Chapter 14 - Star Sword, Excalibur

The boy didn't know

how brightly the stars shine.

The boy didn't know

how warm the sun is.

What everyone naturally enjoys, the boy has not. Born in a deep underground city where neither starlight nor sunlight reaches, the only thing he could see when looking up was the dark ceiling of the underground city.

Born among the abandoned, the boy dreamed, yearning for the unseen stars in the ceiling.

He wanted to possess the stars.

To be a self-illuminating being wherever he was. Like the knights and heroes in fairy tales, beings with brilliant light. Holding a tattered fairy tale book, the boy dreamed.

Even though he knew it was unattainable.

Even though he knew it was a desire beyond his station.

The boy couldn’t let go of his dream.

***

The first thing children in the underground city learn is how to give up. More accurately, it’s something they come to realize rather than learn... From a very young age, children in this city suddenly come to understand.

That they are destined to rot in this place for life.

That they can never escape this city.

No matter what they do, they cannot ascend. Thus, they naturally learn to give up and resign themselves. The bright eyes of children, full of dreams, quickly become clouded with the haze of the underground city.

Najin was no different.

Najin knew his talent. He always said he didn’t overestimate his talent, but he had an approximate idea of how immense his talent was.

‘How could he not know?’

Najin has keen eyesight. He is observant, sensitive to changes in people's expressions, and has quick wits. Therefore, Najin always noticed.

Whenever he wielded a sword.

Whenever he did something.

The astonishment of Offen and Ivan. Sometimes they would forcibly hide their astonishment and treat him nonchalantly. Najin wasn’t so foolish as to not understand their intentions.

He knew it all.

That his talent did not fit this city, that even the strong Ivan and Offen thought his talent was abnormal, that Ivan was wary of his talent and tried to control its growth, he knew it all.

He just turned a blind eye and blocked his ears.

‘After all, he can never ascend.’

No matter how brilliant his talent.

No matter how vast his abilities.

He is doomed to rot in this city.

Therefore, Najin always resigned himself. Even if he saw the light in front of him, he never reached for it if it was beyond the line. That light was not permitted for him.

Resigning, giving up, forgetting, shaking off.

Thus, the boy stripped himself of his self-confidence countless times. Although he shed it time and again, there was something he couldn’t completely shed.

The longing for stars.

Najin looked ahead. There, he couldn’t let go of a dream he had. Excalibur, the sacred sword, which began and ended the saga of King Arthur, a symbol of the king himself. The moment Najin saw the sword shining like a star, he had an intuition.

That he could not shed even this.

‘No matter how things go wrong, it’s none of my concern.’

The boy lives for today.

Just like children who dream, at this moment, Najin’s eyes shone. Not with the dim twilight of the underground city, but with the platinum color of the stars.

Crossing the line drawn by Ivan, and over the boundary set by the higher-ups of the city for everyone, Najin gripped the sword.

Crunch.

The moment Najin gripped the Star’s Sword,

thirteen stars etched on the blade of Excalibur twinkled. The stars connected, forming a constellation.

Then, boom.

The sacred sword began to sing. The majestic sword-cry, echoing for the first time in hundreds of years, shook the underground city. But this story was not confined to the underground city alone.

In places where the stars cannot be seen, it was unknown.

But when Najin gripped the sacred sword, the celestial bodies in the night sky trembled. The largest constellation, which hadn't moved for hundreds of years, stirred because of it.

***

In the wide plains of the Britain Empire.

Gerd stopped swinging his sword and looked up at the sky. The once calm night sky was shaking. In the tumultuous night sky, Gerd felt the shaking of his own seven stars.

A star-bearing swordsman, though not a constellation.

The empire's greatest sword, the empire's only Swordmaster, the old man smiled as he looked at the sky.

At the highest place in the Order of the Sword.

Karan, who was caring for his sword, looked out the window. Beyond it, stretching the night sky. Feeling the shaking of his own six stars, he put down the sword he was maintaining and approached the window. Opening the window and looking at the tumultuous night sky, the constellation revered by the Order was there.

Constellation, the Sword of Selection.

The long-silent constellation was shaking. Karan swallowed his saliva at the sight of the shaking star.

The owner of the Order of the Sword, Sword Saint Karan, realized he had missed his chance to obtain the sacred sword.

At the execution ground of the Starblood sect.

Uel, who was drinking from a bottle with a blood-stained sword laid out, suddenly looked up at the sky. Feeling her six stars shaking, she put down the bottle she had emptied. Looking at the sky, she curled her lips into a smile.

The executioner of the Starblood Sect, Uel Razian.

The murderer smiled as she looked up at the night sky, pleased that there was one more person to kill.

Those who were qualified to challenge the Trial of Stars, the Selection, looked at the night sky and realized someone had completed the trial.

And.

The astrologers studying the stars of the sky and the astronomers observing the movements of the stars. The Platinum Tower, where they gathered, was thrown into chaos by the unusual shaking of the constellations. The fierce shaking of many constellations. Since the constellations never showed such large movements, they were astonished.

But they had to doubt their own eyes at the realization that all the movement was caused by a single star. A star that had not moved for hundreds of years was moving.

The largest star.

A constellation made of thirteen stars.

The Sword of Selection was shaking.

Not only they but everyone was looking up at the sky.

Adults and children alike raised their heads to look at the sky. They were amazed and some were afraid as they watched the night sky shake.

The sky is shaking.

The stars are trembling.

The vibration that started deep in the underground city, beyond the underground city, to those living on the land, and even to the night sky above.

The tumultuous night sky.

Small constellations swept up in the movement of the largest star screamed, while those that held their ground in the massive flow remained silent. Those silent ones were the stars of heroes from a long-ago era, who had traversed the continent with King Arthur.

They realized.

A great hero who led an era had moved.

That day, they intuited that the flow of time, halted by Arthur, was beginning to move again.

And.

Another constellation.

The constellation closest to the Sword of Selection, which accompanied the beginning and end of King Arthur's journey, and sealed the original Excalibur.

The Constellation, the Staff of Selection.

The Lady of the Lake, Merlin, widened her eyes.

Her lake, where Excalibur should have lain quietly at the bottom, was scattering light. This was a change not seen in hundreds of years.

Hundreds of years ago, at the end of the journey, Excalibur lost its light with its master. Since the First Knight returned it to the lake, Excalibur had not shone. But now, at this moment, Excalibur was scattering brilliant starlight.

Merlin’s lake was dyed platinum.

Then, in a flash.

Excalibur turned into light and dispersed.

Including the original Excalibur sealed at the bottom of the lake, all copies of Excalibur scattered throughout various cities on the surface turned into light and scattered.

The scattered lights gathered.

Towards the now unified Excalibur.

No one could see this procession of light.

Not even Merlin. The only one permitted to behold it was a boy who had passed the Trial of Stars.

In the blink of an eye.

A momentary change. Merlin knew better than anyone what this change meant. Knowing well, Merlin bit her lip.

Someone had completed the Trial of Stars.

The sacred sword, which no one had chosen for hundreds of years.

Excalibur had selected its master.

In other words, it had appeared.

The successor to her king. The one to write the next chapter in the unfinished Chronicles of Arthur.

Not only Merlin felt this.

At the world's end, the abyss of Camlan, where stars fall.

Where Arthur's journey ended, where he sacrificed himself to halt everything, making it a land where time stood still, the beings of that land also witnessed the shaking of the night sky.

The cursed dragon writhed.

The witch of the fallen rejoiced.

The betrayer of the Round Table exulted.

The stars that fell in the distant past were enraged.

At this moment.

All in the fallen underground city.

The countless strong ones walking on the land above.

The transcendent beings shining in the night sky above them.

The cursed beings of Kamran, the world's end.

All were focusing on the change brought about by the boy from the lowest place. They were paying attention to the ripples and the changes the boy would bring.

Crack!

The sword was being drawn.

By a single boy.

Boom, boom.

The sword began to sing.

By a boy who had nothing.

The echoing sword-cry, the swirling starlight.

The brightest starlight ever seen flooded the city of Artman, which had forgotten the light of the stars. The wave of starlight whitewashed the underground city of Artman. Amidst the flood of starlight, the boy readied his stance.

Recalling the sentence he had read several times in the fairy tale book, Najin gripped the sword in the same posture as King Arthur.

Arthur drew the sword that no one else could, with just one hand. Without exerting any force, the sword effortlessly came out the moment Arthur touched it. The sword had recognized Arthur as its master.

The same was true for Najin.

The moment Najin grabbed the sword, Excalibur automatically pushed out of the rock. The sacred sword, drawn out with a platinum glow, had selected the boy.

Shring.

Finally, Excalibur fully revealed itself. A blade shining platinum. A hilt adorned with thirteen stars. The sacred sword, which had lost its light long ago, was now shining in the boy's hand.

The shining sword announced.

The start of a new history.

The history that had been still for hundreds of years began to move. A new sentence was being written in the "Chronicles of Arthur," which had been incomplete for hundreds of years, waiting for its next chapter.

The boy holding the Star's Sword was Najin.

In a place where no stars were seen, the boy who had reached for the stars finally grasped one.

***

Ivan, who escaped the tunnel cutting down the horde of addicts, stopped swinging his sword and looked up at the sky. Though there were plenty of addicts to cut down, he couldn't help but pause at this moment.

A star had risen in Artman.

The majestic bell ringing throughout Artman. The flooding brilliant starlight. It was a sight long

forgotten by those living in this city.

"..."

Offen, Ivan, and even Horace, whom they were confronting, all silently gazed at the sky. The starlight bursting from the center of the underground city and shooting into the sky was reflected in their eyes. None could look away from that light.

For it was where they had left their dreams above.

With the rise of the star, the ceiling of the underground city was no longer just a ceiling. The dark ceiling of the underground city had become a wide-open night sky. Looking at the lone star shining in the night sky, Ivan chuckled.

The Knight chasing the star, Ivan.

The knight once known by that name was both elated and despaired in front of the risen star. He seemed to know who had created that starlight. And Ivan knew what would happen next.

"Najin, you damned boy."

Ivan groaned.

"What the hell have you done?"

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