Please Vote for Your Knight! Chapter 4

Kusto’s mind grew cold.

If Cartamen was really going to be held, all sorts of powerful figures who had been waiting twenty years for this would come out of the woodwork.

If he couldn’t overcome that competition, he would die.

But the Imperial Family has lost people’s trust because of the tyrant.

Perhaps there wouldn’t be as many participants as expected.

That was one positive point.

Not that I have a choice anyway.

Kusto nodded.

“Understood. I’ll participate. However—”

Kusto held out his forearm.

A slave mark was engraved there.

“I won’t hide this mark.”

Edith glanced at the mark and replied brightly.

“It looks cool.”

“!”

Kusto stood there dumbfounded at what he’d just heard.

Does she really not care at all that I’m a slave… or that I bear this slave mark?

He stared at the girl who was so lovely—

and yet had somehow begun to seem a little frightening.

A strange premonition suddenly crossed his mind.

Maybe this—

could actually be fun.

 

***

 

After settling our luggage at an inn somewhere, I immediately took out my notebook.

Taking Kusto with us wasn’t part of the original plan.

If it had only been Dimitri and me, we could have returned to the capital today.

But if we were bringing Kusto along, we’d have to stay another day.

That’s actually better.

It would give me time to organize my thoughts, too.

I began writing my assessment of Kusto in the notebook.

Name: Kusto
(Apparently has no surname because he was born a slave.)

Nicknames: The Knight Who Engraved His Past, Nightmare of the Pirates, and so on…

Hand-to-hand Combat: A
Weapon Skills: –
Magic: –
Chivalry: A
Intelligence: –

Characteristics: Carries a slave mark yet shows no shame about it. There seems to be a reason he hasn’t removed the mark.

Possesses the chivalrous spirit to sacrifice himself for the weak.

My hand tightened around the pen.

Every single characteristic is a selling point.

But I had to approach him carefully.

It’s a sensitive subject.

Earlier, I’d had to practically grow thorns on my tongue to stop myself from asking why he hadn’t removed his slave mark.

Thankfully, I managed to hold back.

Once we returned to the capital, we’d rest for a day and immediately recruit the next person.

I was a little nervous.

The person I’m going to meet this time is someone we absolutely have to cast, unlike the Lord of Pius.

Without this person, the very concept of a “knightly competition” would lose its meaning.

Put simply, we’re screwed without him.

I was about to persuade the man whose participation would determine whether this competition lived or died.

 

***

 

A beautiful, blue-eyed knight stood by the window, polishing a sword.

Sunlight gleamed off the smooth blade, yet the man continued tending to it as though it still wasn’t clean enough.

Each time he polished it, the sword’s owner whispered,

“Don’t worry, David. Your brother will win the Blood Battle. And remember. None of what happens from now on will be your fault.”

Liar.

It’s all because of me.

No matter how many times he polished it, the blood stained on the blade seemed impossible to erase.

Then someone abruptly intruded upon David’s thoughts.

“…I am deeply concerned about the future of the kingdom. Perhaps this is the time when Your Grace must step forward.”

It was the Lord of Naias, who came looking for David so often that he wore out the soles of his shoes, despite never being summoned.

As the administrator of the West, he was in reality a man who mistakenly believed himself to be the “ruler” of the region.

“If Your Grace would only make up his mind, we would gladly offer our full support from behind the scenes.”

The blue eyes reflected in the gleaming blade flashed coldly.

Should I throw him out now?

David was a knight.

He had no interest in political power struggles.

He disliked greedy lords like this man.

But he wasn’t particularly fond of the Imperial Family either, which was currently trying to deceive the knights once again under the pretext of Cartamen.

I don’t want to get involved in their affairs.

David picked up his sword and strode toward the lord.

The lord turned his head.

The moment he saw the finely sharpened sword in David’s hand, he let out a terrified squeak.

“D-Duke! P-Please put the sword away…!”

Only then did David seem to remember that he was holding it.

But he didn’t put it away.

Instead, he said,

“My apologies. I was rather absorbed in my sword.”

He had been in the middle of a conversation, yet David claimed to have been absorbed in his sword.

In other words, he hadn’t been listening to a word the lord said.

Realizing the implication, the lord abruptly shot to his feet.

Just then—

“P-Please, spare me!”

A gatekeeper’s terrified scream came from outside.

David immediately rushed to the window.

A gatekeeper was kneeling before someone who had arrived at the estate.

Who on earth?!

As someone who never allowed even his lowest-ranking servants to be treated carelessly, David couldn’t simply stand by and watch.

And judging by the recent circumstances, the people who had come were—

The ones the Imperial Palace sent to make me participate in Cartamen.

In other words—

uninvited guests.

David bit his lip and hurried outside.

 

***

 

I looked up at the enormous white mansion.

Sunlight gathered along the sharp peak of its roof, shining brilliantly in my eyes.

Here it is.

The place where the second person I was going to recruit was staying.

I was just about to take off the suffocating robe when the gatekeeper spotted me and shouted.

“Are you here again for that competition recruitment nonsense? Sorry, but His Grace the Duke—Huh?!”

I finished taking off my robe and showed him the ring bearing the Imperial crest.

It was a ring that only a Princess could possess.

The gatekeeper, who had been sneering moments ago, went deathly pale and immediately prostrated himself on the ground.

“P-Princess, Y-Your Highness! I-I was rude, p-please kill me—”

“If I tell you to die, will you?”

“G-Gasp! Th-That’s not what I meant… P-Please spare me!”

“Just get up. Anyone can make a mistake.”

I held out my hand.

The gatekeeper’s eyes widened, and he instinctively took my hand and got to his feet.

“Th-Thank you. How could I ever repay this kindness…?”

“If you really want to repay me, I won’t stop you. You can repay me by taking me to the Duke.”

At the unexpectedly swift collection of his debt, the gatekeeper’s face went white.

Looks like David told them he’d kill any casting agent the moment he saw one.

This recruitment isn’t going to be easy either.

That was when a familiar voice came from behind the gatekeeper.

“Why were you kneeling?”

A height that immediately caught one’s attention.

A solid physique clearly covered in muscle.

And yet, his body was defined by sleek, graceful lines.

Beautiful platinum-blond hair as though he’d stepped straight out of a masterpiece, and eyes as blue as the sky.

“Did you do something rude? Or—”

He turned his head and looked at me.

“Did the other party behave rudely toward you… Princess?”

And then he froze in shock as though he’d seen a ghost.

Finally, I’ve met him.

The very embodiment of a perfectly measured knight.

A swordsman said to be capable of cutting even the wind itself.

The knight admired by every squire.

And therefore, a man indispensable to the success of any knightly competition.

Duke David Vertier!

 

***

 

Edith approached him, trying not to appear too eager.

“I wasn’t the one being rude. Neither was the gatekeeper.”

“……”

“It was just a small communication problem, I suppose.”

The Princess’s golden hair fluttered in the fresh breeze.

It almost seemed as though a pair of rabbit ears could pop out from the top of her head at any moment, and it wouldn’t look out of place at all.

Yet the words coming from that adorable face were simply, There was a bit of a communication problem.

David looked toward the gatekeeper, who was still trembling.

He hasn’t even dared raise his head despite my arrival. He must have done something wrong.

And yet the Princess was casually defending the gatekeeper.

She doesn’t look like she’s pretending to be kind.

If anything, her expression was so relaxed that she genuinely seemed to believe the gatekeeper hadn’t actually been rude.

Interesting.

David Vertier gazed down at the girl who had managed to shake the composure he maintained even in the most horrific situations.

Then he smiled kindly.

“Though it is rather late, it is an honor to meet you.”

He had never encountered anyone, regardless of age or gender, who wasn’t melted by this smile.

Yet the Princess before him was still smiling just as brightly as she had from the beginning.

It seemed that, to her, he was nothing more than one of the candidates she wanted to recruit for Cartamen.

Those innocent, smiling eyes are evaluating me.

Are they the same eyes as the tyrant Beauvoir’s?

Or are they truly the eyes of someone evaluating candidates for Cartamen?

“Are you going to turn me away at the door again?”

“I could never do that to Your Highness. Please, come inside. Allow me to escort you.”

Hiding his true thoughts, David guided the Princess into the mansion.

I expected someone important to come looking for me rather than some low-ranking attendant.

But I never imagined the Princess herself would come.

Is she really that serious about Cartamen?

A small crack appeared in the doubts that had been firmly entrenched within David.

David himself wanted to participate if this was the real Cartamen.

It was the legendary competition he’d heard about since childhood, until the stories had practically worn out his ears.

Passing Cartamen and becoming a Die Eques had also been his brother’s dream.

“I want to become a Die Eques and hold the legendary weapons they once wielded in my own hands. If I can’t do it, then I hope you can, David.”

He remembered as clearly as yesterday the day his brother had said those words before leaving.

That was why David wanted to dedicate a Die Eques weapon to his brother.

But—

I can’t trust the Imperial Family as it is now.

What if they hold another bloodbath disguised as a competition?

What if they use Cartamen to strengthen their own grip on power?

David stared sharply at Edith.

Just then—

“Is that not the Princess?”

The Lord of Naias, who had been standing awkwardly in front of the reception room, suddenly stepped forward.

He’s still here?

Persistent bastard.

The Princess, however, showed no sign of surprise and greeted him innocently.

“It’s nice to see you. I didn’t expect to meet you here.”

“If you’re here because of Cartamen, I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong place. Even ordinary citizens aren’t participating, so do you really think His Grace, Duke David Vertier, will?”

The lord spoke mockingly.

He seemed just as certain that David would refuse to participate in Cartamen.

That must sting his pride quite a bit.

David watched the Princess.

Surprisingly, her expression remained completely unfazed.

“It’s unfortunate that you and His Grace don’t seem to communicate very well either.”