Everyone watched with bated breath as Damian stepped up to the mark.

Eilika moved a few paces away, her heart still racing from her own performance. She knew Damian was a seasoned archer, a man who had likely spent more hours on the training grounds than in the ballroom. She fully expected him to pierce the bullseye with every single shot.

Damian took his position with a predatory grace. He canted the bow at a slight angle and twisted his fingers at the arrow’s nock, a specific, high-level technique passed down by the kingdom’s finest masters. It was a stance of full control.

He released the first string. The arrow hissed through the air and struck with such pinpoint accuracy that it tore right through the shaft of Eilika’s first bullseye.

On the higher podium, the noblewomen erupted into a polite yet enthusiastic round of applause. Damian turned his head slightly at the sound, his gaze lingering briefly on his mother’s friends before he looked back to the target.

He picked up his second arrow with a nonchalant focus. He nocked it and loosed it.

To the surprise of the gallery, the arrow didn’t find the gold. Instead, it struck the red ring just outside the center, landing in almost the exact same spot Eilika’s second arrow had.

A confused silence fell over the garden. Maurice blinked, leaning forward to squint at the target. "Did the Duke... miss?"

Louis, however, didn’t look surprised. He tucked his fan under his chin, his eyes darting between Damian’s stoic face and Eilika’s stunned expression. "Or," Louis whispered in extremely low tone, "did he want to loose against his wife?"

Maurice felt the same. There was no doubt in his mind: Damian had missed those shots intentionally. For a man who could hit a moving target in a storm, missing the center twice in calm garden air was an impossibility.

Damian picked up his third and final arrow. With a steady hand and a gaze that never wavered, he loosed the string.

The shaft whistled through the air, but it didn’t seek the gold.

Instead, it struck with a sharp thwack directly into the circle where Eilika’s final arrow had landed, perfectly mirroring her score for the second time.

On the podium, Georgia began to clap, a radiant smile breaking across her face as she turned to her stunned friends.

"My daughter-in-law is no less than my son," Georgia declared. "She possesses multiple talents, it seems. It turns out I brought a perfect woman for my son."

There was a profound sense of pride and happiness in her expression, one that effectively silenced Lady Katherine’s earlier biting remarks.

Eilika looked from the target to Damian.

"A draw, it seems," Damian remarked, lowering his bow and stepping toward her. The ladies descended from the podium, their colorful silks fluttering like retreating butterflies as they disappeared back toward the mansion’s gardens.

"The Duke didn’t play with his entire focus," Eilika said.

"No, I did," Damian replied simply, though his eyes remained fixed on the target where their arrows stood in identical clusters.

Louis and Maurice exchanged confused glances. The intentinal nature of those last two shots was obvious to anyone who had seen Damian on a battlefield.

"I doubt it," Eilika countered, her frustration bubbling to the surface. "The first shot was exactly what I expected from you. I expected the same from the remaining two."

Damian turned his head slightly, watching the way her jaw set in a hard line. "Are you angry about getting a win?" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Win? It’s a tie," Eilika muttered. She looked at him, her eyes flashing a disappointment. "No. It’s not a tie. It feels like I lost without even getting to know how truly skilled you are. You didn’t give me a real match, Duke."

Before he could respond, she turned sharply on her heels and marched out of the arena, her gown sweeping the grass with aggressive rustles.

"Wait! What was that?" Louis asked, looking utterly puzzled as he watched her retreating figure. He turned to Damian. "Why did you intentionally hold back? Don’t tell me you actually wanted to lose a bet for me."

"Yes, Duke. Why did you hold back? And now, the Duchess is upset with you," Maurice answered.

Damian didn’t look at them.

"I didn’t hold back to let her win, Louis, Maurice," Damian said.

"Then why?" Louis asked, leaning in.

"My mother’s friends," Damian replied. "They are the top scorers among gossipers. Had I dominated the board, they would have spoken of Eilika with bitterness. They wouldn’t have seen how skilled she truly is; instead, they would have demeaned her for learning ’useless’ hobbies that have no place in a lady’s life. By matching her, I forced them to see her as my equal."

Louis and Maurice nodded in silent understanding. The social battlefield was often more treacherous than the literal one.

"Still, Damian, you could have given a better shot for the second and lost the third," Louis suggested, always the strategist for optics. "It would have looked less like a mirror."

"I wanted them to see that Eilika and I are the same," Damian pronounced, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "She is as good as I am. And I suppose she is. One match doesn’t define anyone’s true potential, but I am surprised she is such a trained archer. The more I learn about her, the more curious I get."

"It’s true that Duchess Eilika is exceptionally talented," Louis replied, snapping his fan open.

"Sometimes even seasoned archers lose," Maurice stated. "I must say, the Duchess seems to know a lot more about warfare skills than we anticipated. She is definitely a woman who can surpass all the previous Duchesses with her abilities outside of simple household matters."

Damian didn’t respond and decided to leave. He had intended to protect her reputation, but in doing so, he had ignited a fire in her that he now had to address and extinguish too.