First of all, these guys are out of the question. They've been yammering away for a while now. Not enough tension.
This guy and his friend are looking out for each other. We'll let them off the hook this time.
'These three ... it's hard to decide. Let's fight and then decide.

　We'll decide roughly at this point who to miss and who to disqualify. Anyone who is disqualified without question, or who misses it, can be sunk with a single blow. You can take away their badges later, or not.
　Those that are unsure of their decision will try to fight accordingly, and if they're above the minimum level, they'll miss, and if they're below that, they'll be disqualified. Well, in the end, you'll stun everyone.
　The strategy is to crush them all.
　I don't feel the need to shy away from those racist people in particular, though. Well, since this is a test, let's not tease them and get them out of the room quickly.

I'll go then.

　Everyone stood up, each holding a stun rod the length of a sword or spear, which was their specialty, and wearing their masks.
　They split up into three sides in the forest around the campfire as we had discussed. The plan was to make a surprise attack at once and first take out those who had already decided to be disqualified with a single blow.
　When we arrived at our posts, Baba's old man, Nicola and I set the time with our phones and pounce on them from three directions at the appointed time.

........three, two, one, zero!

　At once we run out from behind the forest toward the guys who are building a fire.

''Ha! It's an ogre!
Attack! We're under attack! Intercept!
Hey, you and me both!
From the other side?

　The ones on guard shouted in unison, but most of them couldn't react quickly enough and were slow to react.
　He slammed a stun rod into the stomach of an examinee who tried to draw his own sword in a hurry as he passed him. Too late! The difference between those who were alert and those who weren't, this is where the difference comes out.

''Guha!''
Hi!
What?

　With a flurry of activity, the test takers were defeated by only about ten demons.
　Some of them were female candidates, but I'm sorry to say that this is also my job, so I beat them without question. Still, it was a light blow to my heart. The man doesn't hold back, though.

''d*mn!''
"Oh?

　Heh. I was out of touch, but I took that first hit. Well, the second shot sunk me. I'll keep the number in mind. I'll leave this guy behind.
　As I took it down while assessing it like that, the guys who chased away the beastmen and demons from the other side of the room were confronting Nicola-san with a two-meter-long cudgel-like stun rod.

''Poof! Oraa!
You're not...

　Nicola-san's relentless thrust into the gut of the guy who jumped at her.

''Guhoei!''

　The blown up man fell to the spot with white eyes and fainted. That thing, even without the effect of the stun rod, you'd pass out........

''d*mn........!

　The men retreated backwards, inching backwards as Nicola pressured them.

''Well what's the matter? Can't you do anything with all this for one beastman? All you do is talk.

　Wearing a mask and a black outfit, he managed to hide the fox ears protruding from the top of Nicola-san's head, but he couldn't hide the fuzzy tail as well. You know that the other party is a beastman, too.
　The only one of our beastmen that's fox-type is Nicola-san, so it's obvious who she is if you look into it. If you say it's meaningless to dress as a demon then, well, that's just stylistic.

'And surround them and take it all at once!
"Law.

　About six candidates surrounded Nicola. And Baba's old man and the other demons noticed it, but they didn't dare to put out a hand to help. There's no need for it.

''Raaaaaaah!
d*mn it!

　Faster than all the weapons being unleashed at once, Nicola stood her cudgel on the ground and jumped straight up on its axis.
　As it was, she landed outside of the surrounding people and unleashed a series of desperate thrusts, rendering her unable to fight.

''Gah!''
Bufu?

　One of the people who had taken a blow to the stomach, perhaps it was after a meal, before collapsing, splattered the contents of his undigested stomach on the ground and politely sank face down into it. Ugh.
　The examiners fell one by one on the spot without even being able to strike a blow to Nicola-san. That fighting style that is too ruthless is truly a demon. There's an ogre.
　Nicola-san walks towards the last one.

''Hi........!
'Don't lick the Knights of Brunhild too much. It's not as slimy as your narrow-mindedness might suggest.
Wow!

　He effortlessly ducked the slashing examinee and landed a cudgel strike to its neck. The last one sank to the ground, twitching and white-eyed.
　I looked around and saw that it was almost cleared out. I walked up to Nicola and called out to her.

'Hey, good job, good job.'
........I got a little pissed off. I'm sorry. I guess I still have a lot of training to do........
It's okay. We're demons now. If I were you, I'd strip naked and hang them all from a tree.

　I made the joke as a way of comforting her for being a bit depressed, but Nicola only gave a drawn-out laugh. Huh? Are you sure about this?
　After a while, every single examinee who had gathered around the fire had been knocked unconscious. The stun rods that Dr. Wells and I created can not only paralyze but also reap the consciousness. It seems that the effectiveness of the effect depends on the individual's magic resistance value and physical stubbornness.
　All of the demons will take badges from the guys they defeat and so on. I had decided to miss the ones that were worth watching this time, but even so, there were no more than 10 of them, even if there were about 100 of them.
　In case you're wondering, they should wake up in about 30 minutes. We don't want to lose our badges to the other test takers while we're unconscious, so all of the demons will go back into the forest and monitor them from a distance until they regain consciousness.

''We'll be watching here, Your Majesty, please go to the other examinee.
Oh, yeah? Then I'm off.

　I take Nicola's word for it and leave.
　I jump from tree branch to tree branch in the forest. After all this time, I don't know if I've ever had such good night vision. I can see quite well in the dark when I concentrate. I'm awakening to a strange ability.
　That night, I defeated some of the magical beasts that were attacking the test takers (I also defeated a few candidates who couldn't defeat them), rescued those who got stuck in the traps set in the forest (and of course, those who got caught in them were disqualified), and somehow, I got up in the morning.




　Three days of survival finally passed, and the voice of Knight Commander Rain came echoing from the badges that the examinee wore.

'It's the end time of the exam. Congratulations. As of the current time, the person holding the badge is the one who passed the second exam. You have removed your badge and have been transferred to the main camp.''

　One by one, those who had passed the test moved from the forest to the main camp. Of course, I too took off my badge and moved to the main camp.
　At the main camp, those who have already made the transition are announcing their numbers and names. The interview is in two days.
　I looked at the successful candidates and saw the ninja I had spotted, the man in armor, and the Imo Boy. Imo Boy survived well..... He's pretty mangled, but maybe he's been hiding somewhere for a long time.
　Also, the lioness and winged man who was chased away from the bonfire in the example, the young man from Wardog, and the girl from Arachnay had also passed. Good, good.
　In the meantime, I'll check with search magic to see if any of them remained in the forest. Yeah, it looks like they all came back.
　I pretended to be a successful candidate and asked Tsubaki-san, who came up to me, how many people had passed the test.

The number of successful applicants is 416. We'll have an interview two days from now and we'll narrow it down to 150 people.
'I'll have Umina to help me out, so anyone with dubious or dubious ideas will be dropped then, but the question is whether or not we'll have 150 people left. That doesn't mean I'm going to hire anyone who isn't a good fit, though.

　This is where the real work begins, as it were. I'll be able to carefully judge whether or not it's a person worthy of joining our order.
　I had the doctor make a lie detector, and if you combine it with Yumina's magical eye, it won't be difficult to find out her true nature.
　Incidentally, when I unveiled the lie detector, my fiancées 《everyone》 asked me a variety of questions. Of course I didn't answer any bad questions!
　It's a mage tool, an artifact that determines if it's false or true, so if you don't answer, it won't respond. It's the right to remain silent!
　You shouldn't have to answer about whether you like bigger breasts or what color underwear you prefer, or anything like that! I was only allowed to answer the question of whether I liked everyone, though.

'Oh, by the way, there was a ninja-like guy among the accepted candidates, was that Tsubaki-san's recommendation?

　I told the executive class of the Knights that if anyone has any recommendations, please talk to them, but I asked them to take the exam with me in the meantime. If you have the ability, you should be able to pass the test, and even if you say you're a recommender, you'll only have a slight advantage in the interview.

'You might be one of them. The ones I approached were Yisheng's ninjas. During the recent Hideyoshi incident, several houses were demolished and there were several people who were lost on the streets, so I called on them.
'What? I thought you were alone when you said you had a few. All ninjas?
''Yes. Kouga and Iga, and one wind demon each.

　Koga or Iga? And Kazuma. The schools are quite different. Besides, aren't the Iga and the Kouga not getting along?
　When I asked Tsubaki-san such a question, he said that it wasn't really true. There may be those who see each other as rivals on a personal level, but those two are not, he said. It seems that they were originally serving the same family, and when that family was demolished, they came here. It seems that the family was on the Hashiba side.

I'm also involved in that battle. It's a complicated feeling, but........
Since the two of them left the Sanada family they served and came to Brunhild as their new employer, I don't see why His Majesty should feel guilty about it.
'You say that, but.................Sanada?

　Sanada - the Sanada family? The ninja from Kouga and Iga who served Sanada.......no way.

Those two surnames could be Sarutobi and Kirigakure by any chance...
'What? Yes, but ... how do you know?

　Seriously?