Please Vote for Your Knight! Chapter 13

***

 

—Edith’s Notebook—
※Participant List by Rank※
Rank 3
Deni Vinosh

• A sailor from the southern coastal region
• Uses a harpoon and net as weapons
• Being a fisherman and handsome enough to look like a god of the sea is cheating
• Taciturn. I’m sure he’ll answer me someday, right?

Pavel Shurbe

• A boy with pink, curly hair
• Uses a greatsword as large as his own body
• Calls Deni Vinosh “Shushu”
• Adorable

Kilian Grouchy

• Former mercenary who uses an axe
• Who put that scar on such a sculpted face?!
• Exceptional upper-body strength
  Compared to that, his lower body is a little……
• But the most normal one here

Rank 4: None

Rank 5
Mauriceaurice Arnaud

• Heir to the Arno Trading Company, a family that’s basically falling apart
• Says he came out because he wants to become a Die Eques as the representative of the commoners, but he seems to have another motive
• Is it prejudice to think that someone with that handsome face and lively personality wouldn’t simply play knight quietly?

 

***

 

Underground beneath the Imperial Princess’s Palace.

Edith was pulling an all-nighter editing the first episode of Cartamen.

Until recently, this place had been an alchemy laboratory.

But it had been remodeled into an editing room for Cartamen.

Of course, the editing method was completely different from her previous life.

‘Because I’m using the magical device I made this time.’

Edith stood before a huge well.

It was so enormous that it was closer to a pond than a well, and its entire walls had been constructed from magic stones.

Inside was filled with clear water brimming with mana.

This was a magical device for editing videos.

Edith placed several video orbs into the transparent water.

Plop! Plop! Plop!

The magical devices that fell into the water began releasing bubbles.

Soon, the bubbles grew larger and floated up into the air.

Within each round bubble, the footage recorded by the video orbs began playing.

Edith had to carefully cut and Edith these bubbles to create a single episode of the broadcast.

“Ha, I’m almost done now. I just have to finish this.”

With dark circles beneath her eyes, Edith gritted her teeth and began Editing.

Most of the participants were still unaware of the video magical devices.

Thanks to that, raw arguments and reckless remarks came pouring out.

“Wouldn’t this be spicy enough even if I just aired it as-is without Editing it to make anyone look bad?”

Forgetting even her exhaustion, Edith began Editing like a madwoman.

 

***

 

The special training finally ended after midnight.

“Is this place insane?”

“Ah, I’m exhausted. I can’t go home.”

The special training facility was located on the outskirts of the capital. Therefore, those who lived in the city center would have to travel for quite a while to get home.

In the end, most of them chose to sleep at the lodgings near the training grounds.

‘My peaceful lodging…….’

Kusto, who had been planning to have the entire empty lodging to himself, was devastated.

Reality was four men crammed into one small room.

The lodging assignments were random.

And they were all awkward strangers.

Still, perhaps because there were only four of them.

They didn’t ignore or sneer at each other like they did when everyone was gathered together.

“My name is Kusto. What’s your name?”

“…….”

Wait, were they treating him like he didn’t even exist?

After squirming in awkwardness, Kusto greeted the man in the bed beside him and immediately felt embarrassed.

Still, judging by how the man continued making eye contact with him, it didn’t seem like he was ignoring him.

Gathering his courage, Kusto asked one more time.

“Is that net your weapon?”

“……Deni Vinosh.”

“?”

“My name.”

And with that, he said nothing more.

‘Ha, damn it…….’

Kusto looked around.

The other participants, who had witnessed the two’s earth-shattering conversation, had already turned their backs and lay down in their beds.

It was their way of saying they wanted no part in this suffocatingly awkward conversation.

Unable to endure the atmosphere, Kusto went outside.

‘Let’s practice.’

The special training facility near the lodging was open at all times.

It was the Imperial Princess’s consideration, allowing them to practice whenever they wanted.

But it was already past midnight.

Everyone must have been exhausted, so there shouldn’t be anyone at the training facility.

“Oh…… you’re here?”

—That was Kusto’s mistaken assumption.

Several people were already training inside the brightly lit facility.

‘What kind of monsters are these guys?’

Dimitri was one of them.

He looked at Kusto with an expression half pleased and half surprised, then suddenly became filled with pity.

“Don’t tell me you too……”

“?”

His eyes drooped sorrowfully.

His expression conveyed a shared understanding of sadness.

Kustom, who felt a sense of foreboding, received Dimitri’s forced smile.

“You got kicked out of your room too?”

This guy must have been kicked out of his room.

Kusto awkwardly raised the corners of his mouth and answered.

“No. I didn’t.”

“……I see.”

With even their only common ground shattered, Dimitri dejectedly turned his head away.

‘Damn it, now I feel bad.’

Kusto approached Dimitri, who was training listlessly.

“I’m a little confused about this movement.”

When he muttered as if talking to himself, Dimitri’s eyes lit up.

“Then I’ll teach you!”

‘What is with this guy, seriously…….’

The man was supposedly a traitor to the Empire, yet he acted like this.

Kusto began to question Dimitri’s infamous reputation.

Moreover, the way he earnestly tried to teach him was almost pitiful.

‘Could there be some kind of misunderstanding?’

Something didn’t sit right.

While learning the movements and pushing his doubts aside—

“But you really aren’t improving at all.”

“!”

“It doesn’t seem to be from a lack of practice. Is it a lack of natural talent?”

Kusto stared blankly at Dimitri, whose expression held not even the slightest trace of malice.

‘Maybe he’s shunned not because he’s the Empire’s traitor, but because he talks like this.’

Kusto continued training with that thought when he heard a strange sound from nearby.

“Yah! Argh!”

Kusto and Dimitri turned their heads at the same time.

A blond man with gentle features was awkwardly swinging a practice sword.

Raphael Laurent.

He was a participant with the unusual background of being an orphanage director.

He had also been given a higher rank than his actual skill because he showed potential.

Beside him, someone spoke with a laugh.

“Wow, you’re just as hopeless as I am.”

“Am, am I?”

“And you got that movement wrong just now. You’re supposed to do it like this.”

The man who delivered cutting remarks with a smiling face was Maurice Arnaud.

The heir to the wealthy Arnaud Trading Company, he was a fifth-grade participant.

Maurice demonstrated the movement.

His movements were really just as clumsy as Raphael’s.

Raphael was unable to memorize the movements, but at least showed some spark, whereas Maurice’s problem was that even after memorizing them, he looked hopeless purely because of his lack of skill.

“…….”

“…….”

Two hopeless people struggling to help each other.

“Hahaha! So that’s how you’re supposed to do it?”

“Exactly. Try it again. Ah, well done! That’s practically perfect.”

“Come on, it’s not that good. You’re better at it, Mr. Maurice.”

The two of them were getting along splendidly, but anyone watching them could hardly bear how pitiful it was.

Dimitri and Kusto watched in silence before approaching them almost simultaneously.

“Excuse me…… I know you probably don’t want my help, but I think it would be better to do that movement like this.”

“I just learned it myself, but you should relax your strength a little during that movement.”

Raphael and the other man widened their eyes at the sudden appearance of the two.

But soon, they broke into bright smiles.

“Wow, you’re really good.”

“Instead of just this, could you teach us a little more seriously? As you can see, we’re a bit below the required level.”

Maurice in particular was eager.

‘He took the lead and brightened the mood during the fifth-grade special training too.’

It was impressive. He had lived a life of luxury before coming here and receiving a fifth-grade ranking, which could easily have discouraged him.

‘And judging by how he came out here to practice separately, it doesn’t seem like he’s unaware of his own abilities.’

Was it simply his natural personality?

As Kusto fell into thought, Dimitri was once again startled.

“You want me to teach you seriously? Do you not know who I am?”

“You’re that famous Sir Dimitri Cassel.”

“And you still want to learn from me?”

“Why not? I’m a merchant, so if something is useful, I don’t care who it comes from. What about you, Mr. Raphael?”

“Actually, I’m not really in a position to be picky either.”

At the sight of the two bright-faced men, Dimitri once again lowered his eyes pitifully.

“You’ll regret it……”

“You’ve been teaching this person really well until just now.”

“You’re not saying you don’t want to teach us, right? Haha!”

Both men had easygoing personalities.

Perhaps their cheerful attitude struck him directly, because Dimitri blushed and nodded.

 

***

 

Even after the first day, Kusto always trained until the very latest hour.

Dimitri, Raphael, and Maurice trained for an appropriate amount of time before returning, but Kusto couldn’t do that.

He had less foundation than everyone else, so there was only one way.

Just grit his teeth and do it.

Only then could he hope to maintain even his second-grade ranking.

And unlike the others, Kusto had a reason why he could train almost to the point of self-mortification.

But there were also people who found his behavior irritating.

Especially Kilman’s group.

At some point, they too began staying late at the special training grounds to practice.

But it didn’t last long.

After three days, not a single one of them remained at the training grounds.

They had simply become exhausted.

“You’re just pretending to work hard all by yourself.”

“You don’t have to go that far. Anyone who’s going to do it will do it anyway.”

They left while making needless sarcastic remarks.

 

***

 

Before going to bed, David was sitting by the window drinking tea when he happened to look outside.

He could see Kusto training alone at the special training grounds.

He had been with Dimitri just moments ago, but now he was alone again.

‘He’s doing fine even without me.’

That was a relief.

At first, David had worried that Kusto would be ostracized because he had come from slavery and would not receive a fair evaluation.

Cartamen was supposed to be a sacred and fair competition.

That was why David had paid attention to Kusto.

But it seemed that had simply been his own arrogance.

Kusto was doing well regardless of his background.

He already seemed to have made a few friends, too.

‘For some reason, I’m jealous.’

Making a silly joke to himself, David took another sip of tea.

Since servants were not allowed at the lodging, he had made the tea himself.

“That Kusto fellow isn’t trying too hard to impress Her Highness and the Valkyria by training alone, is he?”

Just then, one of the participants sharing the room spoke.

Until yesterday, he had been training late into the night trying to catch up to Kusto.