Firstborn: Return of the heir

“We will leave our horses here. They seem to be alerting the game.”

Stopping the slow step of his horse to a complete stall, Saulus halted the entire group by raising his hand. Rather than jumping down from his horse’s saddle, he opted to descend to the ground slowly and gently, even going as far as to commit the crime of actually using his stirrups.

“Otto, Berner, can you watch the horses?”

Turning his head to the two soldiers who happened to be the nearest pair, Saulus brought the reins of his mount towards them even before the soldiers could answer. Not because he knew how they would respond. Because outside of the pretense of camaraderie during the hunt, they were all in the middle of an insanely important mission, making fulfilling orders an absolute priority.

“Sure thing. Just leave it to us.”

Otto responded with a smile.

“Good. Venna, keep your promise in mind, please. Two steps away from me at most.”

Knowing what was most likely about to happen, Saulus continued to repeat the words of her promise as if it was some kind of magical mantra. Maybe because she knew that she had to rely on his help right now, or maybe she just wanted to be a good, obedient girl, but Venna didn’t protest, getting down from the horse and hugging Saulus’ side.

“Sir…”

A gentle whisper from the side alerted them.

“Kerek, what’s wrong?”

Noticing the face of one of his legionaries covered in camouflage to make it harder to spot him, Saulus didn’t hesitate to name him out.

“Sir, I found a stray deer nearby. Do you want to have a shot at it?”

Finally, after quite a long time spent roaming around the forest in the saddle, something slightly more interesting would happen. As pleasant as it was to have a silent small-talk with Venna without any worry of being bothered by some jealous or overambitious nobles, their lack of success with the hunt was putting everyone down quite a lot.

“Venna? You interested?”

Asking her this question was more of a formality. Just from how her eyes lit up when she heard Kerek’s report, it was obvious that if not for her promise to Saulus, she would already be running towards the mentioned spot.

“I surely am. What kind of hunt would this be if we returned empty-handed?”

Gracing Saulus with one of her adorable smiles, Venna caught his hand, as if wanting to ensure she wouldn’t leave his side even in her current excitement. Feeling the delicate fingers of his childhood friend tightening around his palm, Saulus felt a slight shiver travelling down his spine.

Even though they have known each other for so long, her touch was still all that he needed to lose his composure. Right now, only the dark premonition about what kind of events could soon transpire stopped Saulus from fully focusing on just how pleasant holding hands with Venna was.

Following after Kerek proved to be a good decision. Obediently following his gestures to lay low and be silent, their small group of three finally managed to spot the prey they were looking for ever since the hunting started.

“Do you want me to take the first shot?”

Saulus asked Venna, patting the hardwood of his own bow. Before she could even voice her answer, he already saw the answer in her eyes.

“I…”

Shaking his head while putting on a wide, honest smile, Saulus couldn’t stop himself from patting the girl’s head.

“Go on. Let’s see how good you are with the bow.”

Pretending to ignore the shocked stare of Kerek, Saulus calculated the distance and the trajectory the arrow would need to take to reach the deer. With this done, the young general put one of his fingers in his mouth, before licking it all over and raising it up. Feeling the cold on the side of his finger facing their target, his anxiety died down a bit.

“Sure. I bet you will be surpr–!”

Stopping herself in the very last moment from exclaiming her last word in a loud voice, Venna froze in place, looking towards the deer to see whether her mishap had alerted it. Thankfully, just as it was before, the animal continued to feast on the delicious grass, unaware of the threat that was looming over it.

On the other hand, seeing how her mishap didn’t end up becoming a disaster, Venna breathed a sigh of relief before readying herself for the shot. Putting an arrow on the bow and holding it with three fingers while controlling the pull of the weapon by tracking her mouth with her thumb, she took aim without standing up and revealing herself. For a moment, time seemed to stop. Judging from how far the bow bent, from the angle the girl was shooting at, the weight of the arrow…

Although not precise at all, Saulus calculated that her arrow had a chance of piercing the animal. Covertly placing an arrow on his own on his bow, Saulus continued to scan her every move.

And then, Venna released the arrow.

*Swish!*

The sound of the metal blade cutting through the air alerted the animal. Not wasting any time, it reared on its hind legs, before jumping forward… But what would normally save its life from an actual, accurate shot, was also the reason for its downfall.

By rearing the way it did, the deer raised its body high up, basically putting itself in the path of the arrow that would otherwise have missed!

“It’s a hit!”