Ch.238Regarding Those Brave Yet Ridiculous Ones (1)

The sky was stained with paint.

Heads rolling on the ground, laughing hysterically; giants dancing despite losing their heads; clowns appearing from nowhere, playing discordant music on their instruments.

This world, where everything was mixed up and in complete disarray, resembled a child’s dream.

Grind.

Najin gritted his teeth. He had seen the scene unfolding before him somewhere before. When he first encountered the Empress of Bliss, when the Helm Knight’s end was desecrated—the same scenery had appeared then too.

Power unconsciously flowed into the hand gripping his sword.

This was the Empress of Bliss’s domain. Had she appeared here? No, that wasn’t it. He couldn’t sense her detestable presence.

“Najin.”

Juel and Najin exchanged glances. No lengthy conversation was necessary. The two nodded and leaped into the domain of the Empress of Bliss spread out before them. In any case, to reach La Mancha, they needed to cross through this domain.

‘And.’

He wanted to remove this horrific scenery from his sight as quickly as possible. Najin frowned at the noise assaulting his eardrums and swung his sword.

Juel’s sword, Najin’s sword, and the fist of The Sacred Host who joined belatedly all collided with the Empress of Bliss’s domain.

The limbs of giants dancing despite losing their heads flew through the air; they smashed the heads rolling on the ground, laughing hysterically; they executed the clowns. It wasn’t an easy battle, but it wasn’t difficult either.

If there was one problem, however.

Ha, hahahahaha!

The battle wouldn’t end.

Even after smashing their heads, the laughter didn’t stop. After cutting the giants’ limbs into pieces and slicing their bodies, what burst forth was not blood but paint. When The Sacred Host grimaced and completely crushed a giant, a popping sound echoed as if a balloon had burst.

Pop, pooop, pop!

The inflated bodies of the clowns burst. What sprayed out as their bodies exploded wasn’t intestines or flesh or blood, but confetti and candies like those found in firecrackers.

“This isn’t a battle.”

Juel Lazian muttered.

“It’s a clown show.”

The laughter grew louder.

Now they couldn’t even hear each other’s voices. Only laughter that threatened to tear their eardrums filled the air.

Hahaha, ha, kyahaha, ahaha!

And then.

『Life is but a play.』

『Even death cannot bring down the curtain.』

Someone snapped their fingers with a click.

『The show must go on.』

Forever.

2.

“We’re fucked.”

“Pardon?”

“We are fucked, Najin.”

Najin blinked. Juel, who had been standing beside him, wasn’t swinging his sword—instead, he was putting the drawn sword back into the void storage. All while muttering that they were fucked. Of course, saying “we’re fucked” with such an expressionless face didn’t convey much gravity.

“The Star of Celestial Flow greatly dislikes having its domain invaded. But, that also depends on the day…”

“Wait. Just wait.”

“What is it, Najin?”

Najin interrupted Juel’s words.

Something was strange.

Leaving Juel staring at him with blinking eyes, Najin looked around. Then, he looked up at the sky. There, tens of thousands of whales were swimming.

It was the Star of Celestial Flow.

As the whales fell, Najin felt a sense of déjà vu. Hadn’t he seen this exact scene before? But more importantly, why wasn’t he surprised by this situation? This should be the first time he’d seen such a sight.

“First… let’s run away. Let’s get out of this domain.”

Najin decided they should flee first. He felt it was right to establish a plan after escaping from the Star of Celestial Flow’s domain.

Najin fled with Juel.

To The Sacred Host, who was confidently smiling as if saying “Come at me,” Najin chided, “That whale swallows stars. Are you confident?” Soon after, The Sacred Host, his face turning deathly pale, also began to run.

They retreated and formed a plan.

Too naturally, the thought ‘Why not use The Sacred Host as bait?’ arose in Najin’s mind. It was different from his usual intuition or instinct.

It had the naturalness of stating something already known and experienced. Najin felt a sense of discomfort at this naturalness.

The discomfort continued.

Carrying this discomfort, Najin continued the journey and arrived at the doorstep of La Mancha. There, giants transformed into clowns were dancing. Once again, a battle with them began.

‘Once again?’

Najin’s eyes narrowed at the words that came to his mind. He looked to the side. Merlin was saying something there, but he couldn’t hear it properly.

Hahaha, ha, aha, kyahahaha!

Merlin’s voice was buried under the clowns’ laughter. The laughter wasn’t coming from outside. The laughter resonating from within Najin swallowed even Merlin’s voice.

‘It’s because of the clowns in front of me.’

Getting rid of them should be the priority.

Thinking this, Najin drew his sword. Juel and The Sacred Host did the same. And so they fought ‘again.’ As the battle continued, the laughter only grew louder.

The laughter swallowed everything.

Then, with a ‘snap’ of fingers, Najin’s consciousness went dark.

Blink.

When he opened his eyes.

“We’re fucked.”

He was back at the beginning.

“We are fucked, Najin.”

Beginning? What does that mean? And what does ‘again’ mean? Hadn’t they just started their journey?

Hahaha, ha, kyahaha, ahahahaha!

Laughter echoed in his ears. Is it because this is the path to La Mancha? The laughter is already starting to be heard. Indeed, it seems this will be a difficult journey.

Once again, they fled from the Star of Celestial Flow.

The plan to overcome the obstacle came to mind too smoothly. He was confident that following that plan would allow them to escape from the Star of Celestial Flow’s domain. Where did this confidence come from? Najin questioned himself.

‘Because.’

Because this was something he had already done.

“……”

Yes.

‘Merlin.’

This was something he had already done.

‘How many times is this?’

Najin looked at Merlin. The laughter that had been blocking between Najin and Merlin suddenly cleared. In Merlin’s voice, which he could finally hear, there was weariness.

-You finally noticed.

As if waiting for that question, Merlin spoke.

-It’s the seventh time.

The moment he heard that answer, Najin remembered everything. The fact that after passing the Star of Celestial Flow, overcoming various traps and trials, they had reached the doorstep of La Mancha, but there they encountered the domain of the Empress of Bliss and were sent back to the beginning.

And the fact that this had been repeated seven times.

Najin pressed his temple. A headache was coming on. Frowning, Najin asked Merlin.

‘Did I not notice?’

-I tried to tell you many times, but there seems to be a distortion in your perception itself, and you couldn’t understand.

Merlin said. You considered the clowns’ laughter resonating within you as ‘natural,’ he said. You thought it was inevitable since this was the path to La Mancha.

That was the perception distortion placed on Najin.

And the effect of the stage that made him forget the fact that it was repeating.

Due to these two overlapping, Najin had repeated the same journey seven times. Najin felt his spine tingle.

He got goosebumps.

Najin had thought he had resistance to mental interference or forgetfulness. After all, he possessed Excalibur, and Merlin was accompanying him.

But that wasn’t the case.

As if mocking Najin’s thoughts, the Empress of Bliss had trapped him in an eternally repeating stage. Made him wander in a maze with no exit. Distorted his perception with clowns, stole his gaze with the stage’s lighting and direction, and incinerated his memories.

It took seven loops to notice this fact.

Grind.

Najin gritted his teeth. Then he clenched his fist tightly. Five stars flickered brightly.

The reason Najin could feel déjà vu and notice the repetition was thanks to the stars he possessed. In the stories that made up Najin’s stars, there were several who had ‘escaped from repeated lives and reached their destination.’

The stars containing their stories shone intensely.

The intensely shining starlight washed away the contamination clinging to the minds of not only Najin but also Juel and The Sacred Host.

“Ah.”

Belatedly, the two also came to their senses.

“…This is ridiculous.”

The Sacred Host pressed his brow as if dizzy.

“Does this make sense? To so easily fool a transcendent? So cunningly that we couldn’t even notice when or where we stepped onto the stage?”

“It’s surprising. I have immunity to mental interference, but I didn’t know it could distort perception itself.”

Juel added.

She tilted her head.

“It’s tricky. This is the seventh time, but there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to recall our memories on the eighth. Most likely, an even stronger distortion will be placed.”

“……”

“The Empress of Bliss won’t leave a loophole. This time we found the loophole after seven repetitions, but we don’t know how many repetitions will be needed to find the next loophole. And eventually, our stamina and mana will run out.”

Even transcendents don’t have infinite stamina and mana. Even Anton Kehano, a transcendent who possessed seven stars, grew tired in the repeating dream, and in the final moments, even walking became difficult.

“So.”

Juel stared at Najin.

“We need to find a way in this iteration. Otherwise, we’ll be trapped in this labyrinth.”

3.

In a labyrinth where the exit was not visible, where even the existence of an exit was doubtful, they had to find a direction to move forward. In other words, they had to find a path.

-This stage isn’t just the Empress of Bliss’s.

So the guide spoke.

Najin relayed her voice through his own mouth.

“This stage isn’t just the Empress of Bliss’s. The Empress of Bliss’s domain is parasitizing on La Mancha, an unusually enlarged grave of stars.”

This isn’t the Empress of Bliss’s territory. It’s not her land. Yet, the reason she can exert such powerful authority is because she’s parasitizing on La Mancha.

“La Mancha is a concept derived from the fairy tale ‘Knights of La Mancha.’ It’s a domain created by Quixote, who followed the journey in that fairy tale exactly.”

Najin searched his memories.

“In that fairy tale, there’s a sentence. It’s the theme and core of the fairy tale.”

Searching his memories, Najin spoke.

“La Mancha, the path to heaven is filled with hardships and trials. But as long as you don’t stop laughing, the journey continues. The Knights of La Mancha don’t lose their laughter. Even in the most difficult situations, we move forward with laughter.”

A sentence written in the original Knights of La Mancha.

“The Empress of Bliss has distorted the story contained in this domain, this stage, in her own way.”

“Distorted?”

“Yes, distorted.”

The clue thrown by Merlin, and the thread Najin caught.

Combining the two, Najin reached a conclusion.

“As long as you don’t stop laughing, the journey continues.”

That one line. A line that the Star of Contempt Quixote would have believed in before becoming the Star of Contempt. The Empress of Bliss had arbitrarily arranged that line.

『As long as the mockery doesn’t cease, the journey repeats.』

That was the essence laid in this stage.

“In the original fairy tale ‘Knights of La Mancha,’ the meaning of ‘laughter’ is not mockery. It was used as a device to overcome hardship—that if you don’t lose your laughter even in a difficult journey, you might be able to enjoy it all…”

But the laughter defined by the Empress of Bliss is different.

“The Empress of Bliss’s laughter is mockery. The two laughters have different textures. The Empress of Bliss’s domain must be forcibly binding them together under the word ‘laughter’…”

As they talked, they continued their journey. They leaped over the domain of the Star of Celestial Flow, overcame the trials they had already repeated seven times, and arrived at their destination.

“If that’s the case, there must be a binding point.”

They stopped walking. In front of the place where giants danced and sang, where the domain of the Empress of Bliss was spread out, Najin took a deep breath.

“The meaning of ‘laughter’ spoken by each domain is different. Despite being different, they coexist. That means there’s a commonality. If we pierce through that commonality, the Empress of Bliss’s domain will collapse.”

Because she will no longer be able to parasitize on La Mancha. Najin said they needed to cut the point that binds La Mancha and the Empress of Bliss’s domain.

“Ah.”

As if finally understanding what Najin was saying, Juel nodded.

“Is there a scene in ‘Knights of La Mancha’ where laughter is used in the sense of ‘mockery’? Najin.”

“There is.”

Najin pulled out a spear from his back.

“It’s the most famous scene.”

What Najin aimed his spear at was not the giants, but the windmill behind them, which had been thought to be just a background.

「Look at that giant, Sancho!」

「A giant with four arms.」

「I will now pierce that giant, so be sure to watch my brave figure with your own eyes.」

Don Quixote, mistaking a windmill for a giant, charges with his spear. Seeing this, Sancho bursts into mocking laughter. Who would mistake a windmill for a giant?

Laughter used as mockery.

A scene where it was used as derision.

The core of that scene is the ‘giant’ and the ‘windmill.’ Among the giants, imitating a giant, that windmill was the point where the Empress of Bliss’s domain was bound.

“As it happens.”

Najin raised the spear of the Cross Star.

“I also have a spear.”