Episode 102- Brewing Storm 2 ‘Cliche Romance Novel‘

Last Chapter: Euria cosplays as Eugene. The children head towards a Bow and Arrow shop, on their way a teenage boy proposses to Aedelak. Likewise, Louis and Dea got confessed to aswell.

Following their awkward public moment, Eugene and the rest arrived at a famous Archery store in silence. And unlike its sparkling entrance that seems to say ‘Enter here! Enter here please!’ the inside was empty and deserted.

“.....” Everyone stared blankly at the dimly lit store, their hearts cracking from the hidden knife stabbing their emotional quotient even more.

Suddenly, a young 13-year old sprawled out from nowhere! Seemingly not noticing Eugene and the rest, she stocked up on items with her flowing black curly hair dancing together with her jumpy figure.

“.....” The children watched on as the dimly lit store brightened up with the beautiful young lady’s every step.

In this silent store, an aged male voice suddenly shouted out from far away. “Claudia! Has our esteemed guest arrived?”

The voice surprised the children as well as Claudia who jumped from shock and dropped the arrow she was holding.

“Ahh! Dad! You scared me!” Claudia heaved out of breath, her hands clutching her chest. “Why are you shouting when you know it’s dark out here! You know I’m scared of supernatural beings!” She cutely yelled back as she pouted!

“Oh! Sorry, sorry!” The ‘dad’ yelled again.

“Haa.” Claudia sighed lightly and shook her head. With her eyes glued to the floor, she then walked towards the arrow that rolled away.

“.....” Eugene and the rest watch as ‘Claudia’ walks towards their direction without ever glancing at them. At this rate, she was going to bump into Dea whose boots happened to block the arrow from further rolling away.

And as everyone thought, Claudia soon bumped her head onto Dea’s lower abdomen, just like a typical cliche romance novel whose main characters are meeting for the first time.

Thud!

“Ahh!” Claudia yelped, her hands automatically clutching her head that was throbbing in pain!

“....” Eugene and the rest pursed their lips in silence.

“....” Dea stared blankly at the young lady leaning against him. His facial expressions were currently unknown to everyone as the store was ‘dimly lit’.

Claudia never glanced at what she bumped against and she squatted down to pick up her arrow. Her hands reached out to grab her arrow when she suddenly saw a pair of boots. This made her entire body freeze in horror as cold sweat quickly tickled down her back.

“....” She gulped, not knowing what to do. ‘A…. A…. ghost!’ Was all that was running through her mind.

Suddenly, a male voice spoke out to her from above. “Sorry.”

The dark store with barely any lighting was then greeted with a shrill ear-piercing scream. This ear-piercing scream shocked everyone out of their body as they winced back from the scary scream. Everyone clutched their ears as they watched the lady get up to run away.

“AHHHHHHH! DAD HELP!!!! HELP!!! GHOST!!!!!” Claudia screamed, her face streamed down rivers of tears as she attempted to run away from the hand clutching her shoulders.

“Wait!... Wait! Stop shouting!” A male voice in pain shouted and shook her shoulders in an attempt to stop her from screaming.

“NOOO!!!!” Claudia screamed again as she felt the hands holding back her shoulders turning her body.

“Look at me!” The male voice shouted again!

Claudia quickly closed her eyes, doing the opposite of what she was told to do! ‘No no! The ghost is going to suck me into hell if I stare at his eyes!’ She thought!

“I’M NOT LOOKING! I’M NOT GOING TO LOOK!”

The ‘ghost’ holding her released her shoulders and grabbed her face. His hands pried her eyes open to make her look at him. “Don’t be stubborn!” He gritted his teeth as he pried her eyes open with great strength.

Claudia’s whose eyes were forced open with no choice stared at him. She, who was too stimulated from being forced to stare at the ghost, rolled her eyes back from shock and immediately fainted.

The dimly lit store was once again quiet with no sense of liveliness as the young lady fell into the hands of Dea.

“.... Brother Dea.. what did you do?” Arie’s hesitant voice spoke out from behind Dea.

“.....”

“You were too forceful,” Con spoke out.

“.....”

“You went out of character…” Argen shook his head.

“.... I..” Dea blinked.

“Please carry her downstairs!” An aged male voice shouted out from afar, seemingly knowing the true event of what went down.

“.....” Dea blinked again, and with no choice, he scooped the young lady and princess style carried her inside with the rest following after him.

A few moments later...

“You must be our esteemed guest whom Lord Musician spoke about!” The ‘fainted’ Claudia resurrected and pretended as if nothing ever happened.

“Yes.” Everyone nodded and replied. They too, pretended as if nothing ever happened.

“Welcome! Welcome to Arch’s archery store! My name is Claudia Arch, and I am the assistant of my father who personally customized my esteemed guest’s bows and arrows” She said and introduced herself.

“Alright! Please follow me to the shooting range to try out your customized Bow and arrows! They are beautifully made and are ready to give it a test!” Claudia’s velvety lips tugged up as she brought them to another door that led them into a hidden shooting range.

The reason why the store had this shooting range is for the convenience of customers. Customers can try out a range of bow and arrows already made or test out their personalized bow and arrows to see if they are compatible with their weapons. If customers aren’t compatible with their weapon of choice, or if customers find something about the bow and arrows they don’t like, the store can immediately fix the problem they have.

“Woah..” Arie, Aren, Argen, Aernest, Aeselak, and Aedelak (The A’s) unconsciously gaped. The reason for their fascination was because the display ahead of them was too impressive. Impressive enough to say that the knight’s training ground looked like dirt when compared to the one in front of them.

The hidden shooting range was wide and big. It was large enough to fit 20 archers at once. Inside this range, customers can choose which distance they are comfortable to shoot with. A 100-meter range, a 70-meter range, a 50-meter range, a 30-meter range, and a 20-meter range. And unlike upstairs being dimly lit, the shooting range below was brightly lit as if they were shooting outside.

“Isn’t it impressive? Even Lord Musician praised our archery range!” Claudia broke out in a laugh as she stared at the speechless children and teens.

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“Lord Musician came here in person to order 13 customized bows and arrows! Please test your bow and arrows for however long you want and see if there is anything you are unsatisfied with!” Claudia said, before turning her body to shout. “Father!!”

“Coming, coming!” An aged voice replied from close by. This was the voice that scared his daughter into dropping her arrow. The voice that showed no hesitation when shouting out to Dea to bring his fainted daughter downstairs.

After a shuffle, a short man with white hair walked out. He walked backward as he pulled a cart filled with gift boxes inside with him.

“Here I am!” He arrived in front of the 13 children and teens.

“My name is Rob Arch!” He introduced and bowed to greet them. “Lord Kal gave us an unlimited budget to bill to the Royal Palace so we used the best and rare wood we could find. This wood is incredibly special as it need not age and can immediately be carved out into a bow and arrow.” He said.

Everyone glanced at the cart filled with black boxes in excitement.

“We… barely slept. Ha. Ha.” The old man scratched his head awkwardly as he proceeded to tell them about how Commander Kal suddenly visited them last week to order 13 customized bows and arrows; how it took them until this morning to complete the 13 orders.

‘I pray for your health.’ Eugene prayed for the old man who had to mass carve their bows and arrows.

“Because of the tree we used, the bow and arrows will be very flexible and powerful. In fact, this is the best bows and arrows I’ve made in a long, long time. And depending on the talent of its master, this instrument can exceed the bows and arrows of Zene’s knights. ” Claudia excitedly said.

“My esteemed guests, please take care of this man’s precious child! If you give them enough love, they will never fail you in any way, shape, or form.” Rob said before handing everyone their box of bow and arrows.

“In addition to these customized bows and arrows, we heard that there are 2 pairs of twins so we made 4 bows a bit more special,” Claudia said as she handed the 4 special boxes to Eugene, Euria, Aren, and Argen.

“Thank you…” Eugene, Euria, Aren, and Argen thanked Claudia and Rob.

Upon opening her box, Eugene was stunned and surprised. Normally, the gifts she gets from the people around her were presents of bright colors, however, in front of her, her customized bow is completely black and matte!

It was right up her alley of beautiful!

Like the bow, the string was jet black. The bow was not too thin and was as long as her entire body. On the lower handle, a signature belonging to the smith men was carved out in gold. Tracing along the curve, Eugene paused. Although invisible to the eyes, she could feel her name spelled out along the curve.

‘Perfect’ Eugene blinked. It was perfect and surprisingly very customized to her personality and color palette.

Glancing to her side, Eugene widened her eyes in surprise at Euria’s bow. Euria’s bow was also suited to her personality as it was colored in light sparkling pink. Even the strings were dyed pink!

“Trace the curve” Eugene whispered to Euria who then nodded.

“OH!” Euria’s eyes widened in an instant “It’s my name!” She squealed in happiness!

Like her and Euria, everyone was also as surprised and in awe of their instruments. Arie, Dea, and Con’s bows are thin and were dyed in different shades of blue. This signaled Zene’s color palette and showed their identity as a person of Zene. Aren’s bow was light green whilst Argen’s bow was light red.

Louis, Ramon, Ron, Aernest, Aeselak, Aedelak’s bows are thin and are dyed in different shades of white. On the lower handle, the Veria and Graeme family crest was carved out in gold. And just like the 4 twins and Arie’s group, they were incredibly satisfied with their bow as white-suited their taste palette.

“They suit you incredibly well!” Claudia clapped her hands in happiness!

“I... I love it” Aernest hugged his bow and said. “It’s really beautiful!” He smiled, rubbing his cheeks against the upper handle.

“These are your customized arrows! On Zene’s side, you get white, and on Xenperia’s side, you get black!” Claudia said and handed them multiple boxes of arrows.

“These are beautiful as well!” Ron traced his black arrow and smiled.

“Would you like to try your new instruments out?” Rob asked everyone who then eagerly nodded.

The A students Con, Argen, Aren, Ron, Ramon, Aeselak, and Arie walked to the 50-meter range, whilst the A-plus students, Eugene, Euria, Louis, Dea, Aedelak, and Aernest, walked to the 70-meter range.

Arie, Aren, and Argen stood in front of the 50-meter range whilst Dea, Louis, and Aedelak stood in front of the 70-meter range to go first. They simultaneously loaded up their arrows to their bow and prepared to shoot.

Already, Claudia and Rob could tell from the children’s posture that their techniques were different. The different postures showed them their origins just like how their clothes displayed them of their identities.

“Shoot!” Rob motioned for the teens to shoot.

Arie, Aren, Argen, Louis, Aedelak, and Dea simultaneously released their arrows without hesitation.

WHOOSH!

The arrows picked up some windy dust and headed straight to the target.

THUD!

From the sound of the arrows being released, Rob and Claudia were already plenty surprised. And upon seeing the arrows in the bullseye, the two broke out in a wide smile!

The six who shot their arrows were just as surprised as Claudia and Rob. Their bow and arrow felt so comfortable, comfortable enough to say that they will forever never miss any bullseye if they used the bow and arrows in their hands!

“How do you feel? How is it?” Claudia ran up to them and asked.

Dea pursed his lips before replying. “Very comfortable.” He replied, never looking her way for unknown reasons.

“Very good. The arrow is sturdy.” Louis complimented whilst tracing his white bow.

Eugene blinked in surprise. Louis was one who was stingy with his compliments, however, if he said that something was good, that would mean that that something was incredibly good! Towards everyone’s positive reaction, Eugene couldn’t help but anticipate her turn to try her bow and arrow out!

“Of course it’s good! The reason why the arrow is heavier than usual is that we mixed in a bit of cement whilst carving out the arrow. This adds weight, allowing for the arrow to hit and pierce any hard target. As for speed, this is usually dependent on its master.” Rob excitedly explained. The arrows were made from the same wood the bows were carved from which is also one of the reasons why the arrows are powerful.

‘Cement?’ Eugene glanced at her black arrows and nodded. ‘With poison, this arrow will be even more commendable!’ She thought secretly.

The next group to shoot are Ron, Ramon, and Aeselak who stood at the 50-meter range, whilst Eugene, Aernest, and Con stood at the 70-meter range; Con decided to try out to the 70-meter range after seeing the first group shoot.

‘The grip feels good.’ Eugene tugged her lips up. She unconsciously put all her weight onto the pulled string, just like the assessment she completed earlier on in the afternoon and prepared to shoot.

After the okay from Rob, everyone shot their arrows out.

WHOOSH!

WHOOOSH!

THUD!

THUD!!

The arrow containing all of Eugene’s weight shot out faster and more powerful than everyone’s arrow and arrived at the target a split second faster than the rest. Because of the powerful arrows picking up dust along the way, it wasn’t until 5 seconds after that they finally saw the appearances of the 5 arrows.

“Ah?” Eugene muttered, staring at her target board in surprise. ‘Where…. Where is the arrow?’ She blinked before glancing left and right, top and bottom.

Her arrow disappeared?!!

‘... It couldn’t possibly disintegrate.. right?’ Eugene quietly thought. Her high IQ dropping down to an IQ of 30 in an instant.

“Huh? Where is your arrow?” Rob held his hands up to everyone, indicating for them to put their bows down, before running 70 meters to where Eugene’s target board was.

“Where did your arrow disappear to sister?” Euria popped up from behind Eugene.

“... I have no clue…” Eugene tilted her head.

All of a sudden, an aged voice shouted out from afar scaring everyone out! “AHH!!” The voice echoed.

“What... what’s wrong?” Euria and Aernest hugged both of Eugene’s arms.

The old man took a while to run back with Eugene’s arrow along with a half-broken arrow.

“How did Miss do this?” He exclaimed and pointed to the arrows he was holding!

“This arrow isn’t 100% wood! There is hardened cement mixed in to make it unbreakable!” He said. “Miss’s arrow hit this arrow, splitting it in half and! AND!!”

Everyone gulped in silence.

“AND! Miss’s arrow shot through to the tough target! The arrow didn’t disappear! It shot through to the back!” He marveled in shock!

“It shot through?!?” Claudia shrieked in shock! The target they used was made out of a block of tough wood! Although the arrow is powerful, even experts would have a hard time shooting through the hardwood they used!

Everyone gasped in shock.

“Ah…” Eugene blanked out.

It wasn’t until Louis came to save the day that everyone snapped back to reality. “My apologies. My sister must've put all her weight onto the arrow out of habit.” He glanced at Eugene.

“Bad. Habit.” He repeated, staring straight into Eugene’s eyes.

“....” She gulped.

“Haa… Ha… I’m not even surprised at this point.” Arie laughed awkwardly, gulping his dry throat.

“My apologies..” Eugene mumbled, slightly bowing her head to apologize. As Louis said, she must’ve put all her weight onto the already powerful bow and arrow! ‘Ah!!’ She screamed in her head! This was not intentional!!

Eugene took her fully intake arrow back and handed Louis his half-broken arrow. Yet, seeing that he wasn’t taking the arrow back, Eugene reluctantly handed Louis her fully intake arrow, which he then accepted.

“....Haa.” Eugene sighed, putting ‘her’ half-broken arrow into her pocket.

Euria was last to shoot because Con took her spot earlier on.

“Can I… break the target as well?” Euria asked Rob and Claudia cutely.

They blinked at her cuteness and replied, “Yes!” This was done with half consent, and half not believing that she was able to shoot through to the target.

Only the rest gulped, shaking their head to indicate for Claudia and Rob to take back their words.

Euria, as Eugene’s twin and replica then beautifully shot out her arrow containing all her strength.

WHOOOSH!

THUD!!

And like Eugene, Euria’s arrow split Aedelak’s arrow in half, shooting through the target!

“.....” Claudia and Rob’s mouth twitched.

“Mehehe~” Euria unconsciously released her Euria laugh before freezing. ‘I am Eldest sister! I can’t laugh! I have a defect in the emotional department!’ She put her smile down and quietly walked to Eugene’s side.

“....” The Paladin's mouth twitched at Euria’s current character.

“I said I'm not surprised anymore.” Arie stared blankly at Eugene and Euria, whilst attempting to calm his heartbeat.

Everyone went for another round of shooting before heading upstairs to shop for accessories. Well, only Eugene shopped around for accessories. She bought ‘8’ finger protectors with Louis’s money before they bid Claudia and Rob a goodbye.