The Order of Star Radiance.

It worshipped the Constellation known as the Lighthouse That Illuminates All Things as its patron deity and oversaw matters related to starlight. More moderate than the other two orders that worshipped the stars, it handled matters peacefully and boasted the largest following.

But Najin knew that they were not as upright and innocent as their public reputation suggested. He could not speak for their followers, but he knew full well that their leadership was rotten to the core.

“Did the Order of Star Radiance send you?”

That was why Najin asked without hesitation. Merely uttering the question might earn him severe punishment for insulting the order, but if he cared about such things, he would never have escaped the underground city in the first place.

“The order’s name comes up straightaway, eh? Seems you’ve got quite a history with those bastards too.”

Kaufman chuckled. His reaction allowed Najin to confirm a few things: Kaufman held no particular affection for the order, and he was not one of its members.

“Yes. The order sent me.”

Kaufman raised his chin. He tapped Najin’s longsword with his fingers, pushing it away from his neck, then unwound the bandage wrapped around it.

“They promised to bring out their hostage if I killed you. From the underground city of Atman.”

Najin frowned. There was a brand on Kaufman’s neck, and he had seen it before. It was the same brand concealed beneath Ivan’s eyepatch, the same one stamped on Hakan the Junkie’s arm.

The brand placed on those cast into the underground city.

Offen had told him that even if luck and chance aligned to let someone escape the underground city, the order would hunt them down and kill them as long as that brand remained.

“You’re also...”

“Sorry, but I’m not from Atman. This is the leash those bastards put on me.”

“They must’ve thought one hostage wasn’t enough,” Kaufman muttered with a shrug.

“Who is the hostage?”

“My daughter. A common enough story. Makes me wonder if this is why soldiers don’t breed.”

Kaufman gave a gravelly laugh.

“I’m not telling you this for sympathy. I’m not going to beg you to spare me, either. If I don’t kill you, I die anyway. And would you let me kill you?”

Najin remained silent. It was a refusal.

“See? I lost to you, and I don’t think struggling now will let me beat you.”

“Then?”

“I ought to let the victor enjoy his rights,” he said.

“From the looks of it, your bad blood with the order runs pretty deep. Though I suppose it couldn’t be otherwise if you’re from Atman. I don’t know why they’re so determined to kill you...”

Kaufman looked at Najin. Then he suddenly laughed, as though he understood.

“No, I can see why. You’re a monster who’s nearly a Sword Seeker at eighteen... They must’ve thought you might actually become a Sword Master. At that point, you could bring down the order. So they decided you were a threat.”

“...”

Najin did not deny it. It was likely true that the order regarded him as a threat.

“Well, regardless.”

Kaufman let out a long breath.

“Can I ask you one thing?”

“Go ahead.”

“Do you intend to bring the order down?”

“Yes.”

Najin answered without the slightest hesitation. His sincerity held neither embellishment nor deceit.

He had sworn on the name of Ivan, the man who had sent him up and out of the city, that he would destroy the order.

“I will do it with my own hands. Without fail.”

“You look like a man with a lot of stories.”

“Aren’t you the same?”

“Yeah, well... Doesn’t sound like a lie.”

Kaufman reached out, pointing toward his poncho lying some distance away. Najin walked toward it.

“Search it, and you’ll find a contract. It sets out the agreement I made with the order. Keep it, and you might find a use for it somewhere.”

Kaufman smiled as he spoke, but something about that smile struck Najin as odd. Just as Najin picked up the poncho and started back toward him, Kaufman extended an arm to stop him.

“Don’t come closer.”

Najin frowned. Kaufman did not appear to be preparing anything, nor did he show any sign of attempting a counterattack. Then why?

“Hey, Najin.”

Still wondering why, Najin stopped for the moment. He watched Kaufman from a distance, trying to understand what had felt wrong about his smile.

“The Order of Star Radiance is more ruthless, more thorough, and more insidious than you think. Remember that.”

The warning came out of nowhere. Kaufman let out a long breath.

“They have plenty of pawns at their disposal. Plenty. People with loved ones held hostage, people who’ve been brainwashed, or fanatics who’re simply mad about their religion...”

Kaufman pulled out the necklace he had tucked beneath his clothes. An ornament hung from its end. He gazed at something inside it, then smiled bitterly.

“I’ll just be the beginning. All sorts of lunatics will come after you. There’s no shortage of bastards with nothing to lose. Fucking hell.”

As he spoke, Kaufman tightened his grip.

SNAP

The necklace’s cord broke.

“Well, give it your best shot.”

He tossed the necklace he had carried all his life toward Najin.

TAP

Sensing no magical trickery, Najin caught the necklace. Kaufman gave a faint chuckle.

“I’d appreciate it if you buried that necklace with me.”

Before Najin could say anything, a sound came from Kaufman’s neck.

HISSS

The brand glowed red-hot. Blood flowed from Kaufman’s eyes, nose, and ears.

“Forbidden Speech...? No, why would they use that?”

Before the bewildered Merlin could say anything more, Kaufman vomited blood and forced his final words out, as though determined to pronounce the name of the bastard he wanted to tear apart with his teeth.

“Or... lan.”

Someone’s name.

The instant he uttered it, Kaufman’s body swelled. Najin’s eyes widened, and he leaped into the channel, clutching the poncho.

BOOOOM!

As Najin plunged into the water, a deep, thunderous explosion shook the underground waterways.

2.

After climbing out of the water, Najin looked toward the place where Kaufman had been sitting. Kaufman was gone. Only blood and chunks of flesh scattered in every direction remained.

“... It’s a Forbidden Speech spell,” Merlin said.

“It uses writing or speaking a particular word or name as its trigger. It’s usually paired with a spell that makes the victim’s body explode.”

Even as she explained, Merlin could not shake her unease. Her voice trembled slightly.

“It was forbidden even in my time. Because it was used this way back then, too.”

Najin looked at the soot-stained wall. Kaufman had exploded and died without even leaving a corpse behind. Only the blood and flesh spattered everywhere testified to his death.

Silently, Najin opened his hand. The necklace Kaufman had thrown him lay there.

He opened the ornament hanging from its end and found a photograph inside. It showed Kaufman, his wife, and someone who appeared to be his daughter. Najin stared at it for a while.

“...”

This man had tried to kill him. Najin knew full well that he would not survive if he grieved and felt guilty over the deaths of such people. He tried to turn away, but the moment he saw the photograph, he could not help feeling shaken.

The young girl in the photograph.

Najin knew her.

When dealing with Trixie, who had gone so far as to engage in the human trafficking Ivan had forbidden, Najin had checked the ledger he had drawn up and his “merchandise.” He remembered clicking his tongue at where that merchandise was to be sold.

Najin’s face twisted as the memory surfaced.

“Fucking hell...”

Najin spat out the curse. Though he had eaten nothing, something churned in his stomach and seemed to rise back up. He ground his teeth.

“...”

The emotion was intense. Feeling exactly what Najin felt, Merlin could only remain silent.

“Merlin.”

“... Tell me.”

“I... I thought...” Najin groaned.

“I thought the world above would be different. I thought the world above, watched over by the stars, would be different from the underground city. But... I’m beginning to doubt that.”

The underground city was filthy because the stars did not shine upon it.

That was what Najin had believed. But after everything he had experienced, doubt had taken root within him.

“Do the stars have no interest in this world? At the very least, shouldn’t orders that worship the stars refrain from doing things like this?”

“Do you want an honest answer?”

“Yes.”

Merlin let out a long breath.

“Most constellations have little interest in this world. Especially the central continent.”

Najin asked why. The ancient Constellation answered bitterly.

“Because we’re beings whose stories have already ended. We accomplished great feats, hung our stars in the sky, and met our ends. Unless it’s somewhere the boundary between heaven and earth blurs, we can’t intervene.”

“Some still try to intervene. But all they find is regret. In the end, we’re only bystanders.

“Constellations aren’t as great as you imagine. Bound to places like the Battlefield of Stars and Camlann, the land of the abyss, we continue journeys that never end... At a glance, we might be no different from the dead.”

Najin fell silent, and Merlin continued.

“The vast majority of Constellations don’t care what happens in the world. Most stars care more about their own welfare and making their stars shine brighter.”

They hunted other stars on the Battlefield of Stars. They created avatars to roam that battlefield.

They yearned for what came next in stories that had ended long ago.

“That’s the true nature of those called Constellations. Perhaps I’m not so different myself.”

As Najin started to speak, Merlin gave a faint chuckle.

“I yearn for what comes after a journey that’s already ended, too.”

She let out a long breath.

“I’m sorry to tell you this when you look up to the stars, but being a Constellation doesn’t make someone great and perfect. In fact, there are more stars who are even uglier than humans.”

These words shattered Najin’s illusions. That was why she had not wanted to tell him the truth. As she spoke it, Merlin looked at Najin’s mental image, wondering whether the star in that night sky might change.

But the star did not change. The star in Najin’s mental image remained in its place. Before long, his voice reached her.

“Then I have all the more reason to climb higher.”

“... What?”

“The Constellation the order worships. Do you think that star they call the Lighthouse knows about this too?”

“It probably does. I can’t be sure about the matter of Excalibur, but I can’t say it’s unaware of all the evil the order commits.”

Najin tucked the necklace into his clothes and stood.

“Then I’ll have to ask about that as well.”

Once he had a star, once he climbed higher.

He had one more question to put to the order. Clutching Kaufman’s poncho, Najin began to walk.

Orlan.

He turned Kaufman’s final utterance over in his mind. Ironically, it was a name Najin knew as well. He had seen it while looking into the Order of Star Radiance.

Orlan, High Priest of the Order of Star Radiance.

The man who occupied the highest seat in the order’s main church, built above the underground city of Atman. Najin now knew whom he needed to confront with his blade.

3.

Orlan sensed Kaufman’s death.

So he had failed in the hunt.

Orlan clicked his tongue and sighed at length. It would have been better if Kaufman had settled the matter. How troublesome.

“What should I do about this?”

“The water is already spilled, and the Lighthouse is stained. A shadow has fallen upon your goddess’s radiance.”

“This must not be allowed. Perhaps I have mishandled the matter.”

“You were right. If light was born in a place your goddess does not illuminate, that is your goddess’s failing, a stain upon her. Your choice to erase it was wise.”

The Lighthouse’s radiance must not be stained.

A tiny stain invited doubt, and doubt spread into a great shadow. Orlan knew, therefore, that the goddess must always be flawless.

If a stain appeared upon her, if there was a shadow she could not illuminate, then making it as though it had never existed was the duty of the faithful who served her. To offer himself up to conceal the goddess’s failing—that was how he could devote himself to her.

“The Lighthouse Keeper...”

“If that child acts, every star will take notice. Your goddess’s failing will become known to the entire world.”

“That must not happen. I’ll have to handle this quietly.”

The goddess affirmed it with her silence.

Having finished his prayer at the top of the lighthouse, Orlan rose. The goddess’s voice left his ears and spoke no more, but he knew what he had to do.

“Summon them.”

One useful pawn had broken, but he still had plenty left in his hands—pawns who could act under names other than the order’s.