ACT 4
“Huh? What am I doing here?” Mitsuki found herself standing, alone, in some sort of garden.
This was very strange. She was sure that until just a moment ago she had been in bed, struggling to fall asleep.
And yet here she was, standing outside all of a sudden.
There was the possibility that she’d been carried here while asleep, but she was pretty certain she would have woken up if someone had tried that.
And she was the patriarch’s betrothed, after all. Members of Yuuto’s clan had sworn their absolute loyalty to him, so it was hard to think that one of them would do something disrespectful to her.
Besides, even if there were someone insolent enough to make the attempt, there were the Wolf Clan’s special forces, commanded by Sigrún, who served as the palace guard.
According to Yuuto, they constantly patrolled the palace in shifts, keeping the grounds well-secured. Slipping through that tight security net and abducting Mitsuki from her room would be incredibly difficult, at best.
“So that means... I wonder if this is a dream, then?” Mitsuki glanced around at her surroundings.
It was a pretty garden, with bright, white flowers in full bloom surrounding a small pond at the center. Close nearby stood a structure that looked to be made out of kiln-fired bricks; it was a type of religious sanctuary called a “hörgr.”
Mitsuki was pretty sure there wasn’t a sanctuary building like this in Iárnviðr. At the very least, there wasn’t one in any of the places she had been taken to so far. And yet, despite that, looking at it gave her an incredible sense of familiarity, of nostalgia.
At the same time, she also felt a strong sense that something was wrong.
Something was strange here, “off” somehow. But she couldn’t put her finger on it.
As she was puzzling over these feelings, a voice called to her from behind.
“You there, who are you? To have infiltrated my sacred and private space like this, you must be quite the reckless fool.”
Mitsuki turned around, and saw herself.
“Huh— Eeeeeeh?!” Mitsuki cried out in sheer surprise, but she wasn’t the only one.
“Wh-what?!”
The other girl was also apparently quite shocked, and her body reflexively pulled backward.
For a second, Mitsuki was fooled by the impression that she was looking at a mirror image of herself, but soon she noticed details about the other girl that were clearly different.
It was mainly her hair and eyes. Mitsuki had black hair and black eyes, but her counterpart had snow-white hair and eyes as red as rubies.
“Are you... Rífa?” Mitsuki asked hesitantly.
She’d heard stories from Yuuto about the girl with the same face as hers. Her full name was Sigrdrífa, and she was the þjóðann, or “Divine Empress.”
The lands of Yggdrasil were all under the dominion of the Holy Ásgarðr Empire, and the þjóðann reigned supreme at the pinnacle of that hierarchy.
“Then... you must be the one called ‘Mitsuki.’ Lord Yuuto’s love.”
“Oh, um, y-yes! Y-yes, that’s correct, I am that Mitsuki.” Mitsuki’s reply was a little awkward and stammering.
She’d grown up way out in the countryside, without any experience with the “ladylike” etiquette of a high-class society. Faced with the knowledge of how important and esteemed the person in front of her was, it would perhaps be unfair to expect her not to be daunted by that.
“Still, why in the world would Mitsuki be here in... Ngh?! Gh, what is this?!” Rífa shouted.
“What’s wro— Aaaah!” Mitsuki cried out herself at the sudden burning sensation that assaulted her senses, as if hot irons were being pressed into both of her eyes.
The fiery sensation in her eyes passed after a second, but now it felt as if some sort of incredible energy was flooding her whole body, running rampant, overwhelming her. It was like every drop of blood in her body was burning hot.
Rífa seemed to be suffering from the same condition. Her porcelain-white skin was flushed red, and she was grimacing in pain.
“Ghh, the power from my runes is billowing out of control! This has never happened before. Why would this...”
Rífa stared at Mitsuki wide-eyed, in even greater shock than when they had first seen each other.
“Y-you! Your eyes!”
“Huh?!”
Mitsuki looked into the girl’s eyes and saw two small golden symbols floating within them, like little crosses.
As she continued to look at them, the strange “power” within her began to surge even more...
“Arrgh! So that’s what it is! Haaaah...” Rífa seemed to realize something, and began to take slow, deep breaths.
As she did so, the strange power that had been running amok all throughout Mitsuki’s body suddenly calmed down, and then the incredible feeling of heat receded without leaving any trace.
All of Mitsuki’s strength left her, and she dropped to sit on the ground. “Ph-phew... Wh-what was that??”
A feeling of exhaustion overtook her. She felt completely depleted, as if she’d just finished running a hundred-meter dash at a full sprint.
“It would seem that my runes and your runes exert a strange ‘pull’ on each other,” Rífa said.
“Eh? My... runes?” Mitsuki tilted her head in puzzlement.
She knew what runes were: They were the symbols on the bodies of the people known as Einherjar, supposedly proof that they were special people chosen by the gods.
It was a sort of magical phenomenon unique to Yggdrasil, unknown in the modern 21st century world she came from. Of course, there was no way she had any such thing.
Her grades at school were only slightly above the average, and her athletic abilities slightly below. In every sense, she was a perfectly normal and ordinary girl, so—
Mitsuki caught a glimpse of her own reflection in the water of the pond, and let out a scream. “Eh — huh — huaaaaah?!”
Their shape was different, but her eyes also contained a pair of glowing, golden symbols.
That would mean that she was something even more special than an Einherjar, who were already as rare as one in ten thousand. These were “twin runes.” It was said there were only two twin rune Einherjar in all of Yggdrasil.
“What, am I to take it by your reaction that you have never once realized it all this time? You’re a bit of a dull-headed one, aren’t you?” Rífa gave an exasperated sigh.
Dull-headed... Mitsuki did have some awareness of the fact that she wasn’t a very perceptive person, or rather, because of her gentle personality, that she wasn’t very analytical. But hearing it phrased that way, and by someone who looked like her twin, left her with some complicated feelings.
“Still, it seems that there must be some strange sort of fate that ties us together,” Rífa said. “Not only that odd runic reaction just now, but this strange dream, too.”
“Oh, so then this is a dream, then.”
“Of course it is. Heh, I could never go outside in the daylight.” Rífa gave a small chuckle, and looked up at the sky with a smile that looked resigned and lonely. It was an expression that seemed unbefitting of someone as young as her.
Mitsuki followed Rífa’s gaze to look up, and realized what was off about this scenery. “Ohh! That’s why all the colors here are kind of weird.”
The sky itself was clear and blue without a cloud, but the surface of the water in the pond didn’t glitter with the reflection of the sunlight, and the greenery in their surroundings seemed somewhat too dark.
In fact, everything around them seemed to be slightly devoid of color, of vibrance. It was as if they were standing under a dark and cloudy sky instead.
That would all make sense if this was a dream created from the mind of someone who never set foot outside on a sunny day.
“So this isn’t my dream, but yours, Rífa?” Mitsuki asked.
After all, things would be more normal if it were her own dream.
Mitsuki recalled that she had been thinking about Rífa before falling asleep. She’d been wondering if borrowing Rífa’s power was perhaps the only way to be able to summon Yuuto to this world.
Perhaps that had made her able to enter into Rífa’s dream like this.
“Rífa... no, Lady Rífa! Please, I need a favor!” Mitsuki got down on her hands and knees, and looked up at Rífa with a grave expression.
This was no ordinary dream; Mitsuki felt a strange sense of absolute certainty about that. The Rífa in front of her was not something she’d dreamed up. This was the real Rífa.
Their similar appearance, and the pair of twin runes they both carried in their eyes, spoke to the truth of what Rífa had said earlier: Maybe there really was some sort fateful connection between them.
This meeting was a stroke of good fortune that Mitsuki could not afford to waste.
“Please, lend me your power, and help summon Yuu-kun!” she cried.
“Hmm, so that is what happened.” As Rífa finished listening to the explanation behind Yuuto’s return to the modern world, she put a hand to her mouth and pondered to herself.
Mitsuki was still not used to the strange feeling that came with talking to Rífa; it was as if she were having a conversation with her own reflection.
“But it had to be Sigyn, did it?” Rífa said. “That is a rather troublesome enemy you are dealing with.”
“She... she is?” Mitsuki asked timidly.
She’d heard explanations and stories about Yggdrasil from Yuuto, but in the end, it was all still limited, secondhand information.
She knew that they needed “a seiðr user stronger than Sigyn,” but she didn’t really have an idea of just how powerful this Sigyn really was.
“She is known as the ‘Witch of Miðgarðr,’ and tales of her reach me even here in the imperial capital of Glaðsheimr,” Rífa explained. “In terms of power, she is one of the strongest three in all of Yggdrasil.”
“Sh-she’s that amazing?!”
“If the question is who might be able to break that woman’s spell, then I would likely be the only one in all of Yggdrasil who could do it.” Rífa nodded confidently to herself.
In other words, she was implying that she herself was the most powerful magic user in all of Yggdrasil. It was quite the self-confident assertion.
But right now, that confidence made her seem incredibly dependable.
“Th-then, please let me ask you again!” Mitsuki pleaded. “Would you please help bring Yuu-kun back to Yggdrasil?”
“Mmm...”
Rífa’s expression darkened. Her gaze shifted this way and that, and at last she gave a resigned sigh before speaking.
“For my part, I would very much like to lend you my aid, but asking me to leave Valaskjálf Palace and go to Iárnviðr is a difficult request.”
“Th-there isn’t anything you can do about that part?”
“I am sorry. My last visit to Iárnviðr was a bit of a reckless action, with its own consequences. And along with the autumn season, my wedding day is fast approaching. There will be too many more scrutinizing eyes on me, and I won’t be free to move about.”
“Nooo...” Mitsuki’s shoulders slumped.
Things had seemed so promising up until this point that it made the disappointment even worse.
Mitsuki tried several more times after that to persuade Rífa, but the girl only shook her head sadly every time.
Still, going by Rífa’s own explanation, she was the only person in Yggdrasil who could break Sigyn’s spell. Mitsuki couldn’t afford to simply back down here.
At this rate, she wasn’t going to get any results. So she decided to try something else, a bit of a gamble.
“S-so you’re not confident you can do it, then?”
“What?” Rífa stared at her.
“The truth is that you aren’t sure you can break Sigyn’s seiðr spell, and if you fail, then it’ll get out that you’re not actually the strongest in Yggdrasil!”
“Wh-whaaat?!” Rífa shouted. “Y-you—! How dare you say such a thing?!” Her face was twisted with anger.
Whoa, I can’t believe she fell for something that simple... Mitsuki was taken aback, even though she had been the one to issue the taunt in the first place.
Right away from the start, Mitsuki had sensed from Rífa’s mannerisms a sense of strong pride, which probably came with being the þjóðann, so she’d taken a stab at using that against her. But she hadn’t expected the girl to be so defenseless against a little taunting.
“Sigyn’s magic would be nothing against mine!” Rífa began ranting defensively, completely unaware that she had just been taken in by Mitsuki’s ploy.
At this point, Mitsuki couldn’t turn back. In her heart, she whispered an apology to Rífa, then began to taunt her some more.
“If that’s the truth, then please prove it!”
“Look, I already told you! Right now I cannot leave Valaskjálf Palace!”
“I’m not saying that you need to leave your palace! If you can’t leave, then you don’t have to! You just need to call Yuu-kun back to Yggdrasil!”
“Excuse me?! You know nothing of seiðr magic, you ignorant girl! The paired mirror necessary for the rite is in Iárnviðr, isn’t it? Even for someone like me, without that, it... Hm? Paired...”
Rífa’s angry rant trailed off, and after a moment of silent thought, she placed a hand to her chin and stared at Mitsuki, looking her up and down.
“U-um...?”
“It can be done! We can do it, Mitsuki!” Rífa suddenly grabbed Mitsuki by the shoulders and excitedly shook her back and forth.
At first Mitsuki wasn’t sure what was going on, but an instant later she understood the meaning of those words.
“Y-you’re sure?!”
“Yes. But everything will depend on you.”
“...Huh?” A confused sound escaped Mitsuki’s lips. She didn’t understand at all.
A grin spread across Rífa’s face, and she looked awfully pleased with herself.
“Hee hee. Well, after you went and challenged me with such insolence, I do hope you’re prepared to follow through on what comes next.”
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