=====[ Gunther ]=====
Irina’s report about missing Brunhilde stirred up intense regret and anger in Gunther.
It was as if the two women had blown a perfect opportunity with their reckless judgment.
‘To miss Eisenstein. The Eisenstein who inherited the abilities of their ancestors. How could this be so regrettable?’
After Irina, who was enduring a long tirade of blame, bit her lip and left the bedroom, Gunther clicked his tongue in disappointment and picked up the old book he had placed on the shelf again.
“Legends of a forgotten past.”
It was a tome that had woven together various tales from hundreds and thousands of years ago.
True to its title, ‘Forgotten Legends’ was filled with baseless nonsense that could easily be regarded as kindling in Burgund.
It was more suitable to be considered a novel than a scholarly book. Naturally, it was seen as such.
Why, you ask?
If a book claiming to record historical events wanted to be acknowledged as scholarly, it naturally should contain evidence proving its facts.
However, this book was full of tales that weren’t even mentioned in other texts, with the excuse that any evidence was “lost and gone.”
So, to put it bluntly, this was nothing more than a book filled with unlikely fantasies penned by someone from the past.
Officially, that is.
But Gunther believed the contents written in this book to be true, despite the lack of evidence.
He had once found an item on the confiscation list of the Goddess Church that matched the book’s title.
‘If this were really just some ridiculous novel, it wouldn’t have been included in the Church’s confiscated items.’
The fact that the church sought to recover and destroy all copies of this book meant they regarded it as a forbidden text that absolutely needed to be eradicated.
That, in fact, was the solid proof that the contents of this book were true.
Gunther had stumbled upon this book completely by chance while exploring a dungeon and had been deciphering and analyzing its arcane text ever since.
He wondered if it contained any information that might be of help to him. His obsession with Brunhilde was due to the content of this book.
‘Eisenstein… A magical warlord that boasted military power comparable to that of a nation over a thousand years ago. Now just a mere rebel family.’
That’s what the book said.
Though the records concerning Eisenstein had been erased from history, it mentioned that the legacy they left behind was sealed away somewhere, not destroyed.
Gunther had nearly completely deciphered the ancient script on that page and concluded that he needed a descendant who bore their blood to find it.
The last remaining descendant of Eisenstein.
Brunhilde Eisenstein.
That was why Gunther was obsessed with Brunhilde.
If he could get his hands on her and make her thoroughly obedient, the power of that ancient Eisenstein, which was said to be equivalent to a single nation, would come into his grasp.
◆◆
A few days after Irina’s report, Gunther and the women, whose movements had been exposed due to the incident in Vespians, received an invitation from Heid.
It was an invitation proposing an unofficial meeting.
Gunther also had his own intentions with Heid, so after some hesitation, he accepted the invitation.
Thus began the unsanctioned meeting.
Gunther and Heid formed several mutual benefit agreements for their respective ambitions, agreements that even the royal family or the Church would not know about.
One of those agreements was to spread a bounty for Brunhilde throughout the entirety of Hervor.
If Brunhilde was captured within Hervor, her safety would be handed over to Gunther.
Heid didn’t understand why Gunther was obsessed with Brunhilde but generously accepted it as it held no disadvantage for him.
The day after that, a bounty for capturing Brunhilde was issued across all of Hervor, along with charges that Gunther and Heid had fabricated.
“Gunther, if you want to capture Brunhilde, shouldn’t you have included a condition for her to be captured alive instead of ‘dead or alive’?”
Imelia raised a question about the “dead or alive” clause after reading the finished bounty.
“Isn’t it likely that we would end up with Brunhilde’s corpse instead of her?”
“Otherwise, it would have drawn too much attention. Naturally, a bounty for such a vicious criminal doesn’t care about life or death.”
“Still, you never know, right? What if she really dies….”
“That’s not a problem. That’s why I deliberately downplayed her power.”
Gunther nodded in response.
To avoid such unfortunate incidents, the bounty recorded Brunhilde’s power at the maximum of a silver-tier adventurer party level.
Those lowlifes would find it nearly impossible to take Brunhilde down.
What Gunther expected from them was merely to clash with Brunhilde and leave some traces, not to actually behead her.
“Besides, Brunhilde is with Friet—no, was it Friede? Those two wouldn’t fall prey to mere bounty hunters.”
“Oh, Friede was there, indeed.”
Friede.
The part Gunther found most confounding in Irina’s report wasn’t that they missed Brunhilde, but the emergence of the variable called Friede.
That was truly baffling.
The fact that the incompetent hero, who was thought to be missing, was now playing adventurer alongside Brunhilde was shocking enough.
Moreover, her strength had apparently risen to an astounding level, and she was properly wielding the holy sword Nibelung.
‘And what? She transformed into a little girl? No, that was her original form?’
Even if it was all nonsense, shouldn’t there be a limit to the absurdity?
If it was a report from Imelia and not Irina, Gunther would have disregarded it as the ramblings of a lunatic.
However, Irina was a mentally sound woman and wouldn’t make false reports or jokes.
As much as it sounded like nonsense, Gunther couldn’t help but believe it.
“By the way, what do you plan to do about Friede?”
Only then did Imelia recall Friede’s existence and lightly brushed her hair back as she inquired about how Gunther would handle her.
“Will you kill her? Or will she end up like Brunhilde?”
Imelia asked if he intended to capture her and drag her into the bedroom to break her.
Gunther looked down at Imelia with a fleeting expression of confusion, then placed his left hand on his abdomen and spoke.
“That girl, she’s about this tall, right?”
“Yeah, about that.”
“And her face looks around fifteen?”
“That’s what it seemed like, a bit envious.”
Gunther chuckled.
He wasn’t in a position to look down on others, but he found her quite insane in many ways.
“She’s just a kid after all. A child with Friet inside her. What kind of fun can I have with such a little brat?”
Even if she was twenty in actual age, to anyone’s eye, she looked like a young girl in her early to mid-teens. That kind of kid was out of Gunther’s zone.
No sane person would feel lust for unripe fruit, right?
Gunther prided himself on not being that kind of crazy guy.
And that’s why it made his skin crawl just to imagine it.
=====[ Hilde ]=====
Immediately after completing the Valkyrie set by acquiring the helmet that had rolled down the hill,
Friede and I escaped the now more desolate Banafitza fortress and once again plunged into the waters of the Rhine River.
As soon as the cold river wrapped around our bodies, we kicked powerfully to swim up to the surface.
There were no interruptions.
The ‘Drowned Undead’ that had awoken from the scent of my blood had long since fallen back asleep. Our wounds from the battle had healed completely, thanks to potions and healing.
Sure, there were no interruptions, but….
“Ugh, this is harder than I thought….”
Unlike when we descended, swimming back up to the surface was far more difficult than expected.
Well, anything’s harder going up than going down, right? Just like game ranks, grades, and even baseball teams.
Anyway, after a long struggle that left me gasping for breath, we finally reached the surface and crawled up onto the riverbank.
“Hah… Hah…!”
“Hah, Hah….”
We lay sprawled on the gravel, panting for a while.
“Hah… Who would have thought it would be the hardest at the end….”
“Fighting three wraiths would have been easier….”
Friede lay back, staring at the sky, huffing and puffing, while I knelt, head down, and gasped for air.
My lemon-colored hair was soaked and hung down like yellow seaweed over the gravel, and the helmet tied at my waist rattled each time I exhaled.
Didn’t I wear it on my head?
Of course not. If it were to get swept away by the current, my heart would shatter.
It was an item I currently had no need for, so it was wise to just keep it tied at my waist rather than engage in unnecessary nonsense.
I thought that.
“Ah, wait, could it be…!”
Friede, breathless and dazed, suddenly shot up,
“Looks like you were here. The Betrayer, Brunhilde.”
Before I heard the voice of the stoic young man close by.
“Pursuer?!”
An unexpected intruder. I sprang to my feet with a jolt, glaring in the direction of the voice.
In the forest next to the riverbank, there stood a figure.
“I can be called a Pursuer—or not. You don’t need to be too cautious. I’m not your enemy. At least for now.”
A man clad in dark, dreary robes was hiding among the trees, looking at me.
To show he was not an enemy, he half-raised both hands above his head.
His face was hidden by a hood, but his voice sounded quite young. I could have sworn he was a high school student if he was on Earth.
“…You show up looking that suspicious and say you’re not an enemy? What trickery is this?”
I placed my hand on the hilt of my sword, lowering my stance, ready to charge and strike first no matter what the guy attempted.
Beside me, Friede also glared at him, extending her hand into the air as if she was about to summon the holy sword at any moment.
“You are quite suspicious. Well, considering your situation, that’s understandable.”
In this tense situation, the man nodded with a voice devoid of humor and slightly bowed, as if introducing himself.
“Nevertheless, once you learn who I am, that suspicion will surely vanish.”
Then, in a manner assuring us, he politely introduced himself.
“Greetings. I am Ord Zenbel, a servant of the wisdom of magic. A priest embraced by the abyss. The fourth finger of the Guma Yekcheon Association.”
An assurance? Right. My sense of danger surged to the top of my head.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.