Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria - Volume 2 - Chapter 1

ACT 1 

Yuuto was completely unable to move, like a deer frozen in headlights. 

The situation was growing worse by the minute. 

How had things ended up this way? Although, thinking back on the sequence of events leading up to this point, he felt that this was probably the only way it could have turned out. 

“W-wow, um, it’s pretty hard, isn’t it?” Linnea’s voice next to his ear was nearly a whisper. 

Perhaps due to nervousness, her voice was stiff and quiet. That embarrassment was, in its own way, incredibly charming. 

A girl yet halfway into her teenage years, Linnea was the patriarch of the Horn Clan, ruler of the fertile lands along the Örmt and Körmt Rivers. She was also Yuuto’s sworn younger sister, a type of clan subordinate. 

Ordinarily clothed in high-quality garments and ornamental accessories befitting her high status, right now she was as naked as the day she was born. Her body was still developing, somewhere midway between child and adult, with an unsteadiness that was in its own way inviolably sacred. 

“And, really big...” Linnea said with a sigh of admiration. 

Her breath tickled Yuuto’s earlobe, and a shiver ran down his back. 

“Oh! I-I’m sorry, was I rubbing too hard?” Linnea apologized worriedly and stopped moving her hand. 

“N-no, no, you were doing just fine!” Flustered, Yuuto responded in a tone unbefitting his position. 

His whole mind seemed to focus on where Linnea was rubbing, and he was unable to think about anything else. The steamy, humid air clung to his body. His head was spinning. 

His whole body flushed with heat, and he felt like he could faint at any moment. 

It was a poor display to be sure, but Yuuto couldn’t help it. After all, this was his first time, too. 

“I’m not very good at this, am I? Um, if there’s any way I could do better, please don’t hesitate to tell me. I’ll do anything for you, Big Brother...” 

“Y-you’re doing fine! It feels great, I promise!” Yuuto assured her. 

“Thank goodness. This is the first time I’ve ever washed a man’s back, so...” 

And this is the first time I’ve had my back washed by a woman! Yuuto caught the words in his throat before they escaped and remained silent. 

In his mind, he apologized over and over to the childhood friend waiting for him in a faraway land. 

The stone-walled room was filled with clouds of thick steam. He was in a private bath in Sessrúmnir Palace, in the heart of the Horn Clan capital Fólkvangr. 

In preparation for an official ceremony to celebrate the recent victory over the Hoof Clan, Yuuto had come here to clean and purify himself. However... 

“I think I should get a turn now,” a voice clear as a bell called from behind him. “I followed decorum and let you go first because you are above me in status, but I also want to wash Father’s back.” 

“Oh, my, what are you saying, Rún?” another voice, gentle like silk, responded. “I will be going next.” 

“What...?!” 

“Tee hee! Of course yielding to your betters is right and proper in this case. So, as a younger sister I should take priority over a child subordinate such as yourself.” 

“Grrr...!” 

The familiar voices of the two arguing girls echoed off of the walls behind him. 

Sigrún and Felicia. Those two young women belonged to the Wolf Clan, of which Yuuto was patriarch, and they were among the clan’s most powerful warriors. 

Yuuto’s self-control was keeping him from turning around to look, but he didn’t need to see to know. This was a bath, after all. Naturally, their slender, attractive bodies would be lavishly and fully exposed. 

The child subordinate, Sigrún, was tall and slender, her cool beauty accented by long platinum blonde hair reminiscent of the moon on a dark, clear night. In contrast, Felicia had dazzling golden locks like the sun and a mature, glamorous beauty. 

A simple turn of his head would unmistakably give him a view on par with Shangri-la. If it was a question of whether he wanted to look or not, he certainly did. But... 

“Protect me from impure thoughts, protect me from impure thoughts, form is emptiness, emptiness is form, form is emptiness, emptiness is form...” Closing his eyelids tightly, Yuuto repeated Buddhist mantras to himself in a desperate attempt to clear his mind of unnecessary desires. 

In part because his father was a traditional katana smith, he’d had plenty of exposure to these kinds of chants and mantras meant to focus the mind, and had memorized several. However, even holy mantras with hundreds of years of evil-repelling history were barely a match for the urge welling up from within him. 

The young man behaved as if his self-control were the only factor in this situation, which might have come across as quite arrogant to some, but he was not entirely to blame for that. After all, he knew that if he stared long and hard at them, these beautiful girls would probably... no, they would absolutely accept it. 

In the world of Yggdrasil, there was a customary practice where two people exchanged vows and became sworn family, through a sacred rite known as the Oath of the Chalice. One could not choose the parents they were born from, but with the Chalice, a person could choose a parent or sibling according to their own will. To the person one chose as a sworn parent, the Oath of the Chalice required a pledge of absolute loyalty and lifelong service, both body and soul. Such was the law of the land of Yggdrasil. 

Which meant that whatever Yuuto wished, the girls who were bound to him by oath could not refuse. 

He was suppressing himself with an iron will, but for a boy like Yuuto in the throes of puberty, this was simply torture. And despite the fact he was nearly past his mental limit... 

“Aha! That’s it! Father, I believe I managed to earn some merit during the last battle. I would like to receive my reward for that here and now. Please, allow me the honor of washing your back before Felicia!” 

Acting as if she’d stumbled upon a great idea, Sigrún suddenly appealed to him with an almost triumphant attitude, her words passionate. 

As the last battle, Sigrún had single-handedly taken down the enemy’s supreme commander, an achievement far beyond what her words might suggest. It ought to be an accomplishment worthy of any material reward or honorable title should she wish it, leaving Yuuto to wonder why she would wish for something so trivial. 

“Rún, bringing that up now is cowardly!” Felicia shouted at Sigrún, as if condemning some coward who had used bribery and deceit to earn her prize. “You are the Mánagarmr, a virtuous and proud warrior, are you not? When did you become such a shameless woman?!” 

Far from shameless, isn’t she way too modest? Yuuto thought, but he also knew that there was quite a gap in moral values between a 21st century person like him and the ancient world of Yggdrasil. 

It was a bit unfair to the both of them after they’d expressed such a strong desire, but Yuuto spoke up. 

“Both of you, that’s enough. Thanks to Linnea, I’m more than clean enough, so I don’t need my back washed any more.” 

“Big Brother?!” 

“Father?!” 

Felicia and Sigrún both raised their voices in a panic, as if they couldn’t believe him. Even a dog who’d had a treat pulled away from in front of its eyes at the very last moment wouldn’t raise such a forlorn cry. 

It was almost enough to make Yuuto falter, but he continued. “Sorry, but at this rate, if my back were scrubbed any more, it would start to sting.” 

Linnea had, in accordance with her honest and hardworking nature, scrubbed vigorously with all of her strength. It had felt pretty good, and now he felt cleaner than ever, but any more than that would just irritate his skin. 

There was going to be a victory ceremony after this. It might be a joyous occasion, but underneath that window dressing it was also a forum for serious international diplomacy, hidden motives, and intrigue. One could call it another type of battlefield. 

It would be no laughing matter if a lapse in concentration due to some minor pain led to some political blunder. 

“I... ohh...” Wincing, Sigrún let out a sullen, guilt-ridden whimper. 

To Sigrún, who had lived her whole life devoted to the martial arts, situations like this were her greatest weakness. She was immensely loyal to Yuuto, and surely had been eager to show that loyalty to him through action, even in the form of what was supposed to be a reward from him. She wasn’t good at masking her emotions, like her disappointment now. But that honesty was also one of the most charming things about her. 

Felicia, on the other hand, continued to express her discontent in a sulking manner. “Well! Even if it’s you, Big Brother, this is too insulting by far. Are you suggesting I would be selfishly ignorant of your needs? Besides... don’t you think it is quite unfair that you would pamper a sibling from outside like Elder Sister Linnea while ignoring a sibling from your own clan?” 

True, Linnea was Yuuto’s sister by the Oath of the Chalice, but she was from outside the Wolf Clan. Giving someone with a closer bond from within his clan lesser treatment was improper. Yuuto knew that on some level Felicia’s logic held water, but... 

“Wait, wait.” Yuuto realized the trap. “Felicia, you were the one who insisted Linnea wash my back in the first place!” 

“B-Big Brother... did... did I cause you pain?” Linnea spoke to him like she was about to cry. 

“No, um, that’s, that’s not it! Look, don’t cry oka— Ah!!” Yuuto had reflexively turned to pat Linnea’s head to console her, caught a glimpse of skin, and quickly turned himself back to facing his original direction. He decided to pretend he hadn’t seen any pink protrusions. 

“S-sorry, um, after spending so long looking after this crybaby kid who was like a little sister to me, I’ve got this habit now. Whenever I see a girl start to cry, I reflexively pat them on the head... Okay, that’s totally just an excuse. Sorry. I mean it.” 

“N-no, it’s... B-Big Brother, I don’t mind if it’s you who’s looking. Y-you know, since you’re going to be my... h-h-husband... I might not be as impressive as Lady Felicia, but p-please, look at me as much as you like!” 

“Whoa, whoa, just... just wait a minute.” Yuuto waved his hand in a gesture behind himself as he spoke. “Calm down. I’m begging you, let’s just calm down for a sec!” 

“If I may be so forward, perhaps Big Brother would do better to calm down himself,” Felicia responded. 

Felicia was right, of course. Taking deep breaths, Yuuto chided himself for getting so worked up. But his heartbeat showed no signs of settling down. 

“And Elder Sister Linnea, I wonder if you are perhaps getting ahead of yourself,” Felicia added coldly. “Your earlier proposal has not yet been accepted.” 

“Urk. Um, however, a marriage between myself and Big Brother would benefit both our clans, Horn and Wolf.” Linnea managed to argue back against Felicia. However, her stammering was proof that she understood she was overstepping her bounds. 

At the same time, that also meant Linnea herself was quite in favor of the arrangement. 

At the moment, that was a problem that vexed Yuuto far more than any puerile awkwardness.

Yuuto Suoh had once been a normal student, attending a middle school in modern-day Japan. For some unknown reason, he had been summoned to this ancient world of Yggdrasil, where he’d spent the past two years. 

Judging from things like the positions of the constellations, he was pretty sure this world was still Earth, but quite a few points didn’t add up. 

There was the era, for instance. Based on the tools the people used and the materials used in their weapons, the level of civilization here was about on par with the end of the Bronze Age. 

So then, had he been thrown into the past? It didn’t seem to be as simple and straightforward as that. The position of the North Star meant this area should be somewhere between 50 to 55 degrees north latitude, but not a single map of that latitude matched up with any of the local geography he’d seen or heard about. 

Of course, an even better example would be the existence of people with superhuman powers, known as Einherjar. 

“Here you are, Big Brother,” Felicia said as she handed him a cup filled with water. 

It was the middle of summer, yet the cup was ice-cold. Naturally, there were no refrigerators or other such conveniences in Yggdrasil. She had cooled it with magic, a musical spell called a galldr. 

There were said to be dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people with powers like this in Yggdrasil. They couldn’t be explained by the science and common sense of the world Yuuto had come from. So then... 

Where am I, really? An unease he couldn’t put into words was always gnawing at his heart. 

Yuuto pushed those thoughts aside. Dwelling on it wouldn’t help anything, and right now, it was more important to focus on the problem right in front of him. 

“Big Brother, please marry me!” 

Less than thirty minutes had passed since Linnea’s sudden, vehement proposal. At the time, Felicia had saved him with a tactful response: 

“Intruding on a superior’s bath and immediately making such a request is disrespectful. A younger sister should begin by washing her brother’s back to pay her respects before demanding any favors.” 

Her quick wit had gotten him out of that situation temporarily, but... he had been so distracted by the girls at his back that he hadn’t been able to gather his thoughts properly. 

Actually, even that argument Felicia had started about who would go next might have been meant to give him a little more time to think of his response to the proposal. That level of consideration and attentiveness was so characteristic of her. 

He felt a little ashamed of himself for only being able to realize it after the fact. On the other hand, how was he expected to be calm and observant, surrounded by three beautiful girls in the nude? What was the point of extra time in a situation where he couldn’t think rationally? 

He didn’t have the luxury of complaining, though. Yuuto was the Wolf Clan’s patriarch, entrusted with the lives of tens of thousands of his clansmen. It was a position that didn’t allow for making excuses, whatever the reason. 

“Ahhh, so good! Ice-cold water right after a hot bath is the best!” Yuuto said as he downed another cup. 

Now that he was out of the bath, Yuuto took the opportunity to refresh both his throat and his thoughts. The steam that had clouded his mind for various reasons seemed to wash away with the cold water, and he could think much more clearly. 

“Oh, and thank you too, Rún.” Yuuto turned to thank Sigrún, who was standing at his left side. 

She responded with a business-like tone, bowing her head. “Ah! No, it’s an honor to be of service to you, Father.” 

Still, looking closely, he could see the corners of her mouth turning upwards, and the peacock-feathered fan she was holding began to move faster, like a dog wagging its tail. 

With his body flushed from a hot bath in midsummer, the breeze she was sending him felt wonderful... but Yuuto just couldn’t feel comfortable with having a girl do work like that while he reclined in a chair. However, he could practically already see the sad puppy face she’d make if he declined the offer, so he let her do as she wished. 

“Right. Now, let’s have the full story,” Yuuto began. 

Sitting in a chair across from him, his sworn younger sister Linnea stared at him with a tense look on her face as he pressed her for the details. Everyone was clothed now, so there was no need to worry about getting flustered or distracted. 

“You and me, get married? Where in the world did that come from?” he went on. 

“Huh? Is it really that strange?” Linnea asked, tilting her head to one side in heartfelt curiosity. 

It was a cute gesture, sweet enough to set a man’s heart pounding, but there was no room to admire it in this situation. 

Linnea continued, her tone suddenly very serious. “For many years, we of the Horn Clan and Big Brother’s Wolf Clan have fought amongst ourselves as irreconcilable enemies. However, now that Big Brother and I have sworn the Oath of the Sibling Chalice, the two clans have become kin. If we become husband and wife, it would further deepen the bond between our clans. That would be extremely valuable for both of us.” 

“But, well, okay I understand that, but...” Yuuto fumbled his words and averted his gaze, unable to withstand the passionate sincerity in Linnea’s eyes. 

It was a custom that had been repeated countless times throughout human history, all over the world: The leaders of two opposing powers would join hands in marriage, facilitating friendly relations and serving as a guarantee of mutual non-aggression. 

Rationally, he understood it. However, Yuuto had been raised with the values of modern-day Japan. He was resistant to the idea of a so-called strategic marriage on principle. And he knew that Linnea surely wouldn’t understand that feeling if he explained it to her. In this situation, in this world, the one with strange ways of thinking was Yuuto. 

“You’re the Horn Clan’s leader, their patriarch. Are you okay with just blowing off such a heavy responsibility?” Yuuto decided to lead with a different question instead. 

If Linnea were to marry Yuuto, she would have to come live with the Wolf Clan. That would at the very least seriously hinder her ability to perform her duties as patriarch. 

He hadn’t known Linnea for very long, but her feelings towards her people were genuine. She had offered up her own body at one point to guarantee their safety. You wouldn’t find a ruler with more compassion than that. Someone like her, neglecting her duty to lead her people for the sake of a political marriage? It seemed odd. 

“That’s why I would have Big Brother stay here in Fólkvangr and govern the Horn Clan together with me...” 

“Wh-whaat?!” Yuuto let out a hysterical shout before he could stop himself, cutting off Linnea’s words. 

Yuuto and Linnea might be sworn brother and sister by way of the Chalice, but this conversation was also a diplomatic talk between the heads of two nations, with their national interests at stake. With that in mind, Yuuto had of course been taking care to keep his emotions close to his chest and maintain a poker face, but Linnea’s suggestion was so unexpected that he lost composure. 

“What nonsense!” Sigrún also raised her voice in indignation. “Father is our patriarch! Why would the Wolf Clan give him over to the Horn?!” 

However, Linnea matched her glare for glare and shouted back. “Of course he could continue to lead the Wolf Clan! But tell me, isn’t Big Brother really the caliber of leader who shouldn’t remain patriarch of such a puny clan as the Wolf?!” 

“Hmmm...” Sigrún grimaced, but said no more. It was clear that she had mixed feelings. It had to be aggravating to have her clan declared “puny,” yet the master she loved and respected was being praised by those words, too. Because of that, it would be difficult for her to refute. 

As a girl who’d dedicated her life solely to the martial arts, Sigrún wasn’t skilled at conversation to begin with. As she struggled to find the words to respond, Linnea pressed her further. 

“The mountainous territory of the Wolf Clan is mostly rocky soil unfit for farming, is it not? By contrast, we of the Horn Clan are blessed with the fertile lands between the Örmt and Körmt Rivers! Moreover, Iárnvi?r seemed to be a prosperous town, no doubt due to Big Brother’s influence, but our capital Fólkvangr is on another scale entirely! For someone destined to conquer and rule over others, it should be plain to see which of them would be a better choice for his stronghold.” 

“Wha— Are you joking right now?!” Yuuto shouted. “Do you have any idea what you’re saying?!” 

Yuuto was half angry, half worried. Offering to hand over the sovereignty of one’s nation to a foreigner wasn’t merely reckless; it wouldn’t be surprising if her clansmen persecuted her as a traitor for it. It was completely outside the bounds of sanity. 

“I am well aware,” Linnea continued. “I make this offer after long and careful consideration! So again I ask, please! Please marry me and lead my people, lead the Horn Clan...” 

“W-wait just a minute, Elder Sister,” Felicia interrupted and stepped between them. 

Linnea had gotten carried away in the tension of the discussion, and had left her chair and begun to draw closer to Yuuto. Felicia, who normally maintained an easygoing air about her no matter the situation, had an unusually troubled expression. 

“C-certainly, I think it is a favorable marriage proposal, but, how should I put this...” Felicia paused a moment. “It feels too convenient. The Wolf Clan gains far too much.” 

She said exactly what Yuuto had just been thinking. 

To the Wolf Clan, there was indeed nothing more appealing than the opportunity to more than double their territory, with most of that fertile land between the twin rivers to boot. On the other hand, he couldn’t see much benefit in it at all for the Horn Clan. If an outsider like himself showed up and started ordering people around, it would be unpleasant for everyone. The commoners would be disgruntled, and the clan’s higher-ups would see him as a constant thorn in their side. Becoming a vassal state would mean collecting taxes for their new sovereign, and there was always the chance they’d receive some unreasonable demand for tribute. 

Of course, if one was willing to pay that price, there was also plenty to gain by entering into the protection of a strong nation. 

“If you pick a fight with us, you’d better be ready to take on our powerful allies too!” 

If a deterrent like that managed to reduce the risk of invasion enough, the vassal state could focus that much more effort on domestic improvements instead of defense, and its citizens could have more peace of mind. 

But it was fair to say that the Horn Clan was already under his protection. They had become so along with their patriarch Linnea, who had become his little sister by the Oath of the Chalice. It had been proven in their battle with the Hoof Clan. His clan had come to their aid with full reinforcements, and thoroughly driven off the invaders. 

Even if the Horn Clan were to further strengthen their bond with the Wolf Clan, it was hard to think they’d get any additional deterrent effect out of it at this point. 

“Linnea,” Yuuto said, looking her directly in the eyes, “no more of this diplomatic guessing game. Let’s just be frank with each other. What are you really after? What is it you want from us?” 

A deal like this would be one thing if the Wolf Clan were still putting military pressure on them and they reluctantly agreed to it, but that was far from the case. She’d brought the offer to him; he suspected there had to be some ulterior motive. 

“As I have said several times, what I want is for Big Brother to rule and guide the Horn Clan.” 

“Felicia said it earlier, but every sweet deal’s got a catch,” Yuuto said coolly. “There’s nothing more expensive than ‘free.’ There’s no way I’m taking what you say at face value.” 

He was of course very much aware of the fact that Linnea was a person of sincere and honest character, but he had to be cautious. He couldn’t afford not to be. As patriarch of the Wolf Clan, Yuuto’s decision would sway the fates of tens of thousands of people. 

“But that really is what I want!” Linnea insisted. 

Yuuto paused and took a deep breath. 

“...Linnea.” 

He lowered his voice, his tone more severe. If this back-and-forth kept going, it would just be a waste of time. 

Linnea seemed to pick up on his irritation and gave a small nod. “I understand. I’ll tell you the whole truth.” 

“Please do,” Yuuto implored. 

Linnea’s love for her clan and her willingness to do anything for her people had made a great impression on Yuuto. The Chalice had made them sworn siblings, but he’d come to care for her as he would a real younger sister. This was still a discussion between two patriarchs, so he couldn’t make any hasty promises, but he had every intention of accommodating her needs as best he could. 

Linnea took several deep breaths to calm down, swallowed once as if emotionally preparing herself, and then spoke in a grave voice. 

“I... didn’t earn my position as patriarch. I inherited it.”

Yuuto had resolved himself not to act surprised at whatever she might say, but even so his eyes went wide. He quickly caught himself, and glanced at Felicia for confirmation. 

She looked just as surprised as he was. So then, Felicia hadn’t known it either. 

“Hey, was it okay for you to tell us that?” Yuuto asked. 

As a neighbor and former enemy, the Horn Clan’s internal situation was something Yuuto had paid plenty of attention to. The fact that this information had never reached his ears, or any of the Wolf Clan’s by extension, meant it had been deliberately covered up. 

The reason for that was clear. Bloodline heritage meant that a leader’s succession hadn’t been due to merit or ability. In this world, that alone was more than enough to earn contempt. 

Yggdrasil was a brutal world of survival of the fittest, where the strong took what they wanted and the weak were oppressed. If someone without power or ability became a clan patriarch, they might find their country harassed and encroached upon by its surrounding neighbors in no time. 

“I’m trying to hand over that inheritance, after all,” Linnea said. “There’s no point in hiding it anymore.” 

“Well, I guess that’s true, yeah.” Yuuto found himself still having trouble accepting the situation, because he’d seen Linnea’s spirit as a patriarch firsthand. But he listened and let her continue her story. 

“My father, the previous patriarch Hrungnir, was a courageous warrior and general, and his enemies feared him by the name Gullfaxi, ‘the Golden Stallion.’ He loved the people, enriched the country, and was fair and just with all of his subordinates. Everyone in the clan sang his praises and called him Gullveig, ‘the Golden Hero.’ I know it sounds partial coming from his daughter, but he was truly a splendid patriarch.” 

“I see. Sounds like your dad was a great man.” 

“Yes, he was... but even a great man like him was short-sighted when it came to his only child by blood. I was born late in his life, after he’d been trying to have children for a long time, so maybe that made me overly precious to him and clouded his judgment. Even though Rasmus and several other leaders in the clan were stronger candidates for the position, I was the one he chose as his successor.” 

“Now I get it,” Yuuto said, thinking back. “That explains the ‘princess’ remark.” 

During the celebration after the Oath of the Chalice ceremony, Linnea’s second-in-command Rasmus had called her that. Now that he thought about it more carefully, in a clan society where parent-child relationships forged by the Chalice were given much more importance than bloodline, it was an extremely odd thing to hear a leader called that. And then there was her young age. 

There’d been plenty of hints. However, in Yggdrasil the very idea of hereditary succession was akin to a taboo. Inadvertently, Yuuto had eliminated the possibility from his mind. 

“Naturally, there were more than a few who viewed my succession as a problem, and voiced their concerns.” Linnea looked down as she spoke. “Then there was my age, and the fact that I’m not an Einherjar. Surely that also made them uneasy.” 

Her hands, resting on her lap, clenched into fists. 

Yuuto had already inferred that Linnea probably wasn’t an Einherjar. With her honest personality, if she’d had some kind of power, she would have told Yuuto about it so they could use it to help during their battle with the Hoof Clan. 

“But I also wanted to be patriarch!” Linnea’s voice wavered. “I wanted to follow in my beloved father’s footsteps, to protect what he had spent his life protecting! I thought... I thought I’d be able to do it.” 

There must have been a stubborn optimism born of youth that had driven her. Something like, “If I just believe in myself, I’ll manage somehow.” But Yuuto didn’t think that self-confidence had been necessarily misplaced. It was naive at best to think that a non-Einherjar couldn’t be capable and talented. Even in the Wolf Clan, there were those like Jörgen who had risen past Einherjar to a higher rank, and he wasn’t the only one by far. 

One reason for that was that most Einherjar powers were heavily weighted towards skill in combat. It took far more than valor in battle to govern a nation. 

In Yggdrasil, ability was everything. No matter how magnificent the previous patriarch may have been, Rasmus and the other clan officers wouldn’t have chosen to follow that man’s child for this long just because she was his blood. 

At the very least, from Yuuto’s memories of facing her as an adversary in war, he didn’t think Linnea had made any significant blunders. The Horn Clan had attacked the Wolf Clan only after gathering nearly double their enemy’s troop strength. They had kept a steady chain of command, avoided the cardinal sin of spreading troops too thinly, and kept all of their soldiers moving to positions where they could be useful. They had kept their supply lines intact, as well. 

When discussing strategy and the art of war, these were things that might be called obvious, or a matter of course. But in war, even the obvious was easier said than done. It was no simple feat to understand the movements of thousands of troops, to keep them fed, to control their actions. 

“But I couldn’t do it,” Linnea continued. “I started a war only to be beaten back, had my clan’s lands seized, got taken prisoner. I lowered myself and my clan beneath another with the Oath of the Chalice, invited the invasion of the Hoof Clan, and threatened the very existence of my people. That’s what my rule has gotten me.” Linnea was trembling with frustration at herself. 

Atop the Hli?skjálf in the Wolf Clan capital, Linnea had once confronted Yuuto to express her love for her clansmen. She must have had hopes and dreams for what she wanted to accomplish as patriarch. And in spite of that, she was now admitting that she had been powerless to fulfill them. Even Yuuto could tell that the pain of it was tearing her apart inside. 

“Compare that to Big Brother’s leadership. On the battlefield you win victory after victory, even defeating the Hoof Clan’s hero Yngvi easily. In only a year of rule you rebuilt the Wolf Clan from a state of poverty and weakness, and the citizens of Iárnvi?r are smiling and happy. You’ve made me realize how stark the difference is between me and the real thing.” With a weak smile, Linnea turned to gaze out the window. 

It was the look of someone yearning for something long gone. 

It was the look of someone so exhausted that they had simply given up. 

“If a sham like myself continues on as patriarch, the Horn Clan will just continue its decline. In that case, I think using my status as a woman and pulling in a strong, true patriarch capable of ruling the clan is the least I could do for everyone. My final task.” 

“Whoa hold on already!” Yuuto shouted. “You know the Horn guys aren’t just gonna shut up and accept that! Hell, what about that second-in-command of yours, Rasmus? He’s definitely gonna be against—” 

“Rasmus himself was the one who proposed this marriage plan to me.” 

“...Huh?” Yuuto had lost count of the number of times today he’d let out a goofy sound in response to surprising news. 

“From the very beginning, he has worried about how it must be difficult for a woman such as myself to hold the clan together. He’s often advised that I find a reliable man to make my husband, so that the two of us could rule together as a couple. Rasmus has become completely enamored with you, Big Brother. He’s been saying things like, ‘We can entrust the princess to a man like him!’ and going around trying to convince all of the other clan officers.” 

“When the hell did I get so popular with him? That doesn’t make any sense...” Yuuto pressed his hands to his forehead, bewildered. 

The last time, the only time he remembered exchanging words with Rasmus, it had been the celebration after exchanging the Oath of the Chalice with Linnea. At the time, Rasmus and the other Horn Clan members had treated Yuuto like a common ruffian who’d stolen away their precious princess, and their glares had been practically murderous. How in the world had the man’s opinion of him risen so highly in the time since then? Yuuto couldn’t make heads or tails of it. 

“Big Brother, I am inexperienced and not much good at anything, but I promise to devote myself to you with all my heart in the days to come. I hope you will take care of me.” Linnea recited the words one might expect to hear on their wedding night. 

Yuuto could only make wordless nonsensical sounds as Linnea bowed her head to him, blushing sweetly. “Urk...! Er, umm. Ahh, uhhh—” 

If it was simply a question of yes or no, he absolutely couldn’t accept Linnea’s proposal. Yuuto was going to find a way to return to his own world. The idea of taking on a marriage partner in a world he never planned to spend the rest of his life in was absurd. After all, if he did that, he wouldn’t be able to uphold his end of the vows. It would be dishonest. 

More than anything, there was Mitsuki, the girl he’d already decided upon in his heart. 

This wasn’t the first marriage proposal he’d dealt with, and he’d easily managed to turn down each one up to now. However, this time it was a proposal directly and personally from the patriarch of the Horn Clan. And it was accompanied by unprecedented concessions to the benefit of the Wolf Clan. If he carelessly turned down an offer like that, it would make Linnea lose face and besmirch her honor, and might even endanger the burgeoning alliance between the two clans. As the Wolf Clan’s patriarch, that was something he had to avoid at all costs. 

But how exactly could he go about refusing her in a way that didn’t upset their relations? He found himself in a mental panic, completely unable to come up with the solution. 

“Elder Sister, as I stated before in the bath, perhaps you are being too hasty,” Felicia chided Linnea gently. “The marriage of a patriarch affects the future of the whole clan; it is a serious government matter. It would be wrong for just the few of us to make such a decision here, on a moment’s notice.” 

Felicia’s voice was soft but resolute. It was a suggestion with no room for rebuttal. 

I’m saved, Yuuto thought as he glanced over to Felicia, and she gave him a little wink that only he could see. It looked like she hadn’t been able to stand to watch him flounder any longer. She really was a reliable adjutant. 

“R-right, it’s just as Felicia says,” he said hastily. “For now, I would like to go back home and discuss your proposal with the clan.” 

“Hmm...” 

Yuuto had done his best to maintain an air of dignity as he chimed in after Felicia, but Linnea was frowning with a difficult expression on her face. Because of how unbelievably beneficial the offer was for both of them, she likely had assumed things would get wrapped up nicely here and now. 

On the other hand, it looked like she also agreed with Felicia’s logic. 

“You’re right. I’m embarrassed to say, perhaps I was being too impatient,” said Linnea. “Well then, I’m looking forward to hearing a favorable answer.” 

“W-well, ahh, just... be patient with me, okay?” Yuuto barely managed a stiff reply. 

He’d managed to get a bit of an extension, but only a little bit.

“Ughhh, this kind of stuff is so oppressive!” Yuuto moaned. 

In the small private room off to the side of the spacious ritual hall, Yuuto was having Felicia help him get dressed. 

“And now all this crap’s literally weighing me down, too...” 

Normally, Yuuto would forgo ornamental clothing and accessories, preferring a light all-black outfit that emphasized ease of movement, but today’s ceremonial etiquette wasn’t going to let him get away with that. 

His outfit made him think of an Egyptian pharaoh, with an extravagant gilded choker, a golden bracelet inlaid with jewels, and some other jangly thing attached to his head. 

“Tee hee,” Felicia said with a sweet laugh. “It’s only for the length of the ceremony, so just be patient for a little bit.” 

She was kneeling on the floor, bent over and carefully wrapping some sort of belt around Yuuto’s waist, which was covered with even more shiny gilded ornaments. At her side lay a gold scabbard with intricate engravings, and an absolutely luxurious-looking sword embedded in places with jewels. 

Back when he was still living in the 21st century, if he’d seen a sword like that, he probably would’ve thought, Whoaaa, so coooool! and gotten excited like a normal boy. Now when he looked at it, all that came to mind was, Ugh, if you equipped something like that, it’d be hard to walk. 

The thought brought his spirits down a bit, so he turned his gaze to look out the window. The streets and houses of Fólkvangr spread out below him. 

Just like with the Wolf Clan, the hörgr, or sanctuary, where the Horn Clan conducted various holy rites was constructed on top of their Hli?skjálf. To Yuuto, the Wolf Clan’s sacred tower was shaped a bit like a tower of stacked kagami mochi, but the Horn Clan’s Hli?skjálf was more similar to a pyramid. Its actual height was taller than the Wolf Clan’s, too. Perhaps details like this varied from nation to nation. 

“Looking at it like this, even though they’re both part of Yggdrasil, our towns and lands are pretty different, huh?” Yuuto said, mostly to himself. It was a bit of a late realization, but it had just started to sink in. 

Iárnvi?r was situated higher up in the mountain basin, and there was a plentiful source of lumber nearby, so the common folk had homes and buildings made mostly from wood. Meanwhile the cityscape of Fólkvangr was stained a brownish-red, and it wasn’t even dusk yet. 

In the areas around Fólkvangr, the sediment flowing down along the Körmt River had slowly accumulated over time, forming something called an alluvial plain. It was fertile land well-suited for farming, but lacking in lumber or good stone. As a result, most of the commoners’ homes were constructed from sun-dried bricks of baked mud. 

“If you were to take Elder Sister Linnea as your wife, this city would become yours, wouldn’t it, Big Brother?” Felicia asked nonchalantly. 

“Felicia, you know there’s no way in hell I can do that,” Yuuto snapped back, exasperated. 

For Felicia, who actually knew the whole truth behind his circumstances, who had just barely come to Yuuto’s aid when he’d struggled to give an answer to Linnea, to say something like that, was a little more than he wanted to hear right now. 

Felicia continued anyway, seemingly ignoring his tone. “Whether one looks at these extravagant decorations, or the vast fields of golden wheat outside the capital, it is easy to see that this is an affluent nation. If you became the patriarch of this land, every day you would be served more delicious food than you could ever eat, and beautiful maidens from across the land would gather just to wait upon you. Anyone would be jealous of such a life; surely you would enjoy it, as well.” 

“That’s just not who I am, okay?” 

From the perspective of a normal young man, the idea of being popular with women and paid attention to by the people around him was far from unappealing. But if it all came just from having money or political power, that just seemed hollow to him. As for food, 21st century Japan was in the middle of an age of plenty, so he’d experienced that already. 

“Right now, the Hoof Clan has lost their patriarch and single greatest warrior, falling into a state of complete disarray. Now would be the perfect opportunity to invade,” Felicia said. “With this land as your base and stronghold, I think the path to supreme ruler of all of Álfheimr would be open to you...” 

“And I said I don’t want anything to do with becoming something like that! Even dealing with just the Wolf Clan is too much for me to handle. Actually, what’s with you right now? You know there’s no way I could agree to it! It’s like you were just... No, I’m sorry, Felicia. You’re right, of course. Something like that would be a dream come true for the Wolf Clan, right?” 

Felicia was Yuuto’s sworn younger sister and his adjutant, but before that, she was a member of the Wolf Clan. One of their top officers, who had to always be thinking of the clan’s future. To put it bluntly, it was only natural for her to think of the needs of the clan before Yuuto’s personal convenience. 

Thinking about it, that meant Yuuto was clearly a failure as a patriarch for thinking only of his own personal desires instead of the vast wealth he might be able to secure for the Wolf Clan. 

“Eh, ah, y-yes, it certainly would,” Felicia stammered. “But it’s too much to ask in the end, isn’t it? I knew that was the case, but the prospect of obtaining the Horn Clan lands for the Wolf Clan caused me to get a little greedy.” 

“O-ow?! Too tight, too tight!” Yuuto yelped. 

“Oh!! I-I’m so sorry!” Flustered, Felicia loosened the belt she had overtightened. She was usually so deliberate and careful in everything she did. The mistake was unlike her. 

“...So, why did you really say all that?” Yuuto asked. 

“Huh? Um, l-like I said, I got greedy, and—” 

“Yeah, that’s a lie.” Yuuto shook his head. “You can’t fool me. After all, for the last two years, aside from when we’re in bed, we’ve spent almost all our time together.” 

Felicia’s excuse about getting greedy was clearly something she’d come up with as an afterthought. And unlike her usual carefree demeanor, he could tell from her tone of voice that she was upset. And then there was the mistake with the belt. He’d really be a failure as a commander if he failed to notice with all of those clues. 

Felicia said nothing, caught out in her lie. 

With her arms still wrapped around Yuuto’s waist as she tied the belt, her face was behind him, and he couldn’t see her expression. After some time, he thought he could feel her grip tighten ever so slightly against the belt again. 

“‘With this, I can go back home without any worries.’” 

“Wha—?!” Yuuto suddenly felt like a claw had grabbed him by the heart. They were the exact same words that he’d been thinking to himself a lot these days. 

“So, that is what you’ve been thinking,” Felicia said. 

“...So, you realized it.” 

“Of course I realized,” Felicia said with a slight grin. “After all, for the past two years, aside from when we’re in bed, we’ve spent almost all our time together. I started to get an inkling of it starting around when you managed to capture Elder Sister Linnea... but I became certain of it during your conversation with Alexis.” 

This time it was Yuuto’s turn to remain silent. It seems like there was absolutely nothing he could keep secret from his adjutant. 

For the past two years, Yuuto had desperately wanted to go home. But, from the moment he’d arrived in Yggdrasil, the Wolf Clan that had adopted him had been continuously at war. Until very recently, just living to see another day had to be his topmost priority, and looking for a way home had unavoidably taken a backseat to that. 

Then there was his family. Sure, it was just a social construct created by swearing upon a sacred chalice, but no matter the reason, he’d formed family bonds. Leaving his family behind to a fate of certain death while he alone escaped to safety was something he knew he would have felt guilty for. 

But now the Wolf Clan had grown considerably more large and powerful than it had been two years ago, and its two longstanding enemy clans, the Horn and Claw, had become sworn family by the Oath of the Chalice. 

With the recent threat of danger starting to subside, Yuuto was aware of how much more he’d been thinking about searching for a way home. What he’d never dreamed of was that someone else would notice that secret hidden in his heart. 

“Now that there’s nothing left to keep you here, I just felt this terrible uneasiness, Big Brother,” said Felicia. “Like if you returned to Iárnvi?r, you might suddenly disappear, and I just... Please, forgive me. Even though everything is my fault, I said such impertinent things to you. Even though I have absolutely no right to. Truly, I don’t know why...” 

Her voice was filled with regret, and she looked to be genuinely perplexed by her own emotions. It was true that Felicia always maintained an adult level of composure, supporting Yuuto in his moments of weakness. It was very unlike her to lose control of herself to her emotions like this, and it probably bothered her greatly, as well. 

“Hey. Sorry,” Yuuto apologized, patting Felicia’s head. 

“Y-you have nothing to apologize to me for, Big Brother! I was simply being selfish. I lost control of myself and acted shamefully towards you.” 

“Even so, I’m sorry.” 

“Like I said, you have— Ack! W-what are you doing?!” 

Yuuto silenced Felicia’s argument by ruffling the top of her hair. 

He was apologizing because he was the one who’d forced her into feeling this way. She’d said it herself: She became certain of it during his conversation with Alexis. She’d likely already been aware of the change in his attitude, and then that conversation must have made it worse for her. 

It also showed just how much she had secretly wanted Yuuto to remain in Yggdrasil. Felicia was the one who had accidentally summoned him here in the first place. She had been suppressing her desire for him to stay despite the guilt she felt for bringing him here... or perhaps because of it. 

“I’m just way too insensitive, aren’t I?” Yuuto said softly. “I’ve been depending on you way too much, Felicia.” 

He felt just how immature he was all over again. 

During these two years, the person who had been the closest to him, who had constantly supported him, was Felicia. Of course they’d come to care for each other. It would be odd if they hadn’t. Yuuto thought of her like she was his real sister. 

And all the while, he’d been making her help him search for a method to return home. Even he thought he was a pretty terrible guy for that. 

“H-hooold o-on! Hold on a moment, Big Brother!!” Felicia suddenly shouted in a manner that made her previous lack of composure look tame by comparison. 

“Huh?!” Yuuto didn’t have time to react. 

Felicia abruptly stood up leaned in close, bringing her pretty face right up to his nose. “R-really it makes me very, h-happy when you rely on me! S-so, please act like you always have and tell me anything you might need!” 

“B-but, well...” 

“Please forget everything that just happened. I, Felicia, simply made the greatest blunder of my life. From now on, I will give everything that I am to devote myself to the needs of Big Brother’s heart without being restrained by my own, so please let me serve you! Please!” 

“O-okay.” Yuuto could only nod in agreement, taken aback by Felicia’s almost threatening air of servitude. 

Yuuto had been starting to think that going forward, he should be making an effort to be more attentive of Felicia’s emotions, while refraining from relying on her support too much. It would seem that wasn’t what she herself wanted. 

The hard reality of the situation also occurred to him: the fact that, without her support, there was no way someone inexperienced and ignorant of Yggdrasil like Yuuto could ever get anything done. 

Yuuto smiled wryly. “Well, all right then, I guess I’ll be causing you more trouble from here on out, but thanks, Felicia. I’ll be relying on you. You’re... you know. You’re my most trusted confidant, after all.” 

Immediately after saying it, he felt his face heat up. Trying to express his feelings in person was always like this. The embarrassment got in the way. But he’d still managed to say what he really felt. 

A confidant was someone you could be honest and open with about anything, ask for advice about anything, and trust them to do the same. Sigrún was loyal to be sure, no more or less so than Felicia, but as a source of private counsel, there was no one greater than Felicia. 

After all, it was true. Aside from when they were in bed, the two of them had spent practically all of two years together. 

“Eh?! Oh...” 

Felicia just blinked for a moment, as if she hadn’t understood what she’d heard, and then she smiled. It wasn’t her usual mature and composed, yet slightly playful, smile that Yuuto was used to. It was the joyful, unadulterated grin more suited to a girl of her age, like a bright flower suddenly blooming. 

“Y... yes!! Please just leave everything to me! I, Felicia, shall absolutely and without fail stop this marriage to Elder Sister Linnea!” 

Felicia was even more unlike herself, brimming with enthusiasm and shouting in a crisp, almost manic voice. It would seem that Yuuto’s words had made her quite happy. 

Now that he thought about it, Yuuto realized that he’d thanked Felicia many times before, but he’d never really told her how much he trusted and relied on her. 

Just thinking these things in my heart won’t do. I need to make sure and properly say them, or I’ll regret it, Yuuto thought to himself with renewed conviction. 

He’d already lived through the worst example of that. He’d become more than childhood friends and less than boyfriend and girlfriend with Mitsuki, and while he’d been dragging his feet, he’d been sent to this faraway land before he ever got a chance to confess. So much for learning from his mistakes. 

“...Oh! That reminds me, I still need to think of a way to explain this to Mitsuki.” Yuuto remembered yet another depressing problem on his hands, and was at a loss. 

But at the very least, this was a problem that he needed to handle alone. 

Was he just fated to have trouble with women? Yuuto seriously began to consider the possibility.

Priestesses clad in thin, fluttering clothes danced around the ritual hall, their movements in time with the somewhat solemn music of the pipe flutes. 

Torches blazed brightly at the center of the hall. Their wavering light played against the white plaster walls, giving them a slight red tinge. 

On the ceremonial altar lay a young goat, surrounded by enormous quantities of wheat and liquor. This offering to the gods was an expression of gratitude for the victory they had provided. 

Drought and storm, earthquake and flood... all were thought to be the workings of the gods here in Yggdrasil. So, too, were victory and defeat in war. 

Many sincerely believed that failure to appease the gods would invite their anger, and the swift destruction of one’s country. 

That was why a clan patriarch also had a role as ceremonial priest. He or she would represent the whole clan in rites of offering, acting on behalf of the entire clan to show their gratitude. Neglecting these duties would put Yuuto’s subordinates, and his clan as a whole, into a state of unease. A lack of scientific merit was no excuse to cut corners. 

“Phew,” Yuuto sighed with relief. “Done and done!” 

Having finished the rite, he flopped down into the seat reserved for him with a thud and cracked his neck back and forth. 

Normally he’d be able to relax and enjoy himself at this point, but his mood was still dour. The members of the Horn Clan in attendance were all looking in Yuuto’s direction and whispering to each other... which had nothing to do with it. He’d already gotten used to derisive looks and gossip two years ago. Whenever he caught scent of that attitude, it didn’t bother him. 

The source of his melancholy, Linnea, cheerfully handed him some tea. “Thank you for your hard work, Big Brother! Here you go.” 

Today’s ceremonies were also meant to show to the rank and file of the Horn Clan that their former enemy the Wolf Clan was now their ally. Therefore, one might say it was only reasonable that Linnea, patriarch of the Horn Clan, should sit right next to Yuuto. Reasonable, except for the part where he had to spend the whole event next to the girl whose marriage proposal he knew in his heart he had to reject. 

Yuuto would have liked nothing more than to flee from the ceremonial hall at top speed, if he thought he could get away with it. 

“Y-yeah. Thanks.” Yuuto awkwardly accepted the cup of tea from her and quenched his thirst. He could barely taste it, and he almost immediately felt his throat drying out again from nerves. 

“Oh, this is tasty,” Linnea said, placing some mutton on the tip of a skewer. “I really like it. You should definitely try some too, Big Brother.” 

With her other hand held under it like a plate, she gently brought the bite-sized piece of meat up to Yuuto’s mouth. Her lively manner and her smile of genuine adoration were enough to give Yuuto sharp stomach pains. 

He would have preferred to politely decline, but they were in public, and in its own way, this offer was a diplomatic matter. As the older brother, he should accept the gesture from his sworn younger sister and reinforce their hierarchical relationship. 

Yuuto steeled himself and took the bite of meat into his mouth. 

Om. Munch munch... 

The meat was crisply roasted, with the sharp smell characteristic of mutton. It was probably quite delicious, but at the moment Yuuto was so preoccupied that he just didn’t have the mental capacity to appreciate the taste. 

“H-how is it?” Linnea asked. 

“Y-yeah. I, um, I think it’s good. Probably.” 

“O-oh, that’s wonderful! I’m so relieved that the cooking of the Horn Clan suits your tastes.” Linnea was all smiles, seemingly delighted from the bottom of her heart. 

If one stopped to think about it, phrases like “I think” and “probably” were clearly strange in this situation, but Linnea didn’t show the slightest hint that she’d noticed. 

Looking at her in such a state of happiness, Yuuto felt like his conscience was being skewered as well. 

“W-well then, u-um, t-then...” Linnea, suddenly bashful and stammering, began piercing another piece of meat with the skewer. 

Why don’t you just stab me with that thing and be done with it? It’d almost be easier to take at this point! Yuuto thought. The emotional stress of the situation was starting to take its toll on him. 

However, his nightmare was only just beginning. 

“S-say ‘Ahhh’... ?” Her face red as a beet, Linnea once again held out a piece of mutton. Her sugary tone sent an uncomfortable chill down his spine. 

Physically it was the same act as just a moment ago, but with just those words, the tone of the situation changed completely. Rather than a subordinate attending to her superior, it was more like— 

“Ahh, but you two have such an intimate relationship,” an elderly man broke in, addressing them jovially. “Truly, you look just like a husband and wife.” 

It was Rasmus, the Horn Clan’s second-in-command. It looked like he was already deep in his cups. He still had his legs about him, but he was red-faced and bleary-eyed. 

Dammit! You’re sure enjoying yourself! Yuuto couldn’t hold back a bit of inner bile at the man. If it hadn’t been for his putting weird ideas into Linnea’s head, Yuuto could have simply been enjoying the ceremony right now. 

“D-don’t mock your p-patriarch!” Linnea stammered. Her attempt at a harsh scolding tapered off, ending with her casting her eyes downward, embarrassed. “B-besides, you were the one who said to do that...” 

The last part of it almost sounded like she was muttering it to herself, but Yuuto caught every word. 

So the “say ahhh” thing was your doing, too?! Yuuto glared at Rasmus with something similar to murderous intent. 

“Please accept my apologies,” Rasmus said with a plastered grin. “Ahh, but still, anyone so lucky to have our princess as his bride would be a happy man. You won’t find many women as beautiful, wholesome, and dedicated as her. Do you not agree, my uncle from the Wolf Clan?” 

Yuuto found himself clenching his fist silently under the table at Rasmus’s shameless question. He should have expected no less of the man tasked with managing a clan as big as the Horn. Rasmus had phrased things so that a denial would be problematic, while agreement could be taken out of context. 

Yuuto found himself unable to think of a good way to turn things around. Just as he was starting to get flustered, he felt something incredibly soft squeeze against his upper arm. 

“Oh, my, that is a comment I cannot overlook,” Felicia said with a bewitching smile. “You are aware that there are plenty of good women in the Wolf Clan?” Felicia snuggled up against Yuuto’s arm and shot Rasmus a meaningful look. 

Rasmus frowned, visibly taken aback. 

However partial Rasmus might be to Linnea’s charms, he couldn’t honestly admit that she was more physically alluring than Felicia. For one thing, there was no way the still-developing Linnea could match her in volume and proportion. 

“Oh, and Rún, you should refill Big Brother’s cup, as well,” Felicia called. 

“Hm?” Sigrún frowned. “It annoys me when you give me orders like that. Though, as a sworn daughter, I want to attend to Father anyway, so I’ll go along with it.” 

Sigrún had been standing just out of the corner of Yuuto’s vision, quietly paying attention to their surroundings. Her long silver hair flipped about like a tail as she turned to face him. 

She was a beauty on par with Felicia. In terms of pure sexiness, the win might go to Felicia, but Sigrún had an almost artistic beauty, as if a sculptor had removed every impurity, and her stoic features seemed to radiate a divine aura. 

“Big Brother, please place your hand around my shoulder,” Felicia whispered into Yuuto’s ear as she lovingly caressed his neck and chin. The motions tickled Yuuto here and there, but he managed to hold himself together enough to do as she said. 

“Hm? W-what’s the plan, Felicia—” 

“Oooh! ?” The second Yuuto’s hand touched her shoulder, Felicia gave a sensual cry and fell into Yuuto’s arms. It was a performance on her part; Yuuto hadn’t pulled on her shoulder at all. But to the people watching, it had to look just like Yuuto had forcefully pulled Felicia into an embrace. 

“Here you are, Father.” Sigrún leaned in with perfect timing, pitcher in hand, and began pouring tea into Yuuto’s cup. 

It all came together to produce what was unmistakably the picture of a debaucherous man being waited on by his harem. 

That’s our Wise Wolf, Rá?svi?r! Usually Yuuto would have hurriedly shaken her off, but right now he was internally applauding her. 

Linnea was revered as “princess” and the patriarch of her clan. Her pride shouldn’t be able to forgive being treated as merely one woman amongst many. So, giving the impression that he was loose with women might encourage her to retract her proposal. Yuuto, for one, thought the idea wasn’t half bad. 

“Uuurgghhh...!” Linnea couldn’t contain her displeasure, growling and puffing out her cheeks. 

“Tee hee hee,” Felicia giggled, grinning triumphantly. “Oh my, but whatever seems to be the matter, Elder Sister Linnea? Could you perhaps be jealous?” She slowly traced a circle on Yuuto’s chest with her index finger. 

You’re really at home playing the role of the wicked woman, Felicia, Yuuto thought to himself, then quickly drove the words from his mind. It was rude to think something like that about her when she was making such an effort for his sake. 

“I— I am not jealous!!” Linnea raised her voice in indignation, but her denial wasn’t persuasive at all. Her jealousy was plain for all to see.

For a few moments Linnea looked down, biting her lip and quietly groaning in frustration, but suddenly she looked back up. 

“H-hmm. I-I see now. With someone of Big Brother’s c-caliber, it’s inevitable that mobs of women would flock to him. Very well. Permitting some philandering is also a wife’s duty!” 

Linnea clenched a fist and announced this in a loud voice, as if she were also trying to convince herself. 

“Eh? Huh?” Yuuto started to get the impression that he had somehow just stirred up more trouble for himself. 

And that was when it happened. 

Sigrún was the first one to notice. With sudden, animal-like agility, she rose up with a start and glared warily toward the entrance, lowering her center of gravity. She placed a hand on her sword hilt, ready to draw at a moment’s notice. 

Her expression was more serious than Yuuto had ever seen, and a large bead of sweat was already making its way down her cheek. 

“What’s going on, Rú—” Yuuto didn’t even finish his question before he, too, noticed. 

The great ritual hall had been filled with noise and celebration, but the sound died down completely as if a wave of silence washed over the hall, starting from the entrance. Every person was staring at the same point, their expressions rigid with shock. 

Standing in the entrance was a well-built, bearded, middle-aged man in silken robes. It was someone Yuuto knew: the goði Alexis. He was a high official of the Holy Ásgar?r Empire, a representative of the Divine Emperor, and the man who had overseen Yuuto and Linnea’s Chalice Ceremony. However, the person everyone was staring at was not Alexis, but the man standing next to him. 

He looked young, perhaps around twenty, with hair as red as flame. He was tall and slender, with a toned build that suggested both strength and agility. 

His masculine features were offset by his eyes, which were brimming with an almost childlike curiosity. 

Indeed, there was nothing particularly exotic or abnormal about the young man’s appearance. And yet, Yuuto was completely unable to take his eyes off of him. 

“W-what the hell is that guy?!” Yuuto gasped. Before he knew it, he had already half risen to his feet, his body tensed in preparation for fight or flight. 

He felt a mysterious terror well up within him in response to this man, as if an instant’s lapse in caution would mean his own death. 

As if a wild tiger had suddenly appeared before him. 

“Steinðórr! Why is he here?!” Linnea burst out, her voice shaking. 

Even Yuuto had heard that name before. 

In western Yggdrasil, ever since the founding of the Holy Ásgar?r Empire, the region north of the Körmt River had come to be known as Álfheimr, and the region to the south known as Vanaheimr. 

The Lightning Clan controlled a vast northern stretch of Vanaheimr along the entirety of the Körmt River, and Steinðórr was their patriarch. 

His manner of fighting, less brave and more fearless and savage, had earned him quite the nickname. 

“The Dólgðrasir... So that’s the ‘Battle-Hungry Tiger’ of Vanaheimr, is it?” Yuuto spat out the words with a small shudder, wiping the sweat from his cheek with the back of his hand. 

He’d heard the rumors, but until recently, it had been a name that seemed far distant, from a territory that hadn’t yet bordered his own. 

“Yes,” Linnea replied. “Even the great hero of the Hoof Clan, Yngvi, feared his power. After facing him once in battle, Yngvi offered up the hand of his own daughter in marriage and swore an oath of equal brotherhood upon the Chalice... all to avoid fighting a man over ten years younger than him.” 

“That... sounds like a tough opponent.” 

Yuuto had faced Yngvi in battle once before, and had been astonished by the man’s abilities. Yngvi had mounted responses to each of Yuuto’s futuristic battle tactics, despite seeing them each for the first time. His strength of command had brought his troops back from the brink of panic each time Yuuto had rattled them, and his sheer valor in battle had even managed to overwhelm the Wolf Clan’s strongest, the Mánagarmr Sigrún. 

In a single generation, Yngvi had raised the Hoof Clan up into a large nation that had been poised to seize control of all of Álfheimr. His abilities were those fit for the role of a “supreme ruler,” one who seizes rule over the land through military conquest. 

“He’s just like Takeda Shingen,” Yuuto murmured. 

“Huh?” Linnea looked at him quizzically. 

“Sorry, just talking to myself,” Yuuto replied with a wry smile. 

It was often said that Oda Nobunaga, the powerful military conqueror of Japan’s Warring States era, had once sought a peace treaty and alliance with Takeda Shingen. Despite having multiple times the military strength of Takeda’s armies, Oda had extended every courtesy to him. That showed the extent of how much he had feared Takeda Shingen’s power. 

This wasn’t just some problem from recent or ancient history, though. In their previous war with the Horn Clan, the Wolf Clan had seized some riverside territory, and now they shared a border with the Lightning Clan. 

Unfortunately, it appeared their new neighbor was a real handful. 

“Lord Alexis! Why have you brought someone like him here?!” Rasmus questioned the bearded goði, never taking his glare off of Steinðórr. 

This was the center of the Horn Clan’s capital, and on top of that, it was their most sacred religious site. There were multiple layers of security to get through before entering, so it wasn’t a place a foreigner should be able to just wander into. 

It was clear that Alexis had used his diplomatic privileges as representative of the emperor to bring the Lightning Clan patriarch in with him. 

“Aw, c’mon, don’t sweat the details, old man.” Steinðórr was completely unfazed. “We’re celebrating’ here, right? Just thought I’d come wish you congratulations as the head of your neighboring country.” 

“How dare you say something so shameless, when you took our previous patriarch’s life with your own hands!!” Rasmus shouted. 

“Ahh, that Hrutin-something-or-other old guy, right? Everybody said he was so amazing, and then he didn’t even put up a fight.” 

The clan patriarch’s predecessor wasn’t just Linnea’s father by blood; he would have been her sworn parent by the Oath of the Chalice, effectively the grandfather of the entire clan. Furthermore, he had been a beloved grandfather, who had blessed his clan with many great undertakings and left an indelible mark on their history. 

Steinðórr had spoken of such a man as indifferently as if he was talking about yesterday’s weather, hardly worth remembering. Cries of resentment started to be heard from around the crowded hall. 

Steinðórr responded with a chuckle and waved at the crowd. “Well, c’mon, who cares about some old dead guy anyway.” 

“How dare you... how dare you make light of us!” His rage at its peak, Rasmus unsheathed the sword at his waist. Even if it came from the patriarch of the Lightning Clan, to forgive being publicly disregarded so thoroughly would put not just Rasmus’s dignity, but the dignity of the Horn Clan as a whole in jeopardy. “Don’t think you can just brazenly walk into this place alone, make remarks like that, and go home alive! I’ll take that head of yours to make as an offering at the previous patriarch’s grave! Hey, everybody!” 

At Rasmus’s signal, several of the men from the crowd followed his lead, drawing their swords. 

There were a few terrified shrieks from some of the women present, and suddenly the hall was in an uproar. 

As for the red-haired young man, he was surely aware of all the bloodlust aimed his way, but seemed to pay it no mind. He scratched his head with a bored, unimpressed expression. 

“Come now, Rasmus,” Alexis said with a pained expression, stepping between the two men. “This young man is my guest. Please consider my position, and forgive his rudeness as a favor to me.” 

Clearly experienced as a mediator in conflict, Alexis spoke confidently amid the tense and violent atmosphere. One wrong move and he could easily be the one to get cut down, intentionally or accidentally. Yet his calm expression had not changed. 

He wasn’t just some goði, but clearly a man of considerable grit. 

“Khh...!” Rasmus screwed his face up as if he was squashing some disgusting insect. 

At least officially, the patriarch of a clan was a retainer of the Divine Emperor. That official authority was used as part of the justification for a clan’s rule over their territory. A goði was the Divine Emperor’s proxy. His words were the emperor’s words, and his guest was an imperial guest. 

Injuring or killing Steinðórr here would be an insult to the honor of the Divine Emperor. If it were done in spite of the goði’s attempt to stop it, the dishonor would be unforgivable. 

“If you say so, Lord Alexis,” Rasmus said, “then I have no choice but to back down.” He lowered his sword. His voice was still bitter and shaking with anger. 

Likely the only thing that restrained him was his sense of responsibility as the Horn Clan’s second-in-command. 

The Holy Ásgar?r Empire had truly ruled over all the territory of Yggdrasil 200 years ago. Now, its sphere of influence had shrunk to something more comparable to a medium-sized clan like the Horn Clan. Geographically and politically speaking, it was far away from this place. However, its lingering authority still commanded respect. The empire could grant the Horn Clan’s neighbors the official rights to attack them. 

Currently the Horn Clan had had its territory in the east seized by the Wolf Clan, while its western towns and villages had been devastated by the invading Hoof Clan before they had been driven off. 

With an internal situation like that, Rasmus had to avoid granting his neighboring clans any excuse to attack. 

“Looks like you get to live another day, gramps.” Steinðórr grinned. 

“You fool, I still—” Rasmus had started to raise his voice toward Steinðórr again, but could say no more. In an instant, Steinðórr had completely closed the distance between them and entered point-blank range. 

He was already so close to Rasmus that a sword would be useless, and Rasmus found himself unable to move or react. Steinðórr leaned in close to Rasmus’s face, their noses almost touching, and laughed at him. 

“Yeah, I was never here for you in the first place, gramps. Well, hey, at your age, you probably don’t have that long left, but take care of yourself.” 

With those words, Steinðórr suddenly dropped down to a crouch, and flicked the blade of Rasmus’s sword with his finger. 

That was all he did. 

“You’re... kidding me...!” Yuuto gasped at what he saw, while the stone floor of the hall echoed with the clatter of metal. 

Certainly, bronze was more fragile than iron. That was just a fact. But fragile or not, there should be no way for a person to break a bronze blade apart with just a flick of the finger! 

That impossibility had just occurred in reality, right in front of him. 

“That’s the power of the Shatterer, Mj?lnir,” Linnea explained. “It’s a unique rune with all of its divine energy, its ásmegin, focused solely into the power of destruction...” 

Usually, an Einherjar’s rune provided them with about four or five different abilities. For example, Sigrún’s rune Hati gave her an enhanced overall physical ability stronger than your average burly male warrior, but it also gave her a sense of smell that could detect poisons and enemy presences, an uncanny sixth sense in combat, and a wild roar that inspired her allies and intimidated her enemies. 

There were exceptions, as well. Felicia’s rune Skírnir was fairly special, and bestowed her with many and various abilities and powers. This was offset by a cost, however, as none of Felicia’s abilities were exceptionally powerful. As a jack-of-all-trades, an Einherjar specializing in only a few of the abilities she possessed would surely outclass her. 

So then, the opposite must also be true. If all of a rune’s power were compressed and focused, one could perhaps obtain a ridiculous strength capable of snapping a bronze sword in two with a finger flick. 

After reaching that conclusion, Yuuto realized something else. 

“Hm? But what about his movements right then?” he asked Linnea. “They were also pretty unnatural, weren’t they?” 

Rasmus was the leader of four powerful Horn Clan Einherjar known as the Brísingamen, or “Four Flames,” which had caused quite a few painful defeats for the Wolf Clan before Yuuto’s arrival. Even past his prime as he was, Rasmus should still be quite strong and skilled. And yet, he hadn’t been able to react to Steinðórr’s speed at all. Even Yuuto, watching from the sidelines, had barely been able to follow him. It was hard to believe someone could move with such lightning-quick precision without the blessings of a rune. 

There were, of course, those warriors like the Wolf Clan’s second-in-command Jörgen, who had, through years of intense training, obtained a level of skill that would allow them to fight on nearly equal footing with an Einherjar. 

It was only Yuuto’s intuition, but he definitely got the sense that a man like Steinðórr didn’t obtain such skill through long years of rigorous training. He was just purely and simply strong. A flawless untrained strength born from within, like that of a bear or tiger, or some other fierce beast. 

“Yes,” Linnea continued. “He has phenomenal arm and leg strength, thanks to his rune Megingjör?, the Belt of Strength.” 

For a second, Yuuto thought he’d heard her wrong. If his memory wasn’t mistaken, he’d just heard about Steinðórr’s rune, and it had a different name. He didn’t have the best memory, but he was confident that he wasn’t the type of person who forgets what he’d just been told, like some senile old man. 

“Linnea, are you saying... Does this guy have two runes?!” 

“Yes, Big Brother. He is one of only a very few, perhaps three at most, in all of Yggdrasil who is a twin rune Einherjar.” 

“...What a freaking cheater,” Yuuto said with a weary disgust. 

There was no way of conducting any kind of survey or measurement in this world, but Yuuto’s understanding was that only about one in every ten thousand people received the blessings of a rune. He had never considered the possibility that someone could be granted two of them. 

“Oookay, then. Let’s see here.” Steinðórr glanced around. “Ah, there he is!” His eyes met Yuuto’s. 

Before Yuuto could even finish thinking Oh, crap... to himself, the red-haired young man was walking casually toward him with a delighted smirk. 

“Halt.” Sigrún stood in Steinðórr’s path, her stance wide as if protecting Yuuto. “I won’t allow you any closer to Father.” 

She punctuated her warning with a small movement, her hand slightly loosening her sword from its scabbard. Yuuto had never seen such a grim look in her eyes before, and her face was covered in beads of sweat. 

Yuuto was shocked. All I’ve done today is witness the impossible, he thought to himself. Not even in his wildest dreams had he ever imagined seeing the Strongest Silver Wolf, the Mánagarmr, terrified of someone! 

“Hm?” Steinðórr stopped, peering down at Sigrún intently. Unlike with his interaction with Rasmus a moment ago, there was the glint of interest in his eyes. 

Yuuto could hear Sigrún’s teeth grating; Steinðórr’s leering gaze must be quite unpleasant for her. Even so, the normally short-tempered woman remained silent and endured the offense. That only served to impress upon Yuuto all the more just how unfathomable a threat Steinðórr was. 

“That silver hair means you’re the Wolf’s top fighter, Sig-somethin’-or-other, yeah?” 

“It’s Sigrún.” 

“Right, yeah, don’t really care ’bout the details. I see... you do have that strong battle aura going on. Looks like you takin’ out my Father-in-law in a one-on-one fight wasn’t a total lie. Eh, still no match for me though.” 

Nodding to himself as if satisfied with his own assessment, Steinðórr seemed to lose all interest in her and turned his gaze back toward Yuuto. 

He’d brought up the death of his wife’s father casually, without even a hint of hatred. It had been a political marriage between two clans. However, there was no sign of a grudge regarding the matter that might be used to justify a war of revenge, so it was perhaps hardly surprising that Yuuto breathed a sigh of relief. As someone who preferred peace, he’d absolutely rather not have to go up against a monster like that. 

“You certainly know how to upset a celebration, Lord Steinðórr.” Linnea couldn’t mask her irritation. “Or is it just in the nature of a beast to be ignorant of the trouble it causes for others?” 

This ceremonial victory celebration was being hosted by the Horn Clan. Steinðórr’s intrusion and antics had ruined things badly enough that Linnea, as sponsor and host, had suffered a loss of face. It was only human nature to want to respond with a snide remark or two. 

“...Mm?” Steinðórr glanced over to her. “Ohh! You’ve gotta be the new patriarch of the Horn Clan, then. Your name’s, uhh... wait, what was it again?” 

“Wha—!” Linnea was struck speechless by the additional insult. 

It had fallen on hard times in the past few months, but the Horn Clan was still a prominent nation and an influential force in this region. Adding to that, it shared a lengthy national border with the Lightning Clan along the Körmt River. As a patriarch, to not even have one’s name remembered in such a situation was nothing less than humiliation. 

“My name is...” 

“Ahh wait, wait, don’t tell me, I heard it from Röskva. Ummmmmm...” Steinðórr loudly mulled it over for a moment. Then he declared, full of confidence, “Yeah, that’s it! I remember now! Borghildr!” 

It was a completely unrelated name, without a single matching syllable. One might think it was an obvious provocation. But if it were, there would be at least some measure of spite or sarcasm mixed into his tone. 

The young man’s remarks were free of any such inflection; he was simply saying whatever came to mind. Knowing this made his personality all the more infuriating. 

Stifling her anger, the young patriarch of the Horn Clan announced her own name. “...It’s Linnea.” 

She knew what she had to do here. The situation had already been mediated by Alexis, and her country was in an unfavorable situation politically. For a proud girl like her, it had been an impressive display of self-control. 

“Huh? So that’s what it was. Ah well, who cares about the details. It’s not like I have any business with some wet-behind-the-ears little girl, anyway. Though maybe I could spare some time for the pretty lady over there with curves in all the right places.” 

“Grr...! You bastard!” Linnea finally lost her temper, perhaps because she had already been compared to Felicia just a short while ago, and the shame was still raw. As she roared in anger, she moved to stand up from her chair, but an arm around her shoulders held her back. 

It wasn’t a particularly strong grasp. But it was also an embrace that seemed to contain determination, that would not take no for an answer. Linnea gave a small shudder and the strength left her body. 

Yuuto waited until he was sure Linnea had settled back into her seat, then glared sharply at the red-haired young man. “Quit harassing them. I’m the one you’re here for, right?” 

In that instant, the atmosphere changed completely. Every person felt the same sensation, as if the temperature had dropped suddenly. And it was all due to a few words by a young boy who had, up until that moment, appeared timid and mediocre. 

To Yuuto, family was more important than anything else. It might not have been intentional, but this man had made a mockery of Yuuto’s sworn daughter, his sworn little sister, and the late father that sister had adored. It was more than enough to make Yuuto detest him. 

He wasn’t shouting, but Yuuto had clearly lost his temper. Enough to bring out his true nature, the fierce lion hidden within him. 

“...Oh?” For the first time, the cocky grin disappeared from Steinðórr’s face. 

The “cheery, ignorant and innocent young man” seemed to vanish as well, as if a mask had been ripped away, revealing something terrible underneath. The man before Yuuto now had the air of a ravenous beast. He glared at Yuuto with an intense expression like a predator that had finally found the prey it had been searching for. 

The real pitiable ones in this situation were the members of the Horn Clan. They had been swept up in their celebration, only to be blindsided by the sudden intrusion of the Lightning Clan patriarch and overwhelmed by his monstrous power. If that hadn’t been enough, the young man they had secretly looked down upon and planned to try and take advantage of had also suddenly revealed a hidden, fearsome side to himself. 

Unable even to bring themselves to run away, the members of the Horn Clan stood fixed in place as if weighed down by the oppressive, suffocating tension in the air, faces pale and bodies trembling. 

The silent standoff continued for a few brief moments. Finally, a smirk appeared on Steinðórr’s beastly countenance. 

“What the hell, man! So you can make that face, after all! For a minute there I was thinkin’ you were a total let-down, you know?” 

“What?” Yuuto responded in an irritated growl, unable to make sense of what Steinðórr was saying. The aura of anger emanating from his body swelled even greater. 

The tension in the air grew even heavier, and a few gasps of fear could be heard here and there in the crowd. 

But for the red-haired young man, the intimidating presence washing over him only increased the width of his smile. “Ha ha! I didn’t even get chills like this that time I met my father-in-law,” Steinðórr said. “Seriously, I like you, man.” 

“Yeah? I’m not the least bit happy being liked by someone like you.” 

“Aww, come on, don’t be so cold.” Steinðórr’s attitude was suddenly friendly and over-familiar. “We’re neighbors. We should be gettin’ along. Let’s just have fun times together from here on out.” 

Yuuto clicked his tongue, thrown off by Steinðórr’s change in mood. “Tch. What the hell is with you?” 

He still detested the guy; that much hadn’t changed. But as easy as it was to meet hostility with hostility, it was harder to stay hostile toward someone acting friendly towards him. 

“Hey, Wolf Clan patriarch. What’s your name?” 

“It’s Yuuto. Yuuto Suoh.” 

“Yuuto-Suoh, huh?” Steinðórr repeated to himself. “Kiiinda weird for a name. But I’ve got it memorized now. I’ll never forget your name, Yuuto-Suoh.” 

He announced that loudly, for all to hear. This same man had never bothered to even try to remember the name of the patriarch of the Horn Clan, Linnea, or her father, the Horn Clan predecessor renowned as a great man, or Sigrún, the Mánagarmr of the Wolf Clan. 

Yuuto failed to acknowledge the meaning of that announcement. 

“Man, you really are cold,” Steinðórr said, turning away. “Ah well, guess I’ll call it a day here and head home. I got to see somethin’ interesting, after all. See ya ’round, Yuuto-Suoh.” 

He waved casually with his back still turned as he walked away. 

The crowd parted in front of him wordlessly, as if on cue. Just like the tale of Moses parting the Red Sea, a legend still far off in the future. 

As Steinðórr strolled out of the hall along the path that had opened for him, everyone else could only watch him go, dumbfounded. 

“P-please wait for me, Lord Steinðórr!” Alexis called after him, as if just coming to his senses, then turned and gave a quick bow to the crowd. “Now then, if you will excuse us. Please take your time and enjoy yourselves for the remainder of the evening. Farewell!” 

The goði then left, following after the Lightning Clan patriarch. 

Even after the two of them had left, the ritual hall only returned to silence, the heavy and oppressive air still lingering for a while. 

The first thing to break the silence was a loud gasp. 

It was Sigrún. She was down on one knee, wheezing heavily. She must have been holding her breath. 

“Haaaaaaaah...” Next by only a few seconds was Felicia, with a loud sigh. “Aah, my mouth has gone completely dry.” She quickly grabbed a cup of water in front of her and began gulping it down without any of her usual grace or manners. 

“To think that it wasn’t even a battle and he still managed to exhaust you two this much,” Yuuto said with concern. “He’s a strange one, but also a hell of a threat, it seems.” 

“It wouldn’t be nearly this bad if it were just that guy...” Sigrún began. 

“Yes, as Rún says, if it were only him...” 

Sigrún and then Felicia spoke in vague terms, casting meaningful glances at Yuuto. Sigrún in particular had spoken in an uncharacteristically roundabout way, unlike her usual blunt frankness. 

Yuuto tilted his head, wondering just what it could mean. Then he realized. 

“Oh, right. You also had to worry about protecting me.” 

Yuuto’s trusted subordinates, Felicia and Sigrún, were also his personal guard. They had a duty and responsibility to protect their patriarch with their lives. 

It must have been incredibly taxing mentally to stay on constant guard against a man that ridiculously powerful. Yuuto felt simultaneously grateful and guilty toward them, for always protecting a weak person like himself. He knew it had to be very difficult. 

“Uh, well, that’s not exactly it...” Sigrún searched for the right words. “You might say it felt like being thrown unarmed into a cage where a lion and tiger were facing off...” 

“Indeed,” Felicia agreed with a nod. “That was it exactly. I felt as if I might die from fright.” 

“As terrifying as not one beast, but two...” Yuuto’s tone was grim. “That makes sense; he is a twin rune Einherjar, after all. So that Steinðórr is just that much of a monster.” 

“...” Felicia and Sigrún said nothing, their expressions stiff, as if they were stumped at how to respond appropriately. 

Yuuto thought he could understand their reactions. He’d previously had the same problem with the Hoof Clan; he had thought of the Lightning Clan as a large and powerful but distant nation, separated from his Wolf Clan by the territory of the Horn Clan. 

But with his recent victory over the Horn Clan, the Wolf Clan had claimed a fair amount of Horn territory, and it now shared a border with the Lightning Clan. With such an extremely dangerous man as his new neighbor, frankly, trying to figure out how to handle him was already making Yuuto’s head hurt. 

He sighed. “He’s known as the Battle-Hungry Tiger Dólgðrasir, so at first I’d thought of him as somebody like Takeda Shingen, the ‘Tiger of Kai.’ But after all that, I’d say he’s more like Lü Bu or Xiang Yu.” 

“May I presume that those are the names of heroes from your world, Big Brother?” Felicia asked. 

“Yeah, both of them had incredible courage and skill.” 

Lü Bu had been a legendary military commander during the late Eastern Han dynasty of Imperial China, famous for his unparalleled strength. 

Meanwhile, Xiang Yu was lauded as having been Chinese history’s greatest military commander, surpassing even Lü Bu. 

“That said, I was totally belligerent with him, wasn’t I?” Yuuto began to second guess his earlier behavior. Steinðórr had clearly been the one who’d started things by trying to pick a fight, but Yuuto had decidedly answered in kind. 

“I think perhaps it was the right choice,” Felicia reassured him. “Responding to rude behavior timidly will only end with us being taken lightly.” 

“Yeah, you’re right.” Yuuto knew that there were consequences to being looked down upon. It could mean becoming a target for invasion, or harassed with outlandish demands. 

The way of thinking that assumes that if one makes concessions, the other party will make concessions too, was hopelessly naive. In the real world, the only people that logic would work with was the Japanese. If one drew back out of a fear of conflict, the other would seize the opportunity and advance to close the gap. This was the reality of international diplomacy. It was especially true in a world like Yggdrasil where the law of the jungle prevailed. 

In this most recent encounter, being passive or defensive would have been the wrong answer. 

“Well, it seems like the guy took a liking to me, so maybe things turned out okay, after all.” Yuuto gave a long sigh of relief. 

His clan’s longtime enemy the Horn Clan had been brought in as a sister clan, and the unexpected battle with the Hoof Clan had also been brought to an end. After being kept busy by constant war for so long, things had finally settled down, giving him the chance to really start searching for a method of returning home. Fumbling into another war with his new neighbor would have been the height of stupidity. 

“Umm, well...” Felicia looked back and forth, scanning the whole of the ritual hall, with a difficult expression. “I think things may have turned out well for the Wolf Clan and the Horn Clan, but they may become a bit more of an issue for you personally, Big Brother.” 

As Yuuto followed her gaze and looked out across the hall, for some reason all of the gathered Horn Clan members seemed to go rigid at once in response. 

Yuuto frowned, puzzled. “Hey, Feli—” 

“Ohh, that was just what I’d expect from my uncle from the Wolf Clan! I just knew there was something about you!” Rasmus interrupted Yuuto before he could finish his question. The Horn Clan second-in-command ran up to them, his face flushed with excitement. 

“Big Brother... I’ve fallen in love with you all over again!” Linnea chimed in loudly from right next to Yuuto, her face blushing a bright red and eyes sparkling as she stared lovingly up at him. “I can no longer think of spending my life married to anyone but you, Big Brother!” 

Rasmus continued unabated. “I had spent so much time and effort trying to convince them with my own words, yet to think you could bring their hearts to heel with just that short exchange! Goodness gracious, if that isn’t proof of your capacity to be a supreme ruler, then the title itself has no meaning.” 

Rasmus was practically gushing, but Yuuto was having trouble following exactly what he was talking about. Just what in the world had happened to cause these two to have such a sudden increase in their opinion of him? All he’d done was glare angrily at an arrogant jerk. Both Rasmus and Linnea had done the exact same thing themselves. 

He glanced over to Felicia in a bid for help, but she was hanging her head in her hands, covering her face as if in sorrow. 

“...Just what exactly did I do?” Yuuto asked, baffled.

“It certainly is a lively town, isn’t it?” Alexis commented. 

Having exited the palace, Alexis glanced left and right at his surroundings as he walked the crowded streets of Fólkvangr. Small children ran back and forth along his path, laughing, as if guided by the pipe music and songs trailing in the air. The town was awash in the atmosphere of celebration, and there were smiles on everyone’s faces. 

As he passed by a street stall that was apparently serving as a makeshift bar, he saw people binge drinking in broad daylight. Every one of them was making merry, rejoicing in the peaceful moments they had been blessed with. 

“And so, how was it?” Alexis continued, speaking to the red-haired youth walking just ahead of him. “I took quite a risk coming down here with you to meet him. Surely you have an opinion, at least?” 

While bringing a goði like himself had ensured their entry into the ceremonial hall, there was nothing safe about barging into the Horn Clan’s stronghold with no men or retainers, not to mention Steinðórr being their predecessor’s killer. When the boy had suggested it, Alexis had had serious doubts about his personality. It was not the proper act of a patriarch entrusted with the lives of an entire clan. 

On top of that, Steinðórr had interrupted a sacred celebration with audacious behavior, provoking everyone around him. For a moment, Alexis had begun to doubt the boy’s sanity. Alexis had had ample experience in his position as goði dealing with chaotic and often violent situations, and yet he still got chills thinking back to what had just happened. 

Of course, the young man’s logic was no doubt very simple. If it came to it, this young man possessed an absolute confidence that he could fight his way back out of enemy territory alone, and return home alive and well. 

That confidence was not mere hubris, either. This monster had the ridiculous strength necessary to make such a thing a reality. However, if by chance such a situation had come to pass, Alexis would have had no hope of survival. Go?i or not, it wouldn’t have been odd for him to be executed as punishment for bringing Steinðórr with him in such a worst-case scenario. 

Once again, he felt a deep sense of relief that he’d made it out of there in one piece. 

Steinðórr turned back to reply to Alexis with his carefree and innocent expression. “Yeah, thanks again for bringin’ me here. I wanted to get a look at him at least once, this so-called ‘Black One.’” 

“Don’t use that name carelessly. It will cause us problems.” Alexis furrowed his eyebrows and chided Steinðórr in a lowered voice. That name was the Holy Ásgar?r Empire’s highest taboo. It was absolutely not okay to speak of in the middle of town. 

“Eh, who cares about details like that.” Without even a hint of concern for the warning, the patriarch of the Lightning Clan tore off a hearty bite from the meat he was carrying. 

Damned barbarian. Alexis was unable to resist cursing the boy in his heart. 

Officially, the patriarch of a clan was a local vassal in service to the Divine Emperor. As a high official of the central government permitted the honor of representing the Divine Emperor, a goði was much higher in station. But that was, of course, nothing more than his official status, and Alexis had next to no actual political power. 

Even so, the local clan lords relied on the Divine Emperor’s authority as backing for their right to rule their regions. At the very least, they were required to show verbal respect to the emperor and those above themselves in station. Despite that, a goði representing the Divine Emperor had to deal with some insolent boy speaking to him the same as he did everyone else. It was truly vexing. 

“The man who will destroy the world, huh?” Steinðórr muttered aloud. “I only sorta half believed it, but he ended up being more than I expected.” 

“Hmm. Then, will you agree to our request?” Alexis asked. 

“Yeah, I will. Against him, I think I could really go wild.” 

The man known as the Dólgðrasir bared his teeth in a savage grin.