WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 357: Learning While Teaching

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Thud!

Enkrid blocked Andrew's first attack.

It was a straightforward vertical cut.

Steel met steel. Enkrid's eyes locked with Andrew's over the crossed blades.

Jaw clenched, eyes wide.

Has he improved?

Still hard to tell.

He barely remembered how well Andrew had fought before.

Instead of counterattacking right away, Enkrid shoved Andrew's blade aside and stepped back.

Andrew thrust at once. Enkrid gently knocked the thrust off line and shifted his footing.

He set his left foot forward.

Andrew did not notice. He pulled back from the thrust and slashed diagonally, but Spark in Enkrid's left hand caught it and guided it away.

Lately, Enkrid had been training himself to deflect blades on timing and feel alone.

The movement resembled elven swordsmanship. That was natural, since it was a flowing sword style built on Sinar's delicacy.

It had not fully settled into his body yet, but the skill gap was clear, so redirecting Andrew's blade was not difficult.

Andrew's sword struck Spark with a dull thud, its force thrown off and bleeding away.

"Ugh!"

Andrew hitched his breath, sucked in air, and forced strength into his arm to stop the drifting blade.

In that instant, Enkrid pressed into the big toe of his left foot and kicked off as if gripping the ground.

Crunch.

Using the left foot as a pivot, he drove his body forward. He did not even need Instant Will.

He closed the gap, stepped in with his right foot, and shifted his center with it. At the same time, movement flowed from ankle to waist, and his palm shot forward.

It was a strike that mixed Valaf-style grappling thrust with Audin-style Gather-and-Burst.

He did not use full power. That would have burst organs and killed him.

He did not add extra shock with grip strength, and he did not tighten and release every muscle in his body either.

He only put in the knack of snapping force.

Then Enkrid's palm met Andrew's stomach.

Boom!

It sounded like a leather drum bursting.

"Ghk!"

Andrew flew backward. His feet left the ground.

Was that too hard?

A little. Andrew staggered back, gagged, and spat up sour fluid. Even then, he took a while to recover his breath.

Still, he did not let go of his sword.

He really has improved.

Enkrid watched him in silence.

"Lord Andrew!"

Mack rushed over in alarm. He had once been Andrew's nanny, and now he was his steward.

When your position changed and your circumstances changed, your conduct had to change with them.

He had become a retainer who served Andrew.

Mack's face had gone pale. Andrew waved him off.

It looked like he was saying he was fine, but he kept coughing anyway.

"Were you trying to kill him?"

Rem asked.

"Was I?"

"He's coughing his lungs out."

"Looks like it just went down the wrong way."

"...That's your excuse?"

Ragna, watching from the side, added the last line.

At moments like this, those two had strangely perfect timing.

Andrew took a few steady breaths, then sent Mack away.

"I'm fine."

His voice was a little rough, but not from any severe impact.

It had been about the level of a padded hammer.

Of course, that padded hammer meant the one Audin wrapped in cloth before beating Enkrid with it.

"It would be a shame to end it here, wouldn't it?"

Andrew exhaled, steadied his breathing, and waited for Enkrid's answer.

From that look, Enkrid judged Andrew still had something in reserve.

He found himself looking forward to it.

"Fine. Let's keep going."

"Yes, let's."

Andrew too had crossed life-and-death lines to come this far.

He shifted into a slanted stance and stepped in.

Several exchanges followed, but naturally, Enkrid won.

At one point Andrew closed the distance and rammed in with his shoulder, but Enkrid handled it with ease.

"Did you learn wrestling or martial arts too?"

"You remember Audin, right?"

"The soldier who looked like a bear?"

"Yeah."

"So Audin taught you."

Andrew already knew Enkrid learned from soldiers under his command.

Even though a technique he had refined for years had just been broken, Andrew felt refreshed.

Honestly, lately he had no one who could press him down like this.

After surpassing Mack, he had no one left he could spar with freely.

Even as a baronet, the moment he took Krang's side, he had ended up like a man stranded alone.

Everyone else gathered in groups and formed factions. He stood by himself.

He had long wanted to test himself against knight order members and other experts.

Lately, his skill had felt stagnant too.

In that situation, Enkrid's appearance was rain in a drought. It was more than welcome. It thrilled him.

"Stay a few more days before you leave."

The offer came out naturally.

The five Gardner Family trainees watching nearby lit up as well.

There was much to learn just from watching this spar.

In truth, they could barely follow it, but a fighter like this seemed connected to their house lord.

Surely they could pick up even a few crumbs.

Enkrid looked over the five bright-eyed trainees.

From his point of view, at their level, they should have been swinging wooden practice swords all day.

This was not the time to learn techniques. It was time to build fundamentals.

Even so, should he ignore that expectation?

An old memory surfaced.

More precisely, a memory from when he had come to the capital before.

"You want to learn the sword? Then ten gold coins."

That sword instructor had been the kind of bastard who lived to sneer.

He bragged that he had ranked just below platinum in the mercenary world, and if he had stayed a mercenary he would have become platinum for sure.

Not quite as good as his boasting, but skilled all the same.

"Hey, I'll teach you one move, so bring that waitress from earlier to Ben's place tonight."

He was living proof that skill and character had nothing to do with each other.

Enkrid refused, and that day he got beaten half to death.

No, the man had meant to kill him, and he had survived by sheer luck.

Luck had been with him. A few passing guards saw it and stopped it.

It was luck that guards happened to pass through that alley at that exact time.

Seeing these trainees, he saw his old self from those memories.

As someone who knew the bitterness of wanting to learn and being unable to, Enkrid could not turn away from people burning to learn.

Just as Andrew's eyes burned with passion, the five Gardner trainees looked just as eager.

Enkrid truly could not ignore that.

"Sure. Why not."

"What, you're staying? Then make us something good to eat. You're nobles, right?"

Dunbakel reacted the moment she heard.

The others seemed not to care much whether they stayed here or went back.

So they decided to stay a few more days.

Enkrid respected their hunger to learn. So he started immediately, exactly as he had decided, to repay their zeal.

"One thousand downward cuts."

"...What?"

One of the trainees at the front, a freckled girl with a ponytail, asked back.

"One thousand one hundred."

Andrew had experienced Enkrid firsthand. These people were not called madmen for nothing. He acted fast.

"...Do as he says. Begin."

At Andrew's command, the trainees picked up their swords one by one.

They started swinging clumsily on reflex, and Enkrid spoke again.

It was something between instruction and scolding, with a dash of torment mixed in.

At least, that was how it felt to the people receiving it.

"Put in the resolve to cut your opponent and swing at full force. Like that? Your stance is already collapsing. Are you putting strength in your thighs or not?"

Thwack.

As he spoke, he smacked a trainee's thigh with the flat of his gladius. A sharp cry burst from the trainee he hit.

"You're screaming from this much?"

Enkrid knew the misery of wanting to learn and not being able to.

He had decided to stay and do something for them.

This was the first step. Harden their fundamentals.

The harsher it was, the easier the next step would be. He knew because he had lived it.

Lacking mindset? That could be filled.

With hands, feet, and Rem.

"Rem?"

"I'll help."

Dunbakel watched for a moment, then grabbed one trainee.

"Hey. Is this the time for your eyes to wander? Want me to pluck them out?"

She did what she had learned from Rem. She extended her nails and mimed gouging at the trainee's eyes, and the trainee turned pale.

"C-Captain?"

Andrew had no idea why this was suddenly happening.

It was even harder to believe this was goodwill.

Still, he could not tell them to leave now.

He looked over his trainees for a moment, then gave up.

Either way, if they endured this torment, they would improve. They would grow.

He himself was different before and after getting beaten by that barbarian, Rem.

So Enkrid settled in at Andrew's lodging for a while.

* * *

Wake in the morning, Isolation Technique, then drills and sparring.

Enkrid went straight into his routine.

"Ragna, come out. You're up."

"Gladly."

A wide training ground had been built behind the manor. It was so large, it almost looked like they had no garden because of it.

Excellent. Enkrid was satisfied.

The manor chef served meals every time, and the food was not bad.

Esther fell in love with a wool cushion.

She turned into a leopard and refused to get off it.

Odd-Eye seemed to like this place quite a lot too.

He acted like the boss among the horses, and at night he seemed to roam among the mares.

A male through and through.

Enkrid kept to routine. He ate, drank, pissed, rested, and trained all day.

In the meantime, a few trainees dreamed of running away.

"This kind of chance does not come easily."

Andrew soothed them well. Even he repeated drills with his face pale as a sheet.

That was only natural. Enkrid had been conditioning Andrew's body since dawn.

Words spoken with trembling arms had weight.

And sincerity.

The training Andrew was doing was no joke either.

It started with one line Enkrid tossed at him.

"Your body's gotten a little flimsy. You've put on extra fat."

Complete nonsense, but Andrew had nothing to say.

When they washed together, Enkrid's body was a weapon.

Especially that third leg. That thing was truly a weapon.

"What is this? How is this fair?"

The words came out on their own.

"What isn't fair?"

"Nothing."

After that, training continued without pause.

When two days had passed, Rem asked,

"But is it right to come all the way to the capital and just train?"

Honestly, Rem knew too. If it was Enkrid, this was exactly what he would do.

Then why bring it up now?

"Why?"

"Aren't you gonna look around the capital?"

"I was thinking of heading out this afternoon to get a set of armor."

Ragna added as well.

Wasn't training and sparring enough fun already?

Enkrid thought so, but he respected everyone's views.

"Ragna, take an attendant with you. Do not let them get more than five steps away."

"That's cumbersome."

"If you go out now, I might not see you again for a while."

"The capital is crowded, yes, but I've already memorized the roads by sight."

Ragna shook his head and tried to refuse.

"Yeah, right."

"Are you insane?"

"Did you hit your head?"

Jaxon, Rem, and Dunbakel chimed in, in that order.

"If I tell you to take one, take one."

Enkrid was firm. Ragna had to accept.

"I'll go have some fun too. We came all the way here, what are we even doing?"

"Do as you like."

Enkrid planned to stay like this for three or four days, then leave.

Jaxon had gone out from day one, saying he had business.

Dunbakel watched for a while, then moved too.

"I'll go look for a sword too."

Her scimitar's edge was badly damaged. It was past what a whetstone could fix.

Since they were in the capital, there should be good steel and good weapons.

She might not be able to forge a new one, but she could likely find one that fit her hand.

Enkrid thought it would be hard to find a better weapon than the swords he currently carried.

Besides, there was no reason it had to be today.

It was better to spend time on these people, full of zeal and hunger like his old self.

"You all live here, so there's no need for you to go out, right?"

Enkrid gave the remaining trainees something close to a death sentence.

"Aren't you going to see the capital?"

One trainee gathered courage and asked.

"I'm not."

Enkrid was firm again.

Advance.

Keep moving forward. Teaching them did not mean Enkrid neglected his own training.

If anything, it was the opposite.

You learn while teaching.

Basics.

He had not forgotten how important basics were.

Even when he came to the capital long ago, he heard it until his ears could have callused.

"Basics. You don't even have basics, so what are you trying to do?"

You can only move forward when your foundation is solid. That was how Enkrid did it.

He taught the five trainees while reviewing his own core.

It was unexpected luck.

Teaching while reviewing pushed him in a better direction than mere contemplation.

On top of that, he had recently learned Audin's Gather-and-Burst, Ragna's fast and heavy sword, Rem's way of handling any weapon, Dunbakel's full-body elastic swordplay, and even Teresa's shield handling.

He had learned many things. There had been no time to digest all of them.

But did he really need to digest all of it?

One thought led to another. He was about to sink deep into that chain.

Ping.

At the sound of air being cut, his sense of evasion triggered.

He did not even need to turn his head.

An arrow. He tracked its path by sound and twisted his body halfway.

Tap.

The flying arrow landed in Enkrid's hand.

There, on top of the wall, in broad daylight, stood one brazen lunatic.

"Who are you?"

Enkrid asked.

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