WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator: Hydrogen B
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES
Chapter 355: Scolding and Mocking
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“Don’t stop real combat.”
Rem believed Enkrid grew stronger through real fights.
Anyone could see Enkrid’s talent had clear limits. Rem saw the same.
It would have been natural for his growth to stop at any moment.
How many people had they seen climb as knights or something else, only to hit a wall?
The limits of talent came without a sound, settled in, and ate away at a person.
So was there no way to break through?
There was.
In Rem’s view, the best way was to risk your life.
A limit was complacency.
And one of the best ways to avoid complacency was to put your life on the line in whatever you did.
That did not only mean swinging a sword.
Even writing poems or singing, if you did it that way, you grew. That was Rem’s belief.
“Put your life on the line and roll on the battlefield.”
That was the best advice Rem could give a man determined to keep moving forward.
Enkrid recalled that conversation with Rem and turned it over in his mind.
This was not a battlefield.
Even so, he saw someone here struggling like his life depended on it.
Crang looked like that.
He looked like a man throwing his life on the line.
It gave Enkrid something close to an insight.
More than anything, it made him want to keep watching.
“Go look around the palace.”
Marcus said it.
“If I put in a request here, I’d look like too much of a bandit, right?”
He added that too, but Enkrid ignored him cleanly.
Watching Crang was enough to keep him busy.
Esther narrowed her eyes and surveyed the royal palace interior.
Her mage’s instinct picked up magical tools and spell objects lined everywhere.
A strange feeling came over her.
This was a nation’s royal palace, so of course it would be full of spell objects and relics. That was obvious.
So relics alone were not the issue.
A mage was not surprised by things within her expected range.
Then what was it?
Something sinister was there. Something standing opposite order.
Magic did not naturally submit to order, but she still felt a kind of malice.
“Grrr.”
Esther let out a low sound, almost like a whisper.
Its unusual shape piqued her interest a little.
Most of all, the palace looked full of danger from the outside, but to a mage of her level, it was full of holes.
She did not know how it had ended up this way, but defensive measures were lacking everywhere.
No, it almost looked like someone had made those gaps on purpose.
“Did you come here looking for a place to die?”
The lone escort in a dark gray helmet said it. They were on the road to the palace.
They had not passed through the center of the capital. They were moving along one edge.
Given the route, his words sounded like a threat.
The number of people around them kept thinning out.
Matthew reacted.
“Do you even know who stands before you?”
“If he’s a fool who runs wild because of his bloodline, he’ll get angry. If not, he’ll endure.”
Clear enough, Enkrid thought. And he also thought this man was no pushover.
Instead of openly sizing them up like before, Enkrid discreetly observed the so-called Royal Guards.
There were twenty soldiers escorting them.
Some gave the impression of well-trained elites.
The kind who could still drive in a spear even if something shocking happened.
But others were terrible. They could not even walk in step.
Drill was the foundation of an army.
You could not call someone elite if they could not even do that.
Was this really the level of the Royal Guards, the spears that protected the royal house?
Even so, the man in the dark gray helmet walked in front of them all and kept an even balance.
Enkrid rated that highly.
Regardless of skill, it was the bearing of someone taking responsibility for everyone.
He wished the man would pick a fight.
But looking at him now, he was the kind of person who never would.
Some people gave you that feeling just from the way they walked.
That man was the type who insisted on facing things head-on.
He spoke directly instead of circling around, and even if he had a chance to strike from behind, he looked like the kind who would wait for his opponent to turn around first.
You could see those traces in his gait, posture, tone, and attitude.
If he had no justification, he would not fight.
He was Jaxon’s opposite.
As Enkrid thought that and glanced at Jaxon, their eyes met.
“I think you’re thinking something unpleasant.”
Jaxon said.
“No, not at all.”
Enkrid denied it. He was good at that.
This was not even a lie. It did not go against his convictions either.
He was simply holding back for the other person’s sake.
“That’s not true.”
“I can see it too.”
“Your eyes got lost.”
Jaxon tilted his head slightly as he denied Enkrid, then Rem and Ragna chimed in.
“But are they going to feed us?”
Dunbakel tossed that in, and Enkrid picked it up right away.
“They will.”
“They’re not going to jump us like this?”
“They won’t.”
Would the people flanking them fail to hear that conversation? Of course not. They heard it clearly.
“How arrogant.”
One of the weaker Royal Guards said it. He was one of the ones who could not even keep formation.
He acted like he was doing it on purpose, but that only proved his discipline was garbage.
They were outsiders and first-time visitors. In a situation like this, he should have walked properly for the group’s dignity.
But he did not. So he was an idiot.
The idiot spoke like he was picking a fight. Enkrid worried how his companions would react.
What if they all snapped?
Someone stepped in first.
“Are you trying to make me a fool with one sentence?”
Crang raised his voice from the front.
“That was not my intention.”
The dark gray helmet answered.
“Then shut up.”
Crang cut him off before he could finish.
Fiery.
“And the one muttering in the back about arrogance should shut up too, before I cut his tongue out.”
The Royal Guard’s shoulder twitched. Fear? No. Anger. And he showed it. This one really made his low level obvious.
Even though Crang had said he was royalty, none of them seemed to treat him that way.
“The men in charge of guarding the royal palace have loose mouths and loose hands. Pathetic.”
Crang kept speaking, scolding them.
“You are not yet qualified to judge our bearing.”
The captain said.
Crang snorted.
“That is a statement from a mere royal, not a king.”
“Then should you not prove you are that royal?”
“That is not for a mere swordsman to worry about! If you came under orders, carry out the order!”
Crang suddenly shouted. He scolded him again. And because he was right, the captain could not continue.
He turned those words over a few times, then shut his mouth.
Enkrid had to look behind him.
“Bleh.”
Rem stuck out his tongue and mocked the Royal Guard from earlier.
Ah, this gloriously crazy bastard.
That was not something Enkrid had expected. And it was not just Rem.
Jaxon clicked his tongue and shook his head.
And Ragna said,
“You need to read the stars to know where you’re going. You should lie down only after checking your place.”
He was giving the other side advice.
Enkrid was so dumbfounded he could not speak.
Where did the guy who used to mumble about facing south while looking north go?
Of course the line was not wrong.
It was a proverb, saying you should stretch your legs only after checking where you can lie down.
But coming from Ragna, it had less weight.
Grrrk.
The Royal Guard ground his molars. His face turned bright red. Leave him alone and he looked ready to turn into a ripe tomato.
If someone turned into a fruit or vegetable, would that still count as beastfolk? Fruitfolk?
Enkrid muttered to himself as his thoughts wandered.
“Tomato man.”
Naturally, he controlled his voice so only the Royal Guard could hear.
“My mistake.”
Then he dressed up that slip as an accident.
As expected, the guard’s grinding doubled and his face grew even redder.
Meanwhile, Matthew felt like he was walking a tightrope over a cliff, and he could not hide his disbelief at the noise behind him.
Those crazy bastards. What are they doing?
Crang held back a laugh, and Marcus looked much like Matthew.
Neither had expected this, even while surrounded by Royal Guards in the capital.
Wasn’t there a saying that a leaking bottle leaked outside too?
Madmen were not normal even outside Border Guard.
“You lot.”
The leader looked back for a moment, as if to speak, then shut his mouth.
Soon the group reached the outskirts and got into a carriage.
More precisely, Crang, Matthew, and Marcus got in.
Marcus’s own escort tried to follow, but he sent them back.
“I’m with the Royal Guard and heroes who shook the whole Border Guard region. What danger could there be, especially in the middle of the royal palace?”
There seemed to be a barb in that line, but Enkrid did not care.
The rest mounted the horses they had ridden up to now.
If they walked, they would arrive around sunset.
So the carriage and horsemen moved at a suitable slow pace.
The road to the palace ran along the city’s outskirts.
There were outpost-like structures here and there, naturally manned by soldiers, and there were also gates and obstacles meant to block the road to the palace if things went bad.
Naturally, everything was wide open now.
From horseback, he saw a light-swallowing wall on the left and part of the city on the right.
Not the market, but a district lined with mansions.
“The capital really is huge. You ever been here?”
Rem asked, and Enkrid nodded.
The last time Enkrid came to the capital, he had been little better than a beggar.
A lot had happened then too.
Some people looked down on him.
Some tried to kill him.
To tell it all would take half a day, and as a book it would fill half a volume.
So he shortened it.
“Last time I came, I was too busy getting my ass kicked to sightsee.”
“That sounds like our captain.”
Rem snickered and nodded. Ragna quietly looked left and right.
It was his first time in the capital too.
In a big city, one wrong move and you could get lost easily.
The alleys twisted like a maze.
Getting from the palace to the city gate would be hard too.
In truth, you only had to follow the main road, but Ragna was already absorbed by those maze-like alleys.
He began thinking about how to pass through them.
Jaxon followed quietly. He had been to the capital before, and to the palace as well.
Abnaier.
The Azpen strategist’s name came to mind. Jaxon had seen no lie in what that man said.
Then what Jaxon had to do must be somewhere inside that palace.
At the end of the road, high spires came into Jaxon’s view.
Those three tall spires stood for the three swords that symbolized the royal palace.
The three knights who protected the previous king and wrote the kingdom’s founding myth.
Later, when the next succession came, a national crisis struck, but a divine beast called the Sun Beast appeared and protected the country.
A founding myth, a legend, and a real history.
Dunbakel was getting hungry.
Enkrid, meanwhile, quietly hoped he might meet a knight inside the palace.
He was also wondering what he would ask if he did.
“We’ve arrived.”
The Royal Guard commander said.
He was right.
They were at the palace entrance. Men guarding the inner fortress gate came into view.
They wore the same uniforms.
All units guarding the inner fortress were collectively called Royal Guards.
There were four soldiers guarding the gate, and all saluted the commander.
Then they swept their eyes over the group and exchanged quick eye-greetings with the Royal Guards who had escorted them this far, and Enkrid felt something odd there.
The sides were split.
From the greetings, some seemed close, while others seemed distant.
He had heard internal faction fights were in full swing, and it looked like the Royal Guards were affected too.
“You bastards, just wait.”
Right before parting, the mocked soldier said it through clenched teeth.
“This one here mocked you.”
Enkrid pushed Rem forward.
“Wow, that’s unfair. You tell me, was I the only one?”
By tossing that question back at the Royal Guard, Rem scraped a blade across the thread of reason the man was barely holding.
Even so, maybe patience was one reason he had made it into the Royal Guard, because in the end he endured.
“Enough.”
The commander grabbed that subordinate by the shoulder.
“Cut it out.”
He warned him. Enkrid still pointed only at Rem.
As if he alone was the problem.
“No, I’m telling you, this is unfair.”
Without even listening to a reply, the commander turned away, and another new man came to receive them.
“Her Majesty has summoned you to the audience chamber.”
It was a face he had never seen before.
The man scanned Crang and the group once, then introduced himself.
“I am Viscount Bantara.”
Ah.
Enkrid knew that name.
A noble under Count Molsen.
The one who had sent troops to Border Guard with their crests erased.
He had neat blond hair, a clean face, and broad shoulders.
A trained body.
“Marcus Baisar.”
“It’s been a while.”
Officially, Marcus also held a baron title.
It was a title House Baisar had granted at its own discretion.
That was one of a marquis house’s rights under royal permission.
Even so, titles were not handed to just anyone.
Marcus was a man who had proven his ability.
He and Viscount Bantara knew each other.
More exactly, they were men who had clashed in the royal palace arena up to now.
Viscount Bantara flatly ignored Enkrid’s group and only led the way.
Other than Marcus and Enkrid, he did not even properly look at their faces.
As they walked, Crang spoke again with ventriloquism.
“Don’t tease the queen.”
This bastard, no, this royal bastard son, what did he take Enkrid for?
Teasing the queen was a crime of insulting the royal family.
Why would he not know he should not do that?
He had planned from the start to wait in front of the audience chamber anyway.
“You may enter. The rest will wait.”
That had been the plan, but Viscount Bantara stopped Enkrid.
“Her Highness wishes to see the face of the hero who saved Border Guard.”
He had expected to hear etiquette instructions and change clothes before going in, but the situation was what it was.
A royal bastard son had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
In truth, the major nobles probably already knew, but on the surface they had to pretend they did not.
It was not as if the bastard who sent assassins wanted to announce himself.
So they framed it as a sudden urgent meeting.
And while they were at it, they decided to see Enkrid, the hero of Border Guard.
“I fear I may break etiquette.”
“Do not worry. I will personally guide you at my side.”
The viscount said that, and it made Enkrid even more uneasy.
He felt no emotion at all. So there was no malice, but it still felt unpleasant.
Still, there was no good reason to refuse.
Though did Viscount Bantara never wash, or did he enjoy chewing raw meat?
A faint gamey smell pricked Enkrid’s nose.
From behind, Dunbakel grabbed her nose too, so she had already caught it.
To someone less sensitive it would just be unpleasant, but for trained noses or beastfolk, it was a gamey stench sharp enough to put their nerves on edge.
Enkrid only frowned briefly at the bridge of his nose, then answered.
“Thank you for your consideration.”
Soon they reached the audience chamber, and from behind, Rem gave him a hand sign telling him to go suffer.
In southern phrasing, it meant go bust your ass and come back.
The others stopped there, blankly.
Enkrid stepped straight into the audience chamber.
Doors carved with various patterns opened to both sides. The guards at the front scanned him from head to toe.
He had already disarmed.
As he entered, the doors scraped the floor and closed with a low rumble.
The queen had not arrived yet. Inside the audience chamber, there were only six nobles.
It had been arranged in a hurry, so only the nobles who could come quickly had taken their seats.
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