A Knight Who Eternally Regresses

The city of Zaun used a small gorge as its entrance. Passing through it and going inside, there were many striking sights.

’He said they were just people.’

Rophod found the surroundings looking different all over again. In a way, the meaning of the “just” Ragna had said came through with sincerity.

”Everyone’s swinging their swords with an expression similar to the captain’s.”

They all looked drunk on enjoyment.

”This is the house of Zaun. This is the basic.”

The answer came from the person who was Ragna’s older sister.

Grida, who had a wandering streak, had traveled all over and knew other people’s eyes. Well, since she knew the other party was a member of the Mad Order of Knights, she’d also expected he wouldn’t be surprised.

”What is it, it’s Ragna.”

Magrun passed by for a moment, and Rophod gave a suitable greeting and followed behind Ragna. Ragna went straight to find the head of the house.

”Are you saying you came to teach what you learned in the meantime?”

Blitzkling, Alexandra Zaun’s eyes grew wide. Her father was similarly surprised.

Tempest Zaun was pouring tea into a cup and missed. Of course, he didn’t snatch it back in midair and keep it from falling.

”Who are you?”

Then Father asked.

Hearing the heavy joke, Rophod read the fluster hidden inside it.

”What a strange thing to say. It’s me.”

Ragna shot back with his brows knitting.

”Yeah, my son. That’s why I’m asking. Because it isn’t something my son would say.”

Zaun isn’t stingy about sharing techniques, teaching and learning from each other. But hadn’t his son had habits that didn’t fit this place at all?

A guy who knew only himself. That Ragna had come all the way here on purpose to teach techniques?

Tempest Zaun and Alexandra Zaun met eyes.

”Is it an evil spirit?”

Odinkar Zaun, who appeared after, also put strength into his eyes when he heard Ragna’s words.

”Was he a discarded child, or something like that?”

Rophod whispered and asked. Ragna’s brow knit even tighter.

”Even if you lose an arm, you’ll be fine?”

He answered in Rem’s-bastard style, and that was enough to shut Rophod’s mouth. Two rounds of bullshit and an arm goes flying. Rophod shut his mouth.

Ragna didn’t know some way to persuade these people by reciting his life one by one.

’Unless it was that king.’

What about Crang? He was the kind of great man who would seize the situation here with a few words. He’d state his will clearly.

He was someone who, when you saw him in the south, did things like that as if it was nothing.

’There’s no need to do what you can’t.’

Just like that, for three days, Ragna faithfully carried out the purpose of coming here. The process of teaching and learning. He explained to his father and mother about the concept called the density of Will.

”Fine, I can’t understand a single thing. You damn little brother.”

Grida got angry a few times, but everything went smoothly.

Ragna felt awkward through this whole process. In the process of teaching everything that was needed, he recognized his own change all over again.

’If you walk alone.’

It’s fast. You build skill, and there’s no need to explain it to anyone, so you just go on to the next. Ragna had that kind of talent. That was why, until now, he’d walked alone without worrying. And he lost.

’Defeat.’

To Ragna, it was his first defeat. And even so, he didn’t feel bitter.

Was it because the opponent hadn’t killed him, out of disregard?

’But why am I not angry?’

Since when had it been?

Even while walking a fixed path, Ragna wanted to walk fast. He expected that if he reached the end of this, something new would come out. It was a way of living he’d realized on his own after seeing Enkrid.

And now he realized a new principle.

’If you walk alone, you’re fast, but you can’t see properly.’

A step that walks without looking around.

’If you walk together.’

It’s slow, but you look around.

’It holds not only fun, but meaning too.’

The gain you get from looking back.

’Meaning.’

What had his father swung his sword for?

’To protect the family.’

In other words, for the people standing behind his back. His thoughts scattered. Ragna caught the moment his thoughts split into a few branches. He too now knew that meaning. So what he had to look at now wasn’t meaning. It was time to learn how to turn his head to the side.

’As much as I catch my breath, I can see the path I’ve walked too.’

Had he always made only the right choices? No. When he looked back, he could see it. That was how he looked back at himself and looked around him.

’It isn’t slow.’

Being together with everyone isn’t slow. When a storm rages, you can’t build a levee with two hands, but if those hands become a hundred and then more than a thousand, you can stop even an overflowing river.

’It’s not slow. It’s wide.’

It widens your field of view. It accepts a new world. A thought that’s hard to express in words settles in. Ragna had picked up the burning log that had been lit when he lost to Enkrid. Now he looked at it, digging into the meaning contained in that flame.

”Don’t talk to him.”

Without realizing it, Ragna had sunk into his own world. In Zaun, this was rare, but at the same time familiar. Alexandra pushed everyone around them back.

’My son, your eyes got better.’

She thought that inside and felt proud. It was because she’d seen the side of Ragna that she truly had longed for.

***

Pell had a dream. Before going to sleep, he’d been repeating his resolve to beat the shit out of that bastard Rophod, and as he did, his shepherd days had naturally come to mind, so it was probably because of that.

”Pell, you bastard, lead them properly. That’s a cliff.”

He heard Rophod’s voice, and the place he stood was beside a flock of sheep.

”What are you talking about. How many years did I live as a shepherd.”

As Pell spoke, he looked ahead. Just like he said, it was a cliff. When he turned around, a bizarre creature with Rophod’s head attached to a sheep’s body looked at him and said,

”The one who led them here is you.”

”Run away? Sure. It isn’t your responsibility.”

”And it isn’t true that you guided them, either.”

”Then you go. I came here on my own anyway.”

Dozens of sheep with Rophod’s head spoke, and spoke again. Then their faces twisted and they charged forward.

”That’s a cliff ahead!”

Pell shouted. The sheep with Rophod’s head all turned back. Even so, their feet didn’t stop.

”Then catch me.”

The falling Rophod said. Pell woke up from the dream.

”A shitty dream!”

As he woke, he sat his upper body up in one go and shouted. In the Mad Order of Knights, there were several servants living together. Some of them were also some of the new recruits.

A new recruit assigned to Pell opened the door, got startled, and asked back,

”What?”

It was like he was showing what a stupid expression was, by the book. At that single question, Pell’s mind returned to reality.

”It’s nothing.”

Pell got up.

’Annoying.’

It wasn’t a nightmare, but it was a deeply unpleasant dream. Pell went outside, closed his eyes, and felt the wind. The icy wind washed his head clean.

’Responsibility.’

The words from the dream were still left in his chest. It felt like a tangled skein had gotten tied somewhere around his heart.

When he spoke that worry to Lua Gharne,

”Right now, you referred to ‘that’ at Frokk, you idiot.”

He got the opportunity to show a talent for making even a calm Frokk like Lua Gharne angry.

Pell spent several days like that, then took charge of a unit. It was Kraiss’s request to have him fill the empty spot left by Rophod.

”For glory.”

Pell still found it awkward to receive a military salute.

”Uh, yeah.”

He was part of a knight order, but he’d lived more comfortably with informality than military salutes.

Kraiss organized Border Guard’s infantry formation into a peculiar shape. You could say he’d implemented the characteristics of the knights as they were.

That was so if you excluded the direct-command unit he personally handled.

Rem and the charge unit, Audin and the martial infantry unit, the swordsmen unit under Ragna.

And even an infantry unit that was written as Enkrid’s direct escort and read as a death-squad.

If you excluded Jaxon, they were all organized to resemble the colors inside the knight order.

Pell took charge of the swordsmen unit under Ragna. More precisely, even within the swordsmen unit, he taught the top ten.

If the charge unit was rough and the martial infantry unit was stubborn, then the swordsmen unit was sharp people.

’They’re about at a squire’s level, I guess.’

Especially among these ten, a few had a considerable gap in skill.

”Sparring?”

It started as light sparring. And as it did, something that had been tormenting his head came at him as a clear question.

What is responsibility?

The worry that started from looking at Rophod still had no answer.

’Duty, responsibility.’

He hadn’t lived a life that suited words like that. To Pell, they were truly unfamiliar words.

’So can I just not know and pass over it?’

A bad intuition ran down his spine. That bastard Rophod would go to Zaun and still not stop learning and building. And it was unacceptable for him to fall behind when the bastard came back.

For several days, Pell thought about what was important.

He was trying something new through the answer he got that way. He mixed with the soldiers and the unit. Teaching, eating together, sleeping together, rolling around together.

When the awkward relationship at first reached the point where it had become much more comfortable now, Pell realized why he’d lost to Rophod again and again in group fights.

’They get tied up with each other.’

They trust by watching what the one who leads from the front shows. A unit commander who carries responsibility on his back and someone who doesn’t— the difference is too big.

Responsibility was the way to do your best at what you’d been entrusted with.

’Rather than saying, “trust me,” it’s better to show it once.’

It was advice he’d heard from Enkrid before starting all of this. Pell followed that. Now he knew responsibility.

***

”It was a pretty long way, wasn’t it?”

At Audin’s words, Teresa nodded.

”It was far to come on foot, but it was enjoyable.”

On the surface, Audin looked like someone who only read scriptures and preached every day, but he was more skilled with words than you’d think. He also knew many interesting stories and knew how to be considerate. Teresa was grateful for that consideration as she reached Legion.

They had passed through the castle of the High Pontiff, white with gold decorations, and come inside.

”Welcome.”

It was a small reception room. The one who greeted them was Pope Noah. The Pope had come out personally.

”Since you’re my friend’s people, it’s pleasant just to look at you.”

Noah treated the two with a face smiling broadly. Teresa doubted whether she was allowed to sit with someone like this, but she didn’t step forward.

’This isn’t a place for me to step forward.’

She was a blade of the Demon-lands Holy Ground Sect, a heretic cult. She fought on their orders. The past doesn’t disappear. Therefore, her sins were something that would be bound to her body forever.

That was why, until she came, she was full of doubt about whether she was allowed to set foot in Legion.

No matter how much the Pope welcomed her, to her this place was still a place that held anxiety.

Noah was busy. He barely drank one cup of tea and soon left his seat.

”Later, tell me more about that friend Enki.”

Then the one called Audin’s adoptive father stepped forward and guided them.

”Inside Legion, we’ve mostly cut out the rotten ones, but you never know. Where they might be coiled up. Until recently, we caught remnants of the Demon-lands Holy Ground Sect.”

”Are there still some left?”

”They deceived several neighboring people. They kept saying they’d repented, that they weren’t like that anymore, and begged them to protect them, didn’t they?”

Listening to the story, Teresa thought it didn’t feel like someone else’s business. She was in the same position. Then Knight Overdier also came to find the two.

”Did you come to hit a few guys who’ve gotten lax in their state of mind?”

Overdier had been in charge of the training of the holy knights inside Legion lately. That was why saying this when he saw Audin was too natural.

”If it’s sparring, I’ll welcome it gladly.”

”Yeah, a few of them don’t look like they believe your fame. Some even come out saying you hung back in the southern war.”

”Ha ha, what amusing brothers.”

”Yeah, amusing. Really amusing.”

Teresa naturally joined them too. Audin worked over the knight-order talents who showed fighting spirit toward him. In the process of accumulating discipline, those who still couldn’t throw away their youthful heat threw it away in real time.

Even seeing that, Teresa had no particular thoughts. She was careful in all her behavior.

’My existence is a burden.’

From some point on, Teresa had made it her duty to only fight and die.

’If only I can remain at the War God’s side.’

Her prayer always began the same. When it was time to stake her life, she would step forward without hesitation. That was her goal.

”You look pitiable.”

It was the third day after she came to Legion when Noah suddenly came to find her and said that to her.

”What do you mean?”

Audin had left, saying he had something to do. She felt burdened that the Pope had come alone without an escort.

She thought it wasn’t right for him to be alone like this with her.

”You said you were from the Demon-lands Holy Ground Sect, didn’t you?”

The Pope asked without changing his expression even a little. Teresa felt a stinging pain in her heart.

Everyone has a part they want to hide, but that shame had been laid bare. And it was something the Pope, the highest responsible person in Legion, had brought up.