WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 729: Touched

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Some people might find a gold coin lying in the dirt and still wish for something more. They might look their strange fortune in the face and feel it wasn't quite enough.

Enkrid wasn't like that.

Clear.

The air was different. The sunlight was different.

Dusk had worked its magic, and the change it brought left him satisfied.

A warm season was coming.

Zaun had been clawed apart by the storm, but now it was time to get back on its feet.

"I'll carry on what Milestia left behind. That doesn't mean I'm setting swordsmanship aside."

Everything Milestia had left fell to Magroon. His own poor health had already pushed him deep into the world of medicines and remedies, so the fit wasn't strange. His interest in swordsmanship hadn't gone anywhere, but someone had to shoulder the duty.

If you felt the burden as dead weight, it would grind you down. If you took it not as a burden but as something to enjoy, you might find yourself doing it with a smile.

Magroon was clearly the latter.

"It's interesting. Zaun's herbalism will only get better from here."

"It's healing arts. It isn't just about handling plants."

Ann had given him a notebook she'd written by hand. Inside, she'd recorded treatments and responses for various conditions and ailments.

Flipping through it and seeing the level of the contents, Enkrid thought that if this spread across the continent, more than a few people would end up dead because of it. Which meant it was something you could easily call a treasure.

This was a world where people fought and killed each other over a single relic. Nations had been known to dispatch entire knight orders to explore some ruins.

Treasure hunters, for their part, had always known that relics weren't the only things worth hunting.

"If by any chance you gave me this because you have feelings for me..."

Magroon had gotten his hopes up after receiving it.

"Have you looked in a mirror? Is there no clear water in Zaun? You could check your reflection in a stream."

She shut him down immediately.

With her neat, delicate features, Ann looked at first glance like a quiet, well-bred lady. In reality, she was a woman who had crossed the continent with a handful of potions and a backbone of iron. And she had already promised her future to Ragna.

Still, when the time comes to stretch and breathe again, you do it.

Just as Zaun was doing now.

When Enkrid had finished getting ready to leave, carrying a certain lightness in his chest, Schmidt arrived with one of those remarkable things in tow. He had kept insisting the Empire had remarkable things to offer, and no one had told him not to believe it or asked him to prove it.

"Schmidt, is that the friend you mentioned? The one you said you wanted to bring over?"

The man had hair shaved close on the sides and back, nearly to the skin, with only the top and front left at a moderate length. He was broad and built, with an angular club swinging at his hip.

A blunt, square-headed weapon that made an impression.

He wore a suit of specially modified armor: breast mail, pauldrons, bracers wrapping the forearms, and thin iron plating around the thighs like cylinders. The joints weren't connected, which made it look like plate mail cut apart and worn in pieces, but the curves were so smooth and natural it made you wonder how it had been made.

Fanito, or whatever his name had been, had also worn distinctive armor during that recent fight, but this was something else entirely. What stuck in the mind was how the armor seemed to belong on this man, like a second skin.

Why does it look that way?

Was it the lightness of his own mood, the calm that had settled over him?

More than anything the man had said or what he was, that question caught Enkrid's attention first.

"You're the Enkrid from Border Guard?"

the man asked.

Enkrid hadn't finished sizing him up yet, but that was no reason to keep his mouth shut.

The man wasn't showing any killing intent or open hostility, but in Enkrid's eyes he was ready to fight at any moment. He could tell without watching the hands or feet, without sensing any rising momentum or Will.

This one can go at any time. He wore that readiness like armor. That, too, was strange.

His reply didn't come out warmly.

"Who are you?"

He didn't tilt his head, but it was the kind of answer you'd expect when two mercenaries started sizing each other up. It would have fit perfectly in some corner tavern in some city, a few drinks in, with the smell of vomit and tobacco hanging in the air nearby.

But to Enkrid, this was the natural response. If you want to ask someone's name, you give yours first. That was manners.

"...It's been a while since anyone reacted like that. When you only move around inside the Empire, it doesn't happen much."

As he spoke, the man raised his left hand, palm flat, and held it level with his chest as though supporting something from below, stopping at a horizontal angle. It was a gesture that said, look at the insignia.

The emblem was a large circle with a smaller circle inside it.

The symbol of the Empire. Also the insignia of the Imperial Knights.

Inside the Empire, that insignia served as a travel pass, proof of identity, and a symbol of authority that commanded respect from anyone who saw it.

The problem was, this wasn't the Empire.

"So who are you?"

Enkrid asked again.

The corners of the man's mouth rose. The smile that followed was like a tiger's.

He was smiling, and killing intent came with it. The fact that the intent was taking shape meant this one was no less skilled than the family head. The form his Pressure took was a spiked club, savage and rough. It suited his nature. It was like a thorned club being thrust forward with blood and flesh still on it, unwiped.

Roughly on par with the family head?

Maybe that was why.

Anticipation filled Enkrid's eyes.

Want to go a round?

There were several strange things here. The armor that looked like skin. The way he handled his Will, always ready to go. Above all, Enkrid couldn't predict what kind of attack would come.

"Valmund Balpier."

The man gave his name, and Enkrid moved only his lips in reply.

"Enkrid of Border Guard."

Above the basin where the storm had passed, only a calm wind blew. Through that calm wind, two beasts regarded each other.

It looked like they might draw on each other at any moment. Three-Iron rang out.

Jiiiing.

At the sound of the sword, the man's hand was already at his hip without Enkrid seeing him move. He bared his teeth, gripping the handle of his club. The canines were unusually sharp.

"Sir Balpier."

Schmidt said something from beside him, but this wasn't the moment for him to cut in. That said, no fight actually broke out.

There were too many people moving to stop it. And they were doing it in an extremely one-sided way.

"That's far enough. Valmund. Push any further and you won't be leaving here easily."

"A spar is one thing, but if you're showing killing intent, that changes things."

"You'd better stop. I won't bother with a warning before I swing."

Three people moved first.

In order: the family head, Lynox, Alexandra.

Even then, Valmund didn't let up. If anything, his momentum grew. Did it feel more threatening than the Medusa they had cut down not long ago? The shape was a little different, but there was no doubt he was every bit as dangerous.

Why had it turned hostile this suddenly? Who knew. It had just gone this way.

"Even if you are an Imperial Knight, you cannot draw on our hero within Zaun's grounds."

Odinkar stepped forward, eyes sharp with intent. He had the look of someone who had made up his mind.

"If you want to use that blade, go play with the Magic Beasts."

Magroon stepped forward too, his expression set. A blank face can carry many things, and what this one showed was unmistakably contempt.

"Hey, who do you think you are?"

And with that came the tallest beauty of the Giant race, then Riley and Katu who had once called themselves slaves, then the children who had learned swordsmanship under Enkrid, all stepping up without a shred of fear.

Before anyone had noticed, all of Zaun had gathered and was pressing in on the Imperial Knight.

"Who is this guy?"

"Why is he acting like that toward our Enki?"

"Is that a threat? He's throwing killing intent around freely."

"Just because he's a knight doesn't mean a blade won't go into him."

Not an ounce of fear among them.

It wasn't a bad feeling.

These people had reacted to the simple fact that someone was directing killing intent at their hero.

When someone touches what matters to you, you react. That's how it works.

To these people, Enkrid had become someone who mattered.

Of course they knew he could handle himself just fine, but the will to not simply stand by while someone came at him was the bigger force.

So there was something in it that stirred the chest, just a little.

Valmund Balpier held Enkrid's gaze for a long moment before he was the first to let his momentum drop.

"Sir Balpier."

Schmidt wiped cold sweat from his brow beside him and reached to take hold of his arm.

"Imperial Knight Valmund Balpier."

He said it once more, smiling this time as he extended a hand.

Enkrid moved to take it on reflex, and the family head, Alexandra, and Lynox all stepped one pace closer.

"I came to help Zaun, and I have no ill will toward this man. Yes?"

Valmund said it to the three of them. Watching from the side, it was clear they already knew each other.

"And it looks like none of you three are in top form right now, so don't push yourselves."

When Valmund finished, Odinkar cut in.

"I'm perfectly fine."

He had moved to stand beside Enkrid without anyone noticing. Faced with all of Zaun lined up like that, the man let out a short, humorless laugh.

"Schmidt, I half figured you were exaggerating when you said this friend saved Zaun, but it's true."

Schmidt shook his head slowly.

"I told you as much."

"Anyway. No ill will."

With that, he finally extended his hand all the way. Enkrid took it, and Valmund pushed Will into his grip, but Enkrid had been trained by Audin of all people. In raw grip strength, within the Madman Knights, only Audin ranked above him.

Crack, pop, crack.

The two knights' clasped hands produced a disturbing series of sounds, but neither broke any bones.

"You're strong."

Valmund Balpier said it, brow furrowed slightly from the pain.

"First Imperial Knight I've met."

Enkrid answered easily and let go.

After hearing him out, it turned out that one of Valmund Balpier's reasons for coming here was to help Zaun.

"Isn't that a little fast to be coming now?" Odinkar said.

Valmund explained: when he'd received Schmidt's message, he had already been in the middle of tracking down the leader of some bandit group. The man had fled and caused his route to loop around, which was why the timing had worked out the way it did.

What kind of knight chased down a bandit leader? Listening further, the answer was that the man being hunted was also operating at a knight's level.

Even the crimes of the Empire were on a different scale, it seemed.

"He was originally a soldier from inside the Empire, so I know him. He had a talent awakening, which should be a good thing, except he's been causing problems ever since. He has a hobby of killing people."

The world had all kinds of people in it, and among them were the kinds you'd want to curse at on sight. That was how Enkrid heard it.

Valmund had wanted to finish off the fugitive first, but the man had suddenly changed direction somewhere in this area, and since he could loop around and keep the pursuit going, he'd come here first and would finish the chase afterward, he said.

In that case, he could have just left.

"Why not come along?"

Out of nowhere, he asked Enkrid to join him.

"There's someone I'm waiting for, so I can't leave right now. But don't you need to move fast on that pursuit?"

Enkrid asked, and Valmund smiled and shook his head.

"A day or two is nothing."

Hearing him say it like that, the pursuit wasn't as urgent as it had sounded. Which raised the question of why he'd taken so long to come help Zaun, but that wasn't really a point worth pressing.

Looking at the situation.

Had he been planning to show up with perfect timing once Zaun's strength was running dry? And then Enkrid had come along and thrown that off. There was more he'd learned as well.

Zaun and the Empire are in an unspoken alliance.

Nothing else could explain this kind of connection. That was the reason Valmund and the family head and the others already knew each other.

Who had built this arrangement?

Heskal.

The third contingency Heskal had prepared for Zaun's survival. A path that would bring Zaun under the Empire's roof if everything else fell apart.

That meant this was a relationship you couldn't afford to make an enemy of.

And yet all of Zaun had been ready to throw themselves at an Imperial Knight for Enkrid's sake without a second thought.

The family head was watching him. Enkrid spoke first.

"I'm not planning to leave until Ragna gets back. If I leave without him, he's the kind of friend I might not see again for the rest of my life."

If he told Ragna to find his own way back, they'd probably have to wait until another life to meet again.

Then Valmund dangled a very interesting piece of bait.

"Wouldn't you like to see Imperial Swordsmanship? I didn't grow up in the Empire myself, but the man who ran is someone who knows it inside and out."

Enkrid, for all that he was a fish, found this bait very hard to refuse.

Should I leave Ann behind as a guide?

She'd be more than enough for that.

Ragna had said he needed at least another week. Something about it taking that long to settle the matter of Ilchul.

Valmund seemed to have a habit of saying things that poked at people. Every time he spoke, he nudged somewhere that made you react. Enkrid found it amusing, actually.

A genuinely rare kind of person. An Imperial Knight at that.

Saying it didn't spark any interest would have been a lie.

He also didn't get the sense that this man meant to do him harm.

"What do you say? And don't worry, any of you. On the honor of the Imperial Knights, I swear I won't bring harm to this man."

Valmund said it readily, offering it to quiet everyone's dissatisfaction.

He wasn't an orator, but he was someone who knew how to read a room and handle it with the ease of long experience.

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