Capítulo 68: Chapter 68: Maxim and Offspring?

"You two should try them on and see how they operate, although if I had to guess, you probably just inject Qi into it." Said Elif with a smile of curiosity.

"You misunderstand, your highness; the second pair of earrings aren't intended for me to wear. They're meant for you to wear them." Said Sarah as she grabbed the pair of golden earrings and handed them to Elif with a smile.

"Those are for me to wear?" Asked Elif in a weird tone, as he felt slightly uncomfortable wearing something that women mainly wore.

I didn't wish to wear something I viewed as feminine, but when I saw Elaine looking at me expectantly while having already put on the silver earrings, I couldn't bring myself to reject the offer. So with a sigh, I grabbed the gold earrings and attached them to my ears.

"So, how do I look?" Asked Elif as he did a pose while two beautiful gold earrings with gems attached to them hung from his ears.

"Beautiful! Elegant! Marvelous." Exclaimed Elaine, Sarah, and Illumia, respectively.

With how charming I am, it wouldn't matter what I wore; I would always look exceptional, though I did feel slightly uncomfortable getting called beautiful, considering I'm a male. Moving on from Elaine's comment, I entered the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror.

'I guess they aren't that bad looking; the gold earrings complement my silver hair quite nicely. I guess I'll wear them for now.' Thought Elif contently before making his way back to the bedroom.

Standing right outside the bathroom entrance, I injected some Qi into the earrings, and when I did so, the gems glowed before pointing toward Elaine; when I withdrew my Qi, the gems returned to normal and fell back down.

'Honestly, they're not that useful as they only tell the general direction where the other wearer is, but I guess it's not entirely useless.' Pondered Elif as he fiddled around with the earrings for a little bit longer.

"Alright, Elaine, it's time for breakfast. We should get going." Said Elif as he headed towards the exit of the room.

"Ok, coming. Are you joining us for breakfast as well, Sarah?" Asked Elaine as she hopped off the bed and followed after Elif.

"No, your highness, I came early to gift you these earrings as I had something important scheduled for today. I'll make sure to visit again soon, though." Said Sarah solemnly as she left the room alongside Elaine, though headed in a different direction than Elaine and Elif.

"See you later than Sarah and thanks for the wonderful gift!" Exclaimed Elaine happily before turning around and running after Elif, who was far off in the distance.

As Elaine and I were walking down the hallways, I would hear the servants commenting on our new appearance. Of course, everything they said was positive; I mean, with how charming I am and how cute Elaine is, how could they possibly say anything negative? Once we arrived in the dining room, we didn't even get to sit down before mother and father commented on our new appearances.

"What's with the earrings?" Asked Marcus as he looked at Elif weirdly.

"Hmm, why do you say it like that, father? Can I not change my appearance every now and then? As a Prince, I can't be caught wearing the same outfit all the time." Said Elif with fake arrogance as he flipped his hair back to show off his earrings; while Elaine copied his actions.

"Ok. So why are you wearing earrings?" Replied Marcus, completely ignoring Elif and turning to Elaine.

"They're a birthday gift Sarah got me. She said these earrings are capable of always locating each other, no matter where they may be located in the OverRealm! Now, brother won't be able to escape from me!" Said Elaine happily as she jumped up to her seat and began stuffing her face full of food, much to Maria's displeasure.

"Slow down, Elaine, the food's not going anywhere, and don't forget you're a Princess; please have some self-control." Said Maria sounding quite Irked.

"I'm eating fast so I can get back to cultivation; I need to hurry up and reach the Core Formation Realm so that I can form a Dantian; then I'll finally be able to use Qi freely." Said Elaine, though at least she had more manners than Elif as she made sure to swallow all her food before speaking.

"Haa. Well, at least the earrings look great on both of you." Remarked Maria, having given up on fixing her children's etiquette.

Once we all finished eating, we would usually disperse from the dining room; however, this time, we didn't, as our parents had something important to say, and I had an inkling what it would be.

"Maxim, you can show yourself now." Said Maria, seemingly to no one, until an Elf with dark hair and a butler suit appeared beside Maria.

"You called, your Majesty?" Said Maxim respectfully as he bowed.

'Yep, I'd guessed correctly.' Thought Elif as he smiled in self-pride.

"This man is father's disciple, Maxim; now he will serve as your personal butler, just like how Illumia is Elif's personal Maid." Said Marcus, introducing Maxim to his children, though mainly to Elaine.

"It is an honor to be granted the privilege of becoming your personal butler Princess Elaine." Said Maxim with a smile as he bowed to Elaine respectfully.

"Now that I have my own personal servant, that means I can order him to attack Illumia for all those times she's stopped me from entering Elif's room!" Exclaimed Elaine excitedly, though her words caused everyone in the room to be dumbfounded; even Illumia, who was standing in the distance, was quite speechless.

"Maxim, are you stronger than Illumia?"

"Umm, I-I don't know, Princess Elaine; I've never fought with Ms. Illumia." Answered Maxim, feeling quite uncomfortable at the sudden turn of events.

"Elaine, you will not be ordering Maxim to attack Illumia, understand? Maxim, if she does tell you to attack Illumia, you're allowed to ignore her." Said Maria seriously, eliciting Maxim's sigh of relief and Elaine's pout.

"Hmph, fine then, I shall just return to my room to continue cultivating. Let us go, Maxim." Said Elaine as she hopped off the seat and walked out of the dining room with Maxim following closely behind.

"So, he's grandfather's disciple?" Asked Elif, curious why he had never been mentioned, considering his status.

"Yes; when father was still the Emperor, he had come across Maxim on one of his secret trips outside the Empire and was apparently impressed by Maxim. Hehe, you should've seen the look on mothers face when father returned home with a random young man." Explained Marcus, smiling as he reminisced his prince days.

"Mother must've thought that was father's bastard son with how furious she looked, though it was definitely a hilarious scenario." Commented Maria with a chuckle, though her words shifted Elif's curiosity to something else.

"Now that you mention that mother, on the Ancestral records in the Royal library, there have only ever been two children born each generation; one boy and one girl." Said Elif as he looked at Maria and Marcus knowingly.

"No need to give us that look, Elif; we're not hiding anything from you; if you had asked, we would've told you; besides, you should've already read about the Royal Elf's history so you had known for a while, we had to keep our bloodline pure." Said Marcus casually as he sipped on the left-over tea.

"Yes, father, I had already known for quite some time; I just never bothered mentioning it as I didn't find it that important; what I was curious about was, though, has any Royal Elf had an offspring with a non-Royal Elf?" Asked Elif curiously, though when he said that, Marcus and Maria's faces turned serious as their demeanors instantly shifted to that of Emperors and Empresses.

"You're not thinking of impregnating a different species, are you, Elif?" Said Maria seriously, slightly scaring Elif from how severe she sounded.

"Of course not, mother." Answered Elif, slightly nervous.

"Are you sure, Elif, this isn't something to take lightly?" Asked Marcus, equally serious as Maria.

"Father, I'm eight years old; I have no interest in the opposite gender whatsoever." Said Elif gravely; although he was slightly scared at their reaction to his question, that only further piqued his curiosity.

After I said that, mother and fathers serious demeanors faded, and their typical auras returned, making it seem like everything that had just transpired to be a dream.

"Sorry about that, dear; it's just it's greatly forbidden to expand the Royal Elf lineage, and if you do so, you'll be severely punished; not even we could protect you then." Said Maria as she teleported Elif to her lap and rubbed his head, though with how big Elif has gotten, it doesn't look as adorable as it used to.

"So then, with how serious the both of you got, I'm going to assume it's happened in the past?" Asked Elif as he sneakily tried to escape from Maria; of course, he was obviously unsuccessful.

"Yes, it's happened a few times in the past, and the endings did not end well for any of the people involved, not even the child." Answered Marcus, rubbing his forehead in exhaustion.

"What happened?"

"Haa, well, when the Royal Elf gets exposed, they'll immediately get detained and placed in the Royal Dungeon for some time, and while they're locked away, the ancestors will capture their child and the child's other parent. We'll then destroy the parent's physical body and send their soul into the reincarnation cycle to be cleansed; next, we'll wipe all memory from the child, seal away their bloodline and destroy their reproductive organs before sending them to a random mortal realm alongside two Royal guards as acting parents. Once that's all completed, the Royal Elf will be allowed freedom under the condition that they are forbidden from ever leaving Yggdrasil unless personally ordered by Progenitor Lordess herself." Explained Maria, sounding severe and sad at the same time.