WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator: Hydrogen B
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES
Chapter 374: Woof Woof
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While Jaxon threw the place into chaos, Enkrid shoved Marcus aside as if tossing him away.
“His Highness the Grand Duke is in the royal palace.”
Marcus said it while rolling away. He had enough sense to find somewhere to hide, crumpled off to one side.
He had no strength to force anything right now, so he had no choice. At least he could hide well.
He had once served as a battalion commander, but he had no troops left who truly followed his direct orders.
Damn Baisar.
The main house had chosen neither side.
Marcus hated that. Still, he could not just do nothing.
If he sent Enkrid to the palace, Enkrid could do what Marcus could not.
After he survived, anyway.
If he had known this would happen, he should have stayed on horseback.
Enkrid gave a rough nod and climbed onto Odd-Eye. The same fierce energy as before came through Odd-Eye’s skin.
Fierce Will.
I’m fast.
Power meant only for running.
Even so, Odd-Eye did not like throwing around its strength or Will carelessly. But it ran anyway.
Because of my request.
Odd-Eye accepted Enkrid’s request without hesitation.
The horse that had nearly undergone beastification into a Magic Beast stamped a few times and moved.
Comparing that movement to an ordinary warhorse would have been insulting.
Odd-Eye pushed off lightly and lowered its body.
With half-bent knees driving against the ground, it shot through the mansion’s front gate. Quiet and swift. A black shadow flashed and vanished.
It was right when Jaxon was cutting down several assassins and drawing every eye to himself.
They guarded the wall, but no one guarded the front gate. Was that some assassin habit?
Enkrid thought it and said,
“That way.”
He gripped the mane and lowered his body. Odd-Eye moved at his whisper.
They headed straight for the outer road leading to the royal palace.
The capital was in chaos. Quick-witted citizens had already gone inside and bolted their doors.
Several shops slammed shut, and some guards roamed around with murderous looks, spears in hand.
Enkrid ignored all of it. Odd-Eye tapped the ground lightly and stopped before the outer road to the palace.
This was never a road ordinary people used.
With the city wall to the left, it was a direct route built along the outskirts to the royal palace.
“Let’s go.”
Neigh!
Odd-Eye answered and exploded off the ground. The world around them stretched into lines and vanished behind them.
Was this what it looked like if Momentary Will triggered one after another?
It was that fast.
Not long after, an obstacle appeared ahead. No, the instant he saw it, it was already in front of him.
Focus Point activated, and he recognized what lay before them.
A wooden palisade. Sharpened stakes were driven hard into the ground at an angle. Horse, carriage, or man, if they charged in without thinking, those stakes would punch neat wind holes through their bodies.
Even a seasoned warhorse could not charge through that easily.
If they built a direct road to the palace, of course they prepared a way to block it too.
“Sto... aaah...?”
A soldier standing before the barrier tried to speak, but he could not finish.
Something black seemed to be flying at him. Unbelievable speed. It was in front of him in a blink. He tried to shout for them to stop it.
Before all his words could leave his mouth, the black mass passed over his head.
Tak.
A hoof struck the ground, wind whipped past his ears, and something heavy leaped overhead.
It passed above him at full speed.
Odd-Eye kicked off and vaulted the palisade in one bound. To Odd-Eye, it was not very high.
Enkrid did not need to say a word. Odd-Eye handled it on its own.
“...Wow.”
Several stunned soldiers turned their heads to follow.
A fine horse could clear a decent span, but this looked close to flying.
They had blocked the palace road with dozens of soldiers and a palisade, and the horse cleared it all in one leap.
“Uh, uh, hey, shoot!”
The commander shouted too late.
The order meant nothing.
The horse had already cleared them and was racing into the distance.
It was faster than any horse they had ever seen.
This was Enkrid’s second time riding Odd-Eye.
Yet now felt even faster than before.
The palace that had looked distant rushed toward him in no time.
After clearing spear stakes and palisade, they sprinted and arrived in what felt like a single blink.
The moment Odd-Eye reached the palace, it struck the ground with its forelegs, twisted sideways, and stopped.
Scrrrk.
Its hind legs carved through the ground, and dust burst upward.
Running at such savage speed was one thing. Controlling its body perfectly enough to stop like this was an art. Enkrid straightened his tilted posture and said,
“Thanks.”
Then he jumped down immediately. This was no time to admire Odd-Eye.
Enkrid sprinted into the royal palace. No soldiers guarded the inner fortress entrance. Instead, steel clashed somewhere inside, and the smell of blood hung in the air.
He followed the sound and scent.
“Huh, that idiot!”
Someone who recognized him came into view. A group had gathered there.
Was it chance?
The goddess of fortune?
Or had he wished for a moment like this himself?
No way to know.
The bastard who used to spread vicious rumors. A familiar face. The former instructor who specialized in spewing bullshit.
“Hey, bring that barmaid over.”
He still remembered that day when the man ran his mouth. Afterward, Enkrid was beaten half to death.
“Say you lost, say you’re sorry, say you were wrong.”
The man had forced him, and Enkrid had answered quietly.
“What? Did you just say woof woof?”
He had many memories of almost dying. Some were useful. Some were not.
This one was the latter.
The former bullshit instructor was now a soldier of Viscount Mernes’s house.
He wore a gambeson stamped with the family crest.
He smirked and said,
“Hey, be honest. You sold your body to get where you are now, right?”
It was bullshit Enkrid had not heard in a long time.
That bullshit specialist knew Enkrid from the past.
A guy with no talent who still swung a sword like his life depended on it.
A guy who kept swinging even as his palms split open.
An idiot. A guy like that was the hero of the Border Guard?
Ridiculous.
Someone had to be backing him.
It had been like that back then too.
Hadn’t there been bastards quietly looking after him?
“By any chance, do you know where Crang is?”
“What?”
“Looks like you don’t.”
“What nonsense are you talking, you idiot?”
“Still busy barking, huh? Woof woof?”
When Enkrid dragged up that old connection, the man’s face flushed red.
“I’ll kill you.”
He spoke with killing intent, leveled his sword, and took his stance.
Some things the man had said long ago were useful.
“If you get cocky because you think you’re strong, you die. Even for one rabbit, you give it your best. If not, this world sends you straight to the grave.”
Enkrid agreed. So he showed a part of his best.
Between rows of pillars like a corridor stood thirteen men, the instructor and his group.
They were giggling with blades in hand. Anyone could tell they had been acting like rabid dogs under the banner of Viscount Mernes’s army.
Behind them stood a maid with half-torn clothes. Fear filled her eyes, scratches lined her arms, and her body trembled.
Enkrid stepped forward with his left foot. He loaded strength into his muscles. He bent and straightened his knees, gripped Spark, and looked ahead.
He saw the enemies and kicked off the ground.
Thung!
The sole of his boot drove into the stone floor.
Instant acceleration.
Against that speed that threw everything behind him, Spark became a point, and he ended that old connection.
Ting, thud.
With those sounds, a corpse appeared. Blood trailed after Spark, pulled free as quickly as it had pierced in.
The man did not even react to Enkrid’s thrust.
The gap in skill was obvious.
The man clutching his sword crumpled. His knees hit the floor, and he pitched forward.
His skull struck the ground with a heavy sound, like a deep kiss against stone.
The rest stopped breathing when they saw him fall. They were too shocked.
Enkrid silently drew the sword at his left waist. Shrring, a Gladius.
Gladius in his right hand, Spark in his left.
With blades in both hands, Enkrid became a wolf among sheep.
Two sheep reached out with woolly hands, but the wolf batted them aside, sliced, and severed.
Then came the broad, heavy blade’s slash and the thin, narrow blade’s thrust, leaving twelve sheep in the state right before slaughter.
After killing them all, Enkrid swung both weapons through the air and shook off the blood.
“Ghh...”
The maid had been saved, but she was even more terrified.
The group that had looked like demons turned into chunks of meat in an instant.
It was lucky she had not fainted.
She looked in no state to answer questions.
Enkrid had no room to look after her either.
“Hide somewhere.”
He said only that and moved. As he walked, he sheathed his swords, clenched and opened his hand, and thought,
This has gotten easier.
He had felt it while fighting Eisia and sparring countless times, but he had grown more accustomed to using Will.
He used it nonstop, and when he overdid it, he sometimes passed out. Yet after one night’s sleep, he was fine again.
Eisia had been astonished by that, but Enkrid still felt some discomfort.
Still, the feeling of his body adapting through repetition was unmistakable.
Maybe his body changed on its own as he used Will.
Maybe that was growth.
Either way, it was far easier and better than before.
A short thought. A passing fragment.
After that, Enkrid had a feeling someone else would block his way.
All the ties bad enough to call ill fate keep showing up.
First, a commissioner consumed by jealousy.
Then, a pack of assassins.
Now, the bullshit-specialist instructor.
Enkrid moved on instinct.
Before long, he found another group fighting.
He had followed the noise.
It was the inner palace garden. No one had been guarding the inner wall, and they were brawling here instead.
The Royal Guard had split into two factions.
“Who are you!”
One of the Royal Guard shouted, and Enkrid answered,
“Just a passerby. Keep doing what you were doing.”
“...What kind of lunatic is this?”
“If anyone knows where Crang is, I’d appreciate it.”
Enkrid’s gaze shifted to one man, the owner of a dark gray helmet.
That man looked like he had gone through hell too, his body soaked in blood.
“He’s in a side chamber deeper inside the palace. You’re late.”
He said it.
“You crazy bastard!”
One Royal Guard charged Enkrid, brandishing a golden spear.
Enkrid pulled his right foot back, then snapped it forward in a kick.
Valaf-Style Rear-Leg High Kick.
Using the rotation of his hips, his foot whipped around and struck the hand gripping the spear shaft.
The Royal Guard had been focused on Enkrid’s sword, so the kick landed directly on his fingers.
Crack!
The sound of breaking bone rang out. Enkrid’s boots were reinforced with hard leather over the instep and toe. They were weapons on their own.
“Aagh!”
The soldier screamed and dropped his spear. With broken fingers, the pain had to be brutal.
Only then did Enkrid see his face and recognize him. A Royal Guard soldier who used to mock him and grind his molars.
Meeting again here.
Enkrid struck the man’s head with the flat of his sword.
Bang!
A sharp impact mixed with a twisted cry. The man collapsed sideways with a heavy thud.
Blood seeped from inside the golden helmet. His skull looked slightly cracked.
Enkrid turned his gaze and asked,
“Need help?”
He had just put one man down, yet he sounded calm.
A subtle pressure and presence weighed on everyone around him. It was the kind of aura only a truly skilled fighter could carry.
The pressure felt like something you would expect from a squire of the Red Cloak Knights, and everyone fell silent.
“Didn’t I tell you you’re late?”
The dark gray helmet said.
It sounded like he meant: go to Crang instead of wasting time here.
“Then.”
Enkrid ran at once. He did not know where the side chamber was, but he picked a direction by instinct.
If he was wrong, he could ask the next person he met.
“This is treason!”
A shout came from behind.
“If doing what I believe is right is treason, then yes, I am a traitor.”
He also heard the dark gray helmet answer back.
Enkrid pushed deeper inside and searched for the side chamber. The long corridor drew him one way.
Light streamed in through the windows set along the wall.
He took a few steps, thinking Her Majesty the Queen might be in danger too, and then it happened.
“Stop there.”
Someone blocked Enkrid’s path.
Orange hair. A woman in plain leather armor instead of a cloak and plate armor.
Enkrid stopped. She was someone he would speak to before attacking.
“Eisia?”
“This is as far as you go. I cannot allow you to go any farther.”
Without a trace of a smile, Eisia stood in front of Enkrid and blocked the way.
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