Ch.153300 Years of Essence (3)

Krinbel was an exceptional knight.

He was a figure worthy of being called the model of knighthood, and he had a good reputation not only among his comrades but also in the imperial court. Because he knew pride, knew honor, and knew the value of silence.

Krinbel believed that what was spoken must be kept. He did not speak lightly nor did he speak at length. He always kept his words short and concise, speaking only of what must be upheld. Thus, Krinbel was the Knight of Silence.

“A knight means one who does not yield.”

Once, when the commander of the knights asked, “What is a knight?” Krinbel answered.

“One who advances steadfastly without yielding. One who walks the righteous path without retreating. Even if that path leads to hell, if it is the right path, a knight gladly advances.”

“Even if unbearable hardship and adversity strike?”

“Yes, for a knight is one who overcomes.”

These were not empty words.

Krinbel was a man who always kept his word, and he willingly practiced the “knightliness” he had spoken of before the commander.

He hunted fallen stars that threatened humanity.

He hunted renowned black mages.

He delivered death to maddened transcendents.

He slaughtered the Empire’s enemies at the borders of the Outer Continent.

He protected the Emperor from the pillars of the Empire who had raised their banners in rebellion, and led the Dawn War to victory by recapturing the capital occupied by traitors.

He advanced while establishing numerous achievements. He marched forward wielding a flagstaff bearing the Empire’s banner. He was the Empire’s spear, its guardian, and its hero. On the day he departed for the Outer Continent following his commander, even the old Emperor came out personally to see him off, shedding tears.

“Do not grieve because I am leaving. I am not departing. I will face the Empire’s enemies in the lands beyond. I remain a knight of the Empire.”

To the tearful old Emperor.

To the Emperor who in his memory was still young and full of vigor, Krinbel knelt and vowed.

“Glory to the Empire. I shall advance a little further, Your Majesty.”

For 150 years on the continent, he lived as a knight.

No one could tarnish Krinbel’s achievements, and his deeds engraved on the deepest stone in the Empire would be remembered forever.

That’s how it should have been.

That’s how it should have turned out.

The Outer Continent denied Krinbel’s entire life. Though he cut down countless demons and gave peace to fallen heroes as he marched endlessly forward, he could not march forever.

The Empress of Bliss and her knight, Quixote.

The rulers of the Outer Continent blocked the Golden Horn Knights. Countless demons and constellations following the Empress of Bliss attacked them.

Krinbel fought valiantly. The proud Golden Horn Knights never yield. Look, the commander is wielding his sword. Whenever he wields his sword, we have always been victorious. We have won gloriously. So march forward, Golden Horns… Shouting thus, Krinbel blew his horn.

They won the battle.

But they lost the war.

They finally brought down the stars that followed the Empress of Bliss and slaughtered the demons, stepping before the Empress of Bliss, but at that moment they realized they had fallen into a trap.

Oblivion and incineration.

Their lives were denied. Their achievements disappeared. No one could remember them anymore. The stars they had etched in the night sky lost their light and began to fall. The commander, Krinbel, and a few others endured, but not everyone could.

Their comrades became the forgotten dead. The forgotten comrades became jesters of the Empress of Bliss. Krinbel was enraged by this fact. He hated those who had stolen nobility from his comrades. Krinbel blew his horn fiercely.

To announce his coming to his enemies.

Krinbel advances. He marched without stopping. Even as he was being forgotten, even as he was being erased from records, even though a future awaited where he would become one of the forgotten dead, he advanced. For even if that path led to destruction, gladly advancing was the knightliness he spoke of.

“Ah, how ridiculous!”

The Knight of Bliss mocked him. The Empress of Bliss prepared an endless stage for Krinbel. Krinbel raced through the wilderness where the laughter of jesters and ridiculous songs echoed eternally. Erasing their laughter with his horn, Krinbel advanced.

His head was cut off. His body burned. Holes were pierced through his body, and he was cut into hundreds of pieces. However, Krinbel, who had risen to the rank of constellation, continued his journey, replacing his severed parts with starlight.

The commander who had led him disappeared. The comrades who had followed him also disappeared. But Krinbel did not stop. The moment he himself knelt, it would be the same as the Golden Horn Knights surrendering to the Empress of Bliss. That could not happen. The Golden Horn Knights were the Empire. As long as he wore the Empire’s banner, he could never kneel.

Until no human part remained.

Until his lost head could no longer regenerate.

After walking through hell again and again, he finally stopped.

Krinbel looked back. And he realized. Though he had walked forward for decades, he had not taken a single step, he realized he had only been an actor on the Empress of Bliss’s stage.

He had been standing in place.

For decades, without taking a single step.

The hell he had crossed was merely an illusion.

But the wounds he received while crossing hell remained. His severed neck did not reattach.

‘Then, what is reality and what is illusion? Are my memories truly forgotten? Was the Golden Horn Knights also just an illusion? Where, how far…’

Krinbel could no longer be certain.

He could not distinguish what was reality and what was illusion. The doubt that had sprouted consumed him.

Ah, ahhh…

Krinbel screamed. Even 317 beheadings could not break his will, but the moment he realized that his entire journey had been meaningless, Krinbel finally broke.

Six stars fell from the sky.

The fallen stars were buried in the graveyard of stars.

The Knight of Silence Krinbel died, and only the Bull Horned Star remained.

2.

“Were you defeated by the Empress of Bliss?”

“What?”

“You and the Golden Horn Knights. I asked if the reason you were broken was because of the Empress of Bliss.”

Najin frowned while touching his neck. Perhaps because the scene from his dream felt so real? He kept checking if his neck was still attached.

“That’s right.”

“How did it happen?”

“You’re poking at a painful spot.”

“To be honest, I don’t quite understand. First of all, you’re a Sword Master, and that Krinbel person was also a transcendent, right? With six stars no less. I don’t know how many stars you have, but it couldn’t have been fewer than that.”

“That’s right.”

“Then, why?”

Knowing it was rude, Najin still asked.

The dream he just had increased Najin’s curiosity. In response to that question, the Helm Knight finally sighed deeply and said:

“The Empress of Bliss is a demon who embodies the concept of bliss. Bliss itself isn’t much. Making things ridiculous is all it does. However, the problem arose when that concept of bliss came to encompass more things as she gained 10 stars.”

“More things like what?”

“Theater. Stage. Acting. Manipulation. Deception. Masks. Jesters. Hallucinations. Dreams. Comedy. Tragedy. Play…”

He pronounced dozens of words.

“The Empress of Bliss bound all of these under the word ‘bliss.’ The power of the Empress of Bliss now goes beyond simply making one dance ridiculously; it extends to denying one’s entire life.”

For instance, it works like this.

“She creates a stage and makes you an actor on it. Though the stage is made of illusions, it is not an illusion. Since it has substance, death there is death in reality. She blurs the boundary between reality and illusion… making it unclear what is illusion and what is reality. What is real and what is fake. It’s deception.”

“That’s.”

“Yes. It plants doubt. So you cannot trust yourself. And on top of that…”

He spat out the words.

“The Empress of Bliss formed an alliance with a star that has the power of incineration and oblivion. The power wielded by that mysterious star can also be used by the Empress of Bliss.”

The Helm Knight knocked on his head.

“She makes you forgotten or makes you forget. Both are very effective means of attack in this Outer Continent. The story itself that a star possesses is denied, and one is made to deny that story themselves. What happens then?”

“…They become the forgotten dead.”

“Exactly. The Empress of Bliss leads her opponents to become the forgotten dead. After making them into the forgotten dead, she takes those she likes as her jesters. She’s been doing this for hundreds of years. Long before I set foot on this land, and even after I did, the Empress of Bliss has been expanding her forces this way.”

Najin swallowed.

“Isn’t that… a serious problem?”

“It is.”

“Why doesn’t the Empire intervene? What about the stars in the night sky? And the stars of the Round Table…”

The last example was also a question for Merlin. The Helm Knight answered instead of Merlin.

“The Empire would have attempted to subjugate the Empress of Bliss. But no one remembers. Not even I. I only remember the Golden Horn Knights, but there must have been countless attempts before that. They’ve just been forgotten.”

He shrugged.

“The stars in the night sky fear the Empress of Bliss and won’t step forward. How could they against a constellation with 10 stars? They’re busy protecting themselves. That leaves the stars of the Round Table. But… that’s impossible too.”

“Why?”

“Because they must stop the malignant stars. They’re already busy guarding the border; we can’t entrust them with internal problems of the Outer Continent.”

Najin was silent.

Looking at Najin’s complex expression, the Helm Knight smiled bitterly and spoke.

“Is it very different from what you thought? The Outer Continent.”

“Honestly, yes. It is.”

Najin looked up at the sky.

Najin could no longer purely admire the stars shining in the night sky. As Merlin had said, they seemed like selfish stars busy protecting themselves.

At least, they seemed far from heroes.

Perhaps sensing something in Najin’s eyes, the Helm Knight quietly spoke.

“Not all the stars in the night sky were like that. They weren’t all like this from the beginning.”

The Helm Knight looked up at the sky and said.

“We came here thinking we could become anything. Here, we dreamed of becoming heroes. Well, we were all accomplished individuals on the continent. Everyone set foot on this Outer Continent with grand dreams.”

Some were pushed to this land because their lifespan had ended. There must be many such people. But even those people had dreams, the Helm Knight said.

“Long ago, King Arthur pushed the boundary of the Outer Continent further outward, crossed the Outer Continent, and finally reached Camlann. There, he sealed the Witch of Abyss who was trying to destroy this world. Who doesn’t know the great hero’s life story? We know too. We also wanted to become heroes like King Arthur.”

Everyone did.

“Continuously achieving great deeds, hanging stars in the sky, and advancing further. Advancing and advancing… to stand on the battlefield where King Arthur stopped. On the stage prepared for us by the Hero King, gladly achieving the same great deeds as him. Everyone came to the Outer Continent with such imagination.”

But, he said.

“Reality was not so easy.”

Everyone thought they would be different.

The Outer Continent thrust reality upon them.

They faced disasters that had brought countless heroes to their knees. They encountered walls they could not overcome no matter what. They only confirmed how great King Arthur was in the past, and the gap between that great hero and themselves.

“Groaning before that gap, many heroes compromised. In this land where even death cannot be a rest, they chose to leave the ground and ascend to the night sky.”

“……”

“They all just came up with their own answers.”

The stars in the night sky weren’t selfish from the beginning. They too were once heroes.

“This place thrusts reality upon you. Not just here. The world will thrust reality upon you again and again.”

He drew a line at Najin’s feet.

“Stop here. Don’t go any further. What lies beyond is only a worse hell. Have you experienced many things in the inland before coming here? There are more hells unfolding here. More terrible things abound.”

This is the path a hero must walk.

“Don’t cross the line. Stop. Accept reality while abandoning your ideals. You’ve seen what happens to those who live according to their ideals, do you really want to walk that path? The Outer Continent will continuously throw questions at you.”

“So you’re telling me to give up?”

“If that were giving up, would I be here like this?”

The Helm Knight shrugged.

“Well, you have to answer that question yourself. It’s not something someone else can answer for you.”

The Helm Knight said.

“Think about it. What is right and what is wrong. How to move forward. How far you will hold onto your ideals, and how far you will compromise. Agonize endlessly.”

Najin looked at the line the Helm Knight had drawn at his feet. Line. Don’t cross the line. Stop here. Najin had heard similar words until they were etched into his ears.

“Don’t cross the line.”

“Live as you’re given.”

That’s what Ivan had said.

“Do you think you’ll be any different? You’re the same. Those who fell here had dreams too. Do you think everyone was like this from the beginning? We too, even we…”

The drug addict Hakan had cried out like that.

It wasn’t just those two. Many people in the underground city had told Najin similar stories. We didn’t want to be like this either. Ideals are high, and reality is heavy. To head toward the high sky, the weight of reality chained to our ankles is too heavy, and we only sink.

In the end, you’ll end up just like us.

Najin looked at the land of the Outer Continent.

On this land, Najin felt déjà vu. A place where things pushed out and abandoned from the continent pile up. A place like a landfill. This place resembled Najin’s starting point. It even resembled the fact that there are those who dream even in abandoned places.

The line drawn before him.

“I’ll correct you, Najin.”

Looking at that line, Najin smiled inadvertently.

“Cross the line.”

“Reach for places you can’t reach. Punch those who mutter that you should know your place in the face. Only you know how far you can go.”

Najin stood up.

“Look up high and run. Climb higher, higher than anyone else. Because you have the talent for it. Believe in your talent.”

“And when you stand at the highest place, shout.”

“That I, Ivan, was at your starting point.”

Najin took a step across the line drawn by the Helm Knight. Najin said with a light smile.

“I don’t think I need to think about it much.”

“Really?”

“Yes, because I already came up with an answer long ago.”

Najin tapped the sword tied at his waist and said.

“You said you were defeated by the Empress of Bliss?”

“…We weren’t completely defeated. I put a hole in the eye of that Knight of Bliss, and I nicely put a hole in the heart of the Empress of Bliss too.”

“But you still lost, didn’t you?”

“Tsk.”

“I’m going to win.”

The Helm Knight was silent.

“The more I hear about it, I feel that I can’t coexist with that demon called the Empress of Bliss. She should have been more moderate with her mischief.”

“You know that the Empress of Bliss is a constellation with 10 stars, right?”

“What does that matter?”

Najin shrugged.

“I’m 19 years old with three stars. I don’t think I’ll lose to a demon who’s lived for hundreds of years and only managed to accumulate 10 stars.”

At that answer, the Helm Knight burst into laughter. Ignoring that laughter, Najin said.

“So to increase my chances even a little bit.”

Najin drew his sword.

“Please continue teaching me the sword.”

“Alright. I’ll train you until you’re just about to die.”

The Helm Knight raised his sword and gestured.

“Follow me. Today will be even harder.”