The Once Unremarkable Sword Master (3)
He heard a voice.
‘Draw the sword.’
It was not rlin’s voice. It ca from within Najin, and rather than a distinct human voice, it felt like a revelation, almost an instinct.
‘You can draw the sword.’
The sa voice he had heard that day, two years ago.
Najin let out a long breath.
His body was in ruins. He felt like he could collapse at any second. The floor was stained dark red with the blood he had spilled, and the deep wounds in his arm and shoulder felt ready to tear open at any mont.
And yet, strangely enough.
His mind was clearer than ever, and his sight was sharper than ever. Najin saw it. The starlight spreading around him. He saw Sword Aura that had gone beyond Blossoming and reached the realm of Full Bloom, and he caught a glimpse of the landscape that Sword Aura created.
Then Najin smiled.
Because he could see the world beyond that Sword Aura.
With his widened view, he realized where he was standing, and that made him laugh. Coincidence, or fate. Pushed back again and again, Najin had sohow ended up at the very center of the underground city.
The center of the underground city, Artman’s plaza.
The place where Najin had drawn Excalibur.
“...”
Najin looked at Mordred. Mordred was looking back at him. Holding Clarent at his side, he stopped and addressed Najin.
“You.”
Mordred posed a question.
“Do you think you are qualified?”
His voice was different. It was no longer the voice that had cornered Najin, driven him to the edge of death, and mocked him for lacking the right. Up to now, Mordred’s words had always been one-sided, but this question was not.
It was a question that demanded an answer.
Mordred pointed at Najin.
“Excalibur selects a hero. The hero selected by Excalibur represents humanity, and as humanity’s representative, challenges the Abyss.”
He spoke again.
“To hold Excalibur, to swing that sword, that is what it ans. Do you understand that aning?”
Mordred narrowed his eyes.
“Arthur led countless knights. To light the darkness that covered the world, he used Excalibur as a beacon and pulled an entire age forward. As humanity’s representative, he rallied humanity and guided countless people.”
Countless knights, soldiers, heroes, and the Round Table had charged into the dark behind Arthur.
“And yet Arthur failed.”
The knight who had witnessed that failure from closest range said it himself.
“Even Arthur failed, so can you truly surpass him? Unlike Arthur, who was complete and unshakable, you are incomplete, immature, and rely tossed around by Excalibur...”
He said it plainly.
“Do you really think you are qualified?”
Instead of answering, Najin reached his hand into the air.
He grabbed Excalibur’s hilt.
As if bound by chains, as if sunk deep into stone, Excalibur still would not move. If he wanted to draw it, he needed sothing else.
Now Najin understood as well.
Why Excalibur would not co out.
‘Because I had no conviction.’
To Najin, Excalibur had always been a last resort, almost like cheating.
When he faced an enemy he could never overco with his own strength, when an impossible trial stood before him, only then did Najin reach for Excalibur. And even in those monts, he always thought it unconsciously.
This is not my victory.
I did not overco this solely with my own power.
I borrowed Excalibur’s power, used a cheat, borrowed power that was not mine, and overca the obstacle that way. That was what Najin had believed.
And it was true.
Excalibur was not his own power. It was a sword Arthur had completed, a sword containing Arthur’s story, a symbol of Arthur himself. So wielding Excalibur was no different from borrowing Arthur’s power.
‘So.’
Excalibur was not Najin’s sword.
Najin himself had unconsciously believed that, and that was why Mordred’s declaration had bound him. It was not just Mordred’s Authority. Najin had also failed to answer the question Mordred asked him.
‘Yeah, maybe you are right.’
I said I would surpass Arthur, but deep down I thought I was borrowing Arthur’s power, and I treated Excalibur as sothing that was not mine.
Like you said, I was only selected by Excalibur.
Maybe I really did not have the right to wield this sword.
Najin accepted Mordred’s point. He admitted that, at least in part, it was true.
But.
That was not surrendering to Mordred, and it was not admitting defeat. It was simply accepting it so he could move forward.
“...”
If Excalibur belonged to Arthur.
If the constellations engraved into Excalibur belonged to Arthur and the Round Table, and I was only borrowing their story, only relying on the sword Arthur completed...
Najin smiled.
He did not need any of that.
His grip clamped hard around the hilt. Najin’s Sword Aura began to coil around Excalibur.
At that mont, Mordred’s eyes went wide.
rlin’s did too.
Those who had once belonged to the Round Table, and still did, realized what Najin was trying to do.
2.
Gripping Excalibur.
In ti so slow it looked frozen, Najin thought.
If this sword was not his, if it was forged from Arthur’s star, then he did not need a sword like that. Najin had no intention of repeating the history of a thousand years ago, and no intention of being satisfied with rely standing where Arthur once stood.
What he wanted was sowhere higher.
「When you reach the highest place.」
Because he had promised.
「Shout from there.」
「Shout that I existed.」
「Say that Ivan, Knight of Atanga, existed.」
A promise made where stars could not be seen.
A goal he had sworn at the beginning of his journey.
Back at the origin, Najin rembered his past, turned over his starting point, and faced himself.
Najin’s Imagery expanded.
Was it because that expanded Imagery stained the surroundings, or was it simply an illusion? A child stood before Najin. Dirty clothes, blood on his face, clutching a storybook to his chest like treasure.
The child asked him.
Are you on an adventure? A greater adventure than Arthur’s, a more magnificent one than Arthur’s? Did you beco what I dread of becoming?
At the question thrown by his past self, Najin raised his head.
Stars shone.
And frozen ti began to move again. Mordred glared and tried to rush at Najin, but rlin cut him off, as if saying she would not let him interfere.
...Mordred had said it.
Arthur had sothing Najin did not.
That no one followed him.
That he had no knights and no comrades. That he was far too weak to be humanity’s representative.
‘Don’t make laugh.’
Najin snorted at Mordred’s words.
How could he have none? They were right here.
Najin’s stars began to shine. In the underground city where only false skies and false stars had glowed, Najin’s stars rose. Six stars illuminated him. At that mont, Excalibur in Najin’s grip trembled violently.
Guuung.
A massive resonance swept through the entire underground city. With a vibration that sounded like a bell and like a heartbeat, Excalibur’s form began to change.
Not ending with Arthur’s story, but moving on to the next.
Using the history that ca before as a stepping stone to go higher.
As if it had waited only for this mont, for Najin to cry that out, Excalibur was wrapped in starlight. Excalibur was a sword forged from starlight, and a sword that grew with its owner. The Star Sword that had once reached the end of its story now t a turning point.
Arthur’s constellation, embedded at the center of the sword, was pushed to the outer edge.
The hero’s star that had led an era a thousand years ago willingly beca nourishnt for the one who ca after. As if it had wanted this all along, Arthur’s star beca a vessel to hold new stars.
A pure white blade.
On that pure white blade where no star and no story had been written, Najin’s stars began to engrave themselves.
Arthur, the great hero who bore thirteen stars.
A story that began with Arthur.
There was once a boy who looked up at the sky because he admired Arthur, who dread of an adventure grander than Arthur’s. That boy was born where stars could not be seen, and dread of stars where stars could not be seen.
His life had been unremarkable.
No matter when or how it ended, it was an unremarkable life no one would rember.
Living like that, the boy t.
His first star.
That star taught the boy Challenge. It taught him how to fight head-on, and the mindset to throw himself into difficult things. Cross the line. The one who said that was always his starting point.
The star of Challenge shone.
The boy challenged and challenged again. No matter how dangerous it was, he jumped in, and challenged his own limits to achieve great deeds. And so, the boy achieved great deeds.
The star of Dragon-Slaying shone.
No matter what obstacle stood in front of him, he never stopped. He did not run, and while facing it head-on, he stepped forward. If sothing blocked his path, the boy advanced by smashing every obstacle to pieces.
The star of Breakthrough shone.
It was a harsh journey. Hardship and trials crashed over him. The world demanded that the boy kneel. But the boy saw it. A certain knight fighting erosion, an imperial hero who never knelt. The knight in the helm taught Najin the strength of an unbending spirit.
The star of Indomitable shone.
He saw broken people. He saw those who endured even while broken. He t Forgotten Ones wandering the Outland, t a perforr repeating one unending month, t a spearman who lost all mories each day, t a man who loved a witch, and a witch who fell in love with a human. Najin guided them to where they wished to go.
The star of Requiem shone.
He t a knight who said the world lacked laughter, and that he would create stories people could laugh and chatter about. From that knight, who never lost his smile until the end, Najin learned to smile. He realized that laughter was a brief rest that let people endure a hard life.
The star of Banter shone.
Najin drew the sword of six shining stars.
The chains binding the sword snapped weakly.
The Rebel Knight had said this. You were only selected by Excalibur, and you were not qualified. With nothing of your own, you would not wield that sword, you would only be wielded by it.
To those words, Najin answered.
Excalibur did not select .
I selected Excalibur.
The star of Selection rose.
At the sa mont the seventh star rose, all those stars and all the stories within them engraved themselves into Excalibur. Star linked to star and beca a constellation.
What was completed was a new constellation.
Najin drew his own sword, engraved with his own stars.
With a majestic bell-like roar, Excalibur ca free.
Starlight flooded out.
That flooding starlight pushed back the darkness.
Najin raised Excalibur high into the sky. Thirteen stars ford the outer edge of the sword, seven stars filled its center, and the Star Sword forged from stars shone brilliantly.
A swordsman who had reached Full Bloom.
One wall still remained before he could reach Sword Master, but for the mont he held Excalibur, Najin was a Transcendent. Najin, with one foot in transcendence, opened his eyes.
The Star Sword announced it.
The beginning of a new history.
3.
To the sound of destruction, the tremors shaking the city, and the uproar of giant beings rampaging, the residents of the underground city hid in the depths.
As always, they lowered their heads, looked at the ground instead of the sky, and curled up. Hoping this uproar would pass quickly. Praying that those from the upper city would not punish them, they hid and hid again.
It had always been that way.
For them, it had always had to be that way.
Not everyone there had fallen for sin. In the underground city, there were people frad for cris, and children who could never see stars simply because they were born there.
They had forgotten how to look up at the sky.
So did not even know stars existed.
They only lived by accepting what was given, looking at the ground instead of the sky, living while staring at the lines drawn beneath their own feet, unremarkable lives.
Those who lived that way bowed their heads again today. Tomorrow too, and the day after, and for decades, until the day they died.
Just as they lowered their heads and curled up tighter to live another day like that, a huge wave swept across the underground city with a deep guuung. People who had been bowing their heads looked up without thinking.
A resonance they had felt once before.
They slowly raised their heads. They straightened their bent shoulders. They opened the windows they had kept tightly shut.
Stars were shining.
It was the light they had seen that day two years ago.
“...”
As if bewitched, the residents of underground Artman began stepping out of their hos one by one. Under the ore lamps hanging pitifully from every house, they looked upward.
Stars were shining.
A star had risen at the center of the underground city.
It was the starlight they had seen two years ago, but different from the star back then. One, two, three... seven stars were shining. Brilliant starlight illuminated the underground city.
A city that had slept in darkness for ages.
The night had been so long that no one knew when the sun would rise, or if it ever would, and they had wandered an endless night forever. Dawn ca to that city.
The Star of Dawn rose.
Stars shone in a city where stars could not be seen.
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