Chapter 1514: Assassination and the Folen Brothers

"Miss Jia Lin Na will regret this sooner or later... Look, this tent is truly shabby."

The Princess, using Dorothy's body, sized up the tent where furniture was being arranged, glanced at Miss Miss Difa holding Little Mia, and then asked Xia De:

"Are we staying here tonight, going to Miss Jia Lin's manor, or heading home?"

Since the competition lasts four consecutive days, and adapting to the venue early or bonding with one's horse obviously leads to better results in subsequent events, many participants in previous years chose to stay here directly.

"Of course, we're going home; the journey takes only an hour."

Princess Lei Lei Qianya smiled; this was entirely expected:

"Then I wish you luck, my knight. Let Dorothy observe your brave performance on my behalf. I will come here for the armored duel on the final day, Thursday."

She gently kissed Xia De's cheek, then closed her eyes.

The first day's competition posed no difficulty for Xia De. Although the unexpectedly good weather made the sunlight somewhat blinding, so that aiming at the target was nearly impossible when facing the sun, Xia De did not rely on his own eyes for archery. "She" corrected the position and force of his shots bit by bit in Xia De's ear; Xia De only needed to follow the steps.

Outside the arena was a bustling market, while inside the arena sat an audience that had bought tickets. The 36 "knights" entered successively, divided into 12 groups of three, shooting at red, green, and blue targets on both fixed and moving targets.

Xia De was grouped with two other knights from Tobesque; his target was the blue target. Coincidentally, Mr. Ben Seifer, aged 25, whose target was the red target, and Mr. Duane Wisvo, aged 31, whose target was the green target, were also knights with titles. However, the two had inherited their knightly titles from their fathers, belonging to one of the remnants of the old era.

They were quite familiar with Xia De, a celebrity of local gossip in this city. After greeting Xia De before entering the arena, they jokingly invited him to play Luo De Pai during the noon break.

After entering the arena and receiving bows and arrows, the two who had been joking became serious. They took their positions in the arena according to the draw order, and amidst the cheers and applause from the stands, they distinguished the whistle, then drew their bows and shot, searching for their targets in the glaring sunlight.

It is worth mentioning that Xia De had asked before the competition that props such as "blackened glasses" could not be used during the event, so today's competition was truly very damaging to the eyes.

For the morning competition, Xia De's group was scheduled to enter at ten o'clock. Because there was still work to familiarize themselves with the bows and arrows, identify the venue in advance, and collect arrows from the previous round, by the time they finished their respective shooting, it was already nearly eleven o'clock at noon.

Xia De was not entirely clear on the results of other groups, but at least among the three of them, he hit all the targets within the allotted time, so his result was definitely the best.

After bidding farewell to Mr. Seifer and Mr. Wisvo at the arena entrance, Xia De walked smilingly toward Dorothy and Miss Miss Difa, who were waiting for him.

The arena entrance had by then completely become the appearance of a market, with dining tables, open-air tavern bars, stables, barbers' shops, Luo De Pai gambling tables, butcher shops, and so on mixed together, making it even more lively than St. Deran Square during the year-end festival.

Little Mia lay lazily in Miss Miss Difa's arms, and upon seeing Xia De approach, she only let out a "Meow~".

"The results were very good, but my eyes are almost blinded by the sun."

"You are still lucky; the archery competition last year was on a rainy day, and as a result, 6 of the 54 participating contestants fell ill the next day."

Dorothy said with a smile, then lowered her voice to talk about the amusing events of the morning:

"Count Liu Yisi also came to watch the competition, but half an hour ago we heard news that he was accidentally injured by an arrow flying out of the arena."

"Oh? Is the injury serious? Where was he hit? The head or down there?"

Xia De asked with some anticipation as he walked with the young ladies toward their camp.

"Oh, Xia De."

Dorothy lightly tapped Xia De:

"Miss Miss Difa sent someone to inquire. He was hit in the right arm, but it did not penetrate. Because he needed to stop the bleeding and treat the wound, the Count did not leave immediately and is now resting in a tent over there. Do you want to go see him?"

"What's the point of going to see him? Let's go have lunch."

Regarding the "Gray Owl's Mission," Xia De did not think merely wounding the opponent's arm was enough. But he was not in a hurry; he had plenty of time to deal with the other party.

The group's lunch was not prepared here but was sent directly from Miss Jia Lin's manor. When the metal lunch boxes wrapped in thermal cotton were opened, the food was even steaming.

Miss Jia Lin probably thought Xia De would be engaging in strenuous exercise today, so the lunch she prepared was enough for twenty people to eat together.

Although the young lady maids were all unwilling to eat with Xia De, they finally ate lunch together in the tent under his persistent persuasion. After finishing lunch, it was still early before the afternoon horseback archery session, so Xia De temporarily bid farewell to the young ladies and Little Mia in the tent and wandered around this campsite outside the arena.

He did not take Dorothy and Miss Miss Difa with him, naturally because there were some things he had to do alone, and the young ladies all knew Xia De was going to do something bad.

Pretending to stroll away from the camp, Xia De turned into the blind spot on the side of the tent, then used illusion magic to hide himself, and subsequently headed for the tent where Count Liu Yisi was recovering, as discovered by Miss Miss Difa.

There were some ordinary guards around the tent, but this had no effect on Xia De, a sixth-ring cultivator. However, he did not want this "assassination" to attract the Church's attention, so he merely stole the guns from the guards, then aimed at the inside through the tent window and pulled the trigger:

"Today is indeed a day for shooting competitions... Judging by this person's reputation, I suppose this counts as doing a good deed."

As Xia De left after dropping the pistol, he amused himself with this thought in his mind and soon blended into the crowd in the market. Because the market was very lively, the accident at the camp did not affect the people here. As for the poor Count Liu Yisi, who was shot in the vital area of his lower body, he would probably never need to spy on those pretty girls again.

In short, the assassination of the Count was just a small matter for Xia De.

This small disturbance did not affect the lively atmosphere of the market. As time reached noon, more citizens arriving here and nobles coming to watch the spectacle gathered, and the small market expanded to a larger area. The tents of the participating "knights" were all in the same area, separated from the outside world by special fences to prevent disturbance.

Xia De did not linger in the market. When returning to the camp area, he unexpectedly met the two Folen brothers from Carsonlick. Their morning competition also went smoothly; when Xia De chatted with the two at the tent entrance, he learned that although these two fifth-ring mages took a bit longer than Xia De, like Xia De, they also did not miss a single shot.

Although the Folen brothers were older than the age of Xia De's current body, they got along very well with Xia De. Queen Diana was quite right; they were all upright gentlemen.

Originally, Xia De wanted to wander around to let more people see him strolling, while the two brothers originally planned to go visit the unfortunate Count Liu Yisi who was injured in the morning. But as they chatted, the conversation turned to the topic of Luo De Pai.

"Speaking of which, Mr. Hamilton, if we are not mistaken, you were the champion of the 1853 Dacheng players?"

Mr. Eric Folen, the older brother wearing a monocle over his right eye, asked. He lowered his head slightly, and a look of interest flickered in his beautiful brown eyes. Mr. Charles Folen also revealed a similar expression.

The market could be visited a little later, and Count Liu Yisi was not going to die right now. Xia De smiled, took out the card case containing his deck from his pocket:

"What, do you want to play a round with me? Oh, gentlemen, I am going to bet on special cards."

The brothers' tent was still preparing lunch, with no place to play Luo De Pai, so the three gentlemen left the knights' camp together and sat at an open-air tavern long table under the "Pig Head Tavern" sign in the bustling arena market.

A small squad of uniformed officers passed by them, and although the "Pig Head Tavern" was called a tavern, it was actually just a temporary venue built against three cargo wagons, using a counter and a dozen or so solid wood long tables.

Stone pillars stood at the four corners of this makeshift "tavern," with ropes strung between the pillars forming a perfunctory fence, separating it from the barber's venue next door and the paid painter's venue on the other side. At the same time, ribbons were strung above the pillars, joining the ribbons floating above the campsite, adding a new scenery to this spring's unique grand event.

As time reached noon, two-thirds of the tables at the Pig Head Tavern were already occupied by guests, and a middle-aged woman wearing an apron was serving guests together with her thin husband.

Considering he had a competition in the afternoon and that he personally did not like drinking alcohol, Xia De ordered only a cup of butter beer. The two Folen brothers, however, ordered absinthe and rum respectively. The former was a strong liquor with an anise flavor, and the liquor had a natural green color under the sunlight, which was quite good-looking; the latter was a distilled spirit produced from sugarcane molasses, having an amber color under the sunlight.

"We have a competition in the afternoon."

Xia De kindly reminded them. A cup of rum was not a big problem, but absinthe was a strong liquor; this alcohol was originally used for medical purposes, and Xia De did not even know such a tavern in this temporary market still had this kind of liquor.

"It is precisely because we have to ride horses in the afternoon that we need to drink alcohol. Alcohol can make knights' spirits more alert."

Mr. Eric Folen said, then also took out his own deck.

Since there were quite a few people playing Luo De Pai here, no one came to watch the three people's card game for the time being. Like Xia De, the two Mr. Folen also used special card cases to hold their decks, and they had even engraved their names on the standard card cases of the Prophets' Association.