"It's good that you learned a lot from watching my moves," said Mars with his nose held high. Obviously, he was enjoying Emmelyn's compliment, even if it wasn't sincere.
When they were alone, he would never get any compliments from her… (except when she was drunk).
Jeez… the girl only knew how to complain. In fact, Mars now knew that Emmelyn's complaints on the outside didn't actually reflect what was inside her heart.
He remembered last night Emmelyn complained about her chamber and everything in it, even though she actually really liked it.
Hahaha … Mars had heard a lot from Gewen that women were weird creatures and men should give up on trying to understand them. They could say A with their lips but meant B in their hearts.
"All right, I will check how my archers are doing," said Gewen, bending down to take his sword from the ground. He turned to Emmelyn, who was standing tall on the sidelines, watching his movements. "Lord Aldrich, can you shoot arrow?"
Emmelyn shook her head softly. She had learned archery a little, but her master was not very good at it. He was more skilled at sword-fighting.
Her master, Franco, said that she'd better find a really good archery master so that Emmelyn could learn well. Unfortunately, before she had time to find such master, Emmelyn was shocked by the news that Wintermere fell into the enemy's hands.
"Are you interested in learning archery?" asked Gewen, staring at the girl closely.
"Who? Me?" asked Emmelyn, pointing at her own nose. "Why do you want to know?"
"What? You don't want to?" asked Gewen. "It would be good for a man to learn various martial skills."
"Hm .. that's right," said Emmelyn. She nodded vigorously. "I want to learn archery."
She had seen the bow that Gewen was carrying and realized that the man in front of her was more skilled at shooting arrows than wielding swords considering that he carried his bow and quiver everywhere.
Emmelyn also often heard girls in the capital express their admiration for Gewen, who was known as the best archer in the Draec kingdom. If Emmelyn could learn from him, a master, that would be beneficial for her, right?
"Come with me then," said Gewen. He walked over to Emmelyn and put his arm around her shoulder. "I'll teach you the basic techniques."
Emmelyn was forced to walk following Gewen's footsteps, as the man walked while embracing her shoulder, towards the field to the right where hundreds of soldiers were practicing archery.
"Hey .. where are you two going?" Mars asked as he walked after them. His face looked sullen when he saw Gewen embrace Emmelyn, but he held back from saying anything.
Others would wonder if he grabbed Emmelyn to move away from his womanizer general's embrace. He had no choice but to walk following them.
"I want to teach this young man how to shoot arrows, Your Highness," said Gewen with a chuckle. He released his embrace from Emmelyn's shoulder and raised his hand to call out a subordinate. "Jerome! Bring me some arrows and a bow!"
"Yes, Sir!" The soldier called Jerome immediately ran to the edge of the archery field and returned with a quiver filled with arrows and a bow. He handed it to Gewen and bowed deeply.
"Lord Aldrich. This bow is for you," said Gewen, handing Emmelyn the black bow made of beech wood. "I think the size is just right for you."
"Thank you, Lord Gewen," said Emmelyn, taking the bow. She looked at it and found the letter R carved on the tip of the bow. Subconsciously her grip on the bow hardened, and her knuckles turned white.
She remembered finding a bow like this among the ruins of a village burned by the troops from Draec who had attacked Wintermere. Apparently, this was the bow belonging to the famous Rose elite force.
She looked up and stared at Gewen with all her hatred. She knew that aside from Mars, Gewen must also be involved in the attack that brought down Wintermere last year. Mars always went to the battlefield with this elite force of his and his two generals, Edgar and Gewen.
The girl took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She couldn't possibly kill everyone who attacked Wintermere, could she?
Her kill list would be a mile long. From the crown prince, then the two generals, the commanders … then who else? Of course, there were so many.
She was alone and had no troops. Her greatest skill was her scheming mind. This was what kept Emmelyn alive today. She managed to travel nearly halfway across the continent to get to Draec disguised as a man and lived the harsh life on the road to get her revenge.
Emmelyn had to prioritize. Since she could not possibly kill everyone .. then she had to choose one person only, namely the king. King Jared Strongmoor.
She must be patient and hold back until that time came. In a few weeks, she would be able to meet the king at the royal ball. Until then, she must not raise anyone's suspicion.
"What happened to you?" asked Gewen in surprise.
He had seen Emmelyn's strange look and wondered what the girl was really thinking.
Emmelyn was moved from her reverie and the feeling of hatred that controlled her mind. She hurriedly shook her head. "I'm just admiring this bow. What's the R at the tip for?"
Mars, who noticed the hateful expression on Emmelyn's face just now, could guess what Emmelyn was thinking.
Ahh .. he understood the difficult position the girl was in. On the one hand, she wanted to practice swordsmanship, and perhaps archery as well. However, on the other hand, the people she was training with were the people she hated because they had attacked her country.
Today was the first time Mars got to think about the repercussions of all the wars they had been through so far.
In the past, like his father, he only considered other kingdoms as lands to conquer for the sake of his father's noble aspirations to unite the numerous kingdoms of the entire Terra continent under one ruler.
He did not see the people he conquered as regular people just like him who had their families and wish to stay free in their sovereign kingdoms.
Mars was telling the truth when he said that if he had known Emmelyn before the war, he would not have attacked Wintermere.
Instead, he would have come to see her parents and propose to marry her. Wintermere could be part of Draec in a peaceful way, namely marriage.
This was a tactic used by many kingdoms to avoid war. After all, wars would cost a lot of time, money, and lives.
Unfortunately, Draec was unable to use political marriage strategy to conquer many kingdoms because the royal family only had one child, namely Prince Mars, and what's worse was, he could not touch women.
Which royal family was willing to give their daughter to die after the wedding night?
The king's nieces and nephews had been matched with kings and princesses from various small kingdoms around Draec. Their allegiance could be guaranteed by these political marriages.
However, in Draec, there were not enough princes and princesses to be sent to neighboring countries to overtake the kingdoms through political marriages.
Thus, King Jared chose the other option by sending troops and conquering kingdoms after kingdoms through wars.
So far, out of a total of 43 countries on the Terra Continent, 35 were already conquered and became their colonies.
