ACT 3
The night after Yuuto had exchanged his Chalice Oath, a total first for him, he was in the hörgr talking to Mitsuki, reporting on his recent situation.
“...And that’s pretty much how things are, for now. I never thought I’d end up adopting a new family in another world.”
Their original assumption had been that he could only make contact on the night of the full moon, but figuring he should give it a try anyway, he’d made his way to the hörgr. Finding that he could get a signal just as if nothing was out of the ordinary was disappointing in its own way.
“Hmmm... actually, I think that makes me even more worried,” Mitsuki said.
“Eh? Why?”
“Don’t do anything with Felicia, okay?”
“Wha—! Th-there’s no way I’d do that! She’s... sh-she’s just my adopted little sister!”
“You’re stammering.”
“That’s ’cause you’re saying outrageous things all of a sudden.”
“Am I? I don’t think it’s that outrageous.”
“Well, look, if it’s a matter of whether I like her or hate her, I like her, but...”
“See!”
“Just let me finish. To me, she’s both the person at fault for bringing me here and the one who saved my life after I arrived. She’s like an older sister to me and a younger sister, my teacher and my interpreter, and... well, there’s a lot there. But nothing romantic.”
“Hmmm, well, I guess I’ll believe you. Then, what about Sigrún?”
“She’s even more completely out of the question,” Yuuto replied wearily. “In fact, even if I made a pass at her, I bet she’d reject me by kicking me so hard in the crotch that it’d lift me into the air...”
He shuddered at the thought. Just by imagining it for a moment, he could feel the muscles between his legs tighten uncomfortably.
Perhaps because she still couldn’t get over that first fight, Sigrún had made Yuuto accompany her in sword training a few times now, whenever his fluctuating health was allowing for it. He’d been made bitterly aware each time just how absurdly great her physical abilities were. If he wasn’t careful around her, he might literally end up unable to have children.
It was true that he thought she was a girl of outstanding beauty, but his strongest and most direct feelings toward her could be summed up by the phrase “let sleeping dogs lie.”
“Anyway! You’re going to come back home, right?” Mitsuki demanded. “So, no messing around with the girls over there!”
“Heh heh. Yeah, yeah, I understand.”
“Wha— Why are you laughing?!”
“It’s nothing.”
“If it’s nothing, then why did you laugh?!”
“Honest, it really is nothing,” Yuuto repeated, cracking a smile.
There was no way he could tell Mitsuki the truth, that her getting jealous over Felicia and Sigrún made him happy. He didn’t have any right to tell her.
They were both aware of the other’s affections by now. However, Yuuto had decided that he would only ask her aloud and officially confirm it after he’d made it back to Japan.
He had every intention of making it back, but had no idea how long it would take. With things so uncertain, he didn’t want her to be tied down.
“Still, it’s so strange, isn’t it?” Mitsuki said. “Not just that you got sent to another world, Yuu-kun, but that we can still talk on the phone like this. You said it was because of that metal called ‘álfkipfer,’ right?”
“Yeah, and that damn stuff’s got me living a charmed life, all right.” With a bit of sarcasm, Yuuto shrugged his shoulders.
That metal was seriously a total mystery. It seemed the extraordinary powers of the Einherjar and the musical magic of the galldr also made use of the same power that was contained within álfkipfer, a divine energy called ásmegin. And the strangest thing about it was...
“So, the mirror over here, you think it’s the same?” Mitsuki asked.
“I’d say it’s a safe bet.”
Even now, during their phone call, the divine mirror in front of Yuuto was giving off a faint light. More than likely, the mirror back in Japan was producing the exact same phenomenon.
He’d never before heard of a metal that gave off light of its own accord. Yuuto’s head was filled with questions of how and why a fantastical material like that had come to be in Japan. Though, at this point, those sorts of details didn’t really matter to him.
The point was, although Yuuto didn’t understand the logic or mechanism behind it, there was no mistaking that the two worlds were connected through these mysterious divine mirrors. And while that connection might not be “wide” enough for a person to travel through right now, electromagnetic waves like the signal his smartphone used could get through.
The two worlds weren’t cut off from one another.
Yuuto just needed to find a way to get the connection in the same condition it had been in when he was brought to this world — wide enough for a person to pass through again.
“Hmmm, but I still wonder about it, Yuu-kun,” Mitsuki said. “Like, maybe you really were summoned to that world because you’ve got some sort of mission or destiny there, or something. So maybe if you take care of whatever that is, you’ll automatically get sent back home?”
“Hrm... A mission, huh?” Though he was ashamed to admit it, he felt like he’d spent this past month constantly making a disgrace of himself. When his mental state had hit rock-bottom, Fárbauti and Mitsuki had helped him out of it, but he still couldn’t imagine himself as the Child of Victory, Gleipsieg, as Felicia kept claiming.
Still, it was a fact that Felicia had been praying in ritual supplication for her clan’s victory, and she insisted that she had felt her magic grasp hold of that when summoning him.
“In other words, can I go home if I help the Wolf Clan win?” Yuuto wondered. “Easy enough to say. I can’t even have a real conversation with these people, so what am I supposed to do? It’s like a game with the difficulty set to ‘Impossible.’”
Yuuto was nothing more than a completely run-of-the-mill second-year middle schooler. He didn’t understand the first thing about politics, economics, or military strategy. He also didn’t have the sort of ridiculous power or abilities that would let him turn the tables all by himself, like the main character of a manga or game.
How was someone like him supposed to be able to save something as large in scale as a country?
Honestly, he had no idea.
Beams of sunlight poured down from above, causing the surface of the river to glitter beautifully.
The sounds of the flowing water and the chirping of small birds were mixed with voices bright with playful laughter.
“Ahhh, quite a view, isn’t it, Yuuto?” Loptr cried.
“...I can’t deny that.”
“What’s wrong?” Loptr asked with a broad smile. “If you’re a man, you should speak your mind more clearly.”
“Um, I don’t think I’m in a position where I can do that.” Yuuto smiled stiffly back, scratching his head awkwardly.
Out ahead of them were Felicia and Sigrún, as well as three other beautiful young girls, frolicking in the river and splashing water on each other. Their wet clothes were slightly transparent, which was quite arousing.
Yuuto had found himself in this situation after accepting Loptr’s quite forceful invitation. He’d said that going out to have fun together was the best way to deepen their new sibling bond, but...
“When you think of summer fun, it’s gotta be the river, am I right?”
As his new sworn older brother flashed him a thumbs-up, Yuuto wondered if maybe he’d made the wrong choice.
“I mean, why did you only bring girls?” Yuuto asked.
“ᚹᚨᚷ?” Loptr tilted his head quizzically.
It seemed that the effects of the Connections galldr had expired, so he could no longer understand Yuuto’s words. Loptr seemed to realize this quickly, and he began humming a melody that was very familiar by now.
“There, that should do it. So, what were you saying?” Loptr picked up the conversation right where it had left off.
Apparently, Loptr could use all of the galldr spells that Felicia knew. In addition, his skills with a sword were supposed to be above even Sigrún’s. Yuuto couldn’t resist feeling jealous at such a ridiculously overpowered man.
Yuuto shrugged and repeated his question. “I was asking why you only brought girls with us.”
“Eh? But if I brought guys, there’d be nothing good to look at there.”
“W-well, I guess you have a point there. Actually, Loptr, I never realized you were such a playboy.”
Yuuto had learned that all three of those other girls were Loptr’s mistresses. Unlike in Japan, here in Yggdrasil, a man of means and dependability could freely take on many lovers. This man was the second-in-command of the Wolf Clan, so it would be strange for him not to have at least one partner.
They say “God doesn’t give with both hands,” but that’s a total lie, Yuuto found himself thinking. Right here was a man who had everything!
“Mm?” Just then, Yuuto caught something out of the corner of his eye. An entire stretch of the river’s shoreline was stained an almost ominous-looking black. “Wait, could that be...?”
Just as Yuuto squinted to get a better look—
“Big Brother!” Felicia called out to him.
When Yuuto turned to look, he saw that she’d cleanly skewered a fish with a wooden harpoon, and was hoisting it up to show off to him. She was normally so refined and ladylike, but it would seem she had a bit of a wild side, as well.
Her face was absolutely beaming, and it communicated plainly for all to see the deep affection she held towards Yuuto.
As Yuuto found himself drawn to smile and wave back at her, he suddenly felt a dark chill run down his spine.
“Hey, Yuuto,” said Loptr. “I know this is me saying this, but if you’re planning to take Felicia as your wife, I won’t forgive you if you fool around with other women, okay?”
He said the words in a light, joking tone, but Loptr’s eyes weren’t laughing at all.
It looked like this guy was a bit of the overprotective older brother type. He wasn’t obstinate enough to break out a line like “I’ll never let you lay a finger on my sister!” or whatever, but his strong desire to find a good man to make his sister happy came across loud and clear.
Loptr had lost both his mother and father, and Felicia was his last living blood relative. His feelings when it came to her were understandable.
“L-like I already told you, I have a girl I like back in my homeland,” Yuuto said quickly. “I’m not going to do anything like that.”
“Ohh, really? In any case, if you make my little sister cry... I’ll kill you, okay?”
“Ah... ahahaha.” Yuuto could only manage a dry, hoarse laugh in response.
Yuuto began to wonder, half-jokingly and half-seriously, whether he might meet his untimely death here in this world due to an enraged older brother.
“Raagh, damn you! Just freaking light already!” Spitting out the words in frustration, Yuuto moved the shortbow in his hand back and forth at high speed.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Over and over.
“Aagh, come on! Why the hell won’t it light?!”
Groaning aloud, Yuuto glared down at the wooden board in front of him with so much hatred that one might assume it had killed his parents.
There were several small, blackened notches in the board, one of which had a wooden rod inserted into it. The shortbow’s string was wrapped around the wooden rod in such a way that moving the bow back and forth would cause the rod to rotate in place.
It was a method of making fire using friction, known as the bow drill method. It was supposedly a common way of starting a fire in Yggdrasil, but despite his working at it for almost five minutes, there wasn’t even any smoke.
His arms were really starting to hurt, to the point he couldn’t help but want to grumble out loud.
When he heard a tired sigh from above, Yuuto looked up to see Sigrún, who had likely come over to check on him, looking down at him with an exasperated expression.
“ᛚᛖᛜᛞ: ᛃᚨᚷ ᚷᛟᛉ.” With that, Sigrún forcefully snatched the bow out of Yuuto’s hands and re-wrapped the string around the wooden rod.
In less than ten seconds, there were puffs of white smoke rising from the board.
“Wait, but how?!” Yuuto raised his voice in wonder.
Sigrún ignored him, and with a well-practiced motion, she collected the small pile of blackened sawdust — now containing a tiny, fragile ember — and transferred it to a piece of cotton made from Osmunda fern.
She then placed the cotton into the center of the thin twigs and sticks that had been piled up as kindling, and blew gently. After a few moments, the fire crackled to life.
“Ohh, wow!” Yuuto found himself vocalizing his amazement and clapping his hands in applause.
Sigrún frowned at him with a complicated expression, and made a shooing gesture at him with her hands.
Even without understanding her language, Yuuto could understand that she was telling him that he was in the way.
With nothing left for him to do, Yuuto headed over to where Felicia was.
As Yuuto approached, Felicia turned around as if she could sense his presence, and greeted him happily. “ᛒᛉᛟᛞᛖᛉ!”
It warmed his heart all the more after the cold shoulder he’d just gotten from Sigrún.
She chanted the Connections galldr without Yuuto having to say anything. The process had become second nature to her.
“Were you able to start the fire?” Felicia asked.
“Not at all. Sigrún ended up shooing me away.”
“Oh dear,” Felicia giggled.
She was busy using a knife to gut the fish she had caught earlier. If this were Japan, a girl of around her age would surely be grossed out by such an activity, but Felicia didn’t seem to mind at all, grabbing and tossing out the guts with her bare hands.
“Hey, Felicia, about that knife, is it made of gold?” Yuuto asked.
“Big Brother, this is bronze. Gold is much too valuable to use for something like cooking.”
“This is bronze? But it’s not green at all.”
The bronze Yuuto was familiar with was a mossy, greenish color, like the old statue in his school’s courtyard. But the knife gripped in Felicia’s slender, pale fingers was a bright golden color. It had a reflective luster that didn’t bear any resemblance to his image of what bronze was like.
“I think what you are describing is likely bronze that has tarnished.”
“Ahh, I get it. So the green stuff was tarnish.”
Thinking back now, that statue in the school courtyard was exposed to the elements. After months and years of wind and rain, of course it would have tarnished. It would be strange for it to not have done so.
“Huh, so bronze starts out as this color,” he mused.
“Hee hee, this is the color of bronze knives and other blades, but the bronze we use in things like mirrors is a silver-white color.”
“Wait, there’s bronze that color, too?”
“Yes, its color varies by the amount of tin you mix with it.”
“Huh, really...” Yuuto took another, closer look at the bronze knife.
It had a novel appearance for a Japanese person like Yuuto, whose image of kitchen cutlery was the dull silver sheen of a steel hocho-style kitchen knife.
“Hmm... but wait, how come you’re using a bronze knife in the first place? Why not iron?”
“Oh my. Big Brother, you say such funny things.”
“What? No, I mean, isn’t it normal to use iron?”
“Er...? Ah, I see now. Iron is a gift from the heavens, after all. So it is used widely in the land beyond the heavens you hail from, then.”
“Wait, hold on, I don’t understand what you’re saying,” Yuuto objected. “Iron is a gift from the heavens?”
“Yes. To us, iron is something incredibly precious, which can only be obtained from stars that fall from the sky. It is even referred to as the metal of the gods. To trade for it, one would need five or even ten times its amount in gold.”
“You’re kidding me...” Yuuto was so shocked that his reply was in a quiet, raspy voice.
Yuuto had grown up as the son of a traditional swordsmith, and so iron had been a familiar part of his life for as long as he could remember. And that was supposed to be five to ten times more valuable than gold? That would mean even the failed pieces heaped in the storage building at his father’s workshop would be a literal mountain of treasure in this world.
“Huh? Wait, but that’s weird.” Yuuto’s head tilted to one side as a sudden doubt emerged.
Felicia had just claimed that they could only obtain iron from “falling stars” — in other words, meteorites — and nowhere else. But that shouldn’t be the case at all.
“Wait, it couldn’t be...!” One potential answer shot through Yuuto’s mind like a flash, leaving him stunned.
Until now he’d had a vague, general understanding that Yggdrasil was a world with a fairly primitive level of civilization and technology. But he hadn’t thought it would be to this extent.
Yuuto spoke through clenched teeth, resentfully. “I’ve finally found something only I can do, but... if this is supposed to be my ‘mission,’ then the god of fate has a real twisted sense of humor.”
That night, Yuuto spurred his tired body up the stairs of the Hliðskjálf and stood before the divine mirror.
He’d come to call Mitsuki... but that wasn’t all.
Tonight and tonight alone, there was something he needed to do first that was more important.
“Yep, there it is... so I am connected to the internet.”
He’d speculated that since phone calls went through, perhaps this would work too, and it was just as he’d surmised.
He used voice recognition to perform an online search, and the search results came back just like normal.
“But it’s gotta be this, of all things...”
A painful feeling filled his heart.
It was a path he had aspired to ever since he was a small child. But, sparked by his mother’s death, it was a path he’d decided to turn away from.
The old Japanese saying, “If you hate a monk, you’ll even hate his robes” was an apt one. Yuuto couldn’t rid himself of the revulsion he now felt towards anything related to his father.
But...
If it helps me see Mitsuki again, I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll make it through any pain or hardship. He remembered the words he’d sworn to himself after being encouraged by the old patriarch Fárbauti, and all too late, he started to regret them.
There was no way he could have known that one of the trials put upon him would be something so clearly made to spite him.
What frustrated him most of all was that there didn’t seem to be any choice in the matter, either.
The Wolf Clan was already on a countdown to its destruction. By the time this city fell into enemy hands, neither Loptr nor Felicia would likely still be alive.
Yuuto didn’t want to lose his family again.
“Good grief, what is this thing you had to tell me so late at night?” Loptr yawned heavily, and shot Yuuto a reproachful glare. “I have to head out to work early tomorrow morning, you know?”
His mood was understandable, for he had already retired for the night only to be forcefully roused out of bed.
Indeed, it was incredibly rude for a younger brother subordinate like Yuuto to have woken his superior like this, and so the fact that Loptr was letting him off with only a mild complaint showed just how lenient an older brother he was.
“Brother, try to pull yourself together, will you?” Felicia reproached him. “Big Brother Yuuto says he has something important to discuss with us.”
“It’s funny. I’m the second-in-command of the Wolf Clan, and the head of this household, and yet right now I can’t help but feel I’m at the bottom of the pecking order here.” Loptr gave an affected sigh at his sister’s unsparing attitude towards him.
Yuuto felt a pang of sympathy for him. He was a good brother who cared deeply about his little sister, but that wasn’t going to earn him any reprieve from her.
And, in a way, Yuuto was the root of that problem, too.
“I’m confident that this is far more important than what you have planned for tomorrow,” Yuuto said.
“Oh, really now. That’s big talk. If it turns out to be nothing special, you’ll regret...”
“I know how to smelt and refine iron.”
“What did you say?!”
“Huuuh?!”
The two golden-haired siblings goggled at him in unison. At that moment, their expressions were mirror images of each other.
They really are related, Yuuto reflected, his amusement somewhat at odds with the seriousness of the situation.
“You’re not lying or joking, right?” His usual confident smile gone, Loptr was utterly serious, and looked Yuuto straight in the eyes.
In an instant, the Wolf Clan second-in-command’s intense drowsiness had been banished completely. That was how shocking Yuuto’s single statement was.
“If I were, I would have picked a better time for it,” Yuuto assured him. He wasn’t cheeky enough to disturb the sleep of the man whose house he was freeloading in for the sake of a joke. “I found several deposits of iron sand on the banks of the river. If we use that, we can make a sizable amount of iron. It seems everyone here mainly uses bronze, so if you had iron, it would be a large power-up for your army, right?”
“It would. Of course it would.” Loptr spoke conclusively, without an ounce of doubt.
Loptr himself hadn’t yet had the opportunity to handle the stuff himself, but he’d learned by word of mouth that weapons and armor forged from meteoric iron were far stronger than conventional ones made from bronze.
If he could get such extremely powerful weapons into the hands of his rank and file soldiers, there was no mistaking that the Wolf Clan army would experience a sharp jump in strength.
“It wouldn’t just be a matter of escaping our current danger,” Loptr continued. “It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that we could launch our own assault, and take back the lands stolen from us by the Claw Clan.”
“Amazing!” Felicia cried. “My intuition was correct, after all! Big Brother, you are indeed the messenger sent by Angrboða herself to grant victory to our Wolf Clan.”
“Like I said, I’ve never heard of that name. And besides... I can’t guarantee that it’ll actually work out well.” Yuuto threw cold water on the two siblings’ excitement.
“Mm? What do you mean? You know the method, right?” Loptr asked.
“Yes, as information. It’s just... I’ve never actually tried it myself.”
Just once, he’d had the chance to assist with one portion of the iron-refining process. No, saying “assist” would be presumptuous.
As something of a workplace experience field trip, he’d only been allowed to be involved with a few of the highlights. It wasn’t like he’d been able to observe and work on the whole process from beginning to end.
It was just like knowing how to ride a bicycle.
To ride a bicycle, you maintained your center of balance while rotating the pedals with your feet. You came to a stop by gripping the brakes. You changed direction by turning the handlebars.
One could describe the knowledge of how to ride a bicycle this way, but by no means did that mean that just hearing that information was enough for someone to ride successfully.
Nowadays, the act of riding a bicycle came as easily and naturally to Yuuto as breathing, but it was something he’d learned the hard way back at the beginning of elementary school, falling over and over, until his body itself remembered. It was only after acquiring that experience, learning those little tricks and aspects of riding that couldn’t be easily described with words, that he could truly ride well.
To ride while doing a wheelie, you just focus your weight to the back and yank the handlebars upward to make the front wheel rise into the air, and afterwards, you just maintain your balance. Even though he had the knowledge of how to do it, Yuuto could easily see himself failing spectacularly were he actually to try it.
“More than likely, there will be a lot of trial and error, and I’ll fail many times,” Yuuto said. “Of course, I’m confident that I will eventually succeed. But I can’t promise that it’ll go smoothly in the meantime.”
“Hmm...”
“And also... I won’t be able to accomplish it by myself, and there will be a bunch of expenses involved, too,” Yuuto added. “I don’t have the power to arrange for any of that, either. So that’s why, um...”
At the end, Yuuto had trouble getting the words out.
He didn’t have the courage to say it.
It was far too shameless a request to make.
“...All right,” Loptr said. “I’ll find a way to take care of that part of it.”
“A-are you sure?!” Yuuto was so surprised at how easily his request was accepted that he couldn’t help but question it.
Loptr shrugged his shoulders and gave a wry smile. “It is a pretty preposterous claim on its face, to be sure. My other clan brothers might say I’ve lost my mind. But come on, Yuuto. You’re my little brother, and I’m your big brother.”
“Th-thank you very much, Big Brother!!” Yuuto was once again filled with admiration at Loptr’s generosity.
Since arriving in Yggdrasil, Yuuto had done nothing but shame himself. In the city of Iárnviðr, if one mentioned black hair, there was no one who hadn’t heard of Sköll, the Devourer of Blessings. He couldn’t even speak the language here properly.
And to the people of a world who only knew of iron as a gift that fell from the heavens, Yuuto’s claim would sound like a pipe dream.
His older brother was offering to trust in Yuuto and his suspicious claims, with no proof, and allocate both capital and personnel to him.
Yuuto was so grateful he felt he might cry.
“So this is the workshop belonging to one of the greatest master blacksmiths of this generation, huh?” Yuuto whispered to himself as he looked up at the building made of sun-dried bricks.
He could hear the Clang! Clang! of the hammer echoing from inside, a sound that made him feel nostalgic.
He was in a corner of the residential part of town surrounding the palace walls. It was an area where relatively more well-off members of the Wolf Clan lived.
It was fresh scenery for Yuuto, who so far hadn’t set foot anywhere other than the city’s main thoroughfare and the bazaar.
“Wow, it seems kind of impressive,” Yuuto murmured.
Though Yuuto had taken note of Loptr’s praise of this smith, he hadn’t really been awed by it. His own father had been lauded and praised by all the hobbyists and lovers of the fine arts as a master craftsman of the modern era.
So what?! a voice in his heart shouted in rebellion.
“Yes, I’m sure you’ll find a great deal of help and assistance here,” Loptr said. “And also, and this is the most important part, this master smith is someone I trust deeply. We can’t afford any chance of letting the knowledge of how to refine iron reach our neighbors, after all.”
He made sure to speak those last words in a low voice only Yuuto could hear.
With that imposing implication hanging in the air, Yuuto gulped nervously.
“Ingrid, I’m coming in.” Loptr gave a casual greeting as he opened the door, and made his way inside.
“U-um, pardon me for intruding!” A little timidly, Yuuto bowed his head and followed suit.
In an instant, hot air blew against him. A furnace made from clay was blazing brightly, and at an anvil stood a lone young girl swinging her hammer with intense concentration.
“Wait, it’s a girl?!” Yuuto shouted, doubting his eyes.
He’d heard this was a master blacksmith of remarkable ability, whose name was known even in distant lands, so he’d pictured a sour-faced and gruff middle-aged man. But the young girl in front of him was actually quite cute. She looked around the same age as him, with unruly, short hair.
The girl stopped swinging her hammer and turned around. “Hm? Oh hey, it’s Big Brother Loptr. Long time no see. Do you need to order a new weapon or something?”
She wiped the sweat from her face with her sleeve and gave them a lively smile.
“Actually, there’s a favor I’d like to ask of you,” Loptr said. “It’s a major job.”
“Oh, really?” There was a sparkle of interest in her slightly upturned eyes. She hadn’t been the least bit hesitant at the mention of a major job. If anything, it seemed to excite her.
“Yuuto, let me introduce her to you. This is Ingrid. She’s the youngest of our Wolf Clan’s five proud Einherjar, and bearer of the rune Ívaldi, the Birther of Blades.”
“I-it’s nice to meet you. M-my name is Yuuto Suoh.” Yuuto frantically straightened his posture as he introduced himself, and then humbly lowered his head.
In the past month, he’d come to learn that in Yggdrasil, Einherjar were seen as special and important. And she’d also called Loptr her “Big Brother.” Since she wasn’t related to him by blood, that could only mean that they shared the same clan parent via the Oath of the Chalice.
She looked no older than Yuuto, but there was no mistaking the implication that meant she had exchanged the Oath of the Chalice directly with the clan patriarch, and was at least a candidate for the upper echelons of the clan.
He decided it would behoove him to avoid giving a bad impression of himself.
Unfortunately...
“Tch. We’ve already met, jerk.” Ingrid shot a fierce glare at Yuuto and clicked her tongue in irritation.
“Wha?” Taken aback and unsure what was going on, Yuuto looked more closely at the girl in front of him. But he still didn’t recognize her. “Um, have we met somewhere before?”
“Yeah, we did, and just three days ago, in fact!”
“Wha— Huh?!”
“You still can’t remember, huh? Well, that’s rich. You can go and kick a girl’s leg at full strength and then just forget about it, huh? That’s pretty damn brazen.”
“Ah... Aaah!” At that, Yuuto finally remembered. She was the girl whose leg he’d kicked by accident while stomping around in a fit back while depressed and sulking.
The faces of people from a foreign land had a tendency to look quite similar to him. He remembered that the girl from back then had had red hair, but he hadn’t properly remembered her face.
On the other hand, from her perspective, Yuuto had a face and hair color that were both incredibly rare in Yggdrasil. There was no way she could have forgotten him.
There was no way the two of them could have foreseen at this point in time that their chance reunion would, quite literally, make history for the world of Yggdrasil.
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