Vote for Your Knight! - Chapter 8

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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!
8
Edith let out a sigh and spoke.
“Grade Five.”
A groan rose from the Waiting Area.
“Wow, what a disaster.”
“A complete embarrassment…….”
“Can that even be salvaged? Doesn’t look like it.”
Count Mongcho, unwilling to accept reality, whined while waving his ornate spear.
“G-Grade Five? Why, why? I poured such enormous amounts of money into my weapons and costume… or rather, I put such tremendous effort into this!”
The attendants dragged the whining Count Mongcho away to the rear of the Judge’s Bench.
The seating behind the Judge’s Bench was arranged according to each participant’s assigned rank upon completion of evaluation.
Count Mongcho was naturally hurled into the bottom tier—Grade Five seating.
The Entrance Evaluation results divided participants into five grades.
One through Five.
But now that the fifty-fifth participant had appeared, more than half had been Grades Four and Five.
“So far, the only three worth considering are the ones I mentioned earlier.”
This was all because a tyrant had sacrificed every knight worthy of the name.
Of course, as the tournament progressed, grades became increasingly irrelevant.
But early on, it was an excellent device for imprinting participants’ images upon the people.
‘After all, the Entrance Evaluation serves that purpose. A preliminary test, so to speak.’
To introduce each participant’s character.
That was why this trap had been prepared.
To witness their true nature revealed under unforeseen circumstances.
‘But if their true nature is this pathetic, even the audience I wanted to show it to will flee.’
A hundred people gathered, and not a single usable shot had emerged.
‘No real skill to speak of, yet such pretension.’
A little provocation draws interest, but a hundred people all courting attention—that’s simply a ruined tournament.
Could the people ever genuinely cheer for such participants?
This was precisely when a decent person should appear—boom, out of nowhere.
They’d look several times more impressive by contrast.
She was seriously mulling this over when Mila’s lively voice came from beside her.
“Here comes ‘that person’ who might actually meet our expectations?”
The one whose arrival set Mila’s red eyes gleaming.
None other than David.
He showed no sign of tension.
Amont leaned in and whispered.
“He looks far too composed. If he makes even a single mistake, it’ll backfire.”
“David making a mistake?”
Mila spoke with childlike candor.
Ines lifted the corner of her mouth and shook her head.
“You never know. Even a monkey falls from a tree.”
Edith pondered that remark, then found herself imagining David making an error.
‘If we aired that as a teaser, the footage would be perfect.’
Edith too watched David with quiet anticipation.
But nothing of the sort occurred.
David evaded every trap while simultaneously bisecting every Mole that appeared with his blade.
His Swordsmanship was flawless, and his movements flowed with grace.
The severed cross-sections were smooth as glass.
A different sort of gasp emanated from the Waiting Area—unlike the one Count Mongcho had provoked.
“Seriously, be a little less perfect.”
“The comparison is brutal.”
“If you’re going to be like this, you should’ve been a judge instead.”
All the while, David’s blade traced an elegant arc like a butterfly in flight.
“Wait, that swordsmanship……?”
Amont suddenly froze.
Edith turned to observe the judges.
Ines and Mila both wore expressions of sudden recognition.
Ines spoke.
“That’s Hugo Bertie’s Swordsmanship.”
“Isn’t that sword a relic of Sir Hugo? It’s famous. The Sword of the Blue Lion.”
Only then did Edith notice the lion emblem engraved on the blue sword’s handle.
‘That’s the very blade I saw at David’s mansion.’
Edith had missed it entirely, but clearly knights possessed a sharper eye for detail.
‘To recreate his brother’s sword and swordsmanship in a moment of such importance. It’s moving.’
Yet unlike Edith, Amont and Ines wore expressions of unmistakable coldness.
David reached the exit of the Maze without difficulty, passing the evaluation so effortlessly that it felt like witnessing a single performance of artistry.
Emerging from the Maze under his own power, David climbed the steps and stood before the Judge’s Bench.
“He certainly lived up to his name.”
The moment he took his place, Mila cried out in admiration.
“Don’t be swayed.”
At Edith’s warning, Mila laughed brightly, saying it was already too late.
Amont spoke next.
“Absolutely flawless. Not a single wasted motion.”
Compared to her usual assessments—”Wouldn’t he be better off just dying?” and “Why not abandon the knightly path altogether?”—it amounted to nothing short of high praise.
“Thank you.”
David bowed humbly. In that instant, Amont’s eyes sharpened.
“But why did you come here? You’re already a knight, and you’re flawless at this. Do you really need our evaluation?”
Amont’s blunt words sent a chill through the air in the arena.
Edith, caught off guard, turned to stare at her.
David himself answered calmly.
“I cannot accept knighthood granted by a tyrant. And becoming one of The Eques is every knight’s dream.”
“Is that your own dream? Or did you come here to fulfill someone else’s dream in their place?”
At Ines’s cynical question, David’s words caught in his throat. His face went blank.
Amont and Ines had seen through him.
David had come to this evaluation to fulfill the unfulfilled dream of his dead brother.
David hesitated in a way unlike himself before answering.
“My brother’s dream is my own dream.”
“I see. Very well.”
Ines spoke with unmistakable doubt.
With that, the judges withdrew to confer.
The deliberation stretched longer than any before.
‘Amont and Ines seem displeased with David’s attitude.’
Meanwhile, Mila was arguing they should award him a grade based purely on his skill.
David remained expressionless, but standing beside him, Edith felt as though her lips were burning.
And after a long while, the judges’ decision came down.
Edith read the note Amont had handed her.
“The result is First Grade.”
It was an unexpected outcome.
She’d thought they’d dock points for his attitude and give him Second Grade at best.
‘It seems they couldn’t ignore his skill after all.’
He had surpassed all previous contestants by a wide margin, after all.
“Thank you.”
David gave a courteous bow and ascended to the First Grade seating, the highest station.
A few of the participants already seated in the Grade Seating offered applause.
But overwhelmed by the heavy atmosphere of the judges’ deliberation, his applause fell far short of what his true skill deserved.
Edith called toward the Waiting Area.
“Contestant fifty-seven, enter!”
The next participant to come forth was Kusto.
With deep skin and striking features, his face bearing the roughness of strength yet the softness of youth—the moment he appeared, Ines let out an unconscious gasp of admiration.
Edith, by contrast, sighed.
‘Why must he come right after David, of all knights, nearly flawless in every way?’
A former slave who had never received proper martial training, he would surely be compared to David.
Compared in the harshest of terms.
‘He might face harsh judgment.’
In Edith’s view, he was raw ore—uncut diamond waiting to be polished.
But in circumstances like these, such rough stone might never shine and could be cast aside forgotten.
And on top of that—
“He has no weapon.”
“He’s not even wearing armor.”
“What kind of confidence is this, anyway?”
The Valkyria members exchanged glances at Kusto, each muttering their disapproval.
Edith was bewildered too.
‘Bare-handed and unarmed. What on earth is he thinking?’
Still, she was grateful that none of the Valkyria questioned his origins.
‘I’ll give our members this—their character is beyond reproach.’
Kusto stepped into the Maze.
Edith found herself tensing as if she were the one entering.
‘Please, please. He’s too good a character to be squandered as a laughingstock.’
A Mole appeared with a soft pop right in front of Kusto’s feet.
“Squeak?”
Kusto flinched.
For each participant, the order in which the Moles emerged or traps appeared differed.
That was why watching a previous contestant in the Waiting Area offered no real advantage.
Kusto was no exception.
He raised his fist to strike the Mole.
That was when a sphere came swinging through the air like a pendulum. Kusto appeared to have no defense prepared whatsoever.
‘He’s done for.’
The moment Edith let out a sigh—
Bang!
Kusto caught the sphere barehanded and immediately hurled it back toward where it had come from.
The blunt-tipped arrow that followed struck the sphere and shattered into fragments.

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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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