"Kneel and beg. The Balrog won't kill you."
So beg and beg again.
Plead for your life.
Then escape from today that way. Show your back. Fighting head-on isn't the only option. Build your strength and meet again later.
Isn't this also a tactic worth calling one?
The Ferryman's face seemed to change at least five times as he spoke.
A dark green flickered through his black pupils, and a faded golden light briefly showed inside his hood. Still, his expression remained unchanged. In other words, he merely listed what he had to say in a bland tone.
It felt like reading a book written in stiff prose. Just as a book that only listed facts rather than being interesting would, Enkrid thought the Ferryman's words were valid.
"Will you let yourself be devoured by today like this? Being bitten by a dog that killed all its siblings and ran away doesn't look that good."
There were some words in the middle he didn't understand.
Killed its siblings? Ran away?
From the context, it sounded like criticism directed at the Balrog.
But then what was this about begging to that very opponent he'd criticized?
The words didn't match front to back, but thinking of the Ferryman's purpose, it wasn't that strange either.
'Escape from today.'
Precisely, don't remain in today as it is now.
That's what the Ferryman wanted.
Enkrid's curiosity was willful. Just as inspiration suddenly visits exceptional artists, his curiosity was like that too. Usually he'd let any words slide past, but sometimes he'd suddenly take interest in what someone said and ask.
"A dog that killed all its siblings and ran away? What's that about?"
Looking at the form of that interest, it only showed for fighting, training, learning, or things helpful to his purpose, but even the Ferryman couldn't know that thought process.
Even if he was the Ferryman, he couldn't thoroughly scrutinize Enkrid's innermost thoughts.
In truth, even Enkrid couldn't fully know his own heart. That's how people were, after all.
In any case, Enkrid asked. The Ferryman answered. His tone remained stiff as ever.
"It's not important."
The Ferryman's lamp swayed faintly left and right. With that small sway, violet light spread bit by bit as the shadow before the Ferryman stretched out and shrank back.
The ferry was about twice as large as usual. This wasn't the first time seeing this sight.
Recently, when Enkrid had thrown himself into training even in his dreams to review what he'd learned from the three teachers who wouldn't take Krona, the Ferryman had enlarged the ferry.
Still, one conclusion remained in Enkrid's mind. The Ferryman disliked stopping in today where he faced the Balrog. His actions were more effective than speaking directly. Meaning the intent and message were clearly conveyed.
Come to think of it, he'd spent several years together with this Ferryman too.
Moreover, he was the sharer of the biggest secret no one else believed.
Enkrid's mind began thinking. There was no need to stretch time. This place was, precisely speaking, a mental image, an inner world.
Thoughts within it were like flashes of light. Thinking happened in an instant. Enkrid simply observed as the tree of thought absorbed water and grew.
Left alone, it would reach a conclusion on its own. It was a fact he knew from experience.
'The Ferryman helps with training.'
He pushes one's back to overcome walls.
'Why?'
As soon as the question arose, the answer naturally surfaced. No, he'd already known the answer. It was the third time repeating this fact.
The Ferryman disliked today with the Balrog. What was the reason? Because this could never be called an enjoyable today.
In other words, it wasn't the today the Ferryman wished for.
The today he wished for was a peaceful and tranquil day. Combat being involved didn't matter, but at least it was a today that excluded this kind of desperation.
"You ultimately won't be able to overcome it. If you're ultimately bound here for a hundred or two hundred years, that becomes the end. That will be your last today."
The Ferryman spoke repeatedly. He seemed to interrupt and interfere in the middle of thinking. Enkrid quietly listened to the story. If someone saw, leaving aside speech and appearance, one side seemed to be pleading while the other seemed to act leisurely.
"Madman beast, if you want to remain in immortality, now is not the time."
Wasn't it natural for the earnest side to talk more?
After hearing all those words, Enkrid raised his left hand to scratch the back of his neck and answered calmly.
"Mm, no thanks."
It was an answer with no hesitation. Both the attitude and speed of answering were so.
"Then you'll remain in this today?"
The Ferryman asked again.
"Ah, that's not it either."
Enkrid shook his head.
"You, alone, can overcome this?"
The words the Ferryman conveyed through will overlapped in dozens, reverberating through his entire body. At those words, the river surged as the ferry swayed.
Though called a mental world, to Enkrid this was also a place where he moved his body as if it were reality.
Standing with balance on the swaying boat, the corners of Enkrid's mouth rose gently. A smile full of confidence appeared on his face.
"No."
That answer was the last. The surging river water wrapped around the Ferryman who'd been on the ferry. The Ferryman's entire body, turned into dark blue particles, scattered like beads as Enkrid floated up and was sucked into the flickering light above his head.
"You must prove your words."
The Ferryman's words remained in his ears like an echo shouting from far away.
Just before, Enkrid had answered no. That answer had dual meaning.
One was the resolve not to remain in today, and the other was.
'Why would he think I'm alone?'
That he wasn't alone.
Well, something like that.
Besides that, impurities or naturally arising branches of thought willfully extended to meet each other, then spun round and round like a snake biting its tail.
Enkrid skillfully gathered those thoughts into one and rushed toward a conclusion.
Kneeling and begging to the Balrog ultimately meant surviving even if it meant breaking his will, even if it meant abandoning the attitude toward life he'd maintained until now.
So the Ferryman was still the same. The proposal he'd made in previous todays was no different from now. Whatever today he faced, he only proposed paths of meaningless survival.
'Is that fun?'
Living such todays held no meaning for Enkrid.
It was neither fun nor respectful to the dream he'd cultivated since childhood, the dream of becoming a knight that he'd partially achieved.
Death and life were always double-edged blades. Since he was the one walking upon them, he should be the one deciding his attitude toward life.
Much less beg? That was too passive an attitude. It left the choice to the Balrog.
Even surviving that way, his heart would eventually shatter. After crawling with his belly to the ground to live, nothing would remain inside him either.
Once the tower of will built up until now crumbled, what then?
If someone saw, Enkrid would look like someone living only for today, but that wasn't it.
He was always someone advancing toward tomorrow.
Whatever the Ferryman's proposal might be, Enkrid had his own method.
"If you remain like this, you'll be trapped in this today."
The Ferryman had said that.
He understood what those words meant.
If it was simply escaping only today, he'd found the path long ago.
Can't overcome it alone? That too he acknowledged.
Having overcome walls several times, Enkrid's thinking had become free and his concepts had broadened.
He'd abandoned the thought of necessarily doing it alone.
A free way of thinking assumed various situations, put them into calculations, and showed the path for what to do.
How had he learned to see the flow through intuition on the battlefield?
It was thanks to being trapped in Avnair's snare, that genius strategist who was now a hostage entrusted to the Border Guard.
It happened from repeating countless todays.
Experience accumulated to become the lighthouse of intuition, and that light still brightly illuminated the surroundings.
'Repetition and experience.'
Such thoughts followed in a chain.
Then how many times had Enkrid repeated 'today'?
Too burdensome to count. Just by not having his mind worn down, he deserved the Ferryman's recognition.
In fact, part of the Ferryman's self respected him for that reason too.
Of course, Enkrid had no way of knowing the Ferryman's innermost thoughts.
Repeating today countless times like that, how to say it, his senses had improved. When trapped in today like this, he could see ahead. Because there was a dark and gloomy wall with no visible end, he didn't know how to advance right now, but enduring would naturally make him believe the lighthouse's light would faintly guide the path.
This would be an additional ability even the Ferryman hadn't anticipated.
As light was absorbed, he reached today once more.
Before the today he'd repeated several times and reality, Enkrid, as always, merely reviewed what he'd learned.
'How to utilize weapons.'
He applied what he'd learned from the first teacher.
It was both how to use physical weapons and tools, but also included how to use changed might differently than before.
"If the power you possess changes, the tactics using it change too. Obviously."
Luagarne's words flashed through his mind.
Next, the technique from the second teacher Donapa also helped. He eliminated all impurities with a single simple thought. That's how he swung his axe and surpassed the limits he currently had.
And what he'd learned from the third teacher, the single-edged blade, was Will and breathing techniques that changed according to mood.
Enkrid repeated today over thirty more times after that.
At the end, he heard strange words from the Balrog. Words that seemed strange to the Balrog but natural to Enkrid.
-Is slowly dying your tactic?
Instead of answering, Enkrid laughed. It was because he'd just understood the difference between the Will shown by everyone including Ragna, the Will shown by the Balrog, and the Will he possessed, and had finally adapted now.
And until the very end, he'd tried whether he could win with just this alone, but lost.
The fight was fierce, rough, and intense, but it was just a past today.
A today no one needed to know disappeared like that.
However, Enkrid knew. Those todays accumulated to make him clearly see the lighthouse's light pointing toward tomorrow.
That was why, at the start of the two hundred twenty-sixth today, Enkrid looked at Rino and asked a question.
"Is this the teacher's area?"
In the labyrinth, there were lit places and dark places. And they lived here.
Counting just the number of todays, Enkrid had spent over half a year here too. During that time, he'd reflexively observed his surroundings.
That's how he'd reached this conclusion.
They had their own areas. Was maintaining some degree of self the Balrog's tolerance?
'No, it's because of his amusement.'
The demon of battle who ultimately aimed for fighting and more fighting imprisoned them in the labyrinth and made them challenge him.
Because that was his own enjoyment.
The Balrog's fragments torn off in the form of pieces occupied regions in various places like that, stimulating the intelligent races to draw out their abilities and ultimately killed them.
He'd given personal spaces to those gathered like that.
Personal rooms within the labyrinth, so to speak.
Nothing special like what might exist in a big city inn, just spaces left bare in caves, but he could tell these were their territories.
"...Hmm? Does the guest know something? But teacher? That's a unique way to address me."
Having learned quite a bit, Enkrid called him that.
"I know a fair amount."
"Ah, I see."
Rino tilted his head left and right and let his hands hang down. It was the signal before attacking.
Enkrid silently showed the Will of the fortress wall. A provocation to try overcoming it. Rino's eyebrows twitched. His brow furrowed and the corners of his mouth twisted up.
"Where'd you pick up such tricks."
He drew out one of the swords that created sparks and took a stance. A stance as if he'd immediately rush in once overcoming the pressure.
It wasn't a clumsy stance, but Enkrid knew that was a feint.
If Rino had been one of the Madman Knight Company, he would have given this advice:
"Better to discard deception and focus only on technique."
His eye had improved, and teaching Pel and Lawford while even guiding Roman to a new path. In between, he'd repeated teaching and learning, selecting only what was most necessary and reorganizing it.
To Enkrid's eyes, he could see the path Rino should take. Of course, there was no need to say this. The opponent before his eyes was an enemy, not someone to embrace. Moreover.
'Not even a living person.'