A Knight Who Eternally Regresses - Chapter 429



Only Noblemtl

429. The one who carries dreams on his sword

The cloud-filled sky felt lower than ever.

The clouds seemed to touch the small hill behind the training ground and the dormitory.

While everyone else was doing their own work, the king and Encred discussed their dreams.

It was something he said while taking a deep breath of the cool, refreshing air created by the dried rainwater and exhaling it.

“I want to become a knight and swing a sword.”

The dream was so plain and indifferent in its tone and attitude that it felt like someone else’s story.

It’s about what he wants to do on the continent, starting with becoming a knight.

The king heard Encred’s dream and thought.

‘There is no despair or frustration.’

I don’t even discuss the ridicule of others.

I have no doubt that it will go forward and that it will happen.

This man didn’t think about failure.

The king’s past flashed through his mind.

“Stop talking nonsense about establishing a country! Do you think that makes sense?”

These were the words of his younger brother, who followed him the most.

Anu couldn’t blame him. Au was just a man who faced reality.

What he said wasn’t wrong. There were other people who said the same thing.

“That’s ridiculous. Investing in something like that.”

“Are you going to become a bandit or a thief? What is there in the East?”

“Why waste your power like that? Focus on blocking the demonic realm. I will give you whatever you want.”

The king, Anu, did not listen to all of their words and rejected them all.

None of their words made his heart beat.

‘I will do something that makes my heart beat.’

That was the task of establishing a nation in the East.

Anu eventually did it, devoting his life to laying the foundation for a nation.

Everyone said it couldn’t be done. Everyone said it was pointless. Everyone laughed at him.

Anu didn’t have time to worry about such things. She had too much to do.

It just kept moving forward.

So I kept walking and moving forward.

“That sounds fun. Let’s do it together.”

The number of people staying by his side has increased.

“You seem to have a lot of gaps. Let me fill them in.”

That’s how it was now.

It’s not over. It’s just beginning.

Although he did not intend to give strength, the king’s voice was weighty and his eyes were filled with heat.

“The Eastern Kingdom? That is merely a transit point! The country is merely a foundation. My goal is to conquer the entire East.”

I will explore and explore the unknown, opening paths one by one and planting my flag in that land.

The king spoke and bared his fangs. It was a smile, but it was also an expression of fighting spirit.

“You want to become a knight? Are you talking about a knight from the past?”

“yes.”

“You want to erase war from the continent? If the Demon Realm is the enemy, you will erase the Demon Realm. If the demon blocks your way, you will kill the demon. If the Empire blocks your way, you will even destroy the Empire?”

It was a dream greater than the dream of conquering the East. This is a delusion. The king respects the dreams of others. But isn’t this too much?

Encred’s attitude was still the same. The sweat had already cooled. The wind blew, causing Encred’s black hair, which had grown long enough to tickle his neck, to flutter.

I don’t have any great bloodline. I’m not royalty. I’m not particularly talented either.

He was a human being who walked forward with only one dream.

“You’re a really funny guy.”

Anu now spat out from his own mouth the words that those who had admired him had spat out.

Isn’t this guy’s dream on a different scale?

“If I pick a fight on the continent, you will fight me too. Then, for the sake of the future, I will kill you here.”

I didn’t actually mean to kill him.

The king remembered something he had forgotten from his opponent’s words.

Staying here, I saw the true intentions of the other person for the first time.

That’s why.

It should be seen as a teaching covered up with words threatening to kill.

He didn’t want to explain all his quirks in words, so he wrapped them up in an excuse and said, ‘I’ll kill you.’

Of course, it was impossible to know the king’s intentions.

Aren’t you a person who is already very fickle and does whatever the mood demands?

The king rose from his sitting position with his horse and reached behind him. The adjutant hesitated for a moment.

He followed Anu for over twenty years.

‘Are you serious?’

So I hesitated, but followed the order. I was about to throw the spear with the king’s hand, but the king said.

“The bull.”

The adjutant stopped, not hesitated. The name of the weapon that he would not use unless he was dealing with an opponent that he absolutely had to kill or an enemy comparable to himself was mentioned.

“Master?”

Asaluhi asked back without realizing it.

“Give it to me.”

The king was resolute. The adjutant took out the new weapon on his back and untied the cloth wrapped around it.

The spearhead was dark brown and difficult to guess what it was made of, and the blade was unusually forked.

The blade looked like a horn, both in material and shape. It was a dark gray horn blade. If you looked at it in the dark, it would have been too black to be seen.

The two horns, the spear head, and the shaft were the torso of a bull.

An unprecedented sense of intimidation emanated from the king holding the spear. It was an intimidation that made one bow one’s head and bow.

Encred, who had been sitting side by side and talking, felt a pressure as if he was sinking into the ground while sitting, but soon activated the will to refuse.

Encred’s determination pushed away the intimidation shown by his opponent and proved himself.

It was a rejection and a rebellion because it was not suppressed even though it was being suppressed.

Encred also got up from his seat, pushing the floor with his palm.

Asaluhi looked surprised, as if the very act of happening was a great thing.

Standing before a king holding a bull without any trepidation.

Above all, today the man fell twice at the king’s hands.

It was natural to be tired. It was natural to be shaken.

But that wasn’t the case.

Encrid stood holding Aker.

What the other person really meant? I didn’t know that.

Legs that feel weak after two rounds of sparring?

He doesn’t know either.

The opponent heard his dream and said he would crush it. He boldly revealed his murderous intent to kill him.

Encred did as he had been doing.

He took up his sword and rebelled.

I patched up my torn dream as I had been doing.

I took a stance and looked straight at my opponent.

I walked as I always did, looking only at my dreams.

I put strength into my legs and took a deep breath.

I decided to live the moment as I always had, even if it meant dying.

The king’s spear moved. Two horns pierced his chest with such speed that even the faint afterimage became blurred.

Encrid blocked Aker by standing him at an angle.

It was an attack that could not have been stopped if I had not been lucky.

Ting.

The spear, which had come in the blink of an eye, stopped as it brushed past Aker’s blade blocking his chest. Then, it placed the blade between the two horns and spun around to the side.

It was a more surprising feat to stop than to stab. Despite the fact that he had stabbed so quickly, he stopped with only a tingling sound and tried to break the blade between the blades of the spear.

Suddenly.

The blade caught between the two horns screamed.

Encred held on tightly to the sword that was trying to tear through his grasp, and held on with the strength of his monstrous heart and the evil power he trained every morning.

The king said as Encred’s blade held on without breaking or slipping out of his hand.

“Try blocking this too.”

The king spoke with great leisure, then withdrew his spear and stretched it out again.

In Encred’s eyes, the bull’s horns increased to six.

The spears that extended out in three branches all looked real. And they really were.

Because speed is relative.

To Encred’s eyes, the three-pronged stabbing was all real. It was a miracle that the king had repeatedly shown by stabbing and pulling.

There was no time to even gather one’s spirit.

Encred relaxed his strength and then momentarily tensed all the muscles in his body as he drew his sword.

If there was a soldier who had now discovered the techniques mixed into Encred’s swordsmanship, he would be qualified to receive instruction from Luagarne right away.

A sword strike that mixed the crushing force of the sword and the will of swiftness met the bull’s horn.

The horn retreated, just brushing against the blade as before.

Ting.

Encred pulled Aker. It was time to catch his breath. For some reason, the sword felt heavier than before.

No, more than ever, the weight of Aker was clearly felt on both arms. I thought it might be because I was tired.

Instead of rushing in, the king opened his mouth.

“Understanding the Will, creating techniques one by one, and then going beyond that and fighting with the Will itself. That’s what you call a knight.”

Encrid had no time to answer. The king continued speaking.

“If you can fight with your will, wouldn’t you need a weapon that matches it? The answer was obvious. The bull is such a weapon. It’s commonly called an imprint weapon. My will is contained within it.”

As he spoke, the king threw down his spear again. It was impossible to guess when he would breathe again.

Encred raised his sword again.

Ting!

This time, the blade and the horn only grazed each other.

Encred couldn’t even tell whether it was time to take a gamble or not.

Even though my eyes were activated to see an inch ahead, I couldn’t see what was next as if it was obscured by fog.

You have to predict what will happen next by watching the movement of the shoulders, the strength applied to the feet, etc., but the opponent did not show any of that.

So it looked like it was foggy.

The sword in my hand felt heavier than before. It felt as if someone had secretly attached a metal bar to it every time it collided with the spear.

The fog and the weight, everything was annoying.

‘So what?’

Encred ignored him and held his breath, sucking in air into his mouth. His cheeks puffed out.

Do everything you can.

It was just as it was.

Encred’s sword appeared to disappear into thin air.

It was a stabbing that used everything he had. It was a swift attack.

It was a single blow that mobilized breathlessness, a single point of concentration, a heart of great strength, and even a sense of attack.

“Where.”

The king extended his spear and changed the trajectory of the blade.

Ting!

There was a similar sound again.

Encred pulled the sword that was off course with force. If it didn’t work once, he could do it twice, three times, and if that didn’t work, ten times.

If you stop because there is an endless wall blocking you, you will never be able to overcome it.

Aker’s blade began to dance in the air, shattering and breaking the sunset.

The king cut off all the blades one by one with the horn of a bull.

The dark clouds spat out a few thin raindrops, making a “thud thud thud” sound.

Tiddydiddyding!

Aker and the bull met and parted countless times.

After a brief moment of being stuck together, they fell apart. Encred staggered back.

A thin stream of rain fell on his sword, spitting out steam.

“You really deserve to die.”

The king spoke, and Encred staggered, but did not loosen his grip on his sword.

After a while of glaring at each other.

“Axe, it’s behind me, so don’t throw anything at me.”

The king’s mouth opened again.

“You’re still a bit out of touch, so if you take the wrong path now, you’ll be in trouble for the rest of your life.”

The king continued speaking.

“It seems like he’s trying to grab me if I try, but I won’t give him any distance in the first place.”

The king, who had set the bull straight, struck the ground with his spear and killed him.

“And I am a water man and I haven’t even transformed yet!”

The final shout made everyone’s skin stand on end. It was a shout filled with confidence, not arrogance, as it had proven itself over many years.

Because he had lived for a long time, the king’s personality changed, so his speech was unruly, but the meaning behind it was clear.

“Why all of a sudden?”

Luagarne asked.

She too was fiddling with the handle of her loop sword on one side.

I was planning on attacking that prog too.

The king knew it, but he pretended not to know.

“It’s a whim. Asaluhhi.”

“yes.”

The king threw the bull back. Asaluhi, who had caught it, shook the spear, feeling the heat, to cool the horn-shaped blade, and then wrapped it back in cloth.

“Let’s go.”

The king decided and moved. It was an act as impulsive as it could have been.

But no one stopped him.

The king passed Encred, who was on the verge of fainting, but stopped to whisper something and clapped his palm on the shoulder.

And then he walked forward, staggering forward.

“Then I’ll see you next time.”

Adjutant Asaluhi looked back and said.

No one answered.

Asaluhi met eyes with Dunbakel, who was watching from atop a tree, and stepped back with a gentle smile.

They were all trying to rush in.

On the way out, Teresa was standing holding a shield.

“That’s it.”

Asaluhi followed the king.

* * *

“Why is that? I don’t think they were the ones who came to the East.”

Asaluhi started to walk more quickly and asked the king, following him as he walked with a staggering pace.

He followed the king for a long time. He was momentarily confused, but when he looked back, he understood the general meaning of his words.

What the king gave was a gift.

He left a gift for Encred, including what he whispered at the end.

“I received the gift first.”

“What are you talking about?”

When Asaluhi asked again, the king smiled and answered.

“I was good at using both kendo and spear as soon as I picked them up. You know?”

“Yes, I know.”

There was a time when he was called the King of Mercenaries due to his natural talent.

He had natural physical talent and personal charm.

“I was born a slave, but before I was sixteen, I freed my parents from slavery.”

Afterwards, he gained fame for killing a lion with a single spear.

“And yet.”

The king swallowed his words for a moment. The rain that had been falling for a while had stopped again. The air and sky were cold but clear.

A cool breeze blew across the face.

‘I used to think that maybe I could devote my life to conquering the East.’

The king swallowed his feelings and said, “It is the evil that time has brought. I have temporarily forgotten the spirit I had as a child.

I think we need talent, but is that really necessary?

Why can’t I go forward alone?

Why did you think that it was not enough even though you had already established a kingdom in the East?

It was because I lost my spirit.

In the span of about ten days, which may be short or long, the king looked at Encred and realized it again.

It reawakened my forgotten passion.

“The will of that clumsy swordsman is greater than mine.”

Asaluhi tilted her head and suddenly asked.

“Do you think that guy will become a knight?”

“I don’t know.”

“It is not an easy road.”

Asaluhido had eyes. He couldn’t be a knight. He didn’t show any such talent.

The king opened his mouth and laughed at the adjutant’s words.

“He really is a man of little talent. I’ve never seen someone so untalented.”

Compared to other guys, he had no talent. From what I felt while training with him, his talent was poor.

Yet the king thought he would become a knight.

“Can you become a knight just by swinging a sword all day? Or is it possible only with great talent?”

“Don’t we need both?”

Aren’t hard work and talent the most important conditions?

The king spoke with his usual smile.

It was something he said while thinking of the person who reminded him of something he had forgotten.

“Anyone who carries a dream on a sword will be able to overcome the limit.”

The king saw it that way.