"Oh, Visitor, where are you going?" the old Uncle asked Ning as he was leaving the village. There was still time for the party, so he had decided to walk there, instead of wasting energy by teleporting.
"I have a little job in the town and I was just going there grand uncle," Ning said.
"Haha, you started calling me grand uncle as well? Very well. I am happy to hear that. So, how long does this nephew plan on staying in the village? Would you be free to have a meal in our place for once?" the old uncle asked.
Ning thought for a second and said, "Sure. I should be back before midnight, I can have my meal then."
"Haha, thank you for giving me this opportunity to pay back what little I can for helping my son," the old man said. "I will make sure to have the best food prepared for you when you return."
Ning smiled and waved before leaving, and made his way to the town.
The town at the edge of the map bore no name and was only known as Lord Canon's town.
Lord Canon was a Baron who after his excellent results as a merchant was able to get the Baron title from the Emperor of the Thorman Empire.
He could've left this city whenever he wanted and gone to a better city, but he decided to stay behind for the betterment of the town. So, the residents of the city liked him a lot.
"Did you guys hear? Lord Canon is hosting a party tonight, and anyone with 10 rops can enter." Ning heard a person speak on the way to the mansion.
"Woah, 10 rops per person? Can people even pay that much? How many people will he have?" another person asked.
"I've heard that he has sent invitations to figures in the other cities as well, so there should be quite a lot of people," the first person said.
"Then he might start earning hundreds of Rops. I wonder what he will do with so much money," the other person felt quite jealous. His monthly earnings came to be around 5 rops, and here was a rich man earning so much just by throwing out a party.
"Well, if it's Lord Canon, I'm sure he will use it to help us instead. I really hope he uses it to fight back the bandits. They've been harassing us so much," the first person said.
Similar conversations could be heard everywhere along the way to the mansion. Ning saw carriages running down the street towards the lord's mansion.
'Oh, this really is a big party. I wonder what the event is,' Ning thought.
When he reached the mansion, there were two different sets of lines to enter. One was for people who were coming through the carriages. They simply handed a card and were allowed entry.
The other was a line of people, who paid coins to enter.
'Oh, so not everyone has to pay huh? Only those who weren't invited but still want to join have to pay,' Ning thought as he realized.
He got onto the line and paid 10 rops to enter. It was quite quick as not many could afford that amount of money. Ning followed the crowd and entered a massive tent that was set up right next to the house.
Inside was a crowd of well-dressed people with wine in hand, talking to the other people. Everyone wore colorful dresses that seemed more than extravagant to Ning. Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡⚫𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢⚫𝘯𝘦𝘵
'Are colorful dresses like jewelry here?' Ning wondered. He couldn't understand why that would be the case though.
'Maybe I will learn once I buy those other pieces of knowledge,' he thought. He took a glass of wine from a passing staff and looked at it.
The deep red liquid, with a slight violet hue and a strong scent of alcohol, nearly made him put it back on the tray. "Damn, I've never drunk alcohol. What the hell am I doing?" he thought.
Still, he wanted to mix in with the crowd so he decided to just try it. "I hope it's not as bad as it smells," he hoped and took a sip.
The fruity taste of the wine entered his mouth and left a pleasant feeling behind as it slid down his throat. "Ooh, that's not bad. That just tastes like fruit juice," he thought and drank a little more.
The wine was much better than he had expected. What he didn't realize was that his body was so high level that the tiny bit of alcohol did nothing to him.
In fact, even as it entered his body, the Aether and Qi in his body destroyed the 'toxic elements' before they reached his stomach. To him, wine was just something that tasted like juice.
He looked around tried to see if he could find Lord Canon. There were quite a few people that had a lot of people gathered around them, but Ning didn't think any of them were the lord at all.
Just then, a portion of the room stopped talking, prompting the rest of the room to do so as well. Ning turned around to see what was the cause of the silence.
At the door of the tent was a nearly 60-year-old man, walking in with a cane. He had 3 people by his side, two of them were dressed in less colorful clothes and looked like servants to the man, while the final man was in perhaps more colorful clothes than the lord himself.
He looked to be in his late 20s and very closely resembled the old man next to him.
'Brother? No, Son,' Ning guessed that this was the son of lord Canon.
The old man walked up to the center of the tent, a few meters away from Ning, and turned to look at the rest of the crowd and said, "Thank you all for coming here. I and my son are grateful for your arrival."
The old man bowed a little in gratitude. The son was a second late, but he bowed as well. His serious business-man like face didn't seem to like bowing to others.
"Please enjoy the party for now."