Supremacy Games

"How about a short tour in the hot springs?" Elnora suggested, "We don\'t have showers and bathtubs like you humans. So, if you want to clean yourself, you have to come here."

"Sure thing." Felix agreed, finding no reason to reject.

However, Felix was still sensible enough to use his x-ray vision to scout ahead, not wanting to get in trouble in the palace.

\'Hmm? There are girls already bathing there.\'

Good thing he used it...He spotted two skeletons of females elves, sitting on the ground.

Felix didn\'t say anything as he assumed that Elnora would be leading him towards the male side of the hot springs.

However, she kept walking in direction of the two girls until they reached a wide open entrance made out of vines.

There was a hot mist coming out of it, hindering anyone\'s vision.

\'The hell? Do they have only mixed hot springs?\' Felix\'s first thought was that the hot springs were for both males and females.

Or maybe they only have one and there was a period for when girls bathe and boys bathe.

Whatever it was, he wasn\'t planning on intruding on those two girls.

"Why did you stop?" Elnora wondered after Felix halted in front of the entrance.

"I will wait for you here until you check if someone is inside." Felix said, not wanting to expose that he had used his x-ray vision to pry...It was extremely impolite.

"How gentlemanly of you." Elnora smiled and said, "I am certain that no one is inside, but I can check again...Give me a moment."

Felix watched Elnora walk towards the girls and start making gestures with her hands, clearly having a conversation with them.

After a brief moment, Elnora returned to Felix and said with her usual honest tone, "You can come in, no one is inside."

\'Huh?\'

Felix kept his composure, but his mind was slightly confused as he could still see the girls in the hot springs.

\'I told you! This b*tch is up to something!\' Asna interjected immediately after realizing that Elnora had exposed her first lie.

\'Something is indeed fishy here.\' This Felix didn\'t defend Elnora again as he couldn\'t excuse her after getting caught-red handed lying to his face.

At the start, he gave her the benefit of the doubt because she was Selphie\'s cousin and seemed nice even when some red flags were risen...But, this couldn\'t be ignored.

"You know what?" Felix yawned before requesting, "I am so sorry...But, can we arrange the tour for later? I am tired from the journey and hope to get some rest."

Elnora\'s smile faded a little at the sound of that.

Still, she was smart enough to attempt saving her plan with, "If you are tired, then taking a bath in our hot springs will help you recover faster than just some sleep."

As always, her tone and behavior were nothing but sincere.

\'This b*tch is asking for it.\' Asna\'s expression turned cold instantly.

Even Felix didn\'t react too well to her invitation...He was being invited to bathe with two elves, who were most certainly part of royalty.

Felix didn\'t know whether this was a punishable act or not, but it wouldn\'t look too good on him when it gets found out.

It was a first-rate scandal.

\'She is actually setting a trap for me...Why?\' Felix frowned, \'Did I offend someone here?\'

Now that Felix had completely started to see Elnora as a potential enemy instead of a friend, his mind kicked off into full gear to find out her reason for trying to set him up.

He removed Selphie from his suspicious list since he could never imagine her doing something horrible to him without a reason.

Lady Yggdrasil wasn\'t even in his list as she was too old for such petty schemes.

This left...Well, everyone.

\'Maybe someone in the royal family doesn\'t approve of my relation with Selphie and want me out of Forlond?\'

At this moment, Felix could only make speculations as he had no Intel to support him...It wasn\'t like he knew about the Queen\'s absurd hate to humans or her past.

"I am sorry, but I still want to get some shut-eye." Felix declined politely while scanning Elnora\'s expression.

Now that he was watching for small details, he managed to see that a hint of panic and frustration in her eyes.

"Alright, maybe tomorrow." Elnora regained control of her expression and requested from Felix to follow her.

\'You can wear your clothes back. He isn\'t coming anymore.\' Elnora updated her cousins with an annoyed tone.

\'Why?\'

\'Ahm?

\'Who knows?\' Elnora sighed, \'Everything was going well until the last step.\'

\'Maybe he has figured out our bad intentions?\' Carwen said softly.

\'That\'s not possible.\' Elnora said, \'I have been nothing but nice to him...He has no reason to be suspicious of me.\'

\'I guess we just got unlucky today.\' Moana said, \'Let\'s give it another try tomorrow. He is bound to take a bath one way or another.\'

...

Sometime later, Felix could be seen sinking on a bed made out of soft pink cotton.

He was just dropped by Elnora to his room before leaving him alone...The room was somewhat empty and cozy as it had only a bed, a chair, and a table.

There wasn\'t even a toilet.

Felix wasn\'t thinking about this inconvenience as his mind was still focusing on Elnora\'s enmity towards him.

\'Here I thought that I can spend some peaceful time here because of Selphie.\' Felix smiled bitterly.

Felix assumed that being friends with the only heir, he wouldn\'t be having problems here and could focus on what\'s important.

Unfortunately, he hadn\'t accounted that his relation with Selphie wouldn\'t be as approved as he assumed.

\'Master, can you ask Lady Yggdrasil how long will Selphie stay in closed training?\' Felix requested.

He wanted to avoid annoying Lady Yggdrasil with this before, believing that he could get some things done until Selphie get out of closed training.

But after realizing that his attendance isn\'t a welcomed as he thought, he had to plan ahead.

\'She said it depends on Selphie.\' Lady Sphinx shared.

\'What does that mean?\' Felix wondered.

\'Understanding runes isn\'t like enhancing your affinity.\' Lady Sphinx answered, \'It requires immense level of talent since your understanding depends on how much faster you can connect yourself with the runes.\'

\'Only after connecting with them can you learn about their mysterious and start creating or mastering spells.\' Lady Sphinx said, \'With Selphie\'s monstrous talent that enabled her to even connect with time-based runes, she can stay linked to runes for months to years.\'

"I see."

Felix could only wish good luck for Selphie with a wryly smile, knowing that he might be hanging around here for years without her backup.

\'Let\'s fortify the room first.\'

Felix beamed four small triangle devices and placed them in the corners of his room. Then, he requested Queen AI to activate them.

The moment they were turned on, green lasers emitted from them and connected with each other, creating a cube around the room.

For those inside the room, nothing much had changed.

As for those looking from outside the laser cube? They would see the room like it was censored. It was also capable of blocking other types of visions.

Next, Felix used his infra-ray vision to to check the entire palace, not caring anymore about being polite.

\'Ten?\' Felix knitted his eyebrows after seeing merely ten infrared humaniod red auras around the entire palace.

He didn\'t know whether they were using vision blocking technologies or something else...But, he was certain that the palace must have more than that.

\'Candace, go spy on Elnora and leave Nimo with me.\' Felix requested.

\'On it.\'

Mistress Candace opened a small void rift, allowing Nimo to jump on Felix\'s bed with an excited look as always.

Then, she travelled through the void realm and appeared right on top of Elnora.

She was in her room, having a conversion with Moana and Carwen about Felix and their next attempt tomorrow, not knowing that everything was being heard by Candace.

\'So, that\'s why...Stupid h*es. They should feel honored if Felix ever decided to take Selphie as his concubine.\' Mistress Candace sneered as he teleported back to Felix\'s room and told him everything she heard.

"So it\'s the Queen in the shadows trying her best to make me look bad before Selphie to make her lose feelings for me?" Felix knitted his eyebrows in displeasure.

Felix truly liked Selphie as a friend as she was kind, intelligent, and most importantly, trustworthy. He refused to lose such a rare friend because of her family\'s interventions due to their racism.

After all, if he was an elf, they wouldn\'t have pulled this sh*t on him.

\'Let\'s see if we can get rid of the racism out of them.\' Felix smiled coldly.

Since they want to make him look bad, he would do his very best to place himself in good light in every possible way until they would start to doubt if he was a human or a saint!