ACT 2
“Oh, hey, there it is, off in the distance.”
Five days after setting out from the Sword Clan capital of Sigtuna, the Steel Clan Army had finally arrived at Glaðsheimr, the sacred capital of the Holy Ásgarðr Empire.
Given that they had expected some sort of resistance from the Spear Clan and other clans, it was an anticlimactic arrival.
“That’s a hell of a sight.”
It was a capital worthy of the conqueror Wotan, who was said to have unified the entirety of Yggdrasil.
Yuuto had thought he wouldn’t be overwhelmed at a city of a mere hundred thousand or so, but he couldn’t help but suck in a breath at the sight of the towering walls.
The thing that impressed Yuuto most was the sheer length of the walls.
“Wow... It’s like the Great Wall of China. Not that I’ve seen it in person.”
Mitsuki, too, widened her eyes in surprise.
Yuuto had thought the same thing.
The walls were about ten meters high, but it continued far into the horizon in either direction.
“The horizon’s about what? Four-and-a-half kilometers away?”
Meaning on the absolute low end it was at least nine kilometers long.
Of course, that was hardly its full extent. There was no way that a city wall would only protect one side of a city. It probably stretched to envelope the entire city.
“Aha, seems even you’re surprised.”
Parasol in hand, Rífa proudly puffed out her chest.
While she couldn’t go out in the summer sun, evidently she could go outside during winter under the cover of a parasol.
“Yeah, this is amazing. Just how big is it?”
“I’ve heard talk that even if they were to walk without rest for an entire day, a grown man would be unable to travel its entire length.”
“Whew.”
He could only sigh. In the modern day of the 21st century, it could be done with construction equipment and heavy transportation, but in this era everything had to be done by hand. The amount of labor it would take to bake and then pile up enough bricks to craft these walls was enough to make Yuuto’s head spin.
“No wonder it’s said it took twenty years to build.”
He’d heard that before and seeing for himself, it finally clicked.
“It would appear they’re going to welcome us.”
At the end of Yuuto’s gaze, the city gates lay open, with a line of people that appeared to be merchants waiting to greet them. They all anxiously watched the Steel Clan Army’s movements.
Their nervousness was understandable. After all, there were twenty thousand armed soldiers right in front of them. Of course they’d be frightened.
“Skáviðr!”
“My lord?”
The willowy man waiting behind Yuuto stepped forward and knelt before him. He had appeared in Sigtuna with a supply convoy from Gimlé and joined the army there.
“Make absolutely certain the soldiers are on their best behavior. Any who disobey are to be brought before the army and subjected to torture worse than death.”
Yuuto was well aware that he had issued a ruthless directive, but he knew from experience that this ruthlessness was much more effective at securing the happiness of as many people as possible than any attempts at mercy.
He knew that, in this instance, by meting out grotesque punishments, it would serve as an example to the others, reducing the overall harm inflicted upon the people. There were times that a ruler had to be ruthless, no matter how much it pained them personally.
“The merchants of Yggdrasil are gathered here. Any misbehavior will spread rapidly through their networks across Yggdrasil. We must avoid that at all costs.”
“I see, which is why you summoned me.”
Skáviðr nodded with a confident expression.
During his time as patriarch of the Wolf Clan, Yuuto had Skáviðr serve as its executioner to make the people and the soldiers aware of the importance of his laws.
Recently the ranks of the Steel Clan Army had swelled from the inclusion of the soldiers they had absorbed from the defeated armies. Someone like Skáviðr was urgently needed.
“I’m sorry I always seem to make you fill these roles.”
Yuuto bowed his head apologetically.
Yes, it was a necessary role, but no one would freely choose to take it upon themselves. Humans were social animals. Everyone wanted to be liked by those around them.
Executioners were universally condemned—hated by everyone, and appreciated only by those they served under. It was an emotionally painful role to fulfill.
However, Skáviðr simply smiled calmly.
“Do not worry yourself. This sort of role is well suited to me.”
Yuuto once again noted how blessed he was with good retainers.
“We’ve been awaiting your arrival. Welcome to our city, Lord Suoh-Yuuto, reginarch of the Steel Clan.”
The one assigned to greet them was a young woman of around fifteen years of age. Her dress was finely crafted—made of a fabric that was easily recognizable as silk. Her features gave her a faint resemblance to Sigrdrífa.
“I am Iálc, granddaughter of Sveigðir, Lord of House Jarl.”
“House Jarl... I think I’ve heard of it before.”
It was one of the Three Great Houses of Yggdrasil.
Digging deep into his memories, Yuuto remembered how he had once learned that when there was no heir apparent to the þjóðann, it was the Great Houses who would provide the next þjóðann.
“I appreciate the welcome from one of such a high station. An introduction is perhaps unnecessary, but I’m Suoh Yuuto.”
“We have heard of your great deeds. On behalf of the others, I thank you for your magnanimity.”
“Mm. In which case would it not be more proper for the lord himself to be doing so, rather than his granddaughter?”
Yuuto gazed intently at the young woman, while quipping with a touch of acerbity.
He was well aware that he was widely seen as a conqueror. He couldn’t help but think that it was considerably cold-hearted and ruthless to send out one’s granddaughter to greet such a person.
“I ask your forgiveness; my grandfather is ill and could not make it. Further, um, we have heard that you, Lord Reginarch, are very fond of women...”
“Ah, so that’s been spreading as well.”
Yuuto could only rub his forehead. He could have protested he was innocent in the past, but now it was hard to make that case.
“I am sure that I hardly compare to the beautiful women who are part of your harem, but if you could find it in you to add me to their number...”
“Felicia.”
Yuuto addressed the beauty behind him, cutting off Iálc. They hadn’t exchanged any particular words, but Yuuto and Felicia had been together for four years now. They could communicate just by exchanging glances. That was the case at this particular moment.
Felicia closed her eyes and built up her ásmegin, until finally...
“Gleipnir!”
A golden rope shot forth from her palm and tied itself around Iálc.
It was a seiðr that bound the supernatural that had once been used to summon Yuuto. Ordinarily it was used in summoning rituals to bring forth servants of the gods, but it could also be used to seal an Einherjar’s power.
And with this usage...
“Well?” Yuuto asked Felicia as he noted from the corner of his vision that Iálc’s eyes had lost all life and she’d collapsed in place.
“Got something. Seems like it was as you expected, Big Brother.”
When Felicia tugged on the rope, a black shadowy presence was dragged out from Iálc.
He had seen that shadowy mass before. It had appeared recently when Fimbulvetr was cast on Rífa.
“Still alive, are you, Hárbarth?” Yuuto said coolly as he glared down at the shadow.
Hárbarth—The man who had been the patriarch of the Spear Clan and the High Priest of the Holy Ásgarðr Empire.
His head had been separated from his shoulders and most of the world believed him to be dead, but his rune evidently allowed him to possess those who were unconscious, and even after being chased from Rífa’s body, he had clung on to life.
“Seems you’re plotting something, but it’s over now. We’re going to seal you...”
“Wha—?! Eep!”
With a loud bang, the golden rope holding down the shadow burst. The shadow then melted into the air, leaving nothing in its wake.
“Tch! He got away.”
Glaring in the direction the shadow vanished, Yuuto clicked his tongue in frustration.
“M-My apologies, Big Brother. It was a perfect opportunity and yet...”
“No, there’s no need to apologize. It just means he was a step ahead of us.”
“Indeed. I hadn’t told you this before now, but he is, aside from myself, the greatest seiðr user in the empire. I’m probably the only one capable of restraining him,” Rífa said in way of reassurance.
While Yuuto had wished she’d mentioned that earlier, it was too late now.
“But Big Brother, that was well sighted of you.”
“Yes, I couldn’t tell at all.”
“Nor, sadly, could I.”
“Or me. That was awesome, Yuu-kun.”
While Yuuto worried about his future concerns, Felicia, Rífa, Fagrahvél, and Mitsuki all praised him at once.
“I was mostly acting on a hunch—it’s nothing that impressive,” Yuuto responded a bit drily, somewhat embarrassed upon being showered in their praise.
“Mostly, meaning that some amount was backed by evidence?”
Fagrahvél made sure to follow up. She clearly wanted an explanation. The others were the same as well.
Yuuto scratched his head and sighed.
“She didn’t seem very human.”
“Hmm, it didn’t seem that way to me...”
“Humans tend to get angry when you insult their relatives. There was an odd lack of reaction to everything. It wasn’t that she didn’t react much, it was that she didn’t react at all.”
The first sign had been her reaction to Yuuto’s remark, “The House of Jarl, I think I’ve heard of it before.”
He had made that remark because he had genuinely forgotten, but for a member of a high-born family like one of the Three Great Houses of the empire, such a remark would ordinarily have been considered an insult.
In spite of that, though, there was no reaction from her whatsoever, which was why he tested her with the subject of her grandfather.
There, too, she had chosen to just give him a dry explanation of the situation about her grandfather being sick, making no attempt to avoid Yuuto’s displeasure by explaining her grandfather’s state in further detail.
There was just something off about the whole thing.
“Ah, that’s very impressive. You really do watch people carefully.”
Once he finished his explanation, Rífa looked up at Yuuto with a look of heartfelt admiration.
“Well, I did go out of my way to read up on how people think.”
When he found out he would have to lead a large number of people as patriarch, he’d taken the time to read every book on the subject that he could find. Then, of course, he’d had plenty of opportunities to test out that knowledge.
This sort of thing was easy enough for Yuuto now that he felt oddly embarrassed about being praised for it.
“Though, for him to spring a new plan into action so soon after his recent failure... That old man hasn’t given up just yet.”
Yuuto could only let out a dry laugh.
In his view, Hárbarth could only be described as obsessive, given he was hanging on despite losing his corporeal body. He could easily imagine that Hárbarth had many more schemes yet to be revealed.
He was proving to be a real headache to have to deal with from the very start.
The Steel Clan Army was met with silence by the residents of the Holy Capital of Glaðsheimr. No foreign army had ever set foot within the walls of Glaðsheimr in the entirety of the empire’s two hundred year history.
The people of Glaðsheimr knew of armies as things that would ransack towns and cities, murdering and pillaging them for all they were worth if given the chance.
They had believed those sorts of behaviors were a concern reserved only for the people of distant lands, and that they would never have to deal with it themselves, but seeing an actual army of twenty thousand in their midst, they could only cower and watch in fear.
And then came—
“Wh-What the hell is that?!”
“Whoa whoa whoa...”
“Wait, is that...”
Their silence was shattered by the appearance of a giant wolf the size of a lion or tiger that padded down the street, its white fur rippling as it walked.
It was an understandable reaction.
The garmr was a rare beast that was said to only live in the highlands surrounding the Roof of Yggdrasil. They were known to be feral and violent—something beyond the ability of human hands to tame, and yet...
“What the hell is he?! How’s he able to ride a garmr?!”
“Wait, he has black hair! Is that the Steel Clan reginarch, Suoh-Yuuto?!”
“He looks so young!”
Murmurs quickly spread through the populace.
Watching the public’s reaction, Felicia, riding a chestnut horse next to him, chuckled softly.
“Seems our sneak attack has succeeded, Big Brother.”
“Yeah, we’re just reusing the thing we did with Nobunaga, but this does leave a hell of an impression.”
Yuuto maintained his level expression riding atop Hildólfr, but his voice had a faint tone of amusement within it.
This was, after all, the first appearance of their new ruler.
When considering how to effectively govern from here on, it was necessary to leave a strong first impression that he was one not to be messed with.
“Still, that’s a minor problem when put into perspective. That damned Hárbarth is still alive, and by the looks of it, still scheming.”
“I must admit, the ability to possess other people is one that sends shivers up my spine,” Felicia said with a shudder.
If he could do that with impunity, he could easily turn a trusted ally into an assassin. Nothing could possibly be more frightening to a bodyguard.
“It’s enough to make me paranoid...”
“Well, there’s no need to be that cautious. Looks like he can only possess unconscious people anyway.”
Yuuto quirked his lips into a grin and Felicia blinked in surprise.
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, at least probably. I can’t be completely sure, though.”
With that preface, Yuuto explained his reasoning.
If he could really possess anyone he wanted, he would have possessed Yuuto first. That he hadn’t done so meant that there was some sort of limitation.
The young woman Iálc had evidently been drugged, she didn’t appear to stir even when yelling in her ear or slapping her cheeks.
Thinking back upon it, Rífa had been in a coma due to repeated layerings of the seiðr Gleipnir, which seemed like more than mere coincidence to Yuuto.
“Meaning, for him to possess someone’s body, the person in question has to be unconscious.”
“I see. You can get such an accurate view of the enemy’s ability with so little information... I’m always struck by your observation skills, Big Brother.”
“It’s not that impressive, really. You’re always overrating me,” Yuuto said with a laugh.
The two people Hárbarth possessed were unconscious. That was a blindingly obvious commonality between them.
“No, I really do think it is impressive. How that leads to this and is because of that. It sounds easy once explained, but coming to that conclusion on one’s own is difficult.”
“You really think so?”
Yuuto could only skeptically tilt his head.
Well, that might be true in some cases, but it still felt too easy. He then recalled that a certain famous person had claimed that math was logic.
By doing math problems starting in childhood, it cultivated the ability to think logically.
In that sense, perhaps there was some difference between individuals, but if there was an effect, then it was true that Yuuto—by Yggdrasil’s standards, where the ability to do the four basic arithmetic operations would guarantee a life of luxury—was well equipped for complex logical thought.
“Still, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a hell of an ability to deal with.”
If he could possess people who were unconscious, then that meant there was a chance that he could possess sleeping individuals, and considering that he had easily found Hveðrungr’s Independent Cavalry Regiment despite its Yggdrasil-leading mobility, that probably meant there was something more to the ability.
“We don’t have a whole picture of the enemy, but they can see everything we do. Damn.”
He could only consider someone like that to be a troublesome opponent indeed.
“I’d heard about all this, but it really does seem like a different world.”
With a sigh of amazement, Yuuto glanced around at his surroundings like a country bumpkin.
Located in the center of the Holy Capital of Glaðsheimr, the Valaskjálf Palace was large enough to fit a small city within its grounds. Within them were a forest of giant buildings, each large enough to be a monument in any ordinary city.
It was enough to make him wonder if he’d stepped into a time warp.
“Between this and the city wall, it’s hard to believe that they were built in this time period... or built two hundred years prior, even.”
One could be led to believe that perhaps Yggdrasil’s civilization was more advanced then than it is now. It showed just how much power the first þjóðann, Wotan, actually wielded.
At the same time, however, it was because of this enormous spending in building such monuments to his power that the empire quickly lost influence under his successors.
“Right, right. And when you marry me, it’ll all be yours. Pleased, are you?”
“No, not really.”
“Wh-Whaaat?!”
At Yuuto’s noncommittal answer, Rífa widened her eyes in surprise.
“It’s the greatest city and castle in all of Yggdrasil! Do you not understand their value?!”
“Well, yes, I understand they’re valuable.”
Yuuto scratched his head, feeling like this whole conversation was a bit of a chore. Honestly speaking, he did consider it to be a chore.
Ordinarily, owning the largest trading city in Yggdrasil would be a great boon to a patriarch, but it was something he’d have to abandon during Operation Noah.
That wasn’t all, either. He’d also heard its population was over a hundred thousand. While he had only caught a glimpse of it down the main thoroughfare, it definitely felt like this city was more advanced than the rest of the continent, which only increased his concerns that it would be quite an effort to get the population to move away.
“Well, anyway, putting that aside...”
“Putting it aside?! Glaðsheimr?! Valaskjálf Palace?! The two things that every ruler wants are to be put aside?!”
Rífa was thoroughly shocked by his reaction.
He felt a bit sorry for her, but there wasn’t much more to be said on the matter. There really were more important issues to attend to.
“It’s concerning Hárbarth. Now that we know he’s still alive, we need to take steps against him immediately. Honestly though, that’s not my area of expertise.”
Yuuto raised his palms into the air, shrugging as though to say he had no solution in mind.
Yuuto had brought substantial knowledge and technology with him from the 21st century, but he couldn’t think of any way to deal with Hárbarth. Perhaps an exorcism was the right solution, but in that regard, he felt that his 21st- century knowledge was far behind the curve compared to that of Yggdrasil’s.
Regardless, leaving him to do whatever he planned was far too dangerous. There was no telling what he could be doing behind the scenes.
Certainly, Yuuto needed the opinion of an expert in the form of Yggdrasil’s greatest seiðr wielder.
“Hmm... Let’s see... I think you were on the right track in terms of using Gleipnir. Honestly, that’s the only solution I can think of as well.”
“But he got away when we last tried that.”
“With Lady Felicia’s power, yes. With mine, even he wouldn’t be able to escape.”
“Then, assuming we have Rífa handle it next time, the question then becomes... How do we get him into that position again?”
Yuuto stroked his chin and furrowed his brow in thought.
Hárbarth’s last scheme ended with him very close to capture. No doubt he would be more cautious from now on, so he’d certainly be harder to entrap like that in the future.
That wasn’t all, though. While he had been able to coordinate well with Felicia, it was a bit too much to expect that level of cooperation with Rífa, whom he’d only known for a short time.
It certainly made for a painful blow to have come tantalizingly close to capturing their greatest enemy but losing their grasp on him at the last moment.
“I mean, what’s he after in the first place?” Yuuto couldn’t help but come back to that question.
At the very least, it didn’t seem that his aim was to kill Yuuto. If it had been, he would’ve done something to raise those suspicions when he had possessed Rífa, but there were no signs to indicate that.
“I don’t want to die.”
“Huh?”
Yuuto turned at Rífa’s murmur.
“No, it’s just something that came back to me. While I don’t remember anything when he possessed me, I feel like I kept hearing those words over and over even in my hazy state.”
“Mm. He doesn’t want to die. That’s an odd thing to say.”
Yuuto had demanded Hárbarth’s head as a price for the Anti-Steel Clan Encirclement.
He had thought the negotiations would stall as a result, but Hárbarth had yielded up his own head without any complaint or resistance. Would such a person cling to life that tenaciously? It felt contradictory.
“But, I suppose in a sense he’s still alive?”
He’d lost his body, but it seemed his soul was still lingering in this world, and most importantly, he could possess the bodies of others and move using them as though they were his own flesh and bones.
“Ah, I’m starting to see it now,” Yuuto stated calmly as he let out a huff of understanding.
“Really?! Already?! I’m still in the dark.”
“Embarrassingly enough, so am I.”
Rífa and Fagrahvél frowned, the two of them deep in thought.
“So, what’s his goal?”
“Well, as far as that goes...”
With a nod, Yuuto began laying out the information that supported his case.
He recalled reading that the older people got, the more they thought about death and would work harder to avoid it. He also remembered hearing that his own grandparents had evidently lived unhealthy lives until middle-age, but had started taking care of their bodies in old age because they didn’t want to die.
Hárbarth, by this world’s standards, was at an age where he could die at any moment. No doubt he felt death stalking him closer than anyone else.
“When you combine that with Hárbarth’s ability and the things he said, the answer presents itself pretty clearly, doesn’t it?”
“Wow, so that’s the Steel Clan reginarch.”
“He looked like little more than a child, but...”
“You can’t judge him by his looks. He had a garmr under his command, and evidently he’s a remarkable tactician.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that. He defeated the Hoof Clan’s Yngvi, who had unified most of Álfheimr in a single generation, the twin-runed Einherjar, Steinþórr the Dólgþrasir, and Hveðrungr the Grímnir, who in the wake of Yngvi’s death had pillaged much of Álfheimr and Miðgarðr...”
“They were all great warriors whose names were known even here in the Holy Capital. He truly is impressive to have defeated all of them, and then also have prevailed against the Alliance Army’s force of thirty thousand led by Fagrahvél, the Shining Sword—the patriarch of the Sword Clan.”
“Amazing is all I can say to that.”
As they watched Yuuto travel down the thoroughfare, the people swapped rumors between each other.
Lurking amongst them, however, was a certain something listening to those rumors. That something soon clicked its tongue in annoyance. It had a jet-black body and red eyes, and its sharp talons gripped the roof of a house.
“Caw!”
It let out a cry and flapped its wings.
At a glance, many could mistakenly believe it was just an ordinary crow. However, if one who could tell the difference looked into its eyes, they would see a hatred and rage that no mere beast could sustain.
That damned Black One! Just how much does he intend to interfere in my plans?!
The crow, possessed by Hárbarth, was cloaked in a whirl of ásmegin. It was an appearance forced on him because he had lost yet another ‘piece’ on his board.
I suppose that’s to be expected of the conqueror who has swallowed up a quarter of Yggdrasil. Outmaneuvering him is going to be quite a hassle...
He couldn’t understand what had allowed Yuuto to figure out it was him, though.
When he had possessed Rífa, the interaction the pair had while she was in Iárnviðr must have tipped him off to the difference, but Yuuto had definitely never met Iálc before. Hárbarth was certain he’d perfectly mimicked the mannerisms of the ladies of the court. There should have been nothing out of the ordinary, and yet he knew.
Considering his opponent was only in his teens, the boy’s perceptiveness was truly remarkable. It was impressive enough to make one believe that he could actually read people’s minds.
I thought I’d let him live for a while because I could make good use of him for my plans, but he is leaving me little choice but to kill him.
At this rate, even if Hárbarth did succeed in his goal, he could be noticed by them at any minute and end up trapped by a Gleipnir.
While he was able to destroy the simplified one he’d been caught in recently, he wasn’t certain he could break a properly-prepared one.
He always does get in the way of my ambitions.
If he hadn’t appeared, Hárbarth would have impregnated Rífa with his child during this year, which would have prepared him to take over the child’s body in due course, and then, twenty years later, he would have—with the help of his Spear Clan—conquered Yggdrasil as the new þjóðann.
Wealth, power, youth. All of it was meant to be his.
But because that brat had appeared, he’d lost everything.
Now this time, I’ll take everything from you, for I have found the perfect vessel.
Hárbarth laughed darkly. The crow’s eerie cries echoed through the city of Glaðsheimr.
It happened that night without any warning. The furniture in the bedroom suddenly started shifting and making noise.
However, what was shaking was not the furniture. It was the building, nay, the land of Yggdrasil itself.
“An earthquake?!”
The thing he’d most dreaded had finally happened. Yuuto jumped out of his bed. There was no sign the shaking would stop. In fact, it steadily grew more intense.
“Wh-Whoa, this is a pretty big one!”
Mitsuki, who had been sleeping next to him, also seemed unnerved.
“Mitsuki! Hide under the desk! I’ll get under the bed!”
“Oh, r-right!”
They were both from Japan, one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, and it showed. Years of training through exercises at school took over as they took cover.
“Big Brother!”
On the other hand, Felicia, who had never dealt with earthquakes before, jumped into the room.
In her case, of course, it could just be that even if she knew how to react, she’d come to help Yuuto in her role as his bodyguard.
“Y-You’re all right...”
“Felicia! Don’t wander around! Hide under something! Even you won’t come out of this unscathed if you get caught under falling debris!”
As Felicia let out a sigh of relief, Yuuto barked his orders at her.
Yggdrasil’s buildings were generally built with brick and wood. They weren’t even close to being as durable as those of the 21st century’s. The ceiling could come crashing down at any moment.
“Y-Yes, of course!”
Felicia hurriedly slipped under the bed next to Yuuto.
Almost simultaneously, the quake stopped.
“Looks like we made it.”
Yuuto let out a sigh of relief at avoiding getting buried alive, but that relief vanished when he crawled out from under the bed.
The room looked as though it’d been ransacked by thieves. The furniture had fallen, there were pottery shards everywhere. It was a complete and utter mess.
“Mitsuki!”
Yuuto hurriedly looked for his beloved wife.
“I-I’m okay...”
He let out another sigh of relief when he saw her under the table, clinging to one of its legs.
“If you’re fine, then we need to get outside for now. We don’t know when this might collapse.”
With that, Yuuto lifted Mitsuki off the ground. He’d swept her off the ground in a bridal carry.
While he was hardly well-built by Yggdrasil’s standards, Yuuto still took the time to train every day, so something like this was easy enough for him to do when necessary.
“Let’s get going.”
Yuuto and company opened the door and moved into the hallway. There were panicked voices from the sudden earthquake ringing out from all over.
“Tch. They’re all in a panic. This is a nightmare... Felicia, take care of Mitsuki!”
“Huh?! What about you, Big Brother?!”
“I’ll go guide the people still inside the palace. The people here aren’t used to earthquakes.”
“I-Isn’t that too danger—”
“Yes, which is why I’m leaving her in your care. You’re the only one I can trust.”
“...I understand.”
She knew as well as anyone that this wasn’t the time to argue. Felicia nodded with a sour frown.
“Hey, don’t worry about it. Rún will show up soon, I’m sure. Nothing will happen to me if she’s around.”
“...Understood. May the gods protect you, Big Brother!”
Taking hold of Mitsuki, Felicia looked worriedly at Yuuto. She seemed loathe to leave, but she hurriedly turned to run off.
“Everyone! Calm down! First, get outside the building! Don’t run, walk! Don’t shove the person in front of you! Those who can’t obey will be punished!”
If some of the people inside the palace were to try to escape at all costs, giving no regard to the well-being of others, it could complicate the evacuation as a whole.
That, in turn, could very well spread a fear of being unable to escape, leading to a general panic. A mass panic would make Yuuto’s task far more difficult.
“You’ll be fine! Line up and walk out calmly!”
Yuuto continued to yell as loudly as his throat would allow.
Thanks to his efforts, the palace was evacuated safely. Even after that, though, Yuuto had far too much to deal with in the wake of the earthquake, and remained fully occupied until the morning.
And then, as the sun rose...
He could only gasp as it revealed what had happened to Glaðsheimr...
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