The two young knights had made their way out of the dungeon and back to Asaka without getting seen by anyone and now they were both in Jude's room, thinking of a way to execute all their plans before the sun begins to go down.
"How do we get him to the king's castle? How do we even convince the king that someone wants to see him?" Carl asked relaxing his back on the cupboard in the room.
"I don't know," Jude said with a sigh as he shook his head.
There was a moment of silence in the room as Jude stared at the wall before he suddenly sprang up from his bed and reached for his bag where he hung it.
"Where are you going?" Carl asked.
"The forest, I need to fill Tauriel and Tuchel in on all of this," Jude said heading towards the door.
"I'm coming with you," Carl said.
"Someone may spot us heading there and it's going to look really suspicious," Jude said.
"I followed you to that dungeon without getting seen, I know how to be stealthy Jude, and we went to the same knight academy," Carl said.
Jude stared at him for a while without saying anything before he walked out of the room and he followed behind him.
The two approached the forest from the part that didn't have too many people walking up and down and after observing the area for a while, they made their way into the forest.
Nothing was said between the two until they had arrived at the cave.
"Is this the place?" Carl asked after Jude had stopped in front of the cave.
"Yes," Jude said, pulling down his hood.
Tauriel's attitude had changed since the night Jude showed up with Matilda, she tried to act normal like nothing was wrong with her but Tuchel knew something was definitely not right with her.
She no longer drowned herself with books and just sat alone all day without saying anything to him unless he did.
"You know, you can't keep acting like this because of him," Tuchel said.
"What are you talking about?" Tauriel asked.
"You know what I'm talking about Tauriel," Tuchel said, moving closer to her.
Tauriel stared at him for a while before turning away to face the wall.
"No, I don't." She said,
"Tauriel," Tuchel said and was about to say more when Jude suddenly entered the cave with Carl.
"I thought you said you weren't going to bring another human with you," Tuchel said on spotting Carl.
"I said another human wasn't going to know about the both of you and Carl already knows about you." Jude said.
"Yes, because you told him," Tuchel said.
"No, that's the human we saved the day we were running away from Ashburn," Tauriel said from where she was sitting.
"Yeah, hi Tauriel," Jude said with a little wave.
"Hi," Tauriel said before putting her head down.
"Is she okay?" Carl asked.
"Yeah, she's been that way since last night," Tuchel said looking directly at Jude as he was trying to make him realize something.
"Oh," Jude said, looking at her. "Do you guys mind if I talk to her?"
"Yeah go ahead," Tuchel said.
"Alone," Jude said.
"Oh, ok, we'll be outside," Tuchel said, grabbing his beanie and putting it on to cover his ear.
He left through the entrance as Carl looked at Jude for a while before following him.
After the two had left Jude turned to Tauriel and stared at her for a while before walking closer to her.
He sat beside her and didn't say anything for a few seconds.
"Hey." He said. "I know you're upset with me."
Tauriel didn't reply for a while until she slowly raised her head to look at him.
"I'm not upset, I just wish you had told me about her earlier instead of telling me you had a girlfriend that way." She said,
"I know I should have told you about her earlier but with everything that's been going on lately I have not been able to think straight," Jude said.
"It's okay, it's just that I don't know how to deal with this feeling," Tauriel said with a low voice.
Jude didn't know what to say as he let out a sigh.
"So what did you find that dragged you here but this time?" She asked.
"We've found a way to deal with Ashburn and his soldiers," Jude said.
"You did?" Tauriel said.
"Yeah but it's not going to be easy," Jude said.
____ ____
Brolin had just completed his turn in the level four stage of the archery competition and he had only been able to get nine headshots as he had managed to only hit the dummy at the far back on the shoulder.
"Nicely done Brolin." Lieutenant Kate said.
"That Brad is unbelievable." Ace said after watching Brolin get only nine headshots.
"Yeah," Luis said, wondering why he decided to fight him in close combat when he could have kept his distance and used his wonderful archery skills.
'Maybe because he thought he could beat you in close combat.' Lena said.
'Yeah, and I could have still beaten him with my water ability if he wanted to keep a distance away from me.'
It was Bella's turn to participate in level four of the competition as she stepped up to the marked spot after Lieutenant Kate had called her name.
"Your time starts now Bella." Lieutenant Kate said.
Bella quickly reached into her arrow pack after hearing that, pulled out an arrow, and quickly fitted it into her bow.
She still had her speed and fast thinking with her despite the dummies getting faster and had managed to get headshots on her first three shots but after that things had gone a little downhill.
Her next two shots had shot dummies she had already shot and her sixth shot although hitting a different target wasn't a headshot.
She tried to calm herself down as she took the seventh shot which she had managed to get as a headshot.
Her last three shots had hit different dummies but none of them were headshots.
In total, she had gotten four headshots and four normal shots.
"Well done Bella." Lieutenant Kate said as the second-year student walked to the dummies to retrieve her arrows.
Reynold didn't do any better than Bella and had only managed to get two headshots and five normal shots, the rest he had missed.
He still got the well done from Lieutenant Kate and now it was Robin's turn.
The first year was really nervous for this level and it didn't look like Ciara's pep talk had done anything to change that.
His first shot was a headshot but after that, he missed three shots in a row and his fifth shot had hit the same dummy he had gotten a headshot on.
His sixth, seventh and eighth shots managed to hit different dummies but none of them were headshots.
His last two shots weren't successful as they had hit the same dummies that he had already shot at.
"Well done Robin." Lieutenant Kate said.
Robin knew he did poorly and Lieutenant Kate's words weren't going to change that for him as he retrieved his arrows and slowly made his way back to where he was standing with his head bowed.
Ciara didn't say anything to him as she walked to the marked spot for her turn.
She was nervous but not up to the level of Robin's nervousness.
"Your time starts now Ciara." Lieutenant Kate said.
Ciara quickly reached for her arrow pack and pulled out two arrows, something none of the participants including Brad and Brolin did during this level.
"Is she planning on losing all her shots?" Ace said as what Ciara was trying to do seemed stupid to him.
Ciara quickly fitted both of the arrows and sent them flying towards the dummies, everyone expected things to go downhill but that didn't happen.
Her arrows went straight to different targets, one a headshot the other one a normal shot.
After her first targets were successful she seemed to have gained more confidence as she reached for another set of two arrows and sent them flying towards the dummies to get the same result.
She repeated the process three more times and to everyone's surprise, she still got the same results, a headshot and a normal shot on two different dummies.
Ace was in awe after watching her get all her shots on target, including getting five headshots.
"How did she do that?"
****
I will be hosting a Q/A session on my discord server by 8:00 pm London time, so if you're interested you can hop in.
https://discord.gg/7DvJCBfvSy
Mass release goals...
Normal update: 2 chapters daily
1 magic Castle or 300 power stones= 1 extra chapter
2 magic castles or 500 power stones= 2 extra chapters
3 magic castles or 700 power stones= 3 extra chapters
4 magic castles or 1000 power stones= 4 extra chapters.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter