The Land Where Magic Was Born (4)
It was the moment I activated the ultimate manly technique of choking back my tears like a true badass.
“Ahem. My lord, the night has grown late.”
Veronica, who had been waiting for our conversation to end with the politeness of a maidservant, finally spoke. It sounded like the preface to a guest politely announcing it was time to leave, but of course that wasn’t what she meant at all.
“Ah, right.”
I recalled the topic I had deliberately set aside for later because there were more important things to discuss. To be precise, I had already given a brief explanation—just that Veronica might be able to help me search for Odin’s memories inside my dreams.
I sucked up my tears like a kaleidoscopic Rinnegan and wiped my nose.
“Franc, Dana. Sorry to say this right after you got back, but it looks like I’ll have to sleep alone tonight.”
“What the fuck? You say that like we’ve been dying to sleep with you or something.”
“Wasn’t that the case? Was I the only one missing our wives’ embrace?”
When Dana pouted, I circled the table and pulled our dear Dana into a tight hug. Embarrassed, she pushed against my chest with both arms.
“You talk a good game. Anyway, what’s this about? There has to be a reason you’re sleeping alone.”
Changing the subject, Dana looked at Veronica. If her face hadn’t been flushed red, I might have felt a pang thinking she was already tired of me.
Veronica almost reflexively answered with polite formality again but froze like a robot with broken joints. It seemed the whole “successor” business had nearly triggered her automatic honorifics once more.
“I intend to investigate the deep memories within Nord’s dreams. There is a possibility that the Sky God’s arrangements remain in Nord’s mental world.”
“Hmm. The Sky God’s arrangements, huh. Just hearing it sounds grandiose.”
Dana muttered, resting her chin on her hand. It was hard to believe this was the same person who had learned healing magic and walked around in nun-like battle gear—her faith seemed to have hit rock bottom.
“Perhaps the reason Nord came to this world was because Odin did something?”
Franc asked with open curiosity, but fortunately I already knew the answer to that question.
“The guy who called himself the person’s avatar or whatever said that wasn’t the case.”
“You didn’t ask for the reason? With your personality, I figured you’d pester them about anything you were curious about.”
“This wife of mine is already nagging. Should I pester you about what my sister did in my bed too?”
“……Fuck. Isn’t it too much to threaten me just because I gave you a little scolding?”
Dana grumbled. What the hell had she done to react like that? The mental image of her sniffing my scent and secretly getting off on my bed flashed through my mind. It made me want to bury my face in those sheets myself.
“I wanted to ask too, but there wasn’t time. Besides, it didn’t feel like they knew much. It was like a soul golem left with nothing but the message for the successor and just enough intelligence to explain it.”
If I could use 21st-century terms, I would have called it an AI possessed by a soul.
Franc tilted her head at the word “golem.”
“I agree with searching for Odin’s memories. It would be problematic if we don’t understand what this successor business entails. But Nord won’t actually become a god, right? Could I even make a baby with Nord if he becomes a god?”
“The flow of consciousness took a very unique turn at the end there, but the idea that successor equals god seems like an exaggeration.”
In the myths, Odin was a god with a ridiculous number of roles. Inheriting even one of them properly would be an incredible achievement for a human. Going from isekai male-chauvinist Nord to storm male-chauvinist Nord was one hell of a career promotion.
Franc asked back with dead seriousness.
“What about making babies? That’s incredibly important too.”
“……Veronica?”
“……If they are of the Aesir, breeding with humans is possible.”
“Breeding?”
What a very god-like choice of words. The phrasing made it sound like they’d be popping out sons and daughters nonstop. Well, she wasn’t very familiar with the Britannia language, so that was probably why.
Veronica had suddenly been dragged into a married couple’s family planning discussion. Let’s not expect perfect foreign language proficiency from her.
“In fact, wasn’t Grani the descendant of a child born when the divine one mixed with an ordinary horse and body? Even gods should be able to produce offspring with other races.”
“When you put it that way, I’m suddenly curious about your species’ ecology too. If you think about it, the divine horse’s parent, the god Loki, was a bit… you know, ‘that,’ right?”
It was said that Sleipnir was born between the god Loki and a giant’s horse. A neigh, a thrust, a snort, a whinny, and a cry.
“Your questions are consistently irreverent from beginning to end.”
Veronica shuddered as if terrified of divine punishment. Since every myth has some bestiality element, I didn’t think it was something to freak out about. Above all, the fact that the Germania Nord family—who shared a similar surname with me—were true horse-fuckers is a historical fact. Your family tree is basically an interspecies ecological exchange report between horse-fuckers and human-fuckers.
“……My lord. The God of Play specialized in transformation magic. It is not entirely unimaginable, is it?”
“No, I know that much. So what I’m asking is, did he do it in horse form or human form? This is a very academic discussion. There is absolutely zero religious connotation.”
“You would have no worries even if you fell into Niflheim. There would be no time to be bored with all the punishments you’d receive.”
Veronica’s eyes gradually filled with the look of someone seriously questioning whether this crazy bastard was truly the Sky God’s descendant. She doesn’t know anything. Hell is a place where people live too—who knows, it might be surprisingly habitable?
“Such tales from the age of the primordial gods have not been passed down. It is only said that when the divine one bestowed grace upon the ancestors of the Bicorns and Unicorns, he was in human form. That is probably why our original forms resemble humans.”
“So Unicorns and Bicorns were races far removed from the appearance of horses before they were cursed?”
When Dana showed interest, Veronica nodded and continued.
“There is nothing particularly grand about our race’s ecology. We conceive and give birth in our original forms inside a sanctuary where uninvited guests cannot enter. Young Bicorns grow in the form of the divine race and, upon reaching adulthood at three hundred years of age, gain the qualification to leave the sanctuary.”
In other words, Veronica was at minimum one hundred years old and at maximum three hundred. Judging by how her own kind treated her, she definitely wasn’t at the age where her ID card was still warm. Probably around two hundred. A valid application of syllogism.
She’s not even at the fucking older-woman level, damn.
I was at a loss for words at an age scale that didn’t feel real. Maybe because I personally thought that beings over a hundred years old were different races, counting age felt pointless. Sixty-five or seventy-seven felt like grandma or grandpa, but once it exceeded a hundred, three hundred or three thousand all felt about the same. It was the difference between week-old fish and canned fish.
On the outside she looks like she’s in her teens to twenties.
Honestly, Veronica looked younger than me. Wasn’t it unfair that a girl who could meaningfully shift the average age of Sargadis was acting all coy with a charming twenty-something face? What a fucking species gap society. A moment of silence for all the homo isekai-ans whose quality and quantity of life are completely determined by bloodline gacha.
“But then wouldn’t it be a big problem if they transformed into a horse while pregnant?”
“I have never heard of it causing any issues. B-but more importantly. Why are you so interested in the Bicorn race’s ecology?”
“In my original world, I dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. It’s simple curiosity.”
It wasn’t a lie, so I decided to return to the main topic. After all, a cursed Bicorn could only be handled by a true horse-fucker anyway. Just thinking about it would reduce my sanity points. YOLO god, Mr. Nord. I’m really glad I’m not your successor.
“……I-is that so.”
Veronica looked dejected and stroked her own horn. Was there something in what I said that drained her energy?
While I was wondering, Veronica spoke.
“However…… To interfere with the deep world inside your dreams, there is a necessary procedure.”
“Procedure?”
“Um, yes. It is a ritual from the mythical age called Seidr……”
"Seidr"
The ancient rite of the mythical era
⟨ Seidr ⟩
Exchange of mana through physical contact, allowing entry into the deep world of the soul
“──Seidr?! With Nord, you?!”
The one who was shocked was Franc. I was surprised by that fact. Franc, who had far less magical knowledge than Dana or me, knew about a ritual from the mythical age? Seidr was magic I didn’t know. Was it because Franc was born in Nidavellir, which was close to Germania?
Veronica was startled that Franc had understood her words.
“S-sorry!! I didn’t mean it like that!!”
—Thud!
Veronica dropped to her knees and pressed her forehead to the floor like a maid who had spilled water on her king. It was a deep, flowing bow. In Joseon-era terms, it would be called a kowtow. Whatever it was, it was full “please kill this worthless one” mode. Her face, already blue from the curse, turned deathly pale.
Dana couldn’t hide her shock and asked.
“Wh-what is it? What the hell is Seidr? Why is she acting like that?”
It was exactly what I wanted to ask. What kind of ritual was it that just mentioning it caused this reaction? Was it some kind of human sacrifice where they’d split open my chest and rip out my heart? What if she brought an axe like Hua Tuo and declared this had been the medicine since ancient times? If I became a living mummy, no matter how much of a zombie dick it was, I wouldn’t be able to get it up.
“Th-that…… If what I know is correct……”
Franc fumbled for words before answering awkwardly.
“………………What?”
Chirp chirp (sex)?
“I-it’s different! It is not copulation! Not copulation!”
Veronica jumped up from her kneeling position and shook her head frantically. Her long hair became completely disheveled in an instant from the exaggerated reaction. What the fuck. Who was telling the truth here?
Receiving our stares, Veronica hurriedly stammered out an explanation.
“Se-Seidr is a type of ritual once performed by the Sky God or prophets. It involves exchanging mana through physical contact, and through this the casters can enter the deep world of the soul!”
“……And you’re going to do that with Nord?”
Dana asked. She didn’t sound angry, but Veronica wasn’t oblivious enough to feel relieved. As if trying to explain as fast as possible, the words poured out like a machine gun.
“It is a ritual with many uses, including prophecy and healing, but I understand it became taboo in human society and disappeared. My lord, think back. When I was swept into your dream, was it not the day you had been intimate with your wives?”
“What?”
Intimate. In other words, when they had sex. My neurons flashed as they searched the sex recording .avi inside my brain.
……She’s right?
Thus, my brain-bear player answered. Everything Veronica said was true.
Only on the nights when I made Franc pass out and fell asleep myself had I experienced lucid dreams with this girl. That was why during our first meeting I had waved my cum-covered dick at Veronica. After that we had met two or three more times, but each time I had engaged in intense sex with Franc the day before.
The only exception was this time when I went on the promotion request.
As I thought that, the scattered memories gathered and merged. Wasn’t it during the sex to help Franc awaken her mana? I had said it then—the most primal magic in this world was none other than sex. The fact that my balls were pumping out an abnormal amount of semen that defied common sense—wasn’t that also the work of mana! If overlapping bodies was the Seidr ritual, then at some point I had unknowingly become a master of it!
Oh my god! We were just having sex as lovers, yet it had all been foreshadowing!
To me, who had realized this incredibly surprising truth and lost my words, Veronica spoke hesitantly.
“Every time we met in the dream, your experience count increased to an unreasonable degree. That must have been when it qualified as Seidr. Since I had left a rune connection with you, I was swept up in the result.”
“……So that’s how it was.”
Now I understood. I had wondered why someone who had never experienced lucid dreams before was having such strange ones, and now it made sense.
More than that, her non-virgin radar is fucking accurate. She even figured out the exact number of times.
Ah, it’s too scary. Did that mean when Veronica met me again, she had already realized I had slept with Dana too? Fuck, I’m suddenly feeling embarrassed.
I stopped my neurons from recalling any more dark history and spoke.
“Hey, wait a second. If it’s like that, it doesn’t have to be you. I can just do it with Franc or Dana.”
If having a go with my wives could also establish the Seidr ritual, then there was no reason for Veronica to be my partner! To me it seemed like an extremely obvious conclusion.
Therefore Veronica answered in a creeping voice, as if she had already considered it.
“If that were the case, I would not be able to share the authority to lead your dreams……”
“……Ah.”
I see. Something similar had happened last time too. It was when I entered the deep world for the second time. Veronica had prepared countermeasures so it wouldn’t be like before, yet I had still turned her naked as I imagined. It was because the initiative of the dream had been entirely in my hands. To control the dream and search for Odin’s memories, Veronica had to be the one leading it.