Mason invited Nick and Zia to the one of the many restaurants that belonged to the Meyer family. What Nick didn't know was that this was the oldest and most expensive restaurant in Aurora named "Sunshine". Only rich aristocrats and royalties came here and were served aged wine and dishes made of high rank beast meat.
The restaurant was not big, only two storeys high and had only few separated guest rooms that all had a view at the nearby palace. There was also a larger terrace that was used during the warm season.
Mason booked one of the tables on the terrace and in a way it looked like a children's party when all of them finally sat.
Already on the way here Mason introduced his both friends. One was Steven Rollen, the second son of the head of the Rollen family, Julian, and the other – Chris Evans, the youngest son of the Evans family's head, Winston. Turns out the three boys were the same age, had known each other for quite some time and hung out together quite often. Although their families were located on the different sides of Aurora, they went together hunting, fishing or met for a meal from time to time. Similar to Mason, Chris and Steven were twelve and both looked slender and athletic.
As soon as Zia heard they were fishing and hunting, she immediately made them promise she could tag along the next time. This was their first time meeting her, but right from the bat they experienced what it meant to have a younger sister. Mason and Steven didn't have any sisters at all, but Nick had already met Chris's older sister Kate. Be as it may, this experience was something new to the three young aristocrats while Nick, hearing all this from the side, pretended to not notice anything.
Although the three boys were few years older, all five of them soon found the common topic – the Qi cultivation. While Mason didn't particularly enjoy it, he 'had' to practice it since his father made him. The other two were the exact opposites, they loved their Qi practices and wanted to become stronger.
To their big surprise the tree heard how Nick and Zia, who were much younger, were also practicing Qi and even had some successes in this field. They shared experiences with each other and everyone managed to learn something new. The traditions and teachings in each of the families differed, therefore, even if the three aristocrats had Qi masters as their teachers, they could always learn from the other 'schools'.
Nick also shared his theories about the importance of the physical training in addition to the Qi practices and, when Zia proudly told them how she was 'running' upside down on her hands together with Nick around the small lake in the Royal woods, the three boys started to doubt the expertise of their masters.
Then Nick tried to explain, "It isn't really running, it's more like walking and we are only practicing our upper body's strength this way."
It didn't help at all. The three boys looked at the small statures of both Zia and Nick and didn't know what to think.
"Why do we even bother talking about it? Zia can arrange a permission for you to come and 'play' with us. I'll show you my practice techniques then. Maybe you can show me some of yours and we all can learn more." Nick said.
The Qi cultivation was Mason's weak point, therefore he decided to show off his own strengths and, after the meal, turned to Zia and asked with a little bit of pride in his voice, "Princess, did you enjoy the food of the best restaurant in the capital?"
But other than Mason, no one really noticed the exquisiteness of the dishes. Everyone was mostly focused on the interesting discussion they had and since none of them drank alcohol, the expensive and rich meal really became kind of a children's party.
"Oh, this is my first time having a meal in a restaurant, so I don't know how to compare. Although the pizza that Nick made in that shabby bakery was better." Zia replied.
Nick facepalmed, 'Why the hell did she have to be this honest? Can't she politely say that the meal very tasty?'
Chris and Steven were baffled again, but Mason knew the reason Nick was invited to his family.
"What's pizza?" Chris asked.
"It's the reason we were trying to invite Nick to visit our family for almost half a year. He was evading the invitations all the time until I finally caught him yesterday." Mason explained.
"Sigh, it seems I won't be able to keep that secret for much longer. I'll make for you guys some pizza after the festival is over. Last time I did, it caused a bit of commotion so let's wait till there are less people on the streets." Nick sighed.
"A bit of commotion? From the reports we had it looked like several hundred people were about to flatten your bakery until the guards showed up." Mason laughed, "Man, I really want to taste something that can cause it."
"Hahaha, it was really good. My mom and dad also fought for the one I brought back to the palace." Zia laughed.
The three young aristocrats stared at her with blank faces. 'King and queen fought for food? What nonsense is this?'
In the end they agreed to go fishing together three days later. While remembering the Paul's 'fishing' style, Nick suddenly had an idea, "Mason, your family probably has the best artisans in the city, right?"
"Of course! Why do you ask?" Mason was confused.
"I want you to recommend me to the best glassblower and leather worker. I want to give a little surprise to you guys, but since we are going fishing in three days already, there is not much time." Nick mysteriously smiled.
This task was not that hard and after the lunch Mason personally accompanied Nick to the craftsman he wanted to visit. Although he didn't understand what Nick ordered, he didn't mind either – his new friend was interesting and if this could make fishing more fun, then what's the big deal?
It did take a day for the order to be ready, but it still was much faster than Nick expected. Meyer family's influence was impressive.
Nick also went to the market and at the blacksmith's stand bought five harpoons and five small daggers with sheaths that could be attached to their calves.
There was another unexpected hurdle. The next morning upset and pouting Zia arrived at Nick's cottage. Turns out her mother wouldn't let her go fishing with boys since it was a summer and they definitely would go for a swim. Queen Hua would not let her daughter to embarrass herself and her family by taking off even a part of her clothing.
Nick thought for a while and came up with a solution. They went to the royal tailor again and designed a swimsuit for the young princess. As usual, Nick didn't actually invent anything. He took the classic diver's suit as an example and adder a short symbolic skirt that would cover princess's buttocks. He also described the strict requirements for the cloth, otherwise Zia wouldn't be really able to move under the water freely if dressed in a regular linen attire.
Later, after passing a stern examination from queen Hua, to Zia's great joy the swimsuit was approved.
In afternoon, while Nick was practicing Qi control, the full force of 'the five flowers' attacked his residence. They had the tailor report them if Nick suddenly came up with any new designs without their knowledge and the poor man had no choice but to comply. No one would like to receive the wrath of five angry teenage girls. And as the result, for some reason, Nick now had to explain his 'unforgivable' behavior of designing a new and unique clothing without running it by 'the five flowers' first.
His best defense was that he didn't know they would want to swim with the boys, to what the usually friendly Kate retorted that one of them is her brother so it's 'no big deal'. After the girls had a short discussion, they decided to let Nick, Zia and the boys join them on 'their' fishing trip, although they still had to prepare their swimsuits.
When Nick met the guys on the Evans family's luxury boat, he could only shrug and apologize – there was no way for him to call shots with those five vixens around.
After they boarded the spacious boat, the group did look a bit like a circus troupe. In addition, they even had their fans tagging along. It seemed as if half the youth's from Aurora were gathered to follow the ladies of their dreams into the sea.
But the Evans family was one of the three hegemons after all. Within ten minutes the crowd was dispersed while a couple of boats, which initially held more annoying followers, were sunk as a warning for others.
When they got closer to the reef, Nick took out the prepared equipment and explained his plan. The eyes of the boys and, of course, Zia burned with excitement. On the other hand, when the 'five flowers' heard his plan, they were disappointed. There was no opportunity to show off underwater and on the boat there were only children and few guards. Nick pacified them with a new idea – they should use this time to start working on their own designs for new handbags and hats and they could call it the "Five Flowers Fashion". The reaction was so strong, that Nick couldn't forgive himself for not thinking of this earlier. Not only he, the whole city of Aurora will be free of those five annoyances from now on!
Then Nick distributed the new equipment. The harpoons were self explanatory and daggers that they tied to their calves were not anything special either. The innovation were the fins made of thick, elastic leather that were supposed to make them swim like fishes and the weird goggles that should allow them to see clearly under the water.
In Nick's eyes both were made rather crudely, but he didn't expect much from the beginning. On the previous day he already tried the water goggles out in the small lake and for the most part they worked fine. While sometimes water seeped in through the leather fittings, they could simply pour it out when surfacing for air. There was no plastic in this world and Nick had no idea how to produce it so this had to do.
When the children went into the water, they saw an incredible sight of colorful coral reefs stretching into the depths while hundreds and thousands of fishes were living their lives in this beautiful home.
The deep sea predators were extremely rare occurrence in the Aurora bay, but despite that, for the safety reasons, the Evans family had tasked several Qi masters to watch over the kids. Both Zia's bodyguards couldn't hide in a thin air or shadows like they usually did in the palace, therefore they walked on the water along the route the little princess swam.
After harpooning few fishes each, kids soon lost interest in killing them. They threw harpoons back in the deck and spent their time by simply diving and exploring the wonders of the reef.
Nick felt a little nostalgic – this was the experience he would have had with Olle on the Great barrier reef in Australia. Although those memories were sad, he now had few new friends and, in fact, this experience was really fun.
All five of them were Qi practitioners with higher endurance than regular people and were able to easily stay under water for five to six minutes. And the water here was only around ten meters deep so it really felt more like playing than fishing.
They found few pearls, Zia even caught a larger turtle and rode it for a while until Ling pulled her out and 'saved' the beast. Zia pouted for a minute and then instantly forgot when she started to chase some seahorses.
No one noticed how the day went by and only hunger could act as a wake up call and persuade them to go back to the shore. Tired and happy kids feasted in one of the Meyer's restaurants near the port. At this point they already decided to make this a regular event.