Bella felt a little distressed and wanted to appease her immediately.
“Lady Bella, the qualifying match is about to begin. Are you there? If you can hear me, please go to the arena immediately.”
From outside of the locker room came the voice of the Knight’s Union staff. Bella had been in the locker room for a long time. Martin was a little anxious and afraid of any changes.
“Looks like I’ll have to leave for a bit. Wait here! By the way, I’ve taken away all of your clothes. If you don’t want others to see you naked, wait here till I get back!”
Bella kissed Aurora and Daphne on their cheek and left the two blushing girls in the locker room. Before leaving, Bella didn’t hesitate to place her precious invisibility cloak on the changing room door, so that even if someone came in, they wouldn’t see this particular changing room.
After hearing the sound of the door being locked, Aurora and Daphne didn’t dare to struggle. If Bella had taken away all their clothes, it would still be perilous for them to escape even if they managed to break free. At present, they only assumed that this was all a wicked prank and that Bella wouldn’t do anything to them.
Olsylvia City, the First Arena in the Knight’s Union branch.
This arena was similar to the gladiator arena of ancient Rome. There were only a few people in the audience surrounding the stage field. It was a private match. Only Martin, the person in charge from the Knight’s Union, his trusted aides, as well as Dragon Knight Natasha, Dragon Knight Lisha, and Bella’s knight’s attendant, Shirley were present.
This place was a paradise for knights to compete on horseback because it wasn’t a life-and-death battle. The knights participating in the qualifying match were required to use the training pikes used during the events instead of real ones. These pikes were made of wood and had blunt pike heads, which couldn’t kill anyone.
Aside from having to wear the standard knight’s heavy armor, there weren’t any other requirements. They could even wear the attire of the God Race from head to toe if they wanted to. They weren’t required to use a knight’s shield either. The “Moses Warhorse” was exclusively used for the match and provided by the Knight’s Union.
Moses Warhorses were raised in the knight’s country. It was Octavia Empire’s best horse breed and one of the three standard components of the knights of Octavia Empire. The other two were the “Duke Pike” and the “Cecil Shield.”
This time around, the Dragon Knight qualifying match employed wheel battle. When Bella came to the match field, she looked at the battle scheme. The nine opponents against Bella were all Holy Knights. Martin was not particularly principled. The bribe she had sent was for nothing. After the match, she would make this scoundrel, who didn’t know the rules, spit out all those precious gems!
There were two places on the opponent table that had traces of being modified. Bella could vaguely recognize the names of Aurora and Daphne from the altered words. Fortunately, Bella was lucky and “killed” the Dusk Knight and the Thunder Knight in advance. If Bella were to fight against them, she would be a bit reluctant to go all out.
From the referee’s seat, Martin looked with a sullen expression at Bella. Bella was riding a snow-white horse and wearing Dusk Knight Daphne’s armor, “Darkness Assault Suit” – a full set of dark armor with strange decorative patterns carved on it. The visual impact alone was very intimidating.
In Bella’s left hand was Thunder Knight Aurora’s shield, “Light of Thunder” – a dark blue shield with lightning bolts carved on the surface. It was a Holy Weapon ranked equipment, and was said to be able to reflect lightning magic attacks.
“Damn it, where the hell did Aurora and Daphne disappear? The two of them came this morning. Now, they’re gone, but all their equipment is here. Who can tell me what’s going on?”
Martin planned to embezzle the precious gems that Bella had sent but not do anything. What a joke! If Dragon Knight qualifications could be sold, the people in the Knight’s Union headquarters would be the first to get rich. How could the people in the branches have the chance to intervene?
Although Bella had a letter of introduction from the Dragon Princess, her Holy Knight status was fake. Martin didn’t know that Bella was the deceased Princess Felia reported on the data. He was afraid that Bella’s false Holy Knight identity would be exposed when she went to the Octavia Empire to verify her Dragon Knight identity.
At that time, Bella, as an aristocrat, would have a way out. The unlucky one would be Martin himself. He initially thought that Bella wanted to buy a Holy Knight identity for fun. He never expected that her goal was Dragon Knight. He tried to refuse but couldn’t resist the bribe of those precious gems. Compelled by circumstances, Martin had to make such a move to block Bella’s Dragon Knight application in the arena.
In the audience, Shirley looked at Bella curiously. She didn’t know why Bella was wearing someone else’s armor. Dragon Knight Lisha and Dragon Knight Natasha had a subtle expression on their faces. They recognized that Bella was wearing the knight armor of Daphne and Aurora.
From what Lisha and Natasha knew, never mind Aurora, Daphne, the cold knight, would never lend her armor to someone else. Where did Bella get their armor and shield from? How that came about was suspicious. She couldn’t have been up to no good and bullied girls again, could she?
It was a one-on-one match between knights, with the two knights standing at a distance from each other. Then, the two sides charged towards each other, face to face. The knight who fell off their horse after being hit by the wooden pike would be the loser. If it were a draw, the two sides would exchange their starting positions and try again until one side was thrown off their horse.
At present, the highest level of participation in this match was restricted to Holy Knights. The Dragon Knight’s wyvern mounts were too large. If they competed in this manner, the venue was not large enough to accommodate it. Even the headquarters of the Knight’s Union couldn’t house this form of Dragon Knight battles.
Bella’s first opponent was Holy Knight Pico. Before the hapless fellow could react, Bella had sent him flying into the sky instead of his horse. Bella didn’t even need a pike. She used Aurora’s shield, “Light of Thunder” to launch the attack.
Martin’s expression changed when he saw that Bella had sent three Holy Knights flying, one after another. This female knight had the strength of a Holy Knight and perhaps even a Dragon Knight. To be able to send three Holy Knights flying in a row without any change in her expression meant that her strength had reached the standard of a high order Holy Knight.
“Someone, please invite Lord Paul and tell him that I have a favor to ask.”
Although the Knight’s Union had regulations that stated that Dragon Knights couldn’t take part in such matches if a Dragon Knight didn’t summon his wyvern mount, who could tell that he was a Dragon Knight? Just for those precious gems, Martin planned to use his trump card.
Paul was a quasi-Dragon Knight because he hadn’t yet found a suitable wyvern mount. He had been acting as the underground chief of this Knight’s Union branch. He had many private transactions with Martin, who was in charge.
After winning seven consecutive matches, Bella met quasi-Dragon Knight Paul, her first strong opponent in this arena match. The middle-aged knight was wearing the Dragon Knight’s standard armor. Looking at the dragon patterns on the armor, Bella wanted to complain. Didn’t they say that Dragon Knight couldn’t take part in this match?!
In the audience, Natasha and Lisha seemed to have discovered something. Lisha frowned. After a brief exchange with Natasha, she quietly left the audience section and went out. Although Lisha was the princess of Octavia Empire, she was the kind with no real power and had little control over Martin, so Lisha planned to look for someone to help.
