ACT 2
From a young age, Albertina had been special. She could see and hear things that others couldn’t. She couldn’t understand why that was the case, nor what it was like to be unable to experience those things. Many things she considered normal and boring were wildly unusual to many others. Things she believed to be easily understood were utterly foreign to others, and vice versa.
At first, she’d tried to think like everyone else, but she simply couldn’t do it. In the end, she stopped thinking altogether.
“Yaaawn... Another day of waking up to nothing but ocean as far as the eye can see.” Yuuto emerged from his cabin onto the deck, forcing a smile. The view itself was magnificent, but he’d been on this ship for a whole month now, having departed from the Steel Clan’s newly acquired capital, Tarshish. He never wanted to see the ocean again after this. “Shouldn’t we be there by now?” he asked.
Yuuto and company were currently heading east—far east—across the Mediterranean Sea. They were headed toward what we now know as the Middle East, or “the Orient” in this era. As a result of their victory against Tahurwaili, the Steel Clan had expanded their territory greatly, but it wasn’t like Yuuto was going to massacre the previous inhabitants for their land, and this version of Europe wasn’t as large as its modern counterpart. They needed more space. A lot more.
A good metric to gauge the efficiency of a harvest was to measure the amount of wheat you could yield from a single seed. Back home in Yggdrasil, he’d made a point to implement the Norfolk crop rotation system—a decision that led to yields that were over ten times the harvest. Here in Europe, their harvests were only providing yields of three to four times, however. This was not nearly enough food to feed around a million Yggdrasillians.
By all accounts, if he were to use the Norfolk system in the Ancient Orient, he could bump up the size of their harvests significantly with great ease, but he’d decided not to on account of potentially rewriting history. Fortunately, Yuuto had discovered a solution—Mediterranean trade. If they had no food, then why not simply import it from places that did?
With that decision made, Yuuto had set out on a voyage to inspect those goods. It also served as a relaxing cruise trip, something he desperately needed given recent events.
“Father, Father! I sense a town ahead!”
“Oh, looks like we’ve finally arrived then.” Yuuto turned around when he heard Albertina’s excited voice. He still saw only the ocean in front of him, but he trusted Albertina, the Einherjar who bore the rune Hræsvelgr, Provoker of Winds. If she said there was a town ahead, he certainly had no reason to doubt her.
“Finally time to get off this prison of a boat,” he said, stretching his arms out.
“Prison? But we’re able to go anywhere we want!” she responded, somewhat confused by his statement.
“You only feel that way ’cause you’re the captain, Al. Sorry to put a damper on things, but being cooped up here with nothing to do and nowhere to flee makes this more or less a floating prison to me.” He shrugged his shoulders and smiled bitterly. It had been a month at sea, so he’d already gotten bored of all the games he’d brought with him, and the constant lulling back-and-forth of the ship every day made him seasick. If he was being honest, he was desperate to be back on land.
“If you’re bored, Father, you just gotta perk up your ears and listen to the wind! The wind has a different tone with each place we visit, you know? Yggdrasil, Tarshish, even right here—they all sound completely different! Can there be anything more exciting than that?!”
“Maybe I would find it exciting if I was able to hear it, but I can’t.”
“Aw, that’s a real shame... Kris and Hilda can’t either, but I really wish they could. It’s so interesting.” Albertina drooped her shoulders in disappointment. Though Yuuto felt bad for her, expecting him to be able to do something even Kristina and Hildegard couldn’t was simply asking too much. He promptly steered away from the topic and moved the conversation on.
“But I do think it’s pretty amazing, you being able to hear the wind and all. It’s thanks to you that we made it here so quickly and in one piece.” Of course, this was not flattery—it was Yuuto’s honest opinion. The seas were fraught with dangers like typhoons, rocky reefs, and storms—a fact that would not change even three thousand years from now in the Age of Discovery—yet Albertina was able to sense and circumvent those perils with one hundred percent accuracy. In addition, by reading the winds accordingly, she was able to get her vessel to her destination faster than others would be able to. When it came to the high seas, Albertina was practically a deity.
“Ehe he...” When she heard Yuuto’s praise, Albertina rubbed the back of her head and grinned happily. She hadn’t even realized that Yuuto had deflected the topic. Ruminating on how her sister never would have let such a thing go unnoticed, Yuuto found Albertina’s naivete kind of cute.
“Anyway, keep up the good work.” Yuuto petted her head.
The moment he did, he felt an intense chill run down his spine, the likes of which he’d never before experienced, even when facing off against Steinþórr or Fagrahvél. The alarm bells inside his head were ringing like crazy—his intuition was screaming that he was in grave danger. He whipped around in a panic, and what he saw terrified him. He shrank back in fear, letting a pathetic yelp escape him. Yuuto, who had gone head-to-head against the legendary Nobunaga, had never been so intimidated in all his life...because there, across the deck, was the crew of the ship, glaring daggers at him. Having gained enormous strength from their rigorous daily work, just one of them alone could probably tear Yuuto apart with their bare hands. They were all gathered around, watching him like a hawk.
“Th-They’re terrifying!” Yuuto thought to himself.
The glint in their eyes was abnormally menacing. Compared to Yuuto, they were the low men on the totem pole. Mere underlings. The gap between his position as þjóðann and theirs was much like the divide between heaven and earth. They would never say anything untoward to Yuuto’s face, let alone lay their hands on him.
But that was exactly why it was scary.
Because they couldn’t do anything on the surface, he could tell their resentment was building within, their anger twisting and bending their emotions into malicious, cruel intent. He could see in their eyes a terrifying madness that threatened to explode at any given moment.
“A-Ah, I just remembered that Felicia asked me to do something.” Of course, she hadn’t, but even lies could be convenient in the right circumstances. Regardless of the era, there was nothing more frightening than crazed devotees. Sometimes discretion really was the better part of valor.
“What are you doing over there all by yourself, Kris?” As he retreated to his cabin, he saw Kristina leaning against the wall like she had nothing better to do, not budging even an inch. Normally, she doted on her big sister to the point where they were inseparable even during their free time, so this wasn’t like her. “Did you guys get into another argument?”
“It wasn’t like it was an argument to begin with. I just...” Kristina stole a glance over at the cabin window. When Yuuto followed her gaze, he saw Albertina surrounded by a number of the crew members, laughing and enjoying herself. “I just didn’t want to ruin her good time, is all.”
“Hmm, reeeally?” he replied. The look on Kristina’s face told Yuuto her line of thinking wasn’t so commendable as that, and he couldn’t stop a smug grin from spreading across his face.
That apparently irritated her, because she asked curtly, “What?”
“Nooothing.” Avoiding her glare, Yuuto played dumb. Since he was always on the receiving end of Kristina’s teasing, he enjoyed giving her a taste of her own medicine every once in a while. “Well, you don’t need to keep pouting over it.”
“Who’s pouting?” Kristina said as she puffed up her cheeks. Yuuto couldn’t help but snicker. If that wasn’t a pout, then what was?
“...What?” she demanded again.
“Ah, it’s nothing, really. Don’t worry about it.” Even so, Yuuto valued his life. He knew if he teased a cunning vixen like her any further, he would come to regret it. Sensing it was about time for him to make his retreat, Yuuto shrugged his shoulders and made himself scarce. A supreme commander had to pick their battles wisely.
The island of Arvad was on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, around where Syria could be found in the modern era, and was known as a hub for commerce as far back as 2000 BCE. If Yuuto’s hypothesis was correct and the current year was somewhere around 1500 BCE, then the Hittites of Mitanni, Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt all should’ve been crowded together in the Orient. Though he’d read up on it beforehand, three thousand five hundred years was a long time. The records for around that time were few and far between, so he hadn’t a clue what the situation would actually be like until he actually got there.
While Arvad was a tiny island, it was also an independent nation that was naturally protected by the sea. In other words, it was a perfect place to gather information without provoking the larger countries.
“Aunt Felicia, I’m reminded of just how convenient you are. No wonder Father puts you in such high esteem,” Kristina said earnestly.
It went without saying, but there was a language barrier between the people of the Orient and those who once lived in Yggdrasil. As one would expect, if they couldn’t understand each other’s language, then neither side would be able to communicate their intent. However, Felicia was uniquely equipped for this exact type of occasion. She could make use of her negotiation galdr, as well as a few other galdrs suited for the situation, such as one that gave the target a sense of relief, one that raised the target’s spirits, as well as several other similar galdrs that she could use at will. Thanks to these, information-gathering was able to proceed smoothly even in completely foreign territory. Felicia herself was adamant in downplaying her skills, implying that she was a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none, but Kristina truly felt that there was no clan member more convenient at times like these.
“It’s an honor to receive such praise from you, Kris, even if it is just flattery,” Felicia replied.
“It’s not flattery when I tell you I’d honestly like you to come join my team instead,” Kristina said frankly.
“I do apologize, but my place is with Big Brother Yuuto.”
“Then maybe I should try to strike a deal to borrow you for perhaps a year or so.” Felicia’s galdrs would most certainly be immeasurably useful, especially when it came to deciphering the language of the locals. No skill was more fundamental when it came to gathering information. Kristina had to wonder how many years it’d take for her team to do it themselves. Just the ability to skip all that alone would make Felicia worth whatever price she had to pay.
“My powers aren’t that great, if I’m being honest. For instance, the Negotiation galdr has a side effect,” Felicia explained.
“A side effect?”
“Yes. It makes the magic within words stronger, but at the same time, the words lose their nuance and subtlety.”
“Hmm, that would be pretty annoying.” Someone whose thoughts were easily read from their expression and tone of voice wouldn’t be suited to negotiation. If your opponent knew what you were thinking, you could easily get the rug pulled out from under you—ironic for a galdr called “Negotiation.” Well, it had probably been intended as a communication tool used to bridge the gap between languages even before the time of Jean Bodin.
“Guess there’s no other option but to learn their language the hard way,” Kristina replied, sounding somewhat deflated.
“I suppose not.”
“A real shame. Well then, how about I use you just for today? Oh look, there just happens to be a tavern nearby. What good timing! Let’s head there.” Kristina pointed to a building ahead of them. The galdr didn’t let the user read foreign characters, but there were chairs lined up outside occupied by a throng of men making a scene with earthenware mugs in their hands. Even if the language and culture differed, taverns were the same everywhere, it seemed.
As they approached the tavern, a noisy din Kristina couldn’t make heads nor tails of reached their ears. She was about to chalk this up to the standard behavior of tavern goers when she noticed something.
“Is that...Al?”
For some reason, her older sister Albertina was smack-dab in the middle of the throng of men. Around her were sailors she recognized, probably having a group drinking party now that they were ashore. That in itself was fine, but there were also men with clearly different outfits and behaviors mixed in—likely the natives. But they didn’t look like they were fighting.
“〇×△◆？”
“Huh? That’s my little sister Kristina you’re talking about!”
“×▽◇◆？”
“Miss Felicia? No, you can’t! She’s taken!”
On the contrary, she looked like she was leisurely conversing with them. The galdr had already worn off, so Kristina had no idea what the natives were saying.
“Al, you can understand what these guys are saying?” Kristina asked.
“More or less? Just from their body language and behavior and stuff.”
“Th-That’s an awfully vague explanation...”
“Well, don’t sweat the small stuff. Okay, everyone! Tonight’s my treat, so drink up!”
When Albertina raised her glass of ale, full to the brim, high in the air, the men around her raised their glasses in response and shouted out joyously.
“◆▽▲×.”
“〇◆□▽？”
“Ah ha ha! What? I don’t really understand but okay! Okay!”
“So she can’t really comprehend their language after all. But at least she’s in high spirits,” Kristina thought.
“Kris, come drink! Let’s drink together!”
“I’m working, Al.”
“Aw c’mon, don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud. Just a little won’t hurt, will it?”
“Unlike you, I’m busy.”
“Aw... Your big sis has been busy lately too, y’know. I’m way busier on the ship than you, at least.”
“That’s true. Well, you go ahead and let loose then. I have work to do since we’re on land right now,” she said coldly as she turned on her heel and left the tavern.
Of course, she knew how contradictory she was being. Gathering information was her job, yet she’d just left a tavern, a treasure trove of intel, without investigating anything. She was aware she wasn’t thinking straight, but every time she saw Albertina now, she couldn’t help but feel irritated. At first, she thought it was because they hadn’t seen each other in a while due to Albertina primarily being on sea while she stayed on land and that they’d be able to go back to how they were soon enough. But no matter how much time passed, her anger and dissatisfaction toward her sister remained—no, it had only intensified, in fact. She wanted to scream out, “That’s not the Big Sis Al I know!” She’d get so upset and irritated that she’d either lash out at Albertina or walk away as she had just now, unable to stand even being in the same space as her. Things had been that way for almost an entire year now.
“I see. So she’s still ignoring you, huh?” When Yuuto heard what Albertina had to say the next day, he scratched his head in vexation. Ever since Albertina had started commandeering the ship, she and Kristina had grown further and further apart. It was getting so bad that even Yuuto had started to notice their relationship was on the rocks. He’d figured this recent voyage would be a good opportunity for the two of them to spend more time together and make up, but it didn’t seem to be going well.
“D-Do you think I’ve done something to make her hate me after all?” Albertina asked, tears brimming in her eyes. She’d noticed Kristina’s odd behavior up till now, but apparently, she’d figured it was just her imagination, or perhaps she’d believed it was something minor and they’d be able to work it out during the course of the voyage. Kristina’s attitude yesterday had been too much for her to ignore, however, and she, too, had begun to realize something was seriously wrong.
“Waaah! If Kris starts hating me for real, I won’t be able to go on living!” Albertina sputtered through a face full of tears. Since this morning, Albertina had been a sobbing mess. Naturally, letting the captain commandeer the boat in this state was much too dangerous, so he’d listened to what she had to say. But...
“Boy, Kristina sure is being real difficult,” Yuuto said as he held his head in frustration. That was really all he could say about it. Even from a bystander’s perspective, it was clear that Kristina was the one in the wrong here. What’s more, the reason was completely ridiculous.
“She’s, well, mad that you’ve become so popular,” Yuuto explained to Albertina.
Yes. In a nutshell, that was it, like how a dog refuses to eat when it sulks. It really was completely stupid. One was the captain of a ship that held the very future of the Steel Clan in the balance. The other was the leader of the Steel Clan’s intelligence division, practically the clan’s lifeblood. As the þjóðann, Yuuto simply couldn’t leave this matter alone—especially in the case of Kristina, who was letting it affect her work.
“Aww... When you first told me that, I even kept telling her that she was the most important person in my life...”
“Huh, really?”
“Yeah. But she just stayed all pouty.”
“That’s probably because you’re not just her Al anymore. You’re everyone’s Al now.” Yuuto smiled bitterly, remembering the scene on the deck yesterday. Truthfully, Albertina had her fair share of fans throughout the nation. She was popular, and even when she returned to Tarshish, she was always being sought after by various groups.
“Huh? But isn’t that a good thing?” she said with a beaming smile.
“She’s a good girl,” Yuuto thought. “Yeah, you’re right about that, but...”
“Perhaps it’s a bit difficult for someone like you to understand, Al,” Felicia chimed in with a wistful smile. “You see, I understand how Kris is feeling, just a little.”
“Really?!” Albertina jumped at that. Felicia nodded.
“You’ve been acknowledged and accepted by others, and your world has expanded as a result. As you say, Al, that is a wonderful thing, and something to be proud of.”
“I agree!”
“But there’s a reverse to that.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Imagine if you weren’t acknowledged or accepted by anyone, and your worldview stayed narrow. You might believe you could monopolize someone. You might think, ‘If that person is abandoned by everyone else and has no one else to be around, then that person will have to trust, love, and rely on me and me alone.’”
“Whaaaa?!” Albertina shouted, apparently taken completely by surprise. Perhaps a girl as bright and cheery as her couldn’t fathom such negative emotions. In truth, on a fundamental level, Yuuto’s values were closer to Albertina’s, and he didn’t really understand such feelings himself, but his experiences as the þjóðann had at least made him realize that some people saw the world completely differently. Albertina, on the other hand, had probably never realized such people existed.
“However, I believe that’s an incorrect, twisted way of thinking. It’s merely prioritizing yourself over the happiness of others.” Perhaps realizing her words reflected a part of her she wished to leave in the past, Felicia gave a small shrug of her shoulders. Just as there were people like Albertina who would be shocked at such a mindset, there were also those who wanted to monopolize the ones they loved. Perhaps it was even part of human nature to feel that way.
“So, basically, if I quit being captain and return to how I used to be, then Kris will do the same?” Albertina tilted her head, sounding unsure.
Indeed, that was the crux of this problem. Yuuto sighed. “Yeah, probably. But that wouldn’t be healthy for you, and as the þjóðann, I simply won’t allow it.”
“I figured...” she replied.
“But let’s forget about that right now,” Yuuto stated. The frankness of that statement caught Albertina by surprise. Even so, Yuuto continued. “Although I’m probably a failure of a þjóðann for what I’m about to say, what’s really important, Al, is how you feel.” Yuuto jabbed his own chest and grinned.
“How I feel...?”
“Right. What do you want to do? Continue being the captain, or quit?” he asked.
“I wanna continue!” Her reply was immediate. Of course, it was the reply Yuuto had expected. “But...I don’t wanna fight with Kris anymore either...” Albertina drooped her shoulders in sadness.
If one became happy, the other would become unhappy. It was quite the vexing conundrum.
“Why did it have to be like this? All I wanted was to be a big sister Kris could be proud of...” she mumbled, clearly down in the dumps. Her usual smile, radiant like the sun, was nowhere to be seen. Just watching her made Yuuto depressed. She hadn’t done anything wrong; she’d only wanted to move forward.
“Come to think of it, you said something similar back when you’d first decided to board the ship, didn’t you?” Yuuto asked, suddenly reminiscing on that time. Back then, the flagship Noah had just been finished, and during the course of its inspection, Ingrid had asked Yuuto to lend her Albertina. For Albertina to say the same things as she did back then must’ve meant that it truly was important to her.
“Yeah. That’s why if I go back to the old Albertina, I’ll only drag Kris down.”
“...You know that’s not how she feels at all, right?”
“Yeah, of course. She’s too nice to think something like that. That’s exactly why I’d end up chaining her down.” She let out a hollow laugh, one that sounded equal parts troubled and melancholy. “It’s always been that way, after all.”
It might seem obvious at this point, but Albertina and Kristina were inseparable from the time they were born. They had the same face, and they were the same age and height. Each of them thought of the other as their other self. They could also both hear the wind.
“She is me, and I am her.” Just like that, they could feel each other as if they were one. Albertina remembered that feeling well.
“But around the time when our dad started tutoring us, something changed,” Albertina explained.
Kristina had soaked up new information like a sponge and had excelled at her studies. Meanwhile, Albertina had struggled to remember characters, let alone read books.
“Al, you never cease to amaze. It’s just one mystery after another with you,” Yuuto mused. Albertina might’ve been universally recognized as a dunce, but it wasn’t like she had a bad memory. As a matter of fact, her memory was excellent. When she was sent to the battlefield for reconnaissance, she was able to recall the scene vividly, and she remembered the route the ship had taken in staggering detail. So why was someone with such a good memory unable to remember characters?
“No one believes me when I tell them this, but when I look at characters, I just see a garbled mess. That’s why I can’t recognize their shapes...”
“A garbled mess? What, do you have astigmatism or something? Do other things look blurry to you?”
“Nope, just the characters.”
“Hm, it might be dyslexia then.”
“Dys...?”
“Ah, that’s what they call having a hard time reading characters for some reason or another.” When Albertina frowned at the unfamiliar term, Yuuto followed up gently. There were a number of other conditions besides dyslexia that caused people to see characters as blurry, but Yuuto had read something once that said ten to twenty percent of Europeans and Americans that couldn’t read had been diagnosed as dyslexic.
“Wow, really? Well, that’s probably what I have then,” she said nonchalantly, as though it didn’t concern her.
“Well, it’s only a possibility. I’m not a doctor, so there’s no way for me to know for sure.”
“Hee hee, whatever it is isn’t important. As long as you believe me, that’s all that matters.”
“...I see.” Hearing Albertina’s somewhat philosophical-sounding opinion, Yuuto felt a twinge of sadness. Indeed, it must’ve seemed like a lie or excuse to most people if she claimed she was unable to read characters but did everything else perfectly. Perhaps it even frustrated some people—no, judging by her earlier statement, he got the feeling it had frustrated almost everyone. She was being completely serious, yet that was how she was treated. Yuuto couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.
“But, well, I didn’t want Kris to leave me behind or anything either. We must always be one and the same, so I tried my absolute hardest to catch up,” Al said with conviction.
“I don’t doubt that,” he replied. Albertina wasn’t the type of girl to lie about something like that. She was, at her core, a good, honest girl. If she said she’d tried her hardest, then she must’ve put a desperate amount of effort in.
But then she smiled languidly. “But no matter how hard I tried, the characters didn’t become any more readable. In fact, the harder I tried, the more of a mess they became.”
“That...must be tough.” She’d probably stressed out over it so much she’d ended up aggravating her condition. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but he’d certainly heard of such cases. She was, fundamentally, an innocent, free spirit. There was probably no one less suited to being chained down to a desk and forced to study.
“In the meantime, Kris became more and more amazing, while I was still stuck at square one. Around that time, I started hearing people call us stuff like the ‘smart twin’ and the ‘stupid twin.’”
That made Yuuto so angry he unconsciously bit his lip. So what if she couldn’t read characters? She had a ton of other amazing qualities and talents to make up for that.
“But one day I started thinking, ‘Maybe it’s better to be the stupid one.’”
“Huh?” Unable to comprehend her meaning, Yuuto was dumbfounded.
“Kris is amazing, y’see. Super amazing.”
“Oh yeah, I know how amazing she is. There’s no one as sharp as her.”
“I know, right?!” she responded, nodding emphatically with pride and joy. Despite having some complicated feelings about her sister, there was no question that Albertina loved Kristina more than anything else in the world. “I was convinced that she was definitely, absolutely going to succeed my dad and become the patriarch of the Claw Clan.”
“Well, that evaluation wasn’t wrong.” As the reginarch of the Steel Clan, he had a good grasp of the talent the Claw Clan possessed, and when it came to political prowess, information acquisition, tactical skill, and ability to win people over, there was no one more suited for the patriarch position than Kristina. She excelled in every single category—no one else could even compare.
“Right? And so that’s why I decided to be an idiot.”
“...Uh, sorry, back up a bit. I’m not sure how that relates.” Every now and then, Albertina would say things that didn’t really make sense, but he felt like he couldn’t dismiss these words so easily. She was someone who lived by her emotions rather than logic, and Yuuto knew from experience that one in tune with their emotions was sometimes wiser than the most esteemed philosophers—much like the “voice of the wind” that the girl was always referencing.
“Well, big sisters are supposed to be the amazing ones, you know? But I figured that if I became an idiot, Kris would become even more amazing.”
Though Albertina had said it nonchalantly, Yuuto’s eyes widened in surprise. He was reminded of how he shouldn’t underestimate those with sharp intuition. Yggdrasil had been a meritocracy, but there had also been value in building rapport with previous patriarchs. Considering that, if Yuuto took the daughter of a patriarch as his wife, it would help to solidify her position as successor of her clan. However, whichever twin he married would naturally have a much higher social standing than the other. Regardless of what they themselves desired, they were beholden to the world of politics. They couldn’t both shine, or they’d risk dividing the clan. Yuuto understood this well, now that he was a father himself. Whether a patriarch or a king, certain things were expected of a daughter of one in power.
“You intentionally played the fool so that Kris could become the patriarch?”
“Ah ha ha, well, I ended up becoming a real idiot in the process, though.”
“...Al, you’re no idiot. In fact, I’ve thought you were a genius for a while now.”
“Aha, c’mon, that’s enough,” Al replied. She apparently thought Yuuto was joking, but he couldn’t have been more serious. Where normal people had to construct theories to arrive at a conclusion, geniuses were able to reach the same conclusion through pure intuition. Albertina was able to do exactly that. She probably wouldn’t be able to explain her methods—hell, she probably didn’t even understand how she did it in the first place. She just somehow knew.
“But, well, from time to time, I’ve even wondered why I’m here and what I’m doing. Even though I became an idiot to not get in Kris’s way, I’m bothering her by being an idiot. In the end, what purpose do I even serve? Something like that,” Albertina said, trying to explain.
“I’ll say it as many times as I need to. She would never think even for a second that you’re a burden or a nuisance,” he declared. He could say it with absolute confidence—there was no little sister out there that adored their big sister more than Kristina adored hers.
“Ah ha ha... Yeah, I don’t think so either. That’s why I stopped thinking that way pretty quickly.” As twins who’d been together since birth, there was no way she wouldn’t know exactly how Kristina felt about her. “But, you know, I still didn’t want to end up dragging Kristina down. So I decided to come to you, Father.”
“To me?”
“Yeah. I figured that if I left the Claw Clan, Kristina would be free of her chains and be able to fly as high as she wanted. But she’s still worrying herself over me. I know I might not be the most reliable big sister, but still...” Albertina pursed her lips in a pout. In response, Yuuto couldn’t help but smile wistfully. He could guarantee that the reason Kristina continued to accompany Albertina wasn’t that she thought her older sister was unreliable. He would even bet money on it—it was because Kristina couldn’t stand to be away from her.
“Even after we joined the Wolf Clan, she was always worrying about me. See, we even ended up the same rank even though I hadn’t done anything.”
“Ah...” Yuuto remembered the rankings back during the Steel Clan’s inauguration. Kristina and Albertina had both taken tenth place. But it was just like Albertina had said—any way you looked at it, most of those merits had been Kristina’s.
“Kristina got you to change it, didn’t she?” she asked.
“Well, that might have happened,” Yuuto replied. In actuality, Kristina had thrown a fit and said that if she and Albertina didn’t get the same rank, she wouldn’t accept her promotion. Even at that time, Kristina’s information network had practically been his lifeblood, so he’d had no choice but to comply even if he found the request strikingly odd.
“I knew it. If she hadn’t dragged me up the rankings, she would’ve been much higher up, wouldn’t she?”
“Not necessarily, but well, I won’t deny that it may have been easier for her to rise up the ranks afterward,” Yuuto admitted. Even after joining the Steel Clan, Kristina had continued to gain accolades as Yuuto’s right-hand woman, including forming the Vindálfs unit, but her rank had stayed the same. Because he’d fudged Albertina’s ranking, he’d refrained from promoting Kristina any further out of consideration for everyone else, and Kristina had agreed. But from Albertina’s perspective, it’d probably just seemed like her little sister was coddling her, and that couldn’t have been a good feeling. He’d assumed that the constantly happy-go-lucky Albertina wouldn’t mind, but now he realized just how shallow he’d been.
“Actually, the guys at the palace were saying it too. That if I wasn’t around, Kristina would be much higher up. That she could’ve become the Claw Clan’s patriarch.”
“That was around the time of the battle against the Sword Clan, wasn’t it?” He recalled Albertina running to the office in tears. At the time, he’d wondered what could’ve happened to make a girl as nonchalant as her cry like that, but now he understood. To a girl whose little sister was their very world, those words cut her deeper than anything else could’ve.
“That’s when I decided that I wanted to be the type of big sister who would be okay even if Kris didn’t look after me. I wanted to be a big sister she’d be proud of!” She gripped her fist tightly. Of course, this seemed to contradict her earlier desire to be an idiot, but thanks to Kristina, the Claw Clan had already been assimilated into the Steel Clan, and their territory had expanded. Perhaps Albertina had naturally sensed that the scale had grown way larger than just the Claw Clan and had decided to change her aim accordingly.
“But in the end, I was still an idiot. I told myself I’d try hard, but I wasn’t able to do anything.” She slumped her shoulders in sadness again, but then her expression changed. Yuuto had a feeling he knew what her next words were going to be.
“But then I met Noah!” she exclaimed as if describing meeting the person of her dreams. “And after that, things started happening, I became useful to you, Father, and I was able to lend a hand in saving everyone!”
“You didn’t just ‘lend a hand,’ Al. You were the MVP.” If he were to be asked who he thought the star player in the mass migration project was, Linnea and Jörgen’s names might be expected to come up, but Yuuto would personally nominate Albertina. Truthfully, if she hadn’t been present, there was a good chance the fleet would already have been sucked into a storm and at the bottom of the sea by now. The navigation technology of this age was woefully primitive. Without her, they’d have been practically fumbling in the dark, and despite the knowledge he had access to, Yuuto had no means of reliably solving that problem. Albertina’s godlike ability had made up for that lack of technology—to Yuuto, she was his goddess.
“You’ve already won enough respect and merit in my book. You’re definitely a big sister that Kris can be proud of.” Honestly, without Albertina, he was unsure where the Steel Clan would even be right now. They might well have been at the bottom of the ocean after coming across a storm while migrating to the New World. Even during Yuuto’s current trade voyage, Albertina’s talents had been indispensable. It probably wouldn’t be wrong to say that without her, the Steel Clan wouldn’t even be able to exist right now. That was how valuable she was to the clan.
“Yeah. I think so too...” Her expression clouded over. “In the end, I’m just an idiot, so maybe I’m actually wrong about that.”
“You’re absolutely not wrong, Al. I’m certain of that,” Yuuto declared. Kristina and Albertina both loved each other, but they differed in one fundamental way. One’s worldview kept expanding, and the other kept retreating further and further into her shell. But while he understood the reason behind the latter’s actions, he knew it was wrong. He knew there was no future in such a lifestyle.
“Thanks for listening, Father! I feel sooo much better now!”
“No problem, Al. If you ever need anything else, I’m all ears. Come see me anytime.”
“Will do!” With a radiant smile, Albertina dashed out of Yuuto’s cabin and onto the deck. Though he wasn’t completely convinced he’d laid all her anxieties to rest, she had at least regained some of her cheerfulness, and that was good enough for now. The real problem was—
“You’re here somewhere, aren’t you, Kris?” Yuuto called out to her, confident he would get a response.
“I’m surprised you realized, Father. Even Al was completely oblivious.” Kristina opened the door to the cabin and strode in. He’d figured she was eavesdropping from somewhere, but he’d been unable to sense her presence. Yuuto possessed twin runes that enhanced his perception, and Felicia was a top-class warrior, but neither of them had noticed her despite her close proximity. Kristina was truly a master of her craft.
“Having you listen in was part of my plan all along,” Yuuto replied with an amused snort. In truth, the only way Yuuto could see a resolution to this was to have the two of them talk it out, but knowing Kristina’s twisted personality, she wouldn’t lay bare her feelings that easily. With that in mind, after receiving Felicia’s report yesterday, Yuuto had devised a plan. He’d summoned Albertina to his cabin alone knowing Kristina wouldn’t be able to resist eavesdropping from the shadows.
“In other words, Father, you mean to say I fell for your trap hook, line, and sinker?” Kristina asked.
“The fact that you weren’t able to see through such an obvious scheme proves you’re not at the top of your game,” he replied.
Kristina fell silent.
“You’ve lost your composure, Kris. I can’t have you leading my intelligence division like that.”
“Hmph.” Unable to argue back, she simply pouted. He couldn’t deny it felt good to render a cheeky girl like Kristina speechless, but it was also somewhat unsatisfying. Normally, she’d bite back more than that.
“So after hearing how Al feels, what do you think?”
“...Al’s just as hopeless as ever. A total idiot. Honestly, she couldn’t be more off base.”
“Kris! How dare you!” Felicia scolded Kristina for her cruel, dismissive reply, but Yuuto held up a hand to stop her. Kristina was twisted at her core. If they continued to take her words at face value, they’d never reach the truth.
“Status? Admiration? Who wants crap like that? That girl doesn’t understand me at all. She’s a failure of an older sister. Really, I ought to have a long talk with her.” Her words were caustic, but her voice was trembling. As Yuuto had expected, she wasn’t being honest. But perhaps taking that into consideration was part of the generosity expected of a parent.
“Yeah, you really ought to. In fact, you two really need to spend some time hashing it out with each other,” Yuuto replied.
“Yes, it...seems that she needs a good talking-to, so I’m off.” She earnestly agreed and exited the cabin. Al’s confession must’ve really shaken Kristina if she was willing to use a flimsy pretext like scolding Al as an excuse to swallow her pride and go see her. But Yuuto knew how much they still cared for each other. He was sure they’d be able to make up.
Once Kristina had gone, Felicia sighed and finally spoke up. “Well, that certainly was surprising. Kris may seem like the older of the two at a glance, but I suppose Al’s the more mature one after all.”
Yuuto couldn’t have agreed more with that statement if he’d tried.
“Father, Fatherrr!”
“Gaaah!” The next morning, Yuuto’s tranquil slumber was cut short when Albertina leaped on top of him. Still half asleep in his cabin bed, the impact was even more jarring than if he’d been wide awake. Normally, this would have been grounds for scolding her, but...
“Listen, listen! Kris and I talked alllll night last night, and guess what? We made up!”
Seeing the thousand-watt smile on her face, he decided to let it slide. That radiant expression of hers suited her best, after all. Having the normal Albertina back was all that really mattered.
“And it’s all thanks to you, Father!”
“Nah, I didn’t really do anything...”
“Yes you did! Kris told me all about how you tricked her!”
“‘Tricked’ is an awfully strong word...”
“Well, you did, didn’t you?” Kristina interjected from across the room, her back against the door. “I certainly wouldn’t call hiding your intentions from me fair.”
“You, caring about what’s fair? That’s a new one. Well, everyone made up in the end, so let’s let bygones be bygones,” Yuuto replied.
Most of the goods had already been inspected, negotiations had concluded, and it looked like the trading relationship was going to be quite fruitful. Now that the twins had reconciled and all of the Steel Clan’s problems were solved, they could live happily ever after.
“Thank you so much, Father! I love you!”
Smooch.
“Eh?”
“Ah!” At the same time that Yuuto let out a bewildered utterance, a cry of surprise escaped Kristina’s lips. It had only been an instant, so he wasn’t sure exactly what had happened, but hadn’t Albertina’s lips lightly touched his?
“Excuse me, Father? Can I discuss something with you for juuust a second?” Visibly shaking, Kristina inched closer to Yuuto with a beaming smile.
“Oh shit. This is where I die.” Those were Yuuto’s honest thoughts. Getting the two to make up had been a mere skirmish—Yuuto’s fight for his life truly began here and now.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login