WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Ryuu

Editor: Ilafy

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 192

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Hero (1)

Viola Oldina could not kill Ladon. Having fought it for so many centuries, she viewed it as invincible, so massive as to engulf her entire world.

Normally, while that perception would prevent her from killing the dragon, it would not make Ladon more powerful. The dream world was shaped by her Imagery, though… If she believed it, then the dragon would become the very being she imagined.

Her dream repeated for five hundred and sixty years. Ladon had continually grown in size. As a result, it became a colossal creature that couldn’t be dealt with by ordinary means.

And it was all simply because Viola believed it.

“If this world reflects a person’s perception…” The solution was just as straightforward. “We only need to reduce Ladon’s importance in her life.”

Her fight didn’t have to be everything. She needed something else to focus on, but what might that “something else” be? The clue was already there.

On rainy days, Violet played piano in the old tavern. It was her small hobby and also her tiny refuge, something she had created to sustain herself. Najin merely added his own weight to that place.

It was neither difficult nor complicated—he simply played music with her, listened to her, and shared thoughts on each performance. For Violet, that alone was enough. Najin’s plan proved fruitful, and Ladon’s size decreased by the day.

Finally, the last day arrived. Najin stood at the edge of the musical score, right where the repeat sign would have been written. In his hand, rather than a violin, he held a sword.

“Even though we’ve come this far, Viola Oldina still won’t be able to kill Ladon, right?”

Merlin nodded. “Most likely not. After all, what she wants is not some act of conquest or transcendence but a peaceful, ordinary life.”  

“Exactly. If a hero who’s spent sixty-seven years protecting everyone else’s lives wants a life of her own…” Najin drew his sword. “Isn’t it only fair to grant that wish?”

Standing against a gigantic trial to safeguard the everyday lives of ordinary people was a hero’s job. Who protects the hero’s own life? With the drawing of his sword, Najin provided the answer: Me. No one else but me.

That day in the Kassel Kingdom, the rain did not fall. Under the warm rays of sunlight, he raised his sword. 

Merlin brushed her hair back and smiled. Her blue hair sparkled under the sun’s light. “Then all that’s left is simple, right?”  

“Yes.”

The sky began to crack.

“Killing Ladon, that ‘simplest method’ I mentioned at the start, turns out to be the right answer?”  

“It was always the right answer. The question was how to get there.”

The sky cracked, and fissures spread across it. As though through shattering glass, Ladon appeared. 

Najin, looking upon it, curled his lips into a grin. “Now that we’ve found the proper solution…” Its size was no more than a quarter of what it had been at first. Of course, it was still massive, but… “I can cut that.”

It was not so big that he could not bring it down.

When Ladon appeared, bells tolled through the streets, but Viola Oldina did not show up. The bells rang louder and more furiously.

No matter how loudly they echoed, she did not appear. The hero who had protected the kingdom for sixty-seven years remained absent. Around that time, the citizens sensed danger and started to run. They scrambled away from Ladon, screaming as they tried to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the dragon.

Meanwhile, Najin advanced in the opposite direction. Everyone else fled; he strode toward it. A hero did not run away with the masses.

Standing at the forefront, near the walls that encircled the kingdom, he glared at Ladon. He had made a promise to Violet: on that day, at least, he would be the hero in her place.

He was a knight, and a knight was bound to keep his word. Failing to do so would mean he was unworthy of the title. Hence, what he had to do was clear.

“Merlin…”  

“Yes?”  

“Let’s go.”

The Star of Dawn, heralding the end of the night, shone brightly.

Even if Ladon’s size had diminished, it was still a formidable dragon. As seen from the fact it had chained a Transcendent being’s life for sixty-seven years, it was comparable to a Transcendent itself.

Moreover, dragons were inherently immortal beings and couldn’t be killed by normal means. No matter how thoroughly someone dismembered them, they would eventually regenerate and revive.

Thus, one couldn’t kill a dragon. Such is the truth and law of the world.

‘Truth, law, principle…’ Turning those words over in his mind, Najin gripped his sword. The world had decreed it impossible, but he had the power to ignore that rule. If one looked skyward, his stars glimmered there.

Challenge, Dragon-Slaying, Breakthrough, Indomitable…

Among them shone one star in particular—the Dragon-Slaying Star. The star he gained by embodying the contradiction of killing an unkillable dragon. 

Merlin had once pointed to that star and said, “Its uses are limited, but in that specific situation, it’ll shine brighter than anything else.”

Just as she had predicted, he felt the starlight encasing his body. Though there was an immense gap between him and Ladon, it was bridging that gap for him. At that moment, what he needed was not a cool-headed plan…

Just confidence. Faith in himself.

Noticing that Viola did not appear, Ladon began to move. Its massive wings flapped, sending whirlwinds through the streets. Stalls were smashed and sent flying, and uprooted trees soared high into the sky.

Before the howling gale, Najin stomped down with all his might. His foot planted firmly in the earth, he took a steady breath and glared at Ladon.

The massive dragon’s jaws opened wide, and fire gathered. A dragon’s simplest and most powerful weapon—their breath. The swirling flames in its maw looked as blazing as the sun.

If Najin were alone, he would have had to dismantle that breath using some elaborate method.

“Merlin.” That time, there was no need—Merlin stood by his side. Even before he called her name, she had been readying her spell. The moment she heard her name, she completed it.

Seventh-circle magic… Though Merlin was only a sixth-circle mage with Najin, she summoned seventh-circle magic without even borrowing Najin’s star. She knew how to cast higher-level spells despite lacking the circle and had done similar things well before becoming a Transcendent.

By interlinking six circles, she formed one enormous ring. That served in place of a seventh circle.

Najin did not know the name of the spell that resulted from it. Even if an archmage were there, even if the Platinum Tower Master, Cipria Gachevskaya, who knew all magic in recorded history, were there, she would not be able to identify Merlin’s spell.

What Merlin wielded was a unique magic she had refined for herself alone.

As soon as the spell took shape, a bluish ripple spread around Najin. He did not know what the magic did, but he felt no particular need to find out.

He had asked Merlin only to block the breath. Since Merlin silently unleashed her magic, all he needed to do was trust in it.

Najin settled into his stance; then Ladon unleashed its fire.

Flames fell, painting the sky crimson. A tidal wave of fire that incinerated everything it touched surged toward him. The instant that fire reached him, a loud hiss rang out, and steam billowed forth.

Merlin’s magic protected Najin’s body. Even facing a dragon’s breath, his flesh did not melt away. In fact, he didn’t even feel heat. Thanks to that, he could finish channeling his technique in full.

Just as the flames threatened to melt the city walls, Najin thrust his weapon toward the sky.

The Battle Ram. He tore through the steam and pierced the flames. The world, hidden behind fire and vapor, opened up all at once. A huge hole appeared in the fiery wave, and a violent gust of wind roared through.

Kak—kagagagagagak!

Sending a single piercing strike skyward, Najin shattered everything in his path until his attack slammed into Ladon’s jaw. With a harsh crack, the dragon’s mouth whipped back, forcibly snapping shut and ending the breath. That was an extra perk. That one clash was enough for each side to recognize the other. 

Lowering its head again, Ladon fixed Najin with a glare. Its large, yellow, beast-like eyes bore into him.

Najin lifted the tip of his weapon toward Ladon. “Come down.”

‘No matter how many times you spew fire from up there, it won’t reach me. Come down. Try scratching and biting me, with those claws, that tail, those jaws. Otherwise, I’ll just drag you down by force.’

Although a dragon’s tough scales and immortality played a role in making it so troublesome, the most fundamental reason was that a dragon could fly.

Ladon hovered hundreds of meters above the ground.

No matter how potent Najin’s Battle Ram or Triumph attacks might’ve been, he could not deliver a meaningful impact at such a distance. It might’ve been possible for someone like Crunbelle or Aldaran, but Najin was not yet on their level.

Therefore, to inflict real damage on Ladon, he first needed to close the distance. In a typical approach, he might’ve used hot-air balloons or floating artifacts as platforms to reach the sky.

“Huh? Why would you need that?” At some point, while preparing to subjugate Ladon, Merlin had asked him a question.

“What do you mean? I need some way to shorten the distance. Even though I can jump dozens of meters, hundreds is a bit…”  

“No, I’m asking why you’d need any of that?” She tilted her head and pointed at herself. “You forget who’s standing right next to you? I told you—at least here in this dream, you can rely on me.” Merlin shrugged. “Why bother with a platform? I can just give you a road, you know.”

Proving that it had been no idle boast, Merlin raised a hand toward Ladon. “That oversized beast… is looking down on me.” She furrowed her brow. Stretching out her arm toward Ladon, she flicked her fingers. The instant she did, the broad sky behind Ladon rippled like the surface of a lake.

For the past month, Merlin had made it rain steadily in Kassel Kingdom. It was not merely an act of “bringing down rain” but a process of permeating the sky with her mana.

The sky shimmered like a blue lake. She squeezed out all of her mana that had diffused into the heavens. A mage should focus on efficiency, never wasting even a speck of mana. Merlin recycled the mana that had seemingly been “squandered” over the month.

Eight overlapping rings appeared in the sky, shining brilliantly.

Eighth-circle magic: Submergence.

The sky fell. At least, that was how it looked to Najin. A large swath of the blue sky seemed to tear away and drop onto Ladon. Only when it collided with the dragon did Najin realize it wasn’t the sky at all…

It was water. A column of water crashed down like a waterfall, swallowing Ladon. Unable to withstand that mass, the bones and muscles in Ladon’s wings snapped and tore.

Drdduk, drdrdrdrduk!

Dragon scales grant high resistance to magic, but it was purely physical force snapping its bones and tearing its flesh. The weight and mass of the water crashing down like a waterfall smashed Ladon into submission.

With a light tap of her shoe against the ground, Merlin formed six magic circles at her feet. As soon as a single drop of water from above struck one of the circles—*tuk*—it bounced.

Sixth-circle magic: Brinicle.

The water froze. Starting from the single droplet, the ice spread through the moisture in the air.

The torrent that engulfed Ladon turned to ice in mere seconds. The enormous column of ice stretched from ground to sky. Ladon, trapped inside it, struggled and shattered bits of it, but the pace was too slow—far too slow. Frost wedged into the gaps between its scales, making its movements painfully sluggish.

Merlin pointed at the ice pillar and smiled triumphantly. “Who am I?”  

“The great archmage who holds eleven st—”  

“No, not that.” She gave Najin’s back a playful shove. “I’m your ‘guide’ right now, right? A guide’s job is to open the path. Isn’t that so?”  

“Indeed.”  

“Then why are you just standing there? Run already.” Merlin grinned. “I can’t stand that arrogant monster looking down on me, so go knock it down, fast.”

Thus, the path was formed in a very literal sense. Following the ice stretching all the way up to Ladon, Najin began to dash.