Chapter 16
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 16: Valkyrie
"Hmm? Hmmm? Hmmmm..."
Baek Yeon makes a puzzled expression while looking at the sky.
"What is it?"
"I was unsure at first, but... I feel a power similar to Ms. Shin Su-ah's from up in the sky."
"A similar power?"
"Yes. It feels similar to when Ms. Shin Su-ah equipped the armor she received from Lord Nidhogg."
A feeling similar to equipping the Valkyrie armor, huh.
I also raised my head and looked at the sky.
Enhancing my vision to look far away, I felt the distinct power of a Valkyrie.
The Valkyrie's power covering a certain area, or an entity, is acting as a concealment.
Why didn't I notice this until now?
Even if I'm a clone, have my senses dulled too much?
To approach the concealed entity, I got off Shin Su-ah's shoulder and flapped my wings.
The opponent is probably a Valkyrie.
Since I don't know what level of skill she possesses, it'd be best to assume she has power equivalent to the strongest Valkyrie I've seen so far.
And the strongest Valkyrie I've seen so far is a Valkyrie named Thrud.
I remember her being quite strong, befitting her status as Thor's daughter.
Boom-!!
As I ascended into the sky, flapping my wings at the maximum speed the current me in clone state could produce, the ground instantly receded, and I arrived right under the destination's nose.
Forcibly pushing away the power of the rune covering the opponent presumed to be a Valkyrie using my power, the concealed appearance was revealed.
A woman with her red hair let loose, wearing the standard Valkyrie armor, was floating in the sky.
"What. It really is a Valkyrie?"
"?!"
Startled, the Valkyrie reflexively pulled out a long spear from thin air and swung it at me.
The spear she uses is also a spear used by Valkyries, familiar to me.
I didn't react at all to the attack right under my nose.
Clang-!
Even though I didn't react at all, the spear that struck my hard scales bounced off, and despair filled the Valkyrie's face at the sight of my scales without a single scratch.
Did she really think an attack of that level would work?
"Let's go down first."
Since she realized her attacks wouldn't work anyway, I ignored the attack, approached, grabbed the Valkyrie's armor with my front paw, and descended to the ground.
The Valkyrie suffered from a descent as fast as the ascent, but I paid no mind and flew, quickly landing on the ground.
Bang!! Or rather, plummeted might be more accurate.
"Cough...!"
Waiting a moment until the Valkyrie, coughing up spit mixed with pain, calmed down, I asked.
"Why is a Valkyrie here? No, more importantly, why were you monitoring me?"
"Kuh! I won't speak."
"Oh, really?"
I grabbed the Valkyrie's leg once again and took her on a super high-speed flight.
Since she flew hanging upside down this time, she'll be dizzier than before.
"Ugh... I-I can't speak."
"Let's see how long you hold out."
When the third flight ended, the Valkyrie's expression turned pale.
"I-I don't want to!"
"One more time."
"N-nooo"
"One more."
"Blarghhh. W-wait..."
"I'm all in."
"W-wait! I'll speak! I will speak! Please let me speak!"
Only after giving her a few more tours of the sky did the Valkyrie's tightly shut mouth open.
Seriously. Troubling a dragon.
"If you were going to do this, you should have opened your mouth earlier."
"Urp... Y-you crazy bastard. You didn't even let me speak..."
Crazy bastard? Has she not come to her senses yet?
When I grabbed her leg once more, the Valkyrie clung on desperately.
"W-wait! Just a moment! I'm sorry! I was wrong!"
"It's a joke, a joke. Then tell me now why you were monitoring me."
"T-that's..."
"One more time?"
"L-Lord Odin and Lady Freyja ordered me to monitor you!"
"Odin?"
Since Valkyries basically only follow the orders of Odin or Freyja, I thought it might be possible, but to think that name would actually come up.
I realized his corpse was a fake back then, but did Odin cross over here too? If what Ratatoskr said is true, this is the world closest to the one we lived in, so it must have been close enough for the other guys to cross over too.
Considering his personality, I don't have a good premonition as to why that gloomy old geezer would make a Valkyrie monitor me.
"Where is Odin right now?"
"According to the humans of this world, she is inside a Gate in a country called North Korea."
"What is she doing inside the Gate?"
"She is creating a new Asgard to replace the perished Asgard."
Well, we weren't the only ones who lost our homes when the nine worlds perished, so they must be building a new nest too.
Considering the magic skills of Odin I saw personally, and the magic skills of Freyja, who was also called the god of magic, it wouldn't be strange even if they truly created a second Asgard.
"I understand where Odin is and what she's doing. In that case, do you know why Odin monitored me?"
"That's... I'm merely a lowly Valkyrie, so I don't really know why they gave such an order..."
Hearing the Valkyrie's answer, I turned my head to Baek Yeon.
Then, Baek Yeon shook her head side to side.
It means the Valkyrie just lied.
To tell a lie even when given a chance.
"It's clear you haven't fully come to your senses yet."
I grabbed her leg once more and gave her a tour of the sky.
"Gah..."
"I'll ask one last time. For what reason did Odin monitor me?"
"I-I can't speak..."
At the Valkyrie's attitude of firmly refusing even in a dizzy state, I considered giving her another tour of the sky, but Shin Su-ah stopped me.
"Lord Nidhogg! Don't do this here and let's take her home for now!"
"That's right. Considering this is an exposed location, we have to be mindful of other people's gazes, so a quiet place would be better."
"Shall we?"
It's not a bad suggestion.
Since I had been flying through the sky at super high speed just a moment ago anyway, people were gradually gathering around, so we hurriedly stripped the Valkyrie's armor, tied her up tightly so she couldn't struggle, and loaded her into the car while no one was looking to move.
Perhaps thinking resistance was futile, we sat the Valkyrie, who meekly followed our words, in the back seat of the car with Shin Su-ah and moved to a place I was seeing for the first time.
Baek Yeon, leaving the city and entering a mountain where no people could be seen, stopped the car in front of a building that looked like a warehouse.
"This place is?"
"It's a place I use for training and experiments."
Following Baek Yeon taking the lead inside the building, the interior revealed various monster materials and multiple spears on display, just as she said.
"These look quite sturdy."
"Yes. Because it's a place where I purposely bring sturdy parts of monsters and experiment on how to kill them more comfortably and quickly."
"Hoh..."
Shin Su-ah set the Valkyrie down on what looked like an operating table.
Right next to the table, various tools ranging from chainsaws to hammers, awls, and knives were filled, and perhaps imagining something ominous, the Valkyrie trembled violently.
"H-hiii..."
With the violently trembling Valkyrie in front of her, Baek Yeon, wearing translucent white gloves, stroked the tools and asked.
"What shall we start with?"
As expected, this bitch really is crazy.
Meanwhile, Freyja is slowly wrapping up the finishing touches on Asgard's reconstruction.
Although not as grand and massive as the previous Asgard, she first raised all the necessary buildings and planned to gradually decorate the interior, so it can be seen as having built only the framework for now.
Since the only remaining task was the magic to be imbued together with Odin, Freyja dismissed the Valkyries a little earlier than usual.
"Thank you, Lady Freyja!" "Yahoo-! Tonight is mead!" "Ah, is there no warrior to comfort lonely me-"
Leaving the rapidly dispersing Valkyries behind, Freyja entered the palace where Odin stayed.
Inside the palace's audience chamber, Odin, sitting half-slumped on the throne, was tinkering with magic, as always.
"Why are you here?"
"I've set up the framework. Now all we have to do is complete the barrier that will envelop the surroundings of Asgard with magic."
"If it's the magic, I've already completed it."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Since that's the only thing to do here."
"Good. Let's take a look."
Speaking like a strict superior at work, Freyja checked the barrier magic Odin had completed.
Freyja, having meticulously checked if there were any sloppy parts, nodded in satisfaction.
"No problems. We can just proceed with this."
"Yeah. Are all the catalysts planted?"
"Yes. I've planted them all in the pre-designated locations."
"Good. Then leave now. Ah, right. Come to think of it, what about the Valkyrie monitoring Nidhogg?"
"You mean Linnea? Hmm... she should have come to report by now normally."
They realized that Linnea, who usually came to report around the time work ended, hadn't come yet, but the two weren't particularly worried.
Because they didn't report perfectly at the exact same time, and considering the distance, they thought she might be a little late.
"Still, it would be good to check where she is for now."
A complex magic circle appeared in front of Freyja's finger.
It's a tracking magic placed on all Valkyries going out on external reconnaissance missions.
Freyja activated the magic targeting Linnea.
Flash!
However, the magic misfired.
The magic circle, which was emitting a faint light, scattered and disappeared like broken pieces of glass.
"......"
"......"
An awkward silence flowed between Odin and Freyja.
Because the failure of the magic pointed to only one thing.
"...She must have been caught."
"...She must have been."
The two reaching the same conclusion simultaneously.
"What do we do now? Since Linnea has been caught, it's highly likely Nidhogg noticed our existence too."
"That's obvious. What's important right now isn't that, but how much Nidhogg found out about our plan."
There's a possibility she was caught and killed as soon as they met, but in the worst-case scenario, there's a possibility he even found out that Odin and Freyja are targeting Nidhogg.
And Odin, who liked to assume the worst-case scenario since being in the previous world, instantly reached a conclusion.
"Let's abandon her."
To abandon Linnea.