Chapter 43 - Competition 1

The first competition was archery. The one I was best at. The rules were simple: there were three rounds with the increasing distance in the target. The first one was 30m then 50m and the last one was at 80m distance.

Each target had circles drawn on it with the marks written on it and the centre one was bulls eyes, which I was sure I could hit, since my wounds have healed just fine.

I looked around, mostly looking at me with a smirk, all the knights presented there were 20 or above of age with years of training. And i.. I was not even qualified to use sir in front of my name as I have not even qualified for the entrance of knighthood.

'To bad! Your smirk is not going to stay there for long.'

Finally the most awaited bell rang and we were given 5 chances to shoot the arrow. I closed my one eyes and aimed for the red mark that was in the centre with full concentration.

And took my aim, i shot the first arrow and it hit straight at the centre. Each target had one guard standing there to take the arrow out and noting down the points. But before he could do so I shot another that cut the first arrow from the middle and hit the centre again and that continued with the third, fourth and forth arrow.

Except the fifth which was just at the corner of the red centre all hit straight at the centre point cutting the previous arrow and a roar of applause filled the place. No one would have thought that I would be able to do that. Even the other knights were looking at me with surprised eyes as if they had seen the ghosts.

"The winner of the first round is Abigail Essendsons and Josephine De Christasia. The first runner up is Sylvia Mcapphy and the second runner up is Natallie Thompson." announced the head guard and the crowd cheered again.

We were given a 2 minutes break before the start of the second round when Josephine walked towards me.

"So, you were not showing your skill completely that day?" she asked with a smirk and i wanted to tell her that i was not even showing them now or else i would not have missed the fifth aim too.

"Why are you so willing to compete with me that you even decided to be the knight of the second order?" I asked back as I could not understand the reason, making her lose in the fencing that day was not enough to keep the enmity for so long, was it?

"Who said that I have enmity with you? You are just a new toy and I am having my fill to play with you." she replied with a smirk and I shook my head.

"Playing with fire often burns hands, my lady" I replied as I turned back towards my position.

In the same way the second round started, we were once again given 5 arrows and 3 minutes to shut all the arrows on the target. I decided to miss two bullseyes this time and end them near the centre while the rest three hit straight at the target, cutting one arrow after the other. But this time i took my own sweet time in between as i continued to look how Josephine was shooting his target, but every time i looked at her, she was already looking at me with a mischievous smile and that was when i noticed that she wasn't even looking at the target when she was shooting the arrow. Her eyes were on my target instead or on me.

She was copying my scores so that she would neither get a higher point nor a lesser point, as if she wanted to have another draw.

"Sick '' I cursed as I shot my last arrow and the bell rang. This time the reaction of knights was completely different. Rather than disdain and scornful gases they were looking at me with smiles and flattery.

I would have been delighted if it would have been due to my performance in the match. But no, I knew it was because of Josephine. The way she came to talk to me in a two minute break personally had given them wrong signals.

Nobles or not, rich or not.. There was no doubt that humans were full of flattery. They wanted to come close to her, I thought.

Ha! If only they knew that Josephine could take them as her target too if they would be seen with me.

"The winner of the second round is Josephine De Christasia and Abigail Essendson. The first runner up is Natallie Thompson and the second runner up is Latina Gruel and Vionna"

Why was I not surprised with the result? This time when we got a two minutes break Leo first came to Josephine with a glass of juice and some energy bar before she could come to me once again.

Whenever I see Leo there is something that attracts me. He did not look like an aide at all, his aura was royal and strong but whenever he stood beside Josephine he suddenly turned into a simple and cowardly person.

The bell rang again and the third round started but before we could go there, four girls covered me. I knew them, they were the one who were winning the second and third position of the competition.

"So you are the new knight who took Anabella's position"

I nodded and they looked at each other.

"Don't you think her getting injured and then your joining at the end moment and winning all the rounds is rather suspicious