WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 157: One Treasure Beside the Quest

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"Monsters, you said your dream was to be a Knight, right? Then we have to go. It's obvious. Isn't slaying monsters exactly what a Knight does?"

Kraiss believed that slaying monsters was the very definition of a Knight.

Those who heard him thought otherwise.

Belittling Knights outright, wasn't it? Treating the kind of weapon that could turn the tide of an entire battlefield as nothing more than a glorified monster hunter.

"And a village of common folk, too, we have to save them, don't we? My sense of justice is burning."

His tone should have carried concern. It was packed with greed instead.

His eyes had practically turned into gold coins.

Everyone shared the same thought as they looked at Kraiss. Kraiss paid them no mind.

All his focus was on Enkrid.

The decision-maker was what mattered. Why care what anyone else thought?

"What is it."

Enkrid asked, arms folded.

"Big Eyes, you little bastard. Always trying to drag us somewhere."

Rem, half-sprawled on his bunk, said it while watching with idle eyes.

Sharp as ever.

Kraiss thought that, then turned the full force of his wide, bright eyes on the squad leader. His secret weapon.

Yeah, my eyes are big, aren't they?

Look at my eyes.

Come on. You want to take this mission.

Those clear, enormous eyes had nearly a hypnotic quality, and Enkrid worked his lips for a moment before saying,

"Want me to spit on you?"

'Where does he get those eyes.'

Kraiss read what Enkrid's eyes were saying.

'Ah. This isn't working.'

Next approach? He turned the problem over in his head the way he always did, then gave up almost immediately.

He was sharp, fast head, faster instincts. He figured it was thanks to all the hardship he'd suffered growing up.

It was.

'These tricks don't work on the boss.'

He felt it. This wasn't the way.

So what was left?

A frontal charge.

Always straight, always direct.

The boss had always dealt with him and the others that way, so doing the same back seemed right.

Kraiss shifted gears at a speed that would have been startling to watch. Like a falling star. That fast.

"About a hundred years ago, there was a merchant named Dolph, one of the most renowned traders on the continent."

Every story starts in the past. Hook them first.

A peculiar hobby for a wealthy man. An eccentricity, maybe.

One of Dolph's hobbies was hiding portions of his fortune and drawing treasure maps to mark the spots.

The kind of thing that shows up in unofficial historical records, the sort you stumble across while flipping through history books.

"So did that end as just an unofficial footnote? No. Why would I bother bringing it up if it did?"

At key moments, Kraiss's voice gathered weight. A born storyteller.

There was real heat in his words.

Dolph had once been the master of a trading company that made quite a name for itself.

Then, just before his death, he transferred every last asset he owned and hid it all away.

His would-be heirs had obviously lost their minds over it.

His six wives all breathed fire.

"Why in the world!"

Dolph hadn't answered, they say. He weathered their accusations in silence.

He only said this much.

"If you want my fortune, find the maps."

So said the unofficial records.

The last entry was an account of a chronicler who'd spoken with Dolph directly, just before the old man died.

"Why did you bother making maps like that?"

Dolph's answer was a masterpiece.

"It's fun."

More than twenty maps, dense with ciphers.

The first person to dig up the first one walked away with treasure. A man who had been Dolph's coachman.

He got rich, started a trading company, and ran it straight into the ground.

The second map was decoded by the first wife.

She was greedy. She hid the fact even from her own son, went alone to find the place her husband had prepared, and fell into a trap and died.

That was how it was. The coachman had been bait, the final arrangement Dolph had prepared.

Contrary to what the unofficial records said, Dolph despised the idea of his fortune passing to anyone else. Especially giving anything to his family, the thought was appalling to him.

"In truth, he was a seedless fruit. A bee that couldn't make honey."

By the time Kraiss said that, everyone in the room was listening. His talent for spinning a story could give an average bard a good slap across the face.

Right. Dolph had been incapable of fathering children, and yet he'd had six wives and more than twenty children to his name.

None of it added up.

So he had planned his revenge.

Scattered every last bit of his fortune across the land.

Some of those caches had already been found.

By a man called Kirgon, reputed to be the continent's greatest treasure hunter.

He had already proven it.

"The treasure is real."

A secret chapter of history.

Kraiss happened to know quite a bit about this side of things.

Why wouldn't he? Krona was involved.

Rumor had long spread that whoever solved these maps would find genuine treasure buried at each spot, and Kirgon had proven it.

And yet. Well.

Was there ever such luck in the world.

The goddess of fortune must have been asleep when he slipped over and kissed her on the cheek.

At the last battlefield, while sweeping through the enemy's position, Kraiss had managed to pocket a few items. One of them was something he'd pulled from beneath a tree.

"Hmm."

It was a map that reeked as though it had been stored between someone's thighs.

He'd nearly flung it away the moment he touched it, but Kraiss's instincts told him it was no ordinary object, so he'd kept it.

Treasure maps were common enough things, as far as circulating items went.

Most were fakes.

There was someone at Gielpin's guild who had an eye for these things.

A generous description: appraiser.

In back-alley terms: fence.

Even treasure requires the right eyes to sell it.

"This one looks real."

Those words were enough. A hundred years old, and the language had shifted enough that the appraiser couldn't read a word of it.

Kraiss hadn't cracked the script either. He'd spent a good while agonizing over how to decode it, and then, of all people, Frog had given him the answer.

Ruagarne's own description of herself:

"I'm a scholar."

Frog?

Whatever she actually thought, Kraiss hadn't let any disrespect show on his face. Instead he asked Ruagarne to decode a few letters at random, then used that foundation to piece the rest together.

Dolph's sixth map.

"There will be treasure. Something enormous."

Standing at the center of the lodging, Kraiss had poured everything into it. His face was red from not stopping to breathe.

"It's been so long that none of the traps will even work properly, so this is just picking up a gem someone dropped on the road. Somebody smeared a bit of dirt on the outside? Just brush that off and take it. That's all there is to it."

The story was interesting enough, but Enkrid was not swept up in Kraiss's enthusiasm.

He didn't commit to visiting the location marked on the map.

He just thought.

'It's on the way out anyway.'

Monsters, beasts, war.

His hands itched for it.

Whether the things he'd learned would hold up, whether the path he was walking was the right one, whether everything wrung out of training and sparring and lessons shared with the people around him had built something worth following as a direction.

Wanting to test his own capabilities was human instinct.

"The request is accepted."

Kraiss's face lit up.

"The detour is undecided."

The next words hit him like a wall.

He opened his eyes as wide as they could go and muttered, "No, how can you do this."

Rem watched and laughed from the side.

Enkrid didn't know it, but from the moment Kraiss had confirmed the map was real, he'd been scheming to make use of it.

Go after the treasure alone? That was no different from inviting monsters to sit down and enjoy a meal with his own flesh and blood as the bread and wine.

So with the guild people?

That would just mean a banquet opened with his own blood and the blood of guild members.

He needed a group with the strength to handle monsters, beasts, and bandits without flinching.

Hire mercenaries? He'd need at minimum a squad-sized unit for that.

The overhead would swallow the profit whole.

So his first target had been Rem.

"How about taking on a request?"

"I only take assassination contracts. Three targets, limited. A scheming stray Cat, a picky layabout, and a lump drowning in religion."

Rem hadn't even been willing to listen.

Ragna and Jaxon wouldn't have been any different.

He hadn't even tried with Audin. The man didn't often go to the front lines to begin with, so treasure hunting was out of the question.

"Only if Big Eyes Brother swears to offer it all as tribute to the gods."

That would be his answer.

As for the platoon leader, for the past three months or so, hadn't the man been swinging his sword like a madman?

Getting a word in was nearly impossible.

"If only I could borrow your hands."

On a whim, he mentioned it to Esther.

"Kyaa!"

Esther expressed her displeasure with her entire body. One step closer and she was ready to claw again.

On the day he first met Esther, he had carelessly touched her trying to figure out her sex, and from that day forward she had despised him. Loathed him, even.

She was said to be a sacred creature, but for a panther, the range of emotions she could express was something else entirely. Remarkable in its own right.

So he had been halfway ready to give up.

No matter how much he loved Krona, he wouldn't risk his life for it. That was Kraiss's creed.

Why else was his dream to open a salon someday and spend his life without a worry about Krona? Right in the heart of a safe city, enjoying the nights at a comfortable pace.

A salon wasn't risk-free either, of course, but that kind of thing was exactly the right amount of thrill to enjoy while living.

Anyway, he'd been halfway to giving up, but if the platoon leader was going?

What was Enkrid's level of strength these days?

"I was wrong, I can't beat him anymore either."

Those were the official words of the Frontier Defense Captain.

"Give me five marksmen and two mages, and I'd have a shot."

That was what Squad Leader Torres had said.

Five marksmen and two mages. With a setup like that, even Kraiss could try his hand at taking down Enkrid.

Forget himself, wasn't the rest alone enough?

"It's getting interesting."

Rem had said something to that effect.

"Tempting."

The Elf Company Commander practically had those words on her lips every day.

What did all of that mean?

That a standard pack of Ghouls couldn't even touch the hem of the boss's coat. Wasn't that what it came down to?

Actually, was their squad leader a genuine genius?

No doubts there. He had already watched Enkrid spar with Frog up close.

So then.

"Aw, come on. Let's go. Please."

Kraiss nagged.

Enkrid ignored him.

"I'll come along."

Frog joined in.

"Wonderful. That's wonderful!"

Kraiss lit up.

"Can I come too?"

Finn raised her hand as well. She was a Ranger, and an exceptionally skilled one.

Not at the level of a Pathfinder, the kind of person called a walking map-maker, but she was good at finding paths and better still in a fight.

"Absolutely wonderful!"

Kraiss stepped up again.

Enkrid watched all of it and let out a quiet laugh.

No need to stop either of them.

If the Battalion Commander had specifically flagged this request as something that would fall to him personally,

'It's dangerous work.'

That was exactly why his pulse had spiked and he'd agreed, but still.

Dangerous meant you reduced it where you could, and more people meant less danger.

A colony of monsters near a frontier village, protect the settlement, temporary command over its forces, and Frog as a companion.

What if he brought one more along, Rem or someone else?

"Want to come?"

Enkrid asked, not expecting much, though honestly, a little.

"Hey, don't you know I'm busy?"

Rem had already gotten into his bunk, bundled up in his blanket and lounging away. His answer made Enkrid think, again, that this was very much Rem.

Busy. The man was busy lounging around with nothing to do.

So he tried Ragna.

"Not feeling it."

Not feeling it? Wanting to slack off? Was there a shortage of slacking lately?

Ragna was also glued to his bunk. Didn't even turn his head when he answered.

"The Lord gives me no guidance."

Audin declined too.

Jaxon was nowhere to be seen at all. He was apparently keeping up with his guard duties, but it seemed he had no time to stop by the lodging.

In the end, no one was coming.

Enkrid didn't particularly mind. If there was a genuine massive threat, they'd send a proper unit. He didn't think they'd singled him out personally for something that serious.

Confirming a monster colony near the frontier village, taking it out if the chance arose.

The orders stated he'd have command authority over the village's forces.

'If there's a village militia.'

The numbers wouldn't be too thin.

Then all he needed was to prepare thoroughly before heading out.

Travel in this world was never forgiving, and without serious preparation, most people wouldn't even dare attempt it.

Under normal circumstances, four people setting off just like that would raise eyebrows.

But with a Ranger and Frog in the group, and a swordsman at the level of a special-grade soldier by Naurillia's military ranking system as the commander, it wasn't a group that would be brought down by ordinary threats.

The world was full of bandits and monsters, but this was more than enough.

So the fact that none of his squad was coming along didn't matter.

"Departure is in two weeks."

Enkrid said it, and Kraiss watched his expression carefully, then spoke.

"Really can't do it?"

"We'll see."

Enkrid always meant exactly what he said. The job ahead was uncertain, so he'd need to gauge things on the road both ways.

For Kraiss, wanting it hard was the only option left.

The treasure cave he had found happened to be in that direction. Only a day's travel from the frontier village.

"Wonderful. Great."

Kraiss knew that pushing further wouldn't do anything.

And so the group began to prepare.

Travel in this world was genuinely unforgiving.

It was a world where the bare minimum for calling yourself a traveling merchant was the ability to fight. Even merchants moving city to city kept at least ten together to maintain combat strength.

This was why mercenaries and Naurillia's soldier-mercenary system were so well-received.

Into that world, four people were heading out.

No anxiety, but no reason to be careless either.

Enkrid decided to head into town for the first time in a while.

There were a few things to pick up at the market.

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