WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 752: A Potato That Couldn't Even Sprout

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Rem closed the distance and struck Romen in the jaw. The hand gripping the axe left an afterimage as it struck and pulled back. The jaw was a vital spot.

A clean hit should have rattled his brain and dropped him, but Romen endured it. He completely ignored the impact of the blow.

And he did not stop at merely enduring it. He half-turned and swung the elbow of the arm holding his greatsword.

Thwack.

Rem had no reason to be caught off guard, so he was not. He simply raised an arm to block it, then kicked Romen's leg out from under him. Romen teetered sideways and fell.

"You're tough. Are we really not cutting off one leg?"

Rem asked again.

"If you're going to reattach it, cut it off."

Enkrid's answer was firm. At the same time, he thought:

'But why is Romen here?'

And alone, at that?

Was there trouble in the City of Aoara? No. He received regular reports from there.

He had even considered going himself if the city was having trouble dealing with the remnants of the Cursed Ground known as the Gray Forest.

He had made Krais look into so many things that Krais had once complained.

"I only have one body, you know."

In short, the City of Aoara was different from before. It was not yet comparable to cities surrounded by the Safe Road.

'But it has surpassed the level of an ordinary pioneer city.'

It was also Knight Aoara's legacy, so Crang personally took care to keep an eye on it.

'Then why?'

He had a vague idea, but there was no need to seek an answer when the more precise one stood right before him.

"He won't even pass out."

Rem's even voice drifted over.

Enkrid did not know what a Parasitic Worm was. Still, he could infer the situation from what he saw.

'That brown lump attached to his head.'

That was likely the main body. Judging by his slack, unfocused pupils, Romen seemed to be unconscious and controlled.

"If we remove that, will he come back?"

Enkrid muttered as if speaking to himself. Ropord responded.

"Fifty-fifty, perhaps?"

If Enkrid had heard of Romen's death through some other means, would he have simply accepted it? Or would he have felt bitter?

What was certain was that this would not shake Enkrid.

'If I can save him, I will.'

The best he could do.

It was also the answer he had found from what the ferryman had shown him and made him experience on the previous day.

The ferryman had forced cruel fantasies upon him. He urged Enkrid to remain in the present, in the now, rather than in a today that would end in the worst possible outcome.

He was a conductor playing unease.

He composed a melody that raced from an overture of loss, through a middle passage of resentment, toward a climax of despair.

"Will you regret it only after everyone around you has died? When that time comes, will you beg to be sent back to the past?"

All the way here, the ferryman had been more relentless than ever before. And Enkrid said:

"It's called Vortex. What do you think?"

He had focused on swordsmanship more than ever before. He had trained so intensely that he devoted himself to it even in his dreams.

That was why he had not wavered in the slightest. If anything, what the ferryman showed him had only made him firmer.

If someone had watched and understood their entire relationship, they might have asked whether the ferryman was testing Enkrid.

Naturally, Enkrid had felt the same, but that was all.

There was no reason to confront him over it, and nothing more to do.

While continuing his training, Enkrid had simply reached a conclusion.

'The best I can do.'

It was only a feeling, but Enkrid felt as if he had learned that conclusion from the ferryman. Or perhaps as if the ferryman had pushed him toward it.

Naturally, he did not say any of that aloud.

His thoughts were brief. Enkrid immediately opened his mouth.

"Jaxon. Audin."

The ultimate meaning of Enkrid-Style Orthodox Swordsmanship, reborn from Ruagarne's tactical swordsmanship, was to walk the best path possible in the current situation.

This time was no different.

'Remove the parasite.'

Jaxon's knife work was delicate enough to slice layers from skin as delicately as filleting meat. And Audin was the only one in the knight order who possessed divine power.

"Rem, hold him."

The Barbarian's axe work, which had been striking vital points all over Romen's body hard enough to incapacitate him, changed.

Its violent swings became smooth, curving movements. Like a whip curling through the air, it caught Romen's greatsword and guided it into the ground.

Thud.

Rem drove the greatsword into the earth and planted his foot on it.

After that, there was nothing difficult about it. Jaxon, who had approached without anyone noticing, cut the Parasitic Worm free.

"The Lord watches over us."

Audin placed one bare hand on Romen's head. The blood pouring from the approximately fifteen holes left where the Parasitic Worm had been was pushed back by white light and stopped.

That was all.

Romen's body collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Audin grabbed him by the neck with one hand.

It was probably meant to support him, but it also looked like a posture ready to snap Romen's neck if he acted up.

"I went out of my way to save him, and you're going to kill him?"

When Rem remarked on it, Audin smiled and replied.

"It is a secret art that supports and restrains at the same time."

"Don't give me that secret-art nonsense."

Rem shot back. Beside him, Ragna yawned so widely it looked as though his mouth might split. There was no sense of danger.

"What should we do about those?"

Fell cast a glance to one side.

Demon Creatures similar in form to the one that had taken over Romen were wriggling closer from within the Brown Forest. What had appeared to be the Brown Forest had all been their bodies.

Brown lumps descended to the ground and wriggled closer. They looked like mud given a will of its own.

"Why even ask?"

Ropord reproached Fell. Demon Creatures were to be killed. Was that not why they were moving now?

"Fiancé. This disgusts me."

Sinar pretended to be weak and hid behind Enkrid. Rem nearly cursed, then held it back. Enkrid noticed.

"You've grown, Rem."

Enkrid said so with admiration, and Rem glared at him.

"Tch. Just shut up for once. What, you can't keep that mouth of yours still?"

Rem was one to talk, but Enkrid was the leader of this group. He humorously soothed Rem's feelings. Since Rem had told him to shut up, he stayed silent and conveyed his meaning with only his eyes.

You're one to talk.

Rem ignored him.

In any case, Ropord and Fell stood side by side to confront what could be called a horde of Demon Creatures.

A moment of carelessness could make someone a Parasitic Worm's host. They were that dangerous.

"Think it'll burn?"

"You want to set it on fire?"

"Yeah."

But to them, the creatures were no threat.

"Be careful with fire."

Sinar replied to that. It was difficult to immediately shake off an incident that had affected one's mind. Fire was still a dangerous tool to her.

Of course, she was no ordinary elf, and she was in the process of overcoming her past.

"Use it carefully."

That was why she added it.

The Parasitic Worms, dissolved into something like mud, scattered and rushed at them. Fell and Ropord cut down every one of them, then burned the forest that served as the brown masses' main base.

It was called a forest, but it was not very large. Once part of it was burned, the rest simply crumbled down.

Partway through, the head of the Colony that ruled the Cursed Ground appeared. It was shaped like an earthworm.

Against it, Fell swung a sword following a path similar to Enkrid's Vortex.

A single, all-out decisive strike had always been Fell's specialty. Of course, it was inferior to what Enkrid had shown.

The earthworm survived even with its head split apart. In the end, burning it was the answer.

"I'll do it."

Ruagarne stepped forward, swung her flaming whip, and finished it.

They had cleared a Cursed Ground, yet the fighting had not even lasted half a day.

Part of that was because the Cursed Ground was not large, and part of it was because they possessed power beyond normal standards.

Afterward, Audin slung Romen over his shoulder. The group continued toward their next destination. That is, they went in search of the next Cursed Ground.

To the south, there were several places known as small Cursed Grounds. Burning and destroying all of them would itself be something like a signal fire sent to the Balrok.

They found a place to camp and settled in. Romen woke up. He blinked for a moment, then spoke.

"You died too?"

It was directed at Enkrid. There was some time spent explaining the current situation.

"Ah."

After hesitating a little, Romen recounted his foolish act.

It was a common sort of straying from the path. A desperate struggle to find the path toward becoming a Knight.

"My skill stopped improving. Time passed while I remained stuck in place. I could not wait any longer."

It had been an extreme choice.

Romen had almost completely dealt with the Demon Creatures and Magic Beasts remaining in the Gray Forest, but he had felt himself stagnate.

How could he overcome this? He needed a change. To move forward, he set out alone.

Then he learned that people lived even in land belonging to no nation.

He had reached that place partly through luck. If he had encountered the Cyclops Enkrid had cut down, it would have been a close call.

Had he fought for those people, then?

"No. It was for my own greed. It was because of the hollow hope that fighting in a Cursed Ground would show me a way forward."

The experience in the Gray Forest had felt like a driving force behind some of his growth, which was why he had made that choice.

If you walk in the wrong direction without watching your footing, you may fall off a cliff.

The path toward becoming a Knight was not well paved.

Fortunately, Romen, who had fallen below that cliff, had been pulled back up by another's hands.

It was foolishness, but no one here would fail to understand him.

Enkrid especially understood that feeling far too well to rebuke him.

There were very few people who could speak carelessly at a time like this.

"That was stupid."

Rem spoke up from among them.

"Right."

Ragna agreed.

Jaxon paid no attention at all. He had gathered several pebbles off to one side and was filling his pockets with them.

"Do you believe in the Lord? Had you believed in the Lord, He would have shown you the way."

Audin joined in as well.

Mm.

Romen's foolishness was criticized. Not by Enkrid, but by every member of the knight order under him.

"It seems to be because you lack training."

Fell showed their training-crazed side.

"Being bold is good, but there was no reason to enter a Cursed Ground alone, was there?"

Ropord pointed out the reality of it.

Romen looked around at them.

"Who are these bastards?"

"The knight order."

At Enkrid's answer, Romen understood who they were. There were familiar faces among them, so he could not fail to recognize them.

The Madman Knights.

Romen knew he had done something foolish, and he knew they had saved him. So he tried to hold his tongue, but the words did not stop.

"Fiancé, if I were left alone in a Cursed Ground, you would come rescue me, would you not?"

"Why would you insist on entering a Cursed Ground alone?"

"To regain the joy of before. When the demon was captured, every day I envisioned you coming for me."

"Did you not tell me to go back the moment you saw me then?"

"You must learn to hear a woman's words in reverse. And it was a joke. Do I look like a potato that couldn't even sprout?"

A potato that could not even sprout was an elven expression. Rendered into the continental language, it meant something like an idiot, a fool, or a moron.

Romen did not understand, but kind Ropord added an explanation.

"I did not particularly want to know that."

"Oh, really?"

Then Rem joined in, and everyone else talked far too much as well.

Listening to them discuss him, something hot began to boil deep within Romen's chest.

"Getting taken by a Parasitic Worm like that happened because your inner core is too soft."

"Weak in body and mind."

"For someone your size, you clearly lack inner training."

"A fool is just a fool."

There was gray-haired Rem, the blond swordsman, the large man urging everyone to believe in his god, and the man silently handling pebbles.

Then the half-blood Giant approached from the side and asked. Her name was Teresa, if Romen remembered correctly.

"Did you have a plan?"

It was likely a question born of pure curiosity, but still.

"These bastards, seriously."

Anger surged within him.

He knew he had done something foolish, but could they not consider how he had felt? How frustrated did he have to be to go out in pursuit of training and do something like this?

And there were people living there too. They might only be half people, but they were still people.

Could they not hear that part?

But his position was too awkward for him to raise his voice. In the end, he could only let out a deep sigh and say:

"How would people packed full of talent understand how I feel?"

As he lifted his head, he saw Enkrid.

Enkrid was a man who had given whatever talent he possessed to some human-faced dog and reached his current position through Will and effort alone.

He was now a Knight. Romen already knew that from the rumors.

Romen did not know it, but Enkrid was not just any Knight.

In any case, as Enkrid watched Romen struggle desperately, he thought this too might be one of the conditions for becoming a Knight.

'Just because someone is a Knight of the Empire does not mean they can teach and elevate just anyone.'

In truth, it was necessary for their dispositions and various other conditions to align before one could guide someone upward.

But Enkrid was different. He could guide Romen's path too. He could see the road.

It would not happen immediately, but setting up signposts and opening the way was something he could do.

'That much is possible.'

That was what made Enkrid unusual. The path he had walked was clearly different from everyone else's.

He had built stairs where there was no road from the very bottom, clinging to cliffs as he climbed.

Romen saw Enkrid's eyes shining strangely and, embarrassed, spoke.

"People live in Cursed Grounds too. You did not know that, did you?"

Footnotes:

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