Unfortunately, I'm an Evil Villainess

Chapter 78 - Hunting Competition (I)

As May shifted into June, the weather warmed. Hunting season was upon us, along with the annual hunting competition hosted by the royal family.

Socially, it was one of the most important events of the year, on par with the royal birthdays. Thus, it was one of my greatest triumphs and finest proof of my status as the jewel of high society to have been crowned the queen of the hunting competition every year since my debut. Granted, this was only the third year, but it was still an evidential occurrence.

The hunting grounds were half a day's carriage ride away from the capital. This allowed aristocrats at court to depart in the morning, arrive in time for lunch, socialise in the afternoon or have some practice, and get a good night's sleep for the official beginning of the contest the following day.

"We're here, my angel!"

Father was very excited, as usual, and so was I. After the long repression of the violence instinctual in humans by the necessary civility of society, especially our dangerous high society, there was something brutally relaxing about sheer bloodshed.

Our carriage pulled up in front of the grand palace, built hundreds of years ago for this exact purpose and gradually expanded to be capable of housing the innumerous aristocrats it presently did. Unlike the royal birthdays, which were limited to the elites and possessed noble airs of exclusivity demanded by banquets and balls, truly all of high society and all their knights were invited to the contest. With so many people, the atmosphere was filled with animation.

Servants and stewards took our trunks. We were shown to our chambers, then brought to a dining room. After a satisfying meal, we began making plans for the afternoon, which was a golden opportunity for practically anything with everyone who mattered gathered in one place.

"I saw some old friends passing by. I think I'll go meet them, and perhaps we'll go practice with some critters. What about you, my dear? My angel?"

Father beamed and Mother smiled daintily. She was as ethereal as ever, untouched by the unruly joviality of the sport, but eager for the social events.

"Why, I'll be in a drawing room, receiving calls for the rest of the day. I expect you'll be much the same, darling? Only somewhere outdoors in this lovely weather, so as many as possible can admire your beauty."

I nodded with a laugh, looking forward to granting favours. In this fairly equal world, ladies were absolutely allowed to participate in the contest, and many did, like me. The system of favours simply let participants dedicate their hunts to others in name in exchange for a 'favour', usually in the form of a handkerchief or a ribbon. Typically, knights from one's house and admiring gentlemen asked ladies for one or were granted one.

Chivalrously, the lady with the most hunts to her name was crowned the queen of the hunting competition. Obviously, this placed me at an advantage, actually participating myself, though it wasn't game changing as most queens actually did not. With my frequent and excellent dancing and various social affairs, I was very popular among gentlemen, in addition to House Avington's already large number of knights, not to mention the two overpowered male leads.

"Val! And Father, Mother! How nice to see you!"

Damian appeared in the dining room and grinned as he approached us. From his unclouded purple eyes, I was relieved to find him mostly sane today, so I was happy to see him. Since our last dispute, he'd sent me numerous letters a day as usual, and in exchange for me dutifully responding to every single one of them, it seemed we'd formed an unspoken agreement to forget about our row. At the very least, it bought time for Nathaniel to research the holy dagger.

"It's wonderful to see you too. If you visited us more often, perhaps you wouldn't miss us as much."

My playful words made him smile like a delighted child, making it almost difficult to imagine he was capable of destroying this whole palace. Truly fortunate, indeed, that he was on my side.