Einherjar Becomes Valkyrie

The door to Elena's room opened a few minutes after she and Nia entered.

The first to leave the room was Elena, her lips show a radiant smile, and her figure was surrounded by an aura of triumph and satisfaction.

The next to leave was Nia, her face showed a shy smile that did little to hide the immense happiness that was trying to overflow from every pore of her radiant skin.

Even if someone might suspect that those two were showed overly happy, who could imagine the cause when both had only been inside that room for a few minutes?

That event wrapped in passion, tenderness, and love that occurred inside that room was an event that broke the logic of the world, a time lag caused by sorcery that would make the heads of great scholars explode, and which required ninety percent of Elena's total magical power, but for her, that was worth every drop of magical power.

Having finally taken the step that led her to enter that wonderful world of lilies, Elena felt fully free, without the shackles that the world and Kaname were trying to put on her.

Her complacency was high enough to take her through a warp, which would lead her to meet her half-siblings once again without the slightest change in her mood. Elena traveled to Lutrel escorted by the eight remaining Izana Knights.

"Nee-san!"

Once she arrived at her father's room in Lutrel Palace, Elena was welcomed with a hug from Bela.

"How was your walk with father?"

"It was fun for Bela, nee-san"

Elena rubbed Bela's head as she smiled.

"Welcome, Miss Elena"

"Welcome, little sister"

Also, in the room were Armand, Harlan, and Darrel.

Elena could only show a wry smile in response to Darrel's sudden change of attitude. This brother of hers had always despised her, although unlike Marla, or that human scum called Richell, Darrel never went beyond looking down on her and ignoring her, so his presence was the most tolerable for Elena among the Lutrel family members.

Behind Elena, the luminous door disappeared and Darrel could only let out a sigh. This magic door and the little girl who was hugging Elena, both were two great treasures that could not be put a price on them.

"Harlan, did you get the ingredients?"

"It has been difficult since the price exceeded our budget, but young lord Darrel helped us get them"

Elena looked at Darrel and he smiled.

"This will be useful for us too, so naturally we'll do our part, plus I've got a bonus from all this"

Darrel gently touched with his left hand the sword hanging from his waist. Elena could only let out a soft sigh when she understood that it was a mytril sword created by Bela, something that had undoubtedly happened with her father's mediation. That Armand revealed to Darrel something as important as Bela's ability, was not surprising for Elena either. Her father blindly trusted all his children, and despite everything, they were totally loyal to him.

"Elena, will you create the door here?"

"No, it is necessary that the door is on a solid rock wall. When the warp is opened the door shakes and the walls of this room could crack and end up collapsing"

"In that case, the best place is the basement of the palace"

With that suggestion on Armand's part, the group moved to the basement of the palace, to a room used to store wine barrels.

In such a place, Elena chose what seemed to be the most robust wall.

From Harlan, Elena received some iron ingots, which she deformed using magic to create a robust frame that was magically fixed on the rock wall. Darrel was breathless as he watched Elena use magic to shape the iron.

Once the door frame was finished, Elena received several bottles of magic ink from Harlan, which she used to draw some intricate lines on the iron frame, and a large, intricate magic circle in the center of the frame on the rock.

Once that singular process was finished, Elena absorbed the power of several magic cores and later transform that iron frame into a mytril frame. Darrel felt that the more he discovered about Elena, the less value he had in common sense.

After consuming more magical cores, Elena placed her palms on the magical circle drawn in the center of that mytril frame.

"Gate Creation"

Just that couple of words caused the magic circle to glow, and this glow expanded to the thin lines engraved on the mytril frame, which converged on a slot in the same frame. Finally, Elena took the SS core and pushed it over the magic circle, the core was absorbed and the magic circle stopped shining, but its outline was etched into the rock.

"Now I just need to create a similar door in Izana, and then it can be activated as long as a core-A is placed in that slot. The door will remain active for thirty seconds, and once it is closed, it can only be used again three days later, but if over one core is administered, the uptime can be extended by up to three minutes"

Elena made this explanation to Darrel, who continued to think the world was a huge place.

"You have grown up..."

A voice charged with bitterness burst into the calm of the place.

Armand turned to look at Zerina and Marla, both of whom had entered the room just as Elena activated the spell on the door. No one noticed them because they were all too focused on Elena's actions, and Elena, who had seen them, ignored them at thinking neither would do anything beyond watching.

"Mrs. Zerina, you seem to be in good health"

"And you, as the rumors say, you have become a beautiful woman"

The atmosphere was tense, and neither Armand nor Darrel could think of any way to prevent a storm from breaking out.

"I really didn't expect to hear some like this from you, but I didn't expect you to talk to me either"

"Girl, times and people change, although people change based on circumstances, and our circumstances are not the best"

"In that case, should I apologize since these circumstances are my fault?

Armand and Darrel sweat coldly.

"No way, even if this was your fault, it was your father who put us in this situation, and honestly, even if he blamed you directly, would you apologize?

"Mrs. Zerina, I never do anything that was not born from my heart, but I deeply regret having dragged my father into all this"

Armand and Darrel felt their bones freeze completely, yet neither of them could think of any way to handle this situation.

"I see that your heart and your head have also matured, as for your father, we all know that this fool would do the same for any of my children, so the question is; if it were any of my children were in your situation, would you come to help us?”

"I would, for my father's sake”

Armand felt a great warmth coming from the depths of his heart. He forcer himself to avoid shedding some tears when he felt he did not deserve those words from Elena.

"Darrel, what about you?"

Darrel's body tensed as he listened to his mother ask that question.

"I can only match my little sister on her sincerity, I could not do it did without thinking of the rest of my family"

Zerina nodded fully satisfied with Darrel's response.

"Fortunately, unlike you, my children did not inherit your father's recklessness.

"I can't tell if that's a good thing or not."

"It's good for us and bad for you"

"But in this situation, isn't it a good thing for you I am as dumb as my father?

"It surely is"

For the first time in years, Marla and Darrel heard their mother laugh. Armand himself was completely stunned.

"Now listen to me, girl, among us there is a grudge as wide as the sea, and that is something that will hardly change, but within that sea, there is an island, so, based on that island, let's temporarily put aside our grudges and collaborate to deal with this problematic situation, what do you think?

Not only were Darrel and Armand speechless when they heard that, even Marla who was standing next to Zerina was completely surprised to hear her mother's words.

"For my father's sake, I will accept your suggestion, Mrs. Zerina."

That island mentioned by Zerina was evidently Armand.

"Then it will be done that way"

After saying that, Zerina turned her gaze to Darrel.

"Darrel, make them bring all our valuables to this place, if the worst happens, we will bother this girl. As for you girl, if the worst happens on your side, you and yours can come and bother us"

Darrel nodded silently and Zerina turned around to leave with Marla behind her.

"Mother! What was that all about? What are you planning?"

As soon as she reached her mother, Marla asked those questions hoping for an answer that would reveal an unusual intrigue.

"I'm not planning anything, everything I said was true, you know well that I don't like hypocrisy and lies, otherwise I would have pretended to accept that girl when your father brought her to live with us just to please him"

Marla could not ask any more questions. As her mother had said, she did not like hypocrisy.

"Either her or us, anyone can be attacked in this situation, so we need as much from her as she needs from us, even if on her side this is only for the sake of your father"

Zerina was sure that the reason Elena had accepted her proposal was not that she expected help from the Lutrels, but for the sake of her father. As for Zerina, she chose this to have a safe escape route for her children in the worst-case scenario.

"Richell will not like this at all"

Marla exclaimed as she continued to walk by her mother's side.

Of all the Lutrels, it was Richell who had an irreconcilable hatred for Elena.

"That fool, if he had never been so stupid to attack that girl, our family would not have been broken"

Although the Lutrels were still close and completely loyal to each other, since the events between Richell and Elena three years ago, an uncomfortable distance had been created between them.

"Mother..."

"I'll make Richell understand, don't worry"

Marla could only nod to her mother's words.

For Zerina, that unpleasant event marked a before and after for her family.

Given her personality, in those days Zerina did not hide her hatred for Elena, which is why on that tragic day, the servants did not intervene when they heard Elena's screams, those useless people thought the attack was something she had planned. How could such an aberration be possible? She was a woman and had a daughter. As much as she hated Elena, in her mind she would never have place attacking her in such a despicable way.

Unfortunately, Richell was never some smart, so following a servant's joke suggestion of how to ruin that girl's life, he attacked Elena.

At the time, with her son's life at stake and because of the hatred she already felt towards Elena, Zerina really believed that if she had not been stopped by the servants, she would have attacked Elena.

Probably intimidated by what had happened and seeing her father angry for the first time, Elena ran away and Zerina never knew how to react to that. The girl she hated so much was finally gone, but the reason for this was a complete shame, and the fate of that girl might be to be attacked again by other men.

Once Zerina heard from Harlan that Armand was monitoring Elena's situation, she could let out a slight sigh of relief that she would not have to take the blame if something terrible happened to Elena. She was not a monster; she was just a woman with a strong personality trying to protect the interests of her own children.

As for Richell, once he regained consciousness after undergoing surgery to save his life, he demanded Elena's life as compensation. Zerina's response was to slap him hard and then tell him he was trash as a man, then she hugged him and told him that even if he was trash, he was still her son.

Without Elena present and trying to deal with Richell's insane hatred, Zerina forbade Elena's name to be uttered in their presence. That and other actions helped to deal with Richell's excessive hatred of Elena.

Why Darrel ended up becoming the heir, this was something Richell himself suggested to his parents on his own initiative. Richell was not so foolish as not to understand for himself that he was no longer fit for such a position. If Richell inherited the title of Marquis and then had to give it to one of his younger brother's sons, the Lutrel family would be the laughingstock of all the nobility of the kingdom.

As for Richell, at this moment he was hiding under the bed inside his room, and while his body was constantly trembling with fear, his lips murmured one curse after another directed at Elena.

What had led Richell to such an embarrassing situation had occurred a few minutes before Elena arrived at Lutrel.

Driven by her curiosity, Bela had escaped from Armand's arms to explore, and while running through the corridors she ended up meeting Richell.

For Richell it was like seeing a ghost, Elena as a child.

Bela's face was very similar to Elena's, but there were differences that anyone could notice; Bela's heterochromatic eyes, the inexpressiveness of her face, and the blond of her hair were so light that it turned silver in the sunlight.

However, fear caused Richell's mind to cannot notice such noticeable differences, and to him, as absurd as it seemed, that girl must have been Elena.

Richell ran away from Bela and hid in his room, but to his great dismay, the little girl had followed him.

Fortunately, before the girl tried to open the door to the room, Richell heard his father's voice and then understood that this girl was not Elena, but he could not feel relieved. From the other side of the door, Richell heard his father speak to that child and reveal something that caused Richell to tremble with fear, Elena would arrive at Lutrel in a few minutes.

When had her father returned to Lutrel?

Who was this little girl who looked so much like Elena?

Once again, fear kept Richell from worrying about other issues, and instead, he ended up hiding under his bed.

Since the day Elena reappeared in his life after three years, Richell had developed a deep fear of her, which was contrasting considering that he continued to hate her deeply.

"That damn bastard girl..."

His fear of Elena was so deep that he dared only whisper these words.

Some steps were heard on the other side of the room's door, and Richell's body trembled.

It was she; it must be she. That bastard girl had finally come to finish what she couldn't accomplish three years ago, to kill him. With these kinds of thoughts crossing his mind, Richell didn't even realize that his pants were now soaked with his own urine.

"Did you see Elena-sama?"

"Yes, she's as beautiful as the rumors say"

Two voices could be heard on the other side of the door, two of the maids of the palace in the middle of their usual gossip, but this time, having Elena as a subject.

Richell's body trembled, but this time not because of fear, but because of anger and humiliation.

Realizing that it wasn't Elena and noticing that he had wet his pants, he was furious and outraged. However, his anger was not strong enough to drive him out of hiding and rebuke those two maids.

"I have to kill that damn bastard girl before she kills me..."

Richell clenched his fists and bit his lips with an absurd mixture of fear, anger, and frustration.

Delirium of persecution, there was no such concept in this world, but that didn't mean this condition didn't exist, and it was under the shadow of this condition Richell had lived for most of his life because of the pressure of being the heir and having a younger brother as talented as Darrel.

Since what happened three years ago, this evil had become even more acute, leading Richell to imagine people making fun of him behind his back, and now, after Elena's reappearance and being she so strong now, this evil had become so deep that it brought Richell to the brink of madness.