Talk With Shuri's Father

 "I like to have a talk with you," the words seemed more like "I want to execute you," at least to Ryker's ears. However, the man in front of him is still Shuri's father, so he has to give him some face.

 He reluctantly followed after the man, hoping he would survive whatever the man planned for him. Behind him, the servants and elders all put their hands together, praying the young man would survive the 'talk'.

-x-

 "So, you have many lovers?" while the question is a surprising conversation opener, Shuri's father likely asked it for some reason. They are currently in one of the gardens, which is a surprising place to have such a talk. He had thought he would be dragged to a black pitch room or something.

 "Yes, five in total," he answered honestly, not seeing any point in lying. After all, the Great Family likely had their own information network so he could easily confirm his words.

 "And you still wanted to get your hand on my daughter?" the force behind his words, while not dangerous to him, still put a shock in his heart. Especially with how it was worded.

 "I don't like what you are implying," while he needed to show respect, he wouldn't take any false accusation lying down. After all, he was not some soft persimmons.

 The older man glared at him, once he returned. The stare-down continued for some time before the older man sighed, breaking it. The man looked down, though Ryker kept his gaze on the older man. After all, he did insult, even if not consciously, his reasons for taking Shuri's heart.

 "Are you planning to take on more lovers?" the question comes out of the blue and while he has no obligation to answer it, he does not think it would be much of a trouble even if he answered it honestly.

 "Depends," he gave his answer, the older man looked at him weirdly, "Whether I fall in love with them and vice-versa. If there are no more women that fall in love with me during my travel, then the number of my lovers would remain the same,"

 He didn't add such a thing as nearly impossible, namely, the member of his harem wanted to expend it, mostly for their own survival, and their ability to use their legs after a night session with him.

 Which, unfortunately, or fortunately, he couldn't decide yet, made sense to him. After all, he has very impressive stamina, not to mention that his rising cultivation realm makes it even more impressive. His libido and desire seemed to rise with his cultivation realm too.

 Or it's because he already started to cultivate the Sin Desire Art, he couldn't tell. The only reason why he cultivated it in the first place is because his parents told him to do so, saying it would help him in the long run. He trusts them, so he hopes what they say is true.

 "Hah," the older man sighed before turning his head towards him, meeting his gaze head-on. "I know you have a great potential. You might even surpass the Baron. Heck, you might even surpass the powerful nobles of the Birak Kingdom.

 This will naturally result in countless women trying to earn your grace and affection. However, even if you grow stronger than me, to the point a mere sneeze from you could kill me. Let me make it clear. If you broke my daughter's heart, I will find a way to kill her,"

 Hearing this threat made Ryker snort. Before the man could accuse him of something else, he decided to clarify his reason, "If that happens, you don't have to do anything. I will be the one to kill myself first,"

 His answer seemed to both relieve and make the man happy, judging by how his shoulder slumped.

"Thank you for the assurance, but words are cheap. But I decided to trust you, that you can protect and give my beloved daughter a brighter future," after he finished saying that, the man left the garden.

 With that being out of the way, now he needs to convince the rest of the family to not start the wedding anytime soon. He hoped they would listen to reason.

-x-

 "What do you mean you don't want to have a wedding yet? You already had intercourse with each so a wedding would be no problem," one of the female elders said.

 The first question that formed in his mind is "How in the name of his parents did they learn that?!" The second question is if the group of people in front of him is from the traditional belief.

 While intercourse before weeding is not looked down upon, it still has some bad connotations for the one who did it, especially from the more prominent family. After all, the family needs to have a good image if they don't want their face to be tarnished.

 However, unless one aired their affairs, or yelled loudly to some people they wanted to go to a brothel, most of it will remain unknown, especially if they truly tried to hide such thing. So, the reason the elders had given him was weak and didn't make sense.

 He quickly voiced his thoughts, making the elders go silent. In his mind, he gave Esran a huge thanks, along with the promise of finding more interesting books, for him. If not for his telling them about etiquette and the higher-class people's social cues, he likely would not have been able to counter the elders' words even half as effectively.

 "Still, it better for you to tie the knot. After all, who knew how long you would be on your travel? At least to give some reassurance to the ancestor, elder, and most importantly, her father,"

 Hearing the elder's reasoning, it make Ryker's tongue tied. After all, if he had his way, he would want his parents to attend his wedding as well. Sadly, that would be impossible.

 "How about this, we held an engagement ceremony, so the city knew we had tied the knot, at least the higher-up of the city. As for the wedding, I make a promise that in 20 years or less, I would return to have a wedding ceremony," he came up with a compromise.

 The female elders looked at each other before they went on whispering to one another. In the end, the oldest of them all nodded, "Very well, in twenty years or less, you will come with Ryker to have a wedding here, in the Mariz Barony Capital City,"

 He quickly made the promise before deciding to depart and look for the three people he was looking for, who for some reason he didn't even see their shadow at all.

 "Why didn't the ancestor, or at least, Shuri's father wasn't the one to ask for the weeding," he asked the question that that been plaguing him the entire time.

 The elder snorted, "Do you think, that young lad, would even try to come to a compromise, I don't think he could even talk about the wedding without foaming!"

 The sad part is, that Ryker couldn't disagree with her.