WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 543: A Night Stroll and an Encounter

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Enkrid knew he had a habit of taking bold risks. The masked man standing before him was no different.

"Well? What do you think?"

The man wore a mask as he asked. His name was Kediathart Randiers Nauril.

He was the king of the nation Enkrid served.

"Do you really need a black carriage, sneaking around at night, and a mask on top of all that?"

"It feels different. The atmosphere, you know."

Crang pulled the mask down as he said it.

Getting here had involved a number of steps, but the biggest one was simply Crang's own will.

In terms of how it all unfolded: the outcome and course of the war had been reported to Nauril, and the first thing the king was told was that there had been no casualties.

"How does that make any sense?"

Some people, especially those who quietly resented Enkrid, scoffed. Even before rumors about the Iron Wall who stopped an army single-handedly began to spread, it was simply incomprehensible.

"Why not just say four soldiers from Border Guard became knights, formed a new order, and launched the attack? At least that would make sense."

One of them had accidentally hit on the truth without realizing it, but either way, it was all idle talk among themselves.

The palace sent an envoy party soon after-a modest group of around ten, and among them was Andrew Gardner.

"I was originally supposed to join as a follow-up unit if a full-scale battle broke out. So why is it already over?"

His eyes held a complicated expression, joy and confusion and disbelief all tangled together.

During the journey he had heard Enkrid's name spreading through the region alongside the epithet "Iron Wall."

Even before this, Enkrid's reputation at Border Guard had been considerable. Ladies who prided themselves on their looks had all set their sights on him, most merchant companies had wanted a connection to him, and some wandering swordsmen had ended up under his command.

But the rumors this time were on a different scale entirely.

If Enkrid announced "Starting tomorrow, I'm a king," people would flood to his side.

Right now he could declare himself a duke, claim kingship, or do just about anything, and it would stick.

The most striking part of all these rumors was this:

He stopped an army alone?

Not by killing them all, but just by staring them down, and they stopped?

Some said a wall appeared at his back to block them. Others said he drew a line on the ground with his sword and light poured out through the crack, forming a wall of brilliance that halted the enemy forces.

Rumors always get twisted in the retelling, so eventually people were saying a host of flaming angels descended and barred the Azpen army's path.

The angel waved a hand, and a man flew straight up into the sky?

Obviously nonsense. But there was truth buried in it.

The fact that he had stopped an army alone.

"Is it true?"

Andrew had wanted to drop everything and sprint over on his own, but first he had to sort out the unit that had come with him. An army was an expensive thing to keep fed and housed, and he couldn't dump that cost on Border Guard. He couldn't ride into a city that had already burned through Krona preparing for war and ask for room and board.

If they had come as reinforcements, resupply would have been natural. But the fighting was already over.

And paying for his troops to stay in the city was more than Andrew's purse could handle.

So he had sorted out the unit and sent them back. While he was doing that, an official request came from the palace to join the envoy party. Since he was already nearby and had a prior connection to Enkrid, the invitation was obvious enough. Andrew would have gone anyway; this just made it official.

"Yes."

When asked whether it was true, Enkrid gave a simple nod. Andrew's pupils went completely wild.

"How?"

"You build a forest made of essence," said Sinar, who had come along, but it was naturally incomprehensible to him.

"In one month, the king would be pleased if you departed from Border Guard and entered the capital, to be honored for your service."

One of the envoys said this with careful eyes and careful bearing, and Enkrid nodded. That should have been the end of the envoy party's duty. But one of them came looking for Enkrid in the middle of the night. Andrew was beside him, naturally.

And Enkrid and some of his squad had already figured out who one of the envoys really was during the day.

"Are you out of your mind?"

Enkrid had no choice but to ask the visitor with complete sincerity.

Various words went back and forth, but the heart of it was this:

"I'm not out of my mind. Nobody will know. And the famous Iron Wall Swordsman, a knight, is right beside me, so what's the danger? Azpen is probably scrambling to open every diplomatic door and clean up the mess right now. I'd bet five silver coins they're swamped trying to keep things under control internally too."

"That's a pretty small bet for a king."

"The treasury is tight. Partly I came in person to ask for some Krona."

Beside them, Andrew's eyes rolled around in disbelief. Even by his own assessment, this was insane.

What king faked an illness and traveled all the way to a former battlefield?

And that wasn't even the end of it.

Once Enkrid heard the plan that followed, it might end up being more reckless than even the Iron Wall episode.

Of course, no one was supposed to know that a king had come all this way.

This isn't normal.

In this situation, what could a normal person do? Stop thinking.

Because of his prior connection to Enkrid, Andrew had become one of the five who served as the king's guard and shared the secret.

The only people who knew Crang was here were the Duke of Okto, who had tried to stop him until he collapsed from dizziness, the king's personal guard commander, Marquis Bysar, and Marcus Bysar.

Ordinarily the guard commander would have been in this position.

"If you disappear too, it's the same as announcing I'm not in the palace. Instead, I need you to watch over things without anyone knowing."

Crang had persuaded him, which was why Andrew was here in the guard commander's place. So he put aside his thoughts and focused on doing what he was told.

During the day there had been a long-overdue spar with Enkrid, and hearing that he had become a knight brought genuine surprise and joy. Now it was time to fulfill the duty of a noble and one of the king's closest men.

Crang had come for two reasons.

First, to negotiate an end to the war with Azpen.

Second, to personally ask them to raise taxes.

"I can't very well ask Border Guard publicly for Krona, not after everything they gave."

So instead, he was asking them to raise their own taxes and send the funds along.

"Still, Your Majesty coming in person seems unnecessary."

Krais was there too, naturally, handling the public-facing side of things.

It was Krais, standing behind Enkrid, who said it.

"If I come in person, maybe you'll be so moved by the gesture that you'll weep."

"My emotions dried up a long time ago."

"You're the sand type, then?"

There was a trend sweeping the continent lately, a way of categorizing people's personalities. One type was full of feeling, soft like soil, described as rich moist earth. The opposite was someone who handled everything through logic alone, dry in emotion, and so called sand.

"Yes. High-purity sand, that's me."

Krais didn't back down, but in terms of results, he agreed to send the taxes.

If Enkrid wasn't going to claim kingship here or suddenly swallow Azpen and put it under his own rule, then staying on good terms with Nauril mattered.

The civil war had strained trade routes throughout Nauril and drained the treasury with a string of other problems, so helping out now was the right call.

He just hadn't wanted to do it for free.

"You know about the salon, Your Majesty?"

Krais blended personal gain into public business. He explained the salon's purpose and usefulness, then asked the king to stop by sometime once he got things started.

"Any time."

Crang smiled pleasantly. If putting himself out a little could fill the national treasury, there was nothing he wouldn't do.

He could probably strip down and dance if it came to that.

"So you're going to Azpen? Planning another full-scale war?"

Rem the Barbarian had joined the group with his usual sharp instincts and cut in bluntly. Crang answered with a face showing not even an ant's whisker of worry.

"No."

"Then what?"

Enkrid asked.

"Told them to come out."

"Who?"

"The king of Azpen."

"And he'll actually come out just because you said so?"

"What if he doesn't?"

Crang answered the question with a question, smiling.

It didn't look like a deeply calculated move, but in practice, even if the king of Azpen refused Crang's request, that would create its own problems.

Above all else, one could ask what the point of any of this was. Crang knew the process might look questionable.

But he cared about results more than process. He had weighed the fallout from what had already happened before making his move.

Crushing Azpen publicly? Marching in with an army, burning cities, plundering?

He could, but he wouldn't.

To do it, Border Guard would have to take the lead, and the risk of that setting the whole continent on fire was too high.

And even setting that aside, wiping out a nation wasn't easy.

Take hostages, make them a vassal state?

Azpen's people had too much pride. They wouldn't break easily.

Rebellions would flare up all over the place.

Some nobles would side with Nauril, but others wouldn't.

Stable governance would be out of the question.

The problem was that Naurillia simply didn't have the capacity for any of this right now.

Forcing submission through raw power was within reach.

Under ordinary circumstances it wouldn't have been, but the existence of Enkrid and the Madman Squad had made it possible.

Still, completely subduing Azpen was an entirely different matter.

If Nauril were prepared for it, swallowing a neighboring country would be worth attempting. But in Crang's eyes it wasn't a good idea, and this was a time to seek stability.

The best outcome would be if the king of Azpen handled it himself.

Moved in exactly the direction Crang wanted. But for that, they had to meet at least once.

Whether it ended in threats or negotiation.

So by moving himself, he intended to work something out with Azpen quietly, behind the scenes.

In politics, was there anything better than playing ignorant in public while pulling strings in the dark? There wasn't.

And so he had sent an envoy to Azpen proposing a secret meeting.

What if Azpen set a trap? Then it would be a disaster. Azpen's disaster, not Crang's.

If Crang changed his mind even slightly, Azpen could be erased from the map entirely.

There was real risk in going in person, obviously, but if it could be done, this was the better path. That was Crang's judgment.

If things went wrong, he'd just kill the king and slip away.

He wouldn't take lives that served no purpose. But a king bore responsibility simply by virtue of the seat. That crown carried obligation. That throne carried accountability.

A common saying about kings.

So the king of Azpen, having placed himself on that throne, would have no right to complain if he died for it.

The responsibility for the defeat, the deaths of knights, all of it, traced back to the king at the top.

That was Crang's personal view, but then, don't people generally live by what they believe?

Crang was no different.

One way or another, if the king of Azpen died, Azpen would plunge into civil war. Even if the two great houses of Hurier and Ekins joined forces to prop up a puppet king, it would still mean chaos.

If there was actually room to talk, none of that would happen.

The meeting was secret, but it was conducted under his own name, and the weight of that oath couldn't simply be ignored.

Anyway, this was what Crang was aiming for.

A bold move. Audacity. A face-to-face with the king of Azpen.

What he stood to gain from it was no small return.

Ideally, if they could actually reach an understanding, all the better.

If Azpen fell into civil war and the thicker-skulled among them decided to take a swing at Nauril out of desperation, that meant war, and casualties on their side would be unavoidable.

Obvious enough, but if it came to that, they would fight. They would see blood. Just not today, and certainly not because of some last desperate thrashing from a nation already falling apart.

Crang didn't pour out every calculation he had made.

Enkrid probably wasn't very interested anyway.

So he made his intention plain, short and direct.

"I want to see the face of the bastard who keeps picking fights."

It was a blunt reason for a war's-end negotiation, but Enkrid agreed.

He knew well enough that Crang didn't move without thinking.

And so three wildcats were assembled.

Sinar, Jaxon, and Enkrid.

Jaxon and Sinar to deflect any assassination attempts or treachery.

And Enkrid, the hero of the battle.

This had partly been the Azpen king's own request.

"If the one who stopped the army at the end of the battle comes along, I will step out."

Roughly, that was the message that had come.

Andrew Gardner joined as the coachman.

There was no need for Rem or anyone else to tag along.

Azpen's side would also send only five, including the king.

The key to this operation was simple.

Go in secret. Meet in secret.

"All right, then."

After riding the carriage for a while, the group passed west of Cross Guard and pushed a little further on.

They rolled past the remnants of where an army had camped, killed a few Demon Creatures and Magic Beasts in the dark of night, and after a long ride spotted a light far ahead. The meeting place.

Even Enkrid found himself curious about what kind of person the king of Azpen was.

Just how much did someone have to love war to come picking fights this relentlessly?

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