NoGift

AURUM was on the deck of the ship watching Black play with a falcon. If she's not mistaken, it was a bird owned by one of the guards here. Black was jumping around and running after the falcon. Aurum couldn't help but be envious. She wished she could also be as carefree as Black. But of course that wasn't possible. Because unlike Black, she's a human with real human problems and worries.

It has been 15 days since they sailed from Albion and Aurum's worries haven't lessen one bit. She wished they could just flew towards Xing using one of her brother's flying vehicles. So they could immediately begin searching for their mother. So they could save her. But as Argent said, they couldn't just waltz in there hoping that no one would notice. So all she and her brother could do right now was to wait.

Although her brother hasn't been doing any waiting as far as Aurum knew. Argent has been communicating with Uncle Jax and reading reports sent by Uncle Jax' men. Aurum wished she could help her brother with those things. But if she insisted on helping, she might just end up hindering her brother. So to do her part, all she could do was give her support and make sure that her brother ate on time.

She looked up to the blue sky that was starting to get cloudy. Looked like it would rain soon. She closed her eyes. [Mother, please, please, be alright.]

Aurum looked back at Black who was still playing with the falcon. He was jumping around trying to catch the bird, he looked rather silly really. Then she happened to see the prince's bodyguard - Zhang Lei Feng - walked towards the deck. She now knew that the guy was a general back in Xing. Which makes the prince kind of special if a general was the one personally in charge of his protection.

Zhang Lei Feng was also watching Black. But unlike her who thought Black's antics were funny, the general looked like he felt the opposite. He has this constipated expression on his face. As if he didn't like what he was seeing. Aurum noticed from time to time that he would have that look whenever he's looking at Black.

She decided to walk up to the young general and greeted him with her signature smile. "Do you find Black annoying?" she asked straighforwardly. Aurum loved to bully Black. But that didn't mean that she would like it when other people gave Black the kind of look the general was giving him.

The guy glanced down at her, his normal serious expression back. "No."

"Really?" She knew Black could be hyper sometimes, but that's not really enough reason to be annoyed at him. "Silly me. I'm just probably seeing things. Because I'm sure the general, as honorable as you are, wouldn't be annoyed at a boy for no reason. Am I right?"

Lei Feng looked at Aurum Blackbourne's smiling face. She might be smiling like an angel at him, but he could still hear the sarcasm in her voice. She was just probably protecting the boy and she probably found the expression on his face antagonistic. But he really couldn't control it. Everytime he saw the boy act silly or spoiled or even cute, it just gave him goosebumps. Doing all those actions with that face was just simply unbearable to look at. But he couldn't exactly tell that to this girl. So he just nodded at her and walked back inside the ship.

"Weirdo," Aurum muttered. Then she felt her arm being grabbed. She looked down and saw Black. "What is it?"

"It's lunchtime! Let's go eat with Master," Black said still as hyper as always.

She flicked his forehead. "You're only good at telling when it's time to eat."

Black immediately pouted. "That's not true. Black is also good at fighting."

"Yeah, yeah." But what Black said was right. It's really time to eat lunch. "Let's go get Brother."

----------

Argent looked at the man on the screen of his light brain. Jaxon McAllister with his blond hair and green eyes still looked the same as that time she first met him. But the carefree atmosphere he usually has was nowhere to be found now. The expression on his face was full of seriousness.

"My men already searched the two positions you gave. The first one was an abandoned shack in the middle of the mountain. The other one was a forest not far from that shack. So far, they haven't found anything suspicious or even remotely helpful."

Argent already expected as much. It only showed that the people who took her mother were not careless. But she still couldn't help but feel disappointed. "Please ask them to continue searching. They might find something useful if they do."

"I already told them to do that," Jaxon said. He stared at the exhausted face of the teenager. "You should try to rest. Don't exhaust yourself before you even arrive at Xing."

Though Jaxon couldn't really blame the kid. Because he was also feeling as exhausted. Anthea's abduction just reminded him of that year when Dorian and his crew disappeared. Jaxon couldn't do much then because that was also the first year he was taking over as the head of the McAllister family. His position was still not stable. If he so much as leave, his greedy family members would surely swoop in like starving vultures. So he wasn't really of much help to Thea then.

But this time, it's different. Finn was already 18. He was now capable of holding the fort while Jaxon was away. His nephew was not some soft persimmon that anyone could just push around. Now, Jaxon could go and help with the search for Thea as much as he could.

"I know that. It's just so frustrating. That I couldn't even do a single thing," Argent said with a bitter smile on her lips.

"It's normal to feel frustrated. But don't forget to take care of yourself. If you get sick, that would only affect your investigation in Xing. Or do you want me to go to Xing as well?"

Argent shook her head. "There's no need. I'll take a proper rest and not sleep so late."

"Good. By the way, I'm already near Sarmatia. I'll probably arrive there by tomorrow."

The country Jaxon mentioned was a country in the Northern continent. It was also the last known location of her mother before she was teleported to Xing. During their last talk, her mother mentioned something about finding a clue about his father's disappearance. And then, just right after that, she was abducted. Argent figured that the reason she was taken probably has something to do with that clue. And since she couldn't really be at two places at once, she asked Jaxon if he could sent someone to investigate there. Argent just didn't expect that he would go there himself.

"Thank you, Uncle Jax. For doing all these."

"There's no need for thanks. Thea is one of my closest friend. I would do everything in my power to find her."

"Still, thank you."

"Then you better make sure to take care of yourself."

"Yes, yes," Argent just said helplessly.

"I'll contact you again when I have news."

They both ended the call. Argent just turned off her light brain when Aurum entered her cabin.

"Brother, let's go eat lunch," she said.

Argent stood up and walked towards her sister. Together with Black, they went towards the ship's dining hall. The dining hall has a lot of tables available to all the ship's crew and the prince's guards. The foods were arranged in a buffet table. The table was insulated by a magical tool that kept the food warm. The set of foods changed during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The buffet table was always filled with different food but despite that, its quality never decrease. Showing the skill of the ship's chefs cooking it.

When they arrived at the dining hall, there were only a few people there. They all looked in their direction but soon resumed eating. During their first few days on board, the people here kept gawking at them. Argent guessed that, aside from her and her sister's identity, they were also not used to foreigners. But now, they don't stare that much anymore. They probably already gotten used to their presence.

The three of them lined up holding a tray and chose the food they wanted to eat. Then they sat on an empty table. The only thing that Argent probably enjoyed in this trip was the food. It has been so long since she last ate this kind of food. She never really thought that she missed it until her first dinner here. She started to eat.

Then she heard her sister complained. "Brother, how can you be so good at using these chopsticks? I could barely pick anything with these. I'll probably lose weight by the end of this trip."

"I told you you could ask for some spoon and fork," she said.

Aurum sighed. "I might as well take this opportunity to practice using these. So by the time we arrived at Xing, I won't make a fool of myself in the dinner table."

They were halfway in finishing their meal, when Aurum noticed that the general was walking towards their table. Then the prince suddenly appeared and intercepted him. After that, he pulled the general towards another table. Aurum couldn't help but frown. Because that was not the first time the prince did that.

"Brother, I think that prince Li Jun is gay," she whispered to Argent.

Argent almost choked on the rice she was eating when she heard what her sister said. "What makes you say that?"

"You see, everytime that serious looking general tried to talk to you, he would always appear and take the general away. The prince was obviously preventing him from getting close to you. That prince is probably jealous of your beauty and is afraid that you would take the general away from him," Aurum said quite resolutely. "But then, why doesn't he prevent the general from talking to me? I'm pretty sure I'm a very good subject for jealousy. Could it be that... they're both gay?"

At that point, Argent couldn't help but laughed. Because out of all the possible reasons, Aurum thought of that. Her laughing expression made the people in the dining hall stop what they're doing and just stared at her. Because at that moment, they truly understood how beautiful this foreign duke was.

Aurum was of course happy seeing her brother laughed.

"Silly girl. Don't let the prince hear what you said," Argent only commented.

And for the first time since they found out about their mother's abduction, Argent felt her mood lightened.