and deigned to think about it too much. He had been behind the desk for so long. Even a king needed to take his break. 

"Aren't you overpraising it? I know our son is very impressive, but Starter is, after all, forged by Ignis with all the top-grade material available to us." Heinrich asked with doubt.

One could not blame him for not knowing. He was not a Swordsman, nor had he made any time to test how good the Tier 3 sword was. He knew it was a good sword. He just did not think it was THAT good.

"What do you know?" Elizabeth chided before saying, "If I don't reinforce Starter with my power, it with break upon clashing with this sword without a doubt."

Breaking was an understatement. The Tier 3 sword would slice through it like hot knife through butter. This was the difference between a weapon enchanted by runes and a weapon without.

Aria and Lynne also began to trace their Tier 3 swords fondly after hearing how impressive they were and felt a little sweet inside.

Leon was able to forge priceless treasures, but they were still able to have such unassuming appearances. He was kind of like a bad artist even after mastering all the techniques. The artwork produced might be rubbish, but it is still a masterpiece.

When Aria and Lynne thought it like that, they found it cute and quietly giggled to themselves.

Buzz!

The noisy sound of propellers on airships was suddenly heard. Glancing outside the window, Elizabeth soon noticed the appearance of four airships in the sky.

"Why are were four airships here? Did you summon all the airships back from the frontlines?" Elizabeth asked with a raised eyebrow.

Heinrich also glanced outside before his head.

"No, those are new airships recently made at the Lancaster Workshop. They must be going out for another flight test." He explained.

Elizabeth immediately widened her eyes in surprise and said, "But that would mean that—"

"Yes, Ignis and Amelia managed to reproduce the levitation stones from the ancient civilization called the Nova Empire. I heard it was also thanks to our son's assistance." Heinrich smiled widely.

The reproduction of the levitation stone had always been a dead project pursued by the Lancaster Family for years without any leads nor breakthrough. 

Heinrich and Elizabeth were both aware of this. They felt immensely proud of their son for solving the Lancaster Family's biggest headache.

"Our son is such a lucky star!" 

"That's for sure!

Elizabeth and Heinrich both sighed. 

They were not there to raise and guide their son, but they felt gratified, knowing Leon grew up well and dependable.

"Ah, that's right!" Elizabeth suddenly exclaimed. She smacked her head as she just remembered. "I heard our son has disappeared. What the hell is that about?"

Aria and Lynne also perked their ears as they listen intently.

"Ahem." Heinrich cleared his throat before he said, "About that…"

Shortly after, he began to recount the details of Leon entering the teleportation array and traveling to the other side to rescue the missing people that included his adoptive mother and Mia.