The rules for the treasure hunt were quickly briefed to the participants of the game, mainly to everyone available except Lunaea and Luniel. Since Sera and the other two were done helping Laevia with her business during the morning, they were allowed to join the group in the treasure hunt too.
"Laevia-sama, wouldn't a treasure hunt be unfair if we have elves and a foxkin participating?" Yuuji pointed out politely. "With due respect, they have heightened senses that would help seek for clues."
"Ah, you don't have to worry about that. The treasure hunt we have planned will ensure that no one has any advantage naturally given to them," Laevia addressed his concern. "About the rules, we have decided to limit the range of the search to just within the palace grounds. Of course, there will be restricted areas that you are not allowed to go to, which is why I have these guards here. They will accompany each of you throughout the treasure hunt, which will last for 4 hours."
"F-Four hours of treasure hunt?! What exactly are we looking for that will require such a long time period?" Kaze gulped, feeling the pressure of the game.
"You will be looking for a 'King' based on clues given," Laevia answered in a puzzling manner, causing everyone to have a double take.
"A 'King'?"
"What clues?"
"How are we starting?"
"All will be revealed," even when faced with all sorts of questions, Laevia calmly spoke and tapped the pamphlet in her hand once. "The game has started. Good luck."
Laevia then walked away, leaving the group in quite the confusion and disarray. Whatever she said definitely did not make any sense other than the rules previously told, which were to not enter any restricted area, to not leave the palace during the period the game was going on, and to be with their guard at all times.
"Alright, what should we do?" Irene was the first to address her question to the group. "Laevia-sama just walked away like that…"
"At this rate, we have more questions than answers on what we should do," Yuuji muttered, thinking silently. "Should we work together and figure out what is a 'King'?"
"The rules didn't say that we should team up, but at the same time it didn't say we can't team up either," Albert started out by analysing the 3 rules told to them. "The question now would be if it is a good choice to form teams?"
"It is a treasure hunting game. The first-come-first-serve basis stands, but what exactly is a 'King'?" Mitsui pointed out. "To see what actions we should take, I suggest we look at our pamphlet first. Laevia-sama did remind us that our pamphlets have updated."
"You're right, Mitsui. Laevia-sama isn't one to simply give advice," Sera nodded and gestured to her pamphlet for everyone to see. "As you can see, there is a sentence displayed as our first clue."
" 'A King is one who cares for his subordinates'," Noel read aloud the sentence from her pamphlet. "Is this supposed to be a clue? Isn't this just a sentence describing what a King should be like?"
"Well, if you want it literally interpreted, then we can say that Laevia, as a ruler, fulfils the role of a 'King', since a King is also a ruler. By Laevia leaving the guards here with us, she goes against the word that a King would care for their subordinates," Shoko shrugged. "Of course, that is just a suggestion which I'm aware has many holes in the logic."
"I think you're looking at it too literally, Shoko," Lunaria smiled wryly at her friend's guess. "Why don't we start by returning to the palace and checking the throne room? Since the sentence refers to a King caring for his subordinates, then the throne room could provide some answers since that is where a King, or Emperor, would reign and make all the decisions."
"Ehh? Are we even allowed entry into the throne room?" Kaze asked Lunaria, feeling worried about entering such an important place. "I don't think we can even step foot inside if we don't have official business."
"Good point," Lunaria sighed. "Take my words back then. Even if we managed to enter the place, it would be rude to pry around. Maybe the sentence is not directly referring to a location, but an anagram?"
"That probably isn't it. I do agree it refers to a location more so than a complex puzzle," Rena supported her friend's initial idea. "If the throne room doesn't work, maybe we can check where the soldier and guards usually train?"
"Doesn't that mean we have to leave the palace then?" Chris scratched his head. "Because that's the military base right?"
"No, Rena's referring to where the palace soldier and guards train," Lucentia corrected Chris. "That would be towards the back of the palace, near the side of the mountain."
"So… should we move as a group?" Yuuji proposed. "Because I don't see how fighting to figure out the clues will work if we all split up."
With Yuuji suggesting them to stick together, the team quickly made their way to the soldier's training grounds. The guards who were ordered by Laevia to follow them simply ran behind the team, not saying a single word or making any additional expression throughout their discussion. Clearly, they have been ordered to not give a clue to the group and to only stop them from doing anything restricted.
The training grounds of the palace soldiers were nothing fancy compared to the military. Other than having a huge space along with several zones for them to practice their sparing in between of duties, there was also a small magic training area laced with anti-magic stones in case any form of magic accidentally hit the palace. Several guards were already at the place when the group arrived, hence the slight confusion the guards showed upon realizing the palace's guests were there.
"Lunaria-sama, is there a problem?" One of the guards addressed Lunaria politely.
"No, we are just here on mother's request to look for something," Lunaria replied. "Did she come by earlier?"
"I don't know, you would have to ask people before our shift," the dragonkin shrugged. "Is there something specific that you are looking for? Maybe we can help."
"That's alright. If mother entrusted us with the task herself, then I would assume she doesn't want outside intervention unless necessary," Lunaria shook her head. "Thank you for asking."
Before the group even had time to contemplate what their next step was, a sign that they were on the right track immediately appeared.
"Lunaria, the pamphlet's updating."
Everyone checked the pamphlet upon realizing this change. Sure enough, the line of words was now varied with slight differences compared to the first sentence. This must mean that they came to the right place, now having a task needed to be done if they wanted to move on.
"We have to… find a practice spear that has been magically marked by Laevia-sama herself?" Shoko sighed. "So that's why we have to wear this necklace."
"How are we to detect a magically marked spear if we can't use magic ourselves?" Chris glanced at the dozens of spears by a rack at the side of the wall. "Do we have to try and find out what is different physically?"
"There are ways to detect a magical signal without using magic, but knowing mother, she probably made it extra tricky," Lunatea also sighed at the challenge. "So this was what mother meant when she said the treasure was a 'King' and restricted our use of magic… because a ruler like a King must be great at using the mind."
"We should each start with the basic way to try and detect then, which is what Chris said," Yuuji decided, taking one spear for himself. "Even without using magic, there should still be a vague difference with a magically engraved one that is detectable physically. If not, we would have to try the other methods."
And so, they began shaking and testing out each of the spears. It was rather excruciating knowing that they had to test each of the spear, making them look like idiots to others since no one knew what they were doing.
The way that magic signatures or engravings could be detected without using magic skills ultimately depend on what the nature of the magic used was. Most of the time harmless magic engravings like the one Laevia used to test them was much harder to detect since they don't activate immediately, instead relying on a certain action to be taken before signs of magic show up. As such, without any prior notice and only the hint to find a spear that had been magically engraved, it required a lot of patience, and this was only the first part of the treasure hunt.
Thankfully, the first challenge wasn't as hard as they expected. Laevia went easy on them and provided a simple strengthening magic engrave on the spear, causing it to launch slightly further than the others when thrown. Testing out a spear itself, other than the usual thrusting, involved throwing, so the group easily figured out which spear it was.
"Ah, the pamphlet updated again. Looks like this will be how we receive updates and notifications that we finished the task properly," Yuuji noted with a chuckle. "How exactly is Laevia-sama doing this? It's so accurate it feels scary."
"Anything is possible within Aravel, as we have learnt," Sera lightly joked. "Let's see… 'Bring the spear along for the next part of the test. A King is nothing without the help of his subordinates.' Wouldn't this be a hint for there being a meeting room in the palace?"
"I like that idea. A King without his subordinates' help would mean that the King would discuss and solve issues together with his comrades. In that case, it would be a meeting spot within the palace," Lunaria nodded. "Plus, we also know that the place is not confidential since a meeting room is considered to be a public area within the palace."
Moving to the next venue, the group once again found an assignment. The task was to locate another hidden magical insignia within the confines of the meeting room, which was currently empty. Compared to the previous task, this was much harder considering that an insignia being branded in any random part of the room was not easily locatable compared to touching a spear. Since there was no possible way they could touch every part of the room by hand in hopes of finding the insignia, they had to switch their method.
Thankfully, they brought along the spear for good measure. Initially, they figured that having the spear along would be a good idea since there was no way they were asked to locate it simply to receive the next clue. Sure enough, the moment they started tapping around the area with the spear, the engraving on the spear reacted with the one in the room.
As they got closer to the supposed insignia, the spear would glow even brighter. This wasn't obvious for the purpose of making it difficult to guess, hence the short range that enabled the spear to start glowing. It wasn't until another 15 minutes that they figured out to use the spear as a measurement unit compared to an activation method, causing them to find the insignia under the table. It also happened that they must have the spear close to it, otherwise touching the area where the insignia was located would have no effect.
"Mother must be really concerned about us to have chosen such an elaborate hunt," Lunaria sighed as she tapped the insignia, allowing the next line of sentence to appear on their pamphlet.
"Who knows? Maybe this treasure hunt being this hard would truly end with something great," Kaze consoled Lunaria. "Laevia-sama must have thought a lot about how the treasure hunt would be conducted to host it within the palace."
"Alright, here we have… 'A King rules with sovereignty, but not without knowledge.' Pretty straight forward," Sera read aloud the sentence. "That would be the library, because books contain knowledge."
"Ah shit," Irene sweatdropped as soon as she heard the next location. "Doesn't that mean we have to look through each book?"
"I think that would be the case, hence why we have so much time," Shoko nodded with a wry smile. "Though we have 10 challenges in total, with this only being the 3rd."
Sure enough, the task updated once everyone was in the library. Although it wasn't what Irene had expected, the requirement for completion was still just as tedious, requiring them to search for a magically engraved book. Using the spear, they quickly located it and opened the book. This only updated the task as part 1 of 3, with the second task being to use the book to look for a specific word based on a sentence given. Once found, part 3 of the task was to use that word to locate a specific book within the library that would only activate the next clue once found. In all, almost 40 minutes was taken for the massive search, drastically using up their time.
All that was left of the 4 hours had now been reduced to 3, leaving them with 7 more tasks to go. The next place was less forgiving. If the library was a challenge of how fast they could locate the accurate information within a short amount of time, then the next task tested their physical abilities.
Leading them to the main hallway, they were each tasked with doing a certain physical routine planned that involved testing their endurance, muscle strength and patience. It was definitely humiliating, seeing a line of students doing squats and push-ups as if they were getting punished for not doing homework. Even then, the group paid no mind to the stares and giggles they often received from passing guards and maids, knowing that this was part of the test to see how much they could endure with their dignity.
Another 20 minutes passed after their test ended. With each test and trial proving more challenging than the last, the group took each challenge seriously while questioning the purpose of the test at the back of their head. Laevia-sama definitely had a reason for making them go through every one of the trials they had suffered, especially with the sentences acting as their clue referring to a King.
By the time they managed to get past the 8th test, only 30 minutes remained on the clock. The group managed to take a few short breaks in between of the challenges, mostly being a quick rest, toilet and a gulp of water. Without a doubt, they had underestimated the challenge being something relaxing.
"Is this it?"
"We got the place wrong twice… I honestly hope we won't get it wrong thrice."
With the members of the group complaining about the location of their 9th task, they took note of any changes their pamphlets had as they got closer to their third location. By now, they had run through the palace from head to toe, searching for and locating the place of their next task.
"Sorry. If it wasn't for me…"
"We already told you we don't blame you Kaze. This was a group effort. Anyone could have gotten it wrong."
"Yeah Kaze, cheer up."
Kaze was the most dejected out of the group. Since everyone had something to contribute towards the hunt at each stage, Kaze was the one who suggested the two places before coming to the dining room. As a result, they delayed more time than expected because of trying to figure out if they were in the right place. The guards following them this whole time was also not very helpful, since they wouldn't provide any answer that is needed by the group.
Even as his friends consoled him, Kaze found it partly his fault since everything was smooth sailing till now. He tended to lament on his own mistakes that caused there to be failure, such as with the Moon Festival in losing to Frey, losing Lunaria to the devils, and even losing out in life compared to his friends. A small activity like this was enough to make Kaze lose confidence in himself unintentionally.
The group understood that Kaze took it hard on himself, especially with what happened over the past few weeks. When Lunaria was away from Tristania, Kaze was the one who suffered the most from self-blame. It was almost to the point that it felt like Kaze had to deal with depression, an issue that hadn't been explored in the community. Of course, it was unfair to say that only Kaze felt the same helplessness that everyone did after what happened from a few months ago, including the centipede attack, but the one suffering from the effects the most was both Kaze and Lunaria.
As the two who were most deeply involved in all aspects of the unpleasant events, they naturally suffered from more drawback than the rest. Kaze dealt with it by venting through sword practice, hence why most of his anger and displeasure wasn't surface level like Lunaria's. The sense of helplessness, like mud that constantly dragged one downwards, creeped back to Kaze again.
Lunaria, being the only few who looked energetic enough to complete the rest of the treasure hunt, led the group into the dining room. This was an area they had passed by a few times throughout the hunt, but it never crossed their mind as a location according to the clue received. Having explored the two other places that seemed likely based on their own interpretation of the cryptic sentence, they were now giving a shot at a more unlikely place.
Sure enough, the pamphlet updated once again, and a new task was displayed. This caused some of the people in the group to sigh in exasperation over their faulty interpretation of the vague clue received. However, this wasn't a reason for them to give up since they were already so close to finishing the treasure hunt and reaching the end. All they had to do was finish the last 2 trials within 30 minutes.
"We have to… Oh, thank God it's not finding another damn insignia… Wait, we have to 'ensure our subjects are content'? What the heck are 'subjects'?"
"Is this a roleplay?"
"Did we receive the wrong information?"
"No way, the pamphlet is never wrong."
"Are we missing a clue?"
"Heh… 30 minutes to figure out how we treat our invisible subjects?"
The group then tried to trigger a response by reusing the methods tried on the previous few trials. From using the spear to detect magic to uncovering certain objects, none of them seemed to work on this room. It only made the group more frantic to get a response of sort, not wanting to fail the hunt after coming so far and enduring so much.
" 'A King treats his subjects fairly and equivocal. As a King, ensure your subjects are content.'," Lunaria muttered the line over and over again, hoping to get a clue. "Subjects… content? What even are the subjects?"
"It definitely has to do with the dining room, since the quest only appeared after entering," Sera huffed. "I definitely feel like we are missing something."
"U-Um…" Kaze timidly pointed out, afraid to voice out his opinion after getting everyone in trouble. "I don't think it would hurt to try, but I have an idea?"
Lunaria and the rest, who were well-aware of the previous failure Kaze had, were not afraid to smile reassuringly and waited for his next sentence. It wasn't like trying out his idea could lead to them failing, especially not when none of them had any idea.
"Don't you think that the subjects could be referring to the guards following us? Because… a King having subjects could essentially be referring to them. Wouldn't we count as Kings? Since they have been following us and guarding us like they would with a royalty, or a King in this case… Could this be too far-reaching?"
"… No. In fact, I think it makes sense."
"Agree. We completely forgot that the guards could play an active role in the task as long as they are not providing us with any answer."
"How do you suggest we make them show that they are content then?"
Kaze widened his eyes in surprise that his suggestion was taken so easily. With the encouragement of his friends, he wasted no time in speaking his mind to save time.
"We are in the dining room with a long table and seats, right? Let's have the guards sit in each of the seats and see what happens. If we are required to treat the subjects fair and equivocal as a King to make them content, then wouldn't sitting together with all of us make it that they are on par with us, a metaphor for being regarded respectfully without bothering of our social standing?"
The group accepted the idea with zero hesitation and had every guard sit respectively in a random seat. Everyone else took up the remaining seats and waited for something to happen. A few seconds passed without their pamphlets updating, meaning that they had done something wrong. Normally, if they were to do it right, then that would mean that the pamphlet updated immediately. For there to be a long delay with nothing happening, then there was a mistake in the way they tried to deliver their answer.
"Uhh, is it possible I'm wrong again?" Kaze nervously asked, feeling disappointed it didn't work.
"No… I'm pretty sure it has to do with the way we are sitting," Lunaria stood up and began counting. "Do we have to sit in a specific manner?"
After mildly rearranging the way everyone sat, they came up with a conclusion. Since they were an even number group after adding the guards to the count, it did not matter who sat on which side of the table. What that mattered was being 'fair', meaning that they had to sit in a certain arrangement. They chose to arrange each other such that it would be one guard followed by one random person from their ground and then one guard and so on. This way, fairness was emphasized since everyone was sitting between each other without mixing together.
To their relief, the pamphlet updated soon after everyone sat in order.
"See Kaze? You were on the right track after all," Yuuji grinned, giving his friend a pat on the shoulder.
"Be more confident in yourself," Irene nodded. "No one will blame you even if you got it wrong."
"T-Thanks…" Kaze stared at the ground in embarrassment from the praises he received along with consolations from his friends. "Shouldn't we focus on the last clue?"
"No need for that, we already know where it is," Lunaria told Kaze and read the line from her pamphlet. " 'A King must never forget his origins. Retrace your steps and you will find the roots of your humble beginning.'. This obviously refers to us returning to the front garden where we started the event."
"Good job Kaze," Lucentia whispered into his ear, being the quiet reserved person she usually was, but it was enough to cause Kaze to blush from how her breath tickled his ear.
Thankfully, he didn't had time to contemplate the possible flirting attempt by Lucentia since they had to hurry to the last location. When they arrived at the field where Laevia had them waiting, their pamphlets updated to an even more vague clue. The final clue that they needed to accomplish the treasure hunt was surprisingly simple yet complicated at the same time.
" 'Look for the King.'," Shoko's voice quivered as she muttered the words out loud. "T-This is a joke, right? We went around doing tasks to find the King, and we end up where we started, asking us to look for the King?"
It wasn't just Shoko who felt stumped by the instruction received. Everyone fell silent out of shock and disbelief. Them working hard for the entire day amounted to nothing except returning to the same location and receiving the same words that Laevia had told them. There surely was something to the clue given, except that they were too dejected to focus on their last task at the moment. Even Lunaria, who felt enthusiastic, had her smile crumple as she read the same line over and over again.
"… Kaze, any clue?" Lunaria asked him, feeling a little desperate for help that not even her brain could process the final quest they received. "You did solve the last one…"
"I would guess that the statement wants us to find the King at this location," Kaze shrugged. "Maybe the King has always been one of us?"
"Let's try combining all the 10 sentences we received into one long poem. Maybe it would help with providing a clue," Lunatea suggested to her sister.
"Maybe we should," Lunaria nodded and recited the poem based on her memory.
"A King is one who cares for his subordinates. A King is nothing without the help of his subordinates. A King rules with sovereignty, but not without knowledge. A King ensures fairness. A King determines the worth of his nation. A King listens and decides, not dictate. A King is not found; he is made. A King should have his vision far and wide. A King treats his subjects fairly and equivocal. A King must never forget his origins."
"Doesn't… seem to help, other than it being a bunch of sentences about what a King should and should not do," Noel shook her head upon hearing Lunaria reciting the 10 quotes. "Maybe we really do have to figure out who the King is."
"How do we do that? There is no clue, nor do we know what criteria is needed to pick a King," Chris questioned the choice. "Shouldn't there be a hint of sort we missed?"
"I would think so too. Much like the previous room where we had to think a little more out of the box, this should also be the case as a final challenge," Lunaria agreed. "Could there be a different way to interpret a King?"
"As far as we know, maybe it involves the use of the guards again," Albert suggested. "You know, by having the guards pick who they think is most suitable to be King among all of us. If we follow the theme of the last room where the guards are the servants, maybe they have to choose a King among us?"
"I think that could be the case, but the same logic could be argued that we are all subjects," Irene pointed out.
"No, they said that a King treats everyone as equal, meaning that anyone of us could be a King without us even realizing it," Sera shook her head. "Plus, the 7th room taught us that a King is made, meaning we must choose a King."
"All of us must participate in choosing a King then?" Rena tilted her head. "Are we to elect a random person?"
"… A King should have his vision far and wide…" Kaze muttered softly, glancing around the area.
While the others continued to discuss what they should do before their time ran out, Kaze set his gaze on the guards. From the start to the end, they didn't do anything other than follow the group and watched them. It must be a pretty boring job, but they couldn't refuse an order from the Empress herself after all.
"A King listens and decides…"
Kaze suddenly felt something out of place. Thinking back, there were an equal number of guards when compared with their group since they only had one guard per person. Right now, there was an extra guard within the group of guards, as proven by counting the number of people standing behind them.
Walking up to the guards, Kaze felt a little intimidated since he never once approached the guards intentionally. They were dragonkins who trained for decades, proving to be very capable soldiers who serve the royal family. Of course he felt scared just being in front of the row of them, even if they each had a neutral look on their face and stared blankly ahead.
"Hm… remembering the roots…" Kaze muttered and glanced at the spear on the ground. "Could it be?"
He picked it up and examined it in hand. The spear was then used by him in a rather awkward manner by getting close to each guard and holding the spear in front of them, wanting to see if there was a respond. Starting from left to right, he checked one by one without touching the guard himself. Each of the guard glanced down briefly at Kaze before returning their gaze back ahead, wondering what the heck he was trying to do.
Eventually, the spear reacted when it came close towards a guard towards the right of the line. Kaze had to reconfirm it himself by pulling the spear away and bringing it closer again, the spear reacting each time he got close. His eyes widened in surprise, knowing that he must have found the answer.
"E-Erm…" Kaze addressed the guard politely. "Are you… the King?"
The guard gave Kaze a steely look, as if disturbed by his question. A sigh escaped the guard's mouth before taking out what looked to be a letter from his armour. Kaze accepted it with both hands, wondering what the letter could possibly be. It was obvious that he would only find out by opening it, which he did.
As soon as the content of the letter was opened, everyone noticed their pamphlet updating. For it to update without anything being done definitely roused their curiosity, hence why they were shocked to discover what was now written on the pamphlet.
"The King has been found?" Lunaria read aloud and whipped her head over to Kaze, who had the letter in hand and his jaw gaping open.
The others noticed Lunaria's gaze and followed it to Kaze. Realizing the letter in hand and his stunned expression, they ran up to him in hopes of getting an answer.
"Kaze?" Lunaria was first to ask, her hand resting on his shoulder. "Where did you get this?"
"I just used the spear to detect if the guards had any change since I noticed there was an additional guard here, and he gave me this after I found the extra," Kaze explained slowly. "Combining the logic that a King should have a wide vision, I figured that the guards could have something to do with it. Plus, a King listens and observe, which is also another hint at what the guards have been doing the whole treasure hunt. Why I took the spear to detect the extra was based on how a King has to remember his roots, being that it was the spear we first gained that helped us advance to the next stage."
"And the letter says… 'The King has been found'?" Yuuju repeated the lines from the letter for everyone to hear. "Since you were the one who found the odd one out, does that mean you are the King?"
"Nope, I am."
The guard that Kaze got the letter from made a chuckle and removed his helmet. Instantly, his wings and tail along with his body size changed, causing him to look slightly bigger than the guard before them. His face also morphed in shape, reverting back to his original self that everyone was too familiar with.
"R-Reginsleif-sama?!" Kaze gasped out loud, everyone else except the princesses bowing at the unexpected appearance of Aravel's Emperor. "You are t-the guard?"
"Well~ my wife tends to do the unexpected. Being the loving and supportive husband, I participate in this amusing activity," Reginsleif laughed. "Isn't that right, Laevia?"
From behind, Laevia approached the group with a satisfied smile on her face, as if not bothered by the confused look the group had. She came to her husband's side and held his hand, the guards in response departing from the place since their role was over. It was clear that she had been monitoring whatever they were doing, in which she started to explain and clarify the purpose of the treasure hunt.
"Everyone, I would first like to thank you all for putting your all into the treasure hunt. You have worked hard. Here's a small reward," Laevia stated warmly, water bottles appearing in front of each of them. "While you rest, please listen to what I have to say. But before that, do any of you have questions?"
"Yes, Laevia-sama," Yuuji was among the first to raise his hand. "What was the whole purpose of the activity?"
"Hmm, would you believe if I said there is no real purpose? Mainly, I wanted to give everyone here some form of motivation and at the same time, to have everyone think."
"May you elaborate, Laevia-sama?"
"Allow me to answer your question with a question of my own: What do you think was the purpose of this treasure hunt? I would like to hear an answer from everyone. You start, Yuuji."
"Yes, Laevia-sama. Personally, I think that the hunt was trying to teach us the values that one would require. Even though the sentence calls it 'a King', I would like to say that we should view ourselves as Kings in those scenarios and apply the values learnt into our lives."
"Alright. Kaze?"
"For me… I think it would be appropriate to say that the King wasn't the real prize of the treasure hunt, but rather what we learn as lessons from the quests?"
"Okay. Sera?"
"Laevia-sama, I believe the test was supposed to provide insight to the devil attack and anything so forth."
"Rena?"
"Um, I am of the same opinion with Sera. The devil attack aside, it would be worthy to note that we should not let history scare us and instead learn from it."
"Good point. Shoko?"
"Yes. If the hunt truly had no treasure, then I felt like it was a mild disappointment, other than the fact it mainly tested our critical thinking."
Laevia proceeded to receive individual answers from everyone in the group, including her own daughters. Everyone had a similar opinion on the treasure hunt with a few variations to their answer, each being accepted by Laevia as their honest analysis and experience.
"From what I have heard, I would say everyone understood the purpose of the treasure hunt well. Did everyone enjoy the process of solving the quests given? Maybe not. Was the end goal what you expected? Most certainly no. This leads me to the question: is the journey more important than your destination?" Laevia asked, no one providing an answer to the deep question given. "To me, both are equally important. While you might not have the best journey, you make the most out of it; while the end you reach might be disappointing, know that you at least tried to achieve what you want. There is no right or wrong answer to which you prefer, but the main thing I hope everyone learnt is that there is never a perfect ending or a smooth-sailing road."
With a clap of her hand, a package appeared in front of everyone.
"Here's everyone's prize for managing to complete the treasure hunt," Laevia smiled. "Please open it."
Adhering to her words, the group carefully peeled away the brown cover that wrapped the package to see that it was a box. Upon opening it, what they each received were clothes, some books and a magic crystal strung on a necklace. While none of them seem to know the reason for the weird present, Lunaria and her sisters seemed to realize what this meant from their surprised expressions.
"Mother, does this mean…"
"Lunaria, why don't you explain to your friends what the items they received are?"
"Y-Yes. Everyone, what you see happens to be the school uniform for our nation's only school."
"Ehh????"
Immediately, everyone felt the significance of receiving such an outfit and gasped out loud.
"For the next week, everyone here shall receive the honour of experiencing what school life is like in Aravel. We have made arrangements with the school, and everyone is invited to join our nation's dragonkins together for 5 days with plenty of activities planned," Laevia proudly declared. "My husband and I have contemplated allowing everyone here to visit the school before, seeing that everyone here are students. However, we came up with the idea that maybe you all should get the chance to experience studying as well, hence why you have your uniforms and books."
"Holy… this prize is certainly better than anything I ever imagined," Irene trembled nervously while brushing her finger down the fabric of the uniform. "Studying at Aravel?"
"I can't wait for tomorrow to pass now," Noel sighed impatiently. "What an opportunity."
"Laevia-sama, thank you so much," Yuuji bowed deeply. "We will never forget the way you have treated us."
"Oya, I didn't do much. It is only natural that you all deserve the chance you have to study elsewhere," Laevia shook her head at Yuuji's words. "Just like what my husband told everyone today: knowledge is power. What is important is comparing what you have learnt with what you experienced to know whether or not anything is true or false."
After that, everyone was dismissed for the rest of the day. With the treasure hunt coming to an end, it marked the end of a rather exhausting and fruitful day for everyone. Just as Laevia was about to return with her husband, Kaze approached them politely.
"Kaze, is there a problem?" Laevia asked.
"Laevia-sama, I would like to ask something regarding the treasure hunt," Kaze addressed the Empress. "Has Reginsleif-sama always been part of the guards following us?"
"No, because we had to disguise him with magic convincing enough that he wouldn't be found out by any of you, so we had to wait for the 9th round to end before slipping him in," Laevia smiled at his question. "What about it?"
"It's nothing, I just got curious because we never really realized any change in guards until then," Kaze bowed. "Please excuse me."
"… Good job on relating all the previous sentences," Laevia congratulated Kaze and patted his head. "I'm surprised you were the one to notice the link."
"N-No, it was thanks to the previous round that I realized how the guards had extra uses other than escorts," Kaze blushed at Laevia treating him like a child. "May I leave now Laevia-sama?"
"Yes. I just wanted to praise you for spotting something the others might not have," Laevia nodded. "Don't ever underestimate yourself."
With a grateful smile, Kaze left Laevia's side to rejoin his friends.