Someone pulled Najin by the arm.

He was dragged into a cave between two enormous boulders. Almost at that same instant, the giant's hand slammed into the ground.

BOOM!

The ground shook. The giant struck the earth with its palm again and again before finally leaving, apparently satisfied. As dust rose around them, Najin turned to look behind him. A man sat perched on a rock with one knee raised.

"There's no need to bother fighting giants. The age of myth called them 'giant men,' but I wonder whether creatures that stupid deserve the 'men' part."

Even seated, he was nearly as tall as Najin standing. He was an enormous man. His voice reverberated far more than the cave alone could account for, because he wore a helmet pulled low over his head.

His deep voice echoed once against the helmet, then again against the cave walls.

"If you run into a giant, find somewhere to hide. Testing your strength against those bastards with nothing going for them but their damned size is a waste of stamina."

The man wore rags over broken armor. The ornament on his helmet had snapped off, and its surface was covered in marks that looked like sword cuts. No, it wasn't only the helmet. His armor, his rags, the skin visible through gaps in the shattered armor—everything was covered in scars.

A sword wrapped in chains was fastened at his waist, and he held an enormous spear in one hand.

He looked like a stone statue worn down by time. A statue erected in a hall of heroes to honor them. That was what the man resembled.

"Hey."

He pointed a finger at Najin—at his heart.

"Do something about that starlight first. It's so bright I can barely keep my eyes open."

"Pardon?"

"Good grief. Don't tell me you don't even know how to control your starlight?"

He sounded incredulous.

"You were practically shouting to the crows, 'Come catch me! Look how bright my stars are!' I thought you'd lost your mind, but apparently that wasn't it."

Najin glanced at Merlin.

"Take a deep breath. Your starlight gets brighter when you're worked up. Put it out," she explained quickly. Only after Najin took a deep breath did the man lower his finger.

"Follow me."

He kept it brief. Rising slowly, he pointed toward the other end of the cave.

"The crows are chasing you, aren't they? Follow me. I know a few places where you can hide."

He didn't wait for Najin's answer. He turned his back and started walking, seemingly leaving himself defenseless. Najin watched him for a moment.

There was no reason to trust this man. Even if he had helped Najin, it might still be a trap. Najin hadn't been in the Outer Lands long, but he already had a rough idea of what kind of place this was.

Nothing could be trusted. Nothing.

'But what if I refuse his offer?'

Najin looked back. There was a commotion outside the cave. He could hear the giant's pounding footsteps and the attackers noisily searching the forest. He had only two choices.

Follow this man.

Or go outside and be hunted again.

"..."

A brief silence. He didn't deliberate long.

Najin followed the man, who headed deeper into the cave without looking back. Only the clanking of armor echoed inside.

2.

The cave stretched beyond the forest.

The moment Najin emerged, the vast expanse of the Outer Lands spread before his eyes. Vast. There was no other word for the world before him.

The landscape was too broad to take in at a glance.

Some lands were barren; others were fertile. Snow fell over some, rain over others. Every kind of climate and environment mingled like paints. Stars burned in countless colors across the night sky stretching to the farthest reaches, and structures symbolizing them glittered below in their starlight.

These enormous structures marked the territories of Constellations.

A colossal sword, a spear, a tower that seemed to reach the heavens, an old castle, a moving fortress, a tilted cross. They stood far away, too distant to judge how far, yet displayed their grandeur in defiance of perspective.

"..."

Najin suddenly lifted his head.

Unknown things were drifting high above. A living creature resembling a ship moored in a harbor. An enormous beast was swimming through the sky.

"It's a sky whale."

'Pardon?'

"They're also called star devourers. Normally they live on the starlight scattered by stars, but when a star grows weak enough, they'll swallow it whole."

'What kind of damned creature...?'

"How should I know? This land is a real shithole. Go deeper into the Outer Lands and you'll probably find it crawling with worse things. There are plenty of accursed things spilling out of Camlann, too."

'Then what's that one?'

Najin looked at the largest of the whales drifting through the sky. It carried a fortress on its back.

"Ah."

Merlin gave a short sigh.

"Don't look at that one for long."

"Don't stare."

Merlin and the man walking ahead spoke almost simultaneously. He turned toward Najin.

"That's the stellar domain of the Sky-Drifting Star. It's famous for its foul temper. Don't stare. Getting tangled up with it is a nuisance."

Najin averted his gaze. Were there really Constellations that threw fits just because someone looked at them? Just as he was about to lower his eyes, something at the very edge of the horizon caught his attention.

It was impossibly far away. A place that could be called the outside even within the Outer Lands, beyond the world. Something glittered at the end of the horizon. On closer inspection, it was a star. It looked like a tiny dot, but there were stars there. The starlight they scattered disregarded the thousands upon tens of thousands of kilometers between them and shone in Najin's eyes.

'What are those stars? Why do they shine so brightly?'

"Hmm? Oh, those? Heh."

Merlin gave a sly, sinister chuckle.

It was an extremely unpleasant laugh.

"Who knooows...? Why don't you ask the man in front of you?"

He did.

"What are those stars shining at the edge of the horizon?"

"What else? The most famous stars of all."

"The most famous stars?"

"The stars of the Round Table. The stars of the Great Hero Arthur, of the archmage Merlin, and of the knights who followed them."

The man pointed at them as he spoke.

"Great stars guarding the boundary so that the accursed things of Camlann cannot cross into the Outer Lands. They're also among the few true Constellations amid all the fakes."

Merlin chuckled slyly. With an arm draped around Najin's neck, she kept poking his cheek and saying, "See? Hear that?" He couldn't feel her touch, but it was oddly irritating.

"Hey. How long have you been in the Outer Lands?"

"Today is my first day."

"I thought as much. Someone who behaves like that couldn't have survived very long."

They talked as they walked, exchanging simple questions. After answering the man's questions, Najin asked one of his own.

"May I ask your name?"

"Listen. Nothing is ruder in the Outer Lands than asking someone's name. An epithet might be another matter."

"Then what's your epithet?"

"But asking my epithet is rude, too."

What was he supposed to do, then?

The man shrugged and spoke.

"A name. A name, eh?"

He murmured as if recalling a cherished memory, then muttered, "Ah, that'll do." He struck his helmet with his fist. His gauntlet met the helmet with a heavy sound.

CLANG!

"The Helmeted Knight. Call me that."

"You're a knight?"

"For now."

It was an ambiguous answer.

"My name is..."

"Do I need to know?"

"It's only polite to give my name after hearing yours. Just listen."

"I didn't give you my real name, either. I'll just call you boy. It's easier."

"Why boy, of all things?"

"Because you're like a little shit."

The Helmeted Knight chuckled.

"Your body hasn't been rejuvenated to its prime. You're a greenhorn exactly as young as you look. Am I wrong?"

"..."

"Silence means yes, greenhorn."

Traveling with the man who called himself the Helmeted Knight, Najin learned a few things.

The Outer Lands were full not only of twisted beasts and monsters, but also of people wandering aimlessly. Their eyes were unfocused. Their arms hung limp as they walked without purpose. Looking at them, Najin felt something profoundly alien.

They wore human skin, but they were not human.

They were little different from the beasts and monsters scattered around them. To Najin, they felt like walking corpses. He sensed not the slightest intelligence in them. The one thing that distinguished them from corpses was...

SLASH!

The excessive precision of their movements. When a monster lunged at him, one corpse-like man's movements changed abruptly. A perfect strike born of perfect footwork and stance. His sword traced a clean arc and cleaved the monster in two.

It seemed to say that although intelligence was gone, the experience remaining in the body was intact. The sight reminded Najin of Graf, whom he had seen only a short while earlier.

'Graf moved even after I pierced his head.'

His eyes had rolled back, and blood had streamed from his eyes, nose, and ears, yet he had moved. What drove his unconscious body was the experience engraved into his flesh.

"Those crows seem to have really set their sights on you. They've followed you all the way here."

The Helmeted Knight looked behind Najin.

The attackers were watching him from a distance. But they weren't attacking, which was why Najin had left them alone despite noticing them.

"Well, I suppose they couldn't let you go after seeing starlight like that."

The Helmeted Knight turned to face the attackers. His helmet hid his eyes, but Najin could feel a certain pressure in his gaze—the peculiar intimidation that powerful people exuded.

He didn't say much. He merely tossed them a single remark.

"If you're coming, come."

The attackers came no closer. They turned and walked away. Watching them retreat, the Helmeted Knight let out a derisive laugh, then looked down at Najin.

"I helped you. You'll admit that, won't you?"

It was undeniable. Najin had indeed received the Helmeted Knight's help, so he nodded.

"When something is given, something must be returned. There are no free favors. I'd like fair payment for mine."

"Is there something you want?"

"What you have doesn't look particularly valuable, but one thing seems worth something."

He said,

"Tell me about the world outside."

3.

The Helmeted Knight said he knew a place where they could talk. On the way there, Najin asked him a question.

"Do you know someone called Graf?"

"I do. Graf, the knight of Kurtan. He's fairly well known around here."

"Is he really a knight?"

The Helmeted Knight turned toward Najin at that question.

"What are you trying to ask?"

"He called himself a knight, but nothing about him looked like one. There seems to be quite a gap between the knights I know and what that bastard calls a knight."

"What do you think a knight is, then?"

"Someone who never loses their honor or pride, whatever the circumstances."

The Helmeted Knight stopped walking.

"I haven't heard that in a long time. Do you admire the knights of Atanga, by any chance?"

"Yes."

"Well, yes. From their perspective, most people living in this land wouldn't deserve to be called knights."

He continued,

"This is a land where the value of honor, pride, and ideals fades without limit. To preserve such things here, you must be strong. Only the strong can protect them."

"That's..."

"Of course, the weak can have honor and pride, too. But you've already seen what happens to those weak people, haven't you?"

The Helmeted Knight chuckled and pointed.

There were people wandering the Outer Lands with empty eyes. Broken people.

"Ordinary death is not permitted in this land. Death here means becoming one of the Lost—someone who has lost and forgotten everything they are. It's an insult, a disgrace worse than death. No matter how much you proclaim chivalry while alive, if you end up like that in death..."

He roughly scraped a finger along a gap in his helmet.

"It means nothing. Doesn't it? Once you've fallen to a state lower than a beast, it doesn't matter how honorable or proud you were in life. You become an ugly beast. There's a reason survival takes priority over everything else here."

On the continent, there was honorable death. One could die as a proud knight. But not in the Outer Lands. This land would not allow a knight's end. That was what the Helmeted Knight was saying.

"That fellow Graf was a proud knight before he came here. He slew demons. He killed knights who were unworthy of the name. To rescue children kidnapped by dark mages, he stormed their workshop alone. Though he was covered in wounds, he saved every last child."

That was the kind of man he had been, the Helmeted Knight said.

"But he lived in the Outer Lands for 170 years. One hundred and seventy years. What do you think he saw during all that time? Deaths that could never be honorable, deaths without pride. He would have watched his companions turn into the Lost. Could he still proclaim honor and pride after seeing all of that?"

The Helmeted Knight ran a hand over his helmet.

Its ornament was broken, its surface covered in scratches. Dented and pierced with holes, it had lost roughly half its usefulness as a helmet. Yet he still wore it.

"In this land, honor and pride are like strong liquor. It gets you drunk when you drink it, but sobering up is agony."