CHAPTER 91 Her Eminence Feliwyn’s Lurid Romance Novel

CHAPTER 91

Her Eminence Feliwyn’s Lurid Romance Novel

Rufus

My heart was racing as I laced my fingers with Bronwynn’s and kissed the back of her palm.

She had walked into the lobby looking utterly devastated, and the bottom had dropped out of my stomach. Her eyes were red, her cheeks were puffy, and she looked like she’d gotten next to no sleep. Even with a show last night, it shouldn’t have been this bad.

Yesterday, she’d fallen quiet and contemplative after learning everything, but now, her grief was palpable .

She had been reading my book when I came back, and I spared a thought to which page she might have been so distracted by.

At the same time, fear of losing her, of hearing goodbye, wrenched my stomach. Nothing felt worse than the short moment before she opened her mouth and said, “I forgive you, Rufus.”

The tension gripping my body didn’t suddenly relax, but I drew a deep breath that felt lifesaving.

“Thank the gods,” I sighed, then I tucked her arm into mine and started walking her toward the door. “Now, I have a surprise to make it up to you.”

I stopped when she hesitated near the entrance. She looked between me and the second-floor rooms, and I wondered if she’d been up so late that she wanted to just grab breakfast and go back to sleep. As we stood there, her eyes finally focused back on mine, and I decided to throw the surprise to the wind. “I’ve rented a spot on the patio of Vivian Vermillian’s Eatery so we can watch your cousin fight the guild master in the final round of civilian combat today.”

“You didn’t?!” That perked her up, and she leaned back into my hold.

“I most certainly did . ”

The midmorning heat pushed down on the city with a vengeance. The marketplace and streets were busy, but the real crowds were up by the fighting. The closer we drew, the noisier and more oppressive it got.

I wiped a bit of sweat off my brow but kept moving forward.

We weren’t going to be standing in that mob. No. I’d booked us seats for the entire morning at Vivian’s, with plenty of time to come back to the inn for her to nap and eat. I could finish my reread of The Wizard Needs a Lady … Speaking of which, I was a little on edge thinking that Bronwynn had read my highlighted notes inside Her Eminence Feliwyn’s lurid romance novel.

The image of her, blushing and panicked, made me smile.

It was a bit unpleasant shouldering through the crowd in the street to get to Vivian’s, but once inside, we were sitting with our own table overlooking a bout between a catkin ninja and a human archer. Not a good match, and the stage had to erect a shimmering shield that would prevent stray arrows from volleying into the crowd. The glittering wasn’t too distracting, thank goodness.

The catkin used elemental earth magic to erect random barricades around the ring to hide behind. The human was meticulously walking around and firing flaming arrows off at any minor noise.

The human eventually won with a lucky shot. The catkin had tried to jump the archer from behind, but the human had turned and fired on them at the last second, hitting the catkin in the shoulder.

The audience had gone wild. Bronwynn and I’d been mostly distracted ordering some snacks and iced lemon with elderberry water.

Multiple times I made to say something but thought better of it. Bronwynn was sipping her drink and watching the arena with mild interest.

Anything to distract her.

Even on the way here, her face would lose some of its shimmer when she wasn’t talking or she thought I wasn’t watching. She should have realized by now that I was always watching. That was the problem . Even here, when a preela with twin swords was battling against a B-class adventurer lizardkin with a battle axe, I was having a hard time focusing on the battles.

“When do you think Cousin Luke is going to fight the guild master?” Bronwynn suddenly turned and caught my eyes.

I casually took a sip of my own drink and replied, “Your cousin is in the last round of five today. Then the penalty bout.”

The information about each bout and contestants, the general schedule, the best view of the fights, and where the betting booths were all sat in carefully written scrawl on a sheet of paper in his storage. The morning had proven his investigation skills were still on fire. Just like the preela was when her opponent used a special Lizardkin title fire breath that caught the lanky swordwoman’s tunic .

I continued.

“This morning, there was a presentation by the palace dancers and a pie-eating contest. Then the first fight. A selkie maiden sang her giant opponent to sleep, then took a while rolling him off stage.”

“I’m sad I missed it.” Bronwynn chuckled at the image, placing her chin on her palm. Below, the preela had managed to put out the fire, but in doing so, she’d lost one of her blades.

“The second fight was between a sloth beastman and a healer. Apparently, the healer had sworn a vow of pacifism, and she only entered the contest on a dare.”

“Really?”

I was happy my knowledge was successfully lightening the mood. “Yes. The sloth had gravity abilities that made everything slow … but the healer had a debuff that made everything cost more mana. The beastman ran out of mana long before he could reach the healer to attack her. The difficulty with being a sloth beastman.”

Bronwynn nodded, taking a sip of her water and eating a mochi cake made with Lady Green tea.

“The five winners today face off against the five winners from the military tomorrow. The royal knights’ academy and the army are having their finals on the other side of the river as we speak,” I said, though I assumed she already knew, having grown up in Peldeep. I brought it up only because I had an important announcement. “I don’t know what your plan is tomorrow, but if you’re free, we could go?”

Originally, I was going to be fully booked with meetings during my stay in Peldeep. I needed to find the Peldeep investigation team—which turned out to be Slake—then meet with the Assassin Assembly guild master—which turned out to be Bronwynn’s uncle—and then meet with the ruler of Peldeep and the council—which was moved ahead due to Madame Potts’s warning.

Suddenly, we had an extra day to just relax .

“Aside from performing, I’m free.” Bronwynn said; she didn’t sound as calm as her usual self and she continued “Actually, I was wondering if … Well—”

The sound of hundreds of voices cheered when the preela dealt a finishing blow on the lizardkin, distracting her.

Then her cousin flew in on a flying sword and landed in the middle of the ring. His robes were elegant black-and-red silks, complementing his fox fur. Luke was a direct heir to the Stannard family and held himself with grace and dignity.

Guild Master Warren sauntered onto the stage. He looked almost human, wearing standard adventuring attire. The only thing that would have had him stand out from the rest of the crowd was a brooch haphazardly pinned on with the symbol of the guild: a silver circle with a blue shield, and then a silver crescent moon on the shield .

He smiled casually at the audience, saying something to Luke that made the fox shifter sigh.

“It looks like the guild master is ready to go!” the announcer said. The roar that followed was intense, and I shivered. Both contestants nodded at each other before taking position.

Luke placed his palms together in front of his chest and squared his stance. His whip appeared in his hands, and he slowly lifted the hilt, bringing the tail down with a snap, moving into the first stance.

Guild Master Warren rotated his shoulders and cracked his neck, then he balled his fists and crouched.

The announcer’s voice carried over the square, “Let the final battle … BEGIN!”