ACT 2
The earliest memory Yuuto could recall was of a billowing furnace flame within a dark room.
Yuuto’s father had been a serious craftsman who rarely came home, choosing primarily to lock himself away in his small workshop on the edge of town. He’d been taciturn, and even on the occasions that he came home, he would rarely speak to anyone.
Naturally, Yuuto had no memories of playing with him. Even so, he would frequently head to the workshop and simply watch his father, as he swung his hammer with single-minded concentration.
When he reached upper elementary school, his father began to allow him to help out. The first time he did was the first time Yuuto’s father had ever taught him to do anything, and Yuuto made sure to remember all he was taught.
Thinking back now, there wasn’t much he’d been able to do as an elementary schooler. Still, being able to help his father was something he’d been proud of.
Yuuto had loved his father. He’d respected him from the bottom of his heart.
He had felt that way up until two months before he’d been stranded here in Yggdrasil.
Up until he’d heard those words his father spoke the day his mother died...
“Tch, not again.” Opening his eyes wide, Yuuto heaved a deep sigh and got to his feet.
Even though he didn’t want to think about his father, sometimes such memories would rise to the surface in his dreams. Nothing was more depressing to him.
The interior of the tent was at the mercy of an unknowing darkness. Apparently it was still night. Half a day had passed since the battle with the Horn Clan. They were scheduled to arrive in the capital of the Wolf Clan, Iárnviðr, the day after tomorrow.
The distance was close enough that a person traveling by car could have reached it in a matter of hours, but with infantrymen accounting for over half of their armed forces, this was as fast as they could go. And making camp did little to relieve the exhaustion. He wanted more than anything to get back to town and to his own room, but there was little to be done about that desire for now.
“Mnn, I guess I’m up, then,” he muttered. He had hoped to fall back asleep, but his mind was wide awake. For the time being, it didn’t seem like sleep was a possibility.
Damn you, old man, Yuuto cursed to himself and went to the curtain hanging over the entrance, pushed it open, and stepped outside.
An unfathomable number of stars twinkled in the sky, as if it had been blanketed with jewels.
Back in 21st century Japan, thanks to light pollution in the cities, the rural countryside was really the only place one could see such a view. But Yuuto had been raised in the country, so it was a sight he had grown up with, and thus he wasn’t particularly moved by it. All it did now was solicit homesickness.
“Oh, yeah. Today would be Tanabata,” he murmured.
In the northeastern sky, Yuuto had noticed that two particularly bright stars had risen from the horizon, reminding him of the date displayed on his smartphone. It was also two years to the day since he had come to this world.
“Having incurred the wrath of the heavens, Orihime and the Shepherd could never again meet,” Yuuto murmured the old legend to himself while using those two stars as a starting point to look for others.
Before long, he managed to find Lyra and Aquila. Directly beneath that, at the boundary of the horizon, stretched a band of cloudy light — the Milky Way, the “river of heaven” flowing through space.
“Really... the night sky here is no different from the one back in my world.”
To the stars, even several millennia were no more than the blink of an eye. Despite his melancholy, Yuuto clung steadfastly to that thought.
This familiar night sky was a significant piece of information. It meant that Yggdrasil was not another world, but rather somewhere on Earth.
Based on a few other deductions, he had concluded it was possible that he’d been thrown into the past. Hazarding a guess from the culture and the tools they used here, it seemed likely to be between 2000 and 1300 BC. In other words, the later Bronze Age.
For starters, on modern Earth, Yuuto didn’t think there was still a place where wars were waged with swords and spears. Perhaps they still did in the backwoods of Africa or the like, but the constellations put this place in the northern hemisphere.
Then there was the land. Not only the Horn Clan, but the Hoof Clan also boasted a wide expanse of fertile land. He’d heard that on Yggdrasil, there were numerous clans the size and scope of the Hoof Clan.
It was hard to think that during or after the imperialism that began during the mid-15th century’s Age of Discovery, the Westerners aggressively invading other territories in the name of God and empire would look the other way at somebody else having a lot of vast, arable land. They’d certainly want to colonize it. Yuuto could only explain this situation by his having been thrust much further into the past.
“Still, where exactly is this place?”
Gazing at the sky alone, he couldn’t help but wonder. Yuuto had lost count of how many times he had asked himself that question, and so, directionless, he gazed off at the mountain range, illuminated by the light of the moon.
It was the Himinbjörg Mountains, one of three mountain ranges that sprouted out from the center of Yggdrasil and together were known as the “Roof of Yggdrasil.”
Yuuto remembering having heard the word “Yggdrasil” even before coming here. It was a word used quite often in games and manga. It referred to the world tree that appeared often in old Norse myths. The town they were heading to now, Iárnviðr or “Ironwood,” was also a name that showed up in Norse myths often, known as a forest inhabited by wolves.
“However, this isn’t Northern Europe,” he murmured.
Checking his phone and searching online, he quickly figured out how to gauge latitude. If he could measure the angle at which Polaris sat in the sky, he could figure it out. Though nothing more than a mere amateur astronomer, Yuuto guessed that they were more or less between the northern latitudes 50 and 52, so approximately aligned with the central part of Germany.
Norse myths were originally referred to as myths of the Germanic people, which might lead one to think that this was Germany, but that didn’t seem to be the case either.
The mountain range Yuuto now gazed up at seemed tall enough to pierce the heavens, yet it was something he’d been unable to find anything similar to anywhere near the 50 degree latitude line. And he had stared at the map of Europe displayed on his smartphone so hard that he thought he might bore a hole in it. He had yet to try maps of China and America, though.
Still, if this were China, the eye and hair colors of the people here appeared far too Western to match, and as for America, what he knew about the terrain there was too vastly different from what he’d heard so far of Yggdrasil.
“I really have no idea...” Yuuto vigorously scratched his head.
It didn’t help matters that he didn’t know the longitude. For the past two years, the GPS on his smartphone had regularly reported “unable to detect your location at this time” and nothing more. Still, with modern-day knowledge, he’d assumed ascertaining the longitude should have been easy, and yet it was proving to be frustrating.
He didn’t even know the location of the Royal Conservatory in Greenwich, England, and that was the starting point for finding longitude. As a result, he had pretty much given up hope of pinpointing his current location.
“Oh my, Big Brother. You can’t sleep?”
Hearing someone suddenly call out to him from behind, he turned around to see Felicia, her golden hair trailing in the wind, smiling gently.
Yuuto smiled bitterly and gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. “I had a weird dream. It woke me up.”
He had intended this as a casual comment, just to make conversation, but he saw Felicia’s smile cloud over instantly, the wheels in her keen mind beginning to turn.
“Your kindness truly is one of your most admirable points, Big Brother. But there really is no need for you to concern yourself so...”
“Oh, no. It wasn’t about the battle.” Sensing that Felicia was worried, Yuuto tried to intercept her concerns.
Back when he’d first arrived, he’d had nightmares after every battle. At those times, it had always been Felicia who’d gently embraced the disturbed Yuuto, comforting him.
Since he had come to this world, Felicia had nobly devoted herself to him. Not just since he’d become sovereign patriarch, but ever since he’d arrived, unable to speak their language, unable to do work that required strength. Yuuto could not even count the number of times that this devotion had saved him.
Even if for her, that devotion had been no more than an attempt to atone for what she had done.
“Well then, what kind of dreams did you have?” She sat down softly next to Yuuto, and casually asked him her question.
A sweet and characteristically feminine smell filled Yuuto’s nose. On the battlefield, one couldn’t possibly bring along something like perfume, and so Yuuto was completely mystified as to how a woman could smell so good here.
“Oh, one about my stupid father. Ugh, it makes me sick thinking about him,” he said in a calm voice, trying to steel his quaking heart.
“Your real father? I see. You must miss him.”
“Bah! What’re you saying? I don’t ever wanna see a jerk like that as long as I live!” Yuuto spat and looked the other way with a hmph.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Felicia making auditory gasps, like giggles. Or at least, that was what he thought, but the next instant, he noticed she was biting her lip, as if enduring some pain.
“You’re the one who worries too much about things, you know.” Yuuto turned Felicia’s words back on her, patting the top of her head.
Yuuto could guess which thoughts occupied Felicia’s mind. She was upset with herself for laughing at his reaction earlier, thinking she had no right to laugh about this. The one who’d pulled Yuuto into this world, who had separated him from his family and loved ones, had been none other than Felicia herself.
“I am grateful for your concern, but I am the one at fault, after all,” Felicia said with a self-deprecating laugh.
These days, she teased Yuuto and only showed him her glowing smile, but back in those early days, her face had always been stiff and her expression dark.
The rune she possessed, of the Expressionless Servant Skírnir, was a rune of all-purpose utility. It granted her extraordinary talent and skill in both the athletics and the arts, along with the ability to wield mysterious powers such as the galldr.
Amongst the numerous powers granted by the Expressionless Servant was something called “Gleipnir.” It was the power to capture and bind things that contained alien or aberrant qualities.
It had originally been a technique intended to seal the superhuman powers of other Einherjar, but that was just its main purpose. There was a good chance this power may have accidentally activated in an unexpected and unintended way.
Yuuto didn’t really understand magic, so he was making a lot of inferences. However, the possibility was rather high that...
“It wasn’t your fault alone,” Yuuto offered in a clipped tone. “I’m at fault for not being more cautious.” A modest smile formed on his lips.
To say he’d never felt anger about what Felicia had done would be a lie. But she hadn’t pulled him into this world intentionally. It had been, through and through, the result of a series of coincidences.
Yuuto suspected that looking into the opposing mirror at the shrine might also be one of the main factors that had landed him here. That’s why one part of Yuuto believed that his actions were just as much to blame.
Still, Felicia felt a great deal of guilt regarding him, and was trying to do all she could for him. And if she hadn’t been around, Yuuto was sure he would have fallen into despair and killed himself, or, otherwise unable to get food, would have died of starvation. That was why he had nothing but gratitude toward Felicia, and though he often told her so, she seemed to take it as just him being considerate. It didn’t seem like that would change anytime soon.
“Uhm, Big Brother?” Felicia’s face flushed red with embarrassment as she stared up at Yuuto.
He took a breath. “Oh, sorry. Bad habit of mine.”
Panicked, Yuuto pulled his hand away from Felicia’s head. He had been patting her head for some time without realizing it. Perhaps because he had spent so much time looking out for his crybaby childhood friend, whenever he saw a girl on the verge of tears, he had a habit of patting the girl’s head in order to comfort her.
Reluctant to part just yet, Felicia gave him an intense gaze and reached for his hand. “Oh, I don’t really mind though.”
Yuuto’s pulse responded to her amorous gesture by quickening.
“Oh, no, well, you’re older than me, so I shouldn’t... oh!” It was too late for him to regret or take back those words.
The amorous look swiftly disappeared from Felicia’s face. Just like how Sigrun lost her sweetness when she interacted with people other than Yuuto.
“That is true,” she said. “Indeed, I am older than you. Yes... yes, in half a year, I shall reach the milestone of my twentieth birthday yet unmarried. Yes, yes, I might have waited too long! Still, that doesn’t mean I am not attractive. It is merely that I have not been taken as any man’s bride because there is no one worthy among the Wolf Clan, that is, it is I who have declined them. Furthermore, I have pledged my life to serve you in the first place, Big Brother, so how dare those rotten old men say things like...!”
The words that fell from Felicia’s lips, curses drenched with disdain, elicited a stiff and nervous smile from Yuuto.
Do not speak to Felicia about age and marriage, he thought with amusement. That was, among the people of the Wolf Clan, a well-known unspoken agreement.
The gentle Felicia, whose brilliant smile was normally unflappable, changed her demeanor as soon as the topic came up. Instantly dark... almost pitch black!
It was the norm in Yggdrasil for girls in their teens to be married off. To a person from the 21st century like Yuuto, it might have seemed a little too soon, but looking at it from a human behavior standpoint, perhaps a modern Japanese person’s behavior was more unnatural.
Speaking globally, up until the latter half of the 19th century, marriage during one’s teenage years was normal. Japan was the same. And it had been a common perception throughout the world during those times that a girl who hadn’t married in her teens must have something wrong with her.
Having little time left before reaching that time limit, Felicia was feeling an extreme amount of pressure from everyone around her, so her anxiety regarding the subject was exceedingly normal.
“W-well, if you go by the way my world counts years, you would only be 17,” Yuuto told her.
“That’s right!” she cried. “It’s the calendar that’s at fault here! Of course, your country is using a more reasonable calendar, Big Brother! Why couldn’t my date of birth have been seven days off? And that dog girl, she’s only 18 this year! It’s all so strange!” Felicia clenched her fists as she shouted, a golden wolf howling her troubles at the moon.
Perhaps this was the cause of her harsher feelings toward Sigrun.
Here in Yggdrasil, they didn’t think in terms of the number zero, so as soon as a person was born, their age was counted as “one.” And, as a culture using the lunar calendar, once the new year arrived, everyone instantly advanced their age for the year.
In other words, for someone like Felicia, who was born at the end of one year, within several days of her birth, she was already considered “two years old,” while someone born at the beginning of the year, like Sigrun, got twelve months before she was considered two. For a girl who was concerned about her age, such a method of counting must have seemed unfair.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I lost my composure for a moment.”
“Oh... well, I was the one in the wrong,” Yuuto told her.
“As penance, please allow me to offer you a lullaby.”
“Hey, I’m a little too old for...”
“Old?”
“No, never mind! It’s fine.”
Feeling Felicia’s expression beginning to ice over once more, Yuuto quickly retracted his words. Even though he was supposed to be the sovereign, he reflexively took on a formal, standing-at-attention posture.
Felicia nodded coolly and headed for Yuuto’s tent.
“Hey now, you really shouldn’t be in a guy’s sleeping quarters in the middle of the night...” Yuuto started to protest.
“Oh? Personally, I would not mind attending to your needs through the night. It has been said from ancient times that the skin of a woman soothes the anxieties of the battlefield.” Felicia’s narrowed eyes filled with sensuality as she gave him a flirtatious glance over her shoulder.
On top of that, her form, illuminated by the moonlight, made her seem magical, giving her a more bewitching beauty than in the light of the sun, causing his heart to pound louder and louder.
Yuuto was, after all, a teenage boy. Having a girl, and especially a girl as beautiful as Felicia, talking about “attending” him through the night, wasn’t something he would be uninterested in. He gulped instinctively.
“Hee hee, so, what shall we do?” she asked.
“I appreciate the offer, but I’m afraid I must decline. I wouldn’t want to betray her.” Yuuto said matter-of-factly, averting his gaze.
He said it to Felicia without looking at her because he was afraid that if he looked, her charm would overcome all sense of reason.
Even without Mitsuki to consider, that didn’t necessarily mean he would have given in, either. She clearly still felt deeply guilty toward him. He would be taking advantage of those feelings, and her unconditional devotion toward him. It would be sullying the person who saved his life with his own base desire; it would feel like the act of a beast. Yuuto’s pride wouldn’t allow for that.
“Oh, that’s too bad.” With a mischievous smile, Felicia disappeared into the tent.
Yuuto instinctively looked at the sky. “Just give me a break already. Even my rational mind has its limits.”
Taking a deep breath to try and calm himself, Yuuto followed Felicia into his tent.
The flame of a lantern lit by Felicia filled his tent with a soft, orange glow. She was sitting on the wooden bed on the far edge of the tent. She gave him a sweet smile, patting her lap.
“I have no intention of leaving until you are able to rest, Big Brother.”
Having gotten the drop on him, Felicia sat there, smiling gently and sweetly.
A man who does not return a woman’s advances should be ashamed. The words ran through his mind. His reasoning reactivated, telling him not to fall for it.
“You have hardly slept at all during this past month, right?” she said. “The battle is over, so you must rest. Please, let me do this one thing that I can for you.”
Her eyes were filled with such worry that it seemed as if she might cry, and in the end, he couldn’t refuse her. She was right; for the past month, he had been so tightly wound, wondering if and when he might be attacked by the enemy, that there were many days in which he’d slept shallowly, if at all.
She always seemed to be joking around, but in reality, she was genuinely concerned for him and his health. The truth was, with his nerves on high alert, he didn’t feel like he would be able to sleep deeply tonight either.
“...All right, I’ll leave it to you,” he said at last. Yuuto readied himself, flopping down on the bed and resting his head in Felicia’s lap. As a small act of resistance, he lay with his head facing Felicia’s abdomen. He didn’t want her to see his face right now.
“Yes. Goodnight, Big Brother,” she said. A gentle, soothing melody fell from Felicia’s lips.
He remembered hearing that musical phrase before, because this galldr, one of “peaceful rest,” had been sung to him numerous times.
I guess I really am tired, Yuuto thought, and just as he did, his eyelids grew heavy, and his consciousness was absorbed by the galldr, allowing him to fall into darkness.
“Father! We can see our town, Iárnviðr!” As Sigrun’s voice rang out, Yuuto straightened himself up within the carriage.
A grand sight jumped into Yuuto’s view: a wide expanse of open fields dotted with exposed earth and rock, with a vast mountain range faintly visible in the distance.
Over a hundred sheep marched slowly across the fields, followed by a dog. The sheep in the pasture were the Wolf Clan’s main source of food, as well as used to make clothing, which made keeping them an indispensably important industry. In the direction the sheep were heading was a faint, but visible, reddish-brown structure. It was the sacred tower Hliðskjálf, the unmistakable symbol of the Wolf Clan capital, Iárnviðr.
“We’re finally home,” Yuuto said. “I feel like I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.”
It had been over a month since they’d been back to the town. He really had been yearning for a roof over his head and a warm bed. Instinctively, a sigh of relief escaped Yuuto’s lips.
“Yes. That town is the den of our Wolf Clan after all,” Felicia said happily, seated next to Yuuto.
Coming home and breathing a sigh of relief, hmm? Yuuto let out a wry laugh.
His feelings on the subject were very complex, but in the end, that town had come to feel like a second home to Yuuto.
“I wanna get a bath as soon as possible,” Sigrun said earnestly, galloping along next to the chariot on her favorite horse. Mánagarmr or not, she was still a girl, and naturally wanted to feel clean.
“Yeah, true. I wanna get one, too,” he agreed.
Being able to get a bath in this time period was, to a person from the 21st century like Yuuto, something to be truly grateful for. He wanted to get the sweat, grime, and most importantly, the smell of blood, off of him.
“Tee hee! In that case, Big Brother, I shall wash your back for you,” Felicia teased.
“Tch...!! Father! Though it might be presumptuous, I shall assist, as well!”
“No, I’m fine.” Yuuto outright turned down their offers.
Of course, as a man, the prospect of two beautiful girls wanting to wash his back made his heart sing, but in the end, keeping a clear head was paramount. Falling asleep in Felicia’s lap the night before had already been straddling the line. Yuuto didn’t want to become a sleazebag politician, using his position as a cover for any unsightly pursuits, and he clung to that ideal within his boyish heart.
“Oh, yeah,” Yuuto asked, changing the subject. “So how did it feel trying that out?”
“Oh, you mean this thing?” The seemingly meaningful question Yuuto had asked Sigrun caused a smile to spread across her face that was so bright that it reminded him of a child being given a beloved toy.
A bad feeling rushed up Yuuto’s spine, but it was already too late.
“It was really amazing! I was able to fight freely without any restraint! It was all thanks to you, Father! Saying that your magnanimous nature ranks on par with the gods who dwell in the heavens would be no exaggeration. I am sure that your swooping in to rescue us, the members of the Wolf Clan, was no less than a gift from the heavens...”
“Okay, I get it! I get it! Enough already!”
“I-I see.”
Yuuto’s flustered attempt at putting a stop to Sigrun’s overtures caused her bouncy expression to instantly droop.
When Sigrun began praising her master, it was near impossible to make her stop. Yuuto was happy that she held him in such high regard, but it was extremely embarrassing and hard to hear.
“U-uhm, have I said something that displeased you, Father?” Sigrun asked, her expression now fearful and timid. She looked like a dog with its tail between its legs after being scolded by its owner, giving rise to torturous feelings of guilt within Yuuto. Perhaps his tone had been too harsh.
“N-no, that’s not it at all!” he said hastily.
“Really?”
“Of course not. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.”
“Of course! Please don’t hesitate to ask me for them anytime.” A satisfied smile and a muffled giggle reached Sigrun’s lips.
First the tears, now the smiles. Yuuto could do nothing more than give a defeated, wry grin.
The Strongest Silver Wolf, having stood invincible on the battlefield, now had been reduced to mood swings of joy and sadness by Yuuto’s words.
Yggdrasil was divided into eight large territories.
Among those, travel between the regions of Ásgarðr, Miiðgarðr, and Álfheim was obstructed by three steep mountain ranges collectively referred to as “The Roof of Yggdrasil.”
The only path through was the long, narrow Bifröst Basin, which stretched through the mountain ranges and connected the three regions. Up until a hundred years ago, the entire basin had been overseen by the Wolf Clan, but then their branch clans had begun to rise up, leading to the current situation in which they were a puny clan who owned only a small piece of the western part of the corridor.
The Wolf Clan capital Iárnviðr, situated at the western entrance of the basin, had been flourishing for a long time as a strategic trade location. As it was of upmost strategic importance, it was constantly under attack, so a wall three times the height of the standard citizen had been built to protect it. In one of the corners stood a conspicuously large gate, stained a vivid green and covered with countless white and yellow drawings of wolves.
Once they arrived at the gate, one of the several soldiers who had gathered there rushed up to Yuuto’s chariot and began speaking to him.
“Welcome back, Father! We have received word from a fast horse. Please accept my most sincere congratulations on your great victory and for capturing the patriarch of the Horn Clan.”
Yuuto was a man, so having beautiful girls like Felicia and Sigrun call him “Father” felt awkward, but, he realized, not completely. But it was only natural that having a muscular, sturdy man over forty with sword cut scars on his forehead and cheek calling him “Father” made Yuuto feel extremely uncomfortable.
Yuuto gave a slight bow, and expressed his gratitude in a formal manner. “Thank you very much. Jurgen-san, you’ve done well monitoring the place.”
The man called Jurgen knitted his brows together, and his already-hardened expression became even more rigid. “That will not do, Father. You are constantly apologizing and lowering yourself. It is unbecoming of a sovereign to use polite speech with his child subordinates.”
“Oh...”
Thinking of how the man always found fault with him, Yuuto grimaced. It had been a month since they’d last seen each other, and Yuuto had completely forgotten.
As a genuine Japanese person raised in the country, the belief that elders should be treated with respect was something that permeated every fiber of Yuuto’s being. A value like that, which he had been born and raised with, wouldn’t be changed so easily.
“I keep telling you, don’t I?” Yuuto said. “Just call me by my name. There’s no need for formalities. It’s hard to be comfortable with someone several years older than me abasing themselves all the time. Jurgen-san, wouldn’t you feel awkward if someone called you their father while you were still a youngster?”
“I most certainly would not,” Jurgen declared nonchalantly, his expression completely unshaken.
Yuuto couldn’t read even a hint of emotion from Jurgen’s brash response. Perhaps it was part of the wisdom of growing old. The many deep wrinkles etched into his face were the result of experiencing the heaviness of living, and yet he gave off a feeling of stability, like a mountain, unshaken.
This was to be expected of the Wolf Clan’s unflappable second-in-command, a great man of dignity and of the caliber revered in the leader of the clan’s subordinates. Yuuto couldn’t help but feel unsettled and ill at ease over such a person abasing themselves for him.
“Anyway, I was always just supposed to be a stand-in leader to get us through that battle a year ago,” Yuuto said. “There’s been so much confusion, and I know we’ve been struggling, but now that our battle with the Horn Clan is finally over, let’s choose a proper sovereign.”
“Huh? What are you saying after all this time? That’s all in the past now. You have spent this past year consistently producing such spectacular results. There isn’t another member of the Wolf Clan more worthy of the position of sovereign than you are.”
“No, it would be strange for a neophyte outsider like myself to remain sovereign,” Yuuto said. “Jurgen-san, you would definitely be a much better fit...”
“Father, do not concern yourself so with age or place of birth. In your position, ability is everything. You are infinitely greater than me or any other. No matter who you ask in our clan, everyone will tell you the same thing.” Jurgen stated this as if it were fact.
“There is no doubt,” Sigrun agreed. “With all due respect to our second-in-command, it is true that even now everyone would nominate you over him for the position, Father. That is because you are the sort of great hero that only appears once every 100... no, every 1,000 years.”
“Tee hee! Of course, the second-in-command, as a leader in our clan, possesses his own indisputable talents,” Felicia said. “It’s just that if he were compared to you, Big Brother, he would be inferior in every way.”
Apparently having eavesdropped on their conversation, Sigrun and Felicia started in on Yuuto again.
Come on, give me a break already, Yuuto thought, heaving a sigh. The two of them normally disagreed on everything, but for some reason, when it came to showering Yuuto with praise, they managed to come together.
“You guys really are overestimating me,” he complained.
“Overestimating? No, this is different,” Felicia said firmly. “Our clan was at the end of its ropes, but within just a year, we’ve been able to force the Claw Clan and the Horn Clan into obeying us, and by means impossible to me, or to the second-in-command.”
“No, it would have been impossible to anyone other than Father,” Sigrun corrected.
“That’s what I keep saying!” Yuuto exploded. “I’ve just been cheating! I just happen to have access to knowledge that doesn’t exist in this world; I myself am nothing special...”
“Knowledge by itself is just knowledge,” said Jurgen. “It’s just a tool. To leverage it, to utilize it properly, that is a competency all its own! And, without a doubt, you possess that competency!”
Jurgen clenched his fist in sync with those passionate words. Felicia and Sigrun both vigorously nodded, as well.
“I give up...” Yuuto shrugged his shoulders, his palms facing upward. It was impossible to convince them. Hearing it from one person was bad enough, but having three gang up on him was more than he could bear.
To be fair, Jurgen was making a logical argument. However, the knowledge Yuuto possessed was too advanced for this world; it was akin to the alien technology of science fiction. Yuuto felt that the potential power of that knowledge couldn’t be understood with logic or common sense.
Naturally, everyone’s praise and acknowledgement made him happy. On the other hand, no matter how much they extolled him, he saw what he was doing as nothing more than cheating — borrowing power from someone else. For this reason, Yuuto constantly kept that fact in mind, in order to avoid arrogance getting the better of him.
In order to be more like a truly worthy sovereign, he strove to maintain a reflective heart, an inquisitive nature, and a prudent ear to hear the thoughts of his subordinates.
Yuuto hadn’t yet realized a simple truth. In a world where most people who obtained political power or great wealth became haughty and corrupt, those very principles of his were the difficult-to-obtain qualities that drew people to him, the qualifications of a “King.”
Upon finishing his conversation with Jurgen and passing through the gate, Yuuto was greeted with cries of joy and voices extolling their sovereign patriarch, as if the people had been lying in wait.
Along both sides of the broad street that ran through the center of town were lines of people so thick, they resembled a hard wall.
“Sieg, Patriarch! Sieg, Patriarch!” the people cried.
Yuuto winced at such a reception, but was quickly able to calm himself. He had already experienced this two months earlier, after his triumphant return from the battle with the Claw Clan.
“Tee hee. You’re as popular as ever, Big Brother. Since they have all come here, why not give them something in return?” Felicia suggested, returning their cheers with a wave.
I’m not as good of a performer as you are, Yuuto thought as he gazed about the crowd of people. The faces of everyone in the crowd overflowed with cheer and broad smiles.
Each of these soldiers was someone’s older brother, or younger brother, or son or father, or husband or boyfriend. The people weren’t just celebrating the victory; they were celebrating the safe return of their loved ones.
“That’s right,” he murmured. “This too is part of the sovereign’s job.”
Yuuto stepped onto the rim of the carriage and lifted the sword sheathed at his hip into the air. Reflecting back the light of the sun, the blade shined a dull silver.
Being so oddly embarrassed in situations like this only lead him to feel further shame. The source of this was his first year of middle school, where, through an odd set of circumstances, he had been chosen for the lead part in a play and had failed spectacularly.
I guess I’ve become something of a performer, as well, Yuuto thought lightly, as he struck a pose.
“Sieg, Patriarch!!” The sudden outburst of cheers caught him off guard.
“Whoa!”
The waves of sound from the cries rolled over him, causing him to stumble and nearly fall on his backside.
Nevertheless, the cries of joy echoed through the center of town, until the sound had magnified to absurd levels, causing the entire town to shake.
“They really are fired up...” Yuuto was dumbfounded at the din he had escalated. Of course he’d intended to get them excited, but he hadn’t expected it to reach this level at all. It seemed as if the returning Wolf soldiers had lost their nerve, too, their faces reflecting back either bewilderment or shock at the raucous reception.
“That’s our Father!” someone in the crowd screamed rapturously.
Even Jurgen, who was always so calm and collected, his expression not easily shaken, couldn’t hide his shock at the frenzy which Yuuto had stirred up.
The only two who looked completely normal were Sigrun and Felicia. The two of them exchanged glances, nodding in approval.
“My, our people are so sensible,” asserted Sigrun.
“Yes. They’ve accepted a proper leader and have come to appreciate him so well,” added Felicia.
Even upon their arrival at the palace, the cheers continued to ring out.
The palace of the sovereign patriarch who governed over the Wolf Clan was at the very center of town, with a wall surrounding it even taller than the one surrounding the town.
Its outer walls were made of connected column-like shapes painted with a beautiful white stucco, reminding Yuuto of the Parthenon in Greece. There was a world of difference between this grand fixture and the common houses found throughout town, which looked to Yuuto more like shabby sheds or barns.
Yuuto had nothing but admiration for such a grand structure. While his time should have been far ahead of the cultures of 3,000-4,000 years prior, this was still the type of giant, magnificent building that would earn solemn words of praise from anyone.
As Yuuto stopped his chariot at the castle gate, the elder members of the Wolf Clan came to greet him and shower him with praise.
“Welcome home, Lord Yuuto.”
“Congratulations. We have received word that it was a thorough win.”
“With Lord Yuuto around, the Wolf Clan will be able to see continued peace.”
Though they were referred to as elders, they were all about in their 40s and 50s, their bodies still pliable and shapely. They were still in their prime.
They had all been younger brother subordinates to the previous sovereign — so, they were equivalent to uncles to Yuuto. In other words, they were also the ones who hadn’t accepted Yuuto as sovereign, and therefore, had refused both the Sibling Chalice and the Child Chalice.
“We have prayed to Angrboða for victory every day without fail,” one of them said.
“Yes. We of the Wolf Clan must not forget that today’s prosperity is all thanks to the divine protection of Angrboða,” added another.
“Indeed, indeed. Cheers to the master of Iárnviðr, Angrboða!”
The Angrboða whose praise they extolled was the guardian deity who was enshrined at Iárnviðr, and thus worshiped as the goddess presiding over the people of the Wolf Clan. In a roundabout way, they were also claiming this victory as the result of their prayers.
Being from the 21st century, Yuuto could see their manner of speaking as nothing more than sheer impudence, but they seemed to be quite serious. Just as in the Middle Ages, when witch trials had been commonplace, and people had had no countermeasures for the threats of the wild, peoples’ lives and minds were firmly entrenched in the realm of the spiritual.
“Pardon me, I’m in a bit of a hurry, so I’m afraid this conversation will have to wait until later,” Yuuto said curtly, brushing off the words of the elders, and passed through them without stopping.
It wasn’t Yuuto’s intention to reject the sacred mysteries of this world. After all, the existence of mysterious powers like the galldr and other abilities of the Einherjar had been demonstrated to him many times. Even the fact that Yuuto was here now couldn’t be explained by 21st century science.
Also, Yuuto got the sense that here on Yggdrasil, faith in a deity was an extremely important component employed in controlling the people. That was why he had no intention of taking it lightly.
It was just that, in that moment, Yuuto had something far more important than gods that he was concerned about.
“Your manner was a bit curt with the other elders back there, Lord Yuuto,” the head of the elders protested. Bruno’s face was grim with displeasure.
Humans were said to become more firm in their resolve as the years passed, and Bruno proved to be a particularly strong example of that at times like this, nagging and preaching to Yuuto about the principles of the Chalice.
Having the clan run with the parent-child relationship at its center was the way of the world here. Consequently, though these men had been given the position of elder, they actually had no real power. Even so, they were still his elders and uncles, and thus should be shown the proper respect due to them.
“But I am in a hurry! Please allow me to speak with everyone tomorrow!” Yuuto’s voice became rough with irritation.
Normally, Yuuto would be able to keep up surface appearances, interacting with those around him with a friendly demeanor. But right now, he couldn’t help but feel impatient. He hadn’t heard her voice in a month. It was so close. He couldn’t wait a minute longer.
“I fear not, Lord Yuuto!” the man declared. “Any matters relating to the Chalice are of utmost importance, and thus, such a situation receives priority! As the sovereign, you of all people should know that...!”
“I will be happy to hear the elder’s thoughts on this matter,” Felicia cut in with a broad smile between Yuuto and the ever-persistent Bruno. “Later on, I will share the information with Big Brother.” She gave Yuuto a wink.
“Thank you, Felicia! I’m counting on you!”
“I will not let you down. But, if you are in a hurry, please be sure not to hurt yourself, all right?”
“I’ll be careful!”
Even as he said those words, Yuuto sped off, unable to linger a moment longer.
Bruno’s shouts echoed after him. There would be hell to pay later. But he didn’t care about that!
He rushed through the courtyard thick with date palms, turning on the power to his smartphone as he went. The strength of his smartphone’s signal was still being displayed with a red X over it.
“Tch, I guess it still won’t work here.” Yuuto clicked his tongue, unintentionally chiding himself for wasting precious battery power.
Clenching his phone tightly, Yuuto quickened his pace.
Standing next to the palace was Hliðskjálf, the sacred tower with a height that dwarfed the palace itself. The entire structure had a reddish appearance, and that wasn’t solely the fault of the sun setting in the western sky. It was because the tower had been built with hand-fired bricks.
The front of the tower was connected to the top floors by a long staircase. It was an easy target for one to attack, but the structure was not for defense; rather it was obviously for religious observances and ceremonies.
If Yuuto were to describe the tower’s shape in one word it would be “kagami mochi,” the stacked decoration featured during Japanese New Year’s. According to Yuuto’s research, it had a great deal in common with the ancient Mesopotamian ziggurats. Those structures, in turn, were based around the Tower of Babel from the Old Testament. Similar structures could be found in Europe and Central and South America, erected by ancient civilizations, in some universal human desire to get them a little closer to heaven — and by extension, God, in order to offer their prayers.
“Huff... huff...”
He was already feeling pain in his chest and sides from those long stairs, but he quickly made his way to the top, to the altar called a “Hörgr” that had been erected there.
The place, two years earlier, was where Yuuto had found his way into this world. Offerings of prayers for victory, the Chalice ceremony, and many other holy rituals were conducted here.
Without Yuuto noticing, the sun had set and the moon had begun its climb in the eastern sky.
There was no sign of any other person, and the interior was filled with a solemn atmosphere. Enshrined at the altar was the divine mirror, bathed in the light of the moon and emanating a strange light of its own.
On first glance, it seemed nothing more than a simple mirror, but it was actually made of a rare metal housing sacred power, known as elven copper. The galldr and the power of the Einherjar both originated from this elven copper.
Yuuto was certain that this mysterious, rare metal also had something to do with how he was brought to this world.
Yuuto had been going with the theory that Yggdrasil was somewhere in the deep past, but there was no metal with such properties anywhere in the 21st century. The mysteries of this world only ever seemed to increase.
However, in that moment, it didn’t matter.
At that point, what was most important to him was—
“Hello! I’m so glaaad! Yuu-kun, you’re all right!”
“Sorry for worrying you,” Yuuto said. “But I’m totally fine.”
“Yes, yes. I’m really so relieved. Welcome home, Yuu-kun.”
“Yeah, I’m home. Mitsuki.”
If he was near the divine mirror, he could connect to the world he was originally from.
This discovery had not been by accident. He had been wondering if he could possibly get back home using opposing mirrors once more, and had tried it hoping he could. Unfortunately, while he had been unable to return to the 21st century, when he’d checked his smartphone for confirmation, the screen had indicated that he was getting a signal!
“Listen to this, Yuu-kun! Ruri-chan is so mean,” Mitsuki said.
“Oh?”
Yuuto sat and listened to Mitsuki’s trifling stories, offering an interjection every now and then. The topic didn’t matter. As long as it was something light. If they each could hear the other’s voice, and know that they were well, that was all that mattered.
The main point was that war was an implicit taboo. It was obvious that such a topic didn’t make for pleasant conversation. It would be foolish if they wasted their limited time on difficult subjects that would only leave them feeling more depressed.
“And then, after that, Ruri-chan...”
Bee-boop, bee-boop.
All of a sudden, Yuuto’s phone rang out with cruel warning sound, cutting off Mitsuki’s words. It was a sound informing him that he was almost out of battery power.
“Aww...” Mitsuki likely heard the sound too. Her voice was disappointed. Lonely.
Naturally, Yuuto felt the same way. He enjoyed their time, but it always ended too soon.
“I guess we’re outta time,” he said. “I’ll call you again.”
“Okay, I’ll be waiting. Oh, I didn’t get a lot of money from work this time, but I’ve charged up your phone’s account.”
“Sorry for all the trouble.”
“You promised never to say that, Pop,” Mitsuki said in a slightly solemn tone, then broke in with a giggle the next second. This was a standard, joking exchange between the two.
“Seriously though, you’re a lifesaver. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Eheheh.” Mitsuki gave a little laugh, embarrassed.
The ebooks Yuuto had been buying to survive in this world weren’t free. The money for those books was money Mitsuki had been saving from her daily newspaper job. Yuuto could never thank her enough for that.
“I’ll be waiting for your call,” she said. “As long as it takes. Take good care of yourself, Yuu-kun!”
“Yeah, I know! Later, Mitsuki.”
With those words of farewell, Yuuto hung up the phone. For a moment, his finger hovered ruefully over the button, unmoving, but he steeled himself and ended the call. He had no intention of appearing any less masculine to Mitsuki of all people.
Being thrown alone into this world had made Yuuto realize a few things. Things like how much he loved Mitsuki. That was why he needed to return to the world where she waited for him.
“But can I really get home?” he sighed, at a loss.
If it was by an Einherjar’s power that he’d been brought there, then Yuuto felt it wouldn’t be strange for such a power to send him home. However, if such an Einherjar existed, where would they be? With limited means of communication and transportation here on Yggdrasil, finding one seemed as hopeless a task as grasping at clouds.
Part of the reason he’d taken the position of sovereign was because it afforded him the chance to receive information and rumors from all over the place. He had hoped it would be more effective than braving the dangers of trying to visit all of the different regions on his own. It had yet to yield any worthwhile results, though.
He couldn’t expect help from the people in his home world, either. Yuuto’s disappearance two years ago had caused a bit of a stir. And yet, no one would believe Yuuto or Mitsuki.
It was only to be expected, after all. Hearing an absurd, nonsensical story about opposing mirrors being used to fling someone into another world, most adults saw it as nothing more than tomfoolery. One detective had agreed to come to the shrine, jokingly holding up an opposing mirror and looking through it to the divine mirror, but nothing happened.
As a result, since Yuuto could still reach them by phone, the incident was instead seen as nothing more than a malicious prank, and as far as the police back in Hachio City were concerned, he was a runaway. Even if the police really did put their all into it and managed to reach the truth of what happened, he doubted they would be able to actually extricate him.
“Even if I could make it home...” Yuuto gazed down at his own two hands. Those hands had been stained time and again with the blood of others. He no longer had the right to touch her with such filthy hands. He began to question himself.
“...No, I can’t do this right now.” Yuuto shook his head, trying to shake all the bad thoughts away.
What good will I be if I grow soft? I will get home to her, no matter what! Yuuto vowed to himself once more.
“Father, if you linger here all night, you’ll catch a cold.”
“!”
A familiar voice called out from behind Yuuto, causing his back to instinctively freeze up. He did so out of guilt.
When he looked behind him, Sigrun was standing there inconspicuously. She had likely been there, hiding in silence and out of sight, the whole time he had been on the phone.
The arrangement was that, in Felicia’s absence, Sigrun would take up the duty of guarding Yuuto. Even though she was likely exhausted from all that time spent on the battlefield, she’d had to pursue Yuuto up the long stairway after he’d run off, selfishly. He felt guilty for being the recipient of such loyalty.
Suddenly, the faces of everyone in the Wolf Clan began flashing through his mind. Indeed, someday, he would have to return to Japan. Thinking of not just Sigrun, but everyone who depended on him and looked up to him, made Yuuto waiver in his desire to return home.
People who had shown him great hospitality, for whom he had great affection.
If it had been a year earlier, he could have left them behind easily.
But now, he was no longer so sure.
In the dusk, the man sat himself upright.
Next to him slept a naked woman. Her skin was moist with sweat, and an obscene air wafted through the room.
“What is it?” the man glared at the door and asked in a haughty manner.
There was a trembling form standing outside the door. They likely hadn’t expected to be noticed or acknowledged before speaking.
But for this man, who always behaved as if he were on the battlefield, this was nothing special.
“F-Father, please, forgive my intrusion at this late hour. We have received intel from one of our spies that the Horn Clan’s second-in-command, Rasmas, has departed. It is regarding the Wolf Clan establishing a bond with the Horn Clan via the Sibling Chalice.”
“Ohh? The Sibling Chalice, eh? ...Hmph, this is perfect, then. Actually, this is the best-case scenario. Gather the troops.”
“Sir! Ha ha! My arms cry for the thrill of battle once more,” the man’s subordinate said with a curt laugh.
“Mm, yes, we can finally open the way to our long-coveted Bifröst,” the man agreed. “Now then, how will that famous little brat from the Wolf Clan handle this?”
As he shifted his large body, a broad, fiendish grin stretched across his face.
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