WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Ryuu

Editor: Ilafy

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 176

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The Banquet (1)

News came that Excalibur had been sighted in the Outland, supposedly wielded by a platinum-haired woman.

Merlin’s gaze remained fixed on those two lines in the newspaper. She stared so intensely it looked as though she might burn a hole through the page. Only after a long silence did she finally speak.

-Hah.

Even then, she didn’t say much straightaway. Releasing a sigh as if to say she found the whole thing ridiculous, she paused before continuing.

-Who’s the clown behind this?

She didn’t sound angry, but Najin, who could sense her emotions directly, felt the storm roiling inside her.

“Do you know something about it?” he asked.

-No, I don’t. Listen, Najin, don’t even bother paying attention to this. I can promise you it’s fake. I’d stake every star I own on it.

-Excalibur is unique—there’s only one in the entire world. No duplicates exist, not even any knockoffs. One other sword might be roughly comparable, but it already has a master, so it’s irrelevant.

She was most likely referring to Gramr, the cursed sword held by the Sword Ghost of Camlann.

Merlin let out a long sigh, then gestured at Najin.

-There’s only one Excalibur, so there’s only one rightful owner. I’m the Wizard of the Lake, who safeguarded Excalibur for a thousand years—an agent of the Round Table, if you will—so I can say with total confidence that you’re its sole master, not some random ‘platinum-haired woman.’

She gave a smug little shrug of her shoulders.

-I’m living proof of that, aren’t I?

“I never thought otherwise,” Najin admitted. He’d never doubted his Excalibur. If it were fake, how could it have granted him his incredible regenerative powers and resistances? How would he explain Merlin?

“It just makes me curious,” he said.

-Curious about what?

“This so-called Excalibur sighting in the Outland. The claims aren’t just coming from the Starbody Society, right?”

Najin pointed at the newspaper. Witness accounts stating Excalibur had been spotted near the Eternal City were not limited to priests or constellations from the Starbody Society. Some Imperial Knights stationed in the Outland had given the same testimony.

They all claimed to have seen Excalibur near the Eternal City, wielded by a platinum-haired woman.

Najin asked, “What is the Eternal City, exactly?”

-…Hmm.

Merlin usually loved to show off her knowledge, but she kept her mouth shut. She didn’t seem unsure of the information. Rather, she seemed reluctant to talk about it.

-It’s complicated.

She twirled a strand of hair around her finger.

-In short, it’s a Starfield I created.

“Come again?”

-Well, calling it a ‘city’ might not be entirely accurate. It’s more an ‘Eternal Kingdom’…

Najin noticed how she cast him a sidelong look, plainly wanting to avoid the subject. Eventually, she gave a heavy sigh.

-Sorry. To be precise, it’s not the Round Table’s creation, it’s mine.

“You created it?”

-I did… but it’d be fairer to say it was made by ‘me, back when I had twelve stars,’ right after Arthur died. I’m not sure I can call that version of myself.

Najin tilted his head at her strange phrasing. “Twelve stars? Merlin, you only had eleven in every story I’ve read.”

-I originally had eleven, yes. I got the twelfth star the moment Arthur died; then I threw it away. Guess that’s why it never showed up in any records.

Merlin lowered her eyes.

-I can’t remember exactly what I did after Arthur died. By the time I came to my senses, I was already back at the Round Table. Bedivere must have carried me there, but he wouldn’t say what I’d done. No matter how many times I asked, he refused to tell me.

-All I do know is that, right after Arthur died, I did… ‘something.’ A star fell from my name, and from that came the Eternal City, or the Eternal Kingdom.

Najin frowned. “And do you know what’s actually inside this city?”

-No idea. Maybe Bedivere does. The place is sealed by a barrier no one’s ever breached, so there have been no visitors in a thousand years.

“But you created it.”

-Sure… but I don’t remember. That memory’s missing.

She sounded sincere. Najin thought of the possibility of memory tampering by a constellation wielding the power of oblivion or incineration, but Merlin shook her head.

-No, this feels different. Only that part of my mind has been cut away, neatly and cleanly. I can only think of one person in the world who could manage that.

When Najin asked who that might be, Merlin gave a wry smile and pointed to herself.

-Who else? The mighty arch-constellation, Merlin.

“I see.”

-To be honest, part of me is grateful. I was in a pretty bad state after Arthur died. I’m guessing whatever memory got cut away is precisely what let me hang on to my sanity.

Najin was silent. He felt as if he were looking at a box best left unopened.

The mood grew somber, so Merlin clapped her hands lightly and smiled.

-Well, if you’re really curious, you can check it out someday, right? I figure you’d be able to get in.”

She pointed at Najin.

“The condition for entering that city is ‘to be chosen by Excalibur.’ That means only you can enter.”

“Actually, this doesn’t seem like a bad turn of events,” Najin said after reading the paper.

There had been near certainty among many that he himself must have pulled Excalibur. They lacked proof, but they suspected it strongly. He had grown uncomfortable with so much scrutiny, so seeing everyone’s interest shift elsewhere could only be described as a relief.

“People have been paying too much attention to me anyway,” he reflected.

The press and public opinion had become overzealous. His accomplishments certainly merited attention, but too much focus from the masses was rarely a good thing.

“It’s almost too convenient a development,” he murmured.

He found the timing suspicious. Rumors of a platinum-haired woman wielding Excalibur had popped up just when it was needed to distract everyone?

The witness accounts were spearheaded by the Starbody Society?

He didn’t know much about them but understood the Starblood Society was full of demon-hunting Inquisitors, and he’d heard that the Starlight Order was, frankly, full of trash. Then what was the Starbody Society all about?

-Idolatry. They worship the idea of a perfect being. One example is their so-called Star Incarnation, though it’s not really ‘perfect,’ per se. Even they can’t stop natural erosion, so every 150 years, they have to bring in a new vessel. Maybe they’d consider something like the Starblood Society’s killing machines an ‘ideal’?

A being that neither wore away nor changed, the ultimate perfection.

“Hmm.” Najin stroked his chin, something sparking in his memory. “All the sightings say it was a platinum-haired woman, right? Arthur also had platinum hair, didn’t he?”

-He did.

“So, could it be—?”

-Stop. Let’s not talk about it. It’s fake, all right? Totally fake. Why give it another thought?

She plainly wanted to avoid discussing that city or the platinum-haired stranger any further. It didn’t feel like she was hiding something so much as trying not to dwell on it.

The Eternal City; the platinum-haired woman…

Those two thoughts circled through Najin’s mind for a moment, but he let them go. It didn’t seem worth the trouble. He had somewhere else to be at the moment.

He left his room to find an attendant waiting for him, which felt a little overwhelming. Under their guidance, he went to a dressing room.

“The chairwoman already prepared your attire.” They helped him dress with practiced efficiency, first slicking his hair neatly back, then tying it. The outfit Dieta had chosen was black with white embroidery, complete with a short cape that draped across one shoulder.

Once he changed, he made his way to the company’s headquarters.

Dieta, who had been waiting for him, widened her eyes at the sight. She took a step closer, a small smile curving her lips. “You should dress like this more often,” she teased.

“It’s uncomfortable for swinging a sword,” he replied.

“That’s true.” Dieta shrugged lightly, then offered him her hand. Remembering what she’d taught him, Najin bowed slightly and took it.

A banquet was being held in Camelot, capital of the Empire.

It was organized jointly by Rocktide and Corneld, the two largest merchant groups in the Empire, and Dieta’s company had also managed to secure an official spot. The first two were decidedly unhappy about it, but none of them could refuse her.

“Really? Maybe I’ll go, too,” Platinum Tower Master Cipria Gachevskaya said once she heard Dieta’s group would be there. That piece of news alone had caused the scale of the event to expand several times over.

It became a grand affair, with numerous nobles, heirs to illustrious families, and high officials of the Empire in attendance. Carriages glittering with wealth lined up outside as guests arrived, and inside the hall, famed musicians, theatrical troupes, and jesters performed to enliven the atmosphere.

Everything about it was lavish, befitting a party thrown by the Empire’s most prosperous merchants.

“Did you hear the Empire’s in quite an uproar these days?”

“Well, the First Pillar of the Empire is making his move. Don’t get me started. My whole department’s in chaos—he wants a re-investigation into three centuries of incidents…”

“He must have his reasons.”

“Indeed, though it’s a bit startling. You heard about the Martilda family going down in flames? Some hidden corruption came to light in the course of the re-check, and their head was indicted. What a shock. Who would have guessed they’d be implicated in some seventy-eight-year-old case?”

“It proves there’s no such thing as an eternal secret, right?”

“My, why are you looking at me?”

Amid the polite tangle of idle chatter and political undercurrents, one guest after another arrived. Those with the greatest standing made sure to turn up only just before the banquet officially began, as if arriving too early would imply a lower status.

Every time a notable figure made an entrance, the crowd’s attention surged toward them, then ebbed away again.

Until—

Clack.

The doors opened to reveal two new guests: one a woman wearing a pristine white dress, her light-brown hair neatly braided down her back. Her graceful figure and smooth pale skin glowed beneath the hall’s lights; her long lashes half-lowered over bright yellow eyes—the Snake That Swallows Gold, Dieta.

When she, the young merchant who had shaken up half the Empire, stepped through the doorway, every eye in the banquet hall instantly rushed onto her like a tidal wave and did not recede.

Her achievements had drawn everyone’s initial gaze, but it was her beauty that kept them from looking away.

Any lady there, placed beside her, would pale in comparison. Her looks were simply that striking.

Dieta made no effort to hide her charms, either. A captivating appearance was the perfect bait to capture attention at an event like that, and a merchant’s job was to sell their assets for the best price.

As the men and women in the banquet hall swallowed nervously, Dieta offered a faint smile. Then all those complex stares, brimming with desire, curiosity, interest, and surprise, drifted from her to the person by her side.

Who was her partner for the evening?

Many of them seemed ready to pay any price for that spot on Dieta’s arm, but she pressed herself a bit closer to the man escorting her, leaving no room at all, as if to say, ‘This one is not for sale.’

Soon, all eyes shifted fully to the partner standing beside her, and at the sight of him, they widened still further.

He had ash-gray hair neatly combed back and eyes the color of a setting sun. Everyone knew at once—it was the man who had shaken the Empire in recent days, the one under the First Pillar’s protection—Najin, the Star of Dawn.

Rumors had circulated that he and Dieta had ties both public and private, but it was still surprising to see them arrive together.

Whispering broke out among the crowd.

Click.

Ignoring the murmuring, the pair walked calmly toward the center of the banquet hall. The gazes on them seemed as strong as ever.

Najin, even with Dieta at his side, didn’t fade into the background or seem overshadowed in the least.

Although plenty of nobles and high officials were there, no one could deny that Dieta and Najin were the night’s real center of attention.

Physical beauty alone could be a powerful weapon. Serving as living proof, the pair’s mere appearance instantly placed them at the heart of the banquet.