Otherworld Adventure

Eli and Fina broke away from the group. They brought along Ainz with them and made their way to the Oceanic Kingdom's Academy group.

The two found the people they were looking for, Fina was looking for her sister and so was Eli. Eli went over to a red-scaled intelligent-looking lizardkin girl who was wearing glasses. She looked like she was a year or two older than Elizabeth.

"Big Sis!"

"Oh? Eliza! You're here too? Goodness, I didn't see you! I only saw Lance and Zephyr earlier!"

"Ahaha~ I was in the back of the group with my party!"

"Ahh no wonder! Anyways, congratulations Eliza! I heard from mother and father that you became an Academy Queen! The Crimson Sky Queen, right? Ufufufu~" Eli's sister giggled happily while she teased Elizabeth.

"J-jeez, don't tease me, big sis Nora!"

Manora Arks, the second princess of the Anglaria Kingdom, the 2nd daughter of the Arks Royal Family.

The two began to catch up with what they were each doing in their individual academies. While they were catching up with each other, Fina was currently being squished to death by a tall merfolk lady.

"Aiyah~ my cute little sister's here~!"

"Ugh...sis...I-I'm dying..."

Fina was being squeezed in between two large 'mountains'. The lady who was squeezing her in a tight hug was Fina's older sister, an instructor of the Oceanic Kingdom's Royal Academy, Odelia Oceania Neftersea.

"I didn't think my precious little sister would be able to take part in the trials! I thought only the 100 strongest of the academy was selected?" Odelia asked with a thoughtful expression while still hugging onto her little sister.

Fina began to struggle and she was able to escape from her sister's tight hug. She stomped on the ground while pouting.

"What's that supposed to mean, big sis?!"

"But...Fina's not that strong?"

"I am strong!!!"

"Fufufu~ isn't that a given now? You are here after all!"

"Ueh?"

Fina's anger immediately deflated when her sister suddenly praised her.

"Hmph...I kept writing letters to you...didn't you bother reading them?"

"Hihihihi~ I'm just teasing you, my precious little sister! Of course I've read them...you worked rea~lly hard, didn't you?"

"Y-yes..." Fina replied shyly. She was really happy receiving her sister's praise. Finally, she was praised for something other than her cuteness.

"But still! Where's that Cecil fellow?"

"H-huh? Cecil? Wh-why's sister looking for him?"

"He must take responsibility!!!"

"R-responsibility?!" Fina immediately misunderstood, "He already has two people who love him! One of them is my best friend too! There's no way I'll betray her!"

"...I didn't mean that kind of responsibility, huhuhu~" Odelia playfully smirked at her little sister. Seeing this Fina started pouting.

"Stop teasing me!"

"But you make such a cute face when you get angry~ Anyways, I'm serious about him taking responsibility!"

"For what exactly?!"

"He dared...to put my cute little sister through all that harsh training!!! He MUST take responsibility for all that!"

"W-wha?!"

"So...where is this boy?"

"N-not telling!"

Odelia looked up and turned her eyes over to the Arks Academy's group. Not long later she turned towards her sister and asked, "It's that black foxkin boy, right?"

"Wha?! N-no way!"

"Yup, that's him alright. You just said so didn't you? He had two girls who love him, and judging by those two girls in his arms, that's most likely Cecil!"

"No way, no way, no way!!! That's definitely not him!!!"

"Oh, please. With the way you're defending him, that's without a doubt the boy!"

"Urk..."

"Now, come with me Fifi~ we're going to seek some justice for you!"

"I don't want that justice!"

"Well, too bad! You're getting it whether you like it or not!"

They quickly went over to Cecil and Odelia immediately engaged in a conversation with the boy.

Back where Eli was, she finished talking to her sister and had turned her attention to the ruckus Fina and her sister was causing. She couldn't help but laugh after overhearing.

"Hahaha! I didn't think Fina's sister was so doting!"

"Well, instructor Odelia is only like that when you bring up her siblings...she's actually very strict when she teaches, but she's very good at what she does."

"Oh? She's actually an instructor?"

"Yeah, she's a magic researcher as well."

"She's a princess right?"

"The FIRST princess even...but she's so carefree! The Oceanic Empire is a matriarchy! She's supposed to be the next Empress!"

"W-woah! I admire her for being so free!"

"Tell me about it...look at what that responsibility did to our brother. Zephy's so cold now that he no longer talks to big sis~" Manora said while pouting her lips a little.

"Heheh~ but lately...Zephyr has been more easy going...he's no longer so cold like before..."

"Hm? Did something happen?"

"...I beat him during the selections..."

"Oh? I didn't hear about this?"

"Probably father didn't want to tell you about it, haha..."

"Hmmm... well if he's changed for the better after losing to his precious little sister, then that's okay. I prefer the warm Zephy than the current cold one."

"Well, he's been smiling a lot more after the loss!"

"Hihi~ that's good. Well, you should go over there, you're friend looks a little helpless," Manora giggled while she pointed to Cecil who was bowing real low towards Fina's elder sister.

Eli bade her sister goodbye and made her way back to the group with Ainz in tow, but midway the two were blocked by a group of beastmen.

"Ahh, my Princess, so you were indeed here!" A scruffy voice sounded.

When the two girls clinging onto his arms were distracted from the voice, Cecil was able to Blink away.

"Oh~?"

"Ah! He escaped!"

The two girls only sounded a little lost, but they didn't mind Cecil running. They instead turned towards the unfamiliar voice.

"Agh...it's him, tsk," Serilla clicked her tongue in distaste.

"..."

"The Prince that tried to kidnap Eli on multiple occasions," Serilla pointed towards the gaudily dressed dragonewt.

He had beautiful dark purple colored scales, but the boy seemed a little...unhealthy? Maybe scrawny would be a better word.

The scrawny dragonewt came over to Elizabeth and bowed dramatically. Eli had a clear look of disgust on her face. She coldly glared at the boy with eyes full of scorn and disdain. Eli didn't even bother to respond to his greeting.

"My princess! Surely, you'll give some face to this prince, yes?" The prince didn't mind, but the way he looked at Eli was like he was staring at a piece of delectable meat.

This caused Eli to shiver in disgust, "Get AWAY from me!"

Eli turned around and walked away. She wanted to rush back to her sister, but just as she was about to move farther away she was suddenly surrounded by the prince's cronies.

"My Princess! I'm sure you can spare me a minute or two?"

"Never! Why should I give you even an ounce of my time?!"

Ainz moved in front of the beastman Prince and blocked his way. He glared at the Prince with open hostility.

"...move out of the way, dog."

"Dog? Heh, aren't you blind? Take another step and I'll burn you," Ainz replied coldly.

"Hmph, insolent punk! Who's this, my Princess? May I get rid of this dog?!" the prince snarled.

Even though he was clearly asking a question, he had already waved his hand and his lackeys began pulling out wands and a couple of them moved in closer.

Headmaster Elufied saw this and frowned. He was going to move in, but a voice interrupted him, "Now let's leave the conflicts of the young ones to themselves, yes?"

"...What do you mean by that, Barka?" Elufied glared at the large black furred Bearman next to him.

"It would be unbecoming of us elders if we had to step in and resolve the conflicts of the youngsters, no?"

Barka said this and began circulating his mana, showing a clear intent of stopping Elufied from interfering.

"Tsk..."

He could only turn an eye to the Elven King. "Your Highness!"

"It is as Barka said...we should let the young ones resolve their own problems. This also means that later if any of you have missing students...I'm sure you should let the 'young ones' resolve their own grudges, no?"

"..."

Although the Elven King didn't directly lend a helping hand, but what he implied was that any further conflicts that happened after the students came out of the trials should be resolved amongst themselves.

If the headmasters wanted to intervene later, then they might incur the wrath of the Elfenheim Kingdom later.

"Yes, that's exactly as it should be! You hear that, Elufied?" Barka said with a taunting tone.

"Hmph. You better not regret this later! That idiot of a prince just offended the wrong person!" Elufied smirked with disdain. He had openly insulted the Empire's royalty and he didn't even care!

"What? You! You take that back!!"

"Pfft, look, my students will soon take out the 'trash', haha!"

Elufied smirked and laughed loudly. He wanted to resolve the problem himself so later when the students enter the trial grounds they won't incur any animosity from the other groups of students, but since the Beastman Empire's Headmaster had stepped in to stop him, he could only leave it to the students to resolve the problems themselves.

It was sad for the Empire's Prince though. He just offended a girl who had really, really strong connections, both figuratively and literally. Eli was best friends with a girl who was dubbed an Apocalypse...he was surely in for a bad ending.

Sure, enough. Lucia immediately stepped in when she saw her BFF being bullied by some random, weak looking fool.

"Stop."

Lucia flashed into the beastmen encirclement and released her Elemental Burst. The presence she was giving off was enough to stop everyone from moving forwards. The cold and dangerous atmosphere even caused some of the beastmen to stumble and back away.

"Wh-who are you?!"

"Me? I'm Eli's friend...I don't like seeing people bullying her, so you better back off while I'm still asking nicely." Lucia coldly replied.

"H-how insolent!"

Lucia frowned and was just about to send a lava bolt at every beastmen surrounding them, but then all the beastmen were suddenly sent flying through the air.

PAK PAK PAK PAK PAK PAK

Not long after, every beastmen in the vicinity was sent flying back towards their academy's gathering area. The Empire's Prince wasn't exempted from this.

"Lulu, for these kinds of people, it's better if you take action first. Words won't persuade them," Cecil said as he dusted off his hands.

"Hrrrmmm...I wanted to have some fun y'know~"

"Well, we shouldn't. Those important figures are looking over at us. Let's hurry back to the group. We're catching the attention of everyone around."

Cecil turned around and made his way back to Arks Academy's gathering spot. Ainz, Eli, and Lucia followed after him.

"Hey Eli, are you okay? That was the prince that's been trying to kidnap you, right?"

"Y-yeah..." Eli shivered with disgust.

"Why not just beat him up? You know you're more than capable enough to do so?"

"Huh?"

"Eh?"

Ainz immediately interjected and helped Eli brush the question off.

"Hmmm~" Lucia had a thoughtful looking when she saw the pale and disgusted Eli.

'What's wrong?'