Ch.199The Forgotten One (1)

The Constellations can sense human desires.

Merlin said they can feel intense wishes, desires, and resentments as a kind of flow.

“It’s not a clear phenomenon, nor an absolute one. It just happens sometimes. There are two right here.”

Najin looked around.

It was a wasteland. The only sentient beings within at least several hundred meters were Merlin and Najin. Seeing Najin looking around, Merlin laughed as if in disbelief.

“Someone once said that Arthur was a man of the times.”

Najin’s body gave a short twitch.

Merlin glanced at Najin with a sullen expression.

“That’s what you shouted to the sky.”

“Well, about that…”

“I know. It wasn’t what you really meant. Anyway, that could also be considered a form of ‘hearing wishes,’ right? When you shouted those words, you wanted to leave the underground city and go outside, didn’t you? You wanted to become a hero.”

“I did.”

“So that wish was heard by my ears, which possess stars related to heroes, paths, the outside world, and journeys. Your exceptional talent probably played a part too.”

Merlin added that because it’s influenced by various factors—the concept held by the star, the caliber of the Constellation who owns the star, the quality and situation of the person making the wish, and so on—it couldn’t be precisely defined as “in this situation, through this process, this result occurs.”

“In your case, you can probably see the wishes of those seeking Mourning—or as you put it, those who want to meet a satisfactory end.”

That was the flow that appeared before Najin’s eyes.

Starlight flowing like a thin stream of water. Najin was walking, using that flow as a guide. Following that flow had even led to meeting Jowell.

“It’ll be helpful for you too. It strengthens the concept held by your star and increases its size.”

“I’m not doing it expecting anything in return.”

“But it’s nice to gain something, isn’t it? Anyway, I don’t think this is so bad.”

Grinning like that, Merlin pointed in a direction, saying, “Ah, this way.” Merlin guided the way in place of Najin, who was still inexperienced at reading the flow of starlight.

“Hmm, hmm-hmm.”

Merlin hummed a tune while walking beside Najin, bouncing along in a way that anyone could see was excited. The reason was understandable. Wasn’t Merlin the one who had been stripped of the guide role repeatedly since coming to the Outer Continent?

Even the role of advisor had been taken by the Helm Knight, leaving Merlin as a useless spectator—days that Merlin had not forgotten. Days that had deeply wounded Merlin’s pride, truly painful days…

But now things were different.

Merlin intended to actively prove his usefulness from now on. To make it so Najin couldn’t live without him. Merlin’s eyes narrowed as he glanced at Najin.

Snicker.

While Merlin was smirking with such thoughts, Najin continued walking, thinking, “There he goes again.”

Currently, Najin had two main objectives.

One was to build strength to face the Empress of Bliss, and the second was to find a place called La Mancha. The greater goal was to kill the Empress of Bliss, and the lesser goal was to pave the way toward her.

‘For that purpose.’

He needed to become stronger than he was now. Much stronger.

Having clear goals naturally increased his pace. Following the flow of stars, Najin encountered the dead, sometimes knights, and asked them questions.

“Do you know about La Mancha?”

Questions to gather information, and:

“Who are you?”

Questions to adorn their final moments.

Najin collected their answers to these questions.

“Yurik, hunter of Aklem.”

“Orem the Ascetic. Remember me as such.”

“Bolam, Knight of Lukanov! The brave Bolam.”

“Setes. Setes the Piercer.”

Each revealed their name. They met their end shouting who they wanted to be remembered as, or who they wanted to be. Najin traveled the Outer Continent, bringing death to those who could not die.

Then one day while wandering the Outer Continent.

“…”

Najin’s steps came to a halt. He had no choice but to stop. An intense and fierce flow had entered his vision.

A fierce flow impossible to ignore.

Najin walked toward where that flow converged. The place he arrived at was a vast desert. A yellowish wind mixed with sand blew toward him. It wasn’t a natural wind, but an artificial one created by someone.

The sound of something cutting through the air with a “whoosh” from far away seemed to be the cause of the wind.

The Star of Mourning also pointed to where the sound came from.

Walking toward it, crossing a small hill and following the blowing wind… there stood a young man. He was swinging a spear in the middle of the desert.

Whoosh.

The young man who had swung his spear widely met Najin’s gaze. Najin spoke first.

“Who are you?”

Who are you to be swinging a spear in such a desert? To that question, the young man answered with a sheepish smile.

“I’ve forgotten. Long ago.”

2.

The young man who said he had forgotten his name continued what he was doing, ignoring Najin. That is, he kept swinging his spear. Standing in the middle of the desert, he swung his spear.

“…”

Watching the stance with which he swung the spear and the flow it created, Najin thought to himself.

This fellow is a Transcendent.

The basis for this thought was simple. Even after seeing him up close several times, Najin felt he couldn’t imitate the man’s movements. And since the only movements Najin couldn’t imitate were those of Transcendents, he judged the man before him to be a Transcendent.

“What kind of judgment criterion is that…?”

Merlin exhaled as if exasperated, but even she didn’t deny it.

‘More precisely.’

Najin narrowed his eyes.

‘A being who was a Transcendent but has fallen.’

Technically perfect, but it felt like something important was missing. In other words, similar to the Helm Knight. He gave off an atmosphere similar to those who were once Transcendents but had fallen after losing their stars.

Whoosh.

The spear shaft cut through the wind. The spear blade sliced through the air. Each time he swung the spear, traces were left in the sand, but they didn’t remain as the blowing wind mixed with the sand.

“Whew.”

After swinging his spear for quite some time, the man lowered the shaft and looked at Najin.

“I apologize. Even when a guest arrives, I cannot skip my daily routine.”

“Daily routine…”

“Ah, swinging the spear is my daily routine. A routine I must keep without fail.”

Stroking the worn spear shaft, he lowered his gaze. He seemed to be measuring time, even though counting time was meaningless in the Outer Continent, he was gauging it.

“The sun will set soon.”

There is no place in the Outer Continent where the sun rises. There could be no sun in the Outer Continent where the sky is broken and night is revealed. But he was looking up at the sky as if he could see the sun.

“The desert at night is dangerous. How about resting here for a while?”

The moment he said that.

Suddenly, the colors around them changed. When Najin looked up at the sky, what he saw was not the broken and cracked night sky, but a sunset-dyed twilight sky.

‘…How?’

As the desert was dyed with sunset, Najin’s pupils narrowed. He had experienced a similar situation recently. Najin muttered inwardly.

‘A tomb.’

The tomb of stars. Something similar had happened in Violet’s dream. Had he unknowingly entered a Constellation’s tomb?

“That’s probably not it.”

Merlin shook her head.

“The proof is that I don’t have physical form. But it does feel similar to a Constellation’s tomb.”

She pointed at the desert.

“This desert itself is a forbidden zone.”

‘Isn’t a forbidden zone a land that rejects people who enter?’

“Most are like that. But this is the opposite.”

Opposite.

“It’s a forbidden zone designed to prevent the person inside from going outside. And the target is one person.”

It was obvious who that one person was.

Najin looked at the young man before him. He was lighting a campfire on the sand with a friendly smile.

‘So this vast desert.’

“Was created as a forbidden zone to confine that one man.”

‘By whom?’

“I don’t know that much.”

A forbidden zone for confinement.

Merlin was saying that this vast desert was a prison created to confine that man. Does that mean he’s that dangerous? Najin naturally placed his hand on his waist where he could draw his sword at any moment, and spoke.

“Let’s do that. May I rest for a while?”

“Ah, of course! Please, sit down.”

3.

The sun set and night came to the desert.

In the desert where cool winds blew, the man had built a small hut. He took out a diary from the hut and faced Najin, holding it in his hand.

“May I ask your name?”

“Najin. Free Knight Najin.”

“Na, jin… Is this how it’s written?”

He showed Najin the diary. Najin couldn’t recognize the characters written there. They were different from the Empire’s common language that Najin knew.

“That’s right. He wrote it correctly.”

Merlin recognized it. When Najin looked at Merlin, she shrugged and answered that she knew quite a lot.

“I believe it’s correct.”

“Good. Na, jin. Najin. And Free Knight… please wait a moment.”

The man quickly flipped through the diary. Then he stopped at a page and read aloud what was written there.

“Free Knight. A knight who serves no master. A knight who does what he believes is right. A knight among knights… Wow, you must be an admirable person.”

He spoke with genuine admiration.

“I envy you. Being able to introduce yourself proudly is truly wonderful. I’d like to introduce myself too, but unfortunately, even I don’t know much about myself.”

“Have you lost your memory?”

“Well, I am losing it.”

“Pardon?”

He scratched the back of his neck and smiled awkwardly.

“I’d like to talk with you for a long time, but since the sun has set, that won’t be possible. This is quite regrettable. I must pass the joy of conversing with you to tomorrow’s me.”

“What does that mean?”

“It would be faster to ask tomorrow’s me. Hmm, please wait a moment. The remaining time… hmm, this should be enough.”

Even while talking with Najin, the man looked at the hourglass placed beside him. The sand in the clock was falling at a rapid pace.

“I don’t know my name. What I do know is that I was a knight. It says so here.”

He tapped his diary.

“And on the first page of the diary, it says to answer like this when others ask about myself.”

Feeling through the diary, he said.

“Knight of Rondinell. Yes, I was a Knight of Rondinell. Though I’m not sure if I still am.”

Rondinell, a name Najin also knew.

The forgotten kingdom of Rondinell.

The homeland of Sword Master Kirhov and a nation erased from history by a star with the power of oblivion.

“If you plan to spend the night here, and if you intend to talk with ‘me’ again in the morning.”

He wrote in the diary as he spoke.

“Would you please tell me to open page 781 of the diary?”