"Max, you must pretend not to know me during the hunting competition. Okay?"
As long as this request was valid, he needed to remain patient.
Barely managing to wrench his gaze away from her, he turned back to face the field. Then, he mounted his horse, listening as people cheered loudly for their families.
"You must win!"
"We believe in you!”
Everyone seemed to be going crazy about the Flower of the Underworld's Goddess. Out of nowhere, Max began imagining the opalescent necklace adorning Jubelian's slim porcelain neck. Now he understood why people gave jewelry as a gift. The necklace could be a substitute for kiss marks, he concluded. As evidenced by how Jubelian's blue diamond cufflinks became rumored among high society, giving expensive jewelry as a gift was a way of telling the public that the recipient was the giver's significant other.
He had already received his present, so he should bring his lady victory. Once the signal from the horn sounded, Max spurred his horse forward.
Watching the horses gallop away noisily, I sighed and prayed that nothing would happen. Then, Sir Victor returned. He looked exhausted.
"Here are the gloves, Your Ladyship,” he said.
I smiled as I retrieved them. "Thank you.”
Now I was less worried about Max being attacked by the magical beast.
Hastily moving away from me, Sir Victor said, "I hope you don't ask me to run private errands like this anymore in the future."
He wore a disgusted expression, but I understood his sentiments. I made him sweat, so it was only natural.
I was about to nod to him in assent when Bea called out to the knight in a sharp voice. "Sir Victor!"
He hurriedly scurried over to her.
"What’s the matter, Your Highness?" he asked. However, he spoke with a rather informal tone and my eyes widened in surprise at his casual attitude.
Bea gazed at him with suspicion. "Why did you go down to the field?"
Sir Victor glanced at me for a brief second before answering. "I went down to give my lord some words of encouragement. Is there a problem with that?"
The way Sir Victor treated Bea was unlike how he treated me. He sounded somewhat impudent, actually. Upset that he wasn’t treating the princess with respect, I decided to say something to him.
However, before I could, Bea responded to him. "I see,” she said. "Return to your duties now that my question has been answered."
Just like that, Sir Victor returned to his seat behind her. Judging from the way he was sitting, I could tell he wasn’t enjoying his time out here. I gave him a death glare and then sighed.
I resolved to tell Max about what happened today sometime later.
The harsh wind ruffled Max's cheek as his horse sprinted across the thicket. The steed was swift, befitting its pedigree of renowned horses.
Max had been scanning the area with his senses and it looked like there were quite a few creatures here. He turned to his men and shouted, "It's near!"
His subordinates fell silent at the call. Dennis grinned from his position trailing right behind his lord. Indeed, this was what His Highness excelled at.
Upon their master’s order, the commanders headed to a nearby forest. Honestly, victory was practically in his hands already.
While defending the northern border, the crown prince and his men often hunted to boost the morale of soldiers who suffered from the cold and bleak weather. The prince's hunting skills were by far the best out of everyone there because he had sensitive senses that easily alerted him to nearby animals. As he faithfully watched the crown prince’s back, Dennis believed that his lord’s skills would prove no different today.
Just then, a rustling sound came from the bushes. Max turned to one of his archers. The archer took an arrow out and pulled the string of his bow taut. Everyone held their breaths as they waited for the animal to appear. Then, a high-pitched noise rang through the air, followed by the appearance of a small animal. Its body was round and white, resembling a snowball. Large ears protruded from its head, and blue eyes stared back. It was adorable, but in the eyes of knights, who were skilled hunters, it was nothing more than delicious food. It was a snow hare; while there were quite a few snow hares in the north, they rarely appeared in this area.
It was a pity that it was an herbivore, but it was rare, so Dennis figured they would still get a lot of points for it. He was about to signal the archer to fire when the crown prince suddenly shouted, "Stop!”
The archers loosened their bowstrings and lowered their weapons in unison. The prey was as good as dead, so Dennis couldn't understand what his lord was doing.
"Your Highness, what is the matter?" he asked.
Ignoring him, the crown prince remained silent as he stared at the spot the snow hare last occupied.
"It... reminds me of her,” he answered quietly.
Dennis’s face crumpled. Comparing Lady Floyen to a snow hare? Objectively speaking, the hare was an adorable creature, but that wasn’t enough to warrant a comparison to one of the most beautiful women in the empire. More than anything, hares get frightened easily. This couldn’t be a flattering metaphor...
Dennis was contemplating whether or not he should advise his lord regarding this matter to ensure a successful romantic relationship, but then Max snatched a bow from one of the archers. He aimed it at Dennis.
Why was His Highness—
Before he knew it, Max fired the shot, and the arrow flew from the taut bowstring straight in Dennis’s direction. All he could do was stare in disbelief. Much to his surprise, however, it slid past his cheek, ending up elsewhere behind him. The sound of flesh ripping arose, followed by a sharp cry. Horrified, Dennis turned around. Laying before him, a sizable wild cat struggled in pain atop the earth. The arrow had pierced the beast’s head.
A fire tiger? How was it here...?
In the south, fire tigers were thought to rule the animal kingdom. However, here in the empire, the center of the nation, there were no jungles, which meant that these beasts were rare to come by if at all. Given that fact, it was highly likely that someone had intentionally set this ferocious beast loose in the fields.
This is what they must have meant when they said the emperor had caught a wild beast, Dennis realized. Contrary to his serious expression, however, the crown prince was grinning.
"Thanks to this, we'll be able to get some good points," Max said.