”Woah! What sort of magic are you doing here?” Sharon asked at the immediate change in hair color.

Ning smiled and let them figure it out on their own. 𝚘𝗏𝑙xt.𝑐𝓞𝗆

His hair was now true red, just like Derel’s was. Her hair was his inspiration after all.

Ning touched his hair for a while and asked, “Any idea why it didn’t change color on its own?”

”Well, I do have an idea,” Saphandra said.

”Go on,” Ning listened carefully.

”Usually, people’s ability to collect Spiritual energy is dormant, and it is only after their first summoning that they usually get their hair color changed.”

”Usually, we say that people who have changed their hair color have finally managed to go on their spiritual journey. After all, that is when they truly start collecting spiritual energy.”

”However, you collected it before even summoning anything, so my theory is that it isn’t the spiritual journey’s inception that changes your hair color, but rather the summoning and bond,” Saph said.

”Well… that does seem to be right,” Ning said as he went through the information in his head.

”Can we just get on with it already?” Taron said while rolling his eyes.

”Right, sorry,” Ning apologized. “Let’s go.”

The three of them walked towards the village. Young children played around the open fields. They chased each other, while Ning used his Spiritual Analysis on them.

Dormant, it read.

’They haven’t summoned yet then,’ Ning thought. He wondered if he should summon and see if his hair color would change.

A farmer that was digging in the fields suddenly looked up at them.

”Who’re ya?” he asked.

”We are some travelers that came here to see the beauty of the mountains,” Ning said.

”Ya got red ‘air. Mind showin’ me some summonings?” the man asked.

”Uh…” Ning didn’t know what to say. To begin with, he didn’t even know how summoning worked, and he didn’t have time to go read up on it in his mind.

”Mind helping me here a bit?” Ning asked softly.

”Help you with what? What are you two talking about?” Taron asked.

”You understand that stupid-sounding language?” Saphandra asked.

”What? You don’t understand?” Ning asked with a surprised expression. He had thought that Genesis had given them as amazing language skills as he had, but it turned out they couldn’t understand the language.

”Um, Taron should be able to help,” Ning thought. ‘System, give Wendy the translations to every language on this planet.’

”What’re ya waitin’ for?” the farmer asked.

”Oh, Wendy can translate the language now,” Taron said. “That’s new. She usually needs a lot of data to be able to process these sort of things.”

”I gave Wendy all the data she needed,” Ning said.

”Okay, now only I don’t understand the language,” Saphandra said.

Ning decided to take advantage of it. “Put on a mean face,” Ning said.

”What?” Saph made a confused look.

”That works too,” Ning said.

He turned back towards the farmer. “I would love to show you some brother, but my young lady is tired from the trip and wants to rest. Is there any place for us to stay in the village?” he asked.

”Well, ya can stay in the chief’s place. Just talk to ‘im,” the farmer said.

Ning walked through the many people that stared at them, especially him.

He leaned back towards Saph and asked, “why are they staring at me? Shouldn’t they be staring at you?”

”I don’t know,” Saph said. “I don’t even understand the damn language.”

”Don’t worry, I will take care of that once we get to rest,” Ning said and continued walking.

He explained what was going on. Saphandra was a rich, young lady that wanted to see the mountains. So he came here with her two servants to see it.

Along the way, they came across some trouble and had lost all their belonging. Now, they just wanted to return back home.

They reached the center of the village and waited around for someone to call the chief.

The chief was an old man in his 50s with a full head of white hair and a long beard. He walked with a cane despite looking physically fit.

When he saw the three newcomers, his eyes moved from Taron to Saph to Ning without stopping. When it reached Ning, it lingered for a second as a hint of surprise appeared on his face.

”A red summoner. I didn’t think I would see one t’day,” the village chief spoke.

”Hello,” Ning said. “I am Ning. This is Taron, and this is our young lady Saphandra.”

”Young lady?” the village chief asked. “She mus’ be rich then?”

”Not very much, but they are considered rich,” Ning said.

”Why isn’t ya’r little miss speaking? Are we too poor to talk to?” the chief asked.

”My young lady doesn’t understand the language here. She has only learned the language from the west,” Ning said.

”Tha’s stupi’ ain’t it?” the village chief asked. “Ya should try and learn the language of the place ya’re about to visit.”

Ning nodded and said nothing.

”Is ya ‘air dyed, young man?” the village chief asked.

”No,” Ning said without hesitation.

”Well, then why is ya’r young lady’s ‘air dyed?” the village chief asked.

”Sorry?” Ning asked.

”That color,” the village chief said. “Ya shouldn’ try to copy the blue hair of the legends.”

”And if ya want to, make sure it’s actually blue. Not some stupi’ purple. Blue,” the village chief said.

”What is he saying?” Saphandra asked after noticing the old man look at her multiple times while talking in a language she just couldn’t understand.

”He’s saying you should dye your hair color right,” Taron translated. “He thinks your color isn’t natural.”

”What? It most definitely is,” Saphandra said angrily.

Ning thought for a moment and quickly learned about the history of this land for a moment.

”Oh,” he said with a surprised expression. “It seems to the general public, that the greatest hair color you can reach is Blue. They have no idea about Indigo or Violet. As such, they think you have dyed your hair.”