WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator: Hydrogen B
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES
Chapter 353: Who Is the Craziest.
= = =
“Make every minister your ally.”
Crang recalled the queen’s words.
They had met in a secret place, not the audience chamber.
‘What was her first question back then?’
His mind returned to that moment, to when Enkrid was saying something to the odd-eyed wild horse.
“Shall we go?”
Ah, that lunatic.
Go where? And why was the wild horse nodding like it understood him?
The instant Crang saw it, his conversation with the queen came back word for word.
“Why should I hand over the throne?”
The queen had asked, and he had answered. He did not know whether it had been a good answer.
He had only spoken what he truly meant.
“The one seated on the throne should be someone who swears to protect the kingdom.”
That was the end of his short reply.
“There are still those who would ask me that same question.”
The queen did not judge his answer. She only said it calmly.
Crang lowered his head in respect for her intent. After that, the conversation turned more practical.
“The nobles have factions. Can you truly sort through all of them?”
“Not even a mind-reading mage could know that.”
Predicting changes in climate was already incredibly difficult. You had to read the flow of water and understand shifts in nature.
Even mages who could do that could not read a human heart as it changed in real time.
“I can try to predict how much rain will fall next month. But I cannot know the heart of the farmer before me who will till this soil then.”
That saying, attributed to a mage, had once spread across the continent.
Crang did not know whether those exact words had truly been spoken, but the meaning was clear.
A person who swore loyalty yesterday could waver tomorrow over a few gold coins.
That was human nature.
Politicians were worse. Their minds changed in the morning, changed again at noon, changed again by evening, and changed once more before dawn.
‘You can’t predict it.’
How could anyone track every shift in a human heart?
Still, you could guide people where you wanted them to go.
With blackmail. With threats. With promised rewards. By reading their desires and appetites.
A mage might fail, but a politician or strategist, someone who lived by their wits, could sometimes read what lay inside another person. Not through mystical spells, but through insight.
‘Identify the factions. Make every minister my ally.’
He understood the queen’s intent.
Could he fill the audience chamber, all those who surrounded the throne, with his own people?
It was hard.
Any normal person would call it absurd.
How many factions existed in the Naurillia royal palace right now?
Even the queen did not know.
Some had become lackeys of great merchant companies.
Some nobles had gathered to dream of founding a new nation from their territories.
Some had already sworn loyalty to other great nobles.
Some still remained steadfastly loyal to the royal family.
None of them were on Crang’s side.
So yes, it was hard, hard beyond words.
But still.
‘The process will be grueling, and then even worse.’
It would be.
Even so, there was a way. Crang heard the queen and nodded.
“As you command.”
“May the goddess of fortune remain by your side.”
The god worshiped by the queen of Naurillia was the God of the Scales, who governed sun and moon.
A god of fairness and judgment, one who leaned to neither side.
Yet even she had spoken of the goddess of fortune.
That meant she expected Crang’s road ahead to be that harsh.
“Good fortune in battle. May the fairness of the Scales be with you.”
Crang ended the conversation by invoking the god his older sister believed in.
The queen had borne no children. So she could have none.
Crang was the child of the previous king.
Why had the previous king hidden the child he fathered in old age?
At the very least, it could not have been preparation to pass on the throne.
Still, everything had twisted and tangled, and the palace had become a chaotic marketplace.
No, not a marketplace. Closer to an arena.
Some had swollen their power and threatened others. Some had hidden daggers behind their backs.
And he was the one who had stepped onto that floor.
‘Make every minister your ally.’
Since meeting the queen, that line kept returning.
For that alone, Crang wrestled with dozens of worries each day and made dozens of decisions.
There was a way. The process was simply long and painful.
Because of that, he lived with splitting headaches, like his skull was being cracked open.
Laughing out loud at Enkrid had eased it a little, but the dull ache still stabbed at his head. Crang was almost used to it now.
Because this was his path.
A road of thorns was the better name for it.
He knew that perfectly, yet he had never once thought of turning back or giving up.
Had the man before him not proven that?
‘What do you want to become?’
‘A knight.’
Crang had asked, and that was the answer he got.
It did not sound laughable.
It sounded far better than hearing that some idler who used to lounge around a remote estate reciting poems now wanted the throne.
Most of all, it sounded sincere.
In Crang’s mind, the queen’s words and Enkrid’s words mixed together.
It should have felt complicated, but he was calm.
His headache should have worsened, but it did not.
For half a month, while living under threat of assassination, Crang had felt a peace he had never known.
That came entirely from these people’s ability.
Maybe that was why.
Maybe he finally had room in his heart.
“I’m getting on.”
Enkrid said it to the horse and climbed onto the wild one.
He sprang up in one jump, and the horse did not even lower its body for him.
Enkrid kicked off the ground and launched himself.
His body lifted sideways. He leaned his upper body forward and stretched both legs back.
It was a strange posture for a leap.
His body seemed to pause right above the wild horse, then settled onto its back.
He had launched himself with exact force, controlled his body perfectly, paused at the peak, and mounted from there.
A stunning display of skill.
Then the full weight of a geared human landed on the odd-eyed wild horse.
A heavy thud sounded, but the horse did not budge.
It stood firm like a statue.
The horse enduring that was impressive, and the rider’s movement was just as impressive.
‘Without even grabbing the mane?’
It was almost a standing jump onto a horse with no saddle.
“What are you doing?”
Rem asked Enkrid from behind. Ragna only watched quietly. Dunbakel looked curious. Jaxon watched with an odd look in his eyes.
“I’ll be back.”
Enkrid did not even look over his shoulder.
His body vanished.
Boom!
Crang’s mouth fell open.
What was that?
What kind of horse shattered the ground as it ran?
The wild horse kicked off and sprinted at a speed no ordinary horse could match.
The sound of earth bursting rang out again and again, and soon it was a single streak in the distance.
Enkrid lowered himself tight over the horse as if the two had become one.
The moment Crang saw it, half his worries seemed to disappear.
It was separate from surprise. His chest simply cleared.
The answer had already been set, yet he had kept tormenting himself over whether there was a better one. He had racked his brain. At some point, the headaches had begun.
“Ha.”
A dry laugh slipped out of him.
Enkrid had none of that worry.
He was not chasing that distant archer bastard after careful thought. It was more like the horse wanted to run, so he ran.
“That bastard is insane.”
Crang said it.
“You’re only figuring that out now?”
The gray-haired barbarian at his side agreed at once.
“Isn’t he your captain?”
“My rival. But crazy is crazy. Be careful, these guys all have something wrong up here.”
Rem spun his raised index finger beside his ear and, in one breath, judged the whole unit to be on Enkrid’s level.
Ragna heard it and turned.
He had been watching the direction Enkrid ran, but he could not let Rem’s words pass.
“That one enjoys splitting heads with an axe. Friend or foe, no difference, so be careful.”
“Don’t be fooled. He keeps a demon of laziness inside him.”
“Look who’s talking.”
Jaxon threw that in, and Rem kept going.
“That one’s got dozens of sneaky wildcats inside him, so be extra careful. Better not get close if you can help it. Don’t forget that bastard might try something on you too.”
“Wow, and you’re saying that?”
Dunbakel clicked her tongue.
“That one’s a poor beastfolk with a head injury. Got hurt as a kid, so be understanding.”
Rem added.
“Who has a head injury!”
Ah, this whole pack of lunatics.
Crang had enough composure not to say that thought out loud.
“Isn’t this a bad time to be fighting?”
One line was enough to turn their attention elsewhere.
Before he knew it, Crang’s tone had regained the liveliness from when he first met Enkrid. Before this, he had used a heavier tone to project weight. This was his real voice.
“Anyway, be careful.”
Rem gave Crang a sideways look and left one last warning.
Crang turned his head again.
The trail left by the wild horse carrying Enkrid caught his eye.
A charge that threw worries to the dogs.
His mind, which had felt foggy, now felt clear.
‘Act instead of wasting time worrying.’
Dozens of unresolved problems that had piled up on his way to the palace now felt gone.
His headache vanished too.
He felt refreshed, like waking from deep sleep into bright sunlight.
And the sun really was shining brilliantly over everything around them.
“Runs damn well.”
Crang said it in open admiration.
Horse and rider, as one, were now only a dot.
“Seriously, for a wild horse, that thing carries a man and runs damn well, huh?”
Crang found himself wondering why this Rem fellow kept sticking to his side.
Honestly, he wished he would step away a little.
Even to Crang, this one looked like the craziest of them all.
* * *
Enkrid did not literally understand what Odd-Eye said.
If you wanted true communication with a beast like this, you needed a druid.
Esther knew that.
With her half-lidded panther eyes, she watched Enkrid’s back.
She knew exactly that what he was doing had nothing to do with mysticism or spells.
Enkrid read Odd-Eye by instinct.
That was only possible because Odd-Eye’s intelligence was far beyond normal beasts.
Odd-Eye clearly expressed what it wanted and what it intended to do.
“Neigh.”
With its cry, and through movement and behavior.
Enkrid understood and climbed on.
It was right after he signaled Rem by hand to protect Crang.
If left alone, those bastards might simply watch whether Crang lived or died.
The moment he dropped his weight onto Odd-Eye, he felt a blazing force no ordinary riding horse could ever give.
An intangible vigor from the mane, the fine hair, the muscles everywhere.
‘Will?’
At least something like it.
It felt similar to what he had sensed from Refusal’s Will, instant acceleration, and the Crushing Sword.
“What are you?”
He whispered as soon as he mounted.
Then his eye level dropped a little.
‘It’s going to run.’
This time there was no movement, no cry, yet the intent came through clearly.
Enkrid lowered his body at once, and Odd-Eye ran.
Boom!
Had anyone ever seen a horse blast the ground as it sprinted?
‘I’m riding one right now.’
It was too fast. The scenery became lines and streaks.
It felt like Enkrid was activating Will and holding acceleration through a long rush.
Adapting was not difficult.
“Crazy!”
An archer shouted when Enkrid had already closed right behind him.
The archer’s horse was close to a fine warhorse, but how could it compare to this half-beastified monster?
Odd-Eye seized the rear instantly, then adjusted speed.
It bent and straightened its knee joints, shortening its stride while kicking the ground. Then it moved right beside the horse it was chasing and shoved it with its own body.
Bang!
From the archer’s perspective, he shouted “crazy,” and then his body pitched sideways at once.
That was how fast and hesitation-free the charge was.
Even after the collision, Enkrid barely felt any impact on Odd-Eye’s back.
Odd-Eye had taken almost all the shock through its own body and bled it off.
‘You insane Odd-Eye.’
Thinking that, Enkrid threw a cheap dagger.
Whung. The dagger flew and lodged in one archer’s neck.
“Let’s keep going.”
He said it.
“Neigh!”
Odd-Eye answered while running. It sounded like “got it.”
He could not know why it had suddenly chosen to carry him and run.
Had seeing those fleeing bastards lit a competitive fire in it?
His guess was right.
Odd-Eye hated its own name, and it hated the sight of those bastards fleeing at ease even more.
It looked like they were saying, “You can’t catch us.”
It was a trivial reason, but for a beast that lived to run, it was reason enough.
“Go.”
Enkrid took down four more archers. After that, no one tried the same thing again. Even on the way back to the group, Odd-Eye ran at least twice as fast as the other horses, and when it stopped, it was as soft as a falling feather.
It was born to run.
“Nice work. So that horse actually lets people ride it?”
Crang asked the moment Enkrid returned to the group.
Enkrid felt Crang’s tone had changed a little.
He even seemed more at ease.
Until now, he had acted like he was chewing and swallowing stones.
Even so, he traded jokes and handled what he had to do.
‘This does look better.’
That was Enkrid’s short impression.
He got off the horse, and once they started moving again, Crang spoke.
“What will you do when you become a knight?”
“I’m thinking of ending the war.”
Crang’s pupils shrank at that answer.
“Just as one mere knight?”
Could a knight really be called mere?
Only someone broad-minded could say that.
“Why. Not allowed?”
“No.”
Why say that, then shake his head right after?
Crang had no choice.
Because the dream was the same as his own.
Yet to end it, they would have to make things bigger and harsher first.
It was a contradiction that sat uneasily in his chest.
Well, that was that.
He had no worries now.
Strangely enough, watching Enkrid ride a wild horse like that made some worries feel completely pointless.
“Let’s cross swords sometime later.”
“Anytime.”
As if assassination threats no longer mattered, Crang talked with everyone, Enkrid included.
He got close with everyone quickly.
More precisely, not truly close, but close enough to trade a few words.
“I heard you get lost easily?”
“No. I just value going the right way over going fast.”
He talked with Ragna.
“You really are gloomy.”
“If the barbarian threatened you into saying that, you may shake a carrot.”
He traded lines with Jaxon while Jaxon was eating boiled carrots for dinner.
“I heard your hobby is burying an axe in your superior’s head?”
“Who said that? That’s not a hobby, it’s a specialty.”
He laughed and bantered with Rem too.
“You seem pretty crazy.”
“Want to know who’s really the craziest? The captain. The captain’s the craziest.”
And Rem even shared secrets.
“You sure you’re beastfolk? Not a were-tiger?”
“My beast form is a white lion. If you say that in front of me, wouldn’t I want to bite you?”
“Enki will get mad.”
“...You’re sly. Were you always like this?”
There was even time to tease Dunbakel.
Talking and making noise like that, before long they had the capital of Naurillia right in front of them.
They had ridden steadily for well over half a month to get there.
“Why won’t it let me ride?”
After that, Rem kept trying to mount Odd-Eye, but he had no chance.
More importantly, Enkrid did not try to ride it again either.
It was as if the horse was saying: for ordinary travel, ride another mount.
Anyway, this was the capital.
A place where walls stronger than any other city stretched far to both sides.
The heart of Naurillia, where the king’s bedchamber stood, where the royal palace stood.
The capital, Nauril.
Looking at the capital, Crang straightened his back and squared his shoulders again.
Dawn was breaking, and sunlight settled over the walls. They were a dull dark gray, but under the light they slowly brightened.
Those walls, after taking in that light, would softly illuminate the surroundings at night.
It was power from an ancient spell.
Even watching the walls absorb sunlight was a grand sight. Crang kept his posture straight and spoke.
“I get it now.”
“Get what?”
Enkrid, standing right beside him and looking at the walls, asked.
Crang answered immediately.
“The craziest one is still you.”
What kind of nonsense was that?
Was it because he had stayed too close to Rem for too long?
Enkrid found himself worried about Crang’s condition.
= = =
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