Crimson: born as noble lived as phantom

Lord Gurberr stood firmly in the spectator stands, his eyes intently scanning the arena below as the initial trial results were officially finalized.

“Lord Gurberr, it looks like your adopted son barely managed to pass the baseline test,” Lady Neria spoke up, her voice dripping with an arrogant, noble disdain. “Though, I must note he arrived incredibly late to the gate lines.”

Lord Gurberr remained perfectly silent, refusing to grant her any emotional reaction.

“Look on the bright side, Lady Neria,” Lord Drake interrupted, crossing his massive arms as he stepped forward. As the strongest of all the current knight captains, Drake was a living legend who was once considered the absolute tactical equal of the Royal Knight Captain himself. “The boy and his entire squad passed the trial despite having a dangerous assassin hidden inside their team. Furthermore, that specific assassin carried exactly twelve identity tokens. She and the Gurberr boy were the last ones to arrive at the perimeter, which clearly indicates that the two of them hunted down those tokens together.”

“He must have simply bribed the other rookies,” Neria sneered, turning her head away.

“As I remember the official legal charter, Lady Neria, there was absolutely no rule specifying that a participant is forbidden from bribing other candidates,” Lord Gurberr spoke up firmly, using his voice to defend his son's victory.

“There wasn't,” Neria admitted, her eye twitching slightly. “But it looks like the secondary phase is about to commence. Let's have our—”

“CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL 7,300 PARTICIPANTS WHO MANAGED TO SURVIVE THE OPENING ROUND!” a magical announcer's voice thunderously roared across the stadium walls. “LET US IMMEDIATELY START WITH THE SECOND CRITERIA, PRESENTED DIRECTLY BY LORD INGEN!”

Lord Ingen stepped onto the center platform to address the crowd. “Your objective in this trial is to collect magical gems. The absolute baseline requirement to pass this round is to secure at least one single gem. However, the ultimate method to survive this trial is to coordinate and work strictly as a team.”

“Is it truly what I think it is, Lady Neria?” Lord Gurberr questioned, looking out at the massive steel cages being unlocked on the arena floor.

“Yes,” Lady Neria replied, a cold grin spreading across her face. “The rookies are about to be faced against an absolute SSS-Rank magical beast. This creature has exactly one thousand gems embedded directly onto its outer hide, fused into its armored skin from the very moment it is born.”

“But I heard rumors that these apex predators possess a much more unique, highly concentrated gem hidden deep beneath their flesh core,” Lord Gurberr noted, his focus sharpening.

“They do,” Neria answered dismissively. “But these pathetic rookies can never be fast or strong enough to tear through its armored flesh to reach it. The only individuals present in this capital who possess the raw velocity to accomplish such a feat are the five strongest knight captains. Historically, there was only ever one rookie in our kingdom's history who managed to tear that inner core out during his exam... and he is the current Captain of the Royal Knights.” A heavy trace of bitter jealousy vibrated through her tone as she spoke his title.

“I heard reports that he and you actually took this exact same qualification exam together in the past, correct?” Lord Gurberr asked casually.

Lady Neria’s face flushed with anger. Avoiding the prompt entirely, she pointed toward the arena. “The exam is starting.”

A truly massive, mountain-sized magical beast materialized in front of the rookies, its heavy hide glittering with a thousand embedded gems. Every single candidate immediately gripped their steel weapons, their postures stiffening with terror. High above in the stands, both Lord Gurberr and Lady Neria kept their eyes locked entirely on Will Gurberr. The 6'4" blonde youth had not even bothered to draw his steel sword; he stood perfectly still in the dirt, his arms hanging loosely at his sides.

Seeing his passive stance, Lady Neria and Lord Gurberr both smirked for completely different reasons.

“Looks like your son hasn't even drawn his blade, Lord Gurberr,” Lord Drake noted, narrowing his eyes as he watched Will’s motionless frame. “Is he frozen from the pressure?”

“I am well aware of it, Lord Drake,” Lord Gurberr replied, a low chuckle escaping his throat before he broke into a confident laugh.

“Why exactly are you laughing, Gurberr?” Neria demanded, her brow furrowing in confusion.

“Oh, it's absolutely nothing,” the Lord smiled, keeping his eyes on his son’s masterfully hidden genius.

The arena floor erupted into absolute chaos as the SSS-Rank apex beast roared, shaking the stone foundations of the colosseum.

Prince Nickel’s massive faction moved instantly. Instead of scattering in fear like the commoner rookies, the 360-man army marched forward in a synchronized, rigid phalanx formation. They unleashed a torrential barrage of long-range elemental spells, creating a massive, blinding dust cloud around the beast's flank.

The heavy bombardment successfully disoriented the monster, creating a tiny, critical opening. A specialized strike team of high-born noble elites within Nickel's squad surged forward, their enchanted blades slicing across the beast's dark hide. Under the sheer volume of their synchronized attacks, more than half of the one thousand surface gems shattered free, clattering across the dirt like glowing blue rain.

Up in the VIP viewing stands, Lord Gurberr leaned over the stone railing, his eyes tracking the frantic scramble. “Here is where the real test begins,” he murmured.

Below, the battlefield shifted from a hunt into a desperate, greedy riot. Prince Nickel’s 360-man faction rapidly swept the floor, hoarding more than five hundred gems within their ranks.

Prince Nickel stepped to the front of his army, his voice magically amplified as he hoisted a handful of glowing crystals high in the air. “Every noble who desires a gem, step forward!” the Seventh Prince announced with a haughty, political laugh. “It is a first-come, first-served basis! Align with the royal blood, and your advancement is guaranteed!”

Drawn by the promise of an easy pass, hundreds of solo participants panicked, abandoning their tactical positions and frantically rushing toward Nickel’s lines.

The abrupt migration of thousands of rookies left a massive, glaring vulnerability on the opposite side of the stadium. The SSS-Rank apex beast, enraged by its missing crystals, locked its burning yellow eyes onto the emptiest sector of the arena—the exact sector where the lone, 6'4" blonde figure of Will Gurberr stood entirely exposed.

With an earth-shattering roar, the mountain-sized predator lunged forward, charging directly at the motionless boy.

“Lord Gurberr!” Lady Neria shouted in a panic, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the VIP railing. “Give your consent to withdraw him immediately! That beast will trample him into absolute paste!”

Lord Gurberr didn't say a single word. He simply kept his dangerous, knowing smirk fixed on the arena floor.

“Look closely at his eyes, Lady Neria,” Lord Drake interrupted, his deep voice carrying a sudden, immense weight of respect. “There is not a single ounce of fear in that boy's gaze.”

“He is just too terrified to move!” Neria shrieked, refusing to believe a commoner could stand down an SSS-Rank monster.

“I highly doubt that,” Drake muttered, leaning forward.

BOOOOOOOM!

A catastrophic cloud of thick grey dust and shattered stone violently billowed into the sky, completely swallowing the entire western sector. The impact wave rattled the colosseum seats, forcing the audience to shield their eyes.

For a few torturous seconds, a suffocating silence fell over the 7,300 participants.

Then, the wind howled, violently slicing the dust cloud completely in half.

The sight that materialized beneath the smoke froze the blood of every living soul in the stadium. The colossal, mountain-sized SSS-Rank apex beast wasn't standing over a corpse.

Instead, the monster itself had been cleanly, flawlessly bisected down the center. Its massive obsidian hide, its impenetrable muscle layers, and its reinforced skeletal frame had been sheared into two identical, bleeding halves by a single, unimaginable horizontal stroke.

Will Gurberr stood perfectly straight in the center of the pool of monster blood. His tattered training sword was drawn, the steel lightly stained with red fluid, and his fake blonde bangs shadowing his cold, unblinking eyes.

Buried deep beneath the split flesh of the bisected corpse, the beast’s hidden internal reservoir lay shattered open, exposing thousands upon thousands of hidden, high-grade core gems that no one else had been strong enough to reach.

Will calmly walked forward, bent down, and casually picked up a single, flawless glowing crystal from the monster's inner heart. He tossed it lightly in his palm, turned around, and looked out at the thousands of gaping, terrified rookies.

“There is more than enough for every single one of you,” Will's deep, foreign voice echoed with an icy resonance across the quiet stadium. “There is no first-come, first-served here. Just come and take them.”

The impact of his words was instantaneous. Realizing they didn't need to beg a corrupt prince for a shattered surface crystal, hundreds of solo participants abruptly turned their backs on Nickel, running like a tidal wave toward the mountain of free inner gems at Will's feet.

“Hey! Stop! What are you doing?!” Prince Nickel screamed, his political charm completely dissolving into a ugly, sweating panic as his faction began to fracture. “Maim them! Immobilize them quickly! Guard the perimeter!”

But his elite nobles didn't move an inch. They stood frozen, their hands trembling on their hilts, too utterly terrified of the 6'4" blonde monster standing by the corpse to take a single step forward.

the entire colosseum fell into a dead, suffocating silence.

Up in the VIP box, Lord Gurberr let out a low, victorious chuckle, while Lord Drake stared down in sheer awe at a feat that hadn't been performed since the current Royal Knight Captain took the exam. Beside them, Lady Neria stood entirely paralyzed, her face drained of all color, too thoroughly terrified and confused to utter a single word.

The second stage was over. The legal shadow of The Crimson Card had just broken the kingdom's history.

author's note: those of you who have came here to read the chapter from knight exam arc without reading previous chapters and doesn't know why erik decided to take such exam and what is happening i would humbly ask you as the author of this novel you should go and check them out quickly

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