As they arrived at the hunting ground, Lyra felt excited.
"Let's go." The Duke said as one of the knight opened the door to the carriage. They all stepped down from the carriage and headed to their tent. Lyra could hear whispers from everywhere.
"They're matching."
"They all look so good."
"Should we do this next time?"
Soon, there would be a new trend going around in upper society. As the servants was setting everything up, the Duchess was reminding the siblings to be careful especially Lyra since this would be her first time participating. "Don't worry, my knights would be with me." She gave a smile to the three knights that would be protecting her today. Today would be Noah, Leo, and Ella. They all smiled back at her.
The Duchess sighed. "Still, remember to be careful." Lyra, Oliver, and Violet nodded obediently.
"The Emperor and Empress has arrived!" The Duke's family all came outside and gave a slight bow while the rest of the nobles went on their knees. This was one of the perks of being someone from the Duke's family.
"Rise! Today shall be the annul hunting competition. My subjects and I had agreed on a new rule this year! The youngest group will be paired up with the 11-18 groups!"
This caused a big uproar among the upper nobles. Everyone knew that the 5-10 age groups all had harmless animals in their hunting space but the 11-18 age groups had some dangerous species in their hunting space.
The 5 - 10 age groups only had small animals. Rabbits,
"Silence! For every young child, they shall be paired up with 2 older child. The younger child can choose who they want to be with!"
Lyra looked at her siblings and they looked back at her. They all had the same thought in mind.
"We will see how this goes and think about adding it to the rules next year!"
As the emperor finished speaking, all of the nobles were thinking of whom to pair their child with. They all wanted to pair their children with someone powerful. But the top options were already taken. They had no choice but to choose someone else.
"The competition will begin soon!" The announcer said. The other nobles rush to pair their young children with some older children, it was quite a chaotic scene.
"Are you nervous?" Oliver asked Lyra.
"No, I have you and Violet with me." She gave a big smile.
The three of them walk to the entrance while talking to each other. Lyra could see the Fotiá siblings with the royals. 'This isn't supposed to happen. Everything is going in a different direction.' Everything is changing yet Lyra doesn't know why. The emperor wasn't supposed to make this rule until the heroine arrive, why now? 'It's okay, I can do this.' Lyra took a big breath in and let it out before she was able to calm down.
"Lyra!" The 5th princess ran up to Lyra and hugged her.
"Greetings, 5th Prin- Lila." Lyra said.
"Greetings, 5th Princess." Oliver and Violet said. The two siblings turned to look at their little sister before silently looking away with a smile on their face. The two of them had the same thought in mind. 'Lyra is finally friends with someone close to her age.'
"Let's both do our best." Lyra added in. Lila nodded.
They chatted for a bit before the competition started. The 5th princess was just here to observe and not participate. The Fotiá siblings were paired up with another royal.
"Wish you the best of luck." Oliver said to the siblings.
"Likewise."
...
As Lyra was walking around with her siblings, she saw a rabbit nearby.
"Make sure to walk near me, Lyra." Oliver said.
"Okay." Lyra replied.
While Violet went over to catch the rabbit, Lyra was making a plan in mind to get rid of her siblings. She wanted to explore the hunting grounds by herself but she knew that neither of her siblings would allow that. So while her siblings were distracted with the rabbit, she quickly disappeared into the woods, making herself invisible with her black cloak, while leaving a clone of herself behind so her siblings wouldn't get worried. Of course, her 3 bodyguards that were following her didn't notice either since she made an illusion of herself standing still.
While walking further into the hunting grounds, she remembered the promise she made with Lila. To get Lila a Hummza, those birds are very fast and hard to capture, but Lyra knew a secret that could make them come to her. She quickly looked around for a flower field but there wasn't any in sight so she decided to hop onto a tree to scout the area. While on a tree that was big enough to oversee some parts of the hunting ground, she saw a flower field. Hoping from tree to tree, she got closer to the flower field before she hopped down the tree and decided to go on feet to the flower field.
Once she was at her destination, she walked right to the middle before humming a sweet tone. Dozens of Hummza kept coming closer and closer to her, but Lyra felt none of them were pretty and strong enough so she kept humming the tune. After a while, she saw a Hummza that captured her attention, she captured it into her space before quickly disappearing again into the woods. After she left, another person wondered into the flower field, the Crown Prince. While walking around with his sister, he heard a sweet tune that was coming from the flower field so he decided to follow the tune to discover who was humming but before he could see the mysterious person, that person disappeared.
"Eldest Brother, what are you looking for?" The 3rd Princess said while running after him.
"Nothing." He said with a irritating tone.
His sister was following him, complaining about how dirty the hunting ground was. It truly annoyed him but he couldn't say anything as she was his sister. He wanted to ditch her but then his mother would complain to him about leaving his sister behind.