"Hmm mhm hmMh~ mmh~"
A beautiful blonde-haired, emerald green-eyed young girl with pointy ears, wearing white robes with golden edges, hummed a song while moving through a forest.
Her eyes were looking up at the sky as she slowly hopped her way through the forest while humming her favourite song.
While the girl was lost in her own world, two people were slowly following her from behind and spying on her.
The two people were currently hiding behind a tree and peeping at her. They ensured that they stayed hidden, but if someone were to look at them, they would appear as if they were upto no good.
Looking like creepy stalkers, one of the two softly spoke to the other, saying:
"Jasmine… What do you think she's doing?"
The other person, wearing glasses, nudged it up slightly and said, as if they were a know-it-all:
"I have no idea, Your Majesty."
The two people conversing and stalking the beautiful young girl were none other than the Elven Queen Agalea Grace and her chief aide Jasmine.
Agalea and Jasmine had left the castle as soon as they found out that the Princess ran away. It didn't take them long to find her as: one, the Princess hadn't gone too far away, and two, Agalea was a Supreme Rank.
Being a Supreme Rank, Agalea could easily look at the entire continent by just staying in one place and could locate anyone anywhere easily.
After her daughter, aka Alea Grace, was located, she immediately rushed to her side. Alea wasn't far from the castle when she was found and to see what made her leave the castle, Agalea and Jasmine were now following her.
Agalea, looking at Jasmine, sighed and said, "Even you can't tell?"
Jasmine turned to look at Agalea and, nudging her glasses once again, said, "Your Majesty, with all due respect… Shouldn't you know more about the Princess than me?"
Agalea, looking at Alea, replied calmly without looking at Jasmine, "We both have raised my little Alea together. I do know about her, but you being her nanny should know how her behaviour is, right?"
Jasmine shifted her attention from Agalea to Alea as she heard that.
Now looking at Alea, who apparently got a flower basket in her hands from who knows where, was throwing flowers as she walked through the forest and was smiling and saying 'Yay!' with each throw.
Jasmine couldn't help but reply to Agalea by looking at that, "honestly, Your Majesty, even after seven hundred years I have no idea how the Princess's mind works. She does things too randomly and there's no clear pattern to her behaviour."
Agalea nodded. "True."
Jasmine nodded too and continued, "You can see it from the current situation itself. When we found the Princess out of the castle, she somehow managed to go past all the guards and was looking down on the ground as she walked."
Jasmine turned to face Agalea again and said in a neutral tone, "She was following an ant."
Agalea couldn't help but cover her face and giggle. "Isn't my Alea cute?"
Jasmine turned to look at Alea again and finding that she had distanced herself a bit, moved to another tree in front. Agalea did the same.
Jasmine then continued, looking at Alea, "Her Highness then saw a bird in the sky and started following it while humming the song from the anime she last saw. But now…"
Jasmine nudged her glasses.
"...Now from who knows where, she has a flower basket in her hand and is throwing flowers."
Agalea smiled and replied, "At least she seems happy."
"That's true. But then again, Her Highness is hardly ever sad."
The Queen and her aide continued to talk about the Princess while walking through the forest.
The chief aide and the Queen had a close relationship. When they were in private, Jasmine would usually speak whatever was on her mind without filtering or sugar coating things.
Jasmine's relationship with Agalea went long back, even before she became the Queen and governed over the entire Elven race and continent.
Being through thick and thin together, it was obvious that they shared a good bond and their bond only deepened further after Alea's birth.
Even though they were a master-servant pair, it hardly was like that as apart from being subservient to Agalea, Jasmine did things like what every little sister would ever do with her older sister.
Agalea never really thought about things so deeply and usually let Jasmine do stuff however she saw fit. She was a busy lady whose day was spent either looking after her daughter or after the well being of her people and empire.
Agalea and Jasmine, while continuing to follow Alea, finally stopped when they saw Alea stop.
Alea was standing at the edge of a lake and gazing at it with a smile, what was going in her mind was unknown.
"Any guesses what she'll do, Your Majesty?" Jasmine asked, looking at Agalea.
Agalea narrowed her eyes, ensuring to properly look at Alea, and said, "She'll probably go into the waters."
Jasmine was about to ask how she was so sure about it when she turned to look at Alea and saw her stripping down.
"Oh my…" Jasmine couldn't help but say. "Is Her Highness really going to enter those waters?"
"Seems like it." Agalea said flatly.
"That lake is infested with poisonous beasts and deadly creatures. All being of Tier 9 and above. Does Her Highness not know?" Jasmine questioned.
Agalea looked at Jasmine and asked with a curious expression, "Since when was this lake so dangerous?"
"The World Tree was getting saturated so the authorities decided to take some out and put them in the lakes. These beasts, being in a favourable environment, bred rapidly and the whole lake is too dangerous for anyone below Rank 9 to enter."
"Oh, I see. But I guess my dear will be fine since she's a Half King Rank." Although Agalea said that, she wasn't really sure of her own words.
Jasmine couldn't help but look at her and say, "Your Majesty, are you perhaps forgetting what happened to Her Highness in the past?"
Agalea couldn't help but smile awkwardly. "She was killed, right?"
Jasmine nodded. "Thrice."
"Phew, just three—"
"In the last month."
"..."
Agalea facepalmed. She was speechless when she heard that. She took her eyes off her daughter for just a while and this happened!?
"How did that even— well, nevermind. Brief me about it later." Agalea quickly rushed towards Alea after saying so.
Alea, who was now in just her bra and panties, was about to dive into the lake when she felt someone wrap their arms around her waist and pull her up in the air.
Alea let out a surprised yelp and was about to go in all defensive mode when she felt the warmth of a familiar embrace and put her whole guard down after hearing a familiar voice, saying,
"What are you trying to do, my dear?"
"Mama?"