WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 228: Bell's Day

= = =

Squire Eisia.

She had been a member of the knight order that came with Ruagarne the Frog.

What she used was a technique called Oppression.

A skill built on Will, and the swordsman before him now seemed to be using the same kind of thing.

No, this was even better.

Enkrid saw formless blades cutting, stabbing, and slicing at his body. They were more numerous and faster than Eisia's.

He knew they were lies, fakes, and still he could not ignore them.

Even though he instinctively knew those blades came from his opponent's Will, his Sense of Evasion kicked in.

He almost stepped back on reflex, but Enkrid clenched his teeth.

His body twitched. His shoulders trembled. If he wanted to stand his ground with blades closing in, he had to hold a blade in his chest.

It was just like then.

If he could not push through, then it was flight, it was evasion.

Just like Eisia's Oppression.

If he failed to overcome it, he would be pinned against a wall and crushed. It would be admitting defeat without even fighting, without even reaching out once.

He remembered the Boatman's smile. That sneer would surely shake the river.

Enkrid suppressed his instincts.

"You could die."

The Rapier swordsman said it when Enkrid refused to retreat.

Enkrid did not listen.

Even back when death was truly the end, he had staked his life.

He had not struggled in order to die. He had struggled in order to keep moving forward.

So should he step back now?

Should he?

"Step back."

The Rapier swordsman said it again.

Then Enkrid began swinging his sword at the incoming blades.

He shifted Sense of Evasion into an offensive form, detonated the Heart of Superhuman Strength, and flung open the Gate of the Sixth Sense.

Focus Point activated, and he sank fully into the moment.

The incoming blades, all those formless swords, became visible.

Slow and clear.

Enkrid swung.

He beat them down one by one, knocked them away, shattered them. The broken blades vanished like illusions. They cracked like glass.

And for every blade he shattered, a new one formed.

"Foolish."

The Rapier swordsman said.

That was the last thing Enkrid heard.

He missed one blade. It curved in, then sped up like a hawk. Easy enough to miss.

Enkrid felt it slash across his neck.

It felt real.

It was horrific, and hot. So certain it felt like death.

Enkrid closed his eyes.

But he did not meet the Boatman.

When he opened them again.

"You awake, you crazy captain sir?"

He heard Rem's voice.

* * *

Hit by Oppression, Enkrid had swung his sword at empty air like a madman, then rolled his eyes back and collapsed.

Even then, his sword form had been precise and clean, clearly the form of someone properly trained.

After that, without even a groan or scream, he fell like a kite with its string cut, like a puppet whose use was over.

It happened right after Enkrid went down.

Boom!

Someone kicked off the ground. One, no, several moved.

Audin sprinted like he was flying and caught Enkrid.

Rem pulled out his axe. Ragna stepped up beside him and blocked the space between Enkrid and the Rapier swordsman.

Jaxon was already behind the Rapier swordsman.

"If I meant to kill him, I would have done it long ago."

The swordsman said.

Rem knew it too. The man in front of him was someone even he could not confidently beat.

'No, if I really decided to kill him, I could do it alone too.'

But he was not alone here.

So there was no need to open his hidden bag of tricks.

"If he had died, I would have cut you."

Ragna said.

There was not a trace of doubt in her words. If she said she would cut, she would cut.

That certainty made Ragna's sword strong.

Rem's usual smile was gone. Expressionless, he said, "Let's all be careful, yeah? My axe tends to move on its own. This one's got a self, an ego axe."

He was making a dumb joke, but his face stayed cold.

That made it even more vicious.

"His body is fine. We will know about his head when he wakes up."

Audin said after checking Enkrid's breathing. Even his usual "brother-nim" was missing.

Oppression affected the mind. It was force that pressed and constricted the opponent.

He could wake up witless.

Of course, Audin did not worry about that.

Enkrid was not that kind of man. He was not someone who would break from this much.

But what if a blade called fear had lodged itself in his heart?

That was what his opponent had done.

Not physical chains, but wounds carved into the mind.

It was fair to call it trauma. Fear carved in once did not break easily.

"Let's see after he wakes and we check his condition."

"Brother-nim" was still missing from Audin's voice.

That was how the fight ended.

* * *

After waking, Enkrid heard everything that had happened right after he fainted and nodded.

"I see."

Oppression, a technique based on Will.

So the opponent was at least a squire.

And not just that, one who truly knew how to use a sword.

"Interesting."

Enkrid murmured.

Interesting?

Everyone's eyes turned to him.

If he meant that sincerely, there was a problem. His head was broken. They all knew it. But with Enkrid, they could still believe it.

Wasn't he a complete lunatic?

That thought passed through everyone's mind.

A short silence followed.

Was he really fine, or bluffing? Could anyone still act like this after seeing that sword in person? Those stray thoughts ran their course.

"Looks fine. Broken in the same old way."

Rem said, as if delivering the final verdict.

So this was Enkrid's normal.

Could someone become afraid of swords?

Sure. On the battlefield, they often saw people whose minds had snapped.

There was even a story about a soldier who saw a Giant once, then fainted for life whenever he heard that word.

But that was not a story that applied to Enkrid.

He had already, truly and literally, died over and over while enduring every bit of pain.

A man who had never retreated from real death would not despair just because phantom blades cut and stabbed him.

"Just like when you drew that sword, Captain, looks like this part is really busted."

Relieved, Kraiss said it while circling his right index finger by his temple.

He seemed to be recalling that similar experience when Enkrid drew the Demon Sword.

Smack!

Seeing that, Rem smacked the back of Kraiss's head.

It landed so crisply that, true to his Big Eyes nickname, his eyeballs looked ready to pop out.

"Ow! Why are you hitting me?"

"That's mine."

What's yours?

Enkrid shook his head inwardly and got up.

"Only I get to do that."

Rem got prickly for no reason. Kraiss pouted, but quietly stepped back.

He was never someone you could reason with anyway.

"Are you really all right, Captain brother-nim?"

"Guess I slept too much. My body feels light."

Asked if he was okay, he answered that his body felt light.

Audin smiled.

"Your mental strength is truly remarkable, brother-nim."

Audin found himself looking at Enkrid with fresh eyes again.

How could he not.

During those long years of refining sacred power, everyone was required to cultivate patience and a steady mind.

"Only one who does not yield to any hardship or threat may raise his head."

Audin murmured a line from scripture.

No one listened closely.

Ragna was not the suspicious type, but she still thought confirmation was necessary.

Shing.

She drew her sword and stopped it one finger-joint from Enkrid's nose.

"...You want to spar?"

Enkrid looked blankly into Ragna's eyes and asked.

Someone afraid of swords could never hide that anxiety.

But what about Enkrid's eyes now?

Unchanged. Straight and true. Filled with the same gaze that had made Swallow Blade recoil.

"We can do it next time."

Ragna sheathed her sword.

As always, Jaxon could only find Enkrid strange.

'Feels like you couldn't kill him even if you tried.'

Not that he would ever just watch if Enkrid was truly in mortal danger.

Anyway, Enkrid stood up just fine.

Sparring continued after that.

Instead of the smooth, friendly sword he had shown before, the Rapier swordsman showed Oppression again.

Again, Enkrid knocked away formless blades and was cut down. More precisely, he fainted, so it was not real death.

It was only something like death digging into his mind and heart and tearing through them.

That could not change Enkrid.

"So you are enduring."

The Rapier swordsman said.

Watching that, Swallow Blade grumbled.

"Hey, take it easy. If you're gonna kill him, kill him. Why keep poking and testing bit by bit?"

The Rapier swordsman ignored him.

The half-giant and Edin Molsen's guard gave a different opinion.

"Wouldn't it be better to put him last from now on? It ends with him passing out before we even step in."

That was the guard's view. The half-giant nodded too.

They were saying he should not steal their chances as well.

That too was strange.

The Rapier swordsman had seen Enkrid's limits, but he still acknowledged what had to be acknowledged.

'Drive?'

No one here was the same as at the beginning.

The more they faced Enkrid, the more each of them changed.

By now, the heat had passed and autumn was dry. Border Guard was in the north of Pen-Hanil, and autumn here was short. The cold would come quickly after.

Autumn was already halfway through, and it had already been thirty days since they arrived at Border Guard.

"Tell him next time is the last."

The Rapier swordsman said.

"Do whatever you want."

Rem answered.

Enkrid, who had fainted from Oppression and woken again, nodded.

"I want to beat that."

"There is one way."

Even in their usual bouts with visitors to the city, there was advice.

Same this time. Ragna stepped in.

"If you cannot knock all of them away, then strike back at the phantom blades with your mind."

It was not vague.

Will.

It meant that unless he gained some formless something strong enough to overcome Oppression, he could not win.

"They say Will is something you realize, but if power like that really worked that way, building a knight order would be impossible. Squires are those who force Will awake. You might be able to do it. Of course, even if you awaken it, taking on Oppression like that right away is a separate issue."

The last part meant that learning to walk did not mean you could run at once.

In any case, based on Ragna's words, the conclusion was clear. The opponent was testing him.

Whatever the intent, whether evil or good.

Favor or malice, Enkrid did not care.

He only.

Oppression.

As always, whenever something tried to choke him, he only wanted to overcome it.

Even so, he had no intention of throwing his life away just to repeat today.

* * *

Another day passed, and it was a night like any other.

Bell, on duty at the castle gate, spotted someone approaching late at night.

"Who is it? A peddler?"

Even as he asked, Bell already knew the man was no merchant.

From a rational standpoint, traveling alone like that was odd. On instinct, the man simply did not look easy.

"Is this where the War-Ending Soldier is?"

He wore no black cloak, nothing suspicious either.

The young man stepped into torchlight.

His skin was somewhat dark, and he wore a sword at his waist.

One Arming Sword, and three daggers lined up on the opposite side. The way he wore them looked very natural.

He was armed, yet did not look armed.

"I was hoping I could meet him."

The man said again. Bell tilted his head, then straightened it and replied.

"At this hour, outsiders can't enter the city, so come back tomorrow in the daytime if you're coming. And meeting him also has to be tomorrow, right?"

That last question was to the colleague beside him.

"Yeah, right."

The colleague answered.

Tomorrow happened to be the day Enkrid's body would recover and he would come out.

Those recent days of nonstop sparring.

There had been rest days, but he would come out tomorrow. He was not badly hurt.

"You're lucky. You'll be able to meet him tomorrow."

At Bell's words, the man worked his lips and said, "I only have time tonight. Can't I meet him now?"

Bell thought he was being stubborn, but the man had an odd air about him.

'I should test him first.'

Many came looking for the War-Ending Soldier, but not many of them could overwhelm Bell.

Quite a few turned around after defeating him.

"A mere soldier is this strong?"

Saying things like that.

Bell tapped his colleague on the shoulder.

"I'll go check him out for a moment. If anything happens, ring the emergency bell."

"Before you ring that bell, I'll put an arrow in his forehead, so don't worry."

The colleague on watch said, nudging Bell in the side.

This guy carried a bow wherever he went.

He was good with it too.

He also belonged to Squad Leader Vengeance's unit.

Thinking that, Bell opened the side gate and stepped out.

Three or four guards watched.

Using the torchlight as a boundary, Bell said,

"If you knock me down, I'll pass your message. Want to try?"

"Mm, sounds good."

Even with Bell's spear leveled at him, the man faced him barehanded.

"...Not drawing your sword?"

Bell's voice dropped.

"If I cut with this, you might die, and I don't think there's any need to kill you."

This bastard. Full of confidence, huh?

Irritation flared in Bell, and he poured it straight into his thrust.

The fight was short. As Bell extended his spear, the man snatched the shaft.

Bell saw the movement, but he was half a beat too slow.

The man closed in and slammed Bell in the stomach with his palm.

Boom!

The shock felt like it punched straight through his abdomen. Bell thought there was an actual hole in his belly.

He barely swallowed the urge to vomit, then heard the man's voice.

"You're sturdy."

"...I've got an instructor who gets furious if I go down from one hit."

Bell exhaled as he answered. The heavy impact made his legs shake.

Still, Audin's fists were at least twice as heavy as this.

Bell made up his mind. This man was better than him.

And he had already said he had no intention of waiting for daylight.

'I'll just pass the message.'

That was Bell's thinking. The decision would be Enkrid's.

Hadn't Enkrid said many times people like this could appear?

Even if they were just passing through, Enkrid had said with his own mouth that he wanted to meet all of them.

If the skill was proven, late at night should be fine too.

He had already met several that way.

"I'll be back."

Bell withdrew without resistance. The man showed no killing intent and did not act rude.

Bell went into the barracks and delivered the message to Enkrid.

"Wait, I'll just go take a look."

Enkrid moved immediately.

"You're going alone?"

"Then?"

"No, well, yeah, I guess that should be fine."

Bell had been acting as the gatekeeper for people who came looking for Enkrid.

From Bell's view, this opponent was below the people currently in the marketplace.

He felt no overwhelming force, no oppressive presence.

When he reported that as is, Enkrid said he would go alone with light steps.

"Let's go."

Enkrid stepped out. Under torchlight, the two exchanged a few words, then crossed blades.

Clang.

Then their fight continued.

It was fierce, and lively too.

It almost felt like dawn was rising between them.

Like light was seeping through.

Then Bell saw something strange.

The opponent suddenly drew his blade, and just as it seemed to graze Enkrid's forehead, he shook his head like things had gone wrong.

After that, Enkrid's body trembled violently and he pitched forward. He toppled. Hit nose first. He could not hold himself up.

Bell blinked.

'Dead?'

After that, the world warped, tore, and changed.

Enkrid's death was the pendulum that rewound the day.

The curse activated, and a day Bell could not remember passed.

Then, in this same repeated today, Bell went to Enkrid again and said,

"Independent Company Commander, someone came looking for you."

"Yeah."

Bell tilted his head. Enkrid had not even heard the details, yet he stepped out at once.

And as he did, Enkrid wore a broad smile. A face he almost never showed, bursting with excitement.

"Do you know him?"

Bell asked.

"No."

Enkrid answered as he walked. He said no, yet behind that answer was unmatched thrill and joy. Enkrid could not hide his emotions at all, so clearly that anyone could see it.

= = =

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