NOVEL WEB Ch. 86
Chapter 86
The basic rules of the hunting tournament were as follows:
Hunting monsters or beasts in the hunting ground earns points.
You can eliminate other participants by attacking them, but it grants no points.
A total score below 100 points results in automatic elimination.
In other words, there was no need to attack other participants.
‘As the Emperor said, it must be Prince Kazaks' doing.’
I coldly lowered the barrel of my shotgun and pulled the trigger.
It was a cowardly noble who’d hidden in the bushes, trembling until all his comrades were dead.
“W-Wait! Spare me…!”
Bang!
A dry gunshot echoed, and another noble collapsed with a hole in his forehead.
A total of 20 corpses shared his fate.
This wasn’t even the first assault.
‘Persistent.’
Observing the participants, I noticed they rarely fought each other upon meeting.
But when they saw me, they attacked with reckless abandon, as if I were the rarest ‘Golden Bull’ released in the hunting ground.
‘This won’t do.’
Every time I moved to hunt prey, I became the target, and the noise scared off the game.
In the corner of my vision, my score displayed 5 points—merely from killing five goblins.
I’d considered using goblin corpses to lure other beasts or monsters, but only participants were drawn in.
‘I’ll have to travel via the trees.’
I leaped, landing on a branch with the stability of a sleek feline.
The lightweight magic on my armor ensured sufficient balance.
‘My first time.’
Moving across branches wasn’t easy.
‘But it seems doable!’
Wild Instinct (Lv 3) heightens your senses!
Movement (Lv 3) guides you with perfect motion!
I slowly stood, gripping the shotgun with both hands.
Bending my knees slightly, I jumped, landing on the opposite branch.
Confidence surged within me.
‘Not bad!’
Traveling via branches nearly eliminated detection.
For the persistent trackers who doggedly followed my trail, I gifted them a taste of buckshot, and in the process, I bagged a green deer as a bonus.
‘Not everyone here is an enemy.’
Even Prince Kazaks couldn’t have bribed every participant.
Elisha, Bord, and Mary were among them, after all.
“Got it!”
‘…?!’
I crouched, concealing my presence.
Wild Instinct activated, and through the foliage and trees, I saw a dead green deer and two people in the distance.
‘Damn, it’s the deer I was tracking.’
I’d killed the male, but the female of the pair had escaped, and I was pursuing her.
“Didn’t expect my stray arrow to hit a deer!”
“Lucky! This one’s rare—it shoots lightning from its antlers!”
To think it was snatched so absurdly.
Not wanting to cause a scene, I turned to leave when their conversation reached my ears.
“By the way, don’t the gunshots sound closer?”
“Yeah. We need to be careful. As we discussed, it’s a hunting tournament, so firearms make sense, but no one brought a gun today, right? It’s to check the Black Knight. The sound of gunfire reveals his location. Even those who brought guns aren’t using them.”
Talking about me? Interesting.
“Using one might make you a target for those hunting the Black Knight.”
“Ugh, hunting the Princess' Black Knight? That’s insane.”
“Why? I think it’s exciting.”
“What?”
“Winning the tournament isn’t the only victory condition.”
I slowly, carefully shifted branches, moving above their heads.
“The Black Knight, who won the Hamerd Award at the dungeon tournament! Hunting him grants the honor of having defeated the Princess' Black Knight!”
“Still, isn’t it dangerous?”
“Think about it! The Black Knight is a hot topic right now! If you pull it off, your house’s prestige will soar!”
And then, I dropped.
“If I get the chance, I’ll kill the Black Knight!”
A dagger pierced the throat of the boastful noble knight.
With a tug, I retrieved the dagger, and blood spurted like a fountain from the hole.
Thud.
The corpse collapsed to the ground.
“G-Gah!”
Turning, I saw the other noble knight, drenched in blood, too terrified to scream properly.
His teeth chattered as he looked at me.
“S-Spare…”
“You didn’t try to kill me, so I won’t kill you.”
I turned and leaped back onto the tree.
As I moved away, the man belatedly collapsed, his legs giving out, unable to stand.
Meanwhile, I finally made my decision.
‘I see.’
Kazaks' orders.
The prestige of defeating the Hamerd Award recipient.
The Black Knight’s head already carried wealth and honor—massive ones.
‘I’ve decided.’
I changed direction, heading toward a place I’d noted earlier.
The hunting ground wasn’t just a sprawling forest.
There were small mountains and a river.
The river’s source, the highest hill in the hunting ground, was a prime spot coveted by hunters.
“Hm? Did that tree just move?”
“What are you talking about? Trees move in the wind, don’t you know?”
Bang! Bang!
Gunshots rang out in succession, and the two hunters occupying the prime spot fell.
‘If everyone’s targeting me…’
Taking position on the hill, I gripped my sniper rifle and took a deep breath.
From this vantage point, the forest below looked like a mere green expanse, but Wild Instinct transcended it, allowing me to see beyond.
‘I’ll kill them all first.’
Like a raptor hunting prey on the ground.
Bang!
The first gunshot echoed.
***
“Urk!”
A participant appeared on the emergency escape teleportation circle.
“Ugh!”
Then another.
“H-Huh?!”
Another, at regular intervals.
“What’s happening?”
“How did this happen? A malfunction?”
“I died? Why?”
None of them knew how they died.
The spectators at the tournament, watching them, were gripped by awe.
They turned, fixated on the transmitted footage, unwilling to miss a moment.
“Hey, the Black Knight…!”
“He’s going to kill them all?!”
“Good heavens!”
The hunting tournament had truly begun.
A human hunting tournament.
At that moment, a noble rushed to the platform—a marquis aligned with Kazaks' faction.
“Greatest gold of the Empire, most radiant sun! Please order the knights to punish the Black Knight!”
The marquis knelt before the most radiant figure on the platform, raising only his head to plead.
His allies in Kazaks' faction echoed his cry.
“Exactly! We cannot let the Black Knight run rampant! He’s ruining the event’s essence!”
“The Black Knight’s atrocities are destroying the tournament’s order! Please punish his crimes!”
With supporting fire, the marquis shouted with growing confidence.
“Indeed! Please grant our plea!”
“Pfft.”
But the response was laughter.
A chuckle that slipped through lips, barely contained, full of amusement.
Like a dam bursting in an instant.
“Puhahaha, hahahahaha…!”
The Emperor, covering his face with his hand, was laughing.
Boisterously, yet not vulgarly—nobly.
“Hahahahahahahaha!”
His laughter soon spread across the entire tournament ground.
“It’s been ages since I’ve seen such an entertaining spectacle!”
The Emperor found his earlier actions foolish.
‘Hah, “be careful”?’
What was the point of warning the Black Knight?
It was like advising a tiger to beware of a puppy!
‘Splendid. You’ve splendidly shattered my expectations and turned the board upside down!’
And just as fervent in her approval was the figure on the tier below.
‘Martin…!’
Princess Adela gripped her goosebump-covered arms, grinning widely.
Her eyes, steeped in deeper madness, were laced with intense pleasure, like someone overwhelmed.
‘You’re truly the ultimate hound!’
It was the only way she knew to express her emotions.
***
“What’s happening right now…?”
Bord surveyed the forest with a stiff face.
The gunshots ringing out at regular intervals, the screams—did he need to see to understand?
Mary, trembling, answered.
“T-The Princess' Black Knight is killing everyone…!”
Superhumans trained in mana gained great strength, but the first change was in their senses.
They felt their eyes, ears, and fingertips transform.
The intense killing intent and tension enveloping the hunting ground made their fingertips tingle.
“Over there.”
Especially for an heir of the Harmadun Ducal Family, known as the Bow of Harmadun.
Elisha pointed to the highest hill in the hunting ground.
Bord’s shield instinctively turned toward the mountain.
“We don’t know when we’ll become targets.”
If all participants were killed, their turn would come.
“The opponent might be the Empire’s greatest firearms user.”
Thus, we weren’t the only ones feeling the danger.
“What’s there to hesitate about?”
Cutting off Bord, Elisha spoke.
Mary added,
“Y-Yes, this isn’t right…!”
Nodding in confirmation, Bord took the lead.
***
After sniping from the mountaintop for a while, I retrieved my shotgun and stood.
The barrel was scorching hot, and it was time to stop.
‘They’ll come soon.’
Some fearless noble heirs had fired arrows or magic, but at long range, I held an overwhelming advantage.
From this high ground, picking them off was as easy as twisting a tender stem.
If they had any sense, they’d hide and slowly climb the mountain.
Wild Instinct (Lv 3) warns of danger, sensing competitors already ascending the mountain!
‘Right, right.’
Following the path Wild Instinct provided, I began descending.
After Martin left, the first three to arrive surveyed the area but realized they were too late.
More noble knights followed, but they only glanced at Prince Kazaks, who’d arrived first.
“Missed him.”
Kazaks, frowning, kicked a rock.
His irritation made Muller, the spear master, whistle, while Shuga mused.
“Your Highness, shall we use tracking magic?”
“Yes, immediately…”
Kazaks' body froze mid-sentence.
So did Muller and Shuga.
On the opposite side of their ascent, three others had climbed up.
The Bow of Harmadun, the Shield of Tauforos, the Raincloud of Deminiyan—Elisha, Bord, and Mary.
“You lot…”
Thorns in his side.
Heirs of the Four Great Ducal Families, yet they followed a mere commoner instead of him, a prince.
What infuriated him more was that he couldn’t beat that commoner.
No matter how hard he tried, how fiercely his heart burned.
They knew it too, shamelessly following that guy, Gilbert.
And what angered him most was that he, Prince Kazaks, destined to be the noblest in the world, sometimes sensed a similar dignity in a mere commoner like Gilbert.
Thankfully, he wouldn’t see that guy here.
“What’s your business here?”
Bord, as imposing as his massive shield, stepped forward to respond.
“We came to stop the Princess' Black Knight. Did Your Highness eliminate him?”
The Tauforos Ducal Family.
Rather than engaging in imperial politics, they guarded the frontier—the Empire’s bulwark.
Thus, they were the cleanest of the Four Great Ducal Families, with high public support.
But as mentioned, their rare involvement in politics meant even Kazaks had met the Tauforos Duke only a handful of times.
‘If only I could bring that bear of a man under my command.’
Suppressing his regret, Kazaks answered Bord’s question.
“No.
When I arrived, the Black Knight was already gone.”
“I see.”
A quiet stillness enveloped the mountaintop.
Elisha tapped Bord.
“Let’s go down. There’s nothing to do here.”
“Right.”
As Mary followed Bord and Elisha to descend, a sound rang out.
[Moooo!]
Everyone froze at the sudden bellow.