Who Am I? (4)
Two years ago, someone pulled Excalibur.
Ever since that day when the heavens shook and the constellations realigned, the entire world fixed its gaze on the continent’s three Sword Masters.
Sword Saint Caron.
Imperial First Horn Gerd.
Executioner Yuel Razian.
The three Sword Masters long regarded as the leading candidates to draw the holy sword. People gossiped that one of them must have pulled Excalibur; no one even considered the possibility of anyone else.
Time flowed on with only those three names—Gerd, Yuel, Caron—on everyone’s lips.
Then, after time had passed and passed again, a certain boy began to make his mark.
The boy arrived in Cambria, the City of Opportunity, and in short order achieved a string of remarkable feats. He slew a Demon Knight, purged a black mage, and subdued the two dragons of Stonehenge.
Youngest White Horn-rank adventurer.
Youngest Sword Seeker.
Youngest two-star.
He walked on, racking up achievements worthy of the entire continent’s attention. He declared his name without flinching before the Emperor himself. Born in a subterranean city, a boy no one had ever cared about—now the whole continent knew his name.
“······.”
Najin walked in silence.
Striding down the long corridor of the imperial palace, he recalled the past.
Tap.
He had left Cambria and headed for the Outer Land. As if the road ahead still stretched endlessly far, he never stopped for a moment, running with his eyes fixed only forward.
Tap.
He had seen countless wraiths. He had watched stars thrash in their death throes, and those who in the end became wraiths themselves. He had met many people, learned from them, and accomplished great deeds.
Tap.
Now Najin possessed seven stars, had set foot into transcendence, and no longer needed to hide who he was. The Excalibur at his waist glowed with a soft light.
“······.”
The end of the corridor.
Najin steadied his breath for a moment, then stepped out. Sunlight poured down, and what filled his vision was the Empire’s grand plaza—both a dais and a stage.
The instant he emerged from the corridor, he felt the gazes.
Seating might be divided by high and low station, but the heat those people generated was the same. The eyes of a throng that seemed to stretch all the way to the horizon converged on Najin in a single instant.
Countless gazes, countless pairs of eyes, a vast and countless crowd.
Their cheers filled the grand plaza to overflowing. Beyond the line held by the knights they roared, raved, and shouted themselves hoarse. Amid voices that seemed ready to sweep the very ground away, Najin saw it.
Clank, thud!
The imperial knights arrayed before him dropped to one knee. Kneeling on one knee, they raised their weapons high. It was no mere ceremonial salute.
To have drawn Excalibur meant one was the heir to Arthur’s will, and for knights the weight of Arthur’s name needed no explanation. Even knights who had long forgotten honor and pride still wished, before Arthur, to be knights once more.
Before the descendant of King Arthur the Knight-King, the knights willingly bowed their heads. Lifting the brightest things they possessed, they lit the path Najin would walk.
Passing between them, Najin walked on.
His Free Knight’s coat billowed. The pauldron that was the very emblem of the Golden Horn Knights, and the war banner of Alderan Basaglia bound to that pauldron, fluttered in the wind.
At the center of the grand plaza, Najin came to a halt.
Standing still and looking up at the sky, he saw Arthur’s star. Beneath Arthur’s star, on what was surely the very spot where Excalibur had been thrust into the stone two years earlier, Najin raised Excalibur high. The blade, carved with Najin’s own star, shone.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Amid the roar that seemed to carry everything away, Najin opened his mouth.
“Merlin.”
He called the name of the girl who had walked with him as far as the corridor, then muttered, No, we need a more dramatic entrance, and slipped back into his inner world.
And as if she had been waiting for that exact moment—
Flash.
With starlight, Merlin appeared. In that instant the entire assembly fell silent. Who was this girl who had suddenly manifested at Najin’s side? The silence soon turned to shock, and the shock to cheers.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!”
Then a frivolous scream rang out.
It came not from beyond the line the knights were holding, but from inside it. The gazes of the Empire’s high officials, the Emperor, and the Pillars all swung toward the source of the sound.
There stood a woman who had clamped both hands over her mouth. She had shot up from her seat, eyes wide, staring at Merlin with pupils brimming with emotion.
It was the Lord of the Platinum Tower, Cypria Gachevska.
She was not the only one moved. Beginning with Grey Tower Lord Nayuta, the other tower lords, though not quite matching Cypria, were showing reactions nearly as intense.
······The Staff of Selection, Merlin.
The first ten-circle archmage in human history to reach the realm of the Tenth Ring. The one who had defined Mystery that no one before her could define, who had laid the foundation of the magic system all of humanity now used—an existence like a teacher to every mage.
To mages, Merlin held a meaning that surpassed even what King Arthur meant to knights. From their apprentice days, every thesis they read, every magic tome they opened, had Merlin’s name stamped upon it.
“Hah······.”
While the Empire’s foremost archmages gasped and cast dignity and decorum to the winds in their astonishment, Merlin kept a blank expression. Like a great sage who had seen through all the things of the world.
Of course, not to Najin’s eyes.
Confirming the corners of Merlin’s lips trembling as she failed to suppress her excitement, Najin burst out laughing inwardly.
Merlin’s appearance caused a few mages to faint on the spot, but the ceremony proceeded as planned. With the Empire’s representative knights, the magic towers, and the Empire’s Pillars looking on, the Emperor rose from his seat.
“A thousand years have passed.”
The Emperor opened his mouth.
“A full thousand years since the great King Arthur left our side. A thousand years since the Age of Chaos met its end.”
The Emperor began his address before the people of the Empire. As he recited the prepared speech, Eldwin Pendragon, Emperor of the Empire, thought to himself: I never imagined I would actually be the one to read this.
“The demons were driven back to the Outer Land, the Witch of Camlann was sealed, and peace came to the continent. We of today live peaceful lives beneath the sun.”
There was a story handed down from generation to generation among the Emperors of the Empire.
“But how could this be a peace without cost? The very ground we tread is steeped in the blood of the heroes King Arthur once led. The Empire—every nation of humanity—must never forget that it was built upon the sacrifice of those great heroes.”
Someday, no matter how long it took, one who would draw Excalibur would surely appear. And when that person revealed themselves before the Empire······ willingly offer them the seat that had been left vacant for them.
That is the duty of those who bear the name Pendragon, and also the privilege granted to us alone.
Recalling his grandfather’s words, Eldwin smiled.
“Today, after a thousand years have flowed by—”
Eldwin walked toward Najin.
“—a new hero has appeared before us. Is he a hero because he drew Excalibur? Well, it is not that alone.”
The Emperor smiled.
“This man is a Free Knight. He was a Free Knight long before the world knew he held Excalibur, and that qualification is guaranteed by myself and by the honorable knights of Atanga.”
As if answering those words, the knights of Atanga stamped their feet. Clank—the sound of armor interlocking rang out.
“He made knights of the lost wraiths, and on the Empire’s behalf he performed funeral rites for the knights the Empire had lost and then forgotten.”
A knight for knights—a Free Knight.
Najin had walked a path worthy of that name.
“Now, when a wicked demon stretches its claws toward the continent, this man sensed that movement sooner than anyone and boldly threw himself into the battlefield of transcendents. How noble a deed is that? We know what to call one who casts his life away for the Empire—and further, for all of humanity.”
Hero. The people’s cheers poured down.
“Yes! We call such noble beings by no other name than hero. Here stands a hero. A hero who fought the demon that threatened the Empire, and who stood against the cursed traitor of Camlann who sought to set foot upon human soil!”
As the cheers swelled—
the Emperor willingly dropped to one knee before Najin.
“Eldwin Pendragon, Emperor of the Empire, greets the descendant of a great hero and a great mage.”
There was not a shred of hesitation in any of those movements.
The Emperor, a being who stood above all, knelt on one knee before Najin. In the silence that blanketed the assembly, the Emperor who had lived looking down on everything now looked up at Najin and Merlin and spoke.
“Blessings upon the birth of a new hero.”
The vast throng bowed their heads like a rolling wave. With even the Emperor’s head lowered, no one could keep theirs raised.
“Glory to the hero who laid the foundations of humanity.”
Finishing those words, the Emperor rose and draped a sash over Najin. It was the same sash worn by the Empire’s Pillars, yet somehow different from theirs.
Belonging to the Empire’s five Pillars—
yet one whose order no one dared to rank.
Arthur was the one who had laid the foundation stone of the Empire. To the descendant of the hero who stood at the Empire’s very beginning, the Emperor assigned no mere number. He simply bestowed a new title modeled on the name of the star Najin possessed.
Dawn Horn.
As cheers erupted, the Emperor stepped back one pace. And as much as the Emperor withdrew, Najin stepped forward.
Najin steadied his breath.
A speech.
Najin had never given a speech. He had no confidence that he could speak impressively before a crowd. Yet he knew how to convey the words that needed saying when the time came.
Najin drove the Lance of the Cross Star into the ground.
Thoom—with that sound—
the war banner of the Golden Horn Knights hanging from the shaft fluttered. Under the gaze of the entire continent, Najin opened his mouth.
“Knights.”
The knights’ eyes turned to him.
“Soldiers of the Empire.”
The soldiers’ eyes turned to him.
“Continent.”
Receiving the gaze of the entire continent, Najin raised his sword. The lifted Excalibur pointed at the sky. In that sky where no stars shone, beyond the veil, Najin knew what star was hidden.
He would not leave a demon free to hide.
As the Dawn Star blazed, one corner of the heavens crumbled away. What sat there was a grotesque star—the star of the Revelry Emperor. Pointing his sword at the Star of Revelry, Najin spoke.
“There is a demon called the Revelry Emperor.”
A demon.
“That abominable demon tramples pride. It defiles honor. It toys with lives and is busy mocking them as playthings. Even the most noble hero’s life is reduced to a mere farce before the Revelry Emperor.”
That was simply the nature of demons.
“I can neither accept that fact—”
Najin spat the words as if chewing them.
“—nor accept that existence.”
The Revelry Emperor. Now the continent knew that name as well. They had learned she stood behind the war. With every gaze fixed upon him, Najin brought down the sword he held high.
Starlight shot high into the sky.
The starlight did not sever the Revelry Emperor’s star, but it did cut through the rippling distortion that star produced.
“Excalibur is a sword that slays demons.”
Najin thrust a hand into the Free Knight’s coat hanging in the empty air. What he drew from within was something he had saved for this very day. An object that was the very emblem of the Golden Horn Knights. Horn trumpet in hand, Najin cried out.
I will cut down the Revelry Emperor.
It does not matter what stands in my way.
I will, without fail, cut down the Revelry Emperor.
Did one need a reason to slay a demon? Amid the knights’ shouts, Najin blew the horn trumpet. Bwooooo—a deep, heavy note rolled out across the entire continent.
It was the signal for the opening of war.
Fluttering the war banner of the Golden Horn Knights—the cloak woven from the banners of those the Revelry Emperor had defiled—Najin smiled.
“The Dawn Star is the star that illuminates the dark.”
Pointing to his own shining star, Najin spoke.
“To the demon, and further to Camlann, to those who claim themselves to be eternal darkness—I will make it known.”
What?
“That they are not an eternal night, but merely the brief darkness that comes after the sun has set. That they are a darkness that will vanish without strength the moment the sun rises.”
The Dawn Star shone.
“The long night is over.”
From every corner of the continent, the sound of horn trumpets rang out.
“Tell them.”
That dawn has come.
That the star they fear has risen.