Chapter 214 - Black Spire (5)

The Sword of Stars, Excalibur.

The sword the one-armed knight held up as he knelt on one knee was unmistakably Excalibur. Yet something about it differed from the Excalibur Najin knew.

It did not shine.

The holy sword, which should have scattered starlight nothing could conceal, did not shine. On closer inspection, its blade was cracked, and every constellation embedded in it was damaged.

Excalibur, which should never have worn down, had worn down.

Merlin's eyes wavered as she looked at the broken holy sword. She bit her lip hard, her hand trembling without taking the Excalibur Bedivere offered.

"Where..."

Merlin barely managed to speak.

"Where did you get it?"

"I retrieved it from the abyss at the heart of Camlann."

"And Arthur?"

"The king was not there."

"..."

"Before departing for Camlann, the king gave me one final command. He ordered me to return Excalibur once everything was over."

The last duty entrusted to him.

Bedivere was reporting its completion. Yet he could not bring himself to raise his head and meet Merlin's eyes. He knew he must be wearing an expression no knight should show.

"The king has passed away."

"..."

"There was no sign of him anywhere in the abyss. Siegfried, who had followed him there, laughed hollowly and told me, 'Your king is dead.'"

Bedivere's voice was trembling too.

Everyone must have expected it, but confirming the king's death and driving the nail into his coffin fell to him. The knight who had remained loyal to Arthur until the end clenched his teeth.

"Siegfried said he would remain in Camlann," he continued.

"The Witch of Camlann is sealed away, and the king has brought everything within Camlann to a halt. He traded everything to hold Camlann in place."

Merlin said nothing. Both she and Bedivere had their heads bowed, so their eyes never met. Their expressions, too, were unreadable.

"Camlann cannot encroach upon the Outer Lands. Nor can the Outer Lands swallow the continent. And this..."

"Stop."

"This..."

"Don't say another word, Bedivere. Leave it there."

"This is what the king promised the Round Table when he began his journey. He kept his promise."

Merlin ground her teeth.

Silencing the knight kneeling before her would have been easy. Easy as it was, she could not bring herself to lift her arm.

Before her lay a holy sword bereft of light.

The holy sword that had seemed destined to shine forever had lost its light. The comrades she had thought would remain at her side forever had died, killed, and become traitors. The king she should have led as his guide had charged ahead on his own and put a full stop to his story.

Everyone had reached their destination, leaving Merlin behind.

She alone remained.

"This is the king's final message."

"..."

"Please protect Camlann's seal. Maintain it until Excalibur's next master reaches that place."

"That's all?"

"..."

"No 'I'm sorry,' or 'It had to be this way,' or anything like that? Couldn't he at least..."

Merlin trailed off, then gave a feeble laugh.

"Right. That was the kind of man Arthur was. He never made excuses. Never asked anyone to understand. That's how he was."

Her expression crumpled.

"The story is over."

Merlin, who had barely held her footing at the edge of a cliff, fell.

2.

Bedivere could no longer bar Merlin's path. Holding Excalibur, she set off somewhere. Only Najin followed her. From behind, she looked so precarious that she might crumble at any moment.

"I didn't want it to end."

Merlin's voice carried through the wind.

"I hate bringing stories to an end. I want to keep watching stories I enjoy. I often wished their journeys would never end."

She was not speaking in the hope that someone would hear her. These were words spoken to herself—almost a monologue.

"Maybe that's why I can't finish novels. I always close the book when there are only a few pages left. Once I see signs that a story is about to end, I can't read any further."

She laughed.

"Still, if the end has to come..."

She spoke with a smile.

"I hoped it would be an ending everyone could greet with a smile. With a perfect ending like that, maybe even I could accept it and put down a full stop. I lived with that thought. And Arthur promised me."

He promised to give her that kind of ending.

To take her beyond this continent, across the Outer Lands, and even through Camlann, to the utopia of Avalon that lay beyond.

"He promised to take me to the place I'd searched for so desperately, a place I couldn't even imagine in a dream. That was Arthur's promise. He told me to live a little longer as he made it. He pulled me along like that, and yet..."

Merlin looked up at the sky with hollow eyes.

Arthur was dead, but his stars remained in the sky.

"You went ahead without me. Just as you pleased."

In her hand was the Excalibur Arthur had left behind. Cradling the sword that had lost its light, Merlin walked and walked.

"You went ahead, then made sure I couldn't follow."

Please protect Camlann's seal.

Turning those words over in her mind, Merlin let out an empty laugh.

"I don't know why I should keep living, but you tell me to live. You tell me there's still something I have to do. What do you mean, wait for the next one?"

At some point, Merlin stopped walking.

She stood in a forest. A blue lake lay amid the towering trees and vegetation. Najin knew this lake too. It was where he had first met Merlin.

"You want me to wait? For a next one who might come who knows when? To wait, then begin the journey all over again? The Round Table is already shattered. The knights you trusted so much betrayed you."

And yet, Merlin murmured.

"And yet you talk about what comes next. You abandoned everyone close to you to protect people whose faces you didn't even know... and still, you insist on talking about what comes next."

Once she threw Excalibur into the lake, Arthur's story would end. Knowing that, Merlin laughed. In the end, she realized, it was her role to put a full stop to his story.

"I can't do that."

The moment she murmured those words, a faint light seeped from the cracked Excalibur. It was so faint and pale that it seemed ready to scatter at any moment.

"..."

The light filled Merlin's eyes.

As though urging her to look at something.

As though telling her there was still something she needed to see.

"... Ah."

Merlin let out a groan.

She thought she understood what the starlight was telling her. It had settled in her eyes. It was pointing to those eyes of hers that could see the future.

Merlin had always possessed eyes that could see the future.

The very reason she was called the Mage of the Lake was that she looked into the future through the lake's surface. But she had not done so even once since meeting Arthur. The futures she saw were worthless.

Excalibur lay outside prophecy.

Bound by nothing, Excalibur changed the future. That made the futures Merlin saw meaningless while she was with Arthur. But now, at this moment, with Arthur dead, the future she saw would have meaning.

The starlight was pointing out that fact.

As though Arthur, the sword's master, had said so himself.

"..."

Merlin smiled.

Yes, she had no idea what value that future might hold. But...

"If that's what you wanted."

For a brief moment, starlight filled Merlin's eyes.

A blue star shone in her hollow gaze.

She looked at the lake's surface. Normally, her eyes could see only the near future, but she wished to see the moment of her choosing just one last time, even if it meant giving up her future sight.

And so the prophet glimpsed the future for the last time.

What she saw was the distant future.

And, for Najin, the present.

3.

There was one question.

Throughout his climb, Najin had been unable to put it out of his mind. Why did the same dream keep continuing?

The floor that showed the most powerful memory.

The floor that showed the most painful memory.

The floor that showed the saddest memory.

Every one of them showed the same dream. It went on without interruption. Sad memories, memories of emptiness, memories of anger—whatever a floor's theme, Najin kept having a single dream.

Still, until he reached the tower's final floor, he had been able to accept it to some extent. A sad memory, a powerful memory, a painful memory—he had thought there was no reason they all had to be different memories.

But now, as he climbed the final floor, he simply could not understand.

'The floor that shows the happiest memory.'

Why was even this floor showing the same dream? No matter how he looked at her, the Merlin before him did not seem happy.

'Has something gone wrong with the tower?'

Perhaps Merlin's memories were too much for the tower to handle, and an error had occurred in reproducing them. That was what Najin had thought.

"..."

But...

"... Huh?"

That was not it.

"This is..."

Najin looked at Merlin. She was looking at him, yet she was not looking at him.

「What the hell are you? What are you?」

「Najin.」

「What?」

「You asked what I was. Najin. That's my name.」

What she was watching was Najin's image in the lake—a future that would unfold a thousand years from now. Reflected on its surface was Najin and Merlin's first meeting.

「I think that's mine. You can't just take it away like that.」

「Wow.」

The Merlin reflected in the lake clutched the back of her neck.

「What the fuck is this little shit doing?」

The Merlin in the lake laughs in disbelief and scolds Najin. Could he handle it? It was not a future he could bear. Just as she had once done for Arthur, she showed Najin the future.

The countless hardships he would have to overcome.

The endless adversities and trials.

The future foretold for the one who drew Excalibur.

And after seeing all of it, Najin barely managed to speak.

「Like King Arthur, I...」

「No. I have to reach even higher than King Arthur.」

Najin spoke.

「Whatever stands in my way, I'll go. I have to hang my own star at the highest point.」

Because he had promised.

「So I can't give this back to you.」

At that answer, the Merlin in the lake laughs in disbelief. The Merlin watching the lake could not smile. Her eyes were wavering.

「You'll have to prove those words, you insolent brat.」

The future reflected in the lake races onward.

The confident boy charges ahead without hesitation. At times, he is reckless. His guide watches from his side, heaving sigh after sigh, but at some point she stops trying to restrain him. Instead, she pushes him forward and laughs gleefully, saying, 「Now that's more like it!」

The boy and his guide move forward.

On the continent, he slays a Demon Knight, rescues a girl taken captive by a noble house, duels a commander pursuing him, dances at a ball, encounters a dark mage, the Rangers of the Techel Mountains...

Forward, and forward again.

After bravely fighting the same red and white dragons Arthur had faced, the boy earns a star. With that star, he heads to the Outer Lands. Meeting the Helmeted Knight, the Knight of Silence, and countless knights and Lost, he continues his journey. As always, his guide is at his side.

The guide—the future Merlin reflected in the lake—is laughing happily. Vividly, as though truly alive. Merlin stared blankly at her.

And then...

「Are you really going to climb the tower?」

They reach the Black Spire.

「You really won't despise me?」

「I told you, that won't happen.」

What the lake reflected was no longer the future. From Najin's perspective, it was not the past either. It was the present. In the lake were Merlin, looking at its surface, and Najin, standing behind her.

Only then did Merlin turn around.

She looked at Najin with an unsteady gaze.

"You..."

Her voice trembled as she asked,

"What are you?"

There was only one answer Najin could give to that question.

He seized the empty air.

What he drew out of it was the Sword of Stars. Excalibur, the Sword of Stars, scattering light more brilliant than anything else. Instead of a hundred words, Najin took a single action. That one action answered everything.

"Najin."

Holding Excalibur, he spoke.

"Najin. That's my name."