WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 281: The Black Blade Excels at Intrigue (3)

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"Big Eyes."

Enkrid called out to Kraiss, who was muttering to himself.

Blink.

The guy blinked and looked at him.

Why was he getting eaten alive by anxiety?

Because life had beaten him down since childhood. One wrong step meant death, or an injury close enough to it.

'And I heard if things go south, there are bastards who’ll go after your ass.'

Enkrid scratched his cheek.

The world does not welcome people who stay spotless.

The pure are easily stained.

Spill ink on a white canvas, and it never comes clean again. Kraiss was the same.

To avoid the worst, he always assumed the worst.

And because he always pictured disaster, the moment he got cornered, his mind stopped working. It locked up.

It had happened the first time too, when he stood blankly on the battlefield and nearly died.

Enkrid knew from experience. This bastard’s head had broken again.

Sure, most of this was guesswork. If he was wrong, fine. If he was right, talking him down would be easy.

"Enough noise. If we fight, we fight. If we die, we die."

Dunbakel, listening nearby, said it in a blunt tone.

It probably got under their skin. Kraiss had been talking like everyone was about to die any second.

Well, that could happen.

Getting cut down by a stray blade on the battlefield was common enough.

Enkrid knew that too.

You could die, or you might not.

Nothing goes exactly the way you want. You just do your best to push it that way.

And for that, he needed Big Eyes.

More precisely, he needed Big Eyes with his head working.

"The bastard’s bewitched. Slap him and knock some sense into him."

Rem said it while lying on his bunk like a caterpillar, curled to one side.

Winter turned that barbarian into a caterpillar. Same sight every year.

There was some logic to it, but violence was not necessary.

He had already tried that.

Even on the battlefield, slapping him did not bring him back to his senses.

From the side, Audin clasped his hands and said,

"Pray. If you pray, everything works out."

Of course prayer would not solve this.

Even if he used holy power, he probably could not fix Kraiss’s state right now.

Luckily, Enkrid knew what worked, so he used it.

He opened his mouth.

"Hey, if this goes bad, we run together."

"...Huh?"

Kraiss stopped blinking in disbelief and stared at him. His shaking legs stopped too.

"If things go completely to hell, pulling you out and running is easy. Same for Rem and the others. You think the rest of them are really going to die here?"

What he needed to give was relief, not more fear.

The fingers hovering near his mouth, debating whether to bite his nails, dropped to his side.

Kraiss turned his head.

His gaze moved from Rem to Ragna, Jaxon, and Audin.

No matter how he looked at them, they did not seem like people who would die easily.

And then there was Teresa.

Even inside the barracks, she wore an iron mask and muttered, "I am Teresa the Wanderer." Would that half-giant die so easily?

As for Dunbakel, well, that one looked like they might.

"Even if one Beastfolk dies, that has nothing to do with you."

Enkrid cut in at just the right moment. The mind that had gone mad from replaying worst-case scenarios started to return to normal.

His vision cleared. The fog in front of his eyes faded.

His trembling legs stopped. His restless hands stopped. His blinking eyes started sparkling like usual again.

His shaking pupils settled back into place and refocused. At the same time, his light-brown eyes curved softly.

"Ah, right. Dunbakel, hang in there. If you don’t want to die, try harder."

He said it with a grin.

"Should I kill you first?"

Dunbakel slid out their claws with a shhk.

"Rem, the Beastfolk is bullying me."

"So what."

Kraiss was back to normal. Big Eyes started whining to Rem about how he could say that, then saw the caterpillar wriggling up and quickly hid behind Enkrid.

"Captain, aren’t you going to the war council? Battalion Commander Graham’s head’s gonna burst."

"Yeah, I’m going."

"Let’s go together."

"Mm."

If he left Kraiss behind, there was a good chance he would come back to elegant claw marks on his face.

Enkrid quickly took Kraiss and left.

Of those who remained, Audin was first to chuckle and speak.

"The Company Commander brothers are truly fascinating people."

When was it that he realized prayer mattered, but prayer did not make everything happen?

Not when he worked as an Inquisitor.

The beginning of everything was here, this battlefield and this barracks. It started with one man.

That man never retreated, and he also knew how to look after those around him.

His sword was not only for himself.

'What is a knight?'

What is a priest? What is a servant of god?

That sudden realization led Audin into deep thought.

No one in this unit was brooding over coming battles or war.

Whoever came, they would fight. Simple as that.

Most of them thought in that simple structure.

So Rem turned back into a caterpillar and quietly sank into a nap.

Ragna drew his sword again.

He looked like he could not hold back unless he swung it right now.

It was not because he had watched the captain train like a madman.

He had only watched him calm Kraiss with a few words and walk out.

That was all. Even so, he felt something. Something he could not put into words scratched at his chest.

Everyone was lost in their own thoughts.

A fresh urge to fight boiled up inside Teresa.

'I want to fight.'

For now, it did not have to be Enkrid. Giant blood guided her toward the battlefield, and the slowly shifting air prickled every tiny hair on her skin.

"Whatever."

Dunbakel still looked thoughtless, but right now that almost looked like a strength.

Jaxon kept his usual expressionless face.

Of course, inwardly, he agreed with Audin.

'Fascinating human.'

Before anyone noticed, Esther had come into the barracks and was lying in a corner, watching what happened.

The one most shocked by Enkrid’s strange quality in that room was her.

With a single sentence, he restored someone’s mind.

If what he had just spoken was not a spell, what was?

Kyarr.

Esther licked her forepaw. It was a habit she picked up after turning into a panther. Then she stretched her forelegs and lay out long. Heat rose from her warm fur and spread pleasantly through her body.

* * *

Everyone in the company could feel the air in the territory changing.

No, the whole barracks could feel it.

Still, nothing changed. Anyone who would run from the coming battle had already fled long ago.

You could see it clearly the moment you entered the war council room.

"Looks like we have empty seats."

Battalion Commander Graham had converted the heavy infantry company into an independent company and placed it under his own command.

In exchange, he appointed Paltor as 1st Company Commander, and assigned commanders to the 2nd and 3rd companies as well.

That was how Vengeance became 3rd Company Commander.

They had recruited heavily earlier, so the structure still had room.

Enough room to move the core of the heavy infantry into an independent company.

Those were the first words Vengeance spoke as a newly appointed company commander.

To his eyes, more than half the faces from the previous meeting were gone.

"They ran."

"Sir?"

"They packed up their property and bolted in the middle of the night."

Paltor answered. He was the company commander currently handling internal security in the territory.

"You just let them go?"

Vengeance asked again. Just like that? Shouldn’t they be hunted down and crushed?

Nobles abandoning the territory in a crisis.

And they let trash like that walk.

Tenfold vengeance for every grudge, that was Vengeance’s motto.

Paltor’s eyes narrowed.

Was this bastard questioning how he was doing his job?

The room was already thick with tension. One spark and it felt like flames would erupt.

Then, through that clashing edge in the air, a bright voice rang out.

"We should let them go."

From behind Enkrid, all eyes turned to Kraiss. Kraiss thought there was no reason to waste time on pointless arguing.

'The captain said if things go bad, he’ll get me out.'

He was not going to die. At least his safety was secured.

And even without the captain, he had already prepared a way to leave the territory.

But he had kept imagining the very worst, and his anxiety had spiked.

'The thoughts were ridiculous, sure.'

Like imagining dozens of wolf-type Magic Beasts guarding the hidden escape hole he had dug.

Or imagining a spy under orders from the Black Blade waiting at that hole to kill him.

'All of it was strange.'

But at the time, dread had shaken his head senseless. Now? He was fine.

Thanks to that, his mind was running sharp again.

"Do you really think those three will join forces?"

"What?"

He suddenly drove the blade of the real issue into a conversation about fleeing nobles.

Then he smoothly resumed the earlier topic. Enkrid thought Kraiss really did have a knack for this.

"If someone harms internal unity, sending them away early is the right call. Battalion Commander Marcus wanted to kick them all out anyway. You didn’t know that?"

Vengeance did not know. He was not especially bright, though he was persistent, loyal, and paid back debts.

"That is correct."

Graham nodded. He looked like he had not slept for days. His eyes were dark underneath. He looked at Kraiss.

"You’re with the Independent Company."

"I’m Kraiss."

Enkrid’s Independent Company was famous in many ways, but the most striking thing was still raw combat power.

Kraiss was hidden behind that strength, a face only some people recognized.

Graham knew him.

But that had been the extent of it. What had he just said? Graham’s attention shifted fully to Kraiss.

Kraiss spoke evenly.

"Azpen won’t move immediately. If they try to break every palisade and fortification built up around Green Pearl one by one, the losses will be too high."

"The battalion commander stationed at Green Pearl requested support, saying the danger is immediate."

Kraiss naturally stepped out from Enkrid’s side.

Marcus was gone, and the situation was very, very, very, very, very bad.

To avoid the worst of the worst, Kraiss needed to do his part too.

That was why he was here.

At minimum, he needed to know what the military leadership was thinking.

'Or maybe they were not thinking at all.'

At least, they were not thinking clearly.

In truth, Graham had done his best.

He gathered troops, suppressed rumors to keep morale up, increased patrols, and deployed recon teams.

If soldiers assigned to security spread pointless talk or rumors, they got beaten with clubs on the spot.

Not just security, even now improvised squad-level groups were observing the surrounding areas.

Beyond that, waiting was the job.

"The battalion commander at Green Pearl says that because Azpen is right in front of him. But what is more urgent is here. And, well, I do not think those three are close."

Before long, the meeting centered around Kraiss’s words.

Enkrid dragged over a chair and sat down.

He took the seat next to Vengeance.

"Who’s that?"

Vengeance asked. Enkrid answered with his arms crossed.

"Kraiss."

"Wasn’t he that guy who used to sell stuff?"

To Vengeance, he looked like a soldier who made pocket money through back-alley deals.

"That’s right."

Stubborn Vengeance tilted his head and kept watching with a flat expression.

Fine, let’s hear what he says. That was probably his thinking.

Most people were the same.

Only Graham and Paltor frowned deeper.

At least those two had minds that moved quickly.

"If those three aren’t close, that means they’re watching each other. In that case, what we need to do is make ourselves look bigger."

It was time to show the enemy what state they were in.

Were they terrified of the Black Blade, the cult, and Azpen?

If so, they would become prey to enemies creeping in bit by bit.

But what if they were baring their fangs? What if they were holding hidden blades and waiting?

"Then they won’t strike carelessly."

"And if we buy time that way, what can we do with it?"

Kraiss blinked those big eyes. At Graham’s question, Kraiss smiled.

Dimples formed, and the corners of his mouth and eyes curved gently. Wearing the smile that had made many women cry, he said,

"We can build real combat experience. And we might be able to take the head of the force leading them."

What was Kraiss thinking right now?

Enkrid judged it was necessary too.

Combat experience.

In other words, they had people forged and reforged through training.

The force assembled from them was not weak.

Marcus had not scoffed for no reason when he saw the Black Blade’s forces gathering.

He believed cutting that Tarnin pig’s throat was only a matter of time.

But many among them still lacked battlefield experience.

The Border Guard standing force had been drilled under Enkrid.

A strong army made through relentless training.

Kraiss knew that well.

Its only weakness was lack of battlefield experience.

Some veterans had survived battles with Azpen.

Some had come from mercenary work, and others had enlisted after hearing about Enkrid’s Independent Company.

Among the newer troops, many still had little battlefield experience.

And a battlefield was already a place where people died easily.

'You have to know the weakness.'

Only then could you hide that weakness and fight with your strengths.

It was like swordsmanship, Enkrid thought as he listened.

Hiding your weaknesses and fighting with your strengths sounded obvious, but it was hard to put into practice.

And in a situation like this, people who could think this far ahead were rare.

Most tactics on the continent were just brute force or infiltration by spies.

Kraiss had gone a step beyond.

If they lacked experience, then build it.

If they had a weakness, then remove it.

"We split the force into two units. A day unit and a night unit. The day unit fights, the night unit rests. Then the night unit fights, the day unit rests. We alternate, but we do not commit to full-scale battles."

"...So you’re saying we fight only small, localized engagements?"

Graham cut in and asked again. His tone was grave. Maybe he only sounded that way because he was exhausted.

"If we jump straight into large-scale battle, casualties will be huge. Before that, we need preparation."

By then Kraiss had placed a hand on the table.

He spread his fingers and pointed to one side of the military map.

"We fight here. We withdraw to here."

He was simply laying out what was in his head. Kraiss did not hesitate.

Before he knew it, Enkrid was drawn in too, and he realized what he had to do.

In small localized engagements, Enkrid had no role.

More precisely, the Independent Company had no role.

"The Elf Company and the Madmen Company move separately."

Because he had suffered under anxiety, because anxiety had swallowed him, he imagined the worst of the worst.

That imagination was built on information. From that information, he predicted what would happen and how the enemy would react.

A strange heat began to gather in Kraiss’s voice.

It was his first time truly handling unit operations, but he showed no signs of getting stuck.

"One more thing. There’s something the captain needs to do."

At the end, Kraiss looked at Enkrid and said it.

Enkrid nodded.

Whether it meant sword work, or heading out alone to cut down dozens of Magic Beasts, he was ready to do whatever was needed.

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