Chapter 547 - Clemen Who Fell Over

Among the nobles in distant places—as far away as Nauril, say—some did not believe the stories of Encrid's prowess. Or rather, they suspected a little exaggeration had crept in.

Listening to bards sing songs of the Iron Wall, of the knight who had stood alone against a thousand, they simply could not make sense of it. Apparently, he had drawn a line across the ground with a burning sword, and a wall of flames had risen before him.

There were some who had composed songs describing Encrid's deeds in greater detail, but stories like these spread best when they were exaggerated and absurd. They needed a touch of what people commonly called fantasy. In an age when people watched hangings for entertainment, such tales were great fun in themselves.

Some people far away believed half of it, or less, and only the gullible believed Encrid truly wielded a blazing sword of fire. Within Border Guard, however, his renown rose without end.

There were people who had taken the field themselves, and their families. All of them talked endlessly about Encrid. It felt as though they had witnessed the birth of a hero before their very eyes.

Someone who cut down a thousand men alone was a monster. But he had stopped a thousand men and ended the fighting with only sweat spilled upon the earth, not blood. Not one person who had been there had failed to chant his name.

"I'm going to be the Iron Wall Knight when I grow up!"

The streets were full of children saying such things.

Under the circumstances, how must the soldiers have viewed Encrid? Merely being in his company ought to have been an honor. Yet this hero said he would join their training.

A knight, renowned as the Iron Wall Knight and the supreme authority ruling the surrounding territory, was going to join the soldiers on their run. The people commonly called the lunatic unit were coming along, too.

Every soldier was both nervous and excited. Some had trained alongside Encrid in the past, but even they momentarily forgot what he had been like. Even those who ground their teeth at the name Audin did not expect Encrid to drive people quite so ruthlessly.

Fame could make people see through rose-colored glasses. In other words, no one had seen this coming.

Clemen, moreover, had decided to enlist after Encrid left for the West. She had managed to sprain her ankle all by herself despite the lack of a full-scale battle. She had not even been embarrassed about it. In her excitement, she had seen nothing but Encrid's back, the wall, and the halted enemy.

"I hear you're the soldier who hurt herself falling over."

That was how she had felt, at least, until the great knight himself came up and said that to her.

"Pardon? Oh, Clemen of the infantry, sir!"

"Oh, she's the one? The friend who fell over and scraped her knee in a battle that would've ended without anyone getting hurt?"

"I heard she sprained her ankle."

Rem spoke, and Jaxon chimed in. What Audin said next with a smile was something else entirely.

"You injured yourself by falling over? Sister, is something wrong with your ankle?"

"How does that even happen?"

A man named Pell put in his word, too. Then Roford looked at her and said, "Even I can't take your side on this one." Clemen's head was spinning.

What was this? Were they giving her grief for falling over by herself? No one else had said anything about it.

Encrid smoothly picked up the conversation.

"It happened because you lack stamina. Starting today, we're doing mountain runs."

The faces of the soldiers around them changed. The veterans among them recalled the old days. Come to think of it, that bastard Encrid had been absolutely mad about training. He had not just been hard on himself. He had been hard on everyone around him, too.

From that moment on, their running route—which should ordinarily have taken them around the training ground or the fields just behind the city—moved to the Penn-Hanil Mountains.

They were not going straight through the heart of the range, of course. Still, was it really sensible to head into mountains that were half trees and half monsters and demonic beasts, all in the name of training? Hadn't there been talk that Border Guard's army had killed so many monsters there lately that the creatures had banded together into colonies?

That had indeed happened. It was common for groups of monsters or demonic beasts in the mountains to form colonies. The groups Encrid had killed on his previous rounds had been the same sort.

"Why aren't you running? Do you all have something wrong with your ankles, like Clemen?"

At Encrid's words, everyone started running.

Thus began a run in which any thought of rest had been fed to the human-faced hounds. They quite literally ran until they were a step away from death, with the monsters and demonic beasts that sprang out along the way thrown in as a bonus.

"Don't stop. Stop and you're fucking dead."

The knights stepped forward to dispose of those little extras. They did not fight them. They literally disposed of them.

"Go to God's side!"

The fists of their former instructor, Audin, displayed such destructive force that no one would dare defy him. Even without that demonstration, anyone who had taken part in the war would naturally have been too afraid to challenge these people.

Some soldiers thought watching knights fight up close would be educational, but that thought did not last. They had started running before sunrise and were returning at sunset. Some began to wonder whether this was really right.

Clemen in particular was mentally exhausted as well.

"Do you all want to fall over like Clemen?"

Encrid would shout.

"Do you wish to get hurt like Sister Clemen? I can detach your foot at the ankle for a moment, brother. Just say the word."

Whenever she was about to forget, that man Audin opened his mouth again. And what a booming voice he had.

"You can get hurt without fighting, but let's not get hurt for lack of stamina! Run, Clemen!"

Roford, another former training instructor, was not to be outdone.

"Why do you think that Clemen, or whatever her name is, fell over? I'd say she lacks talent."

The last was that fellow Pell. Clemen found this bastard the most infuriating of all.

"She has no talent for running. No, she lacks the talent to stand properly. If you're lacking, put in the effort. Effooort."

He said it without a hint of a smile. She truly wanted to kill him.

Clemen endured.

Naturally, they were not doing all this just to torment one soldier. She was merely the pretext—a pretext to make everyone train harder and run farther.

Most of the commanders knew that, so they treated Clemen well. Roford had also privately instructed them to do so.

Roford knew various ways to look after his troops. He had originally been hopelessly clumsy at it, but his time in the lunatic unit had accustomed him to such things. If no one else was going to look after them, shouldn't he? Audin included, these people did nothing but work others to death.

Nor was this simply training for its own sake. There was still time before they had to visit the palace, and while individual training mattered, they also intended to improve the capabilities of the entire force.

Krais had described the fastest way to improve the army's capabilities like this:

"Separate branches. Divide the troops by specialty. It's already underway, but identifying soldiers with exceptional abilities takes quite a lot of work. Pulling them out to form units, and making sure they work well together, all takes effort."

There were many exceptional individuals among the soldiers whose abilities exceeded ordinary standards. Border Guard's name had spread across the continent, and in the surrounding regions its renown had not merely spread—it seemed to pierce the heavens.

So much so that even when corrupt priests tried to establish themselves here, religion struggled to gain a foothold. In Border Guard, Encrid was practically a religion himself.

As a result, priests who relied on sincere faith rather than seeking extra income were the ones who more or less managed to stay. With its renown rising, it was only natural that people flocked there. And just as the priests were weeded out, so were the fighters.

Some did come for the high pay, but the training in Border Guard's standing army was far too much to endure for wages alone. It went beyond brutal, to the point where people could not help asking whether this was hell.

All sorts of people had gathered as a result. Even excluding Teresa, there were quite a number of half-Giants. There were a few Frogs, too, and plenty of Fairies, dwarves, and Beastmen.

Encrid believed that simply watching people was not enough to judge their skill. Broadly speaking, certain people gave him a feeling. To break that feeling down, however, he had to examine their stamina, swordsmanship, posture, and even their attitude.

That was what he was doing now. He pushed them to their limits, made them run, and observed their attitudes.

Well, to be honest, half of it was also the fun of teasing the injured soldier. He would have stopped if she had become cowed, but instead she gritted her teeth and rose to the challenge.

A few people scowled whenever her name came up. The shortsighted and hot-tempered ones thought Clemen was to blame for their current training. Rem singled out some of them.

"You, fall out. Go join that group over there."

Encrid had told his unit members to pick out soldiers they liked, people who gave them a good feeling, and train them. Rem's interpretation was to select nasty bastards he wanted to beat up, the sort who looked as though they would keep snapping even after a thorough beating.

It was a matter of preference. Beating lessons into people was easier for him.

Audin mainly selected the devout—those who called upon the Lord and Father even as they ran. Physical shortcomings could be overcome through training, but faith was not something he could force upon them.

Both men naturally checked the fundamentals, but that was where their preferences differed.

Teresa picked a few as well, choosing only those with builds similar to her own. Half-Giants, people born strong, or simply people born big. Soldiers who had grown up being called mighty warriors in their hometowns.

Roford looked only at technique. When they faced monsters or demonic beasts during the run, everyone's habits tended to emerge. When people were exhausted, the movements ingrained in their bodies were the first to come out.

Pell was uncomfortable with group training. He was a Shepherd, not a soldier. He therefore declined to take a unit of his own, and Encrid did not object. Why make him do something he disliked?

That outlook had not changed since Encrid first became the Lunatic Squad Leader. Perhaps that was why those around him could not help admiring him.

Rem, Ragna, Jaxon, and Audin knew all too well the Encrid of those early days, struggling desperately despite his pitiful skills. Had he changed since then? Some things must have changed, of course, but the fundamentals remained the same.

That remained true even now, when he had become a knight and, by the end of the war with Aspen, had reached roughly their own level of skill.

Jaxon felt he already had his hands full with his current subordinates, so he opted out as well. Sinar had originally commanded the scouts. They could simply become her personal unit.

The most unusual case was Esther. Though she was not here, she already had a unit of her own. She had selected a few soldiers with an aptitude for magic and taught them, and Krais had gone so far as to name them the magic infantry.

Whatever her reasons, Esther had been quite diligent in teaching them. She had said their numbers were now close to twenty.

"Run."

Encrid, too, marked a few people as he spoke. They were the ones who clenched their teeth and refused to show even a hint of strain.

He set aside skill, talent, and everything else, looking only at attitude. Everyone had their own criteria.

One day, two days, three days, four.

Some members of Border Guard's standing army gave up military service. It could not be helped.

"This is madness."

Why should they have to endure training like this?

Surprisingly, not one of those selected for the lunatic unit members' personal troops quit. Perhaps they all really did have an eye for people.

Well, in the case of the men Rem had taken, it would be more accurate to say they could not quit even if they wanted to.

"From today on, you're the axe unit. All of you use axes."

That was how Rem began.

"Why do we have to use axes? Fuck, I've used a spear all my life."

"You can't fight for shit, and you're talking back?"

Rem was heavy-handed. But he demonstrated his point through action. An axe was a short weapon: shorter than a sword, and considerably shorter than a spear. At the range he wanted, however, its destructive power was far superior.

Every man Rem had brought with him had a foul temper, and these bastards tended to charge straight in regardless of whether they held a spear or anything else. If they were just going to rush in and fight with brute strength, why carry a long, flexible-shafted spear at all?

Rem was not the sort to explain it so kindly. He beat them up.

"Just do what you're told."

And anyone who tried to run away? Rem would never let that slide.

"Run and I'll kill you."

He said it with genuine killing intent, and everyone shut their mouths.

It was not as though there was anywhere to complain about his coercive training. In truth, they all privately agreed with Rem's methods to some extent. Their skills really did improve when they picked up axes and did as he told them.

"Hey, want to learn some spells, too?"

Rem grew a little ambitious. Teaching them a few spells seemed like a good idea.

But that was where a problem arose. They were not all learners like Encrid. People who worked themselves to death whether they succeeded or failed were not common.

"You just go hup, like this! Why isn't it working?"

And Rem was not exactly a gifted teacher, either.

Watching the situation as a whole, Krais wished he had more capable people.

'Roford's doing well, at least.'

The others were closer to simply tormenting the soldiers. Of the lot, Roford was the closest to ideal. Even his training, however, would look excessive to an outsider.

Some soldiers complained that they were not even fighting at the moment, so why did they need to train this hard? As if he had anticipated that, Krais drove them into the Penn-Hanil Mountains.

'We have a live-combat training ground right behind us. Why wouldn't we use it?'

There was no reason not to.

He was busy concluding the treaty with Aspen, but Krais knew all too well that nothing went right without advance preparation. That was especially true of training troops.

No amount of equipment would help if their minds were weak or their legs gave out and they fell over like Clemen. Formation drills and basic training were one thing, but in a real fight, victory or defeat would ultimately depend on the unit's training and its soldiers' capabilities.

By this point, Clemen's name had become a byword.

"Fall behind, and you'll be Clemen Who Fell Over!"

People kept saying things like that.

And Clemen gritted her teeth and kept training until she was selected for Encrid's personal guard.

"Whew. I'm going to get promoted and beat the living shit out of all of them."

She had developed grit—and spite.

A month flew by. In all honesty, they spent it doing nothing but training. There had been a few festive days after the war ended, but those had lasted only a moment.

"Then I'll leave them to you while I'm gone."

Before departing, Encrid entrusted his personal guard to Pell. Pell had acted like his adjutant during training, so it was a natural choice.

At any rate, it was time to head to the palace.

"Have a safe trip."

Graham and Krais had come to see them off. Encrid, Rem, and Audin were traveling together. Ragna was out because of his injuries, and Jaxon had shaken his head. He had no intention of coming.

Sinar seemed thoroughly engrossed lately in the pleasure of training with her own troops. As for Esther, no one could tell what she was thinking.

And so the three set off on foot for the palace. The journey felt entirely different from their previous trip to the capital. That was the effect of the safe roads Krang and Krais had built in the meantime.