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One of the knights called for everyone’s attention. Beside that knight were a few other knights and Commander Zaman, who spoke to the applicants.

"Congratulations to you all. You will all soon become knights, the last line of defense of our kingdom. You all come from different walks of life, commoner, noble, it matters not. What matters is what you will do now that you are here. We will go into more detail during orientation because there is still one final test, only for those who performed above the rest: the tournament. This tournament isn’t just a whimsical test thrown into the knight selection; it holds a special place among our traditions that date back to when our organization was founded. People from all over come to watch the tournament, not only for the entertainment but because they get to see the future defenders of the kingdom. To those who will be chosen to participate in the tournament, make sure to keep this in mind when you fight on the stage."

’In other words, no underhanded tricks…’

Sol understood what the Commander implied by the end of his speech. The people expect the Royal Knights to be honorable and trustworthy; it wouldn’t do to use underhanded tricks during the fights. This would be severely disadvantageous to certain applicants who specialize in more roundabout ways of fighting, but it couldn’t be helped.

The Commander continued his speech for a minute longer before wrapping it up.

"Now we will begin to call upon the top 16 applicants to come up and follow us to go further into detail."

He gave a nod to the knight beside him, who took a step forward and began to call out the numbers of the applicants going to the tournament, starting from last place. The knight also stated which floor the applicants managed to reach.

"16th place, number 753, 11th floor…"

One by one, people from the crowd emerged as they were called upon.

"6th place, number 1903, 3rd floor."

"5th place, number 712, 2nd floor."

"4th place, number 1112, 2nd floor."

"3rd place, number 241, Full clear."

Sol raised an eyebrow and stood up, ’So I got third, huh…’

It was disappointing to hear he didn’t get first after all the effort he put into clearing the tower as fast as possible, but he didn’t use all of his abilities, so that served as some consolation to him. He walked over and joined the other group of contestants as the knight called the next person up.

"2nd place, number 17, Full clear."

"I abstain."

"Huh?"

The knight and everyone in the room looked towards the brown haired woman who spoke up. The knight asked once more to confirm.

"You don’t want to compete in the tournament?"

"No."

Most of the crowd was confused. She was clearly one of the best contenders to win and be immediately promoted to knight captain; it didn’t make sense to turn away the opportunity. Victor, who was also within the crowd, had an incredulous look on his face, which quickly turned to joy. Commander Zaman also had a unique expression as he was trying to figure out the angle of the A-Ranker. There was nothing they could possibly gain from being an ordinary knight; the resources they had for the base rank weren’t worth it for someone like her.

The knight looked towards his Commander for insight on what he should do. While it wasn’t the first time someone refused to participate in the tournament, it was usually one of the lower ranked applicants. It was not an issue to simply swap them out for another applicant, but this was different. One of the best fighters, who would surely put on a good show for the audience, didn’t wish to participate.

Zaman asked the woman for confirmation, "If she does not wish to participate, then she doesn’t have to. All ranks will be rolled up, and rank 17th will join the tournament."

The knight nodded. "Yes, sir. 17th place, number 312, 11th floor."

A large man carrying a massive claymore jumped out of the crowd and gladly joined the tournament contestants’ group. He knew he had no chance of winning but was eager to make his debut and, if he performed well enough, make some connections to accelerate his rise to fame.

The knight then called the first-place applicant. "1st place, number 1318, Full clear."

Sol prayed in his thoughts, ’I hope 1st place also concedes. It would make my life way easier.’

His wish was quickly squashed as Victor walked towards the group without saying a single word, but even without the man saying anything, his emotions could easily be seen.

’Guess he’s also happy she forfeited.’

While Sol was thinking this simply eliminated one hard fight in his path to winning, Victor already believed this tournament was in the bag.

’Hahaha. I was worried for nothing.’ Victor then gazed towards Sol, who was also looking at him. ’Heh. He thinks he stands a chance.’

With all 16 applicants chosen for the tournament, a knight led them to another room.

The rest of the applicants who weren’t taking part in the tournament were taken to the residential area of the headquarters. There, they would get their rooms assigned and be oriented on the upcoming weeks, as they wouldn’t become knights just yet. They needed to be trained on a variety of subjects ranging from combat and tactics to etiquette, as they would also be dealing with nobility and representatives.

With the top 16 in a smaller conference room, Zaman personally appeared and shed light on the full rules of the tournament.

"I will keep this brief as I have another meeting soon. This tournament will be a seeded bracket where you will face off against opponents in one on one elimination. There are no second chances: you lose, you’re out. The tournament will take place over the course of three days. The first day will be the round of sixteen, the second day the quarterfinals, and the third day will be the semifinals, followed by the finals on the same day."

Sol found this weird. ’Couldn’t this all take place in one day? Surely we have healers to fully recover between matches.’

The Commander omitted this fact regarding the tournament, but it had the additional function of boosting the economy of the city. With merchants of all kinds traveling to the capital to make a fortune, the tournament needed to be split into multiple days to give the merchants and their artisans enough time to make specialized merchandise of the contestants.

Sol didn’t speak up as he didn’t find it too important to clarify and listened to the rest of the rules. Most consumables were banned, and they could only bring two unique rank items to the fight. While they wanted it to be a spectacle, they didn’t want the contestants to bulldoze the competition with better items. All the contestants were at least B-Rank, so it was expected for them to all have at least one unique ranked item by now if they were savvy with their coins. While unique ranked items were powerful, with each contestant having at most two, they believed it would be balanced out so the truly stronger contestant would win.

Once done going over a few more specifics, the Commander ended the meeting.

"That will be all. Follow Knight Jacob, who will lead you all to your accommodations. I won’t see any of you until after the tournament, so I will say this now. Good luck, and may the best fighter win."