"My, you look like you don't want to see me?" Lariz asked, with a genial smile on his face.
"Considering our first meeting resulting in me being used as bait, I think I have the right to not want to see your face," Ryker retorted as he drank his tea.
"Well, I could not disagree with that," the prince sighed.
"Look, we may get on the wrong foot, and apologize for that. It just, we could not hope to catch Bulog without using such drastic method,"
"How come? After all, the Birak Kingdom should have a lot of Noble experts, a lot of them being stronger than the old man, right?" Ryker questioned.
"Yes, but he is elusive. If not for his focus on escaping, he would not have been injured by one of the High Guard. He possessed mastery of both the Law of Death and the Law of Space, with the former almost reaching the Comprehension Realm while the latter should have reached the Understanding Realm.
And any person who mastered the Law of Space is almost impossible to be chased or catch by regular means unless the person who did so is far stronger than them.
And his mastery of Law of Death allowed him to create a corpse puppet, one that possessed his aura, and let's just say when we found one, it turned out to be a god damn decoy," the prince then let out a pained sigh, as Ryker began to understand why the prince even took such drastic action.
"So, the seed is to attract and trap him, when he used it to heal himself," he repeated what he said the day before, earning a nod from the prince.
"Yes, it is something the Grand Duke created to imprison Bulog, but you and the manager managed to deal with him. You probably did not even need to use the seed," the prince exclaimed.
"Well, I knew someone messed with the seed and there is no way I want something that could as well be a danger to me and my family so close to me," Ryker retorted, before calling out one of the waiters and asking for a serving of snacks.
"True. I will not want such thing as well close to me," the prince agreed with his sentiment.
"Can you stop and just get on with it?" the harsh words surprised the prince, who looked hurt, though Ryker was not sure if he was acting or not.
"What do you mean by that?" he asked.
"Don't tell me the Crown Prince of Birak Kingdom suddenly wants to talk to a nobody like me, for no reason. If we had met under different circumstances, I might believe that but our last meeting involved a traitor of the kingdom. So, why are you here, Your Excellency?" the prince sighed.
"You really are too smart for your own good," he said before taking out a pouch and several rings.
"This all belongs to you, for your service to the Birak Kingdom," the Crown Prince said in a serious tone. Ryker checked what was inside and could not help but have his eyes almost popped open.
"I think this is more than enough for the service of dealing with a traitor at the Noble realm. Sophia will receive the same thing as the inside the pouch by the way," the prince told him.
"And why do I get more than her? She did most of the heavy lifting," Ryker asked.
"Well, the storage rings are more of an investment from me," the Crown Prince said.
"Investment?" the question makes the prince smile before he explains.
"Yes, investment. At such a young age you managed to handle a Noble expert, while still at Genesis Lake, 2nd Stage by the way. If you managed to do so as a 1st Stage Genesis Sea, I would have invested in you as well.
After all, a weakened Noble expert could handle even a late-stage Genesis Sea expert, not to mention those in the lower cultivation realm.
You might not want to get involved with the power play and political intrigue of the royal family, but having someone that could potentially be as powerful as you on my side, well, it will help strengthen my position,"
While Ryker disdained to enter the struggle for power of the royal family, he respected that the Crown Prince did not mince words.
"But isn't the position of the next king of the kingdom already belonged to you? Unless the current king's siblings wished to claim the throne," the Crown Prince laughed at his words.
"My uncle and aunt did not wish for the throne. The living one at least. The one that want to claim the throne already died a long time before I was even born," the prince told him.
"The crown is as good as mine, but things are not set in stone until I am crowned as the king. But as the king, having excellent subordinates will be good for me," Ryker raised his brows at his words.
"You. Want me to be your subordinate?" he asked. The prince shook his head.
"No, that is if you wish for that. But you want to travel more, so, maybe an acquaintance. After all, you should be a rogue cultivator and be part of the Adventure Guild. Having an aspiring adventurer, maybe even a future executive in the making will help me a lot in the future," Ryker nodded slightly before taking a bite of one of the snacks.
"Sure, being the acquaintance of a Crown Prince, how many people from a humble beginning can say such a thing?" he replied, to which the Crown Prince laughed.
"Well, I should get back to the Duke's Mansion," the man said, before looking at the assortment of snacks on the table.
"Though I could stay for a quick bite,"
-x-
A quick bite soon stretched to 3 plates of snacks, each. As the two men stuffed themselves, they left the cafe and headed their separate way, the prince agreed to be the one to pay for the snacks.
When he reached his home, Ryker went to the living room before taking out the spatial pouch and storage rings and began to count the items, resources, and gold inside.
It took him more than 2 hours but he was sure there were enough riches that would make even a peak stage Noble expert envy him.
The Low-Grade Spirit Gold alone reaches an astounding 1000, while the High-Grade Genesis Gold is in the tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands.
As for the resources, there are no Spirit Grade resources but there are a lot of Grade 9 ones, with more in the Grades 8 and 7. As for the items, there are weapons, pills, potions, talismans, and items, with few in Grade 9 while most are Grade 8 and 7.