As Max observed Sophia, she was also observing him and noticed that his face seemed bright and radiated youthful energy.
Max who was mesmerized by her beauty only woke up from the trance when Sophia extended her hand for shake hand with a smile on her face.
Max knew his thoughts were plainly written on his face, but he felt no shame. As a man who had seen the world, he confidently extended his hand with a warm smile, meeting hers, which felt as smooth and cool as jade.
Without making any further moves, Max quickly withdrew his hand and asked her where she was from. To his surprise, she was from the same city where he was born in the BlueStar world, and instantly they both felt comfortable with each other.
While they were discussing their experiences after teleporting here, a middle-aged man dressed in white clothes approached them and stood silently by their side, careful not to disturb them.
Max, upon finding him, immediately halted their discussion and turned toward him with curiosity. He noticed the man was dressed in roughly made clothing, something neither the ship captain nor the island lords would wear, leading Max to realize he was a resident of the island.
The middle-aged man who saw Max and Sophia turn towards him, so he moved forward and introduced himself as the steward of the east port where they have docked the ships right now.
He then informed them that the island lord had requested him to welcome all the ship captains, guide them to the hotel at the port's entrance to rest for the day, and wait until evening when everyone could move to the city together.
Max and Sophia paused for a moment, and Max decided it was a good idea to rest for a few hours. He was exhausted from spending the entire month moving around on the ship and needed to recover. After asking for Sophia's opinion, he agreed to the middle-aged man's request.
The middle-aged man found Max and Sophia much easier to converse with compared to other captains, who were eager to rush them into the city rather than letting them stay at the hotel and pass the time quietly for the rest of the day.
They finally settled down after hearing that the island lord had instructed them to prepare for the evening party and requested them to meet in presentable attire, which was provided at the hotel. Only then did they relax and agree to the arrangement.
Max and Sophia were escorted to the largest building in the port, where a middle-aged man registered their details in a book. He then led them to another room filled with a variety of clothing styles and invited them to choose any outfit they liked as a gift from the island lord.
Max observed for a moment and decided to wear a suit, choosing one that consisted of a white shirt, black coat, black pants, black shoes, and a tie.
Sophia also picked out a red, one-piece, long traditional dress that looked great and asked them to pack it along with the other provided cosmetics.
They placed the dress into the system storage, and the middle-aged man showed them two separate rooms, each consisting of a bed by the window and an attached bathroom.
Max and Sophia happily settled down in their room respectively and decided to meet in the evening after resting their bodies which were tired from the long and tense journey.
Max after closing the front dooe of the room, put the bolt and then took some toiletories and entered the bathroom to get fresh up.
The bathroom was equipped with all the necessary amenities, including a modern shower and bathtub, allowing him to bathe comfortably with hot water. Afterward, he changed into dry clothes and returned to the bedroom.
He set an alarm on his device and settled into the soft bed provided by the hotel management, drifting off to sleep.
As soon as Max was asleep, the next room Sophia to soon drifted into sleep and both only woke when the system has reminded them of the time to wake as it was nearing the time for meeting which was indicated by the middle-aged steward.
Max and Sophia both freshened up, changed into the outfits provided by the island's management, and left their rooms.
As Max has no other necessities while Sophia took longer than him to get ready, so Max was first to reach the lobby and found a seat in the corner and sat down and began to wait for Sophia to arrive.
As people started arriving in the hall, Max waited quietly. He only knew a few of them from online chats and not personally, so he didn't approach them to talk. Similarly, the others didn't initiate conversations either, choosing instead to wait for the rest of their partners to show up.
Max waited only a few minutes before Sophia arrived, stunning everyone in a red dress. Many young people tried to muster the courage to approach her, but when they saw her walk straight to Max, sit beside him with a smile, and chat happily, their hopes were dashed. Jealousy made them gnash their teeth as they turned away in frustration.
Max who has watched all of this felt sitting on pins and blamed Sophia for being beautiful which made her lower her head with shy and she retorted that it's not her fault she was beautiful with pride look on her face which made her look cute and funny which made Max laugh and diverted to asking her whether she has rested well and other details of her room.
They both analyzed the details of the rooms and found their rooms were uniformly constructed using modern technology, which highlighted the gap in strength between the ship captains and the island owners in terms of the resources they controlled.
As they were talking, the steward, now dressed neatly, entered the room and asked everyone to quiet down. He gave a few instructions about etiquette to follow, reminded them not to get lost after reaching the castle, showed them the vehicle that had been arranged, and directed them to board it.
Max and Sophia promptly followed the steward's directions and boarded the four-seater vehicle. They took two seats, and later, a middle-aged couple joined them. The driver then started the vehicle, heading towards the city on the island, following the upward road that wound around the hill until it reached the city.