A Knight Who Eternally Regresses

‘Heat.’

An explosion. He replayed the last moments over and over again.

It happened so suddenly and unexpectedly.

In the previous assassination attempt by the half-blood fairy, at least there were some final words exchanged before death.

This time, there was nothing like that.

Only the scorching heat and the searing pain of a fiery death remained.

Getting stabbed by a sword or spear used to feel like being pierced by a heated skewer.

This time, I really burned to death.

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

“What are you thinking about so deeply?”

“Thinking about the job I was tasked with.”

After finishing breakfast and responding to Rem’s words, he went to find more assignments.

“Please, I beg you. Can you do this for me?”

Naturally, the Squad Leader of the stitching unit asked for a favor.

Does this guy know the state he’s sending me into?

He looked haggard, with no sign of playing tricks on me.

He just looked like a soldier worn out by fatigue.

“Have you been busy lately?”

“The incidents caused by the guys at night have decreased, but recently, the number of external monsters and beasts has increased, so a lot of manpower is being diverted there.”

He looked genuinely upset. He could feel the sincerity in his words.

Honestly, even if he were lying, he could just refuse the task.

Even if he accepted, as long as he didn’t enter the shoemaker’s shop, the same thing wouldn’t happen again.

So, it was something he could ignore.

‘It’s a wall that can be easily avoided.’

Encrid thought this and asked.

“What if I don’t go?”

“We’ll just have to leave it be.”

There are essential tasks that the soldiers in the unit must perform, but there are also those that are not.

This was something that could be ignored.

“Yeah, there’s no absolute need to go. But the shoemaker isn’t someone who talks nonsense. I’d like to go myself, but the Platoon Leader keeps watching me, so I can’t get away.”

He seemed sincere about this too.

When Encrid didn’t answer immediately, the Squad Leader of the stitching unit spoke again.

“Hey, you remember me, right? From back then, with that bundle of leather, right?”

“I remember.”

Encrid thought he might have been living with a bottle in his hand since returning to the city, but here he was, working hard.

“I’m worried, so please take a look. I’ve known the guy since I was a kid.”

“Alright.”

I’ll go for now.

Encrid decided to go and see what’s going on.

If it were a typical trap, there would have been poison darts flying, not a fiery explosion.

There was no sound or sign of the trap being activated.

If it’s magic, then…

‘If it’s magic.’

There was nothing he could do.

Thinking about it wasn’t going to solve anything.

With these thoughts, he walked and arrived at the shoemaker’s shop a little later than usual.

Even after knocking on the door, there was no answer.

“This is the Border Guard Reserve Force. Please open up.”

Only after knocking harder and shouting did the door finally open.

Instead of the craftsman, a young woman appeared beyond the door.

She had long braided brown hair and freckles all over her cheeks.

“The reserve force?”

She spoke, her eyes wide like a deer’s.

“Because of the job.”

He glanced inside, but the craftsman was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was a gaping hole.

“My father said he found something under the shop, so he went down there.”

Damn it.

Encrid muttered to himself.

“Excuse me.”

He half-pushed the shoemaker’s startled daughter aside and went in.

Dust was falling from the hole that had been dug.

‘He’s in such a rush.’

The craftsman must have gotten tired of waiting for the reserve force and went in himself. He might have even thought no one would come at all.

Usually, one wouldn’t expect a soldier to come for something like this.

“It’s dangerous, right? He said not to go in.”

The freckled woman looked worried. Then, she bit her lip and said,

“I need to go in and get him.”

“I’ll go, you stay here.”

“No, I have to go too.”

She didn’t seem to intend to listen. More importantly, he needed to stop the explosion quickly.

Instead of arguing, Encrid immediately dove into the hole.

He placed his hands on the edge, pushed in with his left foot, and slid down the sloped tunnel. Every movement was smooth.

Controlling his entire body with The Isolation Technique had made even simple actions feel like an enhancement of his physical abilities.

Of course, now was not the time to be thinking about such things.

As soon as he reached the bottom of the slope, Encrid’s trained ears caught the sound of footsteps.

Looking ahead, he saw the craftsman stepping into the first passageway.

The craftsman’s daughter, who had followed Encrid, tried to rush past him.

“Dad!”

Encrid grabbed her by the waist and set her down behind him, shouting,

“Stop!”

The craftsman turned around, his face a mix of tension and confusion.

But it was too late. He took another step.

Encrid felt the air compressing and pressing against him with a loud bang.

Everything happened in an instant.

Flames, fire, explosion.

Fwoosh.

“Damn it!”

The flames that erupted, consuming Encrid’s body, were accompanied by the craftsman’s final, unuttered scream.

Both the craftsman and his daughter, who was behind him, were caught in the explosion.

Bang!

As Encrid was dying, he thought about how the blast would surge upward.

A futile death. As he endured and overcame the pain, darkness enveloped him. He waded through the dreamlike black river and awoke again to a new morning.

* * *

“Did you have a bad dream or something?”

Rem asked from beside him. He couldn’t exactly say it was a good dream.

In the dream, the ferryman on the black river had given him a sly smile.

In the past, even when repeating today, it seemed like he always started and ended things with his own hands.

This time, there was a sense of injustice.

He felt it was beyond his control.

‘If I leave them alone, they will go to their deaths.’

First the father, then the daughter.

How far would the repercussions spread?

That didn’t matter. By the time they died, it would already be a failed task.

‘I could just ignore it.’

If Encrid ignored it, they would both die. They would certainly die.

So, does that matter?

It’s a world of killing and being killed.

It’s that kind of era.

Having taken up the profession of fighting on the battlefield, Encrid had killed countless others.

But

‘They are not people who stepped onto the battlefield of killing and being killed.’

They are just people trying to run their shop.

Encrid knew he was not the kind of knight with the chivalry that minstrels sang about.

He had to follow reality. The world had changed.

But even so.

‘I don’t want to lose.’

He could turn away and ignore this.

What’s the big deal?

It would just be one more craftsman and his daughter dead.

But it would happen right in front of Encrid’s eyes.

And Encrid would be the only one who knew they were dying.

If this were war, if it were something he couldn’t stop with his own hands.

Then, yes, maybe he would have to leave it alone.

But

‘I can stop it.’

If he could stop it, he couldn’t just leave it alone.

This wouldn’t be called chivalry.

It would just be called stubbornness.

But that didn’t diminish the chivalry Encrid believed in.

Even if no one else knew, if there was something he had to protect, he would protect it.

That’s the kind of knight Encrid aspired to be.

A dreamer cannot betray their dream.

Encrid had to go back there, to the craftsman and his daughter.

“Damn it.”

Encrid rarely showed his irritation as he started the day.

He was displeased with his slow steps that had led to the death of the craftsman and his daughter yesterday.

“You must have had a really shitty dream.”

Rem muttered from behind.

As Encrid started his day once again, he filled his stomach and spent the entire time contemplating the task at hand.

‘Should I enter each passage one by one?’

There couldn’t be a more miserable task.

Who knows how many traps are in those passages?

But it was also true that no other solution came to mind.

And it wasn’t as if he could bring any squad members along.

‘If the shoemaker asked them to come with him because there might be an undead monster under his shop, what would they think?’

Putting aside the teasing, no one would likely come.

He could force someone to come along, but he didn’t feel inclined to do so.

Should he rely on the squad members every time something happened?

Or should he handle it alone?

Was the dream he longed for to stand behind someone and just talk?

Or to stand at the front and wield his sword?

He wasn’t sure if this task would require using a sword.

‘I’ll do it alone. I’ll protect them.’

It wasn’t something to rely on the squad for.

“The shoemaker is worried, you know me, right?”

“Yeah, did you enjoy the snake wine?”

“It was delicious.”

He handed the request back to the stitching Squad Leader and immediately started walking briskly.

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

Jaxon asked from behind as he was leaving.

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

“……Are shoes or boots bothering the civilians?”

No, it’s the underground passage.

Encrid answered only in his mind and headed straight to the shoemaker’s shop.

Before he even reached the door, he could hear the loud banging of the shoemaker hammering the floor.

Bang! Bang!

Encrid knocked on the door forcefully to announce his presence, and the shoemaker, sweating from his forehead, came out.

“Look, there’s a hole there!”

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

He went over and helped to open the hole.

Using a hammer and a thick metal rod as a lever, they pried up the planks.

A hole was created that way.

“I’ll go down and take a look, so please wait here.”

“Uh, um, what if a monster comes out?”

“I’ll handle it.”

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

Fwoosh.

Just looking at the fire made him feel anxious. Once was enough for the experience of burning to death.

As he descended, Encrid felt a strange sensation.

It was an instinctive aversion brought on by the fear of death.

Encrid did not want to enter that passage.

But he didn’t turn back. He overcame it and moved forward.

If he turned away in fear, he would live a life of running away.

He had run away many times to survive.

Each time he regretted it. He didn’t want to experience that regret again.

So Encrid did not turn back. He moved forward.

With a firm step, he entered the first passage. The more he looked at it, the worse he felt.

There were six passages in total. That left five others.

‘Which one is it?’

They wouldn’t have laid traps in all of the decent passages.

Would the second one be safe?

Encrid carefully lifted the torch and examined the floor, walls, and ceiling.

Nothing particularly stood out.

There were only similar-looking forks in the path.

The size of the passages was almost identical.

It was too dark to see the end inside.

Whoever made 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 passage.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t collapse and crush him.

For now, it was time to explore further. He was curious about the face of whoever made this.

‘I’m going.’

The second passage of the fork.

‘Entering the first one leads to flames.’

What about here?

As he stood in front of the second passage, Encrid again felt an unpleasant sensation rise, but he ignored it and took another step forward.

The first step, taken with tension, revealed no abnormalities. No explosions, no flames, nothing else.

Encrid cautiously examined his surroundings.

He held the torch high and meticulously observed everything again.

His conclusion was:

‘Just looking doesn’t mean you’ll know.’

It was a busy time, even dedicating himself to a single sword. He had seen dungeon exploration over the shoulders of others while working as a mercenary, but he didn’t have the knowledge to spot traps.

Such things were only possible for those who had been properly trained.

Therefore,

‘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 felt like sticking his head into the maw of a beast while defenseless.

As he struggled to overcome this and move forward,

“What are you doing right now?”

The craftsman who had followed him down suddenly asked from behind. That single sentence dulled his keenly honed sense of foreboding and made taking a step forward seem less significant.

The sensations he felt just moments ago became faint.

“Don’t come any closer.”

One time was enough to die burning together with the craftsman.

As he took another step, that strange feeling returned.

He couldn’t pinpoint it, but it was a similar sensation.

Originating from a sense of foreboding, it felt like he had made a mistake.

‘A step I shouldn’t have taken.’

The sudden thought was the answer.

Whoosh.

It was the same as the first passage.

Explosion, pressure, flames.

He didn’t know what was hidden at the end of this passage.

But it was clear they had prepared a deadly trap.

Bang.

With the noise, he burned to death. Naturally, he didn’t just die.

‘Ah.’

As he was dying, Encrid let out a short exclamation inwardly. Regardless of the pain, the Heart of the Beast allowed him to accurately assess his current sensations.

Ending the third day, Encrid unexpectedly felt something.

And so, he faced the fourth day.

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