Chapter 89 - Dwelling on the Past but Leaving No Regrets

"Formation!"

The commander's shout rang out.

What was approaching were wolf beasts, numbering eight in total.

Beasts and monsters were a threatening existence. Particularly because the Border Guard was in a city where merchant associations and peddlers came and went incessantly, they were quite proactive in sweeping up the surrounding monsters and beasts.

"Why are they so active in the winter?"

One of the soldiers grumbled as he raised his longspear. To Encrid's ears, it sounded like something said intentionally to relieve tension.

Following orders, the twenty soldiers formed a solid square formation against the wolf beasts.

The standard approach was to face beasts many against one.

The Platoon Commander was the type to stick to the basics.

And Encrid was uncomfortable with that.

'This is a first, though.'

He was referring to the feeling of wanting to rush out because he desired real combat, something that couldn't be fulfilled by sparring.

A fight that saw blood, the time to organize what was gained from it, the very moment of taking a step forward.

Those were the things Encrid desired.

Not holding a longspear and gingerly poking at the hide of an approaching beast.

This wasn't helpful. He was even at the point of feeling bored.

Normally, it would be normal to be paralyzed with fear upon seeing a beast.

Rem, who had followed orders obediently unlike usual, giggled beside him.

"You look like you've got some pent-up frustration."

Normally, he would have told him to stab the beast's eyes instead of looking at his face, but his frustration made him speak out naturally.

"Does it show?"

"Now the Squad Leader has become a protruding nail, too."

Rem giggled, saying something incomprehensible. Then, he added another word.

"Didn't you know there's only a paper-thin difference between being extraordinary and being crazy?"

He didn't know.

What would happen if he jumped in among the eight beasts right here?

Assuming Rem would back him up.

It felt like it would end much faster than pointlessly poking with twenty longspears and killing them one by one.

If they fought like this, when would they ever finish clearing out the surrounding monsters and beasts?

It would take a long time. It felt like he was wasting time.

Since he had never once neglected his square formation training until now, his body naturally fulfilled its duty as a soldier and a member of the formation, but...

The frustration remained.

Rem kept giggling beside him, and it felt like he was pushing him forward.

Why did he follow him just to act like this?

Encrid thrust his longspear forward. The forceful spear tip grazed the hide of the beast's front paw.

GRRR!

The wolf beast reacted to the pain by baring its fangs, and seeing this, the Platoon Commander aimed for its head and fiercely thrust his spear, but the cunning beast dodged it by backing away.

Seeing that much, Encrid purposefully brought up random thoughts. If he didn't, it seemed it would be difficult to suppress the urge to rush out immediately, draw his sword, and cut them down.

The leopard he had accidentally ended up raising came to mind.

'Esther.'

Not long after he returned from splitting open the head of that crazy magician bastard in the sewer, the lake panther had come back completely drained of energy. The musty smell coming from it made it seem like it had eaten a rat roaming the sewers.

It must have been too engrossed in hunting city rats, for it was completely exhausted, lying on the floor and just wheezing out breaths.

Feeling sorry for it, he had personally soaked jerky in water, torn it up, and fed it.

Esther happily accepted and ate it all up.

'What on earth has it been doing?'

BARK!

Amidst his random thoughts, the wolf beast approached within spear's reach.

Pushing Esther, who had surfaced in a corner of his mind, to the back, Encrid thrust his longspear into the approaching wolf's head.

SQUELCH.

A portion of the skin on its head was torn away, and blood splattered.

"Don't lose your positions!"

The Platoon Commander's shout was heard.

The unit maintained its distance by threatening the beasts trying to approach and thrusting their spear blades all around them.

It wasn't a fight that would end easily.

The pack of beasts that had charged in got stabbed by the spear blades a few times and retreated.

This was indeed correct.

This was indeed the standard tactic, but...

It was still frustrating.

He could see the Platoon Commander leading the soldiers.

He had a neat impression, with a body that looked solid all over.

Was that guy from the 2nd Company, or the 3rd Company?

Harboring feelings of frustration and suffocation, Encrid worked his longspear.

It was hard to see it as an illustrious skill. Just thrusting and pulling was all it was.

He felt like he was wearing clothes that didn't fit his body.

Because the spear just didn't sit well in his hands.

He felt that if he had mainly used a spear, he would have been even worse at it than the sword.

Ragna had said this once.

["Depending on the weapon you handle, whether it be a sword or a spear, what feels right in your hands might be different."]

Knights are usually encouraged to handle various weapons.

So he had learned the basics, but among them, only the sword gave him the feeling of fitting perfectly in his hand.

'The sword.'

Solely the sword.

From the very first time he held one, it felt like meeting a friend he had known for a long time.

The euphoria of holding a sword for the first time. The joy. The anticipation.

His pounding heart, the warmth of the sharpened piece of metal.

'Ah, I want to use my sword.'

He wanted to reflect on the experience he gained in the magician's den.

He wanted to swing his sword, not a longspear.

"Let me grant your wish."

Rem muttered beside him. By the time Encrid's gaze turned toward him, Rem was already sprinting forward.

"This'll take all night!"

Rem stepped out, shouting excitedly. There was cheerfulness in his voice. Every time he kicked off the ground, dirt shot up from the floor. He was dynamic. His running form looked wilder than the wolf beasts.

"That crazy bastard!"

The Platoon Commander roared in anger, as if he had been waiting for this. It was basic to face beasts by maintaining the square formation. If the formation was broken, the lives of the other soldiers would be put in danger as well.

Rushing out was definitely the wrong move. Encrid knew that well, too.

But.

'We can just kill all the beasts altogether.'

He couldn't hold back.

He literally couldn't suppress his urges. The desire to go out right now, swing his sword, and reflect on his experiences.

Encrid closed his eyes internally. For a moment, he relied on his Sixth Sense rather than rational judgment.

Following his intuition, Encrid also threw away his longspear, kicked off the ground, and ran forward.

"Hey, why are you doing it too?!"

The Platoon Commander's shout was left behind in the distance.

Rem's sudden action was within the Platoon Commander's range of expectations.

But Encrid was a different story.

So he couldn't help but be startled.

"Are you excited?"

Recognizing Encrid following closely behind, Rem spoke and began swinging his two axes.

The blades of the two axes drew trajectories in the air. The end of those trajectories was naturally a bloody slaughter.

The first axe swing split the head of the wolf that had just approached head-on, and the second axe, swinging horizontally, split the jaw of a beast that kicked off the ground to turn sideways and bite at his arm.

The two axes were like the blades of an execution block.

"A little."

He admitted what he had to admit.

Encrid also drew his sword. As he drew it, he launched a large horizontal slash. One beast, stopping mid-charge, had its front leg severed.

YELP!

Even though it was a beast, the whine it let out was similar to a dog's.

Encrid pulled back his horizontally extended arm and struck downward vertically.

The wolf beast's head was caught and split open.

THWACK!

He pulled the sword that had cleaved the head and smashed the head of another wolf rushing in from the side with the fist holding the hilt.

CRACK!

The beast that was struck in the head tumbled sideways.

Only eight of them.

'I don't know since when I started referring to eight beasts as only.'

Regardless, as Encrid felt it right now, they didn't pose a threat.

Axes split heads, and a sword cleaved and slashed the wolves.

The arming sword in his hand lacked the slashing impact of a longsword, but it still wasn't too bad.

He had been disappointed that Ragna couldn't come with them.

One of the eight beasts died to the longspears of the troops forming the square formation.

Of the remaining seven, four fell to Rem's axes.

The other three were cleaved by Encrid's sword.

It was an outstanding display of skill.

It was as if to prove that he hadn't earned the rank of upper-grade soldier for nothing.

"Wow, shit, they fight incredibly well."

One of the soldiers forming the unit muttered, mixing in a gasp of admiration.

The Platoon Commander should have roared in anger. He really should have, but...

'They leave me speechless.'

Like the soldier said, they fought incredibly well. If forming a square was the fundamental strategy in facing beasts...

Then utilizing extraordinary combat power when available was also the mark of a commander.

Instead of getting angry, the Platoon Commander weighed the efficiency.

This was a good thing for Encrid and Rem.

Strictly speaking, the two were guilty of insubordination.

Above all, the Platoon Commander highly valued Encrid's very existence.

He had seen him in passing a few times in the past, and he hadn't seemed like much back then, so when did he develop this level of skill?

Did his skills suddenly improve, just as the rumors said?

He didn't know. He couldn't be certain of anything.

He only judged based on the results.

'He is above upper-grade.'

He would even believe it if he was told he was one of the guardsmen called the Frontier Slaughterers.

In reality, when they set out to subjugate beasts, they didn't maintain formations like this; they often fought using their individual skills instead.

"You two."

Rather than reprimanding them, the Platoon Commander decided to give them a battlefield.

If they wanted to fight, he would let them fight.

"There's a place where some troublesome beasts have appeared. Go there."

"Is that right?"

Among the dead beasts, the Spellbreaker Encrid nodded his head.

At that nonchalant attitude, some of the soldiers let out something akin to a cheer.

In any case, hadn't they wiped out the beasts?

With this, the request for this area was over, and this unit would go support somewhere else, meaning they would be able to rest for a moment.

No one enjoyed risking their lives to fight against beasts.

They were either extraordinary, or crazy.

They had to be at least one of the two.

"We will return to the city and regroup."

The Platoon Commander decided to pull out and lead the unit away.

Encrid glanced at Rem. Rem, who was roughly wiping off the beast's blood from his axe, grinned.

"Do you owe me one now?"

"What owe?"

He said that, but thanks to him, he felt relieved.

But his craving was still greater.

'It's not enough.'

A thirst that couldn't be quenched with just a few wolf beasts.

Actual combat, not sparring.

The fire kindled in Encrid's chest blazed fiercely.

"Let's go. He told us to go somewhere else."

Rem said.

Some of the soldiers heading back with the unit approached and lightly patted Encrid's chest.

"Thanks to you, we're heading out first."

The grinning soldier's face looked familiar.

Encrid searched his memories.

He was the soldier who had been at the dice gambling table during the first loop of today.

He pressed some jerky wrapped in a clean cloth into Encrid's hand.

"Give it a try. It's amazing."

He said this and turned around.

Not just that soldier, but several others expressed their favor with their eyes.

Soldiers who fought well and allies were always treated well.

On top of that, Encrid had an easygoing personality, so his reputation wasn't bad either.

He was different from Rem.

Everyone kept an appropriate distance from Rem.

Part of it was because he was a barbarian, but his rough personality and his well-known hobby of picking fights with anyone whenever he was bored played a big part.

"We fought together, but it seems like we're being treated differently. What is this, discrimination?"

"It's karma, I suppose."

Encrid said as he tore the jerky into strips and shared it.

And as he took a bite...

'It's different.'

It was delicious. The soft piece of jerky swirled around in his mouth before going down smoothly.

The seasoning was just right, and above all, it had a sweet taste, making him wonder what kind of sauce had been applied to it.

"What the, why is this so tasty?"

"I know, right? I'll have to ask him for more later."

He was simply curious about the secret recipe used to make it.

Encrid tugged at the gloves on his hands.

The overnight gloves, made of thick leather, wrapped around his hands and protected them sturdily.

They were one of the items belonging to the corpse-loving magician who lived in the sewer.

Especially when he had smashed the wolf, a much smaller impact returned than he had anticipated.

This meant they were quite decent items as well.

What the magician had done was truly disturbing, but what sin did the items commit?

The gloves were sturdy. They looked as though multiple layers of leather had been padded together; not only did they offer good defense, but they were also great for throwing punches, making them a fine substitute for gauntlets.

The leather body armor worn under his gambeson was equally reassuring.

After all, wasn't it the very item that had protected him from the magician's foul tricks?

When Krais had said it was no ordinary item, he had merely thought it was a sturdy piece of equipment.

Alongside his dependable gear and his newly awakened realizations.

Encrid spoke, his fighting spirit burning brightly.

"Let's go."

Per the Platoon Commander's orders, Encrid moved to another area with Rem.

A half-day's journey south of the city.

They headed to the area where the allied forces had assembled.

"Looks like this is the place."

"Seems like it."

It was a place they had found using only a simple rough map and basic directions.

An actual encampment had been completely established at the location they arrived at.

Unless the beast and monster subjugation effort was extremely serious, they wouldn't go as far as establishing an encampment like this.

More than anything, a commotion was currently in full swing.

It had seemed like something was flying around in the sky before they arrived.

Encrid muttered as he joined the battlefield. Rem hopped along behind him, keeping close on his heels.

SKREEEEK!

A shriek burst out overhead. A terrible monster announced its presence.

Beneath it, several soldiers could be seen tumbling about, their eyes gouged out or their arms, legs, and various parts of their bodies scratched and mangled.

"My eyes! My eyes!"

AAAAARGH!

"Fuck! Kill it! Kill it!"

Several crossbowmen fired bolts into the sky.

THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!

The bolts sliced through the air, and not a single one hit the target.

SKREEE!

The monster's cry was a horrific noise to hear. One that naturally made you want to cover your ears.

This place was a battlefield.

The enemies were monsters and beasts.

Right below the flying monster, a heavy-armored unit grouped by platoons could be seen forming a battle line.

They were all heavy armored infantry wearing chainmail armor. In other words, the 1st Company, a company comprised of heavy armored infantry.

"Everyone, hold your positioooons!"

The infantry company commander's shout rang out.

The name of the monster flying overhead was a harpy.

It was a monster with the upper body of a woman, wings instead of arms, and the lower body of an eagle.

Red feathers fluttered in the air, and the harpy's breasts jiggled. They were breasts much like a woman's, but they didn't give off any sort of sexual appeal.

Rather, they simply elicited a feeling of revulsion.

Seeing the harpy, Encrid's body went stiff for a moment.

A moment from the past flashed through his mind, a time when he had to turn his back on the deaths of his comrades.

Against the appearance of harpies, the desperate struggles of a few mercenaries had been completely meaningless.

Death and death, followed by escape.

It was a painful memory.

Though he couldn't call them friends, he had still lost over a dozen comrades.

SCREEECH!

The harpy's cry had the effect of shaking a person's mind.

There were over five of them hovering up there.

Five crossbowmen were taking aim at the sky, but...

As seen a moment ago, shooting them down seemed impossible.

It was right after he stepped onto the battlefield.

"Felt like something fun was gonna happen. Are you okay?"

Rem asked from beside him, and at that moment, one of the harpies swooped down toward the two newcomers.

SWOOSH!

A descent that cleaved the wind. Its eagle-like talons were as hard as steel, so if you got caught by them and only had your eyes gouged out, you had to consider yourself lucky.

Because otherwise, your head would be ripped apart and burst open.

At the sight of the approaching harpy, Encrid dwelled on his past memories, but only for a brief moment.

He didn't leave regrets behind over things that had already passed.

Instead, he put his strength into the steps moving forward. Because that was how Encrid lived his life.

SHING.

He drew his sword.

For a moment, it felt as though his surroundings slowed down; at the same time, he traced out the movement paths connecting points and lines, and his Sixth Sense blared a warning.

The boldness granted by the Heart of a Beast poured strength into Encrid's entire body.

Timing it with the trajectory of the falling harpy, within that time that only he felt moving slowly, Encrid's sword struck out.