Epilogue
The Panther Clan patriarch Hveðrungr had been captured.
And the Steel Clan had installed its patriarch’s child subordinate, Skáviðr, as the Panther Clan’s new patriarch.
The news spread quickly all across the Álfheimr region.
Because of this, the Panther Clan split into two factions.
The first faction was centered around Narfi, agreeing to pledge their allegiance to Skáviðr and to the Steel Clan above him.
The second faction declared that they would not pledge themselves to a usurper, and left to head back to their homeland in Miðgarðr.
The former Hoof Clan capital, Nóatún, was liberated without bloodshed.
With that, Yuuto finally felt like things would settle down for a moment, but just as he was thinking that, Skáviðr approached him and asked, “Master, would you be willing to share a drink with me, to celebrate my becoming patriarch?”
Yuuto couldn’t rightly refuse him.
“Congratulations on the new position,” Yuuto said. “You’ve done so much for me over the years. I’m glad I was finally able to give you a proper reward for it.”
“Ha ha! Two years serving as patriarch has certainly taught you how to joke, master. I think trying to hold together the wild ruffians of the Panther Clan is going to be an ordeal. Not to mention that the rebuilding of the burned-down villages in their territory is going to be a lot of work.”
“Hey, I know you’ll be able to do it. If I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t have picked you.”
“Jörgen said as much before, but you really have become a talented flatterer.”
“It’s how I really feel,” Yuuto chuckled.
Having finished the small talk, Skáviðr finally broached the topic he really wanted to talk about.
“By the way, I hear that you are going to place Aunt Felicia in charge of watching over Loptr.”
Yuuto gave a long sigh, then stared pointedly at Skáviðr and said, “Don’t use that name.”
They were in the patriarch’s sleeping quarters, and there was no one there except for the two of them, but the fact that Hveðrungr was Loptr was top secret. There was no harm in being as careful as humanly possible.
“Thus, does that mean the murder of our... excuse me, of the Wolf Clan’s previous patriarch Fárbauti... is not a crime he will be made to answer for?” Skáviðr stared straight into Yuuto’s eyes.
The Wolf Clan patriarch before Yuuto, Fárbauti, had been the only person Yuuto had ever agreed to pledge his loyalty to as a sworn parent. He had been Skáviðr’s sworn father, as well.
By the customs of the Chalice of Allegiance, murdering one’s sworn parent was the greatest crime of all, and unforgivable. To quietly allow that crime to go unpunished would go against the honor and justice demanded from them as his sworn children.
Yuuto’s shoulders drooped. “No, please don’t hold him accountable for it. That was what my predecessor... what Dad requested from me in his final breath. We can’t just ignore the final wishes of the departed, can we? And besides... these last three years, a certain adjutant has always been right by my side, and I don’t want to make her cry.”
“Heh, you have grown much in the months I was away, but it looks like that soft-hearted part of you is still intact. I’m a little relieved.” Skáviðr gave him a small, warm smile.
Yuuto responded with a wry chuckle and asked, “Are you sure you’re relieved about that?”
“Yes,” Skáviðr answered, “I am rather fond of that part of you, after all.”
“I’ll just add this just so we’re clear,” Yuuto said, “but the biggest reason really is because I need those Panther Clan cavalry, all right? I need power more than anything else right now.”
Yuuto averted his eyes from Skáviðr, and he stared into the distance.
A memory was resurfacing in his mind, a memory from the period when he was stuck in Japan, and he’d held a conversation with Saya Takao. It was a conversation he could never forget, even if he wanted to.
It was a conversation where he’d learned the truth about Yggdrasil.
“No... that can’t be...” Yuuto’s voice shook. He couldn’t bring himself to believe what Saya had just told him about what Yggdrasil really was.
The name she had given him was a name he’d heard many times before.
And he also knew of its fate.
“What’s your proof?!” Yuuto shouted. “Do you have anything conclusive to prove this is true?!”
Yuuto couldn’t keep himself from raising his voice as he questioned her. He wanted to find a way to deny her claim.
He couldn’t let himself believe this without questioning it. No, he didn’t want to believe it.
If what Saya said was true, then Yggdrasil was fated to...
Saya interrupted his racing thoughts. “Well, it’s conjecture based on testimony from you and from Mitsuki-chan, so it’s hardly good enough to call conclusive evidence, but...”
“Then there’s a possibility you’re wrong!” Yuuto exploded.
“Of course there’s a chance; I can’t deny that. However, if we go with this theory, it explains so much. Like why the positions of the stars show you where somewhere on Earth is in the past, but the topography of the land didn’t match any maps. And why, despite the fact that you brought so much future info and technology into the past, none of it ever spread to other parts of the world.”
Yuuto said nothing. Of course, that last part was something that had been on his mind for a long while.
After being sent back to the modern era, he’d searched the internet for info on all of the future tech he’d developed in Yggdrasil.
The iron-refining process, the glassblowing techniques, the phalanx and the stirrup. The Norfolk crop rotation system and the trebuchet. But for every example, nothing had changed from the time when he’d first accessed the information on his smartphone in Yggdrasil.
If Yggdrasil really was somewhere on Earth in a past era, then when Yuuto had brought such future knowledge into the past, it should have caused some sort of change to history.
But if Saya’s theory was correct, it would explain that contradiction. And it would explain why there was no matching geography on a modern map.
“I’ll explain it all in order, okay?” Saya said. “Do you remember back when I was talking to you guys before, and suddenly I realized something and ran out of the diner?”
“Y-yes, I do. If I remember, you were saying something about the Alps...”
“That’s right, the Alps ended up being an important key to solving the mystery of Yggdrasil.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Yuuto was confused. He already knew from checking maps that the geography of Yggdrasil didn’t match up with any areas in the region of the Alps.
And, going by Saya’s claim about Yggdrasil’s true nature, the Alps were physically far away, as well. In fact, there should be an ocean between them.
“In old Celtic languages, the word ‘alp’ means ‘mountain,’” Saya said. “Now, there’s another word in the language of Yggdrasil that I’m pretty sure is related to it. Can you think of any words with similar sounds?”
Yuuto thought for a moment. “Similar? ...Is it ‘Álf,’ maybe?”
That was his best guess, but he wasn’t that confident.
It maybe sounded a little similar, but he also didn’t think it was that close. But he also couldn’t think of any other words that were.
Saya nodded. “Correct. And there’s that special, rare metal called ‘álfkipfer,’ right? The one that translates to ‘elven copper,’ and can only be mined from the three big mountain ranges called the ‘Roof of Yggdrasil,’ right? And then there are the elves we see all the time in fantasy games and the like. There’s a theory that the word ‘elf,’ or ‘álf’ before it, might have descended from the word ‘alp.’”
Yuuto nodded, still not following.
“So, what that means is, the name ‘álfkipfer’ might have traveled across the land, becoming distorted as it traveled over time, into a word that means ‘mountain copper’ elsewhere. I think there’s a decent possibility that’s what happened.”
“...Became distorted as it traveled?” Yuuto parroted the words back to Saya as a question, and she nodded.
“Yes, I’ve never heard the word ‘álfkipfer’ before now, but there’s a word I do know that means ‘mountain copper,’ one that’s recorded in ancient Greek texts. It’s oreikhalkos.”
“Okay...” Yuuto said. He couldn’t offer anything other than that vague response. The discussion was getting more and more academic, and he wasn’t sure his mind was going to be able to keep up for much longer.
He didn’t recognize the word oreikhalkos, either.
However, he went wide-eyed at what Saya said next.
“Well, there’s a more modern version of that word that a modern-day Japanese person like you would probably be a lot more familiar with: orichalcum.”
“Huh?!” Of course, Yuuto had heard that word before. It showed up in plenty of fantasy-themed games, books, and comics.
In most of the stories that it appeared in, it was a legendary ore, rare and powerful.
“The ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote about it in his work Critias. He wrote, ‘All that is left of it now is its name, but at the time, it was far more than a name, for it could be mined all throughout the island. And it was called oreikhalkos, and in that era it was the most valuable metal of all, next to gold.’ I’m paraphrasing, but you get it. And he gave a name to that island country, as you know...”
Saya stopped, and took a small breath.
She stared straight into Yuuto’s eyes, and then she spoke its name.
The name of the island that, according to legend, was destroyed in one night and sank into the sea in a terrible natural disaster—
“Atlantis.”
To Be Continued...
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