Academy, Teleportation Altar Area.
The magic circle of the teleportation altar lit up, and the group finally made it back home.
Looking at the familiar scenery around, a sigh of relief appeared on everyone's face.
The last time they used a teleportation altar, everyone ended up traveling to the wrong location, which caused chaos.
Thankfully, such a thing didn't happen this time.
"Welcome Back, Everyone..."
A portal appeared nearby, and Raji walked out of the portal with the usual cold look on her face.
She leaned her back against a nearby tree and sipped the wine from the glass she was holding in her hand.
"It's been quite some... I thought you guys would come back in just a month, but you took nearly half a month extra..."
"Well, all's good as long as you are back in one piece..."
Another portal appeared nearby, and Ashtel walked out of the portal.
"Ah! Father! Are you already out of seclusion!? I thought it would take you more time!"
Hearing Link's words, Ashtel frowned a bit and said in an amused tone,
"What? Don't tell me you wanted to get married with Riya behind my back and surprise me when I come back? Did I ruin the surprise perhaps?"
Even Riya blushed after hearing those words, and Link was left speechless.
"No! I was just surprised that your seclusion ended so fast, that's all... Don't SS-rankers usually take years of seclusion most of the time?"
Ashtel nodded his head at those words and replied in a calm voice,
"Yeah, they do, but that's only when you are trying to advance but don't have any general direction and inspirations..."
"But it was different for me this time; when I saw Riya get protected by the 'world' in the elven empire, I got some instant 'realization' and 'inspiration' from it..."
"These past few months I have been focusing on it... And the result is in front of you; I ended my seclusion fast and became stronger again..."
"Ah, but that means the gap between us has become wider once again. Link, if you don't progress fast, you might never be able to beat your old man at this rate..."
Ashtel shrugged his shoulders and casually called the supposed most talented person of the younger generation a slowpoke!
He's literally saying, 'You are too weak and slow!' to the guy who literally mastered a legendary skill and has the supposed highest possible talent in the annals of history!
"Ah, talking about improvement speeds.... I see you have become much stronger than the last time I saw you, Rio..."
Before Rio could even notice, Ashtel was standing beside him and had placed his hand on his head.
He patted Rio's head and smiled like a proud old guy who's happy to see the young generation improve.
"Nice! I guess you might come to challenge me first instead of Link, hahaha... Don't underestimate me though; I will not let you kids beat me so easily!"
Even Raji was a bit shocked at Ashtel's speed, but she just shook her head and didn't say much.
She already has accepted the fact that she can never surpass Ashtel in her whole life, so there's no point in bothering over this matter.
He's just too insanely powerful for her.
Link, on the other hand, gritted his teeth when he saw that Ashtel was being so nice to Rio.
'Ugh! Why is he complimenting Rio more than me!!'
Ashtel also patted Riya on the head and even gave her a full box of candies on the spot; she was so happy that she was jumping around like a rabbit.
Raji sighed and shook her head when she saw Riya behaving like a kid.
'Ugh, when will my younger sister grow up? She always makes me worried...'
At that moment, another portal opened, and Jin walked out of the portal. Unlike usual, today he's wearing more casual clothes.
Usually, he's always in that battle uniform of his, but today he's wearing a T-shirt and shorts.
'Waifu is Laifu' are literally the words written on his t-shirt!
Ashtel was a bit taken aback when he saw Jin.
"Oh? Isn't that 'couples' T-shirt? Jin, did you manage to convince Anna to agree after all?"
Jin, who had just woken up when he got the message and came over, yawned loudly and then nodded his head while rubbing his eyes.
"Ah, yeah, I forgot to tell you? She agreed to marry me... We will announce it soon; we are actually living together already, you know..."
A crazy smile appeared on Ashtel's face after hearing that.
"Amazing! This is quite the good news; as a reward, I will allow you to have spar with me! Here, take this punch!"
Before Jin could react, Ashtel punched him in the stomach, and he flew away into the sky like a rocket!
*BOOM!!!*
The ground cracked and the void trembled like crazy, but Ashtel just waved his hand, and everything fell silent again.
Not even the space-time fabric dared to tremble when he asked it to stop.
An awkward look appeared on his face when he saw that Jin was directly blasted off out of Earth's gravitational pull.
"Er... I guess I punched a bit too hard... I forgot I have become stronger recently..."
Hearing those words, Raji had nothing to say, and the rest of the group was even more speechless than her.
Even Rio felt a bit weird seeing this scene.
'Is this how SS-rankers usually greet each other? That punch would have killed an S-ranker
ten times over... but I am quite sure Jin barely got a scratch from that...'
A portal opened nearby, and Jin came out of it. He patted his clothes and heaved a sigh of
relief.
"Phew... Thankfully the T-shirt didn't tear apart; Anna would have killed me if I ruined something that she gifted me..."
"You are kind of crazy; a little bit more of the strength, and I would have hit the moon casing
major global issues!"
Ashtel patted Jin's back and smiled,
"Hahaha, now worries; I already knew you could teleport back before you could collide with
the moon; you have become better in the past few months since I was gone... nice."
"By the way, where is Neo? I haven't seen him yet... I just expanded my mana detection range and scanned the entire empire, but he's not in the empire..."
Hearing those words, Raji and Jin both panicked a bit and hurriedly explained.
"Uh, we haven't seen him recently... h-he disappeared around the time when Link and the
others went to the dragon valley..."
Link and the others were quite confused why Raji and Jin were panicking all of a sudden when
Ashtel asked that question.
After all, only SS-rankers know about the affairs between them four.
Ashtel and Neo had once signed a peace treaty.
After the fifty-year Orc war, Ashtel freed all the captured victims that Neo had in his grasp,
and he also restricted Neo to the empire.
Neo isn't allowed to leave the empire unless Ashtel has given him permission; in return for all
this, Ashtel spared Neo's 'life' in that peace treaty.
If not for that, Neo would have been dead long ago, and there would have been only one SS- ranker in the human empire for several years to come.
...
Author's Note.
The questions have been shifted below in the author's thoughts.