Death Frost | Deathsworn #2

Chapter 62 ❆ Winner

Sorry this was late. Had a lot of things to do yesterday!

The performance was quickly over before I could notice. Although we—I—faced a lot of criticisms and provoked the crowd, much of our segment had been duly entertaining and garnered a lot of applause and whistles from the crowd. Compared with past performances, ours had better fire. I could not help but admit that this entire affair was actually more successful than I initially expected.

"I didn't take you for someone who's easily provoked," Arondite said.

"My mouth often has a mind of its own," I replied. "You have really good archery, by the way." I quickly changed the topic as we sat back behind a table, waiting for the rest of our companions to finish their turn in the performance.

"Thank you. But it's only secondary to my skill set."

I could not help but feel slightly bitter. My face scrunched up a little with displeasure and I huffed. "Wow. Archery is supposed to be my main skill and you're still better than me." I said. "Since I'm not good with blades and swords. I don't have a lot of patience with them."

He hesitated. "You have considerable skill in hand-to-hand combat, though. A little rough and...unusual, but very skillful nonetheless."

"I didn't take you to be very generous with your compliments. Thank you. It's nice to hear I'm going somewhere with this," I told him with a sigh. "But I really need to brush up on my archery."

Especially if I would have to use that forbidden weapon. In all honesty, I preferred shooting down people from a safe distance rather than punching them straight to the ground. Although wielding a blade wasn't impossible considering I trained on it for a good few years, I still didn't like it as much.

Not too fond of blades waving at my face. Though weirdly enough, arrows seemed to be fine.

As I dwelled deep in my thoughts, Maun and his team finally made their way up to the stage. I turned to attention when I noticed the flash of silver violet hair. Erlan and Miles dragged the poor muffin up to the stage and spoke.

"Hello! We're the Three Idiots!" Miles introduced.

"Oh, boy. Here we go." I leaned back and let out a sigh.

"I am Lan," Erlan said.

"I am Les," Miles said.

For Maun, there was silence.

"He's Un." Erlan gestured.

"Un," Maun vocalized.

I remember that although Maun had lost his tongue, his vocal cords were still working. He didn't like using it much, preferring sign language. Hearing his voice was really rare.

"We're brothers," Erlan said.

"We look nothing alike. Who'd believe you?" Miles replied.

"Yeah. We don't look alike," Erlan responded with a solemn nod. "My father's a traveling gypsy from the Sarenilian mountains. And he...his father's a dog."

"How dare you insult my father!" Miles roared.

A burst of laughter came from the audience. I couldn't help chuckling myself. Miles had put on some makeup that contoured his face in such a way that his face somewhat resembled that of a wolf. To be exact, the features already there had been emphasized. In particular, his rather forward nose was brought forward even more.

"But it's true. Your father's a dog spirit, isn't he?"

"Exactly with a spirit in the end. A dog spirit!" he exclaimed righteously. "He is not just a dog!"