Allegiance

Chapter 16

Tessia followed Arthur as he walked up to the rectangular booth where Hector was standing.

Hector looked up and smiled at Arthur, seeing him approach, "Ah, Mr. Leywin! I trust you had a good time!"

Arthur returned Hector's smile, "I did indeed." He looked at Tessia, who stood beside him, "You?"

Tessia met Arthur's gaze and nodded happily, "Yes." Her smile curved into a smirk as she said, "Especially since I won."

Arthur playfully narrowed his eyes on Tessia and shook his head, "You cheated."

Tessia placed her hand on her sternum, pretending to be offended, "Why, dear Arthur, I would never cheat." She giggled, "It wasn't my fault that you got distracted."

Sylvie snickered, 'Yeah, Papa. You should've been thinking about bowling and not other things.'

'Zip it,' Arthur snapped.

"Ah yes, I saw you roll the balls into the gutter on the last round," Hector said, and Tessia and Arthur looked at him. He chuckled and shrugged, "What a shame. You had a tie game for a while." He smiled at Tessia, "And congrats to the lovely lady for winning."

Tessia happily returned Hector's smile, "Why thank you, kind sir." She gave Arthur a narrowed-eyed gaze, jestfully scolding him, "At least someone told me congrats."

Arthur humorously rolled his eyes before sarcastically saying, "Oh, please forgive me."

Tessia giggled, amused and happy to see Arthur playing along with her jest, "You're forgiven."

"So, are you all done with the bowling lane, Mr. Leywin?" Hector asked curiously.

Arthur nodded, "Yeah, you can show it as vacant." Arthur inquisitively looked at Tessia, "Was there anything else you wanted to do while we were here?"

"Hmmm," Tessia hummed curiously, looking around the room and thinking what to do next.

Tessia eyed the tables, seeing people playing various board and card games, but Tessia didn't feel like playing any of those. Her gaze flicked over to the sparring area, seeing the shield was currently active, and four people were having a two vs. two match. She and Arthur had already had a spar this morning, so Tessia didn't feel like doing that either. Tessia looked to the left, seeing people having a good time, throwing axes and shooting bows and arrows at targets against the wall. Her lips curved slightly, thinking archery would be fun.

Tessia looked at Arthur curiously and pointed at the targets, "Do you feel like archery?"

Arthur's gaze flicked to where she was pointing before looking back at her with a smile and nodded, "Sure, sounds fun."

Hector looked at his ledger and flipped through the pages until he reached the archery section. His finger traced over the page as Hector read over his handwriting. After a brief moment, Hector looked at Arthur and Tessia with a smile, "Archery lane seven is all yours."

Arthur and Tessia thanked Hector before they made their way toward the archery lane. The archery lane was bigger than the bowling lane, with the lane being five yards wide and the starting line ten yards away from the target. The lanes were divided with deco grid fencing to prevent the axes and arrows from flying off in unwanted directions. The targets were tall wooden manikins with bullseyes painted on the chest and facial area. Directly in front of the archery lane was a large rectangular stand with eight throwing axes, two bows, and several arrows.

Arthur and Tessia approached the stand, and Tessia looked over the items with interest, excited about shooting arrows and throwing axes. Arthur looked at Tessia, seeing her soft-looking lips curved in a wide and excited smile, and Arthur smiled warmly. Tessia's gaze flicked to Arthur, and he quickly looked at the items on the stand, hoping Tessia didn't catch him admiring her, but she did, and she blushed slightly.