Who Am I? (5)
With the entire continent watching, Najin declared war on the Carnival King. That was originally the Emperor's role, but the Emperor willingly gave Najin the stage because he judged it was right.
The one who held the Sword of Selection.
The one who stood with the Staff of Selection.
When Najin raised Excalibur, everyone watching was reminded of the great hero Arthur. Whether they had lived in Arthur's era did not matter. Even if they had not seen it with their own eyes, they had heard the stories.
The Arthurian legend.
There was no one who did not know that tale.
And in the mont when that story, halted a thousand years ago, began to move again, the continent beca one and erupted. Countless knights roared. From every direction, war horns rang out to announce the start of battle.
"Kill the demons. Sweep away the darkness. Let the demons know their natural enemy has arrived. The stars are with us!"
Knights, rcenaries, soldiers, nobles, commoners... regardless of rank, title, or status, the continent shouted as one. Death to demons. Nothing but death. Their fervor set the air itself ablaze.
How could they not be exhilarated?
A descendant of the hero who opened the first page of the Empire's history had appeared. At his side stood rlin, Arthur's guide and a living legend, the great archmage. The stopped second hand began ticking again, and the age was about to turn violently.
Everyone standing there, at the place where history itself was moving, felt it.
In the growing fever, Najin turned around. An arena created by the Magic Tower's mages was rising into the sky. Stepping onto the stairs leading there, Najin climbed upward. On the opposite side, Yuel climbed as well.
A duel unfolding before all people.
It was both a promise with Yuel and a chance to announce sothing to the entire continent. What exactly? Najin asked himself. The answer was simple.
What it ant that he had drawn Excalibur.
And whether he truly had the strength to declare war on a demon with eleven stars.
"Yuel Razian."
Executioner of the Starblood Sect. Great Champion of the Thorned Martyr.
Sword Master.
"Najin."
Dawn Horn. Free Knight. Master of Excalibur.
Sword Master.
With the whole continent's gaze fixed on them, the two pointed their swords at each other.
2.
The duel began.
As the rare clash between one Transcendent and another was broadcast through the mages' magic, the crowd watched with bated breath.
Battles between Transcendents might not be rare in the Outland, but the continent was different. On the continent, clashes between Transcendents were almost unheard of.
And then, Kaaaang!
The deafening crash from the arena shook the square.
No matter how much they controlled their strength, no matter how much they held back and avoided killing moves, this was still a duel between Transcendents. Every ti their blades struck, thunderous noise exploded, and violent wind whipped through the air.
Shhhhk.
After a brief exchange, Yuel was pushed back. She felt the corner of her mouth trembling. She covered her lips with her palm, but she could not hide the excitent spilling from her eyes.
So, you really reached Transcendence.
The instant their swords t, the vibration running through her grip made Yuel shiver. Different. Completely different. The Najin she knew, the one she had seen about a month ago, and the young man before her now were not the sa person at all.
She had first t Najin only about two years ago.
On the day she said, "Soday, I would like to duel you," Yuel had thought it would take ten years at the very fastest. Even that had been generous. She had expected to wait twenty, maybe thirty years.
But now, right in front of her.
"..."
There stood a young man who had reached Transcendence in only two years. Not ten years, two. A once-in-an-age genius who had beco a Sword Master in that ti. Yuel's lips twitched.
"Ah, ha."
In the end, she could not hold back and laughed.
A young man who stood at her level.
Yuel felt no humiliation, no jealousy, not even now that he had caught up to her. Instead, she rejoiced that a worthy opponent had appeared. The mont she had longed for had co, and she could not contain her thrill.
She wanted to see it.
How far he could go. How far he could chase her. How far he could drive her.
'Even if I break the promise, just a little more...'
She wanted to see. Just as Yuel was about to draw more sword aura than they had agreed on, she suddenly looked at her own hand. The hand gripping the sword hilt, the hand about to tense... was being gripped by her other hand. As if she were stopping herself from going farther.
If she went beyond this, she might inflict a fatal wound.
If she went beyond this, bloodshed would be unavoidable.
That thought circled her mind, and Yuel narrowed her eyes. But was that not exactly what she wanted? A blood-soaked fight, a tense duel where life and death crossed, that was what she desired.
With doubt rising, Yuel swung her sword.
She clashed with Najin again.
'Ah... yes, definitely.'
She thought, yes, if she pushed harder and turned this into a bloody duel, she would not escape responsibility. That had not been agreed beforehand.
Kang!
The Emperor, the Empire's Pillars, even the sect itself would hold her accountable. If that happened, there was a high chance her current privileges would be reduced.
Kaaaang!
So yes, objectively, that would be a loss. As she moved toward that conclusion, Yuel frowned. No. Was it not a risk worth taking for imdiate pleasure? More enjoyable than cutting down hundreds of nobodies would be a blood-spraying duel with the one in front of her.
Contradiction. Yuel felt a contradiction appear in the judgnt that had always been constant, and her eyes narrowed.
'Why?'
This terrifyingly rational killer found the answer at once. She never made excuses to herself. She had always lived in a straight line. And so, she recognized the emotion she was feeling now.
Yuel Razian could not put that emotion into words.
She lacked most ordinary feelings, so she could not identify this one exactly... but what she felt now was the kind of feeling a child might feel.
A child who had, for the first ti, found a cherished toy.
A child handling it carefully, hoping to play with it for as long as possible. Yuel did not understand that she was doing exactly that. She only knew that, besides joy, she also felt anxiety.
What if it breaks? What if I play too rough and break it...
Feeling that anxiety for the first ti, Yuel bit her lip. Even with the long-awaited chance for a blood-splattered duel, she instead loosened her grip. Yuel was pushed far back and wore a conflicted expression.
And while she stood there, frowning at the sword in her hand.
"..."
Najin pointed his sword at her.
Then, flash.
He raised the output of his sword aura. One step above what they had promised. A level where blood might fly, where they might get hurt a little. Yuel's eyes widened as she watched Najin's sword aura.
"..."
Without a word, Najin tilted the tip of his sword. He said nothing, but Yuel understood.
'Looks like this won't satisfy you.'
Najin smiled.
'How about this? Should we raise it a bit?'
No need to worry. I will not break from just this much. Seeing Najin move as if he had read her thoughts, Yuel laughed. She burst into laughter.
"Good."
With a pure smile that suited her not at all, Yuel drew up her sword aura. Her anxiety was long gone. She charged at Najin.
Sword t sword.
Techniques crossed.
And a few drops of blood flew.
If this had been the old Najin, that attack might have dealt a fatal wound, but now only a few drops of blood scattered. And it was not only Najin who bled. A drop of blood ford on Yuel's forearm where his blade had grazed her.
Between those scattering drops, her crimson eyes shone. It looked like they were glittering in Excalibur's starlight, and it also looked like they were glistening with excitent.
Maybe both were true.
In this mont, Yuel was having fun. Even without using killing blows, even without using the techniques she had honed solely to kill, even while fighting in a kind of duel her usual self would not have liked much.
She enjoyed it. She enjoyed it enough that Yuel Razian smiled.
The sound created by the two Transcendents rang through the square. The clash of blades, faint laughter, feet kicking off the ground, and sword aura grinding against sword aura all echoed together.
Countless spectators watched in silence, holding their breath.
Then, at so point, the duel ended abruptly. A crossing strike stopped at the sa instant in front of each other's shoulder. At a distance where one more handspan would have caused a fatal wound, both stopped as if they had agreed.
Close enough for their breath to touch, Yuel and Najin looked at each other.
To here?
Yes, to here.
Finishing the conversation with their eyes, they lowered their swords together and each stepped back once.
Then they offered a Sword Salute.
The audience, who had held their breath, erupted in cheers. With thunderous applause ringing around them, the duel ca to an end.
3.
"The Starblood Sect promises unlimited cooperation in the war against the Carnival King. Extermination of demons is the Starblood Sect's lifelong wish."
After the duel ended, Yuel spoke with Najin as the Starblood Sect's representative.
"But one condition is necessary."
"A condition?"
"Yes. Even aside from the Starblood Sect, if a large-scale war is about to begin, this point must be settled clearly first."
One condition. Yuel said there was sothing that had to be done in advance, even to win the great war about to unfold.
"The mont you head for the Outland, many Transcendents will welco you. The Empire has surely considered this as well. The instant our side crosses the Outland boundary, a great war will begin from that point onward."
A war led by Transcendents.
What rlin once called "what will happen the mont Excalibur is drawn" would beco reality. Of course, Najin had reached Transcendence and could endure that tide without being swept away. But that only applied to Najin himself.
A battlefield where nurous Transcendents would descend.
In that chaos, no one could guarantee that all allies would survive.
"On the day you revealed Excalibur, the Carnival King approached many Constellations. Constellations that despise everything connected to King Arthur. Even if they do not agree with the Carnival King's ideology, they will gladly cooperate with her if it ans killing you."
Najin nodded. It was true.
If half the world had been Arthur's allies,
the other half had been enemies who loathed him.
"And."
Yuel spoke.
"He will appear in that battle without fail."
He? Najin tilted his head, and Yuel told him it was likely a Constellation familiar to him as well.
"Heaven-Flowing Star."
Heaven-Flowing Star, Icarus.
"The master of the star-devouring whales is naturally drawn to the brightest star. The Carnival King has a thod to lure Icarus to a specific place. She will definitely place Icarus near the battlefield."
Hundreds of thousands of star-devouring whales.
A Constellation optimized for chaotic mass combat, one with an overwhelming advantage in large-scale war, was now certain to intervene.
"If Heaven-Flowing Star is not subjugated, this war cannot stand."
Otherwise, before the war truly began, over half the allied forces would be ground to pieces.
'Subjugating Heaven-Flowing Star...'
Najin rubbed his chin. As far as he rembered, Heaven-Flowing Star was a Transcendent who had lived at least nine hundred years. Close to forgotten stars, perhaps, but still as strong as ever.
How were they supposed to deal with hundreds of thousands of whales?
While Najin was thinking, soone jabbed his side hard, twice. He turned and found rlin standing there, fully materialized before he even noticed. Ever since she gained the ability to materialize by borrowing Excalibur's starlight, rlin had been moving between Najin's Imagery and reality as if coming and going from her own ho.
"What is it, rlin?"
Najin reacted calmly, but everyone else could not. Starblood Sect officials and imperial bureaucrats gathered there opened their eyes wide. In front of rlin, who had suddenly appeared, they bowed their heads.
"We greet Great Sage rlin-nim, guide of the great king and grand mage of the lake..."
Hearing their cries, the corner of rlin's mouth twitched, but Najin pretended not to see. Even so, it was hard to pretend he had not heard her next line.
"Who do you think I am? As those kids said, am I not the Great Sage who has seen through truth itself?"
rlin gave a fake cough, placed a hand on her chest, and smiled with full confidence. Najin thought to himself, That makes 161 tis.
"I know plenty of ways to subjugate Heaven-Flowing Star."
Inside his head, Najin raised both the count and the frequency of how often he would fire back at rlin with, "Who am I?"
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