The City for the Forgotten (2)
Excalibur was a sword forged by the Witch of the Abyss.
Najin furrowed his brow. He searched her eyes for intent, but those glassy, mirror-like pupils reflected only himself.
"The Witch of the Abyss made Excalibur?"
"That's right."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you were chosen by that sword without knowing a thing, and your fate was forced upon you. You have a right to hear it."
Guinevere spoke on.
"People call Gram a demon sword and Excalibur a holy sword, but to my eyes it's the other way around. Gram at least changes with the nature of the one who holds it. The moment you take up Excalibur, it decides everything."
A witch who was no longer quite a witch—Guinevere's eyes were clouded. Those hazy crimson irises settled on Najin.
"Whoever Excalibur selects is set on a grand adventure. They walk the path of the ideal hero, singing the beauty of humanity, adorning their story with nobility and the sublime."
The chronicle of Arthur.
"And every last part of that story is carved into Excalibur as a star."
Guinevere pointed at the blade. She gazed at the edge where Najin's own story—his stars—had been engraved, and continued.
"And then."
She gave the table a light tap.
"That finished volume is presented as tribute to the Witch of the Abyss."
Tribute, Guinevere said.
"The essence of the Witch of the Abyss is downfall. Once humanity advances, grows, and accumulates enough history, she is the being—no, the phenomenon—that swallows it all and resets it. The fall of civilizations is a phenomenon that always accompanies history."
An existence that symbolized the decline, decay, and end of civilizations. That was the Witch of the Abyss's true nature.
"And Excalibur comes to hold 'all the history' of its age. The one it selects is the being who stands at the forefront and leads that era, so of course humanity's history concentrates in that single person."
An object that becomes history itself, the emblem of its age, decorated with the brightest stars. That, she said, was Excalibur's essence.
"Do you understand now?"
"……"
"What Excalibur selects is not a hero. It is the sacrificial offering to be presented to the witch on behalf of that age."
"So what you're saying is—"
"In the end, you are nothing more than a sacrifice. Your fate is to be offered to the witch and thereby postpone the destined end."
That, she said, was what it meant to be chosen by Excalibur.
Guinevere looked at Najin with eyes full of pity. There was compassion in that gaze.
"Is there any meaning in it?"
Guinevere asked.
"How many have there been over the past tens of thousands of years? How many have been offered to the witch? And still the world was pushed right to the brink of the end. Nine-tenths of the world was swallowed by darkness."
The history of a thousand years ago.
"Arthur, our great king, was a miracle that appeared after tens of thousands of years. That magnificent hero knew she was the sacrifice, and yet……"
She had embarked on the most radiant adventure of all.
She drove back the dark, expanded humanity's domain, and pushed Kamran all the way to the edge of the Outer Land in a feat of glory.
"Even Arthur, who achieved such things, failed. She could not escape the ordained fate and closed her eyes as nothing more than a sacrifice. That is the history of the past tens of thousands of years."
And the one who had taken up what came after—
"Is you."
"……"
"I have seen all of this history. Through the Holy Grail. On the day even our king could not escape this fate, I thought—"
"Thought what?"
"That we needed a means to avoid the worst."
She gestured to the city spread out behind her.
"I decided I had to prepare a contingency for the future in which you, who would succeed Arthur, would fail. That city is it."
The Depository of Human History.
The City of Sediment.
The Depository of Human History.
Pointing to the city she had named so, Guinevere stared straight at Najin. Even after hearing that shocking tale, his face remained expressionless.
A brief silence.
Once again, it was Najin who broke it.
"A contingency for my failure?"
"……Arthur is a special being who appeared in the midst of history that had repeated for tens of thousands of years. To believe and expect that another like Arthur will appear again is foolish."
Guinevere said.
"It took a hero of Arthur's caliber to bring a thousand years of peace. But that seal will come undone before long. How many years can you buy by sacrificing yourself?"
A hundred years? Two hundred?
"In that meager span, will a hero even half as capable as you appear? There is no guarantee. None at all. Kamran will expand its domain and swallow the entire world just as it did a thousand years ago."
"……"
"This is a merciless race against time. For all we know, you may even fail to seal the Witch of Kamran, just as the countless heroes before Arthur did."
"So?"
"So we must prepare for what comes next. Should we not have a lesser option ready against your failure?"
Najin pointed past Guinevere's back.
"And that city is it—is that what you're saying?"
"Yes. It is humanity's ark."
Guinevere nodded.
Of course Najin had no idea how that city would function as an ark, or how it would operate. Even so, there was a question he had to ask.
"Is that so."
Najin continued, still expressionless.
"I find it rather difficult to understand how a depository where over a million people were killed, a nation destroyed, and the memories of countless heroes stolen and buried can possibly serve as a lesser option."
"I told you. A lesser evil."
A lesser evil—not the best, not even the second-best, but a contingency meant only to avoid the absolute worst.
"We know full well it is never a righteous act. It is unforgivable. It deserves every condemnation."
But, she said—
"When you weigh the end of the world against a million lives, doesn't the scale tip one way?"
"So you selected them?"
Selected a place to be sacrificed for humanity. Killed a million people as if you were gods. To the question Najin threw at her, Guinevere offered no rebuttal.
"Yes."
No excuses. No denials.
Instead she simply held his gaze.
"I—this city—is a question I am posing to you. A question for the successor who follows Arthur."
She did not deny that she was evil.
"The path you walk is no doubt right. Beautiful and brilliant. But if that brilliance cannot pierce the Witch of the Abyss, then isn't it a brilliance good for nothing?"
Tap.
"The world is results."
Thud.
"Results come first, and the process second. No matter how beautiful the process may be, if it ends in failure, that process has no value. It is the most obvious of truths."
Thud-thud-thud-thud……
Rain began to fall in the mindscape. Whether it had started in the underground city or in the depository, there was no way to tell. Yet here, rain was falling.
"Condemn me. Resent me. That child who entered my city with you has every right to resent me. The revenge that child seeks is justified."
"Are you prepared to die for it?"
"I can hardly do that, can I? Even if I die, it will only be after this entire plan is finished. Once the end of the world has been averted, I intend to pay the price for what I have done."
Najin nodded as if he understood.
"The reason you told me all of this…… is so that we would leave you alone, is that it? Because this is a contingency against my failure, if we mean to make you pay, we should do it only after everything else is done?"
"That would be the way of it."
"You are not particularly hostile toward me. You have no intention of hindering me, nor of standing with the Witch of the Abyss. So leave us be. That is what you mean."
"You catch on quickly. Yes, you're right."
Guinevere nodded.
As she said, Najin was not someone with whom conversation was impossible. He listened when spoken to, and he made every effort to understand the other party's position. So he was not a man who failed to understand others.
"I understand."
Even now, Najin understood Guinevere's choice. He understood what she was trying to say, and why she had come to make that choice.
Guinevere and Lancelot.
They, too, had been heroes. They had once crossed the continent at Arthur's side, racing at full strength toward the best possible ending. Yet at the end of their journey they had witnessed it—and become certain that no such thing as a best ending could exist in this story.
And so they had chosen the lesser evil.
Najin understood that fact, and even sympathized with it to a degree.
"I understand. However."
But—
"I still cannot leave you be."
"……"
"Unlike you, who fled to a lesser evil, I know those who endured a thousand years still looking toward the best. For their sake alone, I cannot leave this alone."
Through the pouring raindrops, Najin looked at Guinevere. His eyes were cold.
……Even if he understood the other's choice.
That did not mean Najin would change his own. Understanding and decision were separate things. If anything, after hearing the story, his resolve had only hardened.
"In the end, isn't there only one point at issue?"
Najin drew his sword.
He raised Excalibur and drove it down between himself and Guinevere. With a sharp crack the table shattered, and Excalibur sank into the ground.
A line from which there could be neither compromise nor retreat.
Resting a hand on the Excalibur driven into that very point, Najin fixed his gaze on Guinevere.
"If I prove right here that I am more capable than your lesser evil, then the story ends. There is no need to prepare a lesser evil when the best option is standing right in front of you. Isn't that so?"
For the first time, Guinevere laughed.
She looked at Najin as if she could not believe her ears.
"That's not wrong."
"Yes. It's a simple matter."
"We will doubt you, and we need only prove here that you can never be the best."
"And I need only prove that I am more capable than the two of you."
She nodded.
"Yes. A duel, then. The victor takes everything; the loser loses everything. A word of warning—I will not go easy on you simply because you are Arthur's heir. Now that you have set foot in this city…… it is one or the other."
Her eyes flared crimson.
Those once-clouded pupils were, for this moment, perfectly clear.
"Either you kill me and Lancelot, or you become part of this city."
With those final words, both of them rose from their seats.
In the end, the negotiation had collapsed.
All that remained was to stake their lives and clash head-on to prove that they were right.
"Ah."
Just before the mindscape collapsed, Najin spoke.
"It wouldn't be fair for only one side to receive information and leave it at that. You told me all sorts of things about Excalibur."
"That was your rightful due. Not something I granted you—something you should have known from the start."
"Even so, you did show goodwill, didn't you? So let me tell you one thing in return……"
Najin pulled Excalibur free from the earth.
"I was never particularly selected by Excalibur."
Blink. Guinevere blinked.
"……What?"
Najin pointed at the sky.
His stars hung there, and among them the seventh shone with dazzling light.
The Star of Selection.
A star he could never have obtained if he had merely been selected by Excalibur. Pointing to that star, Najin said:
"I chose Excalibur."
To Guinevere, who stared at him as if to ask what that meant, what on earth he was talking about, Najin smiled.
"You'll understand soon enough."
He closed his eyes and opened them again; not a moment had passed. He had only just set foot in the Domain of Oblivion and was still plummeting toward her sanctuary.
As he fell, Najin looked down.
At the city Guinevere had built.
She had called it a contingency. She had called it the ark she had created, a lesser evil prepared against his failure. How exactly that city would be used, Najin still could not know.
That was a question he would have to answer from here on.
At the falling Najin's side was Merlin.
Merlin.
—Yeah.
Did you hear?
—Hear what?
Apparently Merlin had not heard. Guinevere would have known Merlin was inside Najin, and she had invited only Najin to that place.
The story he had heard from Guinevere.
Najin turned over the tale of Excalibur in his mind. It was almost certainly true. Guinevere had not seemed to be lying, and there was no need for her to lie.
Then had Lancelot betrayed them because he learned that truth? If so, it looked less like betrayal and more like an attempt to stop Arthur's sacrifice.
But in Najin's judgment, that was not the whole of it.
There were several points that snagged. Guinevere had not lied, yet she did not seem to know everything either. In the first place, the Arthur Najin had seen in those memories……
Was not the sort of person who, knowing her own future, would simply accept fate and choose to be offered as a sacrifice without resistance.
There was something more.
Something that neither Guinevere, nor Lancelot, nor even Merlin knew. Arthur had hidden something until the very last moment.
"……"
He still could not say what it was, but what he had to do now was clear. Najin tightened his grip on Excalibur. As he fell, he thought:
She said fate had been forced upon me.
Don't make me laugh.
His story had not begun by being swept along some vast current. It was a current he had seized with his own hands.
Clutching the Star of Selection, Najin set foot in the City of Sediment.