WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 416

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Land of the Abyss (9)

Three days of battle came to an end.

Najin caught his breath on land still bearing every scar of the fight. He stayed motionless for a long while, sword held mid-swing.

The breath he exhaled was hot. His body, blazing from the heat of combat, began to cool, and his heartbeat slowed. The brilliant light of Excalibur dimmed and faded.

"Huu..."

He let out a long breath and ran through the last three days in his mind. He had learned how to face an enemy hundreds of times his own size, and how to swing a sword against something like that.

The judgments he had made in each instant, the strikes he had sent wide, the blows that had landed clean, the attacks that had been especially efficient, Najin sorted through all of it.

Good experience.

And every experience, in the end, becomes bone and flesh. Three days of fighting Fafnir had made Najin grow. Not just in terms of accumulated experience, either.

'I've also risen as a Constellation.'

Najin looked at Excalibur. The Dragon-Slaying Star carved into its blade was shining.

Stars, by nature, are strengthened through experiences tied to the concept they embody.

The more one challenges, the stronger the Star of Challenge grows. Each time one breaks through an obstacle, the Star of Breakthrough gains more light. That was how Najin had been steadily tempering his stars. But there had been one star he had never tempered.

The Dragon-Slaying Star.

Unlike stars such as Challenge, Breakthrough, or Tenacity, this one shone only when facing a dragon. Which meant the Dragon-Slaying Star had not accumulated nearly as much experience as the others.

'But now...'

The Dragon-Slaying Star was shining bright.

The battle against the evil dragon Fafnir, the promise made to Leviathan, the true form of the Dragon of the Abyss. All the narrative that had been lacking finally seeped into the star.

"Huu."

With one last exhale, Najin gave Excalibur a light swing and stored it away in the air. He rolled his stiff shoulders and turned around. Leviathan was there.

"Impressive."

He came toward Najin, clapping.

"I did not expect you to learn so quickly. The method I described was rather difficult, was it not? Not something easily done after hearing it only once."

"It was manageable enough."

"Ha. Is that so."

Leviathan laughed in disbelief.

"In any case. You are strong."

"Pardon?"

"I said strong. You."

He wielded Excalibur, carried ten stars, and challenged the Abyss. By any measure, Najin was powerful. But that was not what Leviathan was trying to say.

"Not the strength of an individual body. Not martial power, flashy technique, or rank as a Constellation. None of that."

He tapped his own eyes.

"I have watched countless heroes. From ten thousand years ago until now, I have seen hero after hero and watched the way they lived. Through all of that, there are a few things I have come to understand."

"Things you came to understand?"

"Those who win against opponents stronger than themselves. Those who grow faster with each passing day. That kind of person shares certain traits."

Traits of the strong.

"Bold. Intuitive. Unafraid."

And, Leviathan pointed at Najin.

"You were smiling. Just now."

Najin reached up and touched the corner of his own mouth.

"Back then, when you threw yourself into the flames. Why were you smiling?"

"Because if I could endure that much, I could cut it down."

"Yes. There are people like you. Give flesh to take the bone. Ready to do whatever it takes for victory, willing to throw themselves into a burning pit without a moment's hesitation."

Thinking of a way to win is easy. Carrying it out is always the hard part.

Leaping into a dragon's maw and destroying it from the inside was the surest way to defeat a dragon, certainly. But in other words, that was the same as willingly throwing yourself into mortal danger.

Stake your life. Accept the risk gladly. Throw your body forward to seize victory. Take one more step despite the fear.

That was what he meant by strength.

"There are fights that can only be won that way."

Leviathan smiled.

"Siegfried was exactly like that. A man who would leap into hell if it meant winning."

"Was he?"

"He was. You pulled Excalibur, but in some ways you resemble Siegfried more than King Arthur."

He stroked his beard and settled onto a boulder. The way he looked at Najin was noticeably different from three days ago. Najin caught that look and smiled faintly.

"I seem a bit different to you, it seems."

"Oh, certainly."

Leviathan nodded.

"I saw your stars. I glimpsed the stories lodged inside them. A ridiculous yet tenacious knight, a knight who will never kneel..."

The ones dwelling within Najin's stars.

Those who had passed through his life, taught him, and were now together with him, shining as one beneath the Dawning Star. Thinking of them, Leviathan spoke.

"That is your Round Table."

Najin had none of the Knights of the Round Table who had accompanied King Arthur. But he walked with people who shone just like them. Leviathan laughed.

"You have fine heroes by your side. They are proof of who you are. What more is there to ask?"

He dropped all pretense and let out a full laugh, genuinely delighted. Even worn down by ten thousand years, he was still hungry for the stories of heroes.

"After a thousand years, I get to see stars in this land."

"You will see them far more often from now on."

"Yes. I do hope so."

He exhaled slowly.

"I will be watching. That is my role, after all. To watch over the heroes who come after."

2.

Najin parted from Leviathan and set off.

Growing accustomed to the environment of the Abyss, he turned the fight with Fafnir over in his mind and spoke.

"Fafnir was quite strong."

"Of course he was strong."

Merlin said it like the answer was obvious.

"He fought Siegfried for ten days and ten nights straight. He lost in the end, but lasting ten days was remarkable in itself."

"Still, wasn't Siegfried also at nine stars back then?"

"Star count aside, he was stupidly strong. Not strong because he had some conviction or a goal he wanted to achieve, the way other heroes are. He was just strong."

Stupidly strong. That was the phrase Merlin used whenever she described Siegfried.

"He did eventually find a purpose, but that purpose was... how should I put it. Very Siegfried-like."

"What was the purpose?"

"Confessing to Arthur."

What. Najin blinked.

"Remember what Bedivere said before? That toward the end, Siegfried was the only one who saw Arthur as a woman. And that he kept going around trying to confess."

"He did say that."

"Well, Arthur told him at the time: the world still needs me, and I carry too many burdens, so I cannot answer your confession. And then Siegfried said this."

Merlin cleared her throat and imitated Siegfried's voice.

"The world being in this state is the problem?"

"True enough, it's a miserable age to be alive in. I understand what you're trying to say, Arthur. And I understand what I need to do."

"Simply put."

"I just need to kill every last one of them. The Witch of the Abyss, the apostles of the Abyss, all of them."

Najin let out a helpless laugh.

"He actually said that?"

"He did. And right after saying it he jumped straight into the Abyss. I mentioned before that the Witch had four apostles, right?"

"You did. The strongest apostle being the Dragon of the Abyss."

"Right. One of those apostles was taken down solo by Siegfried. He went into the Abyss and came back a few months later carrying the head of one of them."

What was it called again. Something about a black horse.

Merlin muttered the apostle's name under her breath and shrugged.

"Anyway. While the Knights of the Round Table and other heroes were charging into the Abyss shouting about conviction and greater causes..."

Siegfried alone was different.

"Siegfried threw himself into the Abyss to find out how far a single sword could cut. And to confess to Arthur."

"Remarkable man, in every sense."

"We always said the same thing. That we had never seen anyone quite as strange as him."

Even as they spoke, a boom rang out and dark crimson lightning struck somewhere in the Abyss. Merlin watched the direction it came from and her expression darkened.

"Look at what he's become now."

Dark red lightning struck periodically throughout the Abyss. It meant Siegfried was rampaging, and Najin had always made a point of moving in the opposite direction from that lightning.

He could not face Siegfried yet.

And the plan the Sword Order was preparing was not yet complete. It was not yet time. Watching the lightning flicker far in the distance, Najin exhaled slowly.

"The Witch's apostles number four."

Up until a thousand years ago, there had been four. But Arthur and Siegfried had taken down three of them, and the only one remaining was the Dragon of the Abyss, or so Merlin had said.

"After a thousand years, there is no way the vacancy has stayed unfilled."

Did he need to kill all four before he could challenge the Witch of the Abyss? Najin was turning that thought over when Merlin blinked.

"There are three now, aren't there?"

"Pardon?"

"You seem to have forgotten, but the Carnival King was one of the Witch's apostles."

Oh, Najin said with a short breath.

"You killed the Carnival King, so there are three left. Mordred, Leviathan, and..."

Merlin let the last part trail off.

"Who is the remaining one?"

"Calling them an apostle is a bit ambiguous. They would be in an in-between state by now. It has been far too long since I last saw them."

"Is it someone I know? A hero from history, perhaps. Or one of those who belonged to the Round Table?"

"Mmm..."

Merlin looked at Najin with a complicated expression. More precisely, she looked at the Free Knight's coat he was wearing.

"Not Round Table. But they do appear often in history as a hero. You know them."

"Who?"

"Atanga."

Thud. Najin's footsteps stopped.

"...What did you say?"

"Atanga, I said."

Merlin sighed and answered.

"Free Knight Atanga."

The fourth apostle of the Witch of the Abyss.

3.

"We meet again."

"So we do. Things just seemed to turn out this way."

Arthur looked at the man who had followed her here and laughed despite herself. He was someone she had crossed paths with time and again, every time she headed toward a brutal and difficult battlefield.

"I did not expect you to come this far."

"Ha. I did not expect to make it this far either. But you keep at it and somehow things come together, don't they? Isn't that just how life goes?"

"It must be hard."

"As I said before."

The man smiled.

"The harder it is, the more it's worth, wouldn't you say?"

He had started as an adventurer in a small village, become a mercenary, led a small mercenary band as its captain, become a knight, and then the knight among knights who led knights.

The most knightly knight.

The one who made knights into knights.

The man who had come to be called by those names always moved toward the most brutal places, as though proclaiming that was where he needed to be, and where he needed to go.

"...Yes. That is who you were."

Arthur's expression turned bitter.

Because the place where her feet were planted right now was the Abyss.

"You will find nothing of worth here."

"We won't know that until we try."

"You will suffer. You will be broken."

"I know."

"Knowing that, may I ask why you came here anyway?"

"Of course."

He smiled.

"So that someday, I may serve as a signpost for someone who follows my path to reach this place."

"......"

"As I always have, I thought I would try being a signpost pointing in your direction."

"I am always in your debt."

"That is my line, Knight King."

Before King Arthur, Free Knight Atanga went down on one knee and performed the sword salute.

"To the king who walks the most difficult road, may you achieve what you seek."

"You..."

"This settles the debt. I can finally repay it now. The debt from that day you saved my life."

At those words, Arthur finally smiled.

"You had repaid it long ago."

"Then I am glad."

"Someday."

"Yes."

"Someone will come looking for you, far in the future. I cannot see that far, and yet... I am certain of it. He will come for you without fail."

"Who is he?"

"Who else."

Arthur smiled.

She pointed at her own Excalibur and spoke.

"The one who will pull this sword after me."

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