WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 339: Final Patrol Zone

= = =

Roaming Gray Ghouls settled in this land for reasons that were more political than geographic.

Naturally, they had lasted this long because the Border Guard standing army had never gone out of its way to hunt Demon Creatures and Magic Beasts.

"Why would I?"

According to the former Border Guard lord before Marcus, hunting Demon Creatures like Gray Ghouls was unnecessary and a waste of manpower.

So all they had done was occasional cleanup to keep the Pen-Hanil River area and a few trade routes open.

Even now, they had cleared the main road near Green Pearl and opened the highway connected to Martai, but those areas were still far from perfect.

"Is someone out there throwing monsters at us or what?"

That was one of the complaints Marcus blurted out after taking office.

"Monster-throwing" meant luring gathered monsters into a neighboring territory, and of course nothing like that was actually happening.

Still, people understood why he said it.

Demon Creatures looked like they were popping out of an infinite pouch.

When the northern pioneer city above Border Guard was established, a Gnoll colony appeared there too.

Even with Cultist involvement, that only worked because there were already enough monsters in the region.

That alone showed just how many lived in this area.

Which meant the Border Guard region was not exactly a pleasant place to live.

For that reason, they had mostly dealt with monsters defensively and avoided proactive extermination campaigns.

There was a clear reason for sticking to that strategy.

If they took losses, it would become harder to prepare for Azpen's threat.

And nearby monster packs were not weak enough to clear without casualties.

Even around Border Guard itself, while it had not become a full Cursed Ground, there were still more than three zones every merchant avoided because of danger.

Those zones had gained the nickname low-grade Cursed Ground.

Back when the Centaur Colony settled in Grateful Forest, they had tried to handle it early because they feared it could turn into a place where Demon Creatures and Magic Beasts stagnated and piled up.

That was the kind of thing Kraiss had wanted to explain to Enkrid.

There were plenty of other reasons to deal with it too, but Enkrid did not really listen.

Why should he care about history? Cut, slash, and erase it. Was that not enough?

It was not wrong.

* * *

An ugly ghoul died.

The long version could go on forever, but the short version was simple.

"I was first."

"My club landed first."

The moment two superhuman fighters started competing, it was already over.

Rem came carrying two axes and a Flanged Mace, and he used all three weapons.

The most striking moment was when he switched to the mace.

He planted one axe near his feet, pulled out the mace slung across his back, then brought it straight down.

Whoom, boom!

A thunderous blast exploded, and the mace proved exactly what the word violence meant.

It did not just crush the ghoul that tried to step in, it ground away the remains of its upper body.

Brute force and technique, together.

It looked like a massive boulder had dropped from the sky.

Muscle and weapon power fused and painted a scene of absurd destruction.

From the ghoul's side, destruction was exactly the word.

Rem kept moving, striking and shattering everything in front of him, special ghoul or not.

His impact breakthrough was savage.

Audin was not standing still either.

"I send you to the Lord's side."

Though his whole body was a weapon, he held two clubs in both hands.

The clubs had iron bands on their tips. They started chestnut-brown, then quickly turned black.

Ghoul blood soaked in so deeply that getting their old color back was hopeless.

"Lord."

One shout, two steps.

Between those steps, his left and right swings cracked ghoul skulls open.

It was precise stop-strike technique, controlling only the force needed.

For his size, the finesse stood out.

Even so, the boldness never disappeared.

That boldness and Rem's brutality met and carved a path all the way to the leader ghoul.

It almost felt like their roles had switched, but Enkrid thought both Rem and Audin looked perfectly suited to this version of themselves too.

The leader ghoul had enough intelligence to set something like a trap, and it got broken through.

Smashed.

Crushed.

Broken.

It had gathered ghouls and rushed them in as part of a trap, but what could it do?

Force had crushed it all.

And those two were not the only ones here.

"I'll fight too!"

Dunbakel rampaged as well.

"Unsettling.
Very unsettling."

Sinar drew Naidhl too.

"Please just watch.
Wandering Teresa is going in."

Teresa swung her shield and sword and soaked the ground in ghoul blood.

Enkrid did not need to step in this time.

He did not realize it himself, but ever since he had started charging in alone, swinging his sword in high spirits and awakening the Correct Sword, everyone had been fired up by him.

Enkrid's combat, his fighting itself, heated people's blood and made them want to jump in too.

Of course it did.

Even someone who had never held a sword could watch him and think, Is this fun? Then reach for one.

That was how absorbed and thrilled he looked while swinging his blade.

At times it looked like he was dancing with his shoulders as he fought.

How much fun was he having to look like that?

Naturally, it affected everyone else.

After meeting the knight, Enkrid's growth had become stimulation for all of them.

Their martial power had already passed the level of most squires.

Then they pushed harder from there.

The moment Rem and Audin heard about that knight, they understood they could not keep fighting half-playfully anymore.

Sinar was the same.

"Deeper."

She sank into swordsmanship.

What she had thought was complete had not been complete at all.

There was no end.

She corrected her thinking.

Now she had to keep walking forward with her sword.

Was Dunbakel or Teresa any different?

Some grew, and some finally used the power they had hidden.

Fighting that way, even places nicknamed low-grade Cursed Ground, places that had been impossible to solve without a knight order, failed to last even one full day.

The Gray Forest was very wide, yet it was still like that.

By Kraiss's judgment, it was a battlefield that would normally need at least two companies fighting for ten days while accepting losses. Instead, it was cleaned up in a single day.

Quite a few monsters ran away in the middle, but there was no way to chase every single one.

"Are we done now?"

Rem shook black blood off his axe and asked.

Enkrid shook his head.

"Since we're out, let's finish everything and go back."

That had not been Kraiss's original plan.

"It would be better to handle them one at a time.
It is not urgent."

He had said that too.

There were two more nearby threats at low-grade Cursed Ground level.

Crang's plan had been to solve one, return for supply and rest, then hit the next one by one.

Enkrid changed the plan.

Since they were already out, they could just make the full circuit and return.

There was no reason to hesitate.

Ghoul corpses filled the area around them.

Any surviving ghouls could not come near this group.

They were too busy running.

"Let's go."

Enkrid took the lead, and everyone followed.

They headed straight out of the forest.

On the way, Enkrid kept moving from person to person, busy talking.

"What was that swordsmanship earlier?"

He started beside Rem.

"What do you mean?"

"When you swung the mace, your method was different from usual."

"You want to learn that too?"

Rem went straight to the point.

He was right.

Enkrid wanted to learn it.

Without answering, Enkrid waited for the next line.

The answer was obvious anyway.

Rem stared at Enkrid's blue eyes.

They were straight and clear.

Eyes that showed raw will.

Was this greed gone too far, or was this bastard just insane?

Rem decided it was the second and answered.

"When you swing a weapon, destructive force changes depending on where you set your axis.
That matters even more if what you're holding is a blunt weapon.
I told you before, every weapon type has a different method."

Enkrid flinched in surprise.

Rem was suddenly explaining things well.

"Possessed?
An evil spirit?"

"What?"

"Why are you explaining so well?"

"What the hell."

Rem suddenly threw a punch. Enkrid blocked and redirected it. A small scuffle happened, but no one slowed their pace.

After quickly reviewing what he had heard from Rem, Enkrid moved to Audin.

"That stop-strike..."

"Force control.
I am more familiar with fists, but holding something in your hand does not erase technique.
Blend heavy method into speed, then apply full power only at the instant of impact.
You must control grip strength and command full-body relaxation and tension as you wish."

"Valaf-style Grappling?"

"Just weapon technique."

Enkrid caught that Audin was hiding something behind the word just.

He did not press it.

What did the name matter?

"How do you train the knack?"

"Repetition.
Let's do it after we get back."

That was enough.

As long as he could learn, that was all that mattered.

After that, he asked Dunbakel how to use a Beastfolk body in combat, and Dunbakel explained even worse than Rem.

At least for today, Rem looked like some academy assistant instructor.

In reality his explanation had not been that polished, but it still felt that impressive.

That was how relative things were.

"Why are you staring at me?"

After listening to Dunbakel's absurd explanation, Enkrid turned, and Rem asked that.

"Evil spirit, begone."

That was not Enkrid.

It was Dunbakel.

She had seen Enkrid and Rem bickering earlier and seemed to have wanted to say something.

Beastfolk were weak against desire.

If they wanted to do something, they had to do it or it kept gnawing at them.

If Frog followed one focused desire, Beastfolk were pulled along by whatever desire struck them in the moment.

Naturally, that often ended badly.

Same now.

Dunbakel could not hold back the urge to say it.

"Yeah, here it is.
Axe.
Take it on your forehead right here."

Rem said he would plant an axe in her forehead in an oddly refined tone, so Enkrid checked him again.

To see if any strange aura was coming off him.

"There are no evil spirits, brothers and sisters."

Audin said that after watching.

Rem did not actually swing his axe.

"When we get back, let's just spar nonstop.
Yeah, let's do that."

Enkrid smoothed it over and asked Dunbakel for another explanation.

"Run well and dig in well."

That was Dunbakel's answer when he asked how to handle a scimitar.

Enkrid did not panic.

This level was fine.

He was an excellent listener.

After several rounds of questions and answers, he reached a conclusion.

Swordsmanship that used the feet and cut with the whole body.

A style built on elastic muscle movement.

In terms of Correct, Heavy, Quick, and Flowing, it started close to Quick Sword, but because the attack method loaded weight, it ended as Heavy Sword.

That was the shape of it.

"I don't know the name.
I learned it young, then refined it in my own way."

Since Rem had become deeply involved in Dunbakel's training overall, her swordsmanship had improved beyond recognition.

Enkrid heard part of it and saw part of it.

It looked worth learning.

This was not the kind of technique you learned through words alone.

Enkrid walked again.

"Do you covet anything from me as well?"

It was Teresa.

He had wanted her shield and sword handling for a while now.

Once they got back, getting a shield and learning it would not be a bad idea.

"If one seeks to learn, there is a path there.
I learned that line by watching Captain."

That was Teresa.

She was quoting scripture, and after following Audin around so much, she had even picked up his speech habits.

"A shield is a tool for blocking, but used well, it becomes an excellent blunt weapon."

Teresa explained well.

Enkrid thought that was a relief.

As they talked and moved, he checked the map and saw they were at their next destination.

A swamp spread out before the party.

"Bugs?"

Dunbakel asked.

Enkrid nodded.

The pale green swamp was a treasure house of medicinal herbs.

It was land where clustered plants and aquatic plants lived together, and where amphibians and reptiles were plentiful.

"Good land."

Sinar had been sighing at the forest, but her eyes lit up now.

She handled poison and medicine.

For someone like that, this swamp had huge value.

That was why Kraiss had passionately argued they needed to recover this land.

"We must reclaim this swamp.
We cannot let Demon Creatures take it.
That has to be the long-cherished wish of everyone born on this land and calling it home!"

A shamelessly fiery speech.

"Native herb habitat?"

"Yes!"

Kraiss was not even pretending to be passionate.

"If we restore only that place, we can build more than a trade site, we could make local specialties too.
Though we would need to kidnap a few useful alchemists from somewhere."

He called it kidnapping, but he would just lure them in and bring them over.

Finding people was one of Kraiss's specialties.

So was finding things.

He had not been treated like the unit’s all-purpose merchant by accident.

That swamp lay right in front of them.

The problem was that someone had already claimed the land.

"Way too many bug bastards."

Rem muttered.

Those bugs were the owners.

There were endless monster species.

This was one of them.

Insect Demon Creatures.

Viiiiiiing!

The buzz of wings hit their ears.

Sinar's hand landed on Naidhl.

Dozens of flies, each around the length of one finger joint, flew right at them.

Vampire Flies.

Naidhl was drawn, and space and flies were cut together.

Neither fast nor slow, her sword strokes flowed smoothly and without pause.

That series of strikes showed more delicacy than ever.

Whish, whish, whish. The sounds kept ringing from the elf blade.

She had shown this against ghouls too, but now it was even sharper.

Her sword, which looked like a branch of elf swordsmanship, displayed extreme finesse.

Enkrid thought, She could probably fillet a leaf with that.

And that was true.

Her swordsmanship treated peeling thin layers from leaves as a basic drill.

The blade snapped, curved, tapped, cut, and pushed out, splitting, crushing, slicing, and piercing insect bodies with exact precision.

After dropping the insects in waves, Sinar looked back.

"If you're not confident, falling back would be wise.
My fiance can hide behind me."

The expressionless elf, beautiful beyond human, said it.

"Did you take medicine?"

At that, Rem scratched his ear.

"Since the Lord watches over us, perhaps He asked us to send even tiny creatures up to Him."

Audin answered with prayer.

Dunbakel raised her claws and started poking insects dead instead of using her scimitar.

Vampire Flies were annoying.

One bite could suck ten times more blood than a common leech.

Still, they were not hard to deal with.

Even ordinary merchants could avoid or kill them with enough nerve.

If you wore leather clothes in several thick layers, they were manageable.

Of course, if you could stab them dead on sight with a sword or claw, you did not need thick clothes at all.

Even Teresa, who looked the slowest, knew how to crush bugs by swinging her shield in short arcs.

Enkrid dealt with them the same way and moved beside Sinar.

Finesse.

He saw insect trajectories as lines and cut the middle points to kill them.

Striking across a surface was more efficient, so he fought that way and spoke to the elf beside him.

"That swordsmanship..."

"Should I teach it to you as an engagement gift?"

"When are we getting engaged?"

He took the joke as a joke, and the corner of Sinar's mouth moved.

Just a little. Maybe it rose a bit.

Then it quickly returned to her usual expression.

"You truly are greedy."

Whatever she said, his will to learn did not change.

His gaze stayed straight too.

He was not asking for hidden secret arts.

Basics were enough.

He knew his lack.

He knew how to advance.

Enkrid was a seeker driven by hunger.

He saw the direction his desire pointed, and he wanted to walk it.

Why had he started creating new swordsmanship?

Because he had learned, practiced, and watched.

He was still doing that now.

"There it is."

Sinar said she would teach him after they returned, then looked ahead.

She, no, the whole party saw the king of the swamp appear.

A monster five times larger than a hornet, with six wings and sharp teeth.

Below it hung something like a bee stinger. Its abdomen bulged, and its mouth split open to both sides.

Its name was Bell.

Ttiririririr.

Its wingbeats rang through the area.

That chilling insect charged while leading a swarm of similar insects behind it.

They moved as a group.

That mass was one unit.

They were many times trickier than ghouls.

Puh-buh-buh-buhk!

They burst and died as they came charging.

The largest one, the king, died to a stone Rem threw.

"This time I killed it, right?"

He said it while turning back, maybe still competing with Audin.

Audin smiled softly.

Enkrid had thought that religion-obsessed bear would let him have it.

He expected a line like, "As you wish."

Was that not his personality?

"I did not see it."

Slip.

Enkrid almost misstepped in the middle of fighting.

He did not fall.

He turned it into a forward step instead.

With a short horizontal swing, he killed two insects by smashing them with the flat of his blade, so the mistake did not become a real opening.

"At least lie convincingly."

"I am not lying, I did not see it.
Brother."

Audin too was an unavoidable member of the Madman Company.

Enkrid did not care.

They were not men who changed just because someone talked.

"Let's go."

And in the end, Enkrid visited the third low-grade Cursed Ground as well.

It was the final patrol zone.

= = =

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