Please Vote for Your Knight! Chapter 56

Unlike David, who showed little reaction, Maurice stuck close to him as they descended.

“Wow, this is seriously creepy. Aren’t you scared?”

“Well, it is a bit gloomy.”

Bang!

As the door slammed shut, Maurice let out another loud, “Aah!”

David slightly furrowed his brow.

“You don’t have to be so scared. You’re not alone.”

“I know, but I can’t help being scared. This is my first time doing anything like this.”

Maurice muttered, slightly excited.

That was when—

Whoosh!

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

A blood-covered woman dropped from the ceiling. Her loose hair cascaded down like snakes.

“Uwaaaaaaah!”

Maurice screamed while doing what looked suspiciously like tap dancing. David flinched as well—half because of the actress and half because of Maurice.

“Maurice, you’re being a little—”

“This is seriously scary. Wow, but this is makeup, right? What is it? Paint?”

“……”

Maurice approached the actress with curiosity sparkling in his eyes, as though he had never been startled in the first place.

The actress was the one who looked flustered.

She primly swatted Maurice’s hand away before swiftly rising back up.

“My goodness. We just met, and I was going to introduce myself.”

“You’re thinking about introductions at a time like this?”

“What’s wrong with that? This is a fateful encounter, after all.”

Maurice said cheerfully.

David stared at him as if he couldn’t understand him.

A button was left behind where the actress had disappeared.

The two casually pressed it and moved on.

How far had they gone?

The floor gradually became damp.

“Wow, this is practically a swamp.”

“Be careful. You could fall.”

David warned Maurice.

That was when—

Black hands suddenly shot up from the floor and grabbed both of their legs.

“AAAAH! AAH! K-KACK!”

Maurice collapsed flat on his back and began kicking wildly.

David flinched in surprise, but the sight of Maurice was so ridiculous that he flinched again.

Yet the truly astonishing thing came next.

After screaming to his heart’s content, Maurice quickly regained his composure.

“Wow, your hands are really pretty. How can a man’s hands be this pretty?”

“……”

“You must have a hard time hiding underground to perform like this, huh? Could you show me your face?”

Where does this insane friendliness even come from?

David sighed.

“Come over and say hello too, David!”

“I don’t do that.”

Honestly, he was a little scared.

“Stop fooling around and complete the mission.”

“The mission? Oh, right! There was something like that!”

Oh, right. There was something like that.

David pressed a hand to his forehead.

Then—

“Gah!”

He suddenly flinched.

A hand had shyly grabbed David’s ankle before slowly letting go.

Damn, I almost had a heart attack…

He hurriedly glanced at Maurice.

Fortunately, Maurice seemed too busy chatting with the hand-ghost performer to notice David looking terrified.

Thank goodness.

The hand then pointed somewhere.

Written on the wall were the words:

< Find the treasure in the mud. >

Finding it wasn’t difficult.

A box about the size of two adult hands placed together was sitting in plain sight.

“Let’s go.”

David hauled Maurice to his feet before he could continue chatting forever.

 

***

 

“Knights David Vertier and Maurice Arnaud have recorded a time of four minutes and forty-five seconds!”

Despite Maurice’s constant chatter, the two had completed the courage test with a respectable time.

Thanks to David keeping his head, they had also completed all the missions.

Maurice, however, was covered in mud.

Their teammates looked worried.

“Are you okay, Maurice?”

“David, what happened to Maurice in there?”

Maurice answered while trembling.

“I told you, it was really scary in there! Wow, I seriously thought I was going to die.”

Is that how someone who almost died of fear acts?

If he gets scared two more times, he’ll probably become friends with every ghost in the world.

David desperately swallowed the words he wanted to say.

The next pair from Group 2 was Arsene Tan and Christian Ron.

The two leisurely completed their missions in five minutes and emerged.

“Wasn’t anything special.”

“Wasn’t scary at all.”

They had only wandered around a little, preventing them from achieving the fastest record.

Their expressions genuinely showed not the slightest hint of surprise.

“Wow, are you robots?”

Maurice asked in amazement.

And are you a talking robot?

David silently stared at Maurice and thought so.

“Next up, Group 2’s Pierre Simon and Raphael Laurent! Please enter!”

Thanks to Arsene and Christian, the two looked considerably more relaxed.

“This should be nothing compared to our master’s training.”

“I feel much more at ease too, Pierre.”

Of course, that lasted only a very short while.

Tap!

“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!”

The moment the blood-soaked head came tumbling down—

“AAAAH! Master! Master! Master! Help me, Master! Master!”

“P-Pierre. C-Calm down!”

Pierre began to panic.

Raphael dragged the hysterical Pierre forward, barely managing to make any progress.

As a result, they failed to complete the button-pressing mission.

To make matters worse, the next section was the mud pit where ghostly hands emerged.

“AAAAAH! Master! I’m sorry!”

“……”

Raphael was scared of the hands crawling out from underneath them like spiders too.

But Pierre losing his mind was even more frightening.

Just how gently did Pierre’s master raise him for him to be startled by absolutely everything?

Raphael let out a deep sigh and helped Pierre to his feet.

“Pierre, shh! It’s okay! They’re just performers with their hands painted black.”

“No, Master! Aaaah!”

“Pierre! Focus!”

Raphael clenched his fist and held it in front of Pierre’s eyes.

Pierre stopped with a start.

“Just look at this. Don’t think about anything else. And take a deep breath. Slowly.”

“Hooo…”

“That’s right. You’re doing well.”

“Haaah…”

“Good. That’s my Pierre. There you go. Good boy.”

Raphael soothed Pierre as though he were calming a child at an orphanage.

It was absurd that this actually worked on a fully grown adult man, but there was no other option at the moment.

“Pierre, we’re almost there. It’s over. All you have to do is get outside now.”

“Sniff, sniff… Master…”

“That’s right. Just walk up there like that.”

In the end, the two escaped in the fastest time.

Of course, they hadn’t completed a single mission.

The moment they left , Pierre’s expression changed completely.

He was now the picture of a stern butler holding a whip.

“Phew. That was a little difficult. I barely managed to get through it by remembering the Master’s words.”

Raphael was dumbfounded.

If he had his way, he wanted to put Pierre on the thinking chair.

“How was it?”

Pavel asked the two with a frightened expression.

He and Denny were next.

Pierre looked down at Pavel solemnly.

“It’s no joke.”

“Gasp!”

Pavel hugged his greatsword protectively and began to tremble.

“I’m scared…”

“You know you have to leave that behind, right?”

Denny, Pavel’s partner, said coldly.

“Ugh…”

“Don’t tell me you were planning to take it with you?”

Denny asked incredulously.

Pavel set down his greatsword as though saying goodbye to a dear friend and headed toward the .

Bang!

“Eek!”

Pavel jumped at the sound of the servant closing the door.

“My goodness, you startled me. Could you close it a little more carefully?”

Denny also frowned.

Pavel turned around at those words.

“You’re scared too, aren’t you?”

“Well, a little.”

Denny said it out of courtesy, and a smile spread across Pavel’s face.

“It’s nice that you admitted it honestly. Maybe it’s because we’re speaking casually now?”

“What good does that do? I’ve always been honest.”

“Anyway! Don’t worry too much. There are two of us.”

“I’m not particularly worried.”

“Here, don’t be scared. Hold my hand!”

Pavel thrust out his hand.

Denny was dumbfounded. But seeing Pavel continue holding out his hand despite trembling like a leaf, he felt sorry for him and reluctantly took it.

Just then, a blood-covered performer dropped straight down from the ceiling.

“Kyaaaaaa!”

“AAAAAHH!”

The performer flinched at Pavel’s melodious scream.

Denny quickly covered Pavel’s mouth.

“Sorry about that. Did I startle you?”

The performer nodded before swiftly rising back up.

That was when—

Pavel pulled his hand free from Denny’s and ran forward.

“I think pressing this button is the first mission!”

Pavel confidently pressed the button.

Then he turned around with a proud smile.

“I did it, Shushu!”

“Yeah. Good job.”

“You don’t have to worry when I’m around.”

“Haaah. I really hope that’s true.”

The next section was the mud pit.

A swarm of pitch-black hands rose from the ground.