Evil Duke, Please Be Gentle!

"Since we do not have sufficient apples left. You have to shoot those cherries!"

Not only were the cherries smaller, they were farther from the apples. So shooting 20 of them with only twenty five stones in hands was a difficult task even for an adult.

With challenging eyes the man stared at Leo to see anger in his eyes. He was sure that Leo would complain but he had already thought of proper replies.

But just opposite to his thoughts, Leo just nodded and walked to take his position. Even Evan did not say a word as she walked hand in hand with the boy!

"They were more foolish than I had thought!" they didn't even realized that i had tricked them! He gloated over his winning but soon his smile turned stiff and his eyes widened!

He had cheated many since the evening and a lot of them had resented him. But when Leo started shooting, the crowd started to gather and cheered at him with whistles as he shot one after another perfectly.

A few times it felt like he was not even looking at the aim but the girl beside her and whispering something which increased the heat on her cheeks.

The man was just taking the game as a child's play and in a few seconds, he placed the slingshot back in its place and turned to see the old and fat man!

He had realized that he was cheating the kids when he had noticed how the apples were slanted. So it would not be easy for the kids to shoot them.

"I want to have one more try!?" with a bold voice, he asked as he placed another set of bronze coins on the table with a thud that brought the old man back to his senses!

This was the first time when someone was able to shoot all 25 cherries, much less 20 of them and even ask for another game!

But with so many people surrounding them and staring at him, he could not deny and gave him another set of small stones as he moved to change the cherries!

With a curse, he moved to the side as Leo started to shoot them and once again it took him only a few seconds to shoot all of them.

More cheers started to fill the area while the face of the owner turned paler. If it continued, then he would lose all the expensive toys which he thought no one would be able to win!

He wanted to glare at them, but under the eyes of so many, he was not able to do that!

"I want another set of stones!" again! The old man wanted to cry and ask them to leave his booth and loot others, but all he could do was nod and curse his luck to meet them.

So, it continued and in an hour, Leo had won all the toys in the shop which had been there for weeks!

With crying face, the old man bowed his head,

"My lord, you have already won everything. I do not have more cherries or gifts to offer you!"  his smile was uglier than the cries when finally lei put the slingshot down and then stared at the man!

"Next time, if I saw you scamming the small kids, I would complain to the lord of the knights. He is my master!" The man played when he heard that and shook his head like a rattle drum!

"I did not dare, my lord. I did not dare. Please forgive this foolish one!" The man bowed as he took out all the toys and passed them to the proud couple.

"Hmph!" with a wide grin on her face, Evan picked up all the toys and walked towards the kids she had seen earlier.

"Here, you wanted this doll right?" She passed the doll to the little girl who let go of her brother and ran towards Evan. snaking her arms around her waist, she hugged Evan while her eyes were shining like stars!

"Thank you, big sister! You are the best!" she whispered with all joy when Evan ruffled her hair and passed the doll to her which she held with both of her hands as if that was the most precious thing to her.

"Now you, I am asking you last time. Do you need this sword or not!?" the boy pursed his lips, as he really liked that wooden sword.

But would it be fine, if he would take it without giving anything in return!

He was still mulling over the thought, when his eyes fell on the back of the booth where he was looking often while Leo was playing the game and his eyes filled with determination.

He turned towards Evan who was still staring at him with curious eyes and nodded his head.

Walking towards her, he did not take the sword from her but asked her to bend a bit!

She raised a brow at his sudden request, but still did as he asked,

​ "Could it be that you want to peck me in exchange?" though the words left her mouth in a teasing way, the dance of the man who had worked so hard in winning the toys already turned darker as he let go of the other toys he was still distributing and threw them on the ground to take hurried steps towards Evan who was about to betray her after asking him for doing so much hard work.

The kids who had surrounded Leo to get a toy ran towards the pile of toys immediately leaving the space for him to walk away.

The boy looked at Evan with disdain!

"Why will I kiss you? You are not even pretty. But I do want to give something in exchange for the sword!" with those words he moved closer to her and whispered a few words in her ears which left her stunned!

She was not able to reply for a few seconds even when the boy had taken the swords from her hands and had already walked away with his sister until Leo came and held her in his arms!

"Are you okay? What did the boy say?" he looked around but the boy was already gone or he would have asked him himself.

Evan blinked and then shook her head with a chuckle, she must be overreacting.

"Nothing much. I guess he was trying to make a story since he did not want to take the sword without giving himself a proper reason!" Though she said that, her eyes scanned the whole area as if she was still searching for the boy that was only beyond the frown on the face of Leo.

"I still want to know what he said!" he pressurized and the girl sighed!

"Nothing much, he said that he didn't want to take the sword for free. So, he would protect me.

A man with a dark cloak is following me and he is going to attack that man with the sword in payment for the toys!

Did he think I am a kid to believe such a story. How cute!"

[To further support me you can do it here: https://ko-fi.com/iamcreator01/ ]

You can join the discord server to chat and discuss with the author about the story and with other fans. Discord link: https://discord.gg/ZSdCFtFm ]