Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria - Volume 3 - Chapter 1

ACT 1 

“Ow!” The sharp pain that raced through Yuuto’s neck brought him to his senses. 

For a moment he had been entranced by the almost divine beauty of the girl in front of him, reminiscent of the beautiful valkyries of myth. But this wasn’t the time or place for such thoughts. 

“ᚻᛟᛉᛞᛖ ᛞᚢ ᛁᛜᚦᛖ? ᚹᛖᛞ ᚨᛉ ᛞᚢ!” The warrior maiden addressed him in a cold, sharp tone, her long silver hair swaying. 

Yuuto managed to grasp that he was being interrogated, but he had no idea what she was saying. He had even less of an understanding why he’d found himself in this situation. 

Yuuto was a totally average student, a second-year at Hachio City Municipal Middle School. After being invited along on a nighttime test of courage by his childhood friend Mitsuki Shimoya, he’d used his smartphone camera at the Tsukimiya Shrine to try to take a selfie with the sacred mirror enshrined there. Suddenly he’d heard a strange voice, and before he realized it, he’d found himself here. 

This was somewhere indoors, even though he had just been outside, and both the girl in front of him and the group of men gathered behind him were clearly not Japanese. 

“ᛇᚹᚨᛉ!” The silver-haired warrior maiden’s voice rose with irritation, and the flat part of her sword tip pushed Yuuto’s jaw upwards. 

The cold feeling of the metal against his skin sent a shiver down his spine. The gold-colored sword currently pointed at his throat was definitely not a prop or toy. He rapidly understood that this was a serious, life-or-death situation. 

“A-ai amu Japaniizu.” He identified himself as best he could in clumsy English, while raising his open hands in the air to indicate he wasn’t hostile. “M-mai nehmu izu Yuuto Suoh.” 

It went without saying that English was a common international language throughout the world, and he used only the most basic of basic English words that even a common elementary schooler would know nowadays. He banked on the hope that this, at least, would get through to her, but... 

“...? ᚹᚨᛞ ᛇᚨᚷᛖᛉ ᛞᚢ?” The silver-haired girl merely frowned suspiciously at him. It didn’t look like she’d understood him at all. 

“Aaaugh, jeez, what am I supposed to do?!” Yuuto couldn’t help but cry out in a miserable voice. 

Truthfully, he was inwardly begging that this might be a dream that he could wake up from. However, a layer of his skin had already been cut through, and the sharp pain in his neck was undoubtedly real. 

Completely unable to communicate in this desperate situation, Yuuto was at his wits’ end. 

At that moment, another girl’s voice cut in. “ᚹᚨᛜᚦᚨ ’ᚱᚢᛜᛖ.” 

In contrast to the dignified and commanding blade-like voice of the silver-haired girl, this new voice was like a bell, clear and sweet. 

When Yuuto glanced in its direction, he saw a girl with golden blonde hair, no less incredibly beautiful than the silver-haired girl, slowly walking over to him. 

The thin, fluttering white garments she wore were reminiscent of an angel’s costume, and compared to the silver-haired warrior maiden’s clothing, they showed a lot more skin. Even though he knew this wasn’t the time or place, Yuuto had difficulty averting his eyes. 

“♪～～～!” As she stood before him, the golden-haired girl slowly opened her mouth, and began to sing a beautiful melody. 

Why are you singing all of a sudden?! Yuuto thought to himself, his confusion only deepening. At the same time, however, he found himself in awe of just what an amazing singing voice she had. He wasn’t an expert or anything when it came to music, but even he could tell she was far better than a lot of the half-assed idols he’d seen on TV. 

Eventually the golden-haired girl stopped and took a deep breath, crouching down so her eyes were level with Yuuto’s. Then she smiled softly. “Can you understand my words? Oh, Child of Victory, Gleipsieg. My name is Felicia.” 

“Y-you know Japanese?!” Yuuto’s eyes opened wide, and he unconsciously drew closer to the girl calling herself Felicia. 

This was what it must be like to meet the Buddha in Hell, to find an oasis in the desert. There was someone he could speak with, one person with whom he could communicate. To think that such a simple thing would bring such relief to his heart! 

“No, I do not know the language of those who dwell in the heavens.” 

“Huh? But look, you’re speaking it to me right now.” 

“This is an effect of my galldr, my song magic. The one I used is called ‘Connections.’ The words we speak carry our thoughts and intentions. In other words, the spirit of language resides within them. For those who hear this song, the ability to send and receive this spirit of language is increased for a time.” 

“Galldr? Spirit of language?” Yuuto repeated. 

Both of those terms had a fairly occult ring to them. He’d been raised in the scientific era of the 21st century, so he was quite skeptical about those sorts of things. But he couldn’t deny her explanation, either. 

He’d jumped to the conclusion that she was speaking Japanese because he understood her. But as he calmed himself and started to listen, he realized that the words Felicia spoke did indeed sound similar to those of the silver-haired girl from earlier, and they weren’t Japanese at all. 

And yet, somehow, he could understand their meaning. It was absolutely inexplicable within the realm of Yuuto’s common sense. 

Speaking of strange things, there was his sudden transportation here. After being outside in the mountains, he’d suddenly found himself in some sort of temple. This was a bona-fide supernatural mystery. 

But however much it might fly in the face of common sense, there was no point in denying that this was actually occurring, that this was reality. It was hard to completely get rid of the thought that this might all still be a dream, but of course this was far too realistic an experience to be just a dream. 

“Where... where is this?” Yuuto stammered. “Is it somewhere other than Earth?” 

“Earth... A blue star floating through the midst of a dark, chaotic void? I see. So that is the world the Child of Victory resided in.” Felicia nodded to herself, as if thoughtfully digesting the new information. 

Judging by her words just now, the concept of the world as a heavenly body floating through outer space was foreign to her. And yet, a single word — Earth — had conveyed that concept to her. 

So this is the spirit of language, huh? Without a word of extra verbal explanation, the subconscious image and associated description that Yuuto held when he thought of the word “Earth” could be clearly transmitted. That’s such a convenient power! 

Yuuto trembled at the implications. If he had that power, he was certain he could skip all the pain and trouble of studying and be an expert in English overnight. 

“It sounds so different from our world. Ohh! You truly are the Child of Victory, Gleipsieg, sent to us from the heavens above by our divine protector, Angrboða!” Overcome with emotion, Felicia’s eyes welled up with tears. She fell to her knees on the spot, and clasped her hands together in front of her ample bosom. 

“Uhhh...” Yuuto scratched his head, puzzled and at a loss for how to react. 

He didn’t remember ever hearing the name Angrboða before. He didn’t know how to respond to being hailed as being sent by some god he’d never heard of, but it was honestly a little troubling. 

At the same time, there was one thing that rang a bell for him. Like any normal middle schooler, Yuuto was into works of fiction like manga, anime, and games. 

“So you’re saying there are bad guys or something, and you want me to defeat them?” he asked hopefully. 

The thing that came to mind was the typical setup for a fantasy RPG, so he went ahead and asked it out loud. A people in crisis, threatened by an evil demon lord or some powerful villain of that type, summon a hero from another world to save them. That sort of “isekai” story was such a common trope nowadays that it had gone past the point of cliché and become its own respected genre, in a way. 

“Yes, we of the Wolf Clan are currently beset on the east by the Claw Clan, and from the west by the Horn Clan, and we have been driven to the brink of ruin,” said Felicia. “Even at this very moment, the Claw Clan invades us, and we were offering our prayers of supplication for victory in battle. That was when you appeared suddenly before us, from out of nowhere. Please, lend your power to the Wolf Clan, and save us.” 

“Ohhhh! This is it, the real thing!” In response to Felicia’s almost painful plea for help, Yuuto raised his voice and let out a holler of excitement. It was such a lighthearted and casual attitude that one might question whether he truly understood the situation. 

Thanks to the galldr of Connections, the two of them could communicate their thoughts to each other without problems, and yet there was a fatal gap in understanding between them. 

“Oh, damn, now I’m getting all excited!” he exclaimed. 

A world of swords and sorcery! Were there any other words that could make a boy’s heart dance so? No, there were not! 

Such fantasies abounded in the world of the imagination, but the chance to experience one in real life was a different story altogether. 

Perhaps due to the fact that Yuuto had an optimistic personality to begin with, his feelings of curiosity and anticipation now buried the concern and unease he had been feeling toward his situation. 

“Ohh! So then, you are willing to lend us your aid, oh Gleipsieg?” Felicia asked. 

“Oh, cut it out with the whole Gleipsieg thing. My name’s Yuuto. Yuuto Suoh.” 

“I see. So you are Lord Yuuto-Suoh.” 

“Just Yuuto is fine. I never really liked the last name Suoh anyway.” 

“Right, then I shall address you as Lord Yuuto.” 

“Uh, no, you don’t need the title. ‘Lord’ and the like don’t suit me.” 

Yuuto was a normal boy who had grown up in rural Japan, in a family descended from generations of commoners. Being addressed with highly honorific titles made him antsy. 

“No, I could not address the Child of Victory by his name with no honorific title. It would be...” 

A cold voice interrupted. “Wait, Felicia. I don’t think this guy’s actually the Gleipsieg.” 

It was the silver-haired girl who had been pointing a sword at Yuuto’s throat a minute ago. Her weapon was now back in its scabbard, and she was glaring at Yuuto suspiciously with her arms folded. 

With the effect of the Connections galldr, Yuuto could understand what she was saying this time. 

“Rún, you are being rude!” Felicia cried. “I can tell it is him. I swear upon my rune Skírnir, the Expressionless Servant. When my rune’s seiðr, Gleipnir, activated, I distinctly felt the sensation that it had grasped ahold of ‘victory.’ He is unmistakably the Gleipsieg!” 

The spirit of language in Felicia’s unfamiliar words communicated their concepts to him. 

seiðr meant “secret art,” and it referred to a type of magical art that could produce much more powerful effects than a galldr, but in exchange required more time and a series of complicated ritualistic procedures to activate, as well as being more exhausting for the user. 

When Yuuto had seen a vision of Felicia dancing at Tsukimiya Shrine, it must have been her performing part of that ritual. As the one performing the magic, she had apparently felt some sort of reaction. 

Still, in contrast to Felicia’s confident claim, the silver-haired girl’s face remained clouded with suspicion. “Your power called him here, that much is true. He did suddenly appear from thin air, and his outlandish clothes are like nothing I’ve ever seen before. However...” 

The girl called Rún suddenly leaned in incredibly close. Her beautiful, frigid face was right in front of his, practically touching his nose. 

“Wh-what is it?” Yuuto’s voice wavered slightly, and he felt his pulse quicken. 

The silver-haired girl’s negative feelings toward him were obvious — he could gather that much from her manner, as well as from the spirit of language carried to him through her words — but that was one thing, and this was another. With a girl this beautiful so incredibly close to him that he could see the length of her eyelashes and the luster of her smooth lips, it would have been far more ridiculous for his heart not to pound. 

“Hm, just as I thought,” she said scornfully. “I don’t smell anything from this man. My rune Hati, Devourer of the Moon, is able to sniff out and discern any and all sources of danger. My nose doesn’t react to him at all. But that’s understandable. I could tell just from the conversation between the two of you that he’s got no guts. He lacks any kind of resolve. Felicia, there’s no way you wouldn’t be able to tell that too, right?” 

Rún hadn’t minced words; her explanation was blunt and frank. 

“W-well, that’s...” Felicia looked troubled, and she didn’t meet Rún’s gaze. In other words, deep down, some part of Felicia felt truth in those words. 

Looking behind the two of them, Yuuto saw the group of people who had been watching this whole time start nodding to each other in agreement, casting suspicious glares at him. That was enough to tick him off, of course. 

“Hey, I never did anything to deserve being talked about like that by someone I only just met! Don’t go judging people by looks, or smell, or whatever!” 

“Oh? Well, you have quite a gutsy bark, at least, don’t you?” Sigrún smirked. “I’ve got an idea. How about I test your power? That should clear things up... about whether you’re really the Gleipsieg, or just some worthless fake.” 

The corner of the silver-haired girl’s mouth curved upwards in a ferocious-looking grin.

“H-how did things turn out like this?” Now, at the last minute, Yuuto was having second thoughts. 

Just off to his right stood a towering, reddish-brown structure. Apparently he had been summoned into some sort of shrine or sanctuary located close to the top of that building. 

After leaving the sanctuary and descending a very long stairway all the way to the ground, he had been handed a wooden sword and made to stand facing the silver-haired girl. Apparently Rún was a nickname and her real name was Sigrún. 

Their dark surroundings were illuminated by the surging red light of fires in iron braziers. The bright circle of the full moon hung in the sky above. 

He wondered how Mitsuki was doing right now. He had suddenly disappeared, after all. She had to be worried sick about him. 

Oh, that reminds me, Yuuto thought, only now realizing that the smartphone he had been holding in his hand was gone. He tapped his pants pockets to check, but it wasn’t there, either. All he had was the solar-powered battery charger he always carried around for emergencies. 

It was likely he’d dropped his phone in surprise the moment Sigrún had pointed a sword at his throat. He had to go search for it as soon as possible. 

Just as he was thinking that, Sigrún spoke up. “You don’t seem too calm. What is it, have you started to lose your nerve? If you don’t want to embarrass yourself, you should probably back down, you know.” 

“Tch. Shut up, I don’t need your advice,” Yuuto clicked his tongue and snapped back at her. 

The phone weighed on his mind, but for now, he had to deal with the problem right in front of him. After being taunted that much, if he ran away from a fight with a girl, it would affect his honor as a man. 

Off to the side, the blonde girl named Felicia looked troubled. Yuuto could see signs of heavy fatigue in her face. 

She had already spent a great deal of energy using the seiðr known as Gleipnir, and then Yuuto had needed her to reapply the Connections galldr after its temporary effects had worn off. Those magical techniques of hers were certainly very useful, but it seemed that their effects didn’t last very long, and they exhausted the energy of the user. They weren’t something that could be used an unlimited number of times per day without rest. 

“Heh. I suppose I’ll just pray that attitude of yours isn’t just for show.” With one last implied insult, Sigrún readied her wooden sword. 

Her stance was good, and it showed she had experience. It looked like she’d at least been through some training, so her confidence wasn’t all talk. 

But in the end, she was still just a girl. She’d taken a condescending attitude with him, but her body was far more slender and delicate-looking than Yuuto’s. Just going by her long, thin arms, it looked like she would have trouble just lifting a heavy weapon in an actual battle. 

Having the strong, muscular build of a female pro wrestler or something might have made it a different story, but there was no way she should be able to compare to a boy like himself in terms of muscle strength. 

Yuuto’s reflexes and overall athletic ability were slightly above average among his peers at his school. With his father being a traditional Japanese swordsmith, he’d had several opportunities to learn some of the basics from the kenjutsu practitioners who were his father’s customers. And he’d kept up the routine of doing 100 practice swings every day. With an appropriate weapon in hand, he was confident he could win a fight against any other average young man. 

“Well, I guess I’ll just need to be careful not to injure her,” he smirked. He didn’t really like this girl, but she was still a girl, after all. 

Of course, he was about to learn just how misplaced his chivalrous mindset was. 

“Then let’s begin,” Sigrún declared. 

“Wh—?!” 

An instant later, he realized that the nearly five-meter gap between them had vanished, and the girl’s beautiful and dignified face was already filling his vision. 

Thunk! Yuuto felt an intense impact on his shoulder joint, followed by intense pain. 

“Guh...! Aaahhhhhh!!” Yuuto screamed in anguish. Unable to even remain standing, he dropped the wooden sword and pressed his hand over his shoulder, dropping into a crouch. 

It hurt so badly that he couldn’t even move. Sweat poured out of every pore in his body. 

“Hmph, that’s about what I expected. No, even worse I suppose. Oy, Felicia, this man is definitely not the Gleipsieg. He’d be totally useless even as a foot soldier.” 

“Wait, Rún! You went too hard on him!” 

“No, I held back appropriately. I didn’t think he’d be this incapable of blocking an attack.” Sigrún blew off Felicia’s rebuke, completely unconcerned. 

There wasn’t even any contempt in her tone anymore. She had completely lost any interest in Yuuto, as if he was nothing more than a pebble on the side of the road, a completely meaningless existence to her. 

“...Wait.” Enduring the pain, Yuuto managed to call out. 

He wasn’t a masochist, and normally he’d do whatever he could to avoid getting himself hurt. However, he couldn’t stand to let things end with a girl looking down on him like this. 

He grabbed the wooden sword again, and clenched his teeth as he stood back up, resuming his stance. “One more round.” 

“...Oh?” Sigrún asked. “So you want to get hurt again. You’re a pretty strange guy. Very well. This time, you go ahead and come at me. I’ll work you over a bit.” 

Even as her words mocked him, her tone wasn’t completely disinterested. Her expression was ice cold, but Yuuto thought there was a hint of enjoyment somewhere in there. 

Yuuto had seen this type of person before. It was that “sports club type” of personality, the kind you might see on the head of an athletic club or sports team. 

With a deep breath, Yuuto assumed the chuudan stance, his sword tip pointed properly at his opponent’s eyes. He steadied his breathing and gathered his focus. The scenery around him seemed to fade away, the noise grew quiet to him, and he saw only the silver-haired girl. 

Truthfully, he had been underestimating her. He had to admit that he had been the one foolishly taking her skill for granted. 

Even though the combat had only lasted an instant, through that exchange, Yuuto had been made to realize the difference in ability between himself and his opponent. He recognized it on a deep level now. Her jump-in to close the distance had been as fast as lightning, her downward strike powerful and true, without the slightest bit of shift. He didn’t think he could win against her in a straight fight, to put it bluntly. 

“But I still can’t just accept being shamed by a girl!” he shouted as he kicked off the ground, swinging his sword down in a diagonal arc from above his shoulder. 

Using violence against a girl went against his beliefs, but his opponent was clearly far more powerful than he was. He didn’t need to restrain himself here. 

With a dry thwack!, she blocked his attack just as he’d predicted. Without stopping, he continued to unleash several more attacks in succession. 

“That’s no good,” Sigrún said. “You’re not controlling the sword. It might as well be swinging you around. Come on, step in harder, and don’t leave your shoulders wide. Tighten up those armpits.” 

The silver-haired girl deflected every one of his attacks easily, all while pointing out the flaws in his form. 

With each attack, it became more and more pronounced to him just how great the difference in skill was between them. At this rate, he could keep going for a hundred years and never even graze her. 

Even knowing that, Yuuto kept up his reckless assault, swinging over and over. 

“What’s wrong? You were already slow, but you’re getting even slower now. Looks like you don’t have much stamina, either. Is this all you can manage?” 

“Shut... up!!” With a howl, Yuuto threw all of his might into a thrusting attack aimed right at Sigrún’s chest. 

“How naive!” Of course, Sigrún easily deflected it upwards with her own strike. It was a powerful counter completely different from the ways she had blocked his attacks until now. 

Yuuto’s wooden sword flew out of his hand, spinning through the air. 

...Just as Yuuto had planned. 

“You’re the one who’s naive!” Unarmed, Yuuto lunged in closer. 

From the beginning, he hadn’t had any intention of striking a girl with a sword anyway. He’d thrown his attacks at her with the full knowledge that she would definitely block them all. 

“Huh?!” For the first time, Sigrún’s expression changed. But it was already too late! 

There was an old Japanese proverb: “Upon victory, tighten your helmet cord.” It existed because of situations like this. It meant that people have a tendency to let their guard down and leave themselves open at precisely the moment after they think they’ve won. 

Turning that around, you could also force people to leave themselves open if you got them to mistakenly believe they’d won. 

It was a trick that showed up all the time in manga and so forth. 

“Raaaaghh!” Yuuto dropped down, lowering his center of gravity, and hurled himself at Sigrún in a tackle. He threw both his arms around her legs. It was a double-leg judo takedown, called the morote-gari. 

It did feel a little unsportsmanlike to use a move like this, but the jujutsu grappling techniques which became the foundation for judo had their origins in the anything-goes world of the battlefield. She had knocked his sword away, but that didn’t mean the fight was over. It was all on her for letting her guard down in that moment. 

He would knock her down and pin her to keep her from moving. That should put a sock in her. That was what should have happened... 

“Wha—?!” 

His tackle had been a direct hit, but the girl’s body hadn’t moved at all. Not even a little bit. It was as if she were a massive tree rooted firmly to the earth. How could there be so much strength in that slender, delicate-looking body of hers? 

Yuuto felt a chill of terror run down his spine, and he looked up to see a gaze full of cold fury looking back down at him. And that was when he finally realized where his head was located. 

Normally, one should hit with one of the shoulders during a morote-gari takedown, but Yuuto was inexperienced, and his tackle had been reckless. Yuuto had tackled with his head. 

Right in between her legs. 

“Khh...!” she shrieked. “Hyah!!” 

Her sword lunged down. 

“Gah!” Yuuto felt a heavy impact to the back of his head, and lost consciousness.

“Wah!” 

When he next opened his eyes, Yuuto was looking at an unfamiliar ceiling. The gentle rays of sunlight entering the room at an angle told him how much time had passed. 

“Wait, where is this?” 

Yuuto picked himself up off of the hard bed and took a look around. He must have been carried here after losing consciousness. 

The walls were painted with a hardened white plaster, but the workmanship was rough and the wall’s surface was coarse and uneven. Frankly speaking, it looked shoddy. 

On a simple shelf assembled from wooden sticks, there were small earthen bowls and cups alongside objects that reminded Yuuto of haniwa clay figurines. 

It made Yuuto think of the images he’d occasionally seen on TV or the internet, of the houses of indigenous people in Africa or minority tribes that lived deep in the rural mountains of China and India. 

At the same time, it brought home the feeling that what had happened the previous night wasn’t a dream. 

“ᚨᚻ ’ᚹᚨᛞ ᚻᚨᛜᛞᛖ?” 

Yuuto turned in the direction of the familiar, soft voice, and there stood the golden-haired girl from yesterday smiling happily. 

As their eyes met, Felicia cleared her throat, and her beautiful singing voice rang sweetly throughout the room. By this point, Yuuto had heard the melody three times already, and he could deduce that it was the galldr of Connections. 

Once she had finished singing, Felicia exhaled softly, and turned to speak to him. “I see you have awakened, Lord Yuuto. Do you hurt anywhere?” 

“No... no, I’m fine. But still... as soon as I got here, I put on a really pathetic show.” Deflated, Yuuto let out a long sigh and scratched his head. 

The memory from right before passing out was vivid. In the middle of a crowd of onlookers, he’d lost against a girl without even putting up so much as a fight, and then she had cleanly knocked him out. He’d humiliated himself. 

Not to mention that he’d lost after using kind of an underhanded move. He had no excuses for himself. Just remembering it made his face flush hot with the embarrassment. He’d have loved to erase the whole experience from his memory if he could. 

“Tee hee.” 

“Wha—! What’s so funny?!” Yuuto raised his voice in irritation at Felicia. Why had she let slip a giggle? He’d thought of her as a kind person who was on his side, and so it felt like being betrayed somehow. 

“Oh! I am sorry,” she said. “I cannot say what the others might think, but I do not think you were pathetic at all. Rather, that fight only confirmed my belief that you must be the Child of Victory, Gleipsieg.” 

“Huh?? What are you talking about? I just woke up after being knocked out cold, you know?” 

“Indeed,” she said. “However, if that had been a real battle, and you had been wielding a knife or a short sword, Rún’s corpse would have been the one lying on the ground.” 

Felicia nodded to herself satisfactorily, and then she gave a playful, naughty grin that seemed much more in line with a girl her age than the older, wiser aura that she usually projected. 

“Rún was so frustrated... The look of disappointment on that face of hers! Hee hee hee! Oh, it was truly a sight to behold.” 

“So she was frustrated...” Yuuto had a hard time imagining that stone-faced girl showing so much emotion. Well, if that meant that he’d given her a little bit of a shock, that felt a bit good, at least. “Even then, though, she was totally holding back against me.” 

Sigrún had easily blocked every single one of Yuuto’s attacks, and then even started giving him instructions like a coach. 

If it had been a real battle, an actual duel where life and death were on the line, Sigrún wouldn’t have wasted time playing defense. Just like in the first round of their fight, she would have struck him in a mere instant, cutting him down, and that would have been the end of the story. 

“Even though she was holding back, it’s impressive,” Felicia said. “Even I cannot touch her when she fights at her best.” 

“Well, even if you say that...” Yuuto found his eyes naturally drawn to Felicia’s voluptuous chest. Sigrún, with her slender build, at least appeared to be quite nimble, but Felicia’s body was much more shapely and abundant in feminine softness. She didn’t look at all like a person who could fight. 

“Oh, my,” she scolded. “I’ll have you know that as an Einherjar who carries the rune Skírnir, the Expressionless Servant, I am fairly strong. Within the Wolf Clan, there are perhaps only around ten or so who could defeat me.” 

The meaning of that word slipped into his mind. Einherjar: A person chosen by the gods who housed a symbol of their sanctification, a rune, somewhere on their body. They were able to use mysterious powers unavailable to normal humans. 

The spirit of language in Felicia’s words transmitted the concept to Yuuto. Yuuto realized he was experiencing one of those mysterious powers firsthand. He had no choice but to believe in it. 

“I see,” Yuuto said to himself with a nod. “So that’s why she was so strong.” 

A full-strength tackle from a boy hadn’t managed to move Sigrún’s body even an inch. That did seem strange. There was also the seiðr that had summoned him to this world, and there were the galldr song magics like Connections. This world really was full of magic and mystery! 

Yuuto’s nearly-deflated heart was re-lit from within by the fires of excitement and expectations. “Awesome! So then, if I became one of these Einherjar, could I get stronger too?!” 

“Yes, as the Gleipsieg, I am sure that very soon you will surely manifest a splendid rune, Lord Yuuto. Perhaps, like the Battle-Hungry Tiger Dólgþrasir of the Lightning Clan, you might even be blessed by the gods with twin runes.” 

“Ohhh, twin runes! That sounds so cool!” 

Shining symbols would appear on the backs of both of his hands, or maybe one in each eye. And in that moment, he’d obtain power that set him utterly apart from others, and he’d mow down the enemies lined up before him. When that happened, even that Sigrún girl might be as weak as a child compared to him. 

The thought gave him such a good feeling. He could feel himself tremble just imagining it. 

“Oh, right!” he said. “I missed the chance to get an answer yesterday, but just where is this? Clearly it’s not the world I’m from.” 

At the very least, in Yuuto’s world there weren’t any people with superpowered abilities like the Einherjar. 

Not to mention the magics like the galldr, which was even now allowing him to understand a completely unknown language. If such an amazing technique existed in Yuuto’s world, he wouldn’t have to be forced to study a foreign language like English at school. 

“Ah, of course,” said Felicia. “This is Yggdrasil, a land said to be formed from the body of the ancient Giant God, Ymir.” 

As Yuuto heard Felicia’s explanation, he received the image of an enormous giant lying face-down in an endless sea. Across its back stretched mountains and plains, rivers and forests, and all of the bountiful natural world. That was how Felicia, or rather the people who lived in Yggdrasil, perceived their world. 

“At the foot of the Himinbjörg Mountains which lie in the approximate center of this great land, is the capital of our Wolf Clan, Iárnviðr. That is where you arrived in this world, Lord Yuuto.” 

“Amazing!” he enthused. “It’s a perfect fantasy world! And I think I’ve heard the word Yggdrasil before. Um... wasn’t it Norse mythology?” 

Yuuto placed a hand to his mouth and racked his brain. It was knowledge that he’d built up from media like video games, but he recalled that it was the name of a giant tree in Norse mythology that formed the root and axis of the world. Either way, the connection set his heart dancing. 

“So then, are there names here like Gungnir, or Odin, or Asgard, too?” Yuuto threw out a couple of the major-sounding names from Norse mythology that he could remember. He was unable to conceal the enthusiasm in his voice. 

“Erm, I do not recognize the first two words, but Ásgarðr is the name of the empire which rules over Yggdrasil.” 

“Empire... So even if the words are the same, they might refer to completely different things. Man... but still, we can communicate so perfectly, it’s downright scary.” 

There were times when Yuuto and Mitsuki had difficulties communicating with and understanding each other, and they were childhood friends who spoke the same language and had known each other for as long as they could remember. And yet he could communicate perfectly with this woman he just met less than a day ago, who spoke a completely different language. 

It was so overly convenient that he couldn’t help but feel unsettled by it. It certainly helped to make the discussion move along more quickly, though. 

“Well, who cares about the details!” he declared. He clenched his first and psyched himself up. “Allllll right! Then first, about those runes... uh?” 

Yuuto’s stomach emitted a loud, long, growl. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t had anything to eat except a small energy bar before starting the test of courage yesterday evening. 

Felicia blinked in surprise, then smiled playfully. “Tee hee! Why don’t we have breakfast first?”

It’s tough. That was Yuuto’s first impression. 

“Um, i-is it not to your liking?” a middle-aged woman with brown hair tied up in the back asked Yuuto, in a slightly fearful manner. 

Apparently her name was Angela, and she had served as the maidservant in Felicia’s family for more than ten years. She was in charge of all the housework, and she had made all of the food currently lined up in front of Yuuto. 

“Uh, no, it’s fine, really,” Yuuto said hastily. “It just surprised me a bit because it’s different from the bread that I’m used to. It’s not bad at all.” Yuuto waved his hands as he tried to dissuade Angela of her worries, then hurriedly resumed chewing. 

The bread in front of him had a size and shape almost exactly like the “melon pan” sweet bread he’d grown up with in Japan, only lacking the signature cross-hatched pattern on top. And it was hard, rather than soft. It was quite a familiar sight in this alternate world. 

Even back home in modern-day Earth, there were varieties of hard bread, like French baguettes. Yuuto had been put off at first because he’d been so used to a life of eating soft bread, but it had a nice freshly-baked aroma that made it tasty. 

He took another bite. Munch, munch, munch, clack! 

“Agh! Wh-what the hell?!” 

He’d been prepared to put on a show of enjoying the food as tastier than it really was, in order to spare them any concern over him. But when he suddenly bit down on something incredibly hard, the sensation shot from his teeth to the crown of his head, and he couldn’t keep from grimacing. 

Whatever it was, it was far too hard to chew properly. He spat it into his hand and saw that it was a tiny piece of stone. 

Shocked, he looked over to Felicia and Angela, but the two of them just stared back at him quizzically. 

Felicia believed Yuuto was something called the Gleipsieg, the Child of Victory. If she thought her maidservant had been rude or performed poorly in her duties, she would surely scold the woman, or order her to apologize to Yuuto. The fact that neither of those things was happening meant... 

No way... does that mean this is normal for this world?! Yuuto held back the reflexive urge to look up at the ceiling in a gesture of disbelief. 

He remembered hearing a story from his grandfather about how, back when his grandfather was still a boy, it had been common to find tiny bits of gravel mixed in with the daily rice, but Yuuto had never expected to experience a similar situation himself. 

“Lord Yuuto?” Felicia asked. 

“Oh, umm. Do you have anything to drink?” 

“Yes, right here. Here you are.” 

Upon being handed the cup, Yuuto was once again unable to conceal his surprise. It seemed to be filled with milk, but the problem was with the cup itself. It looked to be simple earthenware, nothing more than pinched and hardened clay and dirt. 

Looks like I found a really primitive place to show up in, Yuuto thought to himself with an exasperated wry smile. 

“Well, ‘when in Rome,’ as they say.” He accepted the cup and drained it in one gulp. His ability to get over these circumstances with just that one phrase showed that he was an optimistic young man at his core. 

His eyes widened at the incredibly rich flavor of the milk, the likes of which he’d never tasted. “Oh, this is seriously good.” 

If he were to guess, it was probably freshly milked. One of his classmates had once gone on vacation to the agriculture-rich prefecture of Hokkaido. From then on, that guy was always telling everyone, “The kind of milk we drink here isn’t the real deal!” Yuuto now felt like he understood why. 

Japan was world-famous as a nation full of delicious food, but being able to enjoy fresh organic ingredients like this was expensive for the average person. If he thought of it that way, one could say this was a rich meal cloaked in meager trappings. 

“Oh, that reminds me!” Felicia suddenly clapped her hands together, then stood up and hurried over to the shelf on the wall, returning with something. “Is this perhaps yours, Lord Yuuto?” 

“Ah!” Yuuto shouted in surprise as he stared at what she was holding. Its dark luster and distinctive shape were conspicuously out of place in this world. He had lost it during all the ruckus after being summoned here, and he’d been set on searching for it as soon as possible. 

“Yeah, that’s mine,” he confirmed. 

It was the LGN09 a.k.a. Laegjarn, Yuuto’s beloved smartphone that he’d purchased after entering his first year of middle school. As he took it in his hands, he pushed the power button half out of habit. 

Like most modern-day young people, Yuuto had a bit of what the adults called internet addiction, and going for long periods of time without access to any sort of connected device left him feeling unsatisfied and unable to calm down. Even as he pushed the power button, he started to tease himself internally for even thinking that he’d get a signal here. 

“Huh?!” He opened his eyes wide at all the many Received Call notifications. 

His shaking finger tapped the Call Log icon, and he saw his childhood friend’s name over and over. There were near continuous notifications from 9 p.m. last night to around 4 a.m. this morning. 

His heart hurt at how much he’d clearly made her worry about him, but right now there was something else that more fully captured his attention. 

“Is it possible... that I can get a signal here?” 

The class-wide test of courage event had started at around 8 p.m. After waiting their turn to begin walking, they should have reached the shrine and found the divine mirror just before 9 p.m. Meaning that this call record included calls received after Yuuto’s arrival in this world. 

Yuuto immediately opened his Contacts list and selected Mitsuki’s name, then hit the Send Call button. 

“...So it won’t connect, huh?” he murmured. “I mean, that figures, but...” 

The only sound from the speakers was the annoying beep, beep, beep sound indicating an inability to connect. He tried several times, but the result didn’t change. 

Looking more closely, the screen’s icon showing signal strength was displaying a red X. 

That made sense, of course. Even within Japan, there were remote places up in the mountains where it was normal for cell phones to be unable to get a signal. It was crazy to think it would work in this alternate world of who-knows-where. 

“But then, how does that explain this call log?” 

The received calls had clearly come in after he’d arrived in this world. He really regretted having set his phone on silent mode in order to preserve the spooky atmosphere of a classic test of courage. If his ringtone had sounded, he would have noticed it and might even have been able to answer. 

He stood there, thinking to himself with a difficult expression. 

“Erm, is something the matter?” Felicia asked, peering at the smartphone closely with deep interest. “I... have never before seen an object shining like a rainbow with such vivid colors before. What sort of tool is it, and how is it used?” 

Yuuto realized he’d once again been so absorbed in his own thoughts that he’d ignored Felicia and left her completely out of the loop. He really ought to reflect on his poor behavior. He’d only just met Felicia, but he was already relying on her care and assistance in many ways. He shouldn’t be so rude to her. 

He cleared his throat to answer. “Right, so this is called a ‘smartphone,’ and it’s a convenient tool with a lot of different functions. For example... aha. Could you stand over there for a moment?” 

“Um, like this?” 

“Okay, just like that!” 

Be-beep... click! 

“Wh-what was that sound, just now?! I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before.” 

“It was the sound of the camera’s shutter. Here, take a look.” 

Yuuto held up the smartphone to show it to Felicia, and she blinked in amazement at the image displayed on the screen. 

“Wh-whaaat?! Th-this... this is... me?!” 

Inwardly, Yuuto chuckled to himself a bit, like he’d just pulled off a prank. This was just the kind of reaction he’d been hoping for. 

“A mirror... no, this is different from a mirror, isn’t it?” Felicia nervously glanced back and forth between the smartphone and Yuuto, looking uncomfortable. “It’s so strange... as if I’m looking at a single instant of myself that has been carved out... U-um, this doesn’t pull out my soul or absorb my life or... or anything of that nature, right?” 

Yuuto couldn’t help but smile wryly at that. It was famously known that during Japan’s Bakumatsu period in the mid-19th century, plenty of people had been superstitious about cameras arriving from the West, fearful that the device might steal one’s soul. It seemed that there was something universal about human reactions to this sort of thing. 

“You don’t have to worry,” he assured her. “There are no bad effects like that, or any at all, really.” 

“I... I see. That’s good to hear.” 

Felicia gave a sigh of relief at the news, and Yuuto chuckled a bit to himself as he swiped his finger across the phone’s screen. He was intending to browse through his photos to show Felicia an example of the kind of world he lived in, but the very next image that appeared caused him to freeze up. 

Against a background of dense forest, his childhood friend stood with an obviously frightened expression, looking like a threatened small animal. It was the last picture he’d taken before beginning the test of courage with her. 

He remembered the long, long list of missed calls from her in his call log. Right now, she was no doubt burdened with even more fear and anxiety than she looked in this picture. 

The hand holding the smartphone clenched it tightly. He took a deep breath to steady himself. Gathering his resolve, he addressed the other girl. 

“Felicia, sorry about this. But for now, can you send me back to my world?” 

“Huh?! Er, Lord Yuuto? D-did I perhaps, do something to upset you? If it’s about Rún, I will make sure to reprimand her harshly.” 

“Ah, it’s nothing like that. Don’t worry. It’s just that there’s someone really worried about me back home, since I vanished so suddenly.” He showed Felicia the screen of his smartphone once more, smiling awkwardly with embarrassment. 

It was true that just the thought of becoming a powerful Einherjar made him practically ache with excitement. 

Every day, Yuuto went to school and sat through boring classes, exchanged unimportant, trivial small talk with his classmates, went home, and messed around on his smartphone to pass the time. Compared to that repetitive daily life that felt like force of habit, spending his days in this world seemed like it would be full of fun and stimulation. 

However, in order to enjoy all that, he needed to go see his terribly worried childhood friend, properly let her know the situation, and get her permission to go back. He felt it was the least he could do. 

“U-um... er...” Felicia’s troubled gaze darted this way and that. “But even if you ask that of me, um, that is...” 

“...Eh? B-but wait, you’re the one who called me here, right?” Yuuto felt a shudder run through him as he had a horrible premonition about where this was going. 

“Y-yes, I did. I have performed that ritual offering and supplication for victory several times before, but a messenger actually arriving from the heavens was a first for me as well, and... I honestly do not have any idea as to how you might get home, Lord Yuuto...” 

“W-wait, wait, wait, hold on, are you serious?!” 

“I... I am truly sorry. It never occurred to me that things might turn out this way...” 

Felicia was so embarrassed that her expression was clouded over, and her gaze wandered around, unable to meet his eyes. 

Yuuto felt his legs begin to give out from under him. She had been able to bring him here, so of course he’d assumed she would be able to send him home. After all, summoning him here without his permission without any way of sending him home would be no different from kidnapping. 

“Wh-what the hell... this isn’t funny... You never said anything about this... oh! Oh, right! That shrine!” Yuuto stood up with a shout. 

He remembered the divine mirrors inside of Tsukimiya Shrine and the sanctuary he’d been summoned into. The one in Tsukimiya Shrine had been rusted and clouded over to the point where it no longer served as a functional mirror, but it was the exact shape and size as the one here. 

When Yuuto had found himself being pulled to this world, the mirror had given off some sort of mysterious light. Those missed calls also stood out. If the divine mirror had something to do with this, maybe the fact that he was far away from it now explained why he wasn’t receiving a signal anymore. 

There was also that urban legend about Tsukimiya Shrine. 

“If you gaze into the mirror through an opposing mirror on the night of a full moon, you will be pulled into another world.” 

There was no way that didn’t have something to do with these extraordinary circumstances.

“Haah... haah...” Yuuto wheezed heavily, completely out of breath, as he leaned over with both hands on his knees. 

It was evident that the sanctuary he’d been summoned into was near the top of a tall tower. But he hadn’t counted on just how much of a difference in effort it took to ascend a tower, compared to descending it. 

After forcing Felicia to serve as his guide and making a big show of racing over to the tower and starting up it at full speed, the endlessly long stairway had completely sapped his stamina. 

Apparently this tower was called the Hliðskjálf, a name meaning “sacred tower.” At a glance it looked to be about fifteen to twenty meters tall, about the same height as the roof of the middle school Yuuto attended. Yuuto had climbed all of that at a full run, so in a sense it was inevitable that he would be this exhausted. 

Of course, Felicia was still at his side and wasn’t the slightest bit out of breath. “Are you all right, Lord Yuuto?” 

This is just because I ran too hard at the start, and I didn’t get a full breakfast, Yuuto told himself, but his attempt to console himself felt hollow. 

She was an Einherjar just like Sigrún, so she’d been granted physical abilities far more impressive than an ordinary person. Yuuto understood that on an intellectual level, but the longer he stayed in this world, the more his pride as a man was being thoroughly destroyed. 

“Whew... Oh, wow. So this is what the towns look like in this world.” Finally catching his breath, Yuuto turned around and saw the streets of the Wolf Clan capital spread out below him. 

The buildings lined up together within the tall inner city walls were all one story tall with flat roofs, but there was a certain grandeur to their appearance, an indication that they were part of the palace compound where the powerful resided. Then again, Yuuto had always associated palaces and castles with the color white, so seeing everything tinged with the red of the bricks did feel a little bit off to him. 

Outside the walls, it was a totally different world. 

Right near the walls themselves were rows of simple, modest houses. He’d seen them up close on the way over here, and they looked like they’d been made of nothing more than kneaded mud and clay. To Yuuto’s eyes, they looked like a larger version of something a child might build for fun. 

But even those were apparently the homes of the relatively more well-off, and as one got further out, the houses were thin shacks with thatched roofs. 

He’d gotten a sense of it from things like the walls of Felicia’s room and from her earthenware, but it seemed that civilization in this world really hadn’t progressed very far at all. 

“Well, forget about that. The mirror’s more important right now.” Yuuto turned around and took his first step back into the sanctuary. 

The inside of it was a little bit smaller than the gymnasium at Yuuto’s middle school. Unlike the previous night, there were no longer several dozen people present; it was completely empty and quiet now, enough for Yuuto’s footsteps to echo off the walls. 

The inner walls were painted over in what looked like hardened plaster, and the beautiful white surface was covered with various wall paintings. Like in a Buddhist temple or a Western church, there was a certain grand yet solemn atmosphere that impressed itself upon him. 

“Oh, there it is,” he said. 

Making his way to the far end of the room, he found the divine mirror displayed on an altar there and nodded to himself in satisfaction. There was definitely no way this similarity between the mirrors could be a coincidence. 

“Um, are you truly going back?” Felicia asked him plaintively, her cobalt eyes wavering. 

To her, Yuuto was the Child of Victory Gleipsieg, sent by the gods to save her and her people from the crisis they were in. If he returned to his home world without doing anything here, what would become of them? That worry and fear was written all over her face. 

“...Yeah, I am. Sorry.” Yuuto rested a hand lightly on Felicia’s head as he spoke. 

No matter the situation, he didn’t like seeing a girl looking like she was about to cry. He didn’t care for that Sigrún girl, but Felicia had treated him well. He wanted to do something for her in return, and longed to become the kind of person who could help her, but he knew that a role like that was beyond him as he was right now. Thinking about things from a more level-headed perspective, there was a hard limit to what a mediocre middle school student like himself could accomplish in a world like this. 

“Well then, I’m sure it’s a tough road ahead for you, but do your best!” 

Throwing up his hand in a quick farewell, Yuuto turned on his smartphone and activated the camera app. Standing with his back to the altar, he used the front-facing camera to take a picture of himself and the divine mirror— 

—and nothing happened.

“Huh?” After a few minutes of waiting, Yuuto tilted his head, confused. 

“Um, Lord Yuuto?” Felicia called out to him, just as puzzled and with her head tilted in the same quizzical way. 

The fact that he’d waved goodbye and even given a farewell “do your best!” made this incredibly awkward and embarrassing. 

“Is there something I’m missing, here?” Yuuto ran through the Tsukimiya Shrine legend in his mind again. 

“If you gaze into the mirror through an opposing mirror on the night of a full moon, you will be pulled into another world.” 

The answer came to him quickly. Outside, the sun was high in the sky and shining bright as can be. 

“...Felicia, when’s the next full moon?” 

“Eh?! Uh, yes, well yesterday was the full moon, so the next should be one month from now.” 

“Ughhh, seriouslyyy?” Yuuto moaned in despair as he dropped into a crouch, head in his hands. 

If a minor like himself went missing for a month, it wasn’t hard for him to imagine how serious things would get back on the other side. 

He honestly didn’t give a damn about his father, but he was probably going to catch a hardcore lecture and a serious interrogation about where he’d been and what he’d been doing from the police, school, and Mitsuki, just for starters. 

Trying to use the excuse, “I was sent to another world, so I couldn’t get in contact,” would unmistakably do nothing more than pour gasoline on the fire. 

At the very least, he’d like to report that he was safe and ask the people back home not to turn this into a big incident, but another look at his phone’s screen confirmed that the signal strength icon was still displaying a red X. There weren’t any options open to him. 

Just thinking about it made him get more and more depressed. In other words— 

“Well, I guess wasting time thinking about it won’t fix anything.” Yuuto switched himself off of that line of thought and stood back up. 

It was now a matter of fact that he’d be stuck here for a whole month, unable to contact anyone back home, and he was going to catch hell when he got back. In that case, rather than being afraid of the fallout, the best thing he could do for himself was to forget about that while he was here and focus on enjoying this alternate world to the fullest. 

Best of all, as long as he was here, he wouldn’t have to see the face of the man from his world that he hated most of all. There was nothing he could be more grateful for than that. 

That was the extent of Yuuto’s understanding of things at the time. 

He was a persistently positive and optimistic boy. 

He had yet to know the harshness and cruelty of the world of Yggdrasil.