Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria - Volume 24 - Chapter 2.3

The strength in his knees left him, and unable to keep upright, he fell to the ground helplessly on his rear.

“So, with that said, would the face I pulled just now get you to forgive the kid?” The man slapped him on the shoulder.

Thutmose knew the man was unquestionably looking down on him...but his body and spirit had completely folded to the man’s terrifying aura. Overcome with embarrassment, his face grew hot.

“All right, now that that’s settled, let’s eat! Which of these is the tastiest, Al?” Even more irritating was the fact that the man had already lost interest in Thutmose and was now focused on the tavern’s food offerings. He wasn’t even on the man’s radar anymore. That made Thutmose tremble with rage.

“H-Hey, you bastard! Get back here!”

“Oh? Looks like you still have enough fight left to bark, at least. You’ve got a promising future ahead of you.” Taking his seat, the man grinned amusedly. That was when Thutmose realized—the man probably hadn’t even been aware he was looking down on him.

“T-Tell me your name!” Thutmose had no intention of letting it end like this. The grin on the man’s face only grew larger.

“Me? I’m Suoh Yuuto,” he replied coolly.

That nonchalant attitude of his ticked Thutmose off. There was only room in the sky for one sun to shine down on the people. Thutmose swore in his heart right then—he would definitely crush this man into oblivion.

“...Seriously?” Nozomu watched Thutmose’s retreating figure in a daze, unable to fully process what had just happened between Thutmose and Yuuto. However, he at least understood that the moment Thutmose had gone up against Yuuto, all the pharaoh’s arrogance and bravado had gone out the window, and he’d been reduced to a sniveling coward. The lion he’d once been had been tamed like a pet cat.

“Hilda, you’re Nozomu’s bodyguard today, are you not? What do you think you’re doing, leisurely enjoying your meal while letting a squabble like that happen?” Sigrun glared daggers at Hildegard. Nozomu couldn’t help but feel fear at the words “a squabble like that.” It meant that the threat Thutmose had posed hadn’t intimidated Sigrun in the least.

“Ah, well, about that... Kris told me to hold off. She said this would be a good opportunity for our young master to learn about the outside world...” Hildegard explained.

“Ah, I see. Yeah, that guy just now was a good example of what you can encounter out there,” Sigrun said, seemingly agreeing with Kristina’s earlier decision.

“A good example?! What exactly was good about that guy?!” Nozomu wanted to blurt out, but it seemed that Yuuto didn’t think anything more of the man than that.

“Come to think of it, who was that guy? He didn’t seem to be your average vagabond,” Yuuto asked.

“He called himself Thutmose III, Pharaoh of Kemet, or something,” Kristina replied.

“Pbbt!” Yuuto spat out the grape wine he’d been drinking, spraying it all over Nozomu in front of him.

“Dad?!”

“S-Sorry about that. But did you say Thutmose III’?” Clearing his throat, he asked Kristina for confirmation.

“Yes. Someone you know?” Kristina asked.

“Yeah, you could say that. He was known everywhere as the ‘Napoleon of Egypt.’ In the history I’m familiar with, he was a famous legend—a hero who seized enough territory to make Egypt the largest it’d ever been,” Yuuto explained.

“Egy...? Huh?” Of course, in the current era, the nation of Egypt did not yet exist, so Kristina’s confusion was unsurprising.

“In other words, he was a great enough man to still be known even twenty-five hundred years from now,” she muttered thoughtfully, her expression a bit more stern. Nozomu, too, had heard the story of how his father Yuuto and mother Mitsuki had come from twenty-five hundred years in the future. Truthfully, it’d sounded like a tall tale, but Kristina, Bara, Fagrahvel, Felicia, and the rest of the Steel Clan elites seemed to believe it wholeheartedly. For so many of them to go along with this ridiculous story, they likely had some reason to believe it, something that unequivocally backed up that claim.

“Yeah. In that case, maybe he was too monstrous of an opponent to use as an example for Nozomu after all,” Yuuto said.

“The fact that you just shut a man like that up with a single glance proves that you’re even more of a monster, Father,” Kristina replied.

“...Well, at this point, the guy’s still young. I have more years on him," Yuuto explained.

“Is that so? I seem to recall you being even more of a threat when you were his age, though?”

“Well, you know, it’s easy to glorify the past by misremembering, and all that.”

"‘Glorify the past,’ huh? Al, Hilda, and I all brushed off that Thutmose guy’s aura like it was nothing, you know.”

“R-Really?”

“Compared to the commanding aura you and Nobunaga created during the Stork conference a few years back, that was like a warm breeze. It was all thanks to you, Father,” Kristina said, somewhat ironically. Yuuto only gave a bashful smile at that.

Nozomu, however, wasn’t concerned with his father’s reaction so much as what Kristina had said. Thutmose’s aura had been like a warm breeze to them?! In that case, just what kind of hell had transpired at the Stork conference?! Just imagining it made him shudder.

After their meal, they made their way back to the ship. Nozomu was unsteady on his feet, downtrodden and still shell-shocked from earlier.

“Now have you started to realize how great your father is?” Kristina asked him, matching his pace. Nozomu felt his face growing hot from overwhelming embarrassment. He knew all too well now that he was still just a little kid who didn’t know his place. However, he had to accept that truth. Trying to deny it now would make him look even more pathetic than he already was.

“Miss Run once told me something. She said, ‘Realizing the strength of your opponent is strength in itself,”’ Nozomu said.

“Oh?”

“At the time, I took that to mean if you didn’t estimate the strength of your opponent before a battle, you’d regret it. But now I see that interpretation was wrong.”

“Hm, how so?”

“Sometimes an opponent is so far beyond your level that it’s impossible to tell how powerful they are. I now realize that that’s the gap between me and dad.” Nozomu gritted his teeth. With a single glare from Thutmose, he’d been rendered as immobile as if he’d been bound by rope— yet that very same person had been unable to withstand Yuuto’s aura. That was the harsh reality. The memory of boasting about surpassing his father earlier now brought him great shame. To Yuuto, those words would probably sound like the mewling of
a kitten.

“Tee hee. Well, no need to get all down over it. Your dad is just a monster, that’s all,” Kristina snickered. Nozomu honestly agreed. Who else but a monster could treat someone whose name still remained in history after twenty-five hundred years like a little kid?

“But even if that’s true, how can I ever come into my own as a man if I can’t find a way to escape from his shadow?” Nozomu spat hatefully. If he was being honest with himself, the height of the wall he had to scale was enough to make him despair. He was almost ready to give up right this instant if he could have allowed himself to.

In the midst of his angst, he stole a glance at his wife, Ephelia.

“Her first love...was Father, apparently. ” He remembered hearing that way back when. Knowing that, he couldn’t admit defeat so easily. As a man and as Ephelia’s husband, he couldn’t bear to keep losing to his rival in love. He wanted Ephelia to be proud of choosing him. He didn’t want her to wish that she’d chosen Yuuto instead. He had no choice but to keep chasing after his father’s back with everything he had.

“Your heart’s in the right place, but you know it’s going to be a hard, steep climb ahead, right?” said Kristina. At times like these, he was grateful for her honest, unvarnished assessment.

“Oh yeah. I learned that all too well today.” Just when he thought he was about to catch up to his father, it turned out to be a mere mirage, dissipating in the wind. That goal seemed to always be out of reach, far beyond the horizon. He was completely and utterly at a loss. With each passing moment, it became more apparent that having such a gifted father was more of a curse than a blessing.

“Yet you still don’t plan on giving up, I see. Hee hee, seems like you’re finally becoming a bit more of a man,” Kristina replied, perhaps somewhat mockingly.

“A bit more, huh? I probably don’t wanna know how you thought of me before, then,” Nozomu retorted.

“Well, I’ll just say I certainly wanted you to grow into your own a bit more before taking a dear friend of mine as your wife,” Kristina jabbed playfully.

“Oh, so that’s how it is.” He’d thought that Kristina had been especially hard on him as of late, but now he understood why. Albertina was in a class all of her own when it came to Kristina’s favorites, of course, but he’d often seen Kristina enjoying leisurely chats with Ephelia as well. Ephelia also saw Kristina as a reliable older sister, he’d heard. In other words, Kristina had likely determined that Nozomu didn’t yet meet the qualifications to be a suitable husband for Ephelia.

“Is that why you stopped Hilda back there, then?”

“Does that upset you?”

“Nah, I’m actually grateful you did.” It was called a comfort zone for a reason, but refusing to step out of it would mean denying oneself any chance at growth. Nozomu’s fervent wish was for everyone to acknowledge him as Ephelia’s husband, and to become a man Ephelia could be proud to have married. Getting her close friend Kristina to acknowledge him would be a huge first step toward that goal.

“Well then, I’ll continue to test you from now on.”

“I’d like to ask you to go easy on me, but that wouldn’t be very manly. Hit me with all you’ve got. Don’t hold back, and feel free to point out any areas where I fall short.”

“Tee hee, I like your resolve. But I won’t let you take back those words now, so be prepared.”

“Yeah, I know.” Nozomu nodded, but inside he gulped in fear. He knew firsthand just how sharp Kristina’s tongue was, and he’d just given it free rein to lash out. That freaked him out a bit, but if he wanted to get any closer to his father’s level, he knew he couldn’t complain.

“Hmm... Miss Kristina’s being awfully nice.”

“Hee hee, that’s right. Kris is always nice!”

“Huh? She’s clearly just enjoying bullying him. You guys are giving her too much credit.”

“My, my.” Kristina turned around, wholly unsurprised at the three women mouthing off behind her. She hadn’t noticed their approach, but that was hardly anything new considering how skilled they each were in their own right. “Don’t you all know it’s rude to eavesdrop? Homura, Al, Hilda?” She walked away without a single glance backward.

“We weren’t necessarily eavesdropping. We can just hear voices even from far away. Right, Hilda?”

“Right, Homura!”

“The wind told me!” However, the three didn’t seem to mind and trailed behind her. Starting from when they’d first arrived in the New World, the four of them (and Felicia) had often spent time together, perhaps because they were similar in age. Their skill levels and personalities were all over the place, but perhaps that unexpectedly balanced them out, as they rarely got into any arguments and had become quite close with each other.

“You guys couldn’t be more off the mark. This is all part of the job. Young master Nozomu is going to inherit the Iarnvidr Trading Company one day, and Ephy’s the perfect bait to get his ass in gear. That’s all,” Kristina stated.

“Hmmm?” Albertina peered directly into Kristina’s face, looking unconvinced.

“How annoying. Don’t think you can figure me out just because you’re the older one. ” She returned Albertina’s gaze with a level gaze of her own. “Why would I he?” she said.

“Mm, I don’t think you’re lymg, but you’re not telling the whole truth,” Homura replied.

“Yeah, I agree. That’s what it seems like to me too,” agreed Hildegard.

She was cornered by their doubtful stares. They were all skilled enough to where they could sniff out even the slightest emotional shift in someone, even if it wasn’t obvious from their expression or tone. In other words, a troublesome bunch for someone like Kristina.

“Why are you so intent on playing the bad guy?” Homura asked.

“Pfft, at your age, it’s frankly embarrassing,” Hildegard teased.

“That’s just something that Kris does. She’s a good girl at heart, honest,” Albertina explained.

Kristina neither confirmed nor denied their accusations. “Even if you’ve realized, at least have the common decency not to say it out loud. ” Really, they were such nuisances, good for nothing but making her uncomfortable—and yet, for some reason, she didn’t dislike it when they were all together. If she really thought they were so annoying, she could just refuse to hang out with them, but instead, she always tagged along. It was almost as though some part of her didn’t find their company that unpleasant. How strange.

“Ggghhh...mgghhh.. dammit! Damn it all!” At a guard post a short distance away from the city of Megiddo, Thutmose III was beside himself with rage. The scene at the tavern a short while ago continued to replay in his mind. He had been completely overwhelmed, swallowed whole by that man’s monstrous presence. In the moment, his instincts had told him plain as day that he’d had no chance of victory against that man. However, now that some time had passed and he’d been able to collect his thoughts, he could no longer keep making excuses for his cowardice.

“I’m a pharaoh, dammit! I’m the king among kings who will rule this entire world one day!” Thutmose believed that with every ounce of his being. He was confident he had the strength and the capability to make it happen. Although this incident had thoroughly exposed his hubris, the pride he’d built up over so many years wasn’t so easily erased. For all the humiliation he felt, he was ten times as furious, and that anger consumed every inch of his heart.

“Forgive me, my pharaoh, but our investigation on Suohyuuto has turned up some results.”

“Speak!”

“Yes, my pharaoh. We’ve heard from multiple merchants that this Suohyuuto shares the name of the king far to the west of Ahhiyawa.”

“Far to the west of Ahhiyawa, you say?” Thutmose’s brow raised.

The merchants of the land of Ahhiyawa, known as Greece in the twenty-first century, would occasionally visit the Orient and Kemet, but this was the first Thutmose had ever heard of there being a land even further west. Normally Thutmose would have no interest in an unknown land that far away, but if this Suohyuuto person was the king of that land, it was a different story. Someone commanding that level of presence would undoubtedly set their sights on the Orient next. The reason he was here was probably the same reason Thutmose was—in other words, to invade and make this land his.

“We can’t let this territory slip out of our grasp,” Thutmose said, biting his thumbnail. His instincts as a warrior told him that in order to bring Suohyuuto down, they would need to have five, no, ten times more men than the enemy. In that case, now was the perfect opportunity. He had concealed his identity and status to stealthily observe the area, and there was no sign of Suohyuuto heading up a large army here. If he didn’t nip the man in the bud here, he would undoubtedly become Thutmose’s greatest threat and swallow up the entire Orient. There was no longer any room for hesitation—now was the time to act.

“West of Ahhiyawa, was it? Then our enemy’s ship is likely docked near the Kishon River. We will chase them down.”

Currently, Thutmose had an army of around one thousand. Although they were from a different country, his stepmother Hatshepsut had forged an alliance between the greater regions of Kemet and Megiddo, and those soldiers were currently serving as Thutmose’s bodyguards. The enemy, on the other hand, only had around a paltry fifty men at most. His victory was all but assured. This was no time to worry about honor and pride. They didn’t currently have that luxury. As the future conqueror of the world, he couldn’t allow a monster like Suohyuuto to run rampant any longer.

Once they’d departed the city of Megiddo and were on their way back to the ship, Nozomu let out an exhausted sigh. “Man, I feel like I just got thrown from Valhalla into hell.”

The disappointment of having severely underestimated the distance to his goal had taken its toll. It was like he’d toiled to scale a mountain, only to look back and realize he’d hardly climbed beyond its base—not to mention the peak was so high up that it was obscured by clouds, making it impossible to tell just how much further he had to go. It was enough to make him despair, to the point that he was at a loss on how to proceed.

“N-Nozomu, are you all right? Th-The fact that you gave it all you had was so admirable! I’m not just saying that—it really was!” Gripping her fist tightly, his wife Ephelia adamantly supported him. He was grateful for her kindness, and he knew she was speaking from her heart, but he couldn’t in good faith accept her praise. Compared to Thutmose and his father, he was a wimp of a man. Now that he’d realized that fact, it had lodged itself in his heart like a thorn he couldn’t remove.

“I appreciate it, Ephy. But it wasn’t enough. I’m not enough.” He bit his lip. He’d tried hard, sure. But it hadn’t even been close to sufficient. “I have to give it more than my all. Otherwise, I’ll never be able to reach their level. ”

“...There’s nothing that says you have to reach their level, you know.”

“Of course there is.”

“And what would that be?”

“Everything!” Nozomu shouted. With that sudden outburst, Nozomu ended the conversation. There was no way he could say it out loud—that he wanted to be the type of husband Ephelia could brag about, a man who didn’t lose to his wife’s first love. If he confessed these feelings to the one he loved, he’d die of embarrassment. Some things needed to stay secret—no matter how much seeing Ephelia’s downcast expression hurt his heart.

“Hey, Nozomu, Ephy!” Suddenly, Yuuto, who was walking ahead of them, whipped around to face them. His expression was stern. However, he didn’t seem upset—rather, he looked anxious about something.

“What’s wrong, dad?”

“There’s a bad aura headed toward us. You guys go on ahead to the ship.”

“Oh, really?” Nozomu scanned the area, trying to sense it for himself, but to no avail. He had no idea what his father was talking about. The sky was clear and blue, and the scenery couldn’t be more peaceful. However, when he glanced over at Albertina, Kristina, Hildegard, and Sigrun, each one of them had a grim look on their faces. It seemed Yuuto wasn’t just blowing smoke.

“Judging from the strength of the aura, it’s probably Thutmose again. He’s got.around a thousand men with him this time, by my estimation,” Yuuto explained.

“The accuracy of those senses of yours never ceases to amaze, Father,” Kristina said in an exasperated tone.

Yuuto just gave a casual shrug. “It sure is handy at times like these. I wish I could give Rifa my thanks.”

“Then just thank Big Sis Mitsuki.”

“Ha, I suppose. Guess even after all these years, it still hasn’t fully sunk in for me that she’s Rifa’s reincarnation.”

Even as the enemy army drew closer, Yuuto and Kristina continued their leisurely chat. As odd as that seemed to Nozomu, it was also reassuring. Then he felt another pang of inferiority within his chest. Rather than having to give his all in every battle, his father was strong enough to be reliable only when it counted and could afford to goof off. That stoked the flames of his jealousy once more.

“Well, at any rate. Nozomu, Ephy, you two get back to the ship. It’s dangerous to stay here.”

“What are the rest of you gonna do?”

“Hm? Well, there’ll be a bit of a scuffle, I expect. We’ve got to at least show ’em that nothing good will come from picking a fight with us,” Yuuto said with an impish grin, as though he was enjoying this from the bottom of his heart—as though he was confident he’d win, even with only seventeen men currently at his disposal.

Nozomu steeled his resolve and spoke. “...Ephy, I’m sorry, but you go on. I’m staying here.”

“Huh?!” She looked shocked.

“Hm? What’s the meaning of this, Nozomu?” Yuuto asked in a suspicious tone.

Truthfully, the idea of war frightened him. The idea of dying frightened him even more. But fear be damned—he had something he wanted to accomplish at all costs. “I’ll ..fight too. I want to see the way you fight with my own eyes, dad.”

It was the perfect opportunity to witness it for himself—the strength of Suoh Yuuto, the man lauded as a god of war, and in turn, the size of the mountain Nozomu had to scale. There were some things in this world that had to be experienced firsthand to be understood.

“Mm, I don’t think it’ll be as entertaining as you’re expecting...” Yuuto scratched his head in vexation. He didn’t seem too keen on the idea.

“Oh, it’ll be fine, won’t it? The boy just wants to see how cool his father is for himself,” Kristina said, throwing Nozomu a bone.

“I mean, I get that much, and I’d like to show him how cool I can be in other ways... Just not this one.” Yuuto heaved a sigh.

For Nozomu, however, he had already seen more than enough of that in his lifetime. The sight of his dad hunched over his desk with a serious look on his face or issuing orders to men older and more dignified than himself showed up frequently in Nozomu’s memories of his youth. It was why he’d been so disappointed in his father for abdicating the throne and choosing to laze around instead—and why he wanted to take this opportunity to see his dad truly in action, even if it would show once and for all the breadth of the gulf between them.

“Ah, well. This’ll be another good lesson for you in the end. If it’s just a little peek, your old dad can show you how it’s done.”

He was going to finally see the true face of the hero he’d looked up to and idolized for so long!

“Kristina, make sure Ephy gets back safe,” Nozomu asked sincerely.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry. Even without you telling me to, I would never let anyone harm so much as a hair on this girl’s head.” With that, Kristina kicked the sides of her horse and took off toward the northeast. As he watched her go, Nozomu felt his stomach tighten. From here on out, he was going to war—a hopeless war, at that, considering it would be fifteen against a thousand. It would be stranger to not be nervous, and yet, as soon as Kristina returned...