Bonus Short Stories
A World of Blue
“Hey, Al! Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Sigrún held her hair as the sea breeze whipped through her silver locks. She then turned back to face Albertina on the quarterdeck. For some reason, Albertina was standing on her hands, but after a soft exhale, she hopped up, performed a spin in mid-air, and landed deftly on her feet.
“Yup, we’re going the right way. I think we’re almost there,” Albertina answered with her usual nonchalance. In response, Sigrún skeptically furrowed her brow. Given that Albertina always had her head in the clouds, did she really understand the situation they found themselves in? Sigrún couldn’t keep that suspicion out of her mind.
“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Sigrún asked again to drive home the point.
As she was, by all accounts, not one to beat around the bush, it wasn’t unusual for Sigrún to ask such questions. However, there was an undertone of worry in her voice that was rare given her usually unflappable demeanor. That was, perhaps, unavoidable given the circumstances.
Sigrún and the Múspell Unit were currently aboard the Galleon-class ship Noah and were heading toward the Flame Clan capital of Blíkjanda-Böl. Before they had set off on their voyage, the Steel Clan had already spotted a massive Flame Clan force advancing over the horizon, and it was no exaggeration to say that the fate of the Steel Clan rested in the hands of the Múspell Unit.
Despite the gravity of the situation, Sigrún saw the same scene no matter which direction she turned her head. The sea stretched across the horizon. The only thing one could see around the ship was water, water, and more water. This had been the case for the last ten days.
While Sigrún had been deeply moved at her first sight of the ocean, she was now tired of staring out at the empty expanses of water. She pined for the sight of land. Could it be that they were headed in the wrong direction? Would they be doomed to wander this endless expanse of water for eternity? Those thoughts kept swirling around in Sigrún’s mind as she stared at the unending sea.
“It’s okay, Mother Rún. I can smell dirt and trees from that way.” The one who confidently made that observation wasn’t Albertina, but rather Sigrún’s protégé, Hildegard.
“Your nose is as impressive as ever.”
“Huh? You can’t tell, Big Sister Rún?” Albertina’s surprised exclamation came down from the quarterdeck. Sigrún could only muster a dry laugh in response. She possessed the rune Hati, Devourer of the Moon, and was fairly confident in her own sense of smell, but it appeared these two were on another level entirely.
“Such dependable little sisters,” Sigrún said with a faint shrug of her shoulders. She kept the rest of her thoughts about their lack of dependability on land to herself.
Memory
“Tch!”
“Whoa!”
Yuuto barely managed to block the slash from Skáviðr’s wooden sword. Yuuto’s relief was short-lived, however, as Skáviðr unleashed a second diagonal blow from below.
“Ack!”
While Yuuto was somehow able to block the attack, he wasn’t able to fully absorb the blow itself. He hurriedly stepped back to regain his footing and got himself back into a proper stance. His drill instructor had no qualms about letting his patriarch have it. It went without saying that Skáviðr was holding back to avoid injuring him, but even so, a moment’s lapse in concentration was enough to leave a painful reminder in its wake. Yuuto couldn’t afford to give Skáviðr an opening.
Of course, this was the sort of training that Yuuto actually wanted. The practice wouldn’t be particularly useful otherwise. Even though Yuuto was now þjóðann, Skáviðr showed no hesitation toward striking him when sparring. Skáviðr was a treasure worth his weight in gold.
“Oh... It was just a dream.”
When he opened his eyes, Yuuto saw not the courtyard from earlier, but a familiar ceiling. Yuuto knew in his heart of hearts that Skáviðr was gone. He was gone and would never be coming back. Yuuto clutched at the ache in his chest as he sat up in bed. It was about time that he got back to work; to carry out the task he’d been entrusted with.
Mitsuki’s First Time
“Huh, it went out.”
“Y-Your Highness! Ephy will do it...” the young lady-in-waiting said nervously as Mitsuki sat there, tilting her head quizzically with sawdust in her hands.
The lady-in-waiting, Ephelia’s, response was perfectly understandable. Mitsuki was the first wife of Suoh-Yuuto, the newly-crowned þjóðann. She was a woman to whom even patriarchs, rulers of countries in their own right, bowed their heads in respect. And yet Mitsuki was currently trying to start a fire, the sort of chore that was left for lowly servants. As Mitsuki’s lady-in-waiting, it was no surprise that Ephelia would be in an anxious stir over Mitsuki’s current behavior.
“No, no. Let me do it. I wanted to try it at least once! Mm! Mmph!”
As for Mitsuki herself, she began working the bow drill back and forth, trying to get a fire started, oblivious to Ephelia’s panic. Starting a fire with a bow drill was quite labor-intensive.
“Y-Your Highness! Y-Your dress!”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve come this far, I wanna see this through!”
Ephelia looked on with worry, her voice shrill as she was on the verge of panic, but Mitsuki was treating the exercise as a form of hands-on learning. Mitsuki’s curiosity had been piqued by the thought of trying something new, and she was now completely absorbed in the task at hand.
“I gotta put as much love as I can into Yuu-kun’s dinner!”
Mitsuki’s eyes glinted with motivation and her brow beaded with sweat as she worked the bow drill. She believed that her greatest duty as Yuuto’s wife was to welcome him home with a warm meal and a bright smile. Her pride demanded that she do as much of the hard work in preparing her beloved husband’s meal herself, with as little help from others, as possible. Or perhaps there was a part of her that was still dealing with the frustrations that came with being unable to do much on her own during her life back in Japan.
“Oh! There’s the smoke. Just need to put it carefully into the sawdust and... Ffft.”
Mitsuki covered the smoking piece of paper with sawdust, careful not to smother it as she gently blew upon the smoke. Eventually, a small flame erupted from the pile of sawdust.
“Got it! Look, Ephy! I got it!” Mitsuki said happily, holding her fists up in triumph. Although her face was smeared with soot, Mitsuki beamed at Ephelia. To Ephelia, that beaming smile outshone the sun itself.
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