Valfreyja, awakened from her long slumber by her distant descendant’s slightly violent knock.
As soon as she opened her eyes in the amethyst, she stared straight at me below the hill and spoke.
Calling me a pathetically weak descendant?
Judging by her behavior of picking a fight from the very first words, her personality level seemed no different from the original work.
In other words, it means she’s a being not to be approached. Both in terms of power and personality.
“Hi-Hilde. That thing, it seems slightly cracked… is it okay? You clearly said earlier not to even approach because it’s dangerous…”
Friede turned to me and pointed at the amethyst.
“Hmm… it should be fine…? What do you think?”
“Oh, well, it feels a bit creepy… but other than that, not particularly…?”
Friede answered while frowning slightly and tilting her head as she looked at the amethyst.
Right, just creepy and that’s it. It seems Friede hadn’t noticed at all the fact that Valfreyja had awakened.
The blue eyes glaring at me from inside the amethyst, and the eerie voice echoing in my head were only reaching me, it seems.
I could roughly guess the reason. Probably because Brunhilde’s body was a descendant of the Valkyrias.
Valkyrias were human-type biological weapons created by implanting the ‘Ice Heart’ into human bodies and then modifying them so that power could be passed down to future generations.
Brunhilde, who had gained the Valkyria’s traits through atavism, was essentially of the same race as the ancient Valkyrias.
So, it was only natural in a way that Valfreyja, who had been the knight commander of the Valkyrias, would speak only to me.
For Valfreyja, Friede beside me was just a human brat holding an unpleasant weapon.
Like treating her as a cockroach crawling out of a toilet? She probably would have killed her first if the seal had been broken.
And now, since the seal hasn’t been broken, she’s speaking to me instead.
【 Come to me. To the master of your soul. 】
Like this.
* * *
People familiar with online games already know this, but just because you can communicate doesn’t mean you should consider the other party as a person like yourself.
Valfreyja was a villain who fit exactly into that case.
From the start, the old Eisenstein itself was a group that created a modified human combat unit through biological experiments, so how could the knight commander of such an organization be a normal human?
Of course, she could only be a serial killer human scrap millions of light years away from morals and ethics.
【 Young Valkyria. Come up to the castle and receive me. The moment has come to fulfill the duty engraved on your soul from the moment of your birth. 】
Just looking at how she speaks makes it obvious.
A chilling and eerie voice like that of a snake. The fact that she’s openly ordering me to come up to the castle makes her purpose so transparently clear.
She intends to lure me into the castle and completely break her own seal. While saying it’s my duty and whatnot.
None of my business.
【 Come, fulfill your duty! As a knight of Eisenstein! 】
‘Ah, that won’t be possible.’
I strongly recalled such a sentence in my mind.
Like the Valkyrias, the language Valfreyja was using was not the common tongue but an ancient language.
I could understand what it meant, but I didn’t want to answer out loud. To Friede beside me, it would look like I was suddenly muttering to myself in some strange foreign language.
That’s a bit crazy, isn’t it? I’m not crazy.
Of course, I often heard such insults… but just because someone is called a son of a bitch doesn’t mean they’re really a dog beastman, right?
Rather, those who use the term ‘son of a bitch’ to dog beastmen were extremely rare in the setting.
Why, you ask? Because it was equivalent to calling a dark-skinned person on Earth a n****r monkey descended from slaves.
Just as it’s natural to get shot for saying such things, if you called a dog beastman a son of a bitch here, it wouldn’t be strange to have your face completely bitten off.
In other words, the fact that I was often called a son of a bitch was proof that the insulted person was not a dog beastman.
Similarly, since I lived with the insult of being called crazy, it means I’m actually a woman far from being crazy. Right?
Okay. Proof complete.
It was a perfect argument that no one could refute.
* * *
【 …What did you say? 】
Perhaps my refusal was quite unexpected. Valfreyja asked back in a tone mixed with bewilderment. A little bit of anger seemed to be mixed in as well.
Well, if she had broken the amethyst and jumped out, it might be different, but for a woman trapped in the amethyst, whether she’s angry or not, I had no reason to be afraid from my position.
What tourist is afraid of a lion in a zoo cage? Even if it roars loudly, everyone would just take pictures saying it’s cool.
【 You refuse? The duty of a Valkyria, as a knight? 】
‘Yes, I’m not going to do it.’
So, I gave an outright sarcastic answer. As revenge for being so startled that my heart skipped a beat.
Honestly, when else would I ever get to throw sarcasm at such a monster? Anyone else would not have been able to resist.
‘Sorry, but please find someone else. I’ve already completed my mandatory service period and been discharged.’
Duty as a knight, how nice. If it’s the duty of national defense, I finished that long ago, you old lady. It was 2 years that perfectly evaporated my patriotism.
【 …How rude, base, and foolish. Even if fallen to such a miserable state, to think you would forget even your duty. 】
‘Grandma, your words are too harsh. When have you ever seen me to say such things?’
I continued to throw sarcasm while slowly moving my feet towards the helmet that had rolled down the hill.
【 Gr-Grandma…?! 】
Valfreyja stammered as if truly shocked.
She’s reacting. How shameless, befitting a villain. She’s at least several hundred years old at minimum, so of course she should be called grandma.
Don’t tell me she was hoping to be called sister at that age.
‘Oh, perhaps you were a grandfather? I’m sorry about that then. It’s because your voice sounds like that of a castrated eunuch.’
【 Th…Urgh…! 】
Valfreyja groaned, grinding her teeth as if the back of her head was hurting. Her reaction was so funny that I couldn’t help but snicker.
This is fun.
It was a strange feeling. Continuously spouting words that seemed like my guts were hanging out, yet feeling no sense of crisis at all.
It was as if the tension that had suddenly spiked had broken through its limit, and conversely, my mind had been forcibly stabilized.
A feeling like I’m not afraid of anything anymore. That’s roughly what it felt like.
Of course, that magical girl who said such words had her head bitten off and became a meal a few seconds later…
But Valfreyja is now no different from a mosquito trapped in a pumpkin. As long as I don’t help, she won’t be able to jump out of the amethyst, so there’s no chance of my head being bitten off.
“Um… Hilde, are you okay…?”
Perhaps my grinning appearance looked strange. Friede carefully asked about my condition while watching me.
“Huh? Ah, of course I’m fine. Come on, let’s quickly go get the helmet.”
I smiled while patting Friede’s head, as if telling her not to worry.
You should smile too, Friede. Although there were various accidents in between, in the end everything turned out well, so of course you should smile, right?
Due to not taking my eyes off the thrown spear, I couldn’t see it properly, but the equipment spat out by the last Valkyria was clearly a helmet from what I could roughly see.
So, all that’s left is to continue irritating Valfreyja to relieve stress, then just grab the helmet and quickly get out of here.
Grandma, you stay here. I’ll return to the surface with Friede.
That’s when it happened.
【 You dare, you dare to mock me, Valfreyja! A lowly and base pawn, an arrogant and presumptuous bug that doesn’t know its place! 】
Perhaps heat had risen to the top of her head, Valfreyja threw away even the mystical tone she had been putting on and shouted fiercely while thrashing about.
Ah, it’s really annoyingly noisy.
I reflexively twisted my expression. It was like thunder striking inside my head.
【 Valkyria, obey the oath of loyalty engraved in that bloodline, in that soul! 】
Now Valfreyja even brings out the oath of loyalty. It was a tone that made it unclear which side was arrogant.
Well, I guess it’s natural for her. She was like the second-in-command of Eisenstein after all.
Anyway, an oath of loyalty engraved in the soul…
Well, such a thing did exist in the setting. Valkyrias were human weapons of Eisenstein. Like all weapons, Valkyrias naturally had something like a control device attached to them.
That was precisely the oath of loyalty.
An oath engraved on the souls of Valkyrias, passed down through generations.
It was literally a slave contract engraved on the soul, forcing absolute obedience to Valfreyja, the master of all Valkyrias, and her superiors.
It was probably engraved on Brunhilde’s soul as well.
According to the possessor in the original novel, while the oath itself couldn’t be erased, the orders could be nullified with a saint’s mental defense miracle…
The one by my side was the hero. Not a saint. It means we couldn’t pull off such a feat.
【 I, Valfreyja Eisenstein, your rightful master, command you. Offer your flesh and soul as a burnt offering for me! 】
Having activated the oath of loyalty, Valfreyja shouted once again. Telling me to offer my body and soul completely as a living sacrifice to break her seal.
A living sacrifice.
That was the fundamental reason why I had earnestly implored Friede not to even approach the castle on the hill.
Because the moment we enter that castle, Friede and I would have our souls and bodies completely absorbed and become sacrifices for Valfreyja’s liberation.
【 Offer the burnt offering! 】
The sharp voice echoed, ringing in my head. Telling me to obey the slave mark engraved on Brunhilde’s, the Valkyria’s soul.
My answer was simple.
‘I’m too busy. I’ll set up the ancestral rite incense next time. If you’re hungry, just lie down and sleep.’
I grinned and threw out sarcasm telling her to stop spouting nonsense and just go to sleep. I’m not crazy enough to obey an order to commit suicide. Not a chance.
【 Wha…What?! 】
Valfreyja was truly shocked. Her voice sounded about ten times more surprised than when she heard the word grandma.
【 This is impossible. No matter how fallen, the essence doesn’t change. There’s no way you could reject the oath engraved on your soul…? 】
Well, it can’t be helped. The oath of loyalty was literally a brand engraved on the soul that couldn’t be blocked without saint-level mental defense.
Even the Brunhilde in the final parts of the original novel couldn’t resist without a saint’s help, so there’s no way the current Brunhilde could reject the oath.
But, I’m not Brunhilde.
The body is Brunhilde’s but the soul is a completely different person, you could say?
So the oath of loyalty was none of my business. It was an oath engraved on the soul, not the flesh. On Brunhilde’s soul, not mine.
So, if you want to order something, you should command Brunhilde’s soul, not me. Though I’m not sure where exactly that is.
That was precisely the reason why I could blatantly talk back to Valfreyja.
Because the oath of loyalty wasn’t placed on me, unlike Brunhilde, I could just listen to whatever the senile witch was saying with one ear and let it go in the other.
That’s exactly what I did.
Until I reached the bottom of the hill, picked up the black-gray helmet stuck in the stone floor, and escaped out of the fortress.
【 Could it be, soul transference…? No, that’s impossible. Who on earth would use such an exalted technique on a mere fallen Valkyria, and for what purpose…? 】
By the time we were escaping through the collapsed castle walls, Valfreyja seemed to have finally figured out why the oath didn’t work on me… but that didn’t change anything.
From the start, though she seemed to have figured it out, she was half-doubting it as if she couldn’t believe it herself.
Yeah, keep pondering like that.
Alone for the rest of your life, with your mind half-awakened as part of the amethyst has broken off.
It was a satisfying result.
Official art, Hilde in her new armor