Chapter 356 |
Preparation (2)
A month had passed.
Najin spent that month in a blur of activity, most of it devoted to training with Bedivere. Under normal circumstances Bedivere would have had no time to spare, occupied as he was with watching over the Abyss. But things were different now.
Thanks to Najin holding Siegfried in check during the previous battle, the Boundary Line had not expanded, and the sealing rites that had been trembling with instability had since grown quiet.
A brief window of breathing room.
Bedivere invested it willingly in sparring with Najin. He taught him everything he knew about the knights of the Round Table and even demonstrated imitations of Lancelot's and Galahad's movements.
"Lancelot is a knight who drives his enemies to the extreme. He never evades. He specializes in parrying and countering, pressing the enemy without rest to force a quick, decisive victory. Imitating his movements precisely is difficult, but... the feeling is roughly like this."
Aggressively offensive movement. A knight who abandoned defense entirely and never stopped driving the enemy, forcing short decisive engagements.
"Galahad is Lancelot's opposite. He always felt like an enormous wall. He raises his shield and stops any attack, no matter what it is. And he doesn't simply stop there, he absorbs each blow and advances toward the enemy."
"Their styles are complete opposites. Each had risen to the pinnacle of his own extreme."
"Then what is Lancelot like now?"
"Since the two have become one again, he would be both."
Bedivere said it plainly.
"There was a period before Lancelot separated Galahad from himself, when he fought with both sword and shield. If I try to picture Lancelot from that era..."
Bedivere smiled, though the expression was bitter.
"It would be hard to find an opening. A terribly tricky opponent. Lancelot was the Strongest Knight of the Round Table, and Galahad was the most perfect knight."
The knight who had been strongest even after separating Galahad had now claimed perfection as well. And Najin was the one who had to challenge that perfection.
"Even so."
Najin spoke with Excalibur in his grip.
"Didn't King Arthur beat Lancelot?"
"His Majesty did. He was an existence beyond comparison."
"Then I have to beat him too."
Najin smiled, just slightly. Bedivere nodded at that smile, as if to say that was exactly the mindset the bearer of Excalibur ought to have.
"I will teach you everything I can in the time we have left. I hope it proves useful."
The White Spear, Bedivere, drove his lance downward. He crossed weapons with the successor who had appeared before him after a thousand years. Sparring like that, Bedivere smiled. It had been a very long time since he had smiled so freely.
And so time flowed on and on, until...
"Dawn Horn-nim."
That day arrived.
"We have pinpointed the sanctuary of the Star of Oblivion."
2.
The domain of the Star of Oblivion had been located. It was the result of painstaking effort from imperial scholars and astronomers of the Gray Tower, and the process had been so grueling that the Gray Tower itself had an astronomer earn a star from the work alone.
From what Najin heard, they had shaved their sleep for months to observe the movements of celestial bodies, then reorganized every record accumulated over the past thousand years...
When that astronomer was recognized for his achievement and named the next candidate for Tower Master, Najin quietly sent him a gift in his own name.
"..."
Najin reviewed the report in silence.
The sanctuary discovered through so many people's efforts lay near the Boundary Line between the Outland and Camlann.
At the far northern edge of the Outland, where two massive cliffs faced each other as if to divide the Abyss from the Outland, a single bridge connected the two cliff faces. A structure built by an ancient humanity that had existed before even Arthur's era.
A bridge that led to the Abyss.
Its name was the Bridge Leading to the End.
Below it lay a pit of unknown depth. That, imperial scholars declared with one voice, was the sanctuary of the Star of Oblivion. Investigations by Special Unit teams who had surveyed the area with the cooperation of Constellations confirmed it as fact.
The sanctuary of the Star of Oblivion was there.
Najin read the name attached to that sanctuary, and his expression grew complicated.
The Buried Land. Or the Sediment Ground.
With the location pinpointed, what remained was forming the suppression force. All of it proceeded in secret, and swiftly. The number of people assigned to breach the Buried Land was held to three.
Najin. Yuel Razian. Kirchhoff.
Only those capable of resisting the Authority of the Star of Oblivion were assigned to the entry team. This was nothing like the Carnival King operation. The suppression campaign against the Star of Oblivion was built around a small group.
Of course, the entry team was not everything.
Najin made several preparations, and in the course of them visited a certain Constellation to ask a favor.
"I have a request."
"What kind of request?"
"You remember that matter from before? That thing, the matter related to her..."
"Ah. That matter."
The Constellation who received his request nodded.
"I made a promise, so I should keep it. Could you send that friend over to my side? I will take responsibility and see them safely delivered."
"Then I leave it in your hands."
With preparations complete, Najin headed to the meeting place he had arranged with Kirchhoff. Kirchhoff was already there waiting for him.
"It seems the time has finally come."
Kirchhoff had finished his own preparations. Najin fell silent for a moment when he saw the armor Kirchhoff was wearing.
"That is?"
"Ah, this is armor I have been saving for this day."
Kirchhoff smiled bitterly.
"I waited only for this day to come, yet now that it truly has... my feelings are far more tangled than I expected. How do I put it? I thought those feelings had faded or grown dim with time..."
Najin looked into his eyes.
"But they haven't dimmed at all. They were always there, only buried. Every last one of them has come back to life."
What Najin saw in Kirchhoff's eyes was hatred. A knight who had watched his nation be destroyed with his eyes wide open, whose life's worth had been denied, was grinding his teeth.
"A hero is, at heart, someone who protects a nation and its people. And I was the hero of Londinel. Embarrassing as it is, that is what I was called."
He ran his hand over the grip of his sword.
"Does a hero have worth when he could not protect his people, could not protect his lord, could not protect anyone he was meant to protect? Can such a person even be called a knight? That doubt has followed me all my life."
He gave Najin a salute carrying every ounce of respect he had.
"Thanks to you, I will finally be able to resolve that doubt."
Thank you. With those words, Kirchhoff pressed his helmet down onto his head for the first time. The cheerful hero who had always gone bare-faced, showing off his looks and declaring that the bards could only sing of Londinel's last knight if they could see his face, that man was nowhere to be found.
In his place stood a man seeking vengeance.
A man who had waited three hundred years for this day.
After fixing the rendezvous point with Kirchhoff, Najin went to collect her. She was set to play a central role in this suppression campaign.
"Ah, I have heard about that."
Yuel pointed to her bracelet.
"The me on this side explained it quite well. I also heard many other things besides..."
Tap. Yuel studied Najin quietly.
"It seems you went through a great deal together with me. We will need to talk about this separately, and in depth, later."
Najin twitched, shoulders tensing. He hadn't done anything wrong, exactly, yet he felt oddly guilty all the same.
"I am joking."
"...Pardon?"
"In any case, Najin. I know what you are trying to do. And I understand the role I have to play in it."
Yuel touched the bracelet on her wrist.
"Now I can finally answer him."
Not the me on this side, but the me standing here right now. She said that and nodded.
"Then I will see you there."
Each of them had finished preparing to carry out the role given to them. All that remained was to move.
Najin took a step forward.
As always, one step ahead.
3.
"Galahad."
"You called."
"Why did you make that choice? You found the Holy Grail. Wasn't that enough to solve everything? It was the means to stand against the Abyss. If only we had that, just that..."
"Things might have turned out differently."
"Then. Why?"
He spat his fury out. Holding back the urge to tear the knight before him apart on the spot, he clung to reason with everything he had and glared at the expressionless knight.
"Why did you go into hiding."
"Because it had to be so."
"Explain your reasons."
"I cannot."
"I am you. You know I could kill you right now."
"Then do so. That too is your right."
Crack.
"Lancelot. Do you remember what King Arthur said to us? The role we were given."
"I remember."
"Say it."
"Doubt. Reflect without ceasing. Look back upon your path and keep asking whether it is the right one. Only the path that emerges at the end of that questioning will have worth."
So doubt me.
That is why I kept you close.
"Yes. That is what King Arthur said."
"Why bring that up?"
"We must doubt."
Galahad looked at the Holy Grail in his hands. The moment he had obtained it, he had understood everything.
"Whether this is truly the right answer. Whether this is the right thing to do. We must doubt that, yet I can no longer doubt."
Galahad set the Holy Grail down.
"This method is correct."
"..."
"There is no other method. It was decided that way from the beginning."
"What did you see?"
"Kill me. You cannot touch the Holy Grail, so kill me and look through my memories."
He removed his armor. He set down his shield. Galahad's face was as expressionless as ever, but the corners of his mouth were heavy with bitterness.
"Lancelot? Humans cannot be perfect. Perfection is an illusion, and a perfect being, because it is perfect, cannot doubt itself. That is precisely what makes it imperfect."
And so, he looked at Lancelot.
"The one who can find the answer is a human like you. Not me, made to be perfect."
Galahad took his own life. The divided being became one. The moment Lancelot glimpsed the memories that poured into him, he understood everything.
...Galahad had chosen to do nothing. He had believed that standing aside was the answer.
Lancelot did not.
"Your Majesty."
"What is it, Sir Knight."
"There is something I must confirm with you."
"Ask. You have the right to."
Lancelot leveled his sword at Arthur.
"Did you know all of it?"
"Well, I am neither omniscient nor omnipotent. I do not know everything. Even so, regarding what you call 'all of it'..."
Arthur nodded.
"I knew."
"And what comes next as well, all of it?"
"To some degree."
"Then why..."
"Because it had to be done that way."
Arthur looked at Excalibur planted in the ground beside him.
"Because that is my role."
He answered without affect, his eyes on Excalibur.
"It is what the chosen one must do. There is duty. There is responsibility. Then it must be done. That is what a knight does. Is it not?"
"..."
"Aah, so it comes to this in the end."
Arthur smiled bitterly and rose to his feet.
"Sir Knight. Did you enjoy the adventures we shared?"
Crack.
"I hope you found your answer somewhere in those adventures. Not being able to hear that answer is a shame, but the adventures we shared were a joy, all the same."
Even before the knight who had turned a sword on him, Arthur wore the same smile he always wore.
"They were fulfilling days. Because of you, I was able to find my answer."
"I cannot let you go."
"Do so. That too is your freedom."
Arthur walked. Lancelot had betrayed him and Mordred had rebelled. Arthur walked past them all. He was still walking when he stopped without meaning to, someone had taken hold of his ankle.
"You may resent me for it. But if you do, then you must resent yourself as well. You were the one who chose me, knowing I would try to ruin your plan..."
It was Lancelot. He did not let go. Arthur looked down at Lancelot gripping his ankle and smiled with bitterness.
"It seems you have the wrong idea."
"What do you mean..."
"I do not resent you, or Mordred, or anyone. Who would I resent?"
Only, said Arthur.
"I ask those who come after to carry it forward."
Arthur walked.
As always, one step ahead.