WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 333: The Trigger Spreads and Spreads (2)

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"Can we really just leave him there?"

Lord Graham's lieutenant asked his superior.

It felt wrong.

They had just dumped Enkrid in front of some man claiming to be both a noble and the head of a trading company.

Now that they had found him, maybe that was the right move, but should this not have been something the lord could handle himself?

He could not voice every thought in his head, so he kept it short.

Holding his sword, Lord Graham replied.

"And if we do not leave him there?

For now, I am still the lord.

If he dislikes it, he can come cut off my head."

The lieutenant thought the lord had been throwing his life around too carelessly lately, but he said nothing.

Even to him, if Enkrid set his mind to it, becoming some mere lord would be easy.

More than anything, Graham looked fully prepared to hand over his own head.

"Yes."

The lieutenant accepted it.

He had nothing to add.

Instead, he watched his lord.

He saw a focus he had never seen before.

Graham half-closed his eyes, gripped his sword, and slowly drew it down.

'Crushing Sword?'

Had Enkrid's swordsmanship affected only Esther?

No.

For the first time in a very long while, Graham's heart pounded.

His chest throbbed.

An uncontrollable urge and desire flared up like a spiral igniter.

Emotion became fuel and drove his body.

'Ah.'

As he kept swinging, a small realization struck him.

Graham remembered the training he had done yesterday, the day before, all week long.

He had not neglected practice.

But had it really been his best?

Had he truly given everything he had?

No.

He had not.

He had merely stayed where he was, soaked in habit.

He had been obsessed with maintaining the status quo.

Had becoming lord given him an excuse to be busy?

Had he decided there was nowhere higher to climb?

Had the spirit he had when he first picked up a sword already burned out?

Could he say any of that in front of that bastard?

That bastard was obviously Enkrid.

The one who said his dream was to become a knight.

The one now walking that path.

The one who had been mocked nonstop when he first joined the unit.

The one smeared with disgusting rumors, people saying he must have sold his body to his own squadmates.

The one who had barely been a low-ranking soldier.

Graham had watched Enkrid change, so maybe it was only natural to feel stirred.

A realization through the sword had made him look back on his whole life.

'Being a lord does not mean I have to lay down my sword.'

Graham knew he was not especially clever.

That was why he had handed most of the work to his lieutenant.

On top of that, he had even passed tasks to Big Eyes from the Madman Company, the one known for frighteningly sharp cunning.

He had also cut his dealings with people down to a minimum.

Right now, he felt like he would go mad if he could not keep swinging.

The lieutenant could not stop his lord.

Would he have done any different himself?

"Would you like to spar?"

He too belonged to a heavy infantry company and was known as a veteran, an elite soldier.

Now he was also the lord's lieutenant and bodyguard.

Naturally, he had seen Enkrid too.

He had seen the change, the present, and the recent battle.

Saying he felt nothing would have been a lie.

"Let's have a round.

I will show you the difference between us."

The lord nodded.

This had not happened only to the two of them.

It had affected the entire unit.

The Elf Company Commander was no exception.

Sinar held her Naidhl and repeated the same motion over and over.

She was honing delicacy and precision.

What stirred her was Enkrid's back as he faced a knight.

'I will block it.'

Sinar saw that sharp blade of emotion in those three words.

Sensitivity let her feel emotions, and at times that became a way to read the other side's heart.

She could not read everything, but powerful winds of feeling were often surprisingly easy to read.

The stronger the opponent's will, the clearer it became.

So Sinar could feel Enkrid's emotion when he blocked the knight.

'Even if I die, even if I am dying, even if my heart splits apart.'

I will block it.

What kind of person could do that?

A person so focused on one thing that everything else disappeared.

And what was that shard of emotion mixed in there?

Pure exhilaration wrapped around fear.

It was not that fear did not exist.

It was not that he did not know pain.

He simply wrapped it all in the thrill of enjoying it.

He enjoyed the moment, so he forgot pain.

He set aside whatever agony would follow and stayed true to the present.

He looked like someone who lived only for now.

'He's insane.'

Sinar could say that with certainty.

He had madness in him, like his head was broken.

Even so, she could not help the sharp thrill she felt when she thought of him.

Elves were supposed to control emotion, so they were not supposed to feel thrills like that.

But now she had forgotten that control.

Naidhl began to dance at Sinar's fingertips.

It started with fine precision, then moved forward, forgetting form and frame.

The vital energy she had held in her body for so long began moving on its own.

She let it.

She did not control it.

Right now, she only wanted to swing her sword.

Enkrid's back had made her this way.

* * *

"It's not like I can't do it too, right?"

It was only natural that Enkrid's exploits stirred the soldiers in the unit, especially those proud of their blade work.

Several had even followed him from Green Pearl to this place after seeing him in battle.

After arriving at Border Guard, they loudly bragged about their fighting skills and said they would join the Madman Company.

That was bound to draw attention.

So one of Border Guard's original soldiers naturally stopped one of them.

"You good at fighting?

You sure talk a lot."

The soldier from Green Pearl did not ignore the provocation.

More precisely, he was the one who had mouthed off to Enkrid before.

His name was Janson.

Janson turned his head and said,

"I'm decent."

He had fought on the front line in this battle.

He had also trained every day after watching Enkrid.

He had pushed himself harder than ever before.

That confidence made sense.

"Bell, go easy on him."

Another soldier behind them glanced at Janson and said it.

That strangely scraped at his pride.

Bell, the man in front of him, nodded and stepped up.

His posture said, let's do this.

"You're gonna get hurt.

You."

Janson said.

"Yeah, let's get hurt."

Bell replied.

Bell had trained under the Madman Company, sometimes in focused drills.

That afternoon, the Green Pearl soldier saw stars in broad daylight.

Bell took Janson's fist with his forehead, then drove a counterpunch into his temple and dropped him flat.

There was a skill gap.

More than that, there was an obvious gap in mindset.

"Does it hurt?

Guys at my level are everywhere here."

Bell rubbed his forehead as he spoke, and the fallen soldier lifted his head.

"I'm Janson."

"Good, welcome."

Janson joined Bell's squad on the spot.

And it was not just him.

Everyone who had seen Enkrid fight threw themselves into training.

They all poured sweat like mad.

Even without Madman Company drills, they pushed themselves on their own.

In a way, it looked like a barracks full of lunatics.

Of course, some still rested in the middle of all this.

A few clearly held back.

Everything was by free will, so no one forced anyone.

Still, even they knew by instinct.

'If everyone trains like this and I'm the only one slacking?'

Of course there would be a gap on the battlefield.

That was how the trigger spread.

Was Rem any different?

He started swinging his axes too.

It was the end of winter, but seeing Rem without his heated leather was still a rare sight.

"Are you hurt somewhere?"

Kraiss asked with concern as he hurried past.

"If you don't want an axe ornament in your skull, get lost."

Kraiss immediately got lost.

After Rem, Dunbakel also trained like someone was chasing her, thrashing through it.

Rem no longer tormented her on purpose like before, but whenever needed, he mixed sparring, training, and advice.

"Are all beastfolk as dumb as you?"

"That is a racist remark."

"So what?

You want to die?"

Sometimes it even looked like Rem was venting, but good was good.

Dunbakel learned everything she needed, even while getting hit.

Audin also noticed the changes.

Ragna had changed, and so had his captain.

What did that make him feel?

A lot.

So for a while, Audin had a lot on his mind.

At least it was fortunate that it was Ragna.

'If it had been Rem...'

That barbarian would have charged in and demanded sparring without restraint.

He would have pressed his advantage and enjoyed this situation.

Ragna did not do that.

He was still lazy.

Unlike before, he now swung his sword and often sparred with the captain, but he did not make near-provocations just to pressure Audin and Rem.

Most of all, he kept staring blankly and rarely stepped outside the barracks.

Even so, it still felt uncomfortable.

'To move ahead first.'

Audin thought,

'Is it time to release the prohibition?'

If Rem had changed like that, he would have seriously worried about it, but this was not that.

Audin had found something close to an answer too, but he did not think it would work on those who had placed that Prohibition Seal on him.

So.

"As they said, retrace the path you have walked. Within it lies the answer to what blocked your way forward."

He would recite the holy text and pray.

And he did.

At all other times, he spent his hours retraining his body piece by piece.

Layer by layer, then another layer. That was the root of Audin's strength.

He reviewed the whole path from beginning to now.

He retraced each stage of change in his body.

That was what he did.

As Enkrid advanced, those around him advanced too, and the trigger spread and spread until the whole barracks stirred.

Quiet, but hot.

Hot, but subtle.

It was a change inside the camp.

There had been people fired up before, but this time even the lord was included, and it was changing the mood of the entire city.

* * *

"Could there be better terms for you than this!"

Enkrid had forgotten the man's name.

He turned to look for Graham, but Graham was not there.

Since Count Molsen, the lord had shown up whenever heavyweights arrived, but now this kind of bastard came in and he dumped him on Enkrid.

'Is this how you treat a war hero?'

Even if it felt embarrassing to call himself a hero, he was still dumping all the people-handling work on him?

This was the lord?

A fresh urge rose in Enkrid to spar with Graham.

He felt like there was a lot to learn from him.

For example, how to fall well, how to get hit well, and how to pass out without pain.

The toad-looking noble merchant spoke.

"She's my daughter, and the greatest beauty in our territory."

A woman who looked at least a little more human than a toad gave a shy smile, met his eyes, then looked away.

Should he kill him?

Obviously not.

Then beat him up?

"Are you Rem?

Is the captain Rem now!"

He could almost hear Kraiss nagging him.

Sinar was busy today too, so that was out.

Esther had locked herself in, saying she needed to meditate, and had no intention of coming out.

Maybe he should have brought Rem.

Then Rem could raise hell, he could calm him down, and this would be over quickly.

He should have sparred with Rem this morning.

He hated that even his schedule had gotten messed up.

Still, he could not vent that here.

Outwardly, he kept talking. Inwardly, he started a mock spar.

Before he knew it, his mind was busy dealing with Rem's light-ray axes.

'They said he used a sling, right?'

What was the best way to dodge that?

He did not know.

He could only do his best.

The process of learning through experience was waiting for him.

He was itching to get back to it.

Patience aside, Enkrid felt how pointless this place was.

By now, he had spent enough time.

At least long enough to drink one cup of tea.

Though he had downed it in one gulp.

"So, hm?

What do you think?"

He did not care what proposal had been made.

"Then I'll be off."

Leaving that crisp line behind, Enkrid stood up.

"Hm?

Hey, I'm a noble and the owner of the trading company that handles commerce across this region!"

The man started listing his credentials.

Enkrid did not even bother giving him a so-what look.

He was nearly losing his mind with the urge to run out and swing his sword at Rem's axes.

Whether that man handled regional trade or not, that was for the absent lord to deal with.

If he had really been important, the lord would have stepped in.

So Enkrid bore no responsibility here.

It was deranged self-justification, but not wrong.

When Enkrid bolted out like that, the noble merchant left behind could only stand there in shock.

No, it did not stop at shock.

And this was not a change felt by this one man alone.

How many people had Enkrid already brushed off by now?

Not one or two.

Many.

Some of them had started holding grudges.

"You bastard."

The noble merchant ground his teeth hard.

His jaw muscles stood out sharply under his skin.

His daughter, who had come with him, had tears in her eyes.

Seeing a man who never once met her gaze, even with her standing right in front of him, made sorrow well up inside her.

Kraiss watched all of this from the reception room door.

"Let's go!"

The near-unwanted guests were leaving.

Kraiss knew that if this kept going, something close to disaster would happen.

Of course he knew.

It was obvious.

Too obvious.

The problem was that the people who should solve this were all collectively insane.

It should have made him angry, but Kraiss was pleased instead.

If there was one reason for him to be this happy, there was only one.

Krona.

There was money on the line.

"Just you wait!"

The noble merchant barked in anger, but Kraiss had no worries at all.

A woman behind him stuck her head out and asked,

"So you want us to be a shield for the surrounding merchants too?"

At her question, Kraiss blinked his big round eyes.

"Huh?

What do you mean by that?"

"Playing dumb, are we."

It felt like she had swallowed the words "you bastard."

Kraiss finally looked away.

She was right.

If the nearby trading companies were chirping because they wanted Border Guard's trade and market power,

and if the seat looked vacant,

then someone just had to dump it all on one person.

He had heard last night that the most suitable person had entered the city.

News from the Gielpin Guild traveled faster than the guards.

"I should have greeted you sooner, but my greeting is late.

Master Leona Rockfreed."

"Yes, you certainly took your time with that greeting."

Leona smiled with her eyes at Kraiss's greeting.

Both of them carried plenty inside.

So even if they started negotiating, it would not end quickly.

Of course, Kraiss had no plan to invest too much time in this kind of thing.

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