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.
