Chapter 22 The Heart-Fluttering Melody Eleanor looked up and suddenly noticed…

"One, two, three... there are three now!"

Eleanor cheered; she had caught two rabbits and a pheasant in nearly two hours.

In her previous life, she had also hunted with Andra, surrounded by a crowd of people. The knights herded the small animals to her feet, and Andra joined in the fun.

Even with such a large-scale operation, you might only catch a few prey in an hour, but now you've caught three in two hours. This is hunting with a bow and arrow, which is incredibly difficult.

"Your Highness is truly amazing." Andra clapped her hands, her expression genuinely sincere.

She skillfully concealed her surprise: Eleanor's hunting skills were actually quite good? But according to previous investigations, everyone said that the young princess of Norlana was frail and sickly, and couldn't even write properly.

But today she seemed quite lively, and her archery and horsemanship were also quite skillful. Could this princess be a born hunter, or... is there another reason behind her frail health?

Eleanor knew Andra all too well; she could tell what Andra was thinking just by looking at her eyes.

Snap.

She picked up the rabbit and gently tossed it at him, saying, "Okay, hurry up and pack it up for me~"

“Yes.” Andra put the rabbit and pheasant back into the hunting bag.

The little princess is bound to win this time, right?

They've been walking for so long and haven't seen a single large prey.

If they were to venture deeper into the dense forest, the horse would be useless. Even if King Norlana were a master hunter, he couldn't possibly manage to travel, search, and hunt all within a few hours.

The guards followed silently behind, while the two young girls rode their horses leisurely through the forest.

Just in case, Eleanor didn't put down her bow and arrows. She kept a close eye on the surrounding trees, hoping to shoot a couple more birds to make up the difference.

Da da, da da.

The sound of horses' hooves?

Everyone tensed up immediately as the rhythmic sound of horses' hooves approached from afar.

There was only one person besides them who dared to ride so recklessly during the king's hunting competition—King Eva of Norlana.

Da da, da da

Sure enough, just as they thought of Eva's name, a figure nimbly passed through the trees and appeared in front of them.

"—" Wang reined in his horse and paced around Eleanor and Andra.

She smiled as she looked at the bulging bag on the horse's back. "My lovely little rose, when did you learn to shoot arrows?"

“I…” Eleanor began through gritted teeth, but before she could utter the reason she had just made up, she saw Eva put her finger to her lips, signaling her to shut up.

Eva smiled knowingly, "It's alright, it's normal for my daughter to be born with knowledge. Did you kill four or five?"

"...Three."

"Haha, that won't do. We'll have to work harder to get the manor." Eva shook her head regretfully.

Didn't we agree that I would leave early? How come you've overtaken me after only half an hour?

Eleanor couldn't help but ask, "So, Mother, how many hits did you get?"

“One,” Eva raised a finger and suddenly pulled back the bowstring before Eleanor could speak.

Bang!

In an instant, the bowstring was drawn to its fullest extent, and a sharp arrow shot out, piercing the grass with a mournful wail.

Eleanor turned around and saw a small fox with flame-colored fur roll out of the bushes, spitting blood and motionless.

"Two." Eva blinked and held up her second finger.

Eleanor's heart pounded. Before her mother could even count to "three," she whipped the reins and spurred the pony to run to the side.

She had no desire to hunt with such a monster!

However, Eva didn't care whether you wanted to or not. She easily followed, and every now and then she would deliberately make a bow-drawing motion, which scared Eleanor into moving forward.

No, calm down quickly.

Eleanor's breathing gradually calmed down. I had no ability to interfere with Eva's hunt. My priority was to increase my own catch to widen the gap.

The rules she set were very favorable to me; there were birds and free-roaming "wild rabbits" all around, making them easy to catch!

She encouraged herself, and Andra and the guards behind her gradually caught up.

The clattering of hooves must have startled many small animals. We can go forward to intercept the wild beasts that have been driven away, or shoot the startled birds nearby.

Chirp chirp.

Eleanor heard the birdsong this time and immediately drew her bow and shot an arrow horizontally.

Swoosh~

The arrow flew weakly low through the air, still a long way from the bird.

"Hahaha, you still need to practice." Eva laughed from behind, arms crossed, her expression seeming to say, "That's it? I thought you were a genius!"

Uh... Eleanor gritted her teeth, unmoved by her childish behavior.

She continued riding forward and soon saw a pheasant flapping its wings and flying out of the grass.

Okay, this one will do.

Eleanor slowed down slightly this time, calmly taking aim.

Three, two, one.

whoosh,

Whoosh!

Two arrows flew out one after the other. One long, narrow arrow pierced the pheasant's chest, its fletching deeply embedded in its ruffled feathers.

The second small arrow only then carefully struck the wing, hanging weakly on it.

"Huh?!" Eleanor whirled around, glaring at Eva with accusatory eyes. Her gaze screamed, "Cheating! Foul!"

“Hey~” Eva smiled as she put away her bow. “I didn’t cheat. This pheasant isn’t my prey, and of course, it’s not yours either.”

You, phew.......

Eleanor could only turn her head away angrily, since the rules only said that it didn't count if Eva hit the pheasant, but didn't say that Eva couldn't hit her prey first.

But I'm still so annoyed!

Eva then used the same trick several more times, always managing to strike first whenever Eleanor aimed at her prey. An hour passed quickly, and neither of them had caught anything.

This can't go on any longer.

Although she appeared to be leading by one point, Eleanor didn't believe Eva would let her maintain her advantage until the end, and she had to take the initiative to change the situation.

But her horsemanship was no match for Eva's, and even though her horse was better, Eva still clung to her tightly.

"Tsk." Don't blame me!

Eleanor's face darkened with anger. She suddenly dismounted and ran on two legs toward the bushes.

"Danger!" Andra instinctively called out to the little princess, but when she saw the determined look in Eleanor's eyes, she was the first to shut her mouth and follow steadily.

Rustling, rustling.

Eleanor kept running through the bushes. This time she was right; Eva wasn't disgusted enough to dismount and chase after her.

The wind quieted down.

Eleanor gradually slowed her pace as she searched slowly in the grass.

Her target this time was very clear: small rodents, or simply mice.

Eva was the one who messed with the rules first, so she's not to blame. Even the smallest mouse is prey, and the good thing is that it breeds many mice; you only need to find one burrow to collect a whole bunch.

There's none here... and none there either. What do forest rat burrows actually look like?

Eleanor ran around in a headache, wondering if she had angered the rats by pushing the extermination efforts too hard in her past life, because she couldn't find them no matter what she tried.

Crackling sound.

A small pebble suddenly landed in front of my toes.

Eleanor turned around and saw Andra wink at her. They were standing closer together, while the guards and retinue remained watching from behind the bushes.

Plop! Another small pebble came flying, this time landing a little further away.

Eleanor kept quiet and followed the stones forward. Soon she saw a dry tree stump and a slightly raised mound of earth next to it.

Mole hole... Andra's eyesight is amazing!

She quickly asked the servants for tools to level the mound, and then used branches, stones, and animal sinews she had in her bag to make a simple rat trap.

Eleanor circled around and found two more mouse holes.

She did the same thing above the other rat holes, and dug a long passageway along the way, but she mainly guarded the first rat hole that was covered with rubble.

Andra understood her method of catching mice, and at the right moment, she stepped on the channels that were making unusual noises, driving the mice inside into the trap.

What? You're saying I was helping? I didn't know that.

With everyone's lips twitching in tacit approval, Eleanor successfully caught a nest of moles after a busy period of time. If you count the smallest ones, there were nine in total!

"Yay!" She clenched her fist happily. This number was practically impossible to surpass, right? Adding the previous three, that's a total of twelve. Eva couldn't possibly catch up!

Now it was her turn to worry about Eva cheating.

Eleanor hurriedly carried the bunch of little moles in her bundle and rushed back.

The mole-catching operation had taken up a lot of her time, and with only about an hour left in the competition, it was time to check on her mother's situation.

Eleanor ran back to the clearing. The horses and some servants remained, but Eva and the main force were gone.

"Giddy up!" She quickly mounted her horse and urged it on to gallop toward the direction where the tree branch had broken.

Knock knock knock.

The steed galloped at full speed, truly living up to its reputation as a divine steed carefully selected by royalty, stirring up a gust of wind in just a few breaths.

whoosh—

Andra followed silently from behind, gazing absently at the little princess's flowing black hair.

But she also heard howls in the distance, and she believed Eleanor was too...

"Waaah—"

The long, drawn-out howls of wolves, seemingly echoing across the mountains and fields, startled the birds and also shook Eleanor's heart and breath.

Oh, I see... How could this be?

A sudden realization and frustration made her urge her horse to quicken its pace, and finally, just as the arrow pierced the wind, it burst out of the forest and saw the blood flower blooming spectacularly.

One horse

The king stood atop a high hill, drawing his longbow fully towards the wolf pack below.

Two horses

Full bloom again—three horses!

Her slender arms seemed tireless, and each strike was like water splashing on a pond, languid and swaying.

The time seemed to fluctuate, and her movements as she drew the bowstring carried a captivating rhythm.

Four, five, or six horses!

"Woo woo..." The wolf pack let out uneasy howls.

"Awooo—" A huge gray wolf with silver-white fur stood up almost on its hind legs and let out a completely different howl.

The humans on the cliff are not beings they can afford to mess with!

The wolf pack could no longer withstand the successive losses and quickly retreated into the forest.

"Hmph~" Eva smiled and fired another arrow from her fingertip, easily taking away a life.

Seven, eight, nine—?!

Eleanor's eyes widened: This is the ninth one already! Adding the two prey Eva hunted before, they'll have one more to tie the score!

Her hope for victory no longer lay with Eva, but rather with praying that the wolves would escape quickly enough...

Whoosh—

The gods seemed not to hear her prayers; the tenth arrow pierced the air and struck the retreating wolf pack's tail.

"Woo, Awoo—"

The huge white wolf suddenly turned around, perhaps to cover its companions' retreat, or perhaps out of anger at the despair this human had brought them, and charged toward the hillside!

No!

Eleanor's heart nearly leaped out of her throat.

She stared intently at Eva's fingers, watching as the king grinned maliciously as he released the arrow.

Boom boom—

The little princess clasped her hands together, as if she could hear flames exploding in mid-air.

The arrow pierced the air steadily, flying towards the white wolf's eye—

No, no, no...

Simple prayers were indeed useless. In Eleanor's despairing eyes, the golden arrow shot through her eye socket and pierced the alpha wolf's brain.

Ugh.

Eleanor looked up and suddenly noticed... the king wasn't smiling.

Eva's face did not show a victorious smile; instead, it was covered with a layer of gloomy anger, to the point that her lips were tightly pursed.

Boom!

The giant wolf rolled twice on the ground, and as it rolled, Eleanor and the others saw it—another arrow deeply embedded in the wolf's back.

"Your Majesty." The girl's long hair shimmered with a golden-red glow in the sunlight. Andra smiled brightly and called out to the king:

"The rescuer arrived too late."