WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 238: Hostage Standoff

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The Half-Giant stared blankly at the pouring rain.

As she wiped herself off and sat by the window, watching the downpour, she remembered what Enkrid had said.

‘Tomorrow too?’

Not today, but tomorrow. Not now, but the future.

Was she even allowed to live while thinking about things like that?

Would that really be fine?

Those questions churned inside her.

As a cultist, as a member of the Cursed Ground Holy Sect, what she had to do was clear.

“Hey.”

So she had to let this bastard’s words shake her now. Her heart did not waver at all, but she had to agree anyway, even if she had to force herself.

The man called Swallow Blade leaned against her doorframe and spoke.

“I was never interested in sparring from the start. You were the same, weren’t you?”

Swallow Blade was sharp and had an excellent memory. The Half-Giant had met him before. That meant he knew who she was. That was exactly why he was making this offer.

Cultists were not some group that worshiped brute force, and if she had come all the way here, her purpose was obvious.

“Let’s kill him. That’s what we have to do, right?”

That was what they had to do. The Half-Giant knew it too. Even so, she could not nod easily. Her lips would not part. But it was still what had to be done, so she nodded.

‘If you want to survive, endure. If you want to survive, kill.’

The Cult’s teachings were still vivid in her mind. Until she died, she was nothing but a cultist, nothing but a warrior of the Cursed Ground Holy Sect.

So she acted accordingly. She accepted Swallow Blade’s proposal.

“I have a plan.”

Swallow Blade took a step closer. His breath reeked of rot. The words that came out of his mouth were just as rotten.

That was how it began.

Swallow Blade loitered near the gate, then found a soldier.

“Hey, friend!”

“Hm?”

Rain poured so hard his oiled cloak was useless. The surroundings were dim. It was the kind of weather that narrowed your vision on its own.

Even with torches lit under shelter, it was still dark.

Poor visibility was only natural.

Bell stepped under the light to check the face of the man who had called him.

The other man did the same.

It was a familiar face.

What was his name again? Thinking back, Bell had let him into the territory without even asking.

One thing was certain. He was Enkrid’s guest. A guest staying at the inn, a swordsman, and a sparring partner.

Also someone Marcus had told them to keep a close eye on.

“What is it?”

Swallow Blade gave him a thin smile. Bell did not like it, but he said nothing.

“Do you have a moment?”

The man with the dirty smile asked.

Bell was on patrol duty. There was no way he had time.

What pointless crap was this now?

He was about to say exactly that.

Crack!

At the sudden sound, his head whipped around. A huge warrior had appeared behind him before he noticed.

A Half-Giant warrior.

Another face he knew. Bell had watched Enkrid spar many times too.

The moment he saw the female warrior’s cold, hardened face, he opened his mouth to shout attack, ambush, anything.

A cold blade touched his neck first.

It was too fast to react.

“Shh.”

That was the end of Bell’s awareness. Something struck the back of his head, and when he opened his eyes again, both his hands and feet were tightly bound.

His whole body was soaked, and he was not alone.

“O Lord in heaven.”

A prayer came from right beside him.

A middle-aged woman muttered through tears. She sold seasoned jerky, and she was one of his fellow soldier’s mothers.

And she was not the only familiar face there.

“Vanessa?”

“Damn it, you finally woke up?”

The rough-tongued innkeeper was there too. Her voice was as harsh as ever, but her eyes trembled. Anxiety showed clearly.

Bell looked around again. His vision was blurry, but not enough to keep him from recognizing people.

Dozens of them, including Bell, were tied up.

And then.

“If you resist, I’ll kill you one by one.”

The voice came from farther away. Only then did Bell realize he was inside some kind of shack.

A few familiar things caught his eye.

An old leather sunshade, several rotting hides giving off a foul smell, and a fireplace long dead from years without use.

It was a hunter’s hut abandoned in a remote spot outside the gate, not inside the territory. An abandoned shack.

What the hell was going on?

All those familiar faces were tied up and trapped in the hunter’s hut.

Sunlight streamed through the window. Bell had been lying on his side, so he tightened his abs.

“Hup!”

After forcing himself upright, he looked through the window.

He saw the back of the bastard he had seen right before passing out.

‘That bastard?’

His head was still throbbing. Something sticky brushed his cheek when he sat up, so he had probably bled a little too.

He was not dead, but his skull had been split open.

Beyond that bastard’s back, he could make out a blurred figure, but not clearly.

The voice was enough.

“Then it looks like you’ll die too.”

It was Enkrid’s voice.

Bell understood the situation at once.

It was a hostage standoff.

At the same time, Bell wondered whether this would even work.

This was a world where people killed and were killed.

In a world like that, even if there were dozens of people here, would Enkrid really die for them?

No chance, right?

Then why was this still happening?

Questions kept piling up in Bell’s head.

He would have to keep watching to see how it ended.

* * *

Swallow Blade’s little scheme was neither extraordinary nor brilliant.

It was just simple and vicious.

“I told you I’d kill them all, didn’t I?”

From his first day in Border Guard until now, he had watched the people around him.

He observed and assessed, and learned a few things.

First.

‘What the fuck? You put a watcher on me out of nowhere?’

Someone was keeping eyes on him. That happened because Kraiss had reported him upward on the first day.

Marcus’s eyes, thanks to that.

Swallow Blade found it deeply irritating.

Fine, surveillance was one thing.

What he learned after that was this: in his view, Enkrid was quietly but clearly close to the people around him.

Even then, if he took them hostage and demanded Enkrid’s life right away, Enkrid would obviously scoff.

A hostage only mattered if that hostage held enough value for the other side.

‘They’re not family. They’re not lovers.’

And they were not some hidden child either.

Just people he knew. About that much.

“I’m not asking for anything huge. Just that much. Pull your people back and stay here alone.”

That was why. Swallow Blade set terms he thought the other side might accept.

To be honest, he believed that if he and that crazy Half-Giant bitch fought together, they could kill Enkrid.

So what was the problem?

‘Those bastards, right?’

The one in the back snickering while stroking an axe. The bear-like giant at least two heads taller than him. The quiet one who looked calm but seemed like the type who could start cutting at any moment.

“Especially you, don’t disappear. If I can’t see you, I’ll kill this woman first.”

He said that to Jaxon.

Swallow Blade already had a resident in his grip. The woman who made marmalade. A sharp knife was pressed right against her throat.

A drop of blood ran down at once.

Enkrid could not remember her name.

Kraiss could.

“If you touch even Juri’s fingertips, you won’t die cleanly.”

Kraiss was serious, which was rare.

Those hands made excellent marmalade, so yes, her fingertips were especially important.

Juri’s face had gone pale, and she could not get a proper word out.

Her whole body was rigid, as if dipped in wax, while Swallow Blade dragged her around with his rough grip.

Even watching that, Enkrid showed no impatience. That only deepened the smile on Swallow Blade’s face.

‘That bastard’s eyes are rotten.’

If this went the way he wanted, he would gouge those eyes out first.

“Is what I said hard? No, right? If it’s because you’re not confident... then that’s a different story.”

The provocation was still crude. Swallow Blade’s condition was simple.

Pull your people back. Leave only Enkrid. And after that?

“If you alone take the two of us down one after another, that’s the end.”

He said he would release the hostages if Enkrid did that. Obvious bullshit, yes, but he was not asking Enkrid to die, and not asking him to cut off an arm either.

If Enkrid refused, he was the type to kill without hesitation. So this sat in an ugly middle ground.

What, you can’t even accept this much?

‘That was the point.’

Looked at coldly, it was nonsense. Pull back your allies and face two enemies.

What if both rushed him at once trying to kill him?

‘Then can they handle what comes after?’

What if Enkrid were critically wounded? Even if he pulled back, Rem and the others were not people who would quietly stay put.

They would chase immediately. Did these two have another trick prepared?

How many years had he survived by using his head because skill alone was not enough?

When it came to reading people, Enkrid was no worse than anyone.

He read Swallow Blade’s intent. He did not stop there. He saw beyond it.

Something beyond the five senses, his sixth sense told him.

‘Besides an escape trick, he’s got something else hidden too.’

Next to him stood the Half-Giant in a helmet, sword and shield in hand, silent and still.

Originally, handling even that one warrior would have been too much. No, it had been too much before.

Back then, before he started running with Shepherd Pel, it would have been impossible.

‘Might be doable now.’

His expression stayed flat and calm. His eyes did too.

Swallow Blade saw Enkrid’s eyes and smiled wider.

That smile had been unpleasant from the start.

But Enkrid had let him be because he wanted to see what skill he had hidden. He considered this his responsibility.

He was about to say he accepted.

“Bullshiiit!”

What a booming voice.

“Huh? Who stole the words right out of my heart?”

Rem spouted nonsense from behind.

It came from inside the abandoned hut. Bell had shouted.

At this rate Bell would die first, Enkrid thought, genuinely worried.

This whole thing had started because of him, and every face in there was familiar.

This was not a battlefield. If they got stabbed and died here, it would stay with him.

So he wished they would just keep their mouths shut.

Swallow Blade was no longer smiling. His face looked like a twisted mask.

Did this bastard’s face muscles not hurt when he smiled like that?

“Heh heh, brother with that unlucky smile, let’s talk. The holy text says when a man walks the wrong path, look behind him. Come on, turn around.”

With that incomprehensible line, Audin reached out a hand, naturally trying to draw his gaze away. Jaxon quietly lifted his left foot in time with it. Rem let his left hand hang loose. Only Ragna yawned and watched.

“Cut the crap.”

Swallow Blade did not bite.

Enkrid decided. What else could he do? It was not as if he was betting his life.

“Everyone, go back, wash your feet, and rest.”

“Tsk, you’re doing this alone?”

“Feels like I can.”

He had said that often before too. Back then, if he said it, Rem would sneer and tear into him.

He would ask if Enkrid was going off to die alone again.

But now?

They had sparred right before coming here.

‘Tsk.’

Rem swallowed his words. Enkrid had grown. He was no longer someone you could look down on. On top of that, he had awakened a part, a fragment, of Will.

He now had the qualifications to join the kingdom’s only knight order, the Red Cloak Knights.

Though joining a knight order still required meeting all sorts of conditions.

He had even received an offer from a knight order.

“So?”

Enkrid nodded at Swallow Blade, whose eyes had curved so much his pupils barely showed.

Then he sent everyone back. Far enough that they were completely out of sight.

Swallow Blade never let go of the hostage the whole time.

If not for the woman in his grip, Juri, Enkrid would have already made his move.

He had been hiding a knife behind the back of his hand this whole time.

That meant he was ready to use Sword Flicking Technique.

If he threw now, Swallow Blade would use the hostage as a shield.

‘Kill her with my own hand, then rush in and cut him down?’

The hostage would die, but it was one way to subdue the enemy.

Sacrifice one and finish this cleanly.

That was a method too.

But then someone would die. A resident of his territory, in a mess caused by him, someone he should protect.

He would not feel crushing guilt over it.

He was not the type to torment himself over what had already happened.

But standing by in silence while a preventable death happened did not suit him either.

Clink.

“I never swore to protect Border Guard’s people, but they are people in my territory.”

Enkrid said it as he drew his sword.

“So I can’t just stand by and watch.”

The rain had stopped. Under a clear sky, under bright blue light.

Enkrid stood there with his sword in hand.

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