WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 274: Was That All You Had to Show on the Outside?

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"I don't think it'll be a problem."

Finn said. Looking at how things were unfolding, yes, it had gotten tangled, but would that really be a problem? Probably not.

Who had gone in there with them?

Enkrid and Jaxon.

With Enkrid's brutally straightforward swordsmanship, he looked like he could carve through half the bandits here by himself.

What kind of loyalty would a pack of bandits have, enough to stand there and watch that to the end?

If they kept watching, at least half of them would bolt.

Would it be dangerous?

Probably not. Finn could already see how a human crowd, especially a bandit crowd, would react. It was predictable.

Even in the worst case, if every last one of them rushed in, it was still Enkrid.

There was no way he would go down quietly.

"I smell a spell."

Sinar the elf said it. Her senses were crystal clear.

Finn frowned.

A mage. That was a headache.

No one could tell what kind of variable that would turn into.

Even so.

'Still doesn't feel like they'll lose.'

And Enkrid was not alone.

Finn had lived with the Madmen Company before. She knew Jaxon was no ordinary man either.

That was why she said it.

"That aside, I think fewer eyes are on us over here."

Meaning, let them handle their side, and we handle ours.

Her eyes swept the rough center of the village, where Enkrid had been causing chaos. Torches burned on all sides, spilling light even into the dark night. The village square.

People, more precisely bandits, were gathering there one after another.

"Right."

"Shouldn't we check what we came to check first?"

Finn thought that no matter how risky it was, it was Enkrid. At least he could pull himself out alive.

Sinar nodded too.

There was one problem, but she knew exactly what had to come first.

In the middle of the village, those bandits had dug out a den.

They had to confirm what was happening inside it first.

It made sense. Sinar and Finn had been tracking those traces all this time.

* * *

He had joined this village barely a month ago. His name was Bond.

He had been doing mercenary work here and there, then got greedy and stabbed a teammate in the back.

Well, that was common enough.

That kind of greed where you wanted to swallow the entire payout yourself.

If there was one mistake, it was that the bastard he stabbed did not die cleanly.

And that bastard's so called brother was some noble's guard.

Right after that, Bond got chased by the guards and ran for his life.

'My luck is always rotten.'

His mother had been a prostitute.

"Get out and die, just die!"

His life had already twisted long ago, back when he got driven out by her and drifted through the back alleys of the territory.

He became known as Bond the Backstabber and switched to mercenary work, but even here he could not drop his old habit.

He stabbed a teammate in the back, and the situation cornered him. How many places would a man like that have left to go?

He was lucky enough to throw in with the Black Blade Bandits, and just when he had started settling in, this happened.

And of everything he had learned over that month, the two most important things were these.

First, if you defied the ruler of this village, you would burn to death before you could do anything.

Second, you did not pick a fight with the guard who trailed off his words, or the woman who used Claw.

After seeing a guy get his tongue cut out for saying one wrong thing, he truly stopped even looking at that woman's thighs.

He avoided facing her whenever possible.

Still, he knew their faces. He had to, if he wanted to avoid them.

As far as Bond was concerned, those two were the symbols of force that guarded this village.

And now those two symbols had truly become symbols, symbols that could be treated like statues that could no longer move.

Not that they had been left in any pretty shape.

"Grrrk."

What Bond actually saw was just something whipping around and flying through the air.

Among the onlookers were guys like him, standing there blankly with rusty shortswords, hammers, slingshots, blackjacks stuffed with sand, and nail studded clubs.

At a glance, though, over half were reading the moment and throwing daggers or darts, and there were more than ten crossbow archers too.

Either way, none of them had time to react.

"Kgh, kgh."

Because everyone's eyes were fixed on the two symbols, each spilling sounds somewhere between screams and groans.

The guard who dragged his words used a short spear about forearm length.

People said he had been a mercenary once, and a good one too, but the moment his blade and spear tip seemed to meet, his neck was cut off.

For real. The instant they touched, huh? and then his neck was cleanly severed.

Bond could not understand it.

All he saw was that as soon as the blades met, the black haired man's sword struck the other man's neck.

'No, if swords clash, shouldn't there at least be a clang?'

There wasn't. Flowing Sword Style, the swordsmanship Enkrid had created, trampled his opponent.

A sharp blade that did not become cotton just because it struck softly, that was what hit the enemy.

Then the woman with Claw raked at his back, but something swept up from below in one flash, and she split in two.

Just like that, the second symbol became two bodies.

That was the end of it.

What had he even done?

Bond felt like he had heard people talk about a swordsman with ghostlike skill, but this looked like sorcery.

When the skill gap became absurd, swordsmanship started to look like magic.

Bond's body froze.

Could he even rush that guy? If he did, he would die on the spot.

His instincts screamed. Run, run now.

"Huh?"

That was when a crossbow archer blurted out a stupid sound.

"Move."

The true ruler of this village stepped out through the bandit crowd.

Bond flinched back, then stopped.

The moment he saw the woman who stepped out. Her name was Kaisella, a woman with curly brown hair, gently tilted eyes, full lips, and a striking chest and hips.

Kaisella rested one hand on a waist that looked narrow because of that chest and hips, then frowned.

She had just seen the two corpses.

The monster who had split the two symbols flicked his hand the instant he saw her.

He moved in a flash and threw a knife.

Bond could not track each motion. It was too fast.

So he judged from the result and filled in the process afterward.

The blade he threw struck a transparent barrier and bounced off.

The furrow between Kaisella's brows deepened.

Whenever she looked like that, villagers disappeared, or groups that wandered into the village vanished whole.

If not that, someone died.

"No hesitation."

She said it. Her voice rang clear.

Beside her, leopard eyes began to glow blue, but Bond did not see that either.

He still had no idea what was what, but he knew something big was about to happen.

Now he could not even think about running.

He could not move, like someone had grabbed his legs.

Kaisella's fingertip pointed at Enkrid.

The other side did not move at all. At least that was how it looked to Bond.

He only stood there with a sword in his right hand, facing Kaisella's finger.

"I will strike down."

At the same time, Kaisella's voice rang out.

Kwarrrrrooom!

There was no omen, no warning at all.

With a roar that tore the sky, a blue lightning bolt crashed down.

Exactly above the man's head.

Bond could not see anything because of the flash that filled his vision.

Then that light shoved him backward in one violent burst.

The shockwave hurled him back, but he had no time to feel himself floating.

No, he could not remember it.

When Bond came to, there was only dirt in front of his eyes.

"Ghhhhh."

He heard groaning.

It was not his voice, but soon he realized he was making the same sound.

He twisted halfway, struggling to rise.

What he saw were bodies burned away by half.

Some companions had turned into black lumps.

'What was that? What was that?'

His body still had not fully registered the pain. The impact had been that severe. The memory of the exact hit was gone.

Bond forced his body to move. He was one of the luckier ones.

His whole body had not burned. The moment he recognized his body, pain shot up from his right arm first.

Crunch.

His molars clenched on their own.

He lowered his gaze to the right.

From his right arm down to around his thigh had gone black. The outer skin looked cooked and charred.

The searing pain made it hard to stay conscious.

'It was lightning, lightning.'

When he was little, he had seen lightning strike fairly close once.

White fire, a blow of unseen light.

That flash came back to him now.

His head still felt numb. That was almost a relief.

Otherwise he would have screamed from the pain.

Just being near it had burned most of his hair, and it felt like someone had shoved a fireball down his throat.

Bond blinked a few times. His eyes were still fine.

As his mind cleared a little, the pain tore through his body even more sharply.

'Ghk.'

Bond screamed inside and could do nothing but stagger, cold sweat pouring down him.

It felt like rats were biting into him and tearing him apart.

He thought he was standing, but he was not. He was backing away, crawling on his rear.

A wall touched his back.

The cold surface helped dull the pain a little. Only then could he throw his eyes forward.

Even roughly, the distance between him and the black haired attacker was over fifteen steps.

And this was still what happened to him.

Then what happened to the one at the center, the direct target of the spell?

He had to be dead. Even if someone said he had burned to ash while standing, Bond would have believed it.

This was what happened to Bond, after all.

People a little closer had died blackened.

Then Bond saw someone still perfectly fine.

'How?'

And he saw a new person standing beside him too.

A woman in a gray robe, with long straight black hair.

She held one hand in the air and opened her mouth.

"A lightning-fall spell. Useful enough."

There was something childlike in her tone, in a strange way.

Like an adult watching a child perform tricks.

She looked down on her opponent. She judged the opponent's level without mercy. Even while coughing from getting blasted by lightning, Bond could hear that feeling in her voice. There was no way the one who cast the spell missed it.

"One mad bastard and one crazy bitch."

Kaisella spoke again and moved her finger.

Words Bond could not understand started pouring out.

It was the start of a spell.

Even then, for a moment Bond forgot his pain and could not take his eyes off the black haired woman.

She was a beauty with a strange charm that swallowed every gaze and every bit of awareness around her.

Each strand of her black hair flowed like silk, whatever she had done to it, her lips were red, and her eyes were blue.

She was full of mystery.

Kaisella had a body that stirred lust. This one had a face that inspired reverence.

Bond thought that absentmindedly, then thought he was an idiot for getting distracted by her now.

Of course, he was not the only one.

* * *

The instant Enkrid recognized there was a mage, he loaded strength into his thighs.

His thrown blade had been blocked, so now he would cut directly and end it.

At that moment, something dropped over his head at a speed no human body could ever follow.

The moment he sensed it, his body reacted to that destructive flash.

He split time and prepared to defend. He raised both arms to shield his head and braced.

At the same time.

"I will."

A whisper and murmur from beside him.

No, more precisely, she had spoken before the light flashed overhead, but Enkrid recognized the light first and only noticed the voice after.

At some point Esther had turned human, wearing a gray robe.

She spread her right palm and held it forward.

That was it.

To Enkrid's senses beyond the five, two magics collided.

Something like the formless barrier that had blocked his dagger rose above his head before the destructive lightning reached him.

Kwarrrrrooom!

Then the lightning struck. The aftermath blasted the surrounding bandits in every direction.

Enkrid saw the formless barrier that had blocked the mass of light.

It was a semi transparent shield with a soft blue glow.

When it met the lightning, it scattered the light and threw it outward. Those newly born rays bounced into the surroundings and did not return.

Those stray children of light burned through the bodies of those nearby.

Because Esther had blocked half with her spell and deflected the other half.

"Vanna's Mirror?"

The opponent murmured. Her eyes showed a little surprise.

Esther did not even shrug.

Her attitude said, whatever comes out of your mouth, I do not care in the slightest.

Arrogant, lofty.

Yet it did not look bad on her. It felt exactly fitting.

Enkrid noticed again the mysterious aura in Esther's appearance, but it did not shake him at all.

If he could be swayed by a woman's looks, he could never have walked his path this stubbornly.

The opponent started chanting again, and Esther also mumbled words he could not understand.

Tzzzzzz.

Somewhere he heard something like insects chirping, then blue light gathered in Kaisella's hand and turned into lightning.

Only this time it did not fall from above like before. Starting at her fingertip, it rushed forward in a zigzag.

Esther raised her hand in front of it. The lightning came, hit the transparent barrier, and bounced right back.

Flashes left afterimages across the retina.

"Disappear!"

Kaisella shouted in a hurry. For reasons unknown, blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

"Tsk tsk, child. What are you doing, reflecting back a spell you barely dragged out, when you cannot even handle the mana backlash?"

Kaisella's face hardened at Esther's lesson.

She panicked, and that made sense.

If the opponent had only been a swordsman, she would not have lost. She had prepared plenty in this village.

A prepared mage kills a hundred alone and blocks a thousand.

But against a mage of a higher order than herself, there was nothing she could do.

That was established truth.

Kaisella glared at the woman who had appeared out of nowhere, or rather, the woman the leopard had turned into.

"Who are you?"

Esther did not reveal her name.

She only looked down on her opponent. She could. She had every right.

Between Esther's World of Spells and this curly haired owner, there was at least a three tier gap.

"No way."

Kaisella muttered. How could a mage like that appear in this backwater?

And what could she even gain here?

Mages were mages because they were arrogant. They were also mages because they were selfish and narrow minded.

Kaisella started chanting incomprehensible words again.

It was a spell to manifest her World of Spells into reality.

Esther watched quietly, then stepped forward.

She too chanted and advanced.

With each step, every eye turned to her.

No one dared fire a crossbow or rush in while watching this.

More than five crossbowmen were still uninjured after the lightning backlash, yet they did not move a finger.

Enkrid became a spectator too.

'She's pretty good.'

That was all he thought.

He knew Esther was a mage. He just had not known her level.

Seeing it now, she seemed far better than this sensual woman called Kaisella in front of him.

That was enough.

Had he ever expected anything from Esther in the first place?

In truth, Enkrid had never expected anything from anyone around him.

He walked his own path, and because that was such a strange thing, people watched and chose to follow on their own.

"How dare you!"

Kaisella shouted.

Enkrid could not tell what was happening between the two.

He only knew no visible magic, no clear spell, no open mystery appeared.

The air between them trembled, something happened, and he could only tell that he could not see it.

Soon Esther stood right in front of Kaisella.

Kaisella was taller. Because of Kaisella's sensual figure, Esther's body looked slender.

Still, Enkrid had already seen that under her robe she was naked.

When she raised her hand, the opening of the robe spread and showed everything.

Enkrid's sight and senses were already exceptional, so from seeing a part, he reconstructed the whole in his head.

Esther had simply been covered. Her body was no less than the sensual body of the woman in front of her.

"Was that all you had to show on the outside?"

Esther said it while standing before Kaisella.

Her gaze and tone clearly looked down on the other woman's figure.

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