A Knight Who Eternally Regresses - Chapter 267

Chapter 267: CHAPTER 265
There had never been such chaos.

People were shoving each other. A construction worker, caught in the crowd, was pushed to the ground and rolled towards Encrid. Desperately, he curled up and covered his head, doing whatever he could to survive.

Bang!

“Shut up and move!”

A few patrolmen were angrily shouting from beyond the crowd, swinging their spears.

Encrid’s senses were sharper than ever before.

A mix of heightened awareness and focus honed his instincts to a razor’s edge.

He remembered how he had captured the centaur leader.

Everything around him felt within reach, and he knew exactly how to use it all, where to step, and what to do.

In that state, Encrid remained still.

He half-closed his eyes, calmly catching his breath.

“Commander?”

Krais called out to Encrid, perhaps feeling uneasy at his behavior.

Aside from the worker rolling on the ground, a middle-aged woman and a young child had also been pushed down by the crowd.

No one wanted to be close to Encrid and risk getting caught in the fight, so they all hurried to distance themselves.

As the crowd moved away from Encrid, a clear circle formed around him, leaving the worker, the woman, and the child in his vicinity.

The child, terrified, was trembling uncontrollably. His clothing was torn, and he was bleeding from a scraped elbow after rolling on the ground.

“He’s hurt.”

Krais remarked, looking at the child.

But he didn’t step forward. If it had been a girl, maybe he would have, but it was a boy, and Krais knew that moving recklessly at this moment wouldn’t be wise.

He wasn’t a great fighter, but he knew his role well.

Now was the time to trust his Commander and hold his ground.

The boy, head bowed, was too scared to even sob, only darting his frightened eyes around.

Encrid, after quietly catching his breath, threw the dart he had been holding.

His arm moved so quickly that it was barely visible. As his arm cut through the air, the dart had already flown, aiming for the worker’s thigh.

But the worker twisted his ankle to dodge it.

With a slight swish, the dart skimmed the thick fabric of the worker’s trousers and embedded itself in the ground.

It might have seemed like a lucky escape. The movement was that precise.

But in a situation like this, could it really be just luck?

The dodge was instinctive and reflexive, but in doing so, he had essentially admitted his true nature.

He could have been surprised by the sudden dart, but the worker immediately flicked his hand.

Six darts left his hand.

Three aimed at Encrid’s chest and stomach.

Three aimed at Krais’s forehead, chest, and thigh.

It was a trick.

Before the darts could even leave his hand, Encrid’s left hand, holding the gladius, moved.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!

All six darts were deflected harmlessly into the air.

Then, a child who had somehow snuck behind them suddenly thrust a sword forward.

The child had moved so stealthily and swiftly that it was impossible to tell when he had gotten so close.

Where had they hidden such a sword in their small body? The short sword, about the length of a forearm, appeared out of nowhere.

The child gripped the hilt with both hands and stabbed with all his might. It was fast. It was a sharp strike aimed perfectly at a vulnerable spot.

As soon as Encrid deflected the darts, he smoothly turned his body.

His movement seemed as if he had anticipated the attack from behind.

As he turned and extended his sword, the short sword met the gladius. With a ‘ting’, the short blade was deflected to the side, and Encrid’s gladius struck the boy’s chest.

Thud!

It seemed the child was wearing sturdy leather armor underneath, as the blade didn’t cut through easily.

But just because the strike was smooth didn’t mean it lacked power.

After deflecting the shortsword, Encrid delivered a follow-up strike that caved in the boy’s chest.

Encrid’s strength had now reached a level where even a glancing blow could be lethal, strong enough to arm-wrestle a Frog.

“Ugh.”

The boy coughed painfully, clearly hit hard.

Despite this, he stubbornly reached into his coat. But the boy wouldn’t have his way.

A small panther, moving silently, swiped its paw and struck the boy’s chest.

Crunch!

The sound of breaking bones echoed loudly.

The boy choked, his movements ceasing.

The blow had shattered the boy’s wrist and delivered a decisive second impact to his chest.

With his hand still inside his coat, the boy’s life was snuffed out.

And then.

“You damn brat.”

Finally, one of the assassins spoke, disguised as a middle-aged noblewoman.

Encrid heard her, but he was already on the move. Or rather, he had already completed the action in his mind.

By that time, he had already deflected the incoming darts, shattered the child’s chest from the rear ambush, and stopped with his right hand extended forward.

Three actions performed in a single breath.

Deflecting the darts, pushing away the sword from behind, and thrusting forward with his right hand.

His outstretched hand was aimed at the worker who had thrown the darts.

A knife struck the forehead of the man who had been trying to pull something out.

His head snapped back violently before he collapsed to his knees and then fell forward.

Instant death.

“What did you say?”

Encrid finally responded, as the well-dressed middle-aged woman threw something at her feet.

Bang!

It was a smoke bomb. A thick white smoke quickly spread in all directions from the ground.

“Esther.”

Encrid, with just that word, entrusted Krais with the situation and focused his hearing.

He sensed their movements, relying on his sixth sense and hearing.

They were heading outside the estate, running furiously in one direction.

He also realized that she wasn’t alone.

‘How many of them are there?’

He couldn’t help but recall the half-blood Fairy who had come before. The assassin who had gifted him the whistling dagger and then disappeared.

These assassins, like that Fairy, probably had hidden weapons, secret techniques, and many tools suited for killing.

When he fought the half-blood Fairy, he had foreseen countless moments like this.

So, what about today?

Encrid was confident. He had gauged his enemies and recognized his current strength.

Above all, these people weren’t the type to simply leave quietly if left alone.

Letting go of the blade aimed at him wasn’t in his nature.

Thus, Encrid immediately took action.

“Krais, clean this up.”

He left behind just one simple command.

“Huh?”

A bewildered response came from behind, but that big-eyed company member had a sharp mind and would handle it.

Encrid chased after the group of assassins on the move.

* * *

‘Clean up this mess?’

Krais stood idly among the panicking crowd, enveloped by the smoke bomb.

‘Did all the assassins really leave?’

Wasn’t there one who had thrown darts at him earlier?

As he stood there, a breeze began to clear the smoke.

It didn’t seem to be a poisonous smoke.

‘If it were poisoned, it wouldn’t have dispersed so easily.’

“Goddamn it! Everyone shut up and keep your heads down!”

An uncontrolled crowd was no different from a mob. And controlling a mob required force.

In the midst of the chaos, a patrolman swung his spear at someone’s head who was causing a commotion nearby.

Whack!

The blow was hard enough to draw blood, and the person stumbled sideways.

“Agh!”

The scream was inevitable. The struck resident was shoved aside.

The patrolman’s neck veins bulged as he shouted.

Maintaining order was one of the things Marcus considered important.

The soldiers were doing their jobs.

An assassination here? An ambush here? Chaos here?

If they handled this poorly, they all might end up dead.

‘That’s how it should be.’

In that case, the patrol would quell the chaos on their own.

Krais, visualizing his role in his head, shifted his gaze.

He noticed the dead child.

Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t really a child. The face was sunken, with wrinkles around the eyes and mouth.

The hunchback too—each of them had peculiar appearances.

Krais’s eyes were drawn to the shortsword the figure had been holding.

The sword lay on the ground, gleaming with some kind of coating.

‘Poison.’

He had anticipated this before.

What were the Black Blade Bandits planning?

‘Coercion.’

If that failed, the next step would be intimidation.

What kinds of threats would those entail?

The first would be an ambush on their return journey.

After sending mercenaries—hired blades not part of their group—they must have realized:

‘The Swift Blade and the mercenaries didn’t work?’

Would they just give up then?

‘If it were me?’

He wouldn’t. Retreating now would drag the name of the Black Blade Bandits through the mud.

It was as if they were asking: Did you think we would just leave it at that?

He hadn’t expected such a large-scale assassination attempt.

Krais scratched his head, glancing around at the now quieter crowd.

“Esther, I’ll leave it to you.”

He spoke, knowing that if any assassins were left, he was as good as dead.

But he couldn’t just abandon the task the Commander had given him and leave.

He had a rough idea of their intentions. There were likely no assassins left here.

Their target was Encrid.

If it had been an attack on the estate, that would be an entirely different matter.

A deliberate massacre of the Kingdom’s citizens?

In that case, the Knights might get involved. No matter how busy and preoccupied they were, they could certainly take action to cut down a few bandits.

‘A clean way to handle this without escalating it to that point.’

They were targeting just one person.

So what they were doing now was a diversion. Could Encrid have gone without realizing that?

‘Not a chance.’

“Alright, everyone, calm down. You there, stop stepping on other people’s things. Those of you who set up stalls, pack up your goods for now. Construction workers, gather to one side and keep your heads down. Patrolman, what unit are you with?”

“Second Company, Second Platoon, under Vengeance’s command.”

Vengeance’s subordinates.

Krais nodded and spoke to the two patrolmen.

“Stop hitting and start cleaning up.”

The patrolmen and other soldiers quickly gathered. With the combined effort of more than a squad and Krais’s sharp eye, the situation was soon under control.

“My goods, my goods were damaged in all this.”

“Come on, you were just selling a few wooden arrows. Why keep going on about your goods? Only a few of them even got broken.”

“You saw?”

The merchant, who had been on the verge of tears as if he’d lost everything, quickly changed his expression.

Krais silenced the shameless merchants with a few sharp words and then consoled those who had suffered real losses.

“Do you know what’s great about our Battalion Commander? He’s got plenty of gold. Now, I can’t compensate you for the goods you lost, but there are plenty of jobs available. Work as a laborer for a month or two, and you’ll make more money than you would have from selling those goods.”

Krais knew how to turn a crisis into an opportunity. After all, they needed to widen the main road, build watchtowers, and finish the moat, didn’t they?

And then they’d need to build a drawbridge, right?

So, they needed more hands. The more workers, the better. They had plenty of Krona to pay for it.

“Alright, those of you with experience in construction, please step aside and let us know.”

He seized the moment, deciding to move things in a direction that would benefit the estate.

The people quickly adapted to the sudden change.

The ambush was an ambush, the smoke was smoke, the cold was cold, and Krona was Krona.

With a nod from Krais, two soldiers collected the bodies while Krais, now surrounded by people, shouted out.

“Who here has built a building before? Raise your hand!”

* * *

You can’t just lure them with Krona.

You can’t just sweet-talk them into moving out of the way.

So, what do you do when someone stands in your path?

You hand a piece of metal to a passerby and say:

“Go and stab them.”

If that’s all it takes to solve the problem, then what’s the best course of action?

Simple, but effective.

That’s what the Black Blade Bandits did.

Encrid knew this was a trap.

As he ran, he dodged more than five volleys of darts.

And amidst it all—a familiar sound rang out.

Wheeeeeee!

Assassins who used Whistling Daggers weren’t common.

Encrid instinctively pinpointed the location of the assassin using the Whistling Dagger.

Instead of sneaking around, which wasn’t his style, he charged straight ahead.

Naturally, this made him an easy target. The assassins, all running together, threw everything they had at him.

But Encrid, using the sword in his left hand, deflected every projectile, proving that it could serve as a shield.

Some of the assassins were shocked as they watched Encrid.

‘What the hell is this guy?’

‘Weren’t they saying that the people around him were the problem?’

‘Why isn’t anything even grazing him?’

Everything was coated with poison, so even a slight touch should have been enough.

But nothing even grazed him.

And when a Whistling Dagger was thrown, he casually snatched it out of the air and pocketed it.

Was he aware that this was the only weapon not coated with poison?

How was he even doing that? Catching a Whistling Dagger in mid-air?

Even within the Black Blade Bandits, there were several renowned assassins, but none of them would dare to attempt such a feat.

Encrid deflected incoming bolts with his sword, his gaze swiftly scanning his surroundings, always landing exactly where the assassins were hiding.

The group of assassins, nevertheless, continued towards the agreed location.

That location was in the northeastern part of the estate, between the upper garrison and the estate itself, in a reed field that rose up to waist height.

The Black Blade Bandits didn’t know.

They didn’t know exactly.

They knew there were dangerous people around Encrid, but they didn’t realize that Encrid himself was a threat.

Misunderstandings and assumptions can be dangerous and threatening.

At least for these assassins, their misconceptions, misunderstandings, and lack of information were synonymous with meeting the Grim Reaper.