Chapter 258 |
War (2)
The Carnival King moved.
The being that had hidden behind the stage, scheming in the shadows, finally stepped onto it. Some would call it sudden, and others would think she had grown impatient... but those who truly knew the Carnival King thought differently.
They knew.
The Carnival King only revealed herself the moment she was certain of victory.
She was not a warrior who enjoyed head-on duels. Nor was she a gambler who leaped into fights with slim odds. She was a schemer and a hunter. And like hunters often do, the Carnival King could wait as long as it took for a guaranteed kill.
A hundred years, two hundred years, three hundred years.
She dug traps. She prepared weapons. She drew in enemies and strengthened her allies. In that way, she spent an age preparing to hunt a single prey.
「Latua, Zantium, Balvidia, Gobel.」
「Dark mage Kefalon.」
She unleashed demon contractors and threw the continent into chaos. The Demon King was the lord of all demons, and those demons became the Carnival King's eyes and ears, gathering information. The demon contractors hidden across the continent were her spies.
After investing that much effort, what she meant to hunt was the Empire.
And beyond that, the entire continent.
The ruler of the Outland was not satisfied with the Outland alone. She dreamed of advancing into the continent, the land Arthur had driven demons from a thousand years ago. The preparations to make that dream real were complete. The Carnival King rose from her throne.
「Carpe Diem is bait.」
「Lure in the Empire's pillars, including the First Horn of the Empire.」
「Kill them all in one place.」
Eliminate the First Horn of the Empire, the Annihilation Horn, and Karan, master of the Order of the Sword, all at once.
If that happened, the Empire would lose three pillars, and the five Transcendents it prided itself on would be cut to two in an instant. The Empire would urgently ask the three orders for aid, but that too would be pointless. She had already prepared for that.
「Completely isolate the Empire.」
Once that happened, it was over. Attacks would continue from both inside and outside the continent, and the Empire, stripped of its pillars, would fail to hold and collapse.
The plan was perfect. The calculations were perfect. There was no room for variables to interfere.
So there should have been no way for the plan to fail.
「......」
There should not have been.
「The Star of Dawn.」
A variable appeared. Staring at the star that had suddenly shown itself, the one that had ruined her centuries-long plan, the Carnival King smiled. Still smiling, she raised her arm.
As if to say, try blocking this too.
As if to ask whether someone who had not reached Transcendence could stop the tide raised by a Transcendent.
The stage curtain rose.
On a stage filled with laughter, where only laughter had value, the Carnival King pressed her mask into place.
"My lovely clowns."
At the edge of the Outland, the Carnival King raised her arm.
At exactly the same time.
In the center of the continent, the Emperor raised his arm.
"Knights who know honor."
Two emperors spoke at once.
"Laugh, applaud, and sing."
"Kill the demons."
They swung down their raised arms. Their goals, races, beliefs, everything about them was different, yet they spoke the same word.
「War begins.」
2.
The stars blazed fiercely.
Under starlight bright enough to hurt the eyes, Gerd stroked his chin. The Empire's First Pillar narrowed his eyes and assessed the situation.
As he sorted the reports pouring in from his close aides and the stars aligned with the Empire, Gerd clicked his tongue.
The situation was bad.
Nations surrounding the Empire had declared war, and the Transcendents belonging to those nations were marching on the Empire. No country had as many Transcendents as the Empire, but each had at least one.
Four Transcendents were heading for the Empire.
If the Five Pillars of the Empire were still intact, they could handle that and more. But two pillars had already fallen, and Gerd, the central pillar among them, was away from his post.
This was bad.
Gerd's brow furrowed.
'So this was the goal from the start.'
Had Carpe Diem been bait from the beginning? The moment Gerd saw the board the Carnival King had laid out, a chill ran up his spine.
'If, by any chance.'
Gerd's gaze shifted to Najin. If that boy had not intervened, if everything had unfolded exactly as the Carnival King planned... it was not hard to imagine what kind of situation they would be facing.
'How far did this plan go, exactly?'
Gerd frowned and spoke.
"The situation is bad."
"......"
"An army containing at least four Transcendents is marching toward the Empire's capital. We can stop them, but not for long. And they are not the Empire's only enemies."
The demon contractors hidden across the continent.
The Carnival King's clowns and the armies she commanded.
"Everything is aimed at the Empire."
"Is that so."
"I am heading to the Empire's capital. For now, stopping the invaders we can see comes first."
Gerd looked around. The other Transcendents seemed to have reached similar conclusions. Their own orders were under threat. Everyone had to put out the fire at their own feet first.
"You."
Gerd looked at Najin.
"What do you plan to do?"
The old man's eyes were cold and still.
"We can still recover. In the Carnival King's original plan, Sir Karan and I were meant to die here, but we are both alive. That means a variable entered her plan, and a result outside her calculations has appeared."
If Karan and Gerd intervened in the war, the tide would tilt in an instant. It might take time, but the Empire could still be kept from collapsing.
"...But."
"Yes."
Najin answered.
"That is assuming the Starlight Order stays out of it, correct? Isn't that right?"
"You are correct."
"Beneath the Starlight Order, in Underground City Artman, a court jester with nine stars is hiding. The moment that Constellation intervenes in this war..."
"The battlefield will tilt. It will become a difficult fight."
Even now, Gerd was receiving reports from his aides. According to them, the Starlight Order was not under attack and showed no movement.
「At present, the Starlight Order has been swallowed by light. It is cut off from the outside, and we cannot obtain any information. Contact with the knights dispatched to the order has also been lost.」
They had simply isolated themselves.
Completely cut off from the outside.
No one yet knew whether they were allies, enemies, or bystanders.
"If, by any chance, not only that unidentified Constellation but the entire Starlight Order has fallen into the Carnival King's hands... then even the Lighthouse Keeper may have turned against us."
"We cannot rule out that possibility. I also think it is likely."
If that guess was true, the situation became even more complicated. The Lighthouse Keeper, Eurypylus, was someone who could face all of the Empire's Transcendents at once alone. If someone of that level started moving, things would spiral out of control.
'We lack information.'
Gerd thought. They did not have enough information. They needed to understand the Starlight Order's movements. They needed to know how it would act.
But how?
Someone had to break into the Starlight Order, sealed off from the outside, and bring back information. And the light surrounding the order was almost certainly the Lighthouse Keeper's work.
'To break through a Transcendent's barrier and infiltrate it...'
You needed either another Transcendent of equal standing.
"The information is lacking."
Or a being comparable to a Transcendent.
"Someone has to go in and bring back information."
Gerd watched Najin in silence.
"Are you saying you will go?"
"Who else is there to send?"
Najin shrugged.
"It is dangerous."
"I know."
"The opponent is the Lighthouse Keeper. And if what you said is true, there is also a nine-star Transcendent hiding in the underground city. Forget fighting, even gathering information will be extremely difficult."
"I know that too."
"I can only call this reckless."
Gerd said it plainly.
"You will die."
"That is not set in stone."
Najin smiled.
"Every path I have walked so far was a path where I might die. Places others called certain death."
It was true. Every path the boy before him had walked was a death ground. He had simply survived again and again. He had simply overcome trials by surpassing his own limits.
"If someone has to do it."
Najin said,
"there is no rule saying that someone cannot be me. Personally, I also have a reason I must go there."
Gerd looked into Najin's eyes. There was no wavering in them. They were the eyes of a knight who had already decided. Gerd no longer tried to stop him.
He simply acted as the First Horn of the Empire.
Gerd quietly raised his sword. What he gave was a sword salute, and at the same time, a salute to a knight. The First Horn of the Empire was one who, aside from the Emperor, did not need to salute anyone.
But Gerd saluted Najin.
A knight who, of his own will, walked into a death ground with little chance of returning alive deserved respect. Gerd tore off his cloak and handed it to Najin.
"I entrust this to you."
On the cloak was the Empire's emblem.
And the symbol of the First Horn of the Empire.
Without a word, Najin tied it to the Lance of the Crossed Star. The cloak bearing the Empire's emblem became a battle standard and fluttered.
No more words were needed.
Gerd and Najin began moving toward their own destinations. The other Transcendents did the same. They promised to regroup once each had stabilized their own front, then stepped toward the places they had to reach.
On the board laid down by demons, they moved.
In directions the demons did not want, in directions they had not expected, as if refusing to dance to a demon's tune.
3.
Najin walked.
He walked and walked again.
The moment the Transcendents left his side and he was alone, Najin spoke.
"Merlin."
-Yeah.
He did not need to turn his head. She was always there, the guide who had walked with him. Facing her, Najin said,
"Now that I think about it."
-Yeah?
"It took a long time."
-Really? It doesn't feel that long to me. It's only been two years.
"It feels like several times that much passed for me."
-Well... we did spend a lot of time inside a Constellation's dream, right? Maybe more time passed than we think.
Merlin shrugged.
-It was two years, but so much happened in those two years. There was no time to get bored.
"That is definitely true."
-So?
With long strides, Merlin moved one step ahead of Najin and looked back. She tilted her head slightly as she looked at him. Blue hair fell down.
-Are you worried?
"I would be lying if I said no."
-Then are you afraid?
"A little."
A faint smile touched Merlin's lips.
-Do you regret it?
Najin shook his head.
"Not at all."
He was afraid. He was worried. But he did not regret it. Najin believed this path was the right one.
-Then that's enough.
That's enough, she said.
Merlin grabbed Najin's arm and tugged.
-Let's go.
With his guide, Najin headed forward.
To where he had been born.
To where his story had begun.
-Oh, right.
Merlin looked back at Najin. As if she had just remembered, she smiled at him.
-Happy birthday, Najin.
The boy who had stepped outside the underground city at eighteen had become twenty. The boy, now an adult, kept walking.
Across the Outland and toward the continent.
Across the continent, toward where the Starlight Order's main church stood. Lower than that place, toward the underground city where starlight did not reach, Najin walked.
To let them know.
To let them know he had returned.