Return to the Stage

(Wishing everyone good pulls! Though Moody Blues still isn't of much use for now...)

The next match was three days away. After claiming her first victory, Maria had three days to learn the ultimate technique Bai Ye had taught her.

With Bai Ye around, Zofia no longer needed to serve as Maria's coach. Drawing on her extensive experience with knight competitions, she began studying how Maria could accumulate enough points in such a short time to enter the tournament.

Although nine years had passed since Zofia had competed, after going through that incredibly thick rulebook on knight competitions, she found that most events had not changed much.

That gave the experience she had accumulated during her own matches a chance to come in handy.

In truth, Maria had entered the competition rather late. By this point, there were not many contestants who had only begun competing to earn points, so the competition was especially fierce.

They also had to account for spots "reserved" by certain corporations. To achieve their goals, those companies might approach contestants with offers too tempting to refuse, then employ certain "necessary" and "special" measures.

The match three days later was another one-on-one all-around contest—the most classic form of knightly "duel."

Yet, rather intriguingly, the Knight Association had not informed Maria of her next opponent even by the day before the match.

What was more, the corporations everyone had expected to come knocking immediately had not arrived one after another as predicted.

"They're waiting and watching. Maria's performance exceeded their expectations, and even some major corporations can't sit still anymore."

Zofia gave her answer.

In fact, Maria already had plenty of popularity and publicity simply through titles like "the Radiant Knight's younger sister" and "the little knight of the Nearl family," along with that beautiful face of