Chapter 99: The Knights’ Tournament (Part 2)Melina kept on introducing the different knight orders to the spectators.

    "Up next, we have the knights that protect our borders from danger and keep the terrors from the Illusive Woods at bay. Give it up for the Knights 7th Order!" the princess exclaimed.

    As the people roared, the knights of the 7th made their entrance, looking quite confident.

    Their group had gone through some of my training, which was already showing some of the results. Nevertheless, they still didn’t look as mighty as my knights.

    Commander Valentina received even more cheers as she stepped into the arena, making me realize she was more popular with the people than I expected.

    After the entrance of the 7th, I could hear some of the guests discussing with each other.

    "Did the 4th give up?" a random man asked.

    "Well, they were last every time. Maybe they wanted to save themselves the embarrassment..." another replied.

    *pfft* I scoffed.

    Before the people could spread any dumb rumors, Melina continued with the speech.

    "Last but not least, we granted their request to be introduced last to the tournament. The group has been helping with the protection of End Town while undergoing rigorous training. Give it up for the Knights 4th Order!" the princess exclaimed.

    However, the cheers and applause were weak, almost as if the people were being forced to clap for them. I could even see the faces of some spectators mocking them before they showed up.

    Nonetheless, as soon as the knights of the 4th appeared flying in the air, the people’s curiosity took over.

    "What is that in the sky?" one spectator asked.

    In a "V" formation, the knights hovered dozens of feet above the arena and slowly descended into the middle, their collective weight and energy slightly cracking the ground beneath them as they touched it.

    After their flying entrance, the people began cheering and screaming like crazy.

    "Flying knights!"

    "That was awesome!"

    The spectators were now completely accepting the knights of the 4th, and all it required was a flashy entrance for them to leave their mark.

    The supreme commander was seething with anger after seeing them coming into the tournament with such determination and power. I even saw a little vein pop out from his temple.

    ’He is so mad...’ I thought as I started chuckling to myself.

    Now that all of the knight orders had been presented, it was time for the contestants to start their fights.

    The tournament was a one-versus-one ladder. The contestants would have their names drawn randomly and fight each other, with the winner going to the next round.

    Each order could have four contestants in the tournament, so naturally, they always chose their best fighters to compete.

    All of the commanders entered the tournament, which was apparently a common occurrence. However, I thought it was kind of unfair since the commanders were supposed to be the most experienced of their groups.

    However, Commander Thomas from the 4th didn’t join the list of fighters, saying he had no problems leaving the tournament to his juniors that year.

    I heard knights from the other orders talking to each other, thinking that Thomas was simply trying to save face by not getting defeated in the tournament again. But in reality, Thomas wanted to show that he did not need to compete to win.

    Even the king and the queen placed their hands on their chins inquisitively, wondering why Thomas had decided to stay out of the tournament. However, when they turned to look at me and saw me grinning from ear to ear, they understood that everything was going according to plan.

    From every order, their contestants consisted of their commander, sub-commander, and their two best senior knights, meaning they were picking their most experienced individuals.

    Nevertheless, the 4th had a completely different thing in mind, with only their sub-commander, Harvey, and three rookies joining the tournament.

    The supreme commander, unable to contain his anger any longer, addressed the king, saying that the 4th was disrespectful to them.

    "Disrespectful? How?" the king asked the supreme commander.

    "Your Highness. They are obviously making a mockery of the tournament by enlisting their rookies to fight out senior knights. They should be disqualified!" Commander Thorne argued.

    The king gazed at Thorne with an intimidating expression I had never seen before, petrifying the supreme commander in his boots.

    "If they are so weak, then the seniors shouldn’t have much trouble winning, right? Let them compete, and don’t ever mention such a stupid and trivial matter to me..." The king said with a serious tone.

    "Know your place, Thorne. No rule says that rookies can’t compete..." he continued, his gaze cold and powerful.

    "Yes, Your Highness. I apologize for my impudence!" the supreme commander said as he kneeled on the ground with a hand on his chest.

    "Good. Then let us commence the tournament!" King Leon exclaimed.

    ’Holy... shit...’ I thought after seeing the serious side of the king.

    All this time, I considered the king to be a really good guy, although I also believed he was somewhat naive. sea??h thё Novёl?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    After hearing that the supreme commander had the most control over what happened with the knights’ orders, I thought the king was just lazy and delegated others to do his job.

    Here is the thing. Even if the king were too lazy to do his job, I still wouldn’t blame him too much unless the kingdom was in a complete state of chaos, of course.

    However, the Sephyr Kingdom was doing relatively well when I first arrived, except for End Town, which turned out to be a scheme from one of the nobles.

    King Leon got to his position after marrying Queen Diana, who technically possessed more power over Leon since she was a direct descendant of the Sephyr bloodline. All this time, I thought he had become the king to marry the love of his life.

    However, just that small interaction with one of his high-ranking subordinates made me realize that Leon did act like a king sometimes, and a scary one at that.

    With their concerns out of the way, the names of knights began getting drawn from the chalice.

    The first few matches were between senior knights, which were quite boring to watch if I’m being honest.

    Their magic took so much time to activate that they barely used it during their matches since it was easy to interrupt their casting with a simple attack.

    "Next fight: sub-commander Harvey from the 4th, VS, sub-commander John from the 5th." The host of the match exclaimed.

    The knight John was from the order that specialized in faster combat with smaller weapons, and their sub-commander was supposedly a prodigy who raised the ranks quickly.

    As soon as the fight started, John launched himself toward Harvey at an incredible speed, making everyone think the match would end in mere seconds. However, the entire arena was surprised after Harvey easily blocked the barrage of attacks with his sword.

    With a massive, powerful swing, Harvey produced a gust of wind that sent John flying off the arena into the wall next to the spectators, losing consciousness and instantly forfeiting the fight.

    The people stayed quiet in disbelief for a few seconds, unable to process what had just happened, when the princess and I started clapping.

    "The winner is Harvey from the 4th!" the host shouted, making the arena roar with excitement.

    The matches continued, with the rookies from the 4th eliminating all of the senior knights from the other orders without much difficulty, making me believe that the final rounds would be between the knights of the 4th.

    However, the commanders didn’t have their titles for nothing, as they could still hold themselves against the rookies, who, quite frankly, were on a completely different level than the rest of the knights.

    Needless to say, the supreme commander was about to explode with anger after seeing the knights of the 4th sweep the ground with the senior knights.

    One of the rookies was eliminated by the commander of the 1st, William, but only after getting a taste of their powers, as he got kicked in the face a few times during the match.

    My knights had not only been training swordsmanship and magic but also martial arts. And even though William won the match, his bruised face let everyone know that it wasn’t an easy fight against the rookie.

    Another rookie was eliminated by the commander of the 3rd, Sara Storm, who could use lightning magic quite fast without needing to chant a long incantation or whatever the hell they said before using magic.

    Nonetheless, she still looked quite beat up after the fight.

    Valentina, the commander of the 7th, eliminated the third rookie. However, Valentina had gone through some of our training, the same with the knights of the 2nd, who proved to be quite tough during the tournament.

    Using her newfound skills, she was able to take on our rookie without receiving not nearly as much damage as the other commanders, which made me both proud and scared at the same time.

    I was proud because she had gotten much stronger thanks to our training and scared because I still wanted the 4th to win the whole tournament.

    Thankfully, we still had Harvey, who was brimming with determination to bring the 4th order to the top.