Far off in the sky, where there was nothing else besides clouds, stood a building that looked like a palace, opposite which one could see the seven Valkyrie sisters training. When they saw them with their own eyes, the three sisters immediately stiffened up nervously. They’d done so as they’d realized that they were now on the topmost and very first island of Valhalla.
Turning away so as to somehow avoid being detected by the seven sisters, the three Valkyries hid themselves in Bruce’s shadow. They said, “Master Jude, Master Jude, what do you need?!” while shaking like leaves.
“Hm? Ah, yes. Sorry. Miss Mira wanted to ask you something,” Bruce said.
Having finally snapped back to his senses, Bruce turned his gaze toward Mira, who was behind the three Valkyries. Catching the hint, Helknae and her sisters followed his cue and turned around. Right then, the three noticed Mira and frantically straightened themselves up before kneeling on the spot.
“Master, we apologize for not greeting you sooner,” the three said, bowing their heads.
Meanwhile, Mira merely chuckled and said, “Not to worry, it’s no big deal.” It was a bit of a pain to have people bending over backward to be respectful, but when she said this, they merely answered, “I’m afraid that it most certainly is.” And so, attempting to move past right past this, Mira prefaced, “But more importantly…” refocusing on what she needed to speak to them about.
Mira wanted to know just how strong they were. Hearing this, the three sisters answered that they had defeated some of their fellow Valkyries and had also been defeated by some others, which was a rather vague answer when interpreted by someone not in the know.
There weren’t any monsters in Valhalla, which was a space primarily occupied by just Valkyries and animals. That meant there wasn’t anything good that Mira could use to compare their power against.
And so, Mira asked about Alfina and her sisters, to which the three sisters answered that they weren’t nearly as powerful, thereby leaving the answer inconclusive.
Therefore, Mira wound up deciding to employ the simplest method of figuring this out, and she summoned her dark knight. It would take some time, but knowing exactly how powerful her dark knight was, Mira figured it’d be an ideal way to gauge their power.
“Hrmm, I see.”
Each bout lasted about ten minutes, with Helknae and her sisters each taking on Mira’s intrepid and indefatigable dark knight. Finally, when the final sister, Elenae, ended her bout by plopping down on the ground out of breath, Mira more or less knew how powerful the three were.
The three were all roughly as powerful as each other. And, in terms of power, they were on about the same level as Scorpion.
Scorpion was a Hidden, that is, an elite member of the Isuzu Alliance. Thinking in terms of adventurer ranks, he’d likely be a mid-A rank. One might very well say that he had a considerable amount of power. However, there would surely be several such people among all the fierce contestants that’d be entering the tournament. If anything, it seemed like those who made it to the end of the tournament would likely be above A rank. When it came to being able to reach the finals, it didn’t quite feel like they were strong enough.
“All right, then how about we try this?”
No sooner had Mira thought up a way to help the sisters increase their power than she began waving her hand in the other direction, across from the three sisters. She then shouted out, “Heeey, Alfinaaa!”
She was indeed shouting toward the seven sisters, who seemed to be training even more intensely than usual in a three-on-three-on-one mock battle. They seemed to be really going at it, as the sharp sound of swords clashing occasionally rang out so loudly that they could tell that it was a ferocious bout even from far away. Naturally, when it came to a three-on-three-on-one bout, Alfina was the one fighting alone.
Despite being in such a pitched battle, Alfina turned around faster than all her sisters the moment that Mira called out to her. And as soon as she noticed that Mira was waving to her, she flew off as if she were bolting through the sky.
“What can I do for you, Master?” Alfina said, managing to elegantly kneel before Mira even after she’d made a mad dash there.
Helknae and her sisters were impressed that she’d made such a remarkable entrance, but anxiety nevertheless instantly washed over their faces.
“Actually, it’s about these three…” Mira said, looking toward the three sisters who were standing behind Bruce as if to hide. Following Mira’s gaze, Alfina called out, “It looks like you’ve been working pretty hard.” Apparently, she’d seen the three sisters fighting valiantly against Mira’s dark knight from afar.
There was a hint of venom in her words. Her voice seemed to imply that it was a bit presumptuous for the three of them to train with her master. However, the three didn’t appear to pick up on this, and they were simply glad to have been praised by Alfina.
“…Do you think they could train with you and your sisters for a little bit?” Mira said, adding that Alfina was well qualified to help Helknae and her sisters become more powerful and then explaining why she wanted them to become more powerful. It was to help out summoners, who weren’t currently held in high regard, as well as to let the sisters battle it out in the tournament in a way that’d make Valhalla proud.
The seven sisters’ training put an emphasis on the basics of combat, and it was also quite practical, such that it’d undoubtedly bring results.
Mira knew from Christina that their training was unforgiving and really quite tough, and so one might even say that it’d be perfect for boosting their power in the little time that was left until the tournament.
“We summoners will train here. And so, I’d like for you and your sisters to train these three so that they can reach a higher level than where they are now.”
The three sisters in question seemed to be rather dismayed at this turn of events, and yet Mira continued further. She asked again, “So, how does that sound? Can you do it?”
Alfina answered without even blinking. Perhaps because she’d been given such a task by someone she adored so much, Mira’s request seemed to have ignited a roaring blaze in Alfina’s heart. And showing just how fiercely determined she was, she held her sword aloft and vowed, “Leave it to me, Master! I, your subject, Alfina, will strive my very hardest to train them to live up to your expectations!”