ACT 5
“Urrghh...”
The ruler of the Steel Clan, reginarch Suoh-Yuuto, was revered. His skills at commanding an army on the battlefield were so great that he was rumored to be a reincarnated god of war, and on the domestic front, he had enacted numerous innovative policies that marked him as a genius far wiser than any other.
He had won his first battle in the Wolf Clan, making true on the legend that he was the Gleipsieg, the “Child of Victory.” And ever since then, his record of accomplishments had continued. He had fought off enemy after enemy, leading his people through crisis after crisis.
Yet now, this living legend was sitting at his desk groaning, deeply troubled.
“There’s no other way of looking at it. I cheated on her...” Yuuto sat with his elbows on the desk, his hands clasped together, his forehead resting on them. He stared down, sighing.
He’d already gotten his fiancée pregnant, and their wedding ceremony was right around the corner, and yet he’d gone so far as to have relations with another woman. As an adult, and as a man, how could that be forgivable?
At the very least, until the events of the previous night, if you had asked Yuuto that question, his answer would have been immediate and clear: He had a duty to treat his betrothed as the most precious thing in his life. Lying with another woman was despicable, and completely out of the question.
However, this issue wasn’t that simple.
The one who had pushed him into cheating was his betrothed, Mitsuki herself.
It didn’t make any sense to him.
“Big Brother?” A familiar voice reached Yuuto’s ears, a voice filled with sadness. It startled him back to his senses, and he lifted his head.
Felicia was there next to him, looking like she was about to cry. “Big Brother, do you regret what happened last night? I... it is all because I could not restrain my feelings, and acted so selfishly...”
“No! No, this isn’t your fault!” Yuuto hurriedly shouted.
Indeed, this wasn’t Felicia’s fault at all.
If anyone had been the instigator, it was Mitsuki. Though even she had done nothing more than make the first move.
As much as he had been pushed into the situation by the two girls, in the end, he had made love to Felicia of his own free will.
And he was aware that, deep down, part of him was truly happy that he had finally been able to be with her in that way.
That only served to amplify his self-loathing.
“Can I really go ahead and get married like this?” Yuuto mourned. “Do I deserve to?”
He’d heard of getting cold feet, but that label couldn’t really describe the complex feelings he was having now.
What Mitsuki had said to him that evening didn’t make things any simpler for him.
“Ah, sorry, Yuu-kun,” Mitsuki broke in. “I’m going to be sleeping with Felicia in her room tonight.”
“Huh?”
“It’s a girls-only sleepover. No boys allowed, and that means no eavesdropping either, got it?”
As Mitsuki made her way out of their bedroom, humming a little tune to herself, Yuuto threw up his hands and shouted, “Is it me?! Am I the crazy one here?!”
His doubts and confusion only grew deeper.
When Mitsuki returned to Yuuto the following morning, these were the first words out of her mouth: “So, you wanna know what Felicia and I talked about last night? Sorry, that’s a secret. Right, Felicia?”
She seemed pleased with herself.
And because she was speaking to him in Japanese, he noticed that she’d now stopped using -san with Felicia’s name. It was something she didn’t do even when talking about Ruri, her closest friend in Japan. Just how intimate had she become with Felicia in only one night?
As for Yuuto, all through the night he’d been kept up by his thoughts, and he’d hardly gotten any sleep. Seeing them acting so happy and close frankly irked him a bit.
Of course, he knew that the two of them getting along well was a good thing. But for some reason, it still bothered him.
“I do apologize, Big Brother,” Felicia said. “But as she said, it is a secret I cannot tell even you.” She placed one hand on her chest, blushing a little.
This was coming from Felicia, the girl who had sworn absolute fealty to Yuuto. He couldn’t help being curious about just what they could have talked about.
“Oh, but let me tell you just one thing, though,” Mitsuki added.
“Oh?!” Yuuto didn’t bother to hide his curiosity.
“Try not to act so awkward with Felicia, okay? She’s actually pretty affected by that.”
“B-Big Sister, you don’t have to...” Felicia fumbled.
Mitsuki held up her pointer finger. “No, this is something that needs to be said. You’re with him all day at work, after all.”
Yuuto had to admit that she was absolutely right to bring that up.
After what had happened between him and Felicia, the whole next day at work, he’d been practically unable to talk with her. Even when trying to do so, he’d been stiff and distant, completely unlike how things normally were.
He was the lord of the great Steel Clan, and she was his adjutant. The relationship between them at work was pivotal.
He couldn’t say that they’d made anything resembling good progress at work yesterday.
Bringing private affairs to the office and letting them interfere with his duties would just cause problems for everybody. He needed to do whatever he could to avoid that.
“All right,” Yuuto said. “I’ll try and do better.”
“Felicia’s the type of girl who smiles in public and cries in private, so you need to pay more attention to her needs, okay?” Mitsuki added.
“Big Sister, please leave it there for now,” Felicia pleaded. “Any more would just trouble Big Brother.”
She seemed a little worried for Yuuto.
And, in fact, Yuuto was pretty troubled at the moment.
His fiancée had just told him he needed to pay more attention to another woman. How was he supposed to respond to that?
“Oh!” Mitsuki added. “Isn’t it about time for both of you to get going?”
“Yes, you are right,” said Felicia. “Well then, Big Sister, I will be borrowing Big Brother for the day.”
“Sure, I’m counting on you to take good care of him!”
“Of course. He is in good hands.”
“Glad to see you’re so good at sharing,” Yuuto said with a weary sigh.
“Well, of course we are. We’re sisters, after all.”
“Yes.”
The two girls smiled sweetly at each other. Yuuto felt oddly left out.
It was still the early morning, but for some reason he already felt worn out.
As the day went on, Yuuto still couldn’t get over his worry. After sending Felicia away on an errand that would take some time, he had made his way alone to Jörgen’s room to ask for his advice.
Jörgen was not exactly sympathetic.
“Hm. And what exactly is the problem?”
Jörgen had multiple wives, and was quite sharp when it came to interpersonal relations. Yuuto had hoped that he of all people would be able to provide some good advice for dealing with the issue, but Jörgen’s response was to question if there was a problem in the first place.
“The two women are getting along happily,” the man said. “That is a wonderful thing, is it not? Why, I am always struggling with trying to keep my wives happy with me and each other. I am quite envious of you.”
“Yeah, they’re getting along too well, and that’s what scares me,” Yuuto replied. And it was only after the words were out of his mouth that he realized how he felt.
This was what was at the heart of his anxiety.
Just as Jörgen had said, the current situation was great for Yuuto. In fact, it was way too convenient for him. Yuuto was used to struggle, and so he couldn’t help but think that there was some kind of catch, some huge pitfall waiting for him just around the corner.
“Wait!” he shouted. “Could it be that maybe Mitsuki doesn’t even love me all that much in the first place?!”
Normally, if you saw the person you loved getting along well with another romantic interest, you would feel jealous.
Yuuto, at least, believed that was normal.
Back when he was struggling with the choice of whether to stay in the modern world or return to Yggdrasil, he’d imagined the possibility of breaking things off with Mitsuki... and the mere thought of her loving another man had upset him.
And yet after what he’d done, did Mitsuki really feel nothing like that?
“Pff! Ha ha!” Suddenly, Jörgen burst out in laughter.
Yuuto glared at him angrily. Here he was sharing his serious problems, and Jörgen was laughing at him.
“What’s so funny?”
“Ah, Father, forgive my rudeness. I just could not help but laugh at how the person being loved is often the least able to realize it.”
“Excuse me?”
“Beginning with Mother’s project to build a rice paddy, I have had many opportunities to speak with her. I can say for certain that you are always at the center of her thoughts, Father.”
“R-really?”
Jörgen folded his arms and nodded several times. “Yes. Whenever she started a project or made a decision, it always seemed to be with you in mind, and whenever the two of us conversed, she was always much more excited to talk about you than about any other topic.”
It didn’t seem to Yuuto like he was lying.
The issue with Felicia had gotten Yuuto so confused that he’d started to doubt everything. But thinking back again now, Mitsuki had always treated him as someone she loved. And even just this morning, she had seen him off to work with a wide, cheery smile.
He didn’t think there was any reason to doubt that smile was genuine.
“Well,” Jörgen continued, “If you still find your heart troubled by how things are, then you should have a good talk with her about it. That is what a husband and wife do, right?”
“Yeah, I guess that’s the only thing I can do.” Yuuto nodded. He decided that, for now, he should go ahead and trust in the advice of someone with more life experience.
As soon as Yuuto got back to his room after finishing work, he wasted no time in getting right to the point. “Mitsuki, I’m back! Okay, I need you to answer something honestly for me!”
For the past two days, his worries about this issue had pretty much clouded his mind, so he’d struggled to get any real work done.
And if Yuuto’s desk work as the patriarch suffered, then the Steel Clan’s administration would face delays. And the result of that would be problems for a huge number of people.
This issue needed to be resolved as soon as humanly possible.
“Okay? What’s with you, all of a sudden?” Mitsuki looked up at Yuuto in confusion.
She was holding a tablet computer, so she must have been in the middle of reading a digital book.
With long strides, Yuuto marched over to Mitsuki and looked her straight in the eyes, his face serious.
“Is there anything you’ve got pent up, anything you’re upset about? If there is, I want you to tell me.”
“Huh? Uh, no, not especially. Umm... if I had to come up with something, maybe... I really want to eat pickled plums. Lately I’ve just had this intense craving for them, but of course we don’t have any...”
Mitsuki chuckled as she said this, and then swallowed, as if remembering it had caused her mouth to water.
Yuuto sighed. It looked like he wasn’t going to get anywhere asking her about it obliquely.
“No, that’s not what I mean. Look, I’m talking about the whole thing with Felicia. Are you really okay with this?”
“Ohh, so that’s what this is about.” Mitsuki smiled knowingly. “Well, sure, I think that normally, I’d either get super jealous of her, or instead try to keep my distance from so I didn’t have to think about her.”
“Right, yeah. But instead, you’re getting along with her so well, and that didn’t make any sense to me at all.”
“Yeah, I don’t really understand it either.” Mitsuki shrugged.
“Okay, seriously?!”
Mitsuki couldn’t help laughing at Yuuto’s dramatic reaction. “Ahaha! I mean, it’s not like I don’t have any negative feelings about it at all, you know? I do wish I could have you all to myself, Yuu-kun.”
“...Right.” Yuuto nodded. Inwardly, he was relieved.
If Mitsuki had told him that she wasn’t jealous at all, that she didn’t want to have him all to herself at all, then that would mean she didn’t really love him.
“But... there’s something about Felicia,” Mitsuki said. “There’s this feeling, like I’ve known her for a really, really long time. Maybe that’s the reason. If I saw any of the female servants or officials trying to flirt with you, it would get to me, but with her, for some reason, I can be okay with it.”
“Huh. What, so like a sort of deja-vu feeling?”
“Yeah, I guess? Something like that. And it’s not just with Felicia. Sigrún, and Ingrid, and Linnea too. When I think about them, there’s this oddly nostalgic feeling. Seeing them be friendly and close with you doesn’t make me all that jealous.”
“A nostalgic feeling...” As Yuuto repeated Mitsuki’s words, a memory surfaced. It was the girl who shared her face, Rífa. Or rather, the þjóðann Sigrdrífa, divine empress of the Holy Ásgarðr Empire.
All of the girls Mitsuki had just named had something in common—they had all shared a dinner table with Rífa one night, making merry around the warmth of a hotpot.
It was only one night out of many, but Rífa had told Yuuto that it was the most precious memory of her entire life.
So precious, in fact, that she had been moved to tears just by recalling it.
“You know, maybe Rífa is your past incarnation, or something like that,” Yuuto mused.
“Oh, like a previous life? I actually kind of got that feeling, too. I always felt like we were connected, not just two strangers who looked alike. But lately, I haven’t been able to contact her at all, and it’s really got me worried.” Mitsuki looked down, her expression clouding over.
There was some sort of mystical connection between Mitsuki and Rífa, and thanks to that, the two of them could contact each other in their dreams.
That had ended up being the catalyst for the process that had brought Yuuto back to Yggdrasil.
However, ever since the summoning ritual that brought him back, Mitsuki had been unable to visit Rífa’s dreams.
“It seems like she’s still alive, though, at least,” Yuuto told her. “We haven’t gotten a formal notice announcing the end of her reign. I also sent the Vindálfs into the imperial capital, and word from them is that more than a couple of people have gotten audiences with her, and even heard her voice.”
The Vindálfs, whose name meant “Band of Wind Elves,” was an organization of spies disguised as traveling performers.
Yuuto received regular reports from the Vindálfs agents, so it was almost certain that Rífa was still alive.
Yuuto did his best to act confident as he reassured Mitsuki. “I’m sure she probably just made herself ill from using too much of her ásmegin. Any night now she’ll pop back up in your dreams again.” He was also trying to reassure himself.
Mitsuki probably sensed that, and so she responded with a bright, energetic smile.
“Yeah, you’re right. I hope she’s doing better now.”
The next day, during a momentary break from work, Yuuto told Felicia about what he’d discussed with Mitsuki the previous night.
When he did, she nodded and said, “Oh, now that you mention it, she did bring that up to me when we were together the night before last.”
Yuuto was still a little embarrassed with Felicia, but now he was at the point of being able to talk with her normally again.
He couldn’t help thinking he was pretty shameless to be able to treat this as normal so quickly.
“I also had the same doubts,” Felicia continued, “thinking that Big Sister Mitsuki was far too kind towards me, and so I asked her about it myself. She told me much the same as what she told you.”
In Yggdrasil, it was considered morally acceptable for a man to have multiple wives or mistresses, as long as he was of worthy character and able to provide for them. The people here accepted it as a perfectly natural thing.
Felicia had been born and raised in this world, and so her sense of right and wrong in this area was completely different from Yuuto’s.
But even for Felicia, it had felt a bit strange that Mitsuki didn’t seem to act with any jealousy.
“It could very well be that your hypothesis is correct, and that she is Lady Rífa’s reincarnation,” Felicia went on.
Yuuto nodded. “Yeah, although I’ve never really been a big believer in that sort of thing. But in this situation...”
It couldn’t just be a coincidental resemblance. They looked far too identical for that. Even Yuuto, who’d known Mitsuki since they were little children, wouldn’t have been able to tell them apart if it weren’t for the difference in the color of their hair and eyes.
The fact that they were both twin rune Einherjar was another strange point in common. A rune was already rare in Yggdrasil—one person in ten thousand—and twin runes were so rare that there were supposedly only two people in the whole realm with them: Rífa, and Steinþórr.
And then there was their ability to visit each other in dreams. This was very reminiscent of the power of the “paired mirrors” effect, which allowed communication between Yggdrasil and the modern era.
There had to be something important connecting the two girls.
“But if that is the case, then I must say it is absolutely wonderful!” Felicia exclaimed.
“Huh? Wonderful?” Yuuto repeated. He didn’t understand what she meant.
Felicia stared dreamily off into space, her eyes sparkling. “Why, think about it! After falling in love with someone from another world, in her next life she was reborn alongside him so that she could be with him, and at last she was able to make that wish come true! Oh, it is such an epic romance!”
“Uhh... you know, when you put it like that, it actually sounds less real,” Yuuto admitted.
To Yuuto, Mitsuki was someone he’d always known, his childhood friend.
Having their relationship embellished with drama didn’t feel right. They’d just always been together, and their love had grown from that.
“But Big Brother, it is true that Big Sister’s love for you is that deep.”
“I-it is, huh?” Yuuto asked, scratching the back of his head. These days, he really had trouble being confident about that.
“Without a shadow of a doubt. I feel as if I understand her much better after talking with her so much the night before last. You can trust me!”
“Okay, but I mean, I’ve known her since longer than I can even remember, so...”
“Tee hee!” Felicia giggled. “You know, it is often said that lovers can be the most in the dark when it comes to each other.”
Yuuto gave a long sigh. “Yeah. As a matter of fact, Jörgen said something really similar to me the other day.”
Yuuto still didn’t fully understand everything, but at the very least, other people were pretty certain that Mitsuki’s love for him was the real thing.
Maybe this was something he shouldn’t need to be too anxious about.
Yuuto had a whole lot else to keep him busy right now, so he couldn’t afford to keep spending time dwelling on it, either.
And so he got back to work. As he focused on his duties, the days flew by... and before he’d had the time to get his feelings truly sorted out, the morning of his wedding arrived.
“Father,” Jörgen called. “It is time...”
“Right.” As Yuuto turned around, his mantle caught the air. It was fur, made from the pelt of a garmr.
On his chest was the emblem of the Steel Clan—two crossed Japanese swords, sewn into the fabric with gold thread.
On his arms, he wore black iron gauntlets that glinted in the light, and on his head he wore a golden crown. His appearance was indeed befitting of the lord of the third most powerful nation in Yggdrasil.
“You look splendid, Father.” Jörgen got a little choked up, and wiped his eyes with one arm. “You truly have become a great man. I am sure that our predecessor is looking down on you with joy from his seat in Valhalla.”
Jörgen spoke of Fárbauti, the Wolf Clan patriarch before Yuuto, and the only person Yuuto had ever accepted as his sworn parent by the Oath of the Chalice.
During Yuuto’s first days in Yggdrasil, when others had mocked him and called him Sköll, the Devourer of Blessings, Fárbauti had done so much for him. At times lecturing him harshly, at other times giving him warm encouragement or sage advice, the old patriarch had always helped guide him toward what was right.
Yuuto looked up into empty space and whispered, “I can only hope so,” as solemnly as if he were speaking before a grave.
Fárbauti had been struck down by a blade meant for Yuuto. His sworn father had died protecting him.
Back then, if Yuuto had been better at understanding the feelings of others, then maybe things might have gone differently. Maybe the old man could have been here today, attending this wedding.
That thought made his chest hurt a bit.
Jörgen spoke again. “Father, the weather today is sunny and clear, with not a cloud in the sky. The gods who rule the heavens have chosen to bless this special day.”
Yuuto nodded. “I see. I’m really glad to hear that.”
So many people had worked hard, sacrificing their days and nights, to complete the preparations for this ceremony.
No one would be happy if a surprise storm put all of that time and effort to waste.
And Yuuto also knew that the path he would be walking from now on would be far from sunny. There were already terrible storms waiting for him in the near future.
And so, on this day that signified the beginning of a new chapter of his own life, he was glad that it was sunny and clear. He wanted something that would make him believe that a part of his future was bright.
Jörgen raised his voice, and shouted, “Make way! Make way for the Steel Clan reginarch, Lord Suoh-Yuuto!”
The road leading between the palace gate and the sacred Hliðskjálf tower was lined on either side by soldiers, their spears angled so that they crossed each other and blocked the path.
As soon as Yuuto appeared at the palace entrance, they began pulling back their spears, repositioning them to point straight up. There was a cascade of sounds, the loud shing! of the metal spearheads, and the clack! as the spear butts hit the ground, two by two. In no time at all, the path had been opened.
Yuuto did not react to this with any surprise or hesitation. He strode forward, his face a picture of dauntless authority.
As Yuuto moved down the path, the metal shing! of crossing spears began to echo again.
Two by two, the pairs of spears crossed behind him, closing the path once more.
Today, only Yuuto was permitted to walk this road.
Yuuto soon arrived at the tower, where the stairs, too, were lined on both sides by his loyal soldiers.
He ascended the staircase slowly, step by step, as if each footfall carried a weighty importance.
He reached the top of the tower, and entered into its ritual hall and sanctuary, the hörgr. It was a large chamber approximately the size of a modern Japanese school gymnasium. There were around a hundred people seated inside, waiting for him.
“Ha ha... now this is a real sight,” Yuuto muttered to himself under his breath.
Directly to his right sat the Wolf Clan’s fourth-ranked officer, David, and next to him was Sveigðir, son of the late Olof, and newly appointed leader of the Olof Family.
Over on the left side was the Horn Clan’s assistant second-in-command, Haugspori, and sitting next to him was its former second-in-command Rasmus.
They were all important figures in their respective clans, and the people seated around them were likewise holders of significant rank or status. It was a real gathering of VIPs.
And what’s more, these people were the ones furthest from the ceremonial altar, seated at the back of the chamber. For a second, Yuuto found himself thinking how crazy it was that things had come this far.
He made his way down the aisle between the seated attendees, and arrived in front of the altar. Felicia was there waiting for him, as the priestess tasked with conducting the ceremonial prayers.
Instead of one of her usual, more revealing outfits, Felicia wore a more modest, slightly loose-fitting robe. Beautiful gold accessories decorated her hair, neck, and wrists.
“Hey there. That kind of outfit looks good on you too, you know,” Yuuto whispered playfully. He made sure he was quiet enough that no one else could hear.
“Thank you very much,” Felicia whispered back. “But for today, I think you should save all such praise for Big Sister Mitsuki.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Yuuto said, and the two of them exchanged grins.
There was a roar of cheering from outside the tower.
Mitsuki, his bride, had made her appearance before the public.
Yuuto had been running around all morning taking care of last-minute preparations, so he hadn’t seen a glimpse of Mitsuki since they’d gotten up first thing in the morning.
He wondered just how more beautiful she must look now.
Judging by the sounds of the crowds outside, he could keep his expectations high.
At last, he began to hear gasps of amazement from people inside the hörgr. It seemed his bride-to-be had arrived.
Yuuto slowly turned around... and stood there, blinking.
“W-wow...” was all he could say. The girl standing in front of him was nothing like the childhood friend he was so used to.
He’d known Mitsuki for as long as he could remember. He was pretty sure he knew her well, and even accounting for his bias as the man who loved her, he knew she was fairly beautiful.
But he’d had no idea she was this beautiful.
The ill-defined uncertainty he’d felt in his heart was blown away.
He stared blankly at her, transfixed, as she slowly made her way to stand beside him.
“Yuu-kun. Yuu-kun.”
“Wha?”
“What are you zoning out for? Turn and face forward.”
“O-oh, right.” A bit flustered, Yuuto turned to face the altar.
“What, are you nervous?” Mitsuki asked.
Out of the corner of his eye, Yuuto saw the profile of her face, outlined by the pure white silk hood of her gown. She was more beautiful than any girl he’d seen in his life. But her voice just now was the same one he’d always known.
It slowly hit home—the girl here next to him really was his beloved childhood friend.
“Not nervous, just blown away by how you look,” he whispered.
Mitsuki giggled. “So I look pretty?”
“Yeah, you do.”
Perhaps because of his relationship with Mitsuki growing up, Yuuto had a tendency to avoid directly expressing things like this to her. But today, that wasn’t an issue.
“If I may please have the attention and silence of everyone in attendance!” Felicia’s voice rang out, sweet and clear as a bell. Immediately, the ritual hall fell quiet.
The only sound was the crackling of the ornamental torches, which seemed loud against the silence.
Felicia then knelt in front of the altar, and began the ritual prayer. “Oh, great mother Angrboða, goddess of the Steel Clan!”
Bathed in the light of the torches, the divine mirror on the altar glimmered a faint red.
This mirror was where it had all started.
Yuuto had spent so many days wishing only to go home. He could have never imagined back then that he would be getting married to Mitsuki here in this world. He started to get a lump in his throat.
Felicia turned around to face Yuuto once more, and placed her hand upon his chest, closing her eyes. “Oh, grant your blessings to our lord reginarch, Suoh-Yuuto.”
Next, she placed a hand on Mitsuki’s chest, and called out, “Oh, grant your blessings to his bride, Shimoya-Mitsuki.”
With both appeals concluded, Felicia then spread her arms wide, as if re-introducing them to the audience.
“By the name of the most holy Angrboða... I hereby recognize this marriage between Suoh-Yuuto and Shimoya-Mitsuki!”
As Felicia finished her pronouncement, everyone in the chamber burst into loud applause.
Right on cue, Albertina, Kristina, and Ephelia appeared, throwing handfuls of flower petals into the air.
“Congratulations!”
“Long live the reginarch!”
“Long live Lady Mitsuki!”
Cheers and cries of congratulations came from every direction.
As the celebratory mood in the hall reached its zenith, Yuuto turned to Mitsuki and said, “Mitsuki, give me your hand.”
“Huh?” Mitsuki turned back from the crowd to look at Yuuto.
As she did, he fished in his pants pocket, and then pulled out a beautiful ring with a ruby at its center.
It was another masterwork forged by Ingrid, made in secret so that he could surprise Mitsuki with it today.
In Yggdrasil, there was no custom of exchanging or wearing wedding rings. However, as a man, Yuuto wanted to do what he could to make this wedding closer to the one Mitsuki had always dreamed of.
“Oh... right.” Mitsuki held out her left hand to Yuuto.
Yuuto slowly fit the ring onto Mitsuki’s finger.
“Yuu-kun, thank you. I love you!” There were tears falling from Mitsuki’s eyes, but she was smiling. She looked like the happiest she had ever been.
Yuuto felt his own heart filling with a poignant joy.
It was at that moment that a man ran into the chamber.
“P-please allow me to report!” he shouted.
He was completely out of breath, and his voice was shrill. It was completely at odds with the atmosphere in the room.
As the seated attendees began to murmur nervously, Jörgen angrily shouted at the intruder, “Can’t you tell we’re in the middle of a celebration?! Let it wait until later!”
Jörgen was the man in charge of organizing and directing the overall ceremony.
Having the celebration disturbed in such a manner would reflect upon his honor and pride.
“Wait!” Yuuto shouted in a fierce voice. “Let him speak.” He looked directly at the man, a soldier, and demanded, “What is it?!”
Yuuto’s face was no longer that of a groom at his wedding, but that of a veteran army commander. One look at this soldier’s harried, panicked state told him that this was an urgent matter.
“Th-the þjóðann has...”
“Lady Rífa?! What’s happened to her?!” Yuuto shouted, his voice growing sharper.
He had a strange, uneasy feeling.
His mind quickly raced to consider the worst possibility, that she had died.
As it happened, that thought was completely off the mark. However, the next words out of the soldier’s mouth were, perhaps, far worse for the Steel Clan.
“The þjóðann has declared the Steel Clan to be an enemy of the empire, and has issued an order for our destruction!!”
“...?!” A wave of gasps swept through the crowd.
The Steel Clan had now become the enemy of every single other clan in Yggdrasil.
“Keh heh heh. Even this late in the game, he chooses a direct assault as his final move. What a truly splendid man.” The Flame Clan patriarch continued to chuckle as he looked through his telescope, watching the formation of Lightning Clan soldiers charging out of Fort Waganea.
The Flame Clan had thirty thousand troops in place, almost four times the Lightning Clan’s eight thousand.
Attempting a frontal assault at such a disadvantage was nothing but sheer recklessness.
If this were merely the act of a man drunk on his own valor, charging forward without thinking of anything other than glory, then the Flame Clan patriarch would not praise it so.
But he knew this was different.
The young tiger leading the charge truly intended to attack head-on and destroy his foe.
“Heh heh, perhaps if I were not your opponent, you might have succeeded, as well,” he added.
The Flame Clan patriarch was almost sixty years old now.
He had spent most of his life at war.
He had stood on the field in over a hundred battles.
He understood the flow of battle intimately now, like he knew his own breathing.
To be sure, the young leader of the Lightning Clan was a warrior-general perhaps without peer in this world, but the Flame Clan patriarch was also solidly convinced that he would be no trouble to deal with.
“I suppose it might be amusing to surround him, wound and weaken him, and then capture him. But even doing so will offer no certainty of him becoming my subordinate.”
He was not about to sacrifice several thousand of his own soldiers’ lives for such an uncertain promise of gain.
On the battlefield, a moment’s hesitation could lead directly to death.
The Flame Clan patriarch stared out at his enemy. His warrior’s spirit began to rise up within him, burning away any remaining attachment he had to the prospect of Steinþórr as a sworn child.
“It cannot be helped, then. So it goes. At the very least, you will die gloriously.”
The weapons needed to kill the tiger had already been prepared.
Against these weapons, it didn’t matter how strong or skilled of a fighter one was.
They had killed Baba Nobuharu, Takeda Shingen’s general who had made it through seventy battles without a single wound. They had killed members of the feared band of crimson samurai, the red-armored soldiers rumored to be undefeatable.
This red-haired warrior, though he might be more powerful than any other man alive, would be no exception.
The Flame Clan patriarch inhaled deeply, and shouted his command. “Take aim! Your target is the one with red hair at the front of the formation! Do not bother with anyone else. Firrrrre!”
There was a cascade of ear splitting concussive blasts, and the entire battlefield and its surroundings were filled with the echoing.
“Ngh?!” Steinþórr felt a terrible chill run down his spine, and his whole body tensed.
In the very next instant, his superhuman eyesight locked on to the mass of tiny black objects flying towards him, moving at an incredible speed.
They were the size of small pebbles, or maybe a little smaller, and perfectly round. But despite their small size, Steinþórr’s instincts told him they were a terrible threat to his life.
And they were moving so fast, far faster than arrows. Anyone other than Steinþórr would surely have been unable to react in time.
Realizing that he couldn’t hope to knock them all away individually, he immediately began spinning his hammer around in front of him at high speed.
Ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting! Steinþórr’s hammer deflected a great deal of the projectiles. But they were just too fast, and too small, and too numerous.
“Grh...!” Steinþórr grunted in pain, and his horse let out a shrill scream.
Several of the projectiles had made it past his hammer, piercing him through the left shoulder, right thigh, and the right side of his ribs.
His horse was even less fortunate. With nothing to guard it, it had been riddled with innumerable wounds by the mysterious projectiles, and it collapsed to the ground on the spot, throwing Steinþórr off.
“Tch! Argh...! What the hell was that?!” Steinþórr hit the ground rolling, but quickly returned to his feet.
A sudden dizziness hit him, and he nearly lost his balance.
His wounds felt like they were burning on the inside, and blood gushed out of them.
These were serious wounds. If Steinþórr didn’t get treatment for them right away, then his life would be in danger.
“H-how could I be wounded that easily...?!”
He couldn’t process what was going on. He was supposed to be invincible on the battlefield, after all.
But the situation didn’t give Steinþórr time to think about such things any longer.
Zaaa! He suddenly felt every hair on his body stand on end.
He directed his gaze to the front lines of the Flame Clan army formation. The soldiers were all holding what looked like black sticks, and as he watched, they pointed the ends of those sticks in his direction.
He didn’t understand what they were, but he knew in his gut that they were the greatest threat to his life that he had ever faced so far.
Panicking, he tried to get away, but the wound on his right leg made it hard to run.
“Firrrrre!!”
Bang! Bang!
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-baang!!
There was another cacophony of explosive sound, and another mass of those black projectiles came flying at Steinþórr.
“Raaaagh!!” Forcing himself to ignore the searing pain in his left shoulder, Steinþórr once again spun his hammer in front of him.
He deflected the projectiles, over and over, too many to count.
For the ones that slipped through his defenses, he used his incredible eyesight to trace their paths, and his beast-like reflexes to bend his body out of the way.
It was the full power of fight or flight, a man with miraculous physical strength pushed to perform a feat of godlike dexterity.
But he still couldn’t escape them all.
“Gahh...!” One of them pierced through Steinþórr’s right arm, and he cried out in pain.
He managed to keep from dropping his warhammer, but his arms had lost their strength.
“Third rank! Firrrrre!”
Bang! Bang!
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-baang!!
Without any mercy or pause, there was another series of explosions, like a thunderclap sweeping across the battlefield.
Without any way to defend against them, Steinþórr was hit by the barrage of black projectiles, and they pierced his body all over.
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