Chapter 93: Relationship Trouble

It's been a few days since I've been prohibited from leaving the royal grounds, and currently, I'm inside Elaine's room using my crystal ball; I'm recording Elaine and Sarah dressed in maid uniforms as a form of revenge for abandoning me the other day. I must thank that woman from the mortal realm, as while I was there, I had come across a group of people dressed in unique clothes, or cosplaying as that woman called, and thanks to those groups of people, I came up with this idea.

"Maybe you'll think twice about abandoning me like that next time." Said Elif with a mischievous smirk while forcing them to do different poses.

"Ughh, brother, you're so evil!" Yelled Elaine, feeling quite angry and humiliated from wearing maid clothes as a princess, though whenever Elif praised her for being adorable or pretty, it slightly improved her mood; nonetheless, it hardly made a difference in her anger.

"This is indeed quite embarrassing, your highness." Muttered Sarah, though contrary to the anger Elaine felt, she didn't seem to mind it much; in fact, being stared at by Elif while he praised her appearance seemed to motivate her instead, though Elif didn't know as he mistook the deep blush on her face for anger.

"Hehe, alright, alright; my little revenge is over; you can change back into your original outfit." Said Elif with a satisfied smirk, finding it incredibly difficult to anger Elaine anymore.

With my words, Elaine instantly headed towards her bathroom at the fastest speed she could muster, and by the time Sarah arrived at the bathroom to change, Elaine exited fully clothed in her usual royal attire, sporting an angry expression as she ignored me and sat down.

Slightly chuckling, I approached Elaine and sat beside her before trying to cheer her up. However, whenever I tried touching her, she would always increase the distance between us until she eventually reached the edge of the divan.

"Someone seems quite upset; maybe a little bit of tickling will improve the mood?" Said Elif with a smirk as he quickly started tickling her, catching her off-guard and causing her almost to let out a laugh.

I could tell she was pretty angry as she tried running away from me, but I couldn't let that happen, so I quickly grabbed both her arms and pushed her down to the bed as I once again started tickling her after immobilizing her arms and legs using my Qi. With my constant assault of ticking her, it didn't take long for that angry facade on her face to slowly crumble into a large smile before she eventually erupted into laughter.

"Brother, stop it, or I will die of laughter!" Exclaimed Elaine in between her bouts of laughter, trying her best to sound annoyed or angry, but it all proved futile with Elif constantly tickling her.

I ignored all her cries of pleas and continued mercilessly tickling her, and I only stopped when I sensed Sarah was about to exit from the bathroom.

"There, now maybe, you won't be so grumpy." Muttered Elif as he stood up and freed Elaine from his constraints, resulting in her quickly distancing herself from him while looking at him with anger, albeit with much less intensity than before.

"Umm, did I miss something, your Highnesses?" Asked Sarah, having stepped into the weird scene of Elif standing on the bed and Elaine in the corner of the room warily looking at Elif.

"Ahh, not really, Sarah, I was merely trying to improve Elaine's mood, and it seems like I was successful." Answered Elif as he gently landed on the ground before sitting in an empty chair.

"Hmph, I'm still angry at you, brother." Said Elaine angrily as she made her way back to the divan she was previously sitting in before Elif attacked her, though just after she sat down, she caught something thrown at her.

"Don't look at me like that. Did you think I was going to keep it? Even if the chances are infinitely small, I can't let someone else have the privilege of seeing my cute little sister in a maid outfit; it wouldn't do good for your reputation as the Crown Princess. Ahh, and Sarah, of course." Said Elif, having thrown the crystal ball containing the images and recordings of Elaine and Sarah posing in maid attire to Elaine.

"Besides, everything has been stored inside here." Added Elif with a smirk while pointing to his head, causing Elaine to release a huff as she destroyed the crystal ball, leaving only the three in the room ever knowing what had happened; not even Maria or Marcus knew.

After Elaine destroyed the crystal ball, the three of us sat down in silence for a little bit before engaging in a conversation; the topics were mainly about the recent events at the elven cuisine pagoda, and that caused the jealousy I saw in Marley to resurface along with a burning curiosity.

"It's quite embarrassing to only now ask this of you, considering we've known each other for four years, but how are your accommodations back home? It's not bad, is it?" Asked Elif, concerned about his best friend's living conditions and embarrassed at only now asking this question to his best friend.

"You mean my living conditions, your highness? No, it's not bad at all; in fact, it is quite the opposite; I'm given the best treatment possible, and I have many friends. Life back home is very excellent, though, of course, it hasn't always been that way." Answered Sarah with a large smile before changing into a slight frown towards the end.

"What do you mean by that, Sarah? Aren't you the daughter of the Patriarch and the Patriarch's wife of the Eve family? Shouldn't you always be given excellent accommodations?" Asked Elaine, Elif, and her, finding Sarah's situation quite weird given her unique status as the only daughter of the patriarch's wife.

"Well, at first, I was treated just as my status would suggest; however, everything changed for the worse when I turned four. Father practically ignored my presence; I was given a much worse room to live in, and hardly any servants were arranged for me, though while it was a sudden change, with my status and my mother's status, not much changed other than that, well, at least until Marley started bullying me. Since father seemed to favor Marley much more over me, he never bothered to reprimand Marley, and so the occurrence and intensity of her bullying increased, and eventually, my other half-siblings started bullying me as well; with more time passing, my situation became worse, even my mother eventually abandoned me after her attempts at improving my situation backfired, and when I thought about killing myself, I met you, your Highness. Your presence was like a beacon of hope; spending time with you caused me to momentarily forget about all the miserable things back home while also filling me with happiness, and not only that, but the more time we interacted, the less frequently I was bullied until, eventually, the only one who bullied me was Marley. And well, just two years ago, my living condition changed to what it used to be before my fourth birthday." Explained Sarah with a slight smile that radiated love, and Elif wasn't some fool who couldn't put two and two together.

"That is quite unfortunate to hear, Sarah. Why didn't you bother telling me about this? I would've helped you, you know." Asked Elif, feeling very uncomfortable and sorrowful at the information he had learned from Sarah.

"Ahh, well, it's not like I didn't think about asking you for help, your Highness, but I didn't want you to think the only reason why I befriended you was because of your status and power. You were the only person who treated me nicely, and after being thrown aside and forgotten about by nearly everyone, I wished for nothing more than a true friend." Said Sarah as she unintentionally displayed a beautiful smile that contained all the joy and sorrows she had experienced through her ten years of life.

When I saw the smile on Sarah's face, I also couldn't help but smile as well; over the past four years that I've known Sarah, this is the first time I've ever seen her so happy and free of any burdens, something which I immensely enjoyed, seeing as she was my one and only true friend as well.

'Friend, huh?' Thought Elif while mentally sighing, feeling quite complicated about discovering Sarah's feelings towards him.

"I'm glad your living conditions are better, but don't you find your father's actions quite weird? I don't mean to be rude, but why would he suddenly start caring about you out of nowhere?" Asked Elaine, who was also quite sad to find out her friend hadn't had the best of life.

"Of course I do, your highness; I'm not as dumb and foolish as I may seem, but I also have no idea why my father would suddenly be concerned about my well-being. Everything changed shortly after the Noble tournament two years ago; that's the only clue I have, if I can even call it a clue." Said Sarah in confusion while sighing.

"Well, there is not much point in thinking about it, Sarah; just enjoy your current lifestyle, and if anything changes, tell Elaine or me, alright? That's a Royal decree." Said Elif seriously as he stood up from his seat while fanning himself with his quạt tay.

"I understand, your highness." Replied Sarah with a smile, the blush on her face that had just recently vanished returning once again.

"Where are you going, brother?"

"There was something I wanted to check on, don't worry about me; you two have some fun." Replied Elif as he exited the room that Illumia and Maxim were guarding.

Once I stepped outside, the smile on my face vanished and was replaced with a frown that expressed various and complex emotions; exhaling a sigh of exhaustion, I signaled to Illumia before leaving the area.

"You seem very troubled, your highness." Asked Illumia, sensing the various emotions coming off of Elif.

"It's-haa, let's talk about this later; I have something more urgent I'd like to accomplish. Illumia, can you sneak inside the Eve manor?" Said Elif, once again sighing in exhaustion before shifting the conversation.

"Unfortunately, I cannot. Nordan's strength is on par with mine, so as long as I don't get too close to him, I should be able to stay undetected; however, the Noble family has a few powerful Elders, each one of them much stronger than me." Answered Illumia, a curious tone in her voice.

"Hmm, so all you need is a little assistance, I presume? Well, I haven't visited Great-grandmother since I returned to the OverRealm; now is as good a time as ever." Muttered Elif, changing his direction as he now headed toward the royal treasury