"What are you saying all of a sudden?"
Enkrid was a knight, and he had sharp senses. His eye for things was on a different level too. He couldn't know Cypress's condition perfectly just by looking, but if you looked at things like presence and the way he walked, you could tell he could still fight.
But Cypress spoke with sincerity filling him to the brim. In those words he tossed out like that, there wasn't any lie mixed in.
Well, seeing how he'd fooled the High Pontiff with the leg injury at the end, it did catch him that he was a veteran who'd tempered a deceiving sword for many years. He would be the kind of person who was very good at lies filled with sincerity.
Cypress said again.
"In reality, you should say I can't fight, conditionally."
Enkrid quietly listened to his explanation.
A knight of oaths and resolve.
If you summarized Cypress's life, you'd have to put it like that. Up until now, you couldn't even count how many times the Southern Front had nearly collapsed. What blocked off every one of those battlefields was thanks to Cypress and the Red Cloak Order of Knights' performance.
In particular, Sir Cypress had achieved feats to the point he got the nickname, "Somehow Gets It Done."
"My Will is tangled up in constraints, bound up. If I break the constraints, it becomes harder to use Will."
Knight Cypress, after making it through several crises, swore to the Will inside him.
"I won't use Will outside the Southern Front."
That was his oath. If he hadn't done that, the front would have been breached long ago. If he hadn't done it, there was nobody who could stop it.
"Even when Knight Oara was in danger, even during the civil war, I wasn't in any position to help anyway."
His power was limited to this front. In exchange, he exceeded his limits and stopped things that were hard to bear.
It was no different from a single small dam blocking a flooding current all by itself. His life was like that.
"Then just keep guarding here well."
Enkrid answered.
"Aren't you surprised?"
"I was surprised."
"Doesn't look like it."
"Was I supposed to swallow down even a gust of hot air?"
Inside, he'd guessed he must have done something. He just didn't know exactly what it was.
Hadn't they pressed their backs together and matched their breathing, swinging their swords?
When he saw him throw himself in without hesitation at the last moment, he realized the knight in front of him was only carrying out what he'd already imagined and prepared many times over.
'Without dying countless times.'
Even if, unlike him, he didn't repeat today, the knight in front of him had died countless times in his head. Every time Rihinstetten pulled out a new strategy and charged in, he braced himself for death. Every moment, he endured with firm determination and hardened his resolve.
'The density of Will.'
It was something Enkrid learned while looking at Cypress. The density of Will isn't all the same. Cypress was the person with the densest Will Enkrid had ever seen.
If you compared it to wine, it was like the oldest aged liquor on the continent. A wine whose aroma would dye everything around it just from opening the cork. While he was thinking, Cypress happened to bring up alcohol.
"His Majesty handed out a few bottles of precious liquor, and I also have a few bottles I'd saved to drink when the war with the southern bastards ended. Want a drink? I'm planning to hold a banquet tonight. A victory banquet."
"Someone else in the Order will cheer louder than I will. Yes, I'll attend."
"I'd appreciate it. A banquet without a war hero is meaningless, isn't it?"
"Are you skipping the banquet?"
"Not me."
A few stupid jokes, and along with the story of burning the High Pontiff's corpse, and the story that his son was soft but didn't look like someone who would snap—things like that went back and forth between the two.
***
'Listen to what your body is saying.'
He recalled what Cypress had said on the battlefield. As expected, it was true, but the explanation had been a mess.
'It's not listening to what your body is saying.'
You have to face and grasp the changes happening in the body, and adjust the density of Will to match.
So it meant to change the way you use Will according to physical changes.
'This is hard to say too, though.'
If someone who didn't know heard it, they'd say, 'Density? What's that?' But the mad knights would all understand, so it wouldn't be bad to talk about this kind of thing later. Besides, he'd spent days refining the theory he'd established while fighting the High Pontiff, so he had plenty to say.
"Hey, if you spill even one drop, I'm chopping your head clean off."
A banquet in an army—on top of that, in the field—was different from what you saw in a city. At this point, wasn't it right to see it as just a drinking party?
All around, they roasted whole pigs and things like that, and from wine on up to whiskey and fruit liquor, all kinds of alcohol came out.
The nobles' army spent the supplies they'd brought without holding back. They said it was traditional field cooking to roast an entire smoked ham chunk and eat it with bread placed on top.
When the greasy scent of ham mixed with the dry bread, it was pretty edible.
The owner of the shout stuck in Enkrid's ear right now was Rem. It was aimed at Lien, who was holding liquor that had come from the south.
Lien wasn't a soft man. When Rem said something, he sneered and openly spilled the liquor. Seeing that, a murderous air gathered in Rem's eyes.
That said, he hadn't spilled it because he really wanted to fight.
"Cheers."
Lien, who'd done something strange, grinned wide.
How should he put it.
'That bastard too.'
He wasn't normal.
Lien pretended to spill the liquor and caught all of it in another cup. A little trick. If not even one drop splashed, it looked like he even used Will just to catch it.
In the end, when Rem took the bottle from Lien's hand, a man who looked like a bear beastman smiled and said from the side.
"You're a bold and fun brother. You use Eilkaraz-style martial arts?"
"No."
"What?"
"It's not that I use it, I'm a master. You can call me a martial arts master."
Lien said, showing off the muscles in his forearm, exposed because he was wearing only short sleeves even in the cold weather. Veins stood out clearly over the densely packed muscles in his forearm. The campfire painted color over his forearm, and his tone had the feel of someone who'd rolled around the back alleys of the city.
"You really are a fun brother."
Audin spoke and tried to grab Lien's wrist, and Lien twisted his wrist again and instead went for Audin's wrist. Both of them held cups in their other hands, and with their free hands, they kept tapping the backs of each other's hands and fingers.
It looked like light play, but both of them were knights. There was a lot of force loaded into their gestures. Even so, nobody stopped them or said anything.
"So you two are inseparable friends, then?"
Ingis said toward Pel and Lawford.
"What? You want to die?"
"Sir Ingis, please retract that. This tacky bastard is one of the members I teach."
"Who's teaching who? You wanna die?"
Watching Lawford and Pel bicker looked really warm and familiar. To Ingis, it did.
Well, they said no, no way, even if they died, but there probably weren't many people whose hands and feet matched as well as those two.
"I have a fiancé. So courting is forbidden."
Shinar aimed to solidify her position even here. Wasn't she shouting as if she were giving a speech in front of a crowd of soldiers?
"My fiancé is over there."
Her finger, naturally, pointed at Enkrid.
"If you come visit Border Guard later, there's a witch who'll gouge your eyes out just for looking."
She was in a pretty excited state. You could tell for sure from the way she was adding stupid lines.
'Because he killed a demon?'
That would be it. Fairies hate demons. Most of the fairies Enkrid knew were like that.
The liquor that had come from the south was sweet and poisonous, and poisonous and strongly fragrant. How should he put it—he should say the fragrance was hot?
Just smelling it made it feel like heat traveled down his throat. And it stimulated his salivary glands too.
"I'm starting to think the royal family has a tradition of keeping one or two bottles of precious liquor stashed away."
Crang said with a smile beside him. Enkrid nodded in agreement.
As the campfire crackled, raucous laughter came from here and there.
"Sir. Later, please spar with me once."
In the middle of it, quite a few Red Cloak Order of Knights members showed interest in Ragna, showing him admiration and competitiveness at the same time.
"How did you hone sanctity like that?"
The priesthood sent from Legion showed great interest in Audin and Teresa.
Before he knew it, several priests had gathered in a tight bunch in front of the two, and Audin and Teresa spoke in unison. It was like they'd practiced taking turns.
"In a healthy body."
Audin said.
"A healthy mind dwells."
Teresa followed.
"And outstanding sanctity stays."
Audin finished again. Even the small smile was perfect. On top of that, Teresa added humming.
"Huh?"
The priest who'd asked tilted his head.
"We'll teach you the training method."
Most likely, starting tomorrow, until they left this place, they would suffer hellish muscle soreness.
It was while Enkrid was looking around and having a few cups to drink.
"I'll be a moment."
Crang left his seat, and someone else filled that spot. With a small clattering sound, she sat down and tossed something like dry branches into the campfire.
Crackle—sparks flew. The red light painted color over her face. Even the scar looked like part of her beauty.
Her name was Aurelia Everhold.
After acting as if she were having a staring match with the campfire for a moment, Aurelia opened her mouth.
"Thank you for saving Master."
Cypress didn't hide that he would have died if it weren't for Enkrid.
To her, Master was family before he was the commander, and the grandfather she'd relied on since she was young. If Master had died in this battle, she would have felt like vomiting blood from self-reproach.
So she couldn't help but express gratitude to the one who saved her grandfather and Master.
Enkrid stared straight at Aurelia's face. Maybe because of the fire, her cheeks seemed faintly red.
Even so, her straightened back and posture were perfectly straight. Even after having a few cups to drink, it was posture without any looseness. Something stiff is easy to break. Something hardened can't be soft.
Like her posture right now.
'That's why it's hard.'
People don't change with one piece of advice. He knew. Still, in some moments, inspiration surges up like a flood when a sluice gate opens, and the road becomes clear. Like now.
He'd seen the road this girl called Aurelia would take before, but now it came into view even more clearly.
Enkrid drew a few roads in his head, the roads she would go down.
'Not choosing the road for her.'
Teach her how to walk.
If he intended to lead her toward being a knight, that was what he had to do. It was when Enkrid, with that thought, was about to open his mouth. His eyes were still on Aurelia.
"Don't."
At some point, right behind him, he heard the fairy's voice. The Dragonkin also sat down on the opposite side of the campfire, and Luagarne planted her butt next to him.
While he was thinking what he was not supposed to do, the Dragonkin said,
"I've been watching the whole time, and you have a habit of charming everyone you can see."
"We decided to call that demonic nature."
Luagarne took over.
"...It's not like that."
Aurelia denied it. Of course, Enkrid didn't have even a little of that intention either.
"My partner and fiancé, are you planning to live as a womanizer for your whole life?"
Shinar followed up by tossing out another joke.
"That feels like the word that fits me least."
When Enkrid answered, Shinar's eyebrow twitched.
"Partner? Fiancé?"
"I meant 'womanizer.'"
"You give this fairy a big laugh."
Even though it wasn't a joke, the fairy let out a laugh. It was expressiveness you rarely saw from a fairy who didn't show emotion.
Well, Enkrid had seen it sometimes, so he left her be and said to Aurelia,
"If you want to know the road upward, come find me."
The banquet ended as it was, eating and drinking. Enkrid got a bit tormented by the three, Dragonkin included, and in the middle, Rem put two Red Cloak Order of Knights members to sleep with his fists, and Lawford met an old colleague and left him a lecture.
"If you don't want to stay in your place."
"If I don't?"
"Work. Wooorrrrk."
Insisting he wasn't Pel's friend, he teased the man in the exact same way.
"...This bastard?"
Even if you piled up cultivation, that didn't mean you didn't get worked up. That day, Lawford shared fists with three knights and built friendship.
And the next morning, Aurelia came looking for Enkrid, and the first one to greet her was Rem.
"Confessing first thing in the morning? You need to pick the sleep out of your eyes first."
"It's not like that."
Aurelia's gaze went past Rem, and Enkrid gave a small nod in place of greeting.
Both of them brushed off Rem's nonsense as nothing and went out.
"Why do I feel like I'm being ignored?"
Rem muttered, but he didn't butt in further. Enkrid faced Shinar, who was already waiting, and her.
"Then, Shinar."
Enkrid called, and the fairy asked Aurelia,
"Yeah, can you dance at all?"
Shinar taught Aurelia to dance. It was to teach her to ride the beat and enjoy the flow. And this was, in the end, for the purpose of loosening the tension in a stiff body.
The next part was the real thing.
"I intend to teach you how to make your muscles flexible."
Audin was going to teach her a training method to loosen a stiff body.
'Perfect.'
Loosen the tension with dance, and build flexibility with the body. Her thinking is stiff and her attitude is rigid? That's the problem, so fix that first?
'Even if you run your mouth for a hundred days.'
It's faster to learn it with the body. Especially at Aurelia's level right now, all the more.
It wasn't becoming a knight from a junior knight; it was the process of crossing from squire to junior knight level.
And what she learned now would become a good asset later as she recalled it.
Of course, from Aurelia's standpoint, it might not have been.
She had to endure a bear beastman tearing at her legs and grabbing and tearing apart the grain of her muscles one by one, and from the fairy, she had to learn steps whose meaning she couldn't understand at all.
She panicked, hurriedly looked for her Master, and even screamed.
"Grandfather! Master! They're trying to kill me!"
It really felt like she was going to die. Of course, Cypress only laughed, "Kkah-khah-khah."
After that, Enkrid stayed a few more days. It was also to wait for his body to recover.
It was the night he decided he would leave two days from then. Crang's speech he'd seen in the daytime was so impressive that sleep didn't come easily, so he went out for a night walk.