WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 404

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Sacred Body (4)

I'll let you off with one punch.

She left it at that, and Merlin really did throw exactly one punch. The fact that she had drained every last drop of Najin's starlight and mana just to fuel that single strike was, if nothing else, very much like her.

Thwack!

A heavy, solid impact. Even by Transcendent standards, it was the kind of punch that actually hurt. Caliburn pressed a hand to her stinging cheek and made an odd face, as though she genuinely hadn't expected to be hit that hard.

"Well. I've passed along everything I needed to say......"

I suppose I should return to where I belong.

The instant Najin took the sword Caliburn offered him, it was absorbed into his Excalibur along with Caliburn herself. She had become part of Arthur's constellation, which had already taken up residence within the blade.

"She's been absorbed."

"So it seems."

Her role complete, Caliburn returned to where she was meant to be. Najin turned over what she had shared with him and studied the Excalibur in his hand. A few things were nagging at him.

'It's different. In many ways.'

The Excalibur Arthur had drawn and the Excalibur Najin had drawn were not the same. Not only in form, but in something more fundamental.

A sword that fixes your fate the moment it leaves the stone.

That was what Arthur had pulled free. A sword that showed what end its previous master had met, and beyond that, what end awaited its new bearer, the future itself locked into place.

'But.'

When Najin had drawn Excalibur, he had felt none of that. No past, no present, no future had surfaced before him. No sense of fate being forced upon him.

"......"

Something had changed. Its purpose, its nature, the very meaning of it, all of it was different from what it had once been. Najin couldn't say exactly what had shifted.

He didn't know yet.

But as Caliburn had said, heading to the far edge of the Abyss where Arthur waited would answer that naturally. Arthur had preserved her memories for a reason, and there was surely something she meant to pass on through them.

"Strange feeling," Najin said.

"What is?"

"Just... when I was young."

He reached into the Free Knight's coat. The expansion magic woven into it meant all manner of things were stored inside, and among them was a single book.

A book he had been reading since he was very small.

Dog-eared, worn at the edges, soft from years of use.

The Chronicles of Arthur. Arthurian Legend. That was what the cover read. He looked at it a moment and let himself drift back. The first book he had read after Ivan taught him his letters. The book that had made him dream of stars from a place where no stars were visible.

"This book was where it all started."

"Started?"

"Yes. What on earth is a star, I kept asking myself. What does it mean for something to shine platinum-white. What could possibly be beyond that ceiling......"

What could be up there.

A single book had planted that question in Najin. He ran a finger along its cover and spoke.

"So I was her starting point too."

Najin had looked at Arthur and grown his dreams.

Arthur had looked at Najin and decided how to live.

"It turns out I had a place in the story even before the Chronicles of Arthur began, not just after it ended."

Najin gave a quiet laugh.

"I'd like a chance to speak with King Arthur herself someday. There's something I want to say to her."

"What?"

"That scrawny kid who watched you back then."

He closed the book and tucked it away inside the coat. He straightened the coat, tapped the hilt of Excalibur at his hip with the back of his hand, and smiled.

"That scrawny kid who grew up watching you is about to carve a star somewhere higher than where you stand. So......"

Najin pointed at the sky.

"Keep your eyes on the heavens."

He borrowed Arthur's own phrasing and said it plainly.

"A star is going to rise before long."

2.

"We're screwed."

"Pardon?"

"Didn't hear me? I said we're screwed. Not just a little screwed, either. Completely and utterly screwed. I don't normally go in for that kind of language, for the sake of my own dignity, but in this particular case I have to make an exception."

The Star Incarnation swept a hand across her face.

"We're royally screwed."

She looked like someone who had just watched the world end.

"I heard a great deal in there. The origins of the Sacred Body Church, what the Star Incarnation's role is supposed to be... fine, all right. I wasn't particularly interested in any of it, but listening along I found it fairly absorbing. The story itself was interesting enough."

She turned her head sharply and fixed her gaze on Najin.

"So why does it have to end like that?"

Najin knew how it had ended. Caliburn had told him everything. And when he first heard it, he had imagined more or less exactly this reaction from the Star Incarnation.

"No new Star Incarnation will ever be born. You are the last one. That being the case, you must avoid erosion, and the way to avoid erosion is as follows......"

What was that way?

"Go to the front lines. Throw yourself into the most dangerous places. Accomplish great deeds. You must become someone exceptional not as the Star Incarnation, but as an individual in your own right. If you continually train yourself and polish your stars, you can avoid erosion."

It meant she could remain on the Continent through her own means, the way Yuel Razian had, or Gerd, or the lighthouse keeper.

"In other words."

The Star Incarnation pointed at Najin.

"Live exactly like you do."

"It's not a bad life."

"...Not a bad life?"

"I'm still alive, as you can see."

Najin shrugged. The Star Incarnation dragged a hand down her face again. She knew perfectly well how Najin had lived.

And most Transcendents, the Star Incarnation included, tended to look at Najin's life and think something along the lines of: if that's what it takes to rack up that many stars in that short a time, I'll pass on the stars entirely.

Because by their reckoning, Najin was someone whose continued survival in the battles he had fought bordered on the miraculous, engagements so absurd that walking away from them at all beggared belief. Measured against ordinary people, he was like watching a workaholic who had slept one or two hours a night for over a decade and clawed their way to the top. The kind of life that made you look and think: I couldn't do that.

Being told she now had to start living that way made the Star Incarnation's head throb.

"You don't actually have to live like that, do you?"

"What?"

"I mean, no one's forcing you, are they? The point is that living that way would let you avoid erosion and stay on the Continent. If you just left for the Outland, there wouldn't be a problem, would there?"

"I suppose that's true."

That is true, though, the Star Incarnation said.

"But I am the Star Incarnation. I'm the guardian of the Sacred Body Church, and the Church has given me a great deal. Power, wealth, social standing, I've lived well off all of it......"

She let out a long breath.

"Those things were offered by the faithful because they believed I would carry out the Star Incarnation's role properly. Taking all of that and then abandoning the role doesn't sit right with me."

Originally, her only duty had been to exist there as the Idol. That had been the Star Incarnation's role. But if no new Star Incarnation would ever be born, things were a bit different now.

"At the very least, I'll have to keep fulfilling the role until the Church finds another Transcendent to serve as Star Incarnation, or until they raise up a new constellation. That's what I'm here for."

Having said all that, the Star Incarnation shot Najin a sidelong look.

"What's that expression for. You look surprised."

"Is it that obvious?"

"Very. Though I can't say I don't understand why. To someone who lives as diligently as you do, I must seem rather lazy."

She shrugged.

"And that's actually true. I hate working, I find everything tiresome, and I'd rather just live in comfort. But that's a separate matter from duty."

No matter how bothersome something was, if it was something the Star Incarnation was supposed to do, she would grumble and do it anyway. During the assault on La Mancha, during the campaign against the Demon King of Lamentation, the war with the Carnival King, the delaying action against Siegfried, she had stood on the same field as Najin every time.

"Why do you think work is work. Because it has to be done."

It had been what the Star Incarnation was supposed to do.

Najin watched her and smiled quietly.

"That's admirable."

"What is."

"I said the way you take your role seriously is admirable."

"Odd things impress the Dawn Horn."

Having coasted through life up until now, the Star Incarnation was staring down a future of grinding, bone-weary effort, and she let out a sigh heavy enough to shake the ground.

"Now I have to figure out how to explain this to the High Priest. The old man's getting on in years. I hope he doesn't collapse on me."

Muttering that, she and Najin set off on the road back to the Continent. They had been walking a while when the Star Incarnation said "ah," as if something had just occurred to her.

"Now that I think about it, I'll need a name."

"A name?"

"Yes. You said I need to build a reputation as a person, not just as the Star Incarnation. Well, for that I'll need a name."

A name. What would suit her?

She folded her arms and fell into thought. Najin glanced over. A faint smile sat at the corner of her mouth as she turned the question over.

"Hmm. It's tricky. I'll have to ask someone. I know a person with a real talent for naming things."

"Someone who does that professionally?"

"More or less. It's less naming and more star-naming, technically."

Star-naming. The work of giving stars their names.

One person came to mind immediately.

"Could it be someone from the Gray Tower......"

"Oh. You know her? The Gray Tower Master, Nayuta."

So she had a talent for naming things.

Najin thought back to his first encounter with the Gray Tower Master, specifically her suggestion that he go by an alias like "The Death Slayer", and his expression became complicated.

"......I think you might be better off asking the High Priest for a name. Isn't it proper for a name to be given by a parent or a teacher?"

"Mm, that's a fair point. Come to think of it, the old man has brought up the subject of names more than once. If I don't ask him, he might actually be hurt."

Good point. I'll keep that in mind. She nodded. Najin quietly exhaled in relief.

So that was that.

3.

"Duke of the Amber Eye Pillar."

"Yes, I'm listening. Sir Yuel."

"We have a new guest at today's meeting. A familiar face to me, but why is she here?"

"She recently traveled with Najin."

"I see. A sensible choice."

Clunk.

"......Why are you both staring at me like that?"

Two pairs of eyes bored into the Star Incarnation and she felt her stomach turn.

How did things end up like this.

Time rewinds about a week.

Shortly after returning to the Continent, the Star Incarnation had received an invitation from Dieta to a tea party. A simple note asking her to come for tea, and when it arrived the Star Incarnation had thought, well, the pastries there are quite good, and accepted without much thought.

The tea party she walked into, though, was a little different from what she had pictured.

Three guests in total.

Yuel, Dieta, and the Star Incarnation. She had no idea why the executioner of the Sacred Blood Church was there, but she chose to ignore it and sipped her tea.

The pastries were good. The tea was sweet. Sampling the finest confections should have been a pleasure, but with two pairs of eyes trained on her, the Star Incarnation could barely tell whether the black tea was going down her throat or up through her nose. The pressure was immense.

"Star Incarnation-nim? May I ask you something?"

Dieta's voice carried a chill despite her not being a Transcendent. The kind of chill that raised the hair on the back of your neck. The Star Incarnation slowly nodded.

"What is it?"

"I heard you traveled with Najin. Did you happen to see Merlin-nim?"

"Of course. She stayed materialized the whole time."

"......The whole time?"

Dieta's voice dropped several degrees colder.

Yuel, seated beside her, had been holding her teacup tilted at roughly thirty degrees and had not moved a muscle since a moment ago. Only those vivid red eyes were aimed at the Star Incarnation.

The executioner's red eyes.

The Amber Eye's golden serpent eyes.

Faced with both pairs, the Star Incarnation swallowed dryly. What's going on. Did I say something wrong? But it's the truth.

"She was with him the whole journey. Hardly left his side."

"......Was there anything, ah, out of the ordinary?"

There should not have been. That was what the question meant. The Star Incarnation, however, was not sharp enough to catch the implication. Taking the question at face value, she thought, what was out of the ordinary, then opened her mouth with a quiet "ah."

"Now that you mention it, she looked a little different from how I remembered. More... mature, somehow."

"...Mature."

"Her hair was longer too, and she seemed to have grown, and her whole manner felt slightly different......"

"Her manner changed."

"Oh!"

The Star Incarnation snapped her fingers.

Now that she thought about it, something had happened, she said, and began telling a particular story. Dieta listened in silence and smiled. Yuel tilted her head, expression unreadable.

A chill.

Even with the Star Incarnation's blunt instincts, she felt it crawl up her spine.

"That happened, and, um......"

She let the end of her sentence trail away.

Far too late a realization.

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