The four of them had eaten about two-thirds of the bear that Chika and Utaha had jointly hunted when a gap suddenly tore open nearby.
“Oh?
Runes?”
Yukari Yakumo raised a slender eyebrow.
Byakuya was holding a large skewer of bear meat in one hand, while the other traced patterns in the air, sketching runes that lingered for a brief second before dissipating.
“Sharp eyes,” Byakuya nodded.
“It’s so obvious that it would be weirder if I didn’t recognize it,” Yukari replied.
She reached over to the grill, grabbed a half-raw skewer of bear meat, and used the “Boundary of Raw and Cooked” to instantly make it perfectly charred on the outside and tender on the inside.
“…”
Esdeath glanced at Chika and Utaha.
“Hey, hey, hey!
Our situation is completely different from Yukari-neechan’s!” The girl, having read the deep meaning behind Esdeath’s gaze, pleaded her case.
“Yukari-neechan comes from a world where the occult actually exists; there might even be a real god named Odin in the Nordic regions!
It’s normal for her to recognize Runes at a glance.
But in my world or Utaha’s, who would bother studying an ancient language from the other side of the planet that local people stopped using ages ago unless they were obsessed?”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but the Norse gods in my world became a thing of the past along with the Age of Gods~” Yukari waved her skewer back and forth.
“Perhaps one or two lucky souls survived that great cataclysm, but as the King of Gods, Odin is definitely gone.”
“Speaking of which…
is there any difference between the Runes you know and the ones I’m using now?”
Byakuya drew the twenty-four Runic characters—reconstructed by Touko Aozaki, guided by Morgan, and further optimized—one by one in the air as he asked Yukari.
“Young man, you’d be better off asking if the Norse gods left any legacies after Ragnarok, and if those legacies included a Runic dictionary.” Yukari shrugged.
“The fact that I can even recognize them is impressive enough.
I haven’t even fully mastered my own Boundary powers; do you really think I have the energy to study Runes?”
“So, do you know where the legacies left by the Norse gods after Ragnarok are located?”
Remembering that in the future Gensokyo, a pair of vampire sisters would respectively wield the “Eternal Spear” Gungnir and the “Branch of Ruin/Flaming Sword/Staff of Calamity” Laevateinn, Byakuya didn’t hesitate to follow up.
“…Do you perhaps think too highly of this humble little youkai?” Yukari looked at Byakuya with an expression of profound disbelief.
“…”
*I just happen to remember seeing a meme before I transmigrated where you pressed the head of the future Gungnir wielder into a keyboard until she typed out a string of gibberish…
though that technically falls under fanon headcanon.*
“Fine, forget it if you don’t know.”
Without pressing further, Byakuya went back to eating his skewers while tracing runes in the air.
As for why he couldn’t just eat in peace…
Logically speaking, drawing one cycle of the twenty-four runes with Magic Power granted 1 point of proficiency.
If he was highly focused or captured a spark of inspiration while drawing, he could gain even more.
The returns were simply too good to pass up!
“Yukari-neechan, did you find anything interesting on your trip?”
While Byakuya was focused on grinding his proficiency, Yukari wasn’t left in peace.
She had barely taken a bite of her food before another question was thrust upon her.
The question came from Chika Fujiwara, but as she spoke, Esdeath’s gaze followed closely behind…
Clearly, someone else was far more concerned about the situation.
“I believe I’ve gathered the gist of what’s happening.”
Yukari Yakumo raised her hand, slicing several Gaps into the air to show the others her findings.
“These are the ones responsible for the recent abnormal movements of the Danger Beasts in the surrounding area…
A massive army, numbering in the tens of thousands, is marching south.
The weaker Danger Beasts have simply become food for the army, while the stronger ones—only those with special abilities like flight or burrowing—managed to escape by following their instincts when they sensed the crisis.”
“The Northern Barbarians.
It really is them.”
Esdeath’s eyes flickered slightly.
“The Northern Barbarians?
Isn’t that…!”
Chika Fujiwara started to speak instinctively, but Utaha Kasumigaoka quickly nudged her in the ribs.
Realizing her slip, Chika hurried to shut her mouth.
Yukari Yakumo had gone out on Esdeath’s request to investigate the situation.
The latter had noticed that the Danger Beasts in the region had been behaving strangely lately.
For instance, after the chat group upgraded to the official version a few days ago, a Winged Lion—which Esdeath had hunted specifically to entertain the group members for their first gathering—had appeared nearby.
Normally, such a creature should never have been in this area.
Yukari had not disappointed her; in less than two days, she had identified the source of the Danger Beasts’ abnormal movements.
However, the answer was…
Chika Fujiwara still remembered Esdeath’s mental state when she first joined the group over half a year ago.
The reason she had been like that was because her people, the Barutes Clan, had been wiped out by an invasion of Northern Barbarians not long before.
Esdeath had only survived because she happened to be out hunting at the time.
“Don’t worry about me.”
Esdeath looked up, staring at the army of barbarians on the other side of the Gap.
“My father and the others died because they weren’t strong enough…
and I am still not strong enough either.”
“That is why I will find them once I have become sufficiently powerful in the future.”
After a short pause, she added, “Not for the sake of revenge, but simply because doing so will prove that I am the one most fit to survive in this world…
Hey!
What do you think you’re doing?
Let me go!”
“Now, now~ wanting to avenge your family isn’t something you have to be ashamed of.”
Ignoring the girl’s struggles, Yukari Yakumo rubbed Esdeath’s head.
“The belief that only the strong have the right to survive isn’t wrong, but that doesn’t mean the strong cannot have their own thoughts and emotions…”
“I told you, I don’t!”
Esdeath struggled with even more intensity.
“I have set them as my target only to prove that I am stronger than them and more deserving of survival!”
“Yeah, yeah, sure~”
Yukari deployed the universal phrase for brushing someone off.
“If only you hadn’t gone out of your way to specifically mention ‘not for revenge’ just now…
Let me teach you something, Ai-chan: sometimes, the more a person emphasizes that they don’t care about something, the more it proves how much they actually do.”
“…”
Esdeath remained silent and simply summoned her mission interface.
Yukari: “G?”
In the next second, her figure vanished instantly, and the Gap in the air closed automatically as it lost its maintainer.
『Youkai Sage』: Hey, hey, hey!
Ai-chan, if you didn’t like hearing the truth, you could have just told me!
What’s with suddenly deporting me back?!
@Esdeath
“Nice one!”
Byakuya gave Esdeath a thumbs-up.