The rattling carriage made its way through the city.
Ning looked out of the window as the buildings went past them. The city was certainly bigger than the Ranadar city they had just come from. It was more vibrant, less congested, and certainly not as stinky.
The roads were also quite wide, allowing up to 4 different carriages or beasts to walk side by side.
Ning saw the buildings grow sparser and sparser as he moved onto the richer neighborhood in the city where everyone owned more land than they could ever need.
Then, they arrived at a long piece of land with no buildings and only cultivated fields as the carriage started climbing on a small inclined plane, going up a hill to a massive stone mansion sitting at the top of said hill.
The maze-like hedge garden could be seen before they even arrived there, and when they did arrive, Ning saw a large fountain in the middle of a massive pool that was swarmed with fishes in it.
The carriages stopped and Ning walked out, along with Saphandra, while Trevain and Ori walked out from the other carriage they had taken here.
Ning looked around and was surprised at the number of servants this Duke had. 'Well, can't imagine much less from a duke, eh?' he thought.
A woman stood at the front wearing a silvery-white dress with hair that was tied in a bun and was filled with all types of gems and pearls.
"Trevain, you finally came back," the woman said in a slow, methodical manner.
"Stepmother," Trevain nodded towards her and said nothing. Ori still clung on to Trevain's arms and didn't let go of him.
"Come on in. Your father has been waiting for your arrival," the woman said and her eyes drifted to Ning and Saphandra.
"Oh, my… is that your friend?" she asked.
"Uh…"
"Hello, we are Trevain's friends. Thank you for allowing us to stay here for the night," Ning spoke up.
"Of course. Anything for young lords and ladies like you. May I ask what school you come from?" she asked.
"Ah, no. We do not belong to any school. We are not affiliated with any organization particularly," Ning said.
"Not affiliated?" the woman's slow speaking manner still managed to show her surprise. "Not even this young lady?"
"No," Ning said with a shaking of his head.
The woman all but believed that they weren't really anyone important and had just dyed their hair.
She would be correct for the most part.
"Ori, let your father know that your brother is here. I believe he will want to see him immediately," the woman said.
"Yes, stepmother," the young lady nodded and finally left her brother's arm before walking into the house.
"Come, you must be tired," the woman said and brought them all in.
The butlers and maids quickly brought refreshments as soon as they all were taken to a resting area.
Ning drank a glass of cold purple juice with a tangy flavor to it.
"Do you like it? It was made from freshly picked grapes from the garden," the woman said.
"It's amazing," Ning said.
Trevain stayed silent as he drank the juice, but there was no expression on his face telling whether it was good or not.
The woman walked up to the young man and fixed his dress a bit. She parted his hair in a way that made him look better and straightened the collars of his shirt.
"Your father will call you any moment. You need to be prepared," the woman told him.
"Yes," the young man said without much thought to what was happening around him.
The young girl, Ori arrived not long after and let Trevain know that their father was expecting him.
The young man took a deep breath and stood up. "Please wait around brother Ning, lady Saphandra. I will be back in a bit," he said and left for the inner halls.
Ning looked at him walk away and wondered if he should eavesdrop on the conversation. However, since this had nothing to do with him, he decided not to.
"Young lady, if it isn't so rude of me, may I ask how old you are?" the woman asked.
"That's nothing rude," Saphandra said in a way that made it impossible to understand whether she was being sarcastic or not.
"I'm 26 years old," she said.
"Oh, so young," the woman said. That only made her wonder more and more if she truly did have the violet hair or if it was dyed.
It was incredibly hard to obtain violet hair without making a beast really happy about the conditions of the bond.
Usually, beasts that did not have much intellect didn't know what happiness was most of the time and so a lower-ranked summoner couldn't get much out of their bonding with them.
However, such a young girl could in no way have violet hair without summoning something really weak and giving it all her spiritual energy.
That was to say, either the girl was very, very, very, almost impossibly lucky. Or… she was a fake and her hair was a ruse to get her into higher society.
The woman had her guess, but she still wanted to confirm.
As for Ning, he came associated with Saphandra. It wasn't like there weren't any blue-haired young men around the world, but his validity still depended on Saphandra's in her eyes.
She wanted to learn if they were real or not, but didn't want to be straightforward with her intention as that would be a really bad impression if they really were what they appeared to be.
"So, where are you two fr—"
A door slammed on the other side of the mansion and made a sound that was loud enough to be heard from where they were.
Trevain walked out with anger in his eyes.
Ori stood up to talk to him, but he even ignored his little sister and walked straight onto the other side of the mansion, leaving the people there stunned.
