Chapter 10: Strokes of Geniuses
1456 Words
Chapter 10: Strokes of Geniuses
Third Person’s POV
Nem thoughtlessly shook her head at her rich imaginations. The moon god is not so idle to pay attention to this small Kingdom. It is already an honor to be blessed with a tiny bit of the moonlit magic illusion in performing the last tradition of being crowned as ruler.
It could really make her ponder the kind of adventures the founding King has experienced to be able to let the moon god let go of a bit of her moonlit magic to let some lowly kingdom mortals witness it once every change of the throne.
The thought of the moon god reminded her of the yellowish scrolls hidden deep in the royal study of her late father’s royal chamber. It was all just a stroke of fate that the ten-year old little Asteria was able to stumble into those deep hidden records of the glorified thousand years of past that is now spoken of as legends of falsehood and seen as a treacherous period of the spawns of the devil.
Those records spoke of the birth of magic in every continent of the origin land. The gods watched the weak humans suffer so tragically in the world full of wild beasts and superior species known only in bedtime stories.
They watched them struggle to survive with unyielding spirits for hundreds of years only to be suppressed by the ultimate strength given by the privilege of the bloodline of these mystical races.
The moon god Reij, the sun goddess Hal, the sea god Agio, the fire god Phix, the wind goddess Lafi and the earth god Mior descended in the origin land to use half of their saved up origin magic for hundred thousands of years to bless the righteous humans and those with ambitions the gift of wild magic.
A magic born from the heart and will also be destroyed by the heart. A magic created from the deep and pure desire of a person to be able to make a ripple on the colossal waves of the world.
Wild magic sprouts with the feelings of the purest of hearts, but it can also lead to destruction if the once luminous heart suddenly harbors the dark clouds that darkness brings.
The sudden inquiring voice of her eldest royal sister brought Nem back from that boundless world of the past. Those records have kept her fascinated since, though the view of the people about that time is so different from what she imagined.
She felt awe, honor and reverence but the current civilization sees it as a dreadful plague without a cure.
“Is her highness the Queen confident?”
Seles hooked up her lips imperceptibly in scorn while dutifully stretching her shooting arm without giving Nem a glance. Her manner of speaking and etiquette doesn’t carry any of her princess-like auras and seems to be thrown in the back of her mind that is full of schemes and deceits.
“This Queen will just wait for the deciding score and is not too bothered by this small prelude.”
Nem’s words are light and casual without any hint of arrogance but still sounding mocking in the filters in Seles’ ears. She did not have the time to give a remark when the royal guard holding the records appeared in front of everyone.
“The scores are out!”
“I wonder who won the first level.”
“Maybe it is Captain Zen? His abilities are well-renowned.”
“This is the first time I saw princess Seles to wield the bow, I’ve only heard of the rumors about her talent in archery.”
“It is even a first for the Queen to show off her attainments in the bow.”
Agiel smiled brightly as he accepted the scroll that recorded the score of the match. Looking into it, he was stunned in silence for a second before maintaining his bearings. The crowd was keenly aware of his change of expression and was even more eager about the results.
The circle targets of this era only contains of three areas. The central core ring, the middle ring and the outer ring, and it basically adds up to the scoring procedure of the former having three hundred points, the mid ring having two hundred points and the latter for a hundred point. The perfect overall score of the three levels will be nine hundred points though the scoring procedure is based on the arrow being closest or directly in the center.
A shot in the central core ring can be divided in five circle scoring line from the first circular line to the fifth circle line. The first circle line will only have a score of sixty and it continues with an addition of another sixty points in the second circular line until it reach the three hundred score in the fifth circle line of the target. It also conforms to the mid ring and the outer ring, as there are five circular scoring lines from farthest to nearest to the center.
“Her highness the Queen’s highest score is her first shot arrow on the fourth circular line of the central core ring, a score of two hundred and forty points.”
“Princess Seles, Captain Zen and Ambassador Cairo also attained a two hundred and forty points on their first shot arrow, as it is a really wonderful coincidence that tied all of our contestants in the first part of the competition.”
“Huh?”
The crowd and even the four who shot their arrows are muddle-headed for a moment with the weird coincidence of the scores. Did the four of them worked with each other to play with the crowd? Of course not, even if they want to, it is almost impossible to suddenly have a tacit understanding or even have that ridiculous idea.
It is also impossible to copy the course of each other’s action because even though the big lanterns at every corner of the yard is like a small sun, it is still the deep night in addition with the distance of the targets, it’s hard enough to gauge the path of their opponents arrows if not for their keen eyesight, so how could they even have the audacity to mimic them?
The first level of the competition was decided with the tied scores of all the four participants.
The second level was immediately in play with four royal guards mounting their horses while identical four smaller targets are tied on their backs and running from the sixty meter distance to the one hundred meter distance in an evasive formation practiced by the royal army.
The sounds of drum beats echoes continuously as each participant wielded their bows and arrows with extreme precision and majesty that are seemingly like the strokes of geniuses wielding their brushes with grace while writing absorb in their own space of thought.
The sound of arrows hitting the target without even scratching the royal guards holding it is like the sound of a wondrous opera ending successfully without any mistake. Though there won’t be any injury because the four are wearing their full armor along with their helmets.
The abilities and attainments of the four participants is already way above the talented level of a youth in their ranging ages.
“Not bad.”
Zen shook his shooting arm lazily while casually praising Cairo with a tint of indifference in his eyes.
The moving targets different from the first level is that the three arrows are left on the smaller target and are brought back by the four royal guards.
The scores of the four slightly changed as Nem and Cairo tied in first place with five hundred forty points while Seles scored four hundred eighty and Zen in last place with only two hundred forty points as he did not even score ten points in the moving targets.
Cairo raised his scarred face and tilting it slightly to look at Zen and his cold eyes narrowed a little before nodding to accept the half-hearted praise.
“I did well royal father.”
Nem’s beautiful and delicate face had a hint of nostalgia and a bright smile that can eclipse the light of the moon above.
Her focused eyes turned hazier by the second and her alert body from the stimulation relaxed.
The feeling of doing her best ability is exhilarating as it magically feels that the burden weighing her down since she placed the crown on her head lightened in a refreshing way.
- Writer
