Who Am I? (4)
Two years ago, soone drew Excalibur.
Since that day, when the sky shook and the constellations were rearranged, the whole world had fixed its eyes on the continent's three Sword Masters.
Sword Saint, Karan.
First Horn of the Empire, Gerd.
Executioner, Yuel Razian.
Those three had long been seen as the leading candidates to draw the Holy Sword. People insisted it had to be one of them, and could not even imagine anyone else.
Ti passed with people repeating only those nas: Gerd, Yuel, Karan.
Then, one day, after still more ti had passed, a single boy began to stand out.
He ca to Cambria, the City of Opportunity, and in a short ti accomplished one remarkable feat after another. He killed a Demon Knight, hunted down a dark mage, and slew the two dragons at Stonehenge.
Youngest White Rank adventurer.
Youngest Sword Seeker.
Youngest two-star.
The boy kept walking, piling up achievents the whole continent could not ignore. Before the Emperor himself, he proudly declared his na. A boy born in the underground city, a boy no one had cared about, now had his na known across the entire continent.
"......"
Najin walked in silence.
As he moved down the long corridor of the Imperial Palace, he recalled the past.
Tap.
He left Cambria and headed for the Outland. As if the road ahead were still far too long, he never stopped for even a mont and kept running forward.
Tap.
He saw countless Forgotten Ones. He saw struggling stars, and saw so of them beco Forgotten Ones in the end. He t many people, learned much, and achieved great deeds.
Tap.
Now Najin had seven stars. He had stepped into Transcendence and no longer needed to hide himself. Excalibur at his waist shone faintly.
"......"
At the end of the corridor, Najin took a short breath, then stepped out.
Sunlight poured down. What entered his sight was the Empire's great plaza, a raised platform, and a stage.
The mont he left the corridor, he felt eyes on him.
Seats were divided by status, high and low, but the heat they gave off was the sa. In an instant, the gaze of a crowd that seed to stretch to the horizon focused on Najin.
Countless eyes, countless pupils, countless spectators.
Their cheers filled the great plaza. Outside the line guarded by knights, they roared, shouted, and scread in excitent. Amid voices loud enough to shake the earth, Najin saw it.
Clank, thud!
The Imperial knights lined up before him all dropped to one knee. Still kneeling, they raised their weapons. This was different from a routine salute.
To draw Excalibur ant inheriting Arthur's will, and for knights, the weight of Arthur's na needed no explanation. No matter how far a knight had fallen from honor and pride, before Arthur they still wanted to be a knight.
Before the heir of Knight King Arthur, the knights willingly bowed their heads. Holding up the brightest things they possessed, they lit the path Najin would walk.
He passed between them.
The Free Knight's coat fluttered. The shoulder guard, symbol of the Golden Horn Knights, and the military banner tied to it, symbol of Aldaran Vasaglia, swayed in the wind.
Najin stopped at the center of the great plaza.
When he looked up, Arthur's star was there. Beneath Arthur's star, likely at the exact place where Excalibur had been planted two years ago, Najin raised Excalibur high. Excalibur, engraved with Najin's star, shone.
「Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!」
In the crashing storm of cheers, Najin spoke.
"rlin."
A mont earlier, she had co with him up to the corridor, then muttered, "No, this needs a more dramatic entrance," and slipped right into Najin's inner world. He called her na.
As if she had been waiting for that exact instant.
Flash.
rlin appeared with starlight. Silence swallowed the audience for a mont. Who was this girl who had appeared out of nowhere beside Najin? Silence turned to shock, then shock turned into a roar.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Then soone's shrill scream rang out.
It ca not from outside the knights' line, but from inside it. The eyes of high Imperial officials, the Emperor, and the Pillars all turned toward the sound.
A woman stood there with both hands clamped over her mouth. She had jumped up from her seat, eyes wide, staring at rlin with overflowing emotion.
It was Cipria Gachevskaya, Tower Master of the Platinum Tower.
She was not the only one moved. Starting with Nayuta, Tower Master of the Grey Tower, the other tower masters showed reactions nearly as intense as Cipria's.
...rlin, Staff of Selection.
The first person in human history to reach the realm of ten circles, a ten-circle archmage. The one who gave form to mysteries no one else could define, and laid the foundation for the magic system humanity uses today... a figure like the teacher of all mages.
To mages, rlin ant at least as much as King Arthur ant to knights. Her na had been printed in the papers they studied as apprentices, and in all kinds of magic books.
"Huhk......"
While the Empire's greatest archmages gasped and cast aside all dignity and composure in shock, rlin kept a blank face, like a great sage detached from all worldly things.
At least, that was how it looked to others.
To Najin, it did not.
He saw the corners of rlin's lips trembling because she could barely contain her excitent, and laughed inwardly.
2.
A few mages fainted when rlin appeared, but the ceremony continued as planned. With the Empire's representative knights, the magic towers, and the Empire's Pillars watching, the Emperor rose.
"A thousand years have passed."
The Emperor spoke.
"It has been a thousand years since the great King Arthur left us. A thousand years have already passed since the age of chaos ended."
In front of the people of the Empire, he began his speech. As he read the prepared lines, Emperor Elwin Pendragon thought, I never expected I would be the one reading this.
"The demons were driven into the Outland, the Witch of Camlann was sealed, and peace ca to the continent. Today we live peaceful lives under the sun."
There was a story passed down from Emperor to Emperor in the Empire.
"But is this peace truly free and without price? The land beneath our feet is stained with the blood of heroes led by King Arthur. The Empire, and every nation of mankind, must never forget that they were built upon the sacrifices of great heroes."
Soday, no matter how long it took, soone would surely draw Excalibur. And when that person appeared before the Empire, they were to gladly offer that person the seat kept empty for them.
「That is both the duty those who bear the Pendragon na must uphold, and the privilege granted only to us.」
Rembering his grandfather's words, Elwin smiled.
"Today, after a thousand years."
Elwin walked toward Najin.
"A new hero has appeared before us. Is he a hero only because he drew Excalibur? No, that alone is not enough."
The Emperor smiled.
"This man is a Free Knight. He was a Free Knight even before the world learned he held Excalibur, and his worth is guaranteed by and by the honorable knights of Atanga."
As if answering those words, the knights of Atanga stamped their feet. The clank of interlocking armor rang out.
"He made lost Forgotten Ones into knights, and in place of the Empire, he gave funerals to the knights the Empire had lost and forgotten."
A knight for knights, the Free Knight.
Najin had walked a path worthy of that na.
"Now, as wicked demons stretch their claws across the continent, this man noticed their movents faster than anyone and boldly leapt into the battlefield of Transcendents. How noble is that? We all know what we call soone who throws away his life for the Empire, and beyond that, for mankind."
“Hero!” the people of the Empire roared.
"That is right! We call such noble beings heroes. Here stands a hero. A hero who fought the demons threatening the Empire, and stopped the cursed traitor of Camlann who sought to set foot on human land!"
As the cheers grew louder, the Emperor willingly dropped to one knee before Najin.
"I, Elwin Pendragon, Emperor of the Empire, greet the heir of the great hero and the great archmage."
There was no hesitation in any of his movents.
The Emperor, a man above ten thousand others, knelt before Najin. Silence fell over the audience, and the Emperor, who had always looked down on all things, looked up at Najin and rlin and said:
"Blessings upon the birth of a new hero."
Like a wave, the countless crowd bowed their heads. Even the Emperor had bowed, and none could keep their heads raised.
"Glory to the hero who laid mankind's foundation."
After those words, the Emperor stood and draped Najin with a sash. It was the sa kind worn by the Empire's Pillars, yet sohow different from theirs.
He belonged to the Five Pillars of the Empire, but no one dared assign him an order.
Arthur was the one who set the Empire's Cornerstone. So to the heir of the hero at the Empire's starting point, the Emperor attached no number. He simply granted a new title modeled after the na of Najin's star.
Dawn Horn.
As cheers erupted, the Emperor stepped back one pace. As the Emperor moved back, Najin stepped forward.
Najin steadied his breathing.
3.
Najin had never practiced speeches.
He had never been confident he could speak stylishly in front of others. Still, when there was sothing he had to say, he knew how to deliver it.
He slamd down the Lance of the Crossed Star.
Boom.
The banner of the Golden Horn Knights hanging from the shaft fluttered. With the whole continent watching, Najin spoke.
"Knights."
The knights' eyes turned to him.
"Soldiers of the Empire."
The soldiers' eyes turned to him.
"Continent."
Under the gaze of the whole continent, Najin raised his sword. The raised Excalibur pointed at the sky. He knew what stars were hidden beyond that curtain in this sky where stars did not shine.
He had no intention of letting demons hide.
At the sa mont the Star of Dawn shone, one side of the sky collapsed. There sat a grotesque star, the star of the Carnival King. Pointing his sword at the Carnival King’s star, Najin spoke.
"There is a demon called the Carnival King."
A demon.
"That disgusting demon tramples pride. It stains honor. It mocks lives, toys with them, and laughs in rrint. Even the life of the noblest hero falls into nothing but a clown show before the Carnival King."
That was what demons were, by nature.
"I cannot tolerate that truth."
Najin spoke as if spitting the words out.
"I cannot tolerate that being either."
Carnival King. Now the continent knew that na too. They had learned she stood behind this war. With every eye on him, Najin brought down his raised sword.
Starlight shot high into the sky.
It could not cut the Carnival King's star itself, but it cut apart the distortion that star created.
"Excalibur is a sword that cuts demons."
Najin reached into his Free Knight coat. What he pulled out had been saved for this day, an item that symbolized the Golden Horn Knights. Raising the horn, Najin shouted.
"I will cut down the Carnival King.
No matter what stands in my way.
I will cut down the Carnival King, no matter what."
Did one need a reason to cut down a demon? As knights shouted, Najin blew the horn. Buuuuuu, a heavy sound rang out across the whole continent.
It was the signal for the opening of war.
His cloak, woven from the Golden Horn Knights' banner and the banners of those defiled by the Carnival King, flapped as Najin smiled.
"The Star of Dawn is the star that lights darkness."
Pointing at his shining star, he said:
"To demons, and beyond that to Camlann, to those who call themselves eternal darkness, I will show them."
Show them what.
"They are not an eternal night. They are only a brief darkness that cos after sunset. Darkness that vanishes helplessly when the sun rises."
The Star of Dawn shone.
"The long night is over."
From all across the continent, horns began to sound.
"Tell them that dawn has arrived. That the star they feared has risen."
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