WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 434

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Turning Point (2)

"Then let me introduce myself properly."

Soft starlight filled the cave.

Eleven blue stars and one dark-red star.

Najin knew this constellation well, but he had never seen it this close before. Its owner shrugged and spoke.

"I am the Wizard of the Lake, Merlin."

Staff of Selection, Grand Mage of the Round Table, the first human to set foot in the realm of ten stars, the sage who defined mystique, the mother of magical scholarship... The titles and names used to describe her were countless, but Merlin chose none of those grand epithets. She introduced herself with something simple and unadorned.

"Your guide."

Guide, and.

"Your one and only Companion."

Companion,one who guides and walks the road alongside another. Deliberately stressing "one and only," Merlin pointed to the Blue Knot tied around her neck. The knot Najin had tied for her that day.

Blink.

Najin blinked. The Merlin standing before him was the same Merlin as always, yet something about her felt different from anything he had known until now.

'She's different.'

Different how?

'Presence. Mana. Flow. The pressure she gives off. The weight of her existence.'

Put kindly, the caliber of a Grand Constellation was radiating off her. Put bluntly, the aura of someone mediocre had thinned considerably. Either way, the figure before him was unlike the Merlin of ordinary days.

Not a soul-body. Her True Body.

The True Body of Merlin, which should have been somewhere above the sky, which had been unable to move because it was maintaining the barrier over the Abyss, had descended here in person. There was no longer any need for her to spend her power holding that barrier in place.

"That's your True Body, then?"

"Yep, my real one. Honestly, there's not much difference from the soul-body, but, hmm..."

Merlin tilted her head slightly.

"I can do a bit more of a variety of things?"

"Such as?"

"Instead of just casting protective spells on you and watching from the back, I can personally dunk whoever tries to dunk you."

It was not a figure of speech. She meant physically dunking them. Najin let out a hollow laugh as the image of Merlin's strength came to mind. Well, fair enough. If it was Merlin's True Body, that would be perfectly possible.

"Sounds like I've got myself a reliable mage."

"You'll feel the difference enormously going forward. There's no resource rarer than a truly capable mage. And as for my capability,why even bother saying it? History has already proven it."

Arms crossed, Merlin smiled with a soft "hmph," then let out a long breath. Her voice grew calm.

"Things turned out just like you said that day."

"Which day?"

"A thousand years ago for me, about three years ago from your perspective. What you said at the tomb in the Glass Castle."

Najin pulled up the memory of that day.

"You said you'd be waiting at the final destination, right?"

"What final destination? That place isn't one."

"That's Arthur's final destination, not mine."

He had said exactly that to Merlin, who had insisted she was waiting at the end of the road.

"What you're waiting at isn't a final destination,it's a turning point, isn't it? The turning point where I've completely surpassed Arthur. We can start walking together from there, so what's the problem?"

"Together? Side by side, you mean?"

"Yes. Side by side."

That place was not the end but a turning point, and from there a new story would begin.

"Hah."

Recalling his own words, Najin burst out laughing. It was exactly as he had said.

"So this is the turning point."

The story was flowing toward its conclusion. The burden he had to carry had grown heavier. The weight of responsibility was immense. His steps felt heavy. Najin felt the thoughts crowding his mind begin to clear.

Just as Merlin had said.

And just as his past self had said.

This was a turning point. A turning point where a new story began. If the very first page of it was gloomy and gray, how could anyone talk and laugh their way through what followed? Najin let out a long breath and steadied himself.

Grip.

He took Merlin's outstretched hand and stood up. Najin had finally reached the point where Merlin had long been waiting. Merlin's stars numbered eleven, and Najin's as well. The one remaining star was shared between them, so the count was equal.

He had finally come to stand at the same place as Merlin.

The two of them stared at each other, then broke into laughter at the same time. Because it was absurd, and because they had somehow made it all the way here.

"Alright, then..."

"Yes, then."

Let's go. Forward.

2.

The Abyss was in an uproar.

Kether, the Witch of the Crown, the strongest among all witches save the Witch of the Abyss herself, turned that thought over in her mind.

'The Abyss is in chaos.'

The Abyss, quiet for the past thousand years, had been churning almost every single day of late. There was no need to look far for the source of all this commotion.

'That detestable heir of Arthur.'

Najin. A young man by that name was the cause of every bit of this turmoil. He had stirred the Abyss into disarray and walked out alive, and on top of that, he had killed one of the Four Heralds of Destruction. Kether's expression twisted as she recalled the death of the Knight of War.

Utterly useless to the end.

She clicked her tongue, holding Mordred in contempt for failing to carry out his purpose. Still, his death had not been entirely without meaning. Thanks to it, the Abyss's barrier had been shattered.

Shhhhhhhhhk.

Riding her broom, Kether flew through the skies above the Abyss. The Abyss was in chaos. It would only grow more chaotic. And this chaos would not stay confined to the Abyss alone,the cursed ones were already marching through the breach in the broken barrier.

The seal that had enclosed the Abyss was crumbling. More than half the stakes driven into their mother had already turned to dust. The Dragon of the Abyss shuddered, readying itself to take flight once more.

'Finally.'

Finally, everything was turning the right way. The world would revert to the chaos of a thousand years ago. Their mother's star would cover the skies, and in a world where the sun and all other stars had vanished, the witches would fly freely once again.

She could feel that day drawing near.

And to bring that day even one day closer, she had to kill the human hiding somewhere in the Abyss.

"Find him."

Commanding her witches, Kether scouted the Abyss. She gnawed her lip as she recalled that day when Najin's scheming had forced her to face Siegfried. The wound she had taken then still ached.

It won't go that way this time, you little brat.

She had prepared her own countermeasures. She would crush him completely. Kether was flying along, brooding over that humiliation, when,

She stopped dead.

Kether brought her broom to an abrupt halt. Hovering in the air, she looked down at the ground below.

"......"

Her eyes narrowed. They had to. What she was seeing made her doubt her own vision. Down below, Najin was perched on a rock and waving at her like he was glad to see her.

What is this? Am I seeing things?

Had the cunning heir of Arthur finally learned illusion magic as well,enough to fool even her, a Grand Mage? The likelihood was vanishingly small, but the sight was that disorienting.

"Not even going to return my greeting."

When Kether gave no reaction, Najin clicked his tongue.

"Even the neighborhood's mangy dog at least pretends to understand when someone waves at it. This is something worse than a dog."

What is this idiot babbling about. Has he lost his mind? Kether's eyes narrowed further, and Najin rose to his feet. He tilted his head, then let out a short "oh."

"You've only got a scar on one side."

Najin tapped his right eye with two fingers. Kether caught the meaning at once. Without thinking, she reached up and touched her own right eye.

A long scar was etched there. The wound Siegfried had given her last time,a wound that even the Abyss's blessing had not fully healed. As if pointing to that scar, Najin kept tapping his own right eye, and the corner of his mouth curved upward.

"Let's take care of the other side today. That way you'll have some symmetry. Symmetry is important in magic, isn't it? You call yourself a Grand Mage,you should at least have your symmetry right."

Ah.

Kether understood perfectly. He's provoking me. Same as last time, he wants to call in Siegfried and have him dunk me. She understood his intention.

She understood it, and yet.

'This little...'

Understanding it did nothing to cool her anger.

"You've lost your mind?"

A vein stood out on Kether's brow.

"You should be in hiding, and instead you shove that face of yours in front of me? Must have something up your sleeve... What, do you think a trick that worked once will work a second time?"

If his goal was to provoke her, it had landed precisely on target. Kether ground her teeth and snapped her fingers. A sharp "KIIIIING!" rang out through the skies above the Abyss.

"You."

Responding to the signal, witches began gathering one by one. Najin waited for them without any particular hurry.

"You're not dying easy."

Kether glared at Najin and ground the words out.

"You'd be amazed how far witches have developed their techniques for tormenting a human. I think I'll only feel some relief once I'm drifting off to sleep with your screams as a lullaby. What do you think?"

"Ah, I do have a pretty nice voice."

"...What?"

"You only had to ask. I can sing you one lullaby, at least. How about Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? Shall I?"

Has he gone insane? Though then again, what kind of person sets foot in the Abyss with their mind intact. Kether let out a sigh and waved her hand.

"Kill him."

Crush him completely. The witches held formation and began casting a net across the sky,the magic she had developed specifically to capture that human.

And Najin.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star."

He hummed and spun his sword in a lazy circle. The star of Jovial Laughter, which had been debating whether to shine, finally made up its mind, and Najin smiled.

"In the sky to the east."

Najin's foot came down.

"In the sky to the west."

In that instant, a flash,and.

"Shining beautifully."

A blue star blazed above the witches' heads.

3.

A blue star blazed.

Higher than the net the witches had cast across the sky, a star lit up. The moment that vivid blue star shone, Kether's eyes went wide. She snapped her head around.

"Oh my."

A familiar presence.

"The more I think about it, the stranger it is."

A familiar voice.

"I tore your limbs off and ground down your stars that day, and you somehow survived? You're not actually witches, are you,more like zombies? You must have gotten the species name wrong."

A voice she had never once forgotten, a voice she could never forget even if she tried, came down from high above. Looking up, someone was perched atop a staff, gazing down at her.

"Hmm."

Chin resting on her hand, eyes half-lidded and languid, the figure looked down at Kether and spoke.

"How strange."

Blue hair.

Blue eyes, cold as ice.

"I'm certain I told you at the time."

The being who had killed more witches than anyone in recorded history. A witch-slayer etched into the nightmares of witches everywhere, who had drowned countless witches alive.

"Didn't I warn you? Look at me one more time and I'll gouge those eyes out."

The Wizard of the Lake, Merlin.

"Ah, ah, aaahhhh..."

"M-Merlin."

"A witch! A witch has appeared!"

Merlin's presence sent the witches into fits. The word "witch" tumbled out of other witches' own mouths. They trembled, fell into disarray, their formation breaking apart. As the witches scattered in a panic, Kether ground her teeth among them.

Then, hard.

Kether seized the fleeing witches and held them in place by force. Keeping them in formation, she looked up at the sky and ground out the name between her teeth.

"Merlin."

"So you remember my name. Sorry,I can't quite recall yours."

Merlin gave a thin smile.

"You'd have needed to be worth remembering."

"MERLIIIIIIN!"

Kether shrieked and turned every last piece of magic she had prepared to use against Najin entirely toward Merlin. The mage who had buried so many of her kind was right there. Images of her dead sisters flashing through her mind, Kether flew into a rage.

Spell after spell was fired toward Merlin.

Watching the barrage of magic flying up at her, chin still resting on her hand, Merlin raised one finger.

"You absolute fool."

With a sigh, she drew her finger slowly to the side. Like a teacher marking a child's test paper, drawing red lines through wrong answers, Merlin ran a line through Kether's magic.

"Got hit once and learned nothing."

Inundation.

A flooding lake swallowed the witches whole.

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