Chapter 226

Cara’s POV

The day was filled with contests with very little time to break in between. As such, I wasn’t able to talk with Alaric, my brothers, or Noel. Instead, though, I filled in the Claw Sisters and Georgie on what occurred.

“A secret stabbing is so cowardly,” Charlotte said. “If she had any honor, she would demand a challenge.”

“That’s part of the problem,” Georgie said helpfully. “This wolf has no honor and no shame. She doesn’t even care if she gets caught.”

“You should keep a weapon on you, Cara, for your own protection,” Charlotte said, and presented me with a blade the size of my arm that she just so happened to have sheathed against her thigh.

“Uh… no thank you,” I said. I wouldn’t even know where to put a blade that big!

“Do not be a fool,” Charlotte said.

Before I could think of some kind of compromise, the contest organizers approached us under the massive pavilion where we were breaking and called us to join them for the next event.

This one worried me more than the cooking event, not in terms of potential danger to me, but in terms of my ability to persevere in the event itself.

It was an endurance test, where we were each given a heavy weight to hold up by the handle. We could not lower the weight or drop it without being disqualified and losing massive points.

To keep this event from going on for an exceedingly long time, which had happened in the early years of the contest, apparently, the commission had decided that this contest would have no clear winner. Instead, there was a time limit of three hours.

Any who dropped their weight within that three hour time limit would lose massive points in the event. Everyone else would gain only a few, so it was the losing that people feared the most.

I couldn’t afford to lose any points, especially not this many and for this contest.

In this event, I didn’t need to compete with anyone but myself and my own willpower. Most of the others would be fine, unless they were severely unprepared.

Fortunately, I had also been training. While working, I would hold a duplicate weight while I went about my duties, slowly building up strength in my arms and familiarity with the feeling of holding the weight steady in my arms without lowering them.

Three hours was an exceedingly long time to hold this weight as one with only human strength, even with my training, but I was determined to let my determination and willpower speak for itself.

I wasn’t going to lose these points. I was going to survive this competition and stay in the race.

All of the girls were arranged in a circle in an open field, with the weights on the ground in front of us. This time, we are allowed to choose our own spots, so the Claw Sisters flanked me on either side, with Georgie on the other side of them.

Even protected as I was, as some of the wolves walked around me, they snickered and laughed.

“How long do you think the wolfless will last?” one asked another.

“A minute? Maybe two?” the other laughed.

“Ignore them,” Claudia said. “Those who are weak of their own spirit are always quickest to doubt others.”

“I am,” I told her. “They will see for themselves how strong I am in just a few minutes.”

A minute or two? Bah. They had no idea who they were dealing with.

When everyone was in position, one of the officials moved to the center of the circle. Around us on the outside, spectators had started to stand and observe. I saw Alaric and Noel among them and felt even more confident than before.

I wasn’t going to let anyone down today, least of all myself.

The official in the middle of the circle raised a blank-filled gun and fired it.

Immediately, all of the girls including myself, reached down and lifted the weight.

In my training, I had gradually increased the pounds of my practice weight, so now, lifting the one for real, I could immediately tell the difference. The official weight was so much lighter. It was still heavy, certainly, but this helped boost my spirits.

It took a full hour before I started to feel the strain. Looking around, I wasn’t the only one. There were a few girls, dotted throughout who seemed to struggle even more than me. With the strength of the wolf inside of them, I couldn’t imagine what the problem was.

But when I saw Lilia also struggling, I started to piece it together.

While I didn’t know for certain the situation of the other princess, Lilia, I knew, had never done a minute’s worth of manual labor her entire life. She had likely not practiced or trained at all. As overconfident as she had always been with herself, she probably thought she could ace these challenges without any real effort.

She was in for a shock.

Not ten minutes later, barely into a full hour of the contest, the weight slipped from her fingers and fell to the ground.

She was the first one eliminated. A pair of officials went to her to quietly escort her out, but she shouted loud enough that they could probably hear her in the next pack over.

“I was sabotaged! Someone messed with the weights, they were so slick I could barely cling to them,” she said. “Someone cheated, wanting me out of the contest.”

Though we were across the full circle from each other, I still felt the heat of her glare as she shot it at me.

“It had to be Cara! She’s been against me from the start!”

“I didn’t --!” I started, but then my own weight started to slip.

“Stay focused,” Claudia said. “Remember, ignore her.”

Closing my eyes, I tried to do just that.

“Ma’am, you have to leave the playing field,” one of the advisors told her.

“Not until someone inspects that weight! Cara set me up, I swear of it! Don’t let her get away with it!”

Somehow, even with Lilia taunting me, I managed to make it the full three hours. When the whistle blew, signaling the end, I dropped the weight at once and fell back on the grass.

Alaric was by my side in an instant, helping me to sit up.

“Are you alright?” he asked, worry in his eyes.

“My arms feel like jelly but I’m otherwise fine.” I looked around. “What happened with Lilia?”

“I went with them to see,” Alaric said. “The weight was inspected but there was nothing wrong with it. Lilia continued to insist you tampered with it though, as if the slimy solution or whatever she claimed was on the handle had worn off by the time the weight was inspected.”

That was ludicrous. I wouldn’t even know where to find a solution like that, let alone how to use it. Besides, we had all selected our weights at random. How would I have even known which one to sabotage?

“No one believes that, do they?” I asked Alaric.

He gave me a look that told me there were a few that had.

Looking around, I could see the suspicious gazes of a few of the wolves.

“How could she have made it through but Lilia didn’t? Maybe Cara did do something…”