Ch.15Light That Should Not Be Taken (1)

Underground city Attman saw a star rise.

In Attman, where no starlight could reach due to the ceiling that blocked the sky, the appearance of a star made it all the more striking.

A clear light that was neither obscured by thick fog nor buried in the dim glow of mineral lamps.

The platinum starlight that nothing dared to cover was what the boy had longed for. The boy blinked blankly as he stared at the star in his hand.

‘I pulled it out. Really.’

What he held in his hand was the Sword of the Star.

Excalibur, the sacred sword that symbolized King Arthur. Najin’s eyes were dyed platinum as he gazed at the shining sword.

A gamble taken with a come-what-may attitude.

The only basis for the gamble was the voice echoing in his head and his own intuition. But he really did pull out the sword. Though the situation felt unreal, the weight of the sword in his hand told Najin that this was reality.

‘If so.’

If this was reality.

If he wasn’t dreaming.

“Drug dealer Hakan.”

There was something he had to do.

The dreaming boy returned to reality. Feeling the cool grip of the sword handle against his fingers, Najin slowly raised the sword.

The tip of the raised sword pointed at Hakan.

Pointing the sword at the ruffian who dared to invade Ivan’s territory, Najin smiled.

“Any last words?”

A boy in tatters.

The only thing that had changed from before was the sword in the boy’s hand. However, the boy was, albeit weakly, a swordsman, and for a swordsman, a change in sword meant a change in everything.

The tide of battle had turned.

The scales had tipped.

The boy stood while Hakan sat slumped. She still had numerous addicts at her disposal, but the star in the boy’s hand was not something that could be obscured by such things. Hakan let out a hollow laugh.

“…Does this make any sense?”

Who would have imagined?

That a boy from this filthy underground city, full of discarded things, would pull out Excalibur. Hakan had prepared for this day for a full 17 years.

She could only let out a hollow laugh at the sight of the boy blocking her path.

Najin stomped the ground.

Holding the sword trailing platinum starlight, the boy stepped toward Hakan. The addicts rushed at the boy without their master’s command, but those who were already finished could not block the boy’s path.

Swoosh!

The addicts were swept away like water being parted.

Hakan stared blankly at the scene. There was the dream she had left in the upper town. Something she had desperately longed for but never obtained.

‘A star.’

A brilliantly shining star.

Not everyone who fell to this city would feel the same, but at least those strong enough to represent each district had once dreamed of stars.

Dusk Horseo.

One-eyed Ivan.

Drug dealer Hakan.

All of them had dreamed of having their own star. They had longed to hang their star in that high night sky. Because they had fallen to this city while reaching for the night sky, they could never forget the starlight.

“Ah……”

Hakan groaned before the approaching star.

The star eventually stopped right in front of Hakan. Hakan looked up at the boy.

A body in tatters from the explosion. Soot on his clothes and the blood of addicts. But his eyes had not lost any of their light. Rather, they contained an even clearer light than before.

Hakan sensed her end.

Sensing her end, she sneered. At her own fate. And at the miserable future awaiting the boy.

“…Kid.”

Hakan smiled at the boy.

It was the smile of a loser who had dreamed the same thing as the boy but had fallen to this city.

“That’s a light that shouldn’t appear in this city.”

You’ve become too conspicuous.

Even if you were qualified to pull out the sword.

“It’s a light that you, incomplete as you are, shouldn’t possess.”

You’ve gone too far ahead. You’ve grasped something too bright without being prepared.

“Those high up in the upper town don’t bless those with starlight. If someone unprepared possesses light, they just crush them.”

She raised her right arm.

Her right arm with a brand burned into it. It was like the right eye that One-eyed Ivan had lost, and like the fingers that Horseo had lost.

“You’ll be crushed too.”

Since you’ve grasped an even greater light than us.

You’ll lose something even greater.

“You’ll lose everything.”

It was both a curse and a prophecy, and advice.

Listening to Hakan’s words, Najin recalled the not-too-distant past. The cursing words that Trixie, sensing her death, had thrown at him.

“Najin, you’ll rot in this city for the rest of your life!”

He couldn’t refute those words then.

He had always wanted to refute them, but knowing they were true, Najin had simply let their words pass by.

‘But.’

Not anymore.

Najin had crossed the line and started running. He had reached for the unreachable and grasped it. Now it was time to start running while looking at even higher places.

No one could block that path.

“That’s your story.”

Najin said.

“Those who failed and fell to this city…”

Success and failure are separated by a hair’s breadth.

You can only know how your future will unfold by facing it head-on. Rather than resigning, giving up, and feeling bitter like in the past, he would choose the path of crashing and breaking.

The shackles that had bound his feet for years were broken. The boy’s eyes were dyed not with the murky sunset light that hung over the underground city, but with the platinum color emitted by the Star’s Sword.

“I have no intention of listening to the stories of failures.”

“…Ha!”

At the word “failures,” Hakan burst into laughter.

“Yes, that’s not wrong.”

Hakan sneered with her lips curled up.

“Go ahead.”

Najin raised his sword.

“Feel it for yourself…”

Would you still be able to say that?

How cruel the world above that you don’t know can be, and how merciless it can become. Hakan shouted for him to feel it with his own body.

And Najin swung the raised sword.

Drug dealer Hakan’s body tilted. Looking down at the blood flowing on the floor, Najin exhaled a long breath. His whole body ached. It wasn’t just because of his injuries.

A feeling of exhaustion as if something was leaving his body.

The exhaustion had worsened since the moment he swung Excalibur. Najin breathed heavily and lowered the sword. He had defeated Hakan and cut down all the addicts. It would be good if things ended here, but…

“……”

Najin silently lowered his gaze.

There were residents who had fled during the commotion, and residents of the underground city who were watching him while hiding in buildings. They were watching.

The sword in his hand.

The star that had risen in the underground city.

But not everyone was looking at the star. There were those who were looking at the boy holding the star, not the star itself. They were soldiers sent from the upper town, guards who had been guarding Excalibur.

The moment their eyes met, Najin realized.

That he needed to chase and kill them. That he needed to silence them. But Najin didn’t have the strength left to chase after those who had disappeared into the crowd. Najin limped toward the back alley.

This is not a dream but reality.

Because it was reality, Najin had to make a decision. To avoid being crushed as Hakan had said. Najin began to flee toward a place where people’s gazes couldn’t reach.

2.

The Order of the Star that serves the stars.

Star Blood, Star Body, Star Light.

Once one but now divided into three orders today. Orlang, the high priest who was the head of the Star Light Order, frowned.

“What is it so early in the morning? Berlo.”

Berlo, a knight of the order who had brought two soldiers to the office, bowed his head in greeting after making the two soldiers kneel before Orlang.

“There is news you must hear.”

“Is it about the sacred sword being pulled out last night? If so, I’ve already heard enough about it. Letters are flying in from each district and I’m overwhelmed. I’m very busy right now.”

Orlang tapped the desk.

“Is it important enough to report directly to me?”

“Yes, more than anything else.”

If the taciturn knight Berlo would say that much, it must surely be important information. Orlang exhaled a long breath and gestured to Berlo, as if to say, go ahead and tell me.

And.

The story that came from Berlo’s mouth was more than enough to make Orlang put down his quill pen and widen his eyes.

“Berlo.”

“Yes, give me your command.”

“If there is even a little falsehood mixed in what you’ve just said, you would have to fall to the place you just mentioned, having lost your voice.”

“I swear by God, it is the truth.”

“How can this be…!”

Orlang slammed the desk.

“I ordered that no one should lay hands on the sword! How can it be a plausible story that someone from that city of criminals pulled out the sacred sword!”

His eyes trembled.

Pressing his bloodshot forehead with his finger, Orlang slowly exhaled. Just now, Knight Berlo had said that a boy from the underground city had pulled out Excalibur last night.

It was the testimony of the soldiers guarding the sword.

It was the eyewitness account of the criminals in that city.

‘I thought it would be one of the three: the Sword Master of the Order of the Sword, the killer of the Star Blood Order, or the Empire’s Sword Master…’

The continent was in an uproar after the sacred sword was pulled out.

The individuals that the world speculated had pulled out the sword were only the three above. Only they were closest to Arthur and were thought to be qualified to pull out the sword.

One of them had pulled out the sword and was hiding the fact. That’s what the world believed. The high priest of the Star Light Order, Orlang, thought the same.

‘But.’

The one who pulled out the sword was not one of those three.

A boy living in the city of criminals, where neither people’s gazes nor starlight reached, had pulled out the sword. Orlang simply couldn’t believe this fact.

He couldn’t believe it, but.

Now that it had happened, he had to make a judgment.

The position of high priest leading an order always demanded quick decisions. The old priest Orlang chose to judge the situation rather than understand it.

“…Witnesses? How many know about this?”

Orlang asked.

Berlo answered the question.

“Countless in the city of criminals. But only these two can enter this city.”

He pointed to the two soldiers kneeling before Orlang. Orlang narrowed his eyes.

“Only these two?”

“Yes. These are the two soldiers who were on guard duty last night. They were negligent in their duties and failed to prevent a criminal from approaching the sacred sword.”

“Dispose of them.”

Orlang flicked his finger.

Before the two soldiers could beg for mercy at the judgment passed down, Berlo’s sword moved. The swung blade passed through the necks of the two soldiers.

Slash.

Without even glancing at the soldiers who fell spewing blood, Orlang opened his mouth, looking at Berlo.

“It’s fortunate that the killer of the Star Blood Order didn’t pull out the sword, but this is an even bigger problem.”

Orlang pointed to where Berlo stood.

“This is where the main church of the Star Light Order is located, and where the order’s judgment seat is located. For a criminal judged in such a sacred place to have the qualification to possess the sacred sword… isn’t that an absurd story?”

Star Light, Star Body, Star Blood. Each order had its own judgment seat, and the method of judgment was also different for each.

The Star Blood Order judges sin through blood.

They punish the sin by making heretics who have sinned die bleeding in a place where the most stars look down.

The Star Body Order judges sin through the body.

They punish sin by tearing apart the bodies of sinful heretics and scattering them.

And the Star Light Order.

The order that judges sin through light imprisons criminals underground, depriving them of the opportunity to see starlight. They punish their sins by making them rot for life without receiving the grace of the stars.

“That a criminal judged under the light of the stars has pulled out the sword.”

Orlang declared.

“It shakes the foundation of the Star Light Order’s judgment seat and defiles the essence of the order. It means that something that should never have happened has happened.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“I believe you understand my words, Sir Berlo.”

Dispose of it. That’s what Orlang was saying.

The strongest on the entire continent, the superhuman beings who fly and crawl, even the stars in the night sky still don’t know who pulled out the sword. So it’s only now.

Make it as if it never happened.

Quietly, and cleanly.

Of course, Orlang had other options.

He could have made an exception to the order’s method, forgiven the boy’s sin and kept him by his side, or he could have admitted that the order had made a wrong judgment.

But Orlang did not do that.

He was the high priest leading the order, and his faith in his order was firmer than anyone else’s. He knew that there should not be even the slightest flaw in the path the order had walked. Therefore, he chose the path of burying the flaw that had been created. There is no compromise in that decision.

Because Orlang had always lived that way.

Because he had always settled things that way.

The head of the main church of the Star Light Order, existing above the underground city, passed judgment on the boy.

“Can I trust you?”

“I will answer to your expectations.”

Berlo, who bowed his head, left the office. As those who entered late dragged away the soldiers’ corpses, Berlo walked through the church corridor and thought.

The city of criminals, Attman.

It was his job to manage the church’s soldiers sent to that city, and therefore Berlo knew well who the ruler of that city was.

‘Knight of Atanga, Ivan.’

The ruler of that city was a knight who once looked at the same place as himself and stood on the same battlefield, but eventually fell. A smile spread across Berlo’s face.

“I should see my junior’s face after a long time.”

The former Knight of Atanga, Berlo.

The order’s hunting dog, who could no longer speak the name of Atanga because he had thrown away honor and pride with his own hands, smiled.