Hearing this, the three team members who were selecting their competition weapons turned their heads and stepped forward.
"Kid, you look young and thin. Do you know how to handle a weapon?"
"Fenmeer, don't underestimate him. I heard he had a knight's duel with Adric before the tournament and knocked that annoying guy down with just two sword strikes."
Suddenly, the blond man leaning against the chainmail, hugging his arms, changed his expression slightly and immediately became serious.
"Sorry, brother, I was mistaken."
He had personally experienced Adric's strength; although he was a bit arrogant and ignorant,
purely in terms of individual skill, he could rank in the top ten in previous competitions.
At least, he definitely couldn't defeat him and would probably be on the ground within two rounds.
"Come on, Karl, let me introduce you."
The middle-aged man enthusiastically put his arm around Karl's shoulders and pulled him towards the three.
"These two brothers, I think you can tell they're twins and both are more quiet."
"The taller one is Lasu, the shorter one is Razi, and the former is the older brother."
The middle-aged man patted the two brothers on the shoulders and smiled warmly at Karl.
The two Lasu brothers both had black hair and were about 1.7 meters tall.
Both had melancholic personalities, but their eyes looked at Karl with great awareness.
Karl turned his head, looked at the middle-aged man, smirked, and asked, "And you? What's your name?"
"Aytok, your captain."
"Karl, is this your first time participating? Don't worry, we'll take care of you."
"However, no one on our team has ever won before, whether it's team or individual events."
"Don't expect too much... It's not bad to just get more face time in front of His Majesty the King."
"After this session, there might not be a next one for me—I'm old, and my physical condition is much worse than the young ones."
Aytok shook his head and sighed slightly, shrugging his shoulders, quite dejected.
"In previous years, the most advantageous teams were the White Rose, Elland, and Maribor."
"Although our team is formed, the members aren't fixed, and there are people who don't participate in every session."
At that moment, Triss came out from a back corner and glanced at Aytok and the others.
"Karl, is this an inconvenient time for you? I'll come back later? ...."
Aytok and the others were stunned when they saw Triss approaching.
Wait, hadn't this lady been sitting in the VIP section earlier, seemingly next to the king?
Hmm, their new team member... knew someone of such status? And they seemed close?
Otherwise, how could a competitor come to see Karl right before the match was about to start?
Aytok smiled curiously and winked at Karl a few times.
He thought, well, well, this kid is quite something, isn't he? He could even get involved with people of such high status.
He walked over to the two Lasu brothers, put his arms around their shoulders—one left, one right—and slightly lifted his chin, signaling to Fenmeer.
"Ahem, no... This lady." Karl was about to speak.
"Well, the four of us will go to the other teams' area and chat with each other."
Subsequently, Aytok didn't care about the details and dragged the others away, leaving the space for Karl and Triss.
Triss pressed her red lips together and winked at Karl, as if satisfied with Aytok's perceptive behavior.
"Your team members are quite interesting, not as serious as the knights from other teams."
"By the way, the bet you asked me to place was only 120 Orens when it was supposed to close."
"Well, I ended up betting 300 Orens. I trust you." Triss looked around and laughed softly.
"120 Orens? Didn't I ask you to bet half? Betting 300 Orens, won't the bookmaker lose that much by then?"
Karl's face twitched, and he leaned closer to Triss, lowering his voice.
Triss snorted lightly and smiled: "Karl, you're not among the popular choices for champion; the odds were one to four."
"If I hadn't bet too much, your initial odds would have been one to eight."
"You underestimate the scale of the knightly tournament betting. Not only His Majesty the King participates in the gambling, but also Grand Duke Seward and others."
"The total stake of the whole betting reaches 20,000 Orens. If the odds aren't high, even if you bet over 1,000 Orens, they'd dare to accept it."
"In the past, there were even cases where some secretly manipulated the matches, and some knights deliberately lost to earn the bets. Later, His Majesty was furious and conducted a strict investigation, and it has been heavily regulated."
Listening to Triss describe the scale of the gambling and how many people were involved,
Karl realized he had underestimated these nobles. Commoners earned only a few Orens a year.
After deducting the tithe and other expenses, the poor couldn't even afford meat.
Yet the wealth in the hands of some nobles was enough for them to enjoy feasts that ordinary people couldn't imagine.
Of course, to some extent, due to the nature of gambling, the total amount of money collected was huge.
Under normal circumstances, even if the king took this money, it would be extremely painful for him.
Keira had wanted to cooperate with him earlier, probably because he had defeated the strong Adric, so his potential was high.
She had assessed that he had a very high probability of winning, so she could make a lot of money by betting on him.
After all, no one has too much money.
"With your ability to hunt Drowners and Drowned Dead alone, fighting individually shouldn't be a problem."
"But you need to be more careful in team combat, don't be reckless." Triss slightly raised her eyebrows, reminding him with a serious face.
"Triss, don't worry. You'll be satisfied with my performance."
"Hmm, then I'll wait and see. Keira was belittling you for a while, and I don't think you can win."
By the way, Triss looked indignant, clearly displeased with Keira's dismissal of Karl.
...
A few minutes later, Aytok and the others quietly poked their heads out from the tent.
Seeing that Triss was gone and Karl was alone, the four of them came out from the back of the tent and returned to Karl.
"Oh, look, our new team member is quite charming; even a lady came to support him." Aytok looked playful.
"Captain, don't pry into others' personal affairs. We don't have much time left; hurry up and choose your weapons." Fenmeer curled his lip and reminded aloud.
The brothers remained silent but silently walked to the weapon rack to pick up a war hammer and an oak shield.
"Fenmeer is right; we've wasted too much time. Karl, what weapon are you good at?" Aytok's smile quickly disappeared, and he asked seriously.
Fenmeer also walked to the weapon rack and chose a good blunt sword and a shield.
He also applied a little force to strike the shield with the blunt sword to check its quality.
"Um... A weapon I'm good with? Maybe a sword."
While talking to Aytok, Karl picked up an unexpected weapon from the rack.
Karl held in his hand a long-handled weapon with a blade on the head, like a hybrid of a spear and a halberd.