WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 362: Crang's Gambit

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Five steps from Crang, a whip guard stood on edge, scanning the surroundings.

He had also brought along a bald warrior who looked like he knew how to fight.

The man stood behind Crang like a statue, showing only his back.

His body was well trained. Anyone could tell at a glance.

He was no mediocre fighter.

Looking at those two, Enkrid thought of Andrew.

Andrew was probably inside the party hall right then, wearing a miserable expression.

He used to say that when he attended these parties, people did not even treat him like a ghoul.

If he were a ghoul, at least they would acknowledge him and make a face. Instead, they ignored him completely.

Who would bother with a one-generation noble, a mere baronet, and one seen as a fool who had backed the wrong line?

Even the butler at the entrance had dismissed him outright.

"Baron Andrew Gardner? Are you sure this is where you meant to come?"

The butler did not even bother to raise his level of speech. Andrew sighed inwardly, but answered calmly on the surface.

"Why? Did I come somewhere I should not?"

"Your invitation?"

"You must have been busy. It was left out."

"...You may enter."

The butler let Andrew in with a deeply displeased expression.

Enkrid, who had come as his escort, could not enter.

Well, he had stepped inside a few times before. That got his face around and drew attention.

After that, the host stopped allowing escorts in.

He had never cared much about the inside of party halls anyway.

He was only out here to observe Crang, and the mood around him.

To be honest, he had half expected another warning addict to pop up while he walked these night roads, but nothing like that happened.

In the end, he met Crang and asked.

"So. Knights."

Crang fell silent for a moment.

His pupils did not waver, and he showed no sign of tension.

He chose his words, then continued.

"Why does no one punish Count Molsen for calling himself the king of the frontier? That was my first question."

Crang had wondered that, and he had already found his answer, so he could say it plainly.

"You know the great southern power, Rihinshtetten, right?"

His tone was casual, like he was recommending a popular tavern in the market.

It was evening, but no longer cold, so talking outside felt pleasant enough.

An old bench, the lights from a mansion where the party was in full swing.

Insects flickering here and there like fireflies.

It did not suit the topic, but Crang's voice was as light as ever, so despite the content, it almost felt like a relaxed night walk.

"It has already been seven years since we started fighting the Kingdom of Rihinshtetten, and we have never been pushed back easily, right?"

True. Enkrid had never heard rumors to the contrary.

"Why do you think that is?"

"Because the southern territories fight well?"

"If that were all, then why were things breached so easily the moment demon creatures surged?"

"Then why?"

"Because Sir Cyprus and one other knight are holding that line."

Objectively, Rihinshtetten's military strength was superior to Naurillia's.

They had their own constraints, so a perfect rout was difficult.

Even so, holding this well should have been impossible, yet they held. They endured. They resisted invasion.

"I went there after hearing the news and saw it myself. Those two knights are doing something close to a miracle. If they leave, the southern front could be pushed back as soon as tomorrow."

As he spoke, Crang nudged a stone near the bench with his toe, then pried it loose from the ground.

After pulling it out, he kept tapping it lightly as he talked.

"So those two knights are tied down. Do you think only they are tied down?"

"The Knight Order too."

Enkrid was not an idiot.

What was the best way to avoid losing ground on a battlefield?

Send troops and reinforce your strength.

The kingdom had done exactly that.

Two knights were holding the southern border. If even one of them had turned away from that line, the country would already be half ruined by Rihinshtetten's invasion.

Crang knew what a mess this country was.

And now Enkrid knew it too.

"What about the third knight?"

Naurillia had three knights. Or at least, three known to the public.

"The third knight is facing a demon creature horde."

That was new to Enkrid.

It was top-level state secrecy, yet Crang said it in the same easy tone as always.

"Well, a troublesome demon creature showed up and formed a colony. And the eastern Mercenary King keeps watching for an opening too, so part of the Knight Order had to be reassigned there. And they are not the only threat."

Even during the full-scale war with Azpen in the past, one knight had barely managed to break free and join the battlefield.

Back then, the campaign had not focused on wearing down Azpen's forces.

It had focused on striking hard and fast, then pulling out.

Why?

Because they could not stay away for long.

A knight's absence became a threat somewhere else.

Azpen had been the most urgent issue, so they came because they had no choice. If it had not been that urgent, the knight would not have joined that battlefield at all.

Everything sounded plausible.

All of it made sense. The knights being absent, and only part of the Knight Order remaining at the royal palace.

And all of that was a perfect chance for those with ambition and dreams of rebellion.

He had even pulled the Royal Guard into faction lines.

The gate guards and even the guard captain were the same.

It had become a situation where everyone had to pick a side.

Reality and fact wove together into one story.

Why did every circumstance align this perfectly?

Why had such an ideal board been laid out for people who dreamed of rebellion? Why had a stage opened that made it so easy for them to act?

Enkrid's instincts sharpened his already keen judgment.

They were not fighting, yet his concentration rose on its own, and his senses grew sharper.

His mind spun at full speed and drew one conclusion.

What did Crang gain from all this?

Why had he come to the royal palace and stirred up this trouble?

After Crang arrived, the noble factions moved as if fire had been set to their feet.

They immediately began pushing for the successor to hand over the throne.

They had already secured power of their own. Everyone knew Marcus of Center Pole had joined their side.

Urgency brings action. The noble factions acted exactly that way.

Looked at closely, those factions could also serve as signals, revealing which side each person stood on.

If they did not choose a side, they would be pushed out.

They had to state their position clearly.

"Am I right?"

There was no need for a long question. Enkrid asked, and Crang answered with a broad smile.

That smile looked bright and innocent.

It did not match someone capable of this level of calculation.

To some people, that smile would have looked terrifying.

"I was about to tell you anyway."

He had never intended to hide his purpose.

No, it almost sounded like he had said all this so Enkrid would notice.

Crang brushed off his knees and stood.

As he rose, he kicked the loose stone away. It clacked and rolled into the dark beyond the light.

"I am gathering what we do not need in one place so I can clear it out. That is why. We need a civil war."

If trash was gathered, it had to be burned or buried. Civil war would serve that function. He had set the stage for exactly that.

Of course, one premise came first: those noble factions had to be cleanly driven out of the royal palace.

Crang had not come to stop a civil war. He had come to accelerate it.

No, in that process, he intended to fulfill his own goal perfectly.

In other words, he would lay out the board and quietly force everyone to choose a side.

He meant to separate those worth using from those who were not.

And naturally, force would be the foundation.

He had intentionally thinned palace troops to filter out those who would betray.

That was the conclusion.

Enkrid stood up as well. It was time to leave. He could see Andrew coming out of the mansion, looking utterly exhausted.

Seeing that, Enkrid asked his question. It was one of the two reasons he had come.

"Do you know who the Black Blade Chief is?"

The Black Blade Chief was inside the royal palace, and that person was a member of the Black Lily.

That was as far as Jaxon had gotten.

He had also said he could not figure out how that chief hid himself so well.

And in the middle of that, a request had come from someone believed to be part of an assassination union.

"...It might be a coincidence, but our goals are the same. That guy is my biggest headache right now. I will organize what you need and send it, so think it over. I am trying to find him too."

Enkrid nodded. He had trailed parties and met Crang for this, and he had achieved everything he came for.

His questions were answered, and he had secured promised help.

At that moment, Enkrid had chosen his side.

"Ah, Enki. You are not thinking about becoming my knight, are you?"

Crang had started walking, then suddenly asked.

"What?"

"You do not look like someone who would be satisfied as another person's knight. Well, just saying."

He said it with that same bright smile, then turned and left, as though the answer did not matter at all.

Enkrid did not dwell on it.

He cared about becoming a knight.

He had never considered becoming someone's knight.

Those were not important words right now.

What mattered was that Crang was separating allies from enemies.

So he laid out the board. He showed every noble his intent through action.

Of course, only a small number of nobles would notice his hidden intent.

Even if they noticed, they would not be able to ignore it.

Crang had effectively told every noble:

There are no knights and no Knight Order here, so go ahead and run wild inside the royal palace.

The effect was obvious.

Everyone began raising private troops, dreaming of toppling the royal family or scheming toward it.

Count Molsen was calling himself the king of the frontier.

Inside the palace, the number of people openly showing ambition kept growing.

Will he get himself killed at this rate?

The thought crossed Enkrid's mind for a moment.

With the board set like this, the most dangerous person was Crang.

The appearance of someone with succession rights made him a thorn in everyone's eye.

With things this bad, the way Crang still treated becoming king as natural and kept looking ahead showed the difference in his caliber.

Enkrid dropped that brief worry.

If Crang's mind worked this well, he had surely accounted for his own survival.

This board had been laid from the start on the premise of force.

Still, Enkrid was curious. What exactly was Crang's hidden force?

He suddenly wanted to see it, though Crang did not look ready to show it yet.

"Can we please stop going to parties? I am seriously suffering."

Andrew had come up without him noticing and started complaining.

"Training is better, right?"

At that, Andrew shut his mouth.

If he had to choose between parties and training, what was the answer?

"I choose training."

He said it in a short burst, sweat even breaking out on his forehead.

"Yeah, let's do that."

Either way, chasing parties was over now.

He had even brought Jaxon and watched for reactions, but no one else made a move.

Until the spark Crang had thrown finally exploded, things would stay quiet.

In the meantime, they would catch the Black Blade Chief, beat him down, watch what Crang had set in motion, and add one strike of their own.

That would be all.

And somewhere along the way, they would likely fight opponents they had never expected.

Would those bundles of ambition who had formed factions really rush in without thinking?

Speech without force behind it loses power.

Especially now, in a royal palace where force itself had become law.

Had that Palace Security Commissioner not been called dangerous enough already?

"Let's go. Time to train."

Andrew spoke with resolve, jaw clenched hard, and Enkrid started walking too.

They returned to the mansion, and as soon as morning came the next day, Enkrid had to receive a visitor.

"So the rumors were true. You really came to the capital."

It was Kin Bysar, the woman called the greatest beauty in the capital.

Enkrid was in the middle of swinging an axe-spear, sweat pouring off him.

Rem had said experience with many weapons mattered almost as much as sparring itself.

In practice, it helped.

He was doing something brutish, gripping the end of the axe-spear shaft with one hand and whipping it around, and sweat ran down in streams.

And in that state, he received a guest.

"Your manners with guests have not changed."

"Looks like you did not come alone."

Enkrid spoke. He lowered the axe-spear tip toward the ground for a moment and turned. His thin training clothes clung to him with sweat.

That made his muscles stand out even more. Kin looked at him, thought about touching them, and spoke.

"Yes, someone wanted to see you. Are you not going to wash up and receive them properly?"

A strong presence could be felt outside the mansion.

That meant at least one formidable fighter was there.

It was not overwhelming bloodlust, but they were not hiding their presence either. If someone could assert themselves this openly, what did that mean?

At minimum, they were a squire.

"There is no need to dress up just to meet one old man."

Someone said that as he entered the mansion. A white-haired noble. As he said himself, he was near old age, but there was quiet strength in his step.

A sturdy step, that was the impression.

As soon as he entered, Mack hurried out, and Andrew stepped forward too.

"What brings you all the way here?"

Even Andrew looked troubled.

In the current kingdom, Bysar was the one closest to the queen.

If the Knight Order was excluded, the strongest in raw force was Count Molsen.

But if both citizens and nobles were asked to name the most noble of nobles, a different name would come up.

There was one person respected by everyone in his own lands for his kindness and clear handling of affairs, and respected outside them as well, despite taking no side and forming no faction.

Naturally, he was one of the five finger houses, the holder of the largest lands in the kingdom, and also the queen's teacher.

The Marquis of Fertile Lands.

The fourth finger supporting the kingdom.

At first glance, he looked like a chess-obsessed old man next door.

The marquis entered with a smile and said, "I came as a guest. If I came to the wrong place, tell me. I have no intention of making anyone uncomfortable."

Andrew immediately shook his head.

"Not at all. It may be humble, but if you wish, you may stay as long as you like."

Even Andrew showed that level of respect, which said everything about how this man had lived.

Enkrid felt the same. This man was different from other nobles.

He was someone who had built much on the strength of his own house.

Of all the nobles Enkrid had met since coming here, this one felt the most clear and clean.

That did not mean he looked easy.

The pressure from the guards behind him said as much.

So did the gaze fixed on Enkrid as the marquis sat at a stone table on one side of the training ground.

"Please continue what you were doing. I came suddenly, so I should be the one to wait."

"Your Excellency."

Kin spoke from the side. Her glance said the same thing, come over and sit in front of him.

Enkrid looked at that and said, "Then I will."

If he said he would wait and it was not empty politeness, respecting that was the right choice.

It was not a contest of wills.

Still, at Enkrid's choice, the pressure from the guards behind the marquis turned a little sharper.

Enkrid found that interesting.

Those two guards looked ready to pounce at once if things went sideways.

"Who came?"

Naturally, there was a reaction from Enkrid's side as well.

Rem spoke and stepped forward. Beside him, Ragna stayed seated and cast a glance over.

At some point Jaxon had moved to the mansion entrance and leaned against the wall, while Dunbakel and Esther came up beside Enkrid.

In terms of presence alone, they were people who would not lose to anyone.

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