The sun was up in the sky, and the roof started to become hotter, which woke up the demon lying above it.
Zeno stretched his arms. He spent the whole night drinking, however, his tolerance for alcohols, which was a lot higher than humans', didn't let him get drunk, though, he felt satisfied with the taste of the ale.
He stared into the sun for a few seconds before getting up.
"Now, what to do?" He asked himself.
But instead of going down, he laid his back on the roof and closed his eyes again.
'Let's just return to sleep once more and let that ball of fire bask me with light,' he thought.
. . . . .
Almost two hours had passed, and Aichelle had gathered another five coins through searching alone, but it was not enough to be the winner. She wanted to fly up in the air to search the whole area, but she was afraid that the people would consider that to be out of bounds.
So she walked and enhanced her already sharp hearing sense to locate the other participants. She decided to hunt down all of them to secure the winning position.
In spite of that, she didn't know that a man was thinking the same thing as her. The two of them continued to advance and defeat the other participants before stealing their coins until they were the only ones left.
Aichelle felt that the presence of people was reduced, and she noticed that there were eyes watching at her. She readied the sword in her hand and charged at the silhouette hiding beneath the shrubs.
She opened a portal that connected behind the thick leaves of grass and passed through it to initiate a surprise attack.
However, what she found were two red bubbles the size of a fist, and they soon exploded before hitting her body. She raised her arm to protect her from the explosion, however, she felt no pain; instead, her arms were covered with brown liquid.
'Mud? No, it's paint,' Aichelle thought as she smelled the stain.
She looked around to look for the culprit, but after she stepped backward. Another bubble bumped and exploded, and then her back was tainted green.
"Another one?" She exclaimed while still searching for the person.
The next moment, she felt something stab her in the back. She touched it, and she found blood dripping from a wound.
And it didn't stop there; she felt another stab, and now it was on her arm. She looked at it, and there was a cut made from a sword.
"It came from the part that has paint," she concluded.
Then she peeled off the sleeve of her arms and the clothes with paint at her back.
"Try doing that again if you still can," she yelled.
Then a man walked out from behind a tree and faced her.
"I never thought that there would be someone capable of figuring out my ability in a matter of seconds," he said, smiling.
"What is your name?" The man asked, then ran towards the maid and slashed his sword from above.
However, Aichelle didn't move or speak; instead, she smiled, and a portal appeared in front of her.
The sword passed through it, and the man was slashed by his own attack at his back.
He turned his head to find out what happened, but in that short second, he got stabbed in the abdomen.
"Did anyone ever tell you not to look behind if your opponent is in front?" Aichelle asked before pulling her sword.
The man laughed at her provocation and ignored his wounds.
"You're interesting; may I know your name?" He repeated the same question he asked a moment earlier.
Then he leaped backwards, and a lot of bubbles appeared around Aichelle as he snapped his finger.
The bubbles exploded one after the other, and green and brown paint covered the area where Aichelle was standing.
However, the man heard a whisper beside him.
"I won't fall into the same trick twice, and you're not worthy to know my name," Aichelle said, then she struck the sword to the man's side.
The sword pierced his leather armor, and he howled in pain.
Then he held the woman's arm and tried to pull her hand away from him, but Aichelle struck it deeper, making him cough up some blood.
The maid's fighting prowess, which he underestimated earlier, put him in a tight spot. He didn't bother checking the surface of the water before attacking.
He was fooled by the woman's strength hiding in her thin body. He admitted that she was an excellent fighter, and her Legacy made her a formidable opponent.
He knew that it was impossible to make a comeback at this moment, so he decided to admit surrender; however, when he was about to raise his arm, the maid cried in panic.
"No! No! It can't be," Aichelle said in discontent.
He looked at the woman beside her, and he was surprised upon seeing her broken sword.
Aichelle was preparing herself to pull the weapon and claim victory, but the odds were against her. She felt excited and forgot to control her energy, which caused its blade to fall apart.
She sat on her knees, and tears were forming at the corner of her eyes when the ground below them lit up.
The next second, they were transported back to the open field along with the other participants. They were greeted with the crowd's endless cheers and applause.
The man was dumbfounded; he couldn't believe that he still won. He had already accepted his defeat, but a miracle happened.
Afterward, the standby healers and priest tended to the injured participants. They walked towards the man and the maid.
However, Aichelle rejected their help, then walked straight to Lux and cried.
"Lux, I lost! I lost to a human," she wailed like a child.
The butler patted her head and consoled her.
"That's okay; it's your first time using a sword, and you should be proud of coming in second," Lux said.
"But the dresses?" Aichelle replied, tears still flowing from her eyes.
Lux didn't speak; instead, a voice came behind him.
"Don't worry about that; I still have a lot to use." Cinn appeared and smiled at her maid.
Aichelle's tears didn't stop; instead, she cried louder as she saw her mistress. Then Cinn stepped closer and gave her a hug.
"Ssssh, it's okay; stop crying," she uttered while caressing the woman's hair.
. . . . .
After the first event, Kreigster and the king were having a conversation; they were talking about the last battle that happened, and the empire crown's prince expressed his amazement for the maid.
"To defeat a mercenary who's capable enough to subdue ten men in a short amount of time is an honorable feat," he said.
"Indeed, that's true; even though she lost, their fight will be one of the talks throughout the festival," the king replied.
"Is their battle really that good?" Lexel chimed in.
She looked at her father with curiosity.
"I find it plain and boring," she added.
Then, the two men laughed upon hearing her remark, which made the princess knit her eyebrows.
"How did you say so?" Kreigster looked at Lexel and asked.
"Because it happened in an instant and there were no great moves, the man just dashed then; the next second, he got stabbed, and that was it." The princess explained.
However, the person who satisfied Lexel's curiosity was her brother.
"You're wrong, little sister; their battle is not like what you think. First thing, that maid didn't know how to use a sword; her grip was wrong, and the way she struck it was worse than a novice knight. But despite having a handicap, she still won their bout," he conveyed while looking somewhere in the field.
Then he stood up and pointed towards the person with whom Aichelle fought.
"The next and last thing is that man underestimated her; however, even if he used all of his tricks from the start, it would still be his defeat," he said.
And now, it was the king and Kreigster who got curious after hearing Lex's words.
"That woman exerted only half of her strength," he stated, then walked away from his seat, leaving the three people with questions hanging on their faces.
'She's a vampire after all,' Lex said inside his thoughts while grinning and looking at the maid in the field. 'And she's not the only one here.'
. . . . .
The host expressed her gratitude towards the grand mage for summoning back all of the participants, and then she announced the winner of the first event, though the prize would be given during the closing ceremony of the festival.
"Let's proceed to our next event; for those who want to participate, I invite all of you here," Grazielle said.
Then, people walked into the front, lined up, and some of the representatives joined.
However, they were dismayed when the host announced that the prize for the second event was only fifty gold coins.
It was a battle for aiming; there would be twenty crystals lined up in a vertical position. They were flying up in the air, and the participants needed to shoot them with only three arrows. The person who could destroy the most crystals with just three shots would be the winner.
"Easy!" a man from the Pelleless Kingdom said as he successfully destroyed three crystals with a shot. His arrow exploded upon hitting his target, which also destroyed the other crystals at its side.
Most of the participants only managed to hit six crystals at most, so the man was elated upon seeing that he was the leading participant.
However, the next in line was the Frostbloom Kingdom's princess, and her attack shocked the whole crowd. She aimed for the crystal, and another set of arrows made of ice appeared at her side.
It destroyed six crystals, and she did it again in her remaining two shots, giving her a score of eighteen out of twenty.
Her actions garnered different opinions from the audience.
"Isn't that cheating?" One of the people stated this while watching, but the man at his side corrected him.
"I think it's not; the host said that they have three shots, and she abides by it," he said.
The princess looked where the crown prince was sitting after all of her shots, but her expression turned sour upon seeing that all of his attention was on the Herish's princess at his side, and he didn't even watch her performance.
After that, the other participants gained an idea of how to increase the number of destroyed crystals and started to imitate what the princess did. However, no one managed to pass her score until the prince from the Heartfall Kingdom destroyed all the crystals with a single attack.
. . . . .