WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 274

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Where the Stars Shine (4)

The winds of war swept across the continent.

War broke out without warning. Armies from foreign nations crossed into imperial territory, yet the Empire’s subjects did not even know why it had begun.

Ridiculous as it was, the same was true on the other side.

Why were they fighting? Why had their king suddenly ordered an attack on the Empire? What was the justification? No one knew. Those in power gave orders as if bewitched, and the soldiers had no choice but to obey.

Even their nations’ heroes, the Transcendents, cried out for war. So the soldiers followed orders, nothing more. Questions, doubts, suspicions, none of it was resolved as the war dragged on.

If this had been a short war.

If it had been a war they could win quickly.

Then it would not have become such a problem. The war would have ended before the questions grew too large. Win a war, and what remains is enormous reward. Most people are satisfied once their bellies are full and their purses are heavy.

"..."

But the war did not end so easily.

By every leader’s calculation, the Empire should have collapsed in an instant. For some reason, it did not. The Empire was stronger than they had expected.

"A monster."

"It’s a monster..."

"How are we supposed to fight that?"

"One swing of that sword wipes out dozens of meters. Formations mean nothing. Magic means nothing. Artifacts mean nothing. How are we supposed to advance against that thing?"

"U, uaaaaaah!"

According to intelligence, Gerd, the First Horn of the Empire, should have died in the Outland. Instead, he had returned alive and unharmed. He stood guard on the road to the Empire and did not yield a single step.

"So the Starbody Society looked easy to you. Then again, that must be why you attacked while I was away."

"You finished your side too?"

"That side... ah, no need to ask. I can smell the blood from here, so I guess you had your fun."

"This side is done too. We took some losses, but the terrain in Sword Gorge is complicated, so it was not too bad."

The Star Incarnation, the Sect’s Inquisitor General, and even Sword Saint Karan were still standing strong. The war that was meant to end quickly by pinning down each sect while their Transcendents were absent began to drag on. Something in the flow of events was going wrong.

"The Order of the Sword joins the Empire."

"The Starblood Sect will join the Empire."

"The Starbody Society as well."

The three sects entered the war. The moment three more Transcendents were added, the scale tipped all at once.

The tide of battle turned. Supply lines were cut. Soldiers starved, were swept away, were pushed back, then pushed back again.

Slowly, suspicion spread among the soldiers.

Why had this war begun? What was the reason? Why had they suddenly attacked the Empire? Was there even proper justification? Why were they here doing this?

Unanswered questions exploded.

Morale dropped. Discipline crumbled. In the middle of that, imperial forces came crashing in. The army rotted from both outside and inside. Yet the high command, like people under a spell, only repeated the same words.

The time was almost here. Even if they were losing now, everything would flip once reinforcements arrived.

That was not a lie.

The leaders and Transcendents of each nation, the very people who had started this war, knew how it would unfold. They had heard it from their master, the Carnival King.

Soon, the Starlight Order would join. The Lighthouse, the Lighthouse Keeper, and a star even stronger than them would leap into the battlefield.

The leaders who had become clowns believed their master without question. Once those forces joined, the battle really would turn. No matter how powerful the First Horn of the Empire was, he was still below the Lighthouse Keeper.

If they stalled long enough, they would win.

They only had to hold a little longer.

So they let the problem fester and kept stalling, until one day they saw it.

Flash.

A vast torrent of light burst through the Starlight Order’s barrier. It was so brilliant that no matter where they stood on the continent, even out in the farthest Outland, they could see it with the naked eye.

Starlight overflowed from the Starlight Order.

The constellations in the sky realigned. Arthur’s constellation surged, the Round Table constellations shook, and Merlin’s constellation took its place at the center of the Round Table.

At the center of the Round Table, a new constellation was carved.

A constellation with seven stars.

The Star of Dawn.

Before the flood of light cast by the Star of Dawn, the clowns sensed it at once. That was not the light they had been waiting for. Their entire plan had fallen apart.

In panic, they searched for their master.

The Carnival King, where is the Carnival King? What is her judgment on this situation...

「......」

No answer came back.

Because she had already achieved what she wanted.

...On a chessboard, there are pieces you sacrifice. Pieces that are not all that important, or pieces that are important but still discarded for the greater game.

The clowns of the continent realized it too late.

They were nothing more than sacrificial pieces.

2.

Najin walked on.

Tap.

Beneath Underground City, Artman, the city built under the earth, there was another place below it, the City of the Abyss. Leaving the collapsing scenery behind him, Najin kept walking.

He had not asked Eurypylus directly.

But Najin knew Eurypylus wanted to be buried here, so he did not recover his body. Eurypylus had said he had retired as the Lighthouse Keeper, yet in his final moment he had wished to close his eyes beside the lighthouse, as if that was where a Lighthouse Keeper belonged in death.

Requiem meant going where the dead wished to go.

This was the burial ground Eurypylus had wanted for himself. He closed his eyes beside the shattered corpse of the lighthouse. The city, modeled after the Starlight Order at its brightest, buried both of their bodies.

Leaving the collapsing scenery behind him, Najin walked.

He walked upward.

"Merlin."

-Yeah.

As he walked, Najin spoke.

"This was my hometown."

He came up from the abyss and stepped into Underground City, Artman. Looking around, Najin smiled without meaning to.

"This is where I was born too."

Underground City, Artman.

"It is not exactly a good place to live. The light is dim, the air is full of smoke, and the stench is everywhere the moment you let your guard down."

Merlin listened in silence.

"Still."

Najin suddenly stopped.

"There were good people here. People who did not fit a city like this, people I was grateful for."

He stood in front of a blacksmith shop. An old man sat on a chair by the entrance, staring up at the sky. The old man’s eyes looked dazed, as if seeing the stars for the first time in decades had put him in a dream.

Najin walked over to him. The old man slowly turned his head. The moment their eyes met, the old man smirked.

"What is it, brat."

It was Hogel. The old man who had forged Najin’s sword gave him the same smile he had worn two years ago and jerked his chin.

"You here to pick up a sword? Or get one repaired?"

"Not sure. I do not think I need any more swords."

Najin smiled bitterly and lifted Excalibur. Hogel’s eyes widened, then he let out a dry laugh.

"Heh. What about the other one?"

"This one is made of rare metal too, so I think it will restore itself over time."

"Rare metal? What, did you join the Order of the Sword as a disciple or something?"

"I am a direct disciple under their leader, actually."

"Ha!"

Hogel laughed. At the same time, a strange pride showed in his eyes. In the rare metal sword at Najin’s waist, he could see traces of the sword he had forged with his own hands.

The rare metal swords made by the Order of the Sword were said to absorb other swords and take shape. The priceless shape this sword had taken was none other than the sword he had hammered out himself.

For a blacksmith, it was an honor beyond measure. Hogel, old and worn and certain the fire in him had long gone cold, felt heat rise in his heart again and burst into laughter. To his eyes, that pitch-black rare metal sword shone brighter than Excalibur in Najin’s hand.

"You damned brat..."

The old man wiped his eyes. Najin watched him quietly, then shrugged.

"Master Hogel."

"What."

"Now that I think about it, I do not think I ever paid for that sword. I remembered that and stopped by."

"...Paid?"

"That was a sword I received as Ivan’s hound, and the reason I did not pay when I got it was... because it counted as protection money."

Najin unfastened the sword and scabbard from his waist and raised it so Hogel could see it up close.

"But look at this, the organization went completely under, and security turned into a total mess anyway. Makes paying that protection fee pointless, does it not? In that case, I never really paid you, right?"

"Heh."

Hogel gave him a look that said, Go on then. Najin grinned mischievously, the same way he had as a child.

"So I am paying it back."

"How?"

"Well, somehow."

Najin said with a grin.

"Not to brag, but I am pretty famous now. I have shared drinks with the people who are basically the top representatives of the Order of the Sword, the Starblood Sect, and the Starbody Society... I am under the protection of the First Horn of the Empire, and I am also close with the chairwoman of the biggest trading company in the Empire."

And that was not all. Muttering to himself, Najin bragged about everything he had built, like a child showing off to an adult, like a grandson clowning around in front of his grandfather.

"So tell me what you want, Master."

"At my age, what grand wish would I even have."

Old Man Hogel let out a short breath.

"I did have one wish, to see the sun. But it looks like I can grant that myself if I just sit here and wait."

"Anything besides that?"

"I will think about it. If something comes to mind later, I will tell you. Go on your way. Looks like you have a lot to do."

As if annoyed, Hogel waved him off.

"A young man should not get tied down by an old man. Things like this can wait until your work is done. And..."

Hogel looked at Najin’s sword and gave a small smile.

"You already paid the price. More than enough."

Najin bowed to Hogel in farewell. Then he started walking again. Past Hogel’s forge, toward the center of the underground city.

"..."

Eyes poured onto him. Najin walked under the gaze of the underground city’s residents. Among them were children born and raised in this city, children like Najin had once been. One of them had once sold newspapers in the square.

Najin smiled at the child looking at him with shining eyes. As he walked, he thought:

Najin knew it too.

Not everyone in this city was good, and not all of them were innocent or wronged. Among them were surely people who had committed truly horrible crimes, and this underground city might be a fitting prison for those people.

Even so.

Najin intended to deny this city. Criminals could receive punishment another way. If there were people framed by the sect and cast down unjustly, they should be compensated and given the freedom they deserved.

From this moment on.

Every resident of Underground City, Artman, would be put on trial again. If they had not committed crimes, or even if they had but were judged to have served enough punishment... they could be free.

There was a lot to do before that could happen.

Najin climbed upward through the ceiling he had split open. Higher, then higher again. Two years ago, he had needed to escape this underground city through the waterways. Two years later, he did not need that anymore.

Tap.

A city built above the underground city.

Najin stepped into the place where the Starlight Order’s main cathedral stood.

No one could stop his steps.

3.

The people of the Starlight Order had no idea how to accept what was happening.

Not everyone in the Starlight Order had been in league with Orland. Even if the leadership had rotted, there were still many who did not recognize that rot.

Many only wanted peace by praying to their god. Many wanted to escape the brutality of real life.

To them, what was unfolding now felt alien.

The Lighthouse Keeper suddenly moved. High Priest Orland lay unconscious inside the lighthouse, and beside him lay the bodies of two high-ranking priests who had followed him, their heads burst open.

Then the ground below began to shake.

Repeated tremors. Quakes.

Right after that, the earth split and light shot into the sky.

They stared at the suddenly cracked ground in confusion. Some time passed.

Tap.

Someone came up from the underground city. Underground City, Artman, was where criminals fell. The people in the upper city had always despised those criminals and lived with a sense of superiority, believing they were different.

That was what their god had taught them.

Filthy. Cursed. Horrible sinners.

The very idea of someone "coming up" from the underground city was hard for them to accept, and even if they accepted it, it was not easy to look kindly on that person.

Belittling, contempt, scorn...

Those looks were about to crash onto the person who had come up from below. Then every one of those looks lost its target and broke apart.

"Ah..."

"Huh."

"That person is..."

There was no one there who did not know who he was.

"Sir Najin."

Free Knight Najin.

The youngest Sword Seeker, the youngest six-star, and a man under the full protection of the Empire. Who would dare belittle the Free Knight recognized by the Emperor himself?

But it did not stop there.

Their eyes naturally moved to Najin’s hand. He held a shining sword. Its shape was different from what was known, but there could not be two starlit swords in this world.

The Star Sword, Excalibur.

It was Excalibur.

"Ghh..."

Then a pained groan came from somewhere. Someone staggered out from the lighthouse. A man in luxurious priestly robes, High Priest Orland.

Supported by a holy knight, Orland walked out and met Najin’s eyes. The moment their gazes met, Orland’s face turned deathly white.

He realized his plan had been completely destroyed. He realized he was cornered.

If Orland had been a little smarter, he might have understood why the Lighthouse Keeper had left him alive, and that even this situation had been part of the Lighthouse Keeper’s design.

Receive the punishment you deserve.

Let the avenger carry out rightful revenge.

That must have been the Lighthouse Keeper’s final teaching, but Orland was not wise enough to understand it. He refused to accept the punishment waiting for him.

"Seize him."

What remained in the shabby old man’s head was nothing but stubbornness and pride.

"Did you not hear me? Seize that man. Holy Knight Commander, subdue him at once. He is a heretic. A heretic!"

Orland pointed at Najin. The moment his connection to the Carnival King he worshiped was cut, Orland fell to nothing more than an old man.

"A heretic! Born in the shadow of starlight, filthy, cursed monster of the abyss! A monster dares imitate the sword of the great hero Arthur to mock us!"

So seize him. Subdue him. Punish the sinner.

Orland screamed and raved.

But the eyes of the holy knights and soldiers watching him were full of doubt.

"Now!"

Orland raised his voice again. Najin did not argue with him. He did not raise his voice either.

He simply raised his sword.

Excalibur shone. As if resonating with Najin’s constellation carved into the night sky, a Sword Cry like a ringing bell echoed through the city.

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