Chapter 92: Assassin
The recent news of the newly established knight order under the rising Ringaarden Count's estate naturally attracted many skilled individuals from all over who had yet to find a place to belong.
“So this is the Ringaarden estate....”
Among them, aspiring knight academy graduate Johan was looking around the estate, which could potentially become his future workplace, his eyes gleaming.
“...There are more applicants than I thought.”
But only for a moment. After confirming the number of participants gathered in the mansion’s courtyard, Johan scratched his head with a somewhat deflated expression.
“I’ll be lucky if I even pass the first round....”
Though Johan had just graduated from the knight academy, most knights, including himself, were not fully recognized as knights immediately upon graduation. Only the rare elites, who could take the knight’s oath immediately upon graduation, and the high-ranking nobles whose connections were everything. For those not among the chosen few, ordinary graduates had to pound the pavement themselves, hunting down every opportunity just to barely join a knight order.
‘There are more older guys than I thought. That means....’
For Johan, who had just entered this fiercely competitive field, seeing so many older applicants, some even sporting beards, was quite an intimidating sight.
‘...Am I going to end up like that too?’
Spending over a decade failing to join any knight order, missing out on other opportunities, and endlessly repeating meaningless applications — it was a future Johan, an orphan and a commoner with no decent connections, absolutely wanted to avoid.
“Next group, this way.”