Ruby and Rin went round the city visiting tourism areas, centers of attractions, beautiful and interesting places; important places too.
Ruby noticed that the city was more civilized than she thought. It was because they were staying in the local area that she felt that this was a settlement.
One of the places they visited was the garment plaza, where she saw different sets of clothes with different stylings which changed her mindset about people only wearing beast hides. She already had it in mind that she was going to bring Alusec here.
Ruby and Rin selected many expensive garments, which made both the female customers and sales representatives open their eyes in shock when they paid in large sums of crubic stones.
What those customers didn't know was that Ruby and Rin had made a lot of money from selling the beasts they hunted in the forest but they didn't have the time to spend any of them.
They also visited the Fremlum house, which was a twenty storey building entertainment house that specialized in gambling and drinking. The higher your prestige, the higher you could climb the floors.
Rin also showed Ruby the clan that governed the city which was called the Muremeu clan, situated in the middle of the city. Ruby noticed that the clan occupied one-third of the city and decided that when it was time she would probably visit the clan with Alusec to rob them of their precious resources. If Alusec was here he would have corrected her and said they would just ask nicely.
After going around the whole city, it was already passed noon and Ruby was feeling disappointed about the fact that she didn't spot Alusec anywhere. Normally if she wasn't in a weakened state due to her injuries, she would have been able to locate him.
She and Rin finally headed home after buying almost everything the markets had to offer.
...
When they got back to the courtyard, Rin invited Ruby to the bath for a good soaking time. The bath was just a few feet away from the fence barricading the courtyard.
There was a huge tree behind the fence, its leaves and branches shaded the entire perimeter of the bath making it look a bit dark.
Normally the bath would be cold due to the climate of the island but Rin had already applied some riod stones to make it warm like a hot bath.
Riod stones were cheap natural resources that can increase the temperature of the surrounding. People around the island mostly put it in their bath, to make it warm since the weather was chilly most of the time.
Both Ruby and Rin took off their garments revealing their white fresh skins and stepping into the bath which was about four feet deep.
Rin giggled from the refreshing feeling of the body soaking into the warm water when she entered into the bath while Ruby's sank her body deep into the bath, letting only her head stay visible above the surface of the water.
Ruby appeared to be in thoughts as she stayed in the same position for a few minutes without uttering a word.
"Ya!" Rin shouted while raising her arms, showing a full set of white teeth with her lips separated and curved upwards at the side. she jumped towards Ruby and stood behind her, making the water in the bath splash around.
Grab!
Rin hugged onto Ruby from behind bringing her out of her thoughts, "Big sis Ruby hair is really gorgeous," Rin said while laying her jaw above Ruby's head.
Rin started stroking Ruby's hair as she reminisced about how her life was before Ruby and Alusec showed up.
****************************
-Seven years ago-
-Ritler city
Around two midnight.
In a large resident, three different voices could be heard coming from inside one of the rooms.
"Rin dear, you don't have to be worried me and your father will be back soon," A woman who looked to be in her thirties, wearing an expensive set of clothing with light makeup, sat on the left while rubbing the hair of an eleven-year-old girl lying on a king-sized bed.
A middle-aged man sat on the right side of the bed, he was also dressed in expensive clothing, he had a geeky look with very large spectacles on his pointy nose.
Inside the room was decorated with all sorts of designs and drawing for kids.
There were large lanterns that lighted up the entire household like it was daytime.
"Yes little princess, in about two days we'll get back from Isoka Island, I'll even get you some souvenirs," The geeky-looking man spoke while caressing the back of Rin's palms.
"But Dad, my birthday is in two days... will both of you be able to get back on time?" Rin asked in a cute lovable cat-like voice which was way different from her current voice.
"Don't worry dear, we just need to confirm the new trading site after that we'll leave the rest of the work to our laborers and rush back here, how can we miss our little princess's birthday?"
The woman spoke while lightly pinching Rin's cheek with the father nodding in agreement to her statement.
Rin finally consented but couldn't get rid of the unsettling feeling in her heart, "Alright Mum and Dad be careful on your journey," Rin muttered.
"We will, muah!" Rin's mother kissed her on her left cheek in assurance while her father rubbed her temples and said, "go back to sleep dear, when you wake up during the day time you'll have your usual home lessons,"
"Ugh! two days of those boring etiquette lessons again, I just might die of boredom. Why can't I just come with the both of you?" Rin asked with a pleading look.
"Don't be a naughty young lady, we have already talked about this. As the heir to the Germinia trading organization, you have to be well versed in all your studies," Rin's father refuted her.
"Alright father," Rin replied helplessly, 'It's just for two days... in two days I'll be twelve years old, I'll tell father about my plan to stop all these home lessons and start learning martial arts,' Rin giggled silently as she thought about all the cool fighting moves she could learn.
With that, the couple stood up from the bed and headed for the door. After waving at their daughter they went out the door.
Outside the door, two buff men with tanned faces could be seen standing on both sides of the door wearing tight fitted dark green robes.
Immediately Rin's father and mother came out of the room the men bowed their heads slightly.
"Li ren, you're coming with us, since we're only going there for inspection there is no need for too much company. Just assign about three guards from your squad to tag along..... and yes prepare two Zimo carriages for the transportation," Rin's father passed down a series of instructions while staring at the guard on the left who nodded in confirmation and left to make preparations.
Rin's father looked so geeky that if you were to see him in the streets, you would mistake him for a pushover because of the large triangular spectacles on his serene-looking face but contrary to his looks the manner and tone at which he spoke was with so much confidence that you would just have the urge to heed whatever instruction he gave when he spoke. That was probably why he was a good trader and was able to establish his trading organization on several islands building a famous reputation for himself.
"Li Dongblin, stay here and guard the residence, make sure our daughter follows her daily schedules, don't let her mess around just because we're not here to keep her in check," He gave out another command to the one on the right who also nodded.
Rin's father beckoned to his wife and they both started moving towards the entrance of the residence.
It took them about five minutes to get to the entrance which was just at the ending of the hallway leading to the second living room.
There were two men standing guard there who immediately bowed slightly upon seeing both of them and then proceeded to open the doors wide for them to pass through.
On getting out of the residence a red and butter-colored flying doorless carriage could be seen trying to land a few meters away from the residence.
Even though everywhere was still dark due to the time of their travel not only was the surrounding of the residence well illuminated but even the carriage was glowing bright lights.
In the sky, Rin's father noticed that only three moons were out today and on the west, there was a cluster of beautiful stars that made the heart melt. He turned his head north and noticed that there were no stars at all in that direction, "Sigh!". 'How is it that the direction we're headed, is dark and soulless.... This is a bad omen,' He thought in his mind but he was not the type to back down because of mysticism, he always liked to face things head-on.
His wife understood what was going through his mind and put her palms in his, squeezing it in a comforting manner
The carriage finally landed and a white glow encapsulated the middle, where the doors were supposed to be. A man came out from the glowing space and spoke, " Sire, madam the carriage is ready, please step in," He beckoned to them, which they responded to by walking towards the carriage and entering through the same glow that he came out from.
Zimo carriages were large carriages that were about the size of a truck and traveled by air. The speed of a Zimo carriage could rival that of a sacred king and it had great defense too although not as strong as a moon transformation level cultivator the advantage was that a sacred king would still eventually expend his/her energy completely after traveling a long distance while with the Zimo carriage, you only had to keep restocking it with low tiered crubic stones.
The Zimo carriages were very expensive and could only be purchased by noble households or influential families.
It was almost impossible to travel to other islands underwater due to the underwater creatures so flying was the most suitable way of transportation out of the island, but the only problem was, only rich people could afford flying accessories so most of Ritler island citizens had never visited other islands.
Fwooosshhhhh!
The carriage ascended into the sky with great speed, and another one followed behind. The two carriages flew into the horizon only maintaining a few meters distance away from each other.
After a few seconds they were out of sight but what no one noticed was that another Zimo carriage ascended from another part of the city and headed in the same direction as the former ones.