I Pull Out Excalibur

9 – Prelude to the Civil War (5)

Ivan was a knight. Although he was aware that he could no longer be called a knight, he still considered himself one.

A knight is one who upholds honor and pride.

Ivan lost his honor, but he never let go of his pride. He lost his right eye, but one eye remained. That’s why Ivan was still half a knight, an outsider with an eye that could still see the light.

Because he wasn’t a lord. Because he was a knight.

“…Damn greenhorn.”

Ivan saw the radiance created by Najin and understood its value. It was a colossal possibility. A brilliant light that shouldn’t be buried in such an underground city, and if someone from the upper district noticed, it would surely be a flame ready to be trampled and extinguished.

The radiance Najin possessed.

The potential Najin revealed.

It was something that shouldn’t emerge in this city, where exiles, treated like cursed beings, had found refuge.

That’s why Ivan agonized.

What lingered in his ears was the conversation he had with Offen last night over drinks. To kill or to let live and nurture. Honestly, killing was the right choice.

The latter was a gamble. If he failed, not only Najin but also his own life was in jeopardy. It was a blatant “crossing the line” act according to Ivan’s standards.

A deep sigh.

His lost right eye throbbed.

People must live as they are given. If you don’t know your place and cross the line, you’ll only end up miserable. Ivan knew this fact better than anyone.

“Remove the eyeball.”

“Confiscate and drop the masterpiece.”

“You are no longer a knight of Atanga, Ivan.”

“You’re just a filthy heretic reaching for the stars.”

He reached for the unreachable and ended up losing everything. In the unseen underground, he was plunged into darkness without light or stars.

“I have to kill him.”

People must live according to their place.

So, it was right to kill Najin, a clear threat, or at least render him unable to wield a sword.

As the ruler of the underground city, he said that.

However, his knightly self offered a different answer.

Once, as a knight, he dreamed of reaching the summit and once wished to hang his own star in the night sky. The knight who chased stars while gazing at the lofty sky speaks. There’s a dream you missed right in front of you.

Will you trample that dream with your dirty feet, the knight asks. Ivan couldn’t answer that question.

“…”

Ivan fell silent.

At the end of the silence, Ivan let out a long breath.

“You’re losing it, truly.”

…Ivan was a knight.

Still, he wanted to be a knight.

Ivan made up his mind.

2.

“I might go crazy, really.”

Ivan let out a bitter laugh.

Najin felt the pressure that had been constricting his breath disappear. A moment of tension released. Ivan before him was chuckling as if in disbelief.

“Why bring something like that, why show it to me…”

He wiped his face with his palm.

With a long exhale, Ivan looked at Najin. Eyes showing hesitation. How much time had passed? As if making a decision, Ivan opened his mouth.

“Najin.”

“…Yes?”

Najin couldn’t answer properly, breath caught.

In Najin’s gaze, there was fear. Fear that he almost died. Simultaneously, there was a question about the light that clung to his sword.

Eyes mixed with curiosity and fear.

Looking into those eyes, Ivan spoke.

“Today, I will infiltrate the territory of Offen and Horse. It might be a short two days or a long three to four days before I return…”

Ivan drew his sword from his waist.

The two swords he always carried. One was a knight’s sword brought from the upper district, and the other was a masterpiece created by the underground city’s blacksmith, Hogel.

Among them, Ivan handed Hogel’s masterpiece to Najin. Najin accepted the sword without understanding.

“Guard my position while I’m away. If there’s anyone causing trouble in my absence, deal with them. Entrusting you with this sword is proof that you are my substitute.”

Handing over the sword, Ivan said, “And…”

Ivan raised the corner of his mouth.

“When I return, teach you how to handle a sword.”

What had been postponed for so long.

Najin blinked at Ivan’s words about teaching. Ivan shrugged his shoulders and said, “I can’t trust those eyes saying you don’t believe me.”

“Weren’t you just almost killed? Honestly, I’m scared you might kill me under the excuse of teaching.”

“Hey, do I look like that much of a scoundrel?”

Najin nodded his head.

Ivan chuckled wryly. Well, I can’t deny that.

“You might not believe it, but I never had any intention of killing you. If you didn’t react there, I did consider carving another scar in your unresponsive corpse, though.”

“This guy is absolute trash.”

“It’s all for a greater purpose. Damn brat.”

Ivan sighed deeply as he looked at Najin with lingering suspicion.

“Well, it’s natural not to believe. So, make sure you give me something worth believing in.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, what can I say? The heaviest thing I can carry.”

A lone sword remaining at his waist.

Although the pattern of the Atanga had faded away, the sword, a symbol of Ivan as a knight, felt like his other half. The moment he laid his hand on the hilt, the atmosphere around Ivan changed.

“Ivan, the knight of Atanga, pledges on his honor.”

Not the underground city’s ruler, the outsider with the dual pupils.

It was Ivan, the knight of Atanga, who spoke.

“This is a deal, Najin.”

A proposal and a transaction acknowledging that the other stands on an equal footing.

“I’m going to invest in you from now on. Not just pulling out a sword, but I’ll teach you everything I know.”

The radiance you displayed a little while ago.

I’ll stake everything on that light.

“So, you must rise higher than me, Najin.”

Not just a sword expert.

Climb to the next level.

Reach where I couldn’t.

“Rise, and reclaim everything you brought to this damn upper district. It means becoming a strong negotiator with that upper district.”

“What did I bring to the upper district?”

“Honor.”

What a knight should have along with pride.

“The honor of being a knight of Atanga and the glory of once being a knight who chased the stars.”

He reached out his hand to Najin.

Without saying anything more, that touch was Ivan’s proposal.

“…”.

Najin hesitated for a moment.

At the end of her hesitation, Iban reached out his hand. With a firm grip, he lifted Najin up and smiled.

“From today on, you are my seed.”

Seed, a squire in training.

“The seed of Atanga’s knight, Iban.”

3.

Iban’s office.

Najin was guarding the office in place of Iban, who was absent. Sitting on the chair where Iban usually sat, Najin murmured absentmindedly.

“What is this?”

Tap. Najin tapped the table with her index finger, raising her head in confusion. She couldn’t understand what was written there.

“What on earth is this?”

The memory from a few hours ago came to mind.

Najin pondered over her duel with Iban. When she thought about it, it was a bit strange that he suggested a duel in the first place.

“Especially, he even wielded a sword, unlike usual.”

A sword strengthened with mana. Not only that, but also a sword technique that ended everything. When Iban swung the sword with the technique, Najin truly sensed death.

“And…”

At that moment, her body moved on its own.

Reflexively, instinctively, her body moved and the blade glowed. Even though Najin was ignorant of mana and sword techniques, she knew very well what was reflected on her sword in that brief moment.

“Light. Mana. The brilliance of sword technique.”

Proof of a skilled expert.

So, had she reached the realm of an expert? It didn’t seem so. Najin clenched her fist, holding the sword she had placed on the table.

The sword didn’t draw. Hmph. Dissatisfied, Najin recalled the moment when the sword glowed.

Something pushed her body from behind, and at the moment the glow appeared, she felt the force coming from her body. She tried to recall the series of actions she took instinctually, but… she couldn’t understand how it was possible.

“It feels like I just had a dream.”

However, the pain that remained in her palm and body. The sharp pain proved that it wasn’t just a dream.

So did I really draw the sword?

But I haven’t even learned mana cultivation techniques. How was it possible? The only people in this underground city who could possibly reveal that answer were Iban and Open, both sadly having left for Horsea’s territory.

“…I’ll ask them when they return, then.”

Now she can ask.

Before leaving, Iban clearly stated that he would teach her everything about the sword and mana upon returning from Horsea’s territory. It was the knowledge that Najin had yearned for in the past few years.

Longing for it, wanting to learn, but something Ivan never taught. He would evade, saying it’s too early for you, and when probed deeper, he would warn to stop asking.

“When you return, I’ll teach you. The art of handling a sword.”

Ivan suddenly spoke about teaching such things. Najin couldn’t fathom why Ivan, who seemed ready to kill him in an instant, had a sudden change of attitude like flipping the palm of his hand. But one thing he could discern.

‘That Ivan is sincere.’

Teaching him the ways of the sword.

He could be sure that Ivan didn’t utter those words lightly.

“Swear on the pride of the knight of Atanga,” Ivan declared.

Well, Ivan staked his pride, after all.

The words Ivan spoke alongside Atanga and pride were always upheld.

‘Without a single exception.’

It was the weight of Atanga, the weight of Ivan’s words as a knight, and the weight of the past that the one-eyed knight had not yet discarded. Of course, Najin didn’t know that much. He just knew that whenever Ivan mentioned Atanga, the fact that it would be upheld was understood.

‘Anyway, what’s important is…’

Now, he could learn.

‘Learn what?’

With a slight laugh, Najin mumbled.

“Mana, the sword, proper swordsmanship.”

Things he could now learn.

It was something special that couldn’t be obtained in this underground city. Things that had been beyond the line Ivan drew so far, things he couldn’t dare to cross.

And that was…

Things that appeared in the fairy tale book that Najin always carried. In the descriptions of King Arthur and the knights who followed him, the ‘shining sword’ was a constant. Thinking of those descriptions, Najin smiled.

Still, no stars were visible.

But he felt a bit closer to them.

“Knight of Atanga, Ivan’s seed.”

A knight’s seed, the squire Squire.

Not Ivan’s hunting dog, but Squire.

Najin, contemplating the resonance created by that word, gently stroked the sword placed on the table.

It had a decent resonance.

* * *

“Ivan took the bait.”

The underground passageway connected to the mining site.

In the deepest part of the passageway, a spider-like man named Horsay opened his mouth. It wasn’t just mumbling. There was someone listening closely to his voice.

“Give me what we promised.”

“I won’t give it to you just like that.”

A woman sitting at Horsay’s desk in his office. She sniffed and threw an envelope in front of Horsay. Horsay trembled as he tore open the envelope and put its contents into his mouth.

Only then did his trembling stop.

Horsay took a deep breath and looked down at the woman who was staring at him. A lunatic whose thoughts were impossible to discern. Horsay stared at her and spoke.

“Now what do I do?”

“What do you want me to do? I don’t know. You just have to do what you’re told.”

She pouted and ran her finger along her chin.

“By the way, your first leg, Arnold ran away. Was that your doing?”

“I wasn’t involved.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter. Ivan tricked him anyway.”

“What will happen to Arnold?”

“What can we do? He broke the rules…”

She pointed to a corner of the office with her hand. There, Horsay’s members were trapped behind iron bars.

“They’ll end up like them.”

The woman snapped her fingers.

A piercing sound echoed. Immediately after, one of the members began to swell. Horsay watched silently, closing his eyes.

Spurting blood and flesh.

Ah, ah… the weak moaning spread.

Amidst the echoing noises in the office, Horsay clenched his teeth.