The King's Mistress

Chapter 110: Stomach Churning

"Don’t any of these dishes turn your stomach? Don’t any of them make you feel nauseous? Anything at all?" he asked, still in shock as to how well she was taking it.

Sierra chuckled as she shook her head, "Have you already forgotten, My King? I grew up in the forest and on the road in an army camp. All of these dishes are nothing compared to some of the things I’ve eaten.

Nothing could come close to what I had to eat while surviving in the forest..."

She looked into his eyes as she continued with a grin, "I’m not like nobles or the princesses, Your Majesty. I’m not going to wring my nose in disgust at any of these."

Looking back down at the plate, "In fact, I’m quite surprised you even managed to get them here."

"Which one is your favorite?"

Sierra pointed to the yellow-fleshed fruit, "This one."

She explained to him how she used to survive on this fruit while she survived in the forest. Though she had told him about it before, it never ceased to amaze him that she was able to survive on her own at such a young age.

"Looks like I’m going to need to find some other form of punishment for you," he chuckled.

"Well, you better- hey!" Alistair snatched over the plate from her and began eating instead.

Each time she tried to take something from it, he would swat her hand away and ate it in front of her.

"Oh come on! You can’t do this to me! Not when you’ve already given it to me," she groaned.

Alistair chuckled, "That’s why it’s called punishment, sweetling. Although it did not go as planned, this still worked out after all."

~

The final test was almost upon them. Archery. For this test, everyone was given two weeks to train. Instructors from the Drakin Army were brought in to tutor the princesses as the test would require them to hunt. For those who were at a disadvantage, due to lack of prior experience, would have a different scoring system from the others.

Hence, the more skilled you were, the fewer points you would receive for each target hit or each animal hunted. Sierra was fairly confident in her own skills. As such, she spent most of her time helping the others practice.

"Not like this! Again!" one of the instructors yelled at Taita as she winced.

"That’s enough now," Sierra hissed as she got up between Taita and the instructor.

"She’s not your soldier, Instructor Victor. She’s a princess," Sierra reminded him coldly.

She knew that tone of voice he used all too well. It was the one instructors like him used to train soldiers for war. He had completely forgotten who he was training. He most certainly wasn’t training them for war so he did not have to be so fierce.

"Do you have something to say, Your Highness?" the instructor said through gritted teeth.

He was not willing to back down after the comment Sierra had made. He would be giving up on his pride. Taita, not wanting things to turn sour because of her, tried to convince Sierra to let the matter rest.

But Sierra had seen enough. None of the instructors thought the princesses could do well. She did not know if they were teaching them sluggishly and half-heartedly on purpose or not, but she could not let this go on.

If she did, none of them would be even close to ready to fair well in the upcoming contest.

"She’s just trying to anger the instructors so that they will leave! And people like her would be able to win the archery contest with ease," one of the princesses commented.

Sierra glanced over to see who it was. She had not even bothered to remember her name. All she recalled was that the princess was often seen with Princess Agnes. She could not care less about her.

She did not even dignify her with a response. Sierra turned her attention back to the instructor.

"I had something to say. And I already said it. Was I not clear? Or where you deaf?" her defiance made his blood boil.

It reminded him all too clear of the soldiers he trained. Such defiance was met with punishment. It was seen as disobedience and had to be punished. Sierra knew she was pushing it. At that moment, all Victor saw was a defiant soldier.

But she had hoped he would still have enough sense in him to realize who he was speaking to. He didn’t. Victor had his hand raised, causing everyone around them to gasp in shock. But the slap did not hit her. Sierra caught his hand before he could do so. free𝑤ebnovel.com

She was glaring at him when he realized what he had almost done.

"I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Instructor Victor," she warned.

She gently pushed him away. It was enough to cause him to stumble backward and wince. He was surprised to see a bruise on his arm where she held him. Realizing what he had almost done, Victor got down on his knees.

"I... I’m sorry Your Highness. I got carried away...I..."

"It’s alright, Victor. Just don’t repeat that mistake again," Sierra said as she turned back to Taita to teach her herself. freewebnovёl.ƈom

She did not even bother to dismiss Victor and he did not dare to leave either. So he sheepishly stood there for a few minutes, watching Sierra teach Taita how to properly fire an arrow.

Once she successfully released a few arrows in the air, Sierra praised her for doing a great job. She gave Victor a quick glance.

"See? She’s a quick learner," Sierra commented before stepping back to allow Victor to take over.

This time, he was much gentler and gave clearer instructions on what to do and what not to do. Sierra smiled triumphantly as she left that side of the archery grounds to head to the other, where there were moving targets to practice with.

Having been in Drakin for months now had made her skills a little rusty. Knowing she would likely be graded to be a skilled archer, she knew she had to practice her skills. For this test, the princesses have also been allowed to train and use the unique skills they gained from their Patrons.

However, so as not to give away the fact that she was blessed by Dravin and not the Serpent, Sierra knew she would only be able to rely on her archery skills. At the very least, her keen sense of hearing would be useful.

She picked up her bow and arrows to fire a few shots at the moving target board. The first few shots did not go as planned, but she persisted. Eventually, she was able to get most of them.

But she knew this wasn’t enough. She had to hunt live animals if she wanted to hone her skills. Those were a lot more difficult compared to moving targets.

"Woah! Is that what I think it is?" someone exclaimed from a distance.

Sierra turned to see Princess Cassandra returning triumphantly. From the looks of it, she had just returned from a hunt with a wild boar carried by her servants. Even Sierra was impressed. She came over to take a closer look.

Cassandra had a smug look on her face as everyone else fawned over her.

"Are you going to use the wild boar for anything, Princess Cassandra?" Sierra asked out of curiosity.

Everyone turned to look at her in confusion as to why she would have asked.

"Why do you care what I do with it?" Cassandra scoffed.