Ch.214The Black Tower (5)

The Sword of Stars, Excalibur.

Kneeling on one knee, the one-armed knight raised what was unmistakably Excalibur. But it was somehow different from the Excalibur that Najin knew.

It wasn’t shining.

The sacred sword that should scatter starlight that nothing could obscure wasn’t shining. Looking closely, there were cracks on Excalibur’s blade, and all the constellations embedded in the sword were damaged.

The Excalibur that should never wear down had worn down.

Merlin’s eyes trembled as she gazed at the broken sacred sword. Merlin bit her lip firmly and her hand shook as she didn’t take hold of the Excalibur that Bedivere was offering.

“Where.”

Merlin barely opened her mouth.

“Where did you get this?”

“I retrieved it from the Abyss, the center of Camlann.”

“And Arthur?”

“The King was not there.”

“……”

“Before heading to Camlann, the King gave me his final order. He commanded that when everything was over, I should return Excalibur.”

His final mission.

Bedivere was reporting that he had completed that mission. But Bedivere couldn’t bring himself to raise his head and meet Merlin’s eyes. He must have been making an expression unbecoming of a knight.

“The King has fallen.”

“……”

“The King was nowhere to be found in the Abyss. Siegfried, who had pursued the King, laughed emptily and said that your king is dead.”

Bedivere’s voice was trembling too.

Everyone might have expected it, but it was his burden to confirm the King’s death and nail the coffin shut. The knight who had remained loyal to Arthur until the end gritted his teeth.

“Siegfried said he would remain in Camlann.”

He continued.

“The Witch of Abyss is sealed, and Camlann is in a state of suspension by the King’s doing. The King held Camlann in place in exchange for everything.”

Merlin remained silent. Both Bedivere and Merlin had their heads bowed, so their gazes didn’t meet. Their expressions, too, were unreadable.

“Camlann cannot invade the Outer Continent. The Outer Continent also cannot devour the continent. And this is—”

“Enough.”

“This is……”

“Say no more, Bedivere. That’s enough.”

“This is what the King promised at the Round Table when he began his journey. The King kept his promise.”

Merlin ground her teeth.

It would have been easy for Merlin to silence the kneeling knight before her. Easy, but Merlin couldn’t bring herself to raise her arm.

Before her lay the sacred sword that had lost its light.

The sacred sword that seemed like it would shine forever had lost its light. The companions she thought would be by her side forever were dead, had killed, or had become traitors. The King, whom she as a guide should have led, had run ahead on his own and put a period to the story.

Everyone had reached the destination, leaving Merlin behind.

She was all that remained.

“This is the King’s final message.”

“……”

“Please protect the seal of Camlann. Please maintain the seal until the next owner of Excalibur reaches that place.”

“Is that all?”

“……”

“Nothing like ‘I’m sorry,’ or ‘I had to do this,’ or anything? Not even……”

Merlin, who had been muttering, laughed weakly.

“Right, that’s the kind of person Arthur was. He never makes excuses. He doesn’t ask for understanding either. That’s how he was.”

Merlin’s expression crumbled.

“The story has ended.”

Merlin, who had been barely standing at the edge of the cliff, fell.

2.

Bedivere could no longer block Merlin’s path. Merlin, holding Excalibur, headed somewhere. Only Najin followed behind her. Merlin’s back looked so precarious, as if it might collapse at any moment.

“I didn’t want it to end.”

Merlin’s voice echoed through the blowing wind.

“I hate putting an end to stories. I want to keep watching interesting stories. I often thought that I wished their journey would never end.”

She wasn’t speaking in hopes that someone would hear.

It was more like talking to herself, perhaps even a monologue.

“Is that why? I can never read novels to the end. I always close the book when there are a few pages left. When I see signs that a story is about to end, I can no longer read it.”

She laughed.

“Still, if an ending inevitably comes.”

Laughing, she said.

“I hope it’s an ending that everyone can greet with a smile. If it’s such a perfect ending, maybe I too could accept it and put a period. I lived thinking that. And Arthur promised me.”

That he would gift me such an ending.

That he would take me beyond this continent, across the Outer Continent, breaking through even Camlann to Avalon, the utopia that might lie beyond.

“He promised to take me to the place I had been searching for so desperately, a place I couldn’t even imagine in my dreams. Arthur promised that. After making such a promise and telling me to live a little longer. After pulling me along like that……”

Merlin looked up at the sky with empty eyes.

Arthur was dead, but Arthur’s star remained in the sky.

“You go ahead first. On your own terms.”

In her hand was Excalibur, left behind by Arthur. Embracing Excalibur that had lost its light, Merlin walked on and on.

“After going ahead first, you prevent me from following.”

Protect the seal of Camlann.

Recalling those words, Merlin let out a hollow laugh.

“I don’t know why I should keep living, yet you tell me to live on. You say I still have things to do. What do you mean by waiting for what comes next?”

Merlin’s steps eventually came to a halt.

It was a forest. Among the tall vegetation, there was a green lake. It was a lake Najin knew as well. This was the place where he had first met Merlin.

“Wait? For a future that might never come? Wait and start the journey all over again? The Round Table is already shattered. The knights you trusted so much betrayed you.”

And yet, Merlin muttered.

“And yet you speak of what comes next. After abandoning everyone close to you to protect people you don’t even know… And still you insist on talking about what comes next.”

If she threw Excalibur into the lake, Arthur’s story would end. Knowing this, Merlin laughed. She realized that the role of putting a period to Arthur’s story fell to her.

“I can’t do that.”

The moment she muttered those words, a faint light leaked from the already cracked Excalibur. It was such a dim light that it seemed it might scatter at any moment.

“……”

That light was captured in Merlin’s eyes.

As if telling her to look at something.

As if saying there was something left for her to see.

“……Ah.”

Ah, Merlin groaned.

She seemed to understand what the starlight was saying. The starlight was pointing to her eyes—Merlin’s eyes that could see the future.

Originally, Merlin has eyes that can see the future.

She was called the Magician of the Lake precisely because she could see the future through the surface of the lake. But since meeting Arthur, she had not once looked into the future. The future she saw was worthless.

Excalibur is an object that transcends prophecy.

Excalibur, bound by nothing, changes the future. That’s why the future Merlin saw while with Arthur was meaningless. But now, at this moment, now that Arthur is dead, the future she sees gains meaning.

The starlight was pointing to that fact.

As if the sword’s owner, Arthur, was saying so.

“……”

Merlin smiled.

Yes, though she wasn’t sure what value that future might hold.

“If that’s what you want.”

For a moment, starlight dwelled in Merlin’s eyes.

A blue star shone in her empty eyes.

Merlin looked at the surface of the lake. Originally, her eyes could only see the near future, but she wished that, even if she had to give up her foresight, she could see just “once” the moment she wanted to see.

Thus, the prophet peeks into the future one last time.

What she sees is the distant future.

And.

For Najin, it is the present.

3.

There was one question.

Throughout his climb up the tower, Najin couldn’t shake one question. It was why the same dream kept continuing.

The floor that shows the most intense memory.

The floor that shows the most painful memory.

The floor that shows the saddest memory.

They all showed the same dream. The dream continued without interruption. Sad memories, memories of emptiness, memories of anger—regardless of the “theme” of the floor, Najin kept dreaming the same dream.

Still, until he reached the final floor of the tower, Najin had somewhat accepted it. Whether it was a sad memory, an intense memory, or a painful memory, he thought they didn’t necessarily have to be different memories.

But now, climbing the final floor.

Najin couldn’t understand at all.

‘The floor that shows the happiest memory.’

Even on that floor, why was the same dream being shown? The Merlin before his eyes didn’t look happy at all.

‘Has an error occurred in the tower?’

Was Merlin’s memory too heavy for the tower to handle, causing an error in the process of recreating it? Najin had such thoughts.

“……”

However.

“……Ah?”

That wasn’t it.

“This is.”

Najin looked at Merlin. Merlin was looking at Najin, but not looking at Najin.

“What are you? What the hell are you?”

“I’m Najin.”

“What?”

“You asked what I am. I’m Najin. My name.”

What she was looking at was Najin’s reflection in the lake. A future that would unfold a thousand years from now. What was reflected on the surface of the lake was the first meeting between Najin and Merlin.

“That seems to be mine. It’s troublesome if you take it away like that.”

“Wow.”

Merlin, reflected in the lake, grabbed the back of her neck and said.

“What kind of guy is this?”

The Merlin in the lake laughs in disbelief and scolds Najin. Asking if he could handle it. Saying it’s not a future he can handle. Just as she had done with Arthur in the past, she showed Najin the future.

The numerous hardships Najin must overcome.

Countless trials and tribulations.

The future foretold for the one who draws Excalibur.

And after seeing all of that, Najin barely opened his mouth.

“I must, like King Arthur.”

“No, I must go higher than King Arthur.”

Najin said.

“I will go, no matter what stands in my way. Because I need to hang my own star in the highest place.”

Because he had promised so.

“So, I can’t return this to you.”

At that answer, the Merlin in the lake laughs in disbelief. The Merlin looking at the lake couldn’t laugh. Her eyes were trembling.

“You’ll have to prove those words, you cheeky brat.”

With that, the future reflected in the lake flows quickly.

The confident boy moves forward recklessly. Sometimes he’s rash. The guide who watches from the side, sighing deeply, at some point stops trying to dissuade the boy and instead pushes his back, laughing happily, saying, “That’s the way!”

The boy and the guide move forward.

They defeat the Fallen Knight on the continent, rescue a girl captured by a noble family, duel with a pursuing knight commander, dance at a ball, face a black magician, encounter the rangers of the Tetzel Mountains……

Forward, and forward again.

The boy who bravely fought against the Red Dragon and White Dragon, just like Arthur, gains a star. The boy who gained a star heads to the Outer Continent. The Helm Knight, the Knight of Silence—the boy continues his journey, facing numerous knights and the dead. As always, the guide is by the boy’s side.

The guide, the future Merlin reflected in the lake, is laughing happily. Vividly, as if alive. Merlin stared blankly at that sight.

And.

“Do you really have to climb the tower?”

They reach the Black Tower.

“Will you really not despise me?”

“I told you, that won’t happen.”

What’s reflected in the lake is no longer the future. From Najin’s perspective, it’s not the past either. What’s reflected in the lake is the present. The lake reflected Merlin looking at the lake, and Najin standing behind her.

Only then did Merlin turn around.

Merlin looked at Najin with trembling eyes.

“You.”

She asked with a shaking voice.

“What are you, really?”

The answer Najin had to give to that question was predetermined.

Snap.

Najin grabbed the air. What was pulled out from the void was the Sword of Stars. The Sword of Stars, Excalibur, scattering light more brilliant than anything else. Instead of a hundred words, Najin acted once. That one action substituted for all answers.

“Najin.”

Holding Excalibur, Najin said.

“I’m Najin, that’s my name.”