You Hit My Heart by Kylie Stanford

Chapter 2048: A Surprise Move sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ꜰindNʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The head guard knelt on the ground with a thud.

"Your Highness, please punish me alone. It was my dereliction of duty."

The other guards also knelt but did not plead for themselves. Instead, they spoke in unison, "Please punish us, Your Highness."

According to palace rules and their own sense of honor, pleading for oneself or accepting someone else's plea was seen as weakness and disgrace. Family honor was more important than life itself, so there was no other choice.

Clint waved his hand, and an attendant hurried to prepare cherries.

Joyce clenched her fist, biting down hard, her gaze becoming sharp.

Clint raised an eyebrow. "What? Are you not confident?"

"Confidence is not the key issue," Joyce said through gritted teeth.

"Then what is the key issue?" Clint asked curiously.

"You wouldn't understand even if I told you," Joyce replied dismissively. She stretched her arms, doing some warm-up exercises. After all, she wasn't training every day now, and lives were at stake; she had to be cautious.

Clint patted the coffee table beside him. "Sit. Let them prepare while you have a cup of tea with me."

After a moment's thought, Joyce sat down next to him.

"Why do you have to do this?" she asked. "If you're doing it to show me something, it's unnecessary."

"Rules are rules," Clint smiled. "Besides, I'm looking forward to seeing your skills firsthand."

"If you just want to see me shoot, you could take me to the shooting range. The effect would be the same," Joyce frowned. "Why risk their safety?"

eyes gleaming. "A shooting range is so dull and boring

interesting-was that all he

a cup of

throat parched, Joyce took the cup and drank it all in one go. The refreshing green tea cooled her lungs and calmed her chest. Anger was a shooter's worst

set the cup down

expectant look on his face. He genuinely wanted to

the attendant brought

guards stood up and lined up

placed a

handed Clint a

examined the pistol carefully before handing

Clint hadn't gone too far by giving her a large-caliber one; otherwise, no matter

thoroughly. She closed her eyes to mentally simulate its model, recoil, wind speed, trajectory, and drop before opening them again quickly. "We can start now," she said abruptly, standing

and stood about

Standing firm.

backs for fear of disrespecting the prince; they could only lower their heads deeply. The row of

were all selected through rigorous processes and

that their

she noticed one young guard trembling in fear-a

thought for

Turning to Clint:

first? It's been a while since I handled a gun; I need to get used to

nodded while

shots into the sky and forest first. When I'm ready to start for real, I'll let you

slightly upon hearing this and no longer felt as tense or

in unison:

pretended to aim at targets in the

the trembling young guard's cherry-topped head. With a bang followed by

Joyce was still practicing on trees when she suddenly stopped shooting