"The agreent was that you hit all the red balloons within the first round of given shots," the vendor said. He eyed Matteo, who stood behind Alia. "We didn’t agree that soone else could assist you."
"That’s right!" Emline agreed loudly. She was this close to flinging her hands up into the air in anger. How could Matteo willingly plaster himself to Alia’s back, helping her to shoot? This was a blatantly unfair advantage and it caused Emline to lose focus, missing her shots.
"If I had Matteo assisting from the very beginning, I would have beaten you before you even managed to shoot 5 balloons down. It’s not fair that you got help from Matteo― that just shows that you’re incapable of winning on your own!"
Matteo let out a low warning growl, causing Emline to take an instinctive step back.
"Let’s not kid ourselves," Matteo said with a dismissive snort. "Your lack of skill is so apparent that not even I would be able to salvage your score."
Alia wore a patient smile on her face, even as her eyebrow twitched at the vendor’s blatant attempt to deny her the prize.
"We also didn’t agree that soone else couldn’t assist ," Alia pointed out. "If you wanted to win this without help, you should have made it clear from the very beginning. Doing this now just makes you seem like a sore loser that’s refusing to hand the prize over despite the amount of money my fiancé and family have already paid you to play."
"It’s a lot of money!" Aiden chid in, slightly salty that Emline had used his cash instead of her own. The only silver lining was that Matteo hadn’t technically won, so he didn’t technically lose against him.
The vendor gaped at Alia. "Why I never! If I let everyone cheat the way you did, I would be out of business! The purpose of this ga is to gauge an individual’s shooting skills."
"This is a carnival ga, not the Olympics! Co on man, get off your high horse!" Aiden complained, disgruntled at the implication that he was a poor shooter. "I’ve used at least a hundred dollars so far on your little ga. Is your toy made of gold?"
Emline whirled back to glare at him angrily, wordlessly demanding Aiden to keep his big mouth shut. He was supposed to be on her side! If Alia got the toy, she and Aiden would have to leave them alone.
anwhile, Alia’s hackles were raised. She had worked plenty of part-ti jobs in carnivals, and hence she was knowledgeable enough about the tips and tricks stall owners used to cheat carnival attendees.
This vendor was definitely not innocent in the least. To think he had the nerve to accuse her of cheating!
"If we’re talking about cheating, you should be looking at your balloons instead," Alia said.
"What’s wrong with them?" The vendor retorted, refusing to be intimidated by this slip of a girl. "Young lady, being a sore loser is unattractive!"
"They’re under-inflated, and the bullets are blunted. Not to ntion your gun triggers are so sensitive they go off at the slightest touch before one even actually takes aim. Even the scope on top of the pistol is crooked!" Alia began, jabbing a finger at every single problem she could find.
The vendor’s face paled as she continued.
"So you’re deliberately making it impossible for most people to aim properly at their target, and even on the off chance they do manage to aim it, the bullet might not even pierce through the balloon properly to count!"
The people waiting in the queue behind them began to murmur to themselves as they realized the truth of her words.
"Hey, she’s got a point here... the scope is crooked..."
"The balloons are hanging so lowly too..."
"No wonder even Old Bailey couldn’t win this ga― and he was a sharpshooter in the military!"
"Don’t listen to her! She’s spewing nonsense!" the vendor yelled, his face red with indignation. "I’ll sue you―"
"Not if I sue you first! Give back my money!" Aiden demanded, nearly grabbing the vendor by his collar to shake him.
"Let go of or I’ll call the cops!" the vendor exclaid shakily, which seed to incense Aiden further.
"Call them then! I’m not afraid of you! We’ll see who ends up behind bars, you scamr―"
Matteo would have loved to see his brother be booked for assault, but Alia had already stepped forward, trying to pull them apart. "Aiden, let him― Oof―!"
In the ensuing struggle, Aiden accidentally smacked Alia in the chest, causing her to stumble back, winded.
"Alia! Are you alright?!" Aiden exclaid, the strangling of the vendor forgotten. "I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there."
"It’s fine," Alia said hastily, but Matteo’s face darkened.
"She’s fine, no thanks to you. Have so decorum― how can you pick a fight in public?" Matteo barked out, upset.
Aiden’s face colored in sha, and he scowled, refusing to be cowed by Matteo’s holier-than-thou attitude. His brother was such a stick in the mud, but he often acted like he was so much better than Aiden.
"Well, I wasn’t going to let this person scam us without consequences! Brother, you should be madder too! Alia’s not going to get her toy after all our hard work!"
"It’s fine," Alia repeated with a sigh. "Now that it has co to this, let’s just go. No toy is worth this much ss."
Emline gnashed her teeth. Alia Kentwood was playing both n like a fiddle, and no one was aware of her manipulations. After making such a big fuss over this toy, she was simply going to give up and make herself seem like a magnanimous person for not pursuing the matter.
Her fingers instinctively curled themselves into fists, but in her anger, she had forgotten that she was still holding onto the pistol. A pistol with a highly sensitive trigger.
Said pistol was pointed in Alia’s direction, with Emline’s finger pressing down on the trigger.
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