episode_0119

Einstein was a prestigious school of swordsmanship.

Whether it was due to the eradication of records or self-censorship, the art of swordsmanship had been preserved through the generations, even among descendants who had forgotten the truth that their ancestors were a breed of humans.

However, even that lineage of swordsmanship has long since been severed. The descendants who had become nobles of the Line Kingdom rose to power only to be accused of treason and subsequently wiped out.

Brunhilde, the surviving member of the Einstein family, was practically the sole heir… but she’s no longer in this world. So, one might say the lineage has ended.

Or perhaps saying she’s not in this world is too definitive? The original owner of the body I’ve possessed, Brunhilde’s soul, is closer to being missing than completely extinguished.

Has she vanished entirely like the protagonist in the original novel? Or is she simply dormant somewhere within this body? It was an enigma beyond my understanding.

Perhaps our original bodies and souls have been swapped.

Like the heroine from an old animation who tried to survive by using the ability to swap souls, stealing a man’s body at the scene of a disaster where a meteor fell.

Honestly, I could only hope that this was not the third case for me.

Brunhilde, with the cultural knowledge and ethics of this world, ending up inside the body of a young Korean man from the 21st century. It seems all too predictable.

If that were the case, by now wouldn’t she have become a legendary criminal, locked away in prison?

The sight of her throwing off gloves and beating someone to death after a single insult, literally beating them to death, flashed before my eyes.

She might be treated as a lunatic despite making headlines in every news outlet, but Brunhilde wouldn’t even realize that such actions are crimes.

Why? Because it’s acceptable here.

In this world, killing someone who insults a knight in a legitimate duel goes beyond legal measures and is openly encouraged.

Not killing would make you seem like a coward without honor, wouldn’t it?

So, assuming that Brunhilde, who has lived in such a world, has possessed my body, it was safe to say that there was zero possibility of her adapting well to modern Korea.

…Well, as long as the truth about possession remains unknown, these are all just assumptions close to delusions.

– Kwaoooo!

Anyway, a spear from that Einherjar came flying towards Freyja and me. It was imbued with the intense vitality characteristic of a solidified ghost.

“Don’t block it, dodge!”

I urgently shouted as I leaped to the side.

Einherjar’s throwing spear technique, concentrating the coldness of the ice heart and the force of complete tension at the tip, shooting it out like a bullet.

As a ghost weakened far more than in life, it wasn’t an attack that could be directly blocked.

The throwing spear, which had become abnormally robust, gained even more speed due to its high-speed rotation.

The chill of the ice heart mixed in, and the spinning blade, like a snowstorm, crushed the marble above into pieces with a thunderous sound.

Fragments of stone and ice scattered like shrapnel. The flying shards pounded the armor like rain, producing a harsh metallic sound.

“Freyja?!”

“I dodged it!”

Beyond her left arm shielding her face, Freyja had used her greatsword as a shield to block the fragments and turned to answer me.

Thank goodness she’s not injured.

I breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at Valkyria.

Perhaps due to the recoil of the throwing spear, her right arm was dislocated at the shoulder and her forearm was twisted into a mess.

– Clack, clack…

Well, even so, her broken arm was rapidly recovering by twisting back in the opposite direction at high speed.

It was the effect of the magical armor she was wearing, specifically the enchantment embedded in the pauldrons.

Valkyria’s exclusive ceremonial equipment, the armor of the former maiden.

Made from a rare metal called “luck iron,” similar to elven silver or amber steel, it was a magical armor crafted from the material.

According to the setting, the entire armor, from the helmet to the greaves, was engraved with a total of eight magical inscriptions.

It was not actual armor, but a manifestation of the armor worn during his lifetime as the phantom’s body, yet the effects of magic seemed to be maintained.

In that case—

“That cloak! Tear the cloak apart! It can’t fly without it!”

First, I should break the cloak with the flying ability. It would be more troublesome to deal with him flying around and throwing spears.

“Yes!”

As Freyja tilted her head and aimed Nibelung diagonally, a crescent-shaped golden spear shot through the air.

“Kuuuuh…!”

Creating a new spear in the air, Valquiria, upon seeing Nibelung’s blade, quickly dodged to the side, growling like a beast.

The holy sword’s spear, which could be considered its natural enemy, for the phantom. He must have been confident that he wouldn’t survive a direct hit.

“Where are you going!”

Seeing that, I leaped towards him, pushing off the debris of the nearby building.

The black steel sword advancing, Valquiria turned her body towards me and wielded an ice spear to counter.

– Clang!

The clash of black steel and ice. Blades and spearheads reinforced with magic power chewed at each other, scattering fragments everywhere.

Both were activating , so their weapons were screaming as they couldn’t withstand the owner’s power.

“Don’t block it!”

Twisting my waist while parrying the weapon, my right foot struck out.

With a thud, the toe that had been aiming for his side abruptly stopped. It was blocked by the magical barrier engraved on his breastplate, obstructed by the wind of the magic shield.

Actually, even if there hadn’t been a magical barrier, it would have been the same. Would the phantom feel pain from a kick?

Valquiria unfolded the magical barrier purely out of instinct from her past life. In reality, the attack would have caused no harm even if it wasn’t blocked.

Of course, whether it was blocked or not didn’t matter to me.

My goal was not to break his side…

“I never expected anything from you in the first place!”

By twisting my body and delivering a kick, I created an opening to swing the sword.

“The real one is here!”

As the recoil of the kick caused the sword and spear to fall, the freed black steel sword lunged like a snake towards his neckbone.

“Haaak!”

Where is that sound coming from? Like a cornered cat with its tail stepped on, Valquoria snarled fiercely, avoiding my blade and arching her back.

“Not yet!”

I extended my body forward without resistance to the momentum of the missed longsword, almost sprawling over her body as I leaned backward onto Valquoria’s torso.

Then, like passionate lovers, I tightly embraced her arms and legs.

“Gyaaak!?”

Valquoria was bewildered, asking what I was doing. She struggled to shake me off, but unfortunately for her, my weight and strength were in my favor. Perhaps it was due to the presence of my physical body.

The strength of a warrior resides in the physical form. Even though I could move my body through magic and attributes, I couldn’t fully harness the power that resided in the lost physical strength.

If I could have fully harnessed it, I would have died long ago, either at the hands of myself or Valquoria in her prime. There’s no way we could capture the Valquoria of her heyday now. Absolutely not.

Anyway,

“Now, Freida!”

Before my words could finish, a golden beam aimed for Valquoria’s back, piercing through.

“Yaaaah!”

Perhaps fearing being swept away herself, instead of shooting out a blade, Freida leaped up and swung the greatsword directly.

“Haaaaaak!”

As the intense vitality surged into her back, Valquoria snarled fiercely again, then thrust her head forward, hitting me squarely in the face with her helmet.

– Kwaah!

The collision of heads. Thanks to the helmets, our skulls, once human, turned into metallic ones and clashed violently, emitting a loud thud.

“Ugh…!”

I was thrown back with a groan. My head was spinning. Unlike a brainless spirit, my brain wasn’t resilient enough to withstand such violent shocks.

Let’s not headbutt again.

I made that vow as I crashed into the debris of a collapsed house. Dust billowed like a mist.

“Ugh, damn it…!”

It wasn’t a severe injury due to the short fall, but a fall is still a fall. I groaned lightly as I rose from the rubble.

The phrase “my head is spinning” is used at times like this. My arms and legs were sore, and my back was aching. My head was also spinning a bit.

“Ugh….”

A helmet split in half and fell to the ground with a thud.

I grabbed my spinning head and looked up at the Valkyria who had knocked me back with a club-like blow.

– Swoosh!

The ice-bodied specter that had been floating in the air was now falling just like I had been moments before, along with Freyja fluttering her cloak like feathers as she landed.

Due to desperately dodging and being thrown off, my back felt like it was being sliced open, but my floundering cloak tore apart, and even my shoulder armor was completely broken on one side.

“Dauði…!”

Death…

Valkyria, who was falling lifelessly, spat out curses at Freyja, vowing to kill her, then landed on the ground with a half-turn in the air using her legs and knees.

– Kwaang!

A dust cloud erupted with a loud noise. It was a splendid landing fit for a superhero movie.

She landed, striking all sorts of poses. I just flew like a dog and got slammed.

Is this what they call the luck of the draw? The experience of falling from the sky, just like the guy who was flying around, seemed quite extensive. Judging by the perfect angle of my posture.

Well, it wasn’t really important.

“You finally came down. How does it feel to be on the ground? Do you miss it?”

The important thing was that she lost her ability to fly.

In other words, we were brought down to a battlefield where Freyja and I could fight comfortably.

“Since you’re down, how about lying down completely? We’ll help you.”

My sneer seemed to bother Valkyria as she glared at me through the gap in her helmet.

Her crumpled left shoulder and dusty armor looked pitiful and pathetic.

“Systur, okkar…!”

‘Our sister.’ She muttered like that.

Looking at Brunhilde’s body, she must have been convinced that this Valkyria, just like herself, was an Einschtein. They probably called each other sisters. In their lifetime.

“What did you say.”

I’ve never had a sister like you. Not even a sister like you.

I wasn’t even a girl… No, I wasn’t. Back then.

So, why talk about sisters to me? Besides, they were the ones who attacked first anyway.

I chuckled lightly, brushed off the dust on my cheek, and, with a longsword slung over my shoulder, I launched myself at the guy as if I were a bullet.

“Yaaaah!”

Freddie, landing with a greatsword thrust into the ground, also dashed towards Valquiria in response to my movement.

“Kyaaaaak!”

The spirit of Valquiria, rising up and creating ice spears in both hands, glared at us and let out a vengeful roar.

Two spears. Why was it that suddenly I felt like my win rate had skyrocketed to about two thousand times?