Chapter 87 - The Race

Adeline had a very wonderful time at the market with her half-siblings. They showed her around the marketplace, showed her various shops, and taught several things to her. They made her laugh and they even fed her, some of them fed her with their own hands.

This was the first time that she felt so happy to have been surrounded by so many siblings. She was not nervous, nor was she self-conscious about what they would think about her. She was able to truly enjoy herself.

She didn't want to admit it but, she didn't miss Nigel that much when she was with them. They were all being nice to her and were treating her as if they had always been close to her.

It made her wonder about a lot of missed-out possibilities. "If I had tried to talk with more of my half-siblings, then would I have had a close relationship with most of them? Just like I have with Nigel?"

But the opportunities were already missed out. She could not turn back time. However, she could always start afresh. She thought to herself that she would at least try to maintain a good relationship with these five in the future as well.

The Princes and Princesses were about to cross the market. The lights on the street were starting to dim down.

Nefriti happened to look up at the cloudy sky. And she suddenly shouted, "Oh, I almost forgot. We have to buy a lantern before we leave the market. Else we will have to walk on the road while stumbling and rolling down."

"Can't we depend on the moonlight?" Kaela asked while looking up in the dark sky and said, "My bad! We need the lantern."

All of them actively began to look for the lantern shop while they walked further away from the Golden Street. They finally came across one shop which sold candles and lanterns.

Adeline realized that by the side of this shop, the shop where she had seen the devil figurine was located. While her brothers and sisters were busy inside the lantern shop, bargaining, Adeline sneaked to the shop at the side and purchased the figurine. She paid whatever amount the shopkeeper had asked and then quickly joined the others.

She was planning to buy this figurine when she would return to visit the market at some other time. But she was very happy that she got the chance to buy it today itself. It would have been sad to come later and find that the figurine that she had liked was sold already.

Nefriti finally managed to get a good bargain. The others were already fed up with her obsession with bargaining. But they didn't want to say anything to her because she would then be grumpy with all of them for days for not letting her bargain. Rather than facing the grumpy Nefriti, they all let her do her thing.

They took the lantern, asked the shopkeeper to fill it with oil and light it. Nefriti had bought the lantern so the Princes and Princesses let her carry it.

"Let's go sister." Nefriti put her arms around Adeline's arm and then led the way while holding the lantern.

And all the others followed them closely.

The night looked very lovely outside of the Palace. They had already crossed the busy market and had not reached the Palace yet. The houses were sparsely located in this middle area. By the side of the road, there were bushes and different types of trees.

They could hear the chirping made by crickets from the bushes. Adeline was enjoying the sounds produced by crickets, it felt like music to her ears.

But not everyone shared her likeness towards the sound. "Argh! These damn crickets. I feel like they will puncture a hole in my ears." Gustin was covering his ears with his fingers.

And in response to that, Raphael picked up a stone from the road and then threw it towards the bushes in an attempt to stop the noises.

*Swish – thump*

For about two seconds, the whole place went quiet. But after that, the crickets began to produce louder noise than before. The sound was so deafening that everyone responded by covering their ears, even Adeline.

"Why did you have to do that Raph?" Gustin flew an air-kick towards Raphael and shouted at him, "You made it even worse!"

"YES! What were you thinking?" Kaela also shouted at Raphael.

But Adeline grabbed everyone's attention by shouting in a surprised tone, "Everyone, look at that! It looks so beauuuuutiful." Adeline was pointing at the path in front of them.

Everyone was so busy covering their ears and shouting at each other that they had failed to notice something beautiful in front of them. The whole path was lit with fireflies.

When Raphael threw the stone in the bushes, he made hundreds of fireflies fly out of the bushes. They were glowing and blinking their little lights and were flying everywhere around the Princes and Princesses. They looked like little flying lanterns in the dark night. And they looked so beautiful that they were putting the lantern that Nefriti was carrying to shame.

"Oh my God! Is this what heaven looks like?" Claudia began to chase the fireflies and run around like a small kid.

"Maybe…" Adeline also began to run alongside Claudia and was chasing the fireflies, trying to catch them in her hands.

Following those two, everyone else began to run along the path lit with the fireflies. They were chucking and running around. They were pushing each other, trying to make the others fall off the path and to the bushes.

And while in the middle of joking around, Nefriti announced, "Whoever reaches to the Palace first will win."

All she had to say was that and all five of the Royals, except Adeline, instantly began to run.

Adeline was caught off guard because she didn't know that she was also supposed to run. "We are running? Nobody told me that!" Adeline shouted at her brothers and sisters but they were already a little far from her.

"Oh well…" She half shrugged her shoulders and started to run at her top speed to catch up with everyone. She liked how competitive everyone was in almost everything.

After a while of running, Adeline was slowly able to catch up with Nefriti who was running at the last. She was finding it difficult to run while holding the lantern.

Adeline crossed Nefriti and heard Nefriti shouting from behind, "No… not you too. Why am I at the last when I was the first one to start?"

Adeline waved her hand to gesture to Nefriti to run faster and shouted back, "Catch up… you can do it."

While running, those who were at the front didn't even need the lantern to show the way. Everyone's eyesight had already adjusted to the dark, and they were able to run just fine.

Now Adeline was running behind Raphael who was running ahead of everyone. She could see the well-lit Palace from where she was. She had to admit that everything looked even more beautiful in the dark. The size of the Palace was growing bigger and bigger as she approached nearer to the Palace. She could see the tall main gate of the Palace.

Adeline and Raphael were running side by side by now. Raphael gave a quick glance to Adeline and spoke while panting, "At least one of my sisters can catch up to me. But I am sorry sister, I am the one who is going to win."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Adeline shouted. There was no hint of heavy breathing when Adeline was speaking. She was taking it easy as though this was a piece of cake to her. To speak the truth, it was.

When the Palace gate was very near, Adeline picked up her speed as if she had been hiding her true speed till now. And in no time, she was right in front of the gate. Then she turned around to see all the others. They were still running to reach the gate.

"I win" Adeline shouted at them and gave a wide grin.

But Raphael came running towards the gate and pressed his palm against the gate. "No sister, I win."

"What? But I reached here first. So how did you win?" Adeline creased her brows and demanded to know why he was claiming to win the race.

Raphael paused to breathe in some air and after taking a few deep breaths in he said, "You didn't touch the gate. You have to touch the gate to win. So I win."

Adeline gave a puppy-eye look to Raphael and puckered her lips in disappointment.

Raphael looked at Adeline and let out a puff of air. "Alright, alright, you win." He gave in to the baby-like innocent look from his sister and declared her the winner of the race.

Adeline gave the sweetest grin to Raphael, making him smile.

The guards of the Palace were standing at each side of the gate like statues. They were waiting for all the Princes and Princesses to arrive to open the gate because they were used to this group's race by now, and they knew that the Royals would go inside only after everyone in their group had gathered.

Turn by turn, the others also gathered in front of the gate. Nefriti was the last one in the race. 

Finally, the guards opened the huge gates to let the Princes and Princesses inside the Palace.