WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 331

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Breaking Dawn (2)

Bedivere was, of course, a name Najin knew. For all appearances, he was an avid reader of Arthurian tales. If he remembered right, Bedivere appeared from the beginning of the saga and stayed in it until the very end.

The first knight of the Round Table.

The knight who served Arthur more loyally than anyone.

Recalling those stories, Najin nodded. He had always thought they would meet someday.

"Come to think of it, I pulled out Excalibur, but I’ve never gone to the Round Table even once. I am curious. Every time it came up in those hero tales, I kept wondering what it actually looked like."

Arthur and his twelve knights.

The Round Table, made up of thirteen seats, was often described as bearing thirteen constellations. It was also said to shine at all times with the stars of the Round Table knights.

"Hmm."

Merlin listened, then made an odd face.

"That was true in the old days... but it’s a little different now. Better not expect too much."

"Huh?"

"Well, it’ll be faster if you just see it. Shall we go now?"

Merlin picked up a tree branch from somewhere and began drawing a magic circle on the ground. It was finished in an instant, and she tapped the ground over it with her toe.

"I’m ready. Bedivere."

Bedivere’s constellation, floating in the sky, shone down on Najin and Merlin. Platinum starlight filled the magic circle, and Najin felt something tug at him.

Flash!

Light burst, and Najin’s vision went black. When he opened his eyes, he was standing in a dark space. He adjusted quickly and blinked as he looked around.

It was dark, quiet, and lonely.

Broken weapons and armor, snapped and torn flags, were all stuck into the ground in messy clusters. Then his gaze moved to the center of the space...

There, split stone fragments were driven into the floor like graves.

"I told you it wasn’t much to look at."

Splash. He heard water kick up.

The floor was covered in rippling water like a pitch-black night sea. Someone stepped through it with a splash and tapped Najin on the shoulder.

"First time in two years I’ve seen this with this body, huh?"

Merlin smirked with her head tilted slightly.

She looked exactly like the Merlin he always knew, but something was different. Her usual shabbiness felt fainter. Just a little, but she carried a seasoned weight.

"Is this your True Body?"

"Yep. My True Body stayed in the Round Table the whole time."

Merlin’s True Body.

The great constellation with eleven stars stood before Najin and flicked her fingers. Blue starlight swayed like waves after her hand.

"Well? Feels different, right? I look amazing, don’t I?"

"Ah, yes."

"What is that lukewarm response?"

Merlin jabbed him in the side a few times, then exhaled and snapped her fingers. One of the stone fragments in the center began to glow.

A stone fragment shining with a blue star.

That light brightened the space a little. Only then did Najin realize what those stone graves were.

"Don’t tell me those are..."

"Yeah."

Merlin nodded.

"The Round Table. The Round Table that was shattered a thousand years ago."

He had heard it from Merlin before: after Mordred, the Knight of Betrayal, turned traitor, the Round Table knights split, and the Round Table broke. But he had never imagined that was literal.

Najin looked at the shattered Round Table.

Once, it must have shone brilliantly, with shining figures guarding their seats. But now the Round Table had lost its light, split apart and stuck into the ground like graves.

Splash.

It was too shabby a place to reminisce about old glory.

Splash.

Even so.

"Ah, you’ve arrived."

Someone was still guarding that Round Table.

Ripple.

A calm wave rose with a voice from somewhere. Najin looked toward the sound and saw a knight standing there.

"Successor of the king."

The knight was missing one arm. The one-armed knight carried a spear, and Najin recognized it at once. It was the Hundred-Man Spear, the legendary weapon said to be impossible to lift even if a hundred knights rushed it together.

The knight with the greatest physical strength at the Round Table.

The spear that symbolized one-armed Bedivere himself.

The knight carrying it placed his hand on the stone fragment before him. Ten stars engraved into the stone lit up, and the Round Table grew a little brighter.

"My name is Bedivere, the first knight of the Round Table."

The knight who had protected the Round Table for a thousand years saluted Najin.

2.

"An honor to meet you, Sir Bedivere."

Najin saluted Bedivere with as much respect as he could. Merlin narrowed her eyes and said under her breath, "You’ve never saluted me even once...?" but Najin let it pass.

"I’m Najin. A Free Knight, commander of the Golden Horn Knights, and currently serving as a pillar of the Empire."

"Ah, yes. I’ve heard plenty."

Bedivere nodded.

"You broke every youngest-ever record there was, and in no time reached eight stars... no, nine now, I suppose. A newly risen constellation with nine stars. How could I not hear rumors of such a figure? I asked the patron god of the Holy Blood Order to pass along newspapers and news."

He pointed to one side of the Round Table.

There was a pile of offerings the Holy Blood Order believers had given to their patron god and then received back through the Thorned Martyr... mostly newspapers published in the Empire.

「The great and magnificent Sir Najin has broken another youngest-ever record.」

「Imperial historian sparks controversy with remark, ‘Does that youngest-ever record even mean anything anymore? Whatever it is, glorious Sir Najin will break it anyway, so why not just change it in advance?’」

Najin gave a bitter smile after reading a few articles.

"These are truly heart-pounding stories. I was a little, no, very jealous of Sir Merlin. I wish I could have joined that adventure myself."

"Ah, if Sir Bedivere of the Hundred-Man Spear had come along, it definitely would have been an even more exciting adventure."

At the words Hundred-Man Spear, Bedivere’s eyes widened slightly.

"You know about me?"

"Who doesn’t know Sir Bedivere? The knight with the greatest physical strength at the Round Table, the knight who swings one-handed a spear a hundred knights couldn’t lift together. Ah, if it’s not rude, could you tell me in detail about how you defeated the giant king? No matter how much I looked, every account only had one line: ‘Sir Bedivere defeated the giant king.’"

Bedivere’s mouth twitched at Najin’s words.

All the Round Table knights were extraordinary, yes, but most attention usually went to Gawain of the Sun Sword, Lancelot the strongest knight, or Galahad the most perfect knight. Not many people knew Bedivere’s stories in detail.

Bedivere’s internal score for Najin was already shooting up.

"Of course. But before that..."

Bedivere looked straight at Najin.

"Successor of the king, show me the Sword of Selection."

Najin answered by grasping empty air. Excalibur was drawn in platinum starlight.

On the outer edge of the blade were thirteen stars.

At its center was a star sword engraved with nine stars.

Bedivere silently looked at the Excalibur in Najin’s hand. Its appearance was different from the Excalibur he knew. Naturally, the story engraved in that sword was different too.

...Arthur’s story was over.

The Excalibur he knew was no longer there. Even so, Bedivere felt fragments of the past in this Excalibur. What formed the outer edge of today’s Excalibur was the story Arthur had built, and the stars of the Round Table.

Bedivere’s own star was clearly contained in Najin’s Excalibur as well. He smiled bitterly.

"To think I would see Excalibur shine again. Yes, that was the light. A light I missed."

Platinum starlight, rippling.

It was starlight that brought the past to mind.

"I called you here not only to welcome the successor of the king... but because there are two things I must tell you."

Bedivere pointed at the Excalibur in Najin’s hand.

"Najin, how much do you know about Excalibur?"

"I know it’s a sword that can cut immortal beings, and that some functions unlock whenever I gain a star. Ah, and my regeneration increases too."

"Yes, that is correct. But I’m not talking about those functional elements. There is something else inside Excalibur."

Bedivere continued.

"I also do not know that sword in full detail. But long ago, the king said this."

King Arthur, the one who completed Excalibur and the first in human history to hold it, said:

"Excalibur has one role. I was selected by this sword as the one who would perform that role. I did not choose the sword, the sword chose me..."

That is why it is the Sword of Selection.

"We do not know what that role is. The king stayed silent to the very end."

Do you, perhaps, know that role?

Najin stayed silent at that question. He felt a sense of dissonance. Arthur and he had drawn the same sword, but something about the starting point felt different.

"There is a place where you can find a clue."

A clue? Najin looked at Bedivere.

Bedivere slowly turned his gaze to Merlin. After watching her for a moment, he seemed to steel himself, then spoke to Najin.

"Do you know of a place called the Eternal City?"

Merlin’s shoulder flinched. Najin silently took Merlin’s hand. Her wavering eyes settled a little.

"I do. I know everything, including how it was born."

"What? No, how could you...?"

"I had a chance to speak with Merlin from a thousand years ago."

He did not bother adding that he had likely interfered in that city’s birth himself. Bedivere widened his eyes in surprise, then continued.

"Then this will be easier. The master of that city, that Domain, knows Excalibur’s role. He told me he came to understand that role and therefore resented the king."

For a moment, Merlin from the past, screaming in despair, crossed Najin’s mind. She had realized something, and through that realization obtained the Terminus Star.

"You will probably need to hear the story from him. We can only move on to what comes next if we know the truth of the past. So please..."

Bedivere gave Najin a bitter smile.

"Please tell us that truth."

3.

That was one matter, the story of Excalibur.

When Najin asked what the second was, Bedivere pointed at the shattered Round Table. In the high seat of the Round Table, which could no longer fulfill its original role, a place had been prepared for Najin.

"The second is about the Round Table."

"The Round Table?"

"Yes. The Round Table cannot use its original power now, because the constellations that form it were stolen by one being."

Thirteen seats.

But only two were shining now. Other than Bedivere’s and Merlin’s constellations, all were silent.

"All Round Table stars except Galahad and Lancelot are in Mordred’s possession. On the day he carried out his betrayal, Mordred stole the stars of the Round Table knights."

The day of rebellion, a thousand years ago.

Mordred dug up his comrades’ corpses with his own hands and took their stars. Gawain, Percival, Tristan, Kay, Agravain, Gareth, and Palamedes, the corpses of seven knights.

"There are five living Round Table knights at present."

The strongest knight, Lancelot.

The most perfect knight, Galahad.

The most loyal knight, Bedivere.

The knight who betrayed the king, Mordred.

The one who guides the king, Merlin.

"You need to gather the Round Table stars again. Each Round Table star has its own role, and besides, is it not time to let Camlann know?"

That the Round Table had returned.

Bedivere knelt on one knee before Najin.

"Successor of the king."

And then.

"Our new king."

He pointed to the high seat of the Round Table.

"Please continue what was cut short."

Najin lightly touched the rock on the high seat. The moment his hand touched it, Najin’s constellation was engraved onto the rock that held Arthur’s star.

Crack.

At that exact moment, with the sound of stone crumbling, Najin saw a groove carved into the rock.

A notch engraved at the center of the Round Table.

Najin pushed Excalibur into it. Clack. Excalibur and the fragment of the Round Table locked together. At once, starlight leaking from Excalibur seeped into the Round Table.

Platinum starlight flooded the once-dark space.

Bedivere’s eyes widened at the space now bright with sparkling starlight. Merlin also opened her eyes wide and looked at Najin. In the Round Table that had slept in darkness for a thousand years, a small light rose.

In the night sky, the Round Table constellation slowly began to move. Those constellations that had remained fixed for ages, doing nothing but suppressing Camlann, began to stir.

As if a halted story had begun to be written again.

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