ACT 3
“So... it wasn’t a dream...” Lying on a hard bed, Mitsuki looked up at the unfamiliar yellow-brown ceiling above her, and gave a long sigh.
Last night, they had performed the Gleipnir ritual two more times, but still failed to summon Yuuto.
Felicia had fainted as she was finishing the spell incantation during the third try; she must surely have used up every ounce of her mental strength. At that point there had been no choice but to call things off for the night.
After that, Mitsuki had managed to exchange a few words with Yuuto and her parents, but she didn’t really remember it too well. The shock of the situation had put a fog over her mind.
The part she clearly did remember was being told that the next summoning would need to take place during the next full moon — in other words, almost a month from now.
And furthermore, there was no real guarantee that Yuuto would be able to make it to Yggdrasil even then.
Actually, going by the results they’d gotten this time, it was easier to assume the chances of summoning him successfully were rather low.
There had to be some sort of cause, some factor preventing them from summoning Yuuto. Until they took care of whatever that was, Mitsuki was going to be staying in Yggdrasil alone.
There was a chance she might even be alone here until the day she died...
Her whole body began to shiver, and she felt her teeth chattering. She felt tears falling down her face, one after the other.
“Mitsuki ᛋᛃᛋᚦᛖᛉ.” A voice called to her from outside the entrance to her room.
“Ah... y-yes?” Mitsuki hurriedly wiped her tears and replied as best she could.
If nothing else, she was the woman betrothed to the patriarch of the Wolf Clan. If she let herself be seen sobbing pathetically on her very first day here, it would bring shame to Yuuto.
“ᛞᚢ ᛟᚠᛟᛉᛋᚲᚨᛗᛞ.” With those unintelligible words, Felicia entered the room.
Seeing her this up close, Mitsuki once again found herself in awe of how beautiful she was.
With someone like this always pushing for his affection, it was a wonder that Yuuto had been able to keep in control of himself all this time. Mitsuki was a girl, and even she felt a little lightheaded in the woman’s alluring presence.
“ᚷᛟᛞ ᛗᛟᛉᚷᛟᛜ.” Felicia addressed her with a smile, but of course Mitsuki had no idea what she was saying.
It gave her a real sense of how hard it must have been for Yuuto three years ago. It was something she had known about already, but now that she was experiencing it firsthand, she had to admit that it was far worse than she’d ever imagined.
Even the most basic of basic communication was a painstaking task, and the stress from that was no joke.
Mitsuki found herself at a loss, wondering if she’d really be able to carry on like this... and then her thoughts were interrupted by the melody of a lovely song.
“Huh?” Mitsuki looked up to see Felicia smiling brightly down at her.
“Big Sister Mitsuki, can you understand my words?”
“Wha? Whoaaa!” Mitsuki couldn’t stop herself from shouting in delighted surprise. “Y-yes, I can, I can! What is this? It feels so strange!”
The words she was hearing with her actual ears were still a string of meaningless syllables. And yet, she could still understand what they meant.
Mitsuki found herself growing excited as she experienced this mysterious new sensation. This had to be a “galdr,” that song magic she had heard about! Which meant this spell was “Connections,” which enabled communication between people of disparate languages.
“That is wonderful to hear,” said Felicia. “Please allow me to formally introduce myself to you. I am Felicia, and I serve as Big Brother Yuuto’s assistant and military adjutant.”
Smiling softly, Felicia introduced herself with ladylike grace.
Mitsuki suddenly felt terribly childish at having let herself get carried away in her excitement. She hurriedly straightened herself up and bowed politely to Felicia.
“M-my name is Mitsuki Shimoya. I’ve known Yuuto since we were both really little, and, um... um, now, w-we’re going to be getting married...”
“Yes, I know. After three years, you were finally supposed to be together with him, and yet once again, I have caused you to be apart. It is inexcusable, and I am truly sorry.” Felicia bowed her head deeply, her shoulders trembling. It was clear that she felt a deep personal shame.
Mitsuki felt averse to interrogating Felicia in this state, but there were still questions she had to ask. “Um, does it seem like Yuu-kun will be able to make it over here?”
Last night, Felicia had collapsed, so Mitsuki hadn’t yet gotten the chance to ask why the summoning ritual had failed.
“I have come to you this morning in order to discuss exactly that issue,” Felicia said. “Please, if you will come with me...”
“Big Sister Mitsuki, this way, please,” Felicia directed.
“R-right.”
Mitsuki was led into a room, and the instant she set foot through the doorway, the intense glares of dozens of people all locked onto her at once, and she reflexively shrank back with an, “Eek!”
Everyone in the room had hard, grizzled faces, and sharp, piercing eyes. The pressure was so intense that she was grateful she had taken a trip to the bathroom beforehand.
There were a few young women in the room too, but all of them also had a tense, powerful air about them.
Oh... oh... sh-should I introduce myself to them, or say some sort of greeting? But... but I’m so scared that I can’t even talk!
She felt like she’d just walked into a scene from a Yakuza movie, where the hardened leaders of the organization sat around a table in council. As just an ordinary person, she was completely out of her element.
As she stood there, overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the room and frozen in place, the room filled with the sound of clattering chairs as everyone stood up.
Eeek! Did I do something wrong? What did I do?! Mitsuki shrank back and covered her face with her arms.
“Good morning to you, Mother!” A chorus of hearty voices greeted her, and then everyone bowed deeply to her.
“Eh? Whaat?!” Mitsuki was left stunned, blinking in confusion. She couldn’t understand what was happening.
“Thank you very much for coming to see us.” A large, bear-like man in the back of the room addressed Mitsuki with incredibly polite language. “As things were so confused last night, I was unable to make a proper introduction, so please allow me now to welcome you on behalf of our clan. I am Jörgen, Lord Yuuto’s sworn son, and the second-in-command of the Wolf Clan. It is a great pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
The second-in-command was the highest-ranked clan officer, treated as the “eldest child” in terms of the clan’s family power dynamic. And with Yuuto currently absent, he also would shoulder all of the authority and responsibility of the patriarch.
As expected of someone with such an important role, the man had an intensity to his presence above and beyond the other people gathered in the room.
Mitsuki was temporarily rendered breathless, but she finally snapped out of it and straightened her posture before replying.
“Um, um, I’m M-Mitsuki Shimoya. L-likewise, I’m pleased to meet you, and I hope we get along well.” She quickly bowed her head several times as she stammered out her introduction.
She worried that acting too timidly might cause the others to look down on her, but she was just a normal Japanese girl, and this was how her body reacted reflexively to the situation, and it was too late to do anything about that.
“If you would, Mother, your seat is right here,” Jörgen explained, indicating the seat next to his.
“Ah, um, yes.” Mitsuki nodded, once again reflexively. But she winced as she took a good look at the seat.
Mitsuki’s place at the table was very obviously different from everyone else’s. It was the only chair with armrests, and it had a soft-looking red cushion and drapings. It looked just like a throne.
And, of course, it was right next to Jörgen, the fiercest-faced man in the room.
What kind of torture is this? Mitsuki wondered, but she didn’t have the courage to speak up and ask for a different seat.
She gave up, and forcing herself to carry herself as tall as possible, tried her best to make her way gracefully to her seat.
As Mitsuki made her way to her place at the table, she could sense the nearby men tensing up as she passed by them.
It seemed these people were all just as nervous as she was. That thought made it just a little bit easier on her.
But though she managed to make it to her seat, everyone in the room remained standing up.
She didn’t want to just rudely sit down by herself, so she waited, watching the room for some kind of sign.
Felicia, who had been following closely behind her, subtly whispered into her ear, “Please have a seat, Big Sister Mitsuki.”
“Huh? But I can’t do that if everyone else is standing. It wouldn’t be right.”
“On the contrary, Big Sister; you are the person of highest status here. How could those of us beneath you sit while you are still standing?”
“Ohhh, but...” Mitsuki whimpered nervously. “A-all right, I understand.”
I have to do it. This is their custom, she told herself, and though it was difficult, she forced herself to sit down first.
However, even after she did so, no one else showed any signs of moving to sit.
Wait, what’s going on? Did I make some kind of mistake? Inwardly, she began fearing the worst.
“Big Sister, please give everyone the order to sit,” Felicia whispered.
Another whisper in her ear, and once more, it was giving her an incredibly difficult task.
She was a young girl who’d only just turned sixteen, surrounded by a room full of adults with fierce faces and commanding auras, and she was supposed to order these people around? “Unreasonable” would be an understatement.
Honestly, she wanted to ask if she could get out of having to do it, but if she didn’t go through with it, nobody else was going to be able to sit down. She would certainly feel guilty about making everyone stay standing through the whole meeting.
Mitsuki resigned herself to the task and timidly spoke up. “E-everyone, please take your seats.”
She kept her voice soft and her tone polite, doing her best to try to avoid making the order sound high-handed.
But despite that, everyone replied with a powerful, spirited, “Yes, ma’am!!” and sat down quickly.
Yuu-kun, just how much do these people worship you? she wondered. They were responding like this even to her, his fiancée.
She had already known that Yuuto’s status as patriarch was something like being a king, but she’d never imagined he was the object of this much absolute loyalty and devotion.
I see. This must be the kind of treatment the son of a CEO gets from the company employees, she found herself thinking offhandedly. I bet that’s why those kinds of people end up thinking they’re just as important, and start acting all high and mighty.
Fortunately, Mitsuki’s parents hadn’t raised a fool. She knew these people weren’t showing her this respect because of anything she herself had done.
She understood that it wasn’t respect for her, really: When they looked at her, they saw Yuuto, whom she represented, as if he were standing behind her. They were being deferential toward him.
“Jörgen, I will leave the rest to you,” Mitsuki said politely. “Please don’t mind me and proceed with the meeting.”
After that one polite command, she was silent. She had only just arrived, and didn’t know anything about how things worked here.
She had a ton of questions she wanted to ask about Yuuto, but she desperately did her best to suppress her impatient feelings. It wouldn’t be good for her to butt in and take over the discussion right now.
One could say that Mitsuki’s judgment here was the fruit of her preparations before coming to Yggdrasil. Once she had committed to marrying Yuuto — and, therefore, becoming the wife of a clan patriarch — she had researched various famous (and infamous) wives of Japanese and Chinese history, to serve as examples.
“Thank you,” said Jörgen. “In that case, I would like to begin this council meeting. My sincere thanks to all present for gathering so early in the morning.”
He stood from his chair and, having addressed the room of seated members, bowed to them once.
“I am sure everyone here wants to know the same thing... Aunt Felicia. As the one who performed the rite, I would like for you to give us your account of what happened last night.”
“Right.” Felicia stood up.
Everyone’s eyes locked onto her. Few of those gazes were friendly or supportive; in fact, it seemed as if the majority were looking at her with blame in their eyes.
In the midst of all those criticizing stares, Felicia stated her case firmly. “In regard to the summoning rite itself, I believe that all of the steps were performed without mistake or oversight, and that it was not the issue. Big Sister Mitsuki being summoned here is proof positive of that.”
Several of the seated clan members furrowed their brows, and their gazes grew harder.
As if to speak on their behalf, an elderly-looking man with white hair spat, “So there was no fault on your part, is that what you’re trying to say? But the fact of the matter is, you weren’t able to summon Lord Yuuto!”
“Great-Uncle Bruno, please,” Jörgen intervened. “I think it might be difficult for Aunt Felicia to speak freely if you are so confrontational with her.”
But the sharp-tongued man called Bruno did not back down. “You’re too soft, second-in-command! This woman doesn’t understand just how serious this is. After the huge defeat at Gashina, and with Lord Yuuto being nowhere to be seen, anxiety is spreading among the soldiers and citizens alike. The Panther and Lightning Clans have forged an alliance with the Oath of the Sibling Chalice. You know just how dangerous it will be for Lord Yuuto to remain absent for much longer...”
“Heh.” Jörgen smirked.
“You think this is funny?!”
“Ah, no, no, forgive my rudeness, great-uncle,” Jörgen said quickly. “It’s just that, hearing those words from you when you were once so opposed to allowing Father to assume the position of patriarch... things sure have a way of changing with time.”
“Why are you dragging that up now?!” Bruno snapped at him. “And even back then, I was acting in what I believed was the best interest of the Wolf Clan... Right now, I see him as the central pillar of the Wolf Clan, someone we cannot do without!”
“Yes, yes, I know,” said Jörgen. “That is all the more reason why we cannot afford another failure, and so we should stay calm and let Aunt Felicia speak. Otherwise, we’ll have nothing to base our plans on.”
“Grr...! Fine.” Bruno growled and made a face as bitter as if he’d swallowed a bug, then reluctantly nodded.
Mitsuki got the sense that Bruno had been speaking the truth, at least from his perspective. Perhaps even that man was being tormented by feelings of anxiety and unease.
And judging by the number of sharp looks directed at Felicia, he likely wasn’t alone. It was potentially true of many of the people here.
The situation here might be far graver than Mitsuki had originally thought.
After confirming that things had settled down, Felicia spoke up again. “Is it all right if I continue?”
“Yes, go ahead.” Jörgen motioned for her to do so.
Felicia nodded. “There is something I noticed during the first performance of the rite, that I thought might just be a misunderstanding on my part, but during the second and third attempts, I felt it much more clearly.”
“Hmm, go on.”
“When I cast Gleipnir, I definitely felt it grasp onto something. However, in the next instant, it was repelled, and then dissolved as if canceled out.”
“You mean that someone else was interfering with it, then?”
“Yes. I think it is Sigyn’s Fimbulvetr, which undid my previous Gleipnir. I believe the effects of that spell might still be active.”
Jörgen clicked his tongue in irritation. “Tch. I see. So that’s what it is.” He practically spat out the words in disgust. “In other words, even if we perform the summoning rite at the next full moon, it’s most likely that it will be blocked again by Fimbulvetr and fail. Is that right?”
“...Yes, unfortunately. My power as a user of seiðr is far, far lower than Sigyn’s. Last night only further served to make me painfully aware of that great difference in power between us. I do not think it possible for me to break through the power of her spell.”
“You ‘do not think it possible’?” Bruno exploded. “Don’t give us that! How can you speak of this so lightly?! You have to do it! If the enemy’s spell is blocking you, then show some willpower and break through it!”
Once again Bruno pelted Felicia with angry shouts, his voice roaring.
A few of the other Wolf Clan officers shouted too, following Bruno’s lead.
“Y-yeah, that’s right!”
“You can’t get away with just saying you can’t do it! The fate of the Wolf Clan itself is riding on this!”
It was true that even now, the military threat from the Panther and Lightning Clans was pressing in upon them. At this late stage, perhaps they simply couldn’t allow themselves to accept Felicia’s word that she was unable to summon Yuuto.
Suddenly, a cold voice cut through the din like a knife.
“If you understand how serious this is and you’re only going to go on about foolish things like ‘willpower’ and ‘determination,’ then shut that mouth of yours. You’re wasting our time.”
It was Sigrún.
Her remarks toward her sworn great-uncle were so unmistakably insulting that it instantly brought a hush over the room.
“You little...! You dare speak that way to me, girl?!” Bruno’s face twisted with indignation as he began to berate her, but Sigrún shot right back at him.
“Oh, shut up! You know there’s no way Felicia wouldn’t have done everything in her power! Did you not see for yourself last night how she kept going until she collapsed?!”
Of course, now that Bruno had been spoken to so disrespectfully by a girl beneath him in station, he could not back down, lest he lose face.
They glared at each other, and sparks seemed to fly between them.
“R-Rún, I’m happy you want to stand up for me, but...” Felicia said nervously.
“Yes, that was far too rude a way to act toward your great-uncle, Sigrún,” Jörgen cut in. “Apologize.”
Neither of them seemed to want to allow this conflict to continue.
The reason why only Sigrún was being reprimanded was that, according to the official customs of the clan, Bruno held a much higher status than her within the “family tree,” as her great-uncle.
The majority of the people in the meeting room were glaring at Sigrún reproachfully.
However, there were exceptions.
“I happen to agree with Big Sister Sigrún’s opinion.” A small young girl, her appearance at odds with this gathering of fierce-looking clan officers, scoffed. “By careful calculation and preparation, one wins the battle by design. That is how my birth father Botvid operates, and it is Father’s ideal, as well. Demanding that one simply make do with willpower is the statement of a fool.”
“How dare you speak that way!” Bruno roared. “You might be the daughter by birth of the Claw Clan patriarch, but here you are nothing more than a low-ranked newcomer!”
“I would say much the same to you, someone who is far from Father’s loyal subordinate,” Kristina sneered. “After all this time, you still haven’t even exchanged the Oath of the Chalice with him in any capacity. As a dead offshoot branch of this family, please refrain from interrupting us every few seconds, if you can. It really slows down our discussion.”
“Whaat?!” This seemed to be too much for Bruno, and he glared at Kristina with indignation, but she just smiled coolly back at him and said nothing.
Standing next to her, Albertina stood with both hands over her mouth, glancing worriedly back and forth between the two of them as they glared at each other.
Wow, this is getting really nasty, Mitsuki thought. If Yuuto doesn’t get here soon, there really might be some kind of internal split in the clan.
It was harrowing to watch, but she could do nothing but watch quietly and see where things went from here.
She’d heard the saying “Get three people together and you’ll get a factional split” before, and what she’d seen so far today told her that the Wolf Clan was certainly not a monolithic organization.
On the other hand, she could feel the same absolute loyalty to Yuuto from everyone here right now.
Perhaps Yuuto’s presence had been so large and influential that it had held everyone together until now.
“Ahem.” Jörgen cleared his throat and turned to Felicia, resetting the discussion. “A-anyway, let us continue. Aunt Felicia.”
His behavior was just what one would expect from an organization’s second-in-command.
“I have no reason to doubt that you used every extent of your abilities last night,” Jörgen continued. “However, the Wolf Clan’s current situation means that failure will not be an excuse for you, or for us. Is there nothing we can do about this?”
“As I explained a few moments ago, the gulf in power between Sigyn and myself is too vast. I would be prepared to sacrifice even my life if it would make a difference. However...”
Felicia bit her lower lip, clearly frustrated beyond words. Her shoulders and her clenched fists were trembling.
Everyone knew that this woman was Yuuto’s most trusted friend and advisor. And Mitsuki had the impression, though this was still only a guess on her part, that Felicia also loved Yuuto romantically.
Bruno had scolded Felicia and questioned her willpower, but the truth was that out of everyone here, the one who had most wanted the summoning to succeed, and the one who was most angry at Felicia for the failure, was probably Felicia herself.
“Hey, uh, I’m not really gonna get any of the complicated stuff about the condition of the Wolf Clan, but...” A red-haired girl at the table spoke hesitantly, scratching the back of her head. “Does this mean if we can get our hands on a seiðr user as strong as Sigyn, we can get Yuuto back?”
Mitsuki hadn’t been introduced to the red-haired girl yet, but she’d seen the girl’s face in some of the pictures Yuuto had sent her.
This was Ingrid, whom Yuuto had worked together with to create a variety of weapons and tools for the clan. She was known as the Birther of Blades, Ívaldi, after her rune of the same name.
Felicia’s face did not brighten at hearing Ingrid’s suggestion. “It is theoretically possible. However, those who can use seiðr magic are already rare to begin with. If we are talking about those equal to or stronger than Sigyn, then...”
“You could search all of Yggdrasil and find fewer of them than you could count on one hand,” finished Kristina. “And in this local region, I do not think we would find any at all.”
Kristina was the girl in charge of the Wolf Clan’s intelligence gathering. Furthermore, she had already done research on prominent users of seiðr before, at Yuuto’s request. Young girl though she might be, her words carried a considerable persuasive weight.
“Yes, that’s true,” Felicia said quietly. “The only one I can think of offhand is...”
She stared at Mitsuki.
Mitsuki had been outside of the conversation as a mere observer this whole time, so the sudden attention surprised her a bit.
Naturally, Mitsuki couldn’t use any magic, seiðr or otherwise. So then, why was Felicia staring at her? After a moment, Mitsuki hit on the answer.
“Oh, right, Rífa!” Mitsuki clapped her hands, recalling the girl who supposedly had the exact same face as her own.
In this world, runes and their power were proof of being chosen by the gods as Einherjar, and Rífa held not one but two runes. There were said to be only two people in all of Yggdrasil with two runes, and on top of that, Rífa was specifically a rare seiðr user of unmatched skill and power.
The other holder of twin runes, the Lightning Clan patriarch Steinþórr, was supposedly a man of ridiculous strength. He had been surrounded and attacked by seven other Einherjar and fought them all off by himself. That was just how powerful twin runes were. One would think that Rífa would surely have no trouble breaking an enemy spell, even one cast by Sigyn, the Witch of Miðgarðr.
“Lady Rífa? What is important about Lady Rífa?” Jörgen asked, not understanding why the name had suddenly come up.
That was because Rífa’s abilities and identity had been kept top secret in order to avoid the confusion it would cause if she were found out. Only a select few knew the truth.
Kristina sighed, then spoke up. “Father forbade us from saying anything, but I suppose it’s fine, now. Rífa is nothing more than an alias she used, based on a beloved nickname. Her real name is Sigrdrífa.”
“What?!” Jörgen shouted, along with many others in the room, and there were several audible gasps.
Every person in Yggdrasil knew the name Sigrdrífa.
“Y-you mean, H-Her Imperial Majesty, þjóðann Sigrdrífa?! You mean that was her?!” Jörgen’s shout was practically a scream.
“Precisely.” Kristina nodded slowly.
The excited murmurs in the crowded room grew even more numerous.
Mitsuki knew that it was hard to blame them for their shock at the revelation. After all, she’d gotten an earful of complaints from Yuuto about the girl’s behavior on more than one occasion.
That socially uncouth troublemaker of a “princess” was actually the divine empress, the person who held the position of greatest authority and historical dignity in all of Yggdrasil. Hearing something like that, it would be harder not to be surprised.
“Why did you keep that a secret?!” Jörgen screamed. “...No, right, it was on Father’s orders.”
“Yes, so I ask your forgiveness.”
“Rrgh... then it’s fine,” Jörgen muttered. “I can guess the overall reasons for it. If one wished to conquer the lands of Yggdrasil, then capturing Her Majesty would be the fastest and most direct method to advance that goal. Surely there would be those who would come forward suggesting that, if her identity were known. And at the same time, such a thing could easily become the trigger that ignites war. For someone as averse to conflict as Father, he would have wanted to keep things peaceful and uncomplicated.”
“It is exactly as you surmised,” Kristina said.
“Then if so, why would you bring her up...? Wait... the twin runes?!” Understanding spread across Jörgen’s face.
It was widely known in Yggdrasil that the twin runes of the þjóðann were contained in both eyes, and were passed down hereditarily from generation to generation.
It would be no exaggeration to say that that unique, divine quality was a reason the þjóðann was treated as akin to a living god by the people.
Kristina nodded. “Yes, her power is indeed befitting of the reputation of the twin-rune Einherjar. She can even cast her seiðr magics in an abbreviated form, cutting out the incantations, magic circles or holy dances. Her powers are quite absurd.”
“That’s...! I see... if it were someone that powerful, she could break through Sigyn’s spell. But...” At first Jörgen’s voice was excited, but it lost its energy as he spoke, and eventually he trailed off into silence.
“Indeed,” Kristina confirmed. “It seems that Father’s lack of ambition has once again come back to haunt us. If he had made her stay here with us, this would have been so much simpler...”
“How right you are.”
Jörgen and Kristina both gave deep sighs.
“Um, is having her come visit here again not an option, or something?” Mitsuki asked the two of them the first plausible question that came to mind.
Their conversation thus far seemed to be suggesting that it probably wasn’t possible, but she wanted to be sure. Up until now, there had been a lot in their conversation that had gone unsaid, due to their shared knowledge of details.
Jörgen frowned deeply, grunting to himself before he turned to Mitsuki to reply.
“Truthfully, yes. I must admit that getting the þjóðann to visit us again would be incredibly difficult to do. She is far, far above us in terms of social station, you see. It would be possible for one of the patriarchs of the clans directly subordinate to her, perhaps.”
“Oh... but, I mean, you were her host, and took care of her needs, and earned her friendship, right? Then...”
“Even if, in theory, Her Majesty herself were willing to come, her advisor vassals would absolutely never allow it. She could not be allowed to answer the direct invitation of a lowly provincial clan lord... no, not even the invitation of the patriarch himself, but the substitute acting in his absence. If she did so, it would dirty the dignity and reputation of the position of þjóðann.”
“Oh. It sounds like this sort of thing is really difficult.”
Political affairs like this were still a bit hard for Mitsuki to understand. But from what Jörgen was saying, she could tell that it really would be incredibly difficult, pretty much impossible, to pull off.
The meeting continued on throughout the day until sunset, but there were no other good suggestions, and eventually it was called to a close.
“I wonder how Mitsuki’s doing,” Yuuto mumbled to himself listlessly. “I hope she isn’t crying right now...”
He was lying on his bed with his arms and legs splayed out, looking up at his room’s ceiling — a ceiling that yesterday he had been sure he wouldn’t see again.
The aftermath of the failed summoning had really been a mess.
He had thought of and prepared for the possibility that the summoning to Yggdrasil would fail for both of them, and that they’d have to face the very unamused faces of the family that had come to give them such an emotional sendoff. What he hadn’t thought of at all was the possibility that it would be successful just for Mitsuki, and fail for him, and that he’d have to console and reassure her desperately worried parents.
At least he’d been able to confirm Mitsuki’s safety over the phone, and he’d made sure to tell his subordinates to take responsibility for watching over her in the meantime. He’d also asserted to everyone that, next month, he’d make it to Yggdrasil without fail, and that had let him save his skin for now, but of course they hadn’t fully believed that or accepted him at his word.
Yuuto sighed. “I wish it would hurry up and get dark sooner...”
It was so frustrating that he couldn’t get in contact with Yggdrasil unless the moon was out. He wanted to know what was going on in Yggdrasil right now so badly.
Every minute, every second, felt incredibly long to him.
Feelings of anxiety and restlessness swirled within him.
“I made that promise to Mitsuki’s parents and all, but am I really gonna be able to make it next time?”
Felicia had collapsed from exhaustion the previous night, and so he hadn’t had any chance to get any good details about what happened.
Three attempts, three failures. Was there some sort of fatal flaw in their methods? Were they just going to fail again come the next full moon? No, not just next month, but forever afterward?
“Auugh, dammit! If I stay here in my room, I end up thinking these stupid thoughts! I should get up and go for a walk... hm?”
Taaaa! Ta la la! ? The new model of smartphone resting next to Yuuto’s pillow began ringing just as he was starting to hoist himself out of bed.
Because it was a new phone, he’d only given the number to a very select few people so far.
His father Tetsuhito was living in the same house, so he would have just yelled directly up to him instead of calling on the phone.
That meant it should be Mitsuki’s family. But as Yuuto looked at the screen, he saw no registered name displayed — just a long string of numbers.
“I wonder who it is?” He picked up. “...Hello?”
He paused. “Wha— Saya-san?!”
When Yuuto arrived at the diner they’d arranged to meet at, Saya was already at a seat by the window, waving to him. “Oh! Hey, over here!”
It was the middle of the day, so there were plenty of other people, but there were also quite a few unoccupied seats, too. This place was out in the sticks, after all.
Yuuto casually waved back at Saya and made his way over to her.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting.”
“No worries, I just got here myself. Actually, I’m sorry for making you come out here when things must be pretty busy for you.”
“No, my previous plans went up in smoke, so I was free.” Yuuto drooped his shoulders and gave a bitter grin as he sat in the seat across from Saya.
The waitress came by, and once they’d ordered lunch and drinks, Saya skipped the small talk and immediately got down to business.
“Today I heard from Ruri that Mitsuki-chan went to Yggdrasil. Is that true?”
“Yes... For some reason, I wasn’t able to go, though.”
“Uughhh, give me a break. Why did this have to happen without me knowing...” Saya moaned with frustration and put a hand over her forehead, as if resentful of herself.
Yuuto had been assuming that Ruri had already told Saya about the plan much earlier, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
Of course, this was someone who had helped him out. He should have taken it upon himself to tell her directly in the first place; that would have been the proper thing to do. He had been so preoccupied with persuading Mitsuki’s parents — her father, really — to let the two of them go, that he’d forgotten to let Saya know what they were trying to do.
That was clearly on him.
“I apologize,” Yuuto said. “Things were a little hectic, and I forgot to tell you about it.”
“Forgetting to tell me isn’t the problem here. Look, weren’t you always trying to make it back to this side, all that time? Why is it that you’re now up and going back to Yggdrasil? And bringing Mitsuki-chan with you, to boot?”
“The Wolf Clan army I left behind suffered a huge military loss to the armies of the Panther and Lightning Clans, and it looks like if I don’t return to them, things are going to get really, really bad. And Mitsuki, well, she said... she said she was gonna come with me.” Yuuto scratched his cheek bashfully with a finger.
Agreeing to journey across time and space to go to some far-off land to be with him wasn’t something just a childhood friend would do. In other words, stating that fact might as well be the same as stating out loud what their relationship had become.
It was naturally a little embarrassing to talk about that with someone he didn’t know too well.
“Geez, unbelievable! I figured if you were both going to stay in Japan, I wouldn’t need to tell you about it, but then that came back to bite me! And Mitsuki-chan’s already gone back to Yggdrasil! Oh, this is the worst!” In frustration, Saya ran her fingers roughly through her pretty, neatly-combed blond hair, not seeming to care how unruly she was making it.
Something was clearly up.
With growing unease, Yuuto couldn’t help but recall the conversation he’d had with Saya many days ago.
Back then, it had looked like she’d realized something about Yggdrasil.
This thing she hadn’t told him had to be related to that realization, somehow. And unmistakably, Yuuto had no difficulty imagining that whatever it was, it was an ill omen for him, or rather for the Wolf Clan.
He couldn’t let it go; he had to ask what it was.
“...Was there something you found out about Yggdrasil?” he asked, and looked Saya straight in the eyes.
Yuuto’s face had changed from that of a mere young man to the face of a young lord, ruler of his own clan and defender of the sister clans under his protection, with the weight of hundreds of thousands of lives resting on his shoulders.
“Yes, I found it, all right. I discovered what Yggdrasil really is.”
“R-really?!”
“If things were going to turn out this way, I should have told you sooner. So that it would keep you from going back.”
“Ah...!” Yuuto gasped. “What is it?! Just what is the secret behind Yggdrasil?!”
Saya’s ominous phrasing had stirred up the anxiety within him. With that kind of language, it must really be something bad.
Yuuto gulped, waiting. Saya slowly opened her mouth to speak.
“I’ll just go ahead and say it, then. The true identity of Yggdrasil. It’s...”
“Wooow, look at this feast! It all looks so delicious!” Mitsuki’s eyes sparkled as she looked over the colorful display of foods lined up on the table.
Felicia and five other girls were in the room, all except one already sitting around the table.
Felicia smiled, and with a subtle gesture, encouraged her to enter the room. “It may not be much, but we wanted to have this welcoming party for you, Big Sister Mitsuki.”
“F-for me?!” Mitsuki squeaked in surprise.
This whole time, she had been considering herself as nothing more than an “extra” meant to go along with Yuuto. And since Yuuto hadn’t been summoned, she wasn’t expecting to receive any special treatment on her own.
“Of course. Surely you must have been tense during that meeting we attended? So I thought it would be better if we had a gathering of just us women, where we could relax and talk as we please. I know it must be difficult for you right now without Big Brother Yuuto here, but I hope you are able to relax and enjoy yourself a bit.” Felicia finished her explanation and offered Mitsuki a gentle, reassuring smile.
This, then, must be the equivalent of the girls-only get-togethers that Mitsuki was already so familiar with in the modern world.
Just as Felicia was saying, the men Mitsuki had encountered in the council meeting before had all been fierce-looking types, like her image of people from the Yakuza, so she hadn’t been able to keep her composure.
By contrast, this girls-only space felt much more safe, and she felt like she could let her guard down a bit.
Mitsuki’s feelings of relief and happiness brought her to tears. “Th-thank you very much! It’s just like you said. The truth is, being stuck here alone like this, I’ve been so worried, and...”
She wasn’t even able to finish her sentence. She’d been managing to endure it thus far, but the truth was that this was terribly frightening for her. She questioned whether she could take care of herself for a whole month, or whether the people of this foreign land would ever accept her the way they’d accepted Yuuto.
She was carrying a constant feeling of worry inside her that bordered on dread.
Mitsuki turned to face the seated girls and bowed deeply to them. “Everyone, thank you all for coming here. I’m inexperienced and know almost nothing about the ways of your world, and so I hope you will forgive me for any trouble I cause for you.”
The second Mitsuki finished speaking, a hearty laugh rang out. “Pfffff! Ha ha ha!”
Oh no. I wonder if I said something strange already, Mitsuki worried, and looked in the direction of the voice’s owner. It was one of the girls seated at the table, who had bright red hair.
The red-haired girl smiled cheerfully at Mitsuki. “Hey, sorry about laughing there. It’s just, you’ve got the same exact face, but you’re such a completely different person. I was expecting you to be all prissy and haughty like that girl was, but you’re so different that I couldn’t help but laugh.”
“I-Ingrid! You are being rude to Big Sister Mitsuki!” Felicia reprimanded. “And that goes for Lady Rífa, as well. You mustn’t use terms like ‘that girl’ to describe her!”
“Ohh, right. Yeah, you wouldn’t believe it, but that girl is the Divine Empress, after all... Gah, I already said it again!”
“Sigh... As I have told you so many times now, you must be more careful of how you speak. Even during today’s clan council meeting, for example, you referred to Big Brother casually by name only.”
“Okay, I’m sorry. I’ll be careful.”
“Please do.” Felicia shook her head and sighed wearily.
Judging by that, this was something she’d had to give warnings about countless times now.
Ingrid laughed once more, a little uncomfortably, and then looked as if she’d suddenly realized something important. She turned to Mitsuki again.
“I’m sorry Lady Mitsuki, I still haven’t introduced myself. My name is Ingrid, and...”
“Yes, I know,” Mitsuki cut in, finishing the introduction for her. “You’re Yuu-kun’s fellow craftsman and partner in the forge, and you’re the close friend he can always count on to be able to talk with normally. Right?”
Ingrid’s wide eyes showed she was a bit surprised at Mitsuki’s knowledge.
Mitsuki smiled to herself, feeling a bit accomplished. She continued. “And I know everyone else here, too. Sigrún, Kristina, Albertina, and Ephelia.” She pointed to each of them as she recited their names.
She’d heard so much about them from Yuuto, and she’d seen pictures of them, too. She was pretty much familiar with who was who, and generally what sort of personalities they had.
“Wow, you’re amazing, Big Sis Mitsuki!” Albertina exclaimed. “It’s your first time meeting me and Kris, and you were able to tell us apart!” She clapped her hands, apparently quite impressed.
Indeed, the twins had the same face, so in pictures, it was hard to tell them apart. But after meeting them in person, Mitsuki could easily tell the difference. There was something different about their expressions, and a subtle difference in the “air” about them.
Of course, the clue that gave her the most confidence was the position of the side ponytails they wore.
“Al, Lady Mitsuki is to be Father’s wife, so you must address her as ‘Mother,’” Kristina scolded. “She is not your ‘Big Sis.’”
“Huuuh?! But... but, Kris, you’re the one who told me to call her Big Sis!”
“I have no recollection of that at all.”
“But I remember it!”
“Heh, how completely ridiculous.”
“Y-you’re totally laughing at me like I’m some sort of joke!”
“Of course I am! It’s certainly a joke to trust the memory of a girl who gets the lowest score on every test at school!”
“Gyaah! S-stop! Don’t tell them about that!”
“When I saw you’d spelled your own name wrong, I nearly had a dizzy spell, I’ll tell you that much.”
“Auugh...! B-but... but... you did tell me to call her Big Sis! I’m telling the truth!”
“I’m sure that must have been just a dream you had. I can’t believe you. Can you really not tell the difference between dreams and reality?”
“W-wait, really? Now that you’ve said that, it does feel like it could have been a dream. Maybe that was it! Oh, I’m sorry for acting like that, Kris.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I do not mind at all. After all, I did actually tell you to do it.”
Thud! Albertina fell right out of her chair and hit the floor.
Kristina looked down on her sister, the corners of her mouth curled up in a devilish, satisfied grin.
“Wow, it’s just like what I’ve heard!” Mitsuki giggled as she watched the twins. “Hee hee, you two really are close, aren’t you? It’s good to see sisters get along so well.”
Kristina looked a bit taken aback by this remark, and stared back at Mitsuki. “That is the first time someone has ever said we were ‘close’ after first meeting us.”
“Really? But you two are close, right?”
“...That is a difficult question to answer.”
Albertina stood up and shouted at her sister. “Kris, why can’t you just say we’re close?! You’re gonna make me cry...” In fact, tears were already in her eyes.
Kristina frowned, looking a little put out, and replied in a deadpan tone, “Yes, yes, I love you so much.”
“You don’t sound like you mean it at all!” Albertina shouted back.
“Hee hee.” Mitsuki couldn’t keep herself from giggling some more. “Ha ha ha! You really are close.”
Even though she had started to let her guard down a bit at the prospect of this all-girls party, Mitsuki had still been a little nervous to begin with, but now she was fully relaxed.
She knew from Yuuto that Kristina was a smart girl who was especially skilled at being considerate of others. Perhaps her funny interaction with her sister here was designed to help relieve Mitsuki of her tension.
Naturally, Sigrún began taking the two girls to task. “This is supposed to be Mother’s welcoming celebration, and both of you have wasted no time in making embarrassments of yourselves,” she said with disgust. “Get it together, both of you.”
Mitsuki looked at Sigrún more closely. Seeing her up close like this, her face was so beautiful, like sculpted porcelain — it almost looked divine. She was so slender, like a model...
No, she looks just like a beautiful elf from out of a fantasy video game, Mitsuki realized with awe.
“Though it seems you know of me, I beg your pardon for an introduction,” the beautiful girl said. “I am Sigrún. I am the head of Father’s palace guard. All of tonight’s food has been thoroughly examined, so please know that you have nothing to worry about.”
“Oh, that’s right! Sigrún, I heard that you can detect poisons. Yuu-kun told me that he was always grateful to you for that. He said that it was thanks to you that he always got to enjoy his meals while they were fresh.”
“F-Father said such wonderful things to you about me...?!” Sigrún’s normally stiff and gallant expression broke into an earnest, adorably happy smile.
Knowing Yuuto, he would have certainly told Sigrún as much himself, but for Sigrún, it must be that much more rewarding to hear that he’d given the same opinion to another person, too.
“Well, then.” Felicia lightly clapped her hands, re-grasping the reins of the conversation. “Shall we eat? I am sure that Big Sister Mitsuki must be hungry by now.”
“Ohh, you’re right about that. I’m starving, really.” Mitsuki put a hand on her stomach.
She’d only had a bit of food in the morning, and then had to go without anything all day, and it was now after sundown. That was because in Yggdrasil, two meals a day was the norm: a breakfast and supper.
Mitsuki was used to a lifestyle of three meals a day, and so now that the clan meeting had wrapped up, her stomach was so empty that she could barely stand it. It was honestly a stroke of good fortune that she’d managed to get out of there without her stomach loudly gurgling and embarrassing her.
Standing at the entrance to the room, a small, cute little girl took a step forward and called out in a very stiff, nervous voice, “P-please, let me know what it is you would like to eat, and I will bring it to you!”
“Huh?! No, it’s fine, I can get it myself. And besides, why don’t you sit and eat with us, Ephelia? Look, there’s even an open seat right there.”
“N-n-no, no I simply couldn’t! A simple serving girl like me simply couldn’t sit together with the high captains of the clan; it would be unthinkable!” Ephelia rejected the offer outright, and her whole body was shaking like a puppy just plucked out of an icy stream.
Mitsuki got the feeling she understood why Yuuto felt like treating this little girl like his little sister. The way she talked, and her mannerisms, were so adorable, like a cute little animal.
“You needn’t treat yourself so humbly around us, Ephy,” Felicia said. “The teacher at your school has been praising your studies, and says you are a very exceptional student. At this rate, I am sure the day will come soon when Big Brother will offer you his Chalice. It is just a matter of when, not if.”
“N-no, that’s impossible.” Ephelia only grew more stubborn in response to Felicia’s gentle attempts to soothe her. “S-someone as low as me, exchanging the Chalice oath with the patriarch... That would surely never happen, not as long as I live!”
Of course, that was due to Ephelia’s perspective, in which she was at the lowest rung of society. It was perhaps only natural that talk of someone like her exchanging the Oath of the Chalice directly with the patriarch at the top would make no sense to her.
“Okay, then,” Albertina chimed in, “in that case, you can become Father’s concubine, along with me!”
Albertina’s remark had been totally innocent, but that did not make its impact any less explosive. In an instant, the air in the room seemed to freeze over.
Unlike the culture of monogamous marriage in the modern world, polygyny was standard practice in the world of Yggdrasil. It was not an issue for a man to take many women as wives or mistresses, as long as he had the means to provide for them all. In fact, that was considered perfectly natural according to the values of Yggdrasil.
Still, even with that being true, there was still an issue or two with openly declaring that one would become a man’s mistress right in front of the woman who was going to be his first wife.
Kristina shook her head wearily and sighed. “Honestly, Al, you never do change. You always manage to say just the wrong thing for the occasion...”
“Huh? Oh, ohhh, right. Then let’s all become Father’s concubines. That way, no one will be left out!” Cluelessly, Albertina threw out another bomb of a statement.
“P-please, forgive my sister’s words, Mother.” Kristina immediately grabbed the back of Albertina’s head and pushed it down onto the table in a forced bow, and simultaneously bowed her own head as well. “She is just a child, and knows not what she is saying.”
Whatever else she might do, in situations like this, Kristina did act to protect her sister.
However, though Albertina’s remarks had been incredibly disrespectful...
“Snerk... Ahahahaha!” Mitsuki’s reaction was to burst out loudly in laughter.
She was laughing so hard she had tears in the corners of her eyes.
“Yeah, you’re right. You’re right, that way no one would be left out, would they?” Mitsuki nodded as she used a finger to wipe the tears away.
Of course, this left the rest of the girls dumbstruck. They stared at her with mouths agape, as if they couldn’t believe what she’d said.
“B-Big Sister Mitsuki, are you truly fine with that?” Felicia asked. She seemed as if she were asking on behalf of everyone, not just herself.
As noted before, in the land of Yggdrasil, it was completely normal for a man with lots of wealth and power to have many women at his side.
Be that as it may, it was in a woman’s nature to want to have the man she loved all to herself. That was something the women seated around the table all understood.
And in Yuuto’s case, his marriage to Mitsuki was not a political one. It was a marriage out of love. Furthermore, the two of them had only just recently declared their love and become betrothed.
And yet the future wife in question had herself just spoken as if she would forgive her beloved for having relationships with other women. It was no surprise that the other women at the table were taken aback.
Mitsuki understood how they must be feeling.
She shrugged. “Of course, I’m not really fine with it. But in my home country, there’s a certain saying. ‘Heroes and great men are also great lovers of women.’ I figure if I let myself be bothered about his having affairs, there’s no mistake that it would eat away at me and wear me down completely.”
She gave a long, resigned sigh.
“U-um, Big Sister Mitsuki,” Felicia said hesitantly, “if you will forgive me being so forward, Big Brother has always been completely faithful and devoted in his love to you. I think that distrusting his faithfulness is not...”
“Yeah, I know. I’m not doubting Yuu-kun. Or, I should say, I’ve decided I don’t want to doubt him.”
“Erm...?”
“Yuu-kun’s a lord here, and I’m sure he’s already popular with many women here,” Mitsuki explained. “All of you here right now love Yuu-kun, don’t you? Not just as your patriarch, but also as a man.”
At those words, almost all of the people in that room reflexively averted their eyes from Mitsuki’s.
That was the clearest and most concise proof they could give Mitsuki that it was true.
Mitsuki wasn’t saying this to criticize them. Yuuto had fine-looking facial features (at least, from Mitsuki’s perspective), and he was tall by the standards of average height in this world, and he was kind.
He also had status, and wealth, and power.
It would be more strange if girls hadn’t fallen for him.
Mitsuki was even willing to guess that over ninety percent of the women working for Yuuto in this palace felt something for him, at least to some extent.
“But, everyone here is also incredibly important to the Wolf Clan,” Mitsuki went on. “You’re all irreplaceable pillars that support it. I can’t just tell you all to stay away from Yuu-kun, to not have any relationship with him.”
If Mitsuki really were to try such a thing, it would surely push the nation toward disaster.
And pushing the nation toward disaster would run counter to Mitsuki’s true wish, which was to lend her strength to her beloved Yuuto as his wife.
He carried the responsibility for the lives of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people on his shoulders. She absolutely did not want to become an obstacle to his duty.
“I also don’t want to spend my time being suspicious and jealous of everyone. Like I said earlier, it would ruin my heart and drive me crazy.”
Mitsuki knew that it would only lead to her spending every day scared, searching for the slinking shadows of other women.
She might be able to withstand it at first, but eventually, she wouldn’t be able to control herself anymore. She could picture how she might end up taking out all her frustration on Yuuto.
If that was how things were going to end up, then...
“Yuu-kun is a great man, and he’s capable of great things,” Mitsuki said. “He doesn’t just belong to me, but to everyone. I decided before I even came here that I wouldn’t try to keep him all for myself. So that’s why I laughed: I thought it was funny that someone else came out and said it before I got the chance to.”
Mitsuki giggled once more.
Going by the values of the 21st century, Mitsuki’s logic was a way of thinking that only served the conveniences of men. But this was many millennia in the past. This was still a world of patriarchal societies, where the belief that women should be subservient to men was widespread and rampant.
And so, it was within the values of this world that Mitsuki’s conclusion was judged.
“I should have expected no less from the one Big Brother chose to be his bride,” Felicia said happily. “I am overwhelmed with admiration of your character.”
She stood up from her seat, then got down on one knee.
It seemed that all of the women present were just as equally affected.
Each of them moved to line up with Felicia, kneeling and bowing their heads to Mitsuki.
Over the next few days, stories of this event spread throughout the palace and throughout Iárnviðr, and on the lips of all who repeated the tale, opinion was united: “This is the magnanimous character of a true lord’s wife.”
And so, without ever realizing it herself, Mitsuki gained the emphatic support of the citizens as Yuuto’s first wife and queen.
Speaking into the smartphone pressed to his ear, Yuuto gave a heavy sigh. “So if I want to go there, I’ll need a seiðr user even stronger than Sigyn, then.”
He was talking with Mitsuki. It was finally late enough at night, so he had asked for an update on the situation right away.
“It seems like we might be able to do something if we had that girl who looks just like me, Rífa, but it looks like there are problems with doing that because of her position.”
“Ah, yeah, well, that girl is technically their empress, after all.”
“Hee hee.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“Oh, it’s just that today Ingrid-san called her ‘that girl’ in the same tone you just did.”
“Ha ha. Well, that was because, when she first came to Iárnviðr, she was a stuck-up princess who didn’t know her left from her right when it came to the outside world,” Yuuto said with a wry smile. She had been a real troublemaker, and he’d always been stuck dealing with the aftermath.
“Yuu-kun, is everything okay?” Mitsuki asked suddenly. She sounded worried. “Your voice sounds a little down; did something happen?”
Yuuto felt his heart beat louder. “No, it’s just that I’m still a bit shocked over not being able to go back to Yggdrasil.”
Yuuto did his best to hide his emotions, and act natural.
It wasn’t really a lie.
Right now, the Panther and Lightning Clans weren’t making any movements, but he wasn’t sure when they’d attack again, and it was making him terribly uneasy.
Against those two clans, the “wagon wall” defensive tactic wasn’t a sure thing anymore, and neither were any of the other strategies the Wolf Clan had already used against them.
He glanced over at the bag placed near his bed. Inside was the secret weapon that was sure to defeat the two enemy clans.
As always, preparation was the key. Not having been able to return during last night’s full moon was going to have painful results.
“At least for now, I’m glad to hear you’re doing well,” Yuuto said. “I’ll call you again tomorrow. Good night, Mitsuki.”
“Ah, okay. Good night!”
Ending the call, Yuuto flopped down onto the bed. “...She’s just as sharp as ever.”
The real reason for his lack of cheer on the phone was what Saya had told him regarding the truth of Yggdrasil.
It still wasn’t something he could bring himself to tell Mitsuki. She was doing a lot better than the terrible state of shock she had been in the night before, but she was still all alone in a world with an unfamiliar culture and language. The stress had to be rough.
He would have to tell her eventually, but he would rather wait until she’d had a chance to settle down.
And there was also one more thing he hadn’t been able to tell her.
It was what he’d seen just before Mitsuki disappeared: Her eyes had shone with twin symbols shaped like small birds.
There was no mistaking it. Those were runes.
Why would a girl like her from the present day have runes? There was also the fact that she looked just like Rífa, the Divine Empress of Yggdrasil. Was there some secret about Mitsuki herself, as well?
“Damn, the problems and the mysteries just don’t stop coming,” Yuuto muttered.
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