(Princes' POV)
After the princes have warmed up, they went to the center of the training hall. The twenty martial artists surrounded the princes, leaving no room for exit. The princes immediately formed a circle with each of them holding a wooden sword and facing the martial artists. But, the most excited one of them-- Prince Wang Jung was about to charge forward.
"Don't act rashly," Prince Leo held his right shoulder as the prince reminded him.
While Prince Romeo turned to Henri and Jihan, "Can we defeat all of them?"
Henri didn't even move his eyes away from the muscled men, while Jihan responded by only nodding his head. Then, Theo asked the princes, "Ready?"
All of them looked and nodded at each other, except for Prince Romeo who didn't nod and 4th Prince Henri who has no reaction at all. They thought that only his brother is capable of pulling this no emotion seen on the face. Of course, they knew what caused the quietness of Henri.
The princes attacked at the same time except for Prince Henri who stayed at his place and prepared to shoot some needles. They were all scattered but Prince Romeo decided to tail Prince Wang Jung. This made the latter feel his focus wavering. Meanwhile, the other three princes-- Theo, Jihan and Leo were doing pretty good in fighting those martial artists; Theo defeated two and Jihan defeated one of the martial artists by making them unconscious.
Prince Theo was mixing both sword-fighting and martial arts. While Jihan doesn't use his wooden sword but he's definitely good in martial arts. On the other hand, Leo was nimble so he quickly evaded the martial artists.
But, all things should come to an end. Prince Romeo was the first prince down when three martial artists surrounded him. He was the least experienced prince out of all of them, no doubt about that. Then, those three turned their attention to the youngest prince who already paralyzed two martial artists. He wasn't good in close combat and the other princes couldn't help him, so they easily captured him.
There were four princes remaining and fifteen martial artists. The martial artists' next target was Prince Leo as five of them attacked him. He was outnumbered and overpowered. Only Jung, Theo and Jihan remained; but, they were able to defeat five men each. It looked like Prince Jihan and Prince Wang Jung improved this past few days.
The Emperor went down from the viewing area on the second floor, "I commend all of you, Princes. I didn't expect that you'll be able to defeat all of them. But, if this was real, you just lost three of your comrades. Rest tomorrow and be back here on the day after tomorrow."
"Thank you, Your Imperial Majesty," the princes responded in unison.
...
Prince Theo changed his clothes after he entered his room. Then, he sneaked outside the guest wing and into the garden outside Princess Laurana's chamber. As usual, he threw some pebbles into the princess' balcony. But, no one answered and he could see all the curtains closed.
She and 2nd Prince Egon weren't inside the palace, that only meant one thing. They're outside the palace, together. This made the prince feel down and sad. He hoped for the princess to regain all her memories.. their memories.
...
(Princess Laurana's POV)
Inside my room, I freshened up and straightened my clothes. Then, I headed to the dining area where all of them were already seated. As soon as they noticed me, they were about to stand up when I stopped them, "No need to rise, remain seated."
It was a rectangular wooden table for six, two chairs on the longer sides, and single chairs on the shorter sides. Prince Egon was seated on one of the single chairs, Uncle Jovian and Big Brother were seated beside each other; while Han-ryu, my personal guard, sat opposite to them. I took the other single chair, opposite to Prince Egon.
"Thank you for the food, Princess," Uncle smilingly said to me.
I smiled back at him, "Egon helped me prepare all of this, you can thank him, too."
"Thank you 2nd Prince," Uncle thanked him with respect. Egon just nodded his head in response.
After dinner, I retired to my room early because I was so tired. I also missed sleeping in a bed so I lay down without even changing my clothes, then, I fell asleep almost immediately.
The next day afternoon. I went outside the cabin with my bow and arrows, because there's a wooden target practice on a tree outside. I was already wearing my gloves so I did my shooting position; body parallel to the arrow, feet apart. Then, I reached for an arrow on my back from my quiver. I placed the arrow on the left side of the bow with my right hand and used my left forefinger as the arrow rest. I tried doing a pinched draw, then, paused to aim, with the arrow tail against the corner of my mouth.
*arrow released*
The arrow went straight to the ground so I placed another arrow on my bow. I've shot five arrows one after another, but all the arrows never hit the target. Suddenly--
*strike* A dagger hit the target, bullseye!
"So, you know archery, huh?" I looked at the sound of the voice, it was Prince Egon.
I shrugged at him, "Not really. I just started practicing archery, recently. How about you teach me how to throw a dagger?"
"Try shooting an arrow," he told me. I have nothing to lose, so I did my shooting position. When he suddenly went behind me, and tapped my shoes with his shoe, "Make your feet even with each other, perpendicular to the arrow."
"Your torso should be straight up and hips shouldn't bend. Your bow arm's shoulder should be in a natural position, point your bow arm's elbow to your left," he held my left forearm and positioned it. Without letting go, he also held my right forearm to position it, "Then, forearm of your release arm should be parallel to the ground. Release."
I released my arrow and.. it hit the target! Not on the center, but on the lower left side of the target. It was an improvement for me.
Filled with glee, I turned to him and said, "I did it! Thank you, Egon!"