The Free Knight (2)
Najin, a Free Knight…
Jowel’s eyes flew open when the young man introduced himself. He already knew that na—who didn’t? The New Star set the whole continent abuzz, even reaching that distant Outland battlefield.
“Rember that kid who beca the youngest Sword Seeker ever? What was his na, Najin?”
“Of course I rember. How could I forget the peerless genius who beca a Sword Seeker at eighteen?”
“They say he just earned two more stars—both at once, no less.”
“Oh, co on. That’s impossible. If you’re going to lie, at least make it sound plausible.”
“…”
“You’re not joking?”
He recalled that exchange with his comrade a few days prior. Najing becoming a Free Knight was unexpected, but the title was fitting, considering his accomplishnts.
A gust of wind ruffled Jowel’s hair. He forgot he was still running and glanced back on impulse.
‘Did sothing streak behind ?’ Belated realization that Najin had flashed past him, straight toward the horde of Forgotten Ones giving chase, set in.
“Wait, you…” His hand shot out toward Najin by reflex, aning to stop him. The youth might have been a peerless prodigy who had earned two stars at only eighteen, but he was still a fellow Sword Seeker, and there were far too many enemies for a single Seeker to handle.
At least thirty Forgotten Ones, with demon beasts and monsters mixed among them? No Sword Seeker could face that alone.
Jowel’s gaze wavered. ‘Should I join him? Leap in and help?’ The knight in him scread that he had to, yet the man—stripped of armor and sword—hesitated to move.
He soon saw that the hesitation was unnecessary.
Najin vanished among the Forgotten Ones, and a blinding gleam cut through them, too bright to be blocked by their bodies. The instant it blazed—
Shraaaaaaaaaaak!
Bodies split apart. In a single breath, ten Forgotten Ones were bisected, then quartered, then diced again. By the ti the light flickered five tis, corpses lay in dozens of pieces.
Sword Aura dragged a halo of brilliance behind, erupting as sword flashes and glittering several tis a second. With every flare, another shredded body collapsed.
Jowel’s eyes went round. ‘What in the world am I seeing? Wasn’t that young man supposed to be just a Sword Seeker?’ He himself stood at the sa level, but following Najin’s movents strained his sight.
Speed, astonishing speed; that wasn’t all—every motion was brutally efficient.
A Forgotten One could only die if its heart were pierced. Aware of that, they guarded their chests with desperate zeal. Most had been Sword Seeker-class warriors in life, so breaking that defense was never easy.
Spht.
Najin never bothered swinging where it was difficult. Instead, he slid his blade into the gaps between joints, ripped calves, and slashed legs to upset balance; then his blade would pierce into an exposed heart.
The finish was a simple stab—arm snapping forward, then back—clean, economical, and lethal once the defense shattered. All of it happened so quickly that missing a heartbeat ant seeing nothing but mangled remains.
‘What is this…?’
The thirty-odd Forgotten Ones and beasts were butchered in scarcely a minute. Najin, having ground the mob to dust, flicked his sword clean.
“Phew.” With a short breath, he sheathed the blade and stopped mid-step, stooping to pick up the sword Jowel had dropped while fleeing. He looked at him as if to say, “Isn’t this yours?”
When Jowel gave a slow nod, Najin also gathered the armor the older knight had flung aside and walked back. Accepting them, Jowel found he could not et the youth’s gaze.
“Th-thank you.” Sha and smallness clawed at him. His eyes darkened as they fell on the dirt-spattered sword and armor. “Um…”
“Najin.”
“No, I know your na, how could I not? I just heard it a mont ago as well…”
Najin waited, eyes inviting him to speak.
Forcing himself to hold that gaze, Jowel wetted his lips. “I am grateful you saved . I am Jowel, a knight of the Nost Unit guarding the Northern Frontier Line.”
“The Northern Frontier Line?”
“Indeed, the border of the Outland.”
Najin’s expression turned thoughtful, and then he nodded in comprehension. “An honor to et you, Sir Jowel.”
“Well… Sir Najin, what brings a Free Knight like you to a place like this? If you need information or a guide, say the word. I’ll help in any way I can.” Jowel felt small. He knew full well the youth expected no paynt and needed no aid, yet pride made him ask if there was anything he could provide.
He regretted the words at once. ‘Why didn’t I just thank him and bow? Was I too proud to accept help for nothing?’ His face dimd further.
Najin stared at him in silence, eyes narrowing. After a mont’s thought, the youth waved a hand before the man’s face, then flicked his fingers twice with a sharp snap, as if checking his reaction.
“Mm?” Perplexed, Jowel tilted his head.
Only then did Najin smile and say, “Nothing at all. Sir Jowel, might you have sothing to eat?”
“Sothing to eat?”
“Food or drink. It’s been a while since I last had anything.”
“I have so field rations.”
“Perfect.” Najin nodded, fetched so firewood from sowhere, and struck a spark.
Hesitant, Jowel sat down opposite him.Over the campfire, he ward the rations and sothing to drink. It was a ager repaynt for having his life saved.
Najin tore into the jerky with every sign of satisfaction. “Salty, but rather tasty.”
“Is it?”
“Yes, this is quite…” Jerky, dried ration cakes, and thin soup… Najin savored them as if they were a feast and looked across the flas. “How long have you been in the Outland, Sir Jowel?”
“A year or two, I suppose.”
“Not long, then.”
“No. I’m still a newcor, unlike the other knights in the unit. I haven’t gotten used to life out here.” Jowel smiled bitterly. “Honestly, it feels like I’m wearing clothes that don’t fit.”
“Don’t fit?”
“I strap on armor and call myself a knight, but armor that never felt heavy on the continent weighs on out here.” Heavy armor indeed. Though Najin had returned it, Jowel left the gear lying beside him, unwilling to don it again. “May I complain a mont? I hate to take up a great knight’s ti with my whining…”
“We’re both knights, aren’t we? Speak freely.”
“Thank you.”
He drew a long breath. “To tell the truth, watching you earlier filled with sha.” Sha. Humiliation. Smallness. “You’re eighteen, if I recall correctly?”
A tiny flinch. Najin nodded. “Yes.”
“So young—no, so very young. It embarrasses to say, but I turned one hundred twenty-two this year.” A knight of a hundred twenty-two felt ashad before a boy a century younger. He tried to hide that sha by praising Najin. “To set foot in the Outland at your age took real resolve. I honestly respect it.”
“Do you?”
“Of course! You beca a Sword Seeker not long ago and already stand at such heights as a shining example of heroism.”
“Thank you for saying so.”
Jowel chuckled and rubbed his arm. “Small as I am beside you…” He stared into the fire and rembered his past. “Back on the continent, I made a bit of a na for myself. I racked up decent rits, earned a star, and even carved a line about myself into the history books.”
He had shone. There, he had felt no sha and could square his shoulders and proclaim himself a knight.
“So when I volunteered for the Outland, this battlefield, I believed I could shine here as well.” He threw his arms wide, declaiming like an actor. “Who am I? Jowel the Sword Seeker, knight of House Drevy! I told the young master, the next lord of Drevy, that I would live here like a knight and exalt our na.”
He finished with a self-mocking smile, “Reality is far harsher. Out here, I’m worth less than a common soldier. I’m stained and tarnished, not shining, and I can no longer bring myself to call out Drevy’s na. I’m sullying it instead of elevating it.”
Crackling flas reflected in his eyes as he murmured, “I’m afraid—afraid of everything in this land. Forgotten Ones that don’t die even when you hack off limbs or a head. Beasts that swallow starlight. Demons. Those stars in the night sky. Transcendents who might appear before at any mont.” He groaned. “Most of all, I fear that there is no beautiful end here.”
He gestured at the scattered corpses. “Whenever I imagine my end as one of those Forgotten Ones, terror overwhelms . I repent each night, thinking I should have died an honorable death on the continent.”
He looked at Najin, the youth who still blazed brightly. “I felt the sa just monts ago and declared I would act as bait for my comrades, spoke such gallant lines, resolved to et a gallant end…” He bowed his head. “I panicked. I shrieked, threw down armor and sword, and beca a coward. Shaful… truly shaful.” Raise his eyes again, envy glimred in them, perhaps even inferiority. “I envy you, Sir Najin.”
“?”
“Yes. I wanted to be a knight who shone as you do, a hero who made his presence felt even on the Outland.”
Najin was taken aback. He had never imagined hearing such words. He always chased what lay ahead, eyes fixed on heights above and never once looking back to see who followed.
“I wanted to beco a hero like you.”
If he glanced back, he found that, to soone, he had already beco a dream and a goal. The realization felt strange. “That is… a little unfamiliar.”
“Unfamiliar? What do you an?”
“Truth is, I used to envy knights like you, Sir Jowel, those who had received a title. That was my dream.”
Jowel blinked. “?”
“To soone crawling at the very bottom, every knight glittered. So were knights in na only, but you were not one of them.”
“That’s not true. You saw screaming like a coward.”
“So you scread. What of it?” Najin shrugged. “You bought ti for your comrades. You beca bait and ran. A noble choice, is it not?”
“I only wanted a grand end.”
“A knight seeking a knightly death makes you all the more a knight, don’t you think?”
Jowel exhaled a shaky laugh. “Was I not pathetic?”
“Not in the least.”
“I threw off my armor and fled. In that last mont, I decided honor and pride were worthless and doubted a knight’s worth.”
“What value is there in blind faith? When you doubt and still refuse to quit is where worth lies.”
“Doubt it yet refuse to quit… yes, that’s a fine turn of phrase.” The old knight smiled wryly. “I, who have lived a century longer than you, should be teaching you, yet I received the lesson instead.”
“Learning knows no age limit.”
“Indeed. Thank you for listening to an old knight’s grumbling; it eases my heart sowhat. May I ask one last question?”
“As many as you like.”
“Sir Najin, Free Knight among knights… do you still think I have the right to call myself a knight?”
The fire flared. Its light danced in Jowel’s eyes as Najin smiled. “Of course. You are every inch a knight.”
“Hahaha! My hero himself acknowledges . Thank you, my heart is lighter already.” Jowel laughed heartily. “I’m ashad to take up so much of your precious ti. I should pack up and—”
“Sir Jowel.” Najin stopped him. The youth’s platinum eyes fixed on him. “You said you feared what cos after death?”
“Yes. Becoming a Forgotten One, losing myself, turning into a beast… that terrifies .”
“I can ease that fear a little.”
“How?”
Najin clenched a fist, then opened it. Five stars orbited his palm—Challenge, Dragon-Slaying, Breakthrough, Indomitable, and…
“Requiem.” The Star of Requiem. “It’s my star.”
“Requiem… guiding the dead to their graves?”
“Yes, showing the departed the path they ought to walk.”
“Haha. Like the ferryman of the afterlife.”
“Sothing like that, though I would say I decorate the final mont.” The Star of Requiem glowed softly in his hand.
Jowel stared, entranced by its warm, gentle, restful light.
“Sir Jowel.”
Jowel remained silent in thought.
“Jowel of Drevy.”
“Y-yes? You called?”
“I intend to move you.”
“Move ? Where?”
“To the place where you ought to close your eyes.”
Jowel tried to grasp his words. ‘Move ? Why?’ Sothing didn’t fit. The gears felt misaligned, and sothing else was odd. Five stars? Why? Wasn’t it two? He had only heard a few days ago that the youth bore two stars.
A vague unease prickled him. Frowning, he looked at his own hand, and his eyes flew wide. The hand was rotten, crumbling—not the hand of the living. His gaze shook. Blinking, he looked up at Najin.
The youth held the Requiem Star in one hand and pointed at Jowel’s face with the other. “You can take off the mask now.”
Jowel felt his own face.
“You needn’t hide behind that.”
A clown’s mask, grotesque, clung there, not yet fully fused to his flesh. Touching it, Jowel let out a shaky laugh. “So that’s how it is.” He smiled bitterly. “I was never among the living to begin with.”
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