WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 203: Amid Summer God's Prank

= = =

After changing into the clothes of people entering through the gate,

Enkrid headed straight back outside.

"Hey, where do you think you're going!"

A soldier helping guide residents along the wall shouted at him. Enkrid lifted the old wide-brimmed hat covering his head. The soldier who called out met his eyes.

Those clear blue eyes, and the nose and lips beneath them. It was not hard to recognize him.

"Taking a walk."

"Captain Enkrid?"

These days, few people in the city did not know his face.

"Shh."

Enkrid raised a finger in front of his nose, signaling him to keep quiet, then stepped out.

He had left Kraiss behind. That bastard was useless in a frontal fight.

Unlike the stream of residents pressing inward, he moved against the flow, so he naturally stood out a bit.

It felt like a fish swimming upstream.

He did not care.

Who cared if allies saw him.

What mattered was that the enemy did not. It was still too early for him to enter the enemy scouts' line of sight. Which made this the perfect time to slip out and hide.

"Let's go."

Enkrid said it and started running.

"An ambush?"

Finn asked at his side.

"Yeah."

Finn did not argue. She did not ask what kind of ambush fewer than ten people could possibly pull off.

She knew.

She had spent time with Audin and learned enough.

Everyone in the Madmen Company was a monster.

That included Enkrid.

* * *

Marcus stood on the wall gallery, stroking his beard, when the lieutenant who had come with him from the kingdom asked,

"Will this be all right?"

He was not doubting Enkrid's strength. He trusted him. But trust and appearances were separate things, and from the outside it looked dangerous.

That was why they had prepared a fallback.

"No idea. Me neither."

"Then why are you smiling, sir?"

The lieutenant could not read worry or concern on Marcus's face. That alone was strange.

It was the first time he had seen Marcus speak with this much passion, and the first time he had seen him smile like this.

'No, I have seen it a few times.'

When Marcus found tea leaves he liked and won them at auction, he wore that same smile.

The smile of a man who had found something truly rare and now had nothing left but to enjoy it.

"I don't know how it'll go, but it'll be interesting."

Marcus was not the type to treat battle as entertainment. So if he said that, he had his reasons.

The lieutenant understood that Marcus's expectations for Company Commander Enkrid were far from ordinary.

It looked less like expectation and more like enjoyment.

"The Unmarked Forces are probably Bantara Viscount's Forces. Count Molsen may have sent men too."

The lieutenant said it.

Molsen was nicknamed a collector of talent. He had many skilled people under him.

Marcus had expected as much. They hid their emblems because they could not help openly.

Count Molsen wanted to carve up Border Guard and devour his share too.

Which meant trouble. A large wolf had joined the game.

And Molsen was a sly bastard who might do anything.

Marcus did not cling to things beyond his reach. They could not ask the center for help anyway, and if this was a gamble, then it was only natural to bet everything on the one card he trusted.

If he did not even see it as a gamble, that said enough.

"Then why isn't the Independent Company Commander up here yet?"

Marcus asked. It was time for all commanders to gather on the gallery, yet Enkrid alone was missing.

"Over there."

The sharp-eyed Elf Company Commander pointed the moment Marcus spoke.

Below the wall, residents who had been working outside in farming and other support tasks were coming in. And against that flow, several people were moving out.

No matter how well he hid himself, Audin's size was hard to conceal.

Of course, the Elf Company Commander had recognized Enkrid.

"He's heading out."

Marcus still had not issued any direct order. He had only granted authority.

"...Hah."

Marcus let out a small sound of admiration. He could roughly guess what Enkrid was trying to do.

And if it worked, the enemy command would have a very complicated headache from the start.

The smile stayed on his face.

* * *

Martai's commander was named Olf.

He wanted to be called General, and he had the ability to back it up. He had personal strength, and he had built achievements as a commander.

All his lieutenants called him General.

Border Guard's mayor carried the nickname Battalion Commander, while Martai's mayor carried the nickname General.

Well, people could call themselves whatever they wanted.

"General, we're ready."

"The mangonels?"

"Eight total. N-no problems."

A mangonel was a catapult worked by six men, firing stones.

Its advantage was mobility and no setup time.

Its power was weaker than a trebuchet, but it was easier to use.

With wheels attached, it was basically a mobile siege cannon.

A trebuchet needed separate installation.

Olf thought eight mangonels were more than enough.

And they also had support from the Unmarked Forces.

Their commander walked up.

"No need to drag this out, right?"

Olf did not know his name or face. A man with brown eyes and a dirty mustache.

He looked maybe in his thirties, at most.

The man was polite, but he did not seem to respect Olf himself.

Then again, a man who came here like this must have something to rely on.

Olf did not care.

He was one of the commanders in Bantara Viscount's Forces. He did not even seem interested in commanding, but that was none of Olf's business.

Better to focus on the battlefield than waste attention on this nonsense.

No point drowning in stray thoughts. Better to judge enemy strength.

So Olf kept his eye on the ones who had made names for themselves in previous battles.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, Bantara Viscount's Forces had two commanders.

At least the other one could be reasoned with.

In practice, that second commander handled most troop control anyway.

That second commander had said this before:

"Enkrid? Ah, that bastard? Half of it's bluff. He goes around bragging about impossible feats. If I meet him on the field, I'll punch a hole through his throat."

The sharp estoc at his waist gave weight to the words.

Olf had nodded.

They were allies in this battle, after all.

Still, they were strange men.

The first commander, with that bored face, only trailed along and occasionally told people to hurry up.

'Whatever.'

Victory on this field was already decided, and he was the one who would lead it.

He would swallow Border Guard and turn this region into a new eastern bridgehead.

His grand ambition soared.

About then, light raindrops began to fall.

Rain under a clear sky.

Summer God's Prank.

Olf was on horseback at the rear of the battlefield.

Ahead, outside Border Guard's wall, he saw several houses.

The homes residents had emptied were silent.

The mangonel catapults rolled along the well-cleared road, naturally the road running between the houses.

The sight of catapults moving in line through those gaps was reassuring.

Before the thin rain turned the ground to mud, they needed to move fast.

"Hurry."

At Olf's order, the soldiers quickened their pace.

* * *

Summer God's Prank was what people called rain that fell from a clear sky.

A kind of superstition.

No gods existed for each season.

Though each region had its own name for it.

In the west, they called it some shaman's mistake, or something like that.

Enkrid had heard Rem say it once while they watched this kind of rain.

Enkrid was not especially tense.

He just focused on what needed to be done.

That did not mean he planned to do it halfway.

'Is the summer god helping us?'

The rain came at just the right time, making visibility a little worse.

Good conditions for people in hiding.

It was not hard to predict the enemy route.

Experience made it obvious. With catapults, they would use the well-cleared roads between houses.

The prediction was right. Anything with wheels needed a proper road.

Rumble.

Soon he heard wheels rolling.

He opened the door of a dirt-and-wood house and hid behind it.

Audin was too large to hide that way, so he stayed fully inside the house.

At the opposite house door were Rem, Ragna, and Dunbakel.

On this side were Enkrid, Jaxon, and Audin.

Finn was farther back.

'Break only the catapults and pull out.'

Enkrid drew on prior experience. There was no need to burn everything in a single fight.

They could gnaw away at them little by little.

It was not formal doctrine from strategy manuals.

He had only applied what he learned fighting gnolls, and it worked well enough.

"Looks good."

Kraiss nodded too.

Good enough.

Enkrid stayed behind the door and watched a mangonel rattle past.

"Fucking hell, now it's raining."

An enemy soldier grumbled while pushing the mangonel, then locked eyes with Enkrid. Enkrid spoke in a calm tone.

"Audin, break it."

The soldier's eyes bulged. He was just opening his mouth in shock.

Whip, thunk!

A knife flew from Jaxon's hand and buried itself in the man's forehead.

The man hit in the forehead bounced off the catapult and collapsed. His limbs went limp as he crumpled to the ground like an old wooden doll.

"Ambush!"

More than ten men were hauling that catapult. He could not silence every mouth.

Enkrid burst out too. He stamped the ground, drew his sword, and marked three points in one flowing move.

A quick thrust to the left diagonal, in and out like a snap, then one straight ahead, then a final jab to the right diagonal.

Three thrusts made three dead men.

"Ghk!"

"Kk!"

"Aaagh!"

Three screams burst at once. The first man was pierced through the mouth.

The second took it through the throat.

The third, with full force committed, had his leather armor punched through and his heart pierced.

Skill and technique, precision and power in balance.

Audin charged out through that gap. He came out with a boom, smashing through a wall, and the enemy soldiers panicked even harder.

"Uaaagh!"

"What is that!"

"...Ghk!"

People made all kinds of sounds when they panicked.

Audin stood beside the catapult, grabbed it with his left hand, drew back his right fist, and drove it forward.

Enkrid could tell that motion mixed in Valaf-style martial technique.

Left foot sliding and planting forward, then rotation through ankle, knee, and waist. The fist that followed was like a cannonball.

Boom!

A thunderous blast from a punch exploded amid Summer God's Prank.

Rainwater sprayed in every direction.

Craaack!

A mangonel was not a delicate machine. Its strength was rugged simplicity. But that did not mean the hinge, trigger, and wheel did not matter.

Any structured weapon had clear weak points.

Audin did not care about any of that.

He smashed and split the thick wooden core that carried the frame's load with his fist. Broken splinters burst through the rain.

He destroyed a catapult with a few punches.

That was beyond brute strength.

Could even an ogre or giant do this.

Even Frog would struggle to pull this off.

"Bless this lowly servant!"

Saying that while smashing siege weapons barehanded.

Enkrid admired his devotion all over again.

A similar scene was unfolding on the opposite side.

There, Rem played Audin's role.

His axe smashed the mangonel basket and severed every trigger rope.

Ragna walked forward at ease, slicing, cutting, and stabbing incoming enemy soldiers.

"Form ranks! Do not rush in blindly!"

A commander among the catapults shouted.

They had lost the first two engines, but they could not just take it like this.

The plan was to pull back, regroup, and strike back.

Thinking that, the commander opened his mouth to issue orders.

"Grruuh-?"

But his thoughts never became words.

Enkrid saw a shadow rise behind him.

It was Jaxon. He slit the commander's throat from behind with a dagger, tossed aside the body, then stabbed a soldier near a rear siege engine.

Dodge and stab. Simple motions, rising death toll.

Audin ignored the soldiers and kept smashing engines.

Boom! Boom!

Heavy impacts rang out one after another.

Naturally, every eye turned toward Audin, and in that brief distraction Jaxon vanished again.

Only this remained.

"Ghk!"

"Fall back, fall back!"

A shadow cutting the throats of those shouting. Instant acceleration and a dagger. Jaxon picked off the men trying to restore order and killed them.

Enkrid thought it was a familiar sight and swung his sword again.

Enemies filled the space in front of him too.

Dunbakel stayed beside Ragna and dealt only with enemies who closed in.

Finn had kept her distance from the start, stationed at the rear house.

Her role was to watch the whole battlefield from behind, not join the melee directly.

Naturally, that was Enkrid's order.

They pressed and surged forward. Breaking the eight engines lined up in a row was not difficult.

One soldier rushed in to stop Audin. Audin grabbed him with brute force, threw him aside, and charged.

Boom!

He slammed a siege engine with his shoulder and toppled it sideways.

It looked absurd, but it happened right in front of them.

It took barely over ten minutes to destroy all eight engines.

Summer God's Prank was short by nature.

Within that brief prank, Martai lost all eight siege engines.

Pheeeeee!

Finn blew the prepared whistle. The enemy main force was beginning to move. At the sharp-eyed ranger's signal, Enkrid fell back.

The others moved with him.

Dunbakel ran first. Seeing the Beastkin sprint, everyone withdrew.

Before the real battle even began, before anyone had started shouting about surrender in front of the wall,

Martai had already lost its siege engines, and Border Guard's soldiers, whose shoulders had stiffened under the pressure of enemy numbers, found breathing room again.

Enkrid turned and ran. If they got out clean, it was mission success.

Then Enkrid abruptly stopped mid-run.

"What are you doing?"

Rem noticed and said it. Instead of answering, Enkrid turned fully around.

He saw enemy troops halted behind them.

Some still did not understand what had happened. Some stared blankly this way. Some shouted to chase. Some glared with wide eyes. Some looked down at the fallen with hollow shock.

What had done this to them.

What had frozen their feet.

Something hot surged from his lower belly to his throat.

"You coming or not?"

Finn raised her voice. Everyone stared at their captain's back, wondering what he was doing.

Enkrid, well, he just wanted to do it.

He wanted to spit out that heat rising inside him.

"My name is Enkrid."

He stood there and gave his name.

"If you withdraw now, you'll live."

Then he raised his voice, steady and clear.

It was not a roar or a scream. It was measured resonance. Even so, it spread wide, deep, and far.

The enemy front ranks fixed their gaze on Enkrid. Dozens, hundreds of pairs of eyes. Enkrid received all of it head-on.

It was daring.

A sudden surge of bold, expansive spirit.

So he spoke.

A declaration of war, a warning, and his name in one.

Every eye gathered on him, drawn by that unprecedentedly aggressive act.

"He's crazy."

Rem said it, but to the allied soldiers watching, it was an overwhelming thrill.

Waaaaaaah!

Of course the cheers grew louder.

The nerve to stop with over a thousand enemies in front of him.

The spirit to shout at them to their faces.

It felt like watching the hero of a story.

"Get your head on straight. You on drugs?"

And Rem kept running his mouth from behind.

= = =

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