Waltrautesan no Konkatsu Jijou - Chapter 3 - Part 15

And only one final problem remained.

After making sure a sobbing Odin declared a truce, Waltraute left the heavenly hall of Valhalla. As she did, she spotted an evil god entering.

It was Loki.

He was the one who had plotted out the entire incident.

A sharp look entered Waltraute’s eyes as she recalled all the various dangers that had approached that boy.

“I suppose the Norns’ prediction has been avoided just as you planned,” she said.

“Are you trying to say Ragnarök has been completely avoided? Do not be naïve. Fate has been twisted, but it will be mended in a different form. After all, Naglfar is not the only impetus for the beginning of Ragnarök. The sun and moon disappearing, the chains binding Fenrir breaking…there are plenty prepared. Even if a single cause disappears, the core of the issue will shift to a different impetus and the countdown towards Ragnarök will continue on. This merely delayed it. It will happen sooner or later; this just shifted its timing.”

“So this will happen again?”

“It is inevitable at the current rate,” said Loki casually. “Not even Odin can avoid the Norns’ predictions. They are so accurate you would think their mouths are curses in and of themselves. …I don’t like it. As a joker, a world with everything set in stone is no fun.”

“So that is where your essence lies, you evil god.” Waltraute’s tone of voice dropped even further. “You would never have an admirable objective like avoiding Ragnarök or protecting the nine worlds. You just want to cause trouble. You only act according to your nickname of joker. Even if this pushes Ragnarök in an even worse direction, you would not care in the slightest, would you?”

“I am not the one that decides the value of a joker. That changes depending on the rules of the game. The joker can be the best card that leads one to victory or it can be the worst card that leads one to defeat. Don’t you think that is what it means to be a joker?” Loki smiled thinly. “But if you ask me, that human boy is quite something. I throw the rules into disarray as a joker, but even that is only within the confines of the rules. But that boy is different. When I handed Dáinsleif to him, that option did not exist. His actions did not exist within the rules. That may be what it is to be human.”

“…”

“At that point, the only two options were to take the weapon or to not take the weapon. But that boy saw meaning in taking the weapon but then casting it aside. He did not simply not take it. There is a difference between that and letting it go after taking it. He used that difference to his advantage.”

Even if the boy had used the exact same words while confronting Surtr, the giant would not have been as moved by his words had the boy simply come empty handed. He would have rejected the boy’s ideas as the idealistic view of someone who had never even picked up his weapon.

And if he had stood before Surtr while still holding the weapon, Surtr would have sliced the boy in two no matter what reason the boy had. That ruler of the giants had trained himself and others for battle with the gods who ruled the worlds. He would have shown no mercy. No matter how much he might have agonized over it later, he would have brought it all to a clear end when that boy stood before him.

It was unclear how much of that the boy had done intentionally.

It was possible it had been all the more effective because the boy had not done it intentionally.

But whatever the reason…

“I can see why that war god Odin is so obsessed with this boy. Odin’s role is not to protect those who fight in wars; it is to ensure war itself persists. You could say that boy is his natural enemy. I doubt Odin himself is actually aware he views that boy as his natural enemy, though. The final battle of Ragnarök is both Odin’s ultimate end and also his greatest accomplishment as a war god. Since that boy managed to easily stop such a great war, his nature must counterbalance that of Odin.”

A world where war was seen as natural.

A world where the heroic war dead were lead to the heavenly world and those who died of old age and illness were sent to the underworld.

A world in which a war god ruled at the top and people were taught that was a virtuous thing.

That boy was a puny creature and his soul would never be anything but a soul of Midgard. In other words, he would eventually die as a human. He could only live in the basic cycle of life so he was nothing but a “puny” existence from a god’s point of view.

However…

Even so, the answer the boy had given here held a possibility great enough to overturn the basic assumptions of that world ruled by a war god where war was natural.

Loki shrugged and said, “Waltraute, it seems you have an excellent eye for men. Given the nature of Valkyries, he seems a bit unsuited for you, but who else is such a great mass of military might supposed to marry? Perhaps someone like him is needed to balance out the scales. Much like how the war god Odin is bound to the goddess of marriage Frigg.”

“H-hmph. He is not that great a soul. That boy’s soul is completely overshadowed when compared to the human Siegfried who once temporarily separated Brynhildr from the nine-Valkyrie system.” Despite denying Loki’s words, Waltraute went on to say, “But he is still the boy who attempted to climb the world tree and won that competition with me. As the impartial overseer of that competition, it is my duty to pay him a proper reward.”

“When you were trapped within the gears of that war god, you would have found it difficult to say he ‘won’ given how that competition ended.”

Loki grinned, but he then changed the subject.

It seemed seeing Waltraute’s reaction had achieved his goal.

“But I will continue to carry out my role as a joker. I will cause as much trouble as I can with fate set by the Norns’ predictions. If one is able to skillfully turn the movements of the cards in a direction that benefits him, he will be able to gather a fortune. You should pray you can handle yourself well.”

“I see.” Waltraute let out a light sigh. “By the way, I just finished going on a bit of a rampage within Valhalla.”

“So it seems. It sets a bad example for the house of the gods to be in such disrepair.”

“I do not want to let anyone slip through the cracks. I need to ensure my warning is as thorough as possible.”

“…What?” muttered Loki as the Valkyrie held a Spear of Destroying Lightning in her right hand.

In the next instant, she let loose the greatest strike that day.