WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 342: [Once You Face a Knight's Sword]

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"Bastard."

Rem ground his teeth. Ragna stood in front of him with a lofty look.

He tucked his chin, tilted his nose slightly, lowered his eyes, and spoke like he was reciting a poem.

"Keep improving."

Keep improving. Keep moving forward.

Enkrid thought that was exactly right.

Rem was boiling inside. He wanted to run back to where he was born and bring back what he had left there.

He had lost, even without using the sling.

No, he had not even been able to use it.

There were two reasons.

First, his instincts told him that even then, winning would have been hard. Second, even if they died together that way, it would have meant nothing.

The guy had been annoying from the moment they met, sure, but not enough to beat to death.

In a world full of bastards who raped passing women, killed them, then patted their bellies and went on living, a picky idiot with no sense of direction could be left alive.

"Do you really want to die?"

Rem said it, but he had no real intention of acting.

If things went bad, he might risk death, but he could not do that. Rem knew that would also be a defeat.

If he wanted to win, he had to crush him with skill.

Like Ragna had just done.

Just like that directionless idiot had finished the fight without chopping off an arm or a leg, it had to be done that way.

But right now, he could not do it.

His opponent fought while wielding Will.

That power was in every swing of the blade.

Even when Rem knocked it away, the sword came back faster than before.

The tip barely tapped his shoulder, yet it carried force like a full-power thrust.

It was like that even though the whole process of loading power had been skipped.

Why?

Rem could sum it up in one word.

Will.

So had Ragna become a knight?

No.

Still, at this moment, even if only by a little, he stood above Rem.

That made Rem so furious he felt sick.

"Can that happen? If you want us to die together, fine, try it."

That was what Ragna's tone meant.

Think I'd fall for that?

Ragna knew it too. If Rem truly went all out, Ragna would not walk away unhurt.

He would take damage.

If Rem came in at full force, Ragna might lose at least one arm or one leg.

Knowing that, Ragna still did not change his lofty attitude.

"Ah, should I just beat him to death?"

Rem was seriously considering it.

"I understand, Rem."

Enkrid stepped in.

He had already finished his own sparring too. It had never reached a truly dangerous level in the first place.

Sinar kept to a teaching stance, and Enkrid accepted it, so it became instructional sparring.

That was not bad either, but Rem and Ragna's fight drew too much attention.

So Enkrid ended his own session and watched them fight, and the final exchange in particular shook him.

After six short cutting bursts, the last one was a stubborn downward slash.

Heavy Sword Style, Vertical Slash.

From that, Enkrid felt Ragna's sword was different from before.

Facing the blade dropping straight down, Rem crossed both axes and twisted the force away.

He received and redirected it as if the two axes had turned into cotton.

If Rem had had even a little more room in that moment, the flow of the fight would have changed.

At least it would not have ended like this.

But Rem could not hold. Ragna's sword drove straight down with steady force.

It resembled the Crushing Sword, but it was different.

The will to cut was there, yet unlike before, that will kept going.

If his old Severance had been a single instant, this one held Will long enough to savor a sip of tea.

The Crushing Sword pressured the opponent through preparation. The Will, like real intimidation, only activated for the brief moment when blades collided.

In a way, it could be called a trick.

He could not use intimidation itself skillfully for a long stretch, so he used a slowly pressing method.

Then what about Ragna's sword now?

"The sustain is different."

Ragna had always used Will with Severance. That was Will packed into an instant.

Then now?

It fell while keeping constant force. A sword imbued with Will.

That was where victory and defeat split.

Rem could not draw out Will.

Their physical strength had no huge gap. No, in pure bodily completion, Rem might even be superior, but Ragna had laid Will on top of his.

"Ah."

Enkrid grasped the situation at once.

That was because his eyes had opened after receiving a knight's sword.

Ragna's new swordsmanship, Light and Heavy Sword, was the birth of swordsmanship built on Will.

It was the result of talent blooming after touching the sword called a knight.

Before that, he had already resolved to break his limits through fighting junior knights and squires.

He had also erased what had been eating at him because he had seen Enkrid's stubborn way of living.

It was all of that added together.

What had meant the most recently among those things?

A knight.

In other words, the experience of receiving a knight's sword had made this result.

Thinking that, Enkrid tried to comfort Rem.

"You've never fought a knight, right?"

"...What?"

"Go fight one. You'll change."

Enkrid even shared what he had felt himself. He said it for Rem.

Then Ragna spoke.

"I see. You've never received a knight's sword. You."

And Rem...

"Graaahhh!"

For a moment, he showed what a human turning beast-like looked like, but he still did not go wild.

It was exactly what Enkrid expected.

From the outside, Rem looked like a lunatic who would split someone's skull with an axe if annoyed. Real madness did exist in him, but he still kept what had to be kept.

That was the Rem Enkrid knew.

Still, Enkrid felt bad seeing him unable to accept good advice, so he kept giving it.

"Once you face a knight's sword..."

"The hell are you saying?"

"It's only because you haven't seen it yet. Once you do, you'll change."

"Fuck, fuck, fuck."

Later, Enkrid said he truly had no intention of teasing him, but Sinar, who watched it all, saw it differently, and she judged that day like this.

"My fiance's tongue has a demon in it."

Esther, lying off to one side and watching, thought almost the same.

A mage who had met real demons thought even a demon's whisper would not be that bad.

"It's for your own good."

Especially when he said it like that, it was obvious he meant to drive people crazy.

"Stop, stop it!"

It was not a common sight. Rem was suffering.

After hearing Enkrid say it dozens more times, Rem soon reached enlightenment.

"Fine then. One day I'll go meet a knight."

Seeing that, Audin quietly recited a prayer.

"God dwells within and embraces him. You have gained an important realization, brother."

"Fine then. I'll gain realization."

Rem accepted it.

Ragna watched him for a moment, then said to Enkrid,

"I acknowledge that in cruelty, the captain is several levels above."

Enkrid said it was a misunderstanding, but nobody believed him.

Rem only got his head straight again that night.

"If you say knight one more time, I'll turn that tongue into a snake with my axe."

It did not feel like a bluff at all, almost like there was Will in his words.

Sometimes strong will hit you right in the chest.

Enkrid stopped teasing and just smacked his lips.

"All right, let's stop."

Chances to tease Rem like this were rare, so he had gone a little too hard.

"Fuck."

Rem snapped in the end, but he settled down. After that, he focused on training alone, and once a day, or once every three or four days, he asked Ragna for sparring.

"Hey, you lost-idiot, you're that good at fighting? Follow me to the sparring yard."

At that polite sparring request, Ragna personally stepped up.

"Let's do it. Today I'll take off that useless head of yours."

Enkrid sometimes joined the two of them, but Sinar came to find him with extreme diligence and focused on instructional sparring with him.

"Are you very free these days?"

"Busy. Big Eyes keeps making more work."

Enkrid had ears too. Kraiss came and rambled a lot.

Kraiss had expanded the trade route in a big way. He laid bluestone and made roads that could be used even in rain.

"And who's doing that work?"

Kraiss kept explaining every detail to Enkrid, so Enkrid asked Big Eyes back instead.

Border Guard lacked manpower. It also had the Green Pearl Plain reclamation work.

"There are people in that Pioneer Village known for this kind of work. I paid them."

Pioneer Village would not have spare hands either.

"I used the captain's name."

Kraiss said it proudly. Enkrid did not scold him.

When it came to making work run, Kraiss was probably the best.

Using his name a little was no big deal.

"They were trying to put your name on their wall anyway, right? This much is good for both sides."

On top of that, Martai sent personnel, and passing mercenary groups sometimes became labor as whole units.

"The labor shortage will be filled soon. More importantly, please take charge of recruit training."

Just as Kraiss confidently said, the shortage was filled.

It was the effect of Enkrid's name spreading across the region.

At the same time, word spread that if you went to Border Guard, you would not starve to death.

In this world where Demon Creatures and Magic Beasts roamed the roads, there were no vagrant crowds.

Instead, there were people forced into bandit groups.

They were people who had escaped the grip of bastard lords who sucked their blood.

Kraiss accepted those people, plus refugees from each city.

Many could cause problems, but this was not the time to pick and choose, so he accepted them first. If they caused trouble inside the city, he ruled with harsh punishment.

All of it was done under the castellan's approval, so there was no issue.

Of course, some still stepped up with concerns.

"If you take in just anyone like this, don't you know public order will break?"

The castellan's lieutenant said that.

"And what should we do so it doesn't?"

Kraiss shot back and scolded him.

"Huh? You can't handle one public order issue, so you'll throw away this chance to turn into a trade city? This chance to earn a mountain of Krona? Huh? You're still the castellan's lieutenant after saying that? Go over there and ask my friend Rem to take that head off for you. He's been angry lately, so he'll pop it off neat and clean. Why aren't you going?"

If anyone could fight Rem with words, it was probably Kraiss alone.

When Krona was involved, his tongue combat power rose several times over.

The lieutenant lost his words. He thought he heard nonsense about Krona in the middle, but he could not even argue.

He could not hit him either.

Kraiss was a member of the Madman Company.

Can I hit him? Can I really hit him?

The lieutenant could not hit him.

Kraiss shoved his face forward like he was saying, then hit me.

"If you're not going to hit me, let's work."

He was the kind of man who sat in the lieutenant seat because he was cold-headed and practical.

His judgment that he could not hit was natural. Kraiss knew that and pushed him.

If that had not been true, he would have punched first.

If the lieutenant had been the kind to throw fists first, Kraiss would not have charged in like this either.

After that, the lieutenant faithfully followed Kraiss's order that was not an order and buried himself in work.

Because the castellan had rediscovered the joy of swinging a sword, the dark shadows under the lieutenant's eyes never left.

Instead, he started reciting prayers before sleep.

Half of it was cursing Kraiss, and the other half was cursing the castellan.

Enkrid could not know every detail, but he got the rough picture.

If Kraiss worked this hard, everyone else would naturally groan.

Kraiss knew how to squeeze people's ability down to the marrow.

"Audin will handle recruit training."

Enkrid backed Kraiss up.

"Yes, brother. I will do it. We should at least make the lambs able to run."

For basic physical conditioning, no one fit better than Audin.

Of course, the new recruits would cry, but it was not bad for them either. Suffering to death once in training and raising your odds of living on the battlefield was a truth.

They sharply raised soldier pay instead. They also hired a lot of odd-job workers, increased the number of maids, and gathered women skilled at sewing to form a tailoring guild.

"Let's scatter Krona."

Kraiss burned through the Krona left in the castle completely.

He even tried to spend every last Copper Coin.

"That is castle funding."

The lieutenant used his last strength to protest, but it had no effect.

"So what? If we leave that money sitting there, does wheat fall from the sky? Do we get even one apple? So what are you asking me to do?"

"I just said it."

The lieutenant gave up protesting.

It also helped that the castellan had permitted it.

The lieutenant's bedtime prayer only became several times longer.

Kraiss changed several formations, led by those called veteran soldiers.

He also replaced all equipment with new sets.

Unifying equipment was a way to raise belonging.

For the missing Krona there, Leona lent money.

"No interest. Just don't forget to increase my authority instead."

Kraiss had to pass commerce and other matters to the Rockfreed Trading Company anyway.

Leona knew that too, but for mutual benefit she still put in gold coins and made it look like she was lending a hand.

This way, later, even if special treatment was given to the Rockfreed Trading Company, no one would have grounds to complain.

In the middle of all this, a rumor spread that pay was different if you belonged to the Border Guard standing army.

Rumor carried rumor, so people gathered fast.

As peasants started fleeing nearby territories, lords everywhere sent petitions to the royal palace and tightened control in their lands.

People came down from the palace and told them to tone it down, but the castellan bowed on the surface and naturally ignored it.

"If it's going to be like this, then at least help when we're being harassed from all sides."

Kraiss criticized them sharply.

At present, he knew the palace could not mobilize force right away.

So he did as he pleased.

Once they built power and legitimacy, no one would be able to say much later anyway.

After that, they kept paving roads and started building outposts anywhere within visible range.

The outposts lined up on both sides of the road looked like Border Guard landmarks.

They sent out newly reorganized units there.

That was after naming ten-man squads as Outpost Squads.

"Are we really supposed to guard this place?"

The first squad leader sent out showed anxiety.

They had to rotate duty day and night, and there was no guarantee Demon Creatures and Magic Beasts would not appear.

Kraiss gave the answer like it was obvious.

"You'll get extra pay."

"Still..."

"Want to go into the advanced training course then?"

"I'll guard the outpost."

Among recruits, Audin's training was like entering the gates of hell.

That was why the saying also spread: if you want to die, become a soldier.

Even so, many people came asking to become soldiers.

Border Guard was changing day by day.

Kraiss stood at the center of it.

He stirred up all kinds of things.

As a side effect, Sinar got busier too.

Her unit was mapping the full swamp zone in the newly acquired area.

It really was an extremely busy period.

Even then, she came to Enkrid without fail, so that was why he asked if she was not busy.

"Then why don't you come when you're less busy?"

Enkrid asked, but to Sinar it was only a ridiculous question.

"A date is on the line."

"...Ah."

In a way, she seemed even more persistent than Enkrid himself, but Enkrid's intuition told him this elf was not doing all this just for a date.

There was something else.

If not, should she not have asked to go out to the market already? But she did not do that either.

"When the time comes, I will ask."

That was all she said.

"Let's enjoy ourselves again today, fiance."

Sinar drew Naidhl.

Enkrid drew his silver longsword too.

Now it fit his hand perfectly, as if it had forgotten its former owner.

"You're better than me now."

During their instructional sparring, Sinar said that.

She meant Enkrid's skill had already surpassed hers.

Enkrid did not deny it.

He felt the same.

It was the point, as usual, when their spar was nearing its end.

Sinar stepped back one pace and tucked her chin.

Her gaze rose from below and fixed on Enkrid's face, then her mouth opened.

"This won't do."

It was right after she finished speaking.

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