WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 444

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Special Instructor (3)

The forces of the Abyss are like a wave.

Like a wave in the sense that ordinary people cannot resist them, and in the sense that no one can cleave through them. But that only holds true within the domain of common people.

What about constellations who have surpassed humanity?

They can cleave through the wave. They carry enough strength to hold their ground without being swept away even in the thick of it. Yet even those Transcendents nod along to the phrase "the forces of the Abyss are like a wave."

There is no end to the cutting.

A sword path of Sword Aura dozens of meters long can split the wave open. But splitting it is meaningless. The spray that rushes in immediately after swallows the gap without a trace.

The forces of the Abyss are the same.

They can be cut. A Transcendent can cut them readily, cut as many as needed. But no matter how many are cut down, they regenerate, and the cursed ones that pour in behind them merge together again into a single mass.

There is no end to it.

Unlike the earth, where a sword stroke leaves a scar, the sea keeps no marks. Swinging a blade at the crashing waves, slashing at the open ocean, is a futile act. Fighting the forces of the Abyss is no different.

So there is no point in draining your strength needlessly.

Rather than cutting through the wave, hold your ground and focus on being a breakwater.

......Dawn Sword.

That was what most Transcendents believed, and they guarded the front line with that principle as their guide.

......Cutting Night.

Which was precisely why the scene unfolding before their eyes left them staring wide.

First, a star shone.

The Dawning Star, the star that the constellations holding the front line prayed to whenever they found a quiet moment, blazed to life. Brighter than usual, pulsing in one great flash like a signal flare igniting.

Then a single beam of light cleaved the wave.

Not a figure of speech. A single beam of light fired from deep within the Abyss cut the wave horizontally. The cursed ones that had been advancing as one mass fused with a Dead Star split apart without a sound.

The way sea foam churns to fill a gap, the black wave boiled and roiled as it tried to close the opening, but it could not manage it. The light left behind was burning every cursed one that rushed in.

Skreeeee, skreeeeeeee.

The Dead Star that had been buried deep in the wave dragged itself into view. A hideous shape. A star that had fallen into such monstrous ruin you could not believe it had once been a radiant light in the sky let out a shriek.

Something was off about it. It was different from the Dead Stars the constellations normally saw. It was afraid of something, and seemed to be trying to flee from something.

Like prey running from a hunter.

And the cry of wounded prey tends to sound like sweet music to the hunters pursuing it. A hunter who had chased that cry down kicked off the ground.

Thud.

The Dawning Star shining high above and the silhouette of someone leaping from the earth overlapped for a moment. Back turned to the starlight, he drew his arm back.

Then, fwoom.

Javelin Throw.

Shaaaaaaaaack! A single flash of light ran the Dead Star through. The spear, fired like a bolt of lightning, became a stake that pinned the Dead Star to the spot. The Dead Star screamed and clawed at it trying to wrench it free, but it would not budge.

The shaft stood rooted as if it had grown from the earth itself.

While the Dead Star thrashed, the man spun his body in the air and kicked off the void. He shot downward in a straight line toward the ground.

BOOM!

Descent, and with a thunderous crash the earth around the Dead Star caved in. The ground shuddered and dirt billowed into the sky. When the cloud settled, a single constellation stood there with the Death Star crushed underfoot.

"......"

The Free Knight's coat billowed in the wind. Najin was revealed, one foot planted on the Dead Star's body and Excalibur gripped in one hand.

The Dead Star, the Death Star, reached toward Najin.

As if to corrupt that star, as if to invite it to fall alongside itself, longing for it to sink into ruin together, the Death Star snatched at the hem of Najin's coat. It thrashed, trying to smear filth onto that shining star, but the thrashing amounted to nothing.

Hisssssss!

The Death Star's body burned wherever it touched Najin's. Faced with the thrashing of a star that would not stay dead, Najin silently raised his sword.

The cursed ones charged at Najin to protect the Dead Star, but that was equally meaningless.

Najin brought the sword down.

The blade fell like a guillotine and silenced the Death Star. As if to say that if it would not die no matter what, he would hack at it until it did, Najin brought the sword down again and again. With each swing, the pressure wave that burst outward swept the cursed ones away. They could not even get close before their bodies were blown apart.

It was less like sword strikes and more like a pickaxe at work.

And like a miner's pickaxe, the motion was brutally efficient, without a single wasted movement.

Once. Twice. Three times.

Ten times in all.

After ten blows, the Death Star crumbled. The area around Najin was filled with scattered remains, but not a single smudge had touched his body.

Thud.

Walking calmly out through the debris, Najin sheathed his sword. He stored Excalibur away in the air, then turned toward the constellations watching from a distance.

"......"

"......"

The constellations were silent. The scene that had just played out before them had left them without words. A beat later, one constellation let out a hollow laugh and spoke up.

"Was that... was that something you could just do to them?"

"No way. If you could just do that, why would we have gone through all that trouble?"

"Then what in the world was that......"

"The Dawning Star, isn't it."

"Ah. Fair enough."

When something unfolds that defies explanation and resists understanding, pointing to the Dawning Star makes it easy to account for. The constellations who had accepted that nodded along, while a few others had their eyes lit up as they watched Najin.

The Dawning Star was a constellation's constellation.

The way the people of the Continent looked up at the stars in the night sky and felt a longing for something greater, the Dawning Star had become that kind of presence for the constellations. Even constellations who had lived for centuries would find their eyes lighting up when they watched the Dawning Star, like children enthralled by a hero's tale.

"Dawning Star! What brings you here!"

"What have you been up to in the Abyss this time......"

"Over here, over here!"

The constellations crowded around to welcome the Dawning Star. Najin greeted them with an easy smile, then turned his head.

And quietly ,

He waved toward Karon, who was standing a few steps apart from the group. Every head surrounding Najin snapped around at that.

"......"

"......"

Karon had lodged in the constellations' minds as nothing more than a hardworking young person. He was the one Najin greeted.

"I have come to escort you. Master."

Every mouth in the crowd fell open.

2.

"Master? Come on. At most I taught you a bit of swordsmanship back when you were at Expert level. That's the whole of it."

"Even so, a master is a master, isn't it?"

"You saying that makes me not know where to put myself."

Karon laughed in disbelief. Teaching swordsmanship was one thing, but it had been once or twice a month at most, and even that had stopped after Najin crossed over into the Outland.

"You said that for the constellations to hear."

"It's not wrong, so."

"Well. Thanks to my great disciple, I'll be hounded by those old-timers for a while. Those constellations go absolutely wild over anything about you."

After steering the following constellations away and speaking to Karon alone, Najin gave a small shrug, as if he had not been entirely without that intention.

"Shouldn't a disciple, if nothing else, put some shine on his master's face? This much is nothing."

"Ha."

Karon dropped onto a suitable rock and tilted his head.

"So? What brings you here?"

"I came to keep a promise."

A promise. At those words, Karon's eyes narrowed.

"A promise."

The weight of the word varies from person to person. Some drop it lightly and think nothing of it, while others treat a promise as something that must, without fail, be kept.

Both Najin and Karon were the latter.

"The time has come sooner than I expected?"

"Now is a good moment."

The promise between Karon and Najin had begun from the time Karon first taught Najin the sword. Back then, when Najin asked him why he was being taught swordsmanship, Karon had answered.

To fulfill the deepest wish of the Sword Order.

Fulfilling that wish was Karon's purpose, and once Najin learned of it, he had told Karon that he would help make it come true someday.

"The Sword Demon of the Abyss."

Najin pointed toward the Abyss.

Karon picked up from there.

"...Siegfried."

The great hero who had once stood shoulder to shoulder with Arthur, and the Swordsman who was the founding figure of the Sword Order that Karon belonged to.

"A promise is a promise, but the fact that you remembered and came to get me is actually a little moving."

"A promise is a promise, but I also need you."

"Need me?"

Need me? Karon felt awkward saying it, given that he had once been Najin's teacher, but the gap that had opened between them by now was enormous. He would lose ten times out of ten, maybe eleven times out of ten.

"I don't know how to say this quite right, but among the constellations you know, I'm not exactly on the strong end, am I?"

That was the truth. There were plenty of constellations who would come running the moment Najin said he needed help, and thinking over their faces, even Karon himself felt he was a little outclassed.

Roughly four hundred years ago, that legendary witch hunter who had made a name for herself, Gerd and Kirchhoff who ranked among the top five strongest in the Outland, and beyond those...

A long line of powerful figures stretched out. Of course, Karon was not in the top five of the Outland, but if you widened the range to ten, he fell within that, so it was not as if he were powerless......

But strength is always relative.

Measured against Najin's circle of acquaintances, Karon was on the weaker side.

"Sounds like your confidence has taken a sudden dip."

"I'm not someone who feels outclassed anywhere, but measured against your connections, I feel a bit outclassed."

At Karon's half-joke, Najin laughed.

"Even so."

The laughter faded and Najin spoke.

"I do need Karon-nim. All the more so given that the opponent is none other than Siegfried."

He was not flattering. Najin genuinely thought so, and had judged it to be true.

"For taking on Siegfried... and for my objective, I need at least one more Swordsman."

"A Swordsman."

"Yes. A Swordsman."

Najin had deliberately used the word Swordsman rather than Sword Master. For Transcendents including Sword Masters, a sword is one tool among many means. But for a Swordsman, the sword carries a different meaning.

"The one who can receive Siegfried's blade, and the one who can read his sword path... would have to be someone who has learned the same sword as him."

Which was why no one else but Karon. In fact, in the earlier skirmish against Siegfried, it had been Karon who bought time until Najin arrived.

"And more than anything."

Najin smiled, a touch of bitterness in it.

"In front of Siegfried, the rank you hold as a constellation becomes meaningless anyway."

Siegfried was a Swordsman, and he demanded that his opponents be Swordsmen as well. Before a Sword Aura that cut through and shattered everything, the Authority and rank of stars meant nothing.

What remained was the sword alone.

And in that situation, Karon was stronger than anyone in the Outland. Excluding Najin, there was no one who could beat Karon in the pure domain of the sword duel.

That was why it had to be him.

The key to the campaign against Siegfried.

3.

"Ah, I almost forgot to ask."

"What?"

"That thing you mentioned back then. Is the preparation finished? I seem to remember you saying you needed time."

"Ah."

As if he understood at once, Karon gestured toward his hip. One sword that Karon normally carried, and one sword Najin had never seen before, both sat at his waist.

"Preparation's done. I'd been keeping it on me since I didn't know when you'd show up. Can't actually use it yet, so for now it's just decorating my hip."

Najin narrowed his eyes. He studied the scabbard and blade locked tightly together, designed so they could not be drawn by any ordinary means, then gave a small nod.

"So that's why you were so confident."

The single sword Karon showed him. Looking at that sword, Najin recalled a question he had once posed.

"Come to think of it."

"The Sword Order is still an order, at the end of the day, isn't it? It exists as one order alongside Star Blood, Star Body, Star Light. If something has the word 'order' attached to it, that means there is something it reveres......"

"Strange, though. The Sword Order has no patron deity."

"The Sword Saint is only a representative."

"But it does not seem like the Sword Saint uses the accumulated Faith either. An order that has existed for nearly a thousand years, so where does all that Faith go?"

The answer to that question was before his eyes.

A single sword.

True to an order made up of those who had devoted their lives to the blade, their Faith had taken the form of a single sword.

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