Chapter 496: With Recovery
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 496: With Recovery
Should he call this a gift from the Ferryman?
No, that wasn't it. It wasn't as if the Ferryman had intentionally pushed him into the desert.
Then was it a gift from the shaman whose head he had split open before the storm swept him away?
Neither was true.
It was a blend of coincidence and luck, but more accurately, it was only possible because of the time he had spent desperately struggling to seize any opportunity that came his way.
Encrid cut off his train of thought and stood up.
He wanted to test his body, but to do that, he first had to restore it to its proper state.
A Regenerative Body—a body that was said to be endlessly reborn. Therefore, moving around would only accelerate his recovery. This wasn't based on any established theory; it was simply what his senses told him.
After all, the agonizing pain had already subsided.
Having eaten some porridge and begun sipping water, he was gradually starting to feel like himself again.
"You shouldn't be moving yet," Enri warned from his side.
She tried to stop him, but Encrid shook his head.
"I think I'm fine."
"Is your recovery rate just naturally that high, or do you have Frok blood in your ancestry?"
"I simply train relentlessly."
It was the truth, but to Enri, it sounded like a joke. It had to be. How could a man who had just escaped death from dehydration stand up in two days and start training on the third?
Still, there didn't seem to be any immediate issues.
As he went outside to warm up—rotating his arms, bending his waist, and stretching his muscles—a few Westerners loitering nearby came over to greet him.
"Is it alright for you to be moving already?"
"Seems like it."
"As expected."
Since the Westerners were the ones occupying the area, there was no one to complain. Actually, there had been some resistance at first, but not anymore.
It was a small, nameless oasis village. If one had to give it a name, perhaps "Low Wall Village" would suffice. Regardless, the Western Clan had completely taken over.
It had only taken a single fight.
The village was home to a few criminals who had fled the continent, as well as outcasts exiled from the West. Though there was an oasis, it was small, making the place even more desolate than the Western lands. It was a village that survived on whatever scraps the desert yielded. It sat at a crossroads of sorts, with the desert stretching out on one side and the wasteland on the other.
A few fools staying in the village, unable to break their old habits, had cast their eyes on the Western women and tried to make a move.
"Hey, don't you know you have to pay protection money to stay here?"
There were those who had seized control of the oasis and banded together to form a criminal guild. Their so-called vice guild master had been the one to step forward.
Perhaps the gathered Westerners didn't look well-armed, and their gaunt, malnourished bodies made them look like easy targets. Or maybe the man was just an idiot. If they lived this close to the West, they should have known just how brutal the Westerners could be.
In Rem's eyes, both were capital offenses—challenging them out of ignorance, or doing so knowingly.
So, without a word, he had swung his axe.
Encrid hadn't seen it himself, but according to Enri, it was like a magic trick; the axe flew on its own, split the opponent's head open, and returned to Rem's hand.
Encrid had been unconscious at the time.
"You awake?"
Right around the time Rem finished pacifying the village, Encrid woke up for the third time. The very first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was Rem's face, making him wonder if he was trapped in a nightmare.
"Is this a nightmare?" Encrid croaked.
It was much easier to speak now, thanks to Enri's devoted nursing.
"Did you have a nightmare?" Rem asked back, looking as though he hadn't been worried in the slightest.
"No."
"Then what are you talking about?"
"I'm telling you to get your face out of my way."
"Damn, is that any way to talk to someone who came all this way to welcome you back?"
"Yes."
From behind, Ayul pulled Rem back. "It's not like he's wrong," she said.
In truth, his face hadn't been that close. It was just Rem's way of showing he was glad to see him. Rem eventually let out a chuckle.
"Did you enjoy your desert sightseeing?"
"It was reasonably entertaining."
It wasn't a joke. He meant it. While wandering the desert, he had glimpsed a new path.
Afterward, Luagarne mentioned that it was Encrid's demonic charm that had gathered the Westerners here. Dunchabel lounged nearby, muttering that she knew he wouldn't die.
As he spent another three days lightly warming up and recovering, the Chief announced that everyone except Rem and Ayul would be heading back.
"We must return to our original lives now, so we shall take our leave."
The Chief left with the Westerners without asking for or demanding anything. Though they looked as if they hadn't eaten properly in days, their posture was proud and dignified.
Growl.
A loud stomach groan echoed from the departing Chief, but Encrid tactfully pretended not to hear.
"Come visit again sometime," Geomnarae said, approaching before his departure. "Next time, I'll give you a taste of my sorcery."
"You could show me right now."
"I'll let you off easy, out of consideration for your health."
For some reason, Encrid felt that when Rem grew old, he would talk exactly like Geomnarae.
"Let's do that."
"Indeed."
Geomnarae lightly bumped Encrid's chest with his fist.
As familiar faces said their goodbyes one by one, Jiba began to weep.
"You mustn't forget me, husband," Jiba sobbed.
"Who are you calling husband?" Luagarne immediately retorted from the side.
"My purity belongs to you."
Jiba ignored her completely, and Luagarne kept firing back.
"Since when?"
"I will never forget you. I will definitely come find you."
"Don't run away from home. You'll only end up as a monster's feast."
Luagarne countering Jiba's every word made it sound like a rehearsed comedy routine. Encrid quietly watched the majority of the Westerners depart.
He had heard they had burned through all their preserved rations and resources just to search for him, yet they left without boasting or asking for compensation. He wondered if this was simply the Western way, but according to Rem, that wasn't quite it.
"It's because they believe what you've done for them is greater, Boss. Westerners keep a strict tally of these things."
Encrid, however, felt that what he had received was far greater. After all, he was already indebted to Rem.
In any case, after the Westerners left, Encrid spent half of his day practicing the Isolation Technique and the other half immersed in meditation. While meditating, Encrid chewed over the repeated "today."
It wasn't to dwell on the suffering. It was to review what he had done, even though he had been half out of his mind at the time. Though it was neither a brawl nor a battle, there was a lesson in it.
'There is something to learn from everything that meets the eye.'
They said that was true for those who were prepared. Who had told him this? He couldn't even remember, but the words rang true.
When he walked through the desert, when his body had absolutely no strength left, how had he managed to take one more step? For a brief moment, he had felt something akin to regret.
Should I have pushed myself to speed up earlier while I still had strength?
But Encrid quickly shook off the idle thoughts. Instead of regretting, he focused on how he had channeled strength into his legs after he had exhausted every ounce of his energy.
In a state of complete exhaustion, he had moved forward, step by step. How? It was willpower. It was Will.
'Rejection is also Will.'
Moving forward is also Will. The intent to cut when swinging a sword is also Will.
An Associate Knight uses only a portion of Will. Then what about a Knight?
The words of Liebart, the fake knight under Count Molsen, came to mind.
"You just need to master every single ability to the level of a knight."
Believing that, Liebart had modified his own body. He had become a Chimera Knight. Did that make him a true knight? No.
Then why did he make such a choice? It was likely because he had focused on what changed when one wielded Will.
Encrid did not truly know Liebart, but he felt he understood the desires and cravings the man had harbored.
I want to become a knight. Why is it not permitted for me? Why can't I do it, even though I swing my sword day and night?
When starting from desire and reaching despair, he must have seen the difference. To the question of 'what makes a knight different,' he had offered answers like strength and speed.
Will is that something which allows one to transcend human limits through formless power. Encrid went a step further from the premise of mastering each ability to a knight's level.
'What if I infuse Will into every single action?'
To mimic a knight's strike, he had infused Will from his toes to his fingertips. What was the principle behind it? Did he do it knowingly? No. Yet, he had still mimicked a knight's strike.
'Eating, sleeping, and even breathing.'
Could he infuse Will from the moment he woke up until he lay down? Wouldn't something change if he did that?
It was a sudden thought—a conclusion he had reached while wandering the desert. What if he started by infusing Will into the Isolation Technique right now?
From the process of intending and raising his willpower to the actual movements, nothing was easy. It wasn't something he could just do immediately simply because he wanted to.
But it didn't matter. Moving forward step by step, no matter what, was what Encrid did best. He had clearly seen and grasped the clue, and knowing he only needed to move forward put his mind at ease.
Still, this wasn't the only thing he had to do. Rem was also waiting for him.
"Tell me when you're ready."
Rem had said things would change once he found sorcery. Encrid wouldn't be human if he weren't curious about how much his friend had changed.
"Go spend more time with Ayul."
Once his body recovered, it would be time to return. Then Ayul would have to return as well.
"Do not worry. I am good at waiting," Ayul said. "If Rem happens to die, please send word. I must remarry."
Rem nodded at Ayul's "blessing" for her perfectly alive husband.
"Yeah, if I die, go live with another man. Though I wonder if there's anyone who fights better than me?"
Ayul's ideal type had been consistent since childhood: a man with at least enough skill to beat her to the ground. Even if one combed through all the Westerners, such a man wouldn't be common.
"If there isn't one, I'll just raise one," Ayul replied nonchalantly.
This, too, might just be the nature of Westerners. Or perhaps it was because they were Rem and a female version of Rem.
*
It was a time of repeating the same actions, focusing on recovery, and sinking into meditation once more. Encrid didn't know if the method he had found was the correct answer. In truth, even if it was wrong, nothing would change.
Had he ever walked a path knowing the way? The path he had once crawled along, he was now standing and walking, and signposts were beginning to appear on the road he had traveled. It was a path he had walked even when those signposts didn't exist.
Encrid stayed at the oasis for another week. Meanwhile, Rem suggested calling some of the Westerners over to organize a merchant guild. Thanks to that project, the twins returned to the oasis.
"If we draw too much water from this oasis, it will dry up in no time. This land doesn't hold any particular value."
Since there was nothing but desert and wasteland around, in the twins' eyes, it was worthless. Enri stepped forward to explain.
"It has value."
"What kind?"
"Of what?"
The twins turned their heads simultaneously. What might have looked merely fascinating to others felt a bit chilling to Enri. Those two were Westerners, and if things went south, it felt like they might just hurl the spears in their hands.
Enri believed that if they succeeded in establishing a trade route from here to the trade city, they could make a substantial amount of Krona. It was a conclusion she had reached based on the experience she had gained from wandering the continent. Of course, not everything would go as planned, but Encrid had said he would help if needed.
In the midst of all this, she had even received a composite bow that looked precious at a glance.
"You take it," Encrid had said.
Recalling the moment she received the bow, Enri continued, clutching it to her chest. "We can sell things like desert lizard hides or obsidian."
"Where?"
"If we take them to the southern trade city, the profit margins will be high."
"Where is that?"
It was somewhere in the southeastern part of the continent, a place unfamiliar to the twins. In other words, she was referring to the trade city-state that existed at the junction of a great river, right next to the great southern nation further southeast of Naurilia.
Encrid had only heard stories about it, but it seemed Enri had done some work there as well. Long-distance trade was practically impossible on this continent due to monsters and demonic beasts, but occasionally, there were those who succeeded. That was what happened when one's eyes were opened by travel and circumstances aligned.
That was currently the case for Enri. Having missed the jewel-eared fox, an even bigger opportunity had rolled into her lap. The composite bow in her hands right now was likely far more expensive than the jewels on that fox's ears.
Enri explained calmly, while Encrid warmed up beside her. Having rested well for a week and drunk plenty of water, proper strength was finally returning to his hands.
"Rem, come out. I'm going to break that arrogant nose of yours."
Encrid called out to Rem in a kind, gentle tone. Rem walked out, yawning and scratching his cheek.
"Ah, today's the day? No crying and complaining about the pain after getting beaten up, alright?"
Encrid adjusted his grip on Aker and looked ahead. He intended to fight first and then ask. Just how effective was that sorcery of his?
On the surface, Rem looked the same as before. Encrid had temporarily forgotten that Rem was a far more cunning bastard than he let on.
That was the problem.
Whoosh!
The axe flew toward him without any preparatory stance. When it arrived right before his nose, Encrid felt that it was twice as fast as Rem's previous swings.
At the same time, he slashed upward with Aker.
Clang!
Instead of being deflected, the axe slid up Aker's blade with a sharp, metallic screech, and then suddenly split into eight paths.
Only then did Encrid truly see Rem. Behind his body, something resembling a faint, blue beast was lunging toward him.