A Knight Who Eternally Regresses-Chapter 741: A Bold and Daring Dream

TL Note: Hey guys, quick question — are y’all cool with how I’ve been translating this book? Do you notice a lot of mistakes or weird stuff? I’m just genuinely curious, so feel free to be honest.

I’m asking because someone accused me of using MTL and said my work’s sloppy and lazy. It honestly got to me and kinda killed my motivation.

Would really appreciate hearing your thoughts.

The beastmen changed their approach several times. At first, they attacked every other day, then once every three days.

A few swift fox beastmen had even circled wide around the village and hidden along the road leading to the lake, but none of them could deceive Enkrid’s senses. Above all, it was all within his predicted range.

If beastmen have learned human cunning,

Then it just meant he had to account for that and prepare accordingly.

“How are you able to know all this and prepare so precisely?”

Aitri asked during a break.

Enkrid, since they were at it, decided to share a few things with the boy before him. When Aitri asked which way was east, Enkrid pointed toward the sea and said, “That way.” Aitri listened intently, his ears practically perked, and his blinking noticeably reduced. He was fully engaged.

“Even if you don’t need it right now, it’s best to have at least a bit of strength. That might become your fang, or the last resort that saves you from danger.”

This foreigner who appeared by chance was no ordinary man. He was extraordinary.

What Enkrid said was grounded in Kraiss’s way of thinking. Back when Kraiss barely escaped death, the very first thing he had said was this:

“And if you can manage to get yourself abs that make women look twice, even better.”

The follow-up wasn’t worth passing on, so Enkrid skipped it.

“You’re not going to kill dozens of beastmen right now, of course, but start building strength. When you use your body, your mind starts working better too.”

Enkrid said this while tapping his own head with his right index finger.

He layered his own experience on top of Kraiss’s philosophy and passed it on. People would call this teaching. Training.

After preparing for the beastmen’s attacks, he focused the villagers on maintaining formation drills. For Brunhilt, he taught fighting techniques, methods, and conditioning routines. With Aitri, he mostly conversed.

To Aitri, those conversations were like reading a secret manual on swordsmanship.

“It’s not about knowing and preparing for everything. It’s about preparing for everything that can be predicted.”

Some might tilt their head at that, but not Aitri.

“Ah.”

A quiet exclamation of realization.

Kraiss was always anxious—and to suppress that anxiety, he prepared for everything.

If you applied that logic to this village:

Narrow the area to defend and gather every resource available.

Ordinarily, they would’ve needed to guard their stored food and the road to the lake. They would’ve had to prepare for beastmen targeting children or the elderly. But now, none of that was necessary.

Reduce what’s needed, and prepare for everything within your limits. That was precisely what could be called Kraiss-style strategy.

Enkrid followed that, applying it in practice. He didn’t rely solely on instinct—he actively made preemptive moves. He wasn’t afraid to use his head.

And so the people raised their spears and fought the beastmen. Enkrid sat in the trees, watching them stab with everything on the line.

“If it breaks!”

“We die!”

Now they even had their own rallying cries. Enkrid hadn’t taught them those.

“If it gets too hard, fall back! Don’t force it!”

Repetition breeds familiarity. If one out of ten started lagging, they’d rotate out. The circle could still hold with nine. The fallen would be tended by non-combatants.

Two villagers skilled with bows stood firm in the center of the circle. Two nights ago, they’d nearly lost a shoulder to an owl beastman attack. Since then, they’d taken up the center voluntarily.

One man with thick forearms kept glancing nervously overhead. If owls came, crows could too. Just because it was daytime didn’t mean he let his guard down.

They weren’t predicting beastmen behavior. They were focusing everything on holding the line. And Enkrid’s guidance was becoming reality.

“Don’t pull out just because it’s hard! Endure!”

They even had their own squad leaders now.

Some beastmen had tried poking into the gaps in formation—

“Not happening.”

Brunhilt blocked them.

Natural talent shone. His spear shattered sunlight as it drove into a beastman’s skull.

It was a simple thrust, but his wind-up was incredibly short. The wolf beastman facing him died before he could even flaunt his fangs.

Pivoting on his left foot, he twisted his torso and drove the spear through the beastman’s hide.

More precisely, he pierced through the soft inside of the mouth rather than the tough hide.

The image of him yanking the spear back out—its tip emerging from the back of its head—was dynamic and brutal.

Lifting himself into the air, Brunhilt kicked both feet off the beastman’s shoulders and pulled the spear free.

What he lacked in raw strength, he made up for with explosive movement. He slammed the spear into the ground as he somersaulted and landed cleanly.

It was proof that his body control was exceptional.

“Someone might say he's unnecessary.”

His heart thudded.

He remembered thinking that once, while watching people dying.

What if those who needed help had instead possessed the strength to protect themselves?

Even if you tossed a gold coin to a beggar, they’d return to begging once it was spent. But if you taught the beggar how to work, they’d learn to live through labor, not begging.

Even if I leave, the threat of beastmen remains.

Last night, the Ferryman had whispered it into his ear:

"Look. Say you help and then leave. What then? These people will die eventually. Can you walk away knowing that?”

Was it an attempt to find and stab at Enkrid’s weakness?

Enkrid was unmoved. He would do what he could. After that, the choice was theirs.

He would give them deterrence, in accordance with the laws of the continent. This was the same principle used to establish frontier cities.

Kill beastmen again and again. Set milestones with blood and death. Declare territory.

It was territory claimed through strength.

You can’t kill all the beastmen.

But these people had already stood up on their own. All they needed now was a bit of power.

Most didn’t understand Enkrid’s intent. But Harkventyo seemed to have caught on. Aitri figured it out long ago.

Brunhilt and a few others hadn’t even thought that far.

“Someone might say he's unnecessary.”

The same thought resurfaced again.

He’d seen the charred corpse of a child. And the body of the mercenary who’d died trying to protect her—his head ripped apart.

Among the dying, Enkrid had once thought those thoughts.

And now—

“Hah!”

He saw the ones who had fought off the beastmen, shouting their ki-haps. Not a single one of them had died.

Enduring.

Aitri had seen it right. Enkrid had made them endure.

That alone was enough.

From his perch in the trees, Enkrid’s gaze turned toward a specific direction.

His senses, far superior even to most knights, had not missed the malicious gaze trailing him for days.

“You plan to watch until I leave, huh?”

If there were ones like Aitri and Brunhilt among the humans, then there was a similar one among the beastmen—one who could think, strategize, and command.

That beastman was the core of all this.

Even if Enkrid couldn’t kill all of them in one sweep, he could still deal with the troublesome ones.

The beastman horde was like dozens of colonies clustered together.

Each colony had a core beastman responsible for its movement.

If he killed just those few, the immediate threat would shrink drastically.

Enkrid stepped off the branch and flew.

Enkrid stepped off the branch and flew.

He leapt from tree to tree like a flying squirrel—only far faster.

But just as he landed on the ground where there were no more stable footholds—

Two spotted leopard beastmen lunged at him from either side.

They had approached so silently that Enkrid didn’t even sense them until they were right on top of him.

He felt the hairs on his back stand on end.

His instincts screamed a warning.

The moment he recognized it, he shifted his weight. The momentum of his sprint transferred into his left foot as he stomped and stopped.

Boom!

The ground exploded. Dirt, rocks, and twigs shot up to eye level.

Through the dust, claws from both leopards reached for his head and side.

They weren’t just splitting left and right—

They were coordinating vertical and horizontal attacks.

Cunning bastards.

But that was all they had.

Enkrid didn’t even move from his stopped stance. He simply extended his blades to both sides.

The sun was directly overhead, casting clear light.

The arc of the Three Iron moving in either direction painted a perfect circle—like a second sun forming behind his back.

Instead of heat, it was the sharpness of the blade that scattered like light.

Squelch.

The sound that followed was soft.

He didn’t even need to swing faster than sound.

He simply let the incoming momentum meet the blade and pushed it through.

Three Iron’s edge was more than sharp enough.

Enkrid slashed the one on his right with meteoric iron. The one on the left with black gold.

He cut, then sprinted again.

All of it—done in a single breath.

Behind him, the two leopards collapsed to the earth, black blood and guts spilling everywhere.

As he launched forward again, it felt like a long line trailed behind him.

He could chase them using endurance alone, but that would take time.

Even if the people he left behind were enduring, they wouldn’t be safe forever.

So he had to chase within a limited time.

Was that difficult?

No.

Not all bursts of force are the same. There are thin lines and thick ones.

What if you combined the burst method learned through Will with Ganggak, the technique of imbuing Will into your legs?

The result was a lighter, smoother body.

Trees bent and twisted beside him as he rushed past. His reflexes naturally scaled with his speed.

Which meant—no scratches, no cuts. No branches hitting his face.

Enkrid’s sprint brought him face-to-face with a fox.

Rather than run and be caught from behind, it chose to stand and fight.

Smart.

The moment they faced off, more than a hundred fox beastmen surrounded him.

They hid in the shadows, gleaming eyes but no presence.

Techniques learned in the wild.

They say knights learned from fairies—but seeing these beastmen, Enkrid wondered if that was even true.

If fairies learned from the footsteps of predators, then wasn’t it just as likely they had learned from beastmen instead?

He recalled a story Valphir Valmung once told him.

Humans—

“Learned intimidation by watching monsters.”

If fairies learned from beastmen, then now, perhaps monsters and beastmen were learning by watching humans.

“What else lies within the Demon Realm?”

Suddenly, he was curious about the Demon Realm again.

The ones who fought there—not just fragments, but the real Balrog.

The fox beastman hid blades in its tail and claws in its hands, but compared to what he’d faced today, this was easy.

Enkrid’s Three Iron and Penna entered the ballroom.

With the sun as a chandelier and the beastmen’s black blood as the carpet—

The stars of this ball were two swords.

Slash. Stab. Burst. Kill.

And when he returned to the village—

The people, their faces a mix of relief, awe, and shock, stared wide-eyed at him.

“......Bring water to wash.”

Harkventyo was the one who said it. Enkrid was soaked in black blood, a ghastly sight.

Still, no one rebuked him.

Enkrid sensed multiple stares—not just one.

Among the beastmen targeting this village, three more dangerous ones remained.

He didn’t change his strategy.

Kill the key beastmen while the villagers held the line.

The beastman horde could’ve retreated at that point, but they didn’t.

“They’re hoping for something.”

He could guess, but didn’t ask.

Enkrid, in two more chases, killed a small but lightning-fast bear, and amidst a pack of five hundred hyenas and wild dogs moving as one, he cut down a single black dog.

The last one was a tiger. Its hide tougher than steel.

Until now, he had always been the one chasing.

But this last beastman—waited for him.

Growl.

“You dreaming of becoming Beast King or something?”

Enkrid asked on instinct. Naturally, beastmen can’t respond in human language. But the grrrr it let out felt like a yes.

When you see the essence of something without need for thought, memory, or deduction—that’s called intuition.

Enkrid’s intuition had long surpassed ordinary men and most knights. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

It was the culmination of today’s experience, his past, and the knowledge gained from battling inhuman monsters and demons.

Beast King.

He didn’t know its name. But the tiger did dream of becoming king.

In the Pen-Hanil Mountains, even beastmen couldn’t rest easy in their place as predators.

The tiger, now a beastman, dreamed—

To claim the mountains as its territory. To race across the continent. To chew human flesh by morning, and drink fairy blood by night.

Grrr.

A bold and daring dream. And it could’ve come true.

What this tiger sought from this village was the ore hidden behind it.

If it could consume that, it would become something new.

If not for the human before it—

If not for the others who had interfered—

The reason this village had survived this long was because Enkrid had dealt with the other monsters attacking from the opposite front.

Enkrid didn’t underestimate his opponent.

This one had unified beastmen beyond species. Reached the top. Changed the domain of the mountains.

Just as humans had knights, Beastmen could produce exceptional individuals too.

“Those among monsters who surpass the norm.”

The Demon Realm was full of such beings. Much like the one standing before him now.

The tiger’s shoulder muscles contracted. It didn’t show outwardly, but his sixth sense caught it.

The moment it put force into its hind legs—its front paw fell from above.

While it was crouching, Enkrid hadn’t realized—but now that it stood, it was bigger than a bear. And faster than the quick-handed bear he’d fought earlier.

The sound vanished. The air itself grew heavy, pressing down on /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ his shoulders.

It felt like fighting in a swamp. Time stretched out around him.

To break free of that pressure, he needed strength that surpassed human limits.

Enkrid squeezed every fiber of his muscles and added his Will. He swung Three Iron.

And just as the tiger raised its paw—it opened its mouth and breathed fire.

An unexpected move.