I enter the forest and immediately activate the radar.

...

Nothing here, apparently.

Activating the radar still takes some time. With more practice, I will make this magic very easy to activate. The same thing happened with the stone thorn. Initially, it took me a while to cast, but today the process is much faster.

Entering deeper into the forest, I look for possible blind spots.

On top of trees, behind bushes, tall grass.

They're good at hiding, huh?

However, while I'm looking for them in a bush, a noise moves the grass behind me!

I turn around almost instantly, looking for whatever it was that did that.

I need to activate the radar!

It takes a few seconds for me to activate it, I feel a small trail of mana leaving my range on my right.

It must be one of them!

Disabling the radar, I follow the small trail running towards him.

However... it seems like I was following no one...

I'm going to turn the radar back on just to clear up my doubts.

It takes me a while to activate, however, when I activate, I feel a trail of mana behind me that is different from all the others.

In this mana filter, I can't know how much mana people have, I just know that they are there.

I can't give any indications that I know. I must turn at once and attack!

1;

2;

3;

Now!

I turn away and run towards a bush.

At that moment, Katerine gets up and runs away.

"You won't escape!" I'm in my domain area, the forest!

I use one of the roots of a tree in front of it to entwine around Kate!

The root grabs it as if using a rope!

Katerine fell to the ground with the root still stuck in her leg.

"I found you." I speak. "Now where are the others?"

"I'll never tell you!" She dramatically responds. It even seems like I'm a villain.

Well, after finding Katerine, she joins me in looking for the others.

Katerine is a Grade 1 demi-human beast, that's enough for her to be faster and stronger than a human. In addition to having superior hearing than others. In total, there are Three Grades of Demi-Human Beast, and Grade 1 is the most "basic".

It didn't take long for us to find Ryza. She was hiding behind a tree; in fact, it was Katerine who found it.

Now all that's left is William. He must be hiding somewhere unexpected.

That kid is smart, he must have come up with a plan.

Approximately 4 minutes passed, and we didn't find anything that interested us.

My radar didn't show anything different, that just makes it possible that he's up in the trees.

I could leave the trees dry, but that could be dangerous if he was on a weak branch.

Or, I could make a mana radar that runs through trees!

No, that would be stupid, the trees are not connected, so I would only feel them individually...

Hmm...

"Water Ray!" I look to the side and see Katerine spraying water towards a tree!

She casts this magic for a few seconds, until silence takes over the forest. Probably because of Kate's unexpected attitude!

Suddenly, William comes down from the tree, completely wet.

"You could have just told me I was here, idiot." He says as he climbs down from the tree.

"You were going to run away, so I had to make a wise decision!" Katerine says while being proud of herself.

I look at Ryza, and she is laughing at the two of them.

"It's getting a little late, I think we better go back." I say.

Coming out of the forest, I can tell that night will come soon.

Foguinho was waiting for us outside the forest at all times, he must have been a trained dog or something.

"I think you'd better go back to the kingdom. Your parents might be more worried than they already are if you don't come back today..." I say.

"Alright ... Today was already pretty fun." She responds.

"Okay, so I'm going to take the princess to the kingdom, and you don't say anything about what happened today to anyone, understood?" I ask.

"Right." William says.

"Why?" Katerine asks.

"If the rumor that the princess is here spreads, the king won't like it one bit. He might even burn the village..." William responds.

I think burning the village is already exaggerated...

But if the news spreads, the king may not like it very much and end up leaving her more deprived of her freedom than she already is.

The rumor that she is here could put her life at risk too, but I don't want to say anything so as not to make the princess afraid.

Returning to the kingdom, I watch the stars and moon slowly rise.

In fact, Ryza's clothes are dirtier than they were at first. Some dirt stains, small leaves—all of this gives the white dress a little more color.

"See you tomorrow, I guess." She says smiling as she heads towards the castle.

Upon arriving in Legório, I left the princess and her dog in front of the castle, stealthily passing through the alleys.

It didn't take long for the guards to identify her and take her into the castle.

It looks like my mission has been accomplished.

I can't contain the sigh that was inside me. Today was more tiring than usual...

Leaving the alley, I can see the kingdom at night, it's been a while since I've had that view.

Bars and taverns lit and noisy, with drunks coming in and out with beer in their hands.

Restaurants and hotels operating as quickly as possible to serve customers, the kingdom is really busy.

Well, it's time to go home.

When I got home, I found my parents asking questions like "Where were you?", "Why did you get home so late?" and things like that. But I managed to avoid any involvement with the princess by pretending to be tired after training a lot.

Later that night, William also said that they did this interrogation and that he managed to get past the situation.

After that, a year passed, and I turned 4 years old.

As the months passed, William turned 5 and Katerine 4, just like me.

During the months, Princess Ryza constantly ran away from her castle to go to the village, no matter how risky it was, no one could see that she was here.

However, I made it a condition that she had to return home early and not run away every day, so as not to create suspicion.

So, we made a kind of schedule of when she would escape the castle.

William also started to return to the kingdom with me to say goodbye to Ryza, so I had to teach him all the stealth techniques...

Ryza is the oldest among us. She is already 6 years old, which makes her easier to deal with. She has a great appreciation for me and listens to me most of the time.

Returning to the kingdom, I leave Ryza near the castle as usual. William just stands behind me, watching.

Am I forgetting something?

Strange... I could swear something is missing.

When I find myself asking these questions, Ryza looks at me anxiously.

I move closer to try to make sense of this confusion.

"Where is Foguinho??" She asks me with a bit of desperation.

You're right! The dog!

I was sure he was coming back with us...

"I could have sworn he was with you!" I answer.

"He suddenly disappeared..."

Foguinho is not one to be lost, he is always by our side and is obedient...

He may have been kidnapped!

"Quickly, Ryza, enter the castle and tell your parents, they will know what to do. In the meantime, I'm going to look for Foguinho." I say and walk away as Ryza enters the castle.

"William." I call my brother to come closer. "Do you remember when was the last time you saw Foguinho?"

"Now that you mention it, I don't remember seeing him when we entered the kingdom..." He says.

They must have caught it when we were in the alleys.

Where is he?

Are we late?

The kingdom has four gates, one at each cardinal point.

"Let's split up, I'll search east and north, and you search south and west!" I don't wait for William to respond and head east.

"Understood!" I hear William say.

I need to activate my Mana Radar...

I need to identify anyone who is in a suspicious place.

Nowadays, I can cover up to 5.5 meters (18.0 ft.) without spending mana in an unbalanced way.

It's getting late, the sun will probably set in a few minutes. We need to be quick.

I look from alley to alley, hotel to hotel, as quickly as I can, looking for anyone who looks suspicious, anyone who dresses differently, acts differently, anything!

After a few minutes of searching, I see the guards moving around in an agitated manner. Ryza has probably already spoken to the king!

But I can't find anything; there are no suspicious people...

I should probably go outside the kingdom to look for someone who is running away.

At the same moment, I pass by observing an alley and see a hooded person, appearing to be watching the movement of the guards.

"You there!" I instinctively spoke, not even approaching the person in question.

Before I could take any action, this hooded figure starts running away from me.

Now there is no doubt, this person knows something!

I don't have time for theories!

I take out my magic wand that I keep in my pocket, quickly aim at the person, and conjure a stone thorn.

I cast it on that person as I move towards them.

The thorn hits he and destroys instantly.

The hooded man falls to the ground, and I manage to have him within my reach. But he unexpectedly gets up and raises his fist to punch me!