Eternally Regressing Knight - Chapter 47: Squire or Knight Apprentice
The Elven company commander had discovered after the battle that the flag was the medium for the spell.
So, who destroyed that flag?
Retracing the events on the battlefield led to an answer.
“The troublemaker squad leader.”
That was why she was here now.
The battalion commander hadn’t even paid attention to the matter. He didn’t seem to care who destroyed the spell’s medium.
He probably thought the stupid sorcerer had simply failed.
In truth, there were many charlatans among the continent’s sorcerers, so his assumption wasn’t entirely unreasonable.
Even if that wasn’t the case, the battalion commander was probably too distracted right now.
After all, someone of a rank much higher than his direct superior had arrived in the camp.
“What are you talking about?”
I responded to her question about whether it was me.
“Spell, flag, medium.”
With just three short words, she had said everything she wanted to say.
Since no one had asked before, I hadn’t denied my involvement.
“Yes, I did it.”
“How?”
A brief question followed.
“I raised my spear and threw it with force.”
“There were five decoys.”
There were a total of six flags; only one was real.
“I guessed.”
“How did you know the flag was the medium?”
“I saw something during reconnaissance, and I had some prior knowledge about spells.”
My answers were seamless. The elf’s keen instincts didn’t detect any lies.
Still, it was clear, even without the elf’s intuition, that I wasn’t planning to be completely honest.
How should I put it?
Even though I had done it, I seemed reluctant to go into detail.
The Elven company commander looked into my blue eyes and nodded.
“Understood.”
“Did you come all this way just to ask me that?”
“Yes. And to see your face.”
She paused briefly before speaking again, taking a breath.
“It seems we are bound by fate.”
With that, the company commander turned around. Her words were open to much interpretation. Stunned, I stood still until Rem nudged me in the side.
“What’s your secret?” he asked.
“What?”
“The secret to seducing an elf. I’m all ears.”
“Amazing,” Ragna added with a grin.
“It’s not like that,” I insisted.
Even Big Eyes admitted that I was decent-looking. Without any special grooming, I still caught the eye of women whenever I was in the city.
Of course, I wasn’t a virgin.
I wasn’t naive or foolish enough to misunderstand the signals that passed between men and women.
And there were no signals exchanged in this conversation. Absolutely none.
Instead, I was left with a lingering sense of discomfort.
Not to mention she was the superior of my direct superior.
“There was no time for a meeting, though… Oh, I get it now! Was it then? When you were in the medical tent? That’s the only time!” Rem exclaimed.
“No, you idiot,” I replied.
Rem continued to ramble on about the same topic for the next four hours.
Ragna took a nap halfway through.
When Jaxson came in later, he nodded meaninglessly, slightly lifting my mood.
Big Eyes came in afterward, and as he was about to join the chatter, he whispered something to me after hearing what Rem had said.
“So, instead of tumbling around in a warzone, why not join me in opening a noblewomen’s salon?”
“No, you lunatic.”
Big Eyes had a dream of saving up a lot of krona to open his own shop—a salon for noblewomen, where pretty men would entertain the ladies.
He wanted to run a shop where he sold alcohol and snacks. Given the shop’s specific purpose, he believed people would flock there even if he charged exorbitant prices. He had tried to pitch the idea to Rem before but nearly got beaten up for it, so he hadn’t mentioned it in a while.
“Don’t even mention it to me. I’ll split your head open with an axe,” Rem said with a grin from behind.
“Alright, alright,” Big Eyes muttered in a half-dead tone.
“Now you’re pretending to be a barbarian,” Big Eyes grumbled quietly. He didn’t seem to have the courage to say it out loud.
But given that level of grumbling, he was already quite brave. There was no way Rem hadn’t heard him.
Rem was about to glare at him when Big Eyes suddenly clapped his hands.
“Oh, right! I came rushing over to tell you this, and I almost forgot because of the squad leader’s story.”
He almost forgot? No, he quickly said it before Rem could retort. I knew what he was doing, but I decided to let it slide.
Any topic would be better than my so-called love story with the company commander.
“Someone’s coming,” Big Eyes said.
“Who?” I asked.
“They’ve arrived,” Big Eyes whispered. His expression was so serious that I couldn’t help but lean in.
“A knightly order’s squire.”
“…The Red Cloak Order?”
I asked in return.
“Yes.”
Currently, the division that I and the others belonged to was named Cypress.
This was also the name of a knight affiliated with the Red Cloak Order.
Typically, military units were named after knights, and those knights belonged to a knightly order.
However, there weren’t many who could be called knights.
Knights were rare talents on the continent.
Thus, the kingdom’s knightly orders didn’t consist solely of knights.
There were also those who had the potential to become knights in the future.
Squires or apprentice knights, who served and trained under knights, were also part of the order.
Once their apprenticeship ended and they were acknowledged by a knight, they became quasi-knights, joining the knightly order as a soldier.
Usually, squires didn’t participate in battles separately from their knights. The fact that one had come to the battlefield now meant…
‘They’re about to become a quasi-knight.’
What is a knight?
A minstrel once said:
“It is a grave mistake to regard a knight as being the same as an ordinary person. Yes, indeed. They are those who surpass human limits and boundaries. Otherwise, how could they stand against the likes of the Frocs?”
Knights are said to be beings who have transcended human limitations.
So, what is a quasi-knight?
They are those who are likely to become knights before actually becoming one.
Quasi-knights are experts in combat and battle. If knights are those who have surpassed human limitations, quasi-knights are those who are at the edge of human limits.
A squire about to become a quasi-knight.
I wanted to see them. I was curious about their skills. The knight I aspired to be wasn’t merely a position of honor.
In this era, knights were symbols of martial prowess. And a part of that symbol had come here.
“Looks like you’re dying to see them,” Rem remarked, looking at me.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“They say they’re already prepared to deploy,” Big Eyes added.
“Did they come alone?” Rem asked, crossing his arms. Big Eyes nodded.
“Yes, they said coming alone was enough.”
With that, I understood why our forces hadn’t withdrawn yet.
‘If Azpen prepared a spell…’
Our side decided to use martial prowess as our trump card.
Both Naurilia and Azpen were changing the game in a place where tedious skirmishes happened annually.
‘Are they planning to seize part of the plains with this?’
If the spell had worked, the quasi-knight wouldn’t have had anything to do even if they arrived.
But now, the spell had been blocked, and instead, our forces had secured a victory.
If the squire had arrived just a day or two earlier, they would have planned to push forward immediately.
‘Though they’re a bit late.’
By now, the enemy would have had time to reorganize.
“Prepare to move out! The entire army is on the move!”
I was pulled from my thoughts by a voice outside.
It was the platoon leader’s voice.
Then suddenly, the platoon leader stuck his head into the tent.
“Hey, did you hear that? Oh, I guess you did.”
He asked, then seeing Krys, answered himself.
“We’re all deploying. We’re going to push our position on the Green Pearl Plains forward.”
“Are we supposed to talk about the plan so openly?” I asked, looking at the platoon leader.
“There’s nothing to hide. We’re moving out immediately. You want to come along?”
“I’d like to watch,” I said as I got up, my body still sore. I wasn’t fully healed yet. Normally, going into battle would be unwise.
“I’ll stay by your side,” Krys said, raising his hand. He was always one to keep himself safe in the rear.
I’d stay close to him.
The platoon leader didn’t treat me like family. Being much older, he found me a bit burdensome at times.
And given I was the squad leader of a troublemaking unit, we clashed often.
Still, the idea of me dying didn’t sit well with him. I was a diligent soldier, always wielding my sword and never wasting a moment, which sometimes annoyed those around me.
Seeing someone like that end up a corpse didn’t feel right to him.
“Just be careful,” the platoon leader said and left.
“If you want to watch, you should,” Rem said, nodding. Ragna began preparing for battle.
Jaxson belted his sword and gathered a few throwing knives. He usually didn’t carry such equipment.
“I’ll stay by your side,” Jaxson said.
“By my side?” Rem joked.
Jaxson shook his head.
“Being in the same tent as you is hard enough; you re
ek.”
Rem was good at provoking others gently, but Jaxson was equally skilled at making people uncomfortable with a single comment.
“Squad leader, I think I want to split this guy’s head more than I want to fight Azpen. What do you think?” Rem asked.
“Hold it. Let’s just watch. Aren’t you curious how well the squire will fight?” I replied.
“He’ll fight damn well, I’m sure,” Rem said, grabbing his axe.
As I limped out and joined the formation, Vengeance approached. [1]
“You got a death wish?” he asked.
After the battle, when I thanked him, he had grumbled his way to our tent.
Then he went on about how the debt was repaid, that it was all settled, and that he felt relieved now, talking to himself quite enthusiastically.
When I asked him what debt he was talking about…
“The fire in the medical tent—don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already?”
“Of course not. How could I forget?”
I had forgotten. It was a side effect of repeating today so many times.
But it wasn’t something I could completely forget.
The Kran, the assassin, and the fire.
I had started the fire. Vengeance believed I saved him from burning, but in reality, I saved him from the assassin’s hand.
‘A debt is a debt.’
It was easier to think of it that way since he felt that way.
Thanks to that, he had come running to save me.
I opened my mouth as I looked at Vengeance glaring at me on the battlefield.
“Who wants to die?”
“Then why are you here?”
“I just want to watch.”
“Watch what?”
“They said a squire is here.”
“Oh, yeah, just don’t overdo it. I’m not saving you a second time.”
Vengeance said this and returned to his formation.
“Why’s that bastard suddenly acting friendly? Isn’t he the one who used to pick fights with you all the time?” Rem asked from the side.
Yeah, there was a time like that. Vengeance used to really hate me. But that was a while ago.
“He’s not a bastard; he’s the platoon leader. Once you get to know him, he’s a decent guy.”
“Don’t be too soft on people. If you end up backstabbed and crying later, it’ll be too late.”
“Take care of yourself.”
The formation and movement were completed in no time. The troops didn’t line up neatly; instead, we started marching in a wide, dispersed formation.
At the head of the march, someone stood alone.
A red cloak fluttered in the wind.
I could see the person at the front, walking slowly with the cloak draped over them.
Just by looking, it was hard to see any extraordinary quality of a squire or quasi-knight.
“Hmm, judging by the way they walk, they must be pretty skilled,” Rem said, squinting with his arms crossed.
“Not just skilled. Their stance is solid. Unless the enemy has someone like a Froc, this is going to be a boring fight,” Ragna added.
Jaxson also stared ahead. His eyes seemed to trace the back of the red cloak.
Next to me, Big Eyes said something different.
“Now’s the time to fall back. If we don’t pull back now, we’ll get swept up.”
Big Eyes was gauging the timing for when we should retreat.
At that moment, the red cloak fluttered wildly. The cloak billowed in the wind, and its wearer dashed forward.
I blinked, needing to confirm what I was seeing.
There was an afterimage trailing behind the person running ahead.
How fast must a person run to leave an afterimage like that?
“It seems like they’ve put their will into their legs,” Ragna muttered as he watched.
I didn’t understand what he meant, but I had no intention of asking now.
It was time to close my ears and focus.
Seeing the cloak’s wearer charging, the startled enemy soldiers fired their arrows.
Unlike before, they hadn’t positioned crossbowmen separately, so arrows flew overhead in clusters.
It seemed like at least a hundred archers had drawn and released their bows.
A hail of arrows rained down on the cloaked figure.
But the squire didn’t draw their sword to deflect them; instead, they accelerated.
Bang!
The ground and dirt exploded like a fountain, and the cloaked figure was already within striking distance of the enemy.
They had simply outrun the range of the arrows.
It was definitely a movement that exceeded human limitations.
***
Footnotes:
[1] From now on, Benzence’s name will be translated to Vengeance