"Brother Ning, where are my furniture and items? You didn't take them all, did you?" the young man asked.
"Of course," Ning said. "That was the job, right?"
"Yes, but... there were so many here," Trevain looked around. "Ju-just how did you take so many into your storage space?"
"I just did," Ning said, not bothering to explain much.
Trevain understood that the only reason Ning could do this was if Ning had a high rank as a Bondforger. But... how did he have that at such a young age?
"Brother Ning, how old are you?" the young man asked.
Ning looked at him silently for a few seconds before asking, "how old do you think I am?"
"You look younger than me, but by your mannerisms, I can tell you are older. Maybe 23-24?" he asked.
"Close enough," Ning said and didn't say anything else. That was one of the ways he had found to ignore the questions about age. He just made the other person guess and went along with it.
"You must be a once-in-a-lifetime talent if you can take this all in," Trevain said.
"Well, if people had the same advantage I had from the beginning, they would be once-in-a-lifetime talent too," Ning said. "Anyway, when are we leaving?"
"Uh... now that everything here is done, I think I only need to head over to the port and say goodbye to my team," Trevain said.
"Let me know when we leave exactly. I will come with my companion," Ning said.
"Uh, sure." The young man gave him the name of the ship that they were to leave on and where it was in the port.
An hour later, Ning arrived there with Saphandra next to him.
Both of them looked around the port for a ship that had the name 'Hegalhorth' and had two crescent moons side by side, making a curved 'M' or a flying bird symbol.
Ning found it quite quickly, not because he noticed the name or the crest, but because he saw the young butler standing on top.
A young butler with blonde hair, standing straight on a ship that was about to leave was quite the sight in his opinion.
Ning quickly walked over and met up with Trevain who was sitting on the deck.
"Hey, we're here," Ning said and walked onto the ship with his blue hair flowing in the midday breeze.
The elderly butler was quite shocked to see that the one his young master had employed was someone with blue hair. But, perhaps what was even more shocking was that there was someone with violet hair behind him.
It wasn't just the old man that was shocked, but even Trevain himself abruptly stood up and looked shocked.
He quickly walked up to the two of them and gave a curtsy bow and welcomed them both.
"I am glad to be in your presence, young miss," the young man said.
"Hello. Thank you for letting me travel with you," Saphandra said politely.
"No, no, the pleasure is all mine," the young man said. With Saphandra's violet hair and more than a beautiful face, it sufficed to say that the young man was smitten.
However, he was still noble-born and knew what manners were. He took Ning to the side and said, "Brother Ning, I thought you were bringing a male companion. You didn't mention that it was a girl with violet freaking hair."
"Oh, did I have to? Didn't seem like an important description to let you know beforehand," Ning said.
"It's violet freaking hair. How could it not be important information? I would have made sure to prepare a bigger ship with servants to treat her better if I knew," Trevain said.
Ning smiled. "You are the first one to show this sort of reaction. Usually, people just think her hair is dyed, and even look at her with a disgusted face," he said.
"She came with you. After what I saw you do, I would have to be dropped on the head as a child to not think about what I did. Wait, she isn't dying her hair right?" he asked.
"No, that is her natural hair. But don't treat her like she's a queen. She hates that," Ning said.
"Oh, I see," Trevain thought and started struggling to keep a question that was inside him.
"What is it? Spit it out," Ning said.
"Umm... are you two...?" he didn't know how to ask the question he really wanted to ask.
"Friends," Ning said. "Just friends."
"Oh," the young man's eyes went wide with hope. "Do you think I can... umm... ask her out?"
"You can try, but the answer will likely be no," Ning said.
"Ok, I will try," the young man turned around to go speak to Saphandra, but the butler was standing behind him and had heard his conversation.
"Young Master, you know you cannot do that," the butler said.
Ning was a little surprised when he heard that. There was someone that would stop a young man from asking Saphandra out? Even if there was no chance of her accepting the proposal, just the possibility of getting together with someone with purple hair alone was enough to make many people think wrong.
However, somehow the butler wasn't going to let it happen. Why?
"I want to," Trevain said.
"No," the butler said firmly and Trevain backed away a bit. The butler immediately softened and frowned. "I'm sorry, young master. But you know you can't do that. You already have a fiancee, and you will have to marry her."
"While you are engaged with her, you cannot be seen together with any other girl, be it someone like her. Just think about the family's reputation," the old butler said.
Trevain crumbled into himself. When the family was brought up, he immediately softened and all the courage he just had for asking Saphandra out vanished.
He took a deep sigh and gave a dejected look, but still, he agreed. "Fine, I won't," he said as he shook his head. "Please get the ship moving."
