A Knight who Eternally Regresses - Chapter 617

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

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A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 617: Even in the Bitter Wind, Warmth Remains

= = =

"What if we made every monastery care for children?"

To put it simply, Overdier knew how to handle people. Those years of his hadn't gone to waste.

'In the west, isn't there a saying that people get sharper with age?'

Enkrid sat beside them, thinking exactly that. They were in the monastery's modest reception room, drinking the usual cheap tea.

Overdier hadn't gone straight at Noah, telling him to join the Order and claim a seat for himself. He hadn't asked him to give his life for some grand cause or the Church, either.

"If there are people who go to the battlefield and fight, wouldn't we also need people to care for and save the children?"

He had simply brought up again what Noah was already doing, what he had always been doing. Listening along, Enkrid found he could guess what Overdier would say next.

"Come to the Order. Find others like yourself there, and build monasteries like this one. The business of hunting down false Holy Men and Holy Maidens will be no more, I intend to see to that, but it is hard work to do alone. Help me."

He scraped his chair back and dropped to one knee as he said it. Quite the flair for the dramatic.

'This is what it feels like to watch a proper old fox.'

That was Enkrid's read. One of the most celebrated Holy Knights in the entire Holy State, kneeling in person to ask for help.

It wasn't the kind of gesture you showed to an ordinary priest. It looked like a calculated move, heaping enough pressure on Noah that refusing would feel impossible.

Noah was no fool. He understood perfectly well why the other man was behaving this way.

Even watching Overdier kneel, Noah stayed calm. He didn't spring to his feet to grab the man and stop him, insisting he didn't need to do that.

He simply spoke in an even tone.

"You need not do that."

Enkrid watched this far and decided he didn't need to stay.

Whether he was in the room or not, Noah wasn't the kind of person who would be carried along wherever someone else steered him.

He would simply follow the conviction he kept inside himself.

Faith, belief, will. Noah had a light shaped from those things.

He lacked divine nature because he hadn't been born with the gift for it.

'So what exactly is divine nature?'

The question surfaced without warning. And there was no real reason to stay any longer.

Overdier watched Noah's composure and showed no fluster at all when his gambit failed to land. If anything, he looked satisfied.

Seeing those two, Enkrid made up his mind to stand.

The rest was theirs to sort out.

"Something just came to mind. I'll excuse myself."

Enkrid said it and rose.

"I never asked you to be here in the first place."

Overdier called it toward Enkrid's retreating back. Not quite a scolding, more like grumbling that said, don't you trust me at all? He said it lightly, almost joking.

"Talk more later, just the two of you. Friend."

Noah said it with a gentle smile. When Enkrid had insisted on coming in the first place, Noah had let him despite not needing him there. Now that he was leaving, Noah let him go the same way. It was the attitude of someone who respected another person's choices.

"Friend?"

The word out of Noah's mouth made Overdier blink.

Since when were they friends? his face said plainly. The old Holy Knight had quite expressive features.

"That's how it turned out. A friendship formed."

Enkrid answered vaguely, and Overdier asked, "Did you not once say you were also close friends with the King of Naurillia?"

"Yes, that's right."

Overdier's expression was something else entirely. Like he was chewing a pie with a flavor he couldn't quite place, not good enough to praise, not bad enough to spit out. Then he said, "Shall we be friends too?"

"No."

Enkrid answered immediately and walked out without looking back.

"Why?"

Overdier called after him, but there was no reason to reply.

"Do you need friends, by any chance?"

Noah's voice followed, warm with amusement. Enkrid stepped outside and looked around the monastery grounds.

The night after a battle, everyone was up without sleep, dealing with the aftermath of the fighting.

Overdier had apparently had nothing better to do and pulled Noah aside, so Enkrid had ended up sitting in as well.

With the sun still yet to rise, the inside of the monastery came into view. Moonlight was buried behind clouds, and the only light came from torches planted here and there.

Things had probably looked similar the previous night, but the air and the atmosphere of the monastery now were nothing like they had been then.

Everyone should have been sleeping, yet energy was coming from all directions. People who had come that close to dying had every reason to feel joy.

Reading the mood, Enkrid headed toward the quarters.

The monastery wasn't large enough to put everyone up inside, so only a small number had rooms within its walls.

The Madman Knights had taken one of the larger rooms between them.

He headed that way and felt a vitality even livelier than the energy spreading through the rest of the monastery.

"You little glowing bear, I'm sending you to your beloved god."

Rem's shout was proof of it.

Then, right after: "Do you wish to go greet the Lord Father in person, brother? Allow me to offer a personal prayer so you may go and come back quickly."

There was a bear in the middle of the night, radiating light.

"Can't dodge it, you die."

Ragna's voice came through too.

Right, would have been a shame if he'd been left out.

Audin was blazing with light and causing a commotion, so of course spectators had gathered. Among them were the Cult Extermination Priest Corps commander and some of the corps members, along with people from the monastery watching with uneasy eyes.

Should he count it as lucky that Jaxon and Sinar hadn't joined in?

Or should he sigh at the sight of people with this much energy to burn on the night after a battle?

Naturally, Enkrid didn't sigh.

"Starting without me?"

He complained instead.

It was a fair complaint. Why was everyone having this kind of fun without him?

On top of that, he'd just gotten curious about divine nature, and Audin, the one who had awakened divine power, had never even traded a single move with him before now. Surely it was his turn first.

"I'm the captain, after all."

Enkrid stepped in without hesitation. Ting, he drew his sword, stretched out time, and pushed out his Will.

At the same time, he crossed his feet forward and back to build speed and threw himself into the middle of the vicious exchange.

His thoughts accelerated, reading the situation. Formless Will settled into his arms, and his blade flew at a speed that would be invisible to most.

Just as Ragna was bringing his sword down in a diagonal cut and Rem was swinging his axe in a horizontal arc, Audin spun in the gap between them. That put Enkrid right in the spot Audin had just vacated, throwing himself in without warning, stepping straight into the range of both attacks.

Most people would have been startled and rattled, but Enkrid was grateful for Audin's consideration and knocked both weapons aside.

Clang!

Two weapons turned at once, yet the sound rang out as if there had been only one blow.

He used the silver-steel sword in his right hand to knock back Ragna's blade and Spark in his left to block the axe, hitting both at the exact same instant.

He hadn't simply stopped them with force. At the moment of contact, he'd tried to flow force through both blades and shake their balance, but both of them pulled their weapons back like it was nothing.

"Hah, you think that'd work on me?"

Rem even snorted.

Fatigue from battle? Sure, it was there, it couldn't not be. But not enough to stop him swinging a sword, and believing you could always fight at your absolute best was too naive a thought.

If you had a sword in your hand, you had to be ready to fight anywhere, anytime.

If anyone asked why they were sparring right now, that would have been the answer.

Well, in reality they were doing it because they simply wanted to.

"Come, brother! You need to see how my hands and feet have changed!"

Audin welcomed Enkrid with a voice full of joy.

"Yeah, I haven't been sitting still either."

Enkrid shot back. He'd come out meaning to ask about divine nature, but that could wait for later. Right now, he was going to get one good round in.

* * *

"Hard to call this normal."

The Vice-captain said it.

'Madmen, was it.'

The Cult Extermination Priest Corps commander was in the middle of exactly that thought when the words reached her.

"Same to my eyes," the commander said simply.

Training the body was grueling. Nobody would argue otherwise. But some people had it in their bones, a pull toward that hardship.

Watching it happen right in front of her was genuinely striking.

And beyond that.

'Every single one of them, I don't think I could be sure of winning.'

Within the Holy State, if she spread ten fingers and counted, where would she fall?

Once you reached the level of a knight, you knew you couldn't simply line people's fighting ability up in a row.

Ranking who was strongest and who was weakest was pointless.

The battlefield, the conditions, the state of mind, every factor went into deciding victory.

Still, gauging each other's skill was something close to instinct for anyone who carried a blade.

She wasn't at the very front of those ten fingers, but she couldn't deny she was somewhere among them.

Looking at them through those eyes, not one of the people before her seemed anything less than formidable.

'Does that mean all of them are at that level?'

The commander knew the Holy State still had strength it kept hidden.

There were so-called geniuses among them. Someone who had grasped what Will was before turning twenty. She had glimpsed this person once, briefly, inside the holy city, and the talent had shone like a star.

But watching these people tear through each other right now, that young genius didn't even come to mind.

Every single one of them was a monster.

In swordsmanship alone, the blond one with the lazy expression was exceptional, but the grey-haired westerner was no slouch either when it came to reflexes and the bursts of destructive force he showed in flashes.

And then what about the other two?

She couldn't say who had the edge. She had been watching like that for a while.

"Commander?"

The Vice-captain called out, and she turned to find a flustered look on their face.

"What?"

"You're holding your weapon."

Only then did the commander realize she had the hammer she kept at her hip gripped in her hand.

"Ha."

A laugh came out before she could stop it.

What was this?

Why had her body tensed up on its own? For what? Because she wanted to jump in and get a round in?

She was with the Cult Extermination Priest Corps because she had chosen the path of the avenger.

But she had been young once. A time when she had filled herself to the brim with passion.

Watching those people now, Enkrid in particular, her chest moved on its own.

The urge rose in her to throw herself in and join them.

It also brought back memories of the days when she had first picked up a weapon and was learning, practicing, pushing forward.

"They do look like they're having a lot of fun."

The commander kept her words short. But it seemed some of the corps members were feeling something similar.

The rowdy sparring session wound down soon enough.

"Sleep first, then do it again after. Got to actually sleep when it's time."

Frog stepped in and called it to a close.

None of them had really been going for the kill. They looked vicious from the outside, but none of them had pulled out everything they had. That was the commander's read.

After sleeping and waking, some members of the Cult Extermination Priest Corps came to find the Madman Knights' quarters.

"Would you be willing to spare a round with us?"

These were people who had been moved by what Enkrid showed the night before. The skill he'd displayed was one thing, but so was the spirit behind it.

They hadn't approached rudely.

And Enkrid was genuinely the type who enjoyed this kind of response.

"Gladly."

A sparring match followed. It was over in a few exchanges. The Holy Warrior bowed their head cleanly.

"I've learned well."

There was nothing extra to advise. When Enkrid deflected Sacred Penetration with the Will of Refusal, the Holy Warrior, whose specialty had just been shut down, didn't have much left to work with.

"Can I have a round?"

The commander stepped forward too, and again Enkrid nodded.

Honestly, Enkrid had been itching to trade blows with her first.

The commander drew her weapons. Two hammers, slightly longer than a shortsword.

"The Lord watches over me."

She muttered it as she raised the hammers, and a faint light seeped out from them.

As for the result, there was no clean winner.

"You plan on killing each other out here?"

Rem was in the middle of it with his axe, ready to break it up.

"Commander!"

The breastplate crumpled and the commander was sent flying backward, and a few corps members rushed to catch her.

"Another exchange and one of us dies," the commander said.

"I don't think it'd be me," Enkrid answered from his awkward half-stance, and the commander only smiled faintly.

For the two days the Cult Extermination Priest Corps stayed before leaving, Enkrid spent a lot of time with them.

Mostly sparring. He also heard things about what to watch for when facing Cultists.

"You're probably the person the Cultists hate most right now. So you should be careful. Watch out for assassins and people like them."

Things like that.

These people knew more about Cultists than anyone else on the continent.

Which meant they also knew about the Apostle's death, and that Enkrid had been the one to do it.

Overdier left first, taking a few Holy Warriors with him, and after the Cult Extermination Priest Corps departed as well, Enkrid finally packed his own things.

"We'll continue the training when we're back at the unit, won't we, brothers?"

Audin offered his morning greeting.

"Training? Trai-iii-ning? You really want to die, don't you?"

Rem fired back, cheerful as the bright morning sun.

In the middle of that exchange, Noah stepped in front of Enkrid.

"You're leaving now?"

"Got to."

Noah remembered the exchange he and Enkrid had shared a few days before.

'There's no guarantee you'll definitely win.'

From that conversation, Noah had found something of his own. There was no guarantee that what he did would definitely help. Even if he entered the Order, there was no guarantee things would go the way he hoped.

It would be more dangerous than now, and there would be more times things fell short of what he intended.

That was just reality.

Even so, he had decided to go. And he couldn't say this man in front of him had played no part in that decision.

"You've helped me," Noah said.

"Yeah."

"Will we meet again?"

Noah's tone was softer than before. Enkrid simply nodded, quietly.

"Probably."

Something that was obviously going to happen didn't need a lot of words.

As they left the monastery, people bowed their heads.

"We owe you a great debt."

"May God watch over you."