Vote for Your Knight! - Chapter 55

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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!
55
Soon a new banner was hung.
Each team’s banner bore the names of its members.

? Joan Ginola
41st David Sheffield
3rd Kusto
27th Dmitri
7th Killian Gruci
15th Olivier Morty
9th Grimbal Baldo
31st Clover Reed
22nd Paul Videta

? David Bertie
6th Morris Arno
10th Arsen Tan
12th Christian Ron
19th Pierre Simon
8th Rafael Lorang
4th Pavel Shurb
5th Deni Binoshu
52nd Travis Zicon
But on each banner, two names were paired together.
All except one person.
“Why are they paired like that?”
“What could they make just the two of them do?”
“What about the person left alone at the end?”
The knights murmured amongst themselves.
“Now then, please gather with your teammates!”
Edith called out.
“And those paired together—please stand in two lines!”
The knights quickly formed their ranks.
Then Edith revealed the hidden secret.
“From now on, you will undergo Courage Training in pairs of two.”
“That makes sense.”
The knights showed no great surprise, as if they’d anticipated this much.
‘They’re far from ready to be shocked yet.’
Edith smiled knowingly and continued.
“The one person left standing is fortunate enough to be exempt from Courage Training!”
At that, the solitary knight let out a triumphant cry of “Waaah!”
Then, realizing such behavior unbefitting a knight, they quickly fell silent.
Stifled laughter rippled through the gathered crowd.
‘For now, things are still warm and cheerful like this.’
Soon hell would break loose.
Edith laughed to herself like a demon and spoke.
“You will enter the Forbidden Secret Passage inside the Circular Arena and complete the Mission given to you.”
“Yes!”
“The team with the lowest combined completion time will have first choice of which Mounted Martial Dance to perform! The dances will be revealed after the Courage Training!”
“Yes, understood!”
“Then Team 1, first pair! Joan Ginola and David Sheffield! Please enter the Forbidden Secret Passage!”
The two stepped forward and were guided by an attendant into the interior of the Circular Arena.
They descended through a door that lay open in the floor.
“A door like this was here?”
As Joan asked, the attendant smiled uncannily.
“That’s why it’s a secret passage.”
The interior was damp and cold. Spiders and insects crawled about in places.
The attendant handed over a torch there.
“Then I’ll give you one torch, so please return it safely.”
“No, you’re leaving already?”
“Have a safe journey.”
The attendant spoke his piece and departed.
“Wait!”
Bang!
And the door slammed shut.
* * *
How long had they been waiting?
The clock showed six minutes and thirty seconds.
Crash-bang-thud!
With a tremendous racket, two figures came bursting through the door they’d entered.
“Aaaaah!”
“Oooooh!”
The torches they’d been carrying were already extinguished.
Their condition was beyond words.
They looked as though they’d tumbled across the ground more than once.
“Hey! Why’d you put out the torch?!”
“I didn’t! You panicked and shoved me, and that’s—!”
The two men, mid-argument, felt eyes upon them and hastily fell silent.
Edith offered them a bright smile, though they looked as though they’d descended into hell itself.
“Your time is six minutes and thirty seconds.”
“Ah, that’s better than we thought…”
“…faster than expected.”
“However, since you failed to complete all three missions, I’m assigning a ten-second penalty for each, for a total of thirty seconds, bringing your final time to seven minutes!”
Joan and David’s faces fell.
Both wore the unmistakable look of wanting to blame the other.
But they held their tongues.
Both were desperate.
Joan had been fighting for first and second place, but lately had even dropped out of the top three.
David had held a higher rank in the early rounds, but his ruthless abandonment of stragglers during the naval battle had sent his ranking into free fall—he now stood at forty-first.
They had to look good before the common people—that is, before the Imperial Knights.
“Now, next is Group One’s second pair! Kusto and Dmitri!”
The two men entered the Forbidden Secret Passage with subtle smiles playing at their lips.
Dmitri, torch in hand, spoke courteously to the attendant.
“You’re free to go.”
“Are you quite certain? This is the Forbidden Secret Passage. It’s overrun with grievance-stricken ghosts.”
“Ha. I don’t believe in such things.”
“If you’re sure…”
The attendant departed.
Bang!
At the sound of the door closing, both Kusto and Dmitri flinched.
But they quickly covered it up.
“Kusto, I thought you just flinched.”
“What are you talking about? I did no such thing.”
“Really? I did.”
“This is nothing to be afraid of.”
“I agree. After enduring such trials, I’ve come to understand that humans are what’s truly terrifying.”
Dmitri spoke with a touch of melancholy.
Kusto nodded, his gaze steady and measured.
“Through slavery and mercenary work, I learned that humans are the real threat. Ghosts? I’ve never even—”
That was when it happened.
Something brilliant red plummeted from the empty air.
“Shrieeeeek!”
It was a woman, hanging upside down with her hair unbound and streaming.
But the woman was drenched in crimson from head to foot.
She opened her blood-soaked mouth and let out a scream.
“Shrieeeek!”
“Uh—aaaah!”
“Aaaaah!”
The two men, for all their bluster, bolted toward the passage’s end without ceremony, racing to escape.
* * *
“Gasp…….”
“Wheeze…….”
Edith watched Kusto and Dmitri standing with trembling legs, her gaze sympathetic.
Then she announced the results.
“Your combined time is 3 minutes 47 seconds. Since you failed to complete one Mission, I’m adding a 10-second Penalty, for a total of 3 minutes 57 seconds.”
Kusto and Dmitri, their faces drained of color, shuffled back to their starting positions.
They looked like defeated soldiers retreating from a lost battle.
Even they seemed unable to believe what they’d just done.
“Hey, are you two alright?”
Killian asked carefully.
“No.”
“I want to die.”
Dmitri and Kusto answered gloomily.
“Next up: Killian and Olivier!”
At Edith’s call, Killian stepped forward with an anxious expression.
Joan’s team was one thing, but even Kusto and Dmitri—veterans who’d seen it all—had come out looking like that.
Once Killian entered the Forbidden Secret Passage, a servant handed him a Torch.
“I’ll be going now, then.”
“Wait, just a moment……!”
Killian called out urgently, but the door had already slammed shut with a bang.
Olivier let out a quiet laugh.
“Afraid of Ghosts?”
“Not exactly afraid…… but, but my leg seems to be hurting again. Is it because of the Ghost?”
“No, think about it logically. Ghosts don’t exist from a scientific…….”
Olivier was just mustering the cold rationality befitting an academy valedictorian when—
An actress covered in blood suddenly dropped from the air.
“……AHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Olivier screamed and collapsed where he stood.
Killian flinched and bent his knees too—not because of the blood-soaked actress, but because of Olivier.
“AHHHHHHHHHHH!”
“My apologies.”
Killian dragged Olivier past the actress.
There was a Button in front of the actress.

This must be the first Mission.
Killian pressed the Button and grumbled.
“What? Ghosts don’t exist from a scientific perspective?”
“I, it was just a physiological startle reflex…….”
Olivier, recovering his composure a moment too late, tried to justify himself.
But…….
“AHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Olivier’s screams continued for quite some time after that.
* * *
After the Courage Training ended.
Olivier emerged practically being carried on Killian’s back.
From the sight of him, it was obvious what had happened inside.
‘The Image Orbs must have captured some great footage.’
Edith suppressed her excitement at the thought of editing and asked the question.
“How was the Courage Training?”
“I’ve confirmed that Ghosts are indeed frightening.”
“I, it went fine. Since Ghosts can’t be proven scientifically…….”
Killian dragged Olivier away before he could finish his sentence.
“Killian and Olivier took 5 minutes. You completed all the Missions with no Penalty!”
The next pair, Grimbal Baldo and Clover Reed, also failed miserably, recording 6 minutes 23 seconds.
Now it was Team Two’s turn.
“David Bertie and Morris Arno! Please enter the Forbidden Secret Passage!”

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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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