"Master, I want to become handsome too!"
Everyone who heard those words was briefly stunned, and then a ruckus of laughter erupted in the Hall.
Victor, who had spoken those words, did not seem fazed or felt embarrassed by their reaction. He just kept looking at Keith with those pleading eyes.
"Why?" After a short while, when some people regained their bearings, Keith raised the question, and Victor was a little at a loss for words.
Yes, why did he want to become handsome? He did not.
The only reason he had said those words was because he had seen the changes in Ryou after the young man woke up, and when they had their daily spar, he realised that his friend and colleague was way superior in both speed and strength after Keith had turned him into a handsome man.
"I want to become stronger too!" He clarified his words and seriously looked at his Master.
The ladies who were present in the hall curiously looked at Keith's smile. They had their questions, of course.
Ryou was very different from what they all remembered, and they had witnessed the spar between Victor and him, where the latter effortlessly defeated the muscle head and beat him to a pulp.
"You want to become stronger?"
"Yes!" Victor nodded his head just like a child would say yes to a treat.
"Be patient then." Keith smiled. "Your day will come."
His words depressed the Muscle-Head, but he still obediently nodded his head before lowering it.
Keith did not pay Victor's dejected self any sympathy and turned to look at the young man who was standing behind his colleague.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes, Master." Ryou nodded to him, and his dark eyes were clearer than ever without a hint of hesitation.
"You can stay for a few days if you want."
"I want to get to work as soon as possible."
"But there is no rush." Keith smiled. "Or are you excited about the new adventure?"
"It would be a lie if I said I was not excited." Ryou nodded his head and smiled.
"Very well." He stepped forward and offered him a Storage Ring. "Prick your forefinger or thumb and let it soak a few drops of your blood."
Ryou did as asked, and was a little amazed at how his blood was soaked up by the ring. He felt that the ring was a little too big for him, but as soon as he put it on, it magically adjusted itself to the size of his finger.
"Focus on it, imagine looking inside it," Keith instructed and smiled when Ryou's eyes widened in shock.
"What do you see?"
"A book."
"It's a Cultivation Manual. And you will start Cultivating it once you enter the Martial Realms. The Manual is quite detailed, so you should not have any issues with it, but there is something you must pay attention to." His voice deepened in seriousness, and Ryou attentively looked at him. "You must not teach it to anyone else. And this book must not fall into another person's hands. Understood?"
"Yes, Master." The young Assassin promised him, and then curiously looked at the Crystal that suddenly appeared in Keith's hand.
It was the Teleportation Stone that the System had provided him to help Ryou leave this world for the one this Stone was locked on. Needless to say, a Teleportation Stone capable of breaking into Lower Heaven from an Isolated World was an extremely precious treasure.
"Hold it in your hand and crush it," Keith said and handed it over to Ryou.
"Be safe." Minami lightly said, and Ryou smiled and nodded to her before he knelt to Keith and the family that was standing behind him.
"I will await your arrival, Master."
"You will have to wait a while." Keith chuckled. "Farewell."
Ryou kept his head lowered as he crushed the Crystal in his hand, which took great effort, and then, within a blink of an eye, he disappeared from his position, leaving behind Spacial Cracks, which healed when Keith waved his hand at them.
[Ding! Congratulations Host on completing the Optional Side Quest!]
[You have received 20,000 System Points and a Wicked Sabre.]
A prompt sounded out in his mind, which meant that Ryou had safely reached his destination.
Sadly, the rewards did not include any System Experience, but Keith was not really interested in these rewards.
To be able to send Ryou to their next destination ahead of time was a reward in itself, and he was ardently looking forward to leaving this boring world too.
Unfortunately, he still had to gather a few things and needed to deal with a few matters. It was going to take a while.
Turning around, he was met with some very curious looks from his family, and he was not oblivious to their excitement and anticipation of the Lower Heaven, which they had learned about from the storybooks and now looked forward to witnessing its beauty with their own eyes.
"Let's go. Grandfather and grandmother are waiting for us at the dinner table." He informed him, and Rebecca pouted at him as she could see that he was refusing to answer any of their questions. "Go get some rest. I will train you tomorrow." He patted Victor's shoulder, who excitedly smiled at him after he heard his words.
"Yes, Master!"
As soon as the Muscle-Head left the hall, Keith started walking too, not waiting for his ladies to approach him and grab him for their interrogation session.
He really did not want to keep his grandparents waiting any longer than they already had.
"Keith!" Alana, who had been sitting at the table with his grandparents, brightened up as soon as he entered the room, and he offered her a light smile.
"Sorry to keep you all waiting. Something urgent came up." He said and then took his seat by her side, which caught her by surprise.
"Alana wants to take a sneak peek at the Noxville. Celine has filled her head with all the fun that the Theme Park is." His little Songbird blushed when Diana informed him what they had just been talking about.
"I will take you there tomorrow and will show you around the rest of Noxville." He lightly said, which surprised her and she expectantly turned to look at him. "Promise."
"Thank you!" Alana blushed some more but then averted her eyes, taking her time to compose herself by chatting with the ladies who were now taking their seats.
The dinner was a harmonious affair, very lively, but as soon as Keith excused himself away at the end of the meal, one by one, his wives excused themselves too and chased after him.
"Hey." He could only helplessly smile when he saw them catch up with him, and Kiara happily latched onto his left arm.
"Brother, do you have another Storage Ring?"
"No." He shook his head, which made her pout. "And what do you have that you would like to keep in it?" He teasingly asked.
"Just stuff." She stuck her tongue out and giggled when she heard him break into chuckles.
"What was that Stone?" Qingyue asked, still curious about the shiny crystal that Keith had given to Ryou.
"A Teleportation Stone."
"One capable of transcending World Barriers?" She frowned.
"Yes." He nodded to her. "But it's a one-way ticket since that Stone is locked to the Aura and Location of a specific world."
"She gave it to you?"
Keith smiled in his heart when he heard her question. Qingyue thought that it was Nyx who gave him that Stone. After all, what other explanation could there be that he possessed such a precious thing?
"Maybe." He teasingly shrugged, which made her playfully smack her fist on his arm.
Rebecca and Amelia both stayed quiet as they listened to the questions that Kiara and Qingyue threw at him. They too had a lot of questions, but their questions were a little more technical, and they both wanted to ask him those questions in private.
"Don't you have anything for us?" Kiara asked as soon as they entered his room, and Keith sighed and turned to look at her.
"I have this." He said and took out the Wicked Sabre he had received from the System in Quest Reward. "Here." He handed it to his little sister, who held it with a lot of care and effort.
"It's different from the one you gave to Rebecca," Qingyue spoke as soon as they took the blade out of its scabbard.
It was a lot like the Wicked Sword but had a broader blade, and even Rebecca and Amelia stepped forward to inspect it.
"It's a Wicked Sabre." Rebecca, who remembered Keith talking about it, informed her sister-wives. "It is supposedly more balanced for some people."
She swung the blade and then lost interest in it.
Amelia too checked it out, but then handed it back to Kiara.
Keith knew that the blade was a little too fancy for her liking, and then smiled when his little sister handed it to Qingyue.
"Yours." She smiled at her sister-wife, who was very interested in the sword and had taken a liking to it.
"You don't want it?" Qingyue hesitated and asked.
"No. I want a Wicked Sword. The blade is a little too broad for my liking." She honestly told her, and Qingyue brightly smiled at her words.
"Thank you!"
Seeing that they were no longer paying attention to him, he decided to head into the bathroom to take a shower.
Keith shook his head when he exited the dressing room and found the girls gathered and waiting for him, and he understood their intentions when he saw his loveable daughter holding her storybook in her hand.
"Let's go to the lounge." He said to them with a smile and the girls happily led him into a private lounge in his section of the Manor.
There, Minami read to them a story about a young Ashaya girl, who was born in a World in the Lower Heaven and forged her way to Immortality, overcoming all the obstacles and pains that life threw her way.