Chapter 22: Leaving The Castle!?

"Alright, your highness, training is over for today unless you wish to continue?" Asked Illumia just after she had kicked Elif off the arena.

"No, I have something else I wish to do today." Answered Elif, who got up from the ground while covered in light injuries.

Sheathing my sword, I expel Qi from my body to clean the dirt off me before heading to the entrance, with Illumia following right behind me like always.

It's been a month since my first sparring session with Illumia, and ever since I woke up in the doctor's office, with my parents informing me of Illumia also being my fighting instructor as well as my maid, caused me to be angry at my parents for a few days, and highly annoyed with Illumia, in fact, I'm still annoyed with Illumia right now.

The only reason I've stopped complaining was that mother and father had told me they went through the same thing when they were my age as well, and if my parents could do it, why could someone like me, who is even more talented, not do it? So with that mindset, I stopped complaining and started taking this training session seriously, and though I won't ever tell Illumia, her method of training me is excellent.

I've vastly improved upon my sword skills, and I've even managed to learn how to manipulate my sword intent; by coating my partner in sword intent, I can increase the sharpness as well as the length of my sword, though currently if I need more length, my partner can just grow back to normal size.

Though I've been training a lot, I also hadn't taken a break from cultivating as I've reached the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm; when I first broke through to the Nascent Soul realm, I was supposed to awaken what is a divine sense, but apparently, my 'Minds Eye' ability was actually divine sense the entire time. When I asked Grandfather about it, he said divine sense is correlated to the strength of your soul, and since my soul was exceptionally powerful, I had awakened divine sense before I even started cultivating. Grandfather had said while that's rare, it's nothing special, but it does give a great benefit of having a much more extensive divine sense range when you fully awaken it, as when I was at the Peak of Core Formation, I could at most sense two kilometers in diameter, but when I broke through to Nascent Soul, the range increased all the way to eighty kilometers in diameter, eight times the range of what is considered average.

While I was still in deep thought, I finally reached my room after not getting lost in the maze of hallways; opening the door, I placed my sword on my bed before heading into the bathroom to take a bath and clean myself. While sitting in the big bathtub filled with warm water, I use this chance of peacefulness to relax, as most of the time, I'm either training with Illumia or cultivating; the only time I get to relax is right now, and when I'm playing with Elaine, I don't even get to sleep anymore as with my increasing cultivation base sleep becomes less and less demanding; currently, I could go several months without sleep.

'This feels wonderful; I wish I could stay like this for the rest of the day.' Thought Elif contently while releasing a sigh.

However, sadly I couldn't stay here long; once I felt the water start to cool down, I took it as a sign of time for me to leave. Sighing, I get out of the tub and go and dry myself before putting on some new clothes; I didn't bother fixing my hair; I just let it sway freely, which I rarely do. When I left the bathroom, I saw Illumia sitting down in one of the chairs I have, but she instantly stood up when I left the bathroom, eyeing her with annoyance, which didn't seem to bother her as I've only seen her stoic face show a smile when we're fighting.

"Do you wish for me to kneel down so you can get a better look, your highness?" Asked Illumia; though it sounded like she was teasing him, it was hard for Elif to figure that out as her expression didn't change once.

"Hmph, I don't wish to talk with you." Said Elif with a pout, still feeling annoyed with her.

"Your Highness, it has already been a month since then, and I've already apologized; when will you let it go?" Asked Illumia curiously, though once again, her expression didn't show any change.

"When I feel like it; besides, I never accepted your apology." Replied Elif, acting just like a child would, which considering his age is normal; it's just uncommon for him to act like that with his high intelligence.

I stopped conversing with her and left my room while making my way to the dining room to go and eat lunch; though similar to sleep, I don't need to eat, but the food tastes delicious, so I still try to eat whenever I have time. When I get there, I see both of my grandparents there while father is feeding Elaine, though I'm pretty surprised that father is here as they usually only finish work a little after lunchtime.

"Hello, Elif; how's your training with Illumia going?" Asked Tiana.

"I don't wish to talk about it." Replied Elif as he hopped into his seat and started eating next to Elaine.

"Don't tell me you're still angry at Illumia, Elif? With how smart you are, you should realize that this training is mandatory with how dangerous the OverRealm is." Said Tyler, shaking his head in amusement at Elif's ability to hold a grudge.

"It doesn't matter; she should've informed me first, and you to father, why didn't you or mother inform me of that?" Asked Elif, eyeing his father, who just looked at him annoyed, as this wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation.

"It was a mistake, Elif; your mother and I already apologized about it." Answered Marcus as he grabbed the bridge of his nose in exhaustion and irritation.

"Well, I'll forgive you if you let me roam around Yggdrasil!" Asked Elif, with a mischievous smirk on his face, as he tried to blackmail his father into leaving the castle.

"Haa, fine, go ahead, just make sure to bring a group of Royal Elven Guards, understand." Answered Marcus, fully knowing what his son was up to, but didn't care enough to expose him.

'Hehe, it worked; now I can finally leave this castle and see the outside world.' Thought Elif, joyful that his plan worked but not even knowing everyone present had managed to see through his plan.

Once I got the approval from father, I quickly ate the remaining food and left the dining room before returning and kissing Elaine on the head; this time, though, I actually left and headed to the only place where I knew the Royal Guards were. The training grounds.

When I arrived at the training ground, my first thought was to go and look for the person in charge of the training grounds, but every time I walked through here, I'd never seen anyone that looked like a leader or someone in charge. While walking up to a random person that's training, when he saw me, he instantly stopped what he was doing and bowed before me.

"Crown Prince!" Said the man.

"Who's in charge of the training grounds?" Asked Elif, who still tried to act overbearing like Maria, but since he was still a child, it had minimal effect.

"The one in charge of overlooking the Royal Guard recruits training is currently Vice-General Alliyah." Replied the man.

"Ok, then lead me to her; I need her to do something for me." Ordered Elif to the man, who quickly stood up straight and started walking away, presumably walking in vice-general Alliyah's direction.

While Illumia and I followed behind the man, we walked past several groups of people who all stopped what they were during and bowed before continuing their training; after a while, we finally reached what looked like a luxurious hut.

"We've arrived; vice-general Alliyah is right inside, Crown Prince." Replied the man with a bow.

"Thanks; you can leave now." Said Elif with a wave of his hand, to which the man listened and quickly left.

Since there was no door, just some curtains covering the entrance, I didn't bother announcing my presence and just walked inside; seeing no one inside, I used my divine sense to scan the interior and found a person in another room. Walking to the left, I pass by another set of hanging curtains and arrive in what looks like the bathroom, along with a naked woman who seems to be taking a bath; seeing a naked woman didn't really bother Illumia nor me; however, it seems like Alliyah thought differently.

"WHO DARES TO ENT-C-Crown Prince, w-what brings you here?" Shouted Alliyah angrily before quickly calming down and bowing when she realized it was the crown prince, all while still nude.

"I wish to leave the castle, but father said I need a group of Royal Guards to accompany me." Stated Elif, as he looked at Alliyahs breasts before looking at Illumia's breasts that are hidden behind clothes, though this didn't go unnoticed by either of them.

"Do you wish for me also to get naked, your highness?" Asked Illumia, who once again teased him, but her facial expression didn't change just like before.

"Hmph, no one wishes to see you naked, besides mother told me breasts are where women store fat, so why would I like to see fat?" Replied Elif, obviously still annoyed with Illumia.

"I understand, Prince; if you could give me a moment to get dressed, I shall gather all the recruits into one area so you can pick a group." Replied Alliyah as she stepped out of the bathtub and put on a towel to cover her up.

"Well then, hurry up." Said Elif as he made his way out of the bathroom, with Illumia following right behind him.