"Huh? Oh yeah," Reever said. "We met up with the emperor a little after you left the place, brother Ning."
"Oh, good," Ning said.
"Anyway, I didn't want to tell you about this beforehand to give you hope for the technique since I'm not even sure if my father will agree with the prospect of giving you an absorption technique in the first place," Lisa said.
"You think he doesn't like me?" Reever asked.
"I don't know. I can never tell my father's emotion behind that stoic face of his," Lisa said.
"He did give us his blessing though, that should mean something right?" Reever asked.
"We will know once I ask it next time," Lisa said.
"You don't have to wait until next time," Ning said. He brought out a book from his storage and handed it to Reever. "Here, this is a technique. Read and learn it properly. In 2 days, you should be able to start absorbing Aether."
"What?"
"What?"
Both the husband and wife were surprised at the same time. Reever grabbed the book and opened it, but before he could even read it, Lisa snatched it and read it herself.
"It's real," she said with wide eyes. "How do you have such a thing?"
"That doesn't matter," Ning said. "Just let him read it. Actually, you can also read it and see if it's better than yours. It's quite a good technique, I promise."
"Give it to me honey," Reever said and took back the book. He excitedly started reading the book, but suddenly someone knocked on the door.
"Who's there?" Lisa asked.
"Your highness, senior Tim is here to meet you," a maid answered from the opposite side of the door.
"Oh, let him in," Lisa said.
Reever hurriedly stored his book in his storage necklace and acted as if he wasn't holding anything.
"Good afternoon your highnesses," Tim said and bowed as he came in. When he stood up, he saw Ning standing a little further away from him.
"Ning? What are you doing in the princess' quarters? You shouldn't be here," Tim said.
"Let it be, Uncle Tim," she said. "I told you that he was allowed to come here anytime he wants. He is the only friend my husband has in this place."
"They will start spreading rumors, your high—"
"I don't care what rumors they spread. I doubt they would stop spreading it just by me being civil," Lisa said in an angry voice. She calmed down a little and asked, "Why did you come here?"
"Princess Elina has learned about your trip to the market and wants to come with you. Will you be okay with that?" Old man Tim asked.
"Elina wants to go with us?" Lisa thought for a moment and said, "Sure, you can tell her it's fine."
"Great, I will go pass on the information," Tim said as he walked out of the room. However, before he left, he turned around and looked at Ning.
"You don't have anything to do right now, right? I will put you in charge of guarding Princess Elina," old man Tim said.
"Eh?" Ning was surprised. "Senior Tim, wouldn't it be better if I guarded li— Princess Elizabeth and her husband?"
"No," Tim said. "Since you are a guard in the royal family, you will have to be acquainted with the other family members too. No whining now, this is the job you chose. Go get ready. You will have to be ready for when the princesses leave."
Tim left after saying that and didn't add another sentence.
Lisa chuckled a bit from behind.
"Dammit, I don't want to deal with the other snotty princesses," Ning whined. "They feel way too pampered. I don't like being around them."
This time even Reever chuckled. "You guys laugh at my misery?" Ning asked.
"No, no," Lisa said. "I promise, Elina isn't as bad as she seems. She's pampered, yes… maybe even a little snotty as you put it. But if she gets overbearing, I will take care of her, don't worry."
"Sigh, if you say so. I will go get changed. You guys can leave when you are ready," Ning told the two and left.
Ning left the area and went to the servant's quarters where the maids, guards, butlers, chefs, and other various servants of the Royal family lived.
The area was on the back of the palace, and there were nearly 100 rooms just for the servants.
Ning went into his room there and got changed into a guard's outfit, which was just a casual black shirt and pants to help them dissolve into the crowd and not stand out very much.
Once he was ready, he walked out of the room and went out to the front of the palace, along with 2 other similarly dressed individuals, waiting for the princesses to arrive.
The other two guards were both men, and were in charge of Reever and Lisa, while Ning would be in charge of princess Elina.
Ning waited for them to come out and while he did so, he thought about how the day had gone so far.
He remembered his talk with the Vice president and how sketchy he was acting. 'That dude definitely knows about the absorption techniques. No wonder he asked me if I was a noble as the first thing after learning I had a technique,' Ning thought.
'Let's see how he deals with this situation then. It was smart of him to tell me not to spread this information so he could deal with it in silence, but he did promise to reveal it to others once he was done learning it,' Ning thought.
A smile crept on his face. "Let's see how long it takes him to 'learn' it," he thought. The door opened and the two princesses walked out, each equally beautiful.
One had a mature beauty while the other had a child-like beauty. By Ning's standard, she didn't look a day over 18.
"Let's go sister," Elina clung onto Lisa, and all 6 of the people there started walking out of the palace.
