PROLOGUE
With her rune Skírnir, the Expressionless Servant, Felicia was an Einherjar possessing both wisdom and strength.
That said, when it came to matters of combat she was no match for the likes of Sigrún or Skáviðr, and in the realm of politics she was nowhere near as skilled as Jörgen or Linnea. Even in regards to magics such as the galldr and seiðr, she could not match the abilities of an Einherjar who specialized in them.
There were a number of other skills she had cultivated, but none of them were on the same level as a specialist.
She could learn to do almost anything, but she could never attain full mastery of anything.
In the past, that was something she’d held an inferiority complex over, but now it was something she was proud of.
It was true that all of her various knowledge and abilities fell short of those held by career professionals. In more negative terms, she was nothing more than a dabbler. However, that also set her apart from those without any understanding at all.
She could have an informed conversation with specialists in any field. She was able to understand and take into consideration their particular situation and needs, and in most cases that meant she could use her position to find realistic points of common ground.
Her beloved master, Yuuto Suoh, drew on knowledge that he called “cheats” and which spanned many different disciplines. On the other hand, there were also many cases where Yuuto himself was surprisingly lacking in areas of specialized or even common knowledge.
And so, as it happened, a so-called jack of all trades and master of none like Felicia was the perfect person to smoothly facilitate connections between Yuuto and the many different experts in those areas.
“All right! I’ll do my best today, as well!” Felicia psyched herself up for the day’s work as she got dressed.
Lately it had gotten noticeably colder, so she had updated her priestess outfit to a new one, complete with a white robe.
The warmer attire showed off less skin, and the fact that she no longer felt her sworn big brother’s gaze upon her chest anymore made her a little sad inside (Yuuto might have been trying his best to hide it, but women are very sensitive to people’s gazes). However, if she wore more revealing clothing during this weather and caught a cold, she’d end up causing problems for him, which wouldn’t be worth it at all.
“Besides, Big Brother told me this outfit looks good on me,” she reminded herself.
Smiling and giggling to herself, she picked up a clay tablet from the huge stack on her desk.
Yuuto had accomplished an incredible amount of rapid progress for the Wolf Clan as its patriarch, and now all manner of correspondence arrived for him from within and without the nation’s borders. However, a good many of them were also not important to be worth troubling him directly over.
Part of Felicia’s early morning work each day was reading through all of them while her brother was still asleep, picking out which ones she should pass on to him.
“Oh, this one is addressed to me? My, my, I wonder if it’s another marriage proposal.”
Felicia frequently received formal requests for marriage, for she was a gentle-mannered girl of exceptional beauty.
She already had someone to whom she’d decided to pledge everything of herself, so she had no choice but to politely and carefully decline every one of them, but whenever she met with older members of the clan, they would always say things like, “I can’t believe you’re already that old and haven’t even married,” complaining right to her face.
Honestly, it was incredibly irritating. Thanks to that, nowadays just hearing mention of her age was enough to bring out a more unseemly side of her.
“...Huh?” As Felicia read the message addressed to her, her expression grew more and more tense.
Her face grew pale, and her body began to tremble.
“Ugh!!” Before she fully realized it, she’d hurled the message onto the floor with all her strength, smashing it.
It was only a brittle tablet made of a thin layer of baked clay, so it broke at once into pieces that scattered across the floor.
“Hm? Everything okay, Felicia?” Yuuto’s voice called out from the next room.
For the sake of security, one had to pass through Felicia’s room in order to get to Yuuto’s. Additionally, in order to enter Felicia’s room, one had to pass through Sigrún’s. It was an ironclad defense.
“Y-yes, I am fine,” she said quickly. “I merely dropped one of the messages. There’s nothing to worry about. Did I wake you? I am truly sorry, Big Brother.”
“Nah, don’t worry, I was already up.”
“I see. That is a relief.” As Felicia exhaled in relief, she quickly began to clean up the fragments of the broken message.
Even though she knew Yuuto couldn’t read it, she still didn’t want to let something like this remain somewhere he could see it, not for a moment longer.
Her eyes stopped for a second on one of the larger fragments, and the words written on it.
“Inform my dearly beloved younger sister, Felicia. I am your older brother—”
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