THHAAWMF

Chapter 151

***

The final round of the Swordsmanship Tournament has had ramifications that no one could have predicted.

First, Tyriel, who defied the Crown Prince's orders and escaped from the villa, and then the temple officials who tried to tamper with the Crown Prince's medicine, were swept up and hauled off to prison.

Naturally, the temple's reputation took a turn for the worst, and the second prince, who had tried to unseat Reynos as crown prince for allowing their shenanigans, was detained in the imperial palace.

"It's not the wrath of God, it's not like that, I've never even heard of your medicine! I never stood idly by!"

Shade sobbed as he was dragged out of the arena by knights that day.

But alas, he could never reveal that he had used the scroll, for that would be tantamount to turning himself in for trying to harm Reynos himself.

'Better to be an accessory than a perpetrator, right?'

And so my public scam had worked brilliantly. Not only was I favored by God in front of everyone, but I also possessed a spirit, permanently lifted the curse of the evil dragon, and unleashed the wrath of God that even Tyriel could not.

"Second Prince! Second Prince -!!!"

The Queen fainted on the spot as she cried out for the Second Prince, who was being dragged away by the knights.

"Queen!"

"Your Highness!"

As the Queen's handmaidens rushed to her, the chamberlain, under the emperor's orders, calmly announced the end.

"Due to untoward incidents, today's match will end here. The winner is His Highness Crown Prince Reynos, and the awards ceremony will be held at a later date."

And with that, this year's winter sword tournament has come to an end.

***

The drawing room of Lavirins Manor.

Crunch.

The sweet crunched in my mouth. As I chewed and swallowed hard, Reynos held out another sweet.

It was a biscuit shaped like Piik.

It was a dragon biscuit developed by Luminous after the chicken skewers to reduce people's rejection of evil dragons, but it was still in the taste-testing stage.

Crunch.

Mm, yummy. I bit off the head of the dragon biscuit and nibbled on it.

Reynos, looking at it with strangely poignant eyes, held out another snack.

Now that I think about it, I feel like I'm the only one eating. I stared down the biscuit and looked up at Reynos.

"You won't eat?"

"... Yes, a little."

He looked down at the biscuits with a bit of trepidation, clearly reluctant to eat a snack in the shape of an evil dragon.

I held the biscuits out to him, hoping to trick him into trying them. By the way, it was incredibly cute, with a brown body and eyes dotted with raisin red.

Reynos reluctantly took one, his eyes widening, and then he began to eat one of his own. When he had eaten about three, he spoke up.

"People want to see you. Even the nobles, not to mention the commoners, are camped out in front of the mansion. They seem to think you're some kind of messenger chosen by God..."