Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Himanshu02The next event after the tournament preliminaries was the horseback lance combat.

However, this was not a very popular event among the spectators, as it had a low score and was rather dull.

It was mostly about charging in a formation, and it lacked the excitement of the knights’ fights using force.

“It’s not a glamorous event, but we need to get some points for the overall victory.”

Eurius was not too worried.

He had trained them hard, and more importantly, the senior knights who would be the backbone of the formation were of excellent quality.

‘It’s not entirely an empty promise to give them some experience by participating in this martial arts competition.’

Unfortunately, except for Cain, the new knights’ skills were still far from being the main characters of this martial arts competition.

But a knight order was not run by a few skilled knights alone.

The horseback lance combat was a necessary step to increase the cohesion of the knights.

“I trust you all.”

Eurius shook hands with each knight and encouraged them with words.

He wanted to make sure that they were not just extras in this martial arts competition.

‘His Highness seems to have high expectations for this martial arts competition.’

‘Maybe he is really aiming for victory.’

The performances of some knights in yesterday’s preliminaries were dazzling.

What knight would not want to be in the most honorable place with their affiliated knight order?

With Eurius’s encouragement, his knight order performed much better than he expected.

Heinz reported to Eurius with a bright expression.

“We made it to the semifinals. It’s an unexpected achievement.”

“The problem is that our next opponent is the Golden Lion Knight Order.”

Heinz’s expression hardened slightly.

To be honest, they were too much for them at this point.

***

The rules of horseback lance combat were simple.

Since it was not a real battle, the knights wore fragile practice lances and thick armor, and decided the winner by horseback combat.

It was also forbidden to infuse force into the weapons to increase their strength.

That would make the outcome depend too much on individual power.

What was needed was the individual knight’s quickness and the ability to maintain formation!

Of course, physical enhancement by force was also important, so it was not that skilled knights were not needed.

However, no one could withstand a concentrated attack from a dense array of lances.

The conditions for a knight’s elimination were falling off the horse or breaking the lance.

“I heard you did well in the preliminaries. How about His Majesty First Prince’s Knight Order?”

Horseback lance combat was not very popular, but there were always fanatics in any field.

One of them was an old nobleman with a dignified appearance who nodded his head.

“They will have a hard time with this event. They are behind in both experience and skill.”

With various murmurs, the match finally began.

“Charge!”

“Hehehe!”

Dududu!

The Golden Lion Knight Order raised their speed first and charged with a fierce momentum as soon as they started.

Eurius watched the match with a cold expression.

‘This doesn’t look good.’

If the opponent used such a brute force from the beginning, they had no choice but to raise their speed and collide head-on.

“Everyone, focus on maintaining formation!”

With Heinz’s shout, the two knight orders clashed head-on.

Kwaang!

A dull sound of metal hitting metal and dust rose up.

“Tsk, they are still too weak overall.”

Eurius bit his tongue as he saw through the dust and confirmed the result of the first clash.

Many of his knights had fallen off their horses or broken their lances and had to retreat from the ranks.He had tried to prevent the formation from collapsing by placing elite knights here and there, but since the quality of the elite knights of the Golden Lion Knight Order was similar, it did not have much effect.

After the charge, there was only a melee left. But there was not much hope for his knight order that had lost a lot of its formation.

On top of that, the Golden Lion Knight Order took out some of their knights and turned them back to launch a surprise attack.

Eurius had no choice but to make a decision.

“Stop! We admit defeat.”

They suffered a loss in the charge, and they could not withstand such an attack.

As Grand Duke said, his knight order had completely lost.

Eurius frowned.

“Are there any seriously injured knights?”

“Fortunately, none of the knights who are going to participate in the tournament are injured. But some of the regular knights have suffered severe injuries. To be honest, I think we were very lucky.”

But Heinz also rarely spoke with a bitter voice.

“They were trying to provoke us from the first charge, and even after the outcome was decided, they deliberately tried to cause more injuries to our side. If Your Highness had not made a quick decision, the damage would have been much worse.”

Grit.

Eurius clenched his teeth.

Grand Duke, you really mean it, don’t you?’

He did not expect it, but he did not expect him to pick a fight right from the horseback lance combat, which was not very important.

‘Let’s see who wins in the tournament.’

He had lost the horseback lance combat to Grand Duke, but he had achieved a higher rank than he had expected.

***

“You did well in the horseback lance combat.”

Grand Duke summoned the officers of the Golden Lion Knight Order for the first time in a long time.

It was to crush Eurius’s knight order thoroughly in tomorrow’s final tournament.

“Gilbert, Hendricks, you two have to show your skills in the tournament as well.”

“Yes, sir.”

They were the core officers of the Golden Lion Knight Order and his disciples whom he had raised with care.

They were going to participate in the prime tournament.

And he did not forget the shadows, including Dmitri, who he had brought in case of emergency.

“You guys, crush the First Prince’s knights in the regular tournament.”

Grand Duke had already obtained some information and went to watch the preliminaries of Eurius’s knight order for a rare occasion.

The conclusion was that there were more formidable ones than he thought.

‘They have enough power to make it to the finals. The First Prince’s challenge to me was not based on groundless confidence.’

Especially in the case of Heinz and Beatrix, who were participating in the prime tournament, he thought that their skills were not inferior to those of the Golden Lion Knight Order’s officers.

‘But it doesn’t matter in the regular tournament.’

However, Grand Duke was confident of winning overall.

Even if there was an unexpected result in the prime tournament, there was no chance of him losing as long as he had put shadows in the regular tournament.

‘The First Prince may have some luck with talent, but the result will be the same.’

Finally, the day of the tournament finals came.

Eurius smiled with satisfaction after seeing the bracket.

‘Fortunately, we are in the opposite group from the Golden Lion Knight Order. We’ll meet them in the finals.’

“But our first opponent is not easy. It’s the Bronze Cross Knight Order of the Holy Kingdom.”

But Eurius smiled at Heinz.

“You must feel pressured as a leader, but you don’t have to be too humble. There is no knight order that can compete with us until the finals in the prime tournament.”

Today was the main event of the royal martial arts tournament, which could be called the highlight of the festival.

Apart from the battlefield, there was no other spectacle where the outstanding knights could compete with their full strength.

This was why the stands of the arena were already filled with heat.

“Who do you think is the eye of the storm in this tournament? Which knight group has the most chance of winning?”

“It has to be the First Prince’s knight group, right?”

At first, people thought they were a hastily assembled knight group, but their reputation soared rapidly after the first and second days.

There were some knights who showed impressive performances in the preliminary rounds, and even though the horseback lance skills competition was not very popular, it was impossible for ordinary knights to rank high in it.

People’s attention was naturally drawn to the first match of the main event.

“The Bronze Cross knight group is a traditional powerhouse in this tournament. The question is how well the First Prince’s knight group can defend themselves.”

That was the general prediction, but when they saw the first result, everyone was speechless.

“He defeated Sir Florence so easily…”

The Bronze Cross knight group was one of the top three knight groups in the kingdom.

Of course, their officers were also composed of remarkable knights.But they lost without even fighting fifty bouts against the knights from the First Prince’s knight group.

Especially, Sir Florence, the leader of the group, had to kneel before a young female knight without even fighting thirty bouts.

“Haha… It seems that Duke Dios had a reason for not having a successor.”

The man from the kingdom looked at Beatrix with a bitter expression.

He was old enough to have half-white hair, and he had a lot of experience.

But he was completely defeated by her, who looked like she was not even twenty years old.

“I am far from my father. You are too generous.”

She gave a brief answer, but it also left a strong impression.

After that, the First Prince’s knight group’s prime tournament was literally unstoppable.

They advanced to the final without losing a single match in the main event.

“This tournament has a scary new powerhouse. They might even defeat the Golden Lion knight group.”

“No matter how young they are, can they do that?”

The main event progressed for half a day, and the First Prince’s knight group became a strong candidate for winning the tournament.

‘This is according to plan.’

Eurius thought that his knight group had enough ability to win the prime tournament without his intervention.

But he needed to step in a little for the general tournament.

The opinions of the crowd were divided on the general tournament.

“The general one seems a bit shaky, doesn’t it?”

“They were overwhelming in the prime one, but I guess they are still not fully grown because they have a short history.”

As they said, Eurius’ general tournament was not as smooth as his prime one.

Even if he won, it was by a narrow margin or he barely got two wins after one loss and one win.

But there was a reason for that.

“Sir Jamie will go for the next match. He should be able to win by a slight margin.”

In fact, there were ten candidates who could participate, but in most cases, it was more efficient and faster to send out only the best three.

But Eurius deliberately hid himself and Cain in order to prepare for the final.

And he started to use the remaining eight as much as possible and win the tournament faithfully.

He was a martial artist who reached superhuman level.

His eye for skill was quite accurate.

He could also see their stats, so he could know their tendencies and characteristics as well.

He could almost certainly predict their wins and losses.

To the audience, it seemed like he barely won many matches, but Eurius sent them out with confidence.

‘As long as I get two wins, I can advance.’

Eurius decisively gave up on matches that he could lose and preserved his knights’ stamina while securing two wins.

As a result, it looked precarious, but his general tournament was also sailing smoothly by his standards.

He could easily advance to the final.

‘If only that cunning Grand Duke didn’t play tricks, I could have gone up more comfortably.’

Originally, he planned to use himself and Cain actively to give an overwhelming impression in both tournaments.

But after seeing the Golden Lion knight group’s matches, he had to change his strategy.

The Grand Duke tried to hide them, but they couldn’t escape his eyes that could see stats.

Come to think of it, it was suspicious in the horseback lance skills competition too.

No matter how strong they were, it was too easy for their formation to collapse like that.

At that moment, Eurius’ eyes turned to the general knights of the Golden Lion knight group.

‘They are the Grand Duke’s subordinates that I saw in the north. And one of them is almost a superhuman level knight. He must be the leader of those guys from last time.’

Eurius looked at Dmitri and pondered.

‘I can handle him, but I don’t know if Cain can deal with the other one.’

Cain had grown rapidly recently, but he was still a step behind compared to the Grand Duke’s subordinates.

‘I need to prepare some countermeasures somehow.’

Eurius didn’t expect that the proud Grand Duke would blatantly cheat like that.

Of course, the Golden Lion knight group on the other side of the bracket advanced to the final with an overwhelming record of no losses.

It was the result of mobilizing the Grand Duke’s secret forces, so it was natural in a way.

Meanwhile, there were others who were waiting for the final to start.

“Father, it seems like the last match will start soon.”

“Is everything ready?”

“The inmates have blended in with the audience smoothly.”

“I’ve told you many times, but the most important thing is to target him precisely. We will execute the plan as planned.”

Gideon was aiming for a clear opportunity to catch Eurius.

It didn’t matter if it was during or after the match, as long as it was when his guard was down.

“Then we will start the final match.”

Eurius, Grand Duke, Order.

No one knew yet what the outcome of this final match, where these three forces were intertwined, would be.