WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator: Hydrogen B
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES
Chapter 250: [So You Talk to Beasts Now?]
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“Thanks for accepting me.”
Enkrid tilted his head.
Out of nowhere? Now, of all times?
Even saying you save people simply because you can felt awkward to him.
She was a Beastfolk who had worked as a mercenary for one of the kingdom’s top bandit groups.
And that person had risked her neck to save soldiers?
And he was supposed to dislike that?
No, he liked it very much.
Just because Enkrid dreamed of becoming a knight did not mean he expected everyone around him to act like storybook knights in attitude, conduct, and conviction.
But even when they could save someone, they did not.
Even when they saw the weak being oppressed, they looked away.
Why?
Was there nothing in their hearts?
Were they simply used to abandoning people and turning away?
Did they do it because it benefited them?
That habit of looking away and calculating practical gain had no honor, no conviction, no loyalty, and no burning spirit.
What could anyone become by living like that?
What value was there in that kind of life?
Enkrid was a man running toward a dream.
He hated passing by weakness and injustice.
Something burned in his chest, so he could not see it and keep walking.
Rem beat up nobles’ sons and smashed his superior’s skull for the same reason, so Enkrid never disliked Rem.
“You did well.”
That was why he said it.
Everyone listening was dumbfounded.
One side suddenly said thank you, and the other said good job.
It sounded like both were just saying whatever they wanted.
What made it even stranger was that the conversation somehow still flowed.
Enkrid did not know what mindset Dunbakel had when she acted, but he liked the change in her.
No matter what, she had acted to save weaker comrades, and she had not thrown her life away in the process.
She met an unexpected enemy and tried her best.
At the same time, she saved her comrades.
That shift in attitude made her feel less like a bandit and more like a member of the unit, and that pleased him.
He did not care that she said thank you only now.
She was odd too.
This unit had never been normal in the first place, except for him.
A former bandit whose present self was not bad, that was enough.
Enkrid let it pass.
What did words matter, thank you or anything else?
She lived, she saved others, and her mindset changed.
That was enough.
Dunbakel also took Enkrid’s praise in her own way.
She heard it as praise for surviving and saving comrades.
Otherwise, why would he have come to find her?
She looked at Enkrid with fresh eyes. Black hair, blue eyes, and subtle consideration that did not match his indifferent manner.
He was the man who accepted her, and a captain with unbelievable skill.
She survived and saved her comrades.
What his will touched became real, and Dunbakel followed it.
That made her feel like a true member under Enkrid’s command.
Before, she had stayed only because she had to. Now she felt like she truly belonged with this group.
“Hey, your eyes look like they swallowed something close to emotion. The captain was ready to hold your funeral. He thought you were dead.”
Rem said it.
It was true.
“Is that so.”
Dunbakel did not care. Rem clicked his tongue, then snorted in disbelief.
“Hah, the black one does the work and the white one gets the love, huh.”
No one paid attention to Rem’s comment. Ragna was busy sketching a rough map of the forest in his head.
Of course, it was ridiculous and useless.
Wasn’t that supposed to be the shortcut?
He thought it was the fast route, so why did they end up somewhere weird?
He was born with a broken sense of direction, but Ragna still wrote it off as bad luck.
Audin gave a soft smile.
To him, Dunbakel showing she would save comrades looked like the beginning of change.
He enjoyed watching people break their limits.
Teresa looked at Dunbakel and nodded.
She had heard that woman’s past was as complicated as her own.
She felt something close to kinship with the Beastfolk woman.
Of course, she did not show it.
Jaxon stayed indifferent.
So she was finally somewhat useful now?
From the start, she was a Beastfolk whose only talent was fighting, and even that had been rough.
She could have been kicked out, yet the captain accepted her.
Jaxon took it in stride. He thought she would die quickly, but she kept surviving. That was all he felt.
Enkrid looked over Dunbakel’s face, shoulders, chest, stomach, and thighs.
He even pressed her wounds with his hand.
“That would be hard to do here.”
Dunbakel said it with a very Beastfolk line of thinking.
Even with strong mating instincts, that did not mean she felt no shame.
Too many people were watching. It was awkward to strip and do anything, though the location itself did not matter much. They could do it standing.
“You dumb Beastfolk. He’s checking whether you can be sent back like this.”
Quick-witted Rem scolded her from the side. Dunbakel was not embarrassed. She was only disappointed.
“Come with us. The wound didn’t get worse.”
Dunbakel said it first.
There were good medicinal herbs in this forest. It was not called Grateful Forest for nothing.
What Dunbakel found was an herb called ground ivy, or silkweed. When the stem was crushed or cut, white sap came out.
If she spread it on a wound, inflammation did not set in.
It was one of the things she learned while living as a mercenary.
She had already treated herself that way.
The sap dried over the wound and flaked off like white powder.
“If you feel like you’re dying, ask Rem to carry you piggyback.”
When Enkrid said that, Dunbakel frowned, and Rem laughed.
“Try it. I’ll chop your legs off with my axe.”
Of course that would never happen. It was just a joke.
Enkrid started walking again.
“Need to?”
Jaxon asked. He was following without complaint, but what he meant was, was there really any reason to go back there now?
If Enkrid planned to return to the territory, he would not have checked Dunbakel’s wounds, so it was not hard to guess his destination.
“It bothers me.”
Enkrid answered. No one had to follow by force. This whole thing was basically his whim.
They could end it all by returning to the territory now.
Why?
Even Enkrid asked himself, but no answer came.
It was not reason. It was feeling.
“You can go ahead first.”
“No.”
Jaxon did not argue further, and Rem looked at him and said that sneaky alley cat looked hungry and should catch and eat a few dead rats, but Jaxon cleanly ignored him.
Dunbakel did not need support either.
Not as tough as giants, but Beastfolk were sturdy too.
She was not even limping.
“I am Teresa the Wanderer.”
Had they not even exchanged greetings until now?
The newly reborn half-giant suddenly gave her name, and Dunbakel glanced at the giant woman, far taller than herself, then spoke.
“You don’t know my name?”
“I do.”
“Then that’s enough.”
Both belonged to Enkrid, and that was enough. That was what she meant.
Teresa understood too.
Then the group headed back to where the wild horse had been.
The wild horse was still there.
Prrr.
The beast snorted when it saw Enkrid. It seemed glad. If they had gone back as they were, would it have waited for days?
“You waited?”
Prrr.
“Yeah? What is it?”
Prrr.
“Hmm. You want us to follow?”
Enkrid said that after seeing the wild horse turn around and swish its tail.
Dunbakel, who had watched the whole thing, spoke carefully.
“Are you talking to beasts now too?”
For a moment, no one said anything. That was how it looked to everyone else too.
“That’s what it looks like to you too?”
Rem asked in an unusually serious tone.
He wondered if that captain bastard really was never going to visit a temple. He had heard there was a small shrine in Martai. Should they send him there?
Jaxon frowned too.
Everything else was fine, but why was he talking with beasts? Empathy and conversation were different things.
“Heh, he said all things in existence are linked in meaning without difference.”
Audin laughed and recited something no one understood.
Dunbakel had chosen to trust and follow, so she decided to accept it.
No, she even decided she would try talking with horses herself later.
Had she not already decided to do what he sought to do and walk the road he sought to walk?
“Hmm.”
Since he was the great man who killed her once and brought her back to life, Teresa accepted everything with calm detachment.
Talking with a horse a little was possible. Nothing to point out.
“Right, you want us to go there?”
Enkrid was not the kind of man who cared about other people’s stares. He moved based on the horse’s gestures.
The human group followed the wild horse as it tapped the ground with its hoof.
Dozens of wild horses farther away started moving along with them.
If someone saw it from a distance, it would look very strange.
As they walked, they reached a downhill slope. Even flatland had elevation changes, but this path slanted down quite far.
From the forest edge, the basin was hidden so cleverly it could not be seen at all.
What should this kind of land be called?
There was no mountain, yet the terrain dipped inward. A plain basin?
It looked as if a giant god had scooped out this part of the land with one hand.
The strange part was not only the terrain.
Amid wandering thoughts, Enkrid saw traces of a man-made structure, not a natural one.
A gray wall. Half-collapsed, marked with age, and for some reason wrapped in grapevines even though winter was close.
Black grapes hung above it.
“What is this?”
Rem muttered. He seemed impressed too.
A faint warm breeze blew from inside the basin.
More exactly, it was a gentle warm wind. In this season, in the north, that kind of warmth was hard to find.
Enkrid picked a few grapes and put them in his mouth.
They were sour and sweet.
Perfectly fine fruit. The wild horse ate a few too, and the others also popped some into their mouths.
Dunbakel shoved a whole bunch in and chewed.
She crunched seeds and all, which made it obvious she was hungry.
That made sense. She had hidden in the forest for three days.
She probably had no proper camping supplies.
“Eat.”
Teresa pulled out a piece of jerky from her coat. Dunbakel ate a few more grapes, then put the jerky in her mouth too.
She did not say thank you.
“This place is suspicious.”
Enkrid muttered to himself. Or was it a question tossed at the wild horse?
Hiiii.
The wild horse let out a low cry, lowered its head, and showed hostility.
Not toward the group. Straight ahead.
Sunlight spilled down into the basin, and inside the wall they saw bluish eye-lights.
Those eye-lights were not floating alone.
Clatter.
Bone joints moved and made their distinct noise.
“Skeleton?”
It was a skeletal soldier with a rusted sword and shield in its hands.
That meant undead.
“It looks like a collapsed crypt, brother.”
After scanning the area, Audin spoke.
“The ground likely caved in, so the graveyard stopped serving its purpose.”
Jaxon added.
In the past, people had placed undead inside tombs to guard them.
It looked like that kind of place. The kind of hidden grave you often saw in treasure hunters’ journals.
Beyond the long gray wall stretching to the right, more eye-lights appeared.
The number of beings that rejected death and reversed life kept increasing.
Enkrid counted them calmly.
One, two, three, four... seven?
Not a small number, but not a threatening one either.
Who were the people gathered here?
They were the ones who had smashed straight through a Demon Creature Centaur Colony.
Clatter, clatter.
The blue-eyed skeletons’ jaws rattled. Undead, especially lower undead, could not speak.
Only high-grade undead could express will and intent through thought.
Well, there was no need to talk with Demon Creatures anyway.
One kept shaking its jaw while holding sword and shield, another held a pointed bone spear, and there were skeletal hounds moving on all fours.
Two Skeleton Hounds, five skeletal soldiers.
Enkrid stared at them and drew his sword.
Shiiing.
And while Enkrid drew his sword, a heavy figure stepped forward first.
“Upon those impure and twisted, who walked the path of reversal, I bring righteous punishment.”
To clerics and priests who served gods, undead were targets that had to be purged.
Audin moved forward with both palms together at his chest, then spread his hands left and right.
Whoom.
A rusted sword dropped toward Audin. He avoided it by taking half a step forward.
The sword cut empty air.
A rusted spear thrust in from the side with a sharp whoosh.
To a normal soldier it was a dangerous moment, but not to Audin.
Audin snatched the incoming spear shaft.
At the same time, he swung his fist like a hammer straight down at the head of the one who had swung the sword.
Whoosh. Thud! Crack!
After splitting one skull in two, he grabbed the spear on the other side, lifted its owner into the air, and smashed it down.
Boom!
With a blast-like impact, one skeleton’s entire body shattered.
“You wretches.”
Audin’s eyes flashed. Enkrid did not need to step in.
He wiped out all seven skeletons in an instant.
“There is more inside.”
Jaxon said it with his usual sharp sensitivity.
Enkrid felt something similar.
The sensation was like when he saw old magic traps before.
Along with dread, a strangely irritating smell stabbed his nose.
Burnt smell?
Then another skeleton appeared before the group. It held a halberd, and from the halberd to its whole body, it was on fire.
Fwoooosh!
Even from more than ten paces away, a heat wave blew over them. Scorching heat touched their skin. Stay here a little longer, and sweat would start pouring.
“A burning skeleton?”
Rem muttered. It was exactly that.
Because undead felt no pain, this was possible. It was a Demon Creature under an unquenchable flame spell across its whole body.
Hiiii!
When it saw that thing, the wild horse cried out. It sounded like this was why it brought them here.
And that was right.
The wild horse was the master of this land. The horse looked back on the past. More exactly, it remembered the threat it had faced when this ground collapsed.
The wild horse had a duty to protect the herd it led.
So it had to remove the threat.
Separate from deciding to leave, the horse knew what it had to do, and it asked humans for help to do it.
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