Please Vote for Your Knight! Chapter 64

A cold smile flickered across the knight’s dark eyes for just a moment as he held up the ball.

“The one who drew it is… Joan Ginola!”

Edith kept her bright expression, pretending she hadn’t noticed anything.

Joan stared down at the golden ball with a deliberately flustered expression.

“I-I really don’t think I can handle this. How could I possibly give someone else my score…? I can’t do it.”

“‘I can’t’ isn’t allowed on Cartamen.”

Ines’s cold voice came from behind them.

Joan reluctantly tightened his grip around the ball.

“All right. But… what am I supposed to do?”

“You simply need to save a teammate who might be eliminated from your group. If there isn’t anyone who needs saving, or if you don’t want to save anyone, then… well, there’s nothing you can do.”

Edith glanced toward the waiting seats.

“The benefit will go to the second-place group instead.”

In other words, refusing the benefit wouldn’t make it disappear.

Joan spoke as though he had no other choice.

“Then I’ll do it. For the sake of my precious teammates.”

Joan squeezed his eyes shut, pretending to be deep in thought.

“Everyone except Joan, please return to your seats.”

Joan was left alone on the stage.

A golden slip of paper and a pen were handed to him.

“Write down the name of one teammate you’d like to give the 100,000 points to.”

Joan pretended to deliberate for a long time.

Then he calmly wrote down a single name.

He carefully folded the paper, handed it to Edith, and returned to the waiting seats.

“I don’t know who’s written on this slip either. We’ll reveal its contents midway through the rankings ceremony.”

The waiting area was still buzzing because of the 100,000 points.

Some people even crowded around Joan, asking who he had chosen.

Joan merely shook his head with a sympathetic expression, refusing to answer.

Watching them, Amont rose from his seat.

“Silence! The rankings ceremony will now begin.”

His booming voice filled the circular arena, and the murmuring knights immediately fell quiet.

Edith smiled at Amont before speaking.

“Only twenty-four knights will survive this ranking ceremony. All fifty-four of you shone like stars during the previous evaluation, but the rules of Cartamen are strict.”

“Yes!”

“Then let’s begin the announcements.”

The lights in the circular arena dimmed, leaving only Edith and the survivors’ seats illuminated.

A tense melody began to play softly.

“Cartamen. We will begin by announcing 23rd place.”

Once again, it seemed they were saving 24th place for last.

Pierre, who had ranked 19th in the previous interim evaluation, clasped his hands tightly.

I have to show my master.

I have to show my master that I managed to do it because of everything he taught me.

And…

Pierre gritted his teeth.

There’s something I have to accomplish by making it all the way to the end.

I have to. I absolutely have to…

Dmitri, who had ranked 27th, bit his lip as well.

At the previous rankings ceremony, his heart had been ready to give up.

But things are different now.

He had ranked 54th at the previous rankings ceremony.

Yet by the interim evaluation, he had climbed all the way to 27th.

It still wasn’t enough to secure one of the twenty-four surviving spots.

But he didn’t want to give up.

For the people who had believed in him.

For the people who had sacrificed themselves for him.

And for himself.

I want to see this through.

“23rd place goes to a knight who has always brought a warm smile to our faces with his diligent and serious attitude. Paul Bidetta!”

But 23rd place went to neither Pierre nor Dmitri.

The two swallowed their heavy sighs.

22nd…

21st…

20th…

With every rank that passed, the remaining survivors grew more anxious.

“Ugh… Thank you. Really, really, thank you for voting for someone like me…”

The survivors gave their acceptance speeches through tears.

Unlike the previous ceremony, there were far more knights who were visibly moved this time.

Perhaps because the stakes had become that much more desperate.

The knights in the waiting area watched them with envious eyes.

There was even a hint of envy in Dmitri’s gaze.

Envy…?

He let out a hollow laugh.

It had been a long time since he’d felt something like this.

Ever since he had decided to become a traitor to the Empire, he thought he had worn his emotions down to nothing.

Coming here has made me feel all sorts of things.

Then—

“17th place. He’s a knight who has always quietly shown us just how dependable he can be. And thanks to that, his ranking has been steadily climbing! Dmitri Cassel!”

Dmitri’s name was called.

He froze like a statue.

“Oh, Dmitri! Your ranking went up!”

“You climbed again! At this rate, you’re going to take first place!”

The people around him patted him on the back, finally snapping him out of his daze.

Of course, there were still plenty of knights who looked at him with disapproval.

But Dmitri walked onto the stage as though he were in a dream.

“Sir Dmitri? Please give us your thoughts.”

Edith spoke to him in an amused voice.

Dmitri shook his head, trying to clear it.

The motion looked almost like a puppy shaking its fur dry, and Edith had to fight back a laugh.

Dmitri stared at her with wide eyes, unable to understand why she was laughing.

Only belatedly did he remember that he was supposed to give an acceptance speech.

“For the first time in my life, I became greedy.”

His voice was calm.

“Greedy enough to want to survive Cartamen. It felt like something I wasn’t supposed to want, but… I didn’t want to let it go.”

He paused.

“And now, I won’t let it go. Thank you to everyone who voted for me.”

His speech was quiet and composed.

Yet his voice trembled.

In just a few sentences, all of Dmitri’s struggles—and every moment he had spent sweating and fighting to get here—were laid bare.

Edith fought back tears of her own before continuing the rankings.

“And 13th place goes to a contestant who spits out the right answer like a walking encyclopedia no matter what you ask him! A contestant who hopes to graduate Cartamen as its top-ranked knight! Olivier Morty!”

At last, Olivier’s name was called.

“Yeah! Congratulations!”

“You survived!”

The contestants around him hugged him and celebrated.

Especially the members of Group 1 from , who came running from across the waiting area to embrace him.

“Congratulations, Olivier!”

“Thank you, Kusto. Dmitri, Killian too…”

“Hey, don’t cry.”

“Cry? Who’s crying…?”

Olivier stopped mid-sentence.

He was stunned.

Tears were actually streaming down his cheeks.

Was I really this desperate?

Olivier wiped his tears with the back of his hand as he climbed onto the stage.

That can’t be.

I didn’t cry when I graduated top of the Imperial Academy.

I didn’t cry when I overcame everyone’s dislike of me and won the student council presidency based solely on my campaign promises.

So why…?

“Olivier, please give us your thoughts.”

The moment he opened his mouth, convinced that he had regained his composure—

“Thank you so much, I… sniff…”

The tears came pouring out again.

The honor of graduating top of the Imperial Academy hadn’t been enough.

Becoming an academy professor hadn’t been enough to satisfy Olivier’s ambition.

That was why he had challenged Di Eques.

That was how it started.

That was all it was supposed to be.

But—

“I really, really wanted to survive.”

His voice broke.

“Because I want to keep doing this… Cartamen… I want to keep going. I want to stay with my teammates. And even though I’m still lacking, I want to keep working hard as a knight…”

“You get to keep going, just as you dreamed.”

Edith’s words of encouragement made Olivier burst into tears once again.

“Yes… sniff… Thank you. Really… I’ll do my very best in the next evaluation too. I… sniff… I’ll give it everything I’ve got…”

Olivier took his seat in 13th place, his eyes red from crying so hard.

He cried so much that the other survivors had to gather around and comfort him.

“I’ve never seen Olivier like that before.”

“Neither have I.”

Even the knights in the waiting area were whispering among themselves.

The rankings continued.

“11th place. At this point, calling him ‘madness’ is almost redundant, isn’t it? Pierre Simon!”

Pierre stepped onto the stage with tears welling in his eyes.

But he didn’t let them fall.

He fought to maintain his usual cold composure.

The whip he always carried hung at his waist.

“Thank you.”

His voice was steady.

“I came to Cartamen because there was something I absolutely had to accomplish.”

He slowly pulled out his whip.

“That was to show my master, who left me this keepsake, that his student is doing well. That I’ve grown into someone capable of carrying out his teachings.”

The moment he mentioned his master’s keepsake, the entire arena fell silent.

This was the first time they had heard that Pierre’s master was dead.

Without changing his expression—or rather, with an even colder look than usual—Pierre continued.

“My master gave his life fighting in the Tyrant’s Bloodbath.”

A solemn silence filled the arena.

“But he told me to become a true knight.”

His grip tightened around the whip.

“I am endlessly happy that I can show my master that I survived Cartamen. Thank you. Truly, thank you, everyone.”

He put the whip away and took his seat.

His expression looked as though tears might spill over at any moment.

But he clenched his teeth so hard that blood welled from his lips, forcing himself to hold them back.

Edith looked at Pierre with sympathy before resuming the rankings.

“…10th place. Grimal Baldo!”

“I was able to receive a ranking this high thanks to all of you, the Knights of the Empire! Thank you! Please continue to show me lots of love!”

Once again, it was clear that many of the higher-ranked contestants had come from teams that had received strong reactions during the equestrian group dance evaluation.

“Next is 9th place.”

Edith announced the next ranking.

“A contestant who always entertains us with that cheerful smile of his. Maurice Arnaud!”

Maurice’s eyes widened.

His expression made it obvious that he genuinely hadn’t expected to place ninth.

He couldn’t even walk forward until the people around him helped him to his feet.

Even then, it took him a long time to reach the stage because countless knights stopped him along the way to congratulate him and embrace him.

But once he stepped onto the stage, Maurice’s expression became strangely calm.

“Sir Maurice, please give us your thoughts.”

“Yes. Thank you to everyone who voted for me. And…”

Maurice looked straight into the video orb filming him.

“Father. Mother. And my younger siblings.”

His voice softened.

“Thank you. All of you. I was able to grit my teeth and make it this far because of my family.”

Everyone applauded, deeply moved.

Maurice’s eyes gleamed as well.

Though not entirely from emotion.

His father, who had always been indifferent toward him.

His stepmother, who had constantly viewed him as a threat.

And his younger siblings, who had laughed at him.

Just imagining the faces they must be making right now made him want to laugh.

And so, a smile naturally spread across his face.

I’m already the only knight in the family.

He had made it into the top twenty-four in Cartamen.

At this point, none of his younger siblings could possibly compare to him as a potential heir to the family.

And yet, his ambition was still burning hotter than ever.

Now that I’ve come this far, I’ll go even higher.

I’ll see this through to the very end.

And I’ll show everyone exactly what kind of man I am.