Chương 740: Chapter 739 – The Smiling Devil 

[TL here, everyone! I thought I’d wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Hope you guys all the best! And remember to spend time with your families. Early chapter as well lol.] 1

Chapter 739 – The Smiling Devil 

“Inside.” 

Enkrid didn’t waste words. 

Nor did he need to hit anyone else like he had done with Harkbent. 

There are plenty of other ways. 

“Inside where?” 

Jerry asked. 

He was usually a bold man, but now his voice trembled ever so slightly. 

A subtle sense of intimidation was weighing on him. To his eyes, Enkrid seemed far more dangerous than usual. 

‘Push me, and I’ll cut you down.’ 

The message was clear, even without words. 

Harkbent glared fiercely at Enkrid as he limped, but the look in his eyes was more of a desperate attempt to hide his own fear than real rage. 

In front of them was a deep pit. 

It was a trap they had prepared in case a large Beast appeared. 

The sharp stakes that had been stuck inside had been removed, but the hole was still impressively deep. 

Jerry figured that even if someone stood on Harkbent’s shoulders, they wouldn’t be able to reach the surface. It wasn’t dug perfectly vertical, so it slanted a bit, but that didn’t mean anyone could simply crawl up and out. Everyone began to watch each other nervously. 

Are we really supposed to go in there? 

Why is this outsider suddenly acting like this? 

Wasn’t he supposed to be helping us? 

Didn’t we agree, after Harkbent went to ask him, that he’d help us? 

Enkrid shifted his stance silently. 

He could have shown his strength without moving, but that would have been a bit too aggressive. 

Uncontrolled intimidation would have made their legs buckle. 

What was needed here wasn’t overwhelming terror, just the tangible threat directly in front of them. 

As he opened his chest and twisted his waist, the handle of Samcheol at Enkrid’s side became visible to all. 

In that instant, everyone realized what Harkbent had already figured out. 

The threat from the Beasts was still far away, but the blade right before their eyes was terrifyingly close. 

There was no need to wonder which was more dangerous. 

Jerry was the first to climb down into the pit. 

A single rope dropped from above, landing inside. 

Enkrid called down from right above the pit. 

“Climb up.” 

Even if you took advantage of the territory war between Monsters and Beasts, you couldn’t survive in a place like this unless you were made of tougher stuff. 

Even without actively training, living here naturally built muscle and determination. 

Still, climbing out by just hanging onto a rope inside the pit was no easy feat. 

“Hup! Hup!” 

Jerry climbed up with every last bit of strength he had. 

He gripped the rope so hard, his palm muscles felt like they were burning. 

“Run. All the way over there, quickly.” 

With a bored tone, Enkrid pointed in one direction with his finger. 

The pressure was still there. 

It was as if he was saying, “I could cut you down at any moment, and it wouldn’t matter a bit to me.” Jerry, gasping for breath, started to run. 

“Here! Tag here, then over there!” 

Here and there, kids stood like signposts, shouting directions. 

He ran in loops, weaving around several trees and circling until the sky looked yellow from dizziness. 

“That’s one round. Next.” 

Enkrid’s voice rang out. 

Next in line was a sturdily built girl. 

She was stronger than Jerry, a decent shot with a bow, and rather tough by nature. 

She was just as frightened, though, so she didn’t bother asking why—they just ducked into the pit. 

After her came the timid boy who had attended the meeting. 

He tried to cut corners. 

He was scared, but it didn’t seem like he’d get in trouble for something like this. 

After climbing out of the pit, he pretended to be out of breath and ran at a reasonable pace. 

Ever since he was young, he’d been confident in his running, so this was nothing for him. 

Enkrid kicked the boy’s thigh as he returned. 

Thud. 

It was a light low kick. 

The boy collapsed to the ground and started pounding the earth with his fists. 

Judging by the choked sounds he made, it was clearly from pain. 

“If you try to get away with that…” 

Enkrid didn’t even finish his sentence. 

Everyone who knew how to fight had to drop into the pit, get out, and run. 

After repeating this more than ten times, their legs were trembling and their arms were too heavy to lift. 

If a Beast were to attack now, they’d just become easy prey to fuel its strength. 

“We’ll dig one more pit.” 

Enkrid said succinctly, then walked back to Brunhild and the children who had been watching. 

As usual, he started teaching them how to use a spear and throw an axe. 

“I actually know someone who’s even better at axe-throwing than I am.” 

He made this comment while demonstrating axe-throwing. 

What’s that supposed to mean? 

What were they supposed to hope for? 

They couldn’t even ask. 

And even if they did, it didn’t seem like he’d bother to answer. Even Harkbent kept his mouth shut. 

The same thing happened over and over for three days. 

“Are you a demon or something?” 

The timid man asked with tears in his eyes, his voice wavering. 

He was so exhausted he didn’t care what happened anymore. 

Enkrid smiled at him and replied, “You can think whatever you want.” 

If he flashed that same smile in the capital city of Naurillia, especially in a place like the Salon, more than a few Ladies would find themselves blushing. 

Even in just the Border Guard’s marketplace, plenty of passersby would have turned their heads for a better look. 

If Leona Rockfreed had seen it— 

“That’s the kind of smile that’ll get you in trouble. Stop grinning like that. I don’t want to end up stabbed by a fairy’s blade.” 

—she might have said. 

But to the man’s eyes, Enkrid looked every bit the demon, horns or not. 

Who but a demon would push people to the brink of death and then smile like that? 

The Ferryman narrowed his eyes. 

In his gaze, he could see Enkrid’s present self. 

Should he call the actions Enkrid had displayed over the past three days surprising? 

‘This brat.’ 

Normally, Enkrid would have desperately struggled to save those people, and upon witnessing it, the Ferryman should have said this: 

‘Do you really think they’ll listen?’ 

And, to add to that, 

‘Do you think training will change anything?’ 

That should have been the exchange. 

But the entire process had been skipped. 

Enkrid had made it so. 

With just a few words, he understood the situation and acted several steps ahead. 

He was already a man of remarkable initiative, but now he was thinking quickly and sensing things intuitively, too. 

That’s how this result came about. 

He had anticipated what the Ferryman would say and acted on it ahead of time. 

‘You little…’ 

Of course, there was nothing the Ferryman could do about it right now. 

*** 

When he called Enkrid out at night, all he had to say was this: 

“Do you really think things will go your way?” 

It seemed likely. 

The Ferryman couldn’t see the future, but he’d been through enough over many long years. 

Years of distilled experience allowed him to read the future by inferring what would come next from what had happened before. 

“It’s working.” 

Watching Enkrid, he felt he ought to invent a new way to describe him. 

‘A skilled Today’s catcher.’ 

The ferryman blinked and asked again. 

“Yes.” 

“Go.” 

“Things will go as I want.” 

“Get lost.” 

After those two brief responses, Enkrid moved away from the ferryman. 

The Ferryman closed his eyes. 

One disagreeable situation after another, yet he couldn’t help but feel a subtle sense of expectation. 

“Will things really turn out the way he hopes?” 

The Ferryman heard another voice inside himself but didn’t answer it. 

You never know if something will succeed until you see it through. 

“I guess I’ve grown soft enough to have thoughts like that.” 

He agreed with this much. 

Today’s repetition would someday anchor this man named Enkrid. 

That much would never change. 

And yet, was he really starting to see hope in all of this? 

That wasn’t it. 

It was just that even things like this had become a part of the game. 

The Ferryman laughed. 

The sound of his laughter, released atop the boat, floated along the river and then echoed back to him. 

A prisoner is always assigned a limited space—so his laughter was bound to meet a wall and bounce right back. 

If you don’t do as you’re told, you die. 

*** 

Even in the midst of this madness, there had already been three attacks from Beasts, including the Wolf Beast pack. 

“You really have no sense, do you?” 

This ruthless Swordsman had, each time, mercilessly slashed, cut, and crushed the Beasts. 

He didn’t just use his sword; his fists and feet came into play too, showing a ferocity that was downright demonic. 

The movements were so fast you couldn’t even see them, and yet the Beasts’ heads exploded one after another. 

He’d gathered everyone in the village into one place, making the area easier to defend, but it was still astonishing. 

He alone had the strength to wipe out entire packs of Beasts. 

“Ah.” 

Someone watching all this let out a breath—a sound that was half air, half voice. 

Was it admiration? 

Not exactly. 

It was just that the fight had ended so quickly. 

Right now, the sword was killing Beasts—but as soon as the fighting stopped, its point was already poking at the backs of those who moved. 

In fact, the demon called Enkrid did poke the backs of the exhausted people as they gasped for breath. 

No one ever actually got hurt, but just the threat of it sent chills down their spines. 

“Are you stoping?” 

He’d say this as he did it. 

It almost felt like magic. 

The sharp sensation at their backs and that one word—suddenly, they would find strength they didn’t know they had left. 

“Hooah!” 

Just three days ago, whenever Beasts attacked, everyone’s faces would go pale, but not anymore. 

Now, as the smell of blood spread throughout the village, Jerry found his courage and spoke up. 

“We should clean up the area.” 

Enkrid only nodded in response. 

That was their cue for a brief moment of rest. 

But if anyone tried to slack off and drag things out, somehow he always noticed and would approach, smiling. 

That was the end of the break—the hellish routine would start all over again. 

They had to do this while breathing in the stench of Beast blood, and when they finished, they had to clean up all over again. 

These people had always been tough, but repeatedly going through this ordeal made them even quicker on their feet. 

Naturally, they started dividing up roles amongst themselves, and of course, Harkbent stepped up to coordinate everything in the middle. After three days of this relentless routine, Enkrid gave them a new order. 

“Everyone, grab a spear and assemble” 

Now, his word was law. 

If you wanted to defy him, you had to be ready to die—but even the toughest, Harkbent, followed his orders. 

The timid man beside him agreed as well. 

“Just take one hit from him. You’d wish you were dead.” 

In a way, he had remarkable courage. 

After getting beaten, he still tried to slack off while cleaning up the Beast corpses. 

Enkrid kicked him a couple more times for that. 

He sobbed and crawled on the ground, choking back tears, but—strangely—his legs never broke. 

No, not only did they not break, but after a little while, though bruised, he wasn’t even limping anymore. 

He knows how to hit. 

The timid man realized this. 

And that man… he smiles while he hits you. 

He could probably do this—beat you up with a smile—hundreds of times. 

But he wouldn’t actually kill you. 

If you’ve never been tortured, you have no resistance to it. 

For the timid man, Enkrid’s kicks felt like pure torture. 

“Stop screwing around and do as you’re told.” 

He threatened them all. 

Harkbent, in truth, understood the significance of what Enkrid was doing. 

There were two main goals. 

‘The first is erasing their fear of Beasts.’ 

To do that, he would initially overwhelm them with a fear even greater than what they felt for the Beasts. 

Then, he’d make them get used to the sight of Beast corpses until they could face them with indifference. 

‘The second is making sure everyone moves as one, like a single body.’ 

There were not even seventy people in total who could fight. 

Yet, none of them had ever received actual combat training. 

Even Harkbent was naturally strong, but he’d never trained as a soldier. 

Just because you’re responsible doesn’t mean you magically gain new abilities. 

Still, he had sharp eyes and a good sense for things. 

That likely came with his position as one of the people responsible for the village. 

They had gotten used to reading each other’s rhythm, able to gauge one another’s condition with just a glance. 

Only then did Enkrid assemble them, put spears in their hands, and teach them formation. 

They followed along surprisingly well. 

The results of training were obvious almost immediately. 

Of course, they’d spent three days being worked to the bone. 

Aside from digging holes and running sprints, all they did was march in step and shout out their drills together. 

Anyone with military knowledge watching them would probably call what they’d just done “basic drill training.” 

‘Interesting’ 

As he drilled them, Enkrid found a certain enjoyment in teaching raw recruits. 

It wasn’t easy, but there was something rewarding about it. 

The Ferryman’s hunch had been right. 

His experiences in Yohan had broadened Enkrid’s perspective. 

Now, he could see several steps ahead. 

He’d also come to understand that, although the Ferryman couldn’t see the past, he could predict the future based on the present. 

‘They’re a closed-off people—but ones worth protecting.’ 

There were swarms of Beasts constantly targeting them, too many to even guess at. 

The village’s location in the Mountain Range, their resources, Brunhild’s talents, and the lack of combat training—all of it added up. 

It was a wealth of information that, once assembled in his mind, pointed the way forward. 

By compressing everything he’d learned, he and the Ferryman had skipped over what would have been a drawn-out, contentious debate and jumped straight to the present. 

A month might seem like a short time, but if used intensely, it was more than enough. 

The Ferryman might have hoped Enkrid would get entangled here and spend his life repeating the same days with them—but from the very start, that had been off the table. 

About two weeks in, a fierce light began to appear in everyone’s eyes. 

All that time, Enkrid had ruled them through fear. 

Brunhild, though still a child, was perceptive. 

She sometimes looked at him with questioning eyes, but she always focused more on learning spearmanship than getting answers. 

Since Enkrid began training the rest of the villagers as well, she’d become even more absorbed in training than before. 

She really was a quick learner Sensing that Enkrid’s period of preparation was near its end, the child spoke up. 

However, due to a few misunderstandings, the child regarded Enkrid as an enemy. 

“Stop bullying us.” 

The prodigy pointed her spear at Enkrid. 

He couldn’t help but feel a wave of nostalgia. 

Back when he first left the village, he’d been defeated by a boy half his size. 

So much had changed since then. 

“Ha!” 

Brunhild thrust her spear for the sake of the villagers. 

Enkrid seized it, then flicked his middle finger against her forehead. 

Snap! 

“Ow!” 

She gripped her forehead and rolled on the ground. 

“Don’t get cocky.” 

No matter how gifted, there was still a gap she couldn’t hope to close. 

Still, her instincts were right; the end was approaching. 

This too was part of preparing for it. 

Enkrid believed it was time for practice that felt like the real thing. 

“Bring out all the food we’ve stockpiled.” 

At Enkrid’s command, Harkbent nodded.