Eternally Regressing Knight Chapter 698

698. Don’t let coincidence be coincidence.

While Encred spent several days training and sparring, disappearing and then returning, Anne was not sitting still either.

“I need to look around.”

It was just a casual remark, but she didn’t just say it. She actually got around, got to know the streets, and met people.

“Cough, what?”
“How long have you been coughing?”
“I don’t know, maybe last summer?”

Onset period: half a year.

‘Main symptom: hemoptysis.’

There was a little bit of blood in the cough, but from what the patient said, it was an intermittent symptom that only appeared when he was not feeling well.
There are three people with similar symptoms.

“Sometimes you feel weak, but other than that, there’s nothing particularly sore. Ragna, you’re back. Want to play a game?”

There were also people who said this.
He immediately began sparring with Ragnar. Anne could not tell the difference in their skills from the outside.
However, she could infer it from what they said.

“It has grown tremendously.”

As the man with flowing brown hair spoke, Ragnar answered, retrieving his sword. With a ting, the greatsword was thrust back into his back.

“Just keep working hard every day. Then you’ll get there.”
“……And then you come back as a pretty crazy bastard.”

Zawoon is a place where the talented gather. No, if you don’t have talent, self-discipline, and a desire to improve, you can’t stay.
Those who can’t adapt here go to the hunter’s village.
Once they grow old and lose their energy, they head to the retiree’s village.
The retiree’s village is also filled with those who lack talent.
The facilities such as the blacksmith’s shop are gathered in the broker’s village, and they make a living by trading with the empire or the merchants who visit here.
This is the structure of the Zawoon family.
In other words, it is a place where only those with proven talent gather, and naturally, they are those who devote themselves to swinging their swords every day.
Telling those people to work hard.

“You have no talent, so leave it alone.”

It sounded like that.
The man was furious, but the difference in skill was clear.
Anne observed the man closely and asked Ragnar as well.

“How was it?”
“It wasn’t bad, but I don’t know what he’ll be left with.”
“No, that’s not it. How was his physical condition? Was there anything unusual, or was he strangely weak?”
“No. He must have been in perfect condition.”

Sparring is not a fight where one risks one’s life, but rather a conversation with swords.
Someone like Ragna could guess the state of an opponent he was facing with his sword.

“Intermittent manifestations.”

Anne muttered. It seemed to Ragnar that this girl was doing something right now, and he was helping her.

‘This will also be one of the things I leave behind.’

Encrid protects people. I’ve seen that happen a lot. At first, all I had was questions.

‘why?’

It is not a sword that is swung for oneself, but a sword that is swung for others.
What does that mean?
I understood some of the meaning in my head, but it still didn’t hit home. The path of walking with a sword is easy. That’s why I never experienced losing someone.
It’s always been that way.
Children born without status or possessions usually hold iron. At first, they hold farm tools like iron shackles, and then when they realize that they are strong among their peers, they hold spears or swords. Regardless of whether
you are a noble or not, it is the fastest way to rise in status on the current continent.
You just have to be good at fighting.
If you are good enough as a squire, you will be hired by a decent merchant with a lot of money, and you will be respected in the mercenary world.
If you are good enough as a knight?
You can live off a portion of the merchant’s shares and pat yourself on the back.
It would also be possible to become the leader of a mercenary guild or form a mercenary band and then be incorporated into a noble family that lacks military power.
If you were lucky, it would be possible to become the adopted son of a noble .
Of course, there is the disadvantage of having to be younger than your father.
No matter what, you can’t be a son who is older than your father.
I heard that such things often happened on the continent in the past, but if you value external appearance,
it couldn’t be like that. In other words, even if you become a knight, your status completely changes.
If you become a knight, you had to think of it as stepping into a completely new world.
An ordinary noble wouldn’t even be able to raise his head in front of a knight.
This is the world.
If you have the power of violence in your hands, you can achieve anything.
The violence in Ragnar’s hands has rarely been stopped. That’s why he didn’t know the pain of loss. That’s because he had never let go of something he wanted to protect.

“Why are you working so hard?”

Ragnar asked as soon as a small question arose. Time is precious. Human time is limited. Ragnar felt it firsthand.
Anne internally repeated the intermittent manifestations and symptoms, and even took notes with a pencil made of ground black charcoal. Then she raised her head and looked at Ragnar.
In her eyes, she saw red eyes shining through her blond hair. They looked like the eyes of someone who thirsts for knowledge. Isn’t the thirst for knowledge the beginning of all curiosity?
So she should answer honestly.

“I hate this.”
“This?”
“Someone’s ‘experimenting’ here, not completely, but it’s probably some son of a bitch, and I really, really, really, really hate this kind of stuff they do with alchemy.”

Anne’s words were powerful. If Encred were here, she would have said that Anne had Will.
Will is something that comes to those who are sincere to their work and truly do their best at every moment, and Anne was like that.
She was always sincere. She
is now, and she will be speaking again.

“And this is Ragnar’s house.”

Is that the reason?
Ragnar asked with his eyes.
Anne wanted to kick his shins and say, “This clueless brat,” but she spoke calmly.
Wasn’t he always like this? I didn’t start without knowing that.
If someone were to say the reason why they like someone else, it would all sound awkward and strange.
It was just that my heart was moved.
An appearance close to my ideal type can make my heart flutter, but it can’t be an anchor that keeps it anchored.
But Anne’s heart was anchored right now.

“Because I want to protect your father, mother, friends, brothers, and sisters.”

A slightly more specific target than Encred, who vaguely said he would guard my back.

“Because you might become the grandfather and grandmother of the child I give birth to later.”

Anne screamed in despair. The threat to her life that came all the way here must have been one of the levers that made her open her mouth now.
If she didn’t know when she would die, she shouldn’t waste this moment.
She wasn’t really dying. She wasn’t actually struggling in the face of death.
She was just.

‘Today.’

Live like Encred did.
Anne also had a keen eye and an extraordinary brain. In other words, she also learned a lot.
How to live in the moment, you might say.
That kind of mindset is what made her open her mouth now.
And that wasn’t all Anne wished for.
Walking on the border between alchemy and healing, she sometimes thought of the day when her family members would die. That’s what she thought every time. No, it’s a wish.

‘I want to have a child.’

One day, I will pass on my healing skills to that child.
I will have a child and become a mother, and I will spend time laughing, crying, getting angry, and shivering.
And so on.

‘I will spread Remed Omnia far and wide.’

It is a wish and a dream.
A person’s dream is not just one. Anne wanted to be a mother, and she wanted to establish healing arts in a new form on the continent.

‘I want to be Ragnar’s wife.’

I had such a dream.
Anne’s eyes sparkled as she spoke. The light that seeped through her freckles sincerely reached the eyes of someone who had once lost their way.
Ragnar was neither a man nor a fool, and he remembered what Anne had shown him.
She was a freckled girl who had stayed by his side and talked about her dreams.
Ragnar answered because he now agreed to that dream.

“Let’s talk again when I return alive.”

Anne frowned. Is this okay? Is this not okay?
It’s ambiguous. However, Ragnar thought that this was the best answer he could give.

“Are you going to die here?”

Anne asked, looking grumpy again.

“No, but the swordsman might die at any moment.”
“I think you’ll have to come up with a better reason to refuse.”

Having said this, Anne put one of her dreams away in a drawer in her heart for a moment.

‘For now, we’re just treating the disease.’

This is not what you should focus on.
Ragnar followed him after that, and Anne wandered around for a few days and found out a few things.

‘It’s improved. It’s sick.’

It is not a disease that I knew about. The manifestations have become more diverse.

‘Why is that?’

It’s not like we simply used things obtained from rats or other animals.

‘The variety of seeds has increased.’

The seed refers to the source of the disease. Some were collected from rats, some from demons or beasts, and some were made from rotten corpses.
It was natural to use plants or poisonous animals.
That’s how you mix the ingredients and decide how to spread them. If you get infected, you’ll get a fever, suffer from muscle pain all over your body, and then die.
Anne has been studying and digging into the disease. She now knows that it’s a disease that’s been used with fever seeds and pain seeds.

‘Cough should be an additional symptom.’

Now it starts with a cough.

‘I also feel lethargic.’

This is why symptoms beyond what we know have occurred. It is evidence that someone is still studying and improving the disease.

‘who?’

Laban, the master who raised him, is dead. Laban’s master is no longer old enough to be alive. Then who then?

“The continent is vast and there are many geniuses.”

Anne snorted as she spoke. I didn’t know until I saw it myself, but now I know for sure.
A pitch-black cloud covered the light above her head. Ragnar just stood by her side quietly.
Even though it was an unknown symptom.

‘It can be fixed.’

Research has made great progress thanks to the generous support from the Border Guard.

‘We just need to develop a treatment that suits each disease.’

There isn’t any right now. But if there is time, it can be cured. Of course, there was more to know for that, but Anne was sure that it could be done.
Her eyes held a brighter light than when she confessed.
It was a look that could be said to be revealed naturally in Will’s confidence in himself.

* * *

When there are so many things involved, sometimes it seems like it was all planned out by someone.
But when you actually look inside, sometimes it was just a coincidence,
and sometimes someone took advantage of that coincidence.

‘From a tactical perspective, isn’t that possible?’

Not letting coincidence be coincidence is the privilege of those with extraordinary minds.
Last night, in my dream, the boatman appeared again and spoke about whether or not to protect Anne.
Encred asked the boatman.

“Why should I do that?”
“It’s a favor.”

When I saw the boatman who said it was a favor, he was really sinister. That was the feeling. Since there was no change in expression, I couldn’t tell from his expression.
That’s what I thought as I woke up and moved my body and thought about various things.

‘Are the people who work within the castle and the people who gather monsters and spread disease outside the castle the same?’

Could it be
that one side discovered the other and took advantage of it?

“Is it belittling me or provocation to think of something else in front of me?”

Hescal asked in front of Encred.
He doesn’t leave coincidences as coincidences. Hescal’s reaction right now wasn’t what he intended.

“Let’s say both.”

Encred took this as an opportunity to provoke.
Hescal was a calm and composed man. His swordsmanship was similar.
According to Rhinox, he had hidden his fangs, but I had never seen them before.

“Oh, that’s good?”

Anahera, who was watching, said, “Of course, she is the only giant in this family.”
She smiled and showed her fangs.

“Don’t die while messing around. It’s my turn next.”

It was said that he was lined up as the next sparring partner.
Encred put aside the thought of not letting coincidence be coincidence and focused.
Hescal was not an easy opponent. He didn’t even have to show his fangs.
Encred opened his mouth to Hescal.

“If you can’t show your canines, you can just show your molars.”

Hescal smiled at that. His light brown hair swayed in the wind.
The weather was still dark, but today the sunlight found a gap in the black curtain and finally broke through it, casting a subtle light.
Hescal, with his back to the dim light even in broad daylight, spoke.

“It’s harder to show your molars than your canines.”

As he said, he straightened his sword. An honest stab.
However, if you only look at it as a stab, you will be defeated. Encred knew this from several experiences.
If you fight with calculations, it is like facing each other with shields facing each other.
Although he has won that way, he cannot say that he feels refreshed even if he is beaten to death.

“I lost.”

Because Hescal was the first to admit defeat.

“Usukero-kun.”

He also figured out Will’s true identity just by seeing him for the first time.

‘What is instinct?’

It’s about swinging your sword based on your intuition.

‘Then how do you train your instincts?’

Both the wavebreaker and the flashlight took the form of training.
The sword of intuition and instinct also requires training.
The things I realized while racking my brain to establish a system were helpful.

‘Clear your head.’

Rather than calculating, you ‘react’ to the movements that the other person shows you.
In other words, you can say that the movements that are ingrained in your body come out naturally.

‘React.’

Thanks to Alexandra’s help, I’ve already experienced it. I know how precious that one experience is.
There’s a difference between walking a path without knowing it and walking a path you’ve walked before, even if it’s by chance.

‘Don’t let coincidence be coincidence.’

Suddenly, the words I had thrown out earlier came to mind. Is it natural? I don’t know. Right now, I’m just not going against the flow.
Encred repeated and showed off his sword technique called ‘Reactive Sword’.
The wave barrier is defense, and the flash is attack.
What he was doing right now, if I had to categorize it, was a ‘counterattack’.

Land, pick!

Samcheol, who had parried the sword that was flying towards him, moved forward and drew a small semicircle. It was a trajectory like a water drop bouncing to the side. Blocking and attacking at the same time.
Was it an unexpected, uncalculated blow?
It might be so for an ordinary knight, but not for Hescal.
He was not affected by a sword slower than Alexandra.
Hescal’s left gauntlet spread out like wings and became a small shield.

earth!

He skillfully blocked the sword with the shield on his left arm. If he could hide a weapon on his body, then he could also hide a shield.

“Hey!”

Anajera let out an exclamation of admiration. Both the attack and the block were amazing.

“Isn’t it great?”

Anahera asked without taking her eyes off him. The head of the household, who had come closer, answered.

“okay.”

It was a rare sight for Gaju. When had I ever seen Hescal spar so passionately?
I couldn’t even remember.