Before Departure

After all of them had their lunch, Muzaka Kallikratros decided to part ways with them before they agreed to meet when Yakou and Kirihara would be going to the Outer Regions to fight against Automatons.

Kirihara and Yakou remained in the restaurant as they continued their dinner date, while Kirihara was actually glad that the loud and annoying Werewolf had finally left them alone.

"Your friend is an unscrupulous barbaric caveman."

When Muzaka left, Kirihara immediately voiced her displeasure about the company that her fianceé was keeping and at a certain part, Yakou was forced to agree with her.

Despite his social status, Muzaka Kallikratos was far away from the definition of being noble and so...

Yet, on the other hand, he was loyal, wasn't a backstabbing, scheming person, and was pretty much straightforward.

When he didn't like someone, he would just smash their head and voice his opinion.

"Maybe... but his qualities as a person with character are far outweighing his behavior. Contrary to most from the Evernight High Council and even Ōtsutsuki Clan, he is not scheming and could be trusted. "

Even Kirihara was rather agreeable to this because she dealt a few times with people from the Evernight High Council and especially the bats, as they called them, were a bunch of scheming and untrustworthy bastards.

"So, how do you like the food?"

Yakou asked rather awkwardly because when it came to Kirihara and he was alone with her, not training or anything, he didn't really know how to behave.

"I can sense your anxiousness miles away... despite that you are a genius in fighting and mastering Kenjutsu and racial abilities, when it comes to social relationships, you suck."

Kirihara stated with a giggle, but at the same time, Yakou sighed in relief that she didn't think too much of it.

"I know that we are to get married and have children to secure the next generation of the Divine Lineage, but we can take it slowly for both of us. We don't need to rush anything."

Maybe it was because Kirihara was older than he or maybe because she was more emphatic than he was; she was pretty much understanding and could see that her financeé didn't really know anything about romantic relationships.

Because their marriage was arranged by the Clan, there was nothing they could do about it and they could only live with it.

***

Several months later, Planet Tengoku

As usual, Yakou was training as hard as possible, but he felt that he was stuck at a certain level and couldn't advance further, no matter what he did. It was apparent that he needed some battle stimulus to get a breakthrough in his abilities.

"It seems that departing to the frontlines to fight would come sooner than I have initially anticipated."

Yakou muttered as he stopped training and canceled all Shadow Clones that he conjured as he received all of their memories and training.

Unfortunately, all of them brought him very little, which was a sign that he needed to switch the training method.

He exited the special cultivation room within their mansion as he sent a notification to Kirihara and Muzaka Kallikratos that he was changing their date of departing to the frontline with the Automatons.

It was sooner by an entire one year and some months, but fortunately, Muzaka Kallikratos was still within the Southern Cosmic Area and Kirihara was right now on the planet Tengoku, so it would take only a short time before both of them arrive.

Both of his Catopuses woke up when they sensed their master exiting the training room as they rushed to him, acting cute in an attempt to gain some food from their master.

They were pretty cunning because they were aware that their master had a soft spot for casts, so by acting extremely cute, they could extort some treats and food from their master; naturally, this strategy worked most of the time.

"What is it, darling? You have ended your training ahead of time?"

His mother, Ōtsutsuki Akiri, asked him because she was right now at home, too endorsed at Evolutionary Cultivation, as she was already peak Saint Realm Ōtsutsuki and was only one step from becoming a Holy Lord.

She had a harder time reaching the higher realms because she was not much of a fighter and due to her, one could say, hyper-active personality, she couldn't cultivate for a prolonged period of time.

This proved problematic in the later stages because Ōtsutsukis, who practiced Evolutionary Cultivation, focused on comprehending the Dao, the meaning of all things in the Chaotic Source Dimension.

"I have reached the bottleneck in my training and I couldn't advance with training my Dōjutsu Tensei-Sharingan any further. It seems that evolution is impossible without extreme emotional stimulus seems impossible."

His mother agreed with that because even for her, it took more than a few thousand years to achieve the Tensei-Mangekyou Sharingan, not to mention, to this day, his mother didn't master the Senrinjōnegan entirely.

"Are you heading to the Unknown Regions between the Southern Cosmic Area and Eastern Cosmic Area?"

He nodded at his question as his mother sighed in relief a bit because that place was relatively safe without any high-end powerhouses.

"Be careful about Automatons... while the Automatons are relatively weak individually, their strength lay in their overwhelming numbers. They don't control the entire Cosmic Region for nothing; unfortunately, the leeches that are supporting them from shadows are very good from hiding; else we would have long ago annihilated them."

As dutiful and concerned mother Ōtsutsuki Akiri was, she warned her son of the danger behind the Automatons. She herself has fought against the scraps of metal several times in her life and they were a pain in the ass to deal with.

Especially if they brought out some of their most destructive weapons, even the Elders of the Ōtsutsuki Clan needed to be maximally cautious when dealing with the Automatons.

"If that is so, why didn't the Ancestors act or ask the Lord Shibai?"

Because Yakou was the Crown Prince of the Ōtsutsuki Clan, he was aware of the Clan's deepest secret: that Lord Shibai was still within the Ōtsutsuki Clan. He was only slumbering and protected the Clan from the shadows.

"Because in the long run, the Automatons aren't a threat high enough for even Ancestors to act, not to mention Lord Shibai. In the Starveil Origin World, there are, in fact, more Tier 7 individuals on the same level as Lord Shibai and from what the Ancestors said, according to the covenant between them, they are forbidden to act against the lower creatures."

Yakou could vaguely understand what was happening behind the curtain.

While the Aumatons were powerful, they were not powerful enough to endanger the Ōtsutsuki Clan and at the same time, they served as good opponents for the Ōtsutsuki Clan.

Life and Death battles were needed for them to break through to the higher realms and achieve higher mastery over their abilities. In this regard, the Automatons were useful; if not for that, they would have been long ago, wiped out by Ancestors.

If the Ōtsutsuki Clan really wanted to wipe them out, it was highly possible that even the backers of the Automatons, who were confirmed to be on the same level of raw power as the Ancestors, wouldn't want to protect their pawns.