Sun Knight

That was a memory from Gawain's past, a past he had wanted to forget but never could.

Once again witnessing the memories of his former self, he opened his eyes. Arthur's armory was gone. Merlin was gone. Even the Sword in the Stone he had been gripping tightly had vanished without a trace.

This was a space that belonged nowhere, a world that belonged nowhere. Everything was blank and white. There was no concept of time, no sun, and no moon.

"Do you have the resolve to draw this sword?"

"Do you wish to become king?"

A child's voice rang out within this space, questioning Gawain. He closed his eyes, and the image of someone who had drawn this sword surfaced in his mind. He was not the first to face such questioning. Someone he respected and admired had faced it as well.

A young boy in the plain clothes of a knight's squire, bearing Sir Kay's family crest, nervously arrived behind the London churchyard.

Arthur!

The church in London.

What a familiar sight.

Even after hearing the legend of Arthur drawing the Sword in the Stone through countless retellings, he could never stop replaying it in his mind. It was a legend he had always wanted to witness.

Yet when the memories preserved within the Sword in the Stone—memories belonging to the past—

When he truly witnessed, within those memories of the past, the moment Arthur drew the Sword in the Stone, for Gawain, Arthur's devoted admirer and loyal fangirl, it was a moving instant like the birth of heaven and earth at the Big Bang in some distant age.

From that moment onward, Arthur was already a legend.

"Are you going to draw it?"

The boy happily drew the sword from the great stone inside the church. He had forgotten to bring his elder brother Sir Kay's sword, so when he saw a sword embedded in a stone in the church's rear courtyard, he wanted to give it to Kay.

However, the boy seemed to notice someone's gaze. He turned his head left and right, looked toward the sky and the ground, and finally, seeing nothing unusual, closed his eyes. The instant his eyes shut, a smile appeared on his face.

The boy saw him. He saw another boy, years in the future, who also wished to draw the Sword in the Stone.

Across time and beyond space, the two boys, Gawain and Arthur, met in this place without any concept of time or space.

"Do you also want to draw this sword from the stone?"

The boy looked at the child before him, whose appearance resembled his own. They appeared to be about the same age, yet for some reason, he felt close to him. It was an affection like that of an elder brother doting on a younger sibling, just as Kay treated him.

"I can't draw it," Gawain said, his eyes filled with disappointment. Seeing that look, the boy asked in confusion, "Why do you think you can't?"

It was so simple, so easy. As long as one wished it, one could easily pull the sword from the stone.

Young Arthur thrust the sword back into the stone, then drew it again. It took no effort at all; he did it with effortless composure.

Was he trying to prove to Gawain that drawing this Excalibur was not merely easy, but only natural?

"I have no courage, Arthur. The gods took my courage away. I no longer have the strength to draw this sword," Gawain said.

"How could a person's courage possibly be taken away? So long as a person lives in this world, they can feel an endless source of courage.

"Perhaps, for a moment, a person may lose their courage. The gods may take it away, and they may lose the source of their strength. But they will not lose the root of that strength. As long as a person possesses their own will, they will not lose the ability to gain courage and strength once more."

As young Arthur spoke, he saw Gawain's confused expression and could not help rubbing his head. "Of course, that is only my personal opinion. It may not be right, but I think it could help you. You are lost."

"Yes! If I cannot draw this sword, it means I cannot live openly and honorably under the sunlight," Gawain said frankly.

Before this Arthur, who was still a child for the time being, he did not feel the same pressure he would have felt after speaking his heart in front of King Arthur.

"Without the sun, you cannot see your goal, and so you lose your courage?" Arthur asked.

"That's not the same thing!" Gawain explained.

"Why isn't it the same? Arrogance and self-confidence can give one courage. A clear goal can give one courage as well.

"Soldiers dare not flee the battlefield because if they run, their wives and children will be reduced to slaves by their lord. They will be mocked by everyone and never be able to hold their heads high for the rest of their lives.

"If a king loses his courage, he cannot fulfill his role as king, and his kingdom will be destroyed by its enemies. It has always been this way, so they have no choice but to be brave. No one is born brave. Holding fast to one's resolve, struggling to protect and to advance even without seeing the future—that is courage too.

"You say you have lost your courage, but in truth, you have only lost your goal. Just like the sun setting, your eyes can no longer see what lies ahead," Arthur said calmly.

"You make it sound as if you know me so well," Gawain said noncommittally. "My courage has already set like the sun. I am nothing but a coward."

"Then may I ask you this? When you perceive this world, do you rely on the sun's light or on your own eyes?"

"Well, naturally, a person's eyes. Only eyes can see things."

"Is it your eyes that limit you?"

"How could eyes limit a person? It is the darkness of the world after sunset that limits us. Such a natural phenomenon is like the power of the great gods. Humanity has limits. Unless one ceases to be human, otherwise..."

"Otherwise what? Blind people can perceive this world too. They move forward with a cane; to them, day and night are no different. Is darkness restricting you? Or are you the one restricting yourself?"

Young Arthur's words shattered Gawain's defenses in an instant. He understood very well that this was not truly because of Odin's curse. He was the one who had limited himself.

Yes, he did not want to be king, nor did he want to become a warrior.

That was the curse Odin had given him.

To the Germanic peoples, kingship belonged to a family, not an individual.

Therefore, for Gawain to rise again from his miserable state in Northern Europe, to regain his courage, earn the world's respect, and become king, he would have to stain himself with the blood of his brothers.

"My father told me to kill his sons—my half-brothers.

"Succession to the throne has always meant brothers turning on one another and fathers and sons fighting each other. When my grandfather ascended the throne in his youth, he killed his uncle—my father's uncle—who had killed his own brother, my grandfather, to seize the throne. My father ordered me to slaughter all my brothers. Only then could I ascend the throne. I did not dare. I refused. I am a coward!"

Gawain felt the fear of his former self. In English, Vikings meant pirates, and pirates were not supposed to possess mercy. Thus, to support one son's ascent to the throne, all the other sons had to die.

This was the utterly brutal Ottoman succession law.

Nomadic peoples and Germanic peoples were highly alike in certain respects: they revered the strong, believing that only the most capable prince could inherit the throne, while those without ability could not become king.

The Ottoman Empire used this method of raising venomous insects in a jar to determine its heir. A newly enthroned sultan would kill all his brothers and nephews.

In the early Merovingian Dynasty of the Franks, all sons could inherit, meaning every prince could divide the kingdom equally. Yet the final result was always that one prince would eliminate all the others and possess the entire country alone.

Although the Viking lands had never made it an explicit law like the Ottoman Empire, they had inherited the same unspoken understanding.

"I refused then, so Father told me to kill him. I loved my father deeply, just as he loved me. I could not bear to do it, and he rebuked me. He told me to get lost."

Gawain spoke in terror. All that remained in his mind was the sacrificial chant his father had recited.

"Who is barking?

"Are they Odin's two wolves?

"Or the village's wild dogs?

"You two-legged dogs, listen to me.

"Drink the mead brewed from knowledge.

"Learn to live in glory, learn to die in glory.

"Slaughter in battle.

"After death, return to the embrace of the Valkyries."

The slaughter between father and son was unfortunate and tragic, yet King Lot had long accepted such a fate.

Young Arthur listened to Gawain's story and deeds, gradually coming to understand the boy before him.

"Speak. Keep going. Say whatever you wish to say. I did not appear here to lecture you. I came to listen to you tell your story."

Arthur spoke softly. He walked over to Gawain, who was half-kneeling, and pulled him into an embrace.

"If I become king, if I cannot prove my courage, then I will be a weak king, a king unable to protect his people. After I become king, my father, King Lot, said that once King Arthur dies and I take the throne, he will send a vast Viking army to invade Camelot. He will establish a Viking kingdom upon Camelot's lands and split apart the united kingdom. He will make the English, Scots, Irish, and Welsh all pay him Danegeld, and send him a thousand young and strong people every year as slaves.

"Arthur, King Arthur, my uncle, tell me what I should do. What would you do, if it were you?"

Gawain threw his arms around young Arthur as though clutching at his last lifeline. He looked utterly unbecoming, nothing like a future king.

"If I die by his hand or surrender, it means I am unworthy of being his son. Then he will become the ruler who conquered the Kingdom of Camelot and founded a new universal empire. He is the greatest Viking warrior and the mightiest king.

"If he dies by my hand, then he will be the greatest father in this world, for having taught such a great son."

Arthur merely smiled as he held Gawain. "Though I do not agree, I understand King Lot. This is a father's stubborn and clumsy love for his child.

"When a child wishes to surpass his father, the father is happy.

"When the child has already surpassed him, the father feels more than happiness. It is not a negation of himself, but the supreme glory of father and son succeeding one another.

"To fear that an opponent will surpass you is narrow-mindedness. But to fear that your own child will surpass you? That father must have something seriously wrong with his head.

"If this is a challenge, then accept it.

"Vikings long to die on the battlefield rather than in a sickbed because what your father wants most is for you to send him to Valhalla.

"That would prove that you have surpassed him, so he could die without regrets. The only reason he says this is because he loves you."

"Gawain, I understand your deeds now. At the ceremony, you showed courage and fearlessness in defending your father's interests.

"Though you were born amid Northern European paganism and were never baptized, under your mother's influence, you upheld Christ's chivalric spirit and refused to harm infants. Thus, you earned the titles [Pedophile] and [Coward]. Yet what I have witnessed is not a lack of courage, but your integrity. These titles will not bring you any negative consequences. On the contrary, they grant you lofty honor.

"Not only did your deeds bring you glory, they also protected your mother's reputation as a Christian. Because she raised such an outstanding son, even the Pope would include her in the Lives of the Saints.

"You refused to kill your family for the throne and chose to leave Denmark of your own accord. That already proves your nobility.

"No matter how one looks at it, you are a noble knight, worthy of drawing the Sword in the Stone. You are worthy to be King Uther's grandson and King Arthur's nephew. You have never brought shame upon your family.

"To reject every temptation, just as Jesus resisted the devil—how could you lack courage?

"Gawain, your sun has not set. It never has, because you are the sun itself. Look!"

Arthur pointed to the sky. A massive sun radiating golden light slowly rose, and the space around them began to change.

Within the vast and boundless universe, Gawain looked toward the distant Earth and Moon. Beside him was the sun, emitting scorching rays that seemed ready to burn him to ashes.

"I grant you the title of Sun Knight, Gawain! May you be like the sun.

"You must understand that the sun is your father. Its light and heat will never harm you; they will only grant you strength. Upon the land of Britain, the divine qualification you now inherit is Cú Chulainn, son of the sun god in Celtic mythology!"

Young Arthur proclaimed. That mystical voice spread throughout all Britain, even into the world beyond the shore. After he finished speaking, his figure began to fade.

"In the name of Excalibur and the Stone of Destiny, I acknowledge that Sun Knight Gawain may become my master. You are worthy to be king."

Arthur's era was the era of Celtic mythology, but it was also the era when gods and humanity parted ways. Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table took the places of the gods.

Their symbols were the Celtic gods, and by occupying those positions, they obtained extraordinary power.

What Gawain was granted was Cú Chulainn, the great hero of the age of Celtic mythology and son of the sun god.

Arthur's two sisters received symbolic divine powers of the goddesses of war and death, while Bedivere was Nuada, the silver-armed king of the gods.

Arthur's Knights of the Round Table corresponded to the ancient Fianna. Not only were their stories alike, but their figures were alike as well.

Legend said that Cú Chulainn was Gawain's prototype.

This was magic, a vast magic spanning all Britain.

A method for humans to enter mythology, take the places once held by gods, and usurp the gods' power.

The Sword in the Stone, long broken and buried deep within the stone, finally returned to its original form today.

Sun Knight Gawain appeared, grasping the Sword in the Stone.

The day the broken sword was reforged was the day the king returned. That dragon that had been ceaselessly roaring outside the castle was now doomed.