A Knight Who Eternally Regresses - Chapter 434



Only Noblemtl

434. Luagarne style training

It was a whole month.

Luagarne closely observed Encred’s changes. She watched him every single day without fail.

She was one of the most perceptive and perceptive progs on the entire continent.

If you can only judge and teach people’s talents, you could say that he is better than a knight.

So just looking was enough.

Encrid was already at his limit. It was the end. This was the end.

I was eating a boiled potato and suddenly my throat got blocked.

The conclusion was obvious.

‘It’s blocked.’

It’s stagnant.

‘It’s a shame.’

It was a feeling that came at the same time.

For a whole month, he lived as if he was scraping together time that would never return.

He seemed like someone who had been given a terminal diagnosis.

“Then you die.”

The fairy I was dealing with said.

“Crowds are prohibited.”

The man who showed the knight’s sword also spoke.

The bear half-human even tried to persuade him with his hands and feet to take a day off in the middle of the night.

I wonder if it’s right to make someone rest by beating them during a fight rather than just talking about it.

“This is one of the traditions of the martial arts priests.”

Knocking them down and putting them to sleep?

Audin’s words were true. The warrior priests of the war god often ruined their bodies through excessive training, and at such times, they had to be taken care of with their fists and feet.

It was his duty as a senior priest.

Luagarne nodded, as he was a prog with an accident.

But other people’s reactions were a little different.

Dunbakel, who was watching from the side, opened his eyes wide and said, “You’re holding on and not running away when you’re being beaten like that?” Pel said with a hardened face, “A shepherd would be able to hold out like this,” but no one listened.

“I will rest well.”

Lawford said with determination. He had been asking Ragnar to spar countless times, but getting a good night’s sleep after being hit by Audyn’s fist was a different story.

In some ways, it could be said that it was a wise response. He was not chosen as a knight for nothing.

Anyway, Luagarne saw Encred struggling.

‘Despite all the fuss.’

It’s not progress, it’s stagnation.

Even that is a precarious situation.

It’s barely regressing.

Why does it never regress?

‘Thanks to having learned various skills.’

The training methods that tortured his body every morning at dawn made Encred’s body different from that of an ordinary person.

Since he had already realized Will, his body would have changed accordingly.

Will is the power of will, and the skills that are used with will put a load on the body, and as the body endures that load, it becomes stronger.

It wasn’t for nothing that becoming a knight meant showing a different level of fighting prowess.

Luagarne took one of the high-quality, wriggling larvae out of his leather pouch, placed it on his hand, pulled out his tongue, and swallowed it in one gulp.

You have to eat to make your head work.

She observed Encrid for a whole month and thought of various methods.

‘What will help?’

Nothing could be confirmed.

She was lost in thought desperately.

She was sitting on the chair Rem had made, pulling one knee up and hugging it.

They did nothing but gurgle and occasionally puff out their cheeks, eat grubs, and sniff the scent of Epiprimum, a grass that was especially pleasant for frogs.

Frock liked summer more than winter. He didn’t have a pathological dislike for the cold, but in dry climates, his skin would often dry out, which made him very uncomfortable.

How can you be happy when your skin cracks like dry ground due to drought and even bleeds in severe cases?

In human terms, it would be like someone cutting your skin with a knife every day. The pain and the condition.

The cold and wind tend to dry out Frock’s skin, so it was only natural that he preferred summer.

Luagarne thought it was fortunate that it was summer now. She could skip the time of even spraying water on her skin and just observe and think.

Why is that guy throwing a tantrum like that?

‘I understand.’

Luagarne heard Encred speak through his attitude and actions.

Even if heaven does not permit it, he will go forward.

It was a cry shouted out to the world with my whole body.

At least that’s what Luagarne saw.

So what should we do now?

Something for him who is stagnant.

Thoughts alone won’t do anything. What matters is action. Luagarne got up.

“It can’t be like this.”

Encred was training, swinging a sword ten times heavier than a normal sword.

Phew!

The blade shuddered and stopped as he could not perfectly control its weight.

In response, the sweat that had been flowing down Encred’s forehead splashed into the air.

Blue eyes shining through wet black hair were visible.

“You know, right?”

Luagarne opened her mouth again.

“Is there another way?”

Encred answered calmly. He already knew.

If Luagarne had noticed that growth had stopped and was blocked, it would have been a predictable situation for Encred.

I knew this would happen sometime.

I felt the joy of growth unlike ever before by squeezing out talents I never had before, but there was always a limit.

It was also something familiar.

I remembered what the boatman had said last night.

“Tsk tsk, then I’ll stop at this happy today. Do you want to feel the joy of moving forward? Isn’t there such a day? There must have been one? If you hadn’t hoped for tomorrow, that’s how it would have been. A day where you go back to yesterday’s today over and over again and feel the same joy every time.”

The boatman scolded Encrid.

Of course, before that, the true nature of the ominousness was finally revealed. It was when I had another dream after we had parted without saying a word.

“There is nothing perfect in this world.”

He said it with confidence. Encrid didn’t care.

Have you ever hated stagnation so much that you wished a wall would appear?

Rather than saying no, I just found a way. Since it was something I expected, I tried not to stop by moving my body rather than thinking about anything else.

I understand the fragments of the path to becoming a knight.

‘Learn at least one more thing by looking at the swords of other knights.’

At the same time, you have to refine and advance your own skills.

It would be okay if that was the path that Encred had awakened to.

I didn’t have any worries like, “Is this right?”

In the time I had to think, I tried to block one more black lightning bolt from Ragnar, dodge the invisible blade from Shinar, and figure out Saxon’s deadly stab.

I literally did anything.

That’s what I thought.

“Once upon a time there was a very great poet. He never left his room to write special and great poems. He just kept doing what he was doing. He thought that was the best he could do.”

It was an old tale that a dull minstrel never used his feet.

It is a story that contains the lesson that inspiration comes only when you experience and see new worlds.

Encred also knew the rest of the story that followed.

“It was a friend who had been baking bread all his life who made me realize that, and he left behind a song called The Frog in the Well that has been passed down across the continent to this day. Yes, I know that story.”

The minstrel was a prog.

He clearly realized his mistake and wrote a song.

Nowadays, it is a song that everyone, from children to adults, knows.

Did you think the sky was round?

Did you think the world was round?

Was my world that small?

Frog, frog, you can’t get anything out of the well unless you get out.

It was a song with similar lyrics repeated over and over.

The meaning was also clear.

“Will you do as I say?”

Luagarne was the best teacher on the continent, but this was the first time he had a student like this.

So what should we do then?

She decided to try everything. Everything she could.

“Let’s do that.”

Encred nodded.

It had to be that way.

I’ve experienced this kind of stagnation several times. It’s not a situation that I’m anxious about, but it’s not a situation that I’m happy about.

As I was walking by the moonlight, it seemed like there were a lot of dark clouds.

Suddenly dark clouds appeared and obscured my eyes.

It was like a perfectly good cloud bridge had snapped in the middle.

You see a path with milestones and you walk along it, but the world tells you not to walk any further. That’s all.

At times like that, Encred would walk with his eyes closed, and he would even hang on to a rope that had been tied to a broken bridge.

It was the same now.

* * *

This summer was unusually long.

Not only was the heat blazing, it seemed like it was going to turn people into barbecue.

“This seems a bit crazy, Instructor.”

Before the torture known as the march began, one soldier raised his hand and spoke.

He was the son of a noble family who came to study in the capital.

Although it was a collateral line, it was one of the noble vassal families of Okto who had recently become a Duke.

He came to the Border Guard confident in his abilities, and he also thought that with a little training and luck, he would soon be a talent who would stand out even among the so-called madmen.

But what is this?

The madmen walk about with a longsword, two short swords, a heavy makeshift crossbow on their wrists, armor lined with linen and leather, arm and shin guards, at least three throwing knives, a hatchet, a small modified round shield, a helmet, and a short club.

This isn’t the end, you even have to carry a backpack.

These were said to be fully armed.

‘This is not armament, this is torture.’

For him, most of it was torture.

The commander and instructor in charge of training the scout corps at the front nodded and said just one word.

“Then just turn it off.”

She was harsh.

The soldiers could not resist any longer. There were more than a few who attacked the female instructor and got beaten to death.

Even if I knocked him down, it was still a problem.

‘The monster will come out next.’

When Rem came, there was no answer.

It’s rare these days, but there was a time when he would show up all of a sudden and call us out one by one and beat us up because the training intensity was too weak. It was just one-sided violence.

And they only targeted those of noble birth.

‘That murderer of nobles.’

The noble soldier also knew Rem’s nickname well. He was quite famous among the nobles.

“Jump!”

He’s fully armed, from his sword belt to his backpack, and he’s told to run, not walk.

The soldier bit his molars and took his foot off the ground.

“You are in scout training. If you can’t stand this, get out and die.”

It was a three-day training. It involved climbing over a mountain, digging a smokeless pit at the target point, eating, and returning.

‘Even a demon slayer wouldn’t be able to do this kind of training.’

This is just a tease, what kind of training is this?

The soldier moved forward, panting for breath.

After cursing at this guy and that guy for no reason, he ended up blaming his father for sending him here when he noticed the activities of the demon slayer bastard. After that, he was so tired of cursing at demon slayers that he just walked without thinking.

A soldier caught his eye.

‘Iron helmet?’

Everyone was moving around wearing leather helmets, but he was the only one wearing an iron helmet and carrying a larger, heavier backpack.

He also carries three hand axes, two longswords, and a gladius, which is shorter than the longsword but can be used as a main weapon, hung horizontally behind his waist.

That wasn’t the end of it.

For some reason, he had two javelins resting on his shoulders.

‘Is that a spearman?’

It was now common knowledge within the Border Guard Standing Force that armament varied depending on the branch.

When I went into training fully armed, I learned it even though I didn’t like it.

If I lost even one piece of equipment, the entire unit would be left behind as a result of the regiment’s responsibility.

So it was clear that the training was now reconnaissance training.

It was so hard that I almost lost my mind, but I couldn’t forget it.

But why are you holding the window?

Now that I look at it, I see that he also has a metal guard wrapped around his leg.

He was a crazy guy who carried heavy weapons three times heavier than others.

Is it a lie? Are you seeing illusions because you are having a hard time?

As I was thinking that and moving forward, I caught a glimpse of the bastard’s face.

The noble soldier knew the man’s face.

“Demon Slayer!”

I spoke as if I was shouting in surprise, but my voice wasn’t very loud. I was too tired.

At that sound, the ruler of the area and the one who had been given the rank of general by the king turned his head.

“It’ll be harder if you drag your feet.”

He moved forward with a brief piece of advice.

The soldier was speechless.

The demon slayer was walking while carrying something several times heavier than his own weapon.

Although it was only for a moment, the rebellious spirit of the soldiers, mainly those of noble birth, was broken in an instant.

Finn, the commander and drill instructor, followed Encred’s lead as he walked ahead.

“It’s been a while.”

Finn said, placing his right hand on his waist in a makeshift salute.

She was also fully armed.

“I guess it’s grown?”

As Encred spoke, Finn brought up the story of Torres, thinking that the man in front of him was still the same as before, judging swordsmanship and such.

“I heard that they are strengthening the training of the border guards in Martai. Come and visit us.”

Torres, I’ve already seen him once. When he was inaugurated as general.

Even though there was no inauguration ceremony or anything, I had to see the faces of the lords of each city. I saw them briefly then.

“When the time comes.”

I planned the training course according to Luagarne’s words. There was no time to get away right now.

Finn stuck out his tongue.

Even though it had been a long time since I saw him, he was still a monster training fanatic.

Well, then you must have become a demon slayer.

Finn was once this man’s superior, then his subordinate, and now a mere commander to the man who had become a general, but he was proud of it all.

Encred was a man with a strange charm that made those around him feel rewarded.

* * *

“Diversity is what opens up a blocked field of vision. Do anything.”

Following Luagarne’s words, Encred walked and ran among fully armed soldiers, wearing even heavier armor.

“Jump.”

with a plop!

I climbed up the mountain and jumped off a cliff into a lake.

“How to break the limit? I don’t know about that. But I do know that it’s not something that can be done just by holding a sword.”

There are many things to see when you broaden your horizons. That was Luagarne’s perspective.