WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 370

──────

Hero, Commoner, Nation (4)

Galahad's only weapon was a shield.

No sword, no secondary armament to pair with it. Just a shield. Carrying nothing but the Cross Shield, Galahad faced Najin.

Fighting him now, Najin felt something unfamiliar.

He had not faced many shield-wielding opponents, which had less to do with anything special about Najin and more to do with the simple fact that most Transcendents did not use shields. The existence of sword aura had reduced shields to something close to useless among their kind.

A blade wrapping mana densely over a narrow surface, against a shield spreading it thinly across a broad one.

The blade's advantage needed no explanation. If you were going to coat something in aura, wrapping a sword and swinging it was several times more efficient than layering a shield. Because of that, the higher a practitioner climbed, the more defensive armaments like shields fell out of use.

Claaang!

But the knight before him used a shield.

Nothing but a shield.

Galahad caught every one of Najin's attacks with the Cross Shield. At times he swung it like a bludgeon to deflect sword aura, at times he shoved Najin back, and at times he pressed down with it to crush and suffocate.

In raw mana volume alone, the two were roughly equal, with Najin holding a slight edge. Yet he could not break through Galahad's shield.

Because.

That was no ordinary shield.

The Cross Shield, engraved with the accumulated achievements of Galahad himself, was a kind of Sacred Relic. The ten stars carved into it supported its bearer.

Add to that the technique and iron body of the man once called the most perfect knight, and Najin felt as though he were battering a great iron wall.

Thoom.

Every time Excalibur collided with it, the Cross Shield vibrated and scattered the impact into the open air. The dispersed shockwave rang through the air with a deep, reverberating toll, like the sound of a bell.

Gooooong...

While that tolling never ceased, Najin recalled a conversation he had once had with Bedivere.

"He is a wall."

"Fighting Galahad, you start to feel it. Like you're running into a massive wall. It doesn't feel like facing a person."

An opponent who felt like a wall.

"A great tree. Galahad is a knight like a great tree with deep roots. He does not waver. His feet never leave the ground, so shaking him or finding an opening is nearly impossible."

A knight like a great tree sunk in deep roots, one that nothing could shake. Najin had to feel the truth of those words in his bones. Not a drop of exaggeration in them.

Thoom!

The shield slid into the sword path Najin had drawn. His motion was cut short before any real force could build behind it. Clunk, the moment Excalibur's edge caught in the groove of the Cross Shield, Galahad's movement reversed entirely.

Whip, crack!

He rotated the shield with the blade lodged in its groove. Hold on and his wrist would snap; let go and the blade would fly from his hand. Had what Najin carried been an ordinary weapon, he would have lost it in that instant.

And naturally, Excalibur was not an ordinary weapon. Najin released it without hesitation. He left Excalibur to scatter as starlight and kicked off the ground.

He drove into the side of the rotating shield.

Slipping through in a sliding motion, Najin seized at empty air. In his earlier fight with Siegfried, he had learned something. He recalled Siegfried drawing and sheathing Gramr over and over to produce unconventional swordplay.

Draw and swing in the same motion. Do not separate the act of drawing from the act of striking. The drawing itself is meaningless.

He cut through the air, and Excalibur came bursting out.

Even against that sudden attack, Galahad managed to react. Boom! Feet planted into the ground, he swung the shield like a club.

Crack!

Shield against sword, Najin did not give an inch. His coat snapped in the shockwave that burst between them. He stared hard and drove power into the blade.

Galahad.

Najin glared at him.

All blocking, pushing, batting away, never pressing the attack. Watching that, Najin let the corner of his mouth curl. No words were needed. He spoke with the sword.

"If you're planning to wear me down, you'd better drop that idea."

Thoom, Najin hammered the shield and used the rebound to leap far backward. He landed low and raised his sword to a sharp, pointed angle.

An extremely low stance.

Horn Charge, a posture built for nothing but piercing. The moment Galahad saw it, his eyes narrowed. He knew that stance. It resembled the ready position for the technique Siegfried had named Thunderclap.

And those movements, too.

Najin kicked off the ground. There was no crack of lightning the way Siegfried produced, but the burst of acceleration brought that lightning-quick man to mind.

Shweeeeee!

He shot through the air. Watching the sword lance toward him like a shaft of light, Galahad moved. Spin, boom! He drove the Cross Shield into the ground with a full rotation, lowered his stance, and braced both arms and one knee against it.

Thoom.

Impact first. The moment something hammered the shield, a shockwave erupted. At the top of the tower, the surrounding bricks either crumbled or were flung skyward, unable to bear it.

Impact first, sound after.

With a thunderous crash, the Cross Shield shook harder than it ever had. A tearing, bell-like toll rang out, and that shock carried through into Galahad's body as well. He swayed. The feet driven into the ground swayed, and the shield, fixed as firmly as the roots of a great tree, began to lift.

Thud! Galahad forced his strength into it and slammed the shield back down. What had begun to rise found its place again.

Scratch, scrape, scrape...

He had stopped it. That was what Galahad thought, right then. The tip of Excalibur where it pressed against the shield began to rotate. As the blade tip twisted against the shield face,

The sound alone was enough to tear the air, and a storm erupted from the sword tip. Released while still in contact with the shield, Najin shoved the blade in with everything he had, as if to say he would not be pushed back. He was thrown backward too, but he was not the only one thrown back.

Scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape!

Shield grinding against the ground, Galahad was driven far back as well. For the first time, Galahad had been pushed back. Najin could have let himself feel satisfied, but he felt nothing of the sort. He chained the next motion instead.

He endured the technique's recoil and dragged the sword along.

First Horn.

The technique refined and strengthened from Horn Charge in Najin's own fashion. The scorched air it had produced, the residual storm still lingering nearby, Najin pulled all of it together.

When a technique's recoil was too much to simply absorb, use the aftermath that technique had created. Just as Merlin had once done.

The gathered storm swirled along Najin's sword. Dragging the storm with him, he raised the blade high as if to pierce the sky, and fixed his eyes on Galahad.

Triumph.

Najin brought the sword down. Along the path First Horn had carved open, a single stream of sword aura fell like a guillotine blade.

2.

"What's this?"

"Records left by the former lords."

"The former lords? That old man?"

"Some of it is his, yes. I didn't know either, but the Sealed City turns out to have quite a history. So many lords passed through. There's quite a lot to go through."

"There were others before us?"

She read the handwritten records written in blood.

"Oh."

She read, and read again.

* * *

The moment that guillotine sword aura came crashing down, Galahad stamped into the ground. The tower shuddered as though a giant had set foot in it. Boom! Feet locked in place, he swung the shield straight forward.

The sword aura and the great shield collided. The sword aura that shattered everything in its path surged to swallow Galahad, but as if daring it to try, Galahad stepped forward into it.

Thud.

The Triumph sword aura was pushed back.

Thud, thud, thud.

One step, one more, one more again. Galahad pushed back the sword aura that sought to shatter him. Pushing it back, he advanced toward Najin. Not breaking it, not deflecting it, not glancing it aside, he was pushing it back head-on.

Boom.

Then he broke into a run. The Triumph sword aura shattered with a sound like breaking glass and scattered into fragments. Through the dissolving starlight, Galahad charged at Najin.

He had seen enemies break Triumph before. Never like this.

Najin's eyes went wide.

Boom!

Galahad was right on top of him, and the shield came down. With a crack, Najin's body was launched into the air.

* * *

"Did I not say the same thing back then? Kirchhoff."

"I..."

"Do not lower yourself. Straighten your shoulders. Raise your head. It is as it was before. Even if the beginning was a lie, did you not strive to honor the words you had spoken?"

"......"

"Then you are a knight. It is a little late, but now it is time to pass this on to you."

Linden Valterhorn handed Kirchhoff his spear.

"Not because you are the last knight of Londinel."

Blue Spear.

"You are worthy of holding this spear because you are the most noble knight. I, and..."

"I'll vouch for that."

The princess smiled.

"I won't say much. Kirchhoff."

She came toward him. Taking the spear from Blue Spear, she commanded Kirchhoff to kneel. Kirchhoff looked at her with trembling eyes.

"I..."

"Kirchhoff."

"......"

"Don't look at me like that. It is a simple matter. A truly simple matter."

* * *

Galahad's shield hammered Najin as his body hung in the air. He tried to twist the sword to deflect it, but Najin was driven into the floor, sent flying far back to slam into a wall, and then the charging Galahad's shield came down and broke bone.

"Ugh, cough. Kck..."

Coughing out the trapped breath, spitting a mouthful of blood with a ptuh, Najin raised his head.

Good. This is what it should be.

Najin gritted his teeth. The rule that death here was not true death did not apply to him. He had come from outside. Even so, he threw himself in prepared to die. He gave everything, as he always did.

Bang!

Kicking off the ground, Najin threw himself forward again.

He was struck down by Galahad's driving shield, bones breaking, and still forced out a counterattack. Sword and shield met over and over, and the tolling never stopped.

Shwaaaaaah!

He drove his sword into the floor and slid along it, caught a deep breath, then charged again. Pushed back, charged again, pushed back again. Eyes bloodshot and wild, Najin threw himself at Galahad like an animal.

Crack!

Every swing of Excalibur swept the dust aside. Like a typhoon tearing through, sword marks were carved in every direction across the top of the tower. Najin's footprints were stamped into the already deeply gouged floor.

Boom, leaving his mark in the ground, Najin sprinted. If a single heavy blow would not do, use a flurry. If a flurry was not enough, find a blind spot. If even that failed, create a variable.

He reached for every means available.

Galahad weathered all of it and hammered Najin in return. But now Najin no longer flew far back from the blows. He absorbed the minimum of each impact and reset his grip on the sword. Then thoom, he rapped his own pauldron and curled his lips upward.

Keep going. This much won't break me. Najin grinned.

Galahad's eyes narrowed at the sight.

He looked at the Najin before him. He saw the later generation come charging in, wrapped in platinum sword aura. A smile passed unbidden across Galahad's lips. He was the one pressing the attack the entire time, yet somehow it was the one across from him who had the air of testing him.

...Not alike. And yet, because of that, alike.

Galahad was a knight.

Giving anything less than full effort against an opponent giving everything was unworthy of a knight. He readjusted his grip on the shield.

* * *

"It was a life I believed had no worth. I thought it had no meaning. The Star of Omniscience was still alive and had fled, and even if my death handed that madwoman a failure, I had not finished her."

"She'll probably go on running experiments somewhere else."

"Yes, I thought that might be the case, but."

"But?"

"It was not so. We had already won against the Star of Omniscience that day, in that place. The Star of Omniscience had to remain locked inside her own domain for 150 years until today... and no lord came after us."

"......"

"We were the last lords. The final lords who succeeded in sealing the Sealed City as its wardens, the ones who fulfilled the long-held wish of all the lords who came before."

A brief silence.

"We, you said."

"Yes."

"Not I?"

"Did I not say it."

Yuel smiled at Yuel.

"It is because you exist that I exist now."

Just as it is because of all the lords recorded there that we exist now.

* * *

"I have one question."

"The duel is not finished."

"Even so, I must ask."

A long breath, and Najin looked at Galahad.

"This tower is a ship. The captain of a ship carrying heroes has a duty to lead the crew. What did you feel as you climbed this tower?"

Where is the destination you are heading toward.

That was the question Galahad put to him.

* * *

"What use is eternity. No matter how beautiful a dream, a single moment in reality is worth more."

Raise your head. Kirchhoff.

"We are the past."

"......"

"And the past is made of those who have resolved at any moment to lose for the sake of the future. We lose, and in doing so, we win."

"Your Highness."

"My dear knight, Kirchhoff."

Londinel's last queen wore the same face as that day, unchanged, and showed him the same smile.

"The Star of Oblivion told me this place is an ark. An ark meant to become a great ship and flee to the ends of the earth should humanity ever face the crisis of extinction."

She burst out laughing.

"What a joke. Even if this world belongs to that constellation, the master of this land is me. It belongs to me, Yuria, queen of Londinel. And as the master of this land, I intend to exercise my rightful authority."

"What do you mean."

"What else."

Did I not say it was a simple matter.

"Londinel does not run."

She cried out.

"We never retreat. Humanity faces extinction and we flee? What nonsense. We must become a ship that drives straight through extinction. And who captains that ship, that is my right to decide."

Yuria brought the spear down on Kirchhoff's shoulder. Just like that day long ago, when she had knighted him.

"Last knight of Londinel, and most noble of knights, Kirchhoff. To you who represent Londinel, I ask..."

Yuria smiled.

"Go forward. Toward tomorrow."

* * *

"You asked what I felt as I climbed the tower."

"That is what I asked."

* * *

"The past is the reason the present exists. The present is the reason the future exists. Because you exist, I exist, and because I exist, Yuel Razian exists."

"I..."

"Yes."

"Was my life worth something?"

"That remains to be seen."

"......"

"We walk forward. Crying, laughing, getting angry, feeling grief, becoming human. I don't know what ending waits at the far end of that... but even so, is it not better than standing still in the past?"

Yuel smiled, then wiped her face.

"Yeah. I suppose that's how it is."

She took hold of a coin.

"Heads and I'll let you go. Tails and I won't."

"Asking luck for the answer. Classic."

"Not quite. I'm not trying to ask luck."

She snatched the coin she had tossed out of the air.

"It's heads."

"You didn't open your hand."

"It's heads."

"Ah."

"Truth is, reading that diary made it look cool. I wanted to try it once."

"I had a similar thought."

The two shook hands, then shared a brief embrace.

"Go on."

The lord said to the lord.

"Last lord of the Sealed City."

* * *

"May tomorrow be better than today."

Najin said.

"May tomorrow be more peaceful than today."

With those words he raised his sword.

"What the heroes wished for was a bright tomorrow-Tomorrow. If that is the case, then what I, their tomorrow, have to do... well, there's only one answer, isn't there."

Excalibur shone. Between the nine stars blazing in the sky above, a new star was pressing to enter among them. Feeling the outline of the tenth star nearly complete, Najin opened his mouth.

"I need to shine."

Najin smiled.

"Like the tomorrow those heroes longed for."

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried