Well, we're in the woods, but what are we going to do?

　In the meantime, we need to get some water. Taking the water bottle that was given to us when we entered the forest, we decided to head for the river that was the source of the water. As I recall, it was flowing from the north to slightly southeast through the middle of the forest.
　As I start walking through the forest, I can see other candidates walking ahead of me here and there, perhaps thinking the same thing.
　But the visibility is bad. ........It's a good thing I did, but currently there is only an ordinary sword hanging at my waist.
　It's not possible to use magic inside the warding, so we can't use magic, as a matter of principle.
　In fact, we Brünnhilde people are excluded from the effects of the ward, so we can use magic. But you never know where you're going to be seen. It's not like I can take out a bow and arrow from storage.
　If they're monsters, they're probably going to attack us. With all these trees, we'll never be able to escape. It's too much trouble. Let's give up. I'm not even hungry yet. I mean, there's food in "storage". Actually, there's water in there too, but it would be unnatural for me not to go to the river as an examinee.
　This time, in addition to the knights who do battle, the castle guard knights, the city patrol knights, the secret knights under Tsubaki-san, and the others are the main part of the exam. I'm going to recruit the internal staff later, or if there are any available candidates who have passed this test, I'll hire them. And we don't need that many magic troops for now.
　It's a good idea to have at least one person who can survive in this kind of survival. You can fight your way through, or you can run away. Within the rules, I want you to achieve your goal of staying in the forest for three days.
　As I continued to think about this, I could hear the sound of a small stream.
　The river flowed past a stone-turned riverbed as we walked through the forest. The river was about six meters wide, but not so wide that it was impossible to cross. It didn't seem to be that deep.
　I filled up my water bottle and took a sip. Yes, it was delicious.
　When I looked around me, I saw some candidates who had gotten the water as well. The view is good here, and there's a river, so it's convenient. But since it's so conspicuous, it's easy to be discovered by the "demons".
　I've filled my canteen, and I don't think we should be here anymore. The people who know that have already left this place.
　These guys who have been here forever are in danger of passing.
　We go into the woods again and climb up a tall tree. Well.

"Longsense.

　Skip the sight and hearing and explore your surroundings. I see a few guys moving in a huddle, and others moving solo.
　Oh, there's a guy who's climbing a tree like me. I can't see his face because he's wearing a mask, but he's wearing black and looks like a ninja. ...Huh?
　Is he looking at us? No, not with a mile away and a barrier in the way. Oh, he's waving. When I waved back for some reason, he seemed surprised. He waved his hand voluntarily, but he's a strange guy. Is he also wanted to check if he could see me?
　If he is a ninja, is he a ninja of some kind? Or does he have a magic eye? I wonder if he was recommended by Tsubaki-san.

''Oh, an ogre! Ugh!
d*mn! Whoa!''
Run, run!

　I returned my attention to the voice that had suddenly jumped into my hearing and turned my vision towards the riverbank where the voice had come from.
　The guys who had been hanging out on the riverbank were being killed one after another by two of our knights wearing demon masks. They wielded their stun rods and clattered and cleaved them down. I mean, that's Baba's old man and Yamak Prefecture's old man........
　The two of them are hyah! And then he beat the candidates mercilessly and took away their badges. The way he looks like a bandit. It's too good for you. The candidates who were robbed of their badges were transferred to the main camp, where no one was left. There didn't seem to be a single human being of note.
　Hearing the screams, the other candidates made various movements: some fled, some went to look at the situation, and some stayed put and hid.
　Even the masked man from earlier had disappeared before I knew it. Quick. I guess it's a ninja after all.
　Eventually, the two demons, who had hunted down all the candidates on the riverbank, disappeared into the forest again.

''He has his right eye crushed! Turn from there! 'Attack from the blind spot at all times!'

　Huh? There was another voice from somewhere. When I skipped my vision, I saw three examiners fighting the King Ape in the forest on the other side, much further away from the riverbank. No, it's a whole lot bigger than a King Ape. A subspecies, perhaps?

"Aim for the legs! First, we have to shut down the movement!'

　The man who appeared to be the leader of the three men was a short silver-haired man over twenty years old. He's wearing an old but fairly high quality brethren's mail. That's quite a precise set of instructions flying around. It was probably an impromptu party, but they seemed to make use of their respective characteristics well.
　I watched them hunt for a while, but eventually they successfully defeated the King Ape subspecies.
　Moreover, that leader was fighting while being properly aware of his surroundings. Probably, he was wary of the 'demon' attack. In fact, when a candidate was fighting a demonic beast, he wouldn't be attacked by a 'demon', but he seemed to be quite careful. That guy might pass the test.
　At any rate, I got down from the tree and walked towards the south, and this time I met a boy who was crawling on something and digging in the ground.

"...what are you doing?
"?

　The boy freaked out for a moment, as if he thought I was a demon when I called out to him, but then let out a breath of relief when he realized it was the same candidate.

'What food?'
'What? Oh, this vine is a Daedala yam vine, and you can eat the potatoes under the ground this time of year. In another three months, they'll become toxic and you won't be able to eat them.
Huh....
Oh, no, we can't start a fire because the demons will find us. Then I thought I'd find something like this. I mean, there are a lot of edible wildflowers and nuts in the area.

　Oh, I see. Even if you catch a rabbit or something, you can't make a fire.... I wouldn't eat it raw either. There's nothing we can't eat, but I'm not sure we can.
　The boy had a variety of wildflowers in his possession. There are also some nuts and what looks like fruits. There were several kinds of things I've seen before. You seem to know a lot about such things.

You should go to the pashimo tree just south of here. I only took a few, so there should be more.
Thank you. I'll take a look.

　If I stayed here for a long time, it seemed like he was going for his potatoes, so I left.
　I left him digging potatoes and went to the south, as he told me, and sure enough, there was a pashimo tree. Pasimo is similar to a persimmon, with a texture like a pear. The food is in "storage" so I just squirt one up and eat it. It was delicious.
　We climbed a nearby tree again and spent the evening watching with our "long sense". Here and there, demons are attacking candidates and also being attacked by demonic beasts. So far, there didn't seem to be any injuries to all of the demons or the examiners.
　Some of them have already been disqualified, but it's still not enough. I'd like to keep it under 500 roughly, but come on.




　The sun is coming down. This is where the real work begins.
　I use the search function on my phone to make sure no one is around, and then I take out my demon mask from the "storage". I put it on and change into a black outfit, then jump from branch to branch through the trees and run through the forest.
　Suddenly, I saw lights across the forest, so I flew my "long-sense" and saw that many of the candidates had gathered around the campfire and were roasting and eating the prey they had caught while being wary of their surroundings.
　I see, they thought that with that many people gathered, the demons wouldn't be able to get to them so easily. Surrounding the group taking a meal, a group of guards, so to speak, are taking care of the perimeter.
　It's certainly a bit hard to get at, isn't it? No, if our knights' group members get serious, they can be wiped out, though.
　For now, when I search the surroundings with my phone, I found the place where the demons are gathered, so I rush to that place.

''Good work~''
'What? ...your majesty? ...you shouldn't have frightened me!
Don't sneak up on me like that, chief. I almost jumped you, man.

　I called out from behind everyone who had gathered there and they got mad at me.
　There's Logan and the old man from Mountain Prefecture, old Baba, and, oh, Nicola, too. A few more guys, about ten in all. They're all men.
　Oh well, that's fine, it's easy. The Order is a discipline! We're more like a family and a group of friends than a policy like that. In general, if you're a person who needs to be bound by discipline, you'll be rejected during your interview at Yumina.

How's that? Did you find the right person?
There's some guys you could train to be useful.
I've got some of the highlights myself.

　Old man Baba and Nicola answer. I see. It seems that there are some people who could be of some use. There were ninja, armor man, and potato boy, but since then I may have been hunted by all the demons. The Imo Boy in particular didn't seem to be very strong.

By the way, what are you going to do now? Are you going to attack that group?
Hmm. There are 10 of us. There are 100 people over there, right? We may not be able to win, but we can't take it easy. I guess you can't measure the quality of each and every one of us, huh?

　The old man in the mountain prefecture crosses his arms and roars. Surely that's the end of the line then. If you fight to suit your opponent, you'll be surrounded. It would be easier to defeat them with a no-questions-asked, one-hit kill, but then the original purpose of the fight would be.
　There are other demons, but it is not enough to gather all of them to attack, and there are more examinees other than the ones in the bonfire.
　But are you prepared to be attacked for using a fire that flamboyantly?

What would you do, Your Majesty?
Me? Well I'll mess with them a bit and pretend I'm losing on purpose and run away. And if a few of them come after me, how about I ambush them and take them down?
Oh, come on, don't fall for that trick.
No, if you're going to get stuck, you don't need him in our office anyway. If they don't, that's something to consider.

　So, as old Baba's old man says, it's better not to fall for it either way. The "long-sense" on my phone shows on the screen where the guys over there are surrounding the campfire.

'Some of you are properly aware of your surroundings, some of you are distracted,'

　As Nicola said, some of them are looking around nervously, while others are yawning and chatting with the guy beside them. I'm not sure if this is that, or if they're just trying to be generous because there are so many people. ........oh?
　Something about a dozen or so people around the fire were trying to chase away the same candidates who had come to the bonfire. I was curious, so I turned up the volume on my phone.

'No, no, no! Get away from me! This place is already packed!'
'Why not? I'm not asking for food, I'm not asking for food! I just need to use a little fire!'

　The examiners who came from over there were two men and two women, one sub-human and one demon race. They seem to have some rabbits in their hands. I wonder if they came to let us burn them. There's less chance of being attacked by demons here.

''The beastmen of the lion tribe and the winged tribe, and the demon tribe, Wardog and Arachne.....................

　Nicola looks at the screen and mutters. Heh. Aside from the beastmen, the demon race is a race I've never seen before.
　The Wardog was not in the form of a human with wolf ears and tails like Norn-san, the wolf beastman, but was a full dog-man from head to tail. His entire body was covered in fur, making him look like a werewolf. He doesn't transform into a human, though, and it seems he's a dog, not a wolf.
　The Arachnay one was a woman with short black hair cut straight above her eyebrows in a so-called princess cut, which was quite pretty, but she had a few spider-like legs sprouting from her back. Also, her eyes are red.

'Anyway, go away! If there are people like you, the smell might make a demonic beast come closer to you!''
'Yes, yes, yes! It's beastly, you guys!'
"I don't care if you guys get attacked, but don't drag us into it!
Wha...

　A young lioness who tried to beat up the men around the fire, the young man from Wardog? but grabbed him by the shoulder to stop him. Seeing Wardog shaking his head quietly, the Lion Tribe woman lowered her fist and left with the Winged Tribe man and the Arachne woman.

''d*mn it, why are those guys in the examiners? Why don't they just retreat to Xenoas or Mismid? The recruiting requirements are too loose.''

　The man who chased him away as if to spit out, opens his mouth.

You're in short supply of human resources since Brunhild was just created. That's why they want to use beastmen and anything else they can find. Not only are there beastmen, but demons as well, it's quite something.''
''The leader is a beastman too. If the beastmen can become the Commander, then maybe we can become noblemen too, if we take a little credit for it.
I'm not going to be a minister if you're a nobleman. I'm a bit of an adventurer, even for a king. This is not a knightly group at all, it's just a formality.

　The people who were there were shouting to stifle their laughter, but my phone picked up their voices exactly.

''Don't say that. That's why we're going to join and make it a true knight's club. It's not a good idea to have those beastmen showing off their range, because it's not a good look for a knightly group.
"Oh? Would you like to become a Knight Commander?
I'm not sure I'll be able to get away with it. I'm not sure I'll ever need a subhuman if there are more proper knights. It's also a good idea to have a good idea of what you're looking for. That's the way it is.

　Gyahahahahahaha, a few men there were laughing at each other while joking around like idiots. On the contrary, not a single laugh occurred on this side of the screen.

''........We don't need those guys.
Yeah.

　At my mumbling, Nicola-san, the fox beastman, stared at the men who kept laughing on the screen. Nicola-san has known the leader, Rain-san, since he came to this country. It must be something that is hard to stomach. He clenched his fists and stared at the guys on the screen.
　There are still people with this kind of misunderstanding. They're using sub-humans because of the lack of human resources, or some other misunderstanding.
　Sub-humans and demonkind don't leave Mismid or Xenoas very often, and since their numbers are small, there are places where there aren't many people involved with them in some regions.
　For this reason, there are still occasionally those who have a trivial image of demons = fellow demon beasts, and sub-humans = barbarians.
　Sub-humans have a history of being considered lowly creatures and were objects of contempt in the past. There was a time when they were treated like slaves, being called a lowly and barbaric race.
　Now that the Mismid has been established, those who have that kind of thinking are in the minority.
　The demon tribe has almost no opportunity to see it, and it may be that they are discriminated against because of fear of the unknown, but either way, we don't need that kind of people at home.
　It's true that we're unique. It's true if you say it's not like the Order.
　But so what? It's a guy who doesn't look like a king from a king's point of view. It's too late for that. If you want a knightly knightly order, go somewhere else. Nonsense.
　It's true that in the beginning, they were short of human resources and forced Rain and the other three to take over the knightly order, but they've completed the blood-soaked training and have worked together with the other members of the order to create this knightly order as one.
　After being trained by Sister Morobane, even their abilities are close to those of Yae and Hilda. You can't compete with our leader and deputy leader if you're only half-skilled. It's no secret that he has surpassed even Baba's old man and is now the top three in the Order. That ability has been endorsed by Morohane, the Sword God.
　But I don't want people who are insulted just because of their looks.

"Well then, I guess I'll have to ask them to leave.

　The demons in front of me nodded in unison at my words.