951. Measuring each other
I received Krang’s letter, but there was still some time left, and in the meantime, Eitri left a message.
“He asked me to wait ten days.”
Edin Molsen left after relaying Eitri’s message. He received the letter as soon as he arrived at the Knights’ quarters, and had yet to see Krys’s face.
He’d said he’d gone on business in a nearby city.
With nothing else to do, he’d come to the training grounds to relax.
“Where are these kids hiding when they know I’m coming back?”
Rem, energized, searched for a scapegoat on which to apply her newly discovered skills. Then she encountered Ragna.
Standing in the corner of the training ground, Ragna ignored Rem’s words. His gaze turned to the captain who had provoked him. His mouth fell open.
“Take a day off?”
Where had he been? He hadn’t been seen at the Knights’ quarters, so he must have met Anne.
It wasn’t hard to guess his sphere of activity.
And of course, that mad genius wouldn’t be content with the present.
Encred knew all of this, so he wasn’t fazed by Ragna’s clear and unequivocal will.
What was he talking about? A showdown. The direction of that will was clear. Encred, it was directed at him. It was a moment that was more than welcome, it was joyful.
Just as Rem had gained and enlightened something in the West, he had learned something from Zaun and returned.
As Encred watched silently, Rem’s mouth opened. More precisely, he took advantage of Ragna’s momentum and intervened.
“I can handle someone like you without resting.”
Ragna’s focus strangely blurred, and his gaze shifted. His eyes turned to Rem.
The momentum shifted in their direction. Ultimately, Rem and Ragna’s eyes met. It didn’t matter who had started it. Soon, the sunrise and the axe were out, and their positions intersected.
Phew.
Their weapons didn’t meet, but simply passed through the air.
A whirlwind formed between them. Dust and small pieces of rock swirled and rose into the air.
“Are you serious? You said this the moment you got here?”
As Encred had expected, Ragna had just arrived and was returning from spending time with Anne. The words that came out just now were Anne’s sighs as she accompanied them to the knights’ quarters.
“If you stick together, you’ll get hurt.”
Lawford grabbed Anne’s shoulder from behind. While Anne meekly retreated, Rem and Ragna mingled in the center of the training ground.
“You’ve become more of a monster?”
Aurelia, who had taken a seat on one side, stuck out her tongue.
Drenched in sweat, she had been torturing herself even in Encred’s absence. Despite her frantic training, the gap didn’t narrow; instead, they advanced. It was a sight so astonishing that she found herself muttering to herself.
Her discernment truly was extraordinary. Didn’t she sense that their skills had clearly improved?
Of course, she hadn’t seen everything. Instead, she sensed that they were playing on a different level, within the realm of their five senses and six.
Aurelia observed the two, catching her breath. If there was anything to glean, one must observe and learn from everything. That was the teaching and fundamental principle of the Mad Knights. They adhered to this attitude even among their soldiers.
‘There’s no time to be surprised or frustrated.’
Aurelia was lost in her thoughts. A man resembling a bear approached Encred.
“Brother, are you here?”
Audin arrived a day ago. He, too, appeared in the training hall. He was wearing weapons he hadn’t worn before on both hands. Encred’s gaze swept Audin from head to toe, observing his attitude, his momentum, and the changes in his weapons.
‘You’ve changed.’
It’s not just the momentum that has changed.
“that?”
Encred asked, pointing to his fist with a wink.
“This is my hammer.”
Audin answered with a grin. His face seemed eager to show off. This wasn’t common. Audin was a monk. Showing off his equipment or something else was unfamiliar.
Audin held out both hands, the backs of his hands facing the sky.
He seemed to be asking Encred to examine them closely. He did as Audin wished. He examined each of the gauntlets he held out.
They covered more than just the fist, but also the forearm. They were a dull white with a matte finish. There were many scratches and marks. The weapons showed signs of use.
‘metal?’
At first glance, it appeared to be made of metal, but it was actually the scales of a demon. It could be said to be as hard as metal.
Of course, that wasn’t the only thing.
“Once, a three-headed monster emerged from the Drake ranks. Several knights attempted to capture it, but failed. Ultimately, the Legion’s Knights captured and killed it.”
Audyn immediately began to speak. Encred enjoyed listening to the stories, even if it meant giving Crona to passing bards.
He listened quietly, his posture attentive.
“It carried poison in one of its heads, and wielded the other two like maces. After killing the drake, I took its poison-filled scales and transformed them into divine powers. It would be nice to say it was due to intense prayer, but in reality, it took decades of forging by someone known as a master of sacred metallurgy.”
Instead of poison, it was changed to be used with divinity, and after adding metal to the unprecedentedly hard scales, it was covered with the world’s toughest sheepskin.
Encred couldn’t have known the structure of the weapon just by observing it.
Well, Eitri might have recognized it. Just as
the Elven City had the artisan family of Lafratiou, and Encred had Eitri, so too did the Legion have a long history of metallurgy passed down through generations. As
a Pope and a full-fledged apostle, Audin obtained his mace and hammer from him.
The engraved weapons of the Paladins are called sacred weapons. It was only natural, as they contained as much divinity as holy relics.
“The left is the Lord’s love. You can call it love for short. The right is the Lord’s mercy. Yes, you can call it mercy.”
Just by looking at him, Encrid couldn’t help but sense the violence of the gauntlet wrapped around his fist.
Its name was Love and Mercy, but considering Audin’s usual way of thinking, the mercy he spoke of likely wasn’t the kind his enemy desired.
Sending someone to the Lord was his mercy.
The realization of love through asceticism before sending someone to the Lord would be love.
In other words, love is defeat, and mercy is killing.
Therefore, his left hand was love, his right was mercy.
Encrid was astute enough to impress even Chrys. He instantly grasped the meaning of the name Audin had given him.
It was remarkable insight. Perhaps it was his remarkable perceptiveness.
“Are you sending me away with love and mercy?”
When Encred, who had seen through it, spoke, Audin smiled politely, clasped his hands together, and nodded.
“That’s right. That’s right.”
Encred sensed the madly surging divinity within Audin as he answered. The divinity, already dazzlingly intense, now rivaled only his own Usuke.
Was this all there was left to say between them? No. There was no such thing as silence, and Audin still had something to say about Teresa.
In other words, they might have continued, but suddenly, as if golden sand were flowing from Audin’s body, his divinity formed into armor. It was the Holy Glow Armor.
“Let me show you my love.”
Audin broke the floor of the training hall with his horse.
Liar!
The earth burst open, creating a hole. Rem and Ragna were fierce, but Audin was no less.
Now, they knew Encred would take it easily and be fine, so they could do it.
The onlookers had already distanced themselves. Thanks to Teresa’s guidance.
Encred’s pupils constricted like pinholes, and he recognized the object flying towards him, leaving an afterimage.
His left fist, clad in a gauntlet, literally turned into a mace and flew towards him.
Instinct told him to focus on the mace, not on Audin’s body, which had closed the distance. He did so.
As soon as Encred realized this, he stood in a rift in time. His thoughts accelerated, finding his task. He picked up the night walk and set it upright. Finding the flow, he placed it against the gauntlet.
Tiring! Tiring!
The noise of their clash lingered like a lingering echo. Encrid spun around and looked at Audin’s left thigh.
Fish.
The blade cut through flesh and touched blood vessels. He slashed with a flowing blade and slashed with a swift sword.
It’s easy to say, but considering Audin’s speed just before, it was a series of unbelievable feats.
“You spilled and spilled.”
Audin remained indifferent. He’d been struck despite knowing the truth. The blade slicing through the sacred armor.
Isn’t that fascinating?
The blood from the wound quickly stopped flowing. A golden glow enveloped his thigh. A divine light, several times more intense than before, enveloped Audin’s body.
“That’s not even close.”
“Audin said.
Just from the previous attack, I knew Encred had advanced further than before. But it wasn’t surprising. That man is a man who continues to live like that.
He chooses risk over comfort and moves forward.
‘Protect your back.’
He condemns the world in the name of a former knight.
So, Audin must do his part.
He must prove that he hasn’t been idle, that he enjoys the present moment, showing what he has gained.
Tsk tsk.
The gauntlets on his hands reacted to the divine and made a strange noise.
“wave?”
Encred asked. Audin was both amused and surprised. He was telling him the principles of his technique, something he hadn’t even used during their clash.
Just by looking at it? He was about to say, “This is amazing.” It was
a given for Encred. Even his vision had changed, and he’d been training in the wave technique he’d learned from the boatman right up until this point.
If he’d known it wasn’t just effective against silence, but also useful for training, there was no reason not to. So he trained Will based on the wave technique.
“Try more.”
“Audin,” he said, his lips curling upwards. His fangs were so terrifying that he could almost have been a bear.
Encred answered.
“Show your talent, Bear Suin. Bear shows off his talent, and Christ earns the gold.”
Whether it was a duel or anything else, once they engaged, their tongues moved on their own, striking at Audin’s calm mind.
Audin easily prevailed.
“Are you starting with nonsense?”
The conversation ended. The two clashed again, leaving an afterimage. One side became golden, the other a blue line.
Each time the intersecting lines collided and parted, a shockwave erupted.
With each pop, the sound of air tearing apart made the soldiers retreat further.
“Damn it, control them. Keep the servants and attendants out, and the soldiers, those bastards, out!”
This is Squire Clemen’s cry. I’d let them go if it were all right, but they’d die if they got caught up in the sparring.
Of course, they wouldn’t fight thoughtlessly, and I believe they’d stop if anyone around them got caught up in it.
‘Then we have to stop this.’
They were seriously assessing each other. Therefore, it was the duty of the Squire of the Order to let the Captain and the rest do as they pleased.
Clemen took charge, and naturally, everyone followed her orders faithfully.
The ground was dug up here and there, and a fierce aura and momentum were exchanging, but no one was frightened by this.
Instead, many were glaring, eager to learn more.
Lawford and Pell were like that, as were Teresa and Dunbakel.
Aurelia and Clemen were like that.
“I don’t have the courage to keep up.”
Private Marco, now a platoon leader, shook his head. The sparring that had continued even after Clemen’s control ended.
“That’s interesting.”
After the fight, Audin smiled and caught his breath, while Rem and Ragna paused, glaring at each other.
Time-wise, the sparring session wasn’t particularly long. They simply paused to assess each other’s abilities. It
may have seemed different to onlookers, though.
Afterward, everyone in attendance naturally shared what they had learned and practiced.
“You guys have grown too.”
Teresa spoke, and Lawford and Pell clenched their teeth.
They were sure they’d finally be able to crush each other, but it didn’t go as planned.
“Wait a minute. Roford of the Red Cloak.”
“Is that all the nonsense that comes out of this mouth? I wear the dark green cloak of the Mad Knights.”
Their eloquence was growing by the day.
Luagarne enjoyed a pleasant conversation with Encred, who had returned.
“So that’s what they mean by the application of the wave’s change of character. Hmm, that’s a good direction. The perspective is different.”
The training method for becoming a knight has already been established.
“Check it out.”
Luagarne’s words, that he was a scholar, not a warrior, were true. Well, no one disbelieved him.
Encred accepted the booklet she had tossed him and opened it to examine it. It was a system created by a Prok scholar named Luagarne.
‘How to awaken Will.’
How can I make Will naturally stay in my body after becoming a knight?
‘Relying solely on talent?’
Anyone can achieve it if they put in the time. If we were only discussing talent, what we were doing would be meaningless. Of course, talent still plays a significant role. We couldn’t ignore that.
This book summarized these ideas.
