WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 686: Took a Bit of a Detour

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"What they're doing is genuinely childish."

It was Ann. She tilted her head up with one corner of her mouth twisted into a smirk. Light flickered in her eyes.

The alchemist stood in the slanting afternoon sun, that one corner of her lips curled into a wicked smile as she spoke.

Though in truth it was less wickedness and more a mask worn to endure the malice directed at her.

"Did they actually think this would keep me from drinking water? Really?"

There was no enemy directly in front of her, but Ann spoke as if there were.

"You ability-starved, thought-starved little bastard. Did you think a stunt like this would take me down? Make me retreat?"

Was this the desperate lashing out of someone weak and bitter, or the roar of someone who had already hardened their resolve?

A roar, Enkrid decided.

"Look, Captain. When I came to the Border Guard alone, do you think I was relying purely on luck?"

At first, he had assumed so. She herself had said she was lucky to make it.

But a girl who could not swing a sword and had no group to take her in had crossed the continent and reached Border Guard, a place whose very name meant the boundary city.

She had come all the way to the outer fringe of the continent. By any calculation, the odds of arriving were vanishingly low.

There was some means she had relied on. That was the Ann he had observed all this time. She never showed up to the Madman Knights' training ground empty-handed. Even in the middle of research, wherever her hand could reach, she kept a few reagents, medicines, and small round chewable pills set out nearby.

Enkrid slept with his sword beside him. Regardless of whether it was the weapon Aetri gave him, he always kept a blade on his body.

For me it's a sword. For Ann it's that bag.

Ann unfastened the latch on the bag she alternately slung at her side and back, reached inside, and pulled out what her hand found: a flat, round blue pill no bigger than her little fingernail.

"I am an alchemist and a healer."

She murmured it like a recitation. It could have been a traveling bard singing. Given the right melody, it truly would have been, her voice had a rhythm that landed beat for beat.

She dropped the pill into the water canteen that held the contaminated water. Before a single breath could pass, blue smoke rose from the mouth of the canteen and vanished.

Ann raised the canteen to her lips and tipped it back.

No one tried to stop her. What she was doing now was the same as Ragna's sword strokes, full of certainty. The same resolve: even if this path is wrong, I'll push until it's right. That kind of stroke. Exactly that.

Everyone watched her throat move, caught by her sheer nerve. It bobbed once, twice. Water going down.

"Ahh."

Ann lowered the canteen.

"It's fine to drink. What a clumsy little trick."

Acknowledged.

Enkrid nodded and took the canteen.

A swallow. The water tasted fine.

Getting to the Border Guard alone, Ann would not have used only a water-purifying pill. There had been medicines to mask her scent from Demon Creatures, and medicines to put people to sleep.

"There are too many to list one by one."

That had been her last word on the subject. Enkrid did not press her by asking who had asked.

He had seen her hands trembling faintly.

Could being surrounded by knights actually bring her any relief?

Facing this much malice and hostility, Ann would have a hard time feeling that.

She won't just sit there and take it quietly.

And if whoever it was came at her again, she could show them she was not someone to take lightly.

Still, the enemy had proven once more that they were no ordinary kind of lunatic.

"Everyone stop."

They had not even been on the mountain path for half of half a day when a sharp, sour scent hit Enkrid's nose.

"Poison fog? Looks like some kind of spell."

Grida said it, staring ahead.

"Yeah, I can see it."

Magroon answered. Ragna only watched without expression. The enemy wanted to hold time hostage, and Ragna found that deeply irritating.

Enkrid looked at the dark green fog blocking the path ahead.

He had seen it, so there was no need to spend time deciding.

"Is there a route around?"

"There is."

Magroon answered at once.

Enkrid glanced at Ragna. Ragna turned his back toward Ann.

"Get on."

"Yes."

Ann seemed to have already steeled herself and let her body settle onto Ragna's back. Ragna tossed his greatsword to Enkrid, who caught it.

The sword was worn across the back, so he could not carry it while carrying Ann.

"Pick up the pace, Magroon."

"Understood."

No need for more words. A route that should have only required crossing the hill ahead stretched sideways instead.

Magroon took the lead and Grida spread out to the right as they ran, watching for any other attack or trick along the way.

Sure enough, there was another trick. Whoever it was seemed to choose only the most annoying options available.

"I can't get my bearings."

Grida stopped mid-path and said it. They stood before three trees with jagged leaves, their trunks twisted together like conjoined twins.

The ascent had continued without break, and the number of trees around them had grown noticeably. It was sinking in that they were well inside the mountain now.

This was not a trail people used regularly, so there was no clear path cut through it, but with Ragna carrying Ann, the terrain was manageable enough for the rest of them. Magroon had even been slashing branches and undergrowth with his sword to open the way as he led.

They had been moving well when Grida stopped.

Enkrid turned to look north and then stopped himself.

It's similar to getting lost in the desert.

He looked up at the sky. He could not gauge direction. His instincts and gut sense were useless too.

"Sorcery."

Enkrid said it. Grida and Magroon nodded. Ragna tilted his head.

"You can't get your bearings? I'm fine."

Grida shook their head slowly.

"Little brother. It's sorcery. Something is interfering with your sense of direction. I know it's hard to understand, but do try."

"What are you on about. Magroon, don't we just go north from here?"

"That's right."

Magroon answered, though unease was plain in his eyes. Of course it was, he had spent years hearing Ragna's legends and achievements. The story of Ragna getting lost while watching the sun rise had drawn genuine awe.

Was there really someone that hopeless in the world?

The man had even gotten briefly lost on his way to meet them and only shown up a month later, hadn't he?

"It's this way. North."

Ragna said it with full conviction. Ann, hanging on his back, forced words out in a haggard voice.

"When it comes to finding the way, please stay out of it."

Sorcery could not be countered by an alchemist's skill, and a knight's senses could not cut through it either. They had been well and truly caught.

So that was what the poison fog was really after.

Enkrid caught a partial glimpse into the mind of whoever was behind this, mage or sorcerer or whatever they were.

Block the path with poison fog.

Force them to risk pressing through it? Ann would have an antidote, most likely.

They would avoid it if they could.

The mountain was wide. There were many ways up.

And their side had four knights with exceptional mobility. Move fast enough and there was no need to take on the danger of poison.

They predicted we'd go around the poison.

If the route shifted, which direction would Magroon, leading the group, guide them?

The fastest path.

If that could be anticipated, a pre-laid sorcery trap could pin the group here. From that, Enkrid learned one more thing.

Whoever prepared this knows the roads around here.

They knew the paths between Zaun and the rest of the continent inside and out. Which meant they were someone from the Zaun family.

"People don't come through this area often, do they?"

Enkrid finished thinking and asked.

"Is that even a question? No one but Zaun people would have reason to come through here. I didn't know the road home would be this rough."

Magroon did not even glance in the direction Ragna had pointed. No one there seemed inclined to follow that lead.

Everyone had lost their bearings, but none of them trusted Ragna.

Only Enkrid thought differently.

"How do you know that's north?"

Ragna had one hand supporting Ann from beneath, and he raised the other, tapping his temple twice with his left index and middle fingers.

"Instinct."

"Lead the way."

Everyone stared at Enkrid with expressions of pure alarm.

"Are you serious?"

"Hey, are we giving up here?"

Magroon and Grida spoke one after the other. Even Ann, riding on Ragna's back, had eyes that shook.

"What's wrong? Did the poison get you?"

Enkrid did not offer any comfortable excuse to put their worries to rest.

"If we start going and it turns out to be wrong, we stop and find the way again. Or do you want to stand here? Until when? Until the sorcery breaks?"

Stopping was exactly what whoever set this up wanted most. So the opposite was the right move.

And besides, had he not wandered the desert once and come back after asking everyone he could how to find his way?

How to navigate, that is.

"You look at the stars to find direction."

Ragna had said that, and had added that when stars were not visible he went by instinct.

Jaxon had said he followed sounds and smells, and hearing that, Rem had mentioned that there were desert guides who walked what they called wind paths.

Ragna is no guide like that.

But when needed, he could find his way. As he had proven in Nauril.

Enkrid trusted that sense Ragna had.

"I knew you'd trust me, Captain. Give me my sword."

Ragna held out his hand. He set Ann down and took his greatsword back.

Ann put her hands on her trembling thighs and looked at Enkrid with eyes that asked if he was really doing this. Ragna walked the path in his own way.

Magroon and Grida had been turning back whenever a tree or blocked passage stood in their way.

Ragna was a man who did not know how to do that.

The moment instinct confirmed that north was this direction, he went straight.

"That's a cliff over there, you lunatic."

Grida's shout meant nothing to him. Ragna cheerfully ignored it and swung his greatsword through the handful of trees blocking his path and felled them.

Crack!

Cut and shattered, the great trunks fell and crashed into the smaller trees around them, breaking and beating them down as they went.

A few of the smaller trees, without a shred of shame, exposed the pale roots they had kept hidden inside the soil.

"North is this way."

He hacked trees down and pushed straight forward. A rock in the way, he jumped it. A tree in the way, he cut it. The place he finally reached was a sheer drop, and even there Ragna simply began sliding down in a rough, casual descent.

"We're going this way?"

Ann asked. Her face looked like someone had poured blue dye over it.

"Get on."

Ragna was opening the way, so this time Enkrid carried her on his back.

"I can feel my resolve being scraped away from the inside."

Ann said it from his back in a grave tone.

It sounded like she was having second thoughts about everything.

"As long as we get out of the sorcery's range, it doesn't matter whether it's north or not."

Enkrid murmured back.

What the enemy wanted was to steal time here. So doing the opposite was the right call.

Ragna handled the steep cliff path without trouble, using his body to descend. He drove his greatsword into the rock face at intervals as he went. These were knights. A fall or a tumble from something like this was not going to happen. That went without saying.

"Is this actually right?"

Grida muttered.

As a guide, Grida had been taught that in a situation like this you stop where you are and carefully confirm your direction.

With these lunatics, that was out of the question.

Ragna led the way in that brute-force manner, and by the time the sun dropped low and color slowly bled from everything around them, swallowed by the dark, they finally broke free of the sorcery's range.

They had descended the full cliff, climbed another short bluff after that, cut down more than twenty trees, and scaled a small rocky peak before coming out.

Naturally, it was not north.

They came out to the west. The road would loop a little further now, but even so, what had happened was remarkable in its own right.

Anyone else would have lost their sense of direction and gone around in circles, hopelessly lost.

Even knights would have needed more time, but Ragna's sheer drive had cut down the wasted hours.

"In a way, I have to call that impressive."

Grida said with open admiration. Ragna nodded as if it were obvious. The way he looked around suggested he still had no idea where he was.

Magroon was taking a moment to get his bearings again.

"The original destination was the hunters' village, right?"

Enkrid asked, looking at Magroon.

Zaun maintained several villages nearby. The hunters' village was one of them. The others were a retirees' village and a brokers' village, three in total.

Their destination was the hunters' village, situated somewhere to the south. Not the fastest road to Zaun, but a natural stop on the way.

"That's right."

Magroon answered, and Enkrid followed without hesitation.

"Is there a route that goes straight to Zaun?"

If he were the mage or sorcerer, he would have laid similar traps along the paths ahead, as many as he had the capacity to set.

If they had been given plenty of time to prepare, there could be dozens of those traps waiting.

Then was there any reason to walk that road?

Looking back at the sorcery and the poison fog, there had been no trace of Odinkar having passed through there.

If Odinkar came through first, the fog and the sorcery would already have been triggered. Only traces would remain.

Nothing in the world is perfect. Sorcery and spells are no different.

Once triggered and time passes, they would be one-use, gone.

Both the poison fog and the direction-disrupting sorcery carried real power. They were not the kind of thing that could be kept running indefinitely.

Therefore.

"Let's change the route."

Shift the path, and you step outside the enemy's predictions. That was the conclusion.

At his words, Magroon looked at Ann.

"The road will be pretty rough to carry her on."

It was not the person doing the carrying he was worried about, it was whether the person being carried could hold on.

Ann answered for herself.

"I can take a pill and sleep through it, and Ragna can tie me securely to his back."

Her resolve to see this through had not wavered.

"So she says."

Enkrid shrugged. With that settled, the destination and the road shifted a little.

Ragna stopped scanning the area and finally spoke.

"Took a small detour."

Son of a, If this counted as a small detour, then going even further around would land them not in Zaun but all the way down in Rihinshtetten in the south.

Magroon nearly spat a curse, but swallowed it.

They had gotten out, at least.

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