WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 657: I Saw Sincerity

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While Enkrid was calibrating his senses, Krais carried out the promise his commander had made.

He had scouted a site for the elf city. South of Border Guard, a stretch of land edging toward wasteland, and further south still, where a stream rising from the river reached. The final destination curved around a small mountain range, ideal ground for a forest to take root.

In practical terms, it was also a point where "safety" along the safe road was hard to guarantee.

Nearby stood a stone peak shaped like a tower that harpies had once used as a nest, and below the range was a small wood where Demon Creatures and Magic Beasts frequently hid.

A barrier against Demon Creatures and Magic Beasts pushing up from the south.

So that spot was perfect. If the elves had the capacity to drive out Demon Creatures on their own, it would not be a bad arrangement for them either.

With that in mind, Krais headed south to the outpost himself.

The elf named Zero came along as a guide, and his lover Nurat came as escort.

She walked right beside Krais, her forearms visibly thicker than before, a sword at her hip. She had taken up Audin's physical conditioning regimen long ago.

"A tree is walking toward us?"

Nurat asked.

"To be precise, it is called migration, a traditional spell of the Woodguard clan."

The answer came from Zero, standing on Krais's other side. Most elves gave off a cold, distant impression, but not Zero. He was quite open about expressing his feelings.

Were all elves the same? Certainly not. There were individual differences, of course, but watching Enkrid beat on Zero to sharpen his feel for him had given Krais a fairly clear picture of why. This elf had learned to show his emotions through external force.

When Enkrid sparred with him, he did not only use his sword. His mouth was just as busy, cutting and stabbing away.

"Is this your best? Is this all you've got? Hm. More threatening than a dragonfly, at least. Fine swordsmanship for killing mosquitoes."

Having heard that kind of thing scraped relentlessly against his inner feelings, even an elf of exceptional patience would have learned to show anger.

And once anger had a way out, other emotions naturally followed.

Regardless, when the three of them arrived at the safe road outpost, the soldier on duty came forward and gave a military salute.

At first, a few had looked down on Krais for joining the Madman Knights without being able to fight, but such people were hard to find now.

Part of it was that soldiers knew getting caught doing it meant more than a few hits. Part of it was that Krais often said outright that fighting was not his strength, openly acknowledging it himself.

If the man said so himself, who was going to argue?

That said, there were still those who acted petty, but Krais was sharp.

Once Rem's assault squad took over as his escort for several weeks, the pointless comments dried up entirely.

Who would dare run their mouth when a madman who reached for his axe the moment anyone bad-mouthed Krais was the one standing guard?

"What did you say? You want to join our unit and go missing?"

There were even rumors floating around that soldiers who joined Rem's assault squad sometimes disappeared.

Rumors, yes, but deaths during training could not exactly be called rare. It was perfectly obvious that the harder the training, the greater the risk of injury or death.

Not that Rem had ever let a single one of his soldiers die.

After that, no one spoke against Krais openly. What people muttered to themselves or said quietly where no one could hear, that he did not care about.

He had Demon Creatures, the Cursed Ground, and war filling his head to the point of bursting. What did it matter if someone griped about him out of earshot?

Besides, Krais was simply too busy dealing with whatever came at him next.

Right now, that meant learning about elf society.

The whole way there, Zero had talked about elven society, and mentioned that his personal goal was to kill every demon on the continent.

He was an elf who talked about himself readily. He had been exchanging conversation with Nurat, picking up recent news on the Trading Company Escort and the training situation of Enkrid's personal guard, when Krais spotted it.

Boom.

"...A Demon Creature."

The outpost soldier who had tagged along as escort muttered it.

They had been told several times that a large tree would be walking over, but not being surprised was another matter entirely.

The soldier standing watch grabbed his bow. The one beside him already had an arrow nocked.

Though, would shooting it even do anything?

Both of them wore that question in their eyes.

Thud.

Root-made feet stamped the earth as it approached. Everyone saw it, a huge tree coming toward them with the sun at its back, still far off.

Something round floated above the branches, and looking closer, elves were standing on those branches, watching this way. Zero raised an open palm. A greeting.

Krais drew on his composure and spoke.

"Don't shoot."

He had not been surprised when Enkrid told him about it, so now it was his turn to be surprised to his heart's content.

"It's really a tree. The tree is walking. A tree is actually walking."

Krais said it again.

"I know, I heard it beforehand, and I'm still shocked."

Nurat agreed from beside him. Lucky it was daytime. If this had come at night, it would have looked exactly like a massive Demon Creature attack.

The giant tree stomped forward, and perspective seemed to warp. It was slow but fast, approaching in a way that broke any sense of scale.

None of them had ever seen anything like it.

A tree far larger than any giant, one you had to tilt your head fully back to see the top of, was walking toward them.

"They are guests. Not Demon Creatures."

Krais said it again, and a soldier behind him muttered.

"I need to piss."

"You too? Same."

"If it steps on you, you'd turn into a tomato."

"Great, now I've got that image. You little bastard. My stomach hurts."

Three soldiers whispered among themselves. They sounded like they were being completely honest, but it was not genuine terror speaking.

If they had been truly terrified, they would not have said a word.

They had been told these were guests, not enemies, so it was more a joke to shake off the tension. Not that they were entirely calm, either.

Caw, caw.

Then several human-faced dogs burst out from one side. This area did occasionally see Demon Creatures.

The south was the part of the Madman Knights' territory where Demon Creatures appeared most often.

Excluding the Pen-Hanil Mountain Range, it was the roughest of all the outpost postings.

The Demon Creatures charged fearlessly straight under the tree. Running on all fours, they could not raise their heads properly, and they likely had no sense of the tree's true size.

Eleven human-faced dogs let out war cries and sprinted forward, then all at once tumbled to the ground in a heap.

Long thin shafts rained down and buried themselves in their bodies.

If the human-faced dog's first specialty was tearing into people with its jaws, its second was running. Creatures like that tripping and falling at the exact same moment, all at once, that was obviously elf work.

A group of elves on the tree shot arrows with crisp precision, exchanging hand signals to shift positions among themselves.

The dead human-faced dog carcasses were crushed under the tree's step. Thud.

Only a dark, sticky smear remained where its feet had passed.

The walking giants drew close, and several of them appeared taller than the outpost itself.

Krais had finished being surprised, and now he said what needed saying.

"Welcome to Border Guard."

"We thank you for the warm reception. Though the air here is not particularly pleasant. Elves are not ignorant of the world. I conducted mercenary work through the Information Guild, and the first place I started was a city southeast of here, you follow the waterway down and..."

The elf who stepped forward talked without pause, but Krais followed it all without the slightest discomfort, and found his openings to respond.

Walking trees were unfamiliar. This kind of conversation he had gone beyond familiar, straight into fluent.

"You are warning us not to try anything deceptive? There is no need to worry. This area, yes, Demon Creatures do appear frequently. Armed bandits come through the southern side occasionally as well. I do not think that will be a problem for you, though I may be wrong. If you settle here, the commander will be grateful. And even if not grateful, the benefit is obvious. If needed, we will detach troops to assist. So if you clear this area and establish yourselves, all the better. To be precise, I believe the best location for your settlement would be just to the west of here, at the foot of the mountain range."

Elves did not know deception, but they could distort the truth.

But they hold the commander as an idol, so they would not distort it.

Even so, caution warranted this first contact, so the elf who stepped forward was clearly one accustomed to continental customs.

It was a precaution against the possibility that humans might try to cheat them. As it always went with the first meeting between two groups that had not yet built trust, this was no different.

Only, Krais had no intention of deceiving them from the start.

With swindlers, you spoke their language. But with those who wielded truth as their weapon, you simply met them with truth in kind.

Krais had no intention of allowing any friction in this arrangement from the beginning.

Meet everything with sincerity.

That was all. And that was enough.

The elf who had spoken smiled with quiet satisfaction, a subtle shift in feeling, too faint for Krais to catch.

"That sounds well enough, but as Emily taught me, I believe verification is necessary. Emily was my first lover, a woman who worked the reception desk at the Information Guild."

Krais let the unnecessary chatter pass without trouble, welcomed the elf, and guided them on their way.

Much administrative work and various other tasks remained after that, but most of it went without a hitch.

And so the walking giants migrated in a long column. Everyone was startled when large boulders also began to move, but no soldier charged at them.

A few southern nobles sent repeated requests for troop support, claiming a large Demon Creature was attacking them, so the unit made a few casual outings to investigate, nothing more.

There was no fighting, naturally.

* * *

"One more time."

Rem was the one saying it. Not Enkrid. Something about the situation had shifted a little.

Rem had been requesting sparring once every day or two.

Enkrid did not bother refusing. He just did not nod along quietly either.

"Hmm. Is that a good idea?"

"What's not a good idea about it?"

"I don't really have a hobby of picking on the weak."

"Ha. Who's weak, you lunatic."

Rem played along with the provocation while keeping a cool head when he fought. He showed enthusiasm and threw fierce attacks, but there was no sloppiness in his axe work. That was the genius that was Rem.

After several rounds of sensory calibration, Enkrid had a clear feel for where he stood.

In the framework he had built, those around him were touching the level of senior knights, while he himself sat at the intermediate level.

Though the framework he had developed was closer to a training model than a standard for measuring combat power.

Ousque.

An inexhaustible Will showed overwhelming efficiency in close combat. Thanks to it, he could run alongside those who had entered the realm of senior-level.

And because of Wave-Blocking Sword swung at full force, too.

Add split thinking to balance raw power with sustained output, and the result was a high-speed battle that could run long. That was Enkrid's specialty right now.

He could fight for a long time, and the fighting itself was dense within that time. Every swing carried savage momentum. What Liervart or Jamal had chosen was stalling, but what Enkrid used was different.

From the outside, Enkrid often pushed rather than stalled. And he was not only being charged at by Rem.

"Get out here, Madman Knights commander. I'll fix that head of yours."

Ragna taunted him and came at him too. Enkrid took that on as well.

"Sure. When talent's lacking, hard work is the only answer."

Enkrid was enjoying himself thoroughly. And as he did, he felt that time of enjoyment shrinking and slipping away.

Regular soldiers and every combat-capable member watched Enkrid and the Madman Knights and burned with motivation.

And in turn, Rem and the others watched Enkrid and showed that same fire, though in truth, not one of them had ever caught up to him.

And now those same people had fallen behind. Genuinely fallen behind Enkrid.

Anyone who did not enjoy a moment like this would not be human.

"I will win. No matter what."

"Lord."

"I'll cut them all down."

That was why Rem, Audin, Ragna, and Jaxon had all suddenly thrown themselves into training like men possessed.

"Are you planning to kill every knight in the world now?"

Jaxon even heard something like that from his lover.

"There's someone I have to catch up to."

"Have to?"

She knew Jaxon. He was not someone who used words like "must" or "have to" lightly.

"Why do you have to?"

So she asked more.

Jaxon had not really thought about the reason, but thinking about it now, the answer was clear.

"Looks bad."

"What?"

"The way he carries himself. It looks bad."

That was what he said out loud. Inside, he thought something a little different.

I stayed behind to be useful. I can't afford to be dead weight.

So, training. The results showed themselves before long.

It was fourteen days after Enkrid had returned to Border Guard.

Audin was waiting on someone he needed to meet, since that person had briefly stepped away, and Enkrid was just training as usual.

He had not had any particular occasion to meet Aetri or speak with Esther separately.

He had meant to see Aetri after checking on his own condition, but when he handed over weapons and items he had picked up along the way, Aetri had actually told him to come by a little later. And Esther had said she would be living in panther form for a while, so that was that.

Sinar had not come either, so he had only seen castellan Graham once, leaving him with nothing to do besides train.

Honestly, he had been genuinely enjoying beating his unit members too.

"I need more. There's not enough stimulation here. None of you can push me."

Enkrid had taken to muttering things like that.

Not a single one of them had failed to react.

"Did you sell your soul to the demon god when you ran into those Cultists on the way back?"

Rem said it, pulling a leaf from his head.

A warm breeze was blowing. Winter was nearly done, and the goddess called spring was drawing near. It was the kind of moment that brought Sinar to mind, her talks about Spring Breeze.

"The whimpering of the weak reaches my ears."

Over this time, Enkrid's skill at mocking them had grown noticeably sharper. He let his sword hang loose and spoke as though reciting poetry, and Rem's expression shifted. It was a sight that had shown up often these past few days.

"You're dead today. Ptew."

Rem spat on his palm and readjusted his grip on the axe.

An atmosphere took shape that felt like someone was about to stake half a life on this fight.

Rem bent his knees halfway and dropped his stance. He looked ready to charge in at any second.

Enkrid saw Rem through his insight, saw him about to charge, and raised Penna, finishing his preparation to cut on a diagonal.

He expected today would not be much different from before.

Unless Rem used his axe properly and threw every piece of Sorcery he had into it, the result would not change.

At that moment, Rem's body seemed to shrink. Not literally, he had put distance between them in an instant, which made it look that way.

He's pulling back?

Rem leaped backward, and his speed was something else entirely. Watching Enkrid the whole time, moving diagonally or straight back, he was just as fast as running forward. His feet stamped and pushed and kicked off the ground without hesitation, leaving afterimages. And at the same moment ,

Whoom, whoom, whoooooom!

Rem sent a disc spinning above his head. The projectile wrapped in its leather sling, which had been turning at a moderate pace, began rotating at high speed. His sling.

"This isn't a joke."

Weeeeeeeng!

Between the roaring sound the spinning sling tore from the air, Rem spoke with Will threaded through his voice.

"If you can't block it, you die."

Fwish.

The sling released its projectile. Bang! The crack of splitting air rang out.

Between one sound and the next, Enkrid saw through his insight the violent point that would blow his head apart.

Even stretched by high-speed thought, it still looked like a single point, a point that moved with superior speed even within that stretched time.

He felt this was many times more dangerous than the time he had snatched a flying dagger out of the air, whenever that had been.

Enkrid threw his body backward. The projectile grazed his forehead. A few strands of hair were cut off, drawn into the air pocket the shot had carved, and swept along with it. Then he had to roll sideways immediately.

Boom.

A fountain of dirt erupted from where he had been. Rem had fired again, and that one buried itself in the ground.

It was not just one shot.

Weeeeeeeeeng!

Rem had already sent two discs spinning on a diagonal. Two at once.

The left disc spun nearly perpendicular to the ground, and the right hung nearly parallel to it.

Two circles each asserted their presence, two handspans apart from each other.

"Die. Lunatic."

Rem shouted it with joy in his voice. In those words, Enkrid saw sincerity.

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