Whispering Verse

"Carina will regret it sooner or later... Look, this tent is really shabby."

Her Royal Highness, using Dorothy's body, looked at the tent where the furniture was being arranged. After taking a look at Tifa holding little Mia, she asked Shade:

"Should we stay here tonight, go to Carina Manor, or go home?"

Because the competition lasts for four consecutive days, adapting to the venue in advance or getting close to your horses will obviously lead to better results in subsequent competitions. Therefore, many contestants in previous years would live here directly.

"Of course I'm going home, it's only an hour away."

Lesia smiled, as expected:

"Then I wish you luck, my knight. Let Dorothy take a good look at your heroic performance for me. I will be here until the last day of the duel in armor on Thursday."

She kissed the side of Shade's face gently, and then closed her eyes.

The first day of the competition was not difficult for Shade. Although today's unexpectedly good weather made the sun a bit dazzling, so that when aiming at the target and facing the sun, it was almost impossible to see the target. But Shade relied on his archery skills. Instead of her own eyes, "she" corrected the position and intensity of the arrow little by little in Shade's ear. Shade only had to follow the steps.

Outside the arena is a lively market, and the arena is filled with spectators who have bought tickets. The 36 "knights" entered the field one after another and were divided into 12 groups, with three people in each group, shooting red, green and blue targets on fixed targets and moving targets respectively.

Shade was assigned to a group with two knights who were also from Tobesk, and his target was the blue target. Coincidentally, the 25-year-old Mr. Ben Seaver who was in the same group with the red target and the 31-year-old Mr. Duane Wiswer who was aiming for the green target were also titled knights. It's just that the two of them inherited the knighthood title from their fathers, which is one of the traces passed down from the old era.

They were quite familiar with Shad, the city's gossip celebrity. After greeting Shad before entering the venue, they even joked and asked him to play Rhodes with him during their lunch break.

After entering the arena and receiving bows and arrows, the two people who were originally joking became serious. They stood in the field according to the order of the draw. Amidst the cheers and applause from the audience, when they recognized the whistle, they drew their bows and shot arrows respectively, looking for their targets in the dazzling sunshine.

It is worth mentioning that Shade asked before the game that props such as "blackened glasses" cannot be used during the game, so today's game is really harmful to the eyes.

In the morning competition, Shade's group was scheduled to enter the field at ten o'clock. Because they still had to familiarize themselves with bows and arrows, identify the venue in advance, and clean up the lost arrows from the previous game, it was almost eleven o'clock by the time they finished shooting.

Shade wasn't sure about the results of the other groups, but at least among the three of them, he hit all the targets within the prescribed time, and his results were definitely the best.

After saying goodbye to Mr. Silver and Mr. Wiswo at the entrance of the arena, Shade smiled and walked towards Dorothy and Tifa who were waiting for him.

The entrance to the arena has completely transformed into a market. Dining tables, open-air pub bars, horse stables, barber's shops, Rhodes gambling tables, butcher shops, etc. are all mixed together, making it look more like a Christmas holiday at the end of the year. Derain Square is even more lively.

Little Mia lay lazily in Tifa's arms. When Shade came over, she just said "meow~".

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

"You are lucky. Last year's archery competition was raining heavily. As a result, 6 of the 54 contestants fell ill on the second day."

Dorothy said with a smile, and then lowered her voice and talked about the interesting things in the morning:

"Earl Lewis also came to watch the game, but half an hour ago we heard the news that he was injured by an arrow flying out of the arena."

"Oh? Is the injury serious? Where was it hit? On the head or below."

Shade asked expectantly as he and the girls walked towards their camp.

"Oh, Shade."

Dorothy patted Shade gently:

"Tifa sent someone to inquire. The right arm was hit, but there was no penetration. Because he needed to stop the bleeding and treat the wound, the count did not leave immediately. He is resting in the tent over there. Do you want to go and take a look?"

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

Regarding the "Grey Eagle's Mission", Shade did not think that just damaging the opponent's arm was enough. But he is not in a hurry, he has plenty of time to deal with the other party.

The group's lunch was not cooked here, but was delivered directly from Carina Manor. When the metal lunch box wrapped in thermal insulation cotton is opened, the food is still steaming.

Miss Carina probably thought that Shade was going to exercise vigorously today, so she prepared enough lunch for twenty people.

Although the maids were unwilling to eat with Shade, they finally had lunch together in the tent after his repeated persuasion. After lunch was finished and it was still early for the afternoon horseback riding and archery session, Shade said goodbye to the girls and Xiao Mia in the tent for the time being and went to the camp outside the arena for a walk.

He didn't take Dorothy and Tifa with him, naturally because there were some things he had to do on his own, and the girls all knew that Shad was going to do bad things.

After leaving the camp pretending to be wandering, Shade turned into the blind spot on the side of the camp, then used illusion to hide himself, and then went to the tent where Tifa had inquired about Earl Lewis' training.

There were some ordinary people guarding the tent, but this had no effect on Shade of the Sixth Ring. However, he didn't want this "assassination" to arouse the church's idea, so he just stole the gun from the guard, then pointed it at the tent window and pulled the trigger:

"Today is indeed a day for competition shooting... Judging from this person's reputation, I should be doing something good."

When he dropped his pistol and left, Shade was still amusing himself with his thoughts, and quickly blended into the crowd in the market. Because the market was very lively, the accident in the camp did not affect the people here. As for the poor Earl Lewis who was shot in the vital part of his lower body, he probably would never have to spy on those beautiful girls again.

In short, the matter of assassinating the earl was just a trivial matter to Shade.

The small disturbance did not affect the lively atmosphere of the market. As the time came to noon, more and more citizens and nobles came to watch the excitement, and the small market was also expanding to a larger area. The participating "knights" all have their camps in the same area, and there are special fences to separate them from the outside world to prevent them from being disturbed.

Shade did not stop at the market. When he returned to the camp area, he unexpectedly met the Fulen brothers from Kasenlik. Their match in the morning also went well. When Shade and the two of them chatted at the entrance of the camp, they realized that although the two five-ring warlocks took longer than Shade, they did not miss the target just like Shade.

Although the Fulen brothers are older than Shad's body, they are very at odds with Shad. Queen Diana was right, they were all very upright gentlemen.

Originally, Shade wanted to walk around and let more people see him wandering around, while the two brothers originally planned to visit Earl Lewis, who was unfortunately injured in the morning. But while chatting, they came to the topic of Rhodes cards.

"Speaking of which, Mr. Hamilton, if we remember correctly, you were the Grand City Players' Champion in 1853?"

asked Mr. Eric Foran, the elder brother with a monocle on his right eye, his head slightly lowered, an expression of interest shining in his beautiful brown eyes. Mr. Charles Foran also showed a similar expression.

You can go to the market later, but Earl Lewis can't die now. Shade smiled and took out the card box containing his deck from his pocket:

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

Lunch was still being prepared in the brothers' camp, and there was no place to play Rhodes. So the three gentlemen left the knights' camp together and went to an open-air tavern with a sign of "Pig's Head Tavern" in the lively arena market. Take a seat at the long table.

A small group of uniformed police officers passed by them, and although the "Pig's Head Tavern" was called a tavern, it was actually just a temporary venue with a counter and a dozen long solid wood tables backed by three cargo carriages. .

There were stone pillars standing on the four corners of this simple "tavern". The pillars were pulled with hemp rope to form a very perfunctory fence, which separated it from the barber's field next door and the paid painter's field on the other side. At the same time, colorful ribbons are pulled above the pillars, and together with the ribbons floating above the camp, add a brand new scenery to this unique spring event.

It's noon, and two-thirds of the tables in the Pig's Head Tavern are already occupied by customers, and a middle-aged woman wearing an apron is entertaining the guests with her thin husband.

Shade considered that he had to play in the game in the afternoon and he didn't like drinking, so he only ordered a glass of butterbeer. The two Fulan brothers ordered absinthe and rum respectively. The former is an anise-flavored spirit, which has a natural green color when exposed to the sun, which is quite nice; the latter is a distilled liquor produced from sugarcane molasses, which has an amber color when exposed to the sun.

"We have a game this afternoon."

Shade kindly reminded that a glass of rum is not a big problem, but absinthe is a strong drink. This kind of alcohol was originally used for medical purposes. Shade didn't even know that there was such a thing in a temporary market tavern. This kind of wine.

"It's because we have to ride horses in the afternoon, so we drink. Alcohol can make the knights more energetic."

Mr. Eric Foran said, and then also took out his deck.

Because there are not many people playing Rhodes here, no one has come to watch the three people's game for the time being. Like Shade, the two Mr. Fulen also used special card boxes to pack their decks, and they also engraved their names on the standard card boxes of the Prophet Association.