Villainess Loves

Part 65

"Ready....Start!"

With my voice as the countdown, racers burst off, riding as fast as they can to reach the flag stands. This time, there is much more action, with hands and shouting all throughout the racetrack, as couples fight to collect as many flags as possible. You would think a couple's race would be relaxing and beautiful but the determination and crazed madness on the participants' faces say otherwise.

Bella and Prince Orion are currently in the lead, not surprising to me, but definitely surprising for others, especially as Prince Orion is the one collecting the flags and Bella riding the horse. I mean, she did smoke the competition, her riding skills are no joke.

Their synergy is definitely showing as they breeze past and rhythmically weave around other couples, collecting flags with ease. It may seem easy to just ride around a track, grabbing flags dangling here and there, but in a competition sense, there has to be a sort of timing for the riders to race as fast as they can, while making sure their partner can grab the flag. This slowing and speeding up creates a rhythm and figuring this out and maintaining it in a crowded and fast-paced arena is much more challenging.

The closest couple to Bella and Prince Orion's lead is a count's family. Prince Astric, who won his bracket, is struggling around the bottom ten. His partner seems to be his attendant and while his attendant does follow his instruction, Prince Astric's riding skills are too much for his attendant to handle and they had to constantly run at a much slower pace for him to keep up.

It's really anyone's game as the winners are determined by the number of flags, not a specific start and finish line, so it is much harder to know who has the most flags.

Even though they did sign up for the couples' race, Prince Caelum and Princess Echina decided to drop out of the competition. How sad. I wanted to see how good they were. Princess Echina ended up not participating in the competition at all.

"Wooo!" "Go!" "Oh no!" "YEah!" "Go, go, gooo!" Cheers fill the garden as the viewers adopt the thrilling intensity of the race. I chime in with Mary and Henry as we cheer for Prince Orion and Bella's win. We need them to win, or why else would we have created this event for?

In a thrilling but expected turn of events, Bella and Prince Orion comes in first, collecting almost 30 flags in the span of ten minutes. The count's family's son and his lover came in second with 27 flags. They did a really good job, I felt they might have even won the whole thing if they didn't get trapped in a fallout with the other racers. Some couples crashed and fell into a pile, greatly slowing down the competition as riders have to navigate around them and the field itself became more crowded as servants tried to help the fallen riders get back up and check for injuries.

I sigh, we were prepared for possible accidents, but I thought these guys would be more civil, instead of being so passionate in bursting at full speed to collect all the flags. Luckily no one got seriously hurt, and only one of the couples had to end as their horse sprained one of their ankles. By that time the race was almost over so there wasn't much reason to swap horses.

Prince Astric and his attendant came somewhere in the middle, the attendant couldn't handle Prince Astric's full speed so they were forced to ride at a much slower pace, but their rhythm stabilized later in the round, allowing them to reach the middle of the participants instead of the bottom ten.

"Ahh, that was so fun to watch." Mary exclaims. Henry nods.

"Yeah, it was so exhilarating. I never would have thought that I would get to see nobles and commoners race together peacefully. Their competitive faces were so funny!" I laugh thinking about how passionate some of the racers were. Their faces were so serious and when Bella smoked them, the shock was hilarious!

"We still have one more round and then the awards ceremony. Do you guys want to stay and watch or come with me and help set up?" I ask Mary and Henry.

"I'll stay and watch. My friend and her boyfriend are competing!" Mary says. She gives me a sly grin.

"Go with Lady Annelise, Sir Henry. Someone needs to make sure she's okay. Who knows what dangers she'll accidentally stumble upon." She shoos Henry away without letting him speak.

"Hey! I can take care of myself!" I exclaimed.

"Okay, I'll go with Lady Annelise." Henry reaches over to grab my hand.

"Hey! HEy! I don't need someone to watch over me! I'm an adult!" I yell as Henry pulls me toward the awards area. Mary waves at us goodbye.

"You don't need to come if you're just watching over me. I can take care of myself." I grumbled, walking with Henry. Hmpf. What is Mary saying? I'm an adult! Er, 16 years old is considered as an adult here!

"Haha, no, I want to come with you." Henry laughs. His laugh makes my heart flutter. I blush slightly, turning away.

"...Henry, what do you plan on doing after this?" I peek over to see his response.

"Hmm, what do you mean?" He tilts his head at my question.

"Like, after this." I wave my hands at the competition to emphasize my point. Wait. I'm holding hands with Henry right now!

"!!!" I pull my hand away from his grip. Henry laughs at my reaction. The lingering warmth of his hand makes my heart beat faster.

"I almost thought you would have never noticed." He chuckles. I quickly cover my face, my cheeks reddening.

"Don't tease me!" I squeak, turning my body away from Henry.