I Pulled Out Excalib Chapter 215

Black Spire (6)

The Black Spire shows memories of the past. The eyes of the prophet gaze into the future. Leaping across a gap of a thousand years, the past and future touched each other. Beginning from the moment when Merlin, who had been gazing at the lake, turned her head to look at Najin, the world was no longer an illusion.

Something that happened a thousand years ago. A past that truly existed, not a falsehood.

It was a contradiction created by the mystique of reminiscence and eyes that gazed into the future intertwining.

"..."

This was a moment that was both past and present to Najin, and both future and present to Merlin. Najin was a person from the distant future and Merlin was a person from the distant past, but the two of them stood facing each other now, their feet planted firmly in this present moment.

"You..."

Merlin swallowed hard.

"Y-you're the one who drew Excalibur?"

"As you can see."

Najin pointed to Excalibur in his hand. Merlin looked at Najin with trembling eyes before finally squeezing her eyes shut. With her eyes closed, she slowly let out a breath.

"You're seeing the past from the Black Spire, and I'm seeing the future through the lake. So originally we shouldn't be able to meet, and shouldn't meet..."

She opened her eyes again.

"But coincidence upon coincidence has layered together, and perhaps inevitably, you're standing before me."

"That's how it ended up."

"Can I ask you something?"

"By all means."

"You."

Merlin's lips twitched.

"From how many years in the future did you come?"

"I came from a thousand years in the future."

A thousand years. The moment she spoke that span of time aloud, a hollow laugh escaped from Merlin's lips. Merlin laughed as if she found it absurd.

"A thousand years. A thousand years, you say?"

She muttered.

"That's long. It's an unimaginable span of time. Are you telling me to wait that long?"

Even as she muttered this, Merlin kept looking at the surface of the lake. No future was reflected on the lake's surface any longer. But Merlin bit down hard on her lips, as if chewing over the future that had been reflected there just moments before.

A thousand years was far too long. It was a span of time beyond imagination.

But her future self a thousand years from now had been smiling. Laughing so joyfully, so happily.

"..."

Merlin was.

"You know."

She who had glimpsed a thousand years into the future became curious about that future.

"Najin, was it?"

Merlin looked at Najin.

"The future I saw through the lake was too abbreviated, so I don't really understand it. What is this? Why was I laughing like that? What was so enjoyable? I just can't figure it out."

Since she didn't know, she said.

"Tell me."

Her eyes were shining, just a little. Whether that was starlight created by Excalibur, or whether her eyes were simply shining on their own, she couldn't tell.

"Tell me your story."

Either way, Merlin's eyes were shining.

Countless heroic tales speak of this. No matter where you stand, if you look up at that vast night sky, you will see constellations. And those constellations are the traces of heroes who once raced across this land, their very lives.

"Half of that story was right and half was wrong."

"...Which part was wrong?"

"The part where you said 'no matter where you stand, if you look up at the sky, you will see constellations.' Where I lived, I couldn't see the stars."

"There's such a place?"

"The underground city of Artman, that's what the place was called."

Najin told his story.

"The people from the upper levels used to call it this. The landfill. A place where discarded trash gets buried."

The starting point of the story, the prologue.

"Even when you looked up at the sky, all you could see was a black ceiling. Nothing but rough stones. Looking at the ore embedded in those rocks, I thought of them as stars."

"It must have been a boring life."

"Right? Well, actually I didn't have time to feel bored. I was too busy trying to survive. But as I lived, I gained some breathing room, and when I had that breathing room, I started to dream."

"What was your dream?"

"To see the stars."

"The stars?"

"What those stars mentioned in The Chronicles of Arthur were really like, I wanted to see them at least once. That was my dream."

Najin told his story from the very beginning.

"Arthur was just a fortunate hero who was born in the right era. If he had been born in this age, he would have been nothing. Annoying? Want to argue back? Then come and strike me down with divine punishment or something."

"..."

"Wait. Don't raise your hand. This is all foreshadowing that leads to the next part of the story."

"Huh, alright. Keep going."

"After that, with help from Offen, Ivan, and old man Hogel..."

Merlin had been indifferent at first, but as the story continued, her expression began to change. When she heard about Najin drawing Excalibur and fleeing from his pursuers, Merlin gripped her hands with sweat, and at Ivan's choice, Merlin let out a short exclamation of admiration.

"Atanga would have been absolutely thrilled to see that."

"Right?"

"So what happened next?"

She asked for more, and Najin continued telling about the journey that would follow.

"The first meeting with Merlin was the worst."

"...?"

"I mean, think about it. Starting from our first meeting, I got strangled. It's hard to think well of someone after that, isn't it?"

"No, that was your fault..."

The first meeting with Merlin.

"She spent the whole day, really without stopping, chattering away beside me, and this was, how should I put it. You know what I told Merlin earlier? About being in an environment where it was difficult to have illusions about her. That's what this was."

"I... I did that?"

"Yes. Actually, even now, if I go outside, she'll probably make a fuss and ask me about it. What exactly did you see there? Why won't you explain it to me? She'll say that she has the right to know too."

"That's… a bit."

"A bit?"

"A bit… embarrassing."

While chattering on their way to Cambria.

"There were a lot of incidents in Cambria too. It was the first time I'd experienced the outside world. Every time I acted outside of common sense, Merlin would scream at me. Are you crazy? Act with some common sense."

"...That was your fault, wasn't it? No matter what, trying to rummage through trash cans is a bit much. People should have a minimum level of dignity."

"Dignity doesn't feed you though."

The journey through Cambria.

"There were many times when I couldn't get my bearings. I didn't know where to go, didn't know what to do. Every time that happened, Merlin would point the way. There's a path like this. Walking it is up to you. I only point the direction, she would say."

"Really? Even after a thousand years, my guide skills haven't rusted it seems."

"Of course, it wasn't just once or twice that she forgot to explain things and caused unnecessary hardship..."

"Was that last part really necessary?"

As the story continued, Merlin's expressions became more varied. Sometimes she laughed as if she found it absurd, sometimes she wore a serious expression, and sometimes she muttered 'I did that?' with a look of disbelief.

"And so."

The story went on.

"We moved forward. It was generally similar. When I did something reckless, Merlin would sigh and scream, but in the end she would still show me the way."

Moving forward, forward again.

"At some point we didn't need much conversation. I'd just glance at Merlin and she'd look at me with a sigh and an expression that said 'Again?' Then she'd start explaining with a look that said 'Well, I thought as much.'"

From a certain point on, long conversations weren't necessary between Merlin and Najin. With just a few short words, an exchange of glances, and expressions, they could understand what each other was thinking.

"Leaving the underground city, departing Cambria, heading to the Outlands."

Sometimes with exaggeration mixed in. Sometimes comically. Sometimes seriously, Najin continued his story.

"So?"

So, Merlin asked.

"So, what happened next?"

Like a child reading a fairy tale. Like a child listening to a heroic story told by their parents, Merlin listened to the adventure tale that Najin told her.

It was a story of no great consequence. To be honest, it was a trivial story.

From Merlin's perspective, having already reached the end of her own story, standing at the terminus, the story Najin told was unremarkable. A story with small scale, where lives had to be risked over trivial matters, small and insignificant stories.

Not entirely cool, not entirely beautiful, a story that gave off a distinctly unfinished feeling.

But why was it that.

"You look happy."

Merlin muttered with a faint smile.

"Yeah, you look happy."

Merlin let out a long breath.

"So that's why you were laughing like that. That's why you were clinging to him while squealing with delight. When I saw the future reflected in the lake's surface, I couldn't understand it... but hearing your story, I can understand now."

Breathing out long, she tilted her head back. The sky she looked up at was dark. So dark that it seemed the sun would never rise. It was a dark and cold sky.

"Your star's name."

Najin's star was not there. Najin's star would rise in the future, a thousand years from now.

"The Star of Dawn, you said?"

The Star of Dawn, the star that announces the end of night. The star that breaks through darkness and heralds a new beginning.

"A thousand years until dawn comes. That's long. Too long, it seems like it would be hard to wait."

"Is it?"

"Yeah. If you told someone who's thinking of dying right now 'a joyful future will come in a thousand years, so hang in there until then,' what do you think they'd feel?"

Merlin shrugged her shoulders.

"But still."

But still, she muttered.

"The story continues. It's not ended, it's moving on to the next chapter and continuing..."

Muttering this, Merlin smiled unconsciously. As if she had realized something. Merlin touched the Star of Finality in her hand and turned her gaze.

"What you told me at the Glass Star's tomb."

Blue eyes stared intently at Najin.

"That it's not a terminus but a turning point."

You're waiting not for a terminus but a turning point. Where Arthur's story ended, but not where my story ends, Najin had said.

"That you're my companion. That no matter what happens, you won't go ahead of me."

Najin looked at Merlin. The Merlin before his eyes was not the Merlin that Najin knew well. Not the incompetent Merlin whose inner thoughts he could read from just her eyes and expressions, but Merlin from a thousand years ago.

Reading her inner thoughts was difficult.

'It's difficult, but.'

Why was it that just in this moment, he felt like he could understand what Merlin was thinking.

"Can you promise?"

Najin knew what he should answer to that question. Words like 'I promise' or 'I swear' weren't necessary. Najin spoke briefly.

"Aren't I already doing that?"

That was the answer Merlin most wanted to hear. Only then did Merlin smile. Not a sneer, not a hollow laugh from finding something absurd, but she burst into truly pure laughter.

"I see. Yes, that was an unnecessary question. You're already doing that."

Merlin let out a long breath. As if she had shaken off something with that breath, Merlin's expression looked comfortable. She released the dimmed Excalibur that she had been gripping tightly in her hand. With a splash, Excalibur sank below the lake.

Watching Excalibur settle, Merlin closed her eyes. When she opened them again, Merlin wore a slightly different expression.

An expression as if she had made a decision.

Merlin stood up and looked at the sky. A thousand years until dawn came. As if she had decided how to spend those thousand years.

"You're dreaming right now, aren't you?"

Walking toward somewhere unknown, Merlin spoke.

"A thousand years in the future, you're dreaming of the past. But for me, this is reality. Actually, dreams and reality aren't that different for me."

The fairy who lived half in dreams and the human who lived the other half in reality spoke.

"I've lived with half in dreams and half in reality. If both sides don't matter, I'd greedily choose both, that's how I've lived. I've lived like that, but..."

She walked. She walked and walked again.

"Now it's time to choose."

She stopped in a plain. Standing straight in the vast plain located in a corner of the Outlands, Merlin turned to look at Najin.

"I'm going to drop my twelfth star now."

She reached her hand toward the sky. Her fingertip pointed to the Star of Finality.

"Finality. I am a being who has already met its end. I mustn't deny that. In some way, my story needs to come to an end."

To Najin's question of why, she answered.

"Because a period must be placed before the next story can begin. To move forward to the next, there's a need to finish the previous story."

To move to the next sentence, you must place a period. Without placing a period, you cannot move forward. Only by concluding the previous story can a 'new story' begin.

"So I'm going to place a period."

The Star of Finality shone.

"Originally, you see. I was just going to end the story here with everything else. I was going to close the book."

She smiled bitterly.

"I didn't care about Arthur's request or anything, I just got sick of living. I thought there would be no meaning in living any longer. So, I was just going to die."

But, Merlin said.

"I'm looking forward to traveling with you. If such a future comes someday, I think it might be okay to live a little longer. Ah, of course, I'm not sure if you can call a thousand years 'a little' though."

It's honestly a bit long, isn't it? Muttering this, Merlin swept her hair back.

"I need to conclude the ending. I need to abandon my star. But I don't want to end my story here. Then what should I do? The answer is surprisingly simple."

Merlin's body became hazy.

"Split myself in two."

Into the part that will live and the part that will choose death. Fortunately, I have a good criterion line for splitting, Merlin said with a mischievous smile, pointing to herself.

"The me who will live in dreams."

And the other half.

"The me who will live in reality."

Merlin's body became hazy. She divided herself in two. The Merlin who separated from her was the Merlin that Najin knew well. Gently laying down the sleeping figure on the ground, Merlin smiled wistfully.

"I'm envious."

"..."

"I'm jealous of the me who will be with you. When she opens her eyes, she won't know anything, will she? She won't feel the anger toward Arthur, the disillusionment with the world, or the suicidal impulses that make me want to hang myself right now. I'll take all of that with me."

The bad things, the murky and dirty things, the dregs that had settled to the bottom, all swept away, leaving pure and clear water.

"How envious."

So she could enjoy a new journey more sincerely than anyone, could laugh happily, Merlin smiled bitterly as she looked at herself.

"But there's one thing. Just one thing I'll take with me."

Step, Merlin took one step closer to Najin.

"The conversation we shared here. The story you told me. The memory of meeting you, I'll take that with me. It wouldn't be fun if she knew in advance, would it? And..."

Bringing her face close to Najin's, Merlin smiled with childlike mischief.

"I should have at least one such memory too. That would be fair, wouldn't it?"

"That's true too."

"Yes. Thank you for telling me your story. Thanks to that, I don't think I'll be bored."

One step. Merlin moved away from Najin. With each step she took, the scenery began to distort. Najin knew what Merlin was trying to do from now on.

A star's tomb.

Merlin was creating a star's tomb. A star's tomb where she herself would be buried. To bury the star named Finality, a star that was more like a curse.

"..."

Step, Merlin walked silently. Before she could get any farther, Najin spoke up.

"Merlin."

Merlin turned to look at Najin. As always, long conversations weren't necessary.

"Let's meet again."

A short phrase. Merlin's eyes widened, she lowered her head, bit her lips hard, and finally raised her head to look at Najin.

"Yeah."

Merlin smiled brightly.

"I'll be waiting in the future, a thousand years from now."