A Famous Traitor and Treacherous Genius

81 – Festival of Silver and Iron Blood (4)

If the event in charge of the morning was an event such as a human horse race or horseback riding centered on orphanage children.

And at the peak of it all, there was a showdown between the trainee knights of the ‘Boys Club’ and the winner was Noir.

After lunch.

The key event of the afternoon and the main game of the festival was, of course, the ‘Organization of the Order of Knights.’

“Is Sir Robert not participating?”

“I am a bodyguard.”

Astasia asked Robert, but Robert shrugged his shoulders with a look of no dissatisfaction.

“Miss Ellie. Organizing the rankings does not necessarily mean organizing the rankings of all Gibraltar knights.”

“Then?”

“In fact, it could be said to be a kind of ‘commander selection’, deciding who is the strongest among the knights, right?”

Robert briefly summarized what I had told him earlier.

“Shall we have a quiz? So, whoever wins this contest will later…”

“If a knighthood is formed in Gibraltar, does that mean you will become its leader?”

“…That’s right.”

Robert scratched his head and glanced at me.

‘Because Astasia is not of the Noir type.’

It was an answer I came up with after thinking and pondering, but I don’t think I expected Astasia to give the correct answer so immediately.

“Hmm. Since you answered correctly, I’ll let you know as well. Everyone-“

“By showing an overwhelming win in front of everyone, I’m trying to prove my skills so that people won’t say, ‘Why is he the leader?'”

“…To add to that, there were several negative images directed towards the strong candidate for the championship.”

If the surface purpose is Astasia’s answer, the actual purpose is Robert’s commentary.

“The winner is highly likely Sir Mente.”

“Oh, really? Why?”

“At the gambling house, Master Gray told me to bet with Sir Mente in your name.”

Robert pointed to one side of the stadium, to the area where daycare director Marylee and No. 36 White were running.

“As you can see.”

A wooden board stretched straight up behind the two people.

There were all kinds of numbers written there, along with the names of the various knights participating in the game.

“Bet on your article!”

“Somnus Gold to the person likely to win! Oh hey! No real gold! Only Somnus Gold!”

“Only the winner guesses! Only the winner!”

It’s really simple for gambling.

If it had been a tournament, we would have filled out the entire bracket and submitted it, but the people in the territory weren’t used to that yet.

“The only people who bet on Sir Mente are you or those around you. I guess…”

Robert lowered his voice for a moment and pointed to several merchants watching.

“Who are you trying to bet on?”

“Of course it is Sir Carlos. Does the high-ranking knight who followed the Count enter the Academy and assist him appear to be Bong?”

“Who are the other candidates for the championship? Well, don’t you say Lord Mente is a bit strong?”

“What? That kid? Ha. My son would be stronger.”

In many ways, Sir Mente is not trusted because of his appearance.

“He’s from Morgania. The Count says he recruited him, but I’m a bit like that.”

“Didn’t you say that since the Count tried to bring him to the Gorge, he also had him in Morgania for three years?”

“They gave up. Otherwise, why would they come all the way to this border from a place close to the royal capital?”

“That’s right, but…”

In fact, the biggest influence on the distrust towards Lord Mente is-

“And Sir Mente, the only thing you do when you come here is to act as Gray’s teacher.”

If her cursed body is 40%, it is no exaggeration to say that the role she plays here accounts for 60%.

“I thought you were asking me to be Master Noir’s teacher, but you’re Gray.”

“…Didn’t I just receive a favor from you before? “I just helped you date the Countess.”

“Otherwise, there is no reason to recruit Sir Mente. There is no reason to pay that money to become Gray Gibraltar’s teacher.”

It’s truly ironic.

‘How long do I have to prove it?’

The salary is several times higher than the net profit made by the merchants here.

“Well, well! Welcome! Who will win? As everyone expected, it will be Sir Carlos!”

In Morgania, he is already the strongest knight after the Archduke and has clearly developed his skills.

“Or will it be the rising divinity, Lord Merlant?! Now, time is running out!”

Not even her knights in Gibraltar can touch her.

“If you think about it, time will run out! There’s not much time left in the hourglass! When the sand runs out, the market will close!”

Above all, a person recruited directly by ‘Crimson Gibraltar’, famous for being the most strict when it comes to reading articles.

“Did you look at that girl’s wrists? Oh my god, she’s thinner than me, no, my daughter. That’s true even in terms of height. A stocky girl like that beats all the Knights of Gibraltar to win? Ha, they say the empire wins the kingdom.”

“…”

As I was listening quietly, I couldn’t help but laugh inwardly. The disbelief and suspicion.

Although Noir seems to be the main character of this festival, it has several purposes.

And one of them.

“Then I will bet all the Somnus I have on Lord Mente!”

“Lady Ellie…?”

“Because I think Lord Mente will win!”

Proving Sir Mente’s skills by winning and defeating all other knights.

“I’ll bet on Sir Mente!”

“Oh, over there… “

Marylee, the head of the orphanage and the game prediction manager, glanced at me and turned her head.

“That… “

“Why? Can’t I? Uh, um, my status is…”

“No, actually.”

Mary Lee continued, still unable to look at me, clasping her thighs with her hands.

“Well, I was supposed to close 3 minutes ago…”

“Ah.”

From noble mtl dot come

All the hourglasses in front fell.

“Well, I couldn’t stop talking in the middle, so I told him to come as quickly as possible…”

“So, now that time has passed, I can’t do it any more…?”

“Ah, well… First of all, what is it, equity…”

I walked forward and grabbed the hourglass for Marylee who was in trouble.

“Huh…?”

Then, I lightly turned it over.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…That’s right! The finals haven’t even started yet, haha! Then, I’ll only have 5 minutes for the last time!!”

Mary Lee raises her hands above her, claps and shouts to the crowd.

“Last chance to bet on your knight! If you miss this opportunity, your chance will be lost forever!”

“To Lord Mente, all Somnus Gold! In the name of Eli!!”

“Wow! Thank you!!”

Mary Lee took her Somnus gold pouch from Ellie with her trembling hands.

Chuck.

‘As expected, he is capable.’

I lifted her thumb under her hand towards Mary Lee.

“Fuha?!”

Mary Lee gushed out the somnose tea she had been drinking as if her throat was burning.

“Cough, call!”

It seemed like water got into my airway.

* * *

4 PM.

“Waaah—!!”

People’s cheers ring out.

Under the circular audience seats, the two knights in the center of the stage quickly swing their swords.

“As expected, it’s strong!”

A large knight shouts while swinging his greatsword loudly.

“But I, Carlos, the first knight of Gibraltar! I can’t be pulled out by a rolling stone!”

A great sword splits the air, and a girl with short green hair burrows beneath it, grabs the sword with light movements and cuts upward.

“Pfft!”

The large knight barely pulled his head back, but his golden beard fluttered in the air.

“What?!”

Was my vision obstructed by the fluttering hair?

“Damn it!”

Haha! “I caught you off guard!”

The girl with short green hair, unable to swing her sword, immediately stepped on her solar plexus and jumped backwards due to the vicious hand extended by her knight.

Boom!

“What!?”

The knight’s hand split the air.

“Like a flying squirrel!”

“You’re slow!”

If she had been a little late, or if the girl’s legs had been a little longer, she would have been grabbed by the ankle by the knight and thrown to the floor.

“Wow!!”

The audience cheers.

“This is a battle of high-ranking knights!”

Some fights go back and forth so fast that it’s hard to even follow them with your eyes.

Sir Carlos is as big as Robert, but boasts tremendous speed as a senior knight.

And the girl who is faster than Carlos, in fact, boasts the second fastest speed in our territory after her father-

“But it won’t be easy! Black Rose’s Green Lightning!”

“Call me by name!!”

Lord Mente, as some call him, the green lightning of the black rose.

Haha! It’s a shame, but what can you do with me with a sword instead of a sword!”

Carlos raised his greatsword again with a confident expression.

“You must have forgotten why blades are not used in the kingdom!”

“It’s so loud, really! Are you fighting with your mouth?!”

“You’re shaken! Haha!”

Golden mana began to fill Carlos’ great sword.

Although it is not a full-fledged aura, it begins to emit a golden light so strong that a stranger may momentarily mistake it for an aura.

“Even the founder Geo Nostrum! Even the first Earl of Gibraltar! He all used the sword! That’s because the sword is the ‘king of all ills’ in the foreign language!”

Those words may not have actually meant that, but the people of the kingdom became obsessed with those words.

The sword is a weapon used by numerous heroes.

Therefore, sword-blades specialized only for cutting are not very popular in the kingdom.

“The sword cannot be defeated by the sword!”

Carlos shouts, fiercely gaining momentum.

“It’s over!”

Bu-euung!

A large horizontal swing.

The sword strike was so sharp that some of the spectators who were far away jumped up in surprise at the momentary sword storm.

“What… !”

Sir Mente was cut in the path of the great sword swing.

“aaah!”

Some of the audience screamed.

That scream was not because a person had his head cut off by a bayonet-

“Where are you looking?”

What was scattered was the reverberation of magic power, and the person involved was somewhere else.

“Is this the end?”

Sreuk.

A blade with a green glow is aimed at Sir Carlos.

On top of the greatsword that Sir Carlos swung backwards, Sir Mente lightly stepped on his feet and pointed his sword at Sir Carlos.

“…Hmm!”

When Sir Carlos closed his eyes and nodded, Sir Mente immediately drew his sword.

Haha! Indeed! It can no longer be called the Black Rose Sword!”

“So, I-“

“Welcome to the Sword of the Canyon, Lord Mente!”

Carlos immediately raised the great sword, supporting it from below.

“Congratulations to the winner!”

“What? Now, wait…!”

Sir Mente suddenly stood with both feet on the great sword held in both hands by the large knight and tried to hurriedly come down, but-

“Mente! Mente! Mente!!”

“As expected, it’s Lord Mente! “I trust you!”

“Damn it, my gold!!”

Due to the cheers of the numerous spectators, I could not bear to come down right away.

“Sir Mente is definitely a knight of Gibraltar!!”

It’s been quite some time since I arrived here.

“For the new sword of Gibraltar–!”

“””For—!!”””

There was no other day to welcome her as grandly as today.

“…Ha.”

Sir Mente chuckles.

As he looked around the audience, he caught my eye for a moment and was surprised, but soon saw a man coming towards him and quickly jumped off the sword.

“His Excellency the Margrave of Gibraltar.”

“Congratulations on your victory, Sir Mente.”

My father, the Crimson Margrave of Gibraltar, came up on stage in person.

“We already did it once at the count’s castle, but we’ll do it again for the winner.”

His father lifts the sword on his waist with one hand and holds it vertically in front of his face.

“Lord Mente, please be polite.”

“…Yes!”

Sir Mente knelt down on one knee in front of his father

“I declare this in the name of Crimson Gibraltar, the current Earl of Gibraltar.”

The audience holds their breath.

“The one who protects the canyon. In the distant past, the one who protects the nest according to the oath with the Gold Dragon. The protector of all people.”

Everyone swallows their saliva at the red aura flowing from their father’s sword.

“In the name of Gibraltar, I call you the ‘Knight of the Whirlwind.'”

Some people tilt their heads.

Was there a title called Knight of the Whirlwind?

“For the future of Gibraltar, the first sword of the newly established Knights of Gibraltar.”

There is.

“To you, the ritual of the sword.”

Hwareuk.

“You are the Sword of Gibraltar.”

When my father extended his sword above Lord Mente’s head, auras began to fly from the sword as if flames were burning.

“Everything.”

The sword was lightly placed on both of his shoulders, and his father held it upside down and plunged it into the ground.

“For Gibraltar.”

“For Gibraltar.”

It is not a ‘nostrum’.

Originally, everyone would have said nostrum here, but would anyone really feel this subtle difference?

“Lord Mente. “Raise your head.”

The father smiled lightly at Sir Mente, who raised his head.

“It seems like there isn’t much time left, so I hope that one day there will come a time when I will clash swords with you with all my might.”

“…For Gibraltar.”

Sir Mente nodded his head with a slightly flushed face.

* * *

After the game is over.

Sir Mente has joined our party.

“I thought I would become a master after receiving the ritual.”

“What nonsense are you talking about? More than that, what happened to the money?”

“It wasn’t that big. It was 2.4 times bigger.”

“What? When I bet before the game started, it was 5 times the amount?”

“It’s because someone added water at the last minute.”

The odds were opened just before the finals, so the odds were placed on Sir Mente, who showed his skills in a desperate attempt.

“Young master. Do you know that I defeated four high-ranking knights just to eat 2.4 times as much?”

“I’m sorry about that.”

There were unavoidable circumstances.

It’s really an unavoidable situation.

“Anyway, if I earn this little money, wouldn’t I just use it as pocket money?”

“Who was the person who said he would save up all that money and do something big later?”

“You can’t catch a shark with a handful of rice cakes.”

I handed the gift I had prepared in advance to Sir Mente, who was sulking.

“Instead, if there were hundreds or thousands of minnows, sharks would come to eat them themselves.”

“The winning gift is a wreath made of somnus flowers.”

“Do you know how hard I tried not to be taken away by Astasia?”

I only made one, but it was quite difficult since people were clamoring for it to be given to me since last night.

“Wouldn’t you have made another one and given it to me anyway?”

“…”

“It’s a lot of hard work, really. Wear a leash and willingly become a dog.”

“This is all acting.”

If a photo is taken and it goes to the imperial palace, the crown prince will say so.

Ah.

My daughter.

You have turned Gibraltar into a dog that bows to you.

“The acting is over now.”

The intermittent camera shutter sound has disappeared, so there is no need to act anymore.

From now on, it’s Gray Gibraltar’s time.

Slowly, the sunset began to set and shadows began to appear on the street.