Crest of the Strongest Knight

Chapter 56 - Congratulations

"Congratulations!"

The cheer was echoed by everyone once Medrauta and Viviane had returned to the teahouse. It was a rather joyous moment that had both the knight and her lady blushing bashfully despite their hands being joined tighter than ever.

"I'd say the same, but the two of you have been sitting on this for ages," Brigitte said.

"Brig! Levant! What're you two doing here!?" Medrauta exclaimed.

"Our booth ran out of stuff to sell, so we're closed for the day. The princess saw you and Viviane heading back to the dorms, so she kinda figured that somethin' like this might happen and grabbed us."

Medrauta's eyes settled on Gwenhwyfar, surprised that the princess would go so far just to make up for what she'd done. It truly was unusual behavior coming from her. After all, Gwenhwyfar's high-handedness wasn't exactly a secret. Maybe she actually feels bad about the whole ordeal, huh...?

"Eh!? The princess did!?" Viviane turned to Gwenhwyfar, shocked. "Y-You really didn't need to, Your Imperial Highness!"

"Hmph. I shall be the one who decides what I need or do not need to do, Lady Viviane. Do not forget that." Gwenhwyfar crossed her arms, tossing her hair contemptuously. "Perhaps it is because of the recent debacle with my brother, but I've been feeling particularly repentant lately. I thought it might be prudent to have Dame Brigitte and Lord Levant take over your advertising duties for the rest of the day while the two of you frolic about in the festival."

Medrauta raised an eyebrow. She certainly would've liked to take the opportunity to have a date with Viviane, but it just didn't feel fair to push all their work on Brigitte and Levant. "While that's nice and all, we can't just foist everything onto them. I mean, they just finished with their own booth."

"Actually, we're fine with it." Brigitte said. "Lady Maria's with her father, so Levant's shit outta luck when it comes to getting a date. Meanwhile, I've already done my qualifiers so I've nothing else to do."

"Speaking of qualifiers... You missed your chance, didn't you, Medrauta?" Leticia turned to Medrauta apologetically, her expression downcast. "I'm sorry. I should've taken the first shift after all."

"It's all good, Leticia. If anything, it means I'll be able to cheer you on during your matches," Medrauta grinned. "You think you can win this year now that I'm outta the tourney?"

"Hm..." Leticia pursed her lips as she thought of the challengers that could pose a threat. "When it comes to duels, I think I can win. At least, I'd place within the top three. Overall though, I doubt it. Brigitte's going to be competing and so is Kate."

"Ahh, Dame Kaitlyn's your childhood friend, isn't she? I've never had a chance to spar with her outside of the admissions tourney, but I remember that she was quite strong."

The admissions tourney was held every year at Avalyne Academy. As the only public academy based in the capital, Avalyne Academy was the most popular choice for newly-knighted squires, and while the campus grounds and housing spaces were by no means small, there was only a limited number of first-year students that the academy could take in.

As a result, the admissions tourney was designed to filter out the thousands of applicants in a simple ladder-style tournament of duels where only the top one-hundred competitors would be granted admission. Of course, the higher one ranked, the better the benefits, especially for someone like Medrauta who wouldn't have been able to afford the exorbitant tuition otherwise.

Leticia nodded. "I thought she'd win the whole thing until I saw you knock her off the platform. Honestly, I don't think she's ever experienced such a one-sided fight before."