Chapter 95

#95 Episode. The Tin Knight and the Martial Arts Tournament (2)

Trakus is a big city. A very populated one, at that.

Trakus serves as a logistics hub, making it easy for travelers from other countries to flow in.

The Martial Arts Tournament held in Trakus doesn’t care much about participants’ identities; as long as you pay a small entry fee, anyone can join.

Performing well in the Trakus Tournament can be a significant milestone for an individual.

This tournament only happens once every two years.

What happens when all these conditions come together?

Dorothea summed it up in one word.

“…There sure are a stupid number of participants.”

With a voice that sounded half-bored, Sophia replied leisurely.

“Well, this tournament is quite prestigious. Even if you don’t win or make it to the finals, just making it to the main event seems to get you recognized. For adventurers, it’s easier to rank up, mercenaries get a pay raise, and wandering knights can get employed in high-status territories.”

“So everyone’s got their eyes on the prize and rushing in, huh?”

“Still, our team event is somewhat better, right? Due to needing teamwork, there aren’t that many teams involved. It’s the individual matches that are tough. There are over ten thousand participants just in the preliminaries.”

Of course, it’s obvious that filtering out that many people one-on-one is nearly impossible.

If they opt to forcefully increase the number of arenas, it would put a huge burden on the organizers and, more importantly, it would be hard to sell tickets to those arenas.

Conversely, if they conduct duels in a limited number of easily manageable arenas, it’s evident that the schedule would stretch out like a rubber band.

Thus, the preliminaries for the Trakus Martial Arts Tournament proceed as follows:

One. Divide the ten thousand participants into 15 blocks.

Two. Stuff the participants of the same block into one arena.

Three. Now, start murdering each other. Only the last two standing move on to the finals. (P.S. The champion enters from the round of 16.)

Additionally, while there are rules about being eliminated and stepping down, everyone is responsible for their own weapons, and there are no safety measures in place.

This tournament actively contributes to reducing carbon dioxide, making it quite eco-friendly.

Of course, neither Dorothea (occupation: corpse recycler) nor Sophia (diet: human blood) held any special sentiments regarding the tournament’s population reduction policy.

They were simply focused on watching Adel, who was in the middle of the arena, from below the spectator stands.

“Ladies, I’ve brought snacks. Mind having a little?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ guarantees he didn’t put anything weird in there!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ insists that watching tournaments without snacking is a crime!]

As the Tin Knight, who was naturally playing the role of a lackey, returned from running errands with Hindler, Dorothea shot him a dumbfounded look.

“Aren’t you gonna at least pretend to be worried? You’re his mentor after all.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ is evaluated as being the type who pretends to worry while not actually doing anything!]

“Wanna get hit?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ points out that if he gets hit now, the peanut snacks will disappear with a hostage situation!]

After carefully placing down the snacks he couldn’t even eat, the Tin Knight puffed up his chest.

Looking at Adel, he said,

[The ‘Tin Knight’ proclaims his apprentice won’t lose in a place like this!]

[He explains that if she were going to lose here, she would have already been smashed by him!]

“Well, that’s quite a way to express your trust.”

Despite leaving a biting comment, Dorothea returned her focus to the arena.

***

There’s a saying that goes, “a square rock gets hit.”

It’s a phrase used in various situations, but in this case, the reason Adel is ‘odd’ is quite simple.

She just stands out in appearance.

With her cascading, vibrant blonde hair and striking violet eyes.

Her skin looks soft and clean, far removed from hard labor.

Among the rugged men, she stands out as being at least a head smaller.

And to top it all off, she’s wielding a long, oversized two-handed sword that doesn’t quite suit her size.

One participant chuckled wryly and spoke.

“Hey, little lady. I think you’ve mistaken the place. This isn’t a playground for kids!”

The man looked around, seemingly seeking validation among the others.

He thought the surrounding participants would support him.

Then, he saw what he didn’t expect.

Participants were looking at him as if he were an idiot.

“Seriously, you can see the blonde hair and purple eyes and you still say something so stupid?”

“What a fool.”

“Leave him. He probably looks like the kind of guy who’d ask the duke’s house why the garden is closed off.”

“Dude, how rural must you be to not know the Lion Duke’s Bloodline?”

Only then did the man grasp the situation, his face flushing with embarrassment.

In truth, there were a few others among the participants who also failed to connect Adel’s appearance with the Lion Duke’s Bloodline immediately, but they quickly silenced themselves or tried to blend in, acting like they already knew.

It was one of those moments when the saying “stay quiet to avoid trouble” shines bright.

Even though she was just standing quietly, Adel managed to draw all the attention to herself, and she let out a small sigh inside.

‘Here we go again.’

The gazes directed at Adel were varied.

The most common were wary ones, and the least common were relaxed ones.

With her childlike appearance and cute face that makes her look younger than her age, Adel certainly had the looks to evoke complacency in others, but that effect diminished significantly in the shadow of the Lion Duke’s Bloodline’s fame.

Being noticed in a chaotic situation like this brings no benefits, so she was starting the battle with a considerable penalty.

If she had dyed her hair or donned a hood, the situation might have been different, but Adel didn’t do that.

For Adelheid von Lenart, this tournament was her chance to prove herself.

Nobody earns medals by hiding their accomplishments and quietly blending into the background.

─Beeeeeep!

With the sound of the starting whistle, participants began to act according to their strategies.

Some rushed towards others without thinking, some weighed the situation and held back, while others formed alliances as if they’d rehearsed it.

Among them, some quickly charged at Adel.

‘Looks like the precious little lady wants to pretend to be a warrior, but this isn’t a place for someone like you!’

‘The fact she’s wielding a sword as big as herself proves she’s just pretending to be a warrior!’

‘She looks like just a kid, but everyone’s frightened because of the Lion Duke’s Bloodline. Pathetic.’

‘Even if she doesn’t make the finals, just taking down someone from the Lenart family will bring home the bacon! Time to go for it!’

Each had different thoughts in mind, but the sharpness of the blades they wielded was uniformly keen.

And Adel tightly gripped the hilt of her sword.

She remembered the words of the Tin Knight, her mentor.

「The ‘Tin Knight’ says the most effective strategy in a two-person survival rule is a “fishing strategy,” and the second most effective is becoming a bomb no one wants to touch!」

Adel trusted the Tin Knight.

So she did just as he said.

Buzz.

The moment Adel’s sword drew a wide arc, one of the participants charging at her took to the sky.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

Like dancing, Adel continued to spin.

The blades aimed at her couldn’t keep up with her nimble movements and sliced through the air, while their owners were compelled to take the brunt of her two-handed sword’s direct hit.

In a single moment, Adel shattered four participants and let her sword drop down.

Since the blade was covered with a long sheath, the participants who were struck didn’t get sliced in half.

This was one of the few displays of Adel’s childlike behavior.

Thanks to gaining some experience while training her disciples at TikTok, she had learned the importance of ‘holding back’ in sparring.

Unless faced with superhuman opponents like Rene or Gerhardt, she understood that swinging her sword with full force against regular folks could cost lives.

With that in mind, she expressed her reluctance to butcher competitors at a martial arts tournament, leading the Tin Knight to grant her permission to attach the blade cover without a second thought.

His philosophy was that it was better to swing a dull sword with all one’s strength than to cautiously wield a sharp one.

Moreover, just because the blade was covered didn’t mean it was safe.

A blunt hunk of metal can crush flesh and shatter bones by its mere weight.

Swinging a blade would guarantee death, while using a blunt one might be just a terrible injury.

It seemed more like a clumsy mercy than a true conviction.

Thus, it was merely Adel’s whim.

However, if one considers that one of Adel’s aims was fame and honor, it also wasn’t a bad move.

Smack! Thwack! Bang!

A vast empty space formed around Adel.

This was the result of her sending everyone who approached her flying.

In other words, Adel only targeted those who dared to close in on her.

The other participants also began to realize Adel’s strategy.

‘If we engage her head-on, we’ll be taken down. So, don’t touch her, huh?’

‘Sure, only two can make it to the finals, so we don’t have to take her down to win.’

They understood Adel’s intentions.

But that didn’t mean they’d comply with her plan.

Adel’s actions were only beneficial in situations where engaging her was scarier than taking out all other participants.

Furthermore, for participants genuinely vying for victory, it was often more advantageous to take down stronger adversaries amidst the chaos.

Some participants eyed each other excitedly.

“Argh!”

One participant was forced into Adel’s zone after being kicked away by another.

While Adel once again sent her opponent flying, this was just the beginning.

Skilled participants began forcibly pushing those with lesser skills into Adel’s territory.

They adjusted their battle positions cleverly, pushed, or even grabbed opponents by the neck and tossed them over.

Adel dealt with everything head-on.

As they witnessed this, some participants scoffed.

‘Her moves are too simple. A proper strategy must constantly adapt to the situation.’

‘Handling a two-handed sword requires heavy stamina at best. Even swinging a sword the length of her arms can exhaust her; imagine a sword as long as she is!’

‘I’ll just wear her down and then strike when the time’s right.’

They felt a sense of amusement.

Adel was like a trash can in the middle of the arena, effortlessly handling whatever got thrown her way.

How long had it been since they started tossing the other participants around like trash?

They began to feel something was strange.

‘Why… is she still standing? It feels like we’ve been going for ages!’

Of course, while it’s not uncommon to swing a sword for hours during training, that’s only when one can concentrate solely on the sword itself.

In a situation where anyone might attack, one can’t simply dodge all the ambushes while swinging swords, and it requires much more focus and stamina compared to casual training.

So why did that girl maintain such a calm expression?

Why was the momentum of her swings not lessening but actually sharpening?

They had no idea.

For Adel, who had persevered through the insane training methods of the Tin Knight, the current situation—the ability to simply rest in one place and only occasionally counter or evade—seemed like a breeze.

They could never understand what it meant to train under a magical automaton that knew nothing of fatigue or injury, nor could they grasp how to keep up with that frantic schedule while somehow following along.

Time passed, participants dwindled, and there were no longer any competitors with inferior skills left to become bait.

Amidst it all, Adel stood calmly in her position, looking almost slightly exhilarated.

The remaining participants regarded her with a dumbfounded expression.

And soon, they turned their gazes back to battling among themselves.

No one dared to challenge Adel.

In this way, Adel’s spot in the finals was secured.

---