Two Stars (2)

Stars shone in the night sky.

Najin stared blankly upward.

The surging dragon's blood, the final scream torn from the beast's throat, even the rising cheers of the people—all of it felt impossibly distant. The pain that had racked his body slowly began to fade.

And so, in a silence so complete that time itself seemed to slow, then stop entirely, Najin gazed at the stars.

Among the countless lights adorning the night sky, one star glowed with a gentle, understated radiance. A star that belonged to no one else—only to him. Excalibur had long since been put away, yet Najin's eyes still shone platinum-gold.

I promise you, Ivan.

I'll hang my star in the highest place in that night sky.

That you were there at the start of my journey. That sending me out into the world was the right choice. That even after you fell, you never stopped being a knight who held onto the light.

I will.

I will prove it.

Words he had repeated to himself over and over. Vows he had sworn in the quiet of his own heart, again and again.

"……"

Recalling those words, Najin slowly raised his hand. He stretched it toward the heavens and spread his fingers wide. It was a habit of his—back in the underground city he had always reached toward the ceiling the same way.

But the meaning of the gesture then, and the meaning of the gesture now, were complete opposites.

You know…

Najin murmured to himself.

It was a monologue, yet because someone was listening, it was no monologue at all. Merlin stood at his side in silence, listening to every word.

I—me—well.

He had been trash buried in the subterranean city, the place the surface world called a landfill. In that lightless dark where no stars could be seen, he had only ever stared at the glowstones set into the ceiling and tried to imagine what starlight might be like… a human living at the greatest possible distance from the stars.

Even looking at the stars had been forbidden.

Reaching for the sky had never brought a star within his grasp.

But this moment was different. When he looked up, a vast night sky and its stars lay spread before him. When he stretched his hand toward the heavens, it felt as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠if he could almost close his fingers around the star that now shone there—his own.

The star he had longed for so desperately.

It was not yet hung at the center of the sky, nor at its highest point, but it was unmistakably there.

Gazing at it, Najin smiled. A smile in which countless emotions crossed and tangled, a smile that no single word could contain. Into that quiet, Merlin finally spoke. Her voice was softer than usual.

"—You did well."

She reached up and brushed his shoulder with her hand.

Merlin was a little shorter than Najin, so she had to lift her arm; even then, because she was only a formless illusion, her touch never truly landed on his shoulder…

But her feeling did.

The constellation who held eleven stars spoke to the new star who had just claimed his own.

"—Two stars in a single stroke. You've gone and done something ridiculous again."

She laughed as if she couldn't believe it.

"—Well, after that insane stunt of diving straight into a dragon's mouth, I suppose it's only fitting. Watching you nearly gave me a heart attack. Even in my era, maniacs like you were rare. Honestly……"

Her voice trailed off, then she finished,

"—But you looked damn cool doing it."

"—Get some rest. You must be exhausted."

Najin slowly let out a breath. Time, which had been crawling, found its proper speed again, and the ambient noise around him resolved into human voices. Lowering the arm he had stretched toward the sky, he looked around.

Knights roaring with triumph.

People gaping in open-mouthed shock.

Roselyn approaching him with an incredulous grin. And even Richard, clapping as if to bless the birth of a new star.

Every last one of them was pouring praise upon the feat Najin had accomplished. And rightly so. The boy had staked his life against a dragon and, in the end, achieved the legendary deed of dragon-slaying.

Those who had carved the path for him to run, and those ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who had weathered the dragon's assaults, had also claimed fragments of a star. This battlefield had witnessed both the birth of a new star and the scattering of star-fragments that would one day rise. Amid the cheers, Najin allowed himself a faint smile.

With a trembling hand he lifted his blood-smeared sword high toward the sky. Just as Arthur once had, Najin declared the end of the subjugation.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

The cheers swelled even louder, rolling across Stonehenge.

2.

After the dragon subjugation ended, Najin predictably found himself confined to a bed. It seemed to happen every time he fought a real battle, but the injuries from this fight were not going to heal easily.

"—Release. Excalibur's first star."

"—That's just what happens after you use it. You dump everything you've stored up in one shot, so afterward your output tanks for a while and the blessing thins out."

The weakened regenerative power of Excalibur was part of it, but the wounds themselves were simply that severe: compound fractures, fingers twisted at grotesque angles, and full-body burns. The priests had clicked their tongues and asked, half in disbelief, "Are you actually still alive?"—so further explanation seemed unnecessary.

I really did almost die, huh.

Wrapped head to toe in bandages, Najin muttered to himself.

Even accounting for his enhanced recovery, they had told him he would need weeks of bed rest. He had finally claimed stars; something was bound to change—and not being able to experience that change right away left him privately disappointed.

"—I get that you're excited, but hold your horses."

While he lay there killing time, a few visitors came to see him. The first were Roselyn and Richard.

"Well if it isn't the hero of the Red Dragon subjugation."

Richard set down a basket of fruit he had bought as a get-well gift, laughing cheerfully. Roselyn perched on the edge of the bed, looking him over and snickering.

"All those bandages make you look like an undead."

"I thought something similar when I looked in the mirror."

"Honestly the weirder part is that you jumped into a wall of fire and didn't melt. What was it like inside a dragon's mouth, anyway?"

"Ridiculously hot."

Najin shrugged.

"Nothing but fire. I was wondering where the breath came from—turns out if it just scoops up a handful of that stuff and spits it out, that's a breath attack."

"Hah! So you swung your sword inside the breath itself and cracked the dragon's heart?"

"Something like that."

"You absolute maniac."

Roselyn slapped her knee and laughed with exaggerated delight. Whether Najin's account was exaggerated or pure truth, the fact remained that he had leapt into the dragon's maw and split its heart open.

In all of history, only one person had ever done it.

The Dragon Slayer—Siegfried.

Najin had recreated the feat accomplished solely by the first Sword Saint, the man called a great hero. Things are going to get noisy again soon, Roselyn thought, and the corner of her mouth curled upward.

"Thanks, brat… no. Najin."

"Out of nowhere?"

"What I got thanks to you isn't just one or two things."

Roselyn held her open palm out in front of him.

She shot Richard a quick glance, smirking. He nodded and spread his own hand as if to show something.

And then—sparkle.

Tiny stars lit up in both their grips. Najin's eyes went wide. One star shone in Richard Polshen's palm; two stars glowed in Roselyn Ascalo's.

"Me and Uncle Richard here had already stacked up a few achievements, but this fight must've been the clincher. We got new stars out of it."

"Mine's my first. I quit being a knight because I didn't want to set foot on dangerous battlefields again—never thought I'd earn a star at my age."

Richard shrugged.

"All thanks to you. Appreciate it."

"I should be the one saying that. Because of you two I reached the Red Dragon with all my limbs still attached."

"I wouldn't exactly call your limbs 'attached' right now."

"If I can still run and swing a sword, that counts as intact, doesn't it?"

Both Richard and Roselyn burst out laughing at Najin's answer. After a little more conversation they left the room.

"You really never get a day with your body in one piece, do you?"

The next visitor was Dieta. She sighed as she looked over the thoroughly bandaged Najin, her expression saying she had somehow known it would end up like this.

"I heard the stories. You jumped into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Red Dragon's mouth? It's chaos out there. The broken seals at Stonehenge, two fully revived dragons, a witch's interference, the Red Dragon that swallowed the other and became complete…"

She read from the newspaper she had brought.

"And the Dragon Slayer who killed it."

Youngest Dragon Slayer.

"The adventurer who slew a dragon and claimed two stars in a single stroke."

Youngest two-star.

"You seem to be collecting every title that starts with 'youngest,' don't you?"

"So word that I got stars is already out."

"Of course it is—it was a complete uproar. Apparently a witch's constellation hadn't appeared in a thousand years, and then a brand-new star rose right in the middle of it. The observatory was bound to take notice."

By "observatory" she meant the Gray Tower.

"Master Nayuta of the Gray Tower was yelling so loudly. She completely ignored the imperial officials demanding reports and locked the Gray Tower's doors so she could name your star."

"…Name my star?"

Scratch, scratch. Dieta pulled an apple from the fruit basket and began peeling it as she nodded.

"Giving names to stars is the Gray Tower Master's job, after all. Here."

Her knife work was clumsy; the apple slices came out uneven. When Najin lifted his bandaged hands to show he couldn't take them, Dieta hesitated for a second, then brought a piece to his lips herself.

Chewing the apple, Najin asked,

"When you say naming a star… you mean an epithet? Like Arthur—the Sword of Selection?"

"Something like that. She brings a few candidates and you pick the one you like. Sometimes the epithet changes later as you stack more stars."

Najin ran through the epithets of the constellations he knew. First, of course, was Arthur, called the Sword of Selection; next was Merlin, the Mage of the Lake. Both epithets felt a little plain, though.

"—That's because they're clean."

Merlin grumbled.

"—Hey, both Arthur and I could have taken way flashier titles. 'Mage Who Pierces Truth,' 'Sword That Cleaves the Sky,' 'Staff That Brought Down Stars,' 'One Who Silenced the End'—stuff like that was on the shortlist. We turned them all down."

A constellation's name is best when it's understated. Restraint is what gives it flavor, Merlin muttered. Najin let half of it go in one ear and out the other while he hummed thoughtfully.

"I'm a little excited, actually. Wonder what epithet I'll get."

"Almost no one keeps the first epithet all the way to the end, so you can think of it as a stage name. If you don't like it, you can change it later."

"Still, first impressions matter, don't they?"

Dieta kept peeling apples and gave a small laugh.

"Well, then you can just ask her yourself."

"What?"

"She's coming in person. Master Nayuta of the Gray Tower."

"……What?"

"You can't move, can you? And if they summoned you to the Gray Tower, she'd have to worry about all the eyes on you—said random pests would probably try to snatch you up midway."

So, Dieta finished,

"She's coming here. Herself."

One of the magic towers lined up across the Empire—was the person in charge of one of those really free to just wander off like that? Shouldn't that not be allowed? Najin wondered, then asked,

"When is she coming?"

"Tomorrow."

Najin had no reply.

3.

The next day, Gray Tower Master Nayuta arrived at Najin's sickroom. Najin blinked at the woman who had simply walked in without a single escort.

Well… I suppose she doesn't need guards.

A tower master was a powerhouse comparable to a transcendent. Even if her path to mastery had been through reading the stars rather than combat, once someone reached a certain height, a gap in level simply existed.

The figure who threw the door open.

Nayuta's first impression was rather gloomy. Black hair carelessly tied back in a single loose fall, as if even tidying it was too much bother. Eyes that looked vaguely damp and shadowed. And skin so pale from long years shut away in a study that it crossed into the realm of the deathly.

"So you're the one? You're Najin? I've heard the rumors. Youngest Sword Seeker at eighteen. While observing your star I also learned you clashed with Ermina, the Witch of Extinction, didn't you?"

And then,

"You've got so many achievements tied to challenges. So many. Not just one or two. You keep slamming into stronger opponents. When I went through them one by one the attached words were insane—crisis, death, injury, overcoming, awakening, struggle……"

She poured the words out without pause.

Before they had even properly introduced themselves. After rattling on for quite a while, Nayuta suddenly clapped her hands with a bitter little laugh.

"Look at me. Honestly."

She dropped into the chair right in front of Najin's bed. The motion was casual, almost rough. When Najin tried to observe proper manners she waved him off—no need.

"I'm Nayuta, Master of the Gray Tower. My job is observing stars and giving them names. The reason I came to see you today is… to name yours."

She drew a sheet of paper from her coat.

It was extraordinarily fine paper.

"I've pulled a few candidates. Want to look them over and pick one that works? Don't worry about being rude—if something feels off, just say 'this one's kind of lame.' Really, it's fine! You think I'd chop your head off just because you told me my naming sense is garbage? I'm not that petty, so don't worry."

Najin slowly nodded. She was the sort of person whose energy was hard to keep up with.

"—Forget that, let's just take a look."

Together with Merlin, Najin unfolded the paper. On it were the epithets Nayuta had written out. There were more than ten candidates. As he read slowly downward, Najin's expression hardened. Merlin's face did the same.

"—This is a bit, uh, how do I put it."

Najin closed his eyes halfway through.

For some reason his body hurt, and he could feel his toes curling.

"—Aren't these way too grandiose and flashy and just… tacky? No, seriously—these are the kind of epithets that even five-star constellations would look at and go, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠'Yeah, no.'"

Merlin seemed to feel the same.

Najin seriously began to question the Gray Tower Master's qualifications. Still, he couldn't exactly look into Nayuta's bright, sparkling eyes and say, "Your naming sense is a disaster," so he opened his eyes again.

Might as well finish reading them all first.

As his gaze continued down the page, an epithet marked with a double line through it entered his field of view. A note beside it read that it was too plain and therefore not recommended.

"This one looks good."

Najin pointed at that epithet with his finger.