Please Vote for Your Knight! Chapter 16

Kusto pretended to look terribly sorry as he casually glanced up at the judges’ seats.

All four of them were staring at Kusto with their eyes wide open.

‘My conduct score is probably going to take a hit for that.’

But he had no choice.

If he kept fighting like this, he wouldn’t be able to show his swordsmanship, his mental strength, or anything else.

‘It’s better to at least fight back than stupidly let myself get beaten.’

Even if they criticized his conduct, he could make up for it by earning more points elsewhere.

The judges had eyes, after all. They must have seen Kilman’s dirty tricks, too, so they wouldn’t condemn Kusto more harshly than him.

‘At least no one seems to have noticed that I was only pretending to be hurt.’

Everyone watching, including Kilman himself, seemed to think he had landed a direct blow to Kusto’s vital point.

In reality, when the fist came flying at him, Kusto had twisted his body ever so slightly, avoiding the full force of the attack.

“You, you bastard!”

Kilman, who had been sprawled on the ground for a moment, shakily got back to his feet.

But judging from the way he staggered, he still wasn’t back to normal.

Kusto didn’t let the opportunity pass and swung his sword.

“Ugh, aaah!”

Startled, Kilman flailed and thrust his sword forward.

Kusto knocked the sword aside and aimed for Kilman’s neck.

“You damned slave!”

Kilman barely dodged and began attacking wildly.

But it only backfired.

Once he panicked, Kilman’s flashy habits that he had barely managed to suppress during special training began to explode.

In contrast, Kusto’s swordsmanship, built up steadily from the basics, remained remarkably simple even in the face of his opponent’s ferocious attacks.

Compared to Kilman’s, Kusto’s swordsmanship looked exceptionally clean.

On top of that, Kilman’s offensive power had weakened considerably after taking the hit and losing his composure.

This was his chance.

The moment Kusto spotted unnecessary movement in Kilman’s technique—

Whoosh!

Kusto surged forward and cleanly knocked Kilman’s sword out of his hand.

“N-No!”

Kilman desperately reached toward the fallen sword.

But Kusto’s blade was already pointed at his neck.

“!”

Kilman froze like a stone.

Kusto leaned in and whispered softly to him.

“Looks like the game’s over.”

“Ugh, ugh……”

Kilman let out a frustrated groan.

It was an unmistakable victory for Kusto.

Clap, clap, clap.

That was when applause suddenly rang out from somewhere.

Amont was clapping from the judges’ seats.

When her eyes met Kusto’s, she hurriedly lowered her hands.

It seemed she had acted without even realizing it.

It was a side of the normally cold and stern knight commander that was rarely seen.

Kusto’s lips curled into a grin.

As expected, Kilman was subjected to harsh criticism after his defeat.

“Winning is important, so I wasn’t expecting the match to be perfectly fair and proper. But don’t you think that was an excessively dirty fight?”

“H-However, in a real battle, you have to do whatever it takes to win.”

“You lost, though.”

“T-That was because of that bastard……!”

“Because he was better than you, right? Both in skill and in dirty tricks.”

“……”

“Good work. You may leave.”

Kilman drooped his shoulders and descended from the stage.

When he spotted Kusto standing below with his arms crossed, Kilman stomped over and tried to strike him on the shoulder.

But Kusto easily dodged, causing Kilman to stumble and fall forward all by himself.

Whether the man huffed and puffed in frustration or not, Kusto simply turned his back on him.

“Oh, you’re pretty good.”

When Kusto returned to his seat, the participant sitting beside him spoke up.

‘Was he talking to me?’

When Kusto turned around, another participant beside that one added,

“It would’ve been even better if you’d won cleanly, but still, beating Kilman? I’ll give you that.”

What was with all this talk about giving him recognition or not?

Kusto merely gave a small nod.

But after that, several more participants approached him or stared at him openly.

After defeating Kilman, it seemed that those who had previously ignored him had begun to see him differently.

‘They’re probably the ones who already disliked Kilman’s arrogance.’

This kind of goodwill was highly fleeting.

‘They could turn on me again at any moment, so I shouldn’t get carried away.’

Kusto gave them only the bare minimum of attention and focused on the stage.

Just then, Maurice was stepping onto the stage.

‘I wonder who he’ll be fighting.’

Kusto’s eyes widened when he saw his opponent coming up from the other side.

‘Raphael?’

Unlike Maurice, who was smiling, Raphael looked noticeably anxious.

‘Even though Raphael has a higher ranking, he’s already intimidated.’

As expected, Maurice had the upper hand early on.

Raphael could barely land a hit on Maurice.

It seemed he had forgotten the sequence of the sword techniques, as he fumbled several times.

Even so, every now and then, he would show flashes of brilliance.

“What are you doing? Fight properly!”

That was when it happened.

Maurice knocked Raphael’s sword away with force and shouted.

Raphael flinched and looked at him.

“Are you really going to make this boring? This isn’t your real ability, is it?”

“I……”

“If you want to lose to me, then keep going like that!”

Maurice’s provocation hardened Raphael’s expression.

As if he had made up his mind, he gripped his sword again and struck back at Maurice’s blade.

The two swords clashed in a contest of strength, until Maurice was the first to break away.

“You can do it like this!”

Maurice shouted and swung his sword again.

Raphael’s sword, now filled with confidence, quickly knocked it aside.

At last, a proper battle had begun.

In the end, Maurice was the first to drop to one knee.

Raphael seemed unable to believe that he had won. Looking dazed, he left the stage with an apologetic expression toward Maurice.

Ines, who had remained silent until then, spoke first.

“Why did you do that?”

Maurice, who was getting back to his feet, looked up with a bright expression. Perhaps disliking that, Ines narrowed her eyes.

“Why did you help your opponent during the match? Are you that confident you can win even after doing that?”

“No. I simply wanted to have a proper fight. In the first and second rounds, I never really got to have what you could call a battle. This time, even if I lost, I wanted to show that I could fight properly.”

Amont nodded.

“That attitude isn’t bad.”

But her sharp evaluation followed immediately.

“However, saying ‘even if I lose’ isn’t a good attitude. You didn’t come here to lose, did you?”

“I apologize. From now on, I’ll do my best to win.”

Under Amont’s sharp criticism, Maurice humbly lowered his head.

His answer was serious, without a trace of his usual smile.

“Good work!”

With Mila’s words of encouragement, Maurice left the stage.

Kusto turned his head toward the winner, Raphael.

His cheeks were flushed.

It seemed that this victory had given him confidence.

By the time they reached the fourth round, the number of remaining participants had dropped sharply to seven.

There were only three matches left.

One of them, however, was a bye for a participant named Killian Grouchy.

‘I’m jealous. So damn jealous.’

“Since we’ve started every match with David Bertier’s participant each time, we’ll proceed in reverse order of the draw this round! David Vertier, please come up and draw a ball!”

Following Edith’s instructions, David stepped forward and drew a ball.

After drawing one, he stared at it for a while with a frown.

“What number did you draw?”

Edith finally asked after waiting for him.

Only then did David give a faint smile.

He held out the numbered side of the ball so everyone could see it.

“The ball I drew is…… number eleven.”

Number eleven!

That was Kusto’s ranking.

Countless eyes turned toward Kusto.

They were already looking at him like he was the loser, even though the match hadn’t even begun.

‘Damn it.’

And this was the final match out of the three.

‘I’m going to get an unbelievable amount of attention as the loser.’

Kusto wanted to clutch his head.

The first match was between Dimitri and a participant named Pavel Shurbe.

Unexpectedly, Pavel won.

For some reason, Dimitri had lost his concentration midway through the match.

The next match was between Raphael and Deni Vinosh, a former sailor.

Deni’s overwhelming physical presence alone was enough to intimidate his opponent, and he won with ease.

Now, it was time for the final match of the fourth round.

“Making it this far, all the way to the fourth round, is already impressive.”

“You’re going to get crushed by Lord David anyway, so what’s the point?”

“Hang in there. Everyone loses sometimes.”

The participants who had started acting friendly with Kusto after he defeated Kilman tried to comfort him.

‘I haven’t even lost yet!’

Kusto endured the sympathetic looks directed at him and climbed onto the stage.

David was standing on the opposite side.

A faint smile had spread across his face, which had remained stiff throughout the tournament.

‘Does he think he can beat someone like me that easily?’

But until now, he had only faced easy opponents.

And back then, his expression had actually looked worse.

‘So why is he smiling now?’

Either way, Kusto didn’t like seeing him smile before the match.

No one knew the outcome yet.

Maybe he could win…… could he?

Kusto questioned himself as he gripped the training sword.

“Begin the match!”

At Edith’s shout, the two men thrust their swords toward each other.