Chapter 11: Desires
1260 Words
Chapter 11: Desires
Third Person’s POV
Nem’s words that she absentmindedly blurted out reached Seles’ ears clearly. Seles gripped her bow tightly that it issued a slight creaking sound. She hates those sentimental feelings between a daughter and father that she hadn’t even had the chance to feel.
Her desire to the crown all sprouted out from that unfeeling father that threw away the affections that should have been given to her to the newly born little sister of the former Queen. That late royal father that is kind and gentle to the citizens of the kingdom can be so cold-hearted to his daughters born from his lowly royal consorts.
She was already a two years old little kid when Nem was born, and even though she doesn’t remember anything at that time period, there is always a vague recollection of the care that her royal father gave her, but it all disappeared with the birth of the crown princess, the legal and only heir to the throne.
This kingdom that only cares about the birthright of the heir makes her so disgusted that she wants to occupy its throne and destroy it on her own hands.
The feelings of her yearning for a fatherly figure whittled away with time, especially with the premature birth of her youngest sister who is physically weak and sickly but was still unable to have the care of a father that she deserves.
Her thoughts along with her desires twisted her heart to be full of thorns and poisons.
Nem noticed the tight expression that is displayed on her elder royal sister’s face without knowing the thoughts of destruction running through her mind.
“Elder royal sister…do you feel unwell?”
Her soft caring voice penetrated Seles’ myriad of thoughts and her tight face immediately formed a kind and gentle smile befitting of an elder sister.
“Her highness the Queen does not need to worry about this subject, this subject is healthy and well.”
Her voice carried traces of sarcasm that is unable to reach Nem’s naïve and trusting mind.
Nem worriedly looked at her for a moment to check the credibility of her words before giving a relaxed smile seeing that there really is nothing wrong.
Her attention was drawn by the announcement of the scores and the hilarious reactions of the watching nobles and guests because of Zen’s uncaring attitude to the competition.
She just shook her head in resignation. She had known Zen’s personality since they were kids, especially with the loyal eastern general Kiros always bringing him to play with her in the palace.
Zen is never an individual that cares about the opinion of anyone and his only desire is the blood-filled and murderous battlefield where he can stake his life and feel the deep excitement of the nonstop boiling of his blood. Playing with him when they were little is like playing with a lazy and indifferent cat languidly basking in the sun without a care for anyone.
“He doesn’t really know how to give face to the royal family.”
A flash of amusement flitted past her eyes as she whispered. Nem doesn’t really care about the face of the royal family, she only cares about the foundation of the whole kingdom, but that doesn’t mean the nobility directly linked to the royal family with blood is the same.
The last and third level of the competition is the flying targets and with the quick and strict operation of the servants of the royal palace. Four three meter tamed flying wild beasts with two meter wide wings was prepared with a small target tied on their chests.
Although, the four flying wild beasts has the same size and wingspan, they are of different species entirely. There are also four royal beast tamers holding different whistles to give orders and instructions to the four flying wild beasts.
The drum beats sounded as the start of the competition. Four whistles blew out different pitches as the flying wild beasts rose in the air at the height of sixty meters while flying agilely in the one hundred meter distance decided by the competition rules.
The difficulty of a moving target in the land and air is practically the like the gulf between the heaven and earth.
It is already hard to aim in the distance, especially with the always changing pattern of the wind and also the flexible agile flying wild beasts along with the generated wind of their two meter wide wings.
It is also difficult to guess the next movement of the flying wild beasts, so it could be said that Nem and the three are facing different challenges with four different flying wild beasts with different habits and styles.
Nem raised her eyes to the flying wild beast designated to her. It has blue white feathers with a black beak and it seems to enjoy moving about in the air with its continuous rolling around like the sky is a really comfortable bed made of the best of beast furs.
She observed the course pattern of the blue white flying wild beast while her idle hands moved familiarly as an arrow was lodged on the bow without her taking off her eyes to her target.
She counted to nine in her mind as the blue white flying white beast went on to glide in a curved position while slightly leaning to its left side as the small red target on its chest flashed in Nem’s sharp eyes.
Her hand holding the bow and arrow steadily changed its position to aim upwards as the number on her mind dropped to one. A second passed again and the sound of her arrow leaving the bow whistled past her ears along with the wind being cut in its path.
The arrow immediately scoured the one hundred meter distance and precisely hitting the small red target on the blue white flying wild beast that is on the way to perform another glide but was interrupted by the arrow.
The power behind the arrow that glided past a hundred meters is not that strong, but the position of the flying wild beast made it so that it suffered a blow that it flapped its wings alertly to stabilize its flight.
The beast tamer holding the whistle of the said flying wild beast acted quickly to call it on land as there is no need for the other two chances to shoot because Nem has already scored the highest score. The arrow that she shot pierced through the very center of the small target and gained her three hundred points plus the four hundred eighty scores from before gives her a total of seven hundred eighty points.
Seles, Zen and Cairo have also shot their first arrows, but failed to score the highest and another two arrow shots from the three of them sounded before the match ended.
Nem won with only sixty points ahead of Cairo. Seles is the third and the uncooperative Captain Zen of the royal army is in the last place.
It could be called a successful competition to honor the new Queen, as her victory somehow let those who are not reconciled with her coronation quiet down for now.
This signifies the end of the royal banquet and the start of Nem's rulership of the Regin Kingdom.
- Writer
