An hour passed, but Trevain still had a dejected look on his face.
Ning didn't want to stick his nose in another person's business, but this young man was bringing down the atmosphere, so he wanted to know why he was being so down.
He walked next to Trevain on the deck and sat beside him.
"How long do we have?" he asked him.
"Hm? Oh, I think 3 more hours," Trevain replied. "Mooncrest city is quite far away from Ranadar."
"I see," Ning looked out into the ocean. "You are quite rich in Ranadar city. How did you get so rich at such a young age? Are your parents rich?"
"Yes, very," Trevain said with a sigh. "But, no. I didn't have my father's help in this. I ran away from my house 5 years ago, so I had no help at all."
"To tell the truth, I got lucky really with how I got rich."
"Oh, do tell," Ning said.
"Well, after I ran away from my house, I came to Ranadar city, thinking it was very far and no one would know me. I changed my name and even the way I dressed."
"At first, life was fine, but I needed money. So, I looked to fishing," he said. "But, not only was I bad at fishing, there also weren't many places to fish here."
"So, I went into the sea, close to one of the small uninhabited islands in the south. I sent down my net to fish there, but when I pulled something out, I didn't get any fish," the young man said.
"What did you get if not fish?" Ning asked.
"Oysters," the young man said.
"Oysters? How would they be better than the fi—" Ning paused for a moment. If the young man said he had gotten lucky, then this was unlikely to be a normal oyster.
His eyes went wide. "Spiritual oyster? You found Spiritual Oysters in the wild?" he asked.
"Yes," the young man's eyes shined too. "Not just some oysters too, but many. Turns out, there was an underwater cave where the oysters used to live, and due to some underwater volcanic activity a few years prior, the oysters had shifted outwards, and I was the first to get them."
Spiritual oysters were what formed Spiritual pearls in the first place, so Ning could see how he would consider himself lucky.
"How many pearls does an oyster make again?" Ning asked.
"Under the right conditions, they can make about 10 to 20 pearls at once. Once harvested, they need around 3 months before the next batch of pearls is ready," the young man said.
"That's over 50 pearls a year from a single Oyster," Ning said. "How many Oysters did you find?"
"About 2000," the young man said.
Ning sighed and shook his head with a chuckle in his voice. "You really were lucky."
Earning 10 thousand Pearls a month with no prior investment really was quite lucky.
"Yeah, once I found the Oysters, I bought part of Ranadar's port to open my own Oyster farm. At the same time, I used to profit to fish for the actual fishes that everyone comes here for."
"Together, my profit went quite high in less than a year. In fact, I even managed to get Drefan there out of the slums and got him to work for me personally. Once I found more people to work in the port, I was free to do anything with my time."
"Unfortunately…"
The young man didn't continue.
"And?" Ning asked.
"Well, my father found me and is now asking for me to return," he said and put on a dejected face again.
"You sold your house and are moving your furniture. What will happen to your Oyster farm?" Ning asked.
"I sold it already," the young man said. "I… I needed to return, and I knew I could never come back here, so I sold it to my friends I made here for a fraction of the price."
"I see," Ning said. He could feel the sadness in his voice when he said he had to sell it.
"Why did you run away from your house? If you don't mind me asking," Ning said.
"Sorry, I do mind," the young man said and refused to answer.
"It's fine," Ning said. "So… Hegalhorth, it's a big family I presume? Maybe even a noble one."
The young man looked back at Ning with a weird look on his face. "You really don't know?" he asked.
"I came to this empire 3 days ago. Don't expect me to know anything," Ning said.
"I see. Yes, it's a noble family. In fact, my father, Grecian Hegalhorth is one of the 3 dukes of this empire," the young man said.
"Oh," Ning was surprised. He had guessed they were Nobles, but he hadn't thought they would be the Duke's family.
"So… Mooncrest City is your father's Dukedom then," Ning asked.
"Yes," the young man said.
Ning wondered what the duke must have done to make his son run away. He wondered if he should just ask the system to tell him.
But he decided not to.
He chose to let the man keep his secret a secret.
"So, I should be congratulating you on your engagement then? Is the marriage happening anytime soon?" Ning asked.
The young man physically cringed when he heard that, making Ning feel confused.
'What did I say?' he thought for a moment.
"Are you not planning on getting married to your fiancee?" Ning asked.
"I… I am," the young man said.
"Then why that reaction?" He asked. "Do you not love her anymore or what?"
The young man stayed silent.
"Is she perhaps... not pretty?" Ning asked him.
The young man shook his head.
"Oh, so she is ugly," Ning said.
"No," the young man quickly corrected himself. "I… I don't know what she looked like."
"What? How could you not know what your fiancee looks like?" Ning asked.
The young man gave a self-mocking smile and said, "I don't even know who my fiancee is."
