ACT 5
Thanks to the harried rush to keep up with each day’s work, a month flew by in no time.
At last, the Wolf Clan’s campaign to subjugate the Panther Clan would begin tomorrow. In the city of Gimlé, a large group was gathered together in the religious sanctuary, the hörgr. They included top officers of the Wolf Clan such as Jörgen and Skáviðr, as well as patriarchs such as Linnea and Botvid from subsidiary clans.
They were all dressed in ceremonial outfits much different than the ones they wore to battle. It was quite a magnificent sight.
Yuuto was also wearing a completely different outfit, newly created for this ceremony.
As always, it made great use of the color black, but also included a bright design on the chest area of two swords crossed, which was the symbol of the Steel Clan.
His cape incorporated the fur pelt from the great garmr that Sigrún had defeated during the winter season, making it a fitting item for the lord who would rule over six clans.
Mitsuki, sitting next to him, was wearing an outfit of stunning beauty.
Apparently she had also been wearing it during the ritual to summon Yuuto back to Yggdrasil, but back then, he’d been so pressed for time that he’d needed to run out of the hörgr immediately to set out for Gimlé, and so he didn’t really remember it.
Looking at her now, she looked like a princess out of a storybook. Though, in actuality, she was pretty much a queen now.
It was a bit belated, but Yuuto took in the form of his dearest love, dressed to the nines, and felt satisfied just to look at her like this...
It was then that a large, middle-aged man with a short beard spoke, beginning the ceremony.
“Everyone, I am sorry to have kept you waiting. I hereby announce to all who have gathered in attendance that I shall now have the honor of conducting the first Chalice Ceremony of the Steel Clan, the ceremony which binds parent, child, and sibling, through the sacred Oath of the Chalice. I am Alexis, and I shall serve the role of mediator for this rite. I am most grateful to make your acquaintance, and I humbly offer myself into your care.”
He was a familiar man to everyone here, as he was the imperial priest and representative for the western region of Yggdrasil.
“I most humbly ask of everyone in attendance that, until these rites of bonding between parent, child, and sibling are safely and fully concluded, you all please provide your full cooperation and understanding. ...Now, then, let us begin the Chalice Ceremony.”
Alexis’s voice echoed throughout the silent air of the sanctuary hall.
As expected of someone who was well-practiced in this ceremony, he progressed smoothly through his difficult speech without stuttering or stumbling once.
“I announce to all in attendance: While I know it is unnecessary, I will check the sacred wine once more.”
Alexis smoothly lifted a silver pitcher into the air, made a gesture as if cutting off the top of the pitcher with his hand, and then poured the alcohol from it into two containers.
One of them was a standard drinking cup, but the other was a huge chalice that looked large enough that its mouth would cover most of a person’s face if you drank from it.
Alexis picked up the smaller cup and placed it to his mouth.
“Indeed, it is a fine liquor. Now then, I address Lord Suoh-Yuuto, who shall become the parent.”
Alexis placed the now-empty small cup back on the small stand, and turned to call to Yuuto.
The tension in the air grew stronger.
There were audible gulps from some people, perhaps a result of the heavy pressure taking its toll.
In his first days, Yuuto himself had once found this solemn atmosphere painfully difficult to bear. However, it didn’t affect him at all anymore.
“Yes,” he replied naturally and easily.
In earlier days, he would have tried to respond in a deep voice, in an attempt to project authority and not embarrass himself. But now there was no need for that sort of thing. He was comfortable with himself as he was.
“In sharing the Chalice with each of these persons, you will become their parent, or their older brother, in the sight of the gods above,” Alexis intoned. “If it is truly your will that you both watch over each other in times of wellness as in times of illness, in times of joy as in times of sorrow, in times of wealth as in times of poverty, then please drink deeply of this Chalice. Show to those who would become your children and younger siblings the sacred wine that they shall drink. You may proceed!”
Yuuto smiled wryly at the priest’s affected speech.
As always, it just sounded so much like the speech given during vows at a Japanese wedding.
He cast a quick glance over to Mitsuki, and saw that she was making a shocked face that seemed to say, “Whaaat?!”
He smiled a bit at that, and then picked up the large chalice with both hands. As expected, it was pretty heavy.
He sipped one mouthful, and returned it to the stand.
“I shall now receive the Chalice from you, and divide its contents.” Alexis reached over to a second stand which held a great number of small cups, and one by one, he dipped them into the large chalice to fill them with the alcohol from within it.
Alexis’s subordinates then gathered the filled cups and took them to hand out to the group of people who stood in a line in the center of the hörgr.
Once Alexis confirmed that all of the cups were handed out, he took a deep breath, then continued.
“As mediator, I offer these words to those who now hold the Chalice. The moment you drink from that Chalice, you become the subordinate of Lord Suoh-Yuuto, the first patriarch of the Steel Clan. You will become his sworn child, or younger sibling. From that moment onward, your father, or your older brother, and you must serve him and his clan loyally and without fail. If you have truly prepared yourself for this vow, then demonstrate your resolve. Drink the remaining contents of your Chalice, and let that resolve forever thrive within. ...You may proceed!”
At Alexis’s signal, everyone in the line lifted their cups and drank the contents in one swig.
And so it was that Yggdrasil saw the birth of a new clan, the Steel Clan, with Gimlé as its capital.
Not long afterward, the citizens of its territories began to refer to the Steel Clan’s ruler by a new term, in order to symbolically distinguish him from the clan patriarchs below him.
They began to call him the “Great Lord,” Leginák.
“Phew! Well, that takes care of that, at least.” In a small room off to the side of the sanctuary hall, Yuuto pulled his cape off and roughly threw it aside.
It was already getting close to the start of the summer season. The garmr fur made for a splendid cape, but it was just too hot.
“You did wonderfully, Big Brother.” Catching the fur cape in her arms, Felicia offered some kind words in recognition of Yuuto’s effort.
“About that,” Yuuto said.
“Pardon?”
“Are you really okay with staying as a younger sister?”
The current hierarchy of the Steel Clan was as follows:
Patriarch, Suoh Yuuto
Mother of the Clan, Shimoya Mitsuki
Leader of Subordinates, Felicia
First Rank, Second-in-Command, Horn Clan patriarch Linnea
Second Rank, Assistant-Second-in-Command, Wolf Clan patriarch Jörgen
Third Rank, Claw Clan patriarch Botvid
Fourth Rank, Ash Clan patriarch Douglas
Fifth Rank, Mountain Dog Clan patriarch Fundinn
Sixth Rank, Wheat Clan patriarch Lágastaf
Seventh Rank, Leader of Junior Officers, Skáviðr
Eighth Rank, Junior Officer, Ingrid
Ninth Rank, Junior Officer, Sigrún
Tenth Rank, Junior Officer, Albertina
Tenth Rank, Junior Officer, Kristina
Technically, as Leader of Subordinates, Felicia was “above” the child subordinates of the clan in terms of the deference they had to show her, but she also had no actual political authority in that position. One could call it an honorary rank, one removed from the actual ladder of power.
In Yggdrasil’s clan system, succession and rank essentially revolved around the parent and sworn children.
As the sworn younger sister of the patriarch, Felicia was affiliated with him but had no right to be a candidate for succession, and so she had no “future” to aim for.
Back when they were still in the Wolf Clan, she had kept herself as a younger sister because of her feelings of guilt, both for summoning Yuuto into Yggdrasil against his will, and because her biological brother Loptr had killed the previous Wolf Clan patriarch, Fárbauti.
But now, Yuuto was back in Yggdrasil of his own volition, and the incident with Loptr was over two years in the past.
Yuuto thought that Felicia had done more than enough to atone for her guilt, and so when forming the Steel Clan, he had tried to make her his sworn daughter.
“If I become your sworn child I’ll get too important for my own good, I would fail in my duties as your adjutant, Big Brother.” With those words, she had flatly refused his offer.
“Seriously, I can’t believe you. I was all set to reward you for everything you’ve done, and I’d even planned to have you lead your own clan in the future.” Yuuto sulked a bit, obviously a bit down that his plans had been thrown awry.
Felicia giggled. “Big Brother, if I may be so bold, those are favors I never really asked for or needed.”
“You really have learned to talk back.”
“I have only one wish, the same as always. That is to always be by your side, Big Brother. I do not ask for anything else.”
“Haah, okay, fine,” Yuuto said with a sigh. He slumped back against his chair and rested his chin on one arm.
She really was completely free of ambition.
“I think that your will in this matter is absolutely a noble thing, Aunt Felicia.” Kristina piped up with those complimentary words, placing a hand on her chest as if moved.
Going by this girl’s usual standards, in situations like these, she was planning on saying or doing something unpleasant next.
Felicia looked a bit uncomfortable, wearing a guarded expression.
However, the next words out of Kristina’s mouth were still enough to pierce through Felicia’s guard completely.
“After all, the people of the Wolf Clan will be calling you ‘Great Aunt Felicia’ from now on!”
Felicia was so taken by surprise that the breath she’d been unconsciously holding burst out with a loud, “Pffft!”
Apparently, she hadn’t even considered that aspect of things. For someone like Felicia, who cared about her age, such a form of address could be considered unfairly cruel.
“Don’t tease her too much with it, Kris, all right?” Yuuto patted Kristina once on the head, giving her that soft warning, just in case.
If Felicia got in a sour mood, things could get problematic really quick.
As someone who spent so much time together with her, Yuuto wanted to avoid that at all costs.
“F-Father!” Linnea looked bashful as she tried calling out to Yuuto. “W-well, it certainly feels different to address you that way.”
Linnea, too, was dressed and made-up for the occasion, and looked incredibly pretty.
“Yeah, but now we’re not just relatives,” Yuuto replied. “We’re real family. Let’s do our best.”
Before, Linnea had always been technically an “outside sibling” due to her being from another clan.
But now, with the new oaths that had been taken in this ceremony, she was part of the same Steel Clan as Yuuto.
Personally, Yuuto had already considered her as close as immediate family, so he was happy things had worked out this way.
“As far as plans for the city, we can use the existing fortress as a headquarters for now, but we of course need to get to work on building a clan palace quickly,” Linnea went on. “As-is, I think this is far too plain of a headquarters for a clan that rules over six other clans. And our Hliðskjálf tower should be at least twice as tall as this current one.”
As Linnea spoke, she moved next to the window and looked up at the sacred tower nearby.
Yuuto had proclaimed Gimlé as the Steel Clan capital at the same time that the clan was officially formed.
Iárnviðr was a city Yuuto had spent three years in now, ever since arriving in Yggdrasil, so he had a lot of attachment to it. But Iárnviðr was the Wolf Clan’s capital. There would be a variety of problems if he declared the same city to be the Steel Clan capital, so he’d reluctantly forced himself to choose someplace else.
At present, Gimlé was a larger and more populous city than Iárnviðr.
It was also at the center of a large region of fertile farming lands, known locally as Iðavöllr, “the Shining Fields.”
It was quite a fitting capital for a great nation like the Steel Clan, which would hold jurisdiction over a wide territory.
Yuuto scratched the back of his head, a little wary of the idea. “We don’t really have to make things that extravagant, though. Besides, it’s expensive to do.”
At heart, he was a man who prided himself on plain and simple effectiveness.
If there was enough money to spend on appearances, then he would rather spend it on improving the country’s productivity.
“Of course, we won’t need to make anything more showy than it needs to be,” Linnea said. “However, with things in their present state, it will be cramped enough that it will affect people’s daily work. And as for the Hliðskjálf, leaving it too short will affect the level of trust and reverence people have for the Steel Clan.”
“Okay, I get it,” Yuuto said, waving his hand at her. “All right, I’ll leave that stuff to you, then.”
Linnea had administrative skills that outclassed even Jörgen. If she was saying something was necessary, then it was best to trust her judgment.
Halfway-talented people tend to have difficulty leaving tasks to others, and prefer to take care of things themselves. That sort of attitude might work in a very small organization, but on a much larger scale, it breaks down.
Yuuto understood the concept of using the right person for the right task — and of truly trusting them to take care of it on their own.
It wasn’t a flashy skill; in fact, some might call it a very ordinary, unimpressive part of the organization. But as the chief of a very large-scale organization, it was essential to Yuuto’s role that he already had such a skill.
“Do phones connect here, too?” Mitsuki asked, looking a bit worried.
She used her phone to stay in contact with her parents, so for her that was one of the most necessary points.
It was for Yuuto, as well. Being able to access information and do research on the internet was literally a lifeline at times, and so he couldn’t afford to let that advantage go, either.
“Yeah, there’s no problem with it,” he said.
About half a month earlier, Yuuto had taken the divine mirror from Iárnviðr to the Hliðskjálf tower in Gimlé, and conducted an experiment there. He’d been able to connect to the internet normally and make calls too.
It seemed like regardless of physical location here, the key factor to communication was in having the “paired mirror” to the divine mirror back in modern-era Japan.
“Okay, then,” Mitsuki said. “I’m gonna go ahead and try it out tonight.”
“All right, make sure to give my best to your folks.”
“I will, and I’ll tell them we’re getting along well, too.”
“...Was that supposed to be a dig at me?”
“Huh? How would it be?” Mitsuki stared blankly at Yuuto.
It seemed she really didn’t get the meaning of his question.
Yuuto laughed weakly for a moment before explaining.
“Ha ha ha... You know, this past month, I’ve been so busy that I haven’t been able to spend much time with you. And starting tomorrow, I’ve gotta head off to go conquer the Panther Clan. I was just thinking how I’ve been doing wrong by you.”
“No, it’s okay. Yuu-kun, I understand that you’re busy right now.” Mitsuki laughed, waving a hand at Yuuto playfully.
She really was an amazing wife.
For Yuuto’s sake, she’d been willing to give up her homeland, part from her family, and come here with him, and yet he still ended up leaving her alone at times. He felt so guilty about it.
And so, he made a firm decision.
“When this campaign is over, and I get back... let’s have a proper wedding ceremony.”
“Huh?” Once again, Mitsuki looked at him with a blank, puzzled expression.
But that was only for an instant, after which she broke out into a wide smile, filled with joy.
“Okay!” With big tears falling down her smiling cheeks, Mitsuki embraced Yuuto.
It was the day after the ceremony to formally establish the Steel Clan. In front of the Gimlé city gates, six thousand soldiers were gathered, all waiting with bated breath for the order to move out.
Another force of four thousand was expected to join them at Fólkvangr, and then another three thousand would join them from the western border city of Myrkviðr, where they were currently.
All told, it would be a giant army of thirteen thousand. Despite Yuuto’s forces having suffered a fair number of casualties over the past two months, they had managed to surpass even the numbers they’d brought to the Battle of Gashina.
During the Second Battle of Élivágar River a month ago, a single glare from Yuuto had turned aside the Battle-Hungry Tiger’s invasion, and then there had been his victory at the Körmt River, so one-sided that it was a historical first.
In no time at all, the excited tales had spread from person to person, and now the clans in the greater region all knew that Suoh-Yuuto the “war god” was alive and well.
And so, to gain back the honor they had lost in their previous failure to send aid, or to gain Yuuto’s favor for the future, or to gain greater status within the new Steel Clan, the various subsidiary clans had all sent Yuuto plenty of soldiers.
Furthermore, since the campaign to subjugate the Panther Clan had been announced quite publicly and widely, there were also a great deal of individual fighters flowing in from all around, requesting to join the Steel Clan in the hopes of making it rich or making a name for themselves under a winning banner.
Most of the applicants were the usual unremarkable riff-raff, but there were a few promising exceptions.
For example, an Einherjar who had once led a gang of bandits camped on the slopes of Mount Éljúðnir.
“Huh, so you’re actually alive,” Sigrún greeted him.
“Heh heh. It’s been a long time, Lady Sigrún. Forgive me for back then. I’ve gone and changed my ways, honestly.”
The former bandit leader squared his shoulders and continued.
“My name is Hildegard, from Zaltz Village! Th-this spring, I was blessed by our mother goddess Angrboða with the rune Úlfhéðinn, the Wolfskin, and so I have come here to use my powers to their fullest under the banner of our great lord, Leginák Suoh-Yuuto!”
The former bandit leader wasn’t the only promising new recruit: there was also a young girl who had just awakened to her runic abilities as an Einherjar.
The stream of people applying to join still showed no signs of stopping, and so there was a strong possibility that the total size of the army would swell even further after the campaign started.
Yuuto would have been satisfied just to reach a benchmark of ten thousand, so he was happy to find out that the number exceeded his estimates.
“It is all due to your prestige, Father,” Linnea had explained to him.
To protect the borders of his territory, he’d assigned the new Wolf Clan patriarch Jörgen and the Horn Clan’s leader of subordinates Rasmus two thousand soldiers apiece. After that, he’d hired two thousand Panther Clan riders from out of the prisoners he’d captured, to use as reserves.
Yesterday, he’d received a message from Ginnar by messenger pigeon, stating that the Flame Clan had moved their troops to the border with the Lightning Clan.
With that, the preparations to handle the Lightning Clan were complete.
As for the domestic affairs of his clan while he was out at war, Yuuto had Linnea and Jörgen to take care of things, so he had nothing to worry about.
There was nothing holding him back; he could now focus all of his thoughts solely on the fight against the Panther Clan.
“All right, then. I’ll be going now.” Yuuto waved his hand casually, as if he were just going out for a short errand.
Mitsuki’s face, however, remained serious.
There was no doubt she was worried about him. That was why Yuuto had tried to pass things off as no big deal, but it looked like it hadn’t had any effect.
Mitsuki looked up at him, tears beginning welling in her eyes.
“Take... care of yourself, okay?” she said, getting a little choked up.
“I will. Don’t worry,” Yuuto assured her. “Over here I’m known as... a god of war, you know?”
Yuuto made a show of winking as his mouth curled up into a smirk, and he caught the air with his cape as he turned to climb the raised platform behind him.
He swept his gaze over the mass of warriors gathered in before him.
They all looked psyched up and ready to go. Yuuto could tell that they all believed they couldn’t lose. They were ready to go out there and grasp victory with their own two hands; it was written all over their faces.
Yuuto took in a long, deep breath, and then raised his voice to call out to them.
“Elite warriors of the Steel Clan! I am your patriarch, Suoh Yuuto!”
“Yeeaaaaahhh!!” A chorus of cheers erupted from the crowd.
The waves of sound rushed through Yuuto’s body, reverberating into his very core. He held up his left arm, and made a lowering motion with his hand. It was a gesture asking for silence.
The din of the crowd quickly quieted, and Yuuto continued.
“No longer are we divided by our individual clans. Under the banner of this Steel Clan, we are now joined as one! From this day forth, we must move forward in solidarity, working to support each other. The battles we face now are the greatest opportunity to deepen the bonds of this new union! Let us fight together, back-to-back, and eradicate our enemies!”
Yuuto paused and lifted up his right hand, which held a staff with its head modeled after a garmr.
The head of the staff swept downwards, pointing out ahead, and Yuuto cried out at the top of his lungs.
“All troops, move out!!”
“S-sir, I have a report!” the Panther Clan messenger cried, barging in to interrupt his patriarch’s dinner. “The Wolf Clan army has begun marching west! We’re getting word that soldiers are also gathering together at Fólkvangr and Myrkviðr, and estimates are that they total more than ten thousand all together!”
“Ten...?!” Hveðrungr was so shocked that he let the spoon drop right out of his hand. “D-don’t be absurd! How could they possibly have managed to gather that many troops?!”
As far as Hveðrungr knew, the Wolf Clan had suffered greatly from its huge defeat at the Battle of Gashina, as well as the losses from its defeat and retreat at the Second Battle of Élivágar River.
He had estimated that the army in this anti-Panther Clan campaign would only number around six or seven thousand, and that they definitely wouldn’t exceed eight thousand, in any case.
The news that they were coming for him with almost twice the number he had expected left Hveðrungr shaken.
“Grrrgggh...!” Hveðrungr growled, and bit down hard on his thumbnail in frustration.
The loss of seven thousand elite Panther Clan fighters during the previous battle at the Körmt River was a big issue. He’d sent for reinforcements from the Miðgarðr region, but even with those, he only had six thousand riders in total.
In addition to this huge difference in numbers, the enemy had their wagon wall tactic, as well as that new weapon, the “fire snakes.”
With such a large army, the enemy would surely have issues maintaining their supply lines, so holing up in the city and defending against a siege would normally be an option.
But the enemy also had the means to use that trump card of siege weaponry, the incredibly destructive trebuchet.
Myrkviðr, the city at the western edge of Horn Clan territory, was surrounded by abundant forests, and so there would be no shortage of usable lumber for them.
Hveðrungr had to admit that this situation was not looking good for him.
The messenger continued his report. “In addition, a few days ago, the Wolf Clan patriarch Suoh-Yuuto gave the position of patriarch to his former second-in-command, Jörgen, and...”
“What?!” Hveðrungr shouted.
People are creatures that often fail to completely comprehend what has been said to them if it is too far beyond what they are ready to hear.
Such was the case with Hveðrungr in that moment.
“The report says that he established his own new clan, the Steel Clan, with himself as its patriarch, and placed all of his affiliated clans, including his own former Wolf Clan, as child subsidiaries beneath him!” the messenger went on.
“The ‘Steel Clan,’ you say?” Beneath his mask, Hveðrungr’s brow furrowed.
As he recalled, steel was the key component in the nihontou.
It was also the first thing Yuuto had created after coming to Yggdrasil, and one of the driving forces behind the Wolf Clan’s advancement to where it was now.
I see, Hveðrungr pondered. In that sense, it is perhaps the most fitting name for the boy’s own clan.
“Throne-robbing rat,” Hveðrungr spat with irritation. “So you’ve finally shown your true, greedy colors have you?”
The Wolf Clan was a clan with over a hundred years of proud history. Its name carried meaning and prestige. And yet this child, this nobody, was taking that precious name he’d inherited from his predecessor, and placing it beneath his own new creation. Perhaps it was the boy’s desire for personal fame, but it was a shameful display of arrogance.
Jörgen and Skáviðr had both degraded themselves, too, by forgiving such a despotic act. Apparently, their clan was Wolf in name only, for they had sunk to become no more than Yuuto’s domesticated dogs. To Hveðrungr, it was deplorable.
Sigyn was at fault here, too. He’d left seven thousand elite soldiers under her care, and she’d lost them. Now, thanks to her, here he was in this situation. He could kill her a hundred times and it wouldn’t be enough.
In this way, Hveðrungr dwelled upon one hateful target after another, cursing them all with heartfelt resentment.
He had to keep doing that, or else he would hear the whisper at the back of his mind. The devil’s voice that said:
The previous Wolf Clan patriarch Fárbauti’s choice was right, after all.
Someone like you doesn’t have what it takes to defeat Yuuto.
He’s much greater than you are.
He could never, never acknowledge such things.
If he acknowledged them, it would repudiate everything he’d done so far, everything he was.
And so he had to cover it up with hatred.
With the light of madness ablaze in his eyes, as if he were calling out to himself to push onwards, Hveðrungr cried out in a voice like a howl:
“Don’t think you can stay so full of yourself for long, Yuuto! Go ahead and come; I’ll strike you down when you do. This time I’ll win, and when I do, I’ll prove that I was right all along!”
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