Chapter 233: You Haven’t Heard The Rumor? (4)
Despite Hissop’s earlier anxiety, the party proceeded without a hitch.
“...When I was in a bloody fight with the Rock Ants, Lord Keter appeared. No, it was his arrow, to be exact. That one arrow killed the Rock Ants like common insects!”
All eyes were fixed on Orion, the self-proclaimed bastard son of the Browning family and a sword prodigy who hid a sword in his heart, as he regaled the assembled nobles with his tale.
“Alas! Unluckily, the Queen Rock Ant was there. Even Keter’s arrow—an arrow that can pierce armor harder than steel—couldn’t pierce the queen’s carapace. Not even a scratch! I thought then this may be the moment to draw my Mindsword, but I was wrong. It wasn’t us who were unlucky—the Queen Rock Ant was the unlucky one. When Lord Keter nocked his arrow, it wasn’t like any arrow I’d ever seen before. Ahem! My throat’s dry, excuse me a moment...”
Whether or not Orion was a true genius of swordsmanship, he certainly had a talent for storytelling. He deliberately paused the story to draw it out, milking the crowd’s attention.
There were plenty of other entertainments for the nobles who didn’t like listening to stories: a shooting stall that handed out prizes for hitting a ten-meter target, and even fireworks—the Sacred Order of Sefira fired arrows into sky lanterns, detonating the flash powder inside and creating a burst of colorful explosion.
“Ooooh! Oh ho ho!”
The nobles clapped like children. Sefira’s preparations were flawless. Of course, it was actually Ultima, Veiga, and Daat who had come up with these ideas; all Sefira had done was simply accept and execute those plans.
“Archery turned into a circus act?! Are we trying to make the Sefira family into a traveling troupe?”
Panir objected fiercely, but Reganon persuaded him.
“It’s not clowning. It’s a demonstration of archery’s greatness. That could attract nobles who want to join the order.”
“The technique could be leaked...!