Schlein, commander of the Order of the Starfire Guardians.

After facing him, Najin underwent several changes. For one, his sword aura had grown a little more distinct, a sign that he was approaching Sprouting.

“It's ridiculous that you're already approaching Sprouting, but considering the trials you've faced since becoming a Sword Seeker, it's almost stranger that you haven't advanced until now...”

Merlin spoke with a peculiar expression.

As she said, Najin had faced countless formidable opponents since becoming a Sword Seeker.

Immediately after reaching that rank, he had fought two opponents on the level of Sword Seekers, sparred with a Sword Master, and battled the Witch of Flickering Flames. On top of that, hadn't he fought an enhanced red dragon, a Sixth Circle dark mage, the crows of the Outer Lands, and even dueled the Helmeted Knight, who must once have been a transcendent being?

In just a few months, Najin had experienced all the trials an ordinary Sword Seeker would face over several decades.

Now that Schlein had shown him what sword aura looked like at the stage of Sprouting, Najin felt that stage was just within reach. What shimmered before his eyes seemed close enough to grasp if he only stretched out his hand.

That was the first change.

The second was one that bewildered even Najin.

Normally, Najin never slept deeply and very rarely dreamed. After facing Schlein, however, he began dreaming often. That alone he could have dismissed as a consequence of exhaustion... The problem was what he dreamed about.

Schlein appeared in his dreams.

Najin saw him laughing and clinking cups with his comrades, the domain he should have protected going up in flames, and the choices he made. Perhaps “saw” wasn't enough to describe it. Najin experienced those scenes as Schlein himself.

「...」

He felt the same emptiness and despair Schlein had felt as he watched his comrades become Lost. He also felt the guilt that came with swinging his sword to hunt humans.

「There is no reason to grieve, no reason to despair. Life is a comedy. Dance. Laugh. Sing. Does reality weigh upon you? If it weighs so heavily that you cannot laugh, I shall lend a hand.」

And Najin saw a certain knight Schlein had encountered.

「I am Quixote, the Knight of Revelry.」

Whether he deserved to be called a knight was questionable, but that was what he called himself. Laughing and chattering like a clown, he attacked the Order of the Starfire Guardians. Everyone his lance pierced or impaled became Lost.

Schlein barely survived, but all his few remaining comrades became Lost. That was the decisive incident that began his downfall.

“There's something I'd like to ask.”

After waking from the dream, Najin asked the Helmeted Knight whether he knew someone named Quixote. He wanted to establish whether the dream was a product of his imagination or truly one of Schlein's memories.

“Where did you hear that name?”

The Helmeted Knight's voice immediately grew grave. It wasn't only his voice. The air around them grew heavy as well. When Najin couldn't readily answer, the knight exhaled briefly and spoke.

“Quixote, the Knight of Revelry. An apostle of the Emperor of Revelry.”

The Emperor of Revelry. The Constellation Yuel had warned him about.

Najin nodded slowly, thinking that the dream really did seem to have given him a glimpse of Schlein's memories. Someone he had first encountered in a dream existed in reality.

“They say he was once a knight of some kingdom, but it's been erased, so there's no way to know. Whatever he is now, he doesn't deserve to be called a knight. Clown would suit him better.”

The Helmeted Knight sneered.

“He dances, sings, and flatters his liege to keep her pleased. Quixote threw away every conviction he had for a single glance or gesture from the Emperor of Revelry.”

“You know him well.”

“Yes. I've met him. I'm the one who put a hole in his eye. Made a lovely little hole in an eye that was useless anyway.”

Indeed, the Quixote he had seen in Schlein's memories had a hole in his eye. Najin was privately impressed. The Quixote in his dream had been powerful—so overwhelmingly powerful that Schlein hadn't even been able to put up a proper fight.

“He looked quite strong.”

“He is. He's a transcendent being, too.”

When Najin gave him a questioning look, the Helmeted Knight shrugged.

“Look, I was a transcendent being once myself. A sorry sight I may be now.”

“You certainly look it.”

“The transcendent being part? Or the sorry sight part?”

“Both.”

He clicked his tongue and leaned back against the wall. He had kept watch while Najin slept, so it was time to switch. As Najin stood watch, feeding wood into the campfire to keep it burning, he spoke to Merlin.

He told her he seemed to have dreamed of Schlein's memories and asked whether she knew anything about the phenomenon.

“No, I don't. What's that about?”

Not much help, somehow.

As Najin thought, 'Figures,' and began to turn away, Merlin hurriedly added,

“N-no! What am I supposed to do if I don't know?”

'I didn't say anything.'

“You just made a face that said, ‘Figures.’ You were thinking I was useless!”

'You heard that?'

“I was bluffing! You really thought that? Wow. Wow!”

Of course, he was joking. He had never thought she was useless. He belatedly added, 'I'm joking,' but Merlin still seemed upset, pounding her chest with her fist and sighing.

“Wait. I do have an idea.”

After groaning in thought for a while, she snapped her fingers as though something had occurred to her.

“Excalibur! Could it be one of Excalibur's abilities? Excalibur absorbs starlight, and stars are people's stories. Maybe there's a connection.”

Merlin nodded.

“Come to think of it, Arthur did that, too. He fought fallen knights in the Outer Lands many times, and when he held their funerals, he'd recite who they'd been in life and what they'd accomplished.”

According to Merlin, he had done the same for knights from remote regions who had no connection whatsoever to him, and whom he could not possibly have known.

“At the time, I just figured it was because Arthur knew so much... But hearing what you've said, perhaps he glimpsed their memories the way you did?”

She didn't seem certain.

“Could you stop looking at me like that?”

Merlin sighed as she answered.

“Unlike with you, I didn't share everything with Arthur, so there are things I don't know about him. Maybe there are more things I don't know than things I do. He hardly ever talked about his worries or himself. He had plenty of secrets, too.”

Her eyes lowered as she spoke.

“That's probably why he went off on his own without discussing anything, leaving me to handle this, that, and everything else. Arthur thought there was no need for lengthy conversations as long as we trusted each other.”

She sounded a little hurt.

Breaking off her muttering, Merlin abruptly brought her face close to Najin's. She poked him over the heart with a finger and stared straight at him.

“Don't you do that. Understand?”

'Pardon?'

“Don't keep secrets between us. Actually, you couldn't even if you tried. I'm spying on you.”

What was he supposed to do with someone who brazenly announced to his face that she would spy on him? Najin laughed in disbelief and stirred the campfire. Watching sparks rise with a crackle, he glanced toward the Helmeted Knight.

His head was lowered, but he didn't seem to be asleep yet.

“Are you asleep?”

“Not yet.”

“Then may I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“What sort of Constellation is the Emperor of Revelry, exactly? I've heard she has an infamous reputation.”

A brief silence followed.

Then the Helmeted Knight raised his bowed head.

“The Emperor of Revelry is exactly what her title says.”

The voice echoing inside his helmet was twice as grave as usual. Hatred filled every word.

“A devil who gained a self. The sovereign of devils, a Demon King—that's why the bitch's title contains ‘Emperor.’ What, then, does ‘Revelry’ mean?”

He spat the words out.

“It means a clown who makes every story a laughingstock. However noble a story may be, the moment it passes her lips, it becomes a farce.

“A truly vile constellation.”

Having said that much, the Helmeted Knight fell silent, as though he wanted to say no more about her. He lowered his head again and went to sleep.

CRACKLE.

Only the quiet sound of the burning campfire filled the air.

2.

His strange travels with the Helmeted Knight continued for some time. Najin had no particular reason to object to the arrangement. In fact, he was enjoying their time together.

“How shall we conduct this raid?”

“Raid? We're simply paying a visit through the front gate. ‘Raid’ hardly seems appropriate.”

“Exactly! How, then?”

“What else but a frontal assault?”

“You know your stuff.”

The Helmeted Knight burst out laughing and held out his fist, and Najin bumped it with his own. Initially bewildered by the knight's eccentric antics, Najin had come to enjoy them himself.

BOOOOM!

Holding a lance he'd picked up somewhere, Najin unleashed a lance charge alongside the Helmeted Knight. The dark mages and devil worshippers receiving their unexpected visit screamed, but Najin's sword and the Helmeted Knight's spear were a little faster than their screams.

“Why are you doing this to us?”

Their protests of injustice didn't have much effect. The corpses of the humans they had tortured and experimented on wiped away any desire for conversation.

“So dark mages can talk, too.”

“Conversation is for people. Not beasts.”

“That's quite a good line. I'll have to borrow it. Did you hear that, beasts? Incidentally, I used to win hunting tournaments all the time. In other words, I'm an expert at hunting beasts.”

An impromptu hunting tournament began, and the beasts' screams echoed for some time.

“Hmm. Another rewarding day.”

Najin found traveling with the Helmeted Knight, a knight who appreciated romantic adventure, quite enjoyable. When they hunted dark mages and the Lost together, he was a good companion...

“Ah, you should hold the spear like this there. Lower your stance a little more...”

“Like this?”

“Huh? No, that's right, but... How did you do that? This isn't a technique you can learn so easily.”

“I'm pretty good.”

“As irritating as that is, I can't deny it. Good grief.”

He was also a teacher, imparting techniques and everyday knowledge about the Outer Lands. A good companion and a teacher. Najin acknowledged that meeting the Helmeted Knight here had been a stroke of luck. He had learned so much from him.

“Najin, it's coming your way!”

“I know! You don't have to tell me!”

“If you know, brat, stop it!”

Devils, devil worshippers, and the Lost weren't the only inhabitants of the Outer Lands. There were also magical beasts that had mutated after surviving here for so long. In short, the place teemed with beasts that coveted stars just as the Lost did, and the Helmeted Knight and Najin sometimes found themselves pursued by them.

“How the fuck am I supposed to do that?”

Najin screamed as a wild dog chased him. What Sword Seeker in the world would flee from a wild dog? Yet things were rather different when that dog was the size of a castle watchtower.

SHHHHHH!

Sliding down a slope, Najin drew forth his sword aura.

“You want me to stop it in its tracks?”

“See? You can do it if you try. I'll finish it off.”

Najin's sword aura sliced through the wild dog's ankle. Just as it tried to get up after tumbling down the slope, the Helmeted Knight climbed onto its back and severed its neck.

“By the way, you've started speaking more casually. Didn't you used to speak with a little more gravitas?”

“That was me imitating a knight. This is how I normally talk.”

“Is that so? I prefer this. The other way was too pompous for my liking.”

“You don't sound much different yourself.”

“I've got the years to back it up, brat. Look at this magnificent helmet, and listen to the voice echoing inside it. Gravitas comes naturally.”

“Ah, riiight...”

How to fight beasts rather than humans.

How to wield a sword against enormous foes. Najin was naturally learning those things as well. Traveling with the Helmeted Knight helped him grow.

One day during their travels, Najin suddenly asked him a question.

“What do people eat to survive in the Outer Lands? Besides human hearts.”

“What do they eat?”

“Meals. Food. I don't think I've eaten anything since coming here... But I haven't felt hungry.”

The Helmeted Knight paused at the question, then gave a short “Ah.”

“It was such basic common knowledge that I'd forgotten. In the Outer Lands, you generally don't need to eat or drink. Provided you have a star.”

He pointed at the stars in the sky.

“Stars are nourishment—food itself. Just basking in starlight relieves hunger and quenches thirst. Your body has evolved that way. Didn't you feel your body change when you gained a star?”

“I did.”

“It's all part of ceasing to be human. You and I are growing further removed from ordinary people.”

In short, meals were unnecessary.

As Najin rubbed his chin in fascination, Merlin, who was perched beside him, spoke.

“But sometimes you still want to eat some—”

“But sometimes you still find yourself wanting to eat something.”

By sheer coincidence, her voice overlapped with the Helmeted Knight's.

With the words taken out of her mouth, Merlin whipped her head around to glare at him. The Helmeted Knight ignored her gaze and continued. Of course, it wasn't really that he ignored her—he couldn't see Merlin in the first place.

“A proper feast for the first time in a while might be nice.”

“Sounds good. Is there anything worth eating?”

“No. We'll have to find it.”

No sooner had he spoken than Merlin rapidly tapped Najin's shoulder. She clearly had something to say.

“I know something. There's food I used to eat often in the Outer Lands. I'll show you. It tastes better than you'd think.”

Asking the Helmeted Knight to excuse him, Najin went into the forest for a while with Merlin. Excitedly pointing out one tree after another, she taught him how to gather food.

“If you split that tree's trunk in a perfect cross, honey flows out. Collect it in a bottle, and it's good to eat. The cut has to be exactly cross-shaped! Otherwise, poison comes out.”

Perhaps because these were plants of the Outer Lands, even the gathering methods were unusual. Nevertheless, Najin roamed the forest for a while, following Merlin's recommendations. Before long, his arms were full of honey, fruit, and berries.

When he returned with them, the Helmeted Knight tilted his head.

“What's all that?”

“Food.”

Najin crunched into a piece of fruit. It tasted quite good. While Merlin smiled in satisfaction at the sight, the Helmeted Knight scratched his helmet.

“Will that fill you up? Fruit alone won't give us the feeling of a feast. That's snack food.”

He stood up.

“A proper feast calls for meat. Follow me.”

“Isn't this the way to the giants' land?”

“It is.”

“Didn't you tell me not to get involved with giants because fighting them is a nuisance?”

“I did.”

“Then why are we going here?”

“Today, we're raiding the giants' larder.”

“What?”

“Let's go.”

The Helmeted Knight resolutely led the way.

“No, why are we raiding their larder?”

“Those bastards do an excellent job preparing their meat. The seasoning is incredible, too. It's one of the finest delicacies in the Outer Lands.”

3.

Giants, like dragons and witches, were born with Mystery. Yet just as dragons and witches had deteriorated, giants, too, had become broken creatures with the passage of the ages. Their deterioration had taken an even worse direction than that of the other two.

The giants of the age of myth possessed intelligence equal to that of humans and truly deserved a name that meant “giant people.” Today's giants, however, were not merely less intelligent than humans; they were less intelligent than beasts.

URRRRGH.

UGHHH.

Their intelligence was comparable to that of trolls. In this age, giants were nothing more than oversized trolls. They bore some resemblance to humans, but humans were reluctant to consider those drooling, enormous trolls their likenesses.

Into the territory of these creatures—who perhaps ought to have been called giant trolls rather than giants—Najin and the Helmeted Knight slipped unnoticed.

Avoiding the eyes of the giants stomping about, they headed toward a cave. Apparently this wasn't his first or second raid: the Helmeted Knight found the larder in no time.

“Keep watch outside. I'll gather what we need.”

While the Helmeted Knight collected jars filled with meat, Najin kept watch outside the cave. Every step of the giants, each as tall as a substantial castle wall, shook the ground with a boom.

There were easily dozens of them.

He could fight one or two if he had to, but the mere thought of so many giants charging at once was horrifying. Najin hurried the Helmeted Knight along.

“Please hurry up. I think they're coming this way.”

“Ah, wait. I've got to take this...”

That was when it happened. A giant wandering outside the larder bent down. As it crouched to retrieve a jar of food, its eyes met Najin's.

“...”

“...”

A brief silence.

Then Najin smacked his forehead. “Oh, fuck.” As he muttered, the giant opened its mouth.

ROOOOAAAR!

It roared to summon its fellows. Amid the roar that threatened to burst his eardrums, Najin roughly drew his sword, scraping it against the scabbard.

“They've spotted us! Hurry and get rea—?”

Turning around with his sword drawn, Najin fell silent. With a jar held over his back, the Helmeted Knight was sprinting at full speed. Where? Toward the other side of the cave.

His running form was perfect enough to feature in a soldiers' training manual. Najin stared blankly at the Helmeted Knight, who was fleeing flat out without so much as a backward glance.

Wait. That man was running away?

“What are you doing—”

“What are you waiting for? Run!”

The Helmeted Knight shouted.

The sight of him sprinting toward the exit on the opposite side of the cave left Najin utterly speechless.