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Chapter 441 – Flower In The Mud
The normal carriages that belonged to the palace only had enough room for 4 people at one time.
Since Ning wasn't part of the guards that were supposed to protect Lisa and Reever, he was forced to separate from their group and had to take the next carriage, along with the person he was supposed to look after, princess Elina.
"What's your name?" she asked Ning. The carriage inside the palace started moving and soon they were leaving the palace for the city market.
"My name is Ning, your highness," Ning said as respectfully as he could.
"Ning? That's a weird name," she said. She looked at his face for a little bit and asked, "Are you new?"
"Yes, your highness," Ning replied.
"Tsk, they gave me a new guard. Can you even protect me if there is a threat?" she asked.
Ning stopped himself from chuckling and answered, "I will try my best, your highness."
"I hope your best is good enough," Elina said as she harrumphed and looked outside.
"Tsk, I wanted to sit with sister, but she always wants to be with brother-in-law now," Elina said with an annoyed look on her face.
Ning ignored her and looked out of the window while falling into different thoughts that crossed his mind.
He looked at the electrical poles on the street, he remembered the trains, the telephones, etcetera. The Tower and the nobles had indeed conspired against the normal folks to take the absorption techniques away from them, and that was indeed very selfish and horrible.
But was it bad? He doubted anyone could've come up with the light bulb to illuminate themselves if they could produce fire at the snap of a finger.
Would anyone have come up with a train if everyone had vehicles that they could use Enchantment on to drive far away?
Would people focus on medicine and treatment to improve their lifespan which would inadvertently lead to a better healthcare system for the people, if they all had a long life span thanks to the Aether?
Society would have probably still been in the medieval ages like back when Ning was here for the first time if the Tower hadn't conspired at all.
To be honest, Ning really didn't mind the result they had produced. He had no problem with that at all.
'Maybe I really should keep quiet about all of this,' he thought. If keeping quiet about it helps society, then he would absolutely do it.
'No!' Ning thought to himself. 'This was not their plan. This was just a result they had likely never seen coming. Their original intent for all of this was to keep themself high in social and political ranks, that was all.'
People deserved to get the information.
"Sigh, I will have to think about this when I'm freer," he thought. He slumped back on his seat, looking out the window when the princess called for him again.
"I asked, how much longer will it take until the market?" she asked.
"Uh… " Ning looked outside and didn't really recognize the place he was in. They had taken a different route from the one the carriage driver had taken on his first day in the city.
Also, he had been lost in his own thought for a while, so he was a little confused.
"I… don't know, your highness," Ning said.
"What? How could you not know?" the princess got annoyed. "Aren't you supposed to know all of these things as a guard?"
"Uhh… I'm sorry, your highness. I've only been employed for a week, so I haven't had the chance to learn all of these things," Ning said.
"Tsk, do they think of me as that useless that they stuck me with an actual newbie?" she couldn't help but comment snarkily. "If anything I might have to protect you in case of danger."
Ning felt a tinge of annoyance as well. He already didn't want to take care of this brat, and now that he was hearing all sorts of insults, he felt like he would snap at any point.
'Relax, Ning, Relax. She's just a kid. She's thousands of years younger than you. Let her talk her crap," he told himself and let it be.
Fortunately, the market wasn't very far away, and they reached there within the next 5 minutes. It seemed the princess was incredibly bored, and as soon as she got out of the carriage, she immediately ran to the other carriage where Lisa and Reever were walking out.
"Sister~," she said as she went up to Lisa and hugged her.
"What's wrong? We were only separated for 15 minutes. You aren't going to tell me you can't handle just that small-time being alone, are you?" Lisa asked.
"Of course not," Elina said. "It's just that Uncle Tim gave me an incompetent guard."
"Huh?" Lisa looked up to Ning who was walking out of the carriage too. "What do you mean 'incompetent'? He's one of the best," Lisa said.
"What? No way. He didn't even know how much time it took to go from the palace to the market. How could a guard be this ignorant?" she asked.
"He's new to the city, so that's probably why. Haven't you roamed the city all this time? Why do you have to ask him such a simple question? You should know it by now," Lisa said.
Elina's face changed as she put on a cold look and said, "I'm a princess. I don't need to know all of that."
Lisa hit her lightly on the head and said, "stop acting like a child. You're already 40 years old. Very soon, it will come time for you to get married too. You cannot remain childish like this all the time."
"What?" Elina exclaimed. "No way I'm marrying anyone before I hit 50."
"Sigh, do what you want then. Let's go," Lisa said and walked away from the road into the commercial section of the city.
Reever, Lisa, and Elina walked on ahead, while the two guards and Ning shadowed them, staying as close as possible to keep an eye on them, but as far as possible so as to not be a hindrance to them._w
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Chapter 442 – A Place For Nobles
Lisa and Elina were trying to appear like nobles while trying to hide the fact that they were princesses, which was why Lisa went with a wig in the first place.
They walked into a clothing store and Ning waited for nearly half an hour before the two princesses could finish choosing 10 sets of clothes, including ones for Reever. Now that he was a prince consort, he needed to stop dressing like a commoner.
Once they were done, they left the area and went to another place at the behest of Elina. It was a jewelry shop with many different kinds of necklaces, rings, earrings, bracelets, etc hanging on the wall in full display. There was a high-ranking Aether user there at all times to protect the store.
Elina seemed to really like the jewelry and started buying a bunch of it. Lisa, after having lived as a peasant for the last 10 or so years, didn't really care much for such materialistic needs.
After many requests from Elina, she bought a simple-looking necklace that also doubled as a storage device at a rather hefty price. Her heart bled when she saw the price, but as a princess the amount she had to spend was astronomical. Such that she could buy thousands of such jewelry in a year, and still have enough to buy it all over again.
Due to Lisa's insistence, they didn't stay in this place for a very long time and moved on to a food market.
"What are we doing here?" Elina asked, looking around at what she would call a low-status market.
"Just buying some food ingredients," Lisa said, walking around the market. As Elina and the rest watched, she bought many things such as flour, vegetables, rice, etc.
She also bought quite a lot of spices before she was done.
"What are you planning to do with that?" Elina asked.
"I've been wanting to cook for a while. After coming here, I've been missing my bakery, so I will cook this food," Lisa said.
"Why did you buy the ingredients then? There should be a lot of ingredients back at the palace," Elina said.
"Yes, but that's the royal pantry. I wouldn't know how much trouble I would create if I wanted to use as many ingredients as I wanted. So, it's better that I just buy what I will be using," Lisa said.
"But… isn't that a lot? You bought nearly 25 kilos of flour alone. How much food will you be able to make with that? You aren't planning to feed the entire palace, are you?" Elina asked.
"Of course not," Lisa said. "I will donate the food I make. There are less fortunate out there that can use the food."
"You've changed, sister," Elina said.
"Of course," Lisa said. "I've lived as a commoner for over 10 years. While I may have been one of the more fortunate ones, I've seen how the less fortunate have to suffer each and every day just to fill their stomach."
"I know I can't change that, at least not with the status I have right now, but I can hopefully fill their stomach for even if it's just one day now," Lisa said.
Reever smiled when he heard his wife say that, and also got a little sad at the same time.
"What's wrong?" Ning asked, seeing his sad face.
"Oh, it's nothing," Reever said. "I'm just sad remembering that I won't be able to go help those people in the deserts now. I hope they find a way to get their food somehow with me not around."
"I see," Ning said. He made a mental note to go let those people know later on that they could go to the city on their own and sell their stuff for more money.
"Alright, I'm done," Lisa said after buying the final ingredient from the market. "Let's go back now."
"What?" Elina cried out. "It's barely 2 in the afternoon. We still have a lot of time before we need to leave," she said.
"Where do you want to go now then?" Lisa asked.
Elina thought for a while, and said, "There's a place opened up not far from here where only the nobles are allowed to visit. Do you want to go there?"
"Hmm? What is this place?" Lisa asked. Reever got curious too.
"Hehe, I bet you've never visited a place like this before since it was only established in the capital two years ago and took the high ranking people by a storm," Elina described.
"What are you talking about?" Lisa asked.
"Come, it's better to show you," Elina said and took the lead. They walked out of the place and went to a location that was a bit more… wealthy.
After walking for just 3 minutes, they reached a large building with flashy lights on it even during the day.
Ning looked up at the building and read the name, "JERRY'S DELUXE CASINO?"
Elina was trying to show off a casino place.
"What is this fancy place?" Lisa asked.
"It's a casino, sister," Elina said.
"What's a casino, sister-in-law?" Reever asked with his head tilted upwards to look at all the words in the building.
"It's a place where you can earn a lot of money using very little money," Elina said.
"It's a gambling place. You put in your money and play against other players or the casino itself and see if you can win money," Ning explained from behind.
"Gambling? Did you take us to a gambling den?" Lisa suddenly got angry.
"No! This is more sophisticated than that," Elina explained. "Come on in, you will understand when you go inside."
Elina walked first and walked in. The guards of the casino seemed to recognize her and let her in without question.
"They're with me," she explained to them and they let Reever and Lisa enter as well.
"What about the guards?" Reever asked.
"Since miss has so many people in her group, you may take in 1 servant," the guard explained.
Without even deciding amongst themselves who would get to go in, Ning walked into the casino.
"Let's go in."
Chapter 443 – Getting Coins
Lisa and Reever walked into a fully white building with a look of awe on their faces. Elina hadn't been lying when she said this place was amazing.
There was a distant sound of a crowd coming from inside the place. Lisa was truly surprised by how many people were there.
"And you said only Nobles are allowed here?" Lisa asked.
"Nobles and their friends," Elina said. "This place has a minimum stake of 500 Gols, so not anyone can come here. If anyone doesn't seem to belong in this place, the guards won't even let them enter"
"Stake? What do you mean?" Reever asked.
"Let's go to that counter first. I will explain later," Elina said. They walked over to the counter with a woman on the opposite side of it.
Elina brought out a stack of paper money and put it up on the counter. "1000 gols worth of tokens. Give me mostly 20s and 50s," she said.
The woman on the other side of the counter nodded and took the money. A moment later, she brought out a plate with about 30 yellow-colored glass coins, and 8 blue-colored glass coins.
Elina took them and stored it in her storage bag. "You cannot use the money to gamble and instead have to use their glass coins. Also, you can only buy a minimum of 500 Gols worth of these coins, so poor folks usually can't come here," she said.
Lisa thought she understood it a bit, and so did Reever. Ning felt like he knew about this before, but the memory was way too vague to trust it.
"How much do you want to buy for, sister?" she asked.
"Hmm… let's start with 500. I don't really want to spend too much money since it's not really mine," she said.
"What about you, brother-in-law?" Elina asked expectedly.
Reever didn't know what to do. To him, 500 Gols was still a lot of money to just throw away in a gambling house. Also, he didn't have 500 Gols on him at the moment since he didn't need much money in the palace at all.
"It's fine, I will buy it for you," Lisa said and took out 1000 Gols to get herself the coins as well.
"Give her mostly 10s and 20s," Elina told the girl behind the counter. The girl nodded and a moment later brought out the coins.
Lisa took half and Reever took half.
"Alright, let's go," Elina said, but Lisa didn't move. Instead, she turned around to Ning and asked, "Hey Ning, you want to join us too?"
Ning thought for a while, but he didn't see the purpose behind gambling since he could easily create money out of thin air, especially since the paper money seemed to have no sort of uniqueness to them, so he could create as many as he wanted without having to worry about authority.
'But it might be fun,' he thought. He was still deciding when Elina spoke. "Sister, why are you asking the guard to play? I doubt he even has money for it. If he could bring out 500 Gols like nothing, he wouldn't be working as a guard, would he?"
"Elina, you shouldn't speak like that. Ning is my and my husband's—"
Before Lisa could finish speaking, she heard a slam from behind her. When she turned to see where the sound had come from, she saw a high stack of money on the counter.
"For 10,000 Gols please," Ning said, passing the money to the dumbfounded lady behind the counter. He turned around to see the shocked faces of Elina, Lisa, and Reever.
He looked directly at Elina and asked, "Were you saying something?"
"Y-Y-You! Where did that money come from? Did you steal it from the pa—" before Elina could finish her sentence, Lisa glared at her not to speak where they were from.
"You don't need to worry about that. This is my own money," Ning said as he took the coins the lady passed him. Amongst them were many red ones that represented 100 Gols.
"You are lying! I will talk to uncle Tim about this. I will get you fired," she said.
"You'll get me fired?" Ning asked with a chuckle. "How about I leave right now, and you will have to find yourself a carriage and return back on your own without a guard?"
"You!" Elina got angry. Ning on the other hand was finally feeling some sort of relief putting the little girl in her place. However, he couldn't help but call himself stupid when he realized their age gap.
He was fighting with a little girl that was born while he was asleep for eternity in the forest.
'What the hell? Why am I so childish despite being so old?' he thought.
"Elina, stop talking. Let's go," Lisa said, shutting up Elina from speaking any further. Elina gritted her teeth but spoke no further. She took her past the corner and into a massive hall with many people.
The entire hall was probably around 50 meters wide in all directions as well as nearly 20 meters high, with a wide staircase leading to the 2nd floor.
They could see many tables spread all around the room, lit up by light hanging on them from up above.
There was a massive chandelier in the middle of the room, hanging from high in the ceiling. The cool air in the place helped make it feel not as crowded as it was.
Ning could see hundreds of people playing in the casino at different tables. There were also quite a few on the 2nd floor, but not as many.
What surprised him the most was that nearly a third of the people in the room were actually employed by the casino.
"What do we do now?" Lisa asked.
"Now we go and sit at any place and play their game," Elina said and she looked around for an open spot.. She found one immediately and said, "For now, let's go there."
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Chapter 444 – A Game
Ning watched the 3 of them go over to a table and sit down. He didn't immediately sit down too as there were only 3 spots at the table.
"You can go elsewhere and play if you like," Lisa said.
"It's fine," Ning said. "I will just watch for now." He stood behind the 3 of them and looked at the dealer who was handing out cards.
It had been a long time, so he had forgotten about the specifics on almost everything back on earth. He knew about cards and how many there were, or he thought he did, he couldn't remember any of the games that were played with the cards.
"What are we playing?" Lisa asked.
"This table is for 'find the duplicate'," Elina said. The dealer was a bald man wearing a white shirt under a red waistcoat. Ning was quite surprised to see a rather massive stack of cards in his hand.
As far as he knew, there shouldn't have been this many cards in general. He leaned onto Reever and asked, "do you know about this game?"
"Huh? Ah, yeah," Reever said. "It's a rather simple game actually. There should be about 10 different types of cards with him in that stack, all numbered 1 to 10. 1,2…5. Since there are 5 of us here, there should be about 100 cards in his hands. He will pass them along into 20 cards for each of us."
"Then, we put how much we want to stake in this match and start putting down the cards. I believe it will be us 4 against the dealer, so we will have to put down a card that he puts down. If we do it, we win the money, if he puts down a card that we have, he wins the money."
Ning wasn't sure he understood the explanation, so he decided to wait for the match.
"Please put in your bet," the dealer said.
The man that was already on the table put out a red coin worth 100 Gols. Reever and Lisa decided to start low, so they both brought out 20 and 40 Gols worth of coins each. Elina on the other hand brought out 100 Gols worth of coins as well.
Seeing that they had all dropped their bet, the dealer passed along the card. He was very proficient in what he was doing, so before anyone knew it, he was done.
Lisa and Reever's rings pulsed a bit, letting them know that he was using Aether. Ning noticed it too.
'Enchantment? On his body to make it faster perhaps?' Ning thought.
Once the dealer passed the cards, he waited for the people to be done. Ning watched the people shuffle their cards on their own and placed them down on the table.
"Shall I begin?" the dealer asked. After getting the confirmation from all of them, the dealer turned over the first card.
4.
From right to left, Elina, Lisa, Reever, and the other guy turned theirs over.
5, 7, 5, 10
None of them won. The dealer then took another card from his deck on the table and flipped it.
7.
"Aww, I lost," Lisa said, seeing the flipped 7.
The dealer nodded and took away her 40 coins. He then looked at the rest and asked, "Would you like to increase the bet before you proceed?"
None of them accepted and simply turned over their cards.
6, 8,1
It was the dealer's turn again, and he flipped a card.
6
Elina lost. The dealer took away her coins as well. Then, he asked the same question, "Would you like to increase the bet before you proceed?" the reply to which was a no.
Reever and the other guy flipped their cards.
4, 2
The dealer turned his card around.
1
He then asked the same question again, but this time, the other man accepted and added a 100.
Once done, they turned their cards again.
2, 9
The dealer said nothing and turned his cards.
9
"Dammit!" the man cried out, seeing 200 Gols being taken away by the dealer. "Screw this," he shouted and left the table.
Ning took the man's seat and waited.
"Would you like to add, sir?" the dealer asked.
Reever felt tempted. The match had been going on for a while and he had only bet 20 Gols. "Yes," he said and put in 30 gols to increase it up to 50.
His hands shook as he slowly turned over his card.
8
The dealer then turned his card.
6
"Oh god," Reever said. "This suspense is gonna give me a heart attack soon."
"Sir, wou—"
Before even listening to the dealer, Reever turned around his card.
6
"Wait… Did I win? I won! Yay!!" he shouted out loud as he celebrated winning 50 Gols.
Lisa and Elina congratulated him. While Ning took out his own coins to play. "Another round?" he asked them.
"Of course," they all responded and started playing all over again. They played for maybe 10 more minutes before they were fed up and wanted to find something else.
By then, Ning had lost about 400 Gols, Reever won about 200 Gols, Lisa was up only 20 gols, and Elina was down about 100.
"What else is there?" Lisa asked. She was fully engrossed with gambling, looking forward to the next table.
"Let me see," Elina was about to look around when someone spoke close to them.
"Eh? You are already allowed to leave the house?" A voice appeared from behind them. The four of them turned to see a handsome young man, barely in his mid-20s.
He was wearing a hat that covered most of his head, but there were parts of his head that were still visible.
'Blonde hair?' Ning thought with a hint of surprise on his face. 'Which means…'
"Brother Gilian, I didn't think I would see you in this place as well," Lisa said with a smile on her face. However, there was nothing warm about that smile at all.
'Gilian Xanders,' Ning thought. 'The 2nd son of the Emperor, one of the only 3 to children to inherit the golden hair…. the one that sent assassins after us.'
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Chapter 445 – Gillian Xanders
Gillian Xanders was a bit taller than Lisa and had an extremely well-built body. As a possible successor to the throne, it seemed he didn't skip out on his daily training even for a day.
"You know, I have nothing to do all day, so I end up wandering to this place," Gillian said.
He then turned to Reever and bowed a little towards him.
"Good Afternoon, brother-in-law. I hope you are doing fine here. Please let me know if our hospitality has been lacking in any kind," Gillian said to Reever.
"Oh no, brother Gillian. It's been the best," Reever said.
"That's right, brother," Elina said.
Gillian turned to Elina and asked, "Your sister gets to leave home for the first time since she's been back and the first place you take her to is the casino? I will talk to the manager here and have you barred from ever entering."
"What? No brother, that's not true. We've been to the other places before this as the market and such. We were about to return when I decided to bring her here. It wasn't my plan," Elina said.
"Leave her alone, brother. She will cry if you keep on going," Lisa said.
"Hahaha," Gilian laughed and patted Elina's head before saying, "sorry, I was joking. I don't even know the manager here."
"Don't scare me like that," Elina cried. Then her eyes darted towards Ning and an evil grin appeared on her face.
"Brother, you should meet with this awesome guard here. He brought out 10 thousand Gols to bet in the casino today. Isn't he awesome?" Elina said. Her words didn't show it, but the intention behind it was clear.
Lisa sighed when she heard that. She didn't realize just how petty and mischievous her sister had grown up to be in the 10 or so years she was away.
"Hmm," the brother turned around to look at Ning. "I didn't know we had a guard like this? What happened to your personal guards?"
"Well, sister doesn't have personal guards yet, and for some reason uncle Tim decided to stick him with me," Elina said.
"Oh, Uncle Tim won't do that with someone like you," Gillian said as he turned around to Ning. "What's your name, Guard?"
Ning stepped forward and bowed to show his respect. "It's Ning Ruogong, your highness," Ning said.
"Ning Ruogong?" the prince's eyes went wide. "Are you the one from the zoo incident?"
"Yes, your highness," Ning said.
"Ah, thank you for saving my brother." Surprisingly, the prince himself bowed a little in front of Ning, surprising everyone in the room.
All the nobles that were secretly trying to listen to the prince were shocked to see him bow.
"Who's that man?"
"I don't know. They are talking too quietly."
"Is he another husband to one of the princess? I thought there was only one."
The people started gossiping in the background. Ning was also surprised to see the prince bow towards him.
"I see I have made myself quite a reputation to even be known by the 2nd prince himself," Ning said.
"Eh? Zoo? Saving Brother? What is this all about?" Elina asked.
"Hmm? Did you not hear about the person who saved the eldest brother?" Gillian asked.
"Huh? No way. He can't be it. He looks younger than me," Elina said.
"You shouldn't judge a person by their appearance, dear sister," Gillian said. "Alright, I won't bother you guys now. I'm returning back to the palace now. Have fun."
Gillian left through the door before anyone could even say anything. His presence was quite something. Throughout the whole meeting, it felt like he was in the middle of it all, with the others around him just there to be the other half of the conversation.
"The prince sure has quite some intensity," Ning said. Lisa's eyes were dead serious as she looked at the door where Gillian had just passed through.
"A-are you really the person who saved our brother from being a hostage?" Elina asked with a meek little voice.
"Hmm, yes. That was why I got to enter the palace as a guard," Ning said.
"I see," Elina said, followed by a very weak little "Thank you for sa…"
"Hmm? What was that?" Ning asked with a smile on his face. He had clearly heard what she had wanted to say, but he still teased her.
"Thank you for saving our eldest brother," She shouted a little louder with a very serious face.
"It's okay. I did it because he was Lisa's brother," Ning said. "Let's go play some other game."
They all walked towards a desk with some dice games being played on it. Ning sat down along with the 3 of them and got close to Lisa.
"Your brother seems better than how you explained him to us," he said softly. "Him thanking me, it felt genuine too. Does he perhaps care about the other prince and princesses since they aren't a threat for him to the throne?"
Lisa kept quiet, not answering anything.
"Are you sure he really is the one that sent the Shadow Pavillion after you?" Ning asked. "He doesn't seem that bad to me."
"I'm sure of it. It was him," Lisa answered quietly. Her thought running rampant.
"What about the Amien fella? Is it not possible that it could be him as well?" Ning asked. Amien was the other emperor candidate in the family. He was the 5th son of Kain and was younger than Lisa by half a year.
"No, it's not Amien. He won't do something like this," Lisa said.
"Are you sure?" Ning asked. "He has a right to the throne too, you know?"
"I'm sure," Lisa said. "Amien… he doesn't want the throne at all. He's made it clear multiple times. He's even told father this quite a few times."
"Still, it could all be an act, you know," Ning said.
"No, it's not," Lisa said. "You will understand when you meet Amien soon. He really has no interest in the throne."
"I see…" Ning said. "And just to be clear, you don't know it's Gillian right? You just think of him as the suspect for trying to kill you by a process of elimination?"
"Yes. Don't get sucked into his outer presence, you will fall into his trap as well," Lisa said.
" You really don't like him, do you?" Ning asked as he looked at her face. There were signs of tears pooling up in her eyes.
"I will never forgive him. He killed my mother," She said with rage replacing the tears in her eyes.
Ning kept quiet for a while. 'I see,' he thought. 'No wonder she hates him so much."
Reever and Elina were busy playing the game. They gave no thought to what had happened before anymore and continued having fun.
Ning started playing consciously too and started bidding more and more. By the time they were ready to leave Ning lost nearly 4000 Gols in total.
Elina couldn't help but laugh at him the entire time as she had ended up with 560 more Gols than she started with.
Lisa was also down a few Gols, but Reever's winnings canceled it out in the end.
Ning felt sad as he knew that Elina had now found something new to make fun of him with. The return back to the palace wasn't going to be fun.
They walked out of the casino and met with the two guards before joining them to go find 2 carriages. In the same arrangement as when they left, they returned back to the palace.
Once back, everyone went their own separate ways.
A few weeks passed since then. Ning steadily went to his classes 4 of the 5 days in the week. He would only have the 5th day as a break day.
Steadily, he was learning more and more about Aether.
Currently, he was in the training hall with the teacher for the Enchanters, who was teaching them to fly.
Ning was surprised the first time he had heard of it. He didn't even think he could use Enchantment to make himself float as he still somewhat held the misconception of Enchantment telekinesis being the same as his normal telekinesis.
'Man I wish I could go to the Invoker classes too,' he thought internally.
He looked at the training room with quite a few people in there, along with Rachel. The teacher stood in front of them.
"The first step to flying is first learning how to float in midair," the teacher said. "Who here can tell me why you can keep an object in mid-air?"
A few children raised their hands to answer. The teacher chose Thomas to answer.
"Is it not because we turn Aether to Kinetic energy and that can help us move it as we want?" Thomas asked.
"Not quite," the teacher said and made an object fly. "You are right that I am putting Kinetic energy into it to make it float around."
He then stopped the object in the air, no longer moving in any direction, just staying in one place.
"However, Kinetic energy is when an object moves, right? What about now that the object is no longer moving? I am surely not putting any kinetic energy in it. Then why is it still floating? Any idea?" the teacher asked.
The children shook their heads. So did the adults, including Ning.
"Let me rephrase the question so you understand better. Why is this object not falling to the ground?" he asked.
"Ah!" Rachel cried. "You are canceling out the effect of gravity on it, right?"
"Exactly," the teacher said. "To make this object float, I'm putting in gravitational energy on it to counter the pull of the planet and thus make it weightless."
Ning's eyes went wide. "Gravitational Energy?"
He had, in thousands of years, finally learned the name of another type of energy.
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Chapter 446 – Aether Flight
Gravity. Ning never even realized that it could be one of the energy. Having forgotten nearly everything about the earth, he hadn't remembered the different types of energies as well and was waiting for the next one to be unlocked.
'I wonder if the next one I unlock is gravity or something else,' he thought.
The system actively tried to not give him information about energy or anything related to gathering a massive amount of energy in a small span of time.
So, for the past thousands of years, he had to live in the dark, unable to learn about the different types of energies.
It also didn't help that Kumia didn't really have a science-dependent society like Vilmore had come to be.
'Right, there must be quite a little information about energies in this world now,' he came to a sudden realization.
'Nice, I can finally learn about them.'
"Gravity is something you've been interacting with since birth. So, don't worry about not being able to counter the gravity with your own. You will be a natural at it," the teacher said.
"Alright, everyone get on top of the padding and try it."
The students nodded and walked onto the half a meter thick padding that was spread halfway through the training room.
Ning took a section to himself and started practicing. He closed his eyes and focused on flying. He wasn't trying to fly because of flying itself as that was something he was already capable of.
He wanted to learn how to fly so that he could learn to control gravity. If he could change gravity on something… there would be a lot of different things he could do.
He closed his eyes and tried to sense the current gravity. As gravity was a daily thing to him, it was hard to know when it was there as you usually forgot about it.
'Gravity,' he thought. 'Something pulling me downwards.'
The Aether in his sea started bubbling slowly and reduced in size. The Aether that escaped from the sea had now changed already and was traveling throughout his body.
'Focus!' he said to himself. 'Imagine that whatever is pulling you downwards isn't there anymore.'
Suddenly, he felt light, as if he had no weight. He wasn't floating, but that was probably only because currently, his body had no motion at all.
'Let's go up,' he thought and jumped with his weightless body. Suddenly, his body started flying upwards and quickly reached the ceiling, hitting his head on it.
'Shit! That's too much force, lower the gravity a bit,' he thought and instead lost all of the gravity he was pouring out.
With no control, he fell onto the padding.
"Great Job, Ning," the teacher said. "I have never seen someone understand gravity manipulation this fast."
"Thank you, teacher," he said while standing up and rubbing his head to get rid of the ceiling dust.
"Although, when you've learned to counter the gravity, instead of jumping, add some kinetic energy to yourself. That will help you maneuver yourself more easily than a random jump," the teacher said.
"Okay, teacher," Ning said and went back to practice.
Ning tried it once again. He imagined himself being weightless and before he knew it he was. Then, instead of jumping, this time around, he imagined himself going up slowly.
The Aether in his body turned to kinetic energy, giving him motion. He slowly drifted upwards and halfway through, he tried to change the direction.
Suddenly, he felt himself wobbling, nearly losing the counter gravity he was putting on himself.
'Focus!' he told himself again. Doing multiple things at once was hard. It was easy to lose concentration and forget about doing one of the things in the process.
Until the way to do it was ingrained into his mind, he needed to keep on concentrating.
After a few minutes, Ning was very proficient in flying. Slowly, the other students were getting the hang of it too.
One after another, the students started flying in the air with a face of glee and happiness. Even the adults were experiencing this for the first time and were incredibly happy about it all.
One of the students raised their hands from mid-air and asked, "Teacher, why don't we see more people flying in the air in the city?"
"Flying… is very dangerous," the teacher said. "You never know when you will lose focus and fall to the ground. You don't want to fall to the ground from such a high height, right?"
The kids shook their heads.
"Yes, for that reason, Flight is banned in the cities across most of the world. There is also another reason and that is the fact that flight takes up a lot of Aether.
"With how heavy you are, and how many different things you have to keep your mind on, the complexity of the task is very hard, and it is possible for you to run out of Aether mid-flight."
"So, it's banned," the teacher said.
"Eh? Then does that mean that we can't use this technique despite learning? That's so boring," a few students said.
"There are a few cases where you can fly," the teacher said. "But you don't need to know that right now. For now, just fly and enjoy."
The kids wanted to learn more but the teacher just kept his mouth shut. Ning wondered what the few cases where flying was allowed were.
'Some of it should be if there is an emergency or something like that. What about the rest? I hope the teacher tells us, or maybe I will have to ask the sys—'
"LOOK OUT!" somebody shouted behind him while he was distracted.
"Wha—"
Before Ning could react, somebody crashed onto him in mid-air. Ning had just managed to turn around and caught the person, but that ended up making him lose focus and the both of them fell to the ground.
Fortunately, there was padding on the floor.
"Are you okay?" Ning asked the person, only to see a horrified expression on their face.
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Chapter 447 – Followed
Ning looked into the eyes of Rachel, the girl he had been sitting next to in class. He wasn't really close to her, but he would like to believe that they had established a base level of friendship over the last few weeks.
Still, he questioned that thought when he saw the fearful look in her eyes. It was like she had seen a ghost.
'Did I hurt her?' Ning wondered and reached out to her.
"Are you hurt somewhere?" he asked.
Instead of accepting his help, the girl scrambled backward. Ning was surprised by the act, but he did realize that she wasn't hurt.
'Right,' he thought. 'She doesn't like physical interaction very much. Well, it wasn't me who bumped into her, so it should be alright.'
Rachel walked back to her corner of the area and started training again, but throughout the rest of the class, she kept staring at Ning.
Ning saw her staring at him from time to time but wondered why that was so. 'Did I offend her by offering help? No way right?' he thought.
The flight training lasted for half an hour more. By this time, most of the students were very capable of flying.
"Okay, that's it for today. I'll see you guys on the 1st day," the teacher said and left the room.
The kids returned back to the class for the rest of their studies, while Ning and the others were free to go home now.
'Tomorrow's the weekend, huh?' he thought. He walked out of the tower and walked back to the palace.
However, along the way, he saw someone following him from behind.
'What's this girl up to?' Ning thought when he saw her behind him, following all the way through.
At some point, Ning stopped and decided to confront her.
"Rachel, why are you following me?" he asked as he slowly turned around.
Rachel was shocked to see him find it out. "Ho-How did you know I was following you?" she asked.
"I've been keeping track of you for a while now," Ning said. "So, why are you here? It can't be because of what happened in the training right? You do know you were at fault for crashing onto me there, right?"
Rachel's eyes changed a bit, and a guilty look appeared on it. However, she didn't say it out loud.
"Ning…" She said. "Who are you?"
Ning was a little surprised to hear such a question.
"What do you mean by that?" Ning asked. "You aren't implying that I'm using a fake name, right?"
She didn't answer immediately and looked at him up and down. "Are… are you really okay?" she asked.
"Hmm?"
That was a question he wasn't expecting. 'Am I fine? Of course, I am. What does she mean?' he wondered.
"Don't worry, you didn't break any of my bones back there," Ning said with a chuckle.
"No, that's not what I meant," Rachel said. "Are you feeling well?"
"I'm feeling perfectly fine," Ning said. He was starting to wonder where this line of questioning was going.
"Wh-what about your Aether?" she asked.
"My Aether?" Ning was even more confused. "My Aether is fine. What do you mean?"
Her eyes went back to being frightful once more. "Who are you?" she muttered.
Fortunately, it was noon and not a lot of people were out on the street to hear this odd conversation.
Ning scratched his ears as he asked, "I supposed you're not asking for my name, are you?"
Rachel said nothing, waiting for him to answer.
"I… am a part-time guard at the palace for now," Ning said.
"Eh?" Rachel was surprised. "A guard? You?"
"Of course," Ning said. "Part-time only though. I still need to continue my studies after all."
"Wait, wait, wait," Rachel couldn't wrap her head around it. "How the hell are you a guard?" she asked.
"Well, through a bunch of coincidences really," Ning said.
"No way, you can't be a guard. Are you a Head-guard?" she asked.
"Nope, just a random guard," Ning said.
"What?" Rachel gasped when she heard that. "Even if it is the Royal family, they wouldn't dare employ an Aether Emperor as a mere guard."
Ning's eyes suddenly changed. He slowly walked up to her and asked, "Aether Emperor? Why would you say I'm an Aether Emperor?"
Rachel started fearing for her life right now. She was an Aether Magister. At her age, that was an accomplishment that was hard to come by anywhere else in the world.
Only the lucky noble children with tons of resources for themselves could match her speed. However, even then, in front of an Aether Emperor, she was nothing.
Ning could handle her like a fly buzzing around him.
Ning walked up closer to her and asked, "Why did you make that assessment?"
Rachel had a secret that she promised herself to never tell anyone lest they come to use her for some malicious purpose. She always believed that she could keep the information to herself.
However, right now, she was fearing for her life. She didn't know if she could survive an attack from an Aether Emperor.
Suddenly, she grabbed Ning's arm.
"Hmm?" Ning looked at her grabbing his arms and was very confused. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"You will see," Rachel said with an angry face. Ning waited for a few seconds, but he didn't 'see' anything.
"I thought you hated contact. Why are you touching me now?" he asked.
"Eh? What's going on? How… how are you still okay?" she asked. Suddenly, a thought came to her mind.
"No way!" she said. Her eyes were as wide as a pigeon's egg. "Yo-you are not an Aether Emperor, are you? You are an Aether S—"
"Ning?" Someone called him from the side. Rachel jumped a little in surprise.
Ning turned to see Fiona and Jamie walking together.
Fiona saw Rachel's hands-on Ning's hands and immediately put on a sour expression.
"I thought you were going to the tower to learn about Aether," she said as he shook her head.. "Turns out, you were just trying to find yourself a girlfriend."
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Chapter 448 – Police Station
"Stop talking nonsense, sister Fiona," Ning said and turned around towards Rachel. "Sorry, she interrupted you. You were saying something?"
"D-" Rachel tried to speak, but she was too scared to speak up.
"D?" Ning asked.
"Do-"
"Rachel, I can't understand what you're trying to say," Ning said.
"Don't kill me," Rachel shouted. She immediately stood up and ran away.
"Eh?" Ning was surprised. He didn't expect such a drastic reaction from her. Jamie showed no reaction to the happenings in front of him, but Fiona's eyes narrowed as she looked with a suspicious look.
"You threatened to kill her?" she asked.
"Haha, of course not," Ning said as he looked at the running figure of Rachel. She really was scared for her life.
"Then? What did you do?" Fiona asked.
"Nothing," Ning said. "I think… she just ran away because she learned how strong I was."
Fiona's eyes widened. "You told her that you are an Aether Emperor?" Fiona asked.
"Ah, no. She figured it out on her own. She must've thought of me as an infiltrator or something. That's why she was afraid for her life," Ning said.
"Oh, you better explain it to her then. Lest she spreads rumors," Fiona said.
"It's alright. She's not the type to do such a thing. Still, I guess I should explain it to her in the next class," Ning said.
He then turned around and looked at Fiona and Jamie. "What are you guys doing here?" Ning asked.
Jamie put up his hands and started making gestures towards Fiona.
"Yes, yes, I know. He won't leave just because we are 2 minutes late," Fiona said.
"Oh, what's this about a police station?" Ning asked.
Fiona turned around in shock. "You can understand what he's saying?" she asked.
"I know sign language," Ning said with a chuckle. He too had only realized this a couple of days ago when he saw Jamie talk with Fiona through gestures. Somehow, his brain translated every single gesture and he knew exactly what it meant.
The Omniscient All Language skill he got was truly one of the best skills he bought from the system.
"So? You're going to a police station?" Ning asked.
"Yes," Fiona said. "You know what? You should come too. It will be good for you to learn these things as well."
"Sure," Ning said. He didn't have anything else to do anyway. He changed direction and started walking with them.
"So… where is the police station again? I don't remember ever learning about it," Ning said.
"Right outside of the governmental zone towards the commercial zone," Fiona said.
"Oh," Ning said with a surprised face. "That's quite far. Shouldn't we be taking a carriage or something there?"
"No," Fiona said with a sour face. "I hate carriages. You have no place to fight or run away if you ever get attacked in it."
"Uh… who would attack us in the city?" Ning asked, but Fiona didn't answer. He sighed and decided to not talk about it.
They walked for about 15 minutes and finally reached the police station.
The station was a simple building with a giant wooden door at the front. It was two-story-tall and was completely barricaded with iron bars on the windows.
"Let's go in," Fiona said and walked in.
There were people all busy with their own tasks. Ning could see a bunch of people handcuffed to the side of a metal bench that was bolted onto the ground.
Some of them were kids. 'What are these kids here for? Stealing?' he wondered.
"Miss Fiona, you're here," a middle-aged man with a rather fat body walked up to them. He was wearing a blue shirt and pants with a badge on his chest that said 'Inspector Reen'.
The man had a rough beard and short hair, neither of which seemed to be going gray. Also, for some reason, he was sweating a lot despite the perfectly cool temperature inside the building.
"Yeah, take us there," she said without even caring to greet the man.
"Um…" the man didn't lead the way and instead hesitated.
"What?" Fiona asked.
"He actually…"
…
"You morons! How could you have let him die?" Fiona shouted at the police officers as she watched a rough, beggar-like person with dirty clothes lying dead in the interrogation room.
Ning looked at the corpse who had both of his hands tied to the middle of the table in front of him. The man's head was staring upwards with his mouth open and some foam coming out of it.
He had been poisoned.
"W-we don't know how he died, miss Fiona. No one entered the room at all," the police officers said.
"Then who killed him?" Fiona shouted.
"I-I don't know, miss," the inspector Reen said.
"Didn't he kill himself?" Ning asked from the side.
"Huh? Are you saying it's suicide?" Fiona asked with anger still on her face.
"Yes," Ning said. "I mean, it sure looks like it."
"No way," Fiona said. "His hands are tied, and he is not even awakened."
"Hmm… then that means…" Ning walked up to the man and opened his mouth. He opened it wide and called Fiona over.
"See that? All of his teeth are fine except for that molar? He likely hid poison in there and ate it when he knew he was going to be investigated," Ning said.
"Poison in the teeth?" Fiona was surprised. "That shouldn't be… hmm, no that is possible actually. This just increases our suspicions even more."
Ning turned towards her. "Who is this man anyway?" he asked.
"He's a very wanted criminal that's been known to kill quite a few people outside of the capital. He tried to play the part of a beggar to enter the city, but the guards recognized him and captured him," Fiona said.
"Oh," Ning said. "But then why are we here? Shouldn't the police be fine taking care of this man?"
"They would, but… " Fiona's voice got a little quieter.. "We were called in because we have suspected for a while that he might be part of the infamous criminal organization known as the Shadow Pavillion.
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Chapter 449 – List Of Assassins
"Shadow Pavillion?" Ning asked with a surprised face.
"Yeah, they are a group of assassins that have managed to make themselves the most sought-after killers when it comes to getting a job done," Fiona explained.
"So, you're saying he was one of them?" Ning asked.
"Very likely. Although he would just be a low-level assassin in the Pavillion, it's still concerning that someone from the pavilion came to the city," Fiona said. "It can only mean that they are here to kill someone in the city."
"Shit!" Ning shouted.
"What? Why did you shout?" Fiona asked.
"I think I have an idea why they could be here," Ning said.
Fiona's eyes widened. "You have an idea why they are here? Why?" she asked hurriedly.
Ning's voice lowered as he whispered next to Fiona. "I think they are here for princess Elizabeth," he said.
Fiona's face scrunched up as she thought. "Why would they be here for her? She shouldn't have any connection with them," she said.
"They came after her on the train while we were coming to the capital," Ning said. "Someone had paid the pavilion to assassinate her."
"What? Why am I only learning this information now?" Fiona shouted, making the police in the back jump in fear.
"You all get out!" Fiona slammed the door behind her and confronted Ning. "When were you going to tell me the princess was targetted by the pavilion before?"
"Uhh… never, I guess," Ning said. "Has the princess spoken up about it yet?"
"No," Fiona said.
"See? Why would I say anything if even the princess wants to keep it quiet," Ning said.
"You are a guard now," Fiona scolded him. "You don't do what the prince and princesses tell you to do. You do what's best for their safety."
"You take their screams, their cries, and hatred towards you for not doing what they want, but what they need," Fiona said.
Ning sighed. Fiona wasn't wrong about it. Also, it wasn't like Ning wanted to keep it a secret. He just didn't think of it as necessary and had completely put the idea out of his mind. After all, with the rings they had, it would be impossible for them to get assassinated, unless by someone of high Aether Rank.
"I guess I am in the wrong here. Sorry," Ning said.
"Whatever, we need to go back now. We need to stop tomorrow's feast if possible," she said.
"I don't think you should do that. Many of the citizens are looking forward to the feast. Even the princess herself is looking forward to it. If you simply just cancel it, you will get a lot of bad reputation from the citizens," Ning said.
"Then what the hell are we supposed to do?" Fiona asked.
"Do what you would in this situation. Tell the princess, tell the guards, tell the emperor," Ning said. "As for the pavilion, don't worry about them. I will take care of it."
"You will take care of it?" Fiona looked at him with a suspicious look.
"What?" Ning asked with a chuckle.
"What are you planning to do?" she asked.
"Don't worry about it. Just go back to the palace and let them know the situation. I will come back later," Ning said and left the room.
It was still a bit past noon, so the sun was still high in the sky.
"System, give me a list of names, images, and locations of all the members of Shadow Pavilion currently in the city," Ning said.
Understood
Ning suddenly got information put into his mind. He sighed when he learned the number.
27
There were 27 members of the Shadow Pavilion currently in the city. "So many people to kill the princess?" he thought.
"Hmm," his eyes narrowed when he saw 2 names on the list.
From Ning's perspective, these 2 people were nobodies. However, in terms of importance, they were the most shocking names on the list for him.
After all, the 2 names belonged to 2 guards from the palace.
'The assassins have infiltrated the palace already?' he wondered. However, that couldn't be correct. Those guards had apparently been working there for many years now.
Ning fell into thought. 'Maybe they aren't part of whatever is happening?' he thought. There was no way the shadow pavilion had been planning to kill the princess for so long.
Then… "The palace employed those individuals?" Ning thought. He shook his head. Just because they were a part of the assassin organization, it didn't mean that they were bad people.
'I will have to deal with them later,' he thought and went to the other names on the list.
The first man on the list was a thin man in his late 20s, who worked as a carriage driver in the capital.
Ning made his way onto him and found him waiting for a rider.
"Sir, are you going somewhere?" the man asked Ning. Ning looked around in the commercial area to make sure no one heard him.
"Have you killed someone before?" Ning asked.
"Eh?" the man was surprised, but then started laughing. "What type of joke is this brother? You make me laugh. Haha, so are you going anywhere?"
"That was not a joke," Ning said. "Have you killed anyone before?"
The man's eyes changed as he got angry. "If you don't want to ride then stop disturbing my business, you son of a—"
He was about to push Ning away, but Ning caught his hands. In a matter of seconds, the man lost his freedom and looked at Ning.
"Have you killed anyone before?" Ning asked.
"Yes, master. " the man said.
"Good. Go confess your crimes in the police station. Give them every bit of information they ask for," Ning said.
"Understood, Master," the man said as he bowed towards Ning and rode away in his carriage.
"That went well," Ning thought. "Hopefully the rest goes just as easily as well."
Ning looked through the list and read the next name on the list as well as the location where she was.
"Dammit!" Ning thought.. "I should have asked that guy to give me a ride first."
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Chapter 450 – Shadow Pavillion Member Structure
Ning made his way to the girl that was next on the list. She was a clerk in some clothing store.
He walked into the store and quickly located her.
"Hello, how can I help you?" the girl asked when she saw Ning walk directly towards her.
Ning looked around for the other customers and staff before directly grabbing her hand that was on the table.
The girl was surprised at first, but then her eyes got normal as she looked directly at him.
"Have you killed anyone before?" Ning asked.
"No!" the girl said.
"Eh?" Ning was surprised. "You haven't? Aren't you part of the Shadow Pavillion?"
"Yes I am, Master," the girl spoke.
"So despite being a part of it, you don't kill? What do you do then?" Ning asked.
"I'm an aid, master. I help assassins settle down in the capital when they come here. I make sure to prepare their hotel rooms, keep tabs on their target and any other ways they may need help in the task," she said.
Ning looked at her closely and asked, "so you are an accomplice?"
"Yes, master," the girl said.
"How many people have you helped kill?" Ning asked.
"I don't remember the count, master," the girl said.
"Sigh, that means many, right? Okay, go to the police station and turn yourself in. Answer then every question they ask about your task and the Pavillion," Ning said.
"Okay, Master," the girl said and left the counter. The staff was a little confused when they saw the clerk leave the store.
"Where is she going?" someone asked.
"She quit. Find someone else to be a clerk for now," Ning said and left as well.
He then spent the next 5 or so hours doing the same. He went to every single member on the list and made them all do the same thing. Surrender themselves to the police and confess to their crimes.
The police station was very confused seeing the slew of people coming in to surrender themselves, claiming they were part of the notorious secret assassination group called the Shadow Pavillion.
They thought they were being pranked at first, however as the people started telling them what their crimes were and what sort of people they had killed or been an accomplice for, the police very soon realized that they were telling the truth.
Without hesitation, Inspector Reen once again called Fiona and the others. When she reached the station and saw 25 different people all in an interrogation room, it was like someone had dropped a pie from the heavens.
'He said he would take care of it. Was it really him?' she thought. However, she decided not to think of it for much longer and started interrogating the people.
To her surprise once again, they didn't hide a single piece of information and gave her everything she wanted.
'What the hell did he do?' Fiona thought as she continued interrogating.
Ning walked back towards the palace. He was a bit tired from having to do all the things today and really wanted something to eat.
'Lisa must be making some bread right now. I will ask her,' he thought.
He thought about what he had learned today along the way. The Shadow Pavillion was a truly mysterious group of people. They weren't like a normal organization where people worked together.
No, they were all different individuals working alone. The job began when someone came to hire an assassin. They would hire them through someone the organization deemed disposable.
They were given no information at all, and all they did was take in the target's name and price and sent it to the higher-ups.
The person would leave the target's information somewhere for the aid to find, while they sent the information and the payment to the headquarters through another middle man.
The aid would then start shadowing the target, learning as much information about them as they could before the headquarters decided on which assassins to send.
Once enough information was gathered, they would then drop that information somewhere where the assassin could find it.
The aids would also register a hotel room for the assassin under a name the organization chose.
From what Ning learned, there were many assassins hired for tomorrow's event to kill the princess. It didn't seem like a new job, but rather the same old job from the train which they failed to do.
He did know that the Shadow Pavillion didn't stop until the job was done.
He reached the palace and went directly to the kitchen. He saw a ton of maids and cooks helping the princess in making the bread. He could also see vegetables being cut, but those were probably going to be cooked tomorrow morning.
"Your highness, how's the work going?" Ning asked. He didn't like to call Lisa by her name in front of everyone as they usually frowned at him and would give him an earful as to why he couldn't call her that.
That was why he only stuck to calling her Lisa when nobody else was around.
"Ah Ning, look at how much bread I've made," Lisa said cheerfully as she showed the stack upon stacks of bread.
"Uhh… that's a lot," Ning said as he looked at the loaves of bread that were stored on one side of the kitchen. That would surely feed a lot of people in the slums tomorrow.
"You seem pretty excited about it all," Ning asked with a chuckle.
"Of course. I haven't made bread in quite a while. Just being in the kitchen helped me calm down a lot," Lisa said.
"And, the emperor hasn't said anything about this right?" Ning asked.
"No, he usually doesn't," Lisa said. "It was only my… mother who did that."
Lisa got sad when she remembered the past.
"Hey, I'm quite hungry. I haven't eaten all day. Can I get something to eat?" Ning asked, trying to distract her.
"Oh, you're hungry? Should have said that earlier.. I'll get you something right away," Lisa went to get some bread from the pack and prepared a meal for Ning.
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