WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 417: On the Position of General

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"Even if you're busy, you still have to do what needs doing."

Enkrid did wonder whether seeing him off was really necessary, but with the man saying it like that, he could not exactly tell him to go back.

More than anything, he was glad to see him.

Crang was not alone, of course. No matter how regularly they cleared out demon creatures and magic beasts around the kingdom, danger always remained.

He saw Matthew, Squire Ropord, and the escort he had met before who used a trident.

There were five more warriors drafted from the Royal Guard as well.

When they saw Enkrid, they dipped their heads.

It was courtesy for the hero who had saved the nation. Enkrid returned it with a rough nod.

The escort looked light, but this could not be all of it.

If things went wrong, keeping at least one unit nearby to rush in was standard.

Marcus would definitely do it that way.

While he was thinking that, Matthew walked up and asked, "So you're leaving now?"

From their first meeting to now, Matthew's view had changed a lot.

At first, he had seen Enkrid as an insolent bastard. Now, if someone asked who had saved this country, he would name the man in front of him without hesitation.

Even if he felt sorry toward his lord for it.

The one who had led the civil war to victory was not Crang. It was Enkrid the Demon Slayer.

Crang would probably nod and admit it himself.

"Ah. Are you disappointed?" Enkrid gripped his sword hilt.

Matthew had been about to ask whether Enkrid should stay, whether there would be even more he could do for his lord going forward.

Then Enkrid suddenly acted like he was about to fight and said, "Come at me. If you're disappointed, you can't leave it at that."

What a lunatic.

Enkrid had genuinely thought Matthew came because he could not let him go. Pel, standing behind, shook his head and thought, Sword-crazy. Sparring addict. Not a single normal thing about him.

Then again, that was exactly why he was worth following. Ordinary was the opposite of special.

Pel was here because he did not want the road he walked to become ordinary.

"I'm still not fully recovered." Matthew said it plainly. The injury he had taken before had been close to severe.

Enkrid and his group were just abnormal.

They had broken through specters. Every one of them could have stayed bedridden for a month.

And yet they were up in a few days, sparring.

That was abnormal. Matthew was normal.

"I wish to follow you, sir. I came here to humbly ask your permission."

It was Squire Ropord, exceedingly polite.

Enkrid knew he was a squire of the Red Cloak Knights.

"Weren't you with the order?"

"Senior Eisia had it processed as a long-term assignment. I could even leave the order entirely, and it still would not matter."

Ropord's face was set in firm resolve. He looked at the man who had changed his way of life.

It was a conclusion he had reached after long thought.

He would learn the sword, no, life itself, at this man's side.

Ropord had overcome his wavering nature, but now he leaned the other way and had become almost too bold.

That had nothing to do with Enkrid.

"Take him. He's asking like that."

Crang cut in, and Enkrid nodded.

Ropord bowed deeply, visibly moved. If left alone, he looked like he might swear loyalty on the spot.

That was a problem in itself, and doing it to someone else in front of Crang made it even more absurd.

If a squire of the knight order swore loyalty not to a knight, but to a provincial company commander, it was close to treason.

Crang would probably not care even if he watched it happen.

"I heard Sinar already left?" Crang asked.

He and Sinar had their own connection, but he had been too busy to seek her out separately.

"She said she had somewhere to stop by."

She had said she needed to deliver news about the elf she killed.

Enkrid answered exactly what he had heard and seen. Less than a day after the battle, she had rubbed ointment on her thigh wound, wrapped it in bandages, and left.

Becoming king had not changed Crang.

And Enkrid was the same.

The two moved together for three days.

The luggage was loaded on wagons, so there was not much else to do.

During those three days, Crang watched Enkrid spar.

To anyone who did not know better, it looked like two men trying to kill each other, yet they called it sparring.

Watching from the side, Matthew flinched again and again. The techniques were that dangerous, and one close call followed another.

Even outside sparring, Enkrid swung his sword whenever there was downtime.

When he sat in the wagon, he did things like hand-blade sparring. When asked what that was, he said it was simple practice sparring.

Crang nodded with a faint smile.

Steady as ever. A complete madman.

At one point, a bandit group attacked the party.

It was terrible luck. The bandits must have done something like spit on a statue of the goddess of fortune.

"Hey, hand over everything you've got and get lost, and we'll let you live."

Some of them wore swords, and Rem looked vicious while Audin was huge, yet the bandits still blocked their path.

At that point, this was less a problem with the goddess of fortune and more a problem with the bandits' brains.

Or maybe they trusted the crossbows behind them too much.

Public order had already been a mess before the civil war, and now it was even worse.

Crang saw it and did not sigh. He had seen this kind of thing many times while wandering the continent.

"Hey, you should prove you're useful too, right? You think we accept just anyone because they say they're tagging along?"

After spotting the bandits, Rem egged Pel on.

Hearing that, Enkrid wondered since when Border Guard had started screening soldiers like that.

There were over thirty bandits.

In this region, they were fairly well known as the White Hood Bandits.

"We are the White Hoo..."

Pel was a shepherd, and shepherds did not forgive uninvited guests crossing into their fence.

He responded like a shepherd.

Before the man could finish, Pel smashed him in the head with his sheathed sword.

Quick footwork, and a precise strike to the crown.

Thwack!

"Ghk!"

Five of the thirty carried crossbows, and some even showed skill with throwing daggers, but the gap in ability was too large from the start.

Even Squire Ropord could probably have handled them alone, though he would have struggled a bit.

Pel was stronger than Ropord. He had been that way since that night in the past when he met Enkrid and made him repeat the day.

No, stronger than then.

Enkrid measured Pel's skill with his own eyes. After awakening Eye That Sees One Inch Ahead, his field of view had widened, and his eye for judgment had sharpened with it.

He had improved.

Not by a little either. He had grown a lot. If Ruagarne saw him, she would probably have something to say.

Pel showed no hesitation in his hands. Even swinging only the scabbard, very few stayed standing after getting hit.

At minimum, they got fractures.

Ruagarne would find this interesting.

Enkrid had gone to see her before leaving, but heard Ruagarne had departed with the queen.

Probably because of Frog's covenant. Still, not even seeing her face stung a little.

"Is this enough?" Pel asked.

That youthful face did not match those ruthless hands.

Rem nodded.

"Pass."

"...No, I did not come here to get tested by you, so what do you mean, pass?"

He grumbled, but Pel still looked secretly pleased.

How could he not be?

Among shepherds, he was usually mocked just for using a sword.

Here, everyone watched him seriously and nodded. And not just anyone, people with outstanding skill.

"First, we need to clean things like this up. Got any good ideas?" Crang asked as he watched the bandits, half dead and half running.

He meant the public security headache.

He said it broadly, but Enkrid understood and replied.

"If you ask me that, do you think an answer just pops out?"

Naurillia had internal security gaps for many reasons, with Count Molsen only one of them.

That was why bastards like these kept appearing after the Black Blade Bandits.

Some groups were not even true bandits, but spies sent by other nations operating under the bandit label.

Bandits were not the only problem either.

Cultists, magic beasts, and demon creatures too.

Crang had piles of headaches. Even so, he smiled. This was the moment he wanted, and what he had wanted.

So he smiled. What else could he do?

That ended the three-day send-off.

The king had not come because the other man was a national hero.

Crang came because he was a friend.

"See you again."

"Yeah."

They parted with plain words.

Enkrid once again felt the escort looked too small, but those were not the only men there.

Jaxon had already told him on day one that another unit was following behind.

The king was traveling with a heavy hidden escort.

As they walked the main road, they saw traces of where units had camped. They were signs of Kraiss moving troops.

And that was not all.

As they got closer to Border Guard, they saw a large outpost built along the road.

It had watchtowers set up to fire in all directions, stone walls, and gates reinforced with iron bands, an outpost built for both offense and defense.

Its size was not small either.

It could house at least twenty soldiers.

This was not some rough shack thrown together. It was a brick structure. The marks of someone skilled in construction were obvious.

"What is this?"

"Heh heh, after you left, Brother Big Eyes took care of all sorts of things," Audin said.

Kraiss did this?

As Enkrid approached the outpost, a wary archer blew a short whistle.

A group of soldiers came out front.

"Lunatic Company Commander?"

It was Bell. A soldier whose life Enkrid had saved on the first repeated today, and now a squad leader.

"Back?"

"Yeah."

Bell looked at the group crowding in behind and nodded.

"Independent Combat Company returning!"

At his shout, the soldier on the watchtower lowered his bow, snapped to attention, placed his hand over the shortsword at his waist, and bowed. A military salute.

"Right."

After that, Enkrid saw three more outposts just like it.

Their spacing was regular.

The benefit? Control over nearby bandits and demon creatures.

Was that all? No.

Border Guard was a city that had taken raid after raid.

On each outpost roof, they had even installed beacon fires that could be lit at any time.

Smoke rose above the roofline. Unless it was raining, it worked fine for communication.

The presence of beacon fires also meant these men were effectively the foremost reconnaissance team.

Instead of roaming on foot, they shifted to fixed-duty posts, blocking bandits, magic beasts, and demon creatures from entering designated areas in the first place.

If things continued like this, even magic beasts and demon creatures would stop invading this side.

Once they recognized the area as dangerous, they would not charge in.

Why had the soldiers accepted this system?

The first reason was probably relatively high, stable supply.

Next, they likely knew large-scale extermination campaigns would run to minimize danger, so the duty would not be as risky as it looked.

Normally, even starting construction would have been a massive headache.

But Border Guard was earning gold like mad.

It was also perfect timing for construction.

The nearby demon creatures and bandits had already been thinned out.

After so many forces kept charging in to attack Border Guard, there were not many left who could keep doing it for a while.

Kraiss had used that.

High pay was only secondary.

Using the right timing was the most important part of this whole effort.

So there was an answer after all.

Enkrid remembered what Crang had asked earlier.

How to deal with bandit gangs and groups of demon creatures.

First came large-scale extermination, obviously.

After this incident, roughly half of the count's army had become the king's army.

They could fight demon creatures while training and tightening discipline.

Sweep bandits on the side too.

Then pardon the crime of rebellion through that service and earn praise as well.

For a king, that was like throwing one stone and cracking two skulls.

They kept returning while receiving greetings from each outpost.

At the last outpost, a beacon was lit.

Smoke rising high announced Enkrid's return.

"That Big Eyes bastard really built all kinds of stuff."

Even Rem sounded impressed.

He remembered how Kraiss had once asked about the tribe's communication methods.

Rem had told him the heated-stone method then, and now Kraiss had built beacon platforms like this.

Was that an idea anyone could have?

Maybe.

But ideas meant nothing unless someone carried them out.

Kraiss was the kind of capable man who could coordinate all of it and make it real.

"You're back?"

They were in front of Border Guard's main gate.

Kraiss waved, and beside him stood someone else.

"You're late, fiance."

There was the elf company commander who had rushed in like the wind, fought, and left the battlefield immediately.

"Late."

Frog Ruagarne was there too. Enkrid thought they said she had left with the queen, so why was Frog here?

Last, the battalion commander and castellan came out.

He stepped right up, dropped to one knee, and said, "Greetings to the General."

Enkrid blinked.

"What general?"

Rem asked too.

Ragna looked at Enkrid.

Audin also looked curious.

Only Jaxon stayed expressionless, sunk in his own thoughts.

"Hm, you did not hear?" the battalion commander asked politely, unlike his usual casual tone.

Enkrid nodded.

This was one of Crang's moves.

He gave him a medal, sure, but then sent him off without real reward? The hero who saved the nation? His only close friend?

Crang was not that kind of man.

Before Enkrid reached Border Guard, he had sent a royal messenger ahead.

"From Count Molsen's territory to Border Guard and Martai, including a total of five cities and their surrounding lands, these are hereby made direct royal territories, and I appoint a general to govern this region. His name is Enkrid."

Everyone stood there stunned, but Kraiss understood immediately.

Without granting a noble title, Crang had handed Enkrid control over all the land that produced krona.

If he had asked him to accept it, Enkrid would have been indifferent anyway, so Crang just threw it at him.

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