Chapter 360 |
City for the Forgotten (4)
"I was playing a small trick. It has been a while, Najin."
At Blue Spear's words, Najin blinked.
What did he just say?
Najin had not given his name yet, but Blue Spear had spoken it aloud. And said it had been a long time. Najin's eyes went wide, while Blue Spear only smiled.
"You remember me?"
"One could say that, but to be precise, it would be more accurate to say I 'received' those memories."
He shook his head and continued.
"I am a being composed of the memories Blue Spear lost, and the records that remained in the world of what Blue Spear was."
"I have no soul. If forced to compare, I am closest to a being reconstructed from memory, the kind one might find in a star's grave. The fidelity of that reconstruction may be very high, but it does not change the fact that I am a reconstructed being."
"That means..."
"The Blue Spear you remember found his rest there. I am something closer to a copy, a reproduced version of that existence."
He said it himself, that he was nothing more than a copy, yet Blue Spear wore a gentle smile as he said it. As though none of that mattered to him in the slightest.
"So whether you consider me a fake, or simply a Double that inherited his memory, either is fine. That is entirely your choice."
"...May I ask one thing?"
"Of course. Ask anything you like."
"Do you hold all his memories?"
Blue Spear nodded.
"Yes. From his days in Londinel... through the three hundred years he wandered the desert after losing his memories, and all the way to the moment he met you, Najin, and finally found his rest at the end of that long wait. I have all of it."
Day by day, Blue Spear had lost his memories. And every memory he lost had passed, intact, to the Blue Spear now sitting here. Blue Spear said as much.
"Do you remember the hourglass that stood in the desert? It is the same as that. The grains of sand from the real Blue Spear fell downward, and as they accumulated, they formed the existence that is me."
"So you remember everything."
Najin nodded.
Then he smiled, open and easy.
"Then I have no reason to call you a fake."
"...Is that so?"
"Yes. You are the Blue Spear who taught me the spear and showed me with your own body how to resist forgetting."
Blue Spear was silent for a moment, then smiled. Truly, what a relief. Murmuring that, he held out his hand to Najin. The two shook hands lightly.
"Time has passed, so I should introduce myself again. Quite a few things are different from before."
"Different? What do you mean?"
"Did I not introduce you as the Free Knight Najin back then?"
"You did. I remember it well."
Blue Spear nodded, and Najin grinned at him. There had been no shortage of titles added to his name since then. He wanted to boast about every last one of them, but that would have Merlin screaming, so he kept it short.
Najin reached into the air and closed his fist. The moment Blue Spear saw Excalibur drawn from the empty air in a burst of starlight, his eyes went wide.
"I am the Dawn Horn, imperial pillar of the Empire."
Najin spoke with Excalibur in hand.
"And the Free Knight Najin, who carries on the will of the greatest knight."
Blue Spear, who had been staring, burst out laughing. Yes, if it is you, that makes perfect sense. He laughed with open pleasure, then gripped his own spear and spoke.
"Then I should introduce myself as well. Unlike before, I can now declare myself with confidence."
He said:
"I am one of the Three Knights of Londinel, master of the Blue Spear, the knight upon whom the king bestowed the epithet Azure Hydrangea."
With all his memories restored, Blue Spear introduced himself with full confidence in who he was.
"Blue Spear, Linden Valterhorn."
Linden Valterhorn.
"Yes, good to meet you, Linden."
Najin spoke the name with a smile.
Only now, at last, did Najin know Blue Spear's name.
2.
"I see. So this is the sanctuary of the Constellation of Oblivion, and you are currently in the process of conquering it. I understand the situation."
Blue Spear nodded after listening to Najin's explanation.
"Then you will need an explanation of this place?"
"Do you know something about it?"
"Yes. I have not been waiting on the first level for nothing. I am here to give an explanation to those who challenge this Babel Tower."
Blue Spear, Linden, gave a wry smile.
"This tower is made up of thirteen levels in total, and within each level there are larger and smaller floors. On the first level there is only myself, but from the second level up there will be multiple floors."
A tower of thirteen divisions, and counting all the floors within them, it would easily clear a hundred.
"On each floor there are heroes who dwell there, and by defeating them you can climb higher. And at the very top of the tower..."
"That would be Galahad."
"Yes, that is correct. I have only climbed as far as the tenth level, but according to the heroes dwelling there... Sir Galahad is waiting for challengers."
"Waiting for challengers?"
Najin tilted his head, and Blue Spear spoke.
"Sir Galahad is said to have declared this."
The name of this tower is the Argo.
It is the vessel upon which forgotten heroes have boarded, the ark of heroes who will one day cleave through the Abyss. Anyone will do. Challenge me. If any of you surpass me, I will gladly hand over the captain's seat of this ark to you.
Argonauts, great heroes who have boarded the Argo, prove your lives.
"Some of the heroes here call this place Valhalla. The place warriors reach after death, eternal struggle, a stage where warriors prove their honor, they say."
Different names for it, but what needed to be done here was clear. Najin lifted his gaze to the staircase leading upward.
In the end, there was only one answer.
Climb the tower. Win against the forgotten heroes dwelling within, and then win against Galahad waiting for challengers at the very top.
"Simple enough."
"Yes, simple, and difficult precisely because it is simple."
"Has anything in my life ever been easy."
Najin chuckled and rose to his feet.
"Linden, why are you staying on the first level?"
"Do you remember what I always used to say?"
"I am a lowly person. I hope to become a stepping stone so that others may climb higher. That is what you mean, is it not?"
"Yes. Exactly."
Najin recalled something Blue Spear had once said.
"There is no supreme individual."
"Even those who stand out in the present moment, as time passes and history repeats, someone will use their achievements as a stepping stone to reach greater heights."
"I do not wish to be a solitary existence shining eternally from the highest place. I wish to become a stepping stone for others to leap toward somewhere higher."
Even as he lost his memories day by day, he had never lost his convictions. Najin had remembered those convictions, and the Blue Spear before him now had not lost them either.
"I guide the heroes who come to challenge this tower, explain its rules, and take it upon myself, however poorly, to act as their teacher, so they can reach higher places."
Train them, teach them, send them upward. So that others could climb higher, Blue Spear had been waiting at the lowest level for heroes to arrive. Hearing that, Najin smiled before he even realized it.
"That is very like you."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. Well then..."
Najin put Excalibur away into the air.
Then he took out the Lance of the Crossed Star he had bound to his back. He could demonstrate Blue Spear's spear techniques with a sword well enough, but where was the romance in that.
"Dawning Star, Najin."
"Azureflower Star, Linden."
The two took their stances. Each declaring their epithet and name, they paid their respects to the other with their weapons.
"I ask for your guidance."
Blue Spear and Lance of the Crossed Star crossed.
3.
Najin and Linden began their duel.
Clang, claaang!
It was a duel of honed weapons crashing against each other, yet not one fought to decide victory or defeat, and even further from a fight to the death.
Clang-clang-clang!
Even so, it was not a duel held back from full sincerity. Both showed the other their very best. They laid bare every technique they possessed. Blue Spear showed the spear arts he had honed over long years, and Najin showed in turn the techniques he had inherited from many heroes.
Spearhead met spearhead.
Blood sprinkled as each grazed the other's skin, but Najin and Blue Spear did not so much as furrow their brows. They smiled. Not a pained smile dragged out by exhaustion, but a genuine one, because this moment truly delighted them.
Clang, claaang!
Spearheads locked and broke apart. When Najin settled into his stance and launched a Horn Charge, Blue Spear swept his spear in a wide arc and split the gale. He turned that split gale into his own current and counterattacked. Move and countermove flowed between them.
Blue Spear's mana scattered like blue flower petals, and Najin's mana spread like platinum starlight unraveling in the air.
This was no desert, but in both their minds it was a desolate one. In that desert stood a knight. Where wind would churn the sand and erase all traces, he left his mark there day after day. Knowing it would be gone by tomorrow, he struggled to leave something behind today.
That desperate struggle was in Blue Spear's spear. The ground split where his spearhead swept. Wind blew through the blooming petals.
Clang-clang-clang!
Blue Spear was not the only one who could see that desert. There had been someone who passed through it once, just briefly. He had watched the knight's desperate struggle and taken something from it.
What he learned, Najin showed now.
Recalling those three hundred years unable to reach tomorrow, and the memory of finally sending him toward it, Najin met the spear head-on in that spirit. Becoming a mirror, he deflected Blue Spear's spear, struck back, and took a step forward.
One step forward.
Thud.
The moment Najin showed a technique he had developed with Blue Spear's as its foundation, Blue Spear's eyes went wide.
"Indeed."
He burst out laughing, with undisguised pleasure, and watched Najin's movement. Looking at the bright star that had leapt to a higher place using him as a stepping stone, he felt the worth of it all.
That his life had not been without value.
That he had certainly left something behind.
Najin's figure there, proving it, let Blue Spear smile with pure gladness. He was pushed back and pushed back again, yet he swung his spear all the harder. To show and teach one more thing before the end.
Time passed, long if you called it long, short if you called it short.
When it was decided, both Blue Spear and Najin were smiling. The two lowered their spears and shook hands.
"I have lost."
"And you have won."
There was no victor and no loser here. Blue Spear had been defeated, yet in being defeated, he had won. Najin said it quietly, letting that truth settle, then let out a long breath.
"Najin."
And Blue Spear said:
"Death does not exist here. A fight ends only when defeat is acknowledged. Turned the other way, as long as you do not acknowledge defeat, you can challenge as many times as you like."
He offered Najin this advice.
"There are countless heroes in this place. Heroes who were forgotten, or who forgot themselves. Those who could not leave anything behind wish to prove themselves here, even if only here. Winning against such people will not be easy, but..."
Blue Spear nodded.
"You can do it."
He pointed at the staircase leading upward.
"So go forward. Toward tomorrow."
The path to the second level opened.
Najin stopped in front of the staircase leading to the second level and turned back to look at Blue Spear. His body had gone faint. For a moment Najin wondered whether acknowledging defeat meant disappearing, but Blue Spear shook his head.
"I am not disappearing as such. It seems there is still one more place I need to go, so I thought I would head there."
One more place Blue Spear needed to go.
Najin had a feeling he knew where that was.
"Please pass along my regards to Sir Kirchhoff."
"Yes, I will do so."