WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 178: I Will Fall for You

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The drunk Village Headman was on his nineteenth repetition of the same speech, leaning toward the man beside him.

"Really, anytime, come anytime, or rather just come. Actually, do come. Are you married? That's fine too. Yes, anytime, anytime, come here and put down roots. My daughter's quite pretty, so living here together, hmm, that sounds good. Doesn't it?"

The equally drunk villager beside him kept nodding along. With each dip of his head, food scraps scattered from his unkempt beard.

"Of course, yes, absolutely."

Anyone could see the man was drunk.

The headman apparently lost his mind the moment he started drinking.

Enkrid had glimpsed the headman's daughter once in passing. Not even fifteen yet, as far as he knew. A child. They said early marriage was a custom somewhere in the west, but not in the central regions. So this was drunken nonsense, nothing more.

"Hahaha!"

The headman and the bearded man, who had what looked like half a meal still tangled in his whiskers, slung their arms around each other and drifted away. Enkrid watched them go.

A village that survived a crisis always found its way to a festival.

When the Border Guard's blacksmith, wizard or otherwise, had moved to cut down the Cultist, Ruagarne shook her head. Enkrid looked at her, the question plain in his eyes.

"He's already dead. That stopped it."

The Cultist's end was a heart attack.

The surviving Demon Creatures came to their senses and fled. A few stayed to fight, but there was no need for Enkrid to step in. An arrow shrieked through the air and buried itself in the last skull standing.

"We won!"

"We held them!"

Cheers, shouts of joy at still being alive. And through it all, his name.

"Enkrid!"

Every last villager already knew it and cried it out. The voices of those who had been protected. The voices of those who had watched his back.

Not a bad feeling. Enkrid shook the blood from his sword and turned.

Through the cheers.

Through the crowd.

Time to go back to the village just beginning to breathe again.

"Long live Enkrid's Wall!"

A strange line, that.

The master builder had insisted on it, the headman had nodded, and even Deutsch Fullman, the security captain with his eyes already set on becoming the city's central power, had agreed the name was only fitting.

A name for a wall. Honestly, not bad. He half-figured it was a joke anyway.

That was the night they drove back the Demon Creatures and Magic Beasts. The headman put out every last bit of food the village had, and everyone ate and drank together. Enkrid did the same. Ate, drank, enjoyed himself.

"A drink?"

Finn brought one over. He took a sip. Good. Apple Cider, the sweetness and just-right tartness winding together with the drink's natural scent, filling his mouth with flavor.

"Isn't it good?"

The man asking had a scraggly beard that looked like mice had been at it. Face and name unknown to Enkrid, he smiled pleasantly and asked again how it was. Enkrid nodded.

"It's good."

"My own creation."

The mouse-nibbled beard man straightened with pride. A brewer, by the look of him.

"I've been saving this one. I want you to have it."

The words were rough, but the feeling behind them wasn't. He was saying thank you.

"Because of you."

Three words for "I'm alive." He held out a bottle and mentioned it was a little different from what everyone else was drinking.

Pop. The cork came out. Enkrid took a sip.

Hm.

Different. The depth, the taste, the aroma, all of it. The scent of apple brushing past his nose, a richness that deepened the more he savored it, sweetness that wrapped around his tongue and pulled him back for another sip. He kept reaching for his cup.

Nothing like it in his entire life.

"This seems rare."

"I was saving it for my daughter's wedding."

A bottle with its own story, then. He wondered if it was really alright to accept.

"I've still got one bottle left."

Said with a clear, bright smile. Mouse-nibbled beard and all, that smile was genuine. Pure joy, nothing hidden in it.

"Come here, you too, come pay your respects."

The brewer had his wife over in no time. A beauty. They said a man with talent finds a beautiful wife, and the saying fit well here.

"Enjoy it."

Enkrid glanced over and went back to his cider.

The headman, Deutsch, and many others each came and sat beside Enkrid for a spell before drifting on. A large spread had been laid out in the center of the village, something close to a proper festival.

"We should mark this day every year. Enkrid's Day, maybe?"

Are they going to name everything?

"What does a name matter?"

Someone shot back, and heads nodded all around. They settled on commemorating this day, the first day of summer, every year.

Are they really going through with it? Enkrid watched idly, sipping his cider.

The headman kept drunkenly cycling through the same lines. His wife claimed their daughter would be a beauty worth weeping over in two years' time.

Not likely.

Just an ordinary girl. Too shy to even speak to Enkrid. Instead, a cheeky little kid came up and asked to be taken under his command.

"Go bring me five of Deutsch Fullman's Self-Defense Force members."

The kid was dead serious.

"I will!"

He charged straight at a drunk Self-Defense Force member, got a flick on the forehead for it, and burst into tears. Trying to act grown-up, then crying and running off, he was still the kind of kid who probably wet the bed. Cheeky, though. The world was too hard to live in without even a dream like that, so Enkrid quietly cheered him on.

"It's thanks to you."

Deutsch Fullman seemed to have a strong constitution. Not the sort to get drunk easily. His nose was a little red, but his tongue was still working fine.

He drained his cup a few times without a word. Then: "Said there was nothing like this for me," he muttered, a dig at the brewer.

"If you ever need a Glaive, call on me anytime. A dance on the blade's edge, I swear it."

A mercenary's oath. No matter what comes, I'll answer your call. A dance on the blade's edge. It had a certain grace to it.

"A dance on the blade's edge."

Enkrid offered the mercenary greeting back, for the first time in a very long while.

"Until we meet again."

Deutsch stood and left with that plain farewell.

Another cup of cider.

A few drinks hadn't clouded Enkrid's mind. Nor did he feel any urge to pick up his sword and start swinging like a man gone mad. The battle review was mostly done anyway.

"Rest is important, brother."

Audin's words came to mind for no particular reason. Enkrid agreed. Rest was always important. If today, a day off that came maybe once a year, could be that rest, it seemed just right.

With that, he ate and drank.

A hunter who'd joined the Self-Defense Force had brought a deer from somewhere and roasted it whole. Whoever dressed the carcass had known what they were doing. The meat was tender, barely any gamey smell. Salted just right.

"Phew. If I tell anyone about this when I get back, will they even believe me?"

Finn came over, pleasantly drunk.

"What?"

"Demon Creature Slayer. The dance of the madman with two swords."

Only when drunk, but Finn had the makings of a bard. She giggled and wandered off somewhere else.

Kraiss came over next, wearing the face of someone who'd had quite a bit, and poked Enkrid in the ribs. He'd sensed Kraiss approaching, felt the poke before it landed. He let it go.

"Let's go find the treasure."

"Sure."

"No, I mean it, let's go. You think I'd keep it for myself? I wouldn't. Really. You really don't trust a word I say."

"Sure, let's go."

"Look, it's less than half a day from here. I've got the whole entry planned out. Traps? No problem."

"Sounds good."

"Don't you think it's time to make a decision?"

Kraiss's eyes were burning. Who had gotten him this drunk?

Enkrid looked at the moon and sipped his cider. Kraiss blinked his big eyes a few times.

"Wait. What did you just say?"

"Ask tomorrow's you when you sober up."

"What?"

"It means get lost."

At first the crowd around Enkrid had been thick, but now they drifted away one by one, finding their own groups. Watching it, he thought it was a good sight.

Moonlight falling down.

Not too warm. Not yet the season for flying insects, and the north of the continent never had many to begin with. Add to that the good cider, venison over the fire, whatever secret stores each household decided to pull out. Cheese appeared. Smoked meats.

They were burning through their supplies, but what did it matter. The colony threat was gone.

The Cultist's body and the Demon Creature bodies were laid out beyond the palisade. For the Gnolls' equipment, the village paid a fair price in Krona.

Tomorrow would be busier. Collecting the dead, patching the damaged palisade, hauling stones from the Quarry, recruiting more people to expand the village. They'd probably absorb the smaller settlements nearby. That was usually how it went. How Pioneer Villages grew.

Anyone with skills worth having, they'd bring in even if it cost Krona. And so this village would become a fortress. Real walls raised, something resembling an inner keep built up inside. Without a wizard's help, relying only on craftsmen guilds.

Still a few years at minimum.

A manor would need to go up too. Factoring in everything else, it might take longer. But the headman had more than enough ambition. He'd make it happen one way or another.

Land where Demon Creatures and Magic Beasts ran rampant made trade difficult at the best of times. Short and sharp, then, whatever they did. It would work out.

Enkrid lifted his head, his mind still wandering.

The center of the village square, noise from every direction. Someone singing. Someone who'd brought a lute was plucking it.

That one can actually play.

Listening carefully, watching the stars scattered across the sky, thinking that one constellation looked like a person mid-sword-swing, he was right in the middle of that thought when..."Aren't you curious about how to obtain Will?"

Ruagarne. She had settled in beside him. At her question, Enkrid didn't turn his head. Didn't answer.

She tried again.

"Why aren't you asking?"

Slowly, Enkrid parted his lips.

"When the time comes, I'll know."

Unconcerned? No. The man she had been watching all this time was far from that kind of indifference. Ruagarne didn't know why she felt impatient, but the urge to tell him had risen up suddenly. It wasn't the first time. She'd felt it the whole way here.

She'd finally spoken up, and Enkrid reacted like this. It made Ruagarne want to needle him.

"Do you think you can become a Knight?"

"Don't know."

Another deflating answer. Didn't suit her at all.

Enkrid kept his eyes on the moon.

"A dream. Just a dream."

Short. Clear as a blade in the chest.

That was what his words were like. Ruagarne placed her hand on her Heart Armor.

Her left arm was still regenerating. One-armed for now. It felt like something squeezing her heart.

"That is how a squire uses Will. They ignite it arbitrarily in one or two movements. Even that is no easy thing, but you must at least reach that point to stand in the superhuman realm, past the limits of the ordinary. It is the ground that lies beyond a Master."

Why was the Frog suddenly talking about this?

Drunk on moonlight? On cider?

"Does the Frog get drunk too?"

"Sometimes. Not right now."

Ruagarne was honest by nature, so she said what was actually inside her.

"Right now I think I'm drunk on a man."

No need to ask who. Ruagarne wasn't waiting for an answer anyway.

"Squire Eisia was enthralled by the Will that creates imposing force."

A Knight is one who properly wields the power called Will. A squire is one who wields even a part of it.

"Among squires who have grasped even a part of Will, there are those who ultimately never become Knights. Many of them. And you still want to become one?"

Whether she'd been building to that question all along or not, the explanation had helped either way.

Enkrid nodded, quiet.

"Yes. I'll become one. A Knight."

A dream torn to shreds. He had patched and stitched it back together, and it had drawn close again, close enough to touch.

Ruagarne stared at him.

On the outside, no visible passion. But Ruagarne had watched this man long enough to know.

Relentless.

Someone who kept a burning flame inside and never let it out.

Beautiful for it. Worth watching for it.

"If you become a Knight, I will fall for you."

For the Frog, breeding and love of the heart were entirely separate matters. That was why they could love humans too. And above all, a Frog's love was unlike any human concept of it, not just different but a separate thing entirely. No notion of possession, no notion of physical love. A man they fancied seeing other women was perfectly fine. They would even tell that woman of their own existence and ask for her understanding.

A human who received a Frog's love was genuinely rare. Something that special didn't happen easily.

Enkrid looked at her, not quite sure what to make of it, then nodded.

"Do as you like."

Casual, unremarkable. But it showed his measure. Ruagarne found that charming too.

The two shared cups with the moonlight as their backdrop, and then a panther shouldered her way between them, shooting them a sideways look that said she could drink too.

"Want some?" Enkrid asked.

Esther opened her mouth. The precious Apple Cider poured between the panther's lips. She swallowed with a gulp and let out a low rumble.

"Good?"

The panther simply opened her mouth again.

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