The boat flew through the night sky, slightly behind schedule but not by much. Any hour after sunrise, they would reach their destination, Baelon city.
For the remainder of the time, Ely and Ning simply talked to each other as they waited.
* * * * *
Sun rose in the Baelon city as morning came. The city never settled even at the night, but there was a certain kind of rush during the morning as everyone, including the ones that were open all night, had a fresh start to their day.
A young-looking man with blonde hair walked up to a building and shut down the formation that protected the building from thieves at night.
Once the barrier came down, it was time to open his flower shop.
He brought out bouquet after bouquet of flowers from his storage bag and placed it all on display. Each one of them was exquisite to the extreme. They seemed to have been plucked at the perfect time, making them all the more alluring.
"Your flowers are as good as ever, brother," one of the shopkeepers to the side that was watering the road in front of his shop said.
"Haha, they did come out quite good, didn't they?" the blond-haired young man said.
"You must be proud of your work," the shopkeeper said.
"Oh no," the young man said. "I barely do anything but pluck them at the right time. It's my wife that does all the tough parts from growing them to rearing them."
"Haha, I would love to meet sister sometimes. Why don't you bring her along?" the shopkeeper asked.
"I can't," the young man said. "She's busy taking care of our children. We can't really leave them until they have reached a certain cultivation realm, you know."
"Ah right, I usually forget about that. Anyway, good luck on today's sale," the shopkeeper said and walked back.
"Good luck to you too, brother," the young man said and brought out his own bucket of water to water the front of his shop so there wouldn't be any dust.
Even before he could do that, however, the customers had already started arriving.
The young man was all alone, so he was forced to go handle his business. He sold a few flowers for a costly price and when he was going to leave, another customer would arrive.
There was a certain uniqueness to his flowers that was hard to find elsewhere. All of the flowers he grew were extremely important in Alchemy, so people would come from all around to find these rare flowers.
Thanks to this business, he had been able to make a good life of his own at this place.
A few humans and a few beasts came to buy the flowers, and the young man monotonously sold them all.
'I guess they will have to deal with the dirt then,' he thought. 'Maybe I should simply create a barrier to stop it all.'
He ignored his own thought and continued selling the flowers. When the amount got low, he would pull out some more flowers from his storage bag and place them out again. As such, his shop was never really out of flowers.
"How much for this Blue Spirit Lily?" someone asked him.
"12 Immortal spirit stones if you buy one. 132 Immortal Spirit stones, if you buy a dozen," the young man said.
"That's quite expensive for a flower that's so easy to grow," the person said.
"It's not really that easy, sir. It takes a lot of time to grow these things. If it were easy, you would find them everywhere," he said as he brought out some flowers to fill the space where the flowers were missing on the display.
"Hmm… what about this Shadow Orchid? That should be cheaper right?" the voice asked again.
"Shadow Orchid go for 10 a piece. 110 for a dozen," the young man said.
"Still so expensive, huh?" the voice said. "Is there no discount?"
"I'm afraid there is no discount, sir," the young man said. "My wife and I work hard to grow these things. The price we are selling at is already discounted."
"Okay, then what about a friend's discount? Do you have such a thing?" the voice asked.
"No, we don't have a friend's discount," the young man replied without even thinking. However, after replying, he realized what he was saying.
"Wait… friend's discount?" he thought with a confused expression. He was about to turn around to see who was talking when a new voice spoke up.
"What about a master's discount? Surely you have something like that, right?"
The young man's expression froze when he heard the voice. A face popped up in his head the moment he heard the voice.
"No way…" he thought as he slowly turned around. When he did, he saw Ning standing outside of his shop with Ely by his side, both smiling from ear to ear.
"… Master? Is that you?" the young man asked with disbelief clear on his face. Before he could even confirm the truth, tears were already rolling down his face.
Ning's smile widened when he heard that. "Yes, it's me," he said.
The young man jumped out of the shop and jumped directly onto Ning, grabbing him for a full-on hug as he teared up.
"Master, I missed you," he shouted.
Ning felt slightly emotional and patted the young man's back. "I missed you too, Aegis. I'm glad to see how well you are doing," he said.
Aegis moved back and wiped his tears. "It's all because of you, anyway. If not for the books you left behind for little Anya, I would have never been able to do what I have done right now," he said.
"Still, I'm proud of what you have done with yourself," Ning said.
Aegis nodded and wiped his tears. "It is good to see you too, mistress," he said to Ely.
"I thought I told you not to call me that, especially since Ning freed you all," Ely said.
"Master can decide whether or not to call us his beast," Aegis said. "Same as we can decide whether or not he is our master."
