A Knight who Eternally Regresses - Chapter 588

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 588: Turn Back

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Rem handled everything and returned to Border Guard, and the Viscount, who had nearly lost his land over scorched-earth tactics and the like, let out a long breath of relief.

"Seems like the threat hasn't fully passed, has it? That being the case, we'll station here and keep watch for a couple of months."

On top of that, reinforcements from Border Guard posted up in his territory. There was some unease at first.

What if they were using this as an opportunity to swallow the land whole?

It was a common enough trick for the times, quietly occupying territory under the guise of protection.

Even setting that aside, having that many combat-ready soldiers quartered somewhere brought its own problems with food, drink, and clothing.

But they pitched tents, set up their own camp, brought their own rations, and later a supply line from Border Guard came through on top of that.

Awkward as it felt, refusing was hard to do. Then a letter arrived tucked inside the supply shipment, sent by Enkrid.

-Are you tending the land well?

Harrison Viscount went quiet for a moment, letter in hand. He read it and stood frozen in place, still as a doll.

The Self-Defense Force captain glanced over carefully. Was Border Guard actually up to something? But would the Iron Wall Knight even need to bother with a scheme like that?

No matter how tempting the Viscount's land might be, years of war had left it fallow for over a decade. Toss wheat seeds on it and you'd get a harvest, sure, but it still couldn't compare to Greenfield, where the same thing would yield bumper crops just by scattering grain.

He couldn't figure out what the letter said.

The Viscount had once given Enkrid holy spring water on behalf of the kingdom. He hadn't regretted it for a moment.

People around him had clicked their tongues, but he ignored them. They said he could have asked Border Guard for anything and received it, so why give away something for nothing?

But the Viscount felt he had already received something. He had received encouragement. He had seen someone believe his words without question. That alone was enough.

He generally avoided acting on impulse, but he had no regrets here.

He had sent the urgent request for reinforcements somewhat rashly, and he'd heard there was plenty going on inside Border Guard already, so he hadn't expected much. Yet the reinforcements came, and they said they'd stay and keep watch.

Was there some hidden intention behind it?

'If so, I should gouge out my own eyes first for reading people so poorly.'

He only recognized Rem later. He thought it might actually be lucky that the man left without saying hello.

The Noble Hunter, after all, was what they called him.

He heard afterward that Rem had wiped out a bandit group on his way back, too.

He'd learned all of that before the letter arrived. He read it three times, then breathed out slowly and lifted his gaze. Enkrid had not forgotten what was said at the banquet hall.

That steadied the Viscount's wavering heart. A burning heat rose inside him.

"Ah."

His chest grew warm. Heat welled up from somewhere deep in his gut.

Someone had heard his hopes, remembered them, and was cheering him on.

There was not a drop of ill intent in it.

"I will repay this without fail."

He said it aloud, in his own voice.

The Self-Defense Force captain still just wanted to know what the letter said.

The stationed troops spoke rough, but they were tightly disciplined and never caused trouble. Outside of fighting, they didn't involve themselves in much.

That was only natural.

Krais had said it himself: if they went as reinforcements and anything strange came from the land's lord, they were to return immediately.

They didn't want to return.

Going under Rem's command had sharpened their skills and given them direction. They'd learned a great deal about training methods and how to fight. They weren't denying that. But after enough time in that training hell, who wouldn't want a way out?

That was why they'd chosen to stay posted in the Viscount's territory.

The Viscount had no way of knowing any of that.

Border Guard hadn't sent only this unit, the Rem Company, as reinforcements.

When the Holy State pulled its people out, trouble started breaking out in one place after another.

Cultists rose up in areas that seemed to have been waiting for exactly that moment, and some regions got hit with a wave of Demon Creatures pushed up from the south and found themselves in serious danger.

The tactic of pushing Demon Creatures involved deliberately stirring up a horde of Demon Creatures or Magic Beasts, then opening a path so the flood poured into enemy territory instead, forcing nearby fiefs to deal with the mess. It was the kind of thing that made people groan.

The knight order holding the southern front managed to plug most of the holes, but gaps appeared everywhere.

Handling the Demon Creatures that slipped through those gaps was its own kind of work.

Krais used the Soldier-Mercenary System that Naurillia had put in place as justification and pushed the Border Guard standing army relentlessly out in every direction.

Hunting Demon Creatures, crushing bandit groups, running down every Cultist sighting and killing them one by one.

Through all of it, the true strength of the Border Guard standing army came into plain view, and everyone who had been quietly watching had no choice but to be surprised.

The nobility inside the palace were especially taken aback.

It seemed you'd need the entire Red Cloak Knights assembled together to match them.

Naturally, given the situation, some people started murmuring about unease.

"Nothing to do? Go farm like Harrison Viscount."

Count Marcus, said to be the king's closest confidant, put it that way.

"They're coming to fight me? Then I'll hand over all my land and throw in my daughter too."

The Duke of Okto laughed and added his own words.

"If the Iron Wall Knight intended to topple the royal house, would he be swinging a sword out there? If I were him, I'd become captain of the guard on the grounds of being the king's close friend. How easy would it be to fill this place with my own people afterward? Why would he go charging around if he cared nothing for whether the common people lived or died?"

Marquis Bysar cut to the heart of it. Every major noble simply snorted. By now, Crang's campaign to weed out the nobility was nearly wrapped up, leaving only those who were more or less sound.

So the talk of unease lasted only a moment, and after that there was nothing left but to root for them.

In truth, it was as if the whole country, starting with Crang himself, was saying the same thing.

No matter how powerful the Holy State might be, they stood on the side of the Iron Wall Knight.

Evidence of that could be seen across the land.

And whatever schemes the Holy State tried to pull, Demon Creatures and Magic Beasts didn't simply appear out of nowhere on command.

The Border Guard standing army showed its strength, swept the surrounding area clean, and the region became more peaceful than it had ever been.

They had hunted Demon Creatures, Magic Beasts, bandits, and Cultists down to the last, to the point where a shepherd could drive a flock through without worry.

In the middle of all this, the city of Lockfried was completed, and the framework for a western trade route was finalized. At that point, whether the Holy State liked it or not, the sheer power Border Guard held could no longer be ignored.

Not just military strength, their overall standing, commerce included, had shifted clearly from what it had been before.

The conclusion was simple. Things had come up, but Border Guard's response had been fast and precise.

Road-paving work was going smoothly enough that they were running a full road improvement project on top of everything else.

Krais had played a significant part, but it had come together more because everyone moved as one.

It could be said to have been possible because they all believed in the commander they served, and trusted that what he was trying to do was right.

Through all of it, everyone's hands stayed busy. When it started looking like they couldn't respond to everything at once, Krais set rough priorities and handled things in order.

What he'd just mentioned was one of those things, something they had set aside for a bit and were only now getting around to looking into.

"Where?"

That was Enkrid, asking in response to what Krais had said. They'd just been talking about threats, danger, and Cultist activity.

"Cross Guard."

Cross Guard was a city northeast of Border Guard, across the gravel flats and the Pen-Hanil River. Nothing too unusual, really.

Enkrid asked with his eyes what had happened, and Krais answered smoothly.

"Looks like Cultists have been causing trouble there lately. The inside of the city sounds like it's in rough shape too."

He added that it wasn't something they needed to deal with right away, so they'd left it alone.

Enkrid had been spending his days thinking about Will and throwing himself into training, but progress had been slow for someone who felt like he'd finally gotten a grip on something.

Not that he was anxious about it, but he knew at times like these he needed something to clear his head. He'd been drinking tea to air out his thoughts when Krais happened to show up and start talking, so he'd asked and listened to the rest.

"Cultists causing trouble? Those Cultists are causing trouble?"

Ruagarne asked from beside Enkrid. She hated the Cult, so she always took an interest in things like this. Esther was in human form today as well, so there were four teacups on the table.

"Looks like a few of them are hiding somewhere and holding gatherings. A criminal organization is running openly at the same time. Sounds like all sorts of people have been stirring up trouble, and the city lord tried to track them down and asked the temple for help, but was ignored."

Azpen was still officially an enemy nation.

It was something of a charade, but they'd even gone so far as to draw a border at Greenfield and put up a low wall, or rather, a fence.

Lately, crossing that fence to trade with Azpen's cities was apparently just part of daily life.

So in practice, treating them as an allied nation wouldn't be far off.

While Border Guard built two fortress cities and, at the center between them, raised a large-scale agricultural city complete with great mills, windmills, and water channels drawing from the Pen-Hanil River itself, Azpen had been building a similar city on the side of Greenfield that faced them.

Two countries sharing a border, exchanging what the other lacked, and slowly beginning something that looked like a genuine relationship.

All of this had been flowing along smoothly since the festival Krais had organized some time back.

Still, however well things went on the inside, Cross Guard couldn't openly ask Border Guard for help.

By rights they should have been like brothers, but in reality they were enemies who had once drawn steel on each other.

"The temple ignored them, and they have no capacity to ask their home country for help either. The Cross Guard city lord must have a massive headache. So they sent a few people through the guild, but contact went dark. That's about the size of it."

Krais wasn't really asking for anything or looking for help by saying it.

His tone was more like he was simply mentioning that this had happened.

Enkrid understood that the guild Krais meant was the Gielpin Guild. If their contact had gone dark, it was safe to assume something messy was happening on the inside.

He'd heard the Gielpin Guild had recently taken on a role as an Information Guild and even brought Jaxon in as an instructor for various kinds of training. If they couldn't even send a single letter, something was definitely wrong.

"I'll go take a look. Clear my head while I'm at it."

Enkrid said.

"I'm going too."

Ruagarne said right after.

Enkrid's reason was to clear his head while moving his legs, and Ruagarne's was obvious given how much she despised the Cult.

"Is that really necessary?"

Krais tilted his head.

No one had formally requested reinforcements, but Cross Guard had quietly hoped for help and passed that along through Abnaier, so Krais had been aware and started making moves.

Still, it wasn't exactly a situation that called for the Iron Wall Knight, and leader of the Madman Knights at that, to show up in person.

"No reason it'd be a problem, is there?"

"Well, no problem, I suppose."

None of this had any particular weight to it. No grand significance.

Of course, now that things had turned out this way, Krais planned to let it be known far and wide that Border Guard was stepping in.

They were allied on the inside, but whether the city was technically enemy territory or not, the Cultist problem was exactly the right thing to use for making the point that this was a matter for the entire continent to face together.

It was also a good opportunity to build up justification for responding immediately whenever Cultists caused trouble. Justification like that was always better to have more of.

You never knew when or how it would come in useful.

"Go right ahead, then."

Krais said, and Enkrid prepared to leave at once.

"Hm. I sense something ominous. You're free to run if you think it's too much."

Esther handed Enkrid a small mirror.

"It will only be for a short while, but it's a mirror that shows my face. Looking at it occasionally should give you strength."

"Why would looking in a mirror give me strength?"

"Is it not natural to feel energized when you see the face of a beautiful woman?"

Esther was a witch who had grasped the principles of things.

Enkrid looked at her with genuine concern in his voice.

"Stop spending so much time with Sinar."

It seemed the elven brand of humor was contagious.

"Hmph."

Esther snorted and smiled faintly. Compared to when he'd first met her, she had a far richer range of expressions these days.

Enkrid had broken his sword before, so this time he'd gotten one with hardest iron mixed into the blade.

He also put on the scale armor Krais had personally gone out to find for him.

While he packed his sword belt, a light bag, and enough food for the journey, Ruagarne gathered her insect pouch.

Frog skin held up under most conditions without taking injury, and they had their distinctive regenerative ability, so Frog rarely traveled with heavy packs even on long trips.

A Frog could go a day or two without eating without any trouble.

The two of them set off toward Cross Guard right away.

A large dock for crossing the Pen-Hanil River had been built recently, so boarding a boat was no trouble.

Calculating the distance, they'd need to sleep outside for three or four nights. Nothing difficult about that. Enkrid walked at a brisk pace the whole way, talking with Ruagarne as they went.

At some point they came across a group of traveling merchants. The merchants startled at first, but quickly nodded and spoke.

"Just the two of you? Ah, well, she's a Frog, and even setting that aside, this stretch of road has been decent enough to travel lately. Thanks to the Border Guard standing army wiping out the local Demon Creatures. Long may the Iron Wall Knight endure."

He blessed Enkrid without recognizing his face. The merchant smiled warmly. He said things were really looking up lately, then quietly grumbled that he couldn't understand what the Holy State was thinking.

"Not that I'm saying I'm a heretic. Don't go reporting me. I donate to the monastery every month."

The merchant seemed to have a loose tongue by nature, because he regretted his words the moment they left his mouth and immediately tried to walk them back.

"I won't. I'm on bad terms with the church myself."

Enkrid gave a casual reply, and the merchant said he shouldn't go saying things like that so carelessly. He warned that even if the Cursed Ground Holy Sect were Cultists, speaking ill of them recklessly could get you targeted by them one day, and urged Enkrid to be careful. Then he headed on his way. Even so, the merchant was smiling the whole time.

"Still, these really are good days lately."

Ruagarne opened her mouth as she watched the merchant go.

"Talking about War's End and peace, that would mean hoping for more people like him, yes?"

"It's a good sight."

"Indeed it is."

Enkrid walked until the sun fell and the sky turned from gold to pale blue, and kept going until that pale blue was on the verge of being swallowed by darkness. Then he stopped, found a decent spot, and lay down. Even bundled in thick clothing with insulated leather draped over him, it was cold.

The cold was one thing, but Ruagarne, who hated dry air, kept water close at hand at all times.

She didn't seem particularly bothered by the cold. Frog were said to be dull to shifts in temperature.

She was no different.

Enkrid lay down and closed his eyes. Being able to sleep whenever necessary was a habit worn into him since his mercenary days.

When he lay down to sleep, the clear night sky caught his eye. Stars packed the black overhead, and two blue moons scattered their light across everything.

The brilliance of the stars poured into his gaze. They stretched out in a line, looking like a river made of light, and the moons looked like two glowing blue lakes. It was genuinely beautiful.

He spent a long while staring up at it, and then Ruagarne spoke beside him.

"Beautiful."

"It is."

They shared the sky for a while, traded a few light remarks, and Enkrid drifted off just like that.

The moment he fell asleep he felt his body sway, and when he opened his eyes, a black river surged and rippled to greet him in place of that river of light.

"Well, then. Are you ready to live forever?"

The Boatman asked from across the stone table on the long narrow boat, surrounded by dark water and a violet lamp.

Enkrid looked at the Boatman.

He could see the face far more clearly now than before.

Gray skin cracked like the bed of a dried-out rice paddy, and eyes drained of all color, holding no light.

He hadn't thought about it before, but looking now, the Boatman's face seemed almost like a mask.

Either way, Enkrid played along with the Boatman for the first time in a while.

"What kind of forever?"

"You do not die. That itself is forever."

"Trapped in today, never dying?"

"Yes. That is your eternity."

He didn't agree, naturally. Enkrid held the Boatman's gaze.