Holding the princess's hand, we passed through the alleys until we reached the exit gate.

Surprisingly, there are no guards!

They must be looking for Ryza and her dog.

When we pass through the gate, a feeling of relief runs through my body!

This could have ended very badly for me if anyone had seen us.

I let go of the girl's hand, and she jumps with joy as we run.

"We're not there yet, so celebrate when we've escaped!" I say as I run.

"Right!" She responds in a cheerful voice.

We can't go the route I normally take, or else someone would see us.

But it will be difficult to be discreet, as there is no forest nearby, just a few scattered trees.

All that's left is to hope that no one recognizes her!

Unexpectedly, no one even suspected that she was the princess during our walk. In fact, not many people passed by.

Maybe because the king and queen leave the princess in a kind of private prison...

"Hey, Ryza, go to that forest and wait for us there. I'll call my friends." I say as I point to the forest where William and I train.

Ryza just agrees and goes the other way. Foguinho follows her.

"Don't go into the forest, just wait for us near it!" I say as she walks away.

She just raises her arm with her thumb.

Okay, now it's time to call Katerine and William.

Arriving home, I realize that it is almost three in the afternoon. My mother is already at home, washing the lunch dishes.

I go to William's room, and he's not there.

I go to the office, and there he is reading a mythological book.

"William, I managed to become friends with the princess." I say whispering.

"WHAT?!" He exclaims.

"Light, William, is everything okay?" Hera asks from the kitchen.

"Yes, William just… got scared."

"Be careful with these jokes." She says.

"And there's more. I brought her to the village." I complement.

William's expression is priceless, hahaha.

It's like I know what he's asking without even speaking.

"How?" "When?" "Where?" That must be what he's thinking.

"I won't ask how you did it, but I only believe it after seeing it." He answers.

"You'll see. She's waiting near the forest where we train; I don't want to keep her waiting, so can you call Katerine for me, please?" I ask.

"Okay, okay." He says.

"Ah, but don't say that the princess is here, she would tell everyone. Tell her that I prepared a surprise."

William and I left home, each with a different destination.

Heading into the forest, I run as fast as I can.

I can't leave the princess unsupervised for too long, after all, she is the future queen, I think...

Arriving close to the forest, I can see the princess sitting on the grass with her dog, who is lying on her back.

I walk over and sit next to her.

"I had forgotten how good fresh air feels..." She says

I also miss air conditioning sometimes, although that's not what she's talking about...

"Have you ever been to the beach?" I ask as I lie on the grass.

"Never, but I want to. Have you been?"

Honestly, I don't even remember the last time I went to the beach, even in my other life.

"I've never been either. They say the sea breeze is the best in the world."

"It must be." She lies down on the grass next to me.

We stood there looking at the sky for a few moments without saying a single word, just watching the clouds pass over the sky.

Until, in the distance, I hear someone's footsteps that gradually increase.

Standing up, I see Kate and William arriving.

"They arrived." I say.

Ryza gets up and sees them.

Katerine's first reaction was confusion; I think she doesn't make much of a point of remembering people's faces.

William, on the other hand, looked surprised.

"You really brought her." He says

"Nice to meet you." Ryza says.

"Who is she?" Katerine asks me unpretentiously.

"My name is Ryza; Ryza Wanderberg, the princess of the Kingdom of Legorio." She presents herself in a cordial manner.

"Hey, you don't need to be so formal." I say whispering.

"Sorry, it's become a habit..." She murmurs.

"Oooooh" Katerine seems to be a little surprised, but she must not know the importance of a princess...

"My name is William Rods."

"Are you brothers!?" Ryza is surprised.

Ryza almost immediately remembers my last name.

"I hadn't told you yet, haha..." I reply.

"My name is Katerine Grifen." She introduces herself by petting Foguinho who approaches her.

In fact, this is the first time I've heard Kate's last name.

"Well, now that everyone has introduced themselves, I think we can begin." I speak, and everyone looks in confusion. "Ryza has never played with anyone, so we're going to have to teach her."

William takes time to think; Katerine runs from one side to the other, having fun with Foguinho; they must understand each other somehow...

"I think we can start with hide and seek." I say.

"Isn't it dangerous for us to do this in the forest?" Ryza asks in fear.

"Relax, night wolves only come out at night, obviously." I answer.

"But what about wolves that stay awake during the day?" She insists.

"I've never seen those around here." I say. "Just don't go that far, I also want to test out a new magic I'm developing."

"Magic? Can you use it yet?" She asks in surprise.

At Ryza's age, she should be almost releasing all her mana naturally. Maybe in a while she'll discover what her magic is.

"The three of us did it." William speaks.

"Heee?!"

After calling Katerine back, I decided that I would be the one seeking and they would be the ones hiding.

I gave them 1 minute to enter the forest and find a good place, although my magic will destroy any chance they have, he he.

"Here I go!" I exclaim towards the forest, entering it.

The new magic I'm developing is a magic to detect someone's location just by feeling the ground.

For this, I use Earth Magic.

With this magic, I can practically create a radar.

In order for me to locate it, I first connect my mana with the ground's mana.

However, since all things have mana, I can detect all living things.

This becomes a problem as the ground itself has countless living things, so the radar becomes crowded.

With this in my mind, I must make a "filter" of what I want to locate.

I should just connect my mana with the surface of the ground so that I don't detect any living beings beneath it. By the way, I use a technique similar to this to control the roots.

After connecting my mana with the ground, I must leave the connection weak so that I can only detect that which has a relevant amount of mana.

With that done, now all I have to do is activate the radar and look for something that has eye-catching mana.

There are two problems with this technique:

First, it consumes a lot of mana, so to prevent me from losing all of it at once, I need to send "pulses" of mana, just like a radar does. But, I must be careful not to lose sight of anything.

The second problem is the range of this spell. Currently, I can only detect what is 4 meters away from me. It is a very low number and still cannot be very useful to use.

If I wanted, I could increase the range, but the mana consumption would be greater.

I need to keep the mana pulse and range activated at the same time, I'm practically spending twice as much mana on a single spell.

Anyway, I named this spell Mana Radar!

But now, enough stalling, it's time for me to find these brats!