Where the Stars Shine (5)
There was a saying.
Seeing once is faster than hearing a hundred words.
It ant things ended faster if you showed it once instead of talking until your mouth hurt, and Najin felt this mont was exactly that. People who had lost their qualifications and authority always spun longer and longer words to dress themselves up, but...
Those who possessed both did not need long speeches. They only needed to show it through action.
"..."
Najin raised Excalibur. The starlight Excalibur gave off lit up the city. It was midnight, but the city turned bright as noon.
"At once, seize that bastard-"
Orland's shout was swallowed by the citizens gasping in awe at the starlight. Next, Najin drove the Lance of the Crossed Star he had carried on his back into the ground.
The emblem of the First Horn of the Empire fluttered from the shaft.
It ant he stood here in place of the First Horn of the Empire, and it proved he stood here as the Empire.
"High Priest Orland of the Starlight Order."
Najin called the sinner by na.
Orland's face drained white.
"A criminal who colluded with demons of the Outland, served the Witch of Camlann, and brought chaos to the Empire, and beyond that, to the entire continent."
His anger was restrained. His cold, steady voice rang across the city. Najin leveled the Star Sword at Orland.
"Do you have anything to say?"
"It is slander, it is lies, there is no evidence, and no matter if you are the Empire, you cannot do this to the High Priest of the Starlight Order..." Orland scread, veins bulging in his neck.
But the crowd had already turned away from him long ago.
No matter how great the Starlight Order's influence was, that influence had not been built by Orland alone. Longing for starlight, faith, and admiration had accumulated over hundreds of years to make it.
And Excalibur stood before their eyes.
A star that had shone for a thousand years.
That single sword, symbol of the brightest and greatest star, stood above every excuse. Even the High Priest of the Starlight Order was nothing but a shabby, pitiful old man before Excalibur.
Crack.
White powder scattered down from the sky. The flakes looked like snow and also like starlight. They were fragnts of the barrier.
The barrier around the Starlight Order was collapsing.
With the deaths of the Lighthouse Keeper and the Lighthouse, the barrier fell and the outside ca into view. Imperial knights had surrounded the Order's periter. The instant they looked inside the broken barrier, their eyes widened.
The First Horn of the Empire's war banner.
The Free Knight's coat.
And in his hand, Excalibur.
The mont he saw Najin, the man leading the knights dropped to one knee. He had served the imperial house his whole life, and even the Royal Guards called him elder and showed him respect.
Schrantz, elder of the Royal Guards.
That Schrantz, who needed to kneel to no one but the Emperor, who had served the imperial house for close to a hundred years and proved his integrity,
Clank.
He knelt to Najin without a trace of hesitation. He bowed his head and paid respect, not caring at all that mud stained his greaves.
"To the Empire's hero."
It was not empty ceremony. Schrantz had never bowed this low even before the First Horn of the Empire. He was sincerely offering reverence to the one before him.
"I greet the greatest knight."
Starting with Schrantz, all the knights knelt to Najin like a surging wave. Not one of them held even a sliver of doubt.
Because this was what a knight was supposed to do.
What stood before them was not rely the Empire's young hero. Not a holy figure sheltered by the First Horn of the Empire, and not rely the Free Knight. He stood beyond all of those things, ahead of all of them.
Successor of the great hero Arthur.
Descendant of Knight King Arthur.
If they called themselves knights, they had to show reverence to the being at the very origin point of all knights. While the Empire's knights bowed their heads, Najin looked at Orland.
The shabby old man struggled to the very end.
He moved the Order's dark forces under his control, and the Holy Knights in league with him, thrashing in resistance. Before that pathetic resistance, Najin spoke only briefly.
"He is one who colluded with demons."
Najin's voice rang out, cold as ice.
"He joined hands with Camlann and caused chaos across the continent."
The Empire's knights raised their heads. They rose from their knees and drew their swords with clattering rings.
"Kill them."
The knights roared and charged. The Starlight Order still had a fair number of surviving troops, but before the Empire's knights they were swept away helplessly.
Najin alone could have subdued them all and more.
Still, he deliberately used the knights to crush Orland's forces, as if telling him everything he had built was wrong. Najin walked straight toward Orland.
"I am Klaus Aten."
While walking, Najin listened to voices carrying from behind him. A familiar voice echoed through the city, full of force.
"Commander of the Blue Wing Cavalry, Klaus Aten."
One by one, the knights who had joined this operation as rcenaries supported by Dieta Trading revealed their nas, as if there was no longer any need to hide.
"Even if you branded us heretics and dragged our honor and pride through the mud."
Klaus Aten shouted.
"I did not sink. I am the Blue Wing, and our honor did not sink either."
As he passed Najin, Klaus Aten mouthed words to him. Just gratitude. Gratitude for being able to stand together at this mont of revenge.
With Klaus Aten at the front, countless knights passed by. Demon hunter Jerold, soldier Basaus Malek, inquisitor Bashen Corte... those who had hidden inside Dieta Trading and waited only for this day swung their blades of revenge.
And Najin...
Tap.
Walked toward Orland, who stood at the center, trembling with chattering teeth. No one could block Najin's path. Who could block a Transcendent's steps?
He stopped in front of Orland with a sharp step.
"Orland."
"Gah, huff..."
Orland gasped. As Najin took one step closer, Orland backed away, caught on a stone, and fell to the ground. Sitting there, he looked up at Najin.
His eyes shook. His teeth clacked nonstop. Najin looked down at Orland, who trembled in terror.
"Ivan, Knight of Atanga."
Najin asked,
"Do you know rcenary Offen?"
Orland squeezed every bit of mory he had, trying to find an answer. He could rattle off the nas of countless powerful figures and tycoons, even their children's nas, but the nas Offen and Ivan did not exist in his mory.
From Orland's viewpoint, they were nas not worth rembering. Even if he had rembered them once, they were nas he would have forgotten.
A little ti passed.
Orland could not answer. As if he had expected that, Najin let out a dry laugh. He brought his raised sword down. One of Orland's eyes was cut.
"Ugh, uaaaaaaagh!"
Najin wanted to tear him to pieces right there as Orland scread and writhed, but he held back. It was not rcy.
The old man's cris were far too many to grant him a quick death here. Najin knew very well that for so people, death could be rcy.
At Najin's glance, soldiers bound Orland.
He would be judged by imperial law, and his sentence would be carried out before all people. A punishnt that would make even death feel kind was waiting for Orland.
2.
After Najin showed himself at the Starlight Order, events were settled quickly. Leaders of each nation, realizing they had been abandoned by the Carnival King, gave up command, and soldiers and knights who had lost the will to fight surrendered.
In war, so built achievents and so beca heroes, but recording that was the historians' job.
The flas of war, fast but fierce, died down.
"Do not punish those who surrendered. They only followed orders. Just do not miss those who must bear responsibility."
Under the Emperor's command, the Empire's Pillars moved.
They visited each country through the front gates. With armies collapsed, no one could block the steps of a Transcendent, so each nation's leaders had to receive the Empire's envoys properly.
They were envoys, and also reapers. Those who had played with demons lost their lives that day.
The Empire did not demand more than that. It ended matters with a warning that it would oversee the process of selecting new kings. Prolonged civil strife was exactly what demons wanted, and the Empire was both the center of the continent and the pivot of humanity.
The Empire quickly cald the chaos.
Ti passed.
The Carnival King's armies that had rampaged along the Outland border vanished without a sound, and the Carnival King's star that had painted the sky quieted down.
So said the plan she had prepared for ages had collapsed, and that after losing three court jesters she was as good as cornered. While so Constellations mocked her that way, the Carnival King's constellation surged.
Half her plan had failed.
But the other half had succeeded.
She was a scher and a strategist. People like that never bet everything on a single plan, and always dug second and third pits in advance.
Flash.
The Carnival King gained a new star. No one knew what she had obtained, but she got what she wanted.
The Star of rrint beca an eleven-star constellation.
The greatest constellation in the Outland shone.
...Ti passed.
About a month went by.
The flas of war had died out, and the winds of chaos had cald. Officials still lived busy days handling postwar cleanup, but peace had co to the continent. As people returned to daily life one by one... so could not.
"So."
Warm sunlight, and a drowsy afternoon breeze.
On a day when everyone else had finally exhaled,
"So, if I heard right. That fucking ba... no, that noble Sir Najin acquired a new star? So in that short span, two of them?"
"Yes, he had just set the record as the youngest six-star right before the war."
"And shortly after the war began, he beca seven-star?"
"Right."
"...Riiight, that part I can understand. He must have done sothing amazing in the war again. But."
Where the Empire's historians had gathered,
"Two Empire Pillars, the Praise Horn and the Annihilation Horn, fell? And the star of Carpe Diem, Demon King of Lantation, fell with them..."
"Correct."
"The Lighthouse that Illuminates All Things, which had one more hidden star, was revised as a special case to 'Lighthouse that Illuminates the Abyss,' and the Lighthouse Keeper Eurypylus's Star of Reverence also fell."
"Yes."
"Then one Transcendent from each nation fell, so four more Transcendent stars fell. That is how it goes."
"That is about right."
At minimum.
At minimum, nine constellations had fallen.
Not nine stars, nine constellations.
And the "noble" Sir Najin had gained two stars. The historians who had to record that fact quietly offered condolences to the Grey Tower.
And also,
They looked in mirrors and offered condolences to themselves.
"It would be nice if it ended here."
The historian smiled while rubbing his scalp, which had been full of hair two years ago and was now smooth. Up to now they had delayed one issue, saying it was warti and there were too many urgent matters.
Now they could not delay it anymore.
They had to handle the problem they had postponed and postponed.
In front of them lay a newspaper, and one short, heavy line printed on it. Sir Najin identified as owner of Excalibur. As the historians stared at that line, they let out laughs like n going mad.
"So the great and noble Sir Najin was the one who pulled Excalibur. My prophecy was right, huh? I did not know it myself, but I guess I had talent for prophecy!"
Historian Durek wailed.
He rembered joking at a drinking table, "That bastard, what if he even pulled Excalibur?" and scread.
"My god, my god! This is astonishing. So astonishing I can barely breathe!"
He really could not breathe, made choking noises, and collapsed. They should have raised him up, but thinking fainting might be kinder, the other historians could not wake him.
Great and noble Sir Najin.
By now, among the historians, "great and noble" had roughly flipped to an "fucking." They smacked their foreheads. The war was over, but a new war was about to begin for the historians and the Grey Tower.
3.
Under warm sunlight, Dieta leisurely lifted her teacup. The motion was elegant and refined. She took a sip of the black tea swirling in the cup and smiled. She was sitting in the garden of House Arbenia.
Now this place belonged to her.
Master of House Arbenia.
Golden-Coin-Eyed Duke, Dieta Arbenia.
She sipped her tea and read the newspaper with the sa smile as always. But looking closely, tea was trickling down from the corner of her mouth.
Rattle rattle rattle...
The fingers holding her teacup were trembling too.
"Najin?"
"Yes, Dieta."
She looked at the man seated across from her. Najin, casually eating snacks with his usual calm expression, as if nothing was strange. Dieta's eyes shook violently as she looked back and forth between him and the newspaper.
"Th-th-this, wh-what is this?"
"Ah, it is nothing much."
Najin reached his hand into empty air.
The instant he clenched it tight,
Excalibur appeared.
"Hk, hic. Hic...cup."
Dieta's breath caught as she stared at Excalibur. She made a gulping sound and fainted.
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