Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Knight Evaluation Match (5)
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“Come on, answer me. Veil Mikhail.”
Lydia grinned like a little devil.
Her eyes seemed even more mature than before.
‘This is tricky…!’
Even digging through my memories from before the regression, I had no hints for this question.
What did it matter to me if a nineteen-year-old man and woman shared a room?
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Then, taking a deep breath, I squeezed out a reasonably sensible answer.
“Changing the law is no easy task. Why not just wait a year and share a room then?”
I flashed a bright smile as I said it.
But that smile vanished in an instant.
“Try again.”
Lydia’s expression turned ferocious, like a beast’s, the moment she heard my answer.
It was as if shadows had fallen beneath her eyebrows.
‘….’
She seemed to want agreement, so I’d play along.
But how the hell was she planning to change the law…?
“Men and women sharing a room isn’t wrong.”
I clasped my hands together and smiled widely.
“I don’t think age should dictate whether they share one….”
Only then did Lydia’s lips curve into a grin.
“Good, that’s the right answer~.”
She crossed her arms, looking thoroughly satisfied.
But Richard and Miya, who’d been listening beside her, wore expressions of utter confusion.
“Veil, I’ll personally bring this up at the next imperial council.”
“Understood.”
I closed my eyes gently, relieved to have passed the hurdle unscathed.
But….
“And as the first to endorse it, I’ll put down your name—and mine.”
Lydia covered her mouth with one hand and chuckled.
With her other hand, she boldly displayed the endorsement document bearing my name.
“Thank you for your precious opinion~.”
‘Huh…?’
I snapped my eyes open.
“Y-Your Highness…!”
“What’s that? Are you saying a knight plans to go back on his word?”
Lydia narrowed her eyes and glared at me.
I’d been neatly tricked by her scheme.
Richard chuckled beside me, clearly enjoying my flustered state.
“What do you want to say?”
The princess leaned in close and asked.
I turned toward the nobleman smirking obnoxiously and replied.
“Richard agrees with it too.”
I elegantly pointed at him with my palm.
His smirk vanished instantly.
“Oh… is that so? Richard, you truly have the foresight of an outstanding knight.”
The princess smiled brightly.
And she wrote Richard’s name on the first line of the document.
Now it was impossible to tell who had endorsed it first.
‘You crazy bastard! What the hell are you doing?!’
Richard’s voice cursed me through a mana transmission.
I replied with a humble expression.
‘Sorry. Better two than one, right?’
‘If you’re gonna die, die alone!’
Lydia glanced back and forth between us as we communicated via mana.
Then, with a sly smile, she asked.
“What are you two whispering about through transmission?”
True to her imperial blood, she’d easily sensed our mana flows.
We both released our mana and shook our heads.
“Whispering? Perish the thought!”
“Haha… exactly!”
Her suspicion made the atmosphere awkward.
Miya, with three years of office experience, raised her hand slightly to smooth things over.
“Um, Lady Lydia! I’d like to endorse it too!”
“Oh, really?”
The princess smirked, pleased that Miya—who she’d never liked before—was finally showing her good side.
“Yes, there’s nothing wrong with men and women sharing a room, right?”
Miya signed the document with her usual bright smile.
Then she handed it politely to the Third Imperial Princess.
“Your Highness’s support for young love is so compassionate!”
“Yes, yes~. You truly understand my intentions—what a clever talent you are.”
The black bobbed cat climbed onto the young leopard’s back.
And as it kneaded away with massages, the leopard looked utterly delighted.
“You’ve all passed the second evaluation, so no need to worry.”
Lydia’s face lit up with a girlish innocence, unlike our first impression of her.
She handed us all A grades and sent us out.
“Ah, wait. Veil?”
The princess beckoned to me as I left.
I stopped as if in response.
As Miya and Richard fully exited into the corridor, she approached.
She drew close beside me and whispered in my ear.
“You definitely agreed~.”
A chilling remark.
Then, she brushed the back of her hand softly along my hip.
“Then I’ll have to teach you all sorts of things, just like Lea.”
I flinched at the sensation and hurried into the corridor.
I glanced back at the closing evaluation room door.
Through the tiny gap, I saw the leopard’s eyes.
Lydia smirked and shut the door with a light thud.
“Like Lea…?”
I shook my head, murmuring the cryptic words.
‘The princesses are all acting weird today….’
The first and second evaluations had definitely been easy.
Yet I felt utterly drained, like I’d returned from a battlefield.
“Phew….”
I wiped away cold sweat and turned.
As I stepped into the corridor,
I ran into a furious-looking Richard and a cheerful Miya.
“You bastard….”
He looked displeased about signing the endorsement together.
He shoved his fierce face in mine and demanded.
“What’s your game, dragging me into this?”
“What game? Just getting us in the same boat.”
I patted his sturdy shoulder with a nonchalant grin.
“The same boat…?”
“Yeah. With Hakim captured, Lady Lydia’s the perfect ruler of the East now. No harm in currying favor with her, right?”
Richard, who preferred fair competition, furrowed his thick brows at my words.
“Hah, has the capital water made you sly too? Trying to exploit connections!”
“Connections? I just mean building familiarity can’t hurt.”
I rubbed my hands together like a sycophant.
Then, casually, as if doing him a favor, I added.
“Besides, opposing back there? You’d have bombed the imperial vice-captain eval.”
“What…?”
Camilla would soon become captain, and he’d take the vice-captain exam.
He’d face Lydia’s evaluation as the East’s key figure, so getting on her good side early was smart.
“I was helping you, man….”
I naturally slung an arm around his shoulders.
And we headed together to the third evaluation ground: the imperial training hall.
“Ahem….”
Richard looked displeased.
But he’d gotten an A because of it and had no counterargument, so he followed silently.
The vast training hall on the northern palace hill.
Several candidates for the third evaluation had already arrived.
“The third evaluation now…?”
Miya’s face lit up upon reaching the expansive marble floor.
And rightly so—the third was a two-man team unity match.
Unlike the first two, this required actual running and movement.
‘It’s probably flag capture.’
The evaluators tie flags to arrows.
They shoot them into the forest, and knights race to retrieve them. Simple.
But with fifty candidates—twenty-five teams—and only ten flags.
Only twenty could pass.
“…”
A Second Imperial Princess appeared in the training hall’s center, holding a massive bow.
Her hair tied to one side, she wore sensual black martial arts leggings.
Perhaps because we’d only seen her in flowing dresses before.
The knights stared blankly at her figure-hugging outfit.
“Greetings. I am Irina Andalusia, overseeing the third evaluation.”
But her eyes were far sharper than before.
The princess gazed steadily at the fifty knights.
Then, the moment our eyes met.
I smiled widely and waved enthusiastically.
I was proud she’d risen enough to serve as evaluator.
“…”
But she pursed her lips sullenly upon meeting my gaze.
‘What’s that about…?’
All the princesses felt off today.
Completely unpredictable.
She glanced at Miya beside me.
Then spoke in a cold voice.
“This event requires retrieving the flags tied to my arrows.”
The princess drew an arrow.
“You may find them yourselves or snatch them from others.”
She tied a platinum imperial flag to the end.
“But only the ten teams who seize a flag pass. The rest fail.”
Irina’s silver hair fluttered.
She gracefully drew the bowstring.
“…”
The knights stared dazedly at the noble, beautiful sight.
Her face was elven from a novel, exquisite.
Her outfit accentuated her soft, sensual curves.
―――!!
With a fierce twang that whipped her ponytail, the arrow flew into the forest.
Ten times like that.
After sending all flags into the woods, she called out firmly.
“Evaluation begins.”
The knights surged toward the forest at her words.
“…”
But unlike the impatient ones, I stood leisurely with hands behind my back.
“Veil, we’ll lose them all like this!”
Miya clutched her hands, at a loss.
“Don’t worry. The fastest scouts from the search knights will grab them first anyway.”
I spoke calmly to her.
“And they’ll clash with the stronger ones. We strike then.”
Not first to find, not to steal.
We target when they fight each other.
“Ruthless, Veil!”
“Gotta earn points for our senior like this.”
I headed not the crowded direct path, but the wide entrance.
‘My score doesn’t matter much, but….’
Miya’s promotion was important to me.
Someday, she’d handle admin for my secret knight order.
If she rose and built connections, she’d be useful checking the crown prince later.
“Here looks good.”
I plopped down in a forest corner.
And waited leisurely.
“We’re just gonna wait here?”
“Yeah, we move when it gets noisy around us.”
Miya nimbly climbed a tree.
She perched on a branch, scanning around.
Meanwhile, I lounged on the ground.
“Oh, this is…”
A faint golden hue in the quiet grass.
Approaching, I found a valuable herb.
‘Golden rabbit grass.’
Worn on the body, its aura protects you.
Being the imperial forest, no one had harvested it yet.
I fiddled with it to pass time.
After about five minutes.
“Veil, over there…?”
“Yeah? Find something?”
I asked indifferently.
But no reply.
Feeling odd, I looked up.
And stared blankly at my senior clutching a flag atop the branch.
“I… I think I found one?!”
Her eyes wide like a cat’s.
Even she couldn’t believe it, shouting loudly.
“If you found it, stay quiet! They’ll all come running!”
I hissed urgently.
Too late.
Rustling leaves from all directions, drawn by her voice.
Then, desperate knights burst from the brush.
“Flag?”
“Flaaag…”
Eyes bulging, hunting flags.
Pitiful souls sacrificed in Lea and Lydia’s brutal evals.
“There… up the tree…!”
They stared at Miya gripping the white flag above.
And like beasts, they began climbing after her.
“Eek…!”
Miya’s bobbed hair bristled like an animal’s fur in fright.
“Toss it to me! I’ll run with it!”
I reached out to her.
But knights swarmed the path between us.
Throwing now would lose it.
Miya tucked the flag into her bosom.
Bent her knees, and…
“…!”
Leapt across branches with wildcat agility and grace.
Impressive body control from her strong mana.
She weaved past flailing knights, traversing trees at speed.
‘At this pace, she could escape running.’
But.
“Puhaak…!”
She stopped abruptly, coughing roughly for a woman.
“Ugh, lung capacity…”
Miya muttered, face drained.
She staggered toward me.
“Quit smoking like I told you!”
Still, her run bought time to toss.
“Throw it! I’ll take over running!”
“Catch…!”
I snagged her toss.
Poured mana into my legs…
And tore through the forest.
But.
As I broke out,
Knights waiting at the exit appeared.
“There! Flag!”
Six of them.
Third eval bans groups beyond pairs.
But six together…
Yeah, cheating collusion.
“Come here, intelligence bastard!”
A burly shadow loomed.
I sidestepped lightly.
But two search knights lunged.
‘Damn… gotta use some force?’
Mana cloaked my fist.
As I swung,
―――!!
A bladeless arrow smacked their arms hard.
“Gurk!”
They clutched the hands meant for me.
I broke through again toward the training hall.
Then, I spotted her.
Irina, lips pursed, providing covering fire.
She wagged a finger warning at the cheaters: “I’m watching.”
“Veil… you’ll explain Lea later.”
She muttered alone.
Timidly tapped the training hall floor with her combat boot heel.