From a certain spot, a young man with white hair and blue eyes was watching what was happening in the main mansion's hall. The boy had a slightly twisted smile.
"Everything went according to plan; the pieces are moving just the way I want them to move."
He had been observing closely what they said about him. They had a heated argument regarding that topic, but thanks to the queen's intervention, everything went well. She seemed to trust him.
"I didn't expect the queen to side with me; after all, she seems to have doubts about my motives."
While they were in the meeting, I could see the two intruders lurking near the room where they were teaching the elf girl about royal etiquette.
"What idiots."
Those two intruders were cannon fodder. It was clear that they were trying to find an opportunity to finish off the elf girl without having to resort to greater forces. They seemed to believe that the royal guard was not accompanying the girl at the moment, but they couldn't be more wrong than they thought.
"They seem to be desperate."
The reality was that there was a royal guard in the room, hiding.
"Body multiplication or cloning?"
- I DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH INFORMATION TO ANSWER.
One of the royal guards had split into two, literally speaking. It was a curious thing to observe. She had tried to read his mind to inquire about this strange ability he had used, but unfortunately the guy in question had had no thoughts regarding said ability. Unfortunately, the intruders seemed to have no idea of this royal guard guy's ability and seemed to believe that the elf girl was completely unprotected.
"If they attack the elf girl with that guy guarding, I doubt they'll get out of there alive."
The worries she had dissolved as time passed. After all, the two intruders seemed to have given up on attacking. They seemed to have sensed that something was amiss and chose to retreat and continue pretending to be the guard. The elf girl was busy learning her lessons in etiquette.
"It's a good thing they have her occupied."
I had been reading the mind of the girl in question and it had me worried, as she had thoughts that involved me in her plans.
"I guess it was a mistake agreeing to be his friend after all."
From what I had managed to gather from the girl's mind, she seemed to have been looking for me since morning, but had not managed to find me. From what I could see, she had a kind of diary in which she had been writing down a series of activities that were not very friendly to me.
I watched the little elf's classes unfold. It was a few hours of observation, and before I knew it, it was 5 pm, and that was when the leader of the royal guard appeared. The woman was called Naida. She had come to deliver the message in which they accepted my conditions. Of course, I had already known that she was coming long before; I was even aware of her thoughts about me.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
"Forward".
The leader of the royal guard knocked on the door, and of course I told her to come in. Shortly after I gave the okay to enter, a beautiful figure entered the room. A beautiful woman with white hair and blue eyes walked in. Her skin was so white that it could easily be mistaken for snow. She was simply beautiful, though if we take into account the other elves belonging to the royal guard, the debate would become more complicated. In fact, all the elves seemed to be beautiful, making it difficult to distinguish who was more beautiful than the other. When she entered and set her sights on me, she gave a slight bow and immediately reported:
"Our king agreed to their conditions, but he also added certain conditions."
I didn't let her finish speaking and I answered:
"Okay. Tell him I agree to his conditions."
"??????"
Naida made a confused face because the individual in question had not finished listening to the conditions that the king had set, but he was already accepting them as if he knew what they had talked about in the room. But she knew that was impossible, because they had used a magic that prevented sound leaks. The boy answered to clarify her doubts:
"I don't care what conditions they set, as long as they don't conflict with mine."
Naida immediately understood what he meant. It seemed that she had misunderstood everything. With a slight nod, she turned around, opened the door and left the room she was in, and immediately went to inform the king. Once she was out of the room, the white-haired, blue-eyed boy let out a sigh.
"How strange; I feel something every time I look at that elf woman."
- THE REASON IS UNKNOWN.
He could feel a strange sense of camaraderie whenever he saw that elf. It was a strange feeling he had never felt before.
"Well, nevermind."
In this way, the plans were complete, well, almost complete. Now all that was left was to train the girl so that she wouldn't be an easy target. Around 5:30 in the afternoon, the elf girl came out of her etiquette classes and, like a missile, shot towards my room, running as fast as she could. I had already prepared for this situation from the beginning. Without thinking twice, I activated the 'illusion' feature. The range of that power was limited to the mansion. If by chance I left the mansion, the false image I was currently displaying would vanish. The arm I had lost was replaced by a perfect image, and my injuries disappeared as if by magic.
"How strong."
It was my first time trying out this feature, as I had never had the need to use it before. It was undoubtedly a very terrifying power that I could use in countless ways. The only drawback was that it weakened me while using this power. I was exposed for a certain period of time, regardless of whether I was within the 'domain' feature, after all I wasn't using the feature in its full form, only in its surveillance form. The only way to avoid being weakened was to fully deploy the authority.
It wasn't long before the door finally creaked open. A small figure was revealed, and an innocent smile lit up the little girl's face. Sweat could be seen on her forehead, and her breathing was labored. Along the way, some servants had tried to stop her, but to no avail. They seemed to want to prevent her from seeing my injuries. The first thing that came out of the little girl's mouth was a cheerful greeting:
"Hello, how are you?" she said as a beautiful, warm smile appeared on her face.
"I feel fine," I replied with a smile plastered on my face. I could see some signs of embarrassment on the girl, but I decided to ignore them. Comparing this version of the girl to the previous version, this one was more confident. Without wasting any time, she approached me and sat on the bed I was on.
"I was looking for you, where were you?" he asked.
"I went for a walk outside the mansion," I replied.
Hearing my statement, the girl immediately put on a worried face. It was obvious that she didn't agree with the idea of me being outside the mansion.
"It's dangerous outside, you know? You shouldn't go out, someone could hurt you," he warned me.
A small smile escaped my lips. In a way, it felt good to have someone care about you.
"Don't worry, I'm strong," I assured him.
She stared at me with narrowed eyes. It was clear she was hesitant.
"Outside the mansion there are beasts that eat people," he told me seriously.
"Oh, how scary. I'll be more careful next time I go out," I replied sarcastically.
"You can't go out without guards," he insisted.
Lia seemed intent on keeping me from going outside. I found it funny that such a small child was forbidding me to go outside. The elf girl continued to kick and scold.
"I know you know how to use mana, but that doesn't make you invincible. You may not know this, but beasts can also use mana and are several times stronger than humans. My grandfather told me that, and he also told me that even elves have trouble dealing with beasts," he explained.
"You know a lot about the subject, Miss Lia. You're certainly very intelligent," I said jokingly, but after all, she was just a child and didn't take it as a joke. I could see her chest puffing out while her ears moved slightly as if indicating she was happy. It was more than clear that she liked being flattered.
"Of course I am, after all, I am a princess," she said with a smile on her face and a slightly reddened face. All this amused me, but soon after, my smile disappeared, all because of the idea that the girl had in her head. Suddenly, she changed the subject as if she had remembered it and said:
"Come here, I want to show you something," the girl said as she grabbed my arm. Fortunately, she grabbed my right arm and not my left. If I had tried to grab my left arm, she would have known I was lying. Grabbing my arm, she pulled me out of the room, literally dragging me out of the room. I hadn't even told her I would go with her.
'I guess not everything can be avoided.' It was more than clear that the little girl was the type of person who likes to impose her will on other people. As we left the room, I could see the royal guard's face. He seemed to be a little confused by the situation, but that didn't seem to matter to the elf girl, who, without fear of success, dragged me through the halls of the mansion. I could tell that the girl had little strength, of course, if I was compared to her. I let myself be carried by her grip as I let her lead me. I remembered days past. Not long ago, this same girl who was dragging me through the halls was terrified of me and very afraid of me. She could barely talk to me, but look now. She seemed to have forgotten that she was afraid of me at first, and that wasn't that long ago. All I could feel from her was an uncontrollable emotion that seemed to be difficult for her to handle. Well, after all, she was a child who was still developing.
After a while of walking, she finally stopped. She pointed to a door in the distance indicating that this was the place we were heading to. At first glance, this door could be mistaken for the other rooms, but deep down I knew that this door was not so simple. An unusual energy was seeping through the edges of the door. It was more than clear that the girl could not sense this energy. To her, this was just an ordinary door.
"We arrived," she said as she opened the door. Behind us followed the royal guard. He seemed to be unsurprised to see the girl enter the room. It seems this was a frequent occurrence. When the girl opened the door, we were able to see inside and what we found inside the door was a beautiful natural space in which beautiful flowers and gigantic trees could be seen in the distance. In this vast space was a beautiful crystal clear lake that reflected the light of what seemed to be artificial suns in the sky, which were light-type elementals that constantly illuminated the place with their imposing brilliance.
"Awesome," I said in a voice filled with wonder. This space was a work of art. Whoever built this place, they definitely did an excellent job. It was, without a doubt, a great masterpiece.
- AN ALTERATION WAS DETECTED IN THE SPACE OF THIS ROOM.
Hearing the report, a smile immediately spread across my face. It was more than clear that this space held secrets that were screaming to be discovered. I didn't need any magic to know what the elf girl was thinking. It was just as clear that she thought her family was impressive for having such a place. It was more than clear that she boasted about her wealth and power.
"What do you think of my personal patio?" he asked.
"Oh, it's very beautiful. Is this all yours?" I asked her in a tone full of mischief. A thought had crossed my mind. One thing I was absolutely sure of: and that was that the elf girl was going to regret having shown me this space in the future.
"Yes, my grandfather left me this magical room. He said I would need it for a change of scenery," he replied.
"Your grandfather loves you very much, Miss Lia," I said. Hearing my statement, the elf girl seemed to blush and turned her head away trying to change the topic. She looked so cute doing that.
"This is where we'll be playing from today on," she announced. Listening to the girl's words, I couldn't help but think that she was a little tyrant growing up. She didn't even ask if I agreed. But that didn't matter. She had enough time to change those little details that were in her personality.
I didn't even need to activate the feature that allowed me to read minds to know what the royal guard standing right behind the two of us was thinking, his expression said it all. Letting out a sigh, I answered:
"Of course we will, we will play every day. We are friends after all," I replied with a smile on my face. We were not going to play what she wanted us to play. We were going to play my own game and the person who would have to put in the effort in that game would be her, literally speaking. She herself had provided the perfect place to torture her.
The elf girl's ears fluttered at the mere mention of the word 'friends'. It was more than clear that this was her weak point and she planned to use it a lot from now on.
The next few hours were spent exploring the area. The girl was showing me around the area and showing me the different types of plants there were. She showed me the huge lake that was in that space, she showed me the huge trees, the beautiful grass. I just listened to everything the girl said; I had to concentrate to record everything she said, since she spoke very quickly. It was more than clear that she was not used to talking to me. The excitement was getting the better of her. While I paid attention to the elf girl, I scanned the entire place for secrets. It was more than clear that this place used some principle that allowed it to alter the laws of the world.
I spent about 5 hours with the elf girl until she finally got tired and seemed to be exhausted. Thus, I ended the day by returning to her and leaving her in her room. As strange as it seemed, her parents had not come to get her. The reason for this seemed to be the royal guard. He had a device on his neck that seemed to be transmitting some video signal to another location.
Another thing to note is that the space we had been in seemed to block out all of my senses. It was as if we weren't in the mansion in question, but rather were in another dimension. Once I was in my room, I threw myself onto the bed and began to reflect on the events of the day.