Did the Helmeted Knight's roar carry some sort of taunting effect? The instant he roared, the Lost turned their attention to him. A few still swung their blades and spears at Najin, but far fewer than before.

"It wasn't a taunt. I think he amplified his starlight."

'What?'

"You see, the Lost are drawn to starlight, just as the undead are drawn to the living. So you can taunt the Lost by amplifying your starlight," Merlin whispered in his ear.

Apparently still deeply bothered that she had neglected to teach him how to control his starlight before, Merlin explained in as much detail as she could. Then she watched his reaction, slipping in an excuse: "It's been so long since I last hid my starlight that my memory's a little fuzzy...?"

'I'm not bothered about what happened last time, so don't worry.'

Her constant sidelong glances were getting distracting, so Najin spoke up.

"You're not...? Really?"

'Yes. Really.'

As Merlin visibly brightened, Najin withdrew, parrying the Lost's spears and blades. Once he had put some distance between them, even the few Lost still targeting him rushed toward the Helmeted Knight.

Even those preparing to snipe from the walls and watchtowers turned beastlike and leaped down at him. There appeared to be no fewer than twenty Lost gathered around him.

Roughly twenty Lost, fourteen of them on the level of Sword Seekers. The aura wrapped around their weapons had taken on distinctive forms. Honestly, Najin had no confidence that he could escape unscathed if surrounded by that many.

But was the Helmeted Knight different? Though surrounded, he was driving the Lost back rather than giving ground. He rampaged among them, sweeping them aside with his long spear and kicking them away.

The enormous man looked a good two and a half meters tall. Watching him swing a three-meter spear was like watching a giant run wild.

Seeing how easily he handled them, the man really must have been a transcendent being once.

"What are you gawking at? Get going! This isn't easy for me either!"

Apparently, he wasn't having such an easy time after all.

With the Helmeted Knight yelling behind him, Najin rushed inside the old castle. His destination was the topmost floor, where the starfire burned. That was where he would find the fortress's master.

He could have scaled the walls and vaulted over obstacles to head straight to the top of the keep, but he did not. If that had been the plan, they would have done it from the outset rather than smashing a lance charge into the front gate.

'Since things have come to this...'

Najin intended to follow the romance of it, just as the Helmeted Knight had suggested. For all his other qualities, Najin was a romantic too. A frontal breakthrough—what words could stir the heart more? Romance over efficiency. Feeling over reason. His sword aura flashed.

"You're driving me insane. Honestly."

'This is why mages...'

"What?"

'I didn't say anything.'

What would a mage know? As Merlin wailed, "That's prejudice against mages!" Najin swung his sword. While a mage grumbled, a swordsman got in another swing.

2.

Atulu Fortress seemed to have concentrated its forces outside. Though the old castle was by no means small, the knights stationed within were few enough to count on one hand. Najin was already approaching the topmost floor, yet he had encountered only three Lost while fighting his way through the castle.

An empty keep. A fortress with not the slightest sense that anyone lived there.

Climbing the stairs from one floor to the next, Najin suddenly looked at Merlin. She simply watched what he did, saying little. That side of her felt somewhat unfamiliar.

Since they had entered the Outer Lands, Merlin had been interfering less in his choices. Normally, at times like these, she would have said, "This would be better," or "How about this?" or "That's a foolish way to do it. There's a more efficient method—want to hear it?" But lately, she had stopped.

It had been the same when he fought the Helmeted Knight. A duel with his life at stake was dangerous; had his intuition been wrong, his journey could have ended there. Yet Merlin had said little about his decision.

Unlike on the continent, where she screamed every time he made a reckless choice, she had merely asked, "Can you handle it?"

"That's because you're no longer a child," Merlin said, having listened to his thoughts.

"Your stars and mine are set in the same place. Even if their number and height differ, that doesn't change the fact that they're set in the same sky."

'And?'

"It means the time for treating you like a little child has passed."

They were no longer a child and his guardian, but something closer to a senior and a junior. Now that they stood in the same space, on the same battlefield, Merlin said she ought to view him a little differently.

"So I should respect your choices. Unless they're truly hopeless mistakes that send you charging to your death. You had your own reasons for fighting the Helmeted Knight, didn't you?"

'It was more intuition than anything.'

His opponent wanted to be a knight. Though he likened honor and pride to liquor, he wanted to become intoxicated by them. Najin had not challenged him without any calculation at all.

"That's enough. If you make a judgment and choose based on reasons of your own, I'll respect that choice."

Because that was what she had to do, Merlin said.

"You need trials to become a transcendent being. You need to grow mentally, not just physically. And no one else can do that for you."

Deliberation, anguish, conflict, and the answer reached at the end. No one else could supply that answer. Only one he reached himself would have meaning. For that reason, too, Merlin said she would respect his free will.

"And as for the price of your choices... well, we can pay it together."

'Together?'

"Why ask as though it isn't obvious?" Merlin sighed and glared at him.

"Do you think I'd leave you to die out here? This isn't the continent, where it's difficult for me to intervene. If it really looks like you're going to die, I'll step in. We'll just have to find a way to deal with the fallout."

Najin laughed in disbelief. Merlin spoke lightly, but knowing what she meant by "fallout," he could not take her words lightly at all.

By intervention, Merlin meant not the spirit form beside him now, but her true form—the star at the far end of the Outer Lands—would move. In other words... the containment of Camlann would falter.

Just as a Boundary lay between the continent and the Outer Lands that the Lost could never cross, another Boundary stood at the far end of the Outer Lands, keeping the accursed things of Camlann from passing through.

Arthur had created that Boundary at the cost of his own life. And the Constellations of the Round Table guarded it.

The instant Merlin, the strongest Constellation among them, moved her star, the Boundary would falter. The accursed things of Camlann would cross it, destroying the world's balance. The mingling of Camlann and the Outer Lands would not be a problem for the Outer Lands alone; its effects would reach the continent too.

"That's a heavy burden," Najin murmured without thinking.

Merlin had probably meant, "Don't worry. Even if you're about to die, I can save you once." But Najin took it entirely differently.

'If the moment of my death comes, Merlin will intervene, and the world's balance will shatter.'

At that moment, the countdown to destruction would begin. Contrary to Merlin's intention, Najin found himself reconsidering the weight his life carried.

'Aren't the world's balance and the Boundary more important than me? That's a little overwhelming.'

Najin posed the question jokingly, but...

"More important than you? That crap? Why?"

Merlin did not take it as a joke.

She tilted her head, her utterly clear eyes fixed on Najin as she asked the question back. He could not answer. Halting on the stairs, he turned to face her.

A brief silence. Their eyes met.

Merlin blinked as though wondering what was wrong, then her eyes widened, as if she had realized she had let something slip. She hurriedly began making excuses.

"Oh, they're important. They are, but... well. Um, that's all I meant. Let's talk about this later."

Merlin gave a hollow laugh. Najin could not laugh along with her.

... Najin's mind was linked to Merlin's. They could communicate simply by thinking, without saying anything aloud. But as Najin advanced and his mental image expanded, they had begun sharing even their private thoughts and emotions to some extent.

As a result, powerful, uncontrolled emotions or private thoughts sometimes flowed into the other's mind, whether they wanted them to or not. That had happened just now. The moment Merlin said, "That's important? Why?" her innermost thoughts had echoed in Najin's ears.

Balance, peace, stability.

None of that mattered.

She couldn't care less about that crap.

Along with those thoughts, thick, clinging emotions seeped into Najin's heart. They were emotions Merlin had never shown him before.

Hatred. Regret. Remorse. Fury. Resentment. Grief.

Those compressed emotions crashed over him like a wave.

Normally, she would control those emotions and swallow them herself, but on this subject alone, Merlin could not. It touched her rawest nerve.

"Yes, let's talk about this later."

She was still smiling, seemingly unaware that her thoughts and feelings were flowing into Najin. But he found it difficult to see her smile as simply a smile.

'Merlin.'

"Hmm? What is it?"

Najin looked straight at her. His sunset-colored eyes were reflected in her blue ones. Her expression was no different from usual. Yet for some reason, her eyes seemed a little fragile to him.

He shook his head and said:

'That won't happen.'

"What won't?"

'I'll make sure you never have to abandon everything and intervene.'

"Well, of course. But why?"

'I'm just saying.'

The emotions that had briefly flickered through her quickly subsided. Back to her usual slightly dim, endearingly inept self, Merlin looked away from Najin.

Then her eyes flew wide open.

"Hey, ahead! Look ahead! Ahead!"

She repeatedly slapped his shoulder and pointed forward. One of the Lost was charging toward him at a terrifying speed.

They would have to return to this conversation later. With that thought, Najin readjusted his grip on his sword.

3.

"Hey, why would you look at me in the middle of a fight? That was dangerous!"

The instant he brought down the Lost, Merlin started whining as if she had been waiting for her chance. It was because of you. Swallowing the words that rose to his throat, Najin moved on.

The final staircase to the topmost floor.

An unobstructed view awaited Najin at the top. The old castle's highest floor had no ceiling. That should have provided ample ventilation, yet the instant he arrived, he frowned. The place reeked of rotting corpses.

The castle rooftop was filled with bodies. Some wore the same armor as the knights below—the armor of the Order of the Starfire Guardians—but most did not.

Some wore the armor of other knight orders, some wore no armor, and others wore mages' robes. There were also corpses whose occupations in life were impossible to tell.

The only thing these varied corpses had in common was a hole where their hearts should have been. Bodies of people who had died with their hearts stolen. At the top of the old castle, amid the stench they emitted, stood a single starfire brazier.

Starfire. The fire of a star.

Stars were platinum, yet the starfire was not. It was red, no different from an ordinary flame. Only the golden particles leaping from among the flames with a crackle set it apart.

Was that the starfire the order was protecting?

Smoke from the brazier rose high into the sky. Najin shifted his gaze a little to one side. Beside it sat a man, motionless as a corpse. He was looking straight at Najin.

"Are you the master of this fortress?" Najin asked.

The man did not answer. He merely rose slowly to his feet.

The sight revealed as he stood was wretched. His blackened armor was shattered in places and could not even cover his entire body. The skin exposed through its gaps was black and shriveled like charcoal.

Half his body looked as though it had been devoured by fire. But put another way, only half had been devoured.

Only half bore burns. Only half had been worn away. Then what was the remaining half? Unlike the Lost, whose selves had been completely eroded, intelligence remained in this man's eyes. It meant half of him was human. Yet even at Najin's question, he did not open his mouth.

Not because he could not hear or understand, but because there was no need to answer.

He held his drawn sword to the starfire. Its flames spread onto the blade, burning red as though the steel were firewood. Najin could not tell whether those were the starfire's flames or the form the man's sword aura had taken.

With his burning sword, the man offered a sword salute. Najin asked no further questions either. He raised his sword vertically, its point aimed at the sky. It was the sword salute Ivan had taught him.

Sword salutes were exchanged. Conversation was unnecessary. Introductions, names—the greetings offered with their swords had replaced them all.

Najin took his stance. The man did the same. Sword aura resembling starfire and sword aura resembling a constellation each cast its own light atop the old castle.

Then came a sharp footfall.

TAP!

The two charged at each other.