The Hero's Forsaken Princess
Chapter 104: The Winner

Chapter 104: The Winner

"Huh?" Alaric was confused.

He stared at the stage. The huntmaster was calling him, gesturing for Alaric to join them.

’How could I win?’ he pondered to himself.

Even the generals who monitored Alaric and Crown Prince Cassian were shocked upon hearing the result.

"General Alaric captured fifteen wolves, twelve boars, fifteen deers, twelve foxes, ten hares and ten pheasants. The total point he gained is Two Thousand Two Hundred Fifteen."

Crown Prince Cassian didn’t expect this defeat. He couldn’t believe it.

The most surprising thing was that the additional foxes, deers, and wolves in Alaric’s cart were all alive. Alaric didn’t remember catching them. How did they end up in his cart?

The spectators began whispering, amazed by the result. This was also the first time a participating hunter brought alive animals.

"How did he do that? Ten wolves, five foxes, and ten deers are all alive!" a noble from Kingdom Eldara blurred out.

"Did he use some tricks? The animals were not even injured."

"Did he cheat? Using some kind of medicine, otherwise, how was he able to tame those animals?" Someone started to speculate.

"Wait. Is our hero a beast tamer?" Another noble from Kingdom Averion expressed his thoughts.

"How could this happen?" Alaric asked the knight.

The knight just shrugged his shoulders as he leaned in. "My Lord, while we were leaving the hunting ground, we suddenly felt the cart becoming heavy. The foxes and wolves seemed like they followed us and entered our cart willingly."

"You should go now, My Lord! His Majesty is waiting," the knight added, urging Alaric to climb up the stage.

Alaric made his way to the stage, standing next to the Huntmaster. He congratulated Alaric.

In a brief moment, the princesses arrived together with their guards and carts. The crown princess, Princess Aliyah, Princess Thalia, Princess Alessandra, and Princess Eve lined up in front of the stage.

"Now, let’s begin tallying the scores of the princesses. We will start with the crown princess," The Huntmaster announced.

The hunting steward and the record keeper started to count the captured animals.

"The crown princess captured three deers, five pheasants, and ten rabbits." The huntmaster declared the result.

Everyone clapped their hands to acknowledge the Crown Princess’ achievement during the royal hunt. She wasn’t trained in combat but her archery skills were good.

The next cart to be revealed was Princess Aliyah. They noticed she was holding her right shoulder. There was also a stain of blood in her hunting clothes.

Queen Amara stood up from her seat and questioned Aliyah and her guards

"What happened to your shoulder? How did the princess get injured?"

Gerard and his comrade immediately kneeled in front of the stage as they apologized. The princess’ safety was their responsibility. However, she still got injured.

Gerard was clueless how Princess Aliyah got wounded. When they met at the entrance of the forest, Aliyah was not in the mood. She never mentioned her encounter with Eve.

Gerard shifted his gaze on Eve. She was supposed to be the one who should be injured. But she looked just fine.

’Does Princess Aliyah’s plan backfired?’ He pondered to himself.

Gerard and his comrade exchanged anxious glances with one another. They managed to escape from Sera without disclosing their identities. However, they failed to protect Princess Aliyah.

Meanwhile, Princess Aliyah was still quiet, contemplating whether to blame Eve for her injury or just keep it a secret. She wasn’t afraid of Eve. However, her threat was serious.

Eve had changed. She couldn’t easily scheme against her. Eve had finally decided to fight back.

’Forget it! I’ll just get my revenge after this. I shouldn’t make a ruckus in front of Crown Prince Cassian. I could see that he favors Eve a lot.’ Aliyah thought.

"Queen Mother, I’m just fine. This is not a serious injury. I accidentally tripped when I was chasing after a deer. Because of that, I ended up getting injured," Princess Aliyah said as an alibi. She even glanced at Eve meaningfully.

Eve simply smiled at her, satisfied with Aliyah’s decision. She yielded to her for the first time. She managed to control Aliyah and stop her from blaming her and her guards for what happened to her.

’Good choice, Sis.’ Eve nodded at Aliyah.

In return, Aliyah glared at her before looking away.

Queen Amara frowned as she noticed the hidden interaction between Aliyah and Eve.

She didn’t press on the matter further as everyone was dying to hear the result of the competition among the princesses.

"Princess Aliyah captured one deer, five rabbits and five pheasants," The Huntmaster spoke up.

"This is understandable because Princess Aliyah got injured. But her performance is still good," he added.

"It’s okay, Princess Aliyah. You did a good job finishing the hunt despite your injury," General Ravenmoor said, consoling her. The general was her Uncle-in-law.

"Thank you, Uncle," Aliyah replied, smiling at him as she concealed her annoyance.

Meanwhile, the spectators began betting between Princess Alessandra and Princess Thalia as they waited for the result. They believed the winner might be either Princess Alessandra or Princess Thalia.

"Princess Alessandra’s skill in archery is top notch," one noble expressed his opinion.

"No! It will be Princess Thalia. She underwent strict training ever since she was still a child. Our Princess will win this!"

The spectators began to argue, supporting the two princesses. Nobles from Kingdom Eldara and Kingdom Averion were fighting over the winner.

"Stop arguing! I will make a bet. Princess Eve will be the last! Hahaha!" A noblewoman said with certainty.

"Why do you think so?" Her husband asked her.

"Look at her arrows! It looks like she didn’t use her arrows. She still has a lot of arrows as compared to the other princesses. Furthermore, Princess Eve is always sick and weak. I bet she can’t pull the string well to hit her target." The noblewoman began to belittle Eve.

One spectator stood up and grabbed the attention of the huntmaster.

"Huntmaster! Instead of revealing the result of Princess Thalia’s hunt, we should count Princess Eve’s captured animals first."

The huntmaster frowned. They were supposed to reveal the cart according to the first person to arrive.

He was about to reply but another noble supported the suggestion.

"Yes. We should do it to make it more suspenseful in revealing the final winner. We all know that the winner might be either Princess Thalia or Princess Alessandra. Let’s reveal their carts in the end."

"Yes. Huntmaster! Please accept our suggestions!"

The huntmaster turned to King Solomon and Queen Amara, consulting them.

"Go ahead, Huntmaster. Accept their suggestion," Queen Amara said to the huntmaster, giving her approval.

"How about you, your Majesty?"

King Solomon nodded in support. "I don’t have a problem with that."

Satisfying the spectators’ request, the Huntmaster made his decision.

"For the next result, let’s uncover Princess Eve’s cart," the Huntmaster declared.

Everyone didn’t expect much on Eve’s cart. However, a sudden turn of events happened, shocking everyone.

When the hunting steward removed the woolen cloth covering Eve’s cart, everyone gasped in surprise upon seeing the cart filled with different live animals.

Eve and Julius collected twenty rabbits, fifteen deers and twenty five pheasants without injuring them. They all fit in Eve’s cart.

"Oh my! Am I seeing things? Princess Eve captured those animals without using her bow and arrow?"

"Amazing?! How is this possible?! What kind of tricks did she use?"

"This is very suspicious. The husband and wife captured live animals. Did they cheat or something?"

The majority of spectators couldn’t believe this. In the history of their royal hunt, no one brought live animals as many as this.

As everyone doubted Eve, thinking she cheated, Alaric realized that it was his wife who helped him win.

He didn’t know whether to feel glad or not about it.

’So clever Eve. You use your beast taming skill to capture these animals. You became true to your words. You didn’t harm the animals.’ Alaric felt so proud of her. However, he had one concern.

’But I don’t want them to know that my wife is a beast tamer. They might take advantage of her. And if enemy kingdoms find out about Eve’s rare talent, they will send men to kidnap my wife to exploit her beast taming skills.’

Alaric glanced at Eve worriedly. He took a deep sigh. He forgot to remind her not to use her beast taming skills during the royal hunt.

Meanwhile, Queen Amara, Princess Thalia, and Princess Alessandra were fuming with rage. Looking at the numbers of animals in her cart, Eve would win first place for sure. They couldn’t believe Eve managed to capture those animals.

’She cheated for sure!’

They refused to accept Eve’s victory. The people who belittled Eve’s hunting skills were also slapped by this shocking event.

The Huntmaster was also left in deep stupor, unable to say a word. That’s the time Alaric nudged his shoulder.

"Continue counting. You haven’t declared the winner yet in the female category."

The huntmaster could only smile sheepishly, scratching his face.

"I shall continue, My Lord."

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