Episode 30/Chapter 1: The knights of the round table (1)
TL: Tsubak
ED:
Including the now destroyed Erin, there were now ten planets in this universe.
Each of these realms used the name of a world that exists.
Just like Asgard, Erin and Olympus.
The realms weren’t the same with each other. They had similar parts but each of them had their unique colors.
Asgard’s biggest difference with the other realms was the existence of the world tree Yggdrasil.
Asgard was divided in several sectors and all those sectors were in touch with the roots or branches of Yggdrasil.
Asgard, the land of Gods and the place that is at the highest point of Yggdrasil.
The huge land of humans, that is covering Asgard.
Alfheim, the land of fairies, and Svartalfheim.
The beautiful land where the Vanir reside.
The home for the dwarves and the underground kingdom where the sun doesn’t rise, Nidavellir.
Asgard’s other world that is filled with frost, Niflheim.
Those weren’t the only sectors that the world tree touched. One of the roots of Yggdrasil touched with the land of the giants, Jotunheim.
This composition was widely spread in Asgard and also in Midgard. Because of that, the humans in Midgard land and rocks that were above the big roots and branches to be their world.
It was a funny idea but the truth was a bit different.
The world tree Yggdrasil was a really huge tree but it was still smaller than Midgard. No, it was certainly smaller than even Alfheim and Svartalfheim.
The world tree was just a concept.
The white and huge tree was piercing the center of Asgard and several people called it as the world tree Yggdrasil, but this was only half true. That tree was merely a substantiation of a part of Yggdrasil.
It was more proper to look at it as Yggdrasil connecting the several sectors into one.
The several lands were connected by one thanks to the system called Yggdrasil.
That was the shape of Asgard, one of the ten realms.
&
“Valkyrie Ingrid greets the commander of Idun.”
Ingrid faced Tae Ho at the entrance of the castle of Kalliv and then hit her chest twice.
After Tae Ho got promoted to the commander of Idun’s legion, Ingrid always used polite words at formal places.
You wouldn’t know in personal places but she had said that she couldn’t treat a commander of an army impolitely in a formal place.
‘She’s as earnest as always.’
There were many times that Rasgrid and Reginleif talked politely to Tae Ho but they weren’t comparable to Ingrid.
Actually, it wasn’t only the Valkyries that changed their way of speech with Tae Ho.
“Don’t call me captain Siri from now on.”
Siri had said these words about a month ago, when they were going out to clean up the remaining fomoires.
“Tae Ho, I know why you keep calling me as captain but you are now a commander. I don’t know in private places but honestly speaking it’s burdensome for you to call me captain when there are many people. It also won’t be good to you.”
For Tae Ho ‘captain Siri’ wasn’t a title but a nickname filled with affection. As Siri had faced countless trials with Tae Ho when he was merely a lowest ranked warrior, Siri was something beyond a simple comrade.
Because of that, Tae Ho came up with another nickname as soon as ‘captain Siri’ got denied.
“Then what about Siri noona?”
It was close to impossible to guess the age of the warriors of Valhalla with just their appearances, but taking into account the time they have been in Valhalla, there was no doubt that Siri was older than him.
Siri flinched at Tae Ho’s proposal and then said quickly while shaking her head.
“Ju, just call me Siri. Just like Harabal and Bracky does. Please.”
It was burdensome for Tae Ho to call her as noona but it would become a bigger problem if Bracky or Harabal imitated him.
In addition, Siri still had some rejection towards people calling her noona.
Tae Ho simply listened to Siri’s request as she had said that she was afraid about Harabal and Bracky imitating him.
Tae Ho thought of what happened with Siri and then glanced back. He could see Reginleif, Siri, Merlin, and Helga that were in the same troop in the subjugation of the fomoires so they had been with him all along.
Siri tilted her head as if asking what was wrong and then Tae Ho nodded once and faced Ingrid. Listening to the story, it seemed like Rasgrid’s group had also arrived.
As they didn’t have the time to waste or leisure, Tae Ho moved to the conference room where Rasgrid’s group was waiting at.
“For Asgard and the nine realms.”
“For Asgard and the nine realms.”
Tae Ho saluted with Rasgrid while hitting his chest twice and then greeted Harabal, Bracky and Gandur with his eyes and started the conference.
There was a map of Midgard spread in the big and square table that was in the middle of the conference room.
Ingrid placed a red rock on top of Kalliv castle that was in the center of Kalliv Ahim and started to explain.
“Garmr’s soul fragment has started to react two days ago and its pointing a certain direction just like it did in the island of king Sven or in Katren.”
They sent the soul fragments they discovered in the island and Kataron to Valhalla, but the fragments they retrieved in Radetza was still being held by Ingrid.
“The direction it’s pointing at is as following.”
Ingrid placed a long and firm wooden ruler on the table this time. The fragment of Garmr’s soul would be in the direction the wooden ruler was pointing at.
“There are no special regions in the path?”
“There are a few.”
Ingrid answered briefly at Rasgrid’s question and then placed yellow rocks on the path the wooden ruler crossed.
“They are named forests, villages and cities that exist in the path.”
Until now, Garmr’s soul fragment had always created a change. Because of that, if there were people living in the are near the fragments, then the rumors would spread much faster.
“There are particularly no rumors regarding the changes. Perhaps the soul fragments may be located on the places that the yellow rocks aren’t placed at.”
As there have already been several precedents, they could somewhat guess the distance with the amount of smoke the fragment emanated. Although the margin of error was quite big, they could lower the margin if more conditions were added.
Ingrid pointed at the place in between the two yellow rocks that were the farthest from each other.
“Currently, this place has the highest probabilities.”
Bracky frowned at Ingrid’s words. It was because the place Ingrid’s long and slender fingers pointed at was one of the famous and harsh mountain ranges in Midgard, the Karton mountain ranges.
“It’s vague.”
Rasgrid opened her eyes sharply. She raised her head to look up at Tae Ho and he nodded.
“The direction where the remaining fomoires were headed to is overlapping.”
The remnants Tae Ho and Rasgrid chased were all heading towards the mountain ranges of Karton. Their objective may be beyond the mountain ranges but it was too much of a coincidence.
Then, Merlin that was silent until now, approached the table and said.
“If it’s the mountain ranges of Karton, there’s a place that comes to my head.”
Merlin picked a red rock and then placed it in the middle of the mountain ranges.
“There’s a gate that connects to Erin in this place.”
“A gate? Are you talking about a space door?”
Merlin nodded at Rasgrid’s question.
“It’s similar. An old gate that was built long before Erin got destroyed…..and even before Camelot was set up. Erin and Asgard hadn’t been interacting with each other a few days ago.”
It was an item that the Tuatha De Danann and the fomoires disputed over with before the Milesians appeared in Erin.
“Does it still work?”
Merlin frowned as if going through his memories at Tae Ho’s question.
“It was actually half destroyed when I passed over there long ago to check on it. In addition, even if it does work, Erin has already been destroyed. There’s a possibility that the exit gate in Erin or even the place itself got destroyed. We also can’t ignore the influence of the great barrier.”
Two or more space doors had to exist in order for it to work properly. It was because the entrance and exit gates had to do their roles.
“But if it does work and there’s even a destination place, it means that it’s the escape route for the fomoires.”
Bracky frowned and said. If it were the fomoires, they may only think of hiding and live like rats, but the ones that had some strength would choose to evade the warriors of Valhalla and escape from Midgard.
“So the fragment just appeared in that place?”
If it was coincidence, then it was a trick of fate.
Harabal shrugged his shoulders and said.
“If we interpret it in a good way, it is a good opportunity. We will be able to catch two or three birds with one stone.”
The fomoires had lost their pivot with the death of Bress.
The reason Valhalla put that much effort to get rid of Bress wasn’t simply to chase away the fomoires from Midgard. It was to stop the giants from entering Midgard through the fomoires.
Now that the powerful fomoires along with Bress had died, the force of the fomoires was greatly weakened. Because of that, it would be hard for the giants to send strong giants to Midgard like in Radetza or Kataron.
The fomoires got weakened and so that would hinder the movement of the giants.
While all this happened, Garmr’s soul fragment had appeared.
Looking at it with a different point of view, it was the opportunity to take care of two things at once.
Everyone turned to look at Tae Ho and he came to a fast conclusion instead of delaying.
“Let’s depart immediately.”
To the mountain ranges of Katon.
The warriors of Valhalla left the castle of Kalliv.
&
At the same tim on a different place.
Heda was tying up the wooden boat in the dock while Tae Ho’s group was increasing their speed.
“Lalalala lalalalalla.”
After she finished setting things up, she sat on the wooden box just like the first day she faced Tae Ho. As she looked at a far place, she could see ships of other legions entering the dock.
The Valkyries of the other legions that were standing on the decks saluted Heda. Heda waved her hand lightly or greeted her with a glance of her eyes and then checked her bag she had brought with her. It seemed like she was planning to write a letter to Tae Ho while she waited.
But it was when she just spread the paper and wrote a word of ‘Hi’.
A shadow was cast over Heda’s head. Heda turned to look up reflexively as her piece of paper got dark and then faced some big warriors standing in front of her.
She was looking at them for the first time but it was different for the warriors. They had expressions as if they were meeting a famous person, as if they had heard several things about Heda.
Heda blinked for now. She looked at her surroundings and then pointed at herself with the pen she was holding.
“Huh? Maybe?”
Maybe.
“Idun’s Valkyrie.”
“The most beautiful Valkyrie.”
The warriors smirked and Heda flushed. It was partly because she was embarrassed but also because she was excited of pure happiness.
How long had passed since Tae Ho entered?
New warriors had entered Idun’s legion.
< Episode 30 – The knights of the round table (1) > End
TL note: Thanks for reading~