WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 585: A Different Caliber

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Enkrid had drawn some understanding from Seiki's words. It was a small truth about how the world turns.

The same cycling flow as spring giving way to summer and autumn giving way to winter.

It connected to a part of his swordsmanship, and it touched the weakness he carried within himself.

'What if instead of forcing Will out, I feel the flow naturally and push it forward little by little?'

Fighting Prophet Overdier had given him a vague sense of direction. This felt like learning how to actually walk that path.

Even so, he did not make a fuss about it.

Nothing could be known without trying it with your own body first.

"Go ahead."

"Are you cheering me on?"

"Something like that."

"Thank you."

That was the exchange they had shared. He had noticed it then - Seiki was not much of a talker. But she never hesitated to say what was on her mind.

In some ways that was a strength, though living among people would make it hard at times.

Well, inside Border Guard it would probably be fine.

The city was home to people wilder and fiercer than her - a born mountain ranger, Holy Maiden and Highlander both, someone who slept and ate and relieved herself on mountain rock and planned to die there and become part of it. That was Border Guard. Not the headquarters of the Madman Knights for nothing.

'I'll have to keep an eye on her now and then.'

Enkrid thought of himself as the one who kept things anchored inside the Madman Knights.

'They're all lunatics.'

Someone had to keep their head straight.

Seiki shone when she talked about her dreams and hopes. Enkrid did not dismiss her words just because she was young.

People always shone when they spoke about what they wanted.

It did not even sound like youthful foolishness. Her wishes might change someday. He would cheer her on then too. If that was what she truly wanted, she could have it.

Whatever the case, it was certain that becoming a Holy Maiden was not her dream.

"It's not like I love being around people," Seiki had said.

She liked being alone, in any case.

Enkrid let her do as she pleased. Sinar said she would show her a good place to stay.

The elves, children of trees and flowers as they were called, apparently had a hobby of making hidden retreats where they could be alone.

Whether that was really true, he did not know, but Seiki had seemed satisfied, so it was worth a nod.

Thoughts of the conversation with Seiki and what had followed drifted through him when Esther asked a question.

"Popular?"

It came out of the earlier nonsense about the sorrows of an unpopular man.

"No."

Nothing worth dwelling on. Easy enough to let pass. For the next few days Esther stayed at his side and watched him.

Nobody knew what the witch was thinking.

The one difference from before was that a few soldiers had started attending her. They were all from the magic corps. The ones who had trained holding crystal orbs now each had a short wooden rod tucked at their waists - a wand, a tool that helped with casting.

Small gems were fitted to the ends, and looking at them, Krais had probably felt a little stung.

Those gems would not have been cheap.

"Ah, damn. It's freezing. Cold."

Rem came back to the lodging about three days later, complaining loudly that it was cold even though winter had not yet arrived.

His whole body was covered in small cuts too.

"Where have you been and what were you doing?"

"Hm. Evil Spirit hunting?"

Enkrid did not press further. Rem did not seem interested in talking either.

For all three days Rem was gone, Ragna had forgotten his laziness and was swinging a sword. Just a little in the morning, a little at noon, and a little in the evening, of course.

Swinging a sword every single day without rest was so unlike Ragna it barely seemed real.

He trained in those short morning, midday, and evening stretches, then spent the rest of his time sparring with Ropord or half-dozing in meditation.

Could that actually improve someone's skill? It did.

"What the hell."

Enkrid let the compliment slip during their spar without meaning to.

It was clearly the same swordsmanship he knew, but it was faster, sharper, and heavier.

When he asked how that was even possible:

"Just swing a bit faster with a bit more force and watch for the opening."

It was like asking someone how to study well and being told to sit down and read a book.

Ragna had always been vague with explanations, and he was getting worse.

And yet it was not entirely incomprehensible.

'It's the same thing as Iron Wall.'

There were parts that could not be put into words. Nothing to be done about that. Just accept it.

Enkrid was climbing step by step from the ground up, tracing each stage with his fingertips, while Ragna leapt forward in skill all at once.

That said, it was not as if Rem and Ragna gave him nothing to work with.

They had sparred with him long before, and neither held back their words.

"Pouring in force at that exact moment - you still can't do that?"

"Just focus when you swing. Why can't you get this?"

Rem and Ragna, each in turn.

Jaxon had chimed in too.

"You need to develop the sense for feeling Will."

Right, but what exactly is that sense?

The question would have come naturally to anyone, but Enkrid listened to everyone in silence.

It was no different from what he himself had said about Iron Wall, and now he could understand their words better than before.

If the direction was right, all that remained was effort. That was what he did.

He had a rough sense of the direction and had learned how to move toward it. The rest was a matter of time.

He might swing this sword until he died and still stay exactly where he was now.

That was no reason to stop.

After about five days of that, Krais called a meeting.

The Holy Knight Order. Danger. Trade. Incidents. Public order. Disruptions. Those were predictably the main subjects whenever Krais had something to say.

Enkrid felt no sense that any of this was something he had caused - only that it had already happened - so he walked into the meeting without a care.

The mood was not grim. Most of the people living in this city alongside Enkrid were not the sort to feel that this kind of trouble was a crisis.

Some of the practical staff did wonder whether it was really all right to leave things as they were.

The way things were going, they might end up as enemies of the entire continent.

Those people were in the room too.

At the head of the wide oval table sat Enkrid. Graham sat to his left, the symbol of a veteran warrior who had discovered his talent in old age. Rem, for some reason, sat across from him. Ragna said he needed some fresh air and settled in beside Rem.

Esther and Ruagarne had recently become a pair who observed Enkrid at every turn, so they naturally sat near him. Rather than taking seats at the table, the two of them placed their chairs against the wall where they had a clear view of him.

"A fine spot," someone remarked.

When Sinar joined them there, it made three women - human, elf, and Frog - seated in a row, watching Enkrid.

A peculiar arrangement and a peculiar thing to do, but nobody said a word about it.

Graham did not even glance their way, though a few people did steal looks at the trio huddled together.

Not that anyone could say anything.

Enkrid himself said nothing, after all.

As people gathered one and two at a time, the full roster took shape. Graham and the castellan's faction. Krais, Nurat, and Abnaier along with the practical staff. The core strength of the knight order - Rem, Ragna, Jaxon, and Sinar. And Vengeance, now chief of the security force with responsibility for public order across the city.

He had entered from the side when Enkrid came into the meeting room, gave a military salute with a hand at his waist, and bowed his head.

"You're a Battalion Commander now?"

Enkrid asked.

"So it turns out."

Vengeance answered with a faint smile. It was a warm expression, the kind that seemed to embody contentment. The man blinded by jealousy was long gone.

He now had a wife - married and with child. So there was worry mixed in when he thought about what Enkrid had set in motion this time.

How would this all turn out.

Not that Vengeance was in any position to step in and say anything - nobody knew that better than himself.

"We will begin the meeting on preparations for the Holy Knight Order situation."

Krais spoke in a slightly raised voice. The pleasant, clear tone rang through the meeting room.

There were more people standing than seated - the wide table could not fit everyone.

It might have been noisy, but everyone watched in silence, so the overall feeling was calm.

Small braziers had been set around the room against the chill, and the only murmur was Sinar noting quietly that they should be careful of the fire.

In that atmosphere, Krais began.

"The Holy Knight Order is involved in many trade routes. The Order-affiliated merchants have been handling food and goods and selling them across the continent, but since those merchants have been refusing to accept food and goods, the trading city has been quietly declining business as well."

Serious subject matter, delivered by cutting straight to each point.

Enkrid had no intention of drawing this out. He listened to the summary and spoke.

"What about the Stone Road?"

The stone road - the trade route running from the west all the way here.

Leona Rockfreed, present as part of the practical staff, raised her head.

You want to interfere in trade? But Border Guard already had its own independent trade network with no relation to any of that, didn't it? That was the question embedded in his words.

"It's running well. Nothing to do with the Order."

Leona said it. A formal setting. Even as a friend, she addressed Enkrid with careful language.

No trace of anxiety showed on her face.

The Rockfreed Trading Company had built what it was through bold ventures to begin with, and Leona had a more adventurous spirit than anyone in the generations before her.

Not gambling the whole fortune on a single throw, but calculating everything and then, when she judged it worth doing, moving with force.

For her, this situation was an opportunity. If they formed their own trade route through the Stone Road, they would not need to bow to the surrounding nations or great trading companies.

Right now the other major trading companies were pulling back because they were watching the Holy State's reaction. Leona did not like that state of affairs.

Merchants should just do business well. Having to bow to politics and outside pressure, again and again - that was the part that grated.

In that sense, Enkrid's words and actions suited her perfectly.

"Then we're fine."

His way of saying, do as you like. Leona's eyes lit up and she nodded.

Pressure on the trade route?

The trading city refusing deals?

A few major trading companies throwing their weight around?

So what.

As Enkrid saw it, as long as the route between Border Guard and the west stayed stable, there would be no real damage to trade.

Was it obvious to think that far ahead?

For Leona it was, in its way. For Enkrid it could go either way, but what was certain was that his view had grown wider.

She was quietly impressed by that.

He had seen the current problem clearly, named it, and pointed toward a solution.

This was something of a habit with him, really.

He seemed to live looking only forward with a sword in hand, yet Enkrid read situations well and saw the answers alongside them. Years of similar experience had built that in him.

'A blocked path.'

A wall, an obstacle across the road - he had faced that over and over while swinging a sword.

Some walls looked so high they seemed impossible to cross.

Some were so heavy they seemed like boulders that could never be pushed aside.

And Enkrid had never given up on a single one of them.

This time was no different.

Because he had never given up, answers to what lay ahead rose naturally to him.

The will to do whatever it takes, and the force and strength to back that will.

What you have determines the scale of what you can conceive.

Krais had already laid out what would become problems, and Enkrid had confirmed them.

He had only spoken the answer that came to him from that.

The strategist who might yet become a spy for Azpen - or might become truly one of them - raised his head at the exchange. The conversation was rather interesting, was it not.

Enkrid added a few more words.

"Or am I wrong? If we open trade with the west, what do we lack? If the trading city needs us more than we need them, they can't push us around. Can the Rockfreed Trading Company not handle that? What do we need - spears and swords? People? Or something else?"

Every word was correct, but not easy to say aloud. Blocked trade would not be without inconvenience.

Yet that was nothing that could not be solved. And it was clear who would solve it.

Leona nodded. With the will to do it, to see it through with her own hands.

"I'll speak up if I need something."

"Good."

That settled one item.

When it came to reading the broad picture and delivering a verdict, Enkrid was sharper than Krais.

Fine-tuning inside that picture, making sure things actually happened - that was Krais's part to carry.

Much of this meeting had already been organized by Krais, problems sorted and solutions proposed.

Enkrid had looked at those solutions with a wider view and answered.

"I understand a letter of protest has also arrived from the kingdom."

This time it was the envoy from the capital, who had spent several days at Border Guard in order to attend this meeting. He opened his mouth carefully.

"And? Did Crang - did the king - hold me responsible?"

Enkrid asked. The envoy's gaze moved to him.

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