Ragnarok (3): The Sin of Soul Theft
“So, you’re saying Odin had the Valkyries steal the souls of the dead?”
“Y-yes! I tried to stop him, but that stubborn old Odin wouldn’t listen!”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion.”
At my cold words, Freyja hurriedly clamped a hand over her mouth.
What Freyja said didn’t matter anyway. The important thing was that Odin—he of all people—had dared to trespass into the realm of souls I was responsible for.
So.
“You’ve crossed the line, Odin.”
“Eek…”
No matter how desperate he was with the gods’ downfall looming, there were things you could do and things you couldn’t. And he’d gone and done this?
Unforgivable.
Utterly unforgivable.
“So desperate with doom at your doorstep, huh? That idiot Odin. Serves you right. Now neither the Pantheon nor the human world will be able to cross over freely!”
“Pardon? Ah, well… Odin started doing this quite a while ago, you know?”
I tilted my head at Freyja’s words.
“A while ago?”
“Yes. Long before the rumors of Ragnarok even started circulating.”
Hoo. Hmm. Hm…
I see. So that’s how it is.
“That filthy scum…!”
“H-heek!!! I’m sorry!!!”
Freyja flinched and shrank back, even though I wasn’t talking to her. Had some killing intent leaked out without me realizing?
She trembled, huddling into herself.
Ahem. No.
Instead of flying off the handle, it’d be better to extract as much information as possible from Freyja first.
Sure, I could just smash everything with brute force… but that might hurt the innocent ones too.
I didn’t like the gods who’d made trouble for Baal, but I still had to carefully distinguish between those who deserved punishment and those who didn’t.
Sometimes I felt like forgetting it all and just smashing everything… but if I did that recklessly, this world probably wouldn’t stay intact either.
Indra hadn’t done that, had he? He’d begged me not to abandon this world…
Or something like that. Pretty sure that was the gist.
Anyway.
I tamped down my anger just a bit and turned to Freyja with a question.
“What did Odin do with those stolen souls?”
“W-well…”
Freyja hemmed and hawed for a while before cautiously opening her mouth.
“He… called them Einherjar. He used the collected souls to create soldiers… Even if their bodies were destroyed, Odin’s power would revive them to keep fighting. He turned them into the Aesir army to use against the other gods in war…”
“Soldiers?”
“Yes. Individually, each Einherjar is pathetically weak compared to gods, but he figured he could gather countless numbers to wear down the other gods’ power. And at the same time, he could absorb faith from them to strengthen himself. That’s what I heard.”
“Hah…”
I pressed a hand to my forehead at Freyja’s explanation.
So, to recap: Instead of letting souls that should go to the afterlife pass on, he steals them, recycles them into soldiers, harvests faith from them, and throws them into battles against other gods to grind everyone down in an attrition war?
And he thought I wouldn’t notice?
Or did he think the soldiers he gained that way were worth enough to turn against me… against the underworld gods?
And how the hell did the Valkyries fool the reapers and steal those souls in the first place?
I really couldn’t figure it out.
“How did you trick the reapers?”
“The reapers?”
“Yeah. Stealing souls right under the noses of the reapers who collect them shouldn’t have been easy.”
If they’d been caught even once, word would’ve reached the underworld immediately. How did they pull it off without the reapers noticing?
“W-well… On battlefields where wars break out, tons of people die, right?”
“Sure. Lots of them.”
“In those massive battlefields, so many souls are released at once that the reapers usually wait until the fighting’s over, then collect all the scattered souls in one go.”
Hmm. Makes sense. From the reapers’ perspective, that’d be efficient.
In a war where hordes lose their lives, dispatching a reaper for every single death would be a massive waste of manpower.
Handling it all at once after the battle ends is clean and tidy.
“So, they circle above the battlefield in the form of ravens, secretly ambushing and killing off anyone with a promising soul, then snatching it. They’d nudge a stray arrow into a hit, or twist a sword or axe just enough for a fatal wound. By killing someone who wasn’t supposed to die there, they could take the soul without the reapers noticing.”
“Killing people who weren’t meant to die?”
“Yes. Usually, they target exceptional warriors fated to survive the war… By killing them off prematurely, it’s not a ‘natural’ death by lifespan, so the reapers might sense something off but just shrug it off. Plus, with battlefields piled high with corpses, missing one soul isn’t easy to spot.”
Hmm. Clever bastards came up with that one.
“Did Odin think of that method himself?”
“Pardon? Oh, yes. It was Odin’s idea. I opposed it because it was too dangerous, but he insisted it was necessary for the Aesir…”
Odin. You sly fox.
All that cunning, wasted on mere soul thievery? How foolish.
“So… how many Aesir gods were involved in this?”
“In that? Uh… well… Probably just Odin himself, the Valkyries acting on his orders, and their leader… me… ah…”
“Hoo. So you were involved too?”
“I-it’s not like that! I mean! As the leader of the Valkyries, reports had to come to me! I didn’t want to, but it’s the sorrow of middle management! Orders from above, delegating to those below! I had no choice! Yeah, that’s it!!”
“So, did you do it or not?”
At my firm words, Freyja hung her head and muttered.
“I… I did. I gave the orders…”
“Then you’re guilty too. You know that, right?”
“I-I know, but! Please let me defend myself!”
“Go ahead.”
At my cold response, Freyja’s eyes darted around before she let out a small sigh, flattened herself to the ground, and pleaded.
“Forgive me! I’ll do anything!! Just spare my life!!”
Looked like she was gearing up for a proper defense, but it boiled down to begging for her life.
Beautiful on the outside, ugly in her deeds.
Still, if she’d do anything, she might be useful.
“Anything?”
“Pardon? Y-yes! Anything!”
“You just said ‘anything,’ right?”
“Hic!”
At my icy tone, Freyja flinched with a little hiccup.
“A-anything but killing me!”
“Fine. I won’t say ‘die.’ You couldn’t exactly defy Odin from your position anyway.”
“Yes! Exactly! So please show some leniency for what I did!”
Freyja begged even more pathetically than I’d expected. The Aesir’s top beauty had vanished, replaced by a goddess merged with the floor.
Whatever. Didn’t matter.
“Alright. Then I’ll use you. In exchange, I’ll spare your life.”
“Really?!”
Freyja’s face lit up as she lifted her head to look at me.
“Um, if possible… could you spare the Valkyrie children too?”
“What?”
“Eeeek!!”
She flattened herself to the ground again.
“S-sorry! The V-Valkyries were just following orders! Odin’s the bad one! And they’re like my daughters! If you could avoid harsh punishment for them… th-thank you!”
Hmm. The Valkyries.
Stealing souls was outrageous, but they were low-ranking gods who couldn’t refuse orders.
Seen that way, there was room for leniency.
“Fine. I’ll spare the Valkyries.”
“Really?! Thank you!”
“But they’ll still face punishment.”
“I beg the Goddess of Life for mercy… please nothing too harsh.”
Freyja pressed her forehead to the ground once more. A goddess, yet so groveling.
Still, they’d done wrong, so punishment was due.
Let’s see…
Right.
“When I punish Odin later, I’ll use you for it. After that, I’ll give you and the Valkyries some work. That’ll be your punishment.”
“If it means smashing that old Odin in the back of the head, I’ll gladly do it! But… what kind of work?”
Freyja asked hesitantly.
I smiled at her.
“Nothing too hard.”
Just no retirement.
