A Knight Who Eternally Regresses

It lasted an entire month.

Lua Gharne closely observed Enkrid’s transformation. She watched him without fail, not missing a single day.

She was one of the Frokk with the sharpest senses and eyes across the entire continent.

When it came to reading and teaching talent, she could be considered above even knights.

So simply watching was enough.

Enkrid had already reached his limit. This was the end. This was the final stop.

It was like eating a steamed potato and suddenly choking on it.

The conclusion was obvious.

“He’s blocked.”

Stagnation.

“What a shame.”

The thought came with emotion.

For an entire month, he lived as if scraping together time that would never return.

Like someone who had received a terminal diagnosis.

“You’re going to die at this rate.”

The fairy he was facing said so.

“Overexertion is forbidden.”

The man demonstrating knightly swordsmanship added.

Even the half-bear man had tried to persuade him with his hands and feet to take a day off.

Though whether knocking him out during a sparring match was truly the right way to give him rest was another question.

“This is one of the martial priests’ traditions.”

Putting someone to sleep by beating them up?

Audin’s words were true. Martial priests of the war god often destroyed their own bodies through excessive training, and when that happened, it was necessary to tend to them with fists and feet.

That was a duty of a senior priest.

Lua Gharne was a broad-minded Frokk, so she nodded in understanding.

But the others reacted a little differently.

Dunbakel, watching from the side, widened her eyes in disbelief. “He’s taking that kind of beating and not running away?”

Pell, with a stiff face, said, “A shepherd can endure this much,” but no one took it seriously.

“I’ll get some proper rest, thank you.”

Rophod said with conviction. He often rushed at Ragna begging for a spar, but getting quality sleep courtesy of Audin’s fists was a different matter.

In a way, it was a wise decision. He hadn’t been chosen for the knight order for nothing.

In any case, Lua Gharne saw Enkrid’s desperate struggle.

“He’s flailing like that...”

And yet it wasn’t growth. It was stagnation.

Even that—barely.