[Ding! Congratulations Host for completing the Optional Side-Quest. Rewards: 40,000 System Points, 800 Fate Points, 1600 System Experience, and a Storage Ring (Sky Grade)]
Keith checked the notification after arriving inside the Palace and then followed Rebecca to the room where they were refining the gold in hundreds of Cauldrons. And these Cauldrons have been lit up on fire for the last three years now.
In the room, an enchantingly beautiful girl with pearl white hair and brilliant blue eyes, who looked to be around 16 years old, was overseeing the process, and she smiled at them in a greeting as soon as her eyes found them.
"Did you finish the book?" The blonde gently smiled and asked her sister, and Avriel nodded her head in reply.
"It was an interesting one," She said, and giggled when both Keith and Rebecca laughed at her words.
The Encyclopedia of Magical Ores was anything but interesting, but neither of them teased her about it.
Keith proceeded to check the state of liquid gold in each Cauldron, leaving the two Mortal Goddesses to chat with each other.
"Have you decided how you want to get married?" The blonde playfully asked, and the princess blushed a little before glancing at Keith and nodding her head.
"I want it to be simple and quiet, and just want the family to witness our Vows. Before we leave Gaia, we will hold the official wedding at Versailles, but I want it to be a quiet one as well."
"Sounds like a plan," Rebecca nodded as she thought things through, and the playful smile on her face brightened even more. "Shall I draw Sacred Rune of Marriage tonight?"
"We have work to do tonight," Avriel blushed and lowered her head, not daring to glance at Keith now, knowing well that he could hear their conversation, and it prompted the blonde to giggle in amusement.
The last two years had been very busy for Rebecca and Avriel, and after wrapping up their businesses on Gaia, Keith had brought them inside Aerzar to begin their training.
In Rebecca's case, it was more of physical training, and in Avriel's case, she had a lot of learning to do and had finished hundreds of books, having memorised them page to page.
She did not have much free time, but whenever she got the opportunity, she accompanied Keith. And thanks to that her cooking skills, musical skills, chess skills, and Medicinal Skills had improved a lot.
Whilst they were chatting, they heard the sound of approaching footsteps and turned to look at the door. Seconds later, the two girls saw Fiona enter the room with a smile on her face.
The obedient maid first bowed to them in a greeting before turning to look at her Master.
"Master, dinner's ready," She informed Keith, and he nodded to her before walking out of the room.
Rebecca and Avriel followed them, chatting over some things, and the blonde informed her future sister about the departure of Jin and Baobao.
At the dinner table, only Yingying and Marianne were present tonight, both of whom had been practising with each other ever since Keith granted them a drop of Blood that changed them.
And Rebecca finally understood why Keith had insisted on waiting to do it for both of them.
The powers they had received were quite volatile, not as stable as those of Ryou, Ayesha, Nana, Iseul, Victor, Julian, Naomi, Jin, and Baobao. Though they all belonged to the same race and could be considered close or distant cousins, their Powers varied a lot, and the effects on their mentality and personality varied as well.
For this reason, both of them have been practising together every day, trying to get accustomed to the changes, and just like always, they looked quite tired as they sat at the table, waiting for their Masters.
"How was your day?" Avriel teasingly asked Marianne, who groaned a little, showing a rare playful side, but then smilingly told her about the progress she had made with her spear, her weapon of choice, and her recent win against Yingying.
She had chosen to wield a spear instead of a sword because it was the only weapon that gave her a better chance of survival against Yingying and her swordsmanship. And over the last couple of years, she had become a Master Spearman under Keith's tutelage.
Even he admitted that she was naturally talented in wielding this weapon, and he loved sparring with her.
There was probably no one in the family other than him who was better at wielding that weapon than her. At least, not yet.
Now that Jin and Baobao had gone to the Lower Heaven and Julian and Naomi were on a long break, Keith was going to focus on training the two of them even more.
He had already told them that they needed to learn a variety of weapons, all the major ones. Therefore, swords were next for Marianne, and Yingying was going to focus on the use of a Bow.
Both of them had expressed their desire to keep serving their Masters as their Shadows. Thus, they were eager to learn more and grow stronger so that they would not prove to be a burden on Keith and Rebecca.
Their personalities had seen one obvious change, and it was that they had become increasingly confident in themselves and their abilities. This self-belief had also pushed them to keep improving their skills to a higher level. There was also this aura of pride that every Divine Race carried, but only Mortals like Fiona would pay attention to it. For the rest, it was very normal.
Though both Marianne and Yingying were going to stay stuck in the Primal Desolation Realm for a while, laying the foundation and improving their skills was only going to prove very beneficial in the future. It would later allow them the time to focus on other things as well.
"Where is Ingvild?" Avriel curiously asked as Fiona plated food for her.
"Lady Kiara and Lady Minami left yesterday to gather some more dinosaur eggs from the Space City. The Princesses and Miss Iseul went together with them."
"Oh." She giggled as she learned what they were all up to.
The five of them had been majorly busy filling up Aerzar with wildlife ever since they had proposed the idea of making Dinosaurs live in this world. Now, thanks to them, tens of thousands of herbivores were thriving here, including the prehistoric animals.
Almost all the species of deer that were present on Gaia were now present in this world. And the girls had gone crazy when they discovered that they could store thousands of animals inside the Beast Rings as long as they were not Magical Beasts. It was what started their quest of kidnapping animals left and right from Gaia.
Of course, the premise was that the animals had to be beautiful. None of the girls wanted animals they deemed ugly to be brought into this world.
Ingvild even asked Rebecca to lend her the Beast Ring a few months ago, and now they were working overtime to achieve their goals.
Last time they left, they kidnapped herds of wild horses from all around Gaia, thousands of them, and with Keith's help, they had set them free in different parts of this world that suited them the best.
They had not yet brought in the predators since they wanted the population of the herbivores to grow more, but Kiara had already prepared to make a move on those animals.
For now, Avriel was quite excited to see the animals they would bring in next. She was hoping to see some Pandas, and some more variety of birds.
More than anything, she was also looking forward to seeing how these animals would evolve in the future.
Given the different environment and richness of Aura and Mana in Aerzar, they had already started noticing that the animals were becoming much stronger and bigger after living in this world for a couple of years.
They just seemed more full of life, and there populations were steadily rising, faster than they had been anticipating.
Keith did not give them the details, but he did tell them that once they reach the Lower Heaven, Aerzar was going to evolve together with all these animals.
This world would remain inaccessible to them for a while, and when they return here again, they would find it much bigger and much more beautiful as well.
He had also told then that a lot of these animals would not survive the Cataclysm. After all, they were not Magical Creatures.
After dinner, Avriel went back to her room to freshen up and get changed, and then she arrived inside the music room, where Keith was playing the piano.
A smile bloomed on her face as she found him working and improving on the music that she had written, and she excitedly walked over to him to check the music sheets and the changes he had made.
Avriel blushed a little when Keith's fingers left the keys and his hands held her waist, guiding her to sit on his lap.
It was something she was quite used to by now, but she still could not help her heart that always skipped a few beats before starting to race in anticipation.
"What do you think?" He softly asked near her head, and his fingers were now caressing her tummy, relaxing her nerves and making her feel very comfortable.
"These are beautiful!" She sincerely said after she went through all the versions he had created, and sighed in her heart at how talented he was.
Perhaps, other than Alana, no one even stood a chance of matching his musical aptitude.
"Play it." He urged her when he found her fondly looking at the music sheet that she felt was the best.
"Okay," She happily nodded with a smile, and took in a deep breath before bursting out into giggle. "Not fair!" She laughed as he kept tickling her tummy, but she did not escape his lap.
A minute later, having composed herself and having compromised with his dishonest hands, her fingers landed on the keys, playing an enchanting piece of melody, which made her feel happy from the bottom of her heart.
"Have you named it?" She looked up above her left shoulder and met his Amethyst eyes, which were gently looking at her.
"How about Avriel's Hymn?"
"I love it." She sweetly smiled and nodded her head, trying her best to not lose herself in the depths of those Divine Eyes.
Keith smiled when he saw the nervousness in her expression, and to help her, he slightly leaned in closer.
Seeing him lean in, Avirel bravely recahed up and pressed her soft lips against his and timidly closed her eyes.
To her relief and immense happiness, he did not tease her and simply kissed her, guided her about how it was done, showing her the beauty of it.
The more she learned and the more she tasted him, the greedier she became.
Minutes later, when their lips finally separated, she looked at him with glazed eyes, almost pleading him to take her, claim her, right then and there, but Keith just pulled her into a tight hug and planted a kiss on her head.
"We will take our Vows tomorrow." He closed her, and hearing his words, she tightened her arms around him, feeling an immense wave of peace wash over her heart.