Chapter 40: Punishment & Day Two

"That was quite bold of you, your highness." Said Illumia while walking beside Elif.

"Well, maybe that fool shouldn't be such a liar, or at least he should lie better next time; also, weren't you quite bold, Illumia? When you threatened him, he looked quite scared, if I do say so, haha." Mentioned Elif with a chuckle when he looked at Illumia.

"If he had shown the proper respect when conversing with a member of the Royal family, then I wouldn't have needed to threaten him." Answered Illumia, whose tone returned to its usual blandness as they neared the Royal Carriage.

With a chuckle, we arrived at my carriage; however, I noticed that Mandy and her guards huddled together, excitingly talking about the tournaments that had happened today.

"My goodness, did you guys see that? Those children are so powerful; it's crazy! Back in my youth, I could barely compare to the weaker ones, and they were also quickly eliminated."

"Hehe, you're not alone; I wasn't even a Saint realm cultivator until I was fourteen, trash compared to those children."

"It seems like I was better than both of you guys; I would've survived much longer."

"But you still would've gotten eliminated in the end, so why does it matter?"

"Alright, guys, stop arguing; now that the tournament is officially over for today, Prince Elif should be returning any second, so quickly put the crystal ball away and get back into position." Ordered Mandy as she removed herself from the huddled group, though when she did, she saw Elif standing in the distance, looking at them with an amused smile.

"Well, it seems like some of you enjoyed the tournament." Said Elif, causing the rest of the guards to quickly stand up in shock before kneeling nervously on the ground.

"P-Prince E-ELif, I-I can e-explain-" Stuttered Mandy nervously, as she didn't dare to look up at Elif's face.

"Ahh, there's no need to explain; it wasn't quite hard to figure out that you guys were watching the tournament through a crystal ball instead of guarding my carriage." Said Elif as he stopped just before the kneeling Mandy; however, when she heard Elif speak, she started sweating and feeling apprehensive.

"P-Prince E-Elif P-Please, just p-punish me; as the C-Captain, it is my fault that we failed at our job." Said Mandy, as she stuttered fearfully, though what she expected next wasn't within her expectation.

"Hmm, when did I ever mention punishment?" Asked Elif, confused, since he never once mentioned anything related to punishment.

"B-But we left out guarding posts to watch a tournament; doesn't that warrant some form of punishment?" Asked Mandy carefully as she finally gained enough courage to look up at Elif, who was standing before her.

"First off, you guys didn't really leave your guarding posts, you were literally less than a meter away from the carriage, and secondly, you guards are merely for decoration; as long as I'm within the Empire, do you think any fool would be brave enough to do anything bad to a member of the Elven Royal family?" Stated Elif as he walked past all of the kneeling guards and headed into the carriage after Illumia opened the door for him.

"Anyways, let's go back to the palace." Said Elif as his voice echoed out from the carriage.

As I was sitting in the carriage, I saw how Mandy quickly stood up and started berating her subordinates, I could even hear her yelling a little bit, and it was pretty funny to watch.

"Didn't I warn you not to bring the crystal ball!?" Yelled Mandy as she grabbed one of her subordinates by their armor's collar and began shaking him; however, from everyone else's point of view, it looked pretty comical to see a short woman having to fully extend her arms to grab him because of the size difference, though the only one who dared to laugh was Elif.

"Y-Yes, y-you did C-Captain, b-but I thought it would f-fun to watch the t-tournament, b-besides you were also watching C-Captain."

From the guard's words, I could see how livid she became, and as much as I would enjoy continuing to watch the show, I wanted to head back home.

"You can continue this later, Mandy; for now, let us return back to the palace."

Mandy and the guards quickly returned to normal, and we began heading back to the palace.

Once we had finally passed through the royal family gates, I hopped out of the carriage. Yet, before I could even move, I was instantly transported into a comfortable embrace of two arms and two soft pillows for my head to rest on.

"There's my little Elif; we saw how you performed during the tournament; you were absolutely wonderful!" Commented Tiana happily while tightly hugging Elif.

"Thanks, grandmother, but I barely did anything; the nobles were all too scared even to approach me, let alone fight me."

"Well, what did you expect would happen, Elif? Harming a member of the Royal family under normal circumstances can lead to death as a punishment; I'm sure their parents most likely warned them not to fight you." Said Tyler sipping some tea while sitting beside Tiana.

"That may be true, grandfather, but it was highly boring; I joined the tournament to gain fighting experience, not watch a bunch of other people fights." Replied Elif with slight annoyance in his tone.

"Wasn't that Marley child quite excited to fight with you? I could tell she was constantly trying to provoke you." Stated Marcus, though Maria didn't seem to be as calm as him.

"Tch, yet that bastard Nordan thinks he can act disrespectful to Elif just because we are not present; he must think just because I've become a mother that I've mellowed down, well maybe I should go and prove him wrong!" Declared Maria as she slammed the table angrily and quickly stood up before getting pulled back into her seat by Marcus.

"Dear, calm down; there is no need to get so worked up over him, besides even if it was fake, he did apologize, so if you tried to punish him, your already low reputation among the noble faction would plummet once more." Said Marcus, successfully managing to calm down Maria, though she was still quite pissed.

"Brother, you were super cool when you attacked with all those purple hands!" Shouted Elaine in admiration while showing a recap of the battle with her hands slamming down on the table.

"Of course I was cool; your brother is the most amazing person ever!" Replied Elif as he pridefully puffed out his chest.

"Father, will I be able to do that in the future as well!?" Asked Elaine in excitement.

"Yes, dear." Answer Marcus as he set her on his lap and rubbed her head.

"Well then, dear, we'll let you go for now, as I'm sure you must prepare for tomorrow's tournament." Said Tiana as she kissed Elif on the cheek before letting him go.

"I just plan on continuing to master my techniques, but before that, I'll be taking a bath." Mentioned Elif as he hopped off Tiana's lap before leaving and heading toward his room.

Opening the door to my room, I turn to the left, and when I reach the bathroom entrance, I've already taken off my clothes and untied my hair; stepping into the heated pool, I lay back against the wall and relax.

'Ahh, bath time is truly the most relaxing time of the day.' Thought Elif within the serene atmosphere.

I stayed inside the bathroom for almost thirty minutes before deciding it was time to leave and began practicing my techniques.

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It's the next day, and I'm already sitting on the throne at the coliseum in my private booth while eating some lightning cherries.

"Is it just me, or does the coliseum seem livelier today?" Asked Elif as he looked out the window into the crowd before him.

"Today is the day where the true tournament starts, so of course, everyone is much more excited, your highness."

"Hm, that makes sense, anyways; let me see the tournament bracket pamphlet." Said Elif as he momentarily stopped eating lightning cherries and looked at the pamphlet.

'First off, Marley is in the other bracket, so our fight will be to decide the winner of the tournament; other than that, my first two matches are against people I've never even heard of, however surprisingly, my third match is against Idonea, well that's if she doesn't lose, though seeing her opponents I doubt she will.' Thought Elif as he continued looking through the pamphlet before handing it back to Illumia.

"How do you feel about your chances in the tournament, your highness?" Asked Illumia curiously.

"As good as it could be, fighting Idonea should be fun, but she won't be a problem; however, to reach the final match, I must defeat Alf and Starlet. Starlet is weaker than Alf, so I should defeat her after a challenging battle; Alf, on the other hand, is about as powerful as Maga and Kare, so she will be incredibly tough to beat, though this tournament wouldn't be interesting if I didn't receive some challenge." Answered Elif while a grin adorned his face.

Shortly after I went quiet, the announcer from yesterday once again appeared in the arena and pressured the audience with his cultivation until they became silent, which took significantly less time than before.

"Now that I have everyone's attention, today is the second day of the noble tournament, and today is the start of phase two! I won't go into detail as everyone present should already be informed of what will transpire today; just know it'll be incredible! Now without further ado, let the first battle begin!" Shouted the announcer as he vanished from the arena, allowing the first contestants to fight amongst each other on stage.