"You don't know who you are engaged to?" Ning looked at him with a confused look on his face. "How could you not?"
"I wasn't involved in the engagement. My father made the choice for me," the young man said.
"When did this happen?" Ning asked.
"About 2 months ago, maybe? I'm not sure. I only learned about it a few weeks ago when butler Kwan came and told me about it," the young man said.
"What the hell? You haven't seen the girl you are going to marry or even know about her, and yet you agreed to marry her?"
Saphandra who was sitting quite far away was attracted by Ning's loud conversation with Trevain.
Trevain's face turned red when he realized that Saphandra had learned about this, but he couldn't hide his face anywhere.
"Why don't you say no?" Ning asked.
"I… I can't. He's the duke. I… I can't refuse the duke's orders," the young man said and started playing with the bracelet on his wrist.
"You should stand up to yourself and—"
"Young lady, young man. Please do not involve yourselves in the matter of our young master," the old butler stepped in from the side and stopped the conversation.
"My master has ordered and the young master has already agreed to this. Please do not try to dissuade his mind now, or you will be considered enemies of the Hegalhorth family, and will be treated as such."
The old butler was quite oppressive, and one could tell that he must have spent quite some time in the duke's mansion to get this sort of attitude.
This old man wasn't afraid of anything.
"What? Do you think we will just stop talking if you use your master—"
Saphandra stopped when she saw Ning give her the signal to quiet down. She humphed and moved further away to sit in the corner, alone.
"Butler Kwan, I don't think it was a good idea to try and threaten someone like her," Trevain said softly.
"It's necessary, young master," the old man said. "Youths usually get overconfident when they have managed to bond with the beasts without losing any efficiency."
"However, they will soon have to learn that sometimes having a higher Rank is much better than having a higher grade of hair," he finished.
Ning raised an eyebrow and stopped himself from nearly laughing out loud.
He patted Trevain's shoulders once and said, "Do what you think is best for you." Then, he left and walked over to Saphandra to sit by her.
The ship went on like normal, but the entire time Trevain was in his own little world, thinking about the future.
Ning saw many islands pass by in the distance, all of which belonged to the Taminghall empire.
The empire consisted of nearly 60 different islands, each of different sizes that were anywhere from a couple to a couple of dozen of kilometers away from each other.
The distance between Ranadar city and Mooncrest city was about 100 kilometers of winding straits and channels of oceanic water.
So, it took them nearly 5 hours to reach Mooncrest city.
As soon as they did, the port was basically made empty for the Duke's son to arrive.
Ning hadn't expected such treatment and was quite surprised. Only now was he starting to realize why Trevain was so surprised when he had shown no reaction to the name 'Hegalhorth.'
A young woman stood at the port, surrounded by guards and beasts of all types.
She wore a pink dress with a purple hue to it around the hem of the dress. She waited impatiently and immediately ran the moment Trevain got off the ship.
"Brother!" she jumped into his hug and started crying.
"Ori?" the young showed a surprised expression. He immediately pulled the young girl away and looked at her again.
In the 5 years, he had been away, the little sister he had left behind had grown into a young lady.
Suddenly, the young man started feeling regret about running away and not being there to see his sister grow up.
"I'm sorry, Ori," he said. "I'm sorry I—"
"No, don't speak. I understand why you left," she said and hugged him again before saying quietly, "You shouldn't have returned."
The young man nodded, but there was nothing he could do. When the Duke gave an order, there was nothing he could do to disobey him.
Ning and Saphandra got off of the ship as well. Finally, the old and the young butlers got off.
The young woman, who had just moved away from her brother was immediately surprised to see both Ning and Saphandra come off the ship.
Ning was surprised of course, but Saphandra was outright unbelievable.
"Brother, those are?" the girl asked.
"Ah, Brother Ning, Lady Saphandra, come meet my little sister, Orilene," the young man introduced his little sister.
"Hello, Orilene," Ning smiled at the girl.
"Greetings," Saphandra said and nodded at the girl.
"H-h-hello. You can call me Ori," she said and was a little embarrassed. In all her life, she had rarely seen someone with a blue-haired person that this young.
As for a young, violet-haired person, that was an impossibility in her eyes. However, somehow both of them were standing in front of her, which surprised her very much.
'Have I ever seen someone that wasn't an elderly with violet hair?' she asked herself.
The guards behind her walked up front and struck the butt of their spear on the ground before saluting the young lord.
Trevain gestured something with his hands and spoke to the guards before they all began moving.
He turned towards Ning and Saphandra and hesitatingly asked, "Would you mind following me to my house?"
Ning chuckled. "I have all your items with me. Where else would I be going if not your house?" he asked.
Trevain's face brightened and showed the way.
Ning and Saphandra were led to a carriage, which then moved on as they went towards the Duke's household.
