"Ho, that's quite a lot of commoners gathered within the Royal Grounds; anyone interested in partaking in a bet?" Remarked Elif with a grin as he looked out a window, viewing the royal courtyard, which is currently filled with roughly six thousand.
"What type of bet are you suggesting, your Highness?" Asked Sarah curiously as she also glanced out the window, gazing upon the thousands of commoners and nobles.
"Heh, out of the six thousand participants present for the opening of the Treasure realm, how many do you think will survive? I've been inside the Treasure realm before, and it's quite dangerous; I happened to come across a few beasts with strength equal to that of a Divine Emperor." Stated Elif with a smirk while drinking tea as he shifted his focus toward the five people inside the room.
"Sure, Brother." Replied Elaine lightly with a nod as she sat directly beside Elif while occasionally glancing at the four other women, a crazy glint appearing within her eyes.
"Count me in, your Highness; it sounds rather fun." Said Marley with an eager smile while sitting beside Sarah and Idonea.
"I'll join as well, your Highness." Said Idonea with a slight nod.
"If everyone else is going to participate, I'll also join; might as well; I can't be the odd one out." Remarked Sarah with a slight smile while sitting across from Elif.
"Will you not partake in the bet, Illumia and Maxim? Unlike other times, you both don't have that much of an edge over everyone else, so this should make it one of the fairer bets you two could engage in." Asked Elif with a smirk as he eyed Illumia, who was standing behind him, while merely giving an unimpressed glance at Maxim, who was standing behind Elaine.
"Since you asked, your Highness, I might as well; hopefully, I'll win." Replied Maxim with a nod and a light smile, though once again, Elif merely gave him a bland look, causing him to sigh internally, before he shifted his focus back to Illumia.
"You're not wrong, your Highness, so I suppose I will; though it doesn't matter whether I've got experience in the subject or not, I won't be losing to you." Declared Illumia while Elif's facial expression twisted from her bold remark.
"Hehe, considering I'll be winning, and since you seem so confident you'll beat me, Illumia, how about you decide what we'll be betting for? I'd advise against spirit stones, though; otherwise, Elaine and I might as well be betting against just each other." Stated Elif with a smirk as he eyed Illumia while affectionately rubbing Elaine, who had leaned into his embrace.
"Pick something good, Illumia; otherwise, I won't have much desire to win." Said Elaine as she eyed Sarah, Marley, and Idonea with a provocative smirk while enjoying Elif's touch, causing the three to frown with envy.
"Hmm; how about this? I will inform you of the prize only after figuring out the winner." Said Illumia, her words causing everyone to smile slightly.
"Ho, I quite like that idea." Remarked Elif with a thoughtful expression as he glanced at everyone else, only to see them nodding in agreement.
"This'll make it much more interesting!" Said Sarah with an excited smile, while her sister, Marley, was just as enthusiastic.
Sensing something happening down below, I looked out the window, viewing the thousands of people, only to spot Father and several royal guards floating in front of the participants.
"Seems like the opening of the Treasure realm will be commencing soon; we should get going." Stated Elif as he set down his cup and stood up, causing Elaine to pout, but she followed Elif's actions.
Since I didn't feel like going the normal way to get to the royal courtyard, I just approached the window and opened it before flying through, though except for Elaine, who followed behind me, everyone else gave us blank expressions.
"Hmph, don't give us that look; we didn't feel like walking through the entire palace when we could just leave through the window." Said Elaine with a huff while hovering beside Elif as she folded her arms.
Chuckling at Elaine's words, which were something I'd say, we turned around and floated downwards toward Father, who just did a slicing motion with his hand, causing a massive tear in space to appear; though, unlike the time when Mother did it, where the tear in space was pure blackness, you could clearly see through it as everyone's shocked expressions gazed upon the Treasure realm.
"Woah; W-What did His Majesty just do!?" Asked a random commoner who had won his city's tournament as he and thousands of others viewed the tear in space that led to a Forest.
"Hmph, commoners; don't even know about moving through space; can't believe their Majesties allowed such incompetent fools to set foot within the Royal grounds." Mocked a random noble as he looked at the commoner, his words causing surrounding nobles to chuckle while the person of interest shamefully shut their mouth.
"L-Look, it's Crown Prince Elif and Crown Princess Elaine!" Said someone from amongst the crowd as they pointed up at Elif and Elaine, who were floating toward Marcus, their words causing nearly everyone to focus shit towards the two.
"Prince Elif! Princess Elaine!" Yelled the crowd as they intently eyed the two.
"Hehe, you hear that, Elaine? I'm utterly adored." Remarked Elif with a narcissistic smirk as he gazed upon the numerous women yelling his name and winked at them, causing hundreds of them to faint instantly.
"Tch, stupid women; I'd kill you all if I could for the blasphemous act of lustfully gazing upon my Brother and future husband." Muttered Elaine angrily with a slightly crazy expression as she looked down at the love-stricken women below.
"I want him to impregnate me!" Yelled a woman, her words causing Elaine to angrily raise her hand as a massive Royal Elf Palm manifested above the thousands of people.
"Who's the dead woman that uttered those words!?" Yelled Elaine, full of wrath as she directed her killing intent to the crowd down below, ready to kill them all if need be.
"Calm down, Elaine; there is no need to get so worked upon over such words from an insignificant person." Said Elif lightly; although her actions slightly took him aback, he quickly rested his hand atop Elaine's shoulder in hopes of quelling her potent anger, though it proved to have little to no effect.
Seeing how my words nor touch seemed to be soothing Elaine's rising anger, I merely sighed while shaking my head before leaning in to kiss her, maintaining eye contact the whole time, allowing me to see her anger-filled eyes swiftly dissipate as she returned to normal.
"Have you calmed down now?" Asked Elif softly as he released the kiss while eyeing Elaine.
"Yep, I'm better. sorry for before, Brother; I got a little too angry at how disrespectful they were being toward you." Said Elaine lightly while avoiding eye contact as she realized she had shown her dark side to Elif, quickly attempting to devise a believable excuse.
I found nothing wrong with her words that the women were disrespectful; however, I don't know why, but I felt Elaine wasn't telling me the whole truth.
'Haa, I must be overthinking things; Elaine is my dear little sister; she has nothing to hide from me.' Mused Elif with a slight smile as he shook his head.
'Haa, thankfully, Brother believed me; however, I need to be more careful; I can't let Brother see my other side.' Thought Elaine as she reprimanded herself while engraving the women's voice into her head.
Anyway, with that little episode having concluded, Elaine and I approached Father, who was currently looking at the two of us with a knowing smirk, which caused me to be slightly embarrassed, as that was the first time I had kissed Elaine before either Mother or Father.
"Just make sure your intimate actions don't go past kissing; the both of you are still young, after all." Remarked Marcus with a smirk, his words causing both Elaine and Elif's faces to take on a slight red hue.
"We've already had that talk, Father; we won't be doing anything more than kissing until we've become adults." Replied Elif as he concealed his embarrassment with his quạt tay, while Elaine just looked away.
"Haha, well then, since you two already know, I won't say anything." Said Marcus with a chuckle while slightly shaking his head before his expression hardened as he shifted his focus to the crowd.
While Father was informing the crowd about the basics of the Treasure realm, I turned around as I sensed everyone else had finally arrived after walking through the whole palace, even though they could've just flown through the window like Elaine and I.
"We didn't miss anything, did we?" Asked Sarah with a curious expression as she glanced at the hundreds of unconscious women.
"Tch, no; nothing at all." Replied Elaine in annoyance from being reminded as she folded her arms, while Elif just tenderly rubbed her head to keep her calm.
Although Sarah was skeptical of Elaine's answer, it seemed like she didn't care much about it as she quickly forgot about it and mentioned other things. While conversing, it seemed like Father had finally finished speaking since he raised his hand, causing thousands of silver medallions to emerge from the crowd and float in the air for a split second before returning back to their owners.
"I've just activated your medallions; they will now act as a compass, always showing you the direction back to the OverRelam. Remember, you will only be allowed entrance for forty days if you're not out by then; you will stay trapped within the realm. Now then, with everything out of the way, the Opening of the Treasure realm shall commence!" Stated Marcus solemnly as he moved out of the air, causing droves of people to excitedly enter the treasure realm until no one remained.
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Created a discord server, so if anyone wishes to join, [https://discord.gg/TGc9yymDJP]
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Elven Legacy (Chapter 250: Banquet Begins!) || Hero of Harmony (Chapter 132: Enemy From Behind) || One Piece: Chaos Kong (Chapter 229: Admiral Akainu!)|| Marvel's Black Steel (Chapter 204: Victory!) at [patreon.com/Ozonelayer691]