Please Vote for Your Knight! Chapter 51

Have you guys seen the breaking news? (3324)

Is it seriously true that a death-row inmate entered Cartamen? (9374)

A traitor and a murderer Holy crap. Cartamen is legendary damn (7238)

 

At this point, doesn’t the Princess share some of the blame too?? (12390)

 

Was I the only one who thought Kusto was shady from the beginning? (5242)

 

I seriously can’t forgive himㅠㅠ One of my relatives was attacked by pirates tooㅠㅠㅠㅠ (22848)

 

Is Cartamen a deathmatch VS no, is it just a one-way trip to the guillotine? (8371)

 

Who was it that gave this murderer Kusto that tragic, soft-hearted man image? LOL (7193)

 

But what if it’s just a rumor? (92334) (This post has been deleted)

 

Those Kusto bugs have no conscience left LOL (18238)

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Everyone who saw the breaking news froze.

“W-What is this…….”

“Kusto, this isn’t true, right?”

“There’s no way!”

When Killian asked, David raised his voice unusually for him.

Olivier also spoke with a frown.

“This makes no sense. Even if it was the Princess, she pardoned someone who colluded with pirates and even murdered hostages? Just so he could appear in Cartamen?”

Dmitri looked at Kusto.

He was staring down at the newspaper with a calm expression.

The article contained information provided by an ‘anonymous’ whistleblower living in Pius.

< Kusto, a former slave, was hired by the lord to carry out a pirate-suppression mission and was paid a large sum of money. But behind the scenes, he joined forces with the pirates and accepted bribes.
He even disobeyed the lord’s orders to rescue the hostages captured by the pirates and murdered every last one of them……. >

It was an unbelievable story.

What made it even more malicious was the fact that it cleverly mixed truth with lies.

“Kusto.”

Dmitri called him in a composed voice.

“Tell us what really happened. What happened?”

“That’s right. We need your testimony so we can analyze what this is about and clear your name.”

Olivier joined in.

At the word ‘clear,’ Kusto gave a faint laugh.

“Thanks for deciding it was a false accusation without even hearing everything I have to say.”

“Of course. We trust you.”

David spoke with a face completely devoid of doubt.

The others were the same.

Raphael spoke gently.

“We’ve already seen Kusto through all the evaluations in Cartamen. So we know. Kusto would never do something like this.”

Dmitri nodded as well.

“On the contrary, you were the first person to reach out to me when everyone else rejected me.”

“And during the last team battle, you were one of the people who tried hardest to save me even though I was a dropout.”

Killian added his own words.

Olivier pushed up his glasses and spoke sharply.

“My brain refuses to believe that someone like Kusto colluded with pirates and murdered hostages. Especially in Pius, where the lord is notorious for being greedy and vicious.”

He took the newspaper from Maurice and read it carefully before speaking.

“The timing is suspicious.”

“The timing?”

Maurice asked. Olivier nodded.

“Kusto’s ranking is currently rising rapidly. For an article slandering him to appear at precisely this moment, it must be the work of someone who resents seeing Kusto’s ranking climb.”

“Then it must be someone influential enough to have a problem with Kusto doing well, and who already held a grudge against him.”

Maurice said that and looked at Kusto.

Kusto shrugged.

“When you live as a mercenary, you tend to make a lot of enemies.”

“Then it must be someone among them with enough influence to publish a breaking story in a major newspaper.”

Olivier added another possibility.

That was when Raphael, who had been quiet until then, spoke.

“There’s one more possibility.”

“One more?”

“Someone who would feel threatened the higher Kusto’s ranking rises.”

“Who would that be……, ah.”

Everyone’s expressions hardened.

Raphael nodded and continued.

“Someone near the top whose ranking is falling. Someone at risk of being overtaken by Kusto.”

“And, more importantly, someone with the kind of character who couldn’t stand being surpassed by a former slave like Kusto.”

Olivier put the finishing touch on the theory.

But no one came to mind.

Joan’s ranking had been falling, but he had never shown any particular dislike toward Kusto.

“Then it’s reasonable to assume this was the work of someone influential who simply can’t stand seeing Kusto succeed.”

Olivier reached his conclusion.

He looked at Kusto.

After thinking deeply for a moment, Kusto opened his eyes.

“The Lord of Pius.”

He was the very man who had even sent Kilman to knock Kusto out of Cartamen.

When the knights heard that, they were shocked.

“Kilman was a spy from Pius?”

“No wonder I always thought there was something strange about that guy.”

“Good thing he was eliminated early.”

“If this was the Lord of Pius’s doing, maybe Kilman being eliminated early is what drove him to resort to something this dirty.”

Kusto, who had been listening to them, quietly opened his mouth.

“I became a death-row inmate because I was accused of colluding with pirates.”

The room fell silent.

Kusto continued without paying it any mind.

“It was a false accusation.”

“I knew it had to be!”

“Of course it was.”

Relieved sighs escaped them.

“I was hired by the Lord of Pius as a mercenary and fought the pirates. At the time, the lord ordered me to bring back all the hostages. He intended to use them as his slaves.”

“What?”

“Crazy……!”

“Slavery is illegal!”

Kusto clenched his fist as he recalled that time.

“I couldn’t bring myself to do it, so I released all the hostages. I told them to run as far away as they could. That was what angered the lord.”

“You did the right thing, Kusto.”

“I had no idea there was a story like that behind it…….”

“The enraged lord framed me and sentenced me to death.”

Kusto closed his eyes. Just like yesterday, that day came vividly back to him.

Then, a young girl suddenly appeared.

“Right before I was executed, the Princess appeared at the execution grounds as if by a miracle and pardoned me.”

She had been like an angel.

“She also told me that if I failed to become the final survivor of Cartamen, my pardon would be revoked.”

And yet, she had also seemed like a devil.

“Then all we need is for the Princess to tell everyone the truth.”

Maurice spoke, sounding relieved.

But Olivier coldly shook his head.

“There’s already public opinion accusing the Princess of favoring certain people.”

It wasn’t true, but there was indeed a great deal of such sentiment.

Edith had never interfered to raise any particular participant’s ranking, but unexpected contestants performing well had caused suspicions to gradually grow.

The Joan fandom, in particular, had been fueling that narrative.

“If the Princess personally defends Kusto now, public opinion will only get worse.”

“Besides, the Princess herself was the one who pardoned Kusto. She could even be accused of trying to justify her own actions.”

David agreed with Olivier.

“Then the only thing we can do is find evidence.”

Dmitri spoke.

Kusto’s expression darkened.

“There is no evidence.”

“There were hostages who were captured by the pirates and escaped, weren’t there?”

Maurice said it desperately, grasping at straws.

But Kusto shook his head.

“They all fled. They probably left Pius and scattered in every direction so the lord wouldn’t capture them again.”

Olivier also nodded grimly.

“The people of Pius won’t tell the truth either. They’re too afraid of that vicious lord.”

The room was swallowed by a heavy silence.

 

***

 

Meanwhile, the Imperial Palace was also holding an urgent discussion about the matter.

Duke Frederick spoke with a pale face.

“This is serious. The voices condemning Kusto are growing louder by the minute. Not only that, public opinion toward Cartamen, and even toward Your Highness, is worsening.”

“I don’t mind if my reputation gets worse.”

“Edith!”

The Emperor cried out in surprise.

Edith remained composed. As the person responsible for this whole affair, she believed this was something she had to bear.

The Emperor, however, was different. To him, Edith was his only daughter.

When his wife passed away, he had promised to cherish Edith above all else in the world.

And yet Edith was saying she didn’t mind being hated.

Under her direction, the anonymous community on the tablet was truly a place of free expression.

Not only Cartamen participants but even people who criticized the Imperial Family were never suppressed.

As a result, denunciations accusing the Princess of shielding a villain continued without end.

“I knew I would be criticized from the moment I planned Cartamen. If things were too quiet, I probably would have thought, ‘I must not have painted a very interesting picture.’”

“How could you…….”

The Emperor lowered his head as though his heart ached.

Duke Frederick spoke in his place.

“Even so, we need to resolve public opinion as quickly as possible. We can’t let the public turn their backs on Cartamen, can we?”

“I agree.”

“Then we need to eliminate Kusto as soon as possible……!”

“No.”

“But……!”

“All we need is one person to speak.”

Edith smiled brightly at the flustered Emperor and Duke Frederick.

“The Lord of Pius.”