The Last Dahlia

008

The silence was so deafening that one could hear the sound of a pin drop.

All eyes turned towards the man who now emerged from the left flank, previously having been hidden behind the row of guards standing near the back of the grandstand. Dressed in his flowing white robes, his signature white mask obscuring half his face, he walked calmly to the front and stopped next to Baixun.

"Well now, this is rather unexpected," the king remarked. "How is it that you have managed to engage the White Scorpion as your representative?" he asked the prince of Feng.

The men who participated in the tournament were typically generals, nobles or members of the royal guards; there had never been exponents with the same standing as the White Scorpion participate before. People like them never bothered with petty political tournaments like these.

"Looks like you might need to marry the crown prince of Feng after all," Yuehwa murmured to the princess.

So much for not knowing the prince of Feng. I'm going to wring his neck after this.

"Who is the White Scorpion? Is he that good?"

Shaking her head, Yuehwa frowned. "I doubt anyone here will be his match, even if they tried fighting him ten against one." There were now a million and one questions floating in her mind, and it was taking her a great deal of self-control not to burst out onto the scene and demand some answers from Shoya.

What exactly are you trying to do? What is your true purpose for being here?

At that moment, Shoya turned towards the grandstand and their eyes met, even though there was a veil standing in between them. The rest of the world might be oblivious to the identity of the girl who was standing beside the princess's seat, but she had no doubts that Shoya knew it was her. In fact, she even caught the subtle twitch of the corners of his lips as though to hint that he knew what game she was playing.

The prince of Feng simply smiled in response to the king's question, saying, "If one hopes to win the hand of the princess, one has to send the best."

The White Scorpion would likely ace the competition, but the arrogant and complacent tone in the prince's voice made Yuehwa want to throw a punch into his smug face. For once she genuinely wished that Princess Naying wouldn't need to marry someone like that. In order to achieve that, she would need to ensure that Shoya lost.

The first day of the tournament was nothing to shout about.

By the end of the day, it had already become clear who the top contenders were, with the rest of the hopefuls dropping out like flies. Needless to say, the White Scorpion dispatched all his opponents with ease, using nothing but a bamboo flute to add insult to the injury. The dark horse of the competition came from the prince of Gi's representative, Baixun. Much to everyone's surprise, his prowess was beyond anybody's expectations, moving swiftly across the courtyard as he confronted his opponents with deadly precision.

"Did you see how fast he moved? And when he struck that last opponent with the hilt of his sword—that was incredible!" The princess kept chattering non-stop as they made their way back to the princess's quarters at the end of the day, and it was all about Baixun.

There were no prizes for guessing who the princess was rooting for, except Yuehwa wasn't interested in listening. She waited for a short while to allow everyone who had been at the courtyard to dissipate and return to wherever they came from, before she abandoned the princess and went charging towards the opposite end of the palace where the king's guests were housed.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were participating in the tournament? And that you were going to represent the prince of Feng!" she demanded as she burst in through the door.