'Wait, didn't Reeves tell me that this nation didn't hold prejudice against people who didn't have Aether? Then why are these folks the only one begging?' he wondered.
It wasn't exactly only the non-Aether users that were here. There were also some Aether users. But they were simply an Aether Starter. And, if after many years, they still remained that, then they could be considered as good as a? Non-Aether user.
Ning wondered if the nation secretly hated them by any chance. "Hmm, that's not right. Jamie is clearly a non-Aether user, but he's doing pretty fine," Ning thought.
He thought over it for a few minutes when he realized what it was that was causing all of this.
"I see," he thought. The Aether users, no matter how bad they were, as long as they had just the tiniest amount of skills, could find a job for themselves somewhere.
And as expected, a bad Aether user could always do more than a good non-Aether user.
So naturally, the non-Aether users, especially ones with no set of skills, or physically able to do something, would always end up in the slums.
"Aether… it all comes down to that again," Ning thought. "It's so easy to get it as well."
A thought came to his mind. "Maybe I should help them."
He walked off to a corner of the slum and when he could see no one, he disappeared.
* * * *
Lisa, along with many of her brothers and sisters walked along with the slums with many servants behind her.
"Here you go," Lisa said as he handed a loaf of bread and a bowl of soup to a nearby child.
"Thank you, princess," the child said and walked up to his mom to hand her the food.
"Hey you, come here," she called the child again.
"Why did you give that food to your mother?" she asked curiously.
"Mommy always gives me her food, so I gave mine to her," the child said.
"Is that true?" Lisa said with a smile, but behind her smile, she felt pain for the child and his mother.
"Here's some more bread for you then. For being a very good boy," she said as she handed another loaf of bread and a bowl of soup that was meant to be his mother's.
The child's eyes shined with pure glee. He really had never seen this much food before.
"Thank you," the child said. If the first time was something his mother had told him to say, then this time it genuinely came from his heart.
"Poor child," Reeves said softly, a little behind the whole group. Ning was next to him as he listened to him.
"It's quite tragic to see so many people living like this," Ning said. He looked to the side to see two of the servants walking behind the princess.
He had given them a special job that he had asked for approval with Lisa. Although he hadn't told them the reason for it to her, so there was a good chance she would end up being surprised when she learned it.
"By the way, brother Ning, is my wife safe? I heard some rumors about assassins and such in the palace yesterday," Reeves asked.
"Oh, don't worry about it. She's safe. We captured all the assassins that were coming for her yesterday," Ning said.
"I see," Reeves said. "As long as she's safe."
He looked towards his wife giving food to the poor and smiled.
"Do you want to go there by any chance? To the desert?" Ning asked.
"Sorry?" Reeves was taken aback.
"The desert," Ning said. "It's been a few weeks, right? Those people must be looking forward to you by now. In fact, they must be desperate."
"To be honest, I haven't really given much thought to that," Reeves said. "After all, the only reason I cared about it was to earn money for myself."
"Although, I wouldn't really mind going back there once just to tell them all that they could do what I did on their own. If they become self-sufficient, it would be fine," Reeves said.
"Hmm, let's go there after this feast then," Ning said.
"Right after? Hmm, we might have to stay in a hotel for the night, but that should be fine. I will talk to Lisa about it later," Reeves said.
"Right, how's your Aether coming along? Have you broken through to the Grandmaster rank yet?" Ning asked.
"Oh right, Brother Ning. I meant to thank you so many times, but I keep forgetting. This technique is so good. Even Lisa said that she has never seen anyone grow up in rank as fast as me," Reeves said excitedly.
"It's alright. I'm glad you're improving," Ning said. His eyes once again moved to the servants who were behind Lisa.
Once Lisa handed the folks bread and soup and walked on. The two servants would go up to them and hand them a piece of fruit as well as a piece of paper.
The servants themselves didn't know what these were, and were prohibited from looking at them, so they just did what they were ordered to do.
Once they all moved on forward, Ning looked back to the people who were opening the pieces of paper and read it first.
The moment they read it, their eyes went wide in surprise and they suddenly gobbled up the piece of fruit before even touching the bread and soup that were next to them.
Ning couldn't help but smile. That was all he could do for them for now.
"Brother Ning?" Reeves called.
"Oh, sorry, you were saying?" Ning asked.
"Right, I was saying that since I have the Aether absorption technique, do you think I can learn how to use Aether in combats or other scenarios? I know I can't go to the tower, but I want to learn something like that," Reeves said.
"Hmm, sure," Ning said. "I can teach you th—"
Suddenly, the sound of a gunshot rang, and Ning fell to the floor with blood pouring out of his chest.
