WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 330

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Breaking Dawn (1)

The long night was ending.

Of course, the sun did not rise over the Outland sky. The broken, punctured sky of the Outland still was not ready to accept sunlight. Even so, dawn came.

The starlight of the Dawn Star dyed the sky.

A gentle light drove back the darkness. It almost looked like sunrise. Dawn, reached after a long battle and a long night. Stars shone overhead as Imperial soldiers collapsed after cheering themselves hoarse.

They thought of the owner of that star.

Dawn Horn, Najin.

A man who had appeared out of nowhere and, in less than two years, risen to the very peak of the Empire. Naturally, not many believed in Najin from the beginning.

A hero who appeared so suddenly was bound to be hounded by envy, jealousy, and doubt. And since most of Najin's achievements had been in the Outland, people were bound to ask, "So how great is he, really?"

Just because he held Excalibur.

Just because he had many stars.

Some had clearly been swept onto this battlefield thinking, he must be someone incredible, probably. But after this war against the Carnival King, the name "Dawn Star, Najin" was burned deep into their minds.

He had always stood at the front. He always opened the way from the lead, threw himself into the most dangerous battlefields, and walked the hardest roads. In the end, he subjugated the Carnival King alone.

After seeing that with their own eyes, who could still dare doubt his worth?

Not because he was famous, and not because he had pulled Excalibur. It was the opposite.

"He pulled Excalibur because he is the kind of man who lives like that."

It was only natural that the one who walked the most dangerous road gained the most. Imperial knights and even Constellations could only nod with dry laughs.

Not everyone was feeling only awe, though.

"Roselin?"

"...Ah, yes. Sunbae-nim."

"I heard you challenged Dawn Horn-nim. Said you'd bet on who reached Sword Master first."

"Ah, yes, well, that... yes. I did."

"How do you feel now?"

"......"

"Man, why'd you do that? If it were me, I'd have bitten my tongue from embarrassment."

The cackling laugh of an older mercenary she knew, now a knight of the Imperial Household, rang in Roselin's ears. Other mercenaries patted her shoulder and said, "Kuhahaha! Losing to someone stronger isn't shameful, Miss Roselin!" but it did not comfort her at all.

"Half my body carries the blood of a great hero, and the other half carries the blood of a witch great enough to rank in the top five, you know? I won't be easy."

Her own words from the past kept echoing.

Roselin's lips trembled.

Her bloodline really was great, and her natural talent really was nothing to scoff at. The problem was that her opponent was an unprecedented genius who had inherited the caliber of a great hero from a thousand years ago.

"Isn't it better for your goal to be high?"

It was too high.

Roselin felt another loss added to her record.

"Whahaha! You really went wild out there."

"...I knew he was a monster, but seeing it in person leaves me speechless."

"Our defeat wasn't shameful, Jerold. Who in this world beats the owner of Excalibur? Whew, if we'd somehow won there, we'd have been in real trouble."

Klaus and Jerold, now under Najin's banner, burst out laughing.

"......"

Griffin, former commander of the ducal knights who had left House Arbenia without regret to become a wandering knight when Dieta took the duchy, and who had joined this war, looked up at the sky and gave a short salute.

"Ah, Anton?"

"What is it, Lapis?"

"Looking at that star, I kind of feel sick. Like, umm, my stomach is a little..."

Lapis turned pale and complained of old trauma from her days as a witch, while Anton Quixano laughed. Looking up at the sky, Anton let out a long breath.

"I hope you can rest now, Uncle."

Watching his uncle's star beside the Dawn Star's constellation, Anton offered his belated greeting. Many others also looked up and spoke their own thoughts.

"...Ah."

Kirchhoff was no exception.

Watching one of the three Constellations that had taken part in his homeland's fall finally crash down, he muttered, "Finally."

What Kirchhoff felt in that moment could be described at length, but that belonged not here, but on the next stage.

"Whahaha! So then, right there..."

"You somehow survived that, did you?"

"All thanks to this bastard!"

One story closed, and those drunk on victory laughed and chattered. Yet even in that loosened mood, a few could not laugh, and the old man standing there was one of them.

"Now that I think about it," Najin asked with an innocent face.

"I have more stars than Sir Gerd now, don't I?"

Gerd's expression stiffened.

2.

The old castle collapsed with the Carnival King's death.

Commanders came to Najin, who was sitting on the ruins. Surprisingly, Gerd came first.

"Looks like you won."

He was far from unhurt. One shoulder was half-slashed and hanging, and his body was covered in wounds. He had only received rough emergency bandaging.

"And Sir Gerd?"

"If it were my master's sword, maybe. But I am not weak enough to die to the swords of dead men who have lost even themselves."

Meaning, he had won too. Najin and Gerd looked at each other and laughed without thinking. Gerd was not a man who smiled often, but this time he could.

"Ah, Sir Gerd?"

Najin pointed to one corner of the ruins.

The Carnival King's severed head was mounted on a spear there. The human form had collapsed and only a mask remained, but a head was still a head.

"I'm good at keeping promises, aren't I? I cut it clean and put it there."

"Excellent. My master would be pleased."

Long ago, Gerd had said he would cut off the Carnival King's head and display it on an Imperial pillar. He nodded in satisfaction at the trophy Najin had brought.

"My master's body will be laid to rest in the Empire's deepest place, where its greatest knights are buried. He has earned that."

The Carnival King was dead. The lost records would not return, but at least the distortions spread by the Carnival King were gone, so proper records could be left from now on.

"It was long. Very long."

The Helmet Knight had endured for 150 years. Gerd had sustained those 150 years. Najin had honed those 150 years into a single blade and drove it into the Carnival King's heart.

"My master will be happy with what his disciples did. He'll laugh loudly and say he knew this would happen, say his disciples should do at least this much, and clap our shoulders. Shame we can't see that."

"True."

As they talked, Gerd suddenly noticed Ivan and Offen's corpses.

"Whose bodies are those?"

"My godfather and my masters."

"I see. I'll order them transported with the highest honors."

"Thank you."

"No need to thank me. You are a pillar of the Empire, and honoring a pillar's teachers is natural. It should happen whether I order it or not. Don't thank people for what is natural."

Gerd looked up at the sky and exhaled.

"Is that your constellation?"

Najin nodded, and Gerd said shortly, "It's beautiful. Symbolic, too."

Then Gerd's eyes narrowed for an instant as he counted the stars. Seven, eight, nine? He was sure it had been eight just moments ago, and now Najin had nine, and Gerd's breathing hitched.

Only for a moment. Gerd was a veteran soldier and power broker, practiced in hiding his emotions and hesitation. He recovered his expression at once.

"Hm."

The problem was that the man standing before him was Najin. However brief the moment, how could he fool a Sword Master's eyes? In Najin's vision, Gerd's eyes narrowing and his breath catching played out in slow motion.

"Wait, don't tell me..."

Merlin was startled.

Najin's tongue moved.

"Hmm."

Najin put on a perfectly casual expression.

"Now that I think about it."

He pointed at the sky.

"I have more stars than Sir Gerd now, don't I?"

He really said it.

While Merlin smacked her forehead, Gerd's face hardened. The same Gerd who had not blinked once under the Carnival King's and the Helmet Knight's fiercest assaults actually blinked.

Gerd had eight stars.

Najin had nine.

More. One more.

Countless words and sentences flashed through Gerd's mind. Until now, he could clearly say there was at least one area where he surpassed Najin. Even if their star counts had matched, Najin had been an incomplete Transcendent, while Gerd was a complete one.

...But now?

Najin had reached complete Transcendence and now had one more star than Gerd. He had even smashed the eleven-star Carnival King head-on.

"......"

Many geniuses had passed him before, but this was different. The First Horn of the Empire was a seat given to the Empire's finest. So should he hand over the position? Was this brat asking for the First Horn seat? Was he dropping a hint?

No, he did not seem like that kind of man.

With all kinds of thoughts flooding his head, Gerd looked at Najin. Najin stood there with the most harmless face in the world, like he had only said it for fun. If that was acting, then the name of Najin's ninth star would be Acting.

"Haha. Just kidding, just kidding."

Najin waved his hands.

"The number of stars doesn't guarantee strength, and the First Horn of the Empire is a seat that suits Sir Gerd. Who else could sit there but you?"

"That seat is too heavy for me."

He joked and neatly wrapped up the conversation. He did consider adding one more line, "Did that make you think a lot?" but even that would have been too much.

Najin was a man who knew where the line was.

"I got my ninth star, so I bragged a little."

"...It is worth bragging about. I understand."

That happened.

3.

The Carnival King had been subjugated, but even after that death, there was still a mountain of work to handle.

Who was the Carnival King? A demon who had stirred conflict all across the Outland and even reached into the continent... a demon that had stayed out of nowhere and left its name in every chaos. The aftermath of a demon like that could never be small.

And in that process:

"Huh?"

"A star is falling... wait."

"What is that? Something like a whale going up into the sky...?"

"Huh?"

"Uh."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

On top of that, the eleven stars and the hundreds of stars the Carnival King had collected all fell, turning the night sky into a mess.

"Again! That bastard again! Again!"

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!"

"21, 62, 412, 511, 600, hhk."

"W-wait! You'll get arrested at this rate! You'll be arrested for insulting a pillar! In here, you must use the identifying title 'the great and magnificent Lord Najin'..."

"Fuck it, then arrest me! I can't live like this, I can't!"

"The Gray Tower says we should have a group dinner. If not now, they think they won't be able to go outside for a while."

The Gray Tower and Imperial historians screamed, but it was not a particularly important incident. Their screams were buried under victory reports ringing through the Empire, and under the cheers and applause of Imperial citizens.

And then, the Outland.

"Someone wants to meet you."

A little away from the Imperial army, who were busily cleaning up the situation:

"You know how the Carnival King tried to lure out the Witch of Camlann? Because of that, the witch moved a bit too forcefully too, and after the plan failed, there was backlash, so things will stay quiet for a while. Means we have breathing room."

Merlin, materialized, pointed up at the sky beside Najin.

"So they said they want to meet you while we can."

"Who?"

"The last knight of the Round Table."

More precisely, the knight who had remained with the Round Table until the very end.

"Bedivere."

Ten stars were shining in the sky.

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