Vote for Your Knight! - Chapter 71

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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!
Chapter 71
That was when it happened.
Whoosh! Crack!
A loud noise echoed from somewhere.
The enemies straightened up in unison.
So did the one who had reached for David’s hand.
Bang!
The sound came again.
The enemies bolted toward it as one.
“You all right?”
After the enemies vanished, Kusto asked.
He had thrown a stone from nearby, drawing their attention away.
“Thanks, Kusto.”
“Much obliged.”
David and Pierre offered their gratitude in hushed voices.
Then Pierre looked at David.
“What were you thinking, getting hurt like that?”
“If I hadn’t, you would’ve been the one hurt.”
“Still, that doesn’t make it right.”
Pierre lowered his head, his expression conflicted.
David let out a soft laugh.
“When something like that happens, you’re supposed to say thank you. Seems your master never taught you that.”
……
“If it’s hard to say now, you can do it later.”
That was when it happened.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
A scream rang out in the distance.
The enemies who had been searching where the stone fell all turned their heads at once.
Then they bolted toward the source of the cry at tremendous speed.
“Ahhh! Aaahhh!”
“No! Let go!”
The screams grew louder.
It sounded as though pandemonium had broken loose over there.
Only after a long while did the screaming cease, and silence fell.
Soon the pale blue light of dawn enveloped the island.
Then morning came.
* * *
“What happened last night?”
As the sun rose, David was the first to jump to his feet.
Though he hadn’t slept properly all night, the tension kept his gaze sharp.
Kusto also rose and looked toward where the noise had come from.
“That seemed to be another team’s sector.”
“The map does divide the territory, but it doesn’t show which team controls what.”
“So we’d have to scout it ourselves to be sure……”
The enemies didn’t move while the sun was up.
But remembering the horrifying screams from last night—
“I can’t say exploring that sector would be entirely without danger.”
David spoke thoughtfully.
Then Pierre suddenly jumped up and went toward a low tree nearby.
He swung something in his hand with a sharp flourish.
The tree was severed clean and fell over as if cut by a blade.
“What is that?”
Deni asked in surprise, and Pierre held something up.
“A new whip.”
“So that’s what you were making all yesterday.”
“Yes.”
Pierre was the one who had brought back bundles of horsehair vine stems when they went exploring yesterday.
He had selected the finest stem and woven a ball into it to craft the whip.
“We’ve gained another weapon.”
David rose from his seat with a crooked grin.
“That’s not all.”
Morris sat up, rubbing his eyes as he spoke.
“Thanks to Pierre, I’ve prepared something too.”
Yesterday, while Morris had been working his hands busily beside Pierre, he’d produced something mysterious.
The moment the team members laid eyes on six of them, their eyes widened.
“These are…!”
They were hunting weapons—bolas, made by twisting horsehair vine stems and tying stones to the ends.
You could hurl them at prey or wrap them around legs and forearms to catch something, or someone.
Of course, they worked just as well against enemies as they did against game.
“I’ve made plenty of them while hunting. Never thought I’d use them here, though.”
Morris spoke with quiet pride.
“There are six, so everyone can have one. If you lose yours, don’t worry—I can make more.”
“So now everyone on our team has at least one weapon? We really are….”
Clover Lead spoke with unbridled excitement.
Olivier nodded as he adjusted his spectacles.
“The strongest team.”
“That’s a bit much of an exaggeration….”
Morris scratched his head sheepishly.
“Then let’s go see what sort of commotion happened last night.”
Kusto said.
* * *
Killian and Pavel headed toward the area where the disturbance had occurred the night before.
The rest of the team, lacking suitable weapons, had been left under Dmitri’s watch.
“We’re going to need to make weapons, aren’t we?”
Pavel muttered beside him, his tone unusually subdued. Killian regarded him with curiosity.
“We can fashion a spear or two from wood and sharp stones lashed together. I spotted horsehair trees during yesterday’s reconnaissance—we can use their stems to bind the wood and stone.”
He hesitated, then asked:
“But is something bothering you?”
“What? Oh, no!”
Pavel startled, then forced brightness into his voice.
“So we make weapons and eat fish today?”
Killian studied him as if he were some curious small creature.
“You’re not acting like a well-raised gentleman.”
“Am I?”
“You’re closest to Deni, for one.”
Since they’d come this far, Killian decided to ask what he’d been most curious about.
“Why do you care about Deni so much? You’re about as different from each other as two people can be, aside from being from the same homeland.”
Pavel smiled thinly.
“Because we’re different.”
“What?”
“We’re different from each other, so it’s interesting. That’s why I like him.”
Pavel’s eyes, bright a moment before, suddenly darkened.
“But it seems he doesn’t feel the same way.”
‘So something did happen.’
Killian wrestled with how to offer comfort, then simply decided to change the subject.
“Given how cheerful you always are, your parents must have shown you a great deal of affection.”
Pavel considered for a moment before answering.
“My mother and sisters did, but my father was stern. Coming to Kartamen was because of him, actually.”
“That’s unexpected. I’d have thought you were the youngest, doted on by the entire household.”
“Not at all. My father—he was frightening. He never once said he loved me. All he ever said was that I was ‘a shame to the family.'”
Pavel’s mouth sagged as he spoke the words as if they meant nothing.
He’d chosen another wrong topic.
“He said he’d rather pass the family legacy to my taller, more robust cousins. I didn’t mind, but he wasn’t sincere—he kept pushing me to become a strong man.”
“Is that why you resent coming to Kartamen?”
“No, not at all!”
Pavel shook his head firmly.
“It’s fun. More than I expected.”
“Fun?”
“Yeah. I feel like I can actually accomplish something. Since I’ve made it this far, at least I’m not ‘a shame to the family’ anymore, right?”
“Of course not. I’m the family’s pride.”
“Pride doesn’t matter much to me, but… hehe. My cousins all failed Kartamen. Didn’t even crack the top hundred. Still…”
Pavel hesitated before continuing.
“I wasn’t forcing myself to look good for my father. I wanted to give it my all. My friends around me are risking their lives for this too…”
“Friends?”
Killian flinched.
If one were asked to call the knights they trained with “comrades,” that would be simple enough.
But “friends”?
It felt a little strange.
Yet Pavel spoke naturally, smiling.
“Yeah. You’re my friend, and Deni’s my friend too.”
“Ah, friends. I see. Friends, then…”
Could someone of such rank truly befriend me?
‘Well, this is Kartamen, after all.’
While Killian was thinking this, they arrived at the area where last night’s disturbance had occurred.
David’s team was already there, along with Christian Lond.
“Your team came under attack?”
Killian asked Christian Lond, who shook his head.
“No, it was Joan’s team.”
There was a peculiar sense of inevitability in the air.
David broke the silence and asked.
“How did everyone spend last night?”
“We dug a pit and slept in it.”
“We dug a trench too.”
Everyone had spent the night in much the same way.
It was possible because every team had selected two knights with shovels.
“But Joan’s team didn’t have a single knight carrying a shovel.”
That was because Joan had selected only knights with offensive weapons.
“Isn’t there a place where they made a fire over there?”
Christian Lond pointed toward the cave entrance.
They went that way, and the situation from last night became immediately clear.
Stacked firewood and weapons lay scattered about in disarray.
Drag marks on the ground led away into the forest.
“They all got dragged off.”
“Total annihilation.”
It seemed Joan’s team, lacking shovels and unable to dig pits, had planned to spend the night in the cave.
“The enemy used the fact that they dislike light—lit a fire at the cave entrance.”
“But extinguishing a fire like that is simple.”
“Just throw dirt on it.”
“Especially since we’re near the beach.”
Everyone was offering their thoughts when—
“Greetings, everyone! Did you sleep well last night?”
A clear, crystalline voice came from the air.
And incongruous with that voice, a charismatic eagle soared through the sky.
The enormous shadow of the eagle flickered near the knights.
“All of you, excluding Joan’s team, have passed the First Mission!”
The First Mission!
So last night’s objective had been survival against the enemy.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief as the eagle’s round eyes widened.
Light spilled forth from the Image Orb embedded in its eye.
Soon a translucent image played in the air.
It was footage from last night, showing what had happened to Joan’s team.

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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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