Ch.193Hero (2)

That ice pillar reaching up to the sky.

To be precise, it was closer to an iceberg than a pillar. The irregularly carved surface, the ice pillars rising at an angle.

For an ordinary human, climbing those pillars and icebergs would be a difficult task, but not for Najin. For someone who could run up nearly vertical walls, such slopes were no different from flat ground.

With a tap, Najin stepped onto the slanted ice pillar and accelerated. As he began running, kicking off the ice, Najin lifted his head. His gaze was fixed on Radon, frozen at the top of the iceberg.

Half of Radon’s body was frozen. Every time Radon shook his frost-covered body roughly, the entire iceberg trembled. Feeling the tremors through his feet, Najin pushed forward.

——————!

Radon let out a monstrous cry as he opened his maw. The motion of preparing to breathe fire. But due to the surrounding cold and the ice clinging to his mouth, the gathered flames weren’t large.

The moment fire spewed from that mouth—no, a beat before that—Najin made his decision. He sheathed his longsword and gripped his spear with both hands. Then, instead of dodging, he leaped straight into the oncoming flames.

The breath attack was weaker than before.

The protective barrier Merlin had created still remained.

This much could be broken through head-on. That was Najin’s judgment. Standing still to deflect the breath would only waste time. If the Helm Knight were here, he would surely have chided Najin, “How can you call yourself a Golden Horned Knight if you can’t break through this much?”

‘That’s right.’

Charge instead of dodge. When crisis approaches, breaking through head-on is the way of the Golden Horned Knights. With his Cross Star spear pointed sharply, Najin charged.

Lance charging.

No warhorse needed. With transcendent leg strength, one can complete a lance charge even without a mount.

Whoooooosh!

His vision turned bright red, but Najin paid it no mind. Steam rose from his body, and as Merlin’s protective barrier peeled away, flames caught on his body, but he ignored that too.

Thunk.

Having pierced through the breath, Najin spun in place and swung his spear wide. The air pressure shook off the flames clinging to his body. It wasn’t just to shake off the fire. Using the rotational force generated by spinning his body, Najin threw his spear.

Swooooosh!

The Cross Star spear pierced through the massive ice chunks falling due to Radon’s rampage. Najin ran along the trajectory the spear had taken. Radon wasn’t about to leave Najin alone.

With a swoosh, Radon spread his ice-covered wings and let out a monstrous cry. In response to that cry, scales shot out like arrows. Dozens, hundreds of scales the size of human forearms rushed toward Najin.

Clang, Najin drew his sword while running and swung it without slowing down at all.

Penetration.

The third star shone. Charging straight at the enemy. Deflecting enemy attacks while charging. As a situation similar to when he obtained the star formed, the star Najin possessed shone even more intensely.

『But only head-on.』

The starlight pushed Najin’s back. When he thought he had taken one step forward, he had actually taken two. Though momentarily surprised by the sudden increase in speed, Najin quickly adapted and swung his sword.

Deflecting scales as he advanced, Najin spotted the Cross Star spear he had thrown earlier. The spear was losing momentum, slowly falling in a parabolic arc. After one final wide swing to deflect the scales, Najin reached out toward the falling spear.

Grab.

Seizing the spear, Najin twisted his body. Spinning once in place, he transferred rotational force to the spear. With a powerful stomp on the ground, Najin extended the spear forward with the rotational force.

Horn Charge.

The falling ice chunks and feathers were shattered as if caught in a storm. A straight path was created. Now the distance between Najin and Radon was merely a few dozen meters at most.

Hoo, Najin exhaled deeply to steady his breathing.

Releasing white breath, Najin curled up the corners of his mouth. Radon, who had nearly torn off all the ice clinging to his body, glared at Najin with his beast-like eyes.

A distance within reach of Najin’s sword.

Also within reach of Radon’s tail and claws.

As Najin adjusted his grip on his sword, Radon roared and struck down on the iceberg that held his body. As cracks formed in the iceberg and fragments flew up, Radon swept his arm, shooting ice pieces toward Najin. Throwing everything in sight, Radon began to move.

Crack······.

The iceberg cracked, and with each strike from Radon, the ground shook. That’s what dragons are. Beings like natural disasters, shaking the earth and burning the land with their every movement.

Yet before such a being, Najin didn’t shrink back at all. Though not yet a transcendent, if one wishes to reach transcendence, one must not fear disasters.

2.

Violet gazed into the distance.

There stood an iceberg reaching high into the sky, and on it, a young man clashing with a dragon. Before the dragon that shook the earth with each movement, the young man didn’t shrink back at all.

He shattered the ice chunks Radon threw, cut through the flames with his sword, avoided the tail swinging like a whip, and charged at the dragon.

Slash!

He swung his sword, tearing off the dragon’s scales and making it bleed. For a human, it would be like a small cut on a fingertip, but Radon, unable to bear the fact that he was bleeding, began to rampage even more violently.

Stab, stab, crack!

And Najin continuously climbed up the dragon’s scales, repeatedly stabbing his sword into its wing joints. As if to tear those wings apart. The insignificantly small human relentlessly charged at the dragon dozens of times his size.

Watching this scene.

“Ah······.”

Violet sighed deeply.

She groaned at the sight of Najin becoming a hero in her place. Every time Najin bled, Violet squeezed her eyes shut.

That is the truth of heroes.

The life of a hero is not glamorous or beautiful. Rather, it’s the opposite. Miserable, desperate, and unbearably painful. In a life of sacrificing oneself for complete strangers, Violet could not find any sense of joy or fulfillment.

She was tired of it. It was arduous and disillusioning.

Overcoming oneself on life-threatening battlefields to reach transcendence? Fighting strong opponents to train oneself? What was it all for? Did she really need to overcome? What was the point of repeatedly crashing into a massive wall, breaking herself over and over just to get past it?

It was all just painful. Everything. Truly everything.

She wanted to throw it all away.

‘Why should I sacrifice myself? Why must I protect these people? Why? Why should I sacrifice myself for complete strangers, throwing away my entire life?’

She had such thoughts dozens of times a day.

That’s why Violet felt disillusioned with being called a hero. How could someone like her be a hero?

‘All heroes are mentally ill.’

Even as she said this, Violet knew. Heroes are noble and beautiful beings. Unlike herself, who was materialistic and selfish, they were pure and radiant beings.

So the title of hero didn’t suit her.

‘I am not a hero. I cannot become one.’

It was at that moment.

Flash.

A star twinkled in the sky.

As if drawn by that starlight, Violet turned her gaze and saw. The figure of Najin still charging at the dragon. Najin’s star shining even more fiercely, as if telling Violet not to look away but to watch straight on.

“······.”

A small human fights against a dragon.

As she continued to watch, Violet felt a strange emotion. The way Najin fought was not much different from how she herself had fought.

Bleeding, getting knocked back, but quickly recovering and charging at Radon again. After all, what was needed to face a tough, solid, and massive dragon was not a powerful single strike but the accumulation of steady damage.

And watching this scene, she thought······.

That figure truly looked like a hero.

That figure, not backing down against a being dozens of times larger than himself, was worthy of being called a hero. The fact that she herself had been doing the same thing felt strange to Violet.

「Do you know what the world calls those who do good without obligation, without reason to do so?」

The question Najin had asked.

「Heroes. Knights too.」

That voice echoed in Violet’s ears.

「You are already a hero.」

「Even if you deny it, that fact won’t change.」

Violet turned her gaze.

There lay a sword, carelessly discarded. A sword that had been with her for nearly 100 years. A terribly dreadful sword lying there.

Violet looked at her hand.

Viola Ordina looked at the sword.

······The human mind is imperfect.

The world allowed human bodies to transcend, but it did not allow their minds to do so. That’s why humans agonize. They question themselves and struggle to find answers.

It doesn’t matter whether those answers are right or wrong.

The conclusions they reach will always be right for them.

Violet made her choice.

Perhaps, Viola Ordina made her choice.

3.

Radon’s wings were in tatters.

With his feet firmly planted on Radon’s wing joint, Najin raised his sword high. Though Radon thrashed about, Najin didn’t fall. With his sword raised high, Najin’s eyes widened.

The Triumph Sword he learned from Alderan Basaglia.

The Triumph Sword was created by Alderan to cut what could not be cut. The essence of the Triumph Sword is to compress sword energy to its limit on the blade, maximizing its cutting power. Najin had never forgotten this essence.

Flash.

As the tip of the sword flashed, Najin brought it down. The sword, swung down like splitting firewood, deeply cut the connection between Radon’s back and wing. Blood gushed like a fountain as Radon thrashed about. Najin, thrown off the dragon’s back by the rampage, tumbled on the ground.

Slash, he tried to maintain balance by stabbing his sword, but the already damaged ice collapsed with a “crack” sound. With nowhere to stand, Najin dangled from the edge of the iceberg.

A human who had cut off half of his wing joint had shown an opening. As if unwilling to miss this opportunity, Radon roared and swung his foreleg to shatter the glacier Najin was hanging from.

‘Unfortunately, I’ll have to fall and then come back up······.’

Clicking his tongue, Najin resigned himself to falling.

It would take a long time to climb back up, but there was no way to avoid that attack without falling. Just as Najin was about to pull his sword out of the glacier and let go—

With a clang.

Cracks ran through the glass window between Najin and Radon. Radon’s foreleg bounced off, unable to break through the shattered glass window. Someone extended a hand to the blinking Najin.

“Take it.”

Whoosh, the hand pulled Najin up.

Standing on the glacier, Najin looked at the person who had offered their hand and smiled unconsciously.

“What? Why are you smiling?”

“I was just thinking you came after all.”

“Well, that’s how it turned out.”

Half snow-white hair, half black hair.

She looked at Radon before her and shuddered.

“Ugh, I really hate being a hero. How can anyone risk their life fighting something like that? Every single day, too. No matter how I think about it, it’s insane.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, so I can’t believe it. That I’ve been doing this for 67 years.”

She sighed and lowered her sword.

“I absolutely hate it.”

With a somewhat relieved expression, she said:

“But I want to retire in style. After all, I’ve been doing this for 67 years, so I want to end it beautifully at least. Then when I look back, I can think, ‘Well, at least the ending was good,’ right?”

Violet looked at Najin.

“What do you think? Is that too materialistic?”

To such a Violet, Najin shook his head.

“Not at all. And what’s wrong with being materialistic?”

“Right?”

“So, what should I call you? Violet? Or Viola Ordina?”

To that question, Violet smiled and tied her hair into a single ponytail. With her hair tied as if ready to perform, she answered with a light smile.

“Well, either one works, doesn’t it?”