WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 420: Not an End, but a Beginning

= = =

"Follow your heart?"

If someone asked whether killing people was enjoyable, Jaxon did not really have an answer.

No matter how many times he turned it over in his head, he could not tell whether it was fun or not.

Some men in the guild went mad if they did not see blood once a week, but Jaxon was never like that. Still, honing his skills was fun. That much was certain.

"He did not mean for you to stab your friend in the back. He probably meant you should survive somehow, you little bastard."

The Master's tone was always light, but he was right. That was exactly what his father's words had meant.

Jaxon had simply interpreted them his own way. He had needed to back then. He had been searching for something that could feed the fire of revenge.

"Maybe he meant you should not just keep looking ahead, but also not cling to the past too much."

The Master was right again.

His mother had not wanted him to become someone shackled to his family.

Jaxon had twisted even that memory and used it as firewood.

He knew that himself.

"What I teach is not the art of murder."

"Then what is it?"

"Figure it out yourself! Do I have to spoon-feed you every little thing?"

Coming from a man who taught him how to poison food and how to detect it, it was a ridiculous thing to say.

When Jaxon first met him, the Master had asked:

"Will you follow me? Then I will teach you how to live."

Not how to survive, but how to live.

Not the art of murder, just one way of living.

His hidden killing intent stayed the same. His presence did not fade either. Even so, Jaxon could not stop his mouth from opening on its own.

"Can I stay here?"

The words jumped straight out of his heart, without passing through his head.

"If you beat me, I will allow it."

As always, Enkrid answered in his usual way. It was the kind of thing he said from a ready stance.

"If this is one way to live."

That could not become his reason to live.

It was a sudden realization. The spark only came after he said it out loud.

Until now, Jaxon had never found anything his heart wanted besides revenge.

But one thing was clear now.

Standing alongside the man in front of him was more enjoyable than killing him.

Learning and rising through skill was enjoyable.

Watching over his lover was enjoyable.

Then why not do all of it? He asked himself and got his answer. He did not even need to think twice.

"Then I can stay."

Jaxon said it.

Sunlight warmed his back. Summer sunlight added heat to his body. A faint smile touched his face in the shade.

That one line, follow your heart, gave him a cool sense of release and snapped the chains inside him.

Jaxon had techniques he would never use if someone was watching, or against someone he could not kill.

Why did it have to be like that?

Who told him to do that? The Master never had. It was only an unwritten rule passed down in Georg's Dagger.

A useless rule he had followed out of habit.

Enkrid did not trust that smile.

Is this another trick he has been hiding?

His skill had grown lately, and he had gained Aker, so he had gotten even rowdier.

He kept picking fights with his own company men, pushing for sparring through sheer force of will.

He did the same to Jaxon.

Even when he saw him sunk deep in thought, he kept needling him.

Naturally, none of them ignored Enkrid's forceful challenges.

It was the same now.

Half of his line about beating him was a joke, and half was a provocation.

Jaxon bit that bait without hesitation.

To be honest, he barely cared about staying. He had been itching to spar because no one would fight him lately.

His presence spilled outward. Jaxon's body looked bigger somehow, but Enkrid did not care.

If I do not believe in myself, I can never win.

Do not rate the opponent too highly. It was a hard rule to keep before any fight.

At the same time, never let your guard down, and still give your all.

Easy to say, impossible unless you had lived it and hammered it into your bones.

His hand went to the grip. He set his stance and took in Jaxon's whole body. He opened his senses and checked everything.

Always at full effort.

Enkrid did what he always did, and he almost ended up repeating this day.

* * *

Was it the burden on his heart?

Or the chain that had bound him all this time?

Jaxon turned away from all of it, and his steps felt light.

Thinking of the Enkrid he had just faced made him feel even lighter.

He has grown a lot.

The art knights used was called Will.

Why should an assassin not use it too?

"If I leave you alone, you will become the deadliest killer on the continent."

The Master had not said that for no reason.

Jaxon had talent. Even the previous Master knew it.

He had just finished stabbing several spots on Enkrid's body with techniques he had not even used against Count Molsen.

His steps turned toward the barracks gate.

Two soldiers on guard duty saluted him.

They seemed to know who he was.

He passed them without a word and walked along the tree-lined wall outside. A waiting voice called out.

"Are you serious?"

That voice was not from a lover, but from a guild member and acting Master.

Jaxon knew she had watched his spar with Enkrid.

"You showed things that should never be shown unless the target is someone you will kill."

He heard her voice, but could not see her. Jaxon also picked up the presence of five people hidden in the trees.

Six in total, and three of them were assassins older than him.

Each was a master of poison, thrown daggers, or hiding presence, and each had taught him techniques.

He had not learned only the Master's methods.

Still, he had surpassed all of them long ago. They could not stop him on their own.

If they attacked, it would be a dog's death. So they would not attack.

His lover, and the Master's daughter, was not that stupid.

Jaxon was better than anyone in skill and faster at reading a situation. He had not inherited the Master's seat for nothing.

"...Why did you do it?"

It was the question of the lover who used to be his older sister by two years when they were children.

"Just because."

Somehow his answer sounded like Enkrid's.

"I followed my heart."

He had not meant to, but the answer came out similar again.

"Was the Master's seat that light to you?"

Was she disappointed? Maybe. Even so, Jaxon did not regret his choice. He had no reason to regret it. Life was not a forced choice between two paths.

"When did I ever say I was giving up the Master's seat?"

"...What?"

Only Yenatrice, the Master's daughter and his lover, spoke. She asked in disbelief, and Jaxon answered calmly.

"I will stay here. That does not mean I will abandon Georg's Dagger."

"You think that makes sense?"

The poison master finally snapped. His voice came from left and right at once. A crude trick.

"What exactly is impossible about it?"

Jaxon looked straight at the spot where he was hiding and spoke. He would treat him as an elder, but if he came at him, he would die. His eyes said as much.

"Do not worry. No one dies here today. I will persuade each of you."

Arrogant words. Even if he was the Master of Georg's Dagger, how could he turn the whole guild into his enemy and survive?

Most people would think that.

Jaxon stayed calm. He moved like a man simply doing what had to be done. That made him look even crazier.

Yenatrice stepped out from the wall's shadow where she had been hiding.

Jaxon already knew she was there, so he was not surprised.

"You really do whatever you want."

"Do I?"

Yenatrice looked at Jaxon for a moment.

Why did I like this man again?

Right. Because he did things like this without hesitation.

"So you are saying we had to kill the previous Master?"

Georg's Dagger was the greatest assassin guild on the continent. Its Master passed techniques to the successor, then died by that successor's hand.

Jaxon had ignored that rule.

"You are saying you will not follow the rule?"

"That is exactly what I am saying."

Back then, three assassins in the succession race died, and five elders died. Count everyone who followed them, and more than thirty people died in total.

All of it was Jaxon's work. He did it alone.

"You crazy bastard. You wiped out thirty percent of the guild's strength just to keep me alive?"

Yenatrice's father, his teacher and Master, had scolded him like that, then closed his eyes in peace.

The poison that had built up in his body from a lifetime of overwork had flared up, but he still died smiling.

"There are people who still will not take your side."

Jaxon looked straight into his lover's eyes. He saw orange eyes looking back. He reached out, and she took his hand.

Like her teacher, Yenatrice was quick to understand things. Especially when it involved Jaxon or herself.

She had already assumed he might not return, moved first, and gathered people who would stand with her.

This was only the process of confirming it.

Even the elders who came with her were all on Jaxon's side.

"Say it. You said you would persuade us one by one."

Of course, that persuasion was Enkrid's style.

Smash their heads until they listened.

Kick their heads until they listened.

He could do it exactly the way Enkrid had "persuaded" the commissioner in the capital.

And if they still did not listen?

"Then you keep going until they do."

That was what Enkrid would say. Jaxon knew he had that same streak in him.

A man who had never once done anything just because he wanted to, except when he saved his father.

Even that, she sometimes wondered if it had really been his own will. Had he done it because of her?

That was how Yenatrice saw Jaxon.

That was why, deep down, she welcomed this decision.

As you live, sometimes you act on your own will.

Right before dying, the guild Master asked Jaxon to take care of his daughter. And to his daughter, he asked her to take care of the man he cherished like a son.

"If that bastard ever leaves the guild, hold him together."

Yenatrice remembered her father's words.

Jaxon returned to the barracks.

On the way in, he saw Audin praying.

"I bless you."

Audin had his hands together and eyes closed, but at those words he raised his head.

What did he just hear?

He was shocked enough to stop praying for a moment.

Ragna had been dozing in a rocking chair, and he slowly opened his eyes.

As he passed, Jaxon said:

"Sleep more."

Dunbakel narrowed her eyes.

Is he crazy?

The meaning in those eyes was obvious, but Jaxon said in a flat tone:

"Go wash."

It came from the man who usually gave no response but indifference.

Dunbakel moved to wash right away. It sounded like a final warning. If she ignored it, would that bastard slit her throat with a dagger in her sleep?

Teresa watched that and began to pray.

"Lord, drive away evil spirits."

At some point she had been influenced enough to pray not to the cult, but to the God of War.

Her husky voice rang out softly.

As he passed, Jaxon saw Rem sharpening the edge of a palm-sized hand axe with a whetstone.

Rem saw Jaxon too.

Their eyes met.

"Not dead yet?"

"Yeah. Looks like I will die after you."

Jaxon asked and Rem answered, almost at the same time.

They were like a pair of swans. Their timing and words could not have matched better.

"Doppelganger?"

Kraiss, watching from one side, muttered. A doppelganger was a demon creature that copied someone's appearance.

Jaxon was no longer his old self.

Even after hearing the name of a rare demon creature usually seen only near the Cursed Ground, Jaxon did not blame him and headed to his room.

* * *

Enkrid lay flat with his limbs spread.

I made the wrong call a few times.

He should have thrust instead of swung, and since he was holding Aker, he should have used that famed blade's unique traits as well.

I was still immature.

Every fight left things to study and things to learn, but when one of the lunatic company members showed something new, there was always even more to take away.

He was too embarrassed to say it out loud, but those people were one reason he had not stayed with a knight order.

Maybe it would be different if I saw real knights myself.

Until then, he was sure training here was better than anything a knight order could teach him.

The sun felt warm. He could have dozed off like this. It was not laziness, but he felt he finally understood why Ragna sat down and nodded off whenever he found sunlight.

This weather was something he could enjoy only now, and only briefly.

In a few weeks, no, even a few days, this warm sunlight would turn scorching hot.

The season of heat and fire was coming. Summer.

Winning and losing did not matter.

He had no time to hesitate over things like that.

Now that the civil war was over, would the kingdom be filled with peace?

Would there be even fewer chances to swing a sword than before?

No chance. The new king thought the opposite of the former ruler.

The previous queen had dreamed of a stable country, but Crang did not.

Before they parted, Crang had shared part of his ambition with Enkrid.

"The central continent is split into three nations. That is why we are weaker than the west, east, or south. Especially since we keep fighting periodic wars with Azpen."

"So you are thinking of a peace treaty?"

The more they could restrain Azpen, the more strength Naurillia could stockpile. That was obvious.

Just the amount of supplies burned in war was immense.

And what about all the soldiers dying?

Crang answered with a soft smile.

His tone sounded like he was casually picking a flower from a nearby flowerbed.

"No. I will subjugate Azpen."

In terms of dreams and ambition, Crang was no less than Enkrid.

He spoke with that unique rhetoric that pulled everyone around him in. Though he was speaking to only one listener, Enkrid, he poured his whole self into those words.

As Enkrid risked his life on the sword, Crang burned his soul to declare his will.

"I will become the sole hegemon of the central continent."

At the time, Crang had said becoming hegemon of the central continent was only one part of his dream.

Just as Enkrid saw becoming a knight not as the end of his dream but the beginning, Crang was the same.

= = =

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried