Episode 98 - Valley of a Hidden Storm 2 ‘Eugene's Turn‘

With sweat trickling down Eugene’s face, she once again took on the same position by pushing her feet against the bow and pulling the upper handle with her hand.

Taking a deep breath, she announced. “I’ll begin!” Like that, she put her arrow beside the bow and used her whole body to lean backward whilst pulling on the string.

Within a second, she released the arrow backed with all her weight.

WHIIISHHH

Her fierce arrow dove against mother nature wind, and within a second hit the target board with a sound like a firework setting off into the sky!

HIT!

Eugene raised the corner of her lips. ‘Bullseye.’

“... lord..” Dea, Aedelak and Aeselak gasped out loud.

Even before the powerful sound of the arrow hitting the target board, the sound of Eugene’s arrow pushing against the wind made everyone’s heart pound in excitement! Her bow was faster than everyone who went before her, and also fiercer!

It was natural that everyone stopped breathing to admire the powerful 3-year-old! To come up with such a solution to overcome the weak bow was something a child as young as she shouldn’t be able to come up with!

“Ha...” Duke Marleigh exhaled. ‘You’ve created a monster, Levis.’ His fists unconsciously tightened in unknown feelings. Eugene’s attribute towards training was as if her entire being was made for this. As if she was born for this, alone.

WHIIIISHHH!

HIT!

In quick succession, Eugene shot 7 more times, hitting the target board 8 times.

Holding her 2nd last arrow in between her index finger and middle finger, she placed the arrow against her bow.

With the same movements, she pulled her string and arrow back and shot. Yet, before her arrow could fully leave her bow, the bow suddenly snapped in half, making her arrow miss the target board, miserably.

Not only was her 9th arrow nowhere to be seen, but her entire being was also just as miserable, crashing into the grass because of the recoil.

“..........” Eugene blinked at the deep blue sky. Raising her left hand, she stared at her half-broken arrow in confusion.

Blink. Blink. Blink.

“.....” Everyone blinked in silence. Just when they thought she was going to achieve a perfect full score, her bow broke.

Eugene sighed before sitting up Standing up, she patted her pants of soil and grass.

‘8/10 is still pretty good.’ She shrugged her shoulders. There was nothing else she could do with a broken bow!

Kal nodded at Eugene who gave up. “This is what you do if your bow is broken, or if you don’t have time to carve.” He smiled at her before pulling her other half-bow out of the grass.

Kal tied the snapped string to the end of the bow. Without the curve of the bow, Kal easily shot with Eugene’s last arrow.

WHOOSH!

His powerful arrow directly hit Eugene’s arrow and cut through to the bullseye, replacing her arrow in the center.

“.....” Eugene stared at the target board in shock.

“Wood, string, and arm strength are all you need as a weapon.” Kal smiled at Eugene.

Like that, Kal concluded the 2nd training session as successful. Before leaving with the adults, he gave the children an hour break and told them to head over to the lake after their break.

“......” Everyone snapped out of their world as soon as the adults left. Kal shooting with a half-broken arrow was more powerful than Eugene shooting with her entire weight! A three-year-old child roughly weighs around 14 kg, so Kal’s arm strength exceeded 14 kg!

Euria ran to Eugene and jumped on her!! “SISTER IS AMAZING!!” She applauded whilst hanging off of Eugene’s waist!

Argen snapped out and also walked to Eugene. “Young miss is so talented! How did you think to make your arrow more powerful? How did you come up with such a solution?” He excitedly asked.

“ Um…” Eugene hesitated. “The bow was heavy.” Eugene half lied, half truthfully replied. Her, coming up with such a solution was random. She only thought of how to make the arrow fly far enough to hit the target board. To do that she needed strength. However, she was only 3 and had no strength whatsoever! Using her body weight as a replacement for strength naturally popped up as a solution, which therefore led to this type of shooting style.

Oh, but of course, the bow being heavy was also part of the reason why she did what she did.

“......” Argen blinked. Turning to Euria, he excitedly applauded. “Young Miss is also very talented! You were so beautiful, just like the way your sister shot before!” He praised Euria!

“.... Hm.” Euria nodded.

“Euria was beautiful, whilst Eugeneia was cool!” Aernest patted Euria’s head and patted Eugene’s back.

“Young miss, Euria shot 10/10! Eldest miss is also very amazing, stepping on the bow like that!” Aeselak chimed in, adding on to Argen’s praise for the twins.

“I agree!” Aedelak nodded to Aeselak's words.

Euria jumped off of Eugene and shyly smiled. Her cheeks were blushing apple as she softly muttered her thanks.

Together with the rest, they walked to the building to rest. Whilst walking, Aedelak handed Eugene her water bottle.

Eugene took a sip of the water before handing it back to Aedelak. “... You did well.” She whispered to Aedelak who went blushing red at her words. And just like Euria, Aedelak shyly muttered.

“Thank you..”

Everyone else walking behind Eugene, Euria, Aernest, Aeselak, Aedelak, and Argen watched as the 6 chattered on and on.

“... Does mister Argen like Euria? Why is he so close to her!” Ramon couldn’t help but feel a weird tingle inside his chest. As if his sister is being taken away from him! His fists clenched in unknown emotions.

“.......” Arie and Aren looked at Ramon before looking back to their brother who was making Euria as red as a tomato. Shaking their heads, they replied in unison.

“Impossible.”

“Impossible? Why impossible? What do you mean impossible?” Ramon frowned. Using the word impossible was weird in this type of context. Impossible as in his sister wasn’t beautiful enough?!?

“Well…” Arie and Aren looked at each in hesitation, as if they weren’t sure whether it was appropriate to tell him.

The atmosphere slightly turned weird from the two’s hesitation.

“What is it?” Ramon looked at the two brothers, and at his brother.

“I like guys.” A slightly charming voice spoke from before him.

Ramon paused his steps in shock. “...... Huh?” He moved his gaze to the person in front of him, not knowing when he came back.

“....... huh?” Ramon repeated.

Like Ramon, everyone paused at Argen’s words. The people who snapped back to reality turned red, whilst Zene’s trainees and Eugene remained still.

“... I prefer boys,” Argen repeated, looking straight into the eyes of Ramon.

“.....” Ramon’s face turned red. Having experienced a boy confessing his love to him before, he broke out in cold sweat. ‘Does… Does.. he like me too?’

However, before his thoughts could run wild, Argen broke out in a huge smile.

“Don’t worry! I only like men that look like brother Con! The quiet type! You’re not my target whatsoever.” He ended Ramon’s one-sided thought before walking over to Con to link arms with him.

Con, moved away before that could happen and hid behind Arie and Aren.

“.. I like females,” Con said, as he stared at Argen.

“Haa…” Argen sighed whilst shrugging his shoulders.

“You’re very open...” Louis spoke out.

Dea laughed, before explaining. “Yes, Zene is a country of peace and music after all! Here, love is not restricted to the person of the opposite sex. Whoever you love, is accepted and not frowned upon. However, it's a topic not widely talked about.” He shrugged.

Louis nodded.

“What about Xenperia? Is homosexuality accepted?” Dea asked.

Louis frowned before replying. “... Possibly, possibly not. Depends on the people” He wasn’t sure as well. No one ever talked about it, and the first time he encountered something like this was when Ramon was being confessed to. He, himself didn't care, which means his family also wouldn’t care. However, he had to admit, his family didn’t think like other people which means that there might be people who wouldn’t like these types of things.

“As long as it doesn’t go against the religion of Xenperia, it’s acceptable,” Louis replied to Dea. Same-sex love isn’t forbidden in the book, which means it’s not against the law.

“Oh, religion! We don’t have religion here. Only temple houses in the mountain where people go to live in seclusion.” Dea smiled.

Eugene listened in from afar with the help of Aernest ears. He repeated everything, including the expressions everyone used.

“Religion? I didn’t know we had a religion.” Eugene softly muttered.

“Me too..” Aernest scratched his head.

“Me three..” Eugene pouted.

From coming to this world, until turning 3, she’s never heard of Xenperia having a religion, ever. Was it because the Veria family didn’t care about these types of things and didn’t bother to tell them? Eugene wondered.

They arrived inside the building and rested on a huge couch in the lounge room. Euria and Aernest immediately fell asleep upon sitting down, whilst the rest stayed awake.

“Oh, so you guys talked about the Great musician and Lady Lea? Even the forbidden room? Hahahaha!” Arie laughed at Dea. “Why would you mention the forbidden room! Isn’t it just a rumor made by the crazy person who went nuts in the middle of the capital one day?”

Arie laughed whilst rubbing the bald head of Aren.

“A crazy person?” Ron Graeme snapped his attention to Arie, his new best friend. His eyes showed sparks of intrigue.

Arie noticed his best friend's eyes and immediately understood. “Yes! There is a crazy person who often visits the capital!”

“Really?! I want to see him! I want to see him!” Ron exclaimed.

“He’s not locked up for slandering against the Great Musician?” Ramon asked.

“Nope. His Royal Majesty and the Great musician didn’t bother locking him up. But even without locking him up, no one believes his stories about the Royal Palace and the Great musician anyways.” Arie shrugged.

“Arie. Don’t be mean! He already gets a lot of odd looks. There is no need for you to add more on top of that.” Dea patted Arie’s shoulders.

“I didn't mean it like that… but alright, alright! I won’t say anymore!”

‘A crazy King, and a crazy person.’ Eugene listened in. Quickly she shook her head. ‘What a peaceful country this is…’