ʟᴏᴠᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ʀᴇᴅᴇᴍᴘᴛɪᴏɴ ❅ 𝕽𝖔𝖞𝖆𝖑 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖈𝖑𝖊𝖘

❝𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 10❞

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CIEL FALLS ILL

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K06 ‖ A Royal Vengeance: Famous Destinations

𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝕲𝖚𝖎𝖉𝖊:
Italic words — the thoughts of a character / a foreign language is spoken
Bold and italic words — a lie, only when Princess Caitlyn's around
Bold, italic and underlined words — the timeline of memories, past, hallucinations etc.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Year 2039
Private Residence of the Royal Family, Saudi Arabia
[22 hours 26 minutes left in the game]

After her second breakfast with the Qatari princess, Caitlyn of Norway was convinced that the princess was a genius forced into hiding by the strict patriarchal society she was born into. Princess Ishtar was bound to follow the centuries-old rules that were cold and unbending albeit in a new age of modernization.

A sigh left her lips.

Caitlyn glanced to the side, taking quick breaths as she readied herself for the first step of Shaho Hassetsu (射法八節), the eight steps in shooting an arrow in Kyudo: "ashibumi". As she followed through with "dozukuri", and "yugamae" all the way until the sixth step, "kai". The princess held her stance, clearing her mind while breathing in deeply before letting the arrow fly. A tsurune (弦音) was heard - a sound made when the bowstring hits the bow when shooting an arrow.

A dull thud sounded as the stiff point of the ya (矢), bamboo arrows used in Kyudo, embedded itself into the center of the target.

The princess of House Hárfagri lowered her 2.27 meters bow and completed the last step, "zanshin". Ice-blue eyes flashed with delight at the sight of the arrow embedded in the center of a regular archery target. Of all ten arrows released, only one hit the center while the rest surrounded it, also embedded in the target.

While others would consider it as an unsatisfactory result, Caitlyn was delighted by it. Compared to the last few months when she was fresh out of sorrowful rage, she could barely hit the target. As Kyudo emphasizes the balance between tranquility and action, it shows that the princess's mental stability was slowly improving now that all her arrows hit the target.

A short and crisp applause sounded. Caitlyn recognised it as Valkyrie's.

Soon enough, Valkyrie moved over to the princess and took the 2.27 meters bow passed to her. Setting it aside with care, Valkyrie rushed help her charge remove her yugake (弽), a deerskin glove worn on the right hand used to protect it.

"Congratulations, your highness," Valkyrie said, helping her charge onto a bench at the archery range of the Saudi Arabian palace. "At this rate, you could enter the Olympics for archery."

An amused scoff was received. Caitlyn gave her lady-in-waiting an eyeroll. "I am a close ranged archer, specialized in shooting arrows to a target 28 meters away from me," she said. "The furthest I could shoot is 40 meters. I could barely hit a target 50 meters away, much less 60 meters away." Caitlyn accepted the glass of water from Valkyrie. "And you think I could hit anything if the target is 70 meters away?"

"I don't think so," said Valkyrie, taking the empty glass away and placing it on the side table. "I know so, your highness."

"Stop your flattering words, I'm no professional archer," said Caitlyn, resting an arm over her eyes as she leaned back into the seat. With a short nap in mind, the princess started to relax herself but before sleep could overtake her consciousness, her phone rang, startling her awake.