If you watched Enkrid's day from the side, you would end up saying it was boring, to the point that it was monotonous.
He opened his eyes at dawn and started training. Physical conditioning was the main thing, like using tools made of cast iron or smashing his abs with a hammer.
That was the morning routine.
It was a day that began against the blue light of dawn.
When it got light, he ate a ton of meat, stew, and the like for breakfast, then swung his sword. It was time to train the basics again. Basic swordsmanship training continued until lunch.
If you watched from the side, it was time that went beyond boring and made you click your tongue.
Enkrid polished swordsmanship that was close to the basics all morning. Every day was like that.
He wasn't trying to find meaning. He was just doing it. Just.
Watching that, it was also routine for a few soldiers who were focused on training to join the training yard. A soldier named Marco who handled a spear was the representative example.
And as for the Mad Order of Knights, including the squire, it was only natural that all of them attended.
"Falling Clemen, today let's settle this."
It was also natural for sparring to happen among them. Because it was something they did every day.
Everyone trained around Enkrid all day.
That was the daily life of the Mad Order of Knights.
When it was lunchtime, Enkrid looked for prey. In other words, it was the process of finding a sparring partner.
"Today I choose you. Pel, come out."
"Yesterday it was me too."
"Was it?"
Roughly that kind of conversation would go back and forth, but even if it was a little different, it was similar words every day. Like that, until evening, he sparred and honed techniques. He repeated this without missing a single day.
That was what Aurelia had observed, barely keeping up with the training process.
So on a late afternoon, right before the sun went down, it was only natural for her to stop in surprise when she saw Enkrid asleep while lying sprawled out.
"Hmm."
It felt like seeing the sun rise in the west. Aurelia stopped and observed Enkrid sleeping.
'Sleeping?'
That Enkrid? At a time when he should be training? Looking now, there weren't even traces of sweat.
'Fluffy?'
Was he really resting? The guy called Enkrid even set times for resting.
"If there isn't enough rest, the body won't have time to recover."
He said that, and then called soaking his body in a wooden tub before sleeping "rest."
"That's right. Brother."
Next to him, the bear beastman who was carrying out a torture labeled flexibility training had chuckled and nodded.
'That's rest?'
To Aurelia, it wasn't. But Enkrid did it. He rested after measuring the minimum rest time that would not strain his body.
'A human who lives for training.'
Should it be called swordsmanship thinking?
A madman who lived looking at only that one thing.
'Mad Order of Knights.'
It wasn't for nothing that they had that name. It wasn't just that bastard alone—like it was a plague, everyone around him was like that too.
Aurelia was clever, so she realized what she had to do to survive here.
'I need to get dyed like that too.'
Already, every process had naturally seeped into her body.
"You're roughly like someone from here now too."
That was what the big-eyed man named Kraiss said, the one who sometimes joined the morning training.
'Even if I understand it with my head.'
Enkrid was a strange person just to look at.
Once you were a knight, you could force that kind of training, but seeing it performed directly was another matter.
'Resolve becomes will and shines.'
His resolve and will did not illuminate only a moment. It was like a flame that never went out no matter what.
That kind of person lay down and slept on the grass in the corner of the training yard. That place wasn't even a training ground—it was a place Kraiss had made because he said it looked rough with only training tools and bare dirt.
Sometimes, when one of the soldiers fainted or collapsed from exhaustion, it also served as an outdoor bed where they were left until they recovered.
'Should I wake him?'
Seeing that nobody reacted, it must be right to leave him alone. Normally, her thoughts would have stopped there, but—
Because her field of view had narrowed from the harsh training, and because it did not feel real that that Enkrid was taking a nap, she unconsciously reached out a hand.
Tap—someone grabbed her wrist as if snatching it.
A slick sensation was conveyed to Aurelia's wrist. Luagarne was gripping Aurelia's wrist.
"Shh."
Aurelia stepped back. She had only backed off two steps, but her field of view widened again.
'He's not sleeping.'
Everyone left Enkrid lying like that and did what they had to do. When Aurelia asked with her eyes, Pel, today's sparring partner, answered instead.
"Sometimes he does that. Just leave him. Don't try to understand it. Just put in the effort."
That was all the answer was. Even while Aurelia kept glancing in shock, Enkrid was lying down, sunk deep in thought.
It wasn't that he had simply stopped in thought. It was time to chew over what he had repeatedly carried out with his body over the past few days.
***
More precisely, Enkrid was in the middle of calmly observing the changes in the Will that swirled inside him.
'Upright and straight.'
He upheld the Will and made it swirl and move inside his body. At the same time, his thoughts stretched out with it.
If it blazed like fire, a swordsmanship that resembled that nature came out, and if it changed like wind, it became swordsmanship that resembled that too.
So what is the source?
'Fast change.'
Fluidity is being prepared to change at any time.
'Then what, and how, is being changed?'
It was concern about directionality.
One day, a question came to mind, and he spent several days pondering the answer. In this part, he had an advantage over anyone else. Didn't he have the time of crawling up from the bottom and reaching the present?
He dug into and examined, one by one, what he had and what he knew.
At times like this, should Enkrid be called an obsessive and calm madman?
If necessary, he was the kind of person who gathered and piled up dirt with only two hands to make a mountain.
That was the result of digging through things one by one. Right before the sunset wrapped the surroundings, Enkrid lay sprawled out on the grass.
He didn't care if the ground was cold with winter chill rising up.
He forgot even the soft feel of the grass. He only needed time to stop.
Just like that, he closed his eyes and observed his inner self. He dug and dug into it.
'Source.'
Becoming fire and becoming wind was not the core.
'Changing to heavy.'
While stretching out upright and straight, it changed to heavy.
'Sometimes.'
It drove in fast and wrapped softly. And yet, by changing in an instant at any time, it deceived its previous shape.
'Strong center and outer flow.'
Enkrid, in the middle of spending time on training and cultivation, realized why Rionesis Oniak had divided swordsmanship forms like that.
He had also realized what the person who became a legend realized.
'Five changes of nature are the core.'
Rionesis Oniak divided swordsmanship forms based on the changes of Will. Enkrid sank into himself and repeatedly organized his thoughts.
Was this what it felt like to be a fisherman who had hooked an unexpected big catch?
'This is fun.'
Enkrid saw something new, and he felt exhilaration from it. From head to toe, his whole body tingled.
Even if the end of this was a death so painful it was unbearable, it didn't matter.
The ferryman's words, the swordsman who stabbed his stomach—he forgot everything.
As always, Enkrid sank into the present.
'This is so fun.'
To the point it would not be an exaggeration to say he swung the sword for this moment, he only enjoyed the present.
"This is really fun."
An answer came back to what he said as he opened his eyes.
"Is it?"
A black-haired beauty, Esther, stood with the sunset behind her, looking down at him.
"Yeah, it's fun."
"I agree."
Unlike their words, both of their expressions were flat. Because there was no need to deliberately show inner exhilaration on the outside, neither of them showed any change in expression.
Esther, too, had been researching a new spell today and had come back after realizing something.
"Those two."
Aurelia, who had been watching, quietly opened her mouth.
As the sun set, the witch named Esther reached out a hand, and Enkrid took that hand and stood up. The whole sight was like a painting.
Famous painters and musicians and the like had already made songs and drawn pictures, saying they got inspiration with the Mad Order of Knights as the background.
Even now, if some artist saw that scene, they would receive inspiration like being struck by lightning.
"Stop it. If you want to get in there, you have to get past the fairy and the witch."
Luagarne gave advice politely. Aurelia immediately denied Lua Gharne's words.
"It's true I fell for a cool person after seeing him, but it's not that. I have already promised my future to someone."
Her chest stung as she looked at them. Was it because she remembered what Ingis had come to say right before she left the Southern Front?
"Aurelia, come to hear my oath."
"What do you mean?"
"My oath is yours."
The words of a knight who would fight for his lady.
It was also a confession. A knightlike confession, you could say.
Aurelia was satisfied.
Cypress telling Enkrid not to snatch his granddaughter was sincere. For his granddaughter, there was a knight who had guarded her side since childhood.
"His name is Ingis."
He fell in love at first sight in childhood and had been consistent all the way until now. And Aurelia was the same.
"Only now did your way of speaking get gentle."
Luagarne puffed out her cheeks as she spoke. Luagarne had also fallen for Enkrid in the same way. Even if it didn't take a certain form, and even if no return came back, it was enough for Luagarne to be satisfied.
Their whispering was not heard by anyone.
"But it's still far."
What Enkrid said after standing up spread around, and because everyone looked at him. Everyone stopped training. All eyes gathered in one place. It was a rare thing. Since they were people who could just devote themselves to their own training.
The reason they reacted now was because of the sincerity that soaked into the words that came out of Enkrid's mouth.
For the demonic knight, the knight who cut down demons, the knight who felled Balrog, to say it was still far—those words grabbed everyone's hands and feet.
Enkrid saw that the swordsmanship of the one who stabbed his stomach was not merely fast change.
So it was far. There was still a long way to go. That was how it felt.
'This isn't the end.'
Ahead, there was more. So it was fun. His heart pounded and anticipation surged.
The ferryman's illusion rose and whispered from behind Esther.
"Walls still remain, mortal."
He ignored it.
He ignored it even when he met it in dreams, so what was a hallucination?
Esther opened her mouth as if nothing was wrong.
"Truth has no end. When we reach that end, what do we become? The ascension the demons desire ultimately means divinity. That's what they want to take."
Esther wanted to ask. If you go on like that, in the end, just how far will you go?
Well, no matter what question was thrown, the answer would be the same.
Enkrid happened to open his mouth. It was not the answer to the question thrown. It was the continuation of what he had said earlier.
It was the next sentence after saying it was still far.
"But it's still fun."
"For me too."
Esther answered.
And their conversation set fire to the hearts of everyone watching.
"Wooooaaah!"
A soldier who had been sprawled on the ground lamenting his lack of talent sprang up.
"That's right, it was like that."
The soldier Marco also recalled the beginning he had forgotten. What was the reason he first grabbed the spear?
Because it was fun and enjoyable.
Pel also let out a snort of laughter, and Dunbakel nodded as if it was only natural.
It was a day like usual, but should it be called a day unlike usual?
The sun set and starlight shone on the surroundings. The winter wind was endlessly cold, but the ones in this training yard each forgot even the cold thanks to the flames that had flared up inside them.
"Ha!"
That evening's training was lively beyond measure.
That effect also returned to Enkrid. Heat and zeal—gathered together, they trained, taught each other, and did not spare the process of learning.
What they saw and learned in Zaun, what they went through and realized in the lives they had lived—all of it had gathered in the training yard now.
'What's needed here is a system.'
There were many things he had built up as theory, one by one. He steeled his heart again and chewed over what he had realized.
'Five changes.'
Everything derived from that remained as the swordsmanship of the present.
'If you tell anyone to do it like this from the start, nobody can.'
Enkrid knew the path of climbing up by stepping on what had been built up, one by one. Starting the next day, he began to organize the path.
"Now it's about time to stop fighting too."
Luagarne took charge of that work. She was originally a scholar. Not a combatant.
Looking at the skill, it wouldn't be wrong to call Luagarne a quasi-knight, but she was someone who enjoyed researching and organizing something more than training and tempering.
If what Luagarne wanted to dig into, establish, and research was a fruit made by the person she had fallen for, it would be even more enjoyable.
"I'm going to quit fighting. The purpose of my life is here."
Luagarne declared retirement. Well, the one who heard those words was only Enkrid.
"If you want."
The answer was short. It was fine.
Enkrid respected the other person's dream no matter who it was. For Luagarne, someone close enough to be called a friend, Enkrid only felt like cheering her on even more..
"I heard you told them to do everything you need, and there was even talk that they should build an entirely new building. What did you say to the Captain?"
That feeling was conveyed through Kraiss. Luagarne puffed out her cheeks and smiled.
"No need. A suitable single room, a desk, and writing tools that are convenient for me should be enough."
Putting two fingers through a ringed pen and writing letters like using a sword was a Frog's specialty.
Given their body structure, it couldn't be helped.
Kraiss granted that request.
Like this, it was about five days after Audin left. A letter arrived.
"It came for Sir Rem."
It was a letter a soldier who had been given the task of collecting and distributing letters had left from early morning. The sender was Ayul.