Ch.22The Staff of Selection (1)

The boy faced the sky for the first time in his life.

But it wasn’t just the sky he faced. Najin listened to the sounds around him. The chirping of insects. The flowing of the river. The rustling of grass in the wind. All of these were unfamiliar to Najin.

The cool breeze tickling his hair.

The vast, open landscape.

The clear air that wasn’t murky or suffocating.

And above all, that expansive night sky and its stars.

Everything he saw with his eyes, felt on his skin, and heard with his ears was new. New, therefore unfamiliar; unfamiliar, therefore mysterious. Najin took a deep breath. As he breathed the outside world’s air for the first time, he opened his eyes wide.

He could see. So many things.

His vision extended unobstructed in all directions. Looking up at the sky, he didn’t see the familiar mineral-embedded ceiling. Instead, he saw stars adorning a night sky too vast to fit in his field of vision.

The night sky. And stars.

What the boy had longed for so desperately.

Counting the countless stars, Najin looked at the center of the sky. There was the constellation he had been searching for.

Hanging at the highest point in the night sky.

The largest constellation.

A sword-shaped constellation formed by thirteen connected stars.

‘Constellation, the Sword of Selection.’

The constellation of the great hero King Arthur.

Najin finally saw with his own eyes the constellation he had seen countless times in storybook illustrations. The moment he faced the constellation, the world of the boy who had been trapped underground instantly expanded.

Thump.

Najin felt his heart pounding.

Though the distance between himself and that constellation was immeasurable, he at least knew where his destination lay. Stars were no longer an invisible, vague goal for the boy.

A goal he could see with his own eyes.

A goal whose distance he could measure.

Najin’s eyes, as he gazed at the stars, shone with admiration, as children who dream often do. It was a light that Najin had lost long ago.

“Haaah…”

In this expanded world, Najin exhaled deeply. He had been constantly resigning himself and letting go of many things. But now, he would let go of nothing more. No matter how high they hung, he would reach out and grasp them.

Because Ivan had told him so.

To climb to the highest place.

Najin reached out toward the star hanging at the highest point in the night sky. Measuring the place he needed to climb to, Najin muttered to himself.

‘Someday, for certain…’

Still too extravagant a wish.

And so, without pronouncing it aloud, Najin buried that wish deep in his heart. It wasn’t yet a wish he could share with anyone.

But.

“Remember.”

That voice.

“The stars are always watching you.”

Najin’s voice, which no one should have been able to hear because it wasn’t spoken aloud, because it was kept inside.

“When you look up at the stars and pray, the stars are listening to your voice.”

Reached a certain star.

Thwack.

Najin’s senses suddenly sharpened.

But even with heightened senses, he couldn’t move. Najin noticed his body had stiffened completely. He couldn’t move. Not even a finger, not even to breathe.

But before long, Najin realized he wasn’t the only thing that had stopped. The blowing wind subsided. The grass that had been swaying in the wind stopped. The sound of flowing water ceased. Moving things began to stop one by one.

And when everything had stopped.

[Found you.]

A voice echoed in Najin’s ears.

King Arthur’s constellation that Najin had been looking at, and the constellation beside it that had been like a calm lake, suddenly churned. The stars shone, and Najin’s vision flickered.

Najin’s pupils turned cyan.

A sensation like something snatching his body. With a feeling of being dragged underwater, Najin’s vision tumbled.

“…Ugh!”

Countless scenes flashed before his eyes.

When the rapidly passing scenery finally stopped, Najin could breathe again. His vision was blurry, as if covered in fog. After blinking several times, the surrounding scenery finally came into view.

What he saw was a lake in a forest.

Just moments ago, he had been lying by a river with an open view, but now Najin’s eyes beheld a lake in a dense forest. Just as Najin was getting up in confusion at the suddenly changed scenery—

“Finally.”

A voice was heard.

The same voice that had sounded earlier. The voice that echoed in his ears was clear and gentle, but contained unmistakable anger.

“Finally found you.”

Najin turned his head toward the source of the voice. There stood a woman with flowing water-colored hair and blue eyes like a lake. Najin’s gaze met that of the woman sitting on a rock by the lakeside.

Eventually, she descended from the rock.

With a soft tap on the ground, she approached Najin. Najin watched her with narrowed eyes as she came toward him step by step.

‘Something’s off.’

Najin was feeling a strange sensation.

Though he tried to meet her eyes, his vision kept shaking. As if the very act of seeing was not permitted. In his trembling vision, Najin observed the woman’s clothes.

Something like a wizard’s robe.

Or perhaps a knight’s formal attire.

In one corner of the garment that fluttered with her steps was an engraved pattern. And Najin recognized that pattern. He had seen it in fairy tales.

‘A pattern symbolizing a lake and a staff.’

It was a pattern that only one person in this world could bear, a pattern that had come to symbolize a constellation.

The Wizard of the Lake.

Or, the Staff of Selection.

Just as Najin was about to unconsciously utter the well-known true name of the constellation, a hand suddenly extended and covered his mouth. Though the fingers were slender, once caught, Najin couldn’t move at all.

“How dare you try to speak my name with that filthy mouth?”

Merlin glared at him.

“You, what exactly are you?”

2.

“You, what exactly are you?”

Though she was pretending to be calm, at this moment, Merlin was extremely flustered. Even she couldn’t understand the current situation.

The voice that had just echoed in her ears.

It matched the voice of that deranged youngster who had recently insulted Arthur as a “lucky opportunist,” and Merlin had reflexively reached out to snatch the owner of the voice. This was an act of capturing someone’s consciousness.

To be honest, Merlin hadn’t expected this to work.

Merlin was a constellation who had ascended hundreds of years ago.

Not a human who remained in the mortal world with a star, but a being who had concluded her story and ascended to the sky, becoming “complete.” The places where such a being could intervene were very limited, and movements came with numerous restrictions.

‘Of course, I could ignore those and drag him here if I wanted to.’

But there would naturally be resistance. That’s why she had intended to let go if she felt resistance, just trying to confirm the location with a casual attitude, but…

‘Why did this work?’

Merlin looked at the boy in front of her.

The boy, caught by her and blinking in apparent confusion, appeared all too clearly. It meant he had been brought here without any resistance.

Though the boy seemed confused.

Merlin was just as confused as he was.

“I’m asking what you are.”

The boy caught by Merlin blinked and then extended his arm to point at Merlin’s fingers. His eyes seemed to say he couldn’t speak unless she let go.

Though his confident attitude was quite irritating, he wasn’t wrong. Merlin released Najin with a pushing motion.

“Speak.”

“I’m Najin.”

“…What?”

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

Najin said, rubbing his jaw with the back of his hand where he had been grabbed. After calmly stating his name, Najin was rapidly thinking.

He was certain that the person before him was Merlin. She matched exactly the descriptions he had seen in fairy tales.

The advisor to King Arthur, the constellation of legend who accompanied Arthur’s journey from beginning to end. Though his heart was racing at seeing up close a character he had only seen in fairy tales…

‘Let’s put that aside for now.’

Najin assessed the situation.

To understand why Merlin had brought him here and why she was hostile toward him. Was he brought here because he pulled out Excalibur? As Najin was desperately thinking, Merlin spoke.

“You’re funny. When did I ask for your name?”

Merlin laughed incredulously.

“Arthur is just a lucky opportunist of his time. Those were your words, right?”

…A lucky opportunist of his time?

What nonsense was this? Najin tilted his head slowly, not immediately understanding. But then Najin’s body stiffened.

“Arthur is just a lucky opportunist of his time.”

“If he were born in this era, he would be nothing.”

He remembered.

“Annoying, right? Doesn’t it make you angry?”

“Then come down and punish me if you can.”

He remembered the blasphemy he had uttered. Najin’s eyes trembled briefly. Cold sweat ran down his spine.

‘Wait, she heard that?’

Najin felt a bit wronged.

He couldn’t see the stars, but they could hear his voice? That seemed a bit unfair. Anyway, Najin now understood Merlin’s hostility toward him.

“That’s a slight misunderstanding…”

“Misunderstanding? What I really want to know is this. What gave you the audacity to say such things? No, why is your voice so clear in the first place?”

Merlin took a step closer.

“It’s strange. The clarity of your voice, how you were immediately dragged here when I caught you, how you maintain your form and consciousness intact in this place, my stellar domain…”

She narrowed her eyes.

Her narrowed blue eyes glared at Najin.

“It’s all strange. Did you perhaps make a contract with that damnable Mordred? Even that wouldn’t make sense, but nothing else does either.”

Tap. Merlin stood right in front of Najin.

At a distance where their breaths almost touched, Merlin stared directly at Najin. Najin’s sunset-colored eyes reflected in Merlin’s blue ones.

“I’m asking what you are.”

A question asked multiple times.

But Najin couldn’t immediately answer that question. Merlin sighed deeply and opened her mouth.

“Fine. Actually, whatever you are doesn’t really matter.”

What matters is.

“The fact that you insulted Arthur. And that I have no intention of letting that insult slide.”

You’re the one who told me to come down and punish you.

Muttering this, Merlin snapped her fingers. This was her domain, and once dragged here, everything was essentially under her control.

So, from the moment she snapped her fingers.

The boy before her would need her permission for everything—moving his body, blinking his eyes, even breathing. As she was contemplating what kind of punishment to inflict, Merlin reached toward Najin.

Grab.

Najin caught Merlin’s wrist.

Of course, she could easily shake off such a grip, and Merlin had the ability to break down those fingers holding her wrist into tiny grains of sand.

She had that ability, but Merlin couldn’t do it.

With wide eyes, Merlin looked at the hand gripping hers. Her first reaction to the boy who could move without her permission was surprise and interest. However, the moment she looked at the hand gripping her wrist, those emotions instantly evaporated.

What filled their place was shock.

Merlin saw it. The constellation mark engraved on Najin’s wrist. This mark is normally only visible in Najin’s eyes. No matter how exceptional a person might be, even a constellation in the night sky couldn’t see the mark engraved on Najin’s wrist.

But Merlin was an exception.

Because it was Merlin herself who designed the stellar circuit that housed Excalibur. She couldn’t fail to recognize the meaning of that mark.

Merlin raised her head.

From the hand gripping her wrist, Merlin shifted her gaze to the boy’s eyes. The boy’s eyes, which had been sunset-colored, were now stained platinum. Merlin’s eyes, which had been filled with shock, now changed to anger.

Grind.

Merlin gritted her teeth.

Shaking off Najin’s grip, she instead firmly grasped his wrist. As she applied pressure, platinum starlight escaped from Najin.

Whoosh, Merlin caught the escaping starlight.

The gathered starlight formed a platinum holy sword. After taking Excalibur from Najin, Merlin exhaled a long, very long sigh.

“Of all people.”

She pressed her eyes firmly.

“Of all people…!”

Three days since Excalibur was drawn.

During that time, neither she nor any of the countless constellations in the night sky had been able to find the owner of the holy sword. That owner stood before her, but Merlin simply couldn’t accept this fact.

Standing before her was not a Sword Master.

Not even someone close to being a Sword Master.

Not a special being with his own star.

Just a youngster with nothing special about him except for uttering the nonsense that “Arthur is just a lucky opportunist of his time.” Merlin simply couldn’t comprehend how this youngster could be the owner of the holy sword.

“That.”

But the Sword of Selection had selected the boy.

That was an unchangeable fact.

“I believe that’s mine.”

Najin firmly grasped the air.

Excalibur in Merlin’s hand crumbled into starlight. The crumbled starlight returned to Najin’s hand and formed the shape of a sword again.

“It’s troublesome if you take it like that.”

Unlike when Merlin held it, the sword in the boy’s hand was shining brilliantly. As if he were the true owner. Seeing this, a vein bulged on Merlin’s forehead.

“Wow.”

Merlin exclaimed.

She sighed as if genuinely surprised.

“What kind of bastard are you?”