After I had found Elaine, we continued playing a few more times, with me always being the seeker, and now we are just lying on the ground in the middle of the jungle beside each other, doing nothing.
"Your highness, Ms. Sarah Eve has requested an audience with you. Do you wish to go, or shall I bring her here?" Said Illumia, appearing before the lying Elif.
"Ohh, it's Sarah!? Brother, tell her to come here; then we'll be able to play tag!" Said Elaine happily at the mention of Sarah.
"Ok, ok, you know what to do, Illumia." Agreed Elif, as he still needs to listen to Elaine for the day.
With a bow, Illumia vanished from her spot, leaving the both of us to wait for Sarah, who regularly visits me in the castle, and the whole reason she even started to do this was every time we hung out inside the city, her sister, Marley would constantly interrupt our fun. Hence, several months ago, I decided to bring her to the castle so we could enjoy our time together without worrying about her dumb sister; since then, Sarah had started visiting on her own regularly once a week, so it was only a matter of time before she met Elaine. Honestly, with how fun those two have together, I wonder if Sarah visits Elaine or me.
Sometime later, I could hear the footsteps of someone small running through the jungle while rapidly approaching our location; as I looked over to the left, I saw Sarah wearing a short dress running through the jungle with a smile on her face, and further back in the distance I could see Illumia walking as well.
"Your highness! I came to play!" Shouted Sarah as she ran through the jungle resulting in her dress getting slightly dirty.
"You don't need to yell, Sarah." Replied Elif as he stood up from the ground while dusting all of the dirt off him.
Over the past two years, Sarah hasn't changed much in appearance; she's just grown a little bigger, though her personality had changed the most since our first encounter; when I first met her, Sarah was very timid and easily frightened, but now she's outspoken and doesn't hold back, even when she mocks me, her prince. However, I have noticed that her cultivation has barely improved over the last two years; back then, she was a middle Nascent Soul cultivator; now though she is a peak Half-step Saint, what's taken her two years I achieved in mere weeks. While I know I'm incredibly talented, Sarah isn't that untalented; I've asked her before, and from what she told me, she was born with a high Saint spirit root, something I would consider worse than garbage. Still, I know it shouldn't take her that long to achieve her current cultivation base.
Anyways, I didn't care too much about her cultivation or talent; all I cared about was having fun, and playing with Sarah was fun, especially considering we had a lot of things in common.
"Oh, hey Princess, I didn't see you there. What were you two doing here in the middle of the forest?" Asked Sarah as she stopped running when she arrived near Elif and Elaine.
"We were playing hide&seek, though we got bored after a while and just laid on the ground until you came along." Answered Elif.
"Yeah, now that you're here, we can play tag since playing tag with just me and big brother is not fun." Said Elaine with a smile on her face.
"That sounds like fun, but who'll be the seeker?" Asked Sarah.
"Hmm, I got an idea, Illumia; you'll play with us, and your job is to capture us while we try our best to avoid you; however, the only rule is that we must completely suppress our cultivation base; otherwise, it won't be as fun." Ordered Elif to Illumia, who appeared directly after he called her name.
"I understand, your highness." Replied Illumia.
"We'll get a twenty-second head start, so start running!" Said Elif as he started running away, followed closely by Sarah and Elaine.
"That was mean, your highness!" Complained Sarah.
"Yeah, next time, tell us!" Agreed Elaine as she ran behind Sarah, who was running behind Elif.
"Hehe, ok, but if we want to win, we need to split up in different directions; otherwise, she'll easily catch us, and Elaine, you should probably just hide; you won't be able to outrun Illumia." Advised Elif before he dashed off to the left, separating from Sarah and Elaine.
"Well, I'll see you later, Princess, don't get caught!" Said Sarah as she started running to the right, leaving Elaine alone.
"So then, where should I hide?" Muttered Elaine.
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Once twenty seconds had passed, I quickly dashed in their direction and followed the tracks they left behind, but as I continued following it, I noticed the tracks begin branching off into separate paths.
'The biggest one belongs to Ms. Sarah, the smallest one belongs to her highness, and that leaves the last one to his highness, which is likely to be the most difficult, followed by Sarah and lastly, her highness. So I shall capture his highness first.' Pondered Illumia as she nimbly made a sharp left without losing any speed and chased after Elif.
As I followed after his highness tracks, I eventually saw him running in the distance, though it seemed he noticed me as he quickly sped up while also maneuvering through the trees so I would lose sight of him.
'It seems like all those training sessions weren't for nothing; however, your highness, you are still too young to be able to fool me.' Thought Illumia while suddenly jumping up onto a branch before continuously propelling herself higher up and eventually vanishing into the canopy of the trees.
Following after his highness by gracefully jumping from branch to branch within the canopy of the trees, I watch him from above like a predator as I wait for the proper chance to strike. After a while, I noticed his highness slightly start slowing down while I could see his shoulders go up and down; from that alone, I could tell he was faking exhaustion in hopes that If I was still following him, I'll attack now and reveal my position, however, everything he knows about fighting I taught him, so how could I not notice something so obvious.
As I continued following him, I knew that if nothing were done, It would take a long time for his highness to make a mistake on his own, so I decided I should help him in that regard. Clearing my throat, I called out to him from above.
"Big brother, help; she's about to catch me!" Shouted Illumia while perfectly mimicking Elaine's voice down to the very last detail.
Immediately after, his highness looked back and slowed down slightly; seeing that, I instantly leaped toward him from high above, colliding with several branches in the process, which caused his highness to look up at the canopy. When I broke through the canopy, I saw his highness's eyes go wide while his face shifted into a scared expression as he quickly turned back around and tried dashing off, but by then, it was too late as I had already landed on the ground with one of my hands touching his shoulder.
"You have been captured, your highness." Stated Illumia as she stood up and dusted off the leaves and dirt on her clothes.
"Haa, did you also manage to capture Elaine as well?" Asked Elif, a little annoyed at having been captured, but he knew the moment she caught up to him, his fate was sealed, so it wasn't that big of a deal to him.
"No, I haven't, your highness; you were the first person I chased after as I deemed you would be the most difficult to capture." Answered Illumia as she plucked the leaves out of her hair.
"Then why was Elaine? Wait a second, she isn't even near me, so how did I hear Elaine's voice!?" Asked Elif after using his divine sense, causing him to eye Illumia suspiciously.
"What you heard wasn't her highness; it was me imitating her voice and tricking you." Replied Illumia as she imitated Elaine's voice, surprising Elif, though he quickly got more annoyed afterward.
"You, hmph, I don't want to look at you anymore." Stated Elif as he folded his arms before turning around in annoyance.
"Well then, I shall go and locate the other two, though I must thank you, your highness, now I know that her highness isn't near us." Said Illumia as she quickly dashed off back into the direction she came from, intending to head back to the tracks and follow after Sarah.
Once I made it back to the set of tracks, I followed the biggest footprints that branched off to the right, and after a while of running around scanning my surroundings, I found Ms. Sarah hiding behind a bush playing with various small critters.
"You are captured, Ms. Sarah." Said Illumia as she tapped Sarah after sneaking up from behind her.
"Ahhhh! Oh, It's just you, Ms. Illumia; you frightened me." Responded Sarah as she clutched her chest where her heart was while gasping for air.
"My apologizes, but as I've touched you, you are out of the game."
"Ohh yeah, Hehe, I forgot we were playing. Am I the first one out?" Said Sarah as she played with a small furry animal.
"You are the second one Ms. Sarah; his highness was first, and the only one remaining is her highness." Replied Illumia.
"At least I'm not the first one out, anyways good luck Ms. Illumia; I'll stay here and continue playing with the animals." Said Sarah, who went back to playing with animals.
As I dashed back to the set of tracks, I followed behind her highness's footprints that continued in a straight line; however, while following the tracks, I noticed two footprints caved in a little deeper than the other, and they were slightly pointing to the right. Stopping immediately, I looked to the right at a thick bush and noticed some of the branches were broken on the ground; moving the bush slightly, I saw another set of tracks of her highness hiding behind the bush.
'Her highness seems to be quite cunning compared to his highness.' Thought Illumia as she followed after the new set of tracks.
While running, the tracks suddenly ended; however, I could tell that the dirt up ahead had been moved around as if to hide something, in this case, tracks. I continued walking down the path, no longer with any clues or hints of her highness's location, though I suddenly snapped my neck at a ninety-degree angle to the right as I felt someone staring at me from that direction. As I proceeded to stare, I suddenly saw a tree branch move, causing me to dash right toward the tree instantly, and while doing so, her highness was slowly revealed to me. Hiding up in the branch, she tried escaping down, but the tree branch she was on was too high for her to make a quick escape since she had to go down the trunk, and by the time she managed to arrive on the ground, I was already standing there waiting for her.
"You've been captured, your highness." Said Illumia as she tapped Elaine's shoulder.
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Elven Legacy (Chapter 124: The Next Day) || Hero of Harmony (Chapter 7: Mana Theory and Repercussions) || One Piece: Chaos Kong (Chapter 8: Massive Improvements!) at [patreon.com/Ozonelayer691]