“Believe it or not, I’m indebted to you. I am Pel, the Shepherd of the Wilderness. I hope we can et again soti.”
Shepherd Pel said. Encrid, with the moonlight behind him, nodded.
Pel, unable to hold back, spoke as he looked at Encrid.
“I’ve never seen a genius like you.”
Encrid did not bother to deny the words.
In fact, even if Pel had said, “Is your head broken?” he would have let it slide.
Such was the thrill, the joy that filled his entire body.
He was intoxicated by the realization that he had discovered sothing new, sothing he wanted to test again and again.
“Can I be cut one more ti?”
That’s why. Even though Encrid saw Pel’s expression twist miserably, he couldn’t help himself, even knowing his words sounded like those of a madman.
“Um, uh, yes.”
The defeated have no words. He did as instructed.
The forr soldier looked at him with eyes full of anticipation as he stabbed his forearm with a knife. Pel thought the guy was a madman.
He had heard the nickna ‘Mad Company Commander’ once, and it wasn’t an empty title.
It suited him more than ‘Forr Soldier’.
No, are all geniuses like this?
Co to think of it, there was soone similar in his group.
Did he have to go mad to catch up to that person?
It was the mont when Encrid made soone abandon their sanity.
Of course, Encrid didn’t realize it.
After being cut again,
“Die!”
A clear demand echoed between the screams and roars. It was a will, a pressure.
Encrid focused his mind and responded.
“No.”
He deflected it. Even though it was the second ti, he felt he no longer needed practice.
‘It’s not difficult.’
That was also quite enjoyable.
Every ti he learned sothing, he had to roll and tumble. He had to struggle and fight.
To learn The Heart of the Beast, he had to truly die, not just surpass death.
Nothing was ever easy.
This wasn’t easy either.
There had been over four hundred days like ‘today’.
But once he realized the ‘rejection’, it felt as natural as if it had always been part of his body.
It felt like there was nothing easier in the world.
After deflecting the second will, his head spun.
It was a phenonon that occurred when he concentrated excessively.
Drip.
His nose started to bleed.
“…Are you okay?”
Pel asked. Encrid, estimating the ti, replied.
“Can I do it one more ti?”
Maybe he could do it one more ti.
Then Pel’s face contorted as if he had seen sothing he shouldn’t have.
In the end, Encrid received the third stab.
A knife mark was left on his forearm, like drawing a line.
“Die.”
A dizziness engulfed his mind. The opponent’s will, demand, and pressure suffocated his heart. It choked his neck and tried to burst his heart.
Encrid answered effortlessly.
“No.”
Imdiately after rejecting the demand and pressure, Encrid closed his eyes and fainted.
“Huh? Madman?”
He thought Pel had called him sothing strange before he fainted.
“Commander!”
I think I heard Bell’s voice from behind.
In any case, Encrid fell with a smile.
The shimring black river looked like a thick, dark fog.
A boat floating above the black clouds, the ferryman on it, and a violet lamp.
It was the usual sight.
The sight he always saw when talking to the ferryman.
However, if there was sothing different from before,
“You.”
The ferryman stopped speaking.
Encrid looked at his face. The face, which used to show only one eye vaguely, now revealed his eyes, nose, mouth, and skin.
His skin was the color of gray pebbles.
Black eyes matching the black river, a high nose bridge, and dull gray lips were visible.
He didn’t look human by any ans.
But neither did he resemble a giant, a Frog, a Fairy, or a Dragon.
It made sense because he was sothing unknown, beyond Encrid’s comprehension.
Or he might be sothing like a God.
Or maybe a demon.
“Is getting stabbed a hobby?”
Why would he say that with such an appearance?
Soon, Encrid thought that the change in the ferryman’s tone was partly his own fault.
“I prefer being stabbed with a knife.”
Hadn’t their conversations always been like this?
The ferryman quickly changed the subject.
“You’re walking because you’re mad, and you’re seeing because you’re mad. How do I look? My face?”
The ferryman asked.
Encrid answered honestly.
“You wouldn’t be popular with either gender.”
Though perhaps demons or the offspring of demons might fancy him.
The ferryman chuckled without answering.
His mouth remained still, but the laughter echoed through the space.
His mind beca distant and hazy. His vision blurred as well.
Encrid thought the ferryman’s laughter seed to contain a hint of absurdity, but he couldn’t grasp the ferryman’s true feelings.
In the spot where Encrid disappeared, the ferryman murmured over the black river.
“So, did you enjoy crossing the wall?”
Had Encrid been there, he would have nodded a hundred tis.
When he opened his eyes, he imdiately knew that today was not repeating itself.
“Why did you co back with knife wounds after going out in the evening? No, did you intentionally get stabbed? Why didn’t you tell ? I could have drawn prettier cuts with my axe.”
Having just woken up, he couldn’t understand what Rem was saying.
Ignoring Rem’s words, he lifted his head.
Pel must have left.
It was Bell who brought Encrid here.
Bell must have said a lot since he witnessed the fight.
Even if he didn’t want to, after seeing him being carried in at night, Rem and the others wouldn’t have left him alone.
A short thought clarified the situation.
He understood what Rem was saying too.
“Does your axe have anything in it?”
“Killer instinct?”
Rem retorted without backing down. Is this guy bored?
“What about Dunbachel?”
“She’s unconscious.”
What did he do to knock out a beastwoman?
Dunbachel didn’t seem like soone with low stamina.
Of course, not as strong as a Giant.
“Are you going today too, brother?”
Audin asked. Encrid realized he had missed the morning training.
The sun was already high. Even with his regenerative and healing body, he had slept until noon?
‘It’s putting a strain on my body.’
He’s beginning to grasp what ‘will’ is. Though it’s still hard to define, displaying the will to refuse was now as easy as pulling a coin out of his pocket.
However, doing it and enduring it are different matters.
“Ugh!”
He blew his nose to relieve the stuffiness, and a blood clot ca out.
“That’s disgusting.”
Rem grumbled. He had an axe at his waist, was sweating slightly, and based on the fact that Dunbachel had fainted, it seed he had just co back from knocking her out.
The only ones watching him wake up were Rem and Audin.
Well, Esther, who was taking a nap on one side, was also there.
Since it wasn’t the first ti he had collapsed, no one was particularly surprised or alard that he had fainted.
They only asked who the opponent was.
Of course, Bell, the delivery man, had nothing to report.
“Who was it?”
They were asking about the opponent who had co last night.
For him, it was soone he had spent over four hundred ‘todays’ with, so they were familiar and well-known.
“Pel.”
He stated the na right away for that reason.
“Oh, Pel. Yeah, it was Pel.”
Rem said without any change in expression.
My mistake.
“The Shepherd of the Wilderness.”
He corrected himself.
A mad group that herds sheep against monsters and beasts, that’s the Shepherds of the Wilderness.
It’s a na not easily forgotten by anyone who has lived by the sword on this continent.
“Hm? Why did those guys co all the way here?”
“How should I know?”
Whether they were wandering in training or just passing by on so errand.
Co to think of it, he didn’t ask about any of that.
“Looked like you had fun?”
Rem asked again. Why did he have so many questions?
“Quite.”
“You fainted with a smile, Commander. I don’t think you’ve ever done that even when fighting until your eyes rolled back.”
Fainting with a smile…
He chuckled and shook his head.
“You’re annoying. Move.”
Since he skipped morning training, he needed to finish that first.
“I’ll go to the market in the afternoon.”
“Really, brother?”
Audin nodded with his usual smile.
No one tried to stop him. Rem, having asked all his questions, threw his axe aside and went off to wash up.
After training in the Isolation Technique, he did a quick equipnt check and swung his sword a few tis in the air before getting ready to leave.
In the anti, Jaxon ca in and then went back out.
Krais ca in and asked if he was okay.
“It’s a good age to eat good things.”
He joked playfully.
Encrid told him to hand over anything good he had and enjoyed the new ‘today’.
There had been over four hundred ‘todays’.
He had sparred and trained with them during that ti, but being stuck in the sa day forever couldn’t be purely enjoyable.
So, this new ‘today’ was welco.
Even though it wasn’t always the sa, it was a ‘today’ only he rembered.
Because of that, he tried not to talk to them much and passed by indifferently.
He had already realized why having a ‘today’ only he rembered was a curse.
Because of that, he could move on. He could forget the tis he faced alone.
Above all, the realization of refusal he gained by surpassing those ‘todays’ gave him such a sense of fulfillnt and joy.
“What makes you so happy?”
Just as he was about to leave, Ragna asked. It seed he intended to follow, as he had a sword hanging from his waist.
It wasn’t a good sword. He had picked it up again from a previous battlefield.
If he gets the chance, it would be nice to get him a decent sword.
His tone was rough and could easily be mistaken for picking a fight, but knowing that wasn’t his intent, he answered simply.
“The weather is nice.”
At those words, Ragna looked up at the sky.
Yesterday was certainly good weather. But today seed a bit gloomy, didn’t it? The clouds were slowly taking on a dark gray hue.
Soon, they would turn into storm clouds, and it looked like it might pour.
Autumn rain is a symbol of changing temperatures, a sign that sumr is gradually coming to an end.
“This weather?”
Ragna asked.
“After seeing only bright days.”
It was an inexplicable answer. Obvious to Encrid, but not to others.
Though he usually preferred bright days over cloudy ones, it had been the sa weather for over four hundred days.
Even if it poured and filled his boots with water, any change was welco at this point.
After loosening up with the Isolation Technique and compressing his morning training, Encrid headed to the market.
Entering the inn, the innkeeper, Allen, greeted him.
“It’s nice to see you often these days, but are you alright?”
Being a Company Commander in the Border Guard was almost the highest position one could attain without being a noble.
Allen was respectful.
Encrid found Allen’s comnt about seeing him often quite strange.
For him, it was today after nearly four hundred days.
“Well, I might stop coming before we get too attached.”
Allen laughed at Encrid’s response, thinking it was a joke.
Entering the training hall, he saw the Rapier Swordsman leaning against the wall.
“Have you been waiting?”
“I expected you to co today.”
“First?”
“No, the other three didn’t want that.”
The Rapier Swordsman crossed his arms as he spoke. Then he continued,
“Today is the last. It’s a pain you don’t have to go through. You don’t have to challenge it.”
“That’s for to decide. If you’re scared, you can run away.”
Encrid’s words were like the finest blade on the continent.
Even a short remark, when delivered appropriately, could beco a deadly dagger.
“Indeed.”
The Rapier Swordsman hated the words ‘coward’ and ‘run away’ so much that upon hearing Encrid’s words, he steeled himself.
‘With authority.’
Breaking that dream would be good for that guy too.
To aim higher requires talent. Based on what he had observed, he didn’t know what kind of luck played a role, but this is the limit. The end.
Encrid must have exhausted every ounce of talent he had.
No, not just exhausted, he must have pulled out talents he didn’t even have.
Therefore, this is the end.
Encrid walked past the Rapier Swordsman.
The Swordsman, watching his back, frowned.
His gait seed oddly different.
He couldn’t quite pinpoint it, but it had changed.
In just one day?
Even if he changed, what could have changed? His mindset, at most.
Next to him, a barbarian soldier who followed Encrid spoke up.
“Our Commander sotis gets even more broken in just a day, so don’t worry too much. If it gets too extre, my axe might start dancing, so be careful.”
“Don’t worry, brother. He’s not soone who will die from just pressure.”
A soldier resembling a big bear added.
Always passing by indifferently, the blonde soldier.
A red-haired soldier, who had already taken a spot, as if he had been there the whole ti.
Everyone who needed to gather had gathered.
Those staying at the inn, even those Encrid had faced four hundred days ago, began to appear one by one.
Among them, Edin Molsen stepped forward with an unusually stern face.
“I challenge you to a duel.”
Had he not suffered enough already?
While everyone thought this, Encrid fell into serious contemplation.
‘What was this guy’s na again?’
It had been four hundred days. He had forgotten the na.
“What was your na again?”
Sohow, this was like Edin Molsen’s trigger switch.
“What?”
For Encrid, it had been four hundred days, but for Edin Molsen, just a few.
Forget my na? My na?
Edin Molsen lost his temper.
“Fine, I’ll kill you!”
Clang!
Edin drew his sword and charged forcefully.
The guard watching frowned. Falling for such a provocation.
Encrid regretted asking the na as he used his hands and feet.
There was no need to draw his sword, so he didn’t.
Watching the approaching sword, he moved with the steps learned from the Fluid Sword Technique.
With smooth steps, he dodged the blade. It was like a prearranged duel.
Dodging ca first, and then Edin Molsen’s blade cut through the space where Encrid had been.
It was a trick made possible by advance observation, judgnt, and prediction, but to an observer, it might look like a choreographed performance.
Why swing the sword at an empty spot?
Then Encrid’s backhand struck Edin Molsen’s wrist.
Smack!
Entering within a step, he then pushed the opponent’s abdon with his palm.
Thud!
Valaf-Style Martial Arts, Palm Thrust.
From the ankle, through the waist, and shoulders, a rotational force was added to the palm strike.
Adding Encrid’s strength to it, it was by no ans a light blow.
But the surprising part wasn’t just that.
Previously, when Encrid had knocked Edin Molsen down with one strike, it was half a gamble.
Now it wasn’t. He was overflowing with confidence. It was as if he had beco a different person in just one day.
After pushing the opponent away, Encrid looked at his palm and thought.
‘Why is it so easy?’
Has this guy’s skill deteriorated because he forgot his na?
That couldn’t be the case.
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