* * *[ Gunther ]* * *
Irina’s report that they had let Brunhilde escape aroused intense regret and anger in Gunther.
It meant that due to the rash judgment of the two women, they had blown a golden opportunity.
‘To let an Eisenstein escape. And one who had perfectly inherited the abilities of her ancestors at that. How terribly regrettable.’
After Irina, who had been subjected to long criticism, bit her lip and left the bedroom, Gunther clicked his tongue in regret and picked up the old book he had placed on the shelf.
「 Legends of the Old Era, Forgotten and Erased. 」
A history book compiling all sorts of stories from hundreds and thousands of years ago.
True to its title of ‘Erased Legends’, it was full of groundless and absurd content, considered an old book that could be used as kindling in Burgundy.
A book that would be considered a novel rather than a history book. It was natural for it to be treated as such.
Why, you ask?
For a book recording historical events to be recognized as a history book, it must naturally include evidence proving that it is factual.
However, this book was full of rumors not even mentioned in other history books, and the parts that should prove their authenticity were all excuses saying they were ‘erased and gone’.
So, to put it bluntly, it was just a miscellaneous book with no persuasiveness, to the extent that it could be seen as someone’s delusions from the past put into writing.
Officially.
However, Gunther believed that the contents written in this book, though lacking evidence, were true.
Because he had found an item with the same title as this book in the list of confiscated items of the Goddess Church.
‘If this were really just some nonsensical novel, it wouldn’t have been included in the Church’s confiscated items.’
The fact that the Church tried to retrieve and destroy all copies of this book meant that the Church considered this book a forbidden text that must be eliminated.
That was definitive evidence that the contents written in this book were true.
Gunther had obtained this book by pure chance during a dungeon exploration, and since then he had been decoding and analyzing the contents written in ancient language one by one.
Wondering if there might be some information helpful to him contained in it. His obsession with Brunhilde was also due to the contents written in this book.
‘Eisenstein…. It was said to be a magic warlord group that boasted military power comparable to a nation a thousand years ago. Now they’re just a family of rebels.’
That’s how it was written in the book.
Although records of Eisenstein were erased from history, the legacies they left behind were not destroyed but sealed somewhere.
Gunther had almost completely decoded the ancient language on that page and concluded that a descendant of their bloodline was needed to find it.
The one remaining descendant of Eisenstein.
Brunhilde Eisenstein.
That was the reason for Gunther’s obsession with Brunhilde.
If he could get his hands on her and make her completely obedient, the power of the old Eisenstein, said to have rivaled a nation, would come into his hands.
* * *
A few days after Irina’s report. An invitation from Heid arrived for them and Gunther, whose whereabouts had been exposed due to the incident in Vespian.
An invitation containing a request for an unofficial meeting.
Since Gunther also had something he wanted from Heid, he accepted Heid’s invitation after some deliberation.
The unofficial summit that took place like that.
Gunther and Heid made several secret agreements that would benefit each other for their respective ambitions. Agreements that even the royal family or the church wouldn’t know about.
Spreading the wanted order for Brunhilde throughout Hervor was also part of the agreement content.
An agreement to spread the wanted order for Brunhilde and, if she were captured alive within Hervor, to hand her over to Gunther.
Heid didn’t know the reason for Gunther’s obsession with Brunhilde, but since it was content that wouldn’t harm him, he readily accepted it.
A day after that, a wanted order to arrest Brunhilde was issued throughout Hervor. Along with charges that Gunther and Heid had made up appropriately.
“Lord Gunther, if you wanted to catch Brunhilde, shouldn’t you have included a condition to capture her alive rather than dead or alive?”
Imelia, who had read the completed wanted poster, expressed doubt about the ‘dead or alive’ clause.
Saying that at this rate, they might end up receiving Brunhilde’s corpse instead of Brunhilde herself.
“If we had done that, it would have been too conspicuous. It’s common sense that wanted orders for such heinous criminals don’t distinguish between dead or alive.”
“Hmm, but you never know, right? What if she really dies…”
“No problem. That’s why I deliberately wrote her abilities lower.”
Gunther answered while nodding his head.
To prevent such an unfortunate incident, he said he had recorded Brunhilde’s combat ability as only at the level of a silver token adventurer at best on the wanted poster.
It was nearly impossible for such mediocre people to take down Brunhilde.
What Gunther expected from them was to clash with Brunhilde and leave traces, not to actually bring Brunhilde’s head.
“Besides, isn’t Friet… no, was it Friede? That transformed hero is with Brunhilde. Those two won’t fall to mere bounty hunters.”
“Ah, right, Friede was there too.”
Friede.
The part that Gunther was most perplexed by in Irina’s report was not the fact that they had let Brunhilde escape, but the emergence of the variable called Friede.
It was truly incomprehensible.
The fact that the incompetent hero who was thought to have gone into hiding was playing adventurer beside Brunhilde was already shocking enough.
But on top of that, her combat ability had become surprisingly strong, and she was even handling the power of the holy sword Nibelung properly.
‘And what? She had transformed into a small girl? No, that was her original form from the start?’
Even incomprehensible things have limits, don’t they?
If it had been Imelia’s report rather than Irina’s, Gunther wouldn’t have believed it at all. He would have thought she was speaking nonsense befitting a psychopath.
However, Irina was a woman with no mental problems, and moreover, she wasn’t the type to give false reports or make jokes.
No matter how much he thought about it, it sounded like nonsense, but he had no choice but to believe it.
“Come to think of it, what do you plan to do with Friede?”
Imelia asked Gunther about his plans for Friede, as if she had just remembered Friede’s existence, lightly brushing her hair.
“Are you going to kill her? Or, like us and Brunhilde?”
A question asking if he planned to capture her and bring her to the bedroom to conquer her.
Gunther looked down at Imelia with a bewildered face for a very brief moment, then opened his mouth while bringing his left hand spread out to about his abdomen.
“That woman, wasn’t she about this tall?”
“Yes, about that height?”
“And her face looked about fifteen years old?”
“That’s right. I was a bit envious of that.”
Gunther let out a hollow laugh. He wasn’t in a position to talk, but he thought this woman was really messed up in many ways.
“That’s just a child then. Moreover, a young girl with Friet inside. What fun could I have with such a blood lump?”
Even if her actual age was twenty, her outward appearance was that of a young girl in her early to mid-teens to anyone’s eyes. Such a young child was outside Gunther’s range.
Unless one was a thoroughly deranged pervert, how could anyone feel lust for such an unripe fruit?
Gunther prided himself on not being that crazy. Because he prided himself on that, he could only shudder and cringe just imagining it.
* * *[ Hilde ]* * *
Right after obtaining the helmet that had rolled down the hill and completing the Valkyria set.
Friede and I escaped from the Banaditsa fortress, which had become even more desolate than before we entered, and threw ourselves back into the waters of the Rhine River.
And as soon as the cold river water enveloped our entire bodies, we kicked our feet vigorously and swam towards the surface.
There was no interference.
The ‘drowned undead’ that had awakened to the smell of my blood had fallen back asleep by now. The wounds from the battle had long since been completely healed thanks to the pauldrons and potions.
Yes, there was certainly no interference, but…
‘Ugh, this is a bit more… than I thought.’
Unlike going down, swimming up to the surface was much harder than expected.
Well, it’s always harder to go up than to come down in anything. Be it game ranks, grades, or baseball teams.
Anyway, after swimming for so long that we were almost out of breath, we finally reached the surface and were able to grasp the riverbank and crawl onto land.
“Haaack… hieack…!”
“Haa, haa…”
Then we lay sprawled on the gravel bed, breathing heavily for a long time.
“Haa… who would have thought the last part would be the hardest…”
“Fighting three spirits would have been easier…”
Friede panted while lying spread-eagled looking up at the sky, and I knelt down, bent over with my head bowed, gasping.
My soaking wet lemon-colored hair hung down limp, covering the gravel bed like yellow seaweed, and the helmet tied at my waist rattled every time I exhaled.
You ask why I didn’t wear it on my head?
How could I? If it got swept away by the current, my heart would have been shattered.
Since there was no need to wear it right away anyway, it was wise to just tie it to my waist without doing anything unnecessary.
That’s what I thought.
“Ah, wait, could it be…!”
As Friede, who had been dazed and panting, suddenly raised her upper body,
“So you were here after all. Knight of Betrayal, Brunhilde.”
A young man’s blunt voice reached my ears.
“A pursuer?!”
An unexpected visitor. I sprang up and glared in the direction the voice had come from.
In the forest beside the riverbank. There…
“You could call me a pursuer – or not. There’s no need to be so wary. I’m not your enemy. Not now, at least.”
A man wrapped in a pitch-black, dreary robe was watching me while hiding his body between the trees.
Perhaps to show that he wasn’t an enemy, he raised both hands halfway above his head.
A face hidden by a hood. His voice sounded quite young. Young enough that he might have been a high school student if this were Earth.
“…You appear in such a suspicious manner and say you’re not an enemy? What trickery is this.”
I lowered my posture while placing my hand on the sword hilt. Ready to charge and thrust my sword before he could try anything.
Friede, standing beside me, also glared at him and stretched her hand into the air. Poised to summon the holy sword at any moment.
“You’re quite suspicious. Well, I suppose it’s natural considering your circumstances.”
A tense situation. The man nodded with a voice devoid of any laughter, then slightly bowed his waist as if greeting, bringing one hand to his chest.
“However, once you know who I am, that suspicion will disappear as well.”
Then, as if to reassure us, he politely introduced his identity.
“Greetings. I am a servant who worships the wisdom of magic. A priest embraced by the abyss. The fourth finger of the Exorcism Reversal Society. Ord Zenbel.”
Reassurance my ass, my sense of crisis shot up to the top of my head.