Vote for Your Knight! - Chapter 13
Whack-a-Mole.
A basic training exercise, this game involves destroying a lowly mole-like mechanical puppet that pops out of the ground. It’s a game that many apprentice knights experience in their early training, as it can be played with simple obstacles if there are no puppets.
Or so they had thought.
They believed the exercise was simply an excuse to show off their martial skills. But what they didn’t realize was that the real ‘moles’ were the participants themselves.
The maze has a simple structure made of brick walls. If you caught the moles that appeared out of nowhere, passing through the maze seemed extremely easy.
“Ugh!”
That is, if it weren’t for the pitfalls and distractions that popped up unexpectedly.
Participant number 55 was about to insert a decoratively curved spear into a doll when he screamed and froze. A spherical obstacle suddenly appeared out of thin air.
“Phew… I dodged it!”
Relieved that he narrowly avoided the obstacle, participant 55 proudly stood up. At that moment, the sphere had just flown backward from the recoil and hit him in the back of his head.
“Argh!”
Number 55 fell to the ground, dumbfounded.
That was Count Monsieux. He switched seats to go before Coustou but that only expedited Count Monsieux’s demise.
The next thing he knew, a thick rod-shaped obstacle thrust from the wall and passed over his fallen body.
“Beep?”
The mole puppets poked their heads out of their holes in the floor, but he had yet to catch one. The two judges and one host sitting side by side sighed. Only Milla remained lively.
“Wow, Your Highness. The idea is still so great when I see it again! Instead of whack-a-mole, it’s a game of whack-a-knight. It’s impressive that only a handful of participants managed to perform properly until number 55!”
“Well, that’s…not exactly a good thing.”
I muttered with a pensive look on her face.
It was supposed to be just a twist to weed out the hollow martial techniques that look impressive simply for being from a certain school or region even though it really wasn’t that effective in actual battle.
‘Wait, is this a gathering for hollow rice puffs[1]?’
With this one twist, everyone was revealing their true colors.
I sighed as I looked at the magical banner hanging in the air between the audience seats and the judge’s seats. It was supposed to display the faces and basic personal information of the participants for everyone to see. Every time a new banner descended, I only got more disappointed.
“The only one that stood out so far was the one wielding a greatsword with an arrogant face, right?”
“The fisherman who used a net as a weapon was also noteworthy.”
Commander Amonte and Deputy Commander Ynnes spoke cynically. Milla also chimed in.
“Participant number 1 was really cool. I had high expectations because of them.”
Contestant 1 skillfully wielded the whip like it was an extension of their own fingers. The moles cried out, “Beep, beep, beep!” and fell to the ground.
But from then on, it was the beginning of a great disaster.
Meanwhile, servants dragged the fallen Count Monsieux to the judges’ table.
Knowing he had failed, he urgently explained with a reddened face, “I, I haven’t warmed up yet, so I made a slight mistake!”
“Well, I’m sure you’re warmed up by now, so why don’t you go back and try again?” Amonte suggested.
Count Monsieux’s face turned pale.
“I, I’m not mentally prepared yet… If you give me another chance…”
Amonte’s gaze turned cold.
“Then how about tomorrow? Will you be ready by then? Or the day after? One month, one year? When will you be ready?”
Count Monsieux was speechless, blubbering with his mouth agape. Honestly, he didn’t want to go back and try again. It was terrifying.
Ynnes asked, finding him pathetic, “Why are you here?”
“W–Well, I was taught that any noble who knows honor should dream of being a knight!”
It seemed like a prepared answer as his voice sounded rehearsed.
“Do you really want to be a knight?”
“Yes, yes! I’ve never seen a more respectable profession than that!”
Ynnes sneered. “You wouldn’t be a knight if it wasn’t respectable then?”
“Yes! No, um, no, it’s not like that…”
Milla also chimed in, “Being a knight isn’t just about being respectable. In reality, you get bruises all over your body every day, and you have to endure being drenched in sweat constantly.”
“He seems to have come here without even knowing what a knight is.”
“Did you even train properly?”
With the continuous criticism, Viscount Monsieux’s face turned red. The judges no longer offered any advice and proceeded to the grading.
“How many idiots is that already?”
“There are rumors that Count Monsieux came to the Cartamen for because of his debts.”
“Still, he’s a socialite, so they’ll probably be generous with their rating.”
After a while, I announced the results.
“The judges have decided on Viscount Monsieux’s grade…”
¹ 속 빈 강정 (hollow rice puff) means something sweet-looking on the outside but empty on the inside.↩
