Vote for Your Knight! - Chapter 57

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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!
57
“Ahhhhh! Ahhhh! Agh agh agh!”
Pavel thrashed about wildly, kicking his way through the muddy pit.
Then, by chance, he spotted a Treasure Box and clutched it to his chest.
“Ahhh! Shuushu! I found something! Ahhhh!”
Deni sighed and strode toward Pavel.
Then he scooped the man up and carried him across the mud.
At last—the final stretch.
A single-log bridge.
Below it, actors dressed as ghosts let out eerie screams, reaching their hands upward.
“U-ugh! Shuushu! J-just this, if we j-just get past here we’re d-done! D-don’t be s-scared!”
“…….”
Deni crossed the single-log bridge, still holding Pavel with the Treasure Box.
Each time an actor leaped up to grab at Deni’s feet, Pavel’s screams rang out like a bell.
“You’re really scared.”
“D-don’t worry! I’m, I’m here with you!”
“Which is exactly why I’m more scared.”
After crossing the bridge, an empty coffin came into view.
It was labeled “The Lost Ghost’s Treasure.”
The moment they placed the Treasure Box inside, light flooded the passage.
The actors’ eerie wails vanished altogether.
Mission Clear.
* * *
Courage Training results.
“First place goes to Team One. Second place to Team Six. Third place to Team Two…….”
Team One, which included Jo An and Kusto, came in first.
Team Two, which included David and Morris, placed third.
“In rank order, you’ll get to choose your preferred Equestrian Performance. Now we’ll announce the performances you’ll recreate!”
Attendants set up three wooden signs.
Each bore the names of representative Equestrian Performances by Di Eques riders.
“Why are there only three signs?”
“But there are six teams?”
The knights looked puzzled.
Edith answered.
“Two teams will compete with the same performance. Whichever of those two teams receives more votes will be awarded a Benefit of one hundred thousand votes.”
Two teams competing with a single performance!
Who could they compete against and still have a decent chance of winning?
You could almost hear the gears turning in the knights’ heads.
But that wasn’t all the Benefits had to offer.
“Additionally, the team with the highest total votes will also receive a Benefit. That reward will be announced at the next awards ceremony!”
The knights let out groans of frustration.
Edith paid them no mind, continuing with a cheerful smile.
“You’re permitted to modify the music and choreography as long as you don’t damage the original work.”
“Yes!”
“Well then, Team One—please come forward and make your selection!”
Jo An spoke up quickly.
“I’ll pick.”
His expression was full of confidence.
But Kusto grabbed his shoulder.
“We should discuss it first.”
“What’s there to discuss? It’s obvious what we should pick. And…….”
Jo An looked Kusto up and down, then smiled in a manner that was only pretending to be kind.
“You don’t know anything about Di Eques Equestrian Performances anyway.”
It was mockery, plain and simple.
“Let me handle it. Wait here, and I’ll come back with an amazing choice.”
“I think Kusto’s words are the right ones.”
But Dmitri sided with Kusto as well.
“What?”
Jo An looked around at his other teammates. Their expressions too clearly showed agreement with Kusto.
“Sigh… The outcome’s predictable anyway. Let’s decide quickly then. The princess is waiting, and we shouldn’t keep her.”
Jo An spoke with feigned deliberation.
“I’d prefer the Song of Annihilation from the 14th generation Di Eques Equestrian Performance.”
David Sheffield said so because it was one of the most exciting equestrian performances. The difficulty was appropriate too—except for one brutally hard choreographic sequence in the middle.
“I agree.”
Dmitri nodded. The others had no objections.
Surprisingly, Jo An didn’t protest either.
“All right. I’ll go fetch it.”
Jo An stepped forward and reached for a placard.
But what he selected was not the Song of Annihilation from the 14th generation Di Eques.
It was the Red Heart from the 45th generation Di Eques.
“Jo An!”
“What are you doing?”
Jo An returned with the placard, his lips pressed into a thin, resolute line.
“Trust me. This is the path to victory.”
He declared it with confidence.
“But we all discussed it together.”
Dmitri protested, visibly flustered.
Jo An shook his head firmly.
“I figured you’d all just shut down my opinion anyway, so I kept quiet.”
“What? Where’s the logic in that?”
“But listen carefully. You’ll all understand my choice.”
Jo An pointed to the Red Heart.
“The Song of Annihilation has accompaniment that’s too light. The Red Heart, though—it’s grand, it has weight.”
“That’s because it was created to honor the previous generation of Di Eques who were wiped out fighting monsters.”
“Exactly! Think how magnificent and solemn that’ll be. And the choreography is simple. The difficulty’s low enough that even our team, most of whom don’t know equestrian performance, can pull it off.”
“But our horses are already trained in these performances. And they’re excellent animals fed the alchemy-made fodder the princess created, so they can handle unfamiliar riders.”
“This is maddening. Honestly, any other team picking the Red Heart will definitely be made up of lower-ranked members than ours. Our odds of winning go up.”
Kusto, who had been silent, finally spoke.
“Jo An, in other words you picked this because you already know the choreography well, right?”
“What?”
“The way you rattled off that explanation—you could do this with your eyes closed.”
“I’m good at it, yes. That way I can help you all as a leader.”
“We haven’t decided on a leader yet.”
Kusto’s voice turned cold.
Jo An’s expression darkened for a moment, but it brightened again when he spotted the Image Orb.
“If you don’t want me to, I won’t insist on leading. But take my help.”
Kusto exhaled heavily.
Olivier felt the same way.
He had never performed an equestrian dance before. Yet he was certain Jo An’s choice was wrong.
‘Grand music paired with easy, low-difficulty choreography.’
It would be tedious beyond measure.
He could already see the circular amphitheater packed with spectators falling silent.
There were limits to what they could revise without straying too far from the original.
This evaluation was doomed from the start because of Jo An.
‘But Jo An doesn’t care.’
He was scheming to shine alone with the choreography he was best at.
Even if it meant sacrificing the team.
His vision darkened.
* * *
The Song of Annihilation, which everyone but Jo An had wanted, went to Team Six in second place.
It was as expected.
David looked at his teammates.
“We need to decide whether we’re going for the Song of Annihilation or something else.”
Team Six was composed of formidable knights in their own right.
The Song of Annihilation was a fine equestrian performance, but facing Team Six carried risk.
“Most of us have actual equestrian skill. We need to choose choreography with that in mind.”
He was right.
David was a knight among knights.
Arsen, Christian, and Trevis had each learned horsemanship in their respective factions or received formal squire training.
Pavel had also received equestrian training from his father.
Morris loved hunting and was skilled at horsemanship, while Pierre was a stable master.
Only Deni was somewhat lacking.
During his years as a mercenary, he’d served primarily as a foot soldier.
Still, it wasn’t as though he’d never ridden a horse before.
David spoke up.
“Of the Equestrian Performances, the two I’d recommend are the Shadow Game and the Song of Annihilation.”
The Shadow Game.
An Equestrian Performance created to commemorate the victory of the twenty-ninth generation Di Eques in subduing the spider demon.
The accompaniment was rousing, but the choreography was complex—some even found it circus-like, so opinions were divided.
The Song of Annihilation had lively choreography that repeated, but it also contained passages of genuinely perilous difficulty in the middle.
“Let’s go with the Song of Annihilation. It needs to be entertaining to win over the judges,” Arsen said.
Arsen spoke.
“I agree.”
Christian nodded as well.
Then Pavel quietly raised his hand.
“I think the Shadow Game is the better choice.”
“But the choreography is far too difficult.”
Trevis said. Pavel shook his head.
“My father used to say that when choreography appears overly complex, it’s only because the performers aren’t executing it properly.”
“What?”
“We have more than enough ability to pull this off.”
At those words, Deni nodded.
“I’d rather create a polished performance than something merely rousing.”
“But the Song of Annihilation has a climax in the middle that’s absolutely stunning,” Arsen countered.
Arsen made his case once more.
Pierre pondered for a moment before speaking.
“But the difficulty is so high that one mistake could ruin the entire impression.”
“What?”
“And in the Song of Annihilation, easy movements lead into that one section of high difficulty, making it hard to control the overall challenge level,” he continued.
It was a keen observation from Pierre, who as a stable master understood everything about horses.
After hearing everyone out, David spoke.
“Then let’s decide by vote. Everyone who thinks we should choose the Shadow Game, raise your hand!”
The team members raised their hands.

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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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