episode_0127

====[ Banditza ]====

Even torn into thousands of pieces, the anger wouldn’t dissipate from the arrogant someone, and the black-haired girl who was endlessly unpleasant to look at ever since leaving the fortress.

In the silence of the ruined wasteland, standing alone on a hill, Valpreya surged with anger erupting like flames from within the amethyst that bound her.

Throughout her long life, feeling such intense anger was a rare occurrence.

Defeated by the endless human forces that kept coming no matter how many she killed, cornered in the fortress, she only experienced such rage when she was overwhelmed by the hero’s swordplay and sank with the fortress.

The Holy Sword’s true power that carved a gorge into the plain with one strike, disrupting the flow of the river itself.

The military fortress of Banditza in Eisenstein plummeted to the ground, crushed to the bottom of the gorge, and was then engulfed by the rushing river.

Valpreya, exhausted from continuous battles, couldn’t stop it, and the only way to protect Banditza was to create a massive magical defense barrier covering the entire fortress, confining herself in an amethyst and supplying the magic to sustain the barrier.

Without hesitation, Valpreya leaped into the soul stone, using the living bodies of the remaining Valquiria warriors as sacrifices to complete the defensive spell before falling asleep.

Believing that soon Eisenstein’s true nature would send a savior to awaken her.

But no one came.

More precisely, they couldn’t come. The old Eisenstein had completely collapsed shortly after Banditza sank.

As Valpreya slept, it was an unknown event.

After an immeasurable amount of time passed, Valpreya finally woke up.

Thanks to the partial destruction of the seal on the soul stone by Hilde’s spear.

And right after that.

She faced Eisenstein’s Valquiria of this era, who made unimaginably rude remarks if it were in the past.

Or rather, someone who could easily be mistaken for a Valquiria.

“That’s not a Valquiria. It’s something else that has taken over Valquiria’s body.”

The master-slave pact was an absolute mark that couldn’t be lifted unless God intervened directly.

The fact that the pact had no effect was evidence that the opponent was never Valquiria to begin with.

“Soul exchange, unilateral seizure, fusion of two souls… which is the correct answer?”

Various methods to obtain someone else’s body crossed Valpreya’s mind.

They were all advanced magics beyond the level of any mage except her. That’s why she found it intriguing.

“Cut off limbs, split open skulls, and directly question the exposed brain matter.”

Valpreya smiled inside the amethyst. It was a smile like a madman covered in flesh and malice.

“With that arrogant tongue, what kind of groans will you produce? I’m very, very excited.”

The intruder disguised as a descendant, so disgustingly arrogant. Valpreya, enraged enough to want to tear the intruder apart with just three words of conversation…

Unfortunately, this time, she had no choice but to let the intruder go.

The seal on the soul stone was too strong. Even though she sealed it herself, she couldn’t escape without an external sacrifice.

Moreover, to properly escape, she needed to offer not just any ordinary human but a Valquiria as a sacrifice.

By driving the sacrificed Valquiria’s body into the soul stone in her place, she had to turn it into a source of magic to maintain the defense until she could lift the fortress back to the surface.

If not, the fortress she had tried to protect would have been crushed into pieces by the pressure of the river once she escaped from the seal.

In the process, including the Soul Stones, Einstein’s legacy would be swept away by the current and lost without a trace.

However, Valfreya had willingly decided to accept this now.

If it had been her in the past, she would have chosen to remain sealed forever, but the anger she faced upon awakening completely erased her sense of responsibility.

Even if she decided to endure drowning, escaping with the Soul Stones alone was nearly impossible without a sacrifice, but…

She had plenty of time.

Her knowledge and abilities to achieve what she desired were vast as well.

– Kaduk.

Very slowly. So gradually that no one would notice.

But surely.

Her seal began to break.

====[ Irina Winter ]====

Turning back time a bit, it had been about two days since the adventurer Hilde fled after being exposed by her former party members.

“You barely found it and then let it slip? Unbelievable. If something like that happened, you should have reported to me first!”

Upon learning this through Irina’s report, Gunter, who carelessly missed Brunhilde while taking action, harshly reprimanded the two women.

More precisely, he mainly scolded Irina. Emilia knew well that blaming and scolding her was meaningless unless violence was used.

“….”

Irina silently accepted Gunter’s reproach, biting her lip and suppressing the urge to argue by saying where she had found it.

To achieve her goal of gaining entry to Alfeim, the homeland of the High Elves, she had to cater to Gunter’s whims.

◆◆

The Elven nation, Elfenland, is a country with a distorted structure where all wealth and civilization are concentrated in the capital, Alfeim.

High Elves permitted to reside in Alfeim could enjoy a more advanced civilization than any other country, but Elves outside the capital had to live by hunting on vast plains.

If they didn’t like that, they had to leave for another country and live their lives as foreigners among different races.

Some Elves settled in other countries and established families, but that was only possible for exceptional Elves.

Most Elves found it difficult to adapt to living among other races, and many ended up being deceived or enslaved by them.

Therefore, entering Alfeim could be considered the dream and goal of all Elves.

To achieve this, they had to offer all kinds of tributes to the High Elves of Alfeim like slaves, beg for mercy, or achieve such remarkable feats that even they had to acknowledge them.

Irina chose the latter.

Through her reputation as a member of a hero party and the achievements she helped accomplish as a hero, she aimed to be selected as a High Elf of Alfeim.

In reality, her plan was progressing smoothly.

Through connections with an Elven family settled in the Rain Kingdom, she obtained citizenship in the kingdom and successfully joined the hero party using her outstanding talents and connections.

The problem was that seemed to be her limit.

The hero party she ambitiously joined was no different from a leaky boat from birth.

Emilia thought she was mentally ill but competent, and Brunhilde, apart from her unsociable nature, was an impeccable inspector, but…

“Frit… No, now it’s Frideira, right? That pathetic little girl. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be in this mess…!”

Hero Frit. His incompetence distorted all plans.

As the core of the party, his weakness was so pitiful and weak that she could only be disgraced and ridiculed instead of gaining power and fame.

The one who gave her a new lifeline was Gunter Hagen, a warrior of the Burgrun Kingdom.

A high-ranking elf’s son even within the High Elf, and the only bloodline of Count Hagen among the Half-Elves.

While a typical Half-Elf was considered inferior enough to be scorned by ordinary Elves, if half of their bloodline was from the High Elves, the story changed.

Was it like the difference between a commoner and a nobleman’s son in the neighborhood?

No, considering Gunter was one of the warriors, it was more appropriate to say there was a difference at the level of a military commander rather than a nobleman’s son.

Anyway, Gunter’s High Elf father Alfeim made Irina an offer through Gunter.

If they could disrupt the Freet Party and achieve significant results under Gunter’s leadership, Alfeim would grant Irina his residency rights.

The possibility seemed slim, but as Freet also bore the mark of a warrior, he could potentially become a rival to Gunter.

So, it meant erasing the very possibility itself.

After about a minute of contemplation, Irina accepted it. There was no reason to refuse the offer.

Disrupting the party was simple.

Given Freet’s incompetence, wasn’t the party precarious from the start? Just a slight intervention was enough to easily dismantle it.

Irina relentlessly criticized Freet, continuously undermining his self-esteem, and introduced Gunter to Emelia, who was disheartened by Freet’s lack of interest.

That was all she had to do. Gunter personally stepped in to persuade Brunhilde, the last remaining obstacle.

Thus, the Freet Party dissolved, and Emelia and Irina defected to Gunter’s party as agreed.

Brunhilde, who followed them, somehow managed to escape, but that was Gunter’s concern, not Irina’s.

And so began a new life in the warrior party.

Despite being treated as secondary members due to the existing party members, Irina was satisfied with it.

Although they were considered second-stringers, their combat skills were steadily improving, and thanks to Gunter’s achievements, their reputation within the Burgrun Kingdom was gradually rising.

While there might still be criticism from the Line Kingdom, with the support of the Burgrun Kingdom and Gunter, Irina saw no value in paying attention to Line’s criticisms.

If there was one thing she didn’t like… was it this current situation?

“What is Brunhilde, that doomed woman? Did he really fall for that woman?”

A fact they only discovered after becoming part of the same party.

While it was inexplicable to Irina, Gunter harbored an inexplicably strong obsession with Brunhilde.

When she tried to escape, she simply left her alone considering others’ attention, but thereafter, she meticulously tracked her every move.

The reason they and Emelia had hidden in the Hebor Kingdom in the first place was because of that.

Confirming that Brunhilde’s whereabouts were lost in the Hebor Kingdom, Gunter concluded that she must be attached to Heid’s party.

He believed she would be used as a secret force within Heid’s party, not publicly known outside.

Convinced, Gunter infiltrated Irina and Emelia into Hebor, ordered them to spy on Heid’s party.

If it became certain that Brunhilde was affiliated there, he would negotiate directly with Heid to receive Brunhilde’s recruits.

To their surprise, instead of Heid’s party, Freet, who had turned into a woman in some remote town, was frolicking around with adventurers.

Truly, it was baffling to Irina.

She couldn’t believe whether the Brunhilde she knew was real, to the point of doubting her own eyes when faced with her.