Beyond the World, Outer Land (1)
What is a dragon?
From the age of origins, through the age of chaos, and on into the age of myth that birthed Arthur and a host of other heroes—dragons have existed through every era. Beings who opened their eyes at the world's beginning and will close them only when the end arrives.
Unchanging. Undying. Eternal.
That is what it means to be called a dragon.
Yet some say otherwise. That however noble they once may have been, they are now nothing more than beasts. That they are grotesque monsters who take pleasure only in devouring life and reducing it to ash. So the world points its finger at dragons and condemns them.
"They're not wrong."
The mage who had lived through the age of myth, when the dragons' corruption first began, propped her chin on her hand and let out a sigh.
"Dragons were originally lofty beings. Not all of them, but there were dragons that were truly noble and pure—until the Dragon of the Abyss appeared."
The Mage of the Lake. Merlin.
"A dragon cannot go against its source. The first and last dragon. The origin and the end—the Dragon of the Abyss. From the moment that monster wished for the world's destruction, it was only natural that every dragon would start to lose its mind."
She shook her head as if the very thought disgusted her.
"The problem is, even after they've fallen to the level of mere beasts, the Mystery inherent to the dragon race itself hasn't vanished."
"Mystery?"
"Yeah. Remember what I told you before? Mystery is something that settles into special races or objects."
Najin nodded. He remembered. Merlin had once explained it while pointing to Yuel, a human who carried Mystery within her.
"And dragons are one of those races."
"So what Mystery do dragons possess?"
"Immutability. Immortality. Eternity."
Immutability—never changing.
Immortality—never crumbling away into nothing.
Eternity—a being unbound by time.
"When I first defined the concept of Mystery, there were about three races that left me completely speechless. Dragons were one of them. The other two were witches and giants. Those bastards are cheats just by existing. They're running a scam at the species level."
Merlin clicked her tongue.
"They're perfect from the moment they're born. They live out eternity in that perfect state. The scales those lizards wear will bounce off any ordinary sword aura, and they'll shrug off any magic below the fifth circle like it's nothing. And that's not even the worst of it."
She opened her mouth and made a long kyaaaa sound.
When Najin shot her a look that said what the hell are you doing, Merlin sheepishly twisted a lock of her hair around her finger.
"And when you get to their breath, you're looking at sixth-circle magic at minimum. No price paid. Just by the fact that they were born, they spit fire that melts entire fortress walls. As for the Dragon of the Abyss... I don't even want to think about it."
And what of their mouths, for that matter?
Once you're swallowed, that's the end. A dragon's maw opens onto an entirely different world. Muttering that under her breath, Merlin stretched.
"Anyway. That ran long."
She shifted closer to Najin's side and flicked her fingers. Water droplets floating in the air drifted over until they hung right in front of his nose—droplets stained white and red.
"The dragons you're going to face this time—the Red Dragon and the White Dragon—are basically the same. The key is how to temporarily separate them from their Mystery... but I'll get to that later."
"Hold on, Merlin."
Najin cut her off. He was fine listening to an explanation of a dragon hunt, but there was one point he needed to clear up first.
"Hunting dragons is fine. The chance to claim a star is fine too. But."
"Yeah?"
"Aren't the White Dragon and the Red Dragon sealed? Under Stonehenge. The hero tales say you sealed them."
He had read the Chronicle of Arthur more times than he could count. In its opening chapter, the White Dragon and the Red Dragon were cast into the earth by Arthur and sealed beneath Stonehenge by Merlin. That was how the story went. So how, exactly, were they supposed to hunt two sealed dragons?
"Don't tell me you're planning to pull them out of the seal."
Najin frowned. That idea sat poorly with him. Dragging sealed dragons out into the open just to hunt them would be nothing more than a staged farce—and he doubted anyone earned a star from a farce.
"What? Why would I pull them out?"
Merlin tilted her head at his question.
"They'll break free on their own."
"What are you talking about?"
"You pulled Excalibur, didn't you?"
"I did."
"The world doesn't know that you were the one who pulled it—but the fact that the holy sword was drawn has already spread across the whole world. Not just the inland continent. Beyond the world itself. All the way to Kamran."
On the day Najin pulled Excalibur, the night sky had heaved with Arthur's constellation at its head. A sky in turmoil. Constellations flaring and flickering. The tremor they created had been more than enough to wake those who slept.
"Time that stood still for a thousand years has started moving again."
Merlin's blue eyes fixed on him.
"A new myth is about to be written. You really think the beings of the age of myth who were asleep would just stay lying down? The Red Dragon and the White Dragon are only the beginning. More will rise. Everything Arthur struck down, everything Arthur cast from the sky—one by one, they'll lift their heads."
Her finger pointed straight at Najin.
"To kill Arthur's heir."
2.
It was the second day of planning the dragon hunt with Merlin when a summons arrived from the Central Guild. The matter was a rank promotion—and in this case, no separate examination was required.
Najin had already been recognized as a Sword Seeker before three Sword Masters and the Emperor himself. The Emperor had personally celebrated the fact. To put him through another test now would have been as good as insulting the Emperor's authority.
On top of that, endless baseless rumors about Najin's affiliations were circulating in and around Cambria, so the Central Guild judged it best to promote him quickly. As a result, his promotion ceremony advanced at an unprecedented pace.
Najin had been a Red-grade adventurer.
Above Red-grade, only one rank remained.
White. White-grade. The pinnacle of the adventurer city. Holding Najin in place with a White-grade seat was not particularly appealing in itself—but the protection of the Cambria Foundation that came with it left him no reason to refuse.
Following Cambria tradition, the ceremony was held before every adventurer who wished to watch. A vast crowd gathered in front of the Central Guild, and people poured in from outside Cambria as well, all of them eager for a look at the face of the youngest Sword Seeker.
So that's the youngest Sword Seeker.
Younger than I expected.
Young, but there's life in those eyes. A warrior's eyes.
He's seen real combat. His stance is settled.
Among them were knights and mercenaries of some renown, and they studied Najin on the dais while trading observations among themselves.
Tap.
When the appointed hour arrived, a noble climbed the platform. A White-grade adventurer was as good as a representative of Cambria itself, so it was tradition for a noble of the Cambria Foundation to take part in the ceremony.
This time, Marquis Edelmar ascended as the Foundation's representative. He already had a personal connection to Najin and held the highest standing within the Foundation, making him the natural choice to preside.
"Congratulations on your promotion."
He drew a nameplate from a wooden case.
Unlike ordinary plates, this one had been forged from a rare metal and caught the sunlight as it glittered. The pure-white plate was engraved not with Ivan, but with the name Najin.
Kneeling on one knee with his head bowed, Najin received the nameplate and medal from Marquis Edelmar as Cambria's representative. With that, Najin became a White-grade adventurer. Eight months after setting foot in Cambria, he had climbed to the city's summit.
Through a storm of applause, Najin rose to his feet. Bearing the gazes of countless adventurers and outsiders alike, he stepped down from the dais.
Youngest Sword Seeker.
Youngest White-grade adventurer.
It was tradition in the city to bestow an epithet upon White-grade adventurers—but in Najin's case, he had already become so famous that the adventurers hardly needed to invent one. The world already had a name for him.
Nova.
It suited the boy who had appeared out of nowhere and shattered every youngest record beyond all expectation. When Dieta later passed the epithet along to him, Najin burst out laughing.
"I haven't even claimed a star yet, and they're calling me Nova."
Even as he laughed, he did not deny that he rather liked the name. He also knew, however, that not everyone used "Nova" with goodwill.
A nova was a star that blazed into sudden brilliance—but it was also a star that flared once and vanished. The epithet carried both meanings.
Which of those two meanings would stick would be decided by the path he walked from here. And of course, Najin had no intention of flaring once and disappearing. On the contrary—he meant to live up to the name and seize an actual star for himself.
Not long after he rose to White-grade, another letter reached him. Delivered in secret, it was a White-grade summons—an official missive concerning a large-scale quest commissioned by the Central Guild.
In other words—
the letter detailed the forthcoming subjugation of the two dragons that would soon awaken.
3.
Deep within the Central Guild, past layers of heavy security, a conference room had been prepared. Five seats waited inside; three of them were already occupied when Najin arrived.
Bashen Corte.
Richard Polsen.
Roselyn Ascalo.
All three were White-grade adventurers, and two of them were already known to him. Bashen Corte and Roselyn Ascalo. He had exchanged a few words with Bashen once before while dealing with the Church's raiders, and he crossed paths with Roselyn often enough in ordinary life.
"Well, damn. Didn't expect to run into the brat here. Good to see you."
Right after he became a Sword Seeker she had still called him Ivan—but once his age came out, Roselyn had switched to calling him brat. He had questioned her about it once.
Hell, what else am I supposed to call an eighteen-year-old? A brat.
You want me to use your name, come beat me first. Then I'll throw a "sir" on it for free.
That had been her only answer.
Remembering it now, Najin gave a bitter smile and nodded. He was about to find his seat when Roselyn slapped the empty chair beside her with her palm.
"Where do you think you're going? Sit here."
"That's not my seat."
Najin pointed at the nameplate resting on the chair. The name engraved on it was Grisel Paramelt; his own seat was across the table. Roselyn snatched up the plate, scowled at the name, then flicked it onto the opposite seat with a sharp whick.
"Seats can be swapped. I don't want to sit next to that kid. That Grisel bastard rubs me the wrong way."
Najin picked up the nameplate that had originally been at his place and sat down beside Roselyn. Only then did she grin in satisfaction and lean in to whisper against his ear.
"Speaking of which, brat—I heard you went a round with the Empire's First Blade. Rumor's all over the place."
"Something like that, yeah."
"So? How was it? You've met Sir Caron too. Which one's stronger?"
Roselyn's eyes lit up. They were the eyes of a child asking who would win between a tiger and a lion—and for Najin, it was a genuinely difficult question. Neither of those opponents had ever gone all-out against him in the first place.
While he was still turning over an answer—
the closed door of the conference room opened. Two people stepped through. One was the guildmaster of the Central Guild, the man who had summoned the White-grade adventurers. The other—
was Grisel Paramelt.
A White-grade adventurer about whom almost nothing was known. Najin studied him. There was something alien about the man. Once Grisel had taken his seat, the guildmaster spoke.
"I have gathered you White-grades here today for the matter already outlined in the letters you received—the dragons sealed beneath Stonehenge."
The two dragons sealed under Stonehenge. The legend that lay at the very heart of Cambria's founding.
"The sealing inscriptions carved into Stonehenge have eroded, and as of eight months ago they have been steadily losing their force. Imperial Central estimates that within one month their effect will fail completely, and both dragons will break free."
Najin already knew. Merlin had told him in advance.
Well, of course they wouldn't miss a seal coming apart. Looks like the Empire's caught on too.
As Merlin muttered that in the back of his mind, the guildmaster continued. For a time he spoke of how Cambria had secured priority rights to the subjugation, how the Empire would cooperate, and how the entire affair was to be kept strictly quiet. Then he laid out the details of the hunt itself.
"To that end, the Empire will commit a knight order. The subjugation will be carried out by a small elite force. The five White-grades gathered in this room, together with the Imperial knight order, will form the core of the campaign."
Documents were handed to each of them.
Najin skimmed his copy, then lifted his head. If the hunt was going to be structured this way, then this was—
He looked around the table.
He was not the only one. Every White-grade adventurer present was studying the others' faces. The meaning of those glances was unmistakable. On the surface it looked like five people forming a single team for a subjugation. Peel back one layer, and it was nothing of the kind.
Competition.
This was less a hunt than a contest.
Who would claim the greatest merit. Who would seize the glory of bringing a dragon down. And naturally, not one of them looked prepared to yield an inch.