WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 660: The Ragged Saint

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"The world calls me the Ragged Holy Man, among other things. Forgive the late introduction-I was a little busy playing with this child."

Playing was a generous word. He had been teaching Seiki how to manage her divine power. Divine nature had already manifested in Seiki's body on its own, without any formal training.

Left unhandled, it could hurt her. That was what Audin had feared, which was why he had gone looking for his foster father, the Ragged Holy Man, in the first place.

That was also why Audin had only arrived now. Getting Seiki through it had been the more urgent matter.

Seiki raised a hand in greeting beside the man who called himself a Holy Man.

"You look even more like a monster now."

Seiki had been remarkable from the first time they met. That talent started with her eyes, and once again she had spotted the change in Enkrid.

Even if she had missed it herself, she could not have stayed ignorant for long. Talk was everywhere.

"Apparently the Alluring Squad Leader shattered hundreds of women's hearts and awakened from that?"

"No, no, the elves gathered their blood and drank it, that's why."

"Can you really end up like that just by training like a madman?"

Absurd rumors had spread far and wide, but Seiki was pure without being stupid. She knew how to sort out what was worth believing.

"Then telling you to become a Holy Knight was a joke," the Holy Man said again, Audin's foster father.

His voice was plain, and a quiet smile sat on his face. He patted Audin's thick arm with a tap, tap, and the gesture was easy and familiar.

Audin simply curved the corners of his mouth into his usual gentle smile.

Enkrid thought Seiki looked different from before too, but what actually caught his eye was the Holy Man's appearance. He was called the Ragged Holy Man, yet his clothes were nothing of the sort.

Ting.

The man offered a handshake, and as he reached out, Enkrid saw a heavy gold bracelet on his wrist and five fingers stacked with rings set with rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. A large pendant hung from a necklace, four gems set into its base plate, and the metal of that plate looked as though true silver had been worked into it.

His clothes were silk, soft and lustrous, the kind of fabric most nobles would not dare touch.

'Even a poor noble couldn't afford that.'

Andrew, a nobleman himself, still wore rough clothes every day. At least, he had been doing so the last time Enkrid saw him. He had mentioned owning exactly one tailcoat, kept for the rare occasions when he needed it.

"If I spend less on clothes and food, the people on my estate get one more piece of meat on their plates. I cannot afford to indulge."

Andrew had lived by those words. Trying to rebuild the Gardner Family from the ground up, he had every reason to mean them. Actually living that way was the hard part, of course.

Though Andrew had taken his cue from watching Enkrid and found it easier than expected to run straight toward his goal.

The Ragged Holy Man blinked his clouded eyes. The way they struggled to focus made it plain enough, without anyone needing to say so, that his sight gave him trouble.

"Believing in a god matters. You do not have to become a Holy Knight, but faith is important."

It was a fine day, bright, clear spring weather. The cold had fully lifted, and between the trees snapped and shattered during sparring with Rem, shoots of grass were poking up their heads.

Enkrid felt the gazes of Rem and Ragna on him through that peaceful air.

They had glanced over to see what was happening, confirmed it was the Ragged Holy Man, and lost interest.

Jaxon had headed out early in the morning on some errand, and Esther was still a panther today.

Enkrid had planned to head down to the city himself after his dawn training, but this Holy Man had stepped into his path the moment he finished.

"This child here, and you as well, neither of you believe in a god?"

That was what the man had asked.

"Not particularly."

Enkrid said it plainly. There was nothing rude in his tone. He simply said what was true.

The man's words and manner were not exactly grating, but they were not comfortable either.

His voice was rough, and his face was covered in age spots. His outfit, though...'If he walked into a temple dressed like that, people would take him for a bishop draining the lifeblood out of the faithful.'

He was still thinking that when the Holy Man opened his mouth.

"Audin."

"Yes."

"If I told you to kill this man right now, what would you do?"

The Ragged Holy Man kept his smile as he said it. Enkrid did not interrupt. This was not a question of whether Audin would or would not bend to his foster father's words.

'Krais.'

That was the quality he sensed in the man, the same as Krais, or Abnaier, or Ermen.

People like that packed multiple meanings into a single sentence. Several intentions layered together at once.

Enkrid was skilled enough at reading people, but pinning down any single clear intent from this man proved difficult.

'He might be even harder to read than Krais.'

He seemed to hide more than Ermen did. Either way, Audin answered without losing his smile.

"Have you gone senile?"

That drew a loud laugh from the Holy Man.

"Not yet."

"If you are unwell, there is a healer who uses divine power right next door, and an alchemist who makes potions," Enkrid said.

The Holy Man laughed again and shook his head.

"I told you, I am not."

"This old man is better at it than me. The divine power," Seiki added from the side.

Audin waved the Holy Man's words off.

"He has always enjoyed talking nonsense. Think of it as a holy-man-style joke, Brother."

After elf-style jokes, now holy-man-style jokes.

Enkrid let it pass without a second thought, and the Ragged Holy Man stepped closer.

"You are heading to the smithy, yes? Mind if I come along? Seiki, you need to practice what I showed you morning and evening."

"The prayers? Boring."

Seiki pushed out her lower lip.

"That boredom is exactly what you have to sit with. Patience is what lets you use it properly."

The Ragged Holy Man raised a hand and rested it on Seiki's shoulder as he spoke.

A moment ago he had looked like a bishop bleeding the faithful dry. Now he looked like a sage. The jewelry draped around him seemed to scatter light like a halo.

"Then we are off. Audin."

"I do not recall giving permission."

Enkrid said it without letting himself be swept along by the man's rhythm. The old man immediately let loose a torrent of words.

"If you refuse, I plan to follow at a distance without you knowing. Are you really going to be that cold to a blind old man? Did I misjudge you? Or are you the type of young person who loves to torment helpless elders?"

He was no longer a sage. He was a stubborn old man throwing a fit.

"You have a talent for words," Enkrid said.

"What else does a poor wanderer have to survive on?"

"The talent for using divine power?"

"Ha, that one landed. Fair enough. I have leaned on that quite a bit."

His face did not look remotely like it had landed.

"I heard you sometimes pretend not to see."

"Audin, you have been very chatty."

The Ragged Holy Man turned a reproachful look on Audin.

"Was that a secret?"

"No, not really."

It was not quite a comedy routine, but the exchange had gone on long enough. Enkrid had no real reason to refuse, and some part of him wanted to keep a close eye on this man anyway, so he settled it.

"Come along then."

"Please, Brother, he will be useful if you ever have something troubling you," Audin said, dipping his head in thanks.

Rem called out from where he had been watching at a distance.

"Going to order a shield from that Aetri fellow? Get a sturdy one while you're at it."

"Sure, I will."

Enkrid tossed it back casually and turned to go.

"If you spot anyone trying to assassinate me, do handle them," the Ragged Holy Man said, falling in beside him.

"What have you been doing out there that you have assassins after you?"

"Well, my whereabouts got out recently. Officially I died in Legion, but now people know I am very much alive. There is no shortage of people who want me dead."

"You have made a lot of enemies."

"Not so many, really. Probably fewer than ten."

"That is not a small number."

"It is."

Everyone saw things differently, so Enkrid dropped it.

Audin watched the two of them leave. He knew what kind of person his foster father was, not someone who brought harm to others. Sending them off alone would not cause any trouble.

He would play some small prank and be done with it.

Audin let himself recall the first time his foster father had come to the Border Guard to see him.

"Lifted your restriction, pulled your divine power back out. Found a place to nest, by the look of it. So, is your heart a little easier now?"

"Getting better."

"The visions still come?"

"Now and then. Just to keep me company."

The vision of Fildin, the boy who had been dragged in as a Holy Man and died, that was something Audin had already confessed in something close to a formal confession, so his foster father already knew.

His father had smiled at the answer, gripped his shoulder once, and said nothing more. The question the old man had thrown out in front of the squad leader earlier ran in the same vein as what he had once said to Audin himself.

There was no chance Audin would agree to kill Enkrid. His father had simply wanted to make something clear to the squad leader.

That Audin's allegiance was not to any temple, but to the Madman Knights.

'You did not need to say it. He will understand.'

There had been no need to press the point with Enkrid.

* * *

"I already know Audin's place is with the Madman Knights."

Enkrid said it as he walked out of the barracks and returned the sentry's military salute.

"Worrying over nothing, then."

He was acknowledging that Enkrid had understood the true meaning behind what he had said to Audin. That the Ragged Holy Man knew that Enkrid knew.

The Holy Man tapped along with his staff, and watching him walk, two people came to Enkrid's mind, people he had encountered before.

One was a blind old man who had called himself an Apostle. The clothes were different, but there was a similar quality to them: a careful concealment of what lay inside.

'They are different, though.'

The aura between them was completely different. The old man who had signed his letter as an Apostle had carried something dangerous. This old man did not.

If this man could hide a killing edge well enough to fool Enkrid's instincts, he would be a greater wildcat than Jaxon, but that was not the case. His instincts were clear on that.

And there was one other.

'Why is that?'

Looking at the old man now, Anu the Mercenary King of the East came to mind. Two completely different people living completely different lives.

"Go do what you came to do."

Enkrid had already intended to.

The two of them walked at an easy pace through the market and toward Aetri's smithy.

Clang! Whoosh, whoosh!

The ring of iron on iron and the heat blasting from the bellows hit his face like a wave.

"I'm here."

Aetri was standing off to one side. His assistant was doing the actual work.

"I expect you have things to tell me," Aetri said.

He had not picked up a hammer in days. He had been waiting for Enkrid.

"Fortune was a real gift. It saved my life."

Fortune had deflected the angle of the blade the demon threw at the last moment. Because of it, Sinar had not died.

If Sinar had died there, what would he have done? Killed himself to loop back?

He would not have.

His chest would have torn open. He might have wept. But he would have walked on toward tomorrow regardless.

That was the path Enkrid had chosen.

Not to repeat today. To press on toward tomorrow no matter what.

So Sinar could have died. He had thought it unlikely, but it was possible.

What the demon had been attempting, by showing him that life, was temptation. Probably the temptation to sink into the demonic and become someone else entirely.

If Sinar had fallen into that and lost herself, he would have knocked her out cold, tried everything he could think of, and dragged her back somehow.

Even without the repeating today, he would not have given up. That was precisely the road Enkrid walked.

So he was only grateful. The blade named Fortune had sealed off every one of those dark possibilities.

"Real fortune. Truly."

"I am glad it pleased you. The materials you sent arrived safely as well," Aetri said.

Enkrid had sent Aetri all the weapons and armor he had taken from the Cultists.

He had been occupied with sharpening his swordsmanship and had only come now, but Aetri had needed time to study and experiment with the metals too.

Both of them had needed those days.

"Well then."

Aetri brought over a small table and two cups of tea.

Enkrid took a sip and glanced out of the smithy. There was no door, just an open entrance, and through it he could see the Ragged Holy Man wandering about outside.

Across the road, a lone tree stood with flower buds just beginning to show their faces. A spring breeze stirred outside, but the heat of the smithy pushed it back.

Enkrid looked out and told Aetri briefly what he knew. It had felt like a long story, but spoken aloud it did not take very long at all. Aetri listened to everything, fell into deep thought, then said:

"Come back in a month."

"Understood."

Nothing more needed saying. Aetri had not even flinched at the part about the true silver being broken. His assistant had not stopped swinging the hammer once the entire time.

Enkrid liked watching that. It seemed as though the assistant was walking their own road too.

"What about the Frog?"

"Out. Went to gather materials."

"Right."

He could see them next time. He stepped outside, and the Ragged Holy Man said:

"Aren't you hungry? I heard they sell incredible seasoned jerky around here?"

"They do."

"Buy me some."

"Gladly."

The two of them made straight for the street lined with shops selling seasoned jerky.

Krais had restructured the city layout over time, so there was now a street given over entirely to restaurants and inns, while this side belonged to smithies and craftsmen.

Four inns at the center of the city served as the hub, and slow carriages ran routes between them.

Anyone could ride for Krona. Sturdy donkeys pulled the cars instead of horses.

The carriages had no roof and held ten people comfortably. Neither of them had any need to board one, the Ragged Holy Man walked perfectly well, and Enkrid went without saying.

"Looking forward to what the craftsman comes up with?" the Holy Man asked as they walked.

He meant Aetri.

"Very much."

A brief exchange, and then they walked briskly until they reached the shop where the jerky was grilling. Next to it was a shop selling marmalade.

"The smell alone makes my mouth water."

They ate well, then had something to drink at the shop right beside it. After that they wandered the city for a while, and a few people recognized Enkrid along the way.

The Holy Man watched all of it.

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