Cassian is a strikingly handsome man, with a strong and imposing figure befitting his warrior background. His face bears the mark of his experiences, with a scar that runs over his left eye, a reminder of battles fought and won. Despite the rugged appearance, there is a certain allure to him that draws both admiration and caution from those who meet him. His dark eyes reflect the weight of his experiences.
"Hahahaha!!!!! I like you even more now, Aditya." Cassian had no hatred towards Aditya. Unlike most elves who were racist towards other races, Cassian wasn't like that. Being a noble warrior, he had learned to respect the other fellow warriors from other races.
In fact, he even felt that there was no one more suited to marry the goddess of nature than Aditya. Aditya's wasn't any ordinary cultivator. He was the Dragon Monarch. The Emperor of the largest and one of the strongest empires in the whole world. He was the strongest cultivator in the Six Continents. If he wasn't suited to become Riya's husband, then Riya would need to stay single for the rest of her find.
In Cassian's eyes, Aditya was a once-in-a-lifetime genius. He was the type of Genius who would never appear in this world again. Cassian felt blessed to live this long and see the rise of the Dragon Monarch.
"So when are you going to officially announce the engagement?" Cassian asked Riya with a small smile.
Cassian gestured for them to sit on the couch so that they could talk. It has been a while since he last saw Riya. The last time he saw Riya was when she broke through Beginner's 5th order and needed to spar with someone to test out her new powers and limits.
And Cassian had to admit that Riya was even more talented than Amelia and the first Elven Empress. Despite being just a beginner 5th-order at that time, she had managed to make Cassian serious in their spar. This was a very admirable feat in his eyes.
"Uncle, the engagement will be announced after two weeks." Hearing this Cassian knew that in these two weeks, a lot of drama was going to take place between the Empress and the 10 elders. He had a feeling that these elders were going to strongly oppose this engagement and wouldn't want this marriage to take place.
But Cassian saw this as the opposite. Ever since the very formation of this empire, the Empire has remained neutral in all foreign matters and never accepted any alliances or never took part in any foreign wars. He saw and understood the desperate need for this empire to have a powerful foreign ally. The Empire needed someone who could back them in times of need.
Cassian always believed that the Empire had grown weak especially after Empress Amelia took over all the affairs and the previous Queen passed away. [1]
Cassian believed that the Empire was in desperate need of increasing its military and political influence outside its borders. The marriage with the Istarin Empire would not only give the Empire a powerful foreign ally but also open new possibilities for the Celestial Terrain Empire.
Cassin, in fact, supported this Marriage more than anything. Although he didn't like many of the peaceful policies that Empress Amelia had taken over the years. Policies that he believed had significantly weakened the Empire. If there was anything good that Amelia could do as the Ruler of the Celestial Terrain in Cassian's eyes, that would be to let Aditya and Riya get married so that this Empire would finally have a strong foreign ally.
"Uncle, how is sister Nienna doing? It has been a while since I last saw her." Nienna was Cassian's only daughter.
Cassian had lost his wife due to an accident. Nienna was the only family member that was left in this world. Cassian really loved and cared for his daughter.
"Nienna is doing well." Nienna was more than a hundred years old. She was still single. Just like her father worked in the military she too also worked for the military of this empire. Nienna was an excellent archer. She was one of the best archers in the whole Empire.
"Uncle, Big sister Nienna is already this old. I get the fact that we cultivators can live up to Millions of years but the women of her age are already seeing their own grandchildren getting married and she hasn't married yet. You should really try to find someone for her." Nienna was really old. If this continued like this she would continue to be a virgin till she was over 300 years old.
Hearing Riya's words, Cassian sighed. He was also worried about his daughter's future.
Sigh!!!
"I don't want my daughter to marry a weakling. She is free to marry anyone, from race and from any background as long as her future partner is as strong as her or stronger than her. But so far no one has managed to defeat my daughter or even come close to defeating her. She is one of the strongest archers in the whole Continent."
Hearing this Riya's eye started twitching. She wanted to ask why he had set such a rule. 'Big sister Nienna is a Peak 5th-order cultivator. This itself reduces the number of potential partners that she could find. After all, not everyone could reach Peak 5th order. If reaching Peak 5th-order was so easy then there would be Peak 5th-order cultivators everywhere.'
'Big Sister Nienna easily could have found a partner for herself but she decided not to romantically date anyone until she reached Beginner 5th-order. By then she was already 150+ years old. And now she is suffering from her own success. The number of people that can defeat her on this continent is very few. And even those very few people, are mostly females such as her mother, and Seraphine or the 10 elders. And even if someone managed to defeat that, unless that guy is handsome, Big sister wouldn't accept him as her partner. She also had her own requirements. She wanted her partner to be tall, handsome-looking, and pure-blood Elf. So in short her option was very limited.'
'Honestly, these two are some of the most stubborn people I have ever met aside from Sasha.' Riya felt a headache just thinking about the whole matter.
"Excuse me! Not to interrupt you two, I was wondering what is the age of your Big sister." Aditya asked in a curious tone. Maybe he could help.
"She is very close to turning 300." Riya said in a flat tone.
"Oh....!!!" Aditya raised his eyebrows in surprise.
'So there is someone who is even more unluckier than Sylvie.' Aditya thought to himself. Sylvie's weakness was the fact that she was single for over a century but Riya's big sister Nienna had been single for close to 300 years.
"I have been wanting to visit the Istarin Empire and see it with my own eyes," Cassian said while looking at Aditya.
"Uncle, you're always welcome at the Istarin Empire." Aditya smiled and responded.
Knock!! Knock!!
Someone knocked on the door of Cassian's office. "What is it?" Cassian sounded displeased. His mood had changed to slightly angry. Aditya and Riya noticed this.
"Sir, our new recruits have stopped training. No one is currently training. Everyone is skipping training." Hearing this Cassian stood up. Aditya and Riya exchanged a look before following him outside of the office.
"Why are they not training? What about the other instructors? Why they didn't punish the recruits for this behavior?" Cassian asked his secretary who was a 5 feet 7 inches tall Elf. The elf had long blond hair and was fair-skinned. He was a Peak 3rd-order cultivator.
"Sir, the other instructors are busy with other important work." There were only 3 other instructors other than Cassian. One of the instructors had gone to the Capital to meet one of the elders. The second instructor was cultivating in seclusion. He was very close to breaking through. The third instructor was teaching another batch of Soldiers; soldiers that had come from another training camp.
"I want all the recruits to gather at the field within 2 minutes. If any of them are late, I am going to increase their punishment by 10 folds." Hearing his cold and threatening words, even his secretary shivered in fear. Without wasting any time, he quickly ran off to call all the recruits.
Aditya was surprised to see this change in Cassian. Just a moment ago, he was laughing and talking with them but now he was so serious. The Aura around him had completely changed.
And soon 3000 recruits were standing on the field. Their faces looked very pale. Some of them were even shivering facing Cassian.
It was clear that these recruits were really frightened.
"What was the reason for skipping training today?" Cassian asked in a cold voice. Cassian was a like wild beast at this moment. He was barely holding his anger back.
A recruit replied in a shaky tone. As he spoke his legs were trembling. "Sir, previously we were given a holiday once every week." This batch of recruits had been sent to his camp just a week ago. So they were not aware of the rules of this camp. And since all the instructors were busy as well, nobody informed them that they training today.
"Holiday? There is no such thing as a Holiday in my training camp. If you don't like it then pack your bag and just leave. I hate lazy pigs the most. If you're a lazy pig then you better get out of my sight before I find you." Cassian shouted in a loud tone.
"The reason you all are training to become soldiers is so that you can serve this Empire. If you're here because you want power or status or money, then you can leave. If you don't take your training seriously, then you all will face the consequences. I don't care how you all lived in your previous training camp but in this camp, you follow my rules otherwise I will throw you out. I don't need rotten seeds in my camp." Hearing his words, the recruits lowered their heads in shame.
"You all have been to this training camp for a week now. By now, you all should have known about my rules. You all are going to be punished for your carelessness." Hearing this their faces went pale.
"All of you are going to run around their field for 1000 times." Hearing this everyone looked at Cassian in disbelief. It was as if no one could believe what Cassian was saying. This whole field was 10 km big. Not even a 1st-order cultivator would have the stamina to complete 1000 laps around this field.
"Those who stop running won't get anything to eat. Their food and their belongings will be taken away." Aditya didn't know what Cassian was thinking. Most of these recruits have barely reached Beginner 1st-order. For them doing something like this is nearly impossible if not completely impossible. After all, elves are not known for their crazy stamina like beast-race.
"What are you waiting for? Start running now....." Everyone started running while Cassian watched over them.
"Uncle, isn't this a bit too much?" Aditya couldn't help but ask Cassian.
"Aditya, I have to be strict. These recruits are irons that need to be sharpened. Only under extreme pressure diamonds are formed." Aditya wanted to say that his way of thinking was wrong. His way of training these recruits was going to break them even before they could turn into diamonds. But Riya held his hand and shook her head signaling him to not say anything. So Aditya went quiet.
It looked like Riya already knew about this wild and strict side of Cassian. She was used to it.
Really Thank you very much to all those who send support with valuable golden tickets. I hope we can keep it up!!!
[1] Even though he's a high rank military officer he has no idea that the first Elven empress was still alive and was cultivating at the Main Continent.
