In the Smod Empire, there are two duchys. One of them being the one the empress was from. The other belonging to the Duke of the East. An arrogant bastard who chose wealth and power over his people's starvation. The empress couldn't do much about this, because he would always say that before she became who she was now, she was at the same ranking as him.
This lead to an endless motion of completely annoying political problems that involved neighbouring territories to save the pollution under his stead. Steering regional depths and lose of honor to many others at court. Even at the hunting competition, this man didn't back down. He needed this wealth to fill his stomach.
They say old people are wise. But this man who is practically half-dead and using a walking stick with an arched back, was not stepping up from his gruesome motives. Run down other weak houses, even if it meant doing the absolute worse.
Aefia was a victim of it. Being from a Countess house which lost their reputation not so long because of the former Count's doings.
Meanwhile, seeing how she was a common target for someone else, arrogant and vengeful Kazimir chose to team up with the old man and bring Aefia down to teach her a lesson.
The lesson?
She ignored whatever message they were trying to tell. Moving along with her own goals to help Elanor since she helped Aefia. She may have asked for help from Lewis, but she didn't need it anymore.
She knew what would happen if two arrogants came together to form a team. One could try to betray the other.
In this case, the Mides Kingdom has more power than the Ducal house. Being a foreign delegation, participating in this competition. Actually, they took weren't here for the prize. They were here to show they are powerful to the public of the Smod Empire.
Maybe Cedric didn't, but his brother definetly did. And being powerful himself, the ducal house is surely about to lose dominance.
As she walked through the dense forest, she had dropped the illusion and decided to head straight for the Barony. The feeling of being at the fourth place now was more relieving then anything else.
Her teammates were probably standing guard near the tents by now, while she roamed around trying to ascend with the name of the Countess house. At least this way she wasn't having to deal with a bunch of chaotic people. She had enough with the brick to the head to start her day.
On the third day, the hunt started at eight in the morning, ending at twelve sharp. After that, from twelve thirty to five was the final dominance match. Every second something bad was about to happen and they say three o'clock is the cursed time.
Every four years that the hunting competition takes place, the third day at exactly three, the audience wait for an extra twist of thrill within the dominance match.
Who knew this year what would happen. Especially since there was a new rule that no ballistics could be used. Don't know why, but this year is said to have more rules than then the one before. Did someone drop a missile?
Apparently, there was a charred area not to mention. Then there is a devil working with the ducal house. Which, for sure will end as the devil take dominance over the yellow flag and raise in rankings.
As she walked towards the the red camp, she noticed the bright sunny mood within the the team members. It was blinding, but she just needed to talk to someone. She put Spectrum away, stepping into the territory from the forest.
"Ah! Nice to see you after a long time!"
Aefia froze, shocked to the sudden greeting. Her gaze turned towards where the person was standing. "Oh, hi."
Casper sprinted to her place, bowing his head, then checking the blood stains of her clothing. "Not to be offensive. But you look quite alright compared to what you look like." He questioned while tapping his chin.
"Yes. I am alright." She nervously replied while clasping her hands behind her.
"So... Let me guess your reason here..." His smile widened as he took a smile backwards. Noticeably, he was not the captain. This worried her even more.
"You are here for the captains accessories. Right?" He asked while holding an earring at his hands. "Don't worry. We aren't worried about winning."
"Wait... What?" Aefia looked flabbergasted. "So more than half of them aren't here for the prize. So what is the point of this year's hunt then?"
He scratched the back of his head, tilting his head slightly as if analysing her question. "Well. We joined because it is arrogant to reject an invitation by the Imperial family. We just want the hunts. That is all."
Her eyes narrowed down in relief. "Ah! So we can just participate to enjoy the hunt. It sounds fine."
"Why? I thought you joined because of the hunt?" He furrowed his brows.
"About that... I am here in behave of Countess Elanor. I needed an artifact and she said I could retrieve it under the guise of a participant, but in return... I need to win first rank." She explained, the silence afterward was awkward.
"I see... Well its nice to know. What artifact was it?"
"The Orb of Life."
"Where was it?"
"The lake."
His eyes widened like a child's. "That lake is deep! Aren't there mermaids and sirens? How are you still alive?"
"I won't lie. But I did almost drown twice. I barely made it out the third time. The mermaids were the reason I couldn't make it out in time."
He nodded his head, but said nothing for a long time.
"Anyways. Just take the earring. I bet that is all you need." He asked while holding it out in front of her.
"Yes... Only the earring." She smiled. Her fingers reached out to wrap around the beautiful ruby with the pinkish hue to it. Although it was hard to admit, she had actually taken more of the viscount's jewels because she wanted to punish him. For his previous encounters with him.
And honestly? It still felt too less. She wanted to punch his gut until he lay on the ground, rolling around and shouting 'mooooommmmyyy'. It would be fun. He really deserved it at some point. But his child would have to go through a lot of embarrassments of course.
She clicked off the hook of the earring and forced open the ring holding the main body. Her eyes fell to the tassles and chains at her shoulder epauglet. Which she attached the ruby to. Along side the large orange zircon, and the dozen or more smaller brookite.
"Woah! You really robbed the Viscount house."
"Well he deserved it for our previous encounters." She answered while brushing her fingers against the new design she has embedded onto her clothing. "Anyways. It was nice talking to you. What are you going to do at three o'clock?"
"We will be off by then." He answered while stepping aside to show her the situation of the campsite. Everyone was packing up. "Mom told me to give the earring whoever I want and then go to pack my bag. So I was standing here waiting for someone to pass by."
"Alright! Good luck with your packing. I hope we meet again in the future." She waved while taking off with a sprint towards her own camp. She needed to recharge before the next game started obviously.
"Oh and Aefia!" He looked back once more.
"Hm?"
"Do you know that your brother George was the one who had groups who wanted the prize the least this year because he knew you would participate under the Countess' house."
"He did?"
***
The thought that the Countess house had risen, made her skip around the forest like a kid, while also... She didn't know exactly when she reached between the Mides and the Ducal territory. Guards stood at either sides with their weapons drawn towards her direction. And a moment of mischieve hit her across the head.
When she was a borderline drug addict, she used to stumble across multipe different new ideas of how to escape scenarios. And she kind of felt like it would come to useful right now.
Drunkards and drug-addicts have a bad memory, but when it comes to fleeing from a blue-red light scenario, they were good at it.
For Aefia right now, it was a blue and yellow scenario. And this too happened to remind her about the character named Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It could be used as reference, right?
As they walked closer, she suddenly tilted her body to the right until they froze to observe. This happened because people get aware of how someone is probably falling sick or falling unconscious. And in case there were witnesses, they didn't want to get involved with it.
Using that chance, she ran towards her right. They followed behind her in a comedic way, holding their weapons above their head as if they were victims of Aefia who wanted to complain over a fake product or a product fraud.
She lunged towards a tree and jumped over a tent. Using the slope side to slide off and land on her feet, adding extra momentum to immediately break back into a sprint. Her shoe soles tapped the ground with a rythem that was quite catchy in her own ears.
Her fingers reached for her sword as she grazed past a barb wire, breaking the still not dried wall of concrete to the ground behind her. In the meantime, Lewis, who was just wondering around trying to figure out where Aefia was, was suddenly drawn to the sound of multiple knights chasing a very agile fugitive.
As Aefia cut through a branch, his eyes caught her bloodied clothing. He drew his own weapon and intervened the chase and stopped the group of Mides knights who were behind her.
"What is going on?!" He shouted while staring into their eyes with a moment of pure fury.
"That is a hostage! She is a thief! She stole from the ducal house!"
His eyes narrowed at Aefia, who was heaving deep breathe while wiping her chin.
"Well if you think I stole, how about check the stomach of our hunt?!" She shouted while putting Spectrum back into her scabbard. "You know what kind of a person I am! And those bastards are behind me because I escaped while they were beating me up with a brick!"
"Beating?"
"This proof enough?" She lifted her head, to reveal a half healed scar at her forehead. "I have more at the back of my head too!"
Lewis frowned at his sister's reckless behaviours, but still decided to check her hunts since he was still not sure.
***
Thud!
The deer fell to the ground after being dragged out of the duke's most confidential tents.
"I ordered my team to place two flags on each hunt. One at an obvious place and another inside its skin." Aefia spoke while folding her arms. The duke was sweating, glaring at the girl he had beaten up just this morning. Kazimir on the other hand observed with a hand at his chin.
Aefia's bloodstains from earlier was still at his sleeves. It made her narrow her eyes, wanting to now what was up with him. The duke cleared it up, but he didn't. What was his true intentions?
As Lewis' knight pulled out the second flag, a moment of complete silence went between them. It was a green one, not a yellow or a navy blue. It proved that Aefia truly was accused of it.
"Ha! You don't even want to believe your sister. So what now?! Do you still not believe me?" She asked while nudging his ribs.
"Yeah well... I was just suspicious for a while."
"You let me get hit by a brick–ugh!"
Smack!
Blood splatted to the ground. The same bloodstained brick that toppled to its flat side on the ground, was the same one from before had struck her across her forehead again.
"Shut up! You bitch!" The duke shouted while clenching his hands into a pair of fist at either sides of him. "You think you can dismantle my house and her away with it like that?!"
Kazimir stared at the brick at Aefia's feet, flashing a knowing smirk. However, his mouth stayed shut as he observed Lewis' reactions.
Meanwhile, her vision was flashing streaks of white, blue, pink and green. Sometimes grey. She pressed her fingers onto the wound, which was throbbing.
"What the heck?! Aefia!" Her brother shouted while drawing his sword and moving to her side.
"You know I am quite curious." The duke continued while being chained up by the Imperial knights. "How does the dead Princess of the Imperial family suddenly reappear as the captain of the Countess house? And that too the Imperial family knows?"
He waited for a moment of suspicion rise. But nothing happened as the awkward moment stretched on.
"What?! Isn't anyone else thinking the same thing?!" He shouted out with frustruation of losing his dignity.
"The thing is..." Aefia spoke while running her hand through her bangs, where the silver parts were red from her bleeding forehead. "I was the one who told the Empress to declare me dead. Because I was getting quite a lot of death threats."
The duke looked towards Lewis, who stared back at him with a knowing face.
"Who could have done that?! He laughed, trying to change the topic. "This is absurd!"
"Yeah... I wonder who?" Aefia asked back with a grin, she held her hair up, using the heel of her palm to stop the blood from flowing down her nose.
Kazimir's smile faltered for a while. He knew who. From the former count to now, he knew exactly who. "Anyways. It's almost three o'clock. We all know what happens now." He spoke under Aefia's glare.
"Apparantly, since the duke hasn't forfeited yet. It is still right for me to do one thing." He glanced towards the duke who looked confused.
His fingers reached for the yellow topaz with the emerald mid-tier of a captain. With a tug, he yanked it off and paired it up with his boliete and goldstone. His eyes travelled to the once strung at her epaulette.
"So now... The Mides House is at the second ranking after the Countess house." He declared while pointing his blade at the open space of her own territory.