ACT 1
“Yeaaaaaaaah!!” The troops around him roared a thunderous war cry.
The vibrations from thousands of people stomping their feet seemed to flow up through the wheels into his body, resonating to the core of his being. It felt as if the land itself were shaking.
From the carriage of a chariot, Yuuto continued to observe the battlefield.
Large quantities of corpses were tragically scattered about the dust storm-ridden wastelands. The majority of them were the corpses of enemies, but the number of felled allies was not insignificant.
Their now-masterless weapons, bathed in the rays of the sun, shimmered a golden color.
Between that sight and the scent of blood wafting across the battlefield on a dry wind, Yuuto could not suppress an overwhelming feeling of nausea. Even now, he still wasn’t used to the atmosphere of the battlefield.
The major improvement compared to his first campaign was that at least he hadn’t thrown up yet.
“It seems the battle has mostly been decided. I shouldn’t be surprised, Big Brother, but your command was truly spectacular.” Felicia, the girl standing next to Yuuto as his attendant, offered her compliment in a lively tone. “Against an enemy with superior numbers, and yet claiming a victory so easily... It is hard to see you as anything other than a reincarnated god of war.”
She was an impressive beauty with a shimmering, mature smile. Long, golden hair that fell past her waist trailed gently behind her in the wind. The thin, white garments she wore, exposing a great deal of skin, felt very out of place here on the battlefield.
“It’s no big deal.” With neither pride nor modesty, Yuuto responded with disinterest. Indeed, for him, this was nothing to brag about.
He had simply known the relevant information.
“The amazing ones are Alexander the Great and Oda Nobunaga,” he said. “I didn’t come up with those ideas.”
“Huh? Alex...?”
Yuuto met Felicia’s quizzical head tilt with an attempt at a wry smile.
The tactic Yuuto had employed was thousands of years old in his world: the phalanx battle formation of the citizen soldiers of Hoplite, who had struck with unbelievable spears three-to-four times their height. In one-on-one combat, this ridiculously long weapon would be ineffective due to the inability to make tight movements, rendering it nothing more than a big, useless stick. Therefore, no one in this world had taken the time to properly consider it. But in large group battles, it readily became a brutal weapon.
The longspears could be used to pierce enemies from within tight-knit, seamless formations, so that opponents could not get close to you without adding their bodies to the pile. There was a similar concept in Japanese history called the “wall of spears.”
The sarissa of Alexander the Great. The longspear of Oda Nobunaga. In the world of the future, these were seen as tactics that had assured victory to supreme rulers and heroes in long-gone time periods.
“I’m nothing more than a cheater... urk!” Yuuto ended up gulping back his words and averting his gaze from Felicia. The carriage swayed as if a wheel had hit a stone, and her large breasts were bouncing up and down before him.
“Oh, my! Hee hee!” Felicia flashed a mischievous smile. Perhaps she had noticed what had gotten him worked up.
Yuuto suddenly realized that his face had flushed a bright red. He found himself extremely embarrassed.
Still, this was the battlefield. They didn’t have a moment to spare on such frivolity. Flustered, Yuuto shook off any carnal thoughts and turned his mind back to the battle.
“All right, clearly we’ve shaken the enemy. This is where we finish this. Raise your banners high, and all troops... charge!!”
With a mighty motion of his hand, Yuuto took up the mantle and gave his order...
Bwooooo! Bwoooooo! The soldiers guarding the perimeter around him blew the trumpet shells in unison. At the same time, an ear-piercing battle cry swelled around him.
Yuuto screwed up his face at the loud burst of noise, and then, suddenly, his eyes found their way to a corpse on the ground. It was a face he recognized. It wasn’t someone he could say he’d been close with, but he could remember talking with that soldier a few times.
His death had been the result of Yuuto’s orders, and nothing else. Something bitter spread through Yuuto’s heart, and he felt a heaviness, as if his back were being weighed down.
“Why am I even doing any of this?” He wasn’t saying it to anyone in particular, just muttering to himself.
About two years had passed since he had come here, to the world of Yggdrasil.
The people here fought endlessly over limited land and resources. Sword or spear in hand, they mercilessly stole each other’s lives as horse-drawn chariots raced across the bloody battlefield.
The strong seized everything while the weak were trampled and oppressed.
Though he had been tossed all alone into this uncivilized world where he didn’t even speak the language, he had overcome the ups and downs and, through a bunch of strange circumstances, he’d ascended the ranks to spearhead this clan, the Wolf Clan, as its patriarch.
He was in a position to command another man’s destiny with just one word.
“Big Brother, you know, you have a bad habit of taking everything upon yourself?” Suddenly, someone embraced him tightly from behind.
It was Felicia. That warmth brought Yuuto indescribable comfort and reassurance. She could be shameless and cheeky at times, but Felicia was a girl who was sensitive to the subtleties of the human heart. Naturally, she had quickly picked up on his concerns.
Like a whisper, a lovely melody tickled his earlobe. Mysteriously, upon just hearing that melody alone, it felt as if the anxiety that had eclipsed Yuuto’s heart was fading.
It was a galldr. A secret art that combined magic with music and, depending on the incantation, could have any one of a variety of effects on the listener.
“This is all I can do for you,” Felicia said.
“This is more than enough. Thank you.” Expressing his heartfelt gratitude, Yuuto gently freed himself from her arms. The beating of her heart, her warmth, and her softness against him all combined with the effects of the galldr to calm him, with the exception of the one part they could not subdue.
Specifically, his lower half.
“Oh, Big Brother, you’re so cruel ?,” she giggled.
“The battle isn’t over. “Don’t let your guard—”
Fwoosh!
Suddenly, an arrow flew right at Yuuto. It stopped within ten centimeters of his forehead.
“Indeed, it would not do to let our guard down.” When Felicia opened her hand, the arrow she had yanked from the air toppled to the floor of the carriage.
She had grabbed the arrow that had come flying at Yuuto at high speed and protected him, before he could even try to dodge it. She had tremendous dynamic vision and reflexes.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Without a moment’s pause, numerous arrows continued to rain down directly toward Yuuto.
“Oh, my!” Felicia swiftly took up the rope wrapped around her waist and, with a snap of her wrist, put it to use. She swirled the rope through the air like a rhythmic gymnastics ribbon, knocking the arrows to the ground one after the other as they came.
The rope was a coarse type used to bind captured enemies, and was considerably heavier than a ribbon, but Felicia flung it around without a hint of discomfort. Her arms were slimmer than Yuuto’s, but she possessed fierce strength.
“Thanks, Felicia,” he said. “Your rope technique was as effortless as ever. You’re like a warrior queen.”
“Hee hee. But you would be considered the king, correct? So does that mean you’re trying to propose?” Felicia shrugged her shoulders playfully.
There wasn’t a hint of fear or nervousness in her. As one might guess from the preceding spectacle, Yuuto, being from modern-day Japan, would be no match for her as a warrior. Not only was she accomplished in rope technique, she was a proficient wielder of blades and spears, and was hailed as one of the Wolf Clan’s foremost soldiers.
On top of that, Yuuto realized that from the beginning she hadn’t let her guard down once. Instead she’d made a show of playing around earlier to try and keep him from worrying too much.
Yuuto couldn’t disparage someone like her, who, despite living side-by-side with death, had an attitude so relaxed that she could spare concern for those around her. It was a state of mind he couldn’t yet reach.
“Hm, it seems to have come from over there.” Felicia fixed her gaze upon the origin of the arrows, and Yuuto saw what looked to be the silhouette of a man on a small hill wielding a bow.
The moment she caught sight of him, he seemed to realize he had been discovered, and the figure scampered down the mountain and disappeared into the enemy army.
Yuuto gazed at the hill from which the archer had disappeared, muttering, “By all appearances, he did all that himself from 100 meters away. Even Nasu no Yoichi would be astonished.”
“The only one who could pull off a feat like that, even in a clan as large as the Horn Clan, is Haugspori, wielder of the Ljósálfar. I can think of no one else. He is as masterful as the rumors said.” Felicia spoke with wary respect.
“But it was pretty much you alone that defended against those arrows, Felicia. Geez, it figures that you Einherjar are superhuman.” Yuuto gave a dry smile.
One major difference between the world Yuuto had come from and this world was the existence of Einherjar, the name given to humans chosen by the gods.
These people had mysterious designs called runes located somewhere on their bodies, and those runes would grant their holder various kinds of divine protection. So if that person carried the rune of the Light Elves, Ljósálfar, they might be granted talent with a bow and the ability to read the winds.
People bearing such extraordinary powers were so scarce that they were said to be one-in-ten-thousand, so no matter the clan, they were appointed to important posts.
Felicia, who served as Yuuto’s adjutant, was an Einherjar who possessed the rune of Skírnir, the Expressionless Servant. Being young and female and yet among the clan’s foremost warriors was due to that mysterious power.
“Run is safe... isn’t she?” Yuuto asked. A look of distress crept onto his face as he thought about another Einherjar of the Wolf Clan, and he shifted his gaze back to the front lines.
Due to his command to charge, the battle there had become even more violent. Indeed, the aforementioned Einherjar should have been fighting there.
The side with the clear advantage was the Wolf Clan, which Yuuto was in charge of. They were gradually scattering the enemy forces and pushing back the front lines. Still, the battlefield was an unpredictable place. Even if they won, that didn’t mean no one would die.
Just like that soldier whose name he didn’t know.
“Tee hee. There is no need to worry,” Felicia said. “She is our Mánagarmr, you know? She should be...”
“Sigrun of the Wolf Clan has seized the sovereign of the Horn Clan!”
Felicia’s voice was drowned out by a victorious cry from the front lines.
The nearby soldiers all beamed with pride, pumping their fists in the air and joining the front lines in cries of victory.
From a distance, Yuuto caught sight of the soldiers of the Horn Clan fleeing in throngs. There even appeared to be those who had cast aside their weapons and surrendered.
Felicia let out a giggle and gave Yuuto a wink. “Just as I expected. It seems Run has come through for us.”
“Make way! Father! Father—!” A dignified voice unbefitting the battlefield rang out like a bell, and a mounted soldier rushed toward Yuuto, her long silver hair flicking around behind her like a tail, breaking soldiers out of their battle formations as she went.
Other, equally ill-fitting voices rang out throughout the battlefield, sounding as if they were intoxicated.
“Ohh, it’s Elder Sister Sigrun!”
“Lovely as ever!”
It wasn’t like Yuuto himself didn’t understand their feelings of admiration. Even from far away, she was a good-looking girl. Her arms and legs were long and slender, and her long silver hair trailed behind her as she spurred her horse, making her appear like a fantastical character from an ancient myth.
The cries of admiration continued.
“Elder Sister, yet another grand achievement for you!”
“That’s our Mánagarmr! The likes of the Horn Clan could never stand against you!”
“You’re in my way. Move,” Sigrun spat curtly, her cold gaze holding no emotion for the soldiers showering her with flattery and praise.
The soldiers huddled together with an “Eek!” at her sharp glare.
Those icy good looks had only increased in intensity these past two years, and even now, she was cloaked in a sharp, blade-like air that gave the impression that touching her would see one sliced to pieces.
Though her build was so dainty that she might look barely capable of holding a sword, she had earned the title of Mánagarmr or “the Strongest Silver Wolf” by being the most elite of the elite, with no one able to even come close to her abilities. On a closer look, one could see that the soldiers’ eyes showed a mix of awe and fear.
“Ah!” The second she caught sight of Yuuto, her expression completely softened. She slowed her horse to a trot and approached Yuuto’s chariot, where she gently descended from the horse’s back. “Father, you are safe! No injuries, I trust?”
“I wasn’t even on the front lines, so there’s no way I’d get injured,” Yuuto assured her. “Run, I should actually be asking you, are you hurt?”
“Worry not. Thanks to the divine protection of Angrbo?a, I am completely safe. There isn’t even a scratch on me.”
“That’s the most important thing. Also, I’m proud of you for capturing the leader of the Horn Clan. Good work.”
“I am unworthy of such praise, Father. I am humbly overjoyed.” Though her speech was formal, a broad and joyful smile spread across Sigrun’s face.
As soon as she realized that, Sigrun stiffened her expression, but she was so happy at being praised by Yuuto that the corners of her mouth couldn’t help but betray a smile.
“Pff, Run, you are indeed a faithful dog,” Felicia giggled.
“Pff!” Before he had a chance to stop himself, Yuuto also sputtered a laugh at Felicia’s words. It was a cruel thought, but Yuuto couldn’t look at Sigrun right now without the word “sit” coming to mind.
“Father? Have I said something strange?” Sigrun tilted her head. That habit was reminiscent of a dog, too. Once he became aware of it, Yuuto realized he couldn’t see her any other way, and it bothered him.
“N-no, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” Though saying that while covering his mouth and averting his gaze wasn’t very convincing. But of course, he couldn’t say what he was thinking, either.
Knowing that if this conversation went any further he might out himself, Yuuto decided to bring them back on topic.
“What’s more important is your reward. What would you like? Your accomplishment was so great, I’ll give you anything you like.”
“Really? Anything?”
“Anything that I can give you.”
“A-all right! Th-then, will you pat my head?!” Sigrun gazed up at Yuuto, her twinkling eyes overflowing with hope, when in reality, what she had asked for was so trivial.
That aloof, unapproachable air that had surrounded her earlier was nowhere to be found. Now Yuuto really couldn’t help but see her as a dog who had spotted its master and was waiting for a treat.
“U-uh, well, just asking for something so small is a bit...” Yuuto wore a troubled expression, scratching his cheek.
Meting out punishments and rewards was the sovereign’s most important job. Allowing the one who had captured an enemy general to accept such a meager reward was clearly a problem. If rumor got out that her glorious achievement was repaid with a pat on the head, it was a safe bet that no one would want to serve under Yuuto.
“That reward would mean more to me than any other!” Sigrun protested firmly.
It didn’t seem like she was pretending to be altruistic or showing consideration for the Wolf Clan’s financial state. It seemed that this was, from the bottom of her heart, her most sincere wish.
Smiling wryly in resignation, Yuuto gently placed his hand on Sigrun’s head. “You really did well.”
“Was I able to be useful to you, Father?”
“Yes, more than any other. Mm, so I cannot let you get away with requesting only this. Hey, Felicia, you choose something for her at your own discretion later...”
“Pffff! Ha ha ha! I can see it.” Felicia burst out laughing. “I can see that tail wagging back and forth!”
He looked over and saw that the golden-haired beauty, completely unconcerned with who might be watching, was doubled over and clutching her stomach. Her shoulders were quaking and she was even scraping her nails along the inner wall of the carriage. No matter how you looked at it she was laughing too much, making a huge scene.
Yuuto lamented that, if only Felicia didn’t have moments like these, she would be a perfect combination of beauty and competence. But now she would be of no use until her laughing fits subsided.
“Uhm, what on Earth is Felicia—” Sigrun began.
“Leave her be. In life, there are some things that are best left a mystery.”
“Ah! I see! If you say so, Father, then it must be meaningful!”
“No, really, it’s not that big of a deal.” Yuuto dejectedly dropped his shoulders.
Felicia had her own quirks to be sure, but Sigrun’s blind acceptance of Yuuto and anything he said also worried him.
If one were to describe Sigrun in simplest terms, it would probably be as a dedicated warrior. Though she had natural talent and had been given the title of Mánagarmr at such a young age, she seemed ignorant of worldly affairs, her life having been focused exclusively on the martial arts.
That was likely why she would only open her heart to those who showed strength and those whom she respected.
Actually, during the first six months or so after Yuuto had come to this world, Sigrun had treated him like the soldiers back there, as no more than a rock on the side of the road. In spite of the astounding way they had first met, back then she hadn’t even bothered to remember his name.
With her knee on the ground, that same girl now showed that she acknowledged Yuuto as her master and was eager to serve him.
“It’s rather ironic,” Yuuto muttered in self-deprecation.
In the two years — just two years — since Yuuto had arrived, so many things had changed in rapid succession. The world around him, and Yuuto himself.
He had been fair-skinned when he’d arrived, but his skin had since been tinged by the sun; his slender build hadn’t changed, but his muscles had been toned considerably. He had grown quite a bit taller. And, he had also learned a great deal of the skills necessary in order to get by in this world.
Yuuto had survived numerous bloody battles. He was no longer some child wandering lost and afraid through this world. Including the branches of the clan, he now held the lives and futures of tens of thousands of members of the Wolf Clan in his hands, as their sovereign patriarch.
“Oh, this is no time to be getting caught up in sentimentality,” he said. “Run, what of the imprisoned sovereign of the Horn Clan?”
Sigrun, who had shown her more puppy-like side while being petted by Yuuto, instantly snapped back into her more dignified demeanor. Though Yuuto had fewer chances to see it for himself these days, this image was the one that came to mind for most members of the Wolf Clan when you mentioned Sigrun.
“Sir. As I wanted to confirm your safety first, Father, I left her in the custody of some nearby soldiers. They should be on their way by chariot as we speak.”
“I see... well then, I wonder what we should do with her.” For no particular reason, Yuuto looked to the sky.
The setting sun had begun to dye the western sky crimson. The cries of the crows lured in by all the blood had become loud and grating.
On his mind at that moment was, naturally, what he should do with the enemy sovereign. He glanced over at Felicia, who had finally managed to suppress her laughter.
“Will she seriously accept my Chalice?” he asked.
“It is difficult to say,” she told him. “I have heard that Lady Linea, the sovereign of the Horn Clan, is exceedingly proud. She may likely prefer an honorable death to a life stained with disgrace.”
“In which case, having her die on us would be problematic.” Yuuto heaved a sigh of frustration.
In the world of Yggdrasil, the sovereign served as “parent” to all members of their clan, and the clan members served in the roles of either “children” or “younger siblings,” organizing the clan in something of a pseudo-family structure.
Through the ritual of “the Chalice of Allegiance,” a sovereign and their children and siblings would establish a firm bond similar to a ceremony traditionally held at Shinto weddings and Yakuza initiations. The sovereign would provide for his children and younger siblings with care and affection, and in return, they would show their sovereign the deference and respect due to a parent or an elder sibling. These pseudo-familial relationships born of the Chalice were given more importance than actual familial relationships.
In other words, if their sovereign were killed, the members of the Horn Clan would likely never forgive the Wolf Clan, would lose themselves in hatred, and would seek vengeance for their slain parent.
“The enemy’s second-in-command was not supposed to participate in this battle, correct?” Yuuto asked Felicia.
“Correct. Apparently, due to an order to stay behind to guard their clan’s capital.”
“I met the Horn Clan’s second-in-command once, while accompanying your predecessor,” Sigrun put in. “I can confirm the second-in-command was not participating in this battle.”
Amid the chaos of the battlefield, the spread of misinformation was common. But with Sigrun having taken command of the front lines, Yuuto could trust her words above any others’.
“Which means part of the chain of command is still intact. This has become rather troublesome.” Yuuto scratched his head.
While the second-in-command was treated more like the head of the children and siblings, they were still the family’s number two. In the event that the unthinkable should befall the sovereign, they were next in line of succession.
And in the clan’s tradition, that successor would have been chosen for second-in-command not through blood relationships, but by virtue of strength and ability. The new ruler would doubtless be a competent opponent as well.
“If we kill her, it becomes a case of number fourteen of the Thirty-Six Strategems: ‘Borrow the corpse, revive the soul.’ It will only renew their army’s morale. In that case, we have no need to provide them with a just cause.” Yuuto took his cherished smartphone from his pocket and held down the power button, turning the phone on.
Thanks to the miniature solar battery Yuuto had started carrying after learning his lesson back during a severe earthquake, he had been able to keep using his smartphone during the two years since his arrival in this new world.
But it was still a miniature battery. Even if he kept it out in the sun all day, he could only keep the power on for approximately thirty minutes at a time. It was such a minuscule amount of time. So he’d vowed to only use the phone in times of absolute greatest need.
After some time, the home screen appeared, and he tapped the “Hindle” icon. On the next screen appeared the famous “Fuurinkazan” banner popularized by Takeda Shingen, which denoted the e-book version of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, a Chinese classic that was still heavily revered in the 21st century. It was something Yuuto had downloaded after becoming sovereign, and he had lost count of how many times he reread it.
“This... really is cheating,” he murmured. “My smartphone has so much to offer.”
If Yuuto were to take to the front lines, he would be no match for even a novice soldier. There was so much in this world he was inexperienced with; he couldn’t even read and write their language well yet.
In all honesty, to describe him with the word “useless” would be an understatement.
But there was the one thing only Yuuto could do, the one weapon only he possessed: knowledge from the 21st century.
Granted, he was still a student. The knowledge and skills he possessed had their limits. For example, if he wanted to build a computer from scratch here, it would be essentially impossible.
Still, in this world where civilization had yet to flourish, there were still countless things he could create even without any special skills or knowledge.
In this battle, for example, they’d used longspear-style weapons. If it hadn’t been for a certain popular historical strategy game he’d played, there was no doubt Yuuto would have never come up with the idea for the longspear.
These groundbreaking ideas seemed so obvious to him in hindsight, but it was frustrating in the heat of the moment when he was trying to come up with something. It was like the Egg of Columbus.
Normally such innovation was the realm of geniuses with the ingenuity to smash through commonly-held ideas, but Yuuto instead was leveraging knowledge from the future. That’s why, to him, all he was doing was meeting each challenge that came his way by cheating.
He flicked through numerous pages until he found one that was relevant. He had long ago memorized what was written where.
“The best thing of all is to take the country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So too is it better to capture an army entire than to destroy it. Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”
Putting it simply, fighting and winning was only the second best strategy; forcing total surrender from the enemy was the best strategy. Yuuto gave a nod, reflecting on each word as he followed the text with his fingers.
“Figures,” he said. “We have no choice but to strike a deal.”
Hearing his words, Sigrun and Felicia quietly bowed their heads in assent.
It wasn’t like the Wolf Clan had much choice. They had already seized one-third of the Horn Clan’s domain. That was more than enough for the spoils of war. Trying to cut deeper into enemy territory would be dangerous, and dragging the state of war out for too long would exhaust their country’s own resources.
This seemed to be the right time. However, the problem remained: what kind of agreement should they reach?
The fighting had started a month earlier with an invasion by the Horn Clan, and the Wolf Clan had suffered significant losses as a result. Though killing the sovereign would come with its own problems, Yuuto’s people would be expecting some significant trade-off from the Horn Clan for all the fighting.
Yuuto folded his arms and gave a frustrated groan as he considered the problem. “Considering the situation, we could normally have them trade food and minerals or some other goods in exchange for the return of their sovereign, or perhaps have them cede territory to us. But if possible, I’d really rather have her accept my Chalice.”
Even if the Horn Clan’s food or territory were taken, the root of the problem would still remain. Yuuto wanted the warring between the Wolf Clan and the Horn Clan to go no further than this. He had no territorial ambitions. He had only one guiding principal as sovereign, and that was to bring the people of the Wolf Clan lives of peace and abundance.
To that end, this world’s custom involving the Chalice was extremely convenient. It was so sacred and revered that to go against the Chalice even once was taboo; to break one’s vow would cause any faith placed in that person to fall to ash.
One couldn’t select the parents that give birth to them or the siblings they were raised with... but with the Chalice, they were granted the choice of whether or not to accept this new bond. To betray the person you had chosen to honor as parent of your own free will was thought of as the most despicable, base act.
In other words, having the enemy sovereign accept his Chalice and become a child or younger sibling of his would mean that the Horn Clan could not oppose Yuuto — or, by extension, the Wolf Clan itself.
Paradoxically, because of that, a sovereign with the duty to protect their own clan would simply not allow themselves to accept the Chalice and end up subordinate to another sovereign. They couldn’t accept it.
“In that case, it’s kind of cheating, but I guess we’ll need the same strategy we used with the Claw Clan?” Yuuto thought back to that time, and snorted derisively at his memory of himself.
In all honesty, he didn’t want to do it. Still, he was the sovereign. His position required that he put the needs of the clan over his own needs.
The words of Sun Tzu began to play back in his mind.
Two years ago, when he had been swept into this world and left to wander helplessly, the Wolf Clan, which had in no way been prosperous, had still taken Yuuto in and fed him, and so he had come to care deeply for them.
He had made several friends like Felicia and Sigrun, who had stuck by him through the good and the bad. He wanted to protect them somehow. He didn’t want to see those close to him die, or to watch them suffer any more sadness.
Yuuto heaved a long, drawn-out sigh. As long as it meant that the loss of human life would be diminished, enduring something personally unpleasant was a price he’d be more than willing to pay.
“All right, set up the tent. Prepare for our meeting.”
“Hey, don’t push.” A young girl was being led into the tent. “I can walk on my own!”
“Huh?” A vapid exclamation of shock slipped from Yuuto’s lips. Rubbing his temples with his index fingers, Yuuto gave Felicia, who was seated at his side, a perplexed look. “...This kid is the sovereign patriarch?”
To be sure, the clothes she wore were far more elegant than those of a typical soldier, and a golden circlet glistened on her forehead. There seemed to be no doubt that she possessed social standing. Even though he knew that, he couldn’t help his surprise at her age.
Seated at his side, Felicia gave a solemn nod. “Yes, this is Lady Linea, the sovereign patriarch of the Horn Clan.”
“But she’s still just a kid.”
“You look about the same age as me, boy!” the Horn Clan sovereign shouted, displeased with Yuuto’s brash words.
Returning his gaze to her, he saw she was glaring at him, her eyes filled with rage.
Her hair, trimmed short and neat around the nape of her neck, gave her a boyish appearance, and she was actually a very cute girl. She was probably about one or two years younger than Yuuto. Seeing her little body bound up in all those layers of rope made him feel a bit sorry for her.
Yuuto had heard that the current sovereign of the Horn Clan was female. Though just a girl, she had risen above and taken control of the wild and rowdy warriors in her clan to become their sovereign, a feared and valiant woman known as Hildisvíni, “the Crimson Lady Tiger.” But the girl who was before him, growling and making threats, gave him less of an impression of a lady tiger than of a wild cat.
“Well, I guess in this place, that isn’t so strange after all,” he said.
In truth, a young man like Yuuto was serving as the Wolf Clan sovereign as well, and though both Felicia and Sigrun were girls still in their teens, they were both placed in respected positions within the clan.
In Yggdrasil, strength was everything. If you had strength, then being young or female was irrelevant.
“Anyway, I suppose introductions are in order. I am Yuuto, the sovereign of the Wolf Clan.”
“...Hmph.” Linea responded to Yuuto’s introduction by averting her gaze and planting herself firmly on the ground.
But Yuuto could see through to her rapid trembling. Acting so brave was likely a ruse to divert attention from her fear.
“I care not for useless overtures. Let me get straight to the point. Will you become one of my subordinates — one of my children, that is?” Yuuto said, putting on an air of arrogance.
“I refuse! Why would one of the Horn become subservient to one of you Dogs? Cease this nonsense!”
Without the slightest hesitation, Linea refused his proposal outright. And calling them dogs showed that she clearly viewed them with contempt.
“True, we may have suffered a defeat this time! But the national prowess of the mighty Horn Clan still far exceeds that of you Dogs. Such a miracle won’t befall you again. Now, if you’re going to kill me, then do it! But your head will be next to roll. So go wash off that neck of yours and await your fate. Ha ha ha ha ha!”
“Heh heh... aren’t you the one who should cease speaking nonsense?” Felicia touched a hand to her cheek and asserted that with a long sigh, as if dumping a bucket of cold water on Linea at the height of her amusement.
Her earlier burst of laughter now gone, Linea’s face now flushed an angry crimson in the blink of an eye. “Whaddya mean, nonsense?!”
“I mean the nonsense you speak each time you open your mouth. To be sure, we may have once seemed like dogs to you. But by our elder brother’s hand, we have been reborn. We are indomitable, real Wolves. So long as he is in command, a mere gathering of slow-witted pigs will be no match for us.” A smile stretched across Felicia’s lips, and her tone was polite, but that couldn’t disguise the degree of disdain in her words. You could find no better example of an insult wrapped in superficial courtesy.
“What?! This feeble-looking little kid couldn’t be that great!” Linea declared.
Thud! Shiiiink!
A mighty sound rung out through the tent. Sigrun, who had been silently waiting at Yuuto’s side up to that point, had slammed her fist down onto the wooden desk in front of them, breaking it completely in half.
This wasn’t the typical strength one might expect of a woman. Even among large men, there were few who could pull off such a feat.
A design which had not been there before appeared on Sigrun’s left shoulder, and began to emit a faint light. It was the rune Hati, the Devourer of the Moon, which granted its bearer wolf-like traits and extraordinary physical strength.
“Mind your tongue. I’ll not forgive anyone who insults Father.” Sigrun straightened herself up again and gazed down at Linea with arrogance. In her expression and voice, there wasn’t even a hint left of the sweetness that she used when interacting with Yuuto. She was cold like ice, sharp like a blade.
“Ngh!” Linea reflexively flinched.
Sigrun had been the one who captured her. Even though Linea had surely been under the protection of several sturdy soldiers, having the fight brought so physically close to her during the last battle had no doubt etched a real fear of Sigrun into the very marrow of her bones. That terrifying strength had just been put on display once more. There was no doubt that Linea was terrified.
The air still tense, Sigrun gave an audible snort. “Just like Father, you became a sovereign at a young age, but no matter how you look at it, you don’t even hold a candle to his greatness.”
“Now, now, Run,” Felicia told her. “That comparison itself is an insult to Big Brother.”
“Hmph,” Sigrun said. “I hate it when I actually agree with Felicia, but for once, she and I see eye-to-eye.”
“Ngh! Nnngh!!” Linea seemed unable to find any words.
“My, my, groaning and moaning... who is the real dog here?” Felicia mocked.
“That’s right, grunt and snort like the pig you are. It really suits you,” Sigrun agreed.
Watching the unrestrained banter between the pair, Linea suddenly howled with fury. “Why, you—! Don’t look down on me!”
Linea’s frightened expression instantly replaced by rage, she lunged at Sigrun despite the bindings. The guards who had brought her in quickly held her shoulders down. Still, her growls and hate-filled glare pierced Yuuto and the others.
She really was like a mad dog.
“Well now. It seems the rumors of your pride are well founded,” Yuuto said under his breath, so that Linea wouldn’t hear.
That pride was likely a surface cover for an inner lack of confidence. The outburst from earlier was the result of her inability to stand being looked down upon. Still, that would make this the opportune moment.
“Both of you, restrain yourselves,” Yuuto ordered. Straightening himself up from having rested his chin in his hands, he feigned an exasperated tone. “She is still, for better or for worse, the Horn Clan’s sovereign. Mind your rude words.”
“Sir!” The two immediately complied.
Yuuto knew that they’d been acting just as he’d instructed them to, but he couldn’t bear to hear any more. He didn’t see himself as such a grand figure. He’d been trying to endure the fidgety feeling and anxiety that always arose from their flattery.
“You must forgive their rudeness, Lady Sovereign of the Horn,” he told Linea. “I apologize that my subordinates have somehow missed learning discipline.”
“...No, well, I also went too far in calling you dogs,” Linea responded. Her attitude had softened considerably.
Since becoming sovereign, Yuuto had been reading books on negotiation techniques. He felt such techniques were vital for someone at the top.
One of those techniques was playing “good cop, bad cop.” It was a common feature in police procedurals. With this technique, an aggressive police officer would use insults, threats, and a rude, oppressive manner to antagonize the target. Then a second police officer with a gentler demeanor would intervene, chiding the aggressive cop, so that conversation would flow better, and the good cop would garner goodwill and sympathy.
In this situation, Felicia and Sigrun were playing the bad cops, while Yuuto played the part of the good cop.
“Let’s get back on topic,” he said. “What were we talking about again? Oh, yes, the matter of you becoming my child.”
“...And I told you I wasn’t interested.” Linea once again stated her refusal, but this time, it lacked her prior ferocity. It felt like she was saying it to half-heartedly reassure herself.
Things were proceeding as planned, and Yuuto couldn’t help but gloat in his mind.
His conscience was scolding him for swindling, deceiving, and threatening a girl of such a tender age, but if they couldn’t bring these negotiations to a proper conclusion, the fighting would continue and both sides would see even more bloodshed. Yuuto had no choice but to use these means in order to avoid that outcome.
The foundation had been laid. Having waited until the time was right, Yuuto could now make his real demands.
“Hm... well how about becoming a little sister of mine?” he asked.
The sovereign patriarch of the Horn Clan, Linea, was as flummoxed as a person could be.
No matter how many times she thought it over, she couldn’t come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they had reached these circumstances.
Three or four generations ago, the Wolf Clan had been flourishing, but now they were in ruins; they’d become a puny clan whose national power was vastly inferior to that of the Horn Clan. And up until recently, they had been warring with their neighboring country, the Claw Clan. It wasn’t hard to imagine that they’d continue to fall deeper into disarray.
Furthermore, when the new Wolf Clan sovereign came to power a year ago, she’d heard he was a mere sixteen-year-old boy of unknown origin. He should have been easy to deal with...
Should have been.
After gathering nearly double the soldiers as their enemies and expecting a flawless battle, and instead suffering a cruel and crippling defeat... the proud commander had now resigned herself to her fate as a prisoner of the enemy.
The reality she was forced to face now was stark: the enemy she had scorned as mere dogs now clearly saw her people, the Horn Clan, as completely beneath them. Of course this behavior was partly just a boast, the Wolf Clan exaggerating their strength to a defeated foe in order to move negotiations in their favor. Being the victor had its perks, after all.
Still, that was only half of it. The looks of respect and adoration that the people of the Wolf Clan gave Yuuto clearly weren’t normal. They were all showering the devotion due a sovereign upon this weak boy.
That included even Sigrun the Mánagarmr and Felicia the Alsviðr or “Wise Wolf,” warriors whose names were known even among the Horn Clan. And more than anything else right now, the fact that the Horn Clan had experienced such a crushing defeat at his hands was surely a spur in Linea’s side.
She was beginning to wonder if she hadn’t made a gross miscalculation. If things kept up like this, her own clan might be destroyed.
“...A little sister?” Linea said slowly.
Having such a concession presented to her as if Yuuto were offering a helping hand, even Linea couldn’t refuse him outright this time.
It was common knowledge in this world that becoming a child subordinate meant absolute obedience on principle. Of course, she couldn’t accept that.
Younger brothers and sisters were also expected to revere and obey the older sibling, but it wasn’t as iron-clad as with child subordinates. As an option, there was more reason to at least consider it.
“That is the one and only compromise I’m willing to offer,” Yuuto told her.
“Ngh!” Linea let out a wordless, anguished cry.
It was a matter that required careful deliberation, but there wasn’t any time. Thinking things over calmly in the current situation would be near impossible in the first place. Consequently, she hadn’t noticed the trap.
Yuuto might be treating it like a concession, but he hadn’t given her anything — he was merely withdrawing the more forceful demands. It was a tactic referred to as “highballing.”
It was a negotiation tactic used in cases where one knew their actual demands would be refused from the start, so they issued even higher demands first, and then after those demands were refused, issued smaller demands, the ones that were originally intended.
In addition, because of the effects of the aforementioned “good cop, bad cop” tactic, he had planted the unsettling possibility that perhaps his proposal was rather kind.
Linea had been completely taken in by Yuuto’s plan.
“Unngh, but...”
Still, it seemed Linea wasn’t yet sold on becoming Yuuto’s younger sister. Apparently she was still resistant to the idea of becoming obedient to those lower-ranking dogs. If she shamelessly became the little sister to a “dog” and then returned to her country, she would not be able to avoid accusations that she had sold out her people.
Being viewed that way would be unbearably humiliating. She likely felt that death really would be better than such a fate.
“N-no, we of the Horn Clan will not place ourselves below you, the Wolf Clan...”
“I see. Then I guess I have no other option. We’ll have to have a second Van on our hands.”
“...?! Then you plan to burn our town to the ground?!” she exclaimed.
Yuuto’s comment was so casual, seeming almost like an afterthought, yet Linea was seething. The sovereign of the Wolf Clan was looking down on her with cold, inhumane eyes, seeming completely unfazed by the now-threatening mood.
Van.
The name of a town that had once been a part of the domain of the Claw Clan.
It was no longer there.
That was because the man before her had burned it all to the ground, including women and children, not leaving a single resident alive.
“Only if you won’t accept my Chalice, that is,” Yuuto added. “I have no intention of pardoning anyone who would go against me.”
“...!”
His clear, cold declaration caused the blood that had flushed her face to now completely drain from it.
When Linea had raised her troops to attack the Wolf Clan, one of the reasons was her feelings of righteous indignation at the Vánagandr — “The Tragedy at Van,” and at the sovereign who had ordered the attack. She could not accept something, or someone, so inhumane. Now the thought of that atrocity again weighed heavily upon Linea’s heart.
Though she bore the title of “sovereign,” she was still a young girl, not even fifteen. This was the first time she had really understood since becoming sovereign the reality of her decisions impacting the lives of tens of thousands of people. Her body would not stop quaking.
“It doesn’t matter to me either way, so what’ll it be?” Yuuto asked. “Hurry up and decide. My offers don’t stay on the table long.”
“Urgh!!” she finally exclaimed. “Very well. I’ll become your little sister. However, I’m not becoming some child subordinate! Just a little sister!”
In the depths of overwhelming sorrow, Linea accepted Yuuto’s proposal.
“Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew.”
Once the meeting of sovereign patriarchs had adjourned and Linea was completely out of sight, exhaustion overtook Yuuto’s body, likely a result of maintaining such tension for so long.
Following that prolonged sigh, his body slid wearily from his seat onto the ground.
“A-are you all right, Father?! Has something happened to your body?” Sigrun rushed to Yuuto’s side, genuinely panicked.
Not a shadow of the coldness or hardness either of them had shown to Linea remained. Realizing this, Yuuto couldn’t hold back a wry smile.
All of the Wolf Clan took so poorly to being called dogs, but the way Sigrun was acting now made it impossible not to think of a dog whimpering with worry for its master. Of course, there was no way he could say something so rude, so he said something else instead.
“I’m just tired. You always worry too much. Though I suppose I am weak and fragile by the standards of this world.”
“N-no, that’s not...” Sigrun’s voice shrank and her words trailed off.
She really does think I am weak, Yuuto thought with a wry smile.
But he didn’t fault her for that at all. When he had first come to this world, the food and water here hadn’t quite agreed with him, and he’d regularly had a hard time keeping anything in his stomach. He suspected that the image still stuck with Sigrun, even now.
“Tee hee! Slumped over on the ground like that, no one would ever believe you were the great ‘Hróðvitnir’ whose name is famous among our neighboring countries.” Felicia’s eyes narrowed in amusement.
Yuuto had slid to the ground, leaning his back against the legs of the chair for support, dignity be damned.
“That’s still infamy though, not fame,” he said pointedly, straightening himself up.
Following the incident at Van Yuuto had gained the alias Hróðvitnir ‘the Infamous Wolf’, along with a reputation for being an unforgivable and inhumane despot.
He had actually helped spread that reputation on purpose.
Just as with Sun Tzu, Yuuto had begun reading Machiavelli’s The Prince after becoming sovereign in order to properly gain knowledge befitting a leader. It said that those who would be leaders, while normally behaving benevolently, would have to be cool-headed or downright vicious at times. It also said that, if committing any such atrocities, they should be done all at once, rather than little by little.
It would make people fear you, take away their desire to fight you, and ultimately cull them into obeying you.
One famous example of this was the atrocity by Masamune Date at Odemori Castle. While capturing the castle, Masamune had led the massacre of its inhabitants. Upon hearing of this, his enemy Sadatsuna Oouchi had been absolutely terrified, and retreated from Obama Castle without putting up a fight. Reaching Obama Castle, Masamune captured it without having to spill a drop of his own men’s blood. Even the aforementioned Sadatsuna Oouchi later became subservient to Masamune.
In a sense, you could say the idea for the Vánagandr had been born from this event.
“I still cannot accept it,” Sigrun said indignantly. “Father never even committed an atrocity in Van. He’s such a benevolent person...”
“I’m not benevolent, just soft,” Yuuto said with a pained expression, muttering as he shook his head from side to side.
Reality is not so simple. Just as being cool-headed and dispassionate might let you avoid bloodshed at times, being too overly friendly might actually lead an enemy to think lightly of you, and only intensify the fighting and bloodshed as a result.
It was true that Yuuto had burned Van to the ground, but in reality, he had secretly relocated its residents to a town in Wolf Clan territory first. And thus, the legend of his atrocity had been born.
It is said that there can be no damming of rumors. If the truth got out and caused neighboring clans to look down upon the Wolf Clan as weak, that could lead to outbreaks of fighting in which far more Wolf Clan blood would be shed than that of the Van residents who had been spared. Yet though he’d known that risk, Yuuto hadn’t been able to kill those people. He couldn’t go that far. He couldn’t be that cold-hearted.
Even though the reality of this world, in which weakness and softness would be repaid in bloodshed, had been made clear to him time and time again.
“...Huh?”
He was suddenly embraced and pulled closer. In the next moment, a soft, warm sensation covered his face.
Again? As soon as he realized who it was, Yuuto panicked and tried to pull back.
“I find your generosity to be invaluable, Big Brother,” Felicia said. “Please do not blame yourself.”
Felicia’s soft, gentle voice somehow robbed him of the strength to resist. He could feel her heartbeat. It felt as if the self-loathing that had bruised his own heart was being healed.
“...Felicia, thank you, as always,” he said.
“Tee hee! I haven’t done anything you need to thank me for.”
“Still, I appreciate it.”
“I-I also have such respect for you, Father!”
“Ah, and thank you, Run.”
“Yes!” A smile spread across Sigrun’s face like a flower in bloom. She was genuinely overjoyed at Yuuto’s simple words.
Yggdrasil was neither the time nor place in which Yuuto had been born and raised. There were many aspects of life here that were inconvenient, and homesickness regularly blew through his heart like a cold wind. But he also had people like Felicia and Sigrun who dearly cared for him, and who helped him.
A smile appeared suddenly on Yuuto’s lips.
“All right, let’s go. Back to our town, Iárnviðr.”
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login