A Knight who Eternally Regresses - Chapter 84

Chapter 84: When He Decided to Save People, He Saw the Way

‘Heat.’

It was an explosion. Enkrid replayed the final moments over and over in his mind. It had happened so quickly, without any sort of warning. During the half-elf’s assassination attempt, he had at least exchanged a few words before dying.

This time, there was none of that. There was only the scorching pain and the searing agony due to death by fire. When stabbed by a sword or spear, it felt like being impaled by a heated iron skewer. This time, he had truly burned to death.

‘A trap? Judging by the explosion, it must have been a magic trap.’

“What are you thinking about?”

“About taking on a request.”

After finishing his breakfast, Enkrid responded to Rem’s question before heading back to the place where he was supposed to take on new requests.

“Please, I’m begging you. Handle this for me.”

Predictably, it was the sewing squad leader who was asking for a favor.

Did he know what condition that place was in when he sent me there? Judging by the dark circles under his eyes, he didn’t seem to be trying to trick anyone. There was no sign of deceit. He just looked like an exhausted soldier.

“Been busy lately?”

“The incidents caused by our own guys at night have decreased, but lately, more external monsters and beasts have been appearing, so we’ve had to divert our forces.”

He looked utterly despondent, and there was sincerity in his words. In truth, even if he was lying, Enkrid could just refuse the request, and even if he accepted, as long as he didn’t step inside the shoemaker’s shop, the same thing wouldn’t happen again.

It was something he could easily avoid.

‘This is a wall I can easily sidestep,’ he thought.

Enkrid then asked, “What if I don’t go?”

“Then it’ll just have to wait.”

There were requests that soldiers in the brigade had to take on, but this wasn’t one of them. It was something he could easily ignore.

“True, there’s no need to go. But that shoemaker isn’t the kind to spout nonsense. I’d like to check it out myself, but my platoon leader has been giving me the eye, so I can’t make it.”

He seemed genuinely concerned. Enkrid’s silence as he pondered his decision made the sewing squad leader speak up again.

“Hey, you remember me, right? Back then, with that bunch of leather, yeah?”

“I remember.”

Enkrid recalled the time they had returned to the city, when he had wondered if the guy was just a drunk, only to find him diligently working here now.

“I’m worried. Please check it out for me. I’ve known that guy since I was a kid.”

“Alright.”

Might as well go see for himself. He planned to check it out and at least figure out what was going on. Normally, if it were an ordinary trap, there would have been a poison dart or something rather than a fire explosion.

There had been no sound or indication of the trap activating. If it was magic, there was nothing he could do. Thinking wasn’t going to solve anything.

With that in mind, he walked to the shoemaker’s shop, arriving a bit later than usual. He knocked on the door, but there was no answer.

“This is the Border Guard. Open up.”

After knocking louder and calling out, the door finally opened. Instead of the shoemaker, a young woman appeared. She had long brown hair in a braid and a face full of freckles.

“The Border Guard?”

She asked, her eyes wide like a startled deer.

“I’m here regarding the request.”

He said as he peered inside. The shoemaker wasn’t there, but the gaping hole in the floor was.

“My father went down there. He said something’s under the shop.”

Damn it.

Enkrid muttered to himself and said, “Excuse me.”

He gently pushed past the startled shoemaker’s daughter and entered the shop. Dust crumbled from the edges of the hole in the floor.

‘He’s got a hell of a temper.’

The shoemaker had gotten tired of waiting for the soldiers and gone down himself. Maybe he thought no one was coming. Normally, he’d expect that soldiers wouldn’t easily respond to something like this.

“It’s dangerous, right? I told him not to go down there.”

The freckled woman was on the verge of tears. Then, clenching her teeth, she said, “I’ll go get him.”

“I’ll go. You wait here.”

“No, I have to go too.”

She didn’t look like she would listen if he tried to stop her. More importantly, he had to get down there and stop that explosion from happening.

Instead of trying to convince her, Enkrid leaped into the hole. He gripped the edge and slid his left foot in, using the slope to guide his descent. His movements were fluid.

Thanks to the Isolation Technique, controlling his entire body had become easier, and he could feel his physical abilities improving even in simple movements.

Of course, now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. As soon as he reached the bottom, Enkrid’s trained ears caught the sound of footsteps.

He looked ahead and saw the shoemaker fumbling as he stepped into the first passage. The shoemaker’s daughter, who had followed Enkrid down, tried to rush past him.

“Dad!”

Enkrid grabbed her by the waist and set her down behind him as he shouted:

“Stop!”

The shoemaker turned around, his face a mix of tension and confusion. However, it was too late. He had already taken the step.

Enkrid heard the loud bang as the air compressed, pressing against his body. It all happened in an instant.

Flames, fire, and an explosion.

Whoosh.

With a final gasp, the shoemaker’s last breath was cut off as the flames consumed Enkrid’s body. The shoemaker, his daughter, and Enkrid all perished.

Boom!

As he died, Enkrid thought about how the force of the explosion would shoot upwards.

A pointless death. As the pain subsided, darkness washed over him. Pushing through the dark, dreamlike river, he opened his eyes to face the same morning once again.

“Bad dream or something?”

Rem asked from beside him. It certainly wasn’t a good dream. In it, the boatman of the Black River had smiled at him.

In the past, when he repeated today, he felt like he always started and ended it on his own terms. But this time, he felt cheated.

It felt like an act of God.

‘If I leave them, they’re going to die.’

The father first, then the daughter. How far would the blast reach?

It didn’t matter. Once they were dead, it was a failure.

‘I could just ignore it.’

If Enkrid ignored it, those two would die. They would surely die. However, was that even a problem? It was a world of death and killing. That was the kind of world they lived in. He had taken up the profession of fighting on the battlefield, so Enkrid had killed countless people.

However,

‘Those people weren’t on the battlefield to kill or be killed.’

They were just trying to run their shop. Enkrid knew that the knight he dreamt of becoming wasn’t the kind of noble figure sung about by bards. He had to adapt to reality, to the changing world.

But still,

‘I don’t want to lose.’

He could just turn around and walk away. It wasn’t that big of a deal. It was just one more shoemaker and his daughter dying.

It was just that it was all happening right in front of Enkrid’s eyes, and he was the only one who knew they would die. If it were a war, something beyond his control, maybe he’d let it go.

But,

‘I can stop it.’

He couldn’t just leave it alone. He could stop it. He wouldn’t call this chivalry. It was just stubbornness. However, that didn’t mean Enkrid’s idea of chivalry had faded.

Even if no one else knew, if there was something he had to protect, he would protect it. That was what Enkrid thought being a knight meant.

One who dreams cannot betray that dream.

Therefore, Enkrid had to go there, to see the shoemaker and his daughter.

“Damn it.”

Enkrid rarely showed frustration, but he started his day with it. He was irritated at how slowly he had moved yesterday, which had led to the deaths of the shoemaker and his daughter.

“Must have had a pretty shitty dream.”

Rem muttered from behind.

As Enkrid began the day again, he spent the entire time, from eating breakfast to heading out to take on the request, deep in thought.

‘Should I go through each passage?’

There wasn’t a bad idea. He didn’t know how many traps were in those tunnels. But the fact was, no other method came to mind, and he couldn’t bring along any of his squad members.

‘What would they think if I asked them to join me in searching for an undead monster under a shoemaker’s shop?’

They’d probably tease him first and refuse to come. He could force them, but Enkrid didn’t feel like it. Would he rely on his squad members every time something happened or would he handle it alone?

Was his dream of becoming a knight about standing behind someone and barking orders or was it about standing at the front and swinging his sword?

He wasn’t sure if this situation would involve using his sword.

‘Do it alone. Protect it myself.’

It wasn’t something he should lean on his squad members for.

“The shoemaker’s worried. You know me, right?”

“I do. How was the snake liquor?”

“Delicious.”

With that, he took the request from the sewing squad leader and hurried off.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry?”

Jaxon asked from behind as Enkrid stepped out.

“To save some unlucky civilians at the shoemaker’s shop.”

“…Are shoes and boots harassing civilians now?”

No, it’s the underground tunnel causing trouble. Enkrid answered in his head and headed straight for the shoemaker’s shop.

Before he even reached the door, the sound of the shoemaker pounding something on the floor with a hammer greeted him.

Thud, thud!

Enkrid knocked on the door hard to announce his presence. The shoemaker, sweating from his brow, came out.

“Look, over here. That hole!”

“I see it. A hole. Let’s take a look.”

Enkrid helped open up the hole completely. He hammered and used a thick iron bar as a lever to pry up the boards. That was how the hole was made.

“I’ll go take a look. You wait here.”

“Well, if there’s a monster…”

“I’ll handle it.”

Before going down, Enkrid lit a torch with a flint.

Whoosh.

Just seeing the fire made him uneasy. Two experiences of burning to death were enough. As soon as he descended, Enkrid felt a strange sensation. It was an instinctive aversion brought on by the fear of death.

Enkrid didn’t want to enter that tunnel, but he didn’t turn back. He pushed through and moved forward.

If he avoided what he didn’t like, he would run away his entire life. He had run away many times before to survive. Each time, he had regretted it. He didn’t want to experience that regret again.

So Enkrid didn’t turn back. He moved forward. Stepping into the first tunnel filled him with a growing sense of unease. There were six tunnels in total, not counting the one he had first tried.

‘Which one is it?’

Surely they hadn’t trapped all of them after making a functional tunnel. Would the second one be safe?

Enkrid cautiously held up the torch and carefully examined the floor, walls, and ceiling. There was nothing particularly noticeable.

It was just another branching path. The tunnels were all about the same size. The inside was dark, and the end was not visible.

Who was the person who had built this crazy space under the city? It might even connect to the sewers.

Dust fell from above. It didn’t seem like a hastily made tunnel. He wondered if it would collapse and bury him alive. But now wasn’t the time to think about that. He needed to find out what was inside. He was getting curious about who had created this.

‘Let’s go.’

The second tunnel among the branching paths.

‘If I step into the first one, I’ll get caught in flames.’

What about here?

The moment he stood at the second tunnel’s entrance, Enkrid felt another surge of unease and wanted to turn back, but he ignored it and stepped forward.

The first step, taken with tension, didn’t cause anything unusual. No explosion, no flames, nothing else.

Enkrid cautiously observed his surroundings. He held up the torch again, carefully inspecting every corner. The conclusion he reached was:

‘I wouldn’t know even if I saw it.’

He was too busy clinging to his sword to worry about anything else. He had seen dungeons explored by mercenaries, but he had no knowledge of detecting traps. That was something only those properly trained could do.

So.

‘There’s no answer to this.’

He had no choice but to move forward. A sense of foreboding weighed heavily on him. It felt like a beast was waiting for him with its mouth wide open. It was like sticking his head into the mouth of a beast.

As he fought to push forward,

“What are you doing?”

The shoemaker, who had followed him down, asked from behind. That one question dulled the finely honed sense of foreboding he had been feeling, making the next step seem less significant.

The things he had sensed moments ago faded into the background.

“Don’t come any closer.”

Burning once to death with the shoemaker was enough.

As he took another step forward, that strange feeling returned. He couldn’t quite put it into words, but it was a similar sensation. Born from the unease, like he had just made a mistake.

‘A step I shouldn’t have taken.’

The sudden thought was immediately answered. Boom. It was the same as the first tunnel.

Explosion, pressure, and flames.

Whatever was hidden at the end of this tunnel. It was clear that a deadly trap had been prepared.

Bang.

With the sound of the explosion, he burned to death again. Of course, he didn’t just die.

‘Ah.’

As Enkrid died, he let out a short sigh in his mind. Despite the pain, the boldness of the beast allowed him to clearly assess his current senses.

As he ended his third day, Enkrid unexpectedly felt something.

And so, he greeted the fourth day.