Please Vote for Your Knight! Chapter 34

‘For the next evaluation, I should probably select the audience members by lottery. If I let everyone attend, there could be an accident.’

With that thought, Edith took her seat on the podium, in the place reserved for the Princess.

Below the podium, the 54 first-round survivors of Cartamen were kneeling.

Soon, the Emperor, who would be conferring their knighthoods, appeared.

David, ranked first, stepped forward as their representative and knelt, extending both hands.

When the emperor placed his own hands over David’s, the participants cried out in unison.

“I wish to become a knight of the Empire and dedicate this body of mine to the Empire.”

In response, the emperor kissed the back of David’s hand.

It was a sign of acceptance.

“Wow, I’m so jealous of His Majesty the Emperor.”

“I’d like to have David’s hand, too. No, even just his fingers……”

Sighs of envy rose from all around.

The emperor distributed small branches, symbols of the fiefs awarded to knights, to the participants.

Then, using the imperial sword, he tapped each participant on the shoulders, completing the knighting ceremony.

For the first time in decades, 54 true knights had been born in the Empire.

“Waaaaah!”

The square erupted with deafening cheers.

The newly knighted men were overwhelmed with emotion. Many of them even shed tears.

Once the knighting ceremony was over, Edith stepped forward.

“Congratulations on being knighted. But you must not think this is the end of your goal.”

The knights, who had been celebrating with relieved smiles, immediately tensed.

“You still have one goal left, don’t you? What is it?”

“To become a Di Eque!”

“Yes, that’s right. All of you are still knights who are eligible to become Di Eque.”

A burning desire rose in their eyes—the desire to see this through to the very end now that they had come this far.

Sensing their passion, Edith gave a wide grin.

“Then you’ll have to do well in the second evaluation, right?”

“Yes!”

“The second evaluation will be a naval battle!”

Question marks appeared over the faces of both the knights and the citizens.

It was an unexpected event.

As if she had expected their reaction, Edith smiled and continued.

“This evaluation will take place in the arena after it has been filled with water. And you will compete before the citizens seated in the stands.”

In the past, the arena had occasionally been flooded to hold mock naval battles.

It had long been one of the citizens’ favorite forms of entertainment.

And now, they were going to recreate it after several years!

What was more, they would actually be able to go and watch it in person!

The square filled with cheers from the citizens.

The knights, on the other hand, wore tense expressions.

For men who had primarily trained on land, this would certainly be no easy task.

They would probably need plenty of practice and training—especially teamwork.

Edith could barely contain her anticipation.

 

***

 

The day the training camp resumed.

With only a week left before the naval battle, the Cartamen participants gathered together once again.

The men who were now proudly recognized as ‘knights’ had gathered at the arena.

And they were greeted by a strange sight they had never seen before.

Along the road leading to the arena entrance stood a huge crowd of people who hadn’t been there before.

“Waaaaah, Kusto! Kusto, look over here!”

“Pavel, you’re so damn cute!”

“Big brother! Brother Killian! Over here!”

“Kyaaah! Raphael! Here, here! Ah, don’t push me!”

Countless people—both Maries and Jangs—had gathered in front of the arena, waiting for the knights.

Expecting this situation, Edith had stationed soldiers in advance. Thanks to them, a proper distance was maintained between the knights and their fans.

Most of the knights looked awkward and simply walked inside, or hurried past as though trying to avoid the crowd.

Then one person came trotting toward the fans.

“Wow, did you really come here to see me?”

“Kyaaaaaah! Pavel!”

The Marie who had caught Pavel’s attention let out a shriek instead of answering.

Pavel, who didn’t seem flustered at all, smiled brightly. Then he noticed someone nearby who was crying.

“Denny…… Denny……!”

Startled by the woman’s crazed reaction, Pavel grabbed Denny, who had been about to enter, and dragged him over.

The woman immediately burst into a flood of tears.

“Thank you…… thank you for surviving……! Really……! Sob!”

“Uh, thank you.”

“What are you two doing?”

“Maurice! Kusto!”

Curious about what was happening, Maurice dragged Kusto over, and another round of screams erupted.

Kusto took a startled step backward when someone shouted,

“Make a heart! Please make a heart!”

Maurice grabbed Kusto’s hand and forcibly shaped it into a heart.

“What the hell am I doing……!”

Another wave of screams erupted.

Kusto froze with his fingers bent into a heart.

Dmitri had been staring at the scene from not far away before abruptly turning around.

If he went over there, he would only ruin the mood.

Just then—

“Dmitri!”

His own name rang out from among the crowd.

He turned around in surprise and saw someone smiling brightly and waving at him.

“Me……?”

“Yes! Dmitri! We’re cheering for you!”

It was pure, unadulterated support.

Dmitri stood there blankly for a moment before a smile naturally appeared on his face.

The moment he smiled, screams erupted from the crowd.

“Did you see him smile? He’s freaking gorgeous.”

“What was that smile? He looks like the tragic male lead!”

“My brain is screaming no, but my heart has already embraced the traitor……”

After watching the knights finish their fan service and enter the arena, several other knights gathered up the courage to approach their fans as well.

Though some still ignored them and walked straight past.

“A knight has his honor. How could I make a spectacle of myself like this? Don’t you agree, Sir David? Sir David……?”

The complaining knight became flustered when he realized that David, who had been standing beside him just moments ago, had disappeared.

David was already approaching the many Maries and Jangs.

“Treating ladies and gentlemen with courtesy is also a virtue of a knight.”

Muttering that to himself, David greeted them with impeccable manners.

“Sir David, you’re so cool! Please marry me!”

“I’m filing the marriage registration first! You’re so handsome!”

“Could you hit me just once with that sword? Kyaaang!”

Fervent praise rang out from every direction.

It was very different from the praise he had received from his followers until now.

More raw.

And therefore, much more embarrassing.

But—

‘Am I really that cool? I knew I was, but this much?’

On the other hand, he couldn’t deny that it felt good.

Just then—

“Sir Joan should have been ranked first!”

“To us, Sir Joan is number one!”

“Next time, we’ll definitely make you the true number one!”

A cry that was almost more like a howl came from nearby.

David turned his head, and Joan’s fans, who had been glaring at him, quickly looked away.

“I was very happy just to come in second.”

Joan smiled amiably before suddenly putting on a sad expression.

“Even if you do your very best, the results aren’t always fair. Of course, it’s not as though I didn’t want to come in first. Oh, what am I saying…….”

“Waaaaah! Sir Joan! What are we going to do?!”

“We’ll definitely make you number one!”

It sounded as though someone nearby was trying to rub salt into a wound.

David paid no attention.

Showing the fans his most handsome left profile, he leisurely made his way into the arena.

 

***

 

The knights couldn’t help but fall silent when they entered the arena.

The entire vast center of the arena had been filled with clear water.

Five rowing boats were moored along the edges, while floating island platforms decorated with wooden trees and rock formations had been installed in the center.

“Look at the scale of this.”

“They really went all out.”

Edith came out to explain the rules of the naval battle.

“Hello, knights.”

“Yes! Hello, Your Highness!”

After being knighted, they were now proudly being addressed as ‘knights’ rather than ‘participants.’

Somehow, it made their spirits soar even higher.

Dmitri, in particular, felt something different.

The knighthood he had been forced to accept from a tyrant had always felt like a brand.

Now, it felt as though that mark had finally been erased.

“The objective of the naval battle is to take a boat to the island and reclaim the ‘Emperor’s Sword,’ which is hidden inside a cave.”

The ‘Emperor’s Sword’ was a symbol of imperial authority.

“At one point, this sword was stolen by monsters inhabiting the ‘Island of Death.’ The twelve Di Eque of that era risked their lives to travel to the island and retrieve it. You will be recreating that battle.”

Cheers erupted among the knights.

They were going to recreate a battle fought by the Di Eque!

This wasn’t an ordinary competition. It carried a glorious historical significance.

“Homunculi shaped like monsters are hidden throughout the island.”

Homunculi were human-sized dolls created through alchemy.

There was also a technique for implanting consciousness into homunculi, but that was forbidden.

Edith, too, was using homunculi without consciousness for Cartamen.

“You must defeat them and reclaim the ‘Emperor’s Sword.’ The team that succeeds first will receive a benefit of 100,000 votes.”

One hundred thousand votes!

It was an even greater reward than in the previous evaluation.

“In other words, each member of the first-place team will have an additional 100,000 votes added to the votes they individually received.”

As the number of citizens voting had increased exponentially, the rewards had risen accordingly.

Since eliminated contestants could no longer vote and the number of voting knights had decreased, the voting limit had been reduced to one vote per person. Yet the total number of votes had still increased.

That was how intense the Cartamen fever had become.

“This score will also be reflected in the second ranking. And for your information, all the scores you have received so far have been reset.”

And that wasn’t the end of it.