“Mother, and distinguished guests, I am Milin Klauschel. I apologize for the wait.”
Milin bowed with rare elegance and solemnity toward her mother in the seat of honor and the neighboring envoys beside her—primarily the Red Robe Cardinal from the Holy Nation and the gentle-looking Elf ministers.
As for the familiar local nobles of the Northland, she simply blinked and stuck out her tongue in greeting, as was her custom.
“Sigh. This child…”
“Marchioness, that is just how she is. You should be used to it by now.”
The old hunter, Edmund, was dressed in formal attire for once.
He offered a kind smile to Milin while comforting the sighing Governor of the Foothills Province, Marchioness Stone.
During her greetings, Milin’s gaze inevitably swept over the presence that displeased her—Prince Nolan, who sat right next to her mother.
Today, he wore a crisp set of Nolan-style cavalry attire, a design that looked practical for movement.
His snow-white short hair was combed perfectly flat. After locking eyes with his sullen purple pupils for just 1 second, Milin averted her gaze in disgust.
She was not worried about being rude, as she was certain he had done the exact same thing.
“My dear daughter,” Meliya spoke softly from the main seat.
Her gaze drifted over the floral crown on her daughter’s head and the flowers pinned all over her clothes, and she smiled with satisfaction.
“It seems you received many floral crowns again this year. Did you thank everyone properly?”
“Yes, Mother!”
Her mother’s smile instantly cleared the gloom from her heart. Milin bolstered her spirits and responded.
“Good. Then I shall announce the start. Go and prepare with the others. Since you participated of your own accord, you must perform well. Do not disappoint the teachers who taught you.”
“I understand.”
Milin withdrew to the contestants’ preparation area as instructed, listening to her mother stand and address the entire assembly.
When the topic of teachers was mentioned, Milin noticed a faint trace of sorrow in her mother’s expression—because Vera had not come today either.
She knew her mother must be worried about Vera, who was currently recovering from an illness in the city… and she felt the same.
‘She was strict during teaching and training, it’s true… but she never once missed my birthday. Could this illness that’s keeping her bedridden be some particularly awful, incurable disease?’
Milin made a silent resolution that once the coming-of-age ceremony was over, she would take the best doctor in the city to visit Vera.
“Hey, hey… Milin?”
While she was planning her next steps, someone suddenly called her name.
She turned and saw a young man dressed in magnificent clothes decorated with shiny gold foil.
“Brother Bert, so you are a contestant in the Martial Tournament? No wonder I didn’t see you in the VIP seats.”
He was Bert, a noble youth from the Central Realm.
Milin took a red Thousand-day Lotus from him, snapped the stem, and pinned it to her clothes like the other flowers.
“I’ve been participating all along! Did you really not notice?”
Milin’s acceptance of the flower had initially made Bert happy, but her subsequent reaction caused his face to crumple.
It seemed as though even his glittering golden bangs lost some of their luster.
“How could I notice? There are so many people participating. Besides, when we chatted before, you never told me. But congratulations anyway on making it to the finals today.”
“I-Is that so? Naturally, for this Young Master!” Milin’s polite words caused him to straighten his back instantly.
“Winning against that bunch in the preliminary competition was far too easy for me… Only here can I truly stretch my limbs!”
“Hmph… Then I hope the two of us meet in a match. This Miss won’t go easy on you.”
“Of course. You better wait for me in the finals! But God forbid I run into that terrifying woman before I meet you… Speaking of which, where is that woman?”
In the face of Milin’s provocative tone, Bert patted his chest confidently.
However, as he did so, he cast apprehensive glances at the surrounding contestants, trying to locate that memorable maid.
“…Who knows? Perhaps she isn’t coming.”
“Huh?”
The Master of Ceremonies was already calling the sixteen contestants to the stage.
As the Duchess’s daughter, Milin’s name was naturally called first.
She left a bewildered Bert behind and took the lead, standing in the center of the Martial Arts Arena.
Even the MC’s voice, amplified by a Magic Power megaphone, could not drown out the thunderous cheers of the audience as she made her official appearance.
In truth, they felt the introduction was unnecessary… because almost everyone was there for her.
The MC had to shout at the top of his lungs to make the introductions of the other contestants heard.
Among the subsequent participants, only Bert garnered some attention from the crowd—likely because his extravagant spending and habit of throwing money around lately had been featured in recent issues of the Northern Times.
There were sixteen finalists in total. Aside from Milin and Bert, eight were officers from the local Northland military and well-known local adventurers.
The remaining five were obscure rangers from foreign lands… two of them were even an Elf and a Demi-human.
“The final contestant is Miss Ren Ashus from the Crown City! Miss Ren Ashus, please come to the stage!”
But in the end, one person was still missing.
The MC was practically screaming now, fearing his voice would be buried by the audience’s shouting as before.
However, even as he called out and the scene gradually quieted down, the sixteenth contestant did not step onto the arena.
‘…Big liar.’
Milin’s fingertips dug into her palms, and her expression instantly darkened.
Beside her, Bert had intended to strike up a conversation, but upon seeing her face, he tactfully kept his mouth shut.
“Uh, then we shall consider Miss Ren Ashus to have forfeited… but that leaves an empty spot…” Seeing that no one was coming up, the MC had no choice but to announce it.
He then ran to the VIP seats and asked the Duchess:
“Duchess, according to past tradition, we may allow a guest to fill this vacancy. Do you have a suitable candidate?”
“Hmm… There shouldn’t be one this year, right? If there truly isn’t anyone, then just let one contestant have a bye.”
The Duchess gave a somewhat disappointed smile.
The MC felt confused, but since he didn’t know the background story, he obviously couldn’t understand why the Duchess would react this way.
Just as he was about to withdraw, Prince Nolan, who was sitting beside the Duchess, stood up and volunteered.
“Duchess, how about letting me fill this vacancy? I have always wanted to exchange blows with the young talents of the Northland.”