WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 437: Those Short on Brains

= = =

The request itself was simple.

Naurillia had a Soldier-Mercenary System, and the request was based on it.
[Go to the Demon Realm borderlands and assist the knight order.]

It even added that the request had come directly from Knight Oara.

Marcus had written the letter, but Enkrid could almost hear Crang's voice behind it.
"A knight. Don't you want to meet one?"

He did. And the payment listed for the request was substantial.
"What is this, blueprints? Oh ho, with measurements too? Then maybe we can finally install proper sewers in Border Guard like the capital has."

Thanks to Demon Creatures and Magic Beasts, people had grown used to life inside city walls. Many conveniences had been developed, but most of them existed only in the capital.

Now they were offering to pass some of that technology on.
A knight, technology, everything.

They had already given him Aker too. Was this really fine?

Enkrid rested his hand on the hilt at his sword belt.

He knew nothing about politics, and for a moment he wondered whether nearby nobles would object, but he dropped the thought.

The people handing over those techniques were nobles themselves.

Looks like Crang persuaded them well.

Where Enkrid persuaded with hands, feet, and blade, Crang persuaded with words and atmosphere.

The concern passed quickly. Things like that mattered, but right now they barely registered. Only one phrase stayed clear in his mind.

Knight Oara.

Knight.

His grip tightened on its own. The rope binding his right arm for training started splitting with dry snaps. A little more force and it would break.

Azpen's knights, the Mercenary King, Ragna, Sinar.

Enkrid had crossed swords with all of them and seen what a knight was.

Even now, he still took Ragna and Sinar's swords without rest.

And that was not the end of it.

He had swum through the Lake of Experience Ruagarne had shown him, and escaped stagnation.

Even after all that, he still felt lacking. The thirst in his throat remained.

Maybe this would quench it.

Knight Oara.

He wanted to meet that person out of pure curiosity. Refusing never crossed his mind.

Still, the whole unit could not go. There was no need.

At the bottom of the letter was one more line, saying Azpen's deterrent force was still needed.

There was no reason to send the entire Lunatic Company for something minor.

Kraiss folded the letter neatly and spoke first.
"Let's leave Audin behind. We need someone to handle overall training."

Training the Border Guard standing army was hard and brutal. They needed someone who could carry the whole process without a single complaint.

To be fair, anyone there, including Enkrid, could do it, but for now Audin held that role.

Anyone who had seen Audin's fist up close would desert before they rebelled.

Of course, Audin believed all of it came from divine compassion.

The soldiers, after hearing him, believed God's compassion lived in his fists.

"I'm fine staying, brother."
The knight order had requested support, but the letter said it was not that serious.

It also said they mainly needed help stopping troublesome surprise attacks by Demon Creatures because they were short on numbers.

"I still have a lot to pass on. I should go with you."
Ruagarne, who had been listening nearby, said. Enkrid nodded.

"I have a lot to do."
Esther said. Blue-eyed and long-haired, she was a beauty impossible to look away from, and today she was in human form.

When she brushed her hair back, several soldiers guarding the quarters by the training ground stared openly.

Enkrid shifted slightly to block their view.

If they kept staring, Esther would probably start saying she should rip their eyeballs out again.

"Busy."
Ragna said lazily.

Not something the most idle bastard in the unit should be saying.

Still, Enkrid could guess what was behind it.

The mission was not dangerous, so Ragna probably did not want to bother, and he clearly wanted to keep sharpening his own skill.

If he wanted to vent by force, he could circle the recent trouble in the Pen-Hanil Mountain Range or near the five wall cities Kraiss had mentioned. Monster activity had been increasing lately.

"Fine."
Enkrid nodded again. Though without Enkrid around, no one knew how diligently Ragna would actually move.

Ropord stayed. Pel stayed too.

Pel's complexion had darkened badly in just a few days.

He had lost confidence, so his spirit had weakened, but no one comforted him.

Was that not the standard way, getting through it alone?

To Enkrid and his group, that was obvious.

And if he got weeded out? Then they would just say the swordsman raised by the Shepherds of the Wilderness was not quite enough.

Enkrid did not worry either. Pel had to handle that himself.

Teresa stayed too, saying she would help Audin.

"I want to fight."
Dunbakel said, hiding what she really felt.

To be honest, there was not a single person here weaker than her. Teresa, that newly arrived Ropord, all of them.

Dunbakel herself had improved after being put through hell by Rem.

Maybe this is my limit.

She had been thinking that a lot lately. Whenever she thought about limits, she had nightmares. Sometimes she even transformed in her sleep.

Looking at her own form, one that could easily be called a curse, Dunbakel replayed the nightmare.

The day she was driven out of the village where she had been born and raised.

"You can't live here."

"Get out and die quietly."

"It would be wise to find a cliff and throw yourself off."

What had he done that was so wrong?

Back then, a fire called resentment had risen in her chest, and she had wanted to beat every beastfolk there to death, but she did not want a perfect excuse for dying to become her reason for living.

Dunbakel had felt the same then, now, and even when she lost to Enkrid.

She wanted to live.

If he had begged and refused to leave that day, maybe he could have stayed in the village. But he did not.

I want to run.

That was because a dangerous impulse rose from instinct, the urge to avoid danger.

Should I just settle somewhere, work as a guard, and live off wages?

She did not really want that life either. Dunbakel did not even know what she wanted.

So whenever she felt like running, she looked at Enkrid and steadied herself.

If you keep running and finally arrive somewhere, will it be paradise?

Those were the words of Kentaro, the respected storyteller, painter, and old sage now deceased.

There is no paradise where you arrive by running away.

So when Dunbakel said she wanted to fight, she was hiding that she wanted to run.

"Fine."
Of course, Enkrid paid about as much attention to Dunbakel's change of heart as a ghoul paid to courtesy.

Then Rem returned, black Demon Creature blood smeared across him, and said he wanted to come too.

Enkrid agreed again.

It was not a serious matter. It would be closer to a light trip.

Even if the Demon Realm borderlands were dangerous, they were not like the true southern Demon Realm or a labyrinth.

The Demon Realm bordering Naurillia was dangerous too, but less dangerous than the real Demon Realm. That was the common view.

"We leave in three days."
Enkrid said it while brushing off the rope that had been wrapped tightly around his right arm.

It had been absurdly tough, but he had broken it with muscle strength alone.

"That is the secret technique I created, Rope Escape Method."
Audin said as he watched.

"The one where you puff your muscles and tear it apart with brute force?"
Rem, quiet these days, praised the magnificent technique.

"You got beaten senseless and your spirit collapsed, so why are you alive again?"
Seeing that, Ragna tossed a line at Rem and said it was good to see him back to his old self.

It had been a while. Even Enkrid had not seen such a familiar scene lately.

Rem grinned and let killing intent spill from him.
"Heh heh, right. Time to stop carrying a head above my neck and stick an axe blade there instead. Make an axe blade into a head. Replace the head with an axe blade."

Rem sang his absurd tune.

Audin smiled and said, "You brothers really do love causing trouble."

Ragna let his sword hang in a loose posture.

Rem rested his axe on his shoulder and twitched it. It looked like a fight would break out at any second.

If left alone, they looked ready to fight with their lives on the line.

In that knife-edge moment, lightning struck between them.

Jjijijik.

Not real lightning, but an afterimage from a sword. It bent in a zigzag, and the white flash made a sound like a bird's cry.

At that slash through empty air, both of them shifted their center of gravity back in an instant.

Enkrid, who had brought his blade down, spoke.
"Mine is White Lightning."

What split between them was Enkrid's slash. He had mixed what he learned and mastered into Ragna's lightning sword.

Naturally, it was a technique infused with Will.

If Giant's Strike was about pouring in explosive force and blasting it out,

this was about placing points on that strike and distributing force moment by moment.

He had made it through blood, truly through blood coughed up from the throat. That was how it felt to Enkrid.

And the technique made that way showed exactly the effect he wanted.

Before, he had to shove himself between them to stop it. Now one slash was enough.

It was a slash that branded one fact into everyone present, that he had made enormous progress.

"Borrowing mine again?"
Ragna asked, interested.

"No, I changed it into my own original form."
It looked similar on the surface, but the components were different.

Ragna's pitch-black lightning began from a fast, heavy sword.

Then what was the White Lightning just now?

Ragna read the sword's nature at a glance.

It focuses on speed and distributes force.

A swift, light-like blade carved zigzags to leave afterimages, and along those afterimages, it made it impossible for the opponent to predict the impact point.

Then it bent and bent those lines again with brute strength and brought everything crashing down.

Ragna's genius grasped the core in one look.

It was not a new Will.

It was a variation of Swift, mixed with Giant's Strike.

"Yes, that's right."
Ragna accepted it, Enkrid nodded, then tapped Rem on the shoulder.

"We leave in three days."

Rem wiped his nose once and nodded.
"Got it."

He might have added a line, but Rem did not wag his tongue further.

Three days later, they set out.

The Demon Realm borderlands were in the northwest of Naurillia.

On the way they reached the main road leading west, and there Rem turned his head west for a moment.

Something like a nostalgic scent seemed to tickle his nose.

"Why?" Enkrid asked.

"Just looking."

"That way is west."
Enkrid said it for no reason.

"You think I'm some idiot who can't tell directions?"
Rem flared up. Fair enough. It clearly sounded like a comparison to Ragna.

"No, just saying."
Enkrid answered and stepped forward lightly.

They saw bandit groups several times on the way, but only one group boldly attacked.

Enkrid found that genuinely strange.

Frog was with them, and every one of them was armed.

If someone still charged after seeing that, you had to question those bandits' intelligence.

Or they had something they trusted.

Enkrid in full gear, Rem with his vicious expression, Frog Ruagarne, and Dunbakel the beastfolk.

They had ridden horses until near this point, then moved on foot. Because of the baggage, they sold every horse in the last village except one packhorse.

The path was a little off the official road, with a mound to the left and brush and a few trees to the right.

Good land for walking or running, but not for riding horses.

"Near the Demon Realm, Demon Creatures swarm. Horses are basically feed."
They had heard that beforehand on the way.

The palace had offered to dispatch a Ranger unit as guides, but they refused.

It was unnecessary. This was not Ragna, and finding the route was not difficult.

Anyway, with about five days of walking left to the Demon Realm borderlands, a bandit group blocked Enkrid's way.

The glinting killing intent in their eyes would have looked threatening enough to a normal caravan or group.

"Are they fearless?"
Dunbakel muttered to herself. One hand rested on her curved blade, her feet set so she could spring at any moment.

Or run at any moment.

Enkrid let Dunbakel's words pass and studied the bandits.

The one in the center had rough stubble, and the rest looked similar.

They looked like Rem's relatives.

From the way they gripped spears and swords, this was not their first time.

A few had spread out and formed an encirclement with subtle spacing.

Nothing special, but enough positioning to crush ordinary targets before they could do anything.

A few archers were mixed in too.

So they had some craft.

Living as a bandit was not something you could do just because you could swing a sword.

You had to survive Demon Creature threats and secure safe ground too.

As they came closer to the Demon Realm borderlands, he had already seen rough men inside larger villages, so this kind of thing was not impossible.

People who attacked even after seeing armament and race, they existed.

One of the bandits, maybe hearing Dunbakel, opened his mouth. He had sharp ears.
"We're risking our lives too. You think robbing caravans out here is easy?"

Enkrid wondered how many more people like this existed in the country.

Too many to count, probably.

Wiping them all out was impossible. Still, he had no intention of quietly letting the ones attacking him now walk away.

= = =

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