Shadow River Sect.
Lith was sitting in one of the courtyards present in the core area of the sect and was browsing through some papers.
A few instances later, space fluctuated near him and three figures appeared.
Lith stopped doing what he was doing and focused on the three people.
"We're here already? Wow? Where is– Ah! Hi, Your Highness!" Dennis was looking around with a curious gaze when he soon found Lith.
"Hi there." Lith smiled and waved to Dennis.
"Greetings." Ralph did a small bow and said.
"Hi, Ralph." Lith smiled and waved towards Ralph.
Listening to a familiar voice, Dennis turned to the side, only to see Ralph doing a bow. "You're here too? Didn't you say you were going to come later?"
Ralph slightly knitted his brows as he got a barrage of questions from Dennis. They only just met and he didn't even greet him.
"Hi, Dennis." Despite feeling annoyed, Ralph was happy to be reunited back with Dennis and Lith.
"Hi, Hi, now tell me, why are you so early?" Dennis couldn't help but repeat.
Amidst their talks, Noman who brought Dennis looked at Lith and Lith looked back at him. The two nodded looking at each other and Noman left after giving a small bow to Lith.
Lith got up from his seat and as he did, the two people's gaze fell on him.
"Oh wow! His Highness sure has become a lot more handsome than before. Not to mention tall as well." Dennis couldn't help but say in amazement.
"Yes. All his baby fat seems to have gone as well." Ralph added to the conversation. He had become slightly talkative due to one stupid guy who kept pestering him all these years.
Lith didn't say anything to their comments and simply went ahead and hugged them both.
"It's good to see you guys again." Lith said with a smile.
"Haha! It's good to see you too, Your Highness!" Dennis said cheerfully while patting Lith's back.
"Same." Ralph said with a small smile on his face.
Lith let go of the hug and looked at them both. "You two seem to have grown a lot, probably more than me."
Ralph looked more refined, elegant, and handsome. He looked like a perfect nobleman and his face had a slight feminine look, which only made him more pleasing to the eyes.
As for Dennis, he also had grown to be a handsome man, but when in front of Ralph, he just appeared average, or more correctly, his handsomeness was overshadowed. But Lith didn't have trouble to notice it and he could tell that Dennis was indeed a very handsome nobleman as well, though definitely not as elegant as Ralph.
Ralph was in a white formal suit and Dennis was in a black one. Both looked like they were going to attend some kind of ball soon.
Lith sat with them near a round table and the three started chatting about things.
From them, Lith got to know that Ralph teleported straightaway to this place by placing the coordinates Lith gave him. There was a powerful teleportation circle that Ralph could use in his home and he made use of it.
As for Dennis, he was shocked at first to see Noman as he was the same butler who had escorted him and his parents to the Royal Banquet. Then after his initial shock was gone, he was really happy to know that he was being taken from the castle and into the war.
Going to war felt much better to Dennis than to study what his parents gave him for home work. Thus, skipping it, he came to this place with the help of Noman.
As for Ralph, he could even ask his mother to drop him to this place if he wanted, but knowing how the situation was at that time, Ralph decided to make use of the teleportation circle instead.
A few hours passed and it was dusk already.
The three friends had a lot to talk to each other and didn't even realize the time.
"I've had a few plans in mind while I was in the academy. It was related to our careers." Lith suddenly said something important which made the two become slightly serious and listen.
Lith lay back on his chair and continued, "the road to the top is quite long and also lonely. You two must've realized already how it feels to be the strongest in your generation, right? There's hardly anyone that you find to fight or hang out with."
The two nodded their heads. They knew full well about what Lith was talking about and could also relate with that.
"The time I spent in the academy with you guys was really nice. But the problems we three faced there, we were simply too ahead of everyone that they always felt inferior to us and nobody even dared to approach us. And not to mention the incident Ralph caused at that time in the cafeteria made us three look like someone really elite and someone who shouldn't be approached."
"Haha! Yeah! Ralph went overboard with his things." Dennis laughed and added.
Ralph shook his head. "I did what I felt was right."
He didn't regret doing what he did at that time. The guy simply came and bothered him when he didn't even do anything to him.
Lith nodded. "Yes, I know. But what I am saying is, we were never able to have friends in the academy because we were just too superior to everyone."
The two nodded their heads. They agreed with Lith.
For Ralph, wherever he went, females would always try to throw themselves at him and they kind of annoyed him. There was hardly any girl that didn't just want to get fucked by Ralph.
For Dennis, people kept pestering him and showering him with gifts because they wanted to have a good relationship with him. The thing was, they just wanted to have connections with an Emperor Rank Clan's heir and also because they wanted to get close to the Vampire Prince. He was treated like a tool by everyone despite being as good looking as Ralph.
After Lith was gone, Ralph and Dennis both started to hate the academy life because it was too tiresome to them. They even had plans for dropping out but Emilia was there for them.
Not only Emilia, even Arya came from time to time to check up on them and even helped them with a few things.
The two had spent their days training with Arya and Emilia and doing the events in the academy that made them always stay ahead of everyone in points.
They got a lot of resources and with Emilia's help, they ended up breaking through to Rank in less than three and a half years.
Ralph was the first to break through but Dennis followed suit in just a week and both graduated from the academy at the same time.
They were also the first to have graduated from their batch and took the spot of third and fourth in all time fastest students to have ever graduated.
The first spot was held by Lucy who also attended the academy when she was thirteen and the second spot was held by Alexandra.
Of course, the list was confidential and only the students of Ralph and Dennis's batch were given information that these two become the third and the fourth fastest people in history to ever graduate, which helped motivate them to cultivate hard.
Lith then continued with a smile, "anyway, everything aside, let's get to the main topic."
The two nodded their heads and listened to what Lith was saying.
"Firstly, tell me this, what excites you about this war the most?"
Ralph and Dennis thought about what Lith said and it didn't take long for them to come up with an answer.
Dennis was the first to speak and said, "Battles! The best part about war is that there's a lot of battles and this is what excites me."
Ralph then answered, "for me it is the strategic planning and the various schemes used. Fighting like rouges will get no one nowhere and to win a war, strategies are very important and I like this aspect of it."
"Tsk. Strategy is so boring, just go out and fight in the open. Don't be a pussy." Dennis chimed in and argued with Ralph.
Ralph looked at Dennis and said in a neutral tone, "I choose to be more civilized rather than becoming a gorilla-brained-swine like you."
"Hey, who are you calling a swine?"
"So you don't deny being gorilla brained?" Ralph jabbed back and provoked Dennis.
"Alright you two, calm down. I just wanted to know your interests and I pretty much guessed that this'll be the case. Anywho, so…" Lith interrupted the two and said with a smile.
Ever since they were in the academy, Dennis preferred fists more than his brain and Ralph was the opposite.
Lith called the two here for this aspect itself. One had the potential to be a great general and the other one had the potential to be a great strategist.
Having friends was nice but Lith's luck was so good, he struck gold by having Ralph and Dennis affiliated with him. These two were geniuses among geniuses and hardly anyone could match them in their own generation.
Lith was thus really lucky to have the two together and since they were friends anyway, Lith had plans to have them work together and adventure.
The path to the top was lonely as Lith had mentioned and having friends was something not everybody had. Lith was lucky in this aspect and he didn't want to let go of it.
If all things went well in future, Ralph would be his chief strategist and Dennis would be his general. Both would support him and together, the trio could dominate all wars.
But those were all something Lith had plans for the future and not for now. He didn't want to restrict them or bound them with himself, he just wanted to hangout for now and so he called them here.
"Ralph, you'll make plans on how the Shadow River Sect will go about attacking the two clans and Dennis, you'll go fight and lead the sect disciples to wherever necessary. I'll be doing assassinations and assisting Ralph. How does it sound?"
Lith had no preference to strategy or battles like how Ralph and Dennis had. He used his brain and brawn according to his mood or together at almost all times.
The two listened to this and nodded their heads. But then Ralph had a question,
"Will the sect allow me to be the strategist?"
Lith smiled and said, "don't worry about it. I'll handle it for you."
"Now let's go and meet the Sect Masters. We've got a lot of things to do." Lith got up and left with the other two after saying so.
.....
A/N: Normal chapter.
Thanks to Mik_Ray for the Magic Castle, I'll do a mass release soon.
I was supposed to do one final bonus chapter but I didn't want to split this chapter into two. This is a 2 in 1 chapter btw.
I'll release the 3 bonus of the castle and 1 bonus of 1000/1000 Powerstones of last week together by Friday.
It's festival time in my country, I am going back home, which is around 1000 km away from where I am studying currently, so do be patient.
Thank you so much for your understanding and have a good day!
Upcoming goals:
934/1000 GT (+3 bonus)
457/1300 PS (+1 bonus)
The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!