WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Ryuu

Editor: Ilafy

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 189

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Who Am I? (5)

The human mind is not infinite. The world may have allowed a human body to transcend, but the same was not true for the mind. Countless philosophers called it a blessing and said that to agonize, to hesitate, to wander, and to gain enlightenment and grow was a privilege possessed only by humans. 

Still, not every human could even attain enlightenment—some people become lost at the end of their wandering because they could not be confident in themselves.

“Ah, aaah, aaaaah…” There stood one Transcendent who never wished to be one—Viola Oldina. Although her body reached transcendence, her mind never followed because she never wanted it to begin with.

All she wanted was to let someone hear her music, to enjoy playing the piano, and to live a humble life of satisfaction.

“You have talent.”

“Your name is no longer ■■■■.”

“From today, you will live under the name ‘Viola’ of House Oldina.”

She possessed talent. If she took up a sword and trained, she had more than enough ability to reach transcendence. Despite never wishing for it, she arrived at transcendence anyway.

Crunch.

With fingers that should have been tapping piano keys, she clutched a sword, and with the ears that should have been listening for the notes of a piano, she heard screams and groans. Endlessly, she swung her sword.

“Aah…” She fought Ladon, who had invaded the kingdom. Day after day, in a space detached beyond anyone’s gaze, she fought to keep Ladon trapped there, and she had to wound him and drain his strength.

Dragons were immortal. No matter how many wounds it might’ve suffered, come morning, Ladon was fully healed and burst right back out through the glass.

“A…” Viola, by contrast, was not immortal. Her recovery was slow, and her injuries only accumulated. Ladon began to taint her body and mind, slowly but surely. One year, ten years, fifty years, sixty-seven years…

After all that time, Viola Oldina looked down at her hands. Her fingers, dyed black, no longer obeyed her will. She could no longer press down on piano keys. That was when she broke.

Glass shattered.

Viola Oldina laughed, and her voice echoed across the entire Kassel Kingdom like fingernails scraping against a windowpane. Cracks radiated outward, devouring the Kassel Kingdom.

Shatter.

People, buildings, the earth, and even the sky began to fracture. She destroyed everything she had protected for sixty-seven years—the Star of Detachment separated her from herself. All that remained behind was an empty husk of a body.

The one who seized that husk was the dragon that slowly consumed her over all those long years.

Ladon laughed.

“Ah, so this is how.” Someone watched it unfold. “So this was how it happened.” Najin watched the kingdom shatter into fragments. He and Merlin stood in the one place untouched by the expanding cracks—the location of the monument.

‘So this is how the kingdom was destroyed by Ladon.’ Seeing Viola devoured by Ladon and tearing the kingdom to pieces, Najin fell silent and saw a constellation going mad for the first time—a Transcendent falling into corruption. It was different from a Fallen Star. Viola Oldina’s star still remained high in the sky, yet the essence that comprised that star changed.

An Inverse Star. A name the Helmet Knight had once mentioned for a “Debased Star.” Najin looked to the sky. Viola Oldina’s star was flipped upside down and dyed pitch-black. Everything except the area around the monument was torn to pieces. 

Amid the shattered ruins, Viola Oldina laughed. 

Najin had no way of knowing how long that laughter rang out.

“Once more…” Before she became a complete Inverse Star. Before Ladon fully devoured her, she forced out one last mumble. “Once more, from the beginning. Da capo,” she murmured.

Da capo—a repeat sign instructing you to return to the beginning and play again. At the end of her performance, there was no applause awaiting her—only the repeat sign commanding her to start from the beginning again.

Time rewound. In the time it took to close your eyes and open them again, everything returned to how it was—the sky was blue, the sunlight shone warmly down, and people passed to and fro in the streets, fully convinced that their everyday life would continue on forever.

“Did you see that new fish in the market today?”

“It’s huge… and insanely expensive. Someone would pay that much to have it for a single meal? I can’t even dream of that.”

“Freshly baked bread! Warm bread, just out of the oven! One piece for a single copper coin!”

“Hey, yesterday you sold two for one coin!”

“The price of flour went up. Can’t be helped.”

“Heh, so at your shop, the price of flour must have doubled overnight, huh?”

Standing quietly in the middle of the street while citizens bustled past, Najin scanned his surroundings. He stood in exactly the same spot as when he first entered the dream.

“We’re back, huh? To the beginning,” he stiffly observed.

“So it seems.”

Having just seen something so shocking a moment ago, he let out a long breath, pressing his fingertips against the corners of his eyes. “So this is what a constellation’s dream is like…”

“Yeah, most of them go like this,” Merlin said. “There are constellations who repeat the same single day forever, some who loop a particular span of time, and those who endlessly replay their entire life. They gave up on moving forward, so they just repeat the same story.”

Najin lifted his head to look toward the great temple. Standing there, just like before, with the same expression and the same gaze, was Viola Oldina. Before long, she turned her eyes away, but Najin did not.

Watching Viola Oldina from the side, he murmured, “This is hell.”

“Depending on the case, yes.” Merlin had explained that there were constellations who locked themselves in their own dreams as a form of self-punishment. She suspected Viola Oldina was one such case—she was repeating her final month. Caught and devoured by Ladon, losing herself in that last month, over and over, for 560 years. As though it were a punishment she inflicted upon herself.

‘Inside this dream, she can return to the beginning. The same wasn’t true for reality’ It was not hard to guess what end the “Kassel” kingdom had met. ‘They entrusted everything to one Transcendent, but the kingdom fell when that Transcendent became corrupted.’

Kassel Kingdom was destroyed by Viola Oldina, who had been devoured by Ladon. Driven to despair by that fact, what choice did Viola make? Unable to rewind time in the real world, her choice must have been…

“So that’s why the Star Tomb was made.” She likely chose to bury herself here with Ladon possessing her body. She chose to lock herself in an eternal dream, torturing herself forever.

That meant it wasn’t just her tomb but also Ladon’s.

“So?” Merlin looked at Najin. “What are you going to do now? There’s no particular reason you have to break this dream. It won’t be easy to break it, and finding a way to do so would also be difficult. You might even risk your life.”

Najin remained in thought.

“If you were to ask whether the gain is that big, I’d have to say it isn’t. A Star Relic would be nice, but you’d be fine without it, right? You wouldn’t gain much for all your effort. If that’s all you’re after, you might as well go explore some other constellation’s tomb.”

The original purpose—experiencing a constellation’s tomb, a dream—has already been achieved. That much was surely enough for practical experience, so Najin had no real reason to remain in the dream.

“Still…” Merlin asked, “Are you going to try?” The guide only offered direction; the decision was his alone. Her clear eyes studied Najin intently.

Before answering the question, Najin glanced behind him. There stood the monument that served as the entrance to the dream. He read the inscription on the monument again.

‘Who am, I?’

There was no answer written there. No one had answered Viola Oldina’s question. Najin let out a faint laugh. “You know the answer already.” He turned his back on the monument and walked in the exact opposite direction of the exit that led out of the dream, speaking as he did.

“Who am, I?”

“Ha…” Merlin let out a deep, exasperated sigh. She gave him a look that said, ‘Do you really have to say it?’ but Najin only repeated the question to her: ‘Who am, I?’

“Fine, you’re the youngest Sword Seeker, the youngest to reach four stars, the youngest free knight. Ugh, I’m sick of hearing it. Why?”

“Exactly. I’m a free knight.”

A free knight protected what he believed was right and watched over other knights.

“It’s written right on the monument, isn’t it?”

Viola Oldina, Hero of the Kassel Kingdom.

Defended her country from an Evil Dragon.

Fought valiantly until the very end.

“She’s a knight, isn’t she? From what I see, this dream is just… It’s not right, and I don’t like the look on Viola Oldina’s face right now.”

“So?”

“I’m going to smash it.”

“How?”

“That’s what I have to figure out.” As he wandered through the city, Najin gathered information and added it to what he had already gleaned before time rewound.

“Are you Mirenz?” He sought out an old woman named Mirenz—the old woman whose shoulder Viola had grabbed at the end, begging her for help. She was Viola Oldina’s foster sister, the only living human who knew Viola before she was adopted into House Oldina.

He listened, he gathered information, and he collected what he needed.

“Merlin?” He still needed one last thing, and it was something that wasn’t far away. Najin glanced at Merlin. “You are a mighty archmage, right? The first to uncover the Mystiques, the first to reach ten circles, the one who holds no fewer than eleven stars… truly, a great mage.”

Merlin’s ears perked up from where she sat munching on bread. Her eyebrows curved slightly. “Keep going. I like what I’m hearing.”

“For such a great archmage, making rain fall should be child’s play, right?”

“Do you have any idea how difficult it is to manipulate weather and produce natural phenomena? That kind of spell is practically forbidden among mages. Really, it’s exceedingly hard.”

“Is it impossible?”

“Impossible, indeed. Ordinarily… but who am I?” Merlin curled her lips into a grin. “A grand archmage who makes the impossible possible. Truly, a great mage, just like you said.”

Snickering, she rose from her seat with perfect confidence on her face.

Merlin stretched her hand toward the sky.

Just as a swordsman required a sword, a mage typically needed a staff or artifact as a medium, but Merlin was an exception—she called those who relied on such tools “third-rate” and always considered herself top-notch.

Her lips and fingertips moved. Each time her hand extended a fraction forward, a magical circle appeared; each syllable that escaped her lips produced one ring.

Charr-reuk.

In an instant, six rings appeared at her fingertips—six circles, resonating and rotating, but she did not seem satisfied stopping there. Though her abilities were restricted to near Najin’s level—where six circles was the limit—she wasn’t about to let that stop her.

“Pardon me, I’ll just borrow these.” She made a gesture. The four stars Najin possessed twinkled and were absorbed into her fingertips. Through that starlight, she forged new circles, and two platinum rings joined at her fingertips.

The six blue rings and two platinum rings made eight rings in total. Eight circles… the mark of an archmage.

Though her body had not even come close to transcending, Merlin mimicked Transcendence effortlessly. If any magician had been present to witness what she’d done, they would have screamed. Even if that magician were a Transcendent, their reaction wouldn’t have differed much.

She’d done something that fundamentally defied magic’s basic principles and laws. Merlin did not bother explaining how insane and astounding it was—she simply demonstrated.

Snap.

She snapped her fingers. The eight rings resonated. Blue mana surged, rippled, and rushed toward the sky. The moment the droplet of water she launched brushed against the heavens, a ripple ran across the clear sky.

Like throwing a stone into a tranquil lake, the sky wavered momentarily, and then rain began pouring down.

She bypassed the entire sequence of vapor gathering, clouds forming, and clouds producing rain to produce a simple result: rain falls.

A deluge powerful enough to flood the whole kingdom came spilling from the sky. The roar of rainfall drowned out all other sounds. Ordinarily, at that hour, the city bells would ring, but they were muffled beneath the driving rain she had conjured.

“How about that?” She turned back to Najin, standing amid the downpour, and brushed aside her soaked hair with a smirk. “Don’t I look a bit more ‘great’?”