Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria - Volume 10 - Chapter Pr

Prologue I 

“When does Atlantis sink into the ocean?” Yuuto whispered, barely able to force out the words. 

Honestly, he wasn’t prepared to accept the idea. His heart was aching to deny it, to shout that this couldn’t be true. 

At the same time, he couldn’t fully dismiss the possibility. 

If Yggdrasil was actually the legendary Atlantis, the land said to have sunk into the ocean, that would explain so much: why the geography of Yggdrasil didn’t appear on modern maps, and why the future knowledge that Yuuto brought into the past had never spread to other lands and changed history. 

The most definitive link between them was the existence of álkipfer, “elven copper” — in other words, orichalcum, a rare metal not present in the modern age. 

And however Yuuto felt, he had a responsibility to ask Saya for details. He carried the weight of tens of thousands of lives on his shoulders. 

“If we’re going by exactly what’s written in the Timaeus and the Critias,” Saya said, “then it’s sometime after 9560 B.C. that it’ll sink... maybe.” 

“Excuse me? Wait, that’s clearly wrong, isn’t it?” Yuuto couldn’t help but challenge that claim. The numbers she was giving didn’t make any sense. 

Because the Earth underwent a process called axial precession, the North Star changed depending on the era. 

Yuuto had learned that the North Star in Yggdrasil was a star known in modern times as Beta Ursae Minoris, also called Kochab. 

Kochab was the North Star for the era spanning approximately 1500 B.C. to A.D. 500 in the Gregorian calendar. 

In other words, the Yggdrasil that Yuuto traveled to existed somewhere within that time frame. 

9500 B.C. was so far back that the North Star would be Vega, a full two stars prior. That was way too far off. 

Saya gave a wry grin, and nodded. “You’re right. 9500 B.C. is just way too far in the past. I mean, that’s before humanity had even developed their first written languages, you know? That’s why there’s a theory that, when Plato wrote the dialogues, he got the number wrong by one digit.” 

“One digit?” Yuuto repeated. “So then, 956 B.C.?” 

If that was the case, then Yggdrasil’s sinking into the sea would be fated to happen several hundred of years in the future from Yuuto’s perspective, and that meant at least the people he knew personally would be free of danger from it. 

Just as he began to relax a little, Saya waved her hands and said, “Ahh, no, no. The dialogues of Timaeus and Critias are written records of conversations that supposedly took place around 560 B.C. or so. They refer to a great war between Atlantis and the ancient Mediterranean nations, and mention that it’s been 9,000 years since then. And if nine thousand years was actually nine hundred...” 

In other words, that would put the date as nine hundred years before 560 B.C. 

Yuuto gasped. “...1460 B.C.!” The time period lined up perfectly. 

Saya nodded. “Right. That’s right around the time period we think you were in. At the very least, we can say Atlantis existed around then, too.” 

“But when does it sink?! What do the records say about when it actually sank?!” Yuuto shouted, and he nearly jumped up from the sofa. 

Yuuto didn’t actually know for sure what year he had been traveling to, but Kochab had been the North Star starting from around 1500 B.C. And in Yggdrasil, the use of that star as the North Star was widely established, so it was safe to assume a fair amount of time had passed since then. 

In other words, the year 1460 B.C. might already be close at hand. In fact, it might have already passed. 

Yuuto felt the anxiety pushing at him from the inside, and he couldn’t sit still anymore. 

“Mm, that’s the problem, you see,” Saya said. “The Critias was supposed to have more details about the history of Atlantis, but it was left incomplete. Unfortunately, there’s nothing written down about when it sank. All there is is a sort of brief summary in the Timaeus. It says that after the great war with the Mediterranean nations, a bizarrely powerful series of earthquakes and floods occurred, and the land disappeared into the ocean.” 

“Bizarre earthquakes and floods...” Yuuto muttered to himself, and then placed a hand on his chest and let out a breath. 

During his own three years living in that world, he hadn’t experienced any large earthquakes. 

As far as floods went, he didn’t recall any at all other than the man-made ones he’d caused as part of military strategy. 

It wasn’t as if he could completely let his guard down, but at least this didn’t seem like an immediate threat, and that eased his heart. 

“I feel bad for spoiling your relief, but I’m pretty sure you don’t actually have that much time,” Saya said. “If we’re going by what we know from Norse mythology, then you’ve already gone through Fimbulvetr... the three years of harsh winter. You’ve defeated the god of bountiful harvests, Frey, and you’ve fought the god of battle Thor three times.” 

As Saya recounted the myths, she ticked them off on her fingers. And then she looked Yuuto straight in the eyes, pity in her gaze. 

“You’re already in the end times. Ragnarök has already begun...”

Prologue II 

“They sure picked a damned annoying time to move up here,” the red-haired young man cursed, gazing out into the distance at the army of the Flame Clan, camped in formation with the mountains at their backs. 

On the back of each of the young man’s hands was a symbol that glowed with a faint light. 

Those symbols were known as runes, and they granted great powers to their bearers, chosen warriors who were called Einherjar. 

Normally, only around one in ten thousand people or so possessed a rune. And it was said that in all of the lands of Yggdrasil, there were only two Einherjar who had two of them. 

One of those people was the þjóðann, the Divine Empress and ruler of all the realm. And the other was this young man, Steinþórr, the patriarch of the Lightning Clan nation that controlled the northern stretches of Vanaheimr. 

He was more bold and fearless than normal men, and widely known as a warrior without equal. 

“Thanks to that, I’ve lost my chance to go up against him!” Steinþórr grumbled. 

The “him” Steinþórr was referring to was the man he knew by the name Suoh-Yuuto, the patriarch of the Steel Clan. It had now been a month and a half since Suoh-Yuuto had publicly announced his military campaign to chase down and conquer the Panther Clan. 

Just as Steinþórr had been preparing to go after him in order to at last deal his rival a crushing blow, he’d gotten a report that the Flame Clan to the south had moved its troops right up to the Lightning Clan border, concentrating them around Fort Waganea. 

According to the intel, even conservative estimates put the number of enemy troops at the fortress at around twenty thousand, an outrageously large force. It would be far too foolhardy to ignore such a dangerous threat in order to try to pursue battle with the Steel Clan. 

In order to intercept the threat from the south, Steinþórr had been forced to bring eight thousand soldiers with him to his southern border. 

“Father, I understand how you must feel, but for now, please focus on the enemy right in front of you,” Þjálfi, the Lightning Clan’s assistant-second-in-command, admonished him politely. “They are not a foe we can afford to let our guard down with.” 

Steinþórr wasn’t a small man, and Þjálfi was even larger still. But in contrast to his size, Þjálfi had an attention to details and particulars which made him a good complement and supporter to Steinþórr, whose motto was, “Who cares about the details?” 

“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” Steinþórr’s response was annoyed and moody, but even he was very much aware that the Flame Clan was no ordinary foe. 

The Flame Clan had for many years now been counted as one of the ten most powerful nations in Yggdrasil. And a few months ago, they had invaded, defeated, and absorbed their neighbor the Wind Clan, which had once been another superpower among those same ten. 

Just in simple terms of military strength, they were likely more than twice as powerful as the Lightning Clan. That much was also made visibly clear by their force of twenty thousand, an army larger than any Steinþórr had ever seen. 

Still, even with that intimidating sight in front of him, Steinþórr’s confident grin remained firmly planted on his face. 

In fact, he was enjoying himself. 

His eyes were lit up with excitement, for they had spotted the weapons of the enemy front line: abnormally long spears, bristling like a wall of spikes as they pointed up towards the heavens. 

He couldn’t help but be reminded of the Wolf Clan’s signature tactic, the tightly-packed longspear infantry formation called a phalanx. 

At first glance, spears of that length seemed too heavy and unwieldy to use in a melee battle, but used with the tight formation, they became incredibly effective, as Steinþórr had experienced for himself. 

This enemy could come up with the same ideas as that man. 

Steinþórr couldn’t help but get excited. 

“All right, then! Let’s see what they’ve got! Everyone, follow me!” 

As Steinþórr shouted to his soldiers, he kicked the sides of his horse, and charged straight towards the enemy’s formation. 

And in that moment, the match was struck. The battle between the Lightning and Flame Clan armies began.