WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 549: For a Knight Is a Calamity

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Enri set out with a loaded cart, carrying obsidian and amulets, the western specialties, along with a handful of other goods he thought might sell.

He had expected it to be hard from the start. It was. Hard enough to make him wonder if he had miscalculated.

He never once thought about quitting, but the dry, anxious tightness in his throat never left him either.

Still, he had to keep moving. He had decided to, and he knew better than anyone that this was his chance.

"Captain."

He gripped the bow Enkrid had given him and told himself he could not afford to be the kind of fool who let an opportunity slip.

He needed wagons for the goods and something to ride. Velopters were useless east of the west, so he needed horses.

"Not enough Krona."

His purse was thin, so instead of horses he found donkeys and a string of cargo carts. Ten carts in all. The load was decent enough, but the donkeys and the people marching alongside them made for a shabby procession.

"Don't worry about it."

"We're coming with you."

The good news was that the western Twins agreed to ride along as escorts. In terms of fighting strength, that was more than adequate. He also borrowed a few spare hands from the Oasis Village.

"Pay's good when we arrive, right?"

"You're covering food and a bed on the road?"

Everyone asked more or less the same questions.

"To be precise, if this trading venture succeeds, I intend to see that everyone who stuck with it has enough to live on wherever they settle. I can't guarantee it succeeds, though."

The place drew a lot of people running from something, but some had come under false accusations with nowhere else to go. One of them was a man who had brought his wife and children. He did not look like much of a fighter, but he looked honest.

Enri only picked people like that. Getting bounced around by women and scraped along the bottom had at least given him an eye for people.

And if that eye turned out to be wrong?

"It'll be fine."

If a few of them tried to turn their blades around halfway through, the western Twins would handle it.

The people who joined Enri's caravan were taking a gamble too. There was no pay up front. They would only see anything after the venture was done and the profit was in.

That naturally drew the steadfast rather than the quick-witted, people with too many responsibilities to cut and run.

The work was brutal, but it looked cleaner than life at the Oasis Village. Chasing down jeweled beasts felt like a stranger way to live than this.

That was how the caravan started. Demon Creatures and Magic Beasts were trouble, and even rain was misery. They had no Krona to spare for inns, having spent everything on donkeys and carts, so they slept outside every night on the road.

Enri drew on every ounce of the pathfinding instinct he had built as a hunter, picking routes that were at least tolerable and choosing the best ground for camp each night. When force was needed, the Twins stepped forward.

Bandits still surfaced on these roads from time to time. Surviving Demon Creature raids out here meant you had real fighting strength, so the bandits that appeared were numerous and some were capable, but none of them were a match for the Twins.

Along the way, a child who had come with his father showed off a surprising arm for slinging stones.

Somehow they made it without losing a single person, and by the time Nauril came into view, Enri was wrung dry.

"We should move some of the goods here before going on."

He brought the caravan into the capital, and the first merchant he approached tried to play games with him.

"Western goods? How do I know these actually came from the west and aren't fakes? Amulets? How do you guarantee the effect?"

Enri recognized it immediately. The man was trying to plant doubt to drive the price down.

The Twins were ready to step in the moment the merchant opened his mouth, but that would bring the capital's city guard down on them at once. They were foreigners from the west with a shabby caravan to show for themselves. Enri knew which side would lose that argument.

It was not the first time he had seen this kind of thing.

"Hold it. Hold it."

He pulled the Twins back, swallowed his own anger, and decided to give up on moving any goods in the capital and just leave. The toad-faced, fat-bellied creatures kept picking fights with him, and getting a fair price out of them was impossible.

Once they reached Border Guard, Enkrid would vouch for him and none of this would be a problem.

He understood all of that perfectly well. He had not tried to sell in Nauril out of ignorance. The road was simply that brutal, and arriving with not a coin to his name in a city this size did not sit right.

Sleep in the slums at night and he would have a hundred pickpockets for company.

Kill them all? The Thieves' Guild was the sort that started trouble and then came looking for blood the moment someone hit back. Inside a city, you could not go around spilling that kind of blood.

"Ha."

He let out a couple of sighs and was about to leave when one last pig-toad, or toad-pig, pushed things too far.

Enri's hand kept drifting toward the bow Enkrid had given him.

"Out here I'd put an arrow right through your skull."

He had just made up his mind when Enkrid appeared out of nowhere, smiling pleasantly and calling the toad-merchant "uncle."

The man being called uncle only tilted his head, looking bewildered.

* * *

Not everyone in the world lived an upright life.

There were people like this too. Enkrid did not think of them as necessarily evil.

But this was a slightly different matter.

The whole situation was plain to see at a glance.

Enkrid dropped off his horse in one easy motion. His feet hit the ground with a dry thud, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

The paving stones below him looked freshly laid, as though the road had been redone not long ago.

On that road sat the carts and donkeys, and Enri's face, cheeks sunken from the hard journey. The contrast with the merchant Malton's grease-slicked expression across from him was stark.

"Why are you pretending not to know me, uncle?"

Enkrid said it as he walked over. The guard captain fell in beside him and asked, "You have an uncle here, sir?"

"Picked one up recently."

"...Pardon?"

Rem let out a short breath of a laugh. He had caught the particular flavor of Enkrid's pranks.

"Why won't you recognize me."

Enkrid helpfully raised his wrist. The hide the Giant had tanned was now a bracer wrapped around it.

"Huh, wait, you? That guy?"

Malton stared and pointed.

"'That guy'?"

The guard captain reacted to those words. His eyes moved to the toad-faced merchant. Malton's bulging eyes rolled around nervously.

What is going on? Why does the guard captain look like he's bowing to this man? And why is he standing there like he owns the street? I thought he was just some pushy swordsman.

All sorts of thoughts ran through his head.

"Uncle."

Enkrid said it again, and Malton remembered the words he had blurted out before.

"You're friends with the head of Rockfreed Trading Company? Ha, then I'm General Enkrid's uncle."

Friend, uncle, head of Rockfreed, Enkrid.

The words clicked together. A face surfaced in his memory and a conclusion formed. A cautious guess at why this man was calling him uncle began to take shape.

He had asked, half hoping it could not possibly be true. And yet, almost in the same breath, something close to certainty settled in. The situation fit together too neatly.

"The Sword of the Iron Wall?"

The widely spread nickname came out of Malton's mouth. It was the question of a man praying with everything he had to hear the words liar or fraud in reply.

"You know your nephew's nickname well."

Enkrid said it with a smile.

At that, something inside Malton collapsed.

Why is this real?

Why are you actually the Sword of the Iron Wall?

"Huh?"

His mind went blank. That part had been real? And this was Enkrid himself?

Malton's survival instinct swung his head around. Behind him stood the noble who had been backing him, more precisely, the noble who had been eyeing the goods coming in from the west.

He was one of those nobles who had already started building a faction not long after the civil war broke out. Not quite a full faction, but he was certainly working on it.

Building influence cost money, which was why rare goods had caught his eye.

Naturally, Enkrid did not know the noble's name. Even if he had heard it, he would have forgotten. He simply followed Malton's gaze and looked at the man.

"I believe there may be a misunderstanding here."

The noble thought a bit of smooth mediation would do the trick. Somewhere beneath that thought was the conviction that general or whatever, this was the capital, the law still applied, and his rank could not simply be ignored.

Even so, cold sweat ran freely down his back.

What if I end up getting stabbed? The anxiety made his backside shift subtly rearward. His mouth was open and talking, but his posture had an odd quality, legs angled like a man ready to bolt at any moment.

"What misunderstanding?"

Enkrid said it flatly, and the noble's eyebrow twitched.

"That merchant was simply attempting a fair transaction."

The funny thing was that Enkrid had not said a word yet, and the noble was already making excuses.

The situation was almost amusing.

In the brief moment while Enkrid was exchanging words, Rem had already gotten the full story from the Twins behind him.

"Hey. You said amulets made by western people are fakes? That Sorcery is a sham?"

Malton had said those things. But it had all been in service of the noble standing behind him.

He looked at the viscount.

Save me.

His eyes sent the message clearly, and Rem was not the type to let things slide in situations like this.

Thud. He took the axe in hand and walked over.

"Apologize or die. 'My apologies.' Four words, and nothing terrible happens."

Rem said it.

A matter of constitution, maybe, or just who he was. Or perhaps it went back to the first time he set foot on this continent, when he saw a noble who spent his days harassing women and tormenting the people under his rule.

Rem hated this type.

The edge in the way Rem carried that axe was unmistakable, and three guards behind the noble frowned and moved to step forward.

The guard captain's voice cut through.

"Know when to step in and when to stay back. Do you not know who you're looking at? Black hair, blue eyes. Gray-haired axe. A frame like a bear. Really? You don't know?"

Word of the men who had held Border Guard had spread alongside word of Enkrid himself.

"Noble Slayer."

The lunatic who had lost both parents to a noble as a child and had supposedly split open noble skulls with an axe ever since he arrived on the continent.

Not actually true. Just the rumor.

"The bear Beastfolk who tears people in half as a hobby."

One of the guards muttered it.

"...Is that supposed to be me?"

Audin could not even bring himself to laugh as he asked.

He was not Beastfolk, and he had no such hobby.

"Ah."

All three guards went quiet.

For Rem, pulling back one step out of respect for Enkrid was already a concession. That was why he had settled for demanding an apology.

If it had been up to his instincts, he would have beaten the man first and talked after.

"...I apologize. I was wrong."

The viscount wilted under the pressure. There had been no need to invoke Will at all. The guards had not moved, and the name Noble Slayer had come through loud and clear. He needed to use the bathroom.

He turned and fled, leaving the merchant behind with a face on the verge of tears.

Enkrid turned to his uncle.

"Lend me some money."

"Pardon?"

"You're not going to?"

Enkrid asked again, and behind him the guard captain was shooting daggers with his eyes. Piecing together what had happened, some merchant had apparently done something to upset things, and he was the one who had let that merchant through the gate.

The merchant had pulled something against the man he looked up to.

I will kill you. I will absolutely kill you. You are going to die.

Even without any command over Will, the force of that intent was solid enough that killing intent seemed to take on physical shape.

The guard captain was looking at Malton like he could end a life with his eyes alone.

"Of course, yes! Here you go!"

Malton yanked open his purse.

"Not much."

Enkrid glanced at it and said so. There were over twenty silver coins and even a gold coin, but if Enkrid said it was not much, it was not much.

Malton immediately sent a servant running to the bank.

Every major city had one large bank. Citizens from trading cities typically staffed them on assignment. The one here had shut down during the previous civil war, returned recently, and reopened.

Clink.

A suitably sized purse changed hands, and it was a fine sight.

Enkrid took all of it and handed it to Enri.

"Sell the donkeys and trade up to horses. Swap out some of the carts too, get everyone fed properly, rest well, then head out. The road gets easier from here."

"Thank you."

Enri bowed his head. The memory of everything they had been through on the road welled up, and tears nearly came with it.

The guard captain saw that and stepped in from behind.

"I'll personally see to escorting them to Zaltenbuk. Please don't refuse. I want to do this."

"I was about to thank you for it."

Enkrid nodded.

"Then please wait just a moment."

The guard captain let out a slow breath, walked over to Malton, put a hand on his shoulder, and led him off to one side.

Enkrid waved goodbye to his uncle.

Among the people who had traveled with Enri was a child of thirteen or fourteen who had come following a parent. To that child's eyes, Enkrid and his companions looked impossibly tall.

Taller than any king.

There were many children like this. To them, the name Enkrid was not just some swordsman who had looked heroic for a moment. The king was somewhere far away. Enkrid had actually stood there and protected them.

Either way, it was a small and incidental thing.

"See you at Border Guard."

Enkrid parted from Enri. Rem had given the Twins some instructions in the meantime. After that, they rode along the outer road toward the royal palace.

It was the same road Enkrid had once raced down on Odd-Eye.

They were put up at the palace for the night. With nothing to do in the evening, Enkrid borrowed the training grounds and threw himself into sparring, and people began appearing from all over wanting to learn something.

Some faces he recognized, some he did not, but Enkrid made no distinctions.

"As many as you like."

Among them was a past acquaintance named Rievan, now a Royal Guard, and Matthew, who was usually at Crang's side.

At one point the Royal Guard captain in the dark gray helmet stopped by briefly as well. He only exchanged a nod and left. He was a man of very few words.

Whatever the case, Enkrid was comfortable with this. More than comfortable. Talking craft with people who came to him wanting to learn was something close to joy.

Watching it, Rem said the sickness had flared up again, though he seemed to be enjoying himself too.

Two days of rest, and then servants came to measure Enkrid for clothes and quickly put together a tailcoat.

Not a shirt pulled tight across the muscles, but something cut with room to breathe.

Rem and Audin were not taken along.

"Don't need to go."

"I'm fine where I am."

They were not the sort who would come even if invited. Crang would know that.

The evening before, Enkrid had suddenly asked Audin why he had come along. He had been thinking about it, since Audin had never much liked leaving Border Guard.

"I thought I might try to stop keeping myself locked in a prison called regret."

That was what Audin said.

None of it made any sense to Enkrid, but Audin did not seem to want to say more, so he let it go.

Enkrid still respected the members of his unit.

Audin seemed to like that about him, and just smiled.

"Hero of the realm, friend of the king, Demon Slayer, Sword of the Iron Wall, General Enkrid of Border Guard!"

Listening to the chamberlain's announcement at the entrance to the audience hall, Enkrid walked inside.

And saw Crang seated on the throne.

The usual idle pleasantries were exchanged.

"Good to have you here."

"I came at your summons."

The moment the brief greeting was done, Marcus raised the matter of the rank of Knight, and the nobles voiced their objections.

"It is naturally fitting to grant such a rank to Enkrid, but whether it is equally appropriate for others is a matter worth reconsidering."

A noble who appeared to have some talent for words stepped forward.

Behind him was the same toad-faced friend from the day before.

"Have you heard the name Noble Slayer?"

The noble stroked his mustache once and spoke.

What was it that the entrenched powers, the royal family and the nobility, feared most?

Knights. The very ones called calamities.

If a knight had a change of heart, a single sword could overturn a throne at any moment.

Each royal family had naturally taken precautions to protect themselves.

The Knight of Restraint that had existed under the previous Naurillia royal house had been one such safeguard.

Every knight swore loyalty to a royal house, a vow made even before the knighting ceremony itself.

But Enkrid and the Madman Squad had never done anything of the sort.

So could Nauril stop them now if it came to that?

Enkrid, perhaps. But what about the others?

That was why the noble was asking whether it was right to elevate and recognize those who lacked the proper character for the rank.

Enkrid thought every word of it was correct.

No matter how he tried to picture it, he could not imagine Rem swearing loyalty to a royal house.

Then his thoughts wandered almost immediately.

"Those cookies yesterday were good."

The bread had been excellent too.

The noble was in full flow. Strip away the padding and it came down to two things: how could anyone trust a Noble Slayer, and this whole matter deserved more consideration. A speech roughly in that shape.

A country bumpkin in the audience might have been impressed enough to clap.

That was not what happened.

"Are you finished?"

Only Crang met the speech with a soft smile that did not fit the moment at all.

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