The Last Dahlia

009

"That's because there's no need for you to know it," Yuehwa replied, marching away from him. "Goodnight, Baixun."

And good riddance.

#

The tournament dragged on day by day, and each day Yuehwa would stand behind that veiled curtain with the princess beside her, watching as one competitor after the next fell short of the bar and was booted out of the tournament altogether.

By the end of the week, there were only four men left standing: Shoya and Baixun were among them.

"Do you think Baixun will be able to defeat the White Scorpion?" Princess Naying whispered to Yuehwa as they watched the semi-final of the tournament proceed. Baixun had just stepped onto the court, with his opponent, a general from Jin bearing axes in both his hands, stepping in from the opposite side.

"Have you decided if you'd rather marry the prince of Gi or the prince of Feng?" Yuehwa replied with a question of her own. She popped open a couple of winter melon seeds and tossed them into her mouth.

Naying fell silent, her gaze floating to the sidelines where the princes sat watching. Ever since the start of the tournament when the king engaged the duo in some casual conversation, she had not heard another word from either of princes, nor had she had the opportunity to interact with them. In other words, both men were still strangers to her and it probably made no difference who it was she ended up having to marry.

Instead of answering Yuehwa's question, the princess kept her eyes peeled on the sparring that had begun on front court. The general from Jin was a huge fellow who towered at least one full head above Baixun, and despite the weight of the axes that he wielded, he was able to move deftly across the court, raining blow after blow onto his opponent.

When he narrowly missed having his ear chopped off by the general's axe, Naying clasped her hand across her mouth with a gasp. "Will he be alright?" she turned to Yuehwa and asked.

"Shh," Yuehwa hushed.

Compared to all the other sparring matches that had taken place thus far, this one was by far one of the most interesting of them. Her bet was still on Baixun to win, but the general from Jin was definitely giving him a run for his money. She could tell that the general was perhaps not as skilled as Baixun, but he made up for it with sheer size and force.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the princess leaning forward anxiously, eyes widened to the size of bronze coins as she stared at the ongoing match.

"Princess," she said, "do you like Baixun?"

Hearing her question, Naying immediately flushed a bright shade of pink, turning to stare down at her shoes. "No," she fibbed. It hardly sounded convincing.

Yuehwa threw her head back and laughed. She wasn't surprised that the princess had taken a liking to Baixun. In fact, it wasn't only the princess—practically every other palace maid who had crossed paths with Baixun seemed be smitten with him. She could tell from the way all these girls would eagerly try to squeeze in a word or two with him whenever they bumped into him, and the way their eyes twinkled whenever they looked his way. Perhaps if she were a little more normal, she might have found Baixun attractive with his easy nature and charismatic smile, but she was the Phoenix and the Phoenix was far from an ordinary girl.

The match dragged on for over an hour, possibly the longest in the tournament so far. At the end, just as Yuehwa expected, Baixun emerged victorious with the tip of his sword pointing straight at the general's jugular, just a hair's breadth from claiming his life. With that, the referee sounded his horn and the match drew to a close.