Black Spire (5)
Excalibur, the Sword of the Stars.
What the one-ard knight held up while kneeling on one knee was unmistakably Excalibur. However, it was sohow different from the Excalibur that Najin knew.
It wasn't shining.
The holy sword that should have scattered starlight that nothing could conceal wasn't shining. Looking closely, cracks ran along Excalibur's blade, and all the constellations embedded in the sword were also damaged.
Excalibur, which should never have worn down, had deteriorated.
rlin's eyes trembled as she gazed at the ruined holy sword. rlin bit her lip tightly and trembled without grasping the Excalibur that Bedivere was offering.
"Where."
rlin barely managed to open her mouth.
"Where did you bring it from?"
"I retrieved it from the abyss at the center of Camlann."
"Was Arthur…"
"His Majesty was not there."
"..."
"Before His Majesty headed to Camlann, he gave one final command. If everything ca to an end, he ordered to return Excalibur."
His final assigned mission.
Bedivere was reporting that he had carried out that mission. However, Bedivere couldn't bring himself to raise his head and et rlin's eyes. He was certain he was making an expression unbecoming of a knight.
"His Majesty has passed away."
"..."
"Nowhere in the abyss could I find any trace of the king. Siegfried, who had pursued the king there, laughed emptily and said your king is dead."
Bedivere's voice was also trembling.
Everyone would have expected it, but it was his responsibility to confirm the king's death and nail the coffin shut. The knight who had remained loyal to Arthur until the very end gritted his teeth.
"Siegfried said he would remain in Camlann."
He said.
"The Witch of Camlann is sealed, and everything in Camlann has been stopped by the king. His Majesty held back Camlann in exchange for everything."
rlin remained silent. Since both Bedivere and rlin kept their heads down, their gazes didn't et. Neither could their expressions be read.
"Camlann cannot invade the mainland. The mainland also cannot devour the continent. And this is."
"Stop."
"This is..."
"Don't say any more, Bedivere. That's enough."
"When His Majesty began his journey, he promised at the Round Table. His Majesty kept his promise."
Crack, rlin ground her teeth.
Making the kneeling knight in front of her shut his mouth was an easy thing for rlin. It was easy, but rlin couldn't bring herself to raise her arm.
What lay before her was the holy sword that had lost its light.
The holy sword that seed like it would shine forever had lost its light. The companions she thought would remain by her side forever had died, been killed, or beco traitors. The king she should have guided as his guide had run ahead on his own and put a period to the story.
Everyone had reached their destination, leaving rlin behind.
Only she remained.
"This is His Majesty's final ssage."
"..."
"Please guard the seal of Camlann. Until the next owner of Excalibur reaches that place, please maintain the seal."
"Is that all?"
"..."
"No apologies, no 'this had to be done,' nothing like that? At the very least..."
rlin, who had been muttering, laughed weakly.
"Right, that's the kind of person he was. Arthur. He never made excuses. He never asked for understanding. That's how he was."
rlin's expression crumbled.
"The story has ended."
rlin, who had been barely standing at the edge of a cliff, fell.
Bedivere could no longer block rlin's path. rlin headed sowhere while holding Excalibur. Only Najin followed behind her. rlin's back looked so precarious it seed like it might collapse at any mont.
"I didn't want to end it."
rlin's voice echoed through the blowing wind.
"I hate putting a conclusion to stories. I want to keep watching interesting stories. I often thought it would be nice if their journey never ended."
She wasn't speaking for soone to hear.
These were words closer to a monologue, perhaps even a soliloquy.
"Is that why? I can't read novels to completion. I always close the book when a few pages remain. When I see signs that the story is about to end, I can no longer read that story."
She laughed.
"Still, if an ending cos inevitably."
Laughing, she said.
"I wish it could be a conclusion that everyone can greet with smiles. If it were such a perfect ending, I might be able to accept it and put a period there. I lived thinking such thoughts. And Arthur promised ."
That he would give you such an ending.
Beyond this continent, across the mainland, breaking through even Camlann to take you to the ideal land Avalon that lies beyond.
"To the place I had searched for so desperately, a place I couldn't even draw in my dreams, he would take there. Arthur promised that. He promised that and told to live a little longer. He pulled along like that, and yet..."
rlin looked up at the sky with empty eyes.
Arthur was dead, but Arthur's star remained in the sky.
"You're going ahead first. Just like that."
In her hands was the Excalibur that Arthur had left behind. Holding the Excalibur that had lost its light, rlin walked and walked again.
"You go ahead first, but you block from following you."
Please guard the seal of Camlann.
Chewing over those words, rlin let out a hollow laugh.
"I don't know why I should live longer, but you tell to live more. You say I still have work to do. What do you an, wait for what cos next?"
Eventually, rlin's steps stopped.
The place was a forest. Among the towering trees reaching toward the sky, a blue lake lay nestled. It was a lake Najin also knew. It was the very place where he had first t rlin.
"Wait? For the next thing that might never co? Wait, so I can start the journey from the beginning again? The Round Table is already destroyed. The knights you trusted so much betrayed you."
Even so, rlin murmured.
"Even so, you speak of what cos next. For the sake of protecting humans whose faces you don't even know, you abandoned everyone who was close to you... And even after that, you insist on speaking of what cos next."
If she threw Excalibur into the lake, Arthur's story would end there. Knowing this fact, rlin laughed. She realized that the role of putting a period to Arthur's story ultimately fell to her.
"I can't do that."
The mont she muttered those words, a faint light leaked from the already cracked Excalibur. It was such a dim light that it seed it might scatter at any mont.
"..."
That light was reflected in rlin's eyes.
As if telling her to look at sothing.
As if saying there was still sothing she needed to see.
"...Ah."
Ah, rlin groaned.
She thought she understood what the starlight was saying. The starlight dwelled in her eyes. The starlight was pointing to rlin's eyes, which could see the future.
Originally, rlin possessed eyes that could see the future.
She was called the Wizard of the Lake precisely because she could see the future through the surface of the lake. However, after eting Arthur, she had never once looked into the future. Because the future she saw was worthless.
Excalibur was an object that defied prophecy.
Excalibur, bound by nothing, changed the future. Therefore, while she was with Arthur, the future rlin saw had no aning. But now, at this mont, now that Arthur was dead, the future she saw had aning.
The starlight was pointing out this fact.
As if Arthur, the sword's owner, had said so.
"..."
rlin laughed.
Right, she didn't know what value that future might have.
"If that's what you wanted."
For a brief mont, starlight dwelled in rlin's eyes.
Blue stars shone in her empty pupils.
rlin looked at the surface of the lake. Originally, her eyes could only see the near future, but she wished to give up future sight and see just once the ti period she desired, for the last ti.
Thus the prophet glimpsed the future one final ti.
What she was looking at was the distant future.
And.
For Najin, it was the present.
There was one question.
Throughout his climb up the spire, Najin couldn't shake one question. It was about why he kept seeing the sa dream over and over.
The layer that showed the most intense mories.
The layer that showed the most painful mories.
The layer that showed the saddest mories.
All of them showed the sa dream. The dreams continued endlessly without break. Whether it was sad mories, mories that felt empty, mories of anger, regardless of what the floor's 'the' was, Najin kept dreaming the sa single dream.
Still, until climbing the spire’s final layer, Najin had sowhat accepted it. He thought that whether they were sad mories, intense mories, or painful mories, they didn't necessarily have to be different mories.
But now, climbing the final layer.
Najin absolutely couldn't understand.
'The floor that shows the happiest mories.'
Even on that floor, why was it showing the sa dream? No matter how he looked at it, the rlin before his eyes didn't seem happy at all.
'Has the spire malfunctioned?'
Were rlin's mories too heavy for the spire to handle, causing errors in the process of recreating them? Najin had thought such things.
"..."
However.
"...Huh?"
That wasn't it.
"This is."
Najin looked at rlin. rlin was looking at Najin, but she wasn't looking at Najin.
"You, what the hell are you? What the hell are you?"
"I'm Najin."
"What?"
"You asked what I was. Najin. That's my na."
What she was looking at was Najin's image reflected in the lake. It was the future that would unfold a thousand years from now. What was reflected on the lake's surface was Najin and rlin's first eting.
"That looks like mine. It would be troubleso if you just took it like that."
"Wow."
rlin reflected in the lake grabbed the back of her neck and said.
"What kind of little brat is this?"
The rlin in the lake laughed emptily as if exasperated and scolded Najin. Asking if he could handle it. Saying it wasn't a future he could manage. She showed Najin the future, just as she had done with Arthur in the past.
The countless hardships Najin would have to overco.
The nurous ordeals and trials.
The future prophesied for the one who drew Excalibur.
And after looking at all of that, Najin barely managed to open his mouth.
"I am like King Arthur."
"No, I have to go to a place even higher than King Arthur."
Najin said.
"No matter what blocks my way, I'll go. Because I have to hang my own star in the highest place."
Because I promised.
"So, I can't return this to you."
At that answer, the rlin in the lake laughed as if incredulous. The rlin watching the lake couldn't laugh. Her eyes were trembling.
"You'll have to prove those words, you cheeky brat."
Thus the future reflected in the lake flowed quickly by.
The confident boy charged forward recklessly. Sotis he was rash. The guide who watched from the side, sighing deeply, at so point stopped trying to restrain the boy and instead pushed his back, laughing joyfully and saying 'This is how it should be!'
The boy and the guide moved forward.
On the continent, they subdued demon knights, rescued a girl captured by a noble house, dueled with a pursuing knight commander, danced at a ball, faced dark mages, rangers of the Techo Mountains...
Forward, and forward again.
The boy who had bravely fought the sa red and white dragons as Arthur obtained a star. The boy who obtained a star headed to the Outland. Facing the Helt Knight, the Silent Knight, countless knights and the forgotten dead, the boy continued his journey. By the boy's side, as always, was his guide.
The guide, rlin reflected in the future, was laughing joyfully. Vividly, as if alive. rlin watched that image in a daze.
And.
"Do you really have to climb the spire?"
They reached the Black Spire.
"You really won't despise ?"
"I told you that won't happen."
What was reflected in the lake was no longer the future. From Najin's perspective, it wasn't the past either. What was reflected in the lake was the present. The lake reflected rlin looking at the lake, and Najin standing behind her.
Only then did rlin turn around.
rlin looked at Najin with trembling eyes.
"You."
She asked with a trembling voice.
"You, what the hell are you?"
The answer Najin had to give to that question was predetermined.
Whoosh.
Najin grasped the air. What was drawn from the air was the Sword of the Stars. Excalibur, the Sword of the Stars that scattered more brilliant light than anything else. Instead of a hundred words, Najin perford one action. That single action replaced all answers.
"Najin."
Holding Excalibur, Najin said.
"Najin. That's my na."
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