WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Ryuu

Editor: Ilafy

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 153

──────

The Essence of 300 Years (3)

Crunbelle was an exceptional knight.

He was worthy of being called a paragon of knighthood, earning not only the respect of his comrades but also a solid reputation within the Imperial Court. He understood pride, he understood honor, and he understood the value of silence.

Crunbelle believed that every word he spoke had to be upheld. He did not speak lightly, nor did he speak excessively. He only uttered what was necessary, always in brief and concise terms. For that reason, he was the Silent Knight.

“Being a knight means never faltering.”

One day, a knight commander asked, “What does it mean to be a knight?”

Crunbelle answered. “To not falter and to steadfastly proceed. To walk the righteous path without retreat. Even if that path leads to hell, if it is the right way, a knight must tread it willingly.”

“Even in the face of unbearable trials and adversity?”

“Yes, overcoming such things is what defines a knight.”

His words weren’t empty, Crunbelle was a man who upheld every word he spoke. The ideals of knighthood he described before the commander were ideals he lived out with dedication.

He hunted Fallen Stars that threatened humanity.

He hunted infamous dark mages.

He brought death to crazed Transcendents.

He slaughtered the Empire’s enemies at the borders of the Outland.

He defended the Emperor from rebellious members of the Empire’s Five Pillars, reclaimed the capital from the hands of traitors, and led the Dawn War to victory.

Through countless accomplishments, he pressed forward, wielding a banner lance with the imperial flag as he advanced. He was the Empire's Lance, its protector, and its hero. When the day came for him to follow the commander to the Outland, the aged Emperor personally came to bid him farewell, tears streaming down his face.

“Do not grieve because I am leaving. I am not truly leaving. Beyond this land, I will face the Empire’s enemies and ever remain the Empire’s knight.”

To the weeping, aged Emperor—who, in Crunbelle’s memory, was still young and full of vigor—he knelt and swore an oath.

“Glory to the Empire. I will go further, Your Majesty.”

For 150 years on the continent, he lived as a knight. No one could tarnish his legacy. His deeds were inscribed on the deepest monuments within the Empire, destined to be remembered forever.

That was how it should have been.

That was how it must have been.

The Outland denied Crunbelle’s entire life. He endlessly marched forward, cutting down countless demons and granting rest to fallen heroes, yet he could not march forever.

The ruler of the Outland, the Carnival King and her knight, Quixote, blocked the Golden Horn Knights in their path before a myriad of demons and constellations under the Carnival King’s banner attacked them.

Crunbelle fought valiantly. The proud Golden Horn Knights never faltered.

“Look, is the Knight Commander not swinging his sword? Whenever he swings his sword, we always win gloriously. March forward, Golden Horns…!” Crunbelle shouted as he blew his horn.

They won the battle, but they lost the war.

They managed to slay the stars under the Carnival King’s command and massacred the demons, advancing to the Carnival King herself, but in that moment, they realized they had fallen into a trap.

Oblivion and annihilation…

Their lives were denied. The accomplishments they wrote disappeared as people forgot them. The stars engraved in the night sky lost their light and began to fall. Some, including the commander and Crunbelle, endured, but not all.

Their comrades became Forgotten Ones and turned into the Carnival King’s clowns. Crunbelle raged at this. He despised those who stripped his comrades of their nobility and blew his horn with furious force.

Letting the enemy know he had arrived, Crunbelle pressed forward and marched on without stopping. Even as he faded from memory, even as his records were erased, even as a future as a Forgotten One awaited him, he continued. Even if the path led to destruction, to march forward willingly was the knighthood he spoke of.

「Ah, how ridiculous this is!」The Carnival Knight mocked him and prepared an endless stage for Crunbelle. As the laughter of clowns and their absurd songs echoed eternally across the wilderness, Crunbelle charged on, silencing their laughter with his horn.

Eventually, he was beheaded, and his body was burned, pierced, and hacked apart into hundreds of pieces. As a constellation, Crunbelle replaced the severed parts of his body with starlight and continued his journey.

The commander who once led him vanished; the comrades who once followed him disappeared, but Crunbelle did not stop. If even he were to kneel, it would mean the Golden Horn Knights had surrendered to the Carnival King. That was unacceptable. The Golden Horn Knights were the Empire.

As long as he carried the Empire’s flag, he could not kneel until no human part of him remained, until his severed head could no longer regenerate.

After walking through endless hells, he finally stopped.

Crunbelle looked back and realized something—for decades, he thought he had moved forward, but in truth, he had not taken a single step. He had merely been an actor on the Carnival King’s stage all along.

He had stood in place all those years, not advancing even a single step.

The hell he thought he crossed was nothing more than an illusion, but the wounds he received in that hell remained. His severed neck did not reattach.

‘Then what is real, and what is illusion? Were my memories truly forgotten? Was the Golden Horn Knights’ existence just an illusion all along? What… what is real…?’

Crunbelle no longer had confidence as he could no longer discern reality from illusion.

“Ah… Aaaahhhh…” He screamed. Even though 317 executions could not break his will, the realization that his entire journey had been meaningless shattered him.

Six stars fell from the sky, buried in the Graveyard of Stars.

Silent Knight Crunbelle died, leaving behind only the Hornblower.

“Was it the Carnival King who defeated you?”

“What?”

“I mean you and the Golden Horn Knights. Was it because of the Carnival King that you were ruined?” Najin rubbed his neck, frowning. Was it because the dream he had just seen felt so overwhelmingly real? He kept touching his neck to confirm it was still attached.

“Well, yes.”

“How did it happen?”

“You’re poking at a sore spot.”

“To be honest, I don’t quite understand. Starting with you, weren’t you a Sword Master, and wasn’t Crunbelle also a Transcendent? Not to mention, he had six stars. I don’t know how many stars you have, but it’s probably no fewer than that.”

“That’s true.”

“So why?” Even knowing the question was disrespectful, Najin still asked.

The vividness of the dream had fueled his curiosity. Eventually, Helmet Knight sighed deeply and responded, “The Carnival King is a demon that embodies the concept of merriment. Merriment itself isn’t much—a mere trifle, really—just something that makes you act ridiculously. The problem lies in the fact that it holds ten stars, and with that, it has encompassed far more than just merriment.”

“What do you mean by ‘far more’?”

“Things like theater, stages, acting, mockery, deception, masks, clowns, hallucinations, dreams, comedy, tragedy, and amusement…”

He mentioned over a dozen terms.

“The Carnival King has tied all those things together under the umbrella of merriment. Its authority now extends far beyond merely making people dance ridiculously—it goes as far as to deny an entire lifetime.”

He gave an example. “It creates a stage and turns you into an actor upon it. The stage may be made of illusions, but it’s no illusion. It’s a tangible stage where death on it means death in reality. It blurs the boundary between reality and illusion, leaving you unsure of what’s real and what’s fake. It’s deception.”

“That means…”

“Yes. It plants doubt. It makes you unable to trust yourself, and on top of that…” Helmet Knight’s voice was thick with disdain. “The Carnival King formed an alliance with a star that possesses the authorities of Oblivion and Annihilation. That unknown star’s powers are something the Carnival King can also wield.”

Helmet Knight tapped his head with his hand. “It makes others forget or makes them be forgotten. Both are incredibly effective weapons in the Outland. The stories tied to a star are denied, and even the person themselves comes to deny those stories. What happens then?”

“…They become Forgotten Ones.”

“Exactly. The Carnival King manipulates its opponents into becoming Forgotten Ones. Once they become Forgotten Ones, the ones it favors are turned into its clowns. That’s how it’s been expanding its forces for centuries, long before I set foot in this land and even after I did.”

Najin swallowed hard. “That’s… a disaster, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

“Then why doesn’t the Empire do something? Or the stars in the night sky? And what about the Round Table…?”

The last example was a question Najin had wanted to ask Merlin. However, it was Helmet Knight who answered in her stead. “The Empire must have attempted to subdue the Carnival King, but no one remembers it. Not even me. All I remember is the Golden Horn Knights. Surely, countless attempts have been made before, all of which were simply forgotten.”

He shrugged. “The stars in the night sky probably fear the Carnival King. How could they stand up to a constellation with ten stars? They’re too busy protecting their own safety. That leaves the Round Table stars, but even that isn’t possible.”

“Why not?”

“They’re preoccupied with defending against the malevolent stars. They’re too busy holding the line to deal with internal issues within the Outland.”

Najin fell silent.

Seeing the complex expression on Najin’s face, Helmet Knight smirked bitterly. “Is it very different from what you imagined? The Outland?”

“To be honest, yes.” Najin looked up at the sky. He could no longer look at the stars twinkling up there with pure admiration. They seemed selfish, as Merlin had said—too concerned with their own safety.

At least, they didn’t seem anything like heroes.

Perhaps noticing something in Najin’s expression, Helmet Knight softly said, “Not all the stars in the night sky were like that. They weren’t always like that.”

Helmet Knight gazed up at the sky. “We came here believing we could become anything. We dreamed of being heroes in this land. After all, weren’t we all individuals of renown from the continent? Everyone must have come here with great aspirations.”

Even those pushed to the Outland because their lives were at their end—there must have been many such people. Yet, even they went there with dreams.

Helmet Knight explained, “Long ago, King Arthur pushed the Outland’s boundary beyond its previous limits and even reached Camlann. There, he sealed the Witch of the Abyss, who sought to bring about the world’s end. Who doesn’t know the heroic tale of King Arthur? We all know it. We all came here hoping to become heroes like him.”

Everyone looked up to Arthur, after all.

“We kept accomplishing feats, engraving stars in the sky, and moving forward. Advancing farther and farther… to the battlefield where King Arthur once stood. On the stage the Hero King prepared for us, we imagined ourselves achieving feats like his. That’s what everyone dreamed of when they came to the Outland.”

He sighed. “Reality wasn’t so kind.”

Everyone thought they would be different. The Outland, however, presented them with harsh reality.

They faced catastrophes that had brought countless heroes to their knees; they encountered walls they could not overcome. All they came to realize was how great King Arthur had been and the immense gap between themselves and that legendary hero.

“Faced with that gap, many heroes sighed and gave up. In a land where even death could not provide solace, they chose to ascend to the night sky.”

“…”

“They each made their own choices in response.”

Not all the stars in the night sky were selfish from the start. Once, they had been heroes.

“This place confronts you with reality. It’s not only here. The world will confront you with reality time and time again.”

Helmet Knight drew a line at Najin’s feet. “Stop here. Don’t go further. Beyond this point lies nothing but more hell. Have you experienced much on the continent before coming here? Then know this land holds even more hell. More dreadful things await.”

He said it was the path of a hero.

“Do not cross the line. Stop here. Abandon ideals and accept reality. You’ve seen what happens to those who live by their ideals—do you still wish to walk that path? The Outland will keep asking you that question.”

“Are you telling me to give up?”

“If it were that simple, would I still be standing here?” Helmet Knight shrugged. “Well, the answer to that question is yours to find. No one else can answer it for you.”

Finally, he said, “Ponder it. What is right and wrong? How will you move forward? How much of your ideals will you hold on to, and how much will you compromise? Think it over endlessly.”

Najin looked down at the line drawn at his feet. A line… “Don’t cross it. Stop here.” Najin had heard similar words so many times that they were ingrained in his mind.

「Don’t cross the line.」

「Live as you’re told.」

Ivan had said such words.

「You think you’ll be different? You’re the same as everyone else. Even those who ended up here had dreams. You think we were like this from the start? We, too, once…」

Drugmaker Hakan had shouted something similar.

Not just them—countless people in the Underground City had told Najin the same thing. They didn’t want to end up like this. Ideals were lofty, but reality was heavy. To reach for the high skies, the weight of reality chained to their ankles pulled them down.

Eventually, they said, he would end up like them.

Najin looked at the ground of the Outland. It gave him a sense of déjà vu. A place where discarded and abandoned things accumulated… A landfill of sorts. It resembled his starting point. Even there, in a place of abandonment, there were those who dreamed.

As for the line drawn before him…

「Let me correct that, Najin.」

As Najin stared at the line, he inadvertently smiled.

「Cross the line.」

「Reach for the unreachable. Punch those muttering, “Know your place,” right in the face. Only you know how far you can go.」

Najin stood up.

「Aim high and run. Go higher than anyone else. Believe in your talent, for you have it.」

「And when you stand at the highest point, shout it out loud.」

「That at your starting point, there was me, Ivan.」

Najin crossed the line Helmet Knight had drawn and took a step forward. With a light chuckle, he said, “There’s no need for me to think about it.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, I already found my answer long ago.”

Najin tapped the sword tied to his waist. “You said you lost to the Carnival King?”

“Well… I wouldn’t say we lost completely. We did poke out the Carnival Knight’s eye and punched a neat hole in her heart.”

“But you still lost, didn’t you?”

“Tsk.”

“I will win.”

Helmet Knight fell silent.

“The more I hear about that Carnival King, the more I realize I can’t coexist with it. It should’ve held back on its wickedness.”

“Do you realize the Carnival King is a constellation with ten stars?”

“So what?” Najin shrugged. “I’m nineteen years old and already have three stars. A demon who’s lived for centuries and only has ten? I don’t see myself losing to that.”

Hearing that, Helmet Knight burst out laughing.

Ignoring his laughter, Najin continued, “So, to increase my chances, even slightly…” He drew his sword. “Teach me the rest of your swordsmanship.”

“Alright. I’ll work you until you’re on the brink of death.” Helmet Knight raised his sword and gestured. “Follow me. Today will be even harder.”