“Hrmm, I might’ve expected that you could wield it so easily.”
They looked as if they were merely master and servant, and yet they really were Valkyrie and Wise Man of evocation. Before Mira knew it, they had naturally begun excitedly chatting about battle, and Alfina soon found herself testing her compatibility with the sacred sword, Sanctia.
“I’m overjoyed to hear you say that!”
At some point, Christina had become the one to use the sacred sword. It seemed that seeing Mira bestow the sacred sword upon her had nearly driven Alfina mad.
Therefore, now that she was given the sword to test out her compatibility with it, Alfina’s emotions ran wild. Smiling more brightly than Mira had ever seen from her, Alfina swung the sword around. And yet, each swing was terrifyingly sharp, as if she was trying to assert something.
While this was going on, a sudden knock on the door reverberated through the air.
“Master, listen to this!” they heard Christina say, as if on the verge of tears, as she poked her head in from the door. She looked fairly distressed, but her face froze within a second. This was because, having seemingly come to get help, she’d found Alfina happily swinging the sacred sword around.
“What’s the matter, Christina?” Alfina said, stopping dead. Perhaps because Christina had crashed her fun time with the sword, Alfina glared at her with a baleful expression.
Her voice had sounded tranquil enough, and yet, having been hit with this glare, Christina said, “Actually, it’s not important!” before turning on her heel and running out of the room.
“Jeez… Coming to visit our master without a good reason,” Alfina murmured in exasperation. “I apologize on my sister’s behalf,” she added.
“No worries, it’s fine.”
This was Christina they were dealing with, which meant she’d likely come to talk about Alfina’s training and whatnot. And, having done so, she’d come face to face with that very Alfina, and so there was no blaming her for running. Guessing as much, Mira defended the girl and asked Alfina not to chew her out too much, before changing the subject to how it felt to wield the sacred sword.
It seemed to do the trick.
“Yes, well, it’s my first time using a sword as magnificent as this!” Alfina answered. “I suppose I ought to have expected as much of Master’s sacred sword,” she continued, proudly brandishing Sanctia.
Afterward, having been assured by Mira that she wouldn’t dismiss the sword so that she could get used to using it, Alfina hurried off toward the training area with an eager look on her face. She explained that she wanted to be able to use the sword as an extension of her own body if the need to use it arose.
While she’d come to wait on her master, it seemed that serving in her role as a warrior was her number one priority.
Shortly after Alfina began her nighttime training, Mira heard another knock on the door. This time, the second oldest sister, Elezina, poked her head into the room.
“Master, do you have a moment?”
While she was the second oldest, she gave off an even stronger older-sister impression than Alfina. This had to spring from her mild-mannered demeanor, as well as the kindly expression she always wore. But most of all, it was likely because she had the biggest heart of all the sisters, and she was the most maternal.
“Hrm, what is it?”
Because they were in the palace, Elezina was garbed in simple casual clothes rather than armor, which further accentuated the big-sister vibe she gave off. She was undoubtedly the kind of girl that one could imagine being gently tucked into bed and sent to sleep by.
“Well, there is something I’d very much like to discuss with you, Master.”
She then explained that the reason for her visit had to do with combat.
Elezina, who was the most skilled with a bow of all her sisters, or rather, of all the Valkyries in general, had one other special talent, which was granting magical buffs. In particular, she specialized in conferring them onto weapons, a power she mainly used on arrowheads. She could use the kind of buffs which would increase weapons’ accuracy, have them catch fire, explode, become electrified, and so on.
This same Elezina seemed to have been quite intrigued by the flash grenade-style blasting stones that she’d used when she came to assist Mira during her previous battle with Fuzzy Dice.
Apparently, she was now looking into whether she could recreate their effect using magical buffs. She said the ability to obscure a target’s vision and hearing without even hitting them was revolutionary, and there were a ton of different applications and potential uses for such an ability.
“I keep coming up with prototypes, but it isn’t easy to replicate just how deafening and blinding those blasting stones were, and so I’m a bit stuck. And so, if possible, I was wondering if you might let me look at one of those blast stones once more,” Elezina asked, kneeling before Mira.
Truth be told, magical buffs and blasting stones actually had something in common. Or rather, in fact, it was Elezina’s magical buffs that’d given her the idea for refining in the first place. In short, it was very much possible that Elezina could figure out how to reproduce a blasting stone’s effects by analyzing it.
“Hrm, no problem. No need to give it back; take your time examining it.”
If she could figure out how to reproduce the blasting stone’s effect, then she could cause the exact same result without having to waste a blasting stone. That would definitely be a powerful addition to Mira’s arsenal, and so Mira told Elezina that she could inspect and examine it to her heart’s content before handing the stone over to her.
“Thank you very much, Master.”
Then, having taken the stone as if it were some great treasure, she hurriedly added, “I’ll get to it immediately. Pray excuse me,” before dashing off.
“No matter how she looks, she isn’t any different.”
In some ways, she was similar in nature to tower mages. Confident that Elezina’s passion would soon lead her to come up with a magical buff similar to that of the blasting stone, Mira began thinking about whether she might consider using it in combat next time.
“Um, Master? There’s something I’d like to ask you about. Do you have a moment?”
Shortly after Elezina had left, Mira had yet another visitor. It was Charwiena, the fourth sister. She had a bit of a bookworm vibe and, as this might suggest, she did possess a deep fondness for books. Additionally, she was the hardest-working of the sisters, and she had a calm and mild-mannered demeanor.
She arrived with a rather meek look on her face. Judging from this, it seemed to Mira that she must have had something very important to ask. Presuming as much, Mira calmly answered, “Hrm, sure. Ask away.”
“Thank you very much,” Charwiena answered, bowing while taking a knee.
But at the very next moment, the normally calm look on her face suddenly transformed.
“It’s about the day back when you arrived in Valhalla. I was just so intrigued by that book you were holding! I didn’t recognize the cover, and I was wondering what kind of book it was. It was full of such vivid pictures, and yet it wasn’t a picture book!” Charwiena exclaimed, moving toward Mira with curiosity positively bursting from every pore.
The love, nay, obsession, she had for books was incredibly strong.