ACT 5
Originally, the Hoof Clan had been an offshoot of a branch family of the Boar Clan, a clan that had exerted a great deal of influence throughout Álfheim, but then they had become a tiny clan by secluding themselves off in the westernmost part of Álfheim — which was incidentally the westernmost tip of Yggdrasil itself.
After that, the current sovereign patriarch of the Hoof Clan, Yngvi, had followed up his ascension to the position by swallowing up all the clans that surrounded the Boar Clan’s main family, transforming the Hoof Clan into one of the top ten strongest of Yggdrasil’s close-to-100 clans.
Yngvi, the man who had rejuvenated the Hoof Clan, had turned 36 this year. His body still overflowed with the strength of youth, but he also was cloaked in the stubbornness and cunning that experience brought. His body and mind were clearly at their peak, which stimulated his desire for power even further. Even if he won all of the territory up for grabs, it would only swell his ambition more.
If he seized the fertile territory the Horn Clan owned around the Körmt River Basin, there was no doubt that the Hoof Clan’s influence would grow exponentially, and the path to the Divine Emperor and Ásgarðr would open for them.
The Hoof Clan had awaited an opening for some time, and then they had learned that not only had the Horn Clan and Wolf Clans been fighting, the Wolf Clan had crushed the Horn Clan.
On top of that, they had learned from one of their spies that the Horn Clan sovereign was being held prisoner by the Wolf Clan, and even the second-in-command had taken leave to go inspect the sovereign’s current state. That had created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
In truth, what the Horn Clan offered up now could hardly be called resistance, and the Hoof Clan had quickly toppled three fortresses. Yngvi found it all rather anticlimactic and unsatisfying. Yet he spared no time for lamentation. He simply moved on to lead an assault on the Horn Clan capital, Fólkvangr.
“Heh heh heh!” he snickered. “This must mean that the heavens themselves are grooming me to be Supreme Ruler.”
What he was saying was arrogant, plain and simple. Normally, insecurities at the top roll downhill, but as the leader of the Hoof Clan was full of confidence, the people below him felt no fear or trepidation, either. Having no lack of confidence was another type of leadership skill.
Suppressing his desire to take and seize, Yngvi instructed his solders to take a break. “We’ll make camp here tonight. Don’t let your guard down, though.”
Proud though he might be, Yngvi was a general with a long record of service. He knew in the deepest parts of his being that the slightest bit of negligence on the battlefield could mean death. He wouldn’t be foolish enough to keep marching the soldiers into exhaustion out of pride. He would need the service of these soldiers’ children and grandchildren, after all. It wouldn’t do to have them die in vain.
Plotting their next move in a tent that had been erected, Yngvi suddenly realized there was some activity from troops in the back.
“Hm?” he murmured. “What...?”
No sooner had he started to ask what was going on than...
Bwoooooo! Bwooooooo!!!
An ear-splitting noise echoed across the entire area. It was the sound of a Horn Clan signaling an enemy attack.
“Well, well! To think they would dare to launch the first attack!” The corners of Yngvi’s mouth twitched into a sneer as he rose to his feet. He fully expected that the Horn Clan would just shut itself in, like a turtle in its shell, and wouldn’t come out.
But this was exactly what Yngvi had been hoping for. A siege would have taken a considerable amount of time.
Owning such a wide territory, the Hoof Clan’s land bordered far more countries than the Horn Clan’s land did. It will become increasingly dangerous for the Hoof Clan to focus its soldiers solely at the Horn Clan. And if Yngvi, the sovereign, stayed away from his country too long, too much would be left undone. So if they could settle everything on the battlefield in one go, it would be a cause for celebration.
“Well now, let’s make quick work of them,” he said confidently, standing to survey the enemy he was about to destroy.
But even that arrogance was blown off as quickly as a curtain in the wind.
Yngvi’s tent was situated on a tall hilltop from which he could survey his entire military. An unbelievable sight was unfolding below him now, illuminated by torches and moonlight.
“Wh-what is that?!” Yngvi exclaimed.
Judging from the crest they wore, the soldiers appeared to be members of the Wolf Clan. They had come to help their kin in the Horn Clan and join in the battle. That was fine. It was all according to plan.
Their numbers were even fewer than he’d expected. Probably only about a hundred troops. It was absolutely not enough to take on the Hoof Clan military that numbered around 10,000.
Still, all hundred troops were on horseback.
And against those hundred on horseback, the Hoof Clan troops were unable to effectively fight back. Outmaneuvered, they could barely manage to put up a struggle and quickly fell into panic, with cries of pain and agony rising from the battlefield as it fell into chaos.
“Their troops are on horseback?! Fools! How do they expect to fight?!” Yngvi shouted.
Fighting on horseback took a long period of training. At least five or ten years. No matter which clan, finding people who could ride horses was difficult — they were a rare commodity.
The Hoof Clan was one of the Great Clans. They had quite a few who could ride a horse. Even Yngvi himself was skilled in riding, among the best in his clan.
Still, even with his skill, he would never consider battling on horseback. With little to support one’s legs, there was the anxiety that battling on horseback would surely lead to being knocked off one’s horse and felled. Combat with the enemy while riding on horseback was a game of chance.
Or that was how it should have been.
The troops who launched the night attack pulled arrow after arrow from the quivers on their backs and fired, while other troops swung the spears they held with lightning speed, raging with such fervor without ever losing their balance.
They were making ample use of the one hundred people at their disposal, as if they had trained years for this attack. Among them was a woman young enough that one might call her a girl instead.
It was like a nightmare.
Yngvi pinched himself in his thigh, and felt a rush of pain. This was no dream; it was reality.
“This... can’t be!” Smack! He slapped both of his cheeks, trying to bring himself back to reality.
This was the battlefield, and right now, they were under attack from the enemy. And he, as the commanding officer, could not lose his wits now.
“Calm down, all of you!” he bellowed. “Unexpected though this may be, the enemy is still small in number. If we remain calm, we can defeat them! Messengers! Inform the front lines! Quickly!”
Yngvi yelled so loud that his voice cracked, and those close to him snapped back to attention. Several of them rushed toward the front lines in a panic.
No matter what, Yngvi was still the hero who had united the gigantic Hoof Clan. The common generals, rushing around in confusion, would only worsen the situation.
He quickly pulled himself together and oriented himself to the situation.
It was easy to put into words, but the situation was chaotic, changing moment to moment, and with one miscalculation capable of turning the tides on the battlefield from victory to defeat, remaining calm was very difficult.
More than anything, the reason he had been able to readily quell the chaos at the front lines was because of the respect and trust he’d earned through his many military achievements, as well as his willingness to execute anyone who would throw his military operations into disarray.
However, the enemy general was fairly capable. As soon as they saw that the Hoof Clan had pulled themselves together, they ordered a retreat. They withdrew suddenly and smoothly, without a hint of doubt or confusion.
Having been preparing for a counterattack, the soldiers of the Hoof Clan were more than a little disappointed.
“Don’t let them get away!”
“Take them out!”
“Knock them off their horses!”
Naturally, along with their angry cries, the Hoof Clan soldiers sought to give chase, but of course the enemy was on horseback. As if to show that catching up to them was impossible, they slowly drew further away, until the Hoof Clan lost sight of them in the dark of night.
After tormenting their forces, the enemy had escaped without them being able to fell even one soldier. There could be no greater disgrace.
But for the Hoof Clan, this was only the beginning of the nightmare.
At almost the same time, a Horn Clan unit together with Linea reached the Horn Clan capital safely, ready for battle.
It had been two months since Linea had been there in her office, but she had no time for sentimentality. She continuously drove away everyone who came to call upon her. Finally, when she had given most of her instructions, her body was seized by a great weariness.
“Those stirrup things are incredible,” Linea muttered quietly, leaning back in her chair.
Linea had a fair amount of skill in horseback riding. But she had always been able to handle at most walking them at a trot, not riding a horse at full gallop.
Obviously, a horse and its rider each had wills of their own. Meaning that, sometimes, one would act in ways unpredictable to the other. Even a shiver, for example, might throw the horse into a state of confusion. In that case, the rider would likely lose their balance and topple off. Try as they might to fix their posture, there would be nothing to grab onto.
That was why, having these stirrups provided some form of assurance for a change. Even at Linea’s level, she could manage galloping around on a horse. Because of this, trips that would normally take four days by chariot had now been shortened by two days. This difference was huge.
When Linea had first returned, the absence of both the sovereign patriarch of the Horn Clan and her second-in-command had led to an internal disagreement over whether the clan should surrender to the invaders or retaliate. Had she been even a day later, the split between the two factions would have completely divided the clan. The reason she had made it in time was thanks to those stirrups.
Most importantly, with stirrups it would only require a little training for solders to learn to battle with weapons on horseback. When that was pointed out to her, she realized that she hadn’t considered the possibility. Or rather, it would be fair to say it hadn’t been something she’d had a chance to consider, as the thought of fighting with weapons atop such an unstable animal defied all common sense.
To be sure, this wasn’t a matter of her being incompetent or dim-witted. The Wolf Clan’s foremost soldiers, Sigrun and the second-in-command Jurgen, had far more experience on horseback than she, as well as more experience with military tactics. The same was true for the Hoof Clan hero Yngvi. And it wasn’t something they had even considered, either.
That was no surprise, as the stirrup wouldn’t be developed until the fourth century C.E., meaning they were seeing a product from almost two millennia in the future! For Yuuto’s part, he’d been completely unable to get on a horse at one point and merely wondered if having a saddle and stirrups made would make it easier for him, but it was such a far-advanced technology for this era that it might as well be cheating.
“First those longspears, and now these stirrups... Big Brother Yuuto really is a reborn god of war,” Linea murmured.
“I would agree. That is no exaggeration. That war meeting he conducted gave me chills. Ha ha!” The Horn Clan’s second-in-command, Rasmas, gave a restrained laugh. As if putting into words what he had only just remembered, his body gave a small shiver. “Speaking honestly, I felt such indignation at the thought that you would be downwind of such a puppy, Princess, but he might even be more comparable to a lion... I was so blind.”
“I’m surprised you would admit to that, Rasmas,” said Linea. “Still, this battle seemed so hopeless, and now it feels like we might actually win.”
“Let’s win, no matter what. We mustn’t allow ourselves to be trampled by the Hoof Clan.”
“Yeah, you’re right!” Linea said, giving a decisive nod.
She couldn’t help but feel that it was her own weakness that had invited this crisis. Even after assuming the role of a general, she could never escape the constant doubt about whether or not a battle could be won. But there was no time to think about that now. All that she could do was give everything she had to that which she could change.
“Princess, in the event of our victory in this battle, I have a proposal.”
“What’re you being so formal for?” Linea asked. “And it’s a bit hasty to speak of after the victory before we’ve won.”
This battle truly was for the fate and future of the Horn Clan.
Now was not the time for idle thoughts; it was the time to devote oneself body and mind to victory. On the battlefield, the slightest lapse in mental fortitude meant the difference between winning and losing, or more importantly, life and death.
She thought dubiously that something like that should have been far more obvious to a soldier like Rasmas with a long record than to someone young like her.
But the second she heard Rasmas’s proposal, all of those thoughts were swept away. In fact, even though it shouldn’t have been that way, for a long while, Linea’s mind went blank.
“Linea, I’m sorry I kept you waiting,” Yuuto said.
The main troops of the Wolf Clan forces that were under Yuuto’s command had arrived in Fólkvangr after four days at the most, just in time to serve as reinforcements for the anxious Horn Clan troops who could hear the Hoof Clan on their doorstep. Nevertheless, the speed of soldiers’ advance is limited by the slowest branch of the force. For the Wolf Clan which focused on infantry, they had still arrived rather quickly, all things considered.
The Wolf Clan troops had completely blown the Horn Clan away in their last battle, so the Horn Clan knew the strength of the Wolf Clan better than any clan in Yggdrasil.
The citizens of the Horn Clan now gazed with great faith upon the soldiers of the Wolf Clan, who had gathered in the center of town.
“Where is the enemy now?” Yuuto asked Linea as he leapt from his chariot. He’d come to pick her up.
Meeting Yuuto’s gaze, Linea’s face flushed red so quickly, it almost seemed like one could hear the blood rushing to her face. “Huh?! Wha?!”
“Hm? What’s wrong? Have you caught a cold? I didn’t want to say anything, but you look a bit unwell.”
“N-nnn-no! Since we’re about to head into battle, I’m just getting excited, is all! That’s all!”
“Hey, hey, you’re too worked up over it, then. If the Horn Clan’s supreme commander isn’t level-headed, they can’t do their job, right?” Yuuto said in a surprised voice, his face full of unease.
A supreme commander was in charge of the lives of an entire army. The slightest miscalculation could mean the difference between life and death for many people.
In times like these, a friendly army’s general needed to build up goodwill.
“Ahh, geez, it’s because Rasmas said something weird,” Linea said. “I’m so worried that I can’t look you in the eye, Big Brother!”
“Huh? Did you say something?” Yuuto said.
“No, not a thing!”
“I see. So?”
“Yes? What do you mean, ‘so’?”
At Linea’s dumbfounded nature, Yuuto scratched his face in vexation. “I asked you! Where is the enemy now?”
Though Yuuto was normally gentle with any girl he needed to protect, in this moment, on the precipice of battle, he had exhausted his patience. He couldn’t help but speak gruffly to her.
Linea came to her senses, conveying the requested information. “I... I am sorry! According to estimates from what our scout said, they have gotten within half a day’s walk from us or so.”
“Half a day, eh? Whew, we really were just in time.”
Next to Yuuto, his adjutant Felicia also breathed a sigh of relief. “Truly. If the capital had been taken before we arrived, that would be the worst situation imaginable, so I am truly relieved.”
However, when she shifted her gaze to Linea, she then breathed a heavy, loaded sigh.
“Well, I suppose Big Brother has already technically taken this town,” said Felicia. “It might be another facet of your amazing nature, but to think that you wouldn’t discriminate against another nation, Big Brother...”
“No, no, this is different from those forts I captured before,” said Yuuto. “Taking a town of this size would be difficult.”
“Tee hee! Big Brother, you could likely take it without even going into battle.” Felicia laughed suggestively, making Yuuto wonder when she would finally stop overestimating him. He didn’t realize the true meaning behind Felicia’s words.
Anyway, blaming anyone right now seemed harsh. All Yuuto cared about was whether or not he could win the battle at hand. There were numerous things that must be done to allow for it.
And the matter at hand right now was...
“All right... let’s eat!” Yuuto called out in a high voice, plopping down on the spot and sitting cross-legged. “Those who desire it may have one drink of alcohol.”
His adjutant, Felicia, began issuing orders to prepare the food to those standing nearby, but Linea’s eyes opened wide in shock.
“Hey, first food and now alcohol! How can you be so laid-back?! The Hoof Clan are almost here, Big Brother! We’re at a disadvantage in sheer numbers, so we have to hurry to find a vantage point and put our soldiers into position...”
“‘Standing your ground awaiting those far away, awaiting the weary in comfort, awaiting the hungry with full stomachs, is mastering strength,’ Linea.”
“Huh? Wh-what’s that mean?” Linea’s mouth was agape like a pigeon who swallowed a peashooter at Yuuto’s memorized but difficult sayings. Like she scarcely understood his meaning.
“It’s a verse from the long-praised war words of Sun-Tzu, which has remained relevant for 2,500 years,” said Yuuto. “We make camp in an advantageous location and wait for the enemy coming in from far away, we rest up and await our exhausted enemies, and we eat to our heart’s content in order to await our starving enemies. This is how we master strength.”
Yuuto spoke authoritatively as if he fully understood what he was talking about, even though he was merely repeating Sun Tzu’s war manual. Yuuto felt that the implications of those words were rather obvious. He had to pay respect to Sun Tzu for the book he had penned.
At any rate, the man’s words perfectly fit the Wolf Clan’s current situation.
“They come from far away, they’re tired, and they haven’t eaten,” said Yuuto. “There’s no way they can make a display of power like that. So... let’s eat!” Yuuto playfully exchanged glances with Linea, the corners of his mouth twitching upward.
“I... I see. That’s so like you, Big Brother! To think you would be so familiar with such an ancient war manual!” Linea interjected over and over, apparently expressing heartfelt admiration.
Despite all of the trouble Yuuto had given her, the reassurance he had brought now was the equivalent of him having brought 100,000 soldiers. She repeated his words until they sunk in, etching them into her heart.
“Uhm, but we’re supposed to make camp somewhere advantageous, right?” she asked. “If we take our time, won’t we run out of time?”
“Sun Tzu also said that by making use of detours, we can still have a sort of advantage. We’ve already planned for this.”
“R-rrright!” Linea’s cheeks flushed, her voice quaking with emotion. She had now sunk to her lowest. Her eyes as she gazed up at Yuuto were overflowing with adoration. That was why she hadn’t realized.
Yuuto was brimming with a superficial confidence, but his fist was clenched tightly with worry. “Run... don’t die on me,” he muttered so that Linea couldn’t hear.
As the sovereign patriarch, he had sent his strongest warrior because she was the best for the mission. He refused to see it as a mistake this late in the game. But in this world, Sigrun was a precious friend to Yuuto. Yuuto’s heart was torn up over the prospect that he might be sending her to certain death.
A firm, yet gentle, voice tickled Yuuto’s earlobe. “Big Brother, Run will be all right. She can handle it.”
Even though Felicia shouldn’t have been able to hear his muttering, it seemed as if his anxieties had reached her, and right away, tears welled up in Yuuto’s eyes, ready to spill forth. This superior adjutant didn’t seem like someone he could keep secrets from very well.
Standing suddenly, he put his lips close to Felicia’s ear. “I... was the one who decided fighting would be the best option. I still think that, for the Wolf Clan, that was the best choice, without a doubt. But... if we surrendered and handed over our land, at least everyone would be spared from death.”
He knew that, as the one who’d decided they should go into battle, he was the last person who should be saying something like this. His own words made him want to vomit. Even so, doubt was eating away at his heart.
Even if they became slaves forced into harsh labor, or were taxed increasingly mercilessly, their lives becoming true struggles, that would surely be better than death, he thought. In order to protect the citizenry of the Wolf Clan, he had sent some of those very citizens off to certain death. Wasn’t he just sending people to die on a whim?
Every time they went into battle, these were the inconsistencies that came to his mind.
“Big Brother, I do not desire the ‘peaceful life’ of a slave,” Felicia said, her eyes steeled with determination. “Everyone else here feels the same way. Who in the world would wish their wives, parents and grandparents, siblings, or children to suffer such painful experiences? Everyone who has gathered here has done so in order to protect their families!”
“Everyone else feels... the same as me?” he repeated.
That can’t be, echoed a voice of reason in the corner of Yuuto’s mind. No matter how difficult it was, there had to be someone who felt that any alternative was preferable to dying.
Even so, he wanted someone to acknowledge his choices. To say that he wasn’t mistaken.
Trying to protect someone increased the probability that one would die. In order to make a level-headed decision, he would need to dispel all doubts.
“Yes! You are our sovereign!” Felicia declared. “If you tell us that white is black, we will claim it ourselves; if you tell us to fight, we will fight; if you tell us to die, we will die. Yes, to us, you are absolute! Long ago, when we shared the Chalice with you, we were entrusting you with our lives, as well. So please... use us as you see fit!”
“...Geez, being the sovereign is a heavy job after all,” Yuuto exclaimed.
He was free to do anything. He would be forgiven for anything. Being a sovereign was a heavy burden. Whoever said that freedom and duty went hand-in-hand was telling it like it is.
Bwoooooo! Bwooooooo!!
“Ngh! Again?!” Yngvi spat at the war horn he was growing sick of hearing. There was no way he could sleep soundly like this.
From the initial attack, for three days and nights hence, Yngvi and the Hoof Clan had taken intermittent attacks from the horseback troops.
It was always night when they attacked. They would slip into the darkness and launch their assault.
It seemed that the enemy knew an alert was being sounded, so they didn’t chance rushing deep into the formation the way they had the first time.
They rolled in, kicking up a cloud of dust, and as soon as they knew the enemy was there, they fired off a slew of arrows, turned, and retreated.
This time it was the same thing. By the time Yngvi set eyes on them, they had already begun their retreat, and soon after that, they disappeared into the darkness.
“Cowards! Every time you turn tail and run away!” Yngvi hollered. “Can you not fight head-on?!”
Losing himself to his anger, Yngvi kicked a nearby tree trunk. Unable to suppress his rage, he stamped his feet.
In order to cope with the constant surprise attacks, they had, for two days, kept a battle formation in which the Hoof Clan troops made a circle around Yngvi, or what might be referred to in modern-day Japan as a “squares and circles” battle formation.
Thanks to this formation, the casualties had been lessened, but the morale of the Hoof Clan had plunged significantly. Living in constant fear and tension, never knowing when they might be attacked, never able to let their guard down, unable to ever make a counterattack, and always being on the receiving end of an attack... it was enough to fatigue the heart.
That being said, they already knew the enemy was approaching. They couldn’t let their guard down now. And it was obvious that if they wavered, the enemy would see it as a good opportunity and launch an attack.
They sent out scouts to patrol, but in the dark of night, locating the enemy was difficult. More than anything, the enemy was swift.
It was true that, due to being easily visible in the light of day, the enemy would not attack during that time, but the Hoof Clan soldiers were so fatigued from the night attacks that they had to take many breaks. The “squares and circles” battle formation that worked so well against the enemy was not well-suited to moving around. The Hoof Clan’s marching speed had noticeably slowed.
This was just the situation Yuuto had been aiming for. The Hoof Clan forces, which numbered in the tens of thousands, were being toyed with by a force of around one hundred.
“Finally dawn, I see.” Yngvi gazed sleepily at the eastern sky, now dyed a pale crimson.
Their initial plans had been long delayed, but they would finally reach Fólkvangr before noon. Even if they attacked the Horn Clan stronghold and put a stop to those annoying horseback attacks that had been plaguing them for days, they still couldn’t take it easy.
Yngvi’s rage up until this point felt like an unending torture. Making vows to himself in the depths of his heart, Yngvi returned to his tent and closed his eyes.
Having passed the night keeping watch, he hadn’t slept. Soldiers could not make a show of power on little sleep. Expecting flawlessness was a known habit of Yngvi’s.
Exhausted, sleep was quickly upon him...
Bwoooooo! Bwooooooo!!
The resonant sound of the war horns woke him once more.
Over these past three days, the attacks had only come at night, so they had been careless. But the enemy was not acting as he might have expected. He was irritated at his own naivete.
Yngvi yelled, spurred on by that irritation, “Where are they this time?!”
“They’re coming from Fólkvangr! It isn’t the horseback troops this time! Low-end estimates of the enemy numbers put them at least at 3,000. We think this may be the enemy’s actual army!”
“Ha! S-switch to a closed formation. Be quick about it!” Yngvi issued his directions in a panic.
The “squares and circles” formation was very effective against the surprise attacks coming from every direction, but weak against an attack coming from just one direction. If they battled like this, they would endure great casualties.
The Hoof Clan soldiers were highly skilled, and their officers had been pulled from the best of the best and placed according to their strengths. In any normal circumstance, they would have had their soldiers readied in the blink of an eye.
But, with the current state of the Hoof Clan being a tense one, right when they had expected to rest at dawn, they had finally snapped. They were fatigued from not being able to get enough sleep, and this was the final blow to their already low morale.
Reorganizing their battle formation took too long, and in that interim, the enemy army charged in, cloaked in a cloud of dust.
In this way, the curtain rose on the battle between the Hoof Clan and the joint armies of the Wolf and Horn Clans.
War cries and screams rang out ceaselessly from both sides.
Both sides fought with a bloodlust that permeated the battlefield, as if the manifestation of their wounded hearts. The battlefield overflowed with signs of death, so much so that one could feel it in their bones.
The Wolf Clan and Horn Clan joint armies organized their troops in a triangle formation, with the Wolf Clan troops as a central guard and the Horn Clan troops falling back a bit on the right and left flanks. It was a fish scale-like formation, perfect for putting a few troops in the front to break through.
“All right, keep going!” At the very front of the triangle, Yuuto was leading the attack from atop his chariot. With a loud yell, he encouraged his troops forward, afraid their resolve would break at any moment.
Likely thanks to Sigrun’s efforts, the soldiers in the Hoof Clan had been ready to flee, and with this attack, many of them were unable to cope. With the vigor of their onslaught, they cut a swath straight through the enemy forces.
Battle was primarily won through numbers. This involved fighting face-to-face and handling defeat head-on. But the strategy Yuuto had employed was causing a disturbance.
Sun Tzu had said this was one way for a small force to topple a larger one. “If the enemy is taking his ease, you can harass him, if well supplied with food, you can starve him out, if quietly encamped, you can force him to move.”
This overlapped with what Yuuto had told Linea in Fólkvangr: “Standing your ground awaiting those far away, awaiting the weary in comfort, awaiting the hungry with full stomachs, is mastering strength.” This had been an important view held by Sun Tzu.
While they hadn’t been able to starve the troops, two out of three still wasn’t bad. Even though there were still many enemy troops, there weren’t nearly as many as there had been before.
The Wolf Clan forces easily took out the soldiers of the Hoof Clan, shooting and striking them down. Just as Yuuto was beginning to feel that this had become a one-sided massacre, and that victory was assured...
“Big Brother! The Hoof Clan has regained control of their troops!” Felicia called.
“Tch! Already? I should expect no less from the man who built such a large nation in one generation.” Yuuto clicked his tongue.
He had planned for them to ride their initial momentum and clear away the enemy forces, taking out the generals in the process, but it appeared things wouldn’t go according to plan. The enemy had pulled itself together faster than he had expected.
In the blink of an eye, the Wolf Clan’s fervor dulled. Yuuto, having taken command, realized that the Hoof Clan side had the power to readily push them back.
“Somehow, it seems we won’t be able to solve this through ordinary means.” Sensing a rough battle lie ahead, Yuuto bit down hard on his lip.
On the other hand, gnashing his teeth, Yngvi was feeling the same way.
They had taken minimal casualties in the chaos at the start of battle, and he had pulled his troops together and launched a counterattack, but no longer felt that victory was guaranteed. To think that they were constantly being assailed by such a small army!
This was likely due to the fatigue from days without sleep and the subsequent decreased morale. But more importantly than that...
“What are those spears?!” Yngvi screamed.
Just as they had when they fought the Horn Clan, the Wolf Clan wielded spears in tight formations that doubled their reach. The Hoof Clan’s attacks couldn’t reach the enemy, and the Wolf Clan could still launch a one-sided counterattack.
If this had been a simple battle where the longspear-wielding soldiers could only stab forward, it would be easy to dodge the attack and go in for the kill. But since there were too many spears gathered together, there were no openings to get through to attack, and no way to evade the counterattacks. And that wasn’t all; they easily pierced right through the Hoof Clan’s bronze shields. Those shields could not stop the spear attacks. This was, in truth, the most frustrating thing of all.
“Could they be made out of iron?!” Yngvi wondered.
As it was the Bronze Age, these people did not yet know how to properly refine iron. Still, that didn’t mean that they didn’t know what iron was. They had found iron in meteorites, which themselves were rare but often held large quantities of the metal. On Yggdrasil, this firm metal that fell from the sky and was infinitely sturdier than bronze had been long treasured as jewelry or money.
“But they couldn’t have that much...” he went on frantically. “Have they found a way to manufacture iron?!”
Though it was difficult to believe, that was the only conclusion he could come to. Iron was normally a scarce material that could only be found by picking it up from meteorites. Even a big clan like the Hoof Clan had very little. He couldn’t imagine an impoverished clan from the mountains possessing such a great quantity.
“Keh heh heh, I’d heard these Wolf Clan brats pulled all these strange tricks. It seems that was true. Fascinating! Truly fascinating!” Yngvi couldn’t suppress the laughter that had welled up and burst forth from within.
Surely it was because of these weapons the Wolf Clan possessed that they’d been able to stand against and destroy the Horn Clan and Claw Clans.
“Heh heh, I truly do have good fortune. This surely means the heavens have allied themselves with me.”
With such impressive materials, the Wolf Clan could slay other, punier clans. Yngvi’s heart swelled with a noncommittal respect.
If the Hoof Clan were equipped with iron weapons, they would become even mightier, and the supreme military force of Yggdrasil would be even more of a threat.
“Such strength could change the world,” he said with awe.
With the experience of hundreds of battles behind him, Yngvi’s words were accurate in their foresight.
If one examines ancient Eastern history, it was the Hittites who had first succeeded in refining iron. Thus, they became a country that established a hegemony and held the world of the Bronze Age in their grasp.
“Now then, what shall we do?” Yngvi licked his lips and turned his eyes once more to observe the battlefield.
Certainly, with the iron longspears, the Wolf Clan was a menace. Though their numbers were fewer than 2,000, the most elite warriors of the Hoof Clan army that had suppressed Álfheim would be no match for them. There was a real possibility that if the Hoof Clan went at them head-on, they could take out this army of 10,000.
That being said, this was a head-on attack.
“Hmph! They’ve given up!” Yngvi yelled.
To be sure, those longspears were frightening when faced head-on. He thought that, once they returned home, they would forge a troop using similar weapons. However, with that close battle formation and considerable length, it didn’t seem at all that tight turns would work well for them. If they went at their enemies from a right angle, it might be troublesome for them.
In other words, if they launched an attack from the side, the enemy forces wouldn’t be able to launch a decent counterattack.
On top of that, the Hoof Clan had their five hundred much-cherished chariots. If one were to go on numbers alone for basis of militaristic power, the Hoof Clan, who had slaughtered numerous enemies, would be granted a quick victory.
“Heh heh! This flat patch of land those fools have chosen will be their downfall.”
The large wheels on the chariots severely restricted their movements.
The chariot’s one weakness was the terrain on which it could be used, but that would be a non-issue here.
A general as experienced as Yngvi knew enough to send a spy to do a preliminary investigation of the Horn Clan’s territory so that they could plan the route that would best demonstrate the power of their chariots.
Riding around on his favorite chariot, Yngvi laughed without fear. “I will end this battle with my own hands!”
As their sovereign patriarch headed for the front, the Horn Clan soldiers let out a battle cry.
“Incredible! We can win this battle!” Linea called, as the Wolf Clan troops broke through the vanguard with a steady advance.
Her forces had once suffered greatly at the mercy of the spearmen. If anyone knew the threat they posed, she did.
That was exactly why she knew that her clan had no allies more dependable than they.
“Attack coming from the enemy’s left side!” she called. “There it is!”
Her body shook.
Linea had recently experienced an unending string of defeats. She told herself that this was not the time to worry over whether she was worthy to command her troops, and tried her best to overcome her doubts.
Before the battle started, Yuuto had told Linea about the longspear unit being weak to a side attack. It had been such a brief time since she’d become his subordinate, so the things her older brother had shared with her left a deep impression on her heart. She wanted to live up to his expectations. Indeed, she had made a vow to do so.
“Uwah!”
But all of those feelings blew off like dust in the wind when she saw the sheer magnitude of the enemy forces.
Linea had had much experience on the battlefield. Even when she had faced off against the longspear unit, her heart had burned with hatred but had never frozen with fear.
A huge number of horses, each several times larger than a human, moved forward, their movements causing tremors in the earth. Their overwhelming size called forth a true wave of terror.
It seemed that her own soldiers felt the same way. They were losing their nerve upon seeing the chariot unit approach in a cloud of dust.
“Stand strong and firm! If we can hold them back, victory will be ours!” Linea shouted with all her might, but her words failed to reach her soldiers.
The soldiers of the Horn Clan had fallen into a complete state of frightened panic. They had lost before the battle even started.
“Uwaaaaaagh!!”
“Eeeeeek!!”
The moment the two armies clashed, cries went up from the front lines.
The chariot unit very easily and with no resistance broke up the front lines and cleaved the Horn Clan forces in half.
At the center of the vanguard, shocking as it was, was what looked like a giant. Swinging around a giant spear with no restraint, it was like an angry demon, mowing down the Horn Clan troops with viscous attacks.
As if in response, the Hoof Clan solders were letting out war cries that seemed to shake the ground, as if trying to boost their own morale.
“Th-there’s no way we can win against them!” Linea gnashed her teeth in despair.
More than her own death, Linea feared the fact that she wouldn’t be able to protect everyone. Though she had done everything in her power, the hard truth, that she was actually powerless, had been laid bare for all to see. Her beloved subordinates were being silently turned into corpses, one after the other.
“Save them... please, save them all, Big Brother!” she pleaded into the air.
“They’re still going?!” Yuuto bit his lip, staring at the deadlock with a grim look in his eyes.
The enemy was no fool. In order to avoid facing the longspears head on, the front lines had gone on the defensive, while launching an attack with arrows from behind.
Little by little, the Wolf Clan soldiers were beginning to experience casualties. It was clear that, even though they had caused the enemy many more casualties, if they continued to take damage like this, they would be at a disadvantage by number of troops alone.
“Big Brother, the Horn Clan troops on our left flank are being attacked by chariots!” Felicia called.
“It seems they’ve figured out our weakness!” Yuuto moaned.
This was the first time the Hoof Clan had experienced the enemy’s specialized tactics. And in that small period of time, they had seen through to the longspear troops’ weak point and changed strategies accordingly. The ability to come to such a conclusion amid all the chaos and to launch a counterattack so soon afterwards was truly admirable.
Yuuto couldn’t help but call the enemy general exceptional. He was truly a troublesome opponent that was difficult to battle.
“But in this game of tactics... It seems like I’m the victor. Well, I did cheat, though,” Yuuto said, the corners of his mouth twitching into a grin.
A different part of the passage he had recited from Sun Tzu earlier came to mind. “By holding out advantages to him, he can cause the enemy to approach of his own accord.”
In other words, you could make the enemy approach you of their own accord, exactly according to your plans, as long as you fool them into thinking they have something to gain from it.
Having faced the menace of the longspear troops, the enemy would be certain to figure out their weak point, and then they would attack it. They’d done so with the strongest force in this time period, the chariots.
So, that would be the perfect time and place to set a trap.
In war, lowering enemy morale was essential. One would need to smash what the enemy put its faith in most until nothing remained. Mental attacks were of great importance.
If an enemy lost their last ray of hope, even an army of tens of thousands would be degraded to a giant mob. And if that happened, the mob would no longer be an enemy of the Wolf Clan.
You’re up, Run! Yuuto thought. Destroy them!
Mm, so they finally brought out the chariots. Snacking on a loaf of bread, Sigrun was surveying the battlefield from a forest off in the distance.
The Múspell unit, led by Sigrun, remained hidden in the forest a short ways from Fólkvangr in order to rest up for their next day — or night — of battle.
Just as the Hoof Clan had been steadily driven to exhaustion with surprise attacks, the Múspell unit had to attack an overwhelmingly more powerful force over and over, day and night. It was taxing for them too.
If their hiding place was discovered and surrounded, things would be over then and there. One must be attentive at all times, not just during battle.
Furthermore, this strategy relied heavily on speed, and so they had to be ready to act on a moment’s notice. The rations they had carried with them had been quickly exhausted, so they had survived on food acquired locally. Yuuto of the Wolf Clan had warned that pillaging was unacceptable; so silver nuggets were to be used in exchange for food.
Since the Horn Clan benefited from the fertile land along the Körmt River Basin, they had expected they’d be able to find food and provisions along the banks of the river, but as they had been unfamiliar with the land, finding villages had proven to be difficult. They had barely taken anything resembling a real break, so the Múspell unit was even more exhausted than the Hoof Clan.
“Ohh, it looks like they figured it out,” Sigrun exclaimed, partly with admiration.
If an enemy was due accolades for their strength or cunning, then she would pay them the proper respect. That was the way a true soldier like Sigrun handled things.
The chariot unit was moving around the main theater of the battlefield rather than through it. The reason for that was clear. It was so that they could surpass the infantrymen and swing around in order to launch a side attack on the longspear unit.
Even in the wake of Sigrun’s surprise attack, the soldiers had been able to quickly calm themselves. Because of that, their first plan to take advantage of the chaos and burn enemy supplies had been unable to come to fruition.
Perhaps it was the result of his experience, but the general who led the Hoof Clan was surprisingly skilled at coping with these unexpected situations. The soldiers surely had great faith in him. Simply giving soldiers commands when in such a state of confusion was not enough to bring them back around. If they were not addressed by someone with suitable dignity and charisma, it would not work.
All Sigrun could do in the end was click her tongue in astonishment. “To think I’d be able to lead a great general like that around by the nose so easily.”
A slightly scornful laugh slipped from her lips.
Naturally, they had no time for Yuuto to make minute-by-minute plans for this particular battle. She had heard the details from Yuuto in advance: the weakness of the longspear unit, the fact that the enemy would probably send a detached force to launch a side attack at that weakness, and how to cope with such an outcome.
“All right, finally it’s my turn!”
At almost the same moment that the chariot unit clashed with the Horn Clan troops, smoke rose up from the Wolf Clan’s main unit. It was the signal for the Múspell unit to charge.
Sigrun turned around and urged the soldiers who had battled for three days and three nights to charge forward: “Now then, everyone, brace yourselves for the final push!”
All of their faces were thick with shades of exhaustion, yet in the blink of an eye, fighting spirit suddenly brimmed over in their eyes. Wasted effort can double one’s fatigue, but seeing good results can grant one a vigor that sweeps fatigue away. The Múspell unit’s effort had borne fruit, and their morale had never been higher.
Sigrun’s heart warmed at how dependable they all were. “Victory depends on what we do here now! Let’s show the Hoof Clan troops the terror of our assault, and the true spoils of Valhalla!”
“Yeaaaaahhhhh!!”
Sigrun thrust the spear she was holding into the air, and the soldiers let out a war cry so great, it caused the air to quake.
Within Sigrun, the Devourer of the Moon Hati responded to the war cry, and she now wore a ferocious smile, just like a hungry wolf.
True, she was a warrior whose only talent to offer her master was her fighting ability. In peacetime, she could do little to help him. But it was specifically because of that, that now more than ever was the perfect chance to serve him.
“Múspell unit, attack!”
In time with her command, Sigrun kicked her favorite horse and charged forward.
Her subordinates followed behind her. The chaotic pack of ferocious Wolf Clan troops burst out of the forest and quickly gained on the back end of the chariot unit.
“Ngh! Them again!” Yngvi spat in disgust.
Just as the Hoof Clan had launched their surprise attack, they were met with another surprise attack. They had ended up in something of a pincer formation. The magnitude of this disgrace continued to seethe through his body.
They had been thoroughly had by the enemy. The hatred he felt went through to his bones.
“Lieutenant Assistant! Handle the forward Horn Clan troops! I’ll deal with those brats over there!”
Leaving the rear to the throngs of soldiers overseen by the Lieutenant Assistant, Yngvi boomed his sonorous order and rounded his chariot on the horseback soldiers.
The Horn Clan forces, who had led the initial charge, had long since lost their fighting spirit. They were no longer a threat.
“I’ll take out all the rage I’ve accrued on you fools here and now!”
These enemies had refused to fight head-on, simply choosing to run away from him every time. If they were coming in for the kill, then this was just the opportunity he had wished for.
The troops with the longspears were still a menace, but with the chariots’ mobility, things would surely work out. Right now the instinct born of his years of military experience told him, the real threat he must defeat was none other than this force of horseback soldiers.
And yet, what unfolded here would still have been unbelievable to Yngvi if he had not seen it himself.
The horseback troops moved past him, going twice as fast as the chariots, coming up on their side. Boosted by the velocity at which they moved, their spears struck the chariot wheels one after the other.
The chariots were comprised of a wooden carriage that seated two large men at most, and were supported by two wheels. They could handle quite a load. But striking the chariots’ wheels disrupted their movement, knocking the chariots off balance and toppling them, one after another, onto their sides.
“Gagh!”
“Gyagh!”
Soldiers thrown from numerous chariots were either stabbed by spears or crushed by oncoming horses.
Needless to say, the chariot was the strongest weapon in existence on Yggdrasil. Watching the overwhelming gains they had made against the Horn Clan troops, that much was obvious.
But that was limited to this era alone. In another 1,000 years, the chariot would reign until it was chased off the worldwide theater of battle by the appearance of cavalrymen.
In terms of sheer manpower and ability, the Hoof Clan forces had the upper hand, as they had the chariots and could move more quickly. On the other hand, from its inception, the Múspell unit had trained specifically to do battle with chariots. It was a development that made the difference in ability rather one-sided.
The Hoof Clan chariot unit, which had boasted that it was unbeatable within Álfheim, had been said to always lead a one-sided battle that no enemy could launch a counterattack against. Though many might oppose them, they always had mobility on their side.
Which was why this situation had them so stuck.
One of the Wolf Clan horsemen called out to Yngvi, who had taken up position at the center of his chariots. “Wearing such attire, you must be one of their generals! Well, your head will be mine to claim!” She readied a spear, and charged at Yngvi.
“My, what a surprise...” Yngvi murmured.
When someone as experienced as Yngvi saw a person ready their weapon, he could get a sense of what that man was capable of. It felt like this person was a talented fighter, but in the end, nothing more and nothing less. He couldn’t figure out how he had kept from falling down while swinging around a spear on horseback.
“Take that!” The horseman’s spear aimed for the wheels of Yngvi’s chariot and swung.
But Yngvi had already witnessed that attack before.
Clang!
Yngvi’s spear repelled the spear of the cavalryman away from the wheels of his chariot.
If he knew where the attack was coming from, such a feat was easy for him.
“Petulant child,” he called. “Know your betters. The likes of you will never be a match for an Einherjar like me! I wield Gullinbursti, the Golden Boar Who Pulls the Chariot!”
Yngvi put everything he had into both arms, swinging his spear upward mightily. With the weight of that one attack, he flung the cavalryman’s spear into the sky. This abnormal physical strength was the power of Gullinbursti. Then Yngvi used his follow-up blow to slit the cavalryman’s throat.
“Nagh!”
A weak voice emanated from him as blood spurted from his neck, and the man toppled limply to the ground. The horse, having lost its master, began looking around in a panic.
“Christoph! You bastard!” At that moment, a girl locked eyes with Yngvi, enraged that he had cut down the subordinate she had trained with for so long.
She was a beauty, with striking silver hair that trailed behind her. She clearly wasn’t fit for the battlefield. But her eyes were different than the women’s in the back room of his palace. These were not the eyes of a woman. They were the eyes of a ferocious animal who, if one approached unprepared, would maul you to death.
During the night attacks, Yngvi hadn’t been able to distinguish the faces from afar, only the eyes, but the way those eyes and her silver hair glistened in the moonlight had left an impression on him. He had witnessed the arrows she had launched, striking down several of his subordinates. This time, he could clearly see her ferocity on the battlefield. She was clearly stronger than any of the other soldiers.
“Little girl!” he called. “So you’re the one in charge of this unit!”
“Indeed! I am the Einherjar of Hati, the Devourer of the Moon! I am the Mánagarmr, Sigrun! I see that you yourself are also an elite warrior. So give me your name!”
“A mountain dog like you should have heard my name long ago. I am the sovereign patriarch of the Hoof Clan and the supreme ruler of all of Álfheim, Yngvi!”
“Ohhh, then with your defeat, we’ll have won this battle, then!”
“Forget it! Without you to lead them, your horseback troops will quickly fall into disarray! I’ll knock that head off of your shoulders!” he called out in a booming voice.
“Interesting. Take me, if you think you can!” she yelled just as ferociously.
Sigrun charged. As they passed each other, Sigrun aimed her spear at the top of Yngvi’s shoulder and struck. Unlike the cavalryman from earlier, she was much faster. Her speed was so fast, it was an attack one might have called divine.
However, this was Yngvi, the hero of the Hoof Clan who had defeated more than a hundred enemy fighters with his own hands. He could easily see the movement of the spear. A high-pitched sound rang out as the two spears clashed.
The one that went flying was Yngvi’s. It hit the wall of the carriage hard.
It was decided not by a difference in raw physical strength but by a difference in speed. There was a major difference in the speed of a horse that carried only a small girl versus the speed of two horses meant to carry a chariot with two large men inside. That speed affected the momentum and impact of their strikes.
Having shot past Yngvi’s chariot, Sigrun pulled hard on the reins of her horse. Perhaps in shock, her horse’s front legs kicked up.
“What is this?!” Yngvi could only see it as black magic, the way that with her horse in that posture she held on to her weapon without dropping it, all without falling.
What surprised him even further was how this time, she pulled the bridle to the right and, in an instant, turned to pursue Yngvi’s chariot.
He was captivated by her skill in handling the horse alone. If they hadn’t been in the type of situation they were, he would have readily invited her to become his subordinate.
Still, this was the battlefield. There was no time for such frivolous thoughts.
Grabbing the rim of the carriage, he picked himself up, grabbed his spear and hurriedly readied it.
The chariot he rode on was still in the middle of a turn. He had found the mobility of chariots so reliable up to that point, but now, seeing the harmony between horse and rider before him, he couldn’t help but feel slow by comparison.
“Prepare yourself!” she cried.
“This is nothing!” he roared back.
Upon being attacked by the spear once more, Yngvi supported himself by putting a leg on the wall of the carriage, dropping his center of gravity, then returned the strike.
Sigrun’s eyes filled with shock. She likely hadn’t expected him to prevent such a critical blow.
“Ng! That strength, that coloration — that must mean your weapon is made of iron?!”
“Hmph! You’re not the only ones with iron weapons!”
To be sure, iron was a metal that was scarce, and thus had five times the value of gold. But as someone who had become the sovereign of a major clan like the Hoof Clan, it was only natural that Yngvi had come into possession of some for himself. This spear had been with him for ten years, protecting his life and serving as a trusted partner in battle.
After that, the two warriors halted their horses and continued the lightning fast exchange of blows.
Because of the ferocity of their battle, the nearby soldiers of both armed forces would not dare approach to help. Anyone who could not skillfully enter the fray would likely get swept up in the onslaught of blows, likely dying a futile death amid the fury of strikes.
They went at it for a long time, their battle constantly ending in what seemed like a draw, knocking both off their equilibrium.
Their speed was almost equal. But there was a regrettable difference in their physical strength.
In general, having the higher vantage point in battle was advantageous. Naturally, attacking from higher up added weight to the strike. Taking all of that into account, it was Sigrun who was at the disadvantage.
As time passed, Sigrun’s one-sided disadvantage became more and more apparent. When she moved to attack, she had to swoop her spear upward in an arc. Yngvi had been sidestepping most of her thrusts up to this point, leaving her stabbing at air. She was finding it hard to compensate and keep her posture when stopping his attacks. She fell backward, losing balance.
Yngvi had no intention of letting the opportunity evade him. He went all in to launch the finishing blow, and using the chance for an all-or-nothing sweeping attack.
“Haah!!”
“Ungh! Whaa?!”
Sigrun used that divine speed of hers to react and turned her spear vertically, blocking his attack. However, she was too light. Her body was thrown up into the air.
In that moment, Sigrun tossed her spear aside and tried to tuck and roll as she hit the ground, to diffuse the impact of being thrown from her horse. It wasn’t something she thought about. Young though she was, she merely followed the intuition she had developed from so much experience on the battlefield.
“Tch!”
Using the momentum from being thrown, Sigrun quickly recovered. She had practiced breakfalls many times, though that didn’t mean there was no impact. Her face twisted in pain. If she had landed on her back, there was no doubt that the injury would have been so severe that she would not have been able to move for some time. Still, it was obvious that she had been cornered in a most disadvantageous situation.
“I suppose this means I win.” The corners of Yngvi’s mouth twitched upward as he turned the point of his spear toward Sigrun once more.
Part of his skill was being able to calculate offense and defense based on a quick calculation of his strengths versus an enemy’s weaknesses. It was something he’d honed over the twenty years he had spent on the battlefield.
“You truly have a great deal of skill, little girl... no, hero of the Wolf Sigrun. If you had been born five years earlier, the outcome of our conflict likely would have been the opposite.”
For Yngvi, this was the highest possible compliment. After all, as arrogant a king as he was, he was implying that Sigrun had the capability to be even greater than him.
Those with strength should lead, and those without should follow. Survival of the fittest. It was the primary law of this world, Yggdrasil. The clan system itself ran on the same idea. Yngvi was a perfect example of this.
He had treated the weak as slaves with no value in his kingdom, working them heartlessly to the bone and treating them as if they were not human, and yet, if he was faced with a strong person, even as an enemy, he would show them respect.
Sigrun stared at Yngvi in silence. Her eyes affirmed that, though the situation was dire, she hadn’t lost her fighting spirit.
Yngvi also pulled himself together. Though both of them were strong, Yngvi had the advantage of experience. And the difference between being on foot or in a chariot was great.
More than anything else, space was vital in a battle. And without her spear, all she had left was a sword at her belt. Trying to reach Yngvi, who was in the carriage of the chariot, would be difficult. There was only a one-in-ten-thousand chance he could lose. But he knew from years of experience that, no matter how he might respect an opponent, he could spare no amount of negligence. A wounded boar would only become even more vicious.
“This is the first time in a while I’ve had such an enthralling battle,” he called. “May we meet again in Valhalla!”
Yngvi charged toward Sigrun with his chariot.
Even as he felt he couldn’t bring himself to crush such a warrior, he also knew it was a soldier’s etiquette to put another out of their misery. Yngvi thrust his spear with all his might down at Sigrun’s heart.
“Wha?!”
In the next second, something happened to him that had already happened numerous times in this campaign — a sight unfolded before him that made him doubt what he was seeing.
Yngvi’s spear was an invincible weapon that had won him many battles, destroying any number of weapons and guaranteeing him victory. The Hoof Clan soldiers sincerely believed that the heavens themselves had granted Yngvi that spear.
The tip of that rare weapon refined from meteoric iron fell away, cut clean through as if it were butter.
The girl before him held a strange weapon that glinted the same silver color as her hair. It was a weapon the likes of which Yngvi had never seen in his long military career. It was a sword, but it was a single-edged one. The blade itself had a soft curvature and featured a strange and beautiful pattern along its length, like waves of white lines. Not only that: as many times as the blade might have been used, there wasn’t even a hint of a nick in it.
“Haaa!” With a sharp scream, Sigrun kicked off the ground and leapt into the air. She held that mysterious and beautiful weapon high above her head, then swung it downward.
“Ngh!!” Yngvi immediately reached for the sword strapped at his side to stop the blow. Though he had always favored fighting with his spear up to this point, this sword was also an uncommon blade made of refined meteoric iron.
Even that wasn’t enough to stop his enemy’s blade, and with great force it cleaved right through his sword and sank into the top of his shoulder.
With a slice, the awful sound of flesh being cut apart reached his ears.
“I’ll return your words from earlier, hero of the Hoof Clan,” she said. “If I did not have Father, the outcome of our conflict would have been the opposite.”
Still holding her sword aloft, Sigrun landed on one knee as she touched down on the ground. Flashing through her mind was the moment when, despite being at a clear advantage on her fast horse, she had been bested and knocked to the ground. It was vexing, but in that moment she had lost the battle as a fighter. What had finally reversed the fate of their duel was simply the difference in quality of their weapons.
“Uwaagh! Our sovereign has been felled!” a soldier screamed.
“It can’t be! Our sovereign?! Not by that little girl!”
“Retreat! Without the sovereign, we cannot win!”
“Eeeeyagh!!”
The Hoof Clan soldiers emitted cries of grief. They were thrown into complete chaos at the death of their sovereign, who had been lauded as the strongest.
The remaining Hoof Clan chariots spun around in a panic and sped away.
Yngvi truly had been the great man responsible for holding the Hoof Clan together. The sovereign’s words had been law: “Follow the sovereign, and victory is yours.” One might say that what had drawn the Hoof Clan members to him was an almost-religious devotion.
In other words: he had been the source of their firm structure during battle, but now that he was gone, their structure had become rather brittle.
“Ngh... Ouch!” Sigrun staggered as she tried to stand, wrinkling her face from the sharp pain in her left foot. When she’d fallen off the horse, her foot had been caught in the strap, and she had twisted it.
Sigrun confirmed that Yngvi had in fact fallen from his chariot from that attack. Glancing around her, she quickly found him.
Dragging her leg, she approached him and peered into his face.
“Cough! W-what is that weapon?” Somehow, Yngvi still had breath in his lungs. The rune of Gullinbursti, the Golden Boar Who Pulls the Chariot, must have yielded uncanny physical strength.
However, his chest was dyed red with a great deal of blood, and the shadow of death was eclipsing his face. Anyone could clearly tell that he wouldn’t live much longer.
Before going into battle, the plan might have been to take him alive, but in the end, Sigrun did not have that luxury, and so she had to make the choice to sentence him to public execution.
Sigrun spoke, thrusting the weapon she held out in front of Yngvi. “Apparently it’s called a nihontou. Father is afraid it isn’t anything close to what his real father made, though.”
In the area between two mountain ranges that formed the territory of the Wolf Clan, they had been able to find high quality iron sand in the soil. They had then refined the iron sand in a Tatara-style furnace, a Japan-specific refinement method, then used the resulting steel, tempering it and refining it, over and over, into a blade so sharp it could cut through iron in the right hands.
Even before he had been old enough to know what was going on, Yuuto had watched his father at work. The entire operation had been burned onto the insides of his eyelids. He had studied the Tatara-style furnace over and over again. These experiences had been a great deal of help to him.
It was something he and Ingrid, the master of the forge, had spent half a year working on, giving their all to create.
“So you’re... saying there are even better weapons... than that?” Yngvi gasped. “The world is so... cough... so vast. I would have liked to have held one myself... cough... but it doesn’t seem like that will happen now. Still... if I must die at the hands of a warrior like yourself... then... I... am... satis...fied...!”
“I also feel a great deal of pride that I could cross blades with one such as yourself. We shall meet again in Valhalla.”
“Hmph!” Yngvi gave a satisfied smile and closed his eyes at last.
These were the final moments of the mighty man who had commanded the people of Álfheim.
Sigrun thrust her blade into the ground and then lowered her head gently. She was expressing her condolences at the death of a warrior.
After a period of silent prayer, Sigrun once again lifted the blade out of the ground and thrust it toward the heavens.
The sovereign of the Hoof Clan, Yngvi, had been killed by Sigrun of the Wolf Clan!
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