WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator: Hydrogen B
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES
Chapter 371: Persuading the Security Commissioner
= = =
371. Persuading the Security Commissioner
"What?!"
Polman Vertes. Enkrid had not meant to, but he had memorized the name, and now he looked at the red-faced man shouting at him.
Security Commissioner, an official post.
So of course he was a noble.
Still, were they pulling nobles out of some bottomless pouch inside this palace?
'Are there not way too many?'
Every Tom, Dick, and Harry was a viscount, baron, or baronet, some blue-blooded noble.
Had they handed out titles too freely?
The pointless thought flashed through his mind, then faded.
Whether nobles were many or few had nothing to do with Enkrid.
Still, with this many, he did feel they could stand to lose a few.
"Hey, you."
Rem dug at his ear and spoke to the raging Polman.
"Li, listen carefully."
"You bastard, where do you think this is, stepping forward like that!"
A guard captain, and from the look of him, a commander in charge of another gate.
Smack!
As soon as he roared, the South Gate Guard Captain behind him slapped his own forehead.
As if thinking, why is this idiot stepping in and making a mess?
Enkrid knew armies, and he knew soldiers.
How many people here had come by choice?
The sharp-eyed, quick-eared soldiers looked uncomfortable. They knew what the people in front of them had done.
These were the people who dealt with the Moonlight Beast, the people who protected their families, citizens, comrades, and friends.
The people who did the job they were supposed to do.
Their eyes were uneasy, and their expressions matched.
There were especially many like that around the South Gate Guard Captain.
Rem cheerfully ignored the loudmouth and kept talking.
"The Moonlight Beast killed people and threatened citizens. Right? Nobody could handle it, so even Junior Knight Eisia came and helped catch it, and when we caught it, turns out it was some guy called Bantara or bullfrog or whatever. And now what? Murder?"
"You baaaastard!"
One guard captain looked so furious he raised a spear longer than his own height.
He looked ready to charge right then.
Rem lowered the hand he had been digging his ear with and looked at him.
If that man rushed in, Rem looked ready to cut him down on the spot.
"Wa, wait, just a second."
The South Gate Guard Captain hurried forward.
If this continued, it would be a disaster. He had seen Enkrid's group fight.
Polman had let jealousy explode and thought this was his chance, so he ran in immediately, but the South Gate captain had tried to stop him to the end.
Once this mess was over, he had pushed back so hard that he might not be able to keep his post.
But nothing changed.
He had still been dragged here in the end. He could not risk death for disobeying orders. He came anyway, like licking Ghoul blood while knowing it was poison.
But he could not just stand by and watch either.
If he did, his subordinates would all die. His comrades would be hacked by axes and swords, their heads chopped off and rolling on the ground. He could not watch that happen.
"There is a misunderstanding."
Polman saw the South Gate Guard Captain step in and narrowed his eyes.
"Stand down, how dare you step forward here!"
Where did authority and dignity come from?
Anyone could tell by looking at Crang. It came from the man himself. The way he walked was different. The way he spoke was different. The weight in his words was different.
Trust and loyalty earned through action gave his words force.
"Kneel at once!"
So did the man in front of them have authority and dignity?
The force in his voice sounded like a whining mosquito.
There stood an ugly fool blinded by jealousy.
His voice was low, trying to imitate dignity, but he sounded like a whining child. Then again, coming all the way here might itself have been childish sulking.
'Have I been seeing too many outstanding people lately?'
Crang, the Marquis of Okto, Ruagarne, Eisia, people like that.
Even the whip escort had come to face the Moonlight Beast.
Protecting their lord came first, yes, but they knew carrying out their lord's will came before that, so they moved.
You could see spirit, duty, purpose, and conviction in how they moved.
They looked like people with choices of their own, not tools of Crang.
Compared to those people, the whining man in front of him looked pathetically small.
Enkrid had ears too. He had heard the Security Commissioner was grinding his teeth in jealousy because Enkrid had attended the party.
"If you did not come to talk, should we just get started?"
Ragna, behind them, stepped forward and said it.
Smack.
The South Gate Guard Captain hit his forehead again.
He looked ready to lose his mind.
The Security Commissioner thought he had endured enough.
These worms were even ignoring noble authority.
It was absolutely not because the lady he admired had fallen for Enkrid at first sight.
He was a Security Commissioner, a noble, while the other side was just some lowly soldier.
If he listened to rumors, that soldier had gotten where he was by stealing his comrades' achievements.
People who envied Enkrid kept spreading the same stories, and those stories were snowballing bigger by the day.
On top of that, the Security Commissioner had blocked his ears and only listened to what he wanted.
He heard "hero of the Border Guard" and ignored it.
How could Viscount Bantara turn into some monster?
Leaving aside the fact that he really had transformed into a demon creature, this was still a chance for the commissioner.
Besides, had Viscount Mernes not subtly urged him on?
Go there and finish it.
This was the result, and this was what came out of his mouth.
"Bind them!"
As soon as the Security Commissioner gave the order, two guard-captain-level commanders and three or four cavalrymen dismounted and approached.
Their momentum was ominous.
Even if most rumors were nonsense, what these people had accomplished was too great.
Even if only part of it was true, they were not opponents those men could handle.
Yet they still stepped up like this, which also showed how many false rumors had spread about Enkrid.
Enkrid watched the approaching group without emotion.
Should he go quietly? No. Even if they tried to talk nicely, he should not follow them.
Enkrid knew by instinct.
'This already blew up.'
Otherwise, with Crang and Marcus present, they came to arrest him?
"Arrest Baronet Andrew too. He is under the same charge. If he resists, kill him."
"Hmph."
At that, Andrew snorted. Right, try it if you can. That was his attitude.
Polman's eyes swept over Enkrid and his group's weapons.
It looked like he was praying for them to attack. Enkrid granted that wish.
He did not even need a real battle. Completely ignoring the men walking up, Enkrid said,
"Dunbakel, grab him and bring him."
Ragna and Rem did not even need to move.
One beastfolk shot forward. A white blur stretched long, and her short white hair looked like a single long line.
One guard captain reflexively thrust out his spear.
He prided himself on handling a spear freely. Among ordinary soldiers, he was truly skilled, but Dunbakel was a beastfolk even Eisia acknowledged.
While running, she flicked the spearhead with her claw, knocked its path off line, grabbed the shaft, and threw it aside.
"Ugh!"
The guard captain who had been bracing on the spear rolled to the side.
Four more soldiers blocked her path ahead. Dunbakel did not even draw her curved sword. She stepped in, hooked one shin with her foot to topple him, then drove a fist into another man's jaw.
Their helmets did not protect their jaws.
They were even more vulnerable to a close upward punch launched from below.
Jaw, whoosh. Crack, smack.
After a few bursts of noise, the soldiers screening the Security Commissioner dropped in a heap.
Dunbakel did not stop there. This was only one step in the process.
She drove farther forward, and seeing that, the Security Commissioner grabbed the sword at his waist, a broad-bladed broadsword.
Before he could properly draw it, Dunbakel had already reached his horse.
She seized the wrist of the hand trying to draw the sword and twisted it hard.
He was still mounted, so the horse startled and reared with a shrill neigh.
"Uh, wait!"
Panicked, the commissioner was dragged down with his wrist trapped.
His foot was still caught in the stirrup, and his ankle bent backward with a sickening crack.
His left foot came free, but his right stayed stuck in the stirrup.
"Aaaagh!"
The commissioner screamed at the sudden pain.
Dunbakel yanked him out with brute force.
His scream started on horseback and ended in front of Enkrid.
Dunbakel had dropped five soldiers in an instant, then dragged the commissioner down by the wrist and brought him over.
The Capital Security Captain, the rank directly beneath the commissioner and the highest post besides him, moved, then stopped.
'Fuck, what is this?'
Honestly, he had not even dared to block it. He had been standing right beside the commissioner and had only barely managed to draw his sword.
The thin ring of steel leaving the scabbard sounded like his own heart, helpless and lacking confidence.
Or maybe it only sounded that way to him.
He still held the sword forward.
But should he really swing this?
One look said she was no ordinary fighter. He should have brought personnel from the knight order. In other words, he needed a Junior Knight.
He himself came from a squire background, and he had brought a knight-order member, but in this situation, it had been the wrong assignment.
The one who came with him was a squire, not a Junior Knight.
"Can you stop her?"
The Security Captain lowered his voice and asked. On his left, the wide-eyed squire kept his eyes on Dunbakel and answered,
"She is above my tier."
He left out much above, but the squire knew at a glance.
If that beastfolk rushed him, could he handle it?
Who won or lost had to be tested in a real fight, but you could still see the skill gap at a glance.
Her movement alone made it obvious. At minimum, top-tier squire, right on the verge of Junior Knight, or already at that level.
Her movement and technique pointed exactly there. It was striking built on full use of beastfolk physical ability.
Something else felt even more dangerous.
There was someone ordering that level of fighter around, and others watching as if none of this mattered.
The soldiers were already crushed in spirit.
No one could say a word. Security Captain, squire, all of them kept their mouths shut.
Their top commander had just been seized in front of them.
The commissioner, unable to stand with his twisted ankle, lay sprawled on the ground before Enkrid, drenched in cold sweat. Everyone saw it.
"How dare you!"
Even with his spirit broken, he resisted to the end. He had no authority or dignity, but he had stubbornness. Then again, how else would he sit in that post without at least stubbornness?
Enkrid looked at him and asked,
"Junior Knight Eisia was there too. Is this still a charge of murdering Viscount Bantara?"
"Junior Knight Eisia? You thought waving a knight-order member around would make this pass? They are traitors! What are all of you doing?!"
Blinded by jealousy, the Security Commissioner had no sense of the situation.
He kept shrieking.
The squire who had been watching stepped forward.
Someone had to speak properly.
The Security Captain beside him looked like he had no intention of opening his mouth, and in the end, this was why the squire had come here.
"That is correct. Junior Knight Eisia did not deny any of those charges."
The squire raised his voice and said it.
"Then was she arrested too?"
Enkrid's gaze turned to him. Blue eyes locked onto the squire.
"She is knight-order personnel."
The squire wanted to swallow hard. The moment their eyes met, the tension tightened. Even so, he answered calmly on the surface.
Enkrid listened and thought.
So they could not hold a knight-order member responsible over this? That was what it sounded like. Eisia was not arrested.
Then what about everything else?
At least one thing was certain, something had exploded inside the palace. Enkrid pieced the situation together through a few quick guesses.
"What are you doing?! Arrest these traitors right now!"
The commissioner clung to his stubbornness to the end. The tear tracks at the corners of his eyes drained all weight from his words.
Crying from pain, yet still talking big. Better than a Ghoul in only one way, his tongue.
Enkrid chose the fastest way to persuade him. Honestly, the man was loud.
Thud!
He kicked the commissioner in the jaw and knocked him out on the spot.
He kicked as if death was fine, so there was a hard crack as the man's neck twisted, but by luck or bad luck, he did not die.
His neck bent to one side, drool ran out, and his face slammed into the ground. Enkrid glanced over and confirmed he was only unconscious.
"What, if you were going to kill him, say it to me."
Rem spoke from behind, then snickered and added,
"Forgot my nickname?"
Noble Hunter, what a strange hobby.
Enkrid left the unconscious man there and spoke.
"Who is next in command? If you are thinking of ordering an all-out charge, think carefully. I have no intention of turning Andrew's estate into a graveyard."
He intended to show at least some courtesy. The South Gate Guard Captain was there.
That man had fought for people, for the capital's security.
Did that not deserve respect on its own?
He walked the right path. Enkrid had seen that, so he used it as a standard.
He could not know everything, so it was only natural to base choices on what he had heard, seen, and learned for himself.
That was what Enkrid did.
"I would like someone to explain what happened in the palace."
He said that next.
Something had clearly happened. Otherwise this could not have happened.
The commissioner acting alone?
If he were the kind who could move like that, he would have stormed in with any random excuse long ago.
Only coming now? That meant permission had been given.
Crang had said the man called Viscount Mernes was the real problem.
A foul tension pricked his skin. Enkrid stopped mid-thought and turned his gaze to one side.
Clop-clop! Clop-clop!
The hoofbeats already sounded urgent. They were closing on the estate.
"Save me!"
A shout mixed in too.
Enkrid left the people in front of him where they were, kicked off the ground, and launched himself upward. He vaulted onto the estate wall in one leap.
Rem came up beside him. Tap-tap, he kicked off the wall and sprang up as if rising straight up.
He was unusually good at climbing walls.
Some of the security troops flinched and tried to move when they saw that.
"Stay still."
Ragna blocked them. His pressure was on a different level. Everyone froze.
From atop the wall, Enkrid saw someone running hard down the bluestone road.
It was Marcus.
He was also the one who had shouted for help.
Someone was chasing him from behind.
The figure was dressed strangely. It wore something like a layered leather cloak, and on both shoulders, spears floated in the air as they followed it.
= = =
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
