Einherjar Becomes Valkyrie

After completing what she had come to do, Elena left the forest around noon. During her journey she had used magic to hunt and prepare some food, so her only current priority was to go to the nearest city to rent a room in an inn and rest comfortably after several days of sleeping on the ground.

To more quickly reach her destination, Elena used runic magic on her horse to improve his physical abilities. Runic magic could be used on other living beings, as long as there was direct and constant physical contact between the executor and the receiver. As for the expenditure of magic power, the consumption of runic magic was less than that of sorcery.

With its body surrounded by magical runes, the horse considerably increased its gallop speed, in addition to being able to withstand the constant gallop for longer.

In a third of the time it would originally have taken, Elena reached the city of Dur, the city closest to where the battle had occurred.

Upon reaching the city gate, Elena was stopped by the guards like anyone else. With the current conflict with the neighboring kingdom of Sadora, the city of Dur had tightened its security measures for fear that sadorian soldiers would enter the city disguised to open the gates in case of siege.

「Identify yourself」

Upon seeing Elena, the guards were momentarily dazzled by Elena's beauty, however, they quickly regained composure due to their dark intentions. If this young woman was a sadorian, they could take her to a cell so they could interrogate her appropriately.

Ignoring the bad intentions visible in the guards' eyes, Elena took out an iron plate hanging from her neck and handed it to one of them.

The guard took the plate and then placed it on a small mirror that he was carrying, immediately the information magically stored on the plate as shown in the mirror.

「Elena Lutrel of the Order of Saint Eclestine…」

The guard exclaimed that with some disappointment.

「Please excuse our rudeness Lady Elena」

Ignoring the guard's apology, Elena retrieved her plate and finally entered the city.

It was close to sunset, so Elena went to the city market, there, she entered the best weapons store she could find.

「How can I help you, my lady? 」

Although fascinated by the beauty of the young woman who had just entered his store, the middle-aged man behind the counter was smart enough to notice that she was wearing light armor, this and her elegant way of walking allowed the man to realize that she was a female knight, a noblewoman.

「I would like to sell this sword」

Elena unsheathed her sword and placed it on the counter, the man's eyes widened in surprise and she immediately took it in his hands to examine it in detail.

「A high-quality mytril sword...」

The man exclaimed that with excitement as he ran his eyes over the sword blade in search of the blacksmith mark that had made it.

「This is…!」

What the man's eyes found on the blade of the sword near the hilt, was the beautiful engraving of a butterfly, its body tensed and its thoughts stopped for several seconds.

Blacksmiths often engrave their initials on the tools, weapons, and armor they make, and simply based on the detail of this engraving any beginning merchant could interpret the blacksmith's skill. However, despite a lifetime as an arms seller, this man had never seen a blacksmith engrave a figure as a signature, and most shocking was that the butterfly on the sword blade was perfectly detailed. Based on this and the enormous quality of the mytril and sword, the man could determine that this sword had been created by a blacksmith with much greater skill than Jasen Rolston, the best blacksmith in the kingdom.

「My lady, could you tell me the name of the blacksmith who made this sword? 」

Elena was slightly surprised to hear that question, was the blacksmith's name really important?

At the time, when Elena performed the spell to turn that old iron sword into this mytril sword, in her mind the spell asked her for a name or image that was to be engraved on the blade. In Kaname's memories, Elena saw that he engraved his name on everything he created through this spell, only that he did it using kanjis. Regarding Elena, she simply chose the image of the creature her mother loved so much, the butterfly.

「The blacksmith's name is Bela」

Elena simply used the first name to come to her mind associated with the butterfly, the name of her late mother.

「A woman? 」

「Yes」

The man completely lost his breath upon hearing that, it was true that there were a few blacksmith women, but no blacksmith woman had ever manufactured anything to take into account and yet this woman named Bela had manufactured a weapon with a quality superior to that of any weapon made by the best blacksmith in the kingdom.

「My lady, could I ask you for more information about it? 」

「Sorry, but that's all I know, I bought this sword from someone else and this person was not the blacksmith who made it」

The man let out a long disappointed sigh, yet there was nothing else he could do.

As for Elena, that answer was the fastest way she could think of to end the topic.

「Are you interested in buying it or should I go somewhere else? 」

「Of course I will buy it, my Lady, how about a thousand gold coins? 」

Elena forced her surprise to stay hidden under her impassive expression. She didn't know much about the price of weapons, but at best, her best estimate was about two or three hundred gold coins. Elena had been wrong, as well as it was also evident that this was only the initial price of the bid by that man.

「I have in my possession a pair of mytril daggers also forged by the same blacksmith」

「I will give you two thousand gold coins for the sword if you also sell me those daggers my Lady」

Elena avoided smiling when she saw the man bite the hook.

After receiving the two thousand gold coins, Elena bought a new iron sword and three daggers, all of the lowest quality possible, and after giving her word to return tomorrow to sell the two mytril daggers she promised, she left the store.

With more gold in her pockets than she had ever had, Elena chose to take a stroll through the market so she could enjoy her money if something that interested her came up.

「It is the last piece of the day gentlemen, our most valuable product! 」

As she walked down the street, Elena was met by a busy auction held outside a large store. On a wooden platform surrounded by an audience, a man encouraged those present with those words.

Out of curiosity, Elena stopped and approached hoping to find something that interested her, her eyes widened and her blood began to boil when she saw what was being pushed onto the stage to be shown, a young woman in chains and whose ragged clothes barely covered the key points of her body.

Slavery had been allowed in Varest since the current king had ascended the throne fifty years ago. This greatly increased the kingdom's economy, but this happened at the cost of the misery of countless men, women, and children.

「As you can see, this is a young half-elf, she has been arduously trained to work as a maid, also, as an additional bonus, she still keeps her chastity intact」

Once the advertiser added those last words, the crowd was excited.

The girl on stage had a charming face, emerald green eyes, long brown hair that reached mid-waist and her chest was not very prominent, the few clothes she wore revealed most of her skin, she was certainly a beautiful girl one step away from becoming a beautiful woman.

To show that the girl was a half-elf, the advertiser showed her pointy ears much shorter than those of the elves.

「We will start the bid with a hundred gold coins」

Elena clenched her fists tightly to contain the urge to massacre everyone present and free that girl. For Elena slavery was a personal matter, her mother had been a slave, and, according to her understanding, if she had not been very beautiful herself, her father would never have recognized her as his daughter and she would have ended up as another slave.

The bid began to rise, but it did so at a slow pace, gold was not something to squander easily, the only ones who could interfere in this contest were those driven by lust and with sufficient funds.

「Five hundred gold coins」

Once that offer echoed from the depths of the crowd, a deep silence fell over the place. All those present looked at the person responsible for raising the bid so much, all were shocked to discover that it was a young woman of much greater beauty than the half-elf on stage.

「Five-hundred gold coins offered by this beautiful Lady, does anyone offer more ?!」

Once he regained his composure, the advertiser proceeded to continue the auction. It was clear to this man that the young woman who wore light armor and possessed great beauty was a noble, only a noble could offer so much gold for something that interested it.

As for the half-elf girl, whose eyes initially shed tears continuously in front of the tragic fate that awaited her, when she heard the voice of a woman making that offer, for her it was like listening to the voice of a saving goddess and looking up to see that goddess, her heart skipped a beat, truly she must be a goddess, that young woman was even more beautiful than her mother.

With no one willing to beat Elena's offer, the advertiser ended the auction and much of the crowd dissolved with disappointed faces.

Elena took the stage and the man showed a dazzling smile, he had not expected to receive so much gold for that half-elf who had casually fallen into his hands.

「My Lady」

「Here's the gold」

Not willing to bear the presence of such a disgusting man, Elena threw a small sack with the five hundred gold coins and took the chain that she wore to the necklace over the girl's neck.

Although somewhat surprised by the attitude of the young noblewoman, the man only worried about taking the gold and smiling.

「Come on」

The half-elf girl showed no resistance and started to walk behind Elena, her emerald eyes shining with gratitude and devotion as they watched the slim figure walking in front of her.

「My Lady, I think that you would not find any use for this half-elf」

As soon as he descended from the platform, a middle-aged man stood in Elena's path.

「Although I cannot cover the price you paid in gold, I offer to pay you with products of your choice in my humble shop 」

Although the man struggled to smile, he was quite upset. He had planned to buy that half-elf to give her to a Baron and obtain his favor, however, when he bid was the highest, this young woman appeared and offered an absurd amount of gold.

「I'm not interested, get out of my way」

The half-elf girl let out a slight sigh of relief as she heard Elena give that answer.

「My Lady, my good friend Baron Simcha Rurd is interested in this half-elf, I suggest you…」

Before the man could finish his words, a sword pierced his chest and made his way to his back through his heart. Those who contemplated that scene were completely silent.

「I hope your good friend brings flowers to your grave」

Elena withdrew her sword and the man fell to the ground lifeless.

Everyone present turned pale, that young woman of great beauty was unrelenting, she had killed that man simply because he did not obey her when she ordered him to step aside. Although the nobles were generally arrogant and prepotent, the only ones among them who could act like that young woman were those in a high position of power. The people could only hold their breaths imagining that this beautiful young woman had terrifying support to be able to show that fearsome level of arrogance, a Marquis, perhaps a Duke?