I Became a Tin Knight
Chapter 94: The Tin Knight and The Martial Arts Tournament (1)

You were extremely excited.

The results of the training had exceeded expectations.

Adelaide was a genius—especially in terms of physical abilities.

While aspects like strength and endurance seemed to have hardly been trained before meeting you, her reflexes, rapid recovery, and sharp senses were nothing short of innate talents.

They were so excellent that they overshadowed her other talents like comprehension of martial arts and judgment, which were relatively decent.

If her software was intermediate to advanced, her hardware was top-notch.

The more you trained her, the more she grew. Also, since she had no foundation, she had no strange habits to correct and no unnecessary stubbornness—she followed your guidance without resistance.

From a teaching standpoint, it was rare to find such a delightful talent.

Therefore, you taught Adelaide to the best of your ability.

“You know, it’s good that you’re working hard, but think about Adel’s limits, too. You’re pushing too hard.”

When Dorothea said such things to you, you couldn’t help but tilt your head.

You had the insight inherited from the Tin Knight.

It was a useful skill even against unfamiliar opponents, but for Adelaide, whom you had directly trained and confirmed her abilities, it functioned almost like a precision measuring device.

You were actively utilizing this, and while you always pushed Adelaide to her limits, you never truly exceeded them.

Such training might yield immediate results, but in the long term, it would only accumulate fatigue and damage to the body, ultimately becoming a loss.

Numerically speaking, out of 100 action points, you would use 30 points in strength training, 30 points in evasion training, 30 points in sword training, and instead of exhausting her with a final run, you would now implement 10 points into mana training.

You, who took pride in your self-made schedule, couldn’t understand Dorothea’s words, but soon thought she must be misunderstanding something and began to explain.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ argues that he is training Adel with full consideration of her limits!]

At your words, the witch stared at you blankly, then she said one thing, “Does the limit you’re speaking of include mental aspects?”

You fell silent.

Such factors were not included in your calculations.

The Tin Knight’s insight and perception didn’t extend to a person’s mental state.

The witch, leaning against the wall askew, continued speaking, “That kid has a goal to inherit the domain left by her father. She has the will to help her mother, and the motivation to become a new self that’s not as powerless as before. Her personality itself is quite naive and innocent, so even if she suffers, she tends to shake it off after a while. However—“ the witch added. “Enduring well and being unaffected are different things. If you confuse that, it’ll become troublesome later.”

With those final words, the witch left, grumbling that she had given unnecessary advice.

Outside the monitor, you thought.

If there was fatigue, it was right to use it to the limit. Leaving action points unused was wasteful.

Expecting you to account for intangible data was too much.

Inside the Tin Knight, you reflected.

People couldn’t be interpreted by numbers alone. Even if there was no problem physically, there was enough possibility for mental issues.

If you truly considered Adelaide as a comrade and pupil, you should have thought about the pressure she might feel.

The you outside the monitor and the you inside the Tin Knight had different thoughts and held different impressions, but that didn’t mean you were two different people. People were beings that naturally held contradictory emotions and desired two different things simultaneously.

You suddenly felt a strange heaviness in your body.

It felt as if you had been drifting aimlessly in the void before suddenly planting your feet on the ground.

The you beyond the monitor looked around.

A small, enclosed room.

An isolated space with no one but you.

A body that never felt hunger and never needed sleep.

If this was a dream, there was no problem.

But if it wasn’t a dream, if it wasn’t data, if it wasn’t a game, if everything was reality, what about you?

What are you?

It was then, as you were feeling stifled.

“Sir Tin?”

You stared at the monitor, simultaneously, the other you shifted his gaze to look at the person besides you.

There stood Sophia.

Sophia, who had been looking at you with blood-tinged pink eyes, soon smiled with her eyes and said, “When Miss Adel wakes up, how about having a small party to celebrate her passing the test? We could also replenish her nutrients before the tournament starts.

Well, since neither I nor Sir Tin are good at cooking, we’d have to ask Miss Dorothea, but don’t you think she’ll do it in the end, even while grumbling?

You imagined the scene Sophia described.

That witch, merciless to enemies but soft on companions, would surely do so.

You suddenly felt cheerful.

The stifling weight pressing down on your body dissipated, and the usual sensation of floating returned.

As if you had stayed up all night without sleeping for a long time, as if you were slightly tipsy, as if in a dream-like state, you opened your mouth.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ shamelessly declares that grocery shopping is one of his specialties!]

***

Usually, the lord of a large city held immense authority and power.

The larger the domain, the more economically affluent, the stronger the military power, all of these become the lord’s strength.

However, Thracus was an exception, where the lord’s authority and presence were not so strong.

Partly because the presence of Kalidahs, called the strongest champion ever, overshadowed them relatively, and partly due to the characteristics of the city of Thracus.

If it were a domain that a specific family had built up from scratch, the influence of the lord and his family would be great, but Thracus’s growth was more influenced by external capital than the efforts of the lord’s family.

In other words, if a sponsor said, “Hey, Lord, do this for me,” it was difficult for the lord to openly ignore it.

Therefore, the Lord of Thracus lamented, “Damn, I don’t know if I’m a lord or a salesman.”

“Still, it’s not a bad plan, is it? This tournament is attracting about 50% more people than last time, so there’s justification if we say it’s to commemorate that.”

Despite his confidant’s consolation, the Lord of Thracus’s face wouldn’t brighten, “Isn’t it a problem that we have to rearrange the entire latter half of the schedule? There will be complaints from nobles who have planned their travel according to the existing tournament schedule. We’ll have to persuade the participants, too.”

Create an additional event where the winners of the individual and team matches can compete.

This request from Franka Aglaia was the root cause of the lord’s furrowed brow.

In the Empire, those with power obtained wealth, while in the Federation, the wealthy were the powerful.

The Aglaia family was one of the wealthiest even within the Federation, and also the biggest sponsor of Thracus.

And Franka was the precious daughter of the Aglaia family.

While the succession rights to the family were held by Aglaia’s younger brother, the favor she received from the family head was no less than his.

“Haa, there’s no choice. Proceed as requested.”

Thus, the lord, despite his bitter expression, carried out Franka’s request.

The carriage the lord rode in, every piece of clothing he wore at parties were from the Federation, and he was afraid to even imagine what cold wind would blow if he refused this request.

Well, sponsors making unexpected requests is one of the regular events that happens every time. I guess it’s better than requests trying to interfere with the battle results themselves.

The Lord of Thracus suddenly held his head.

It was because he remembered a certain group that had made requests to “interfere with the battle results themselves”.

The second son of the Haidern Marquis family.

The leader of the “Patriotic Youth Group”, a gathering of young nobles from the Empire and the golden child who caused trouble everywhere, relying on the backing of his aunt, the Empress.

— What? Start from the preliminaries and work my way up? Are you telling me to start from the same place as commoners? Listen, Lord of Thracus, stop with such narrow-minded talk and put me and my comrades straight into the finals. It’s an unparalleled opportunity to prove your patriotism.

Remembering the proposal—no, the tantrum that Maximilian had thrown recently, the lord’s forehead veins bulged.

No matter how good his bloodline, for a youngster who had yet to even receive a proper title to naturally treat him as an inferior—it made his blood boil.

“How are that golden boy—I mean, Young Master Maximilian and his group doing?”

“They’ve been somewhat behaved lately,” the subordinate’s face saying this contained no small amount of contempt. “The Witch of the South’s top protégé visited, didn’t she? It seems he’s frequently visiting there for, um, ‘personal exchanges’.”

“…You chose your words well, but control your expression. It’s fine in front of me, but if you do that in front of them, you might end up being disciplined.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

After turning his gaze from the subordinate who had returned to an expressionless bureaucrat face, the lord looked at the participant list again.

Individual match participants:

• Maximilian Egir Haidern

• Peter

• Mir Volberg

Team match participants:

• Algind Goodwitch and 2 others

• Maris von Lennart and 2 others

• Kumara Cent and 2 others

“Leaving aside the golden boy, we have a legendary adventurer, the mage from the Tower of Annihilation, the Witch of the South’s top protégé, young blood of the Lion Duke’s bloodline, and even the talked-about silver-rank adventurer party, huh? Well…” the lord clicked his tongue, thinking this tournament was going to be quite noisy.

***

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