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Chapter 59: The princess has no friends (6)
The next day, Damian led Noel and Orcus to a small shooting range set up at a corner of Kraus’ castle grounds.
This range, designed primarily for the empire’s archers, felt somewhat desolate, dotted only with a handful of targets and crates filled with bows and arrows. Orcus, looking at a distant target, murmured.
“How far is that?”
“Roughly about 80 steps.”
“That’s quite a distance.”
“Not really.”
“No, it is.”
Orcus immediately denied Damian’s answer.
For Orcus, an exceptional magician, striking a remote target was an easy task, but only when he used magic. He had once tried to handle a bow before learning magic, and according to his memory, the bow was not an easy weapon to deal with.
Leaving behind Orcus, who was looking at his target and measuring the distance, Damian silently picked up a wooden stick and swung his arm lightly toward the ground in front of him.
Snap-
It was a simple action, but with that one movement, a long boundary line was drawn on the ground. Despite standing right behind him, Orcus, who didn’t sense any mana movement, stared at the line on the ground and said to Damian.
“I made the right choice asking you.”
“You flatter me.”
Arthur, the owner of this place, was not present.
In Sarham, Arthur was as busy as the Emperor in the imperial castle, so even for the prince and princess’s education, the time he could spare was very limited. There were also messages sent by the Emperor, which eventually led Damian, who comparatively had more time, to train Orcus and Noel.
Noel, who was praised as a genius even in the imperial castle where all kinds of talents were gathered, had heard of Damian’s skills, but there was a big difference between hearing about something and seeing it with one own eyes.
Orcus, who had little contact with his peers, did not know clearly where he stood compared to others. However, having watched Noel and Cromel’s duel before, he knew that what Damian just showed was by no means inferior to them.
Thus he wiped away the little doubt he had about Damian’s skills, picked up a prepared bow, and stood behind the line Damian had drawn.
Looking at the target once again in a straight line from his position, it seemed that the distance was even farther than before. Although it was a vague old memory, he took the stance he had once taken and notched an arrow onto the bowstring.
After identifying his target, he began to calculate the distance between him and the target. He took note of the wind direction and speed - a calculation he had performed countless times while casting magic bullets.
However, it was hard to measure the exact value of the strength he had to apply. As someone who had not moved his body often, he struggled to determine the force needed to draw the string.
Ultimately, he harnessed all his strength, releasing the arrow as the wind lulled.
Perhaps it was because he had good basic muscle strength, the arrow loosed by Orcus cut through the air with more force than he’d anticipated.
“Oh.”
Contrary to his worry that the arrow might fall to the ground midway, Orcus let out a small exclamation at the sight of the arrow flying well toward the front. Seeing the arrow flying straight, he even thought ‘Could I possibly hit the center on my first try?’, but ultimately, the arrow flew past the target and disappeared into the distance.
“Ah...”
While it wasn’t unexpected, a hint of disappointment was evident the words that escaped from Orcus’s lips. Damian, observing from the side, offered another arrow and asked.
“Have you ever shot an arrow before?”
“Just once. As expected, it’s not as easy as I thought. If it were magic, I think I could handle it easily.”
“Your stance needs a slight adjustment, but overall, it wasn’t too bad. Your hand was trembling considerably, perhaps due to unfamiliarity with the stance. Regular practice can remedy this, and soon you’ll be nailing the target.”
“Is that so?”
“And you don’t need to raise the bow too high when holding it. You have more power than you think.  If you’re applying a forceful pull, a slight lift is more than sufficient.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
A smile tugged at Orcus’s lips, pleasantly surprised by the decent assessment. He took hold of the arrow Damian offered, attached it onto the bowstring, and tweaked his stance. He exerted as much force as before, aiming lower this time around.
Once again, the arrow split the air.
Thwack!
Despite the distance, the sound of the arrow hitting the target reached Orcus’s ears. Although he didn’t hit the center of the target, just the fact that the arrow hit the target was enough to make his heart flutter.
“Well done.”
“What a pity. If I’d aimed just a smidge lower, I’d have hit the center. Just like you said, my body doesn’t seem to move as I want it to, probably because I’m not used to this yet.”
“That’s always the case initially.  Practice is key in everything. But hitting the target on your second attempt shows that you’ve got a knack for this.”
“I didn’t really want to hear that from you, but... hmm, Noel? Do you want to try this time?”
“Me?”
“I mean shooting. Are you okay without practice?”
“No, I’ll do it.”
Noel, who seemed lost in thought, hurriedly stood up from her seat at Orcus’s words, her face flushed with surprise. Normally, she would have cheered when Orcus hit the target. The fact that Noel was being so quiet was certainly unusual.
However, Orcus, whether oblivious to Noel’s peculiar behavior or privy to the cause, didn’t probe further, simply handing her the bow.
As Noel stepped forward, her eyes briefly met Damian’s.
Unlike during yesterday’s duel, she seemed to consciously avoid him, swiftly looking away. Damian was puzzled by Noel’s changed behavior, but he didn’t show it outwardly.
He retrieved an arrow from the quiver and passed it to Noel, who accepted it without a word.
After receiving the arrow from Damian, she threw a quick glance at the target and immediately lodged the arrow onto the bowstring. It seemed she didn’t need any preparation time, much like Orcus earlier.
Without a moment’s pause, she pulled back the bowstring and released the arrow.
The arrow sped towards the target with even greater speed than when Orcus had shot it, embedding itself perfectly in the center. Upon seeing this, Orcus sighed softly, then turned to Damian with a smile.
“That’s what you call talent, right? Now what do you think about Noel?”
“She’s perfect. Her stance is steady, and her senses are sharp. She knows exactly how to aim to hit her target. It would be beneficial for the Princess to gain experience by hunting in the woods rather than here.”
“...”
Although Noel didn’t cheer as she usually would at Damian’s praise, the gleam in her eyes revealed her delight. Orcus, taking note of Noel’s reaction, chuckled and turned back to Damian.
“It seems we’ve both demonstrated our abilities. How about we see the skills of the master who’ll be teaching us?”
“If you wish so.”
At Orcus’s words, Damian took the bow from Noel, affixed an arrow onto the string, and drew it back.
As Damian lifted the bow, Noel’s eyes started to glimmer again. Just moments earlier, she’d been avoiding his gaze, but now her demeanor had flipped in an instant. At her change in behavior, all Orcus could do was suppress a chuckle.
However, that only lasted a moment. Orcus then swiveled his gaze back to Damian.
Just like Noel, he too, was curious about Damian’s skills. While he acknowledged that Damian was remarkable, this curiosity stemmed not from skepticism but pure intrigue.
Damian’s hand moved with remarkable lightness.
The exact amount of strength he applied was impossible to decipher just by observing. His hand, drawing back the tense string that required considerable strength to pull, moved so fluidly and swiftly that it was difficult to determine if he was exerting any effort at all. As soon as he placed the arrow on the bow, it had already left his hand.
Thud!
The singular piece of evidence Noel and Orcus could attest to was that Damian’s arrow had precisely split the one Noel had embedded in the target, settling itself within.
“Now, I’ll explain what you need to do moving forward.”
***
Noel walked away from the shooting range, heading straight for Isilia Pavilion.
Neither Damian nor Orcus accompanied her. Right now, she was walking alone.
Unlike Orcus, who had received a bundle of arrows as an assignment from Damian, she had received nothing.
“What about me?”
“For you, Your Highness, I don’t have any specific instructions. If anything, what you require now is the experience that mirrors actual combat. You’ll be heading to Luneproud for tournament preparations starting tomorrow, so you can spend today as you wish.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re free. It doesn’t matter if you sharpen your sword as usual or practice your bow next to Prince Orcus. Would you like a bow?”
Unexpectedly, she was granted this free time.
Normally, she would have happily continued shooting arrows for practice, but today she had somewhere to go. She shook her head at Damian’s offer of a bow and left the shooting range.
Although she had not yet memorized all the paths in the castle, the Isilia Pavilion was the one building adjacent to the beautiful garden. Remembering this wasn’t too challenging for Noel.
Following the pathway, guided by the intoxicating fragrance of fully bloomed flowers, she quickly arrived at the Isilia Pavilion.
As she approached the Isilia Pavilion, the multicolored spectacle of flowers, boasting the most beautiful hues the world had to offer, inevitably captured her gaze. However, there was something that surpassed even these flowers and completely filled her vision.
The pure white hair shimmered like stars in the sunlight.
Elena Edelweiss...
She was seated on a chair set in the garden, waiting for someone.
Elena’s appearance was so exceptional that it seemed appropriate to describe her as doll-like, a sight that even Noel, a woman herself, found mesmerizing. Observing Elena basking in the sunlight with her eyes closed, Noel recalled their initial encounter in Merohim.
A shy girl who was typically reserved.
...And a girl who adored flowers deeply.
That was the Elena Noel remembered.
Since then, Elena had changed for reasons unknown, but seeing her nestled among the flowers reminded Noel that some things remained the same.
Noel was aware that she was not the one Elena had been waiting for.
Noel had simply come to find Elena after hearing she had been spending time at the Isilia Pavilion. The one Elena was waiting for was likely her fiancé, who was currently instructing at the archery range.
And that fact made initiating a conversation with Elena quite difficult for Noel.
Remembering the events of the previous day, Noel pinched her own cheeks. Initially, when she had discovered Elena here, her only thought was that she had found a familiar face in Sarham, a foreign land. She had even forgotten the reason why she had come here in the first place.
Despite hearing clearly from Orcus that it was due to the engagement of Kraus and Edelweiss, she had lost sight of the most crucial thing, being enraptured by the fact that she had come to Kraus.
When her gaze first met Elena’s, Elena had merely nodded at her and proceeded to walk past her toward Damian. Initially, Noel felt somewhat hurt, but reflecting on her own subsequent behavior made her cheeks burn with embarrassment.
Her lack of concentration on their conversation was understandable given her fiancĂ© was holding another woman’s hand right before her eyes. Realizing that she was the instigator of such a scene, nothing could make her feel more mortified.
She couldn’t shake off the fear that Elena might have developed a poor impression of her due to yesterday’s incident.
Noel didn’t know much about romantic love between men and women, but she had an intuitive feeling that it was not Damian who was the cause of Elena’s transformation.
Even if that wasn’t the case, she recognized that the bond between the two of them extended much further back than her relationship with either of them. Interfering with such a connection left Noel feeling tremendously uneasy.
Even though their meeting had lasted just a day, Elena was the first friend Noel had made since her birth.
Over the last few months, Elena had changed a lot from the girl Noel knew. Their encounter had been so brief that Noel feared she might have faded to a mere passing acquaintance for Elena amidst these changes. Thinking back on the previous day’s incident only heightened her concerns.
“Ughhhhh....”
Ultimately, Noel, unable to initiate a conversation, was left stamping her feet in frustration. However, someone gradually approached her.
“Your Highness?”
“Ah!”
Suddenly confronted with Elena’s face, Noel lost her balance and began to fall backward. Elena reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her back to her feet.
“Why were you standing there in a daze?”
Hearing Elena’s question, Noel realized that Elena had been aware of her presence for quite some time. Her face flushed again at the remark, but recalling Elena’s hand holding hers, Noel gripped it tightly and blurted out.
“E-Elena!! It’s been a while!”
Why had she uttered such a common greeting?
Even Noel herself didn’t know why, but as soon as she saw the radiant smile reflected in Elena’s eyes, all her worries melted away like snow.
“It has been a while, Noel.”