WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 515: I Pull Out Excalibur (The End)
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"You'd better have a good explanation."
Gulp.
In that murderous atmosphere, Najin swallowed dryly. It felt as though a blade might come flying at him if he said even one wrong word.
Of course, no blade could make the current Najin bleed. Still, it could carve the words "seduced two women and vanished" into the long sentence called "Who Am I?" Najin had plenty to say for himself, but what he needed now was not an excuse. It was an explanation.
"Well, as for how this happened..."
Najin began explaining slowly.
There really was a story behind it, and a reason he could not return, so it was not difficult to explain. From the middle of it onward, Yuel and Dieta listened with the attitude of, Let's hear what he has to say.
"So."
After hearing him out, Yuel tilted her head. Red eyes stared at Najin through her falling hair.
"You're saying that you obtained your thirteenth and fourteenth Stars, defeated the Witch, reached Avalon, and then became so powerful that you couldn't return?"
"Exactly."
During his battle with the Witch of the Abyss, Najin had succeeded in Ascension without intending to. He had become a Transcendent in the truest sense, one who encompassed the entire world. That was why he had been able to defeat the Witch, but the problem came afterward.
"You remember how, in the past, the constellations would be thrown into chaos whenever the Witch of the Abyss moved? The sky shook from the slightest movement, and natural disasters struck the Abyss and the Outland."
"That did happen. The entire world was in turmoil until not long ago. So, Najin, are you saying you became that sort of being too?"
Najin nodded. Strictly speaking, he had become something even greater, but the result was similar. If he moved carelessly, he could clearly picture the sky, which had only just begun to heal, shattering to pieces again.
"The reason the Continent drives most Transcendents and those over one hundred and fifty years old into the Outland is ultimately close to a homeostatic effort to maintain its form. It's a kind of self-cleansing. If too many Stars gather, the land of the Continent cannot bear it, so they are separated."
There were several things Najin had learned upon reaching Transcendence.
As he explained them, he pointed to himself.
"From that perspective, I'm a weight that disrupts the balance. Wherever I'm placed, everything tilts toward me. It's rather complicated to explain..."
Najin put it simply.
"If I had set foot in the Outland as I was, the sky of the Continent, which had only just begun to heal, would have shattered again. If I had set foot on the Continent, the Continent would have become like the Outland."
Everything tilted toward Najin.
His constellation contained fourteen Stars.
Najin had acquired Stars that had never existed and should never have been able to exist. If he had moved as he was, he might have caused an upheaval similar to Morgan's, perhaps even greater.
"I see. I understand. You certainly had your reasons. I understand that much, at least."
Yuel looked at Najin.
"Then how did you come back?"
Dieta picked up where she left off. Now that she knew there had been a reason, her anger had eased. What remained was a question. Najin did not feel like a different being from usual to either of them.
"I left them behind."
Najin pointed at the sky.
The Dawning Star shone there.
"I didn't need them."
He had held the power to turn the entire world into his sanctuary, the right to shape the world as he pleased, power that could make him a truly godlike being. Yet Najin had extracted it from himself.
They were absolute abilities anyone would covet, but Najin had no particular need for them.
Saying that it had taken some time to separate them completely, Najin gave a bitter smile. That was why he had been unable to come see them for two months.
"I hung a Star in the highest place, defeated the Witch of the Abyss, whom no one had defeated for tens of thousands of years, and achieved something no one else could. I've saved the world more than once, too."
Najin shrugged.
"I've done everything worth doing as a hero."
He had, in a sense, graduated from life as a hero.
Najin put a period on his story as a hero. And as his guide had said, a period was not the end of a story, but a turning point. Najin began writing a new sentence.
"Now, shouldn't I try living another kind of life?"
This was the end of the story of a hero who saved the world.
What came next was simply Najin's life.
"I should take care of the things I've put off one by one. I should meet the people I couldn't see because I was busy. Marquis Adelmar, the Emperor, the Sword Saint... I have an awful lot of drinking appointments I've been putting off. I think I'll be busy in a different way for a while."
He was still the Najin they knew, yet different from the Najin they had always seen. The hero who had run forward with his eyes fixed only on his goal was no longer here. There was only someone, no different from anyone else, wondering how to live today and tomorrow.
"And above all else."
Najin looked at Yuel and Dieta.
"I need to keep my promise. It would be shameless to ask you to wait any longer. I'm not quite that shameless."
"Honestly..."
Dieta sighed and brushed a hand down her face. He truly never changed. He was honest, unable to make clever excuses, and knew nothing but meeting things head-on.
"You never change, do you?"
That was probably why she liked him.
Resting her chin on her hand, Dieta smiled.
"The day after tomorrow."
She did not say much more.
"Keep your schedule open two days from now. All right?"
"I'll take the day after that. What's a few more days now? Ah, it seems Razian still has something to say."
Razian and Yuel switched places. The executioner of the Holy Radiance Order opened her eyes and stared directly at Najin. Her red eyes were rather chilling. Just as Najin swallowed dryly, expecting a scolding...
"Najin."
"...I'm listening."
"You did well."
As if she had played a prank, the corners of Razian's eyes softened. With a faint smile, she said,
"I'm happy you came back."
As soon as she said it, Razian switched back with Yuel as if embarrassed. Leaving behind Najin blinking in surprise and Dieta smiling bitterly as though she had been struck, Yuel shrugged.
"So she says."
That happened.
After they talked for a while, Dieta suddenly asked Najin a question as he rose to leave.
"Oh, but Najin."
Something from his earlier explanation had caught her attention.
"That power you said you separated. Authority, was it? It doesn't sound like you simply left it alone. Do you have another plan for it?"
"Ah, that."
Najin snickered.
"You'll find out soon. Probably tonight."
Leaving Dieta tilting her head behind him, Najin walked away. He still had something to do today.
2.
Najin walked through the heart of the Empire.
No one recognized him. He had pulled his robe low and distorted their perception with starlight. He did not want to draw attention, so he concealed himself and walked at an easy pace.
Though nearly two months had passed, the Empire was still celebrating.
In truth, it was probably not only the Empire. It would be the same anywhere. The world had escaped the crisis of destruction. The Witch of the Abyss, who had threatened humanity for tens of thousands of years, had finally been subjugated by a hero. They had been freed from a long-standing threat.
The Continent, the Outland, anywhere at all.
They would all be feeling the change brought by the Witch of the Abyss's death. The sky had cleared. The sky where the sunset was falling was beautiful, and the Outland was likely seeing the setting sun for the first time in tens of thousands of years.
Because the Outland's sky had healed as well.
The Outland's sky had shattered because the land had grown too narrow. The Abyss had pressed in and narrowed the space, and it could only crack after so many Stars were crammed into it. But Najin had purified the Abyss, and it had become part of the Outland.
With the sky widened, several regions like La Mancha had appeared in the Outland. Peaceful places where the sun rose and set despite being in the Outland.
Hearing that many Constellations sat together and watched the sunrise and sunset, Najin could not help smiling. Of course they had missed sunlight. Don Quixote had not wandered in search of La Mancha for no reason.
"The Outland is harsh and desolate."
Now that the sun had begun rising even in such an Outland, the Constellations who missed the Continent would find some comfort. If Sancho were alive, he might have joked, "Oh no, my lord! The price of land in La Mancha is falling. What are we to do?"
Thinking such idle thoughts, Najin kept walking.
The Continent and the Outland were changing.
They would continue to change. As the world changed, people would change with it.
「We survived again.」
「Even though I was prepared to die.」
「The comrades who left before me forced me to live. As if they were saying I had the right to enjoy what came next. They're truly relentless friends.」
Najin suddenly recalled a conversation he had shared with Bedivere.
「Was I of help, my king?」
"More than I could say," Najin had answered, and Bedivere smiled brightly. Then, after planting his White Spear in the Round Table, he bowed to Najin.
「I think I shall take a short vacation.」
「I have fulfilled a long duty.」
「For a while, I would like to travel through this changed world. I believe seeing the world we helped change will be quite enjoyable.」
The oldest knight of the Round Table had taken a vacation he had postponed for a thousand years. Najin readily agreed and introduced him to several sights in the Outland that he absolutely had to see. Bedivere was probably adventuring through the Outland now.
Tap.
Najin continued walking.
From the Underground City to Cambria, from Cambria to the Empire, from the Empire to the Outland, from the Outland to the Abyss, and from the Abyss to Avalon. Having reached the end point, Najin retraced his journey.
From Avalon to the Abyss, from the Abyss to the Outland, through the Empire and Cambria...
To where the Underground City stood.
Naturally, it was not the same as when Najin began his journey. Many things had changed. The Abyss, the Outland, the Empire, and Cambria had all changed. The Underground City had changed as well. But some things had not.
Najin lowered his gaze.
The Underground City had originally been a place where abandoned people settled, somewhere close to a slum. A place where shadows stretched as long as the light created by the Holy Radiance Order. It was also where those who could not endure that light hid.
"Not anymore, though."
The Underground City was now a tourist attraction. It was where Najin's story began, and where he pulled out Excalibur. As Najin's hometown and the pride of the Empire, the Empire itself managed the Underground City.
The Underground City had become clean because of that.
But slums never disappear. They only move. There would always be people suffering and people abandoned, anywhere in the world. Najin walked a little away from the Underground City and soon found it.
A place piled with the wreckage of collapsed buildings.
The rubble of the Holy Radiance Order's ruined buildings.
People were hiding where those ruins had been discarded. Criminals and addicts driven out when the Underground City became bright. Or people abandoned by the world. Whether they had known and learned nothing but that since birth, committed crimes because they had no choice, or committed sins even without such an excuse, Najin could not know.
There was only one thing he knew.
There were children here too.
Children born in a place like this, who had to live with their eyes fixed on the ground. Najin passed the Underground City and stepped into the city built beneath the ruins.
...The Witch of the Abyss had said it.
That humans abandoned humans.
That those who hated humans were fellow humans.
That even after tens of thousands of years, they had not changed.
She was not entirely wrong. Najin could see it now. People striking each other, fighting, stealing, and sometimes even beating their own children. The Witch's voice rang in Najin's ears.
"See? They never change."
Najin did not listen to that voice. Instead, in the city where everyone lowered their heads and looked at the ground, he saw one child looking at the sky.
"Well."
Najin said,
"That's not always true."
Najin stepped forward.
Toward the child looking at the sky.
3.
Countless epic tales say this.
No matter where you stand, if you look up at the vast night sky, you will see constellations. And those constellations are the traces of heroes who raced across this land, the records of their lives.
The boy thought that was half right and half wrong.
Heroes who had truly accomplished great deeds engraved their constellations in the night sky and became Transcendents called Constellations. In that sense, the part about a constellation being a hero's life was true.
Then what was wrong?
The part about seeing constellations whenever you looked up at the sky, wherever you stood.
The boy lifted his head and looked at the sky. More precisely, he looked at the sky beyond the ruins of collapsed buildings.
He could see nothing.
Dust falling from the wreckage made the sky gray. Even today, when the Stars shone their brightest, the sky could not be seen through the haze of dust. What reflected in the boy's eyes was not starlight, but a lantern hanging precariously from a collapsed building.
"Of course."
This was a city built beneath ruins.
The boy, who had been born and raised here, unconsciously reached toward the sky. He knew he could not reach it. But he wanted to see it at least once. What Stars looked like, and what the hero who saved this land looked like.
"You won't reach it stretching like that."
A voice sounded beside the boy's ear.
"Nothing changes if you stand here and reach for the sky. I tried reaching for it, and I tried cursing at it too, but nothing changed. Ah, speaking from experience."
The boy looked toward the voice. A man in a robe was sitting on the wreckage. Since when? He did not know. The boy only narrowed his eyes and glared at the man.
"Then what am I supposed to do?"
"That's something you need to think about."
"Even if I think about it, I don't know."
"If you don't know, what?"
"Adults always say not to cross the line. They say I should be satisfied with what I've been given, that dreaming impossible dreams will only bring greater disappointment, and that I should know my place."
"Ah, those tiresome words."
The man shrugged.
"What do you want to do?"
"I want to see the Stars."
"That's all?"
"...I want to have a Star."
"What kind of Star?"
"A shining Star. I want to show it to the people in this city."
That they could shine too.
"All right."
The man did not mock the boy like the other adults. He did not scold him either. He simply nodded and said, all right.
"Then you definitely can't stay like this."
The man smiled.
"Cross the line. Put your fist in the faces of those who tell you to know your place. No matter what anyone says, you decide your own limits. Don't let yourself be bound by limits other people set."
The man took off his robe.
Even where no starlight reached, he shone like a Star.
"If that's what you want."
The boy's eyes widened. He had realized who stood beside him. There was no way he would not know that face. There was no one in this world who did not know that person.
"Then you have to challenge it, don't you?"
Dawning Star, Najin.
The greatest hero.
"You'll never know if you don't challenge it."
He reached toward the sky. In an instant, the wreckage filling the city was swept away. When the vast night sky was revealed, the boy looked up.
The sky was filled with countless Stars.
The starry sky he saw for the first time was beautiful.
And among them, the greatest Star.
The Dawning Star, the constellation hanging in the highest place, shone brilliantly. Its starlight was seen everywhere in the world. On a night when everyone looked up at the sky, the Dawning Star gave this land a trial.
It was a trial that had repeated across the world every thirteen years before Najin appeared. Perhaps it was a question the Stars cast upon the world. Perhaps it was an opportunity.
Starlight fell throughout the world.
Najin's fourteenth Star.
Najin divided that Star into hundreds of pieces and scattered them across the world. Dawn was not a Star that made an already bright sky brighter. It was a Star that illuminated darkness. Dawn belonged not in the starry sky, but in lands where morning never came.
And starlight came to this city as well.
Perhaps opportunity had come.
The Star that fell in the center of the city pierced solid rock and took the shape of a sword. As the boy watched the sight as though entranced, a voice rang in his ear.
「Draw the sword.」
The boy turned his head.
But the hero who had stood by his side only moments ago was nowhere to be seen. It felt as though he had dreamed it all.
"......"
The boy hesitated, thought, and agonized.
Then, at last, he took one step forward.
He crossed the line given to him and began running forward. Toward the sword embedded in the center of the city, toward the opportunity given to him, the boy challenged it.
I pull out Excalibur.
-The End.
A Word from the Author
This is the second time I have written the words The End. Thank you to every reader who has followed along, and to every reader who will read this story in the future!
There will be epilogues after this.
But the main story of I Pulled Out Excalibur ends here. I will explain the epilogues along with the completion review that will be posted soon!
Footnotes:
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