The eyes of those who saw the trophy immediately widened.
"Golden Lissenblume?"
"A gold of that size..."
"If I win, can I really have that?"
It was Kishian's idea to use a golden Lissenblume flower as the winner's trophy.
I heard there was a tale about a young man in love who stole a Lissenblume flower from the garden of the gods and used it to win the love of a fairy.
It was a tale from the northern region, and it was the first time I had heard of it, but it sounded quite romantic, so I agreed to award the Golden Lissenblume as the winner's trophy.
Holding up the golden flower, which was placed delicately on a velvet cushion, before everyone's eyes, the attendant finally explained the most important part of the event.
"This trophy will be awarded to the one who brings the best game. And..."
The attendant paused for a moment, then pointed to the sisters sitting on the podium and continued speaking.
"The winner will be allowed to present the trophy to either Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess or Her Royal Highness the Princess. Please present the trophy to whomever you consider more beautiful. The person who received the flower will, as a token of her gratitude, give you a very special prize."
The faces of the participants lit up with excitement at the news that if they gave the winner's trophy to one of us, they would receive another prize.
Everyone seemed to be looking forward to that secret reward.
Since it was given directly by the Grand Duchess or the Princess. It must have been something quite valuable, whether it was money, a building, or land.
However, not everyone was expressing such anticipation.
"This rule is a bit cruel. Should I give it to the more beautiful one of the two? Then the one who is not chosen is said to be less beautiful than the other."
"Yeah. Isn't that not a very pleasant situation?"
"It is said that even if you know what the higher-ups are thinking, you never know."
It was quite embarrassing to pretend not to hear all that muttering.
Fortunately, only a few people expressed such doubts.
Most of them seemed excited about the prospect of winning a golden trophy and being rewarded.
There was no need to waste any more time, even for the sake of the excited participants.
Letie and I stood up at the same time and stood in front of the participants.
"Then, let's begin the competition."
"May good luck be with you all."
After briefly wishing them good luck, I gave the signal to the attendant.
The attendant blew the horn hanging around his neck powerfully, and with that, the competition began.
The participants mounted their horses in unison and began to gallop.
Towards the depths of the Schettenholz Forest, where all kinds of monsters are swarming.
I pretended not to see and glanced in Kishian's direction.
I checked to see if he had left safely, but strangely enough, he still hadn't left.
Even though everyone was running towards the forest, he just stood there silently, looking this way.
My side, to be exact.
"..."
Our eyes met briefly, but that was it.
After a regrettably brief moment of eye contact, he quickly mounted his black horse.
After that, like the other participants, he ran towards the forest.
Soon his figure disappeared from sight.
After a while of just staring in the direction he had disappeared in, I was finally able to come to my senses when I heard Letie's voice.
"His Highness, are he going in the opposite direction from the other participants?"
I was just blankly staring at the back of Kishian as he left, and only then did I realize that he was heading in the opposite direction from the other participants.
If you run in that direction, you will reach the eastern side of the forest.
As soon as I thought about it, a feeling of anxiety suddenly came over me.
'East of the forest... why?'
According to my own research, most of the monsters living in the Schettenholz Forest are concentrated in the western part of the forest.
No one knew why they were all gathered in the west.
Anyway, since they were all concentrated on that side, they had to go in that direction to find some decent prey.
So, while I was feeling puzzled, at some point I realized something a little unpleasant.
"Have you been watching the Grand Duke?"
It seemed that Letie had also been watching Kishian, as she noticed that he was heading east.
Why on earth? Why was she looking at Kishian instead of her lover, Duke Herssen?
The Duke of Herssen was also one of the participants in this competition and had just entered the forest, but Letie did not say a word about him.
It was she who first found out and told me that Kishian was heading east, as if ehe had only been looking in the direction in which Kishian had disappeared.
An indescribable emotion weighed on me.
But Letie's answer was simple.
"Yeah, I was looking at the Grand Duke. He seems to be the strongest candidate to win."
It was the kind of thing you could just hear and ignore.
An answer that is nothing special.
For some reason, I couldn't get Letie's answer out of my head for a while.
A strange sense of uneasiness kept poking me uncomfortably in a corner of my heart.
***
The road heading east through the forest was quiet.
That was why all the other participants except for Kishian ran towards the west.
The eastern part of the forest he was heading to was known to be a place where not only monsters but even normal beasts rarely traveled.
It was not a good place to hunt, but he rode east without stopping. There was a reason for that.
'There's no reason why the demons would gather to the west.'
There were no small monsters or beasts in the east, and there must have been a clear reason for that.
Some menacing entity must be nesting in the eastern part of the forest.
As someone who has hunted countless monsters in the monster hunting grounds, he can be certain of this.
So he tied his horse nearby for a secret hunt and moved quietly toward the east.
He crossed the quiet forest on his own two feet without making a sound, without any monsters, beasts, or hunters.
Kishian was after moving like that for about ten minutes.
In that silence, a strange feeling began to be felt.
"..."
Without showing any sign of noticing anything, he quietly turned his gaze and looked to his left.
Although nothing was visible at the moment, there was a constant sense of presence there.
It wasn't a monster or a beast.
There's no way they could move so cunningly and secretly.
Well trained killer.
Kishian guessed the identity of the being following him.
For now, hr pretended not to know and walked silently...
Fortunately, the opportunity came quickly.
Suddenly, somewhere far away, a bird with a clear voice let out a loud cry.
When the concentration of the stalker is momentarily disturbed because of this.
Kissian quickly took out the dagger he had hidden in his bosom and threw it.
The direction was, of course, to the left rear, where the unidentified being was.
"Ahhh! Shit!"
For a trained assassin, the words sounded frivolous and harsh.
Kishian's eyes widened. The voice sounded strangely familiar.
As he was looking in the direction where the dagger was thrown with a hopeful heart, a familiar figure came out limping, just as expected.
"...It was you."
It was Rodrick who appeared.
A tall and stocky man, befitting his rather grand title of Mercenary King.
However, at first glance, he looked like a young gentleman without any hair at all, thanks to his blond hair that looked well-maintained and his white skin that didn't tan easily.
However, he was now walking out with a limp, as if his leg was slightly scratched by the dagger thrown by Kissian.
"No, if you were annoyed by my following, you should have said so instead of just throwing a stick at me? Isn't that against the rules of the competition? It hurts so bad, damn it!"
"I thought you were going to catch on like before. Why didn't you make some noise and follow me?"
Kishian once had his life threatened by an assassin sent by the Emperor, so he immediately threw down his dagger.
But who would have thought it was Rodrick?
Rodrick replied, nervously stanching the bleeding wound.
"No matter what, you're just using a knife all of a sudden... Ah, I won't be able to hunt properly at this rate."
Rodrick's speech was informal.
He was originally not the type to be formal with anyone, but it was even more so when the other person was Kishian.
Kishian and Rodrick had been fighting together for three years, relying on each other in the demon subjugation field.
Even though there was a difference in status, the affection they had for each other while risking their lives to fight did not easily fade.
So Rodrick spoke in a friendly tone, almost as if he was talking to a friend, and Kishian didn't bother to point out his rudeness.
But there was a need to ask why.
"So why did you follow me?"
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