As she wiped her face using the wet towel, everyone was left speechless. The princess was covered with blood and the fact that she was holding a bow and arrow when she arrived with Axis and Duke Nash shocked them even more.
"Princess!" Little Aziel ran to Ashleah with all smiles, his eyes were squinted. "Did you have fun?" He quickly hugged the Princess' knees, he looked up and giggled. Ashleah couldn't stop herself from grinning from ear to ear.
"My, look at this pretty little young man. Yes, I did have fun." She said as she patted Aziel's head, Nash and Axis drank some water and also wiped their faces using their own wet towels. "Where are the other contestants?"
And as if it was on que, the other contestants came running to them. "We're back!" Personal maids, and their partners came running to them. Shaking her head, Ashleah picked up Aziel and pinched his cute little nose.
"Let's count all the contestants and let the knights round up the animals inside the forest!" The Emperor said as he smiled at the Duke Deoncan (Nash) and Axis.
Everyone started counting, and when it finally ended, Gab and the other knights quickly started to round up and go inside the forest with white magicians that can serve them light when it becomes too dark.
With that, nanny Riley quickly pulled Ashleah and took the princess to her room.
"My! Your highness look at your clothes and even your hands! Blood, oh no." Riley was in a state of 'I don't know what to do' making Aziel and Ashleah giggle.
"Nanny, calm down! At least I don't have wounds when I came back." She giggled as she took her cape off and looked at herself in front of the mirror. Her mouth gaped. "Wow! I really am drop dead gor—" She laughed and shook her head. "I really am covered with blood!"
"Yes, Princess! But you really look cool when I saw you walking to us earlier!" Aziel giggle and was about to hug Ashleah again, but the princess quickly backed out and smiled at the young man. Since Aziel is a kid, he was confused. He narrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head as he pouted his lips. "Are you avoiding me?"
Nanny Riley looked at Ashleah, the princess looked at her nanny. Both grinned and tried refraining themselves from laughing due to Aziel's cuteness but completely failed afterwards.
"Aziel, you can't hug her highness for now. She needs to take a bath and then you can hug her. " Riley kneeled down with the same height of the young man, he was pouting his lips earlier but then it turned into a bright smile as he nodded his head and looked at Ashleah.
"Well then Princess, take a bath right now!!" Ashleah gave him a surprised look and soon then nodded her head and laughed while walking her way to her personal bathroom.
Meanwhile, Nash gritted his teeth while his butler was explaining things that happened while they were out hunting. His eyes were flaming, tightly holding the towel that he used earlier.
"So they were talking about nonsense?" Nash said as he sat inside the guest room and again wiped his face using the towel. His butler nodded and made the maids that fixed Duke Nash's bath go away.
"Yes, they only stopped when you came with her highness and the soon high priest Axis." His butler said making Nash even mad. He groaned and stood up making his butler, Theo, surprised.
"Theo, ready my clothes. I'm taking a bath. I'm going to talk to them later." He said as he gave the used towel to his butler, Theo just smiled for he knew what his master feels for her highness. "—and stop grinning!" Nash said before closing the bathroom's door.
"Ah, I guess I'm serving the soon to be fian—" Theo couldn't even finish what he was saying when the bathroom door opened and Nash glared at his butler, Theo ended up laughing.
Everyone finished cleaning up, Ashleah was wearing an ivory white over-shrug, braided trim and loose sleeve hem with a gathered fit floor length gown, with an above the waist gold cloth, and a tapered fishtail train.
As she elegantly walked in front, Nash with a white belted button-down waistcoat, gathered rolled-up sleeves, a red tidy shirt, pitch black belt, a little bit loosed seamed slacks, and finally black buttoned boot-covers smiled at her.
She looked around and saw Axis wearing a simple white shirt and black fitted slacks. The man smiled at her and waved his hands a little bit.
Ashleah took a deep breath before speaking up. "The competition went great without any problems along the way. I am very happy with the outcome—" She stopped for a moment and took another deep breath. "—I, myself, don't know who won the competition for today. His Majesty will now announce the winner." She looked at her Father and smiled.
"After counting the total, the winner is Duke Deoncan!" The young ladies started clapping and cheering for the Duke's win.
"It was supposed to be Princess Izel's win because they both caught the bear—" His Majesty couldn't even finish what he was saying when complaints started to shower him.
"It's impossible that the Princess helped the Duke with that!" An old Marquess complained.
"Indeed! She still is a Princess and a woman!" Another old Duke added, but never knew that they were just adding more fuel to the fire, the fire was..
"Why are you talking like that? Have you forgotten that her highness is still in higher ranks than you old men do?" Nash said with a gritted teeth, Ashleah's eyes widened. Theo, Nash's butler shook his head and chuckled.
"My, young man. Please do know that we are older than you. You just got your—" the old Marquess couldn't even finish what he was going to say when someone spoke up.
"Oh my, looking down at both her highness and the Duke Deoncan, do you really think that you are doing the right thing Marquess?" No one knew that Axis was also pissed off by the way they talked about his friends.
No one spoke up, for they knew that Axis was now pissed and.. he was the child of God of course! How can they go against a man like him?
The Princess cleared her throat thinking that it may ease the rising tension between the men, but it didn't. The old Duke with flaming eyes and gritted teeth looked at her, but didn't dare to speak up.
"Please do not cause any problems. Yes, for everyone's information I did help Duke Deoncan in catching and killing the bear, but he deserved the win for I only released my arrow on the bear and he did the killing." She said not even batting an eye or even cringing from the words that escaped her mouth.
Women's mouth were left hanging open, old and young men were left speechless. Axis and Nash was smiling proudly because of what she said.
"If you want me to show you how I held the bow and arrow, I can." Ashleah gave her nanny some signals to hand her the bow and arrow, the worried yet excited Riley gave her the bow and arrow.
Ashleah was about to get it when Kian whispered behind her. "Your highness, I do think that you shouldn't do this. You're all dressed up for the announcement. It is their fault that they do not believe you."
The Princess gave the man a warm smile and shook her head and received the bow and arrow before standing up straight and looking directly at their eyes.
"Well then, show us your skills your highness." The old Marquess with a light smirk plastered on his face didn't even break the eye contact between them.
"I do agree with him your highness. Please do prove what you can do.. PROVE YOURSELF."