Zen is up to something again?
IV 6th, 2400
Ellie and Randell have recently arrived at Zen's prestigious villa aboard a spacious, elegantly designed flying ship of the highest tier, denoting its exceptional quality and sophistication.
Escorted by an extensive fleet consisting of tens of thousands of ships, classified as Tier S, A, and a substantial number of ships classified as B, arranged behind them.
Such a grand entrance, but this was just the tip of the iceberg of the Raverdieu family's prowess.
The entire assembly of guards, including the elite guards and maids, had congregated in a disciplined arrangement beneath.
Once all the ships landed, both Randell and Elle stepped out of the ship. Each and every one of them extended salutations, followed by a reverential gesture of bowing at an angle of ninety degrees. They collectively uttered, "Greetings, esteemed Lord Randell and Lady Elle."
Both of them nodded, and Elle spoke, calling Marie, who was standing with the maids.
Marie then stepped out and arrived in front of Elle. "Magister Marie is at your service, Lady Elle."
All of the people were shocked because they thought Marie was just a regular personal maid of Zen. But they still thought it was appropriate, as they thought of Zen's identity.
There should at least be one or two high ranking mage or swordsman that are secretly protecting him. Just that they never thought that she was hiding in plain sight and that she was a maid.
"Marie, bring me to where Zen is currently." Elle then spoke with a dignified presence and a cold attitude belonging to that of an Empress. There is no trace of the gentle personality she shows in front of Zen and her family.
She was known as the 'Tyrannous Empress' in the outside world. During the war of the Outlander continent, she killed a million enemies, and that is how she got that title. That war was the biggest war to date and happened twelve years ago.
Outlander was a continent located near the south ocean of the Astre Continent. The Astre continent wanted to eradicate and occupy this land for themselves, and they successfully did so.
The Raverdieu family got the biggest piece of land, as they were the ones that contributed the most during the battle. This was all because of Elle, the 'Tyrannous Empress'.
That was also when she decided to marry Randell. Since she had married Randell, her last name had become Riverdieu. So naturally, the land went to Raverdieu, and of course, the Duragny family also got a big piece of the pie.
The Raverdieu family did not really participate, just sending some soldiers just for face. They did not really care much about those lands. With the power of Raverdieu no one dared disagree with them getting a piece of the land.
Just Raverdieu alone is enough to intimidate the whole Astre continent. Now Duragny was also allied with them, so who dared to disagree!
They occupied around seven million square miles of land. The continent's size was around fifteen million square miles, which was like half the size of the Astre Continent.
This war will later be explained in the future.
Back to Elle and Marie.
Marie then led Randell and Elle to the living room, where Zen was.
When they arrive, both Elle and Randell smiled happily as they see how close Fiona and Zen have gotten.
Both were playing chess, and the score was not surprising at all. Fiona has never won a single game against Zen. Whether the full dive VR, chess, card games, etc…
Which always made her feel incompetent in front of Zen. She was shocked when she couldn't even win once.
Fiona saw Marie, Elle, and Randell enter the room, and then she got up from her seat and greeted them.
Zen simply stayed in his seat and smiled at them.
Elle hugged Fiona, then went to Zen and hugged him tightly. "How have you been, Zenryx-Duragny-Raverdieu?" Elle said, emphasizing her words and saying his full name with a slight anger in her tone, seeing his attitude of not even getting up and greeting them.
Elle, in reality, was not angry, rather, she was merely feigning her emotions.
Zen just smiled and said "I've been a good Mother". Elle smiled back and then led Fiona to sit down with her and talk about her time with Zen.
As for Randell, he went to where Zen was sitting down and asked him about his progress with his magic and swordsmanship.
Zen then told him, "Father, both my level are in intermediate and my swordsmanship has reach peak."
"Really!? Even your mother was not that fast, hahahaha," Randell said proudly.
Practicing both magic and swords is the hardest thing one can do. They either don't have the aptitude to be able to practice both or have low comprehension on either one, and it would also be hard to focus on two things.
So some just focus on one thing, but there are also exceptions that are able to train with both slowly but steadily.
At this point, the atmosphere was pretty harmonious, just like Fiona wished.
The mother talked with the daughter, and the father talked with the son.
They finished their one-on-one talk and got together to talk about Zen's birthday banquet.
There was a day left before the banquets started. Elle also instructed Marie to gather hundreds of attendants to start decorating and preparing for it.
Just as they were discussing Zen, she suddenly spoke up. "You guys can talk about it and prepare for it. I still have something important to do to get ready for my birthday. So I will be returning to my room first."
Randell and Elle let Zen go, leaving only Fiona behind, who was very excited for the banquet. Although you could not see an expression of excitement on her face. You could still tell she was excited because it was Zen's birthday, and she had also prepared a gift for him.
When Zen returned to his room, he pulled out a Tritonic, and a transparent holographic screen appeared. He opened its camera function and recorded a video of him. As for what the video was about, it's a secret.
Zen intended to deliver the Tritonic device, containing the recorded video of himself, to Marie upon the arrival of the following morning.
After he finished the things he needed to do, he got ready for bed and slept.