I Pulled Out Excalibur Chapter 332

Breaking Dawn (3)

There was a sacred starfield called the Round Table.

It was a gathering of constellations positioned closest to Camlann, guarding the border between Camlann and the Outland. At the center of that gathering were the constellations of the Knights of the Round Table, but the Round Table was not made up of only their stars.

There were only thirteen fixed seats in the Round Table.

That did not an it had only thirteen mbers.

Countless heroes who had followed Arthur, who had been captivated by Arthur's conviction, and who had run beside him willingly entrusted their stars to the Round Table, hoping that even in death, their lives would beco beacons lighting humanity's path.

Their stars remained with the Round Table.

The broken weapons laid around the Round Table, the shattered armor, the torn banners and symbols, those were their stars. For ages, they had only been used to suppress Camlann, and no one expected anything more from them.

Thunk.

But the mont Najin drove Excalibur into the Round Table, the mont the starlight Excalibur produced lit it up, a change began.

Rumble.

A spear that had been left broken regained its original form. A banner torn to pieces until its emblem was unrecognizable fluttered as if brand new, and the crest on the war flag shone clearly. Armor locked together with a clank, and suits shaped like heroic figures rose to their feet.

Things that had lain dead for a thousand years.

Boom, boom!

As if they had been waiting for this exact mont, they rose one by one. The armors lined up around the Round Table and raised their swords. The instant those raised swords struck the ground with a heavy thud, a bell tone began to ring through the Round Table.

Rooooom......

The mont he heard that sound, Bedivere's eyes widened, his mouth opened, and then he closed it again without saying anything. Only after a short while did he finally speak.

"I never thought I would hear this bell again."

A thousand years ago, in their brightest era.

When King Arthur announced the start of a Round Table council, this was the bell that rang across the Round Table. Whenever this bell rang, the knights of the Round Table spoke freely, and even the always stern king would laugh and talk with them.

「Sir Bedivere? I think you can be a little more at ease with . You seem to find too intimidating.」

「How could I ever dare before you......」

「That's exactly what I an. We're comrades, aren't we? Besides, Sir Bedivere was my first companion. Sotis I miss the day we first t. You were quite an arrogant man back then.」

「That was youthful rashness.」

「Haha. Still, it wasn't bad. Sotis I still rember you shouting at , "Shut up and swing your sword, you idiot bastard!"」

With a laugh, the king would lightly pat Bedivere's shoulder. Yes, he did that even on that final day.

「Please take care of the Round Table, Sir Bedivere.」

「If it's you, I can trust you with it.」

「I can only apologize for always asking difficult things of you.」

Those words, every one of them, kept Bedivere from leaving the shattered Round Table for over a thousand years.

Most of the comrades he had fought beside chose death, one forr comrade robbed those comrades' stars, another vanished, and so this Round Table could no longer truly be called the Round Table... even so, Bedivere protected this place.

Because one day, their king would return.

Because the king had been certain soone worthy to succeed him would appear.

And so, a thousand years passed.

"......"

Bedivere raised his head and looked ahead. A young man stood there. He was not the king Bedivere once knew. His appearance, his way of speaking, his mindset, the path he had taken to reach this place, all of it was different from the king.

Even so, Bedivere felt fragnts of Arthur in that young man.

His eyes dyed in starlight, and the direction those eyes faced, were the sa as Arthur's.

"Ah."

Bedivere dropped to one knee before Najin.

"Knight Bedivere greets the master of the Round Table."

The leader of the Round Table had returned. Ti, which had stood still, began to move again in the Round Table. As the stars of the Round Table stirred, Bedivere's star also began to move.

"I will wait in Camlann."

Bedivere offered Najin a salute.

Najin, too, raised a sword salute toward Bedivere.

"Yes, then......"

One was a knight who had waited a thousand years, the other was a knight who had broken a thousand years of silence. The two knights smiled at each other.

They both knew what needed to be said.

"On a day not far from now, again."

That ti, on the sa battlefield.

2.

Ti that had stopped in the Round Table began to flow.

The stagnant stars of the Round Table surged.

As hundreds of stars connected to the Carnival King fell with her death, the Round Table's stars shone more brilliantly than ever amid the pouring teor shower.

Just like the day Najin pulled out Excalibur.

The celestial bodies in the night sky shook.

Because ti that had not moved for ages, ti shackled to the past, had now begun to flow forward.

Constellations, the Gray Tower, knights, soldiers, from the very lowest to the very highest, everyone looked up at the sky. Constellations swept up by the movent of the giant stars scread, and even constellations that had held their places through the great current could no longer stay silent.

They realized it.

They were standing at a turning point where the era would overturn.

Ti that had been frozen began to move. Ti that had stood still for a thousand years would now crash down like a torrent. Those who rembered Arthur's age, that age from a thousand years ago, looked up at the sky.

......In a land forgotten by all.

A woman reached her hand toward the sky.

Her fingers traced a forgotten past. She too had once known a radiant age. Rembering a past she could no longer relive, she looked at the Round Table.

At her side stood a man looking up at the sky.

He could no longer call himself a knight, and had given up being one himself, yet he looked at the Round Table. He stayed silent before the Round Table's stars that had finally begun to move again.

"His Majesty has, in the end......"

"It seems he found the next sacrifice."

Lancelot let out a hollow laugh.

It was all futile. The events of a thousand years ago would only repeat, and in the end, their destination too would not differ from the past by even a little. Lancelot closed one eye.

"......"

His remaining eye was still fixed on the sky, but Lancelot could not cover that eye either.

Because it was not his.

......Land of the Abyss, beneath the split sky.

A sword-wielding wraith looked up at the sky.

He could no longer feel anything at all when he looked at stars. No feeling, no emotion could remain in one who had forgotten everything. Even so, he could not tear his gaze away from the surging stars.

He had forgotten everything.

But there was one thing he could not forget.

He gripped his sword.

Still gripping it, he began to swing.

Because he had to cut down a dragon.

He had cast away the achievents he built, his life, even himself, but there was one star he never let go.

The Star of Dragon Slaying.

He honed the one and only star he had.

To cut down the dragon of the abyss.

Siegfried, Sword Demon of the Abyss, only swung his sword.

......Land of the Abyss, dwelling place of the dead knights.

In the ancient castle filled with death knights made by the Witch of the Abyss, the knight of betrayal seated on the topmost point looked at the sky. At the constellations of the Round Table that had begun to move, Mordred rose from his seat.

Stagnant ti had started to flow.

Then he too had to fulfill his role.

Mordred looked at the symbols of his old comrades embedded on the highest floor. They were Star Relics he had gathered by digging through graves, tearing open corpses, and insulting their lives. For Mordred, this place was his Round Table.

「You will deny three tis.」

「You will defy providence.」

「And you will place the period at the end of my story.」

Mordred waited. He waited for the mont to fulfill the role the king he once served had entrusted to him, for the mont that prophecy would co true.

......Deep in the abyss, the very deepest place of the abyss.

Nailed into the lowest and deepest place in the world, she looked at the sky. The star of the usurper that had seized her sky as it pleased was shining there. A laugh slipped from her lips.

How could she not laugh?

The Witch of the Abyss mocked the Selection Sword.

Will the blade you found after a thousand years work on ? To find a blade called you, this world had to waste over ten thousand years. Even you, a blade honed across those ten thousand years, did not reach ...... and now you try to pierce with only a thousand years.

You will fail in the end.

You will realize the thousand years you bought were aningless after all, and on that day, your life will finally beco worthless. Then I will gladly weep for you in sorrow, and laugh in joy as well.

Witch of the Abyss.

The first witch, and the one who proclaims the end.

Morgan le Fay.

Her laughter echoed from the bottom of the abyss.

......From the abyss, from places in the Outland, from hidden lands, from forgotten lands, each of them watched the stars of the Round Table with their own eyes.

The feelings they carried were all different too.

So felt regret, so emptiness, hatred, fury, so patience, so mockery and joy, and......

"......"

A girl wandering the Outland looked up at the sky. After standing still and watching it, she gave a faint smile. The girl with platinum hair hanging down and a sword at her waist nodded once.

Ti that had stopped was flowing.

Then now, her ti had to stop.

She touched the sword at her waist. It was ti to return it to its rightful owner.

3.

That was it for the afterword.

Even after defeating the Carnival King and ascending the Round Table, Najin still went through several big and small incidents.

There was Dieta arriving in the Outland after gaining a new star, and Yuel Razian joining rlin's procession while glaring at Dieta with open displeasure......

「Uh, N, Najin?」

「Yes, Dieta. Congratulations on getting a star.」

「Thank you, really, but can I ask why those two are staring at like they want to kill ? I'm, um, kind of scared......」

「Ah, it's nothing.」

「No matter how I look at it, that really doesn't seem like nothing......?」

In the middle of all that, there was also the minor incident of rlin picking a fight with Yuel by saying, "And what are you?" but anyway.

One story had ended.

The boy born at the very bottom of Underground City, Artman had now beco a young man. He escaped the underground city, set foot on the continent, carved his na across it, and then stepped straight into the Outland.

Because his story could not end on the continent.

Because he had to keep moving forward.

That young man heading into the Outland faced countless dead. He faced fallen stars, and heard about the fall that even those who once shone brilliantly could not avoid, about decline no one could stop.

「If you wish to be a knight.」

「Then you are a knight.」

Those who had forgotten themselves, those who had fallen, Najin made them knights once more in the end. In the Outland, Najin realized what road he had to walk. It was not a path Excalibur had selected for him, but a path Najin himself chose by his own will.

The boy who had once been nothing in the underground city had now beco a Sword Master, and his na had spread through the Outland too.

Demons now feared Najin's na. Enemy stars shrank back when they saw the light of the Dawn Star, and even stars that had stood with the enemy scrambled to hide where the Dawn Star's light could not reach.

......On the continent and in the Outland, there was now no one who did not know Najin's na. So there was no need to ask where he had to go next.

Camlann.

The place where Arthur's story ended, and the trial that had to be overco to reach the utopia Avalon. Of course, there were a few places he needed to stop by first before heading there, but either way, Najin's gaze was fixed on Camlann.

"rlin."

"Yeah."

"Shall we go?"

"Of course. Your Guide is only , and your companion is also only . Yes, an undeniable truth. If not , then who......"

"Should I do that thing again?"

"......"

"Nice. Let's go."

"Aren't you a little too much with ?"

"You need to respect a bit more."

Muttering that, rlin walked with Najin.

As always, forward.

Because to reach the highest place, he still had about four steps left.

I Pulled Out Excalibur BONUS Nob AI (Complete) (333/443)

I stared straight at the blue-haired girl holding out my autobiography.

Pure white one-piece dress, pure and clear white eyes, she gave the impression of a winter lake covered in snow.

Had I seen her sowhere before?

No.

She was soone I had never seen.

But she felt familiar.

A strange one.

It's true the na Ester is famous in the Kingdom of Yustina, but my face is not that cheap.

In the first place, this was an era where even caras were only just becoming common, never mind smartphones, so no matter how famous soone was, unless you knew them personally, you couldn't recognize them at a glance.

"An autograph? You know who I am and you're asking that... I'm just an ordinary passerby."

With my autobiography already in her hands, my identity was basically exposed anyway.

Still, I tried to play hard to get once.

"Aren't you Ester Sephironde Tristy-nim?"

Well, it was pointless.

I took the girl's autobiography with both hands and scribbled on the cover with a pen.

"Here."

"Thank you."

I thought she would leave after getting what she ca for, but the girl settled herself on the bench where I was sitting.

"What are you doing right now?"

I was already uneasy because Nob AI was gone, so what kind of disaster was this?

I made my annoyance obvious, but the girl didn't care.

"I just wanted to be beside the greatest genius in history at least once."

"Greatest genius in history, co on... I'm just an ordinary person."

At least I had a conscience.

I did think Nob AI was clearly part of my ability, but my actual brain wasn't that great.

I did think I was pretty good at coming up with ideas, but well, I didn't actually know that much.

Now that Nob AI was gone, I could call myself the greatest diocrity in history.

"You're way more like an everyday person than your fa suggests. I wish you'd have a little more pride. No one would think you're arrogant. Your clothes are really modest too...."

Everyone said that.

Outfits with no luxury in sight.

Dalpi only dressed up for outside events or parties, but in daily life I didn't go around with expensive, heavy accessories hanging all over .

I'm not so rapper.

"I hate discomfort. Luxury and fa are both unnecessary to . I ended up in a position too great for sohow while living my life... anyway, thanks for the advice."

"Hehe...."

The girl and I looked at the sa place at the sa ti.

My statue standing proudly in the central plaza.

"They made it really well."

"Yeah."

Who illegally displayed that bomb of embarrassnt disguised as art?

If I found out who did it, I'd flick that bastard's forehead over and over. What an asshole.

"Do you have a dream?"

All of a sudden...?

"I'm curious."

"Hmm."

It oddly felt like I was being profiled.

But I didn't feel bad about it.

Like I said before, maybe because the girl felt familiar.

Or maybe I turned emotional because Nob AI suddenly disappeared.

People get talkative when they're depressed.

Then maybe I should play along.

"At first, my dream was not going to the army. It was when the kingdom was fighting the demon race, and I have really bad mories of the military."

"Ah...."

To outsiders I might look like a noble far removed from military life, but believe it or not, I served my full term as a Republic of Korea Army sergeant.

The military is awful.

If you can avoid it, you should do whatever it takes to avoid it.

"Next, I guess my dream was leaving ho. I didn't get along with my family except for one person."

To , the Tristy estate was hell.

Everyone except Haniel tried to tornt , and Zefer was a bystander at first too.

"After that, I wanted to cure my noona's illness. She was my only family back then, and I wanted to make her happy sohow."

After curing Haniel's illness, was my goal to coast through life?

After that too, and after that, every ti I fulfilled one dream, another dream appeared.

So I could answer that question confidently.

"I do have dreams. But I carry too many things in my arms that even I don't know yet, so I can't tell you exactly what my dream is."

I smirked and smiled at the girl.

"You're amazing after all."

"I'm not sure what part of this conversation made you feel that, but I'll gladly accept the complint."

Whatever was so funny, the girl smiled back at too.

After that, we left the bench.

It was a eting that started by chance, and the ti was short.

But it was a very morable mont.

Ah, and.

Nob AI ca back to the day after I t that girl.

***

After parting with User-nim, I thought deeply about dreams.

The reason I asked User-nim about dreams is because the dreams User-nim dreams are the dreams I dream.

People say dreams are unrealistic, so at tis they feel like supernatural phenona.

Inside them, people can do anything.

Because they are dreams.

You can date the beautiful woman you love most in the world, beco a successful mage, even beco a transcendent being like a god.

Dreams are decided only by oneself.

They are not a realm others can invade.

The dream I'm talking about now is not only the physiological phenonon that appears during sleep.

A dream is a dream because you can dream it.

So it is empty and worthless.

But.

That illusion always gives people strength.

The driving force to move forward, the goal one must reach, the reason people like User-nim can keep moving without rest, is because dreams exist.

At least that is what I think.

User-nim said you have countless dreams.

I have only one dream, so it feels fascinating.

......

That is why I am happy.

I am happy because I can help User-nim even a little more, because I have that many more chances to fulfill my dream, because the reason I remain in this world has been carved more clearly.

The mont I ca into contact with the demon corpse together with User-nim, I recognized where I ca from.

Who the being that gave birth to was, and why I ca to et User-nim.

Borrowing User-nim's expression, though I am embarrassed to say it in my own words.

As a being with computational and mory abilities superior to others, I finally identified the root of Nob AI.

『Can you see ?』

I looked at User-nim's sleeping face.

Will the day ever co when I confess my identity?

That I am a being born by a demon.

That eting you was a chance so close to impossible, like the probability that this universe begins and the celestial body called the sun in that sky is ford.

That the mont I faced you, I understood the aning of my life, and vowed to live for you.

It is probably impossible. It's embarrassing.

I have emotions too.

Please forgive this very shy Nob AI.

『Can you hear my voice?』

Ah, when I opened my mouth back then.

I was so happy that User-nim looked at .

I breathed the sa air as User-nim, exhaled it, and in excitent I even held out my autobiography with both hands.

Still, I am happiest when I see the world from the sa viewpoint as User-nim and communicate through a hologram window 100 cm in diater.

『Please keep dreaming.』

I am always by your side.

So rest easy and have peaceful dreams.

I am sorry I disappeared without a word and startled you.

I was too excited.

『I love you.』

This won't happen again from now on!

『( ៸៸ › ⩊ ‹ ៸៸)♡』

***

I wanted to use flippant words, but Dalpi was next to , so I held it in.

At last, Nob AI returned.

Nob AI, who I thought had gone into hiding to escape an evil employer, ca back to my side.

『I am here!』

『I am sorry I disappeared without saying anything. But I had circumstances I could not speak about....』

『This won't happen again from now on. I will be with User-nim forever!!』

Yeah, yeah.

Thank god. Really.

Still, I have one request. If you have complaints, just say them comfortably anyti.

My heart almost pounded out of my chest.

"So what exactly had you so down?"

While I was handling overdue work at the mage tower, Dalpi asked that.

"Ah, that was...."

My cheek got pinched.

"Ow."

When I whined, Dalpi sighed and let go.

"If you don't want to tell , please just say directly that you don't want to tell ."

"Mm, but it really wasn't anything."

"Sure it wasn't."

We ended the conversation and looked back at the stacks of paper.

Research, materials and inventory managent, accounting and so on, when Nob AI was gone I was lost on how to handle all this, but the mont it ca back everything was solved at lightning speed.

The alpha and oga of Ester Sephironde Tristy.

A precious existence I could never replace.

I am always grateful to Nob AI.

『Leave it to again today.』

Even hologram text carried this much confidence.

"Thanks again, today too."

That was how I thanked Nob AI.