The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 100

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 100

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Lillieta sat next to the Prince and watched the shooting competition. Listening to the excited Prince beside her constantly spouting theatrical lines was quite an ordeal.

‘I want to knock him out cold…’

She suddenly focused on the thought that had crossed her mind like a complaint.

‘Wouldn’t it be okay to knock him out? As long as I don’t get caught?’

The next appointment was already set. He had asked her to come to a party he was throwing with his friends soon, and she had agreed.

‘It’s a chance to meet the Prince’s associates.’

Since the appointment was already made, didn’t that mean she didn’t need to listen to this bastard’s damn lines anymore?

As soon as she made her decision, Rita immediately acted. Her secretly moving hand lightly sent electrically processed Oaths into the Prince’s side.

“Today even the moon will be blinded by the Princess’s beauty and refuse to appear, uh…”

Lillieta quickly caught the Prince as he staggered and collapsed, propping him up nicely in his chair. She didn’t forget to subtly adjust his posture so it would look like he was sleeping to others.

‘Much better.’

She focused on the shooting competition before her with a relieved feeling.

Before she knew it, it was Lavinia’s first match. Lavinia was trembling beside some second or third son from some family who carried a large bow.

‘The kid’s eyes are spinning.’

Rita had briefly visited Lavinia before the shooting competition started to calm her down.

When she told her she would teach her shooting stance if she won this time, she had clearly seen her fill with motivation and her trembling subside.

‘Why is she acting like that all of a sudden? Is she getting nervous now that it’s the real thing?’

Rita, who was observing with curiosity, noticed that Lavinia’s gaze kept glancing somewhere.

Following her gaze, she saw someone sitting in the viewing stands who she had never seen before but felt like she could identify.

An audience member who hadn’t been there before the match started. A middle-aged woman with pink hair slightly darker than Lavinia’s elegantly pinned up.

‘…That must be Duke Duilebog.’

Saruvia del Noma Duilebog.

The current Duke Duilebog, sister of Duchess Adikl, and sister of Count Everett. Prince Joseph’s aunt and Annemarie’s great-aunt.

She was looking intently at her only daughter with a cold gaze. She seemed very displeased that Lavinia was participating in this competition at all.

The shooting competition proceeded by taking turns shooting one shot each for a total of 10 shots at the target, then adding up the scores.

While some second or third son from whatever family shot his first arrow with a swaggering posture, Lavinia trembled and watched Duke Duilebog’s reaction.

‘There’s definitely some problem in the family.’

Rita clicked her tongue inwardly, checked that the Prince was lying still, then quietly moved to a seat near Duke Duilebog.

Meanwhile, Lavinia missed her first shot terribly. People burst into laughter seeing the bullet that didn’t even touch the target.

Annoying noise circulated from all directions: of course, a gun in a shooting competition, such an undignified weapon like a gun won’t do, the Duilebog Princess still has no sense, and such.

Lavinia, who looked like she was about to cry, yielded her turn to the swaggering man and stepped back, glancing toward Duke Duilebog. Then her eyes widened as she spotted Lillieta next to the Duke.

Rita made eye contact with Lavinia and lightly grabbed the end of her own hair to show her.

“Lavi, why do you keep grabbing your hair?”

“I-it seems to calm me down a bit… Does it look bad? Mom said this habit looks undignified and told me to fix it…”

“Hmm… Then let’s make that Lavi’s routine.”

“Routine?”

“Make grabbing your hair a signal to calm down and focus. From now on, always grab the ends of your hair and take a deep breath before shooting. If you make that a habit and ritual, it will help you control yourself in tense moments.”

A conversation they had while training in preparation for the competition.

Whether she understood Lillieta’s intention, Lavinia blinked, then grabbed the ends of her twin-tailed hair with both hands and took a deep breath.

Then she naturally took her stance just as she had practiced. The hand holding the revolver steadily aimed the front sight at the end of the barrel toward the target without shaking.

After training day and night, yesterday, the day before the competition, Lavinia had succeeded in pulling the trigger without dropping the coin placed on the barrel.

Bang, with the gunshot, the center of the target was pierced. The noise of surprised people rippled through the crowd.

Lavinia, who confirmed the target, quickly turned her head to look toward Lillieta. An expression that said, did I do well?

Lillieta was nodding with a pleased face when she felt a sharp gaze on her cheek and looked to the side.

The tall Duke Duilebog was looking down at her quietly, then opened her mouth.

“May you meet a fresh spring. I am Saruvia del Noma Duilebog.”

“May you meet a fresh spring. I am Lillieta del Nisa Raskail, Duke Duilebog.”

“Princess Raskail.”

The Duke said with a cold voice, pulling up the corners of her mouth.

“It seems my daughter is causing you trouble in various ways. I’ll make sure to caution her so this doesn’t happen again.”

“It wasn’t really trouble. It’s fine as it is.”

When Rita replied calmly, the Duke’s eyebrows twitched.

“…I heard it was the Princess who taught Lavinia such useless things. I see it’s true.”

“Is shooting a useless thing?”

“It’s something of no value to Lavinia. That child just needs to enjoy authority and maintain the dignity befitting a Princess. There’s no need for her to be evaluated by people for such things, and no reason for her to sweat undignifiedly.”

There was something Rita could feel in the Duke’s brief words.

Lillieta could somewhat guess why Lavinia felt so childish for her age, and why the child had burst into tears of joy when her efforts were praised.

It seemed Duke Duilebog wanted her daughter to grow up doing nothing and existing only as the ‘Duilebog Princess.’ So this was what being raised with excessive pampering meant.

“…I heard Duke Duilebog cherishes the Princess greatly, but I guess that was a misunderstanding.”

“What did you say?”

Lillieta turned her gaze away from the Duke to look down at the competition venue.

The 6th shot out of 10. Lavinia, who had caught up to the swaggering man’s score, was loading her revolver with flushed cheeks.

“…If you can see your daughter’s face like that and still feel that shooting is something of no value, then the words about cherishing the Princess must be false.”

“Princess Raskail, what kind of rudeness—”

The Duke, who had been speaking in an angry tone, followed her gaze to look at her daughter and flinched in surprise.

The excited Lavinia stood in front of the target. Her expression became serious in an instant. The girl’s eyes looking at the target beyond the gun barrel shone calmly with passion.

Bang, with the gunshot, another bullet mark was carved in the center. The 7th shot was a perfect score. Now Lavinia’s total score was higher than her opponent’s.

Then the 8th, 9th, and 10th shots.

The man with the bow looked at the target with an expression of disbelief. The host conducting the competition was also flustered.

Lavinia smiled with an overwhelmed face. That smile wasn’t the smile of a childish girl, but the smile of a confident woman. Something that naturally emerged from the sense of achievement gained through her own efforts.

Light green eyes resembling the Princess’s trembled as they took in her daughter’s appearance.

“That child…?”

She trailed off like a moan. Rita continued calmly.

“Are you surprised?”

“…”

“Is this the first time you’ve seen the Princess like that?”

Duke Duilebog didn’t answer. She stared blankly down at the competition venue. Lillieta also quietly watched the competition after that.

Lavinia didn’t miss a single shot in all the matches that followed. Every bullet hit the target. Even if not all of them pierced the center, most left bullet marks near the center.

When she finally reached the finals, the surroundings were filled with commotion and admiration. The excited host shouted that this was the first person to reach the shooting competition finals with a gun.

‘After all, until now there probably hadn’t been anyone who seriously practiced shooting with the determination to win and participated.’

While it was partly due to the poor performance of guns in this era, this was largely a matter of perception.

There was a brief break before the finals. When Lavinia entered the waiting tent and was no longer visible, Duke Duilebog finally turned to look at Lillieta.

“Princess Raskail, what do you think about Lavinia—”

“Duke, what on earth is this about? Why is the Princess participating in the shooting competition? And with trash like a gun!”

Some knight who had rushed up to the spectator seats interrupted between them. He was a tall man with bulging muscles and bronze skin. Duke Duilebog turned to look at him and called his name.

“Count Pabein, calm down.”

Lillieta immediately remembered where she had heard that name.

‘Ah, that damn bastard who spouted nonsense about guns to Lavi?’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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