Chapter 932 - Exchanging Fervor
To an outside observer, Enkrid's daily routine was monotonous enough to be called boring.
He woke at dawn and immediately began training.
His mornings were dedicated to physical conditioning—lifting tools made of Black Gold or striking his own abs with a hammer.
That was his morning routine, set against the backdrop of the blue dawn light.
When the sun rose, he ate a hearty breakfast of meat and stew, then picked up his sword.
From then until lunch, he focused solely on the basics.
It went beyond boredom; it was enough to make anyone watching click their tongue in disbelief.
Enkrid spent his entire morning refining basic swordsmanship.
Every single day. He wasn't trying to find some profound meaning in the repetition; he was simply doing it.
Just because.
Watching him, it became a daily routine for soldiers immersed in their own training to join him at the training grounds.
A spearman named Marco was a prime example.
Naturally, the entire Madmen Knights, including the squires, were always in attendance.
"Hey, Fallen Clemen! Let's settle the score today!"
Sparring matches broke out naturally among them.
It was, after all, what they did every day.
Everyone spent the entire day training around Enkrid.
This was the daily life of the Madmen Knights.
When lunchtime arrived, Enkrid would scout for prey—or in other words, a sparring partner.
"I choose you today. Fel, come out."
"I was your opponent yesterday, too, sir."
"Was that so?"
The conversations usually went something like that.
The words might change slightly, but the pattern remained the same.
He would spar and refine his techniques until evening, never missing a single day.
This was what Aurelia observed as she barely managed to keep up with the training regimen.
So, it was only natural that she stopped in her tracks, stunned, when she saw Enkrid lying on the ground, fast asleep, just before sunset one late afternoon.
"Hmm."
It felt like seeing the sun rise from the west.
Aurelia froze and observed the sleeping Enkrid.
'He's sleeping?'
That Enkrid?
At a time when training should be in full swing?
Looking closely, there wasn't even a bead of sweat on him.
'He looks... fresh?'
Was he really resting?
Enkrid was the type of man who scheduled his rest down to the minute.
"Without sufficient rest, the body has no time to recover."
Wasn't that what he said when he called soaking in a wooden?
"That is true, Brother."
Beside him, the bear beastkin—who called torture "flexibility training"—had laughed heartily and agreed.
'You call that rest?'
In Aurelia's eyes, it certainly wasn't.
But Enkrid made it work.
He calculated the minimum amount of rest required to keep his body from breaking down, and he took exactly that much.
'A human who lives for training.'
Or perhaps it was a mindset purely focused on the sword.
A madman who lived looking only at that one thing.
'The Madmen Knights.'
They hadn't been given that name for nothing.
It wasn't just that one bastard; everyone around him was the same, as if it were contagious.
Since Aurelia was clever, she realized what she had to do to survive here.
'I need to become like them.'
The process was already naturally seeping into her body.
"You're starting to look like you belong here."
That was what Krais, the man with the large eyes who occasionally joined the morning training, had told her.
'I understand it in my head, but...'
Enkrid was a fascinating person just to look at.
Once someone becomes a knight, they can force themselves through such training, but seeing someone actually do it day in and day out was a different matter.
'Resolve becomes will, and it shines.'
His resolve and will didn't just illuminate a single moment.
They were like a fire that would never go out, no matter what happened.
And now, that very man was lying on the grass in a corner of the training grounds, sleeping.
That spot wasn't even a proper training area; it was a patch of grass Krais had specially saw to, complaining that a place with nothing but dirt and training equipment looked too dreary.
It also served as an outdoor recovery bed for soldiers who fainted or collapsed from exhaustion.
'Should I wake him up?'
Seeing that no one else was reacting, leaving him be seemed like the right move.
Normally, her thoughts would have stopped there.
But due to the intense training narrowing her vision, and the surreal sight of Enkrid taking a nap, she found herself unconsciously reaching out.
Snap.
Someone snatched her wrist.
A slippery texture registered against Aurelia's skin.
Luagarne had grabbed her.
"Shh."
The Frog whispered.
Aurelia stepped back.
She had only taken two steps back, but her field of vision widened again.
'He's not sleeping.'
Everyone was continuing their work, ignoring Enkrid lying there.
When Aurelia asked with her eyes, Fel—Enkrid's sparring partner for the day—answered instead.
"He does that sometimes. Just leave him be. Don't try to understand it. Just put in some effort."
That was the only answer she got.
Even as Aurelia glanced back in surprise, Enkrid remained lying down, deep in thought.
He wasn't just thinking.
It was a time to mentally ruminate on the movements his body had repeated over the past few days.
To be precise, Enkrid was contemplating the changes in the Will swirling inside him.
'Straight and true.'
It moved through his body, upholding the intent of his Will.
At the same time, his thoughts branched out.
If it burned like fire, a swordsmanship resembling that nature emerged.
If it shifted like the wind, the sword followed suit.
So, what was the source?
'Rapid change.'
Fluidity meant being ready to change at any moment.
'Then what am I changing, and how?'
It was a question of direction.
The question had arisen one day, and he had spent days pondering the answer.
In this regard, he had an advantage over anyone else.
Hadn't he spent a lifetime crawling up from the bottom to reach where he was now?
He dug through and examined everything he possessed and everything he knew, piece by piece.
At times like this, Enkrid was a persistent, calm madman.
He was the kind of person who, if necessary, would build a mountain by gathering dirt with his bare hands.
This was the result of digging into each concept one by one.
Just before the sunset wrapped the world in its glow, Enkrid lay down on the grass.
He didn't care that the winter chill was rising from the ground.
He forgot the soft touch of the grass.
He just needed time to stop.
He closed his eyes and observed his inner self.
Digging, burrowing deeper.
'The Source.'
Becoming fire or becoming wind wasn't the core issue.
'Becoming Heavy.'
Extending straight and true, then shifting to become heavy.
'Sometimes.'
Driving fast, then wrapping softly.
Yet deceiving the previous form by changing instantly at any moment.
'Straight, Heavy, Illusory, Fast, Flow.'
Enkrid stopped his training and realized why Leonesis Oniac had divided the forms of swordsmanship in that specific way.
He had realized what the legend himself had realized.
'The five nature transformations are the core.'
Leonesis Oniac had categorized swordsmanship based on the changes of Will.
Enkrid sank deeper into himself, organizing his thoughts repeatedly.
Was this how a fisherman felt when hooking an unexpectedly massive fish?
'It's fun.'
Enkrid saw something new and felt a surge of euphoria.
His body thrilled from head to toe.
Even if this path led to a painfully unbearable death, it didn't matter.
The Ferryman's words, the swordsman who pierced his stomach—he forgot them all.
Enkrid fell into the present, as he always did.
'It's so much fun.'
He was enjoying the moment so much that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he had swung his sword just for this.
"This is really fun."
He spoke as he opened his eyes, and an answer returned.
"Is it?"
A black-haired beauty, Esther, looked down at him with the sunset at her back.
"Yeah. So fun."
"I agree."
Contrary to their words, their expressions were calm.
There was no need to broadcast their inner euphoria to the world, so neither showed any change on their faces.
Esther had also just returned after realizing something while researching new spells.
"Those two."
Aurelia, who had been watching, spoke quietly.
With the sunset falling around them, the Witch named Esther reached out her hand, and Enkrid took it to pull himself up.
The entire scene looked like a painting.
Famous painters and musicians had already created works inspired by the Madmen Knights, but if an artist saw this scene now, they would be struck by inspiration like lightning.
"Don't even think about it. To join that circle, you have to surpass a Fairy and a Witch."
Luagarne advised gently.
Aurelia immediately denied the implication.
"It's true I was charmed by seeing such a cool person, but not in that way. I came here with my future already promised."
Her chest tingled as she watched the two.
Perhaps it was because the words Ingis had said to her just before leaving the Southern Front came to mind.
"Aurelia, come hear my vow."
"What do you mean?"
"My vow belongs to you."
It was a knight's declaration that he would fight for his lady.
It was also a confession.
A confession befitting a knight.
Aurelia was satisfied.
Cypress's warning to Enkrid not to snatch his granddaughter had been sincere.
His granddaughter already had a knight who had guarded her side since childhood.
"His name is Ingis."
He had fallen in love at first sight as a child and had been consistent ever since.
The same was true for Aurelia.
"Your tone has finally softened."
Luagarne said, puffing out her cheeks.
It was the same for her; she had fallen for Enkrid, too.
But she was satisfied just being near him, even if her feelings weren't realized in a specific form or returned.
The whispers of the two went unheard by anyone else.
"But it's still far away."
Enkrid's words as he stood up spread through the clearing.
Everyone had stopped training to look at him.
All eyes were gathered on one spot.
It was a rare occurrence for people who usually cared only about their own training.
They reacted now because of the sincerity dripping from Enkrid's voice.
The words of the Demonic Knight—the man who cut a demon, the man who cut Beelrog—saying the goal was still far away bound everyone's hands and feet.
Enkrid had realized that the swordsmanship of the man who pierced his stomach wasn't just about rapid change.
It was far away.
He still had a long way to go.
He felt it in his bones.
'This is not the end.'
There was more ahead.
And that was delightful.
His heart beat faster, and expectation soared.
The Ferryman's illusion rose and whispered behind Esther.
-The wall remains. Mortal.
Ignored.
He was used to ignoring the Ferryman even in his dreams; a hallucination was nothing.
Esther spoke nonchalantly.
"Truth has no end. When we reach that end, what do we become? The ascension demons wish for ultimately means divinity. They want to seize that."
Esther wanted to ask:
Moving forward like this, where will you eventually reach?
Well, whatever question she threw, the answer would be the same.
Enkrid opened his mouth just then.
Not to answer her internal question, but to continue his earlier thought.
A continuation of his remark that the goal was still far away.
"Still, it's fun."
"For me, too."
Esther answered.
The conversation between the two set fire to the hearts of everyone watching.
"Woooooh!"
A soldier who had been sprawling on the ground, lamenting his lack of talent, sprang up.
"Right, that's how it was."
Soldier Marco recalled the forgotten beginning of his path.
What was the reason he held a spear for the first time?
Because it was fun.
Because it was enjoyable.
Fel smirked, and Dunbakel nodded, accepting it as an obvious truth.
It was a day like any other, yet a day unlike any other.
The sun set, and starlight illuminated the surroundings.
The winter wind was infinitely cold, but those in the training ground forgot the chill, warmed by the fire blooming inside each of them.
"Ha!"
The evening training that day was more lively than ever.
That energy fed back into Enkrid.
Heat and fervor.
They didn't spare themselves in the process of gathering, training, teaching, and learning from one another.
The sum of what was seen and learned in Yohan, and what was experienced and realized in their lives so far, gathered in the training ground that night.
'What is needed here is a system.'
There were many things piled up as theories, one by one.
He steadied his mind again and ruminated on his realization.
'Five changes.'
Everything derived from there would remain as his current swordsmanship.
'If told to do this from the beginning, no one could do it.'
Enkrid knew the path of climbing, step by step, using what had been piled up.
He started organizing the system the very next day.
"Time to stop fighting now."
Luagarne took charge of that work.
She was originally a scholar, not a combatant.
Judging by her skill, it would be fine to call her a semi-knight, but Luagarne was someone who enjoyed researching and organizing knowledge more than training and conditioning.
If the subject she was digging into, establishing, and researching was the fruit of the labor of the person she had fallen for, it would be even more enjoyable.
"I will quit fighting. The purpose of my life is here."
Luagarne declared her retirement.
Well, the only one hearing those words was Enkrid.
"If you want."
The answer was simple.
Because it was okay.
Enkrid respected the dreams of others, whoever they were.
If it was Luagarne, who was infinitely close to him, he had nothing but support for her.
"He told me to do everything you need. There was even talk of building a whole new building for you. What did you say to the Captain?"
Enkrid's sentiment was conveyed through Krais.
Luagarne laughed, puffing out her cheeks.
"I don't need that. A suitable room, a desk, and writing instruments that fit my hand will be enough."
Inserting two fingers into a ringed pen and writing as if wielding a sword was a specialty of the Frogs.
Due to their hand structure, it had to be so.
Krais granted that request.
***
About five days passed like this since Audin had left.
A letter arrived.
"A letter for Sir Rem."
It was a missive left since dawn by the soldier tasked with collecting and distributing mail.
The sender was Ayul.
***
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