Chapter 120
He’s an insane old man, but you can’t help but want to cheer him on, Seong-Hwi thought as he watched Don Quixote’s adventure through his eyes.
Don Quixote was crazy; he was so obsessed with chivalric romances that he confused the worlds in the novels with reality.
“The name of a horse changes with its master’s status. I will bestow you a new name that befits your new duty!” Don Quixote said to his old and scrawny horse.
The first name he thought of was Rocinante. It sounded cool and noble, but it was just a combination of rocin, meaning low-quality horse, and ante, meaning before. In other words, it meant the horse used to be a workhorse.
“Now that I’ve become a knight-errant, I need a beautiful woman who will call my name. I need a lady love to whom I will attribute my glory when I defeat a giant with one strike!”
A knight-errant with no romance was simply a soulless body. Hence, Don Quixote made up an ideal woman in his head. There just so happened to be a farm girl in a nearby village named Aldonza Lorenzo, whom he used to love deeply, despite her having no idea he even existed. Don Quixote decided to designate her as the lady love in his head and gave her a new name befitting a princess or nobility.
“Dulcinea del Toboso! Ahhh! My beautiful lady love! My glory is yours alone!” Don Quixote shouted as he set out on his adventure.
***
On his adventure, he encountered six traders from Toledo, heading to Murcia to purchase silk. They held parasols and were accompanied by four servants on horseback and three boys driving the mules.
Don Quixote approached them and shouted, “Stop! I demand you swear that Dulcinea del Toboso, the queen of La Mancha, is the most beautiful woman in the world!”
A trader said, “I will happily swear it if you show us what this beautiful woman looks like, Sir.”
Don Quixote replied, “What use is it to swear after seeing her? What matters is that you swear with unconditional acceptance of the fact.”
The traders laughed at Don Quixote’s unreasonable attitude.
“If it will make you happy, I will even swear that the woman is blind in one eye and has bloody pus oozing from her other eye,” a trader replied.
“Nothing oozes from her eye, you vulgar villain!” Don Quixote shouted once the trader mocked her lady love.
He urged Rocinante to charge at the trader, but the horse stumbled and collapsed. If Rocinante hadn’t stumbled, Don Quixote might have killed the trader.
“Shameful bastards!” Don Quixote, unable to stand back up due to the weight of his armor, shouted as he struggled.
One of the boys driving a mule broke Don Quixote’s lance to make a club and beat him senselessly with it.
***
Don Quixote’s adventures were always like this. He charged without hesitation for his ideals, but they were always broken through mockery and beatings. However, the undying knight never gave up on chasing his dreams.
He explained chivalry to the rich who did not pay their workers their late wages, and kept his chin up even when he was stoned for being a lunatic. He did not falter even when the curate and the local barber burnt his chivalric books, and took in an ignorant but kind farmer, Sancho Panza, as his squire.
“Destiny guides us down a good path. Look over there, Sancho Panza. Do you see those giants numbering over thirty?” Don Quixote asked.
“Giants?”
“Those things with long arms. Some are even two leagues long.”
“Those aren’t giants, they’re windmills. The things you say are their arms are the sails. They move with the power of the wind to move millstones,” Sancho explained.
“No, you just don’t know better. They are giants. If you’re too scared, keep your distance and pray as I engage in a battle unlike anything you’ve seen before against them.” Don Quixote ignored Sancho and charged at the windmills, saying, “Don’t you run away, filthy cowards. Don Quixote de La Mancha has come to face you!”
He entrusted his feelings to Dulcinea, his fictional lady love, and prayed for power to emerge victorious against his foes. However, the moment he was about to stab the windmill with his lance, the windmill’s sails spun as a gust blew, destroying his lance. Don Quixote and his horse Rocinante were blown away by the gust and tumbled across the field.
“Oh my God! I told you, Master! What else would those be but windmills?” Sancho shouted as he ran to Don Quixote.
Don Quixote replied, “Be quiet, Sancho. Nothing ever stays the same on a battlefield. The magician Friston has enchanted the giants to become windmills, but such fiendish ploys are no use before my sword of justice.”
Such haphazard adventures endlessly continued.
It’s like I’m watching a comedy, Seong-Hwi thought as he watched the world through Don Quixote’s eyes.
However, it wasn’t a funny comedy—true comedies were always sad. Don Quixote charged at anything with everything he had. He might have been insane, but his attitude was nothing short of magnificent.
I act, therefore I am.
That was the principle that allowed Don Quixote to exist. People longed to follow this principle, and they admired Don Quixote’s attitude because they couldn’t do the same. He was a knight of dreams who charged through reality and logic. However, like all adventures, all beginnings were accompanied by an end.
***
Samson Carrasco, a scholar from Don Quixote’s hometown, La Mancha, schemed to bring Don Quixote home. Because Don Quixote claimed to be a knight-errant, Samson decided to challenge Don Quixote to a duel and make him swear to the chivalric terms that the defeated must obey the will of the conqueror.
Samson disguised himself as the Knight of the White Moon, challenged Don Quixote to a duel, and defeated him. He then ordered him to lay down his arms and cease his acts of chivalry to return to his hometown.
However, once Don Quixote returned to La Mancha, he fell into depression. Don Quixote returned to being Alonso Quijano, but ironically retired to bed with a deathly illness. On the other hand, Sancho, who became the governor of la insula Barataria, as he had dreamed, realized it was but a foolish aspiration and that he was most at peace and happiest in his adventures with Don Quixote.
Sancho returned to Don Quixote in tears, imploring him to go on more adventures together. However, Don Quixote faced a sorrowful death in his bed.
***
“Huuu!” Seong-Hwi exhaled forcefully, closing his eyes as he separated his psyche from Don Quixote’s.
Someone said, “What grieves you so, Sancho Panza?”
Seong-Hwi opened his eyes and saw a scrawny old man lying in bed, staring at him. He was Don Quixote, who had mistaken Seong-Hwi for Sancho.
Seong-Hwi, pretending to be Sancho, answered, “Who could stay sane in this insane world? The ones who are sane are the insane ones.”
“Does being sane grieve you so?” Don Quixote asked.
“Yes. I want to be insane at times. This world is insane, after all.”
A decade in the atrocious, brutal, and merciless Mirror World gnawed at his mind and humanity. He simply fought to survive, with no love or romance involved.
“So I beg of you, the great knight-errant of La Mancha, please get up and raise your lance,” Seong-Hwi said to Don Quixote.
It was also his way of telling himself not to falter and keep going forward, even if he fell, because he was on the right path.
“The Knight of the White Moon has defeated me. I swore an oath never to go on another adventure,” Don Quixote replied as he shook his head.
Seong-Hwi replied, “Then please bestow your armor and horse upon me. I will walk down the path of chivalry in your stead.”
Don Quixote silently stared at Seong-Hwi, his eyes chaotically shaking.
“What do you wish to become at the end of your adventures, Sancho Panza? To become the governor of an insula, like before?”
Seong-Hwi shook his head and answered, “I wish to become someone who shines brightly.”
“And what do you plan to do as someone who shines brightly?”
“I plan to illuminate the darkness and act as a guiding star for others to follow.”
It was the first time he had verbally said the desires he had suppressed. He wished to use the name that Mother Maria had given him, meaning brilliant splendor, to illuminate his comrades, humanity, or perhaps the entire world.
“Hahaha! Very well. You wish to fight against injustice, discover the value of chivalry, and defeat those who stand against it!” Don Quixote shouted like a little boy as he sprang out of bed.
He opened his wardrobe, which contained the old armor and helmet he had worn as a knight-errant and his lance.
“Sancho Panza. Since you are my squire, only you can carry on my legacy. Everything I have inherited from my great-great-grandfather is now yours,” he remarked.
Seong-Hwi accepted Don Quixote’s armaments and put them on.
He turned to Don Quixote and asked, “May I borrow your destiny?”
Don Quixote smiled faintly and nodded. “Charge, and charge again. Until you reach your dreams.”
***
It is the mission of each true knight.
His duty... nay, his privilege!
To dream the impossible dream.
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go.
To right the unrightable wrong,
To love, pure and chaste, from afar,
To try, when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star!
Miguel de Cervantes, The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha
***
“Friend Seong-Hwi! What are you doing?! Why are you just standing still?!” Thumper shouted as he repeatedly hopped on Seong-Hwi’s shoulder.
Seong-Hwi, standing still with his eyes closed for three seconds, opened his eyes, which were shining differently than before.
“I’m gonna charge,” he said.
“What?” Thumper asked.
Seong-Hwi did not answer and pulled a card from the Tarot Deck of Destiny. The card, shining with a golden light, showed an armored old man on a scrawny horse, charging at a windmill. He activated his two unique skills simultaneously.
[Activating Unique Skill: Borrowing Destiny.]
[Knight-errant of La Mancha]
[Activating Unique Skill: Symbol Embodiment.]
[Knight-errant’s Armaments.]
[Rocinante.]
Neigh—!
A worn-out armor and helmet wrapped Seong-Hwi, and a lance appeared in his hand. He jumped on a horse that looked like it would collapse at any moment.
“W-what is this?” Thumper wondered.
“Hold on tight, Thumper. We’re gonna charge.”
“Are you crazy? Only someone as strong as Mr. Pippin could break that—”
Rocinante whinnied as it ran with all its might, interrupting Thumper.
Seong-Hwi gripped the lance tightly and shouted at his teammates, “Get out of the way! I’m gonna charge through the cage!”
“Huff! Huff! What the hell is he doing? Has he gone mad?” the panting Yuri wondered as he stared at Seong-Hwi in old armor and riding an old workhorse.
However, Leo could see the light in Seong-Hwi’s eyes under the helmet. They were filled with pure madness.
He shouted, “Get out of his way! Trust Seong-Hwi!”
Rocinante accelerated, and Seong-Hwi activated a skill.
“Chaaa!”
[Activating Exclusive Skill: Windmill Charge.]
A white aura gathered at the tip of Seong-Hwi’s lance and took the shape of a cross, which began to spin. The aura soon enveloped Seong-Hwi and Rocinante. The white whirlwind represented the charge of an undying knight-errant who broke through every obstacle in his way.
Seong-Hwi’s lance ripped through the Cage of the Rixes. The four Rix brothers coughed up blood due to the rebound from the cage being broken.
“Urgh!”
“Kurgh!”
However, Seong-Hwi’s charge did not stop.
“Charge! And charge again! Until I reach my dreams!”
He continued to charge forward as if dissatisfied with ripping through just the Cage of the Rixes.
“You’re charging into a cliff!” Frank shouted.
“Stop! Are you insane?!” Enrique screamed.
“We’re gonna die~!” yelled Thumper, grabbing Seong-Hwi’s waist, as he closed his eyes.
However, the concept of the impossible did not exist for Seong-Hwi, who had borrowed Don Quixote’s destiny.
“Charge! Charge!” he shouted, trusting unconditionally in his ideal power that could charge through anything, no matter the mockery or humiliation he faced.
Seong-Hwi charged into the cliff, but it did not turn him into minced meat. Rocinante whinnied excitedly, boring a large hole through the giant cliff. Wherever Seong-Hwi went was the path forward; his lance was invincible.
“What the...”
“How does that make any sense?”
“He made a tunnel...”
Seong-Hwi’s teammates stared dumbfoundedly at what had happened. They couldn’t believe Seong-Hwi’s burst skill was powerful enough to bore a tunnel through a giant cliff, even after ripping through the Cage of the Rixes.
“Run into the tunnel!” Yuki shouted, bringing everyone back to their senses.
They no longer needed to climb up the cliff, reducing the time required severalfold. Seong-Hwi’s teammates ran into the tunnel he created.