Vote for Your Knight! - Chapter 15

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Vote for your knight!
15
One-on-One Duel.
It was a duel training usually conducted before mock combat, and it was a mounted competition.
This was called Joust.
Mounted on horseback, one wielded a weapon and charged at the opponent to unhorse them for victory.
“But this duel will be somewhat different. You’ll compete using the Valkyrian Swordsmanship you learned in the intensive training. Without horses.”
Edit said.
The participants’ faces paled.
The re-evaluation category they’d anticipated was a swordsmanship demonstration.
But a one-on-one duel, no less.
Behind the bewilderment spread a sharp tension.
No matter how close they’d become during the intensive training, the person beside them was now their opponent.
The atmosphere had shifted.
Edit observed their reaction with satisfaction before continuing.
“The rankings you’ve been assigned now were determined by the judges and intensive training master, Valkyria, based on your training attitude. From now on, you’ll come forward in that order and draw a ball. The ball also has a ranking written on it. The participant with that ranking becomes your duel opponent.”
The explanation continued with a few more details.
If you drew your own ball, you’d draw again.
The tournament would unfold over six rounds total through the finals, and once you lost, it was over—no third-place matches or ranking playoffs.
Someone raised a hand.
It was Morris.
“If there are no ranking playoffs, how is the final ranking determined?”
“An excellent question. The final ranking is determined by the judges based on duel victories and losses, swordsmanship acquisition proficiency, and training attitude. Only the first and second-place rankings are confirmed by duel victories. And for first place….”
Edit smiled as she spoke.
“You will be granted the Center Position in the Group Swordsmanship Demonstration to be presented at the Founding Festival.”
Everyone held their breath.
The Founding Festival would take place soon enough.
Every time it came around, knights showcased their swordsmanship.
In an empire with little entertainment, the Founding Festival was one of the greatest festivals.
The swordsmanship demonstration was the highlight among them.
Moreover, this demonstration was a “new swordsmanship” being revealed after a long time.
It was certain to draw tremendous public interest.
Occupying the center would be an opportunity to truly cement one’s presence.
Edit added,
“Also, those in the top ten will perform the swordsmanship demonstration from the most prominent positions.”
It didn’t end there.
“And based on your re-evaluation rankings, your position in the next evaluation will also be determined.”
The participants’ eyes widened.
Another participant’s hand shot up.
“What’s the category for the next evaluation?”
“That is a secret.”
She certainly couldn’t reveal it so easily.
The participants began murmuring about the next evaluation.
Edit immediately began the matchups before the participants could lose focus.
“Once all opponents are assigned, you’ll duel one pair at a time. First, will the participant ranked first, David Bertie, please come forward and draw a ball!”
David drew seventeenth.
The seventeenth-ranked participant’s face went ashen.
“What am I going to do?”
“Hopeless before even starting.”
“Well, at least it’s not me.”
After all matchups were finalized, the seventeenth-ranked participant came onto the stage like a condemned man.
The result was inevitable.
“Ahhh! Owww! Ugh! Eek!”
The seventeenth-ranked participant was screaming and dodging frantically before David’s blade even drew near.
The blunt training sword seemed to him certain death.
The result was, predictably, David’s victory.
David descended from the stage without any sign of joy.
His face was terribly tense.
The loser remaining on stage received the judges’ merciless evaluation.
“You were completely overwhelmed by your opponent’s momentum, weren’t you?”
“Duke David is such an impressive figure, after all…….”
The seventeenth-ranked participant’s hesitant reply drew a laugh from Mila.
“What are you doing? You’ll act like that in actual combat too? ‘Oh, such an impressive person—I shall gladly surrender my life’? Is that it?”
Watching the stammering seventeenth-ranker, Amont and Ines clicked their tongues in disgust.
Edit saw it coming.
‘This participant’s ranking is going to drop significantly.’
His attitude alone would cost him dearly in points.
‘Rank seventeen isn’t bad—solid skill, really—but he’s scared stiff before the match even begins. He won’t even show what he’s capable of.’
The next duel played out much the same.
The lower-ranked participant was overwhelmed before they even started, unable to demonstrate their true ability.
This was exactly what she’d anticipated when they opted not to bracket opponents by rank.
‘If they’d matched similar ranks, at least the matches would be worth watching.’
Yet every bout followed the same tedious pattern.
This wasn’t what Edit wanted to see.
This format would certainly make the strong shine all the brighter.
It would quickly winnow out those lacking skill or composure.
And yet—
‘After all this waiting, there has to be at least one or two who’ll pull off a stunning upset.’
Edit waited anxiously for that reversal.
But the Valkyrians’ attention was drawn elsewhere entirely.
Crack!
A sharp, explosive sound echoed across the arena, and everyone flinched.
Kilmen, ranked fifth, had brought the flat of his blade down across the head of his sixty-sixth-ranked opponent.
The sixty-sixth-ranker, who’d been about to attempt something, clutched his head and collapsed.
“Ah, oops. My mistake. Sorry about that.”
Kilmen whispered so only his opponent could hear.
“You should’ve given up faster. Why struggle? I need to conserve my strength for the next round.”
The sixty-sixth-ranker’s shoulders went rigid.
Kilmen, raising his head with a remorseful expression, looked up toward the judges’ platform.
The judges remained impassive.
Kilmen took their silence as approval, smirked, and descended the stage.
* * *
Meanwhile, Custo’s first opponent was ranked eighty-ninth.
The ranking gap was overwhelming.
Which made the victory effortless.
‘Lucky.’
Compared to Dmitri, who’d struggled against a difficult opponent, Custo’s fortune was extraordinary.
Dmitri’s opponent was ranked twenty-first.
He’d broken into a cold sweat trying to subdue an eccentric who kept charging forward spouting, “I will uphold justice!”
Even though the outcome was already decided, his opponent refused to accept defeat.
‘It was clear Dmitri had won, yet neither the Valkyrians nor the Princess moved to stop it.’
Only when the duel threatened to escalate dangerously did they finally halt the match.
Otherwise, they maintained a strictly observational stance.
‘Do they view minor accidents during matches as inevitable? Or is there something else at play?’
But the question didn’t linger long.
Shortly after the third round began, the official drawing names pulled Custo’s number.
“Do your best.”
Some distance away, Morris clenched his fist in encouragement.
His normally bright expression was unusually touched with sympathy.
Custo watched him with a hint of envy.
As the tournament progressed, tension seemed to ease, and upsets became more frequent—lower-ranked participants occasionally besting those in the top ten.
Morris was among them.
He’d been one of the stars of the first-round upsets, and he’d even advanced through the second round with a bye.
‘Envious. Damn, I’m envious.’
Custo surveyed his third-round opponent.
It was—
“Can’t believe this. Meeting you here.”
Kilmen.
He was a participant who’d drawn attention in the first and second rounds.
‘More precisely, he’s drawn attention for playing remarkably dirty.’
He’d deliberately humiliated an opponent he could have beaten cleanly.
Kilmen extended his hand to Custo.
“Let’s have a clean, good match.”
‘Words he doesn’t mean.’
The moment they shook hands casually, Kilmen squeezed hard.
‘This bastard.’
Already picking a fight before they’d even begun.
Custo was grimly looking forward to how dirty this would get.
“Duel, begin!”
With Edit’s cry, the match started.
Just as expected, Kilmen twisted his body as if losing balance, then drove his elbow toward Custo’s vital points.
The natural, practiced way he fouled suggested this wasn’t his first or second time.
Custo dodged lightly.
But Kilmen didn’t abandon his dirty tricks.
He kept trying to strike with the flat of the blade or the hilt.
Even stomping on his foot.
‘Is this madman insane?’
Custo was so busy evading the filthy tactics that he couldn’t properly display his own swordsmanship.
‘Of course, Kilmen’s blade work is sharper than mine too.’
He had to acknowledge that.
‘Which means standing alone like a gentleman won’t win me this—not a chance.’
That was when it happened.
Kilmen’s fist came flying at Custo’s solar plexus.
Custo dropped to one knee.
“What, giving up because you’re tired?”
Kilmen spoke brazenly, as if he hadn’t just thrown the punch.
Custo hung his head, breathing heavily.
“If you think you can’t get up from here, I’ll end the match for you.”
Kilmen leaned close to Custo’s ear.
“The lord will be pleased to see you like this.”
Custo’s squinted eyes opened, fixing on him.
‘A lord?’
Kilmen, noticing his confusion, laughed darkly.
“You didn’t know? The lord of Pius sent me to Kartamen to teach you a lesson. To break your spirit, that is. Though you’re not the only target, of course.”
Custo’s eyes widened.
Now that he thought about it, Kilmen’s actions each time had been excessive for someone merely picking fights as a slave.
It all had intent behind it.
‘It was all designed to break my will.’
Kilmen straightened his back.
“Unfortunately, it seems participant Custo can’t continue the match. We’ll end it here…… Ugh!”
It was the moment Kilmen spoke with such confidence.
Custo suddenly lunged upward, and the back of his head struck Kilmen’s chin hard—sending him tumbling backward.
“Oh, my.”
“Ugh, ugh……”
“An accident.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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