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
