She Professed Herself The Pupil Of The Wiseman (WN)
Chapter 298: The Wiseman’s Stand-in (1)

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「What…what’s the meaning of this..?」

Wherever he looked, Bruce could only see Valkyries kneeling. It had been so sudden he did not know what to make of it, and seeked an answer from the girl who had acted as his guide.

「Our sovereign requested we prioritize your trial, Bruce. Now that that’s concluded, I took the liberty of announcing our sovereign’s arrival, so they all came to give a proper welcome.」

The guide’s response only confused Bruce further, as he let out a loud, 「Huh?!」 while turning around to look at Mira.

(That’s really not what I wanted her to do…)

Now all of the Valkyries and Bruce were looking at Mira, who just stood awkwardly with her comic book in her hand.

At their arrival, the guide girl had tried to say something about Mira, but Mira interrupted it, wanting to conceal her own identity as much as possible. But the guide had understood that in a different way, assuming that once Bruce’s business concluded, the Valkyries would be able to properly greet Mira, which was exactly what happened now.

「I knew you were no ordinary person, but I didn’t expect you to be Valhalla’s sovereign, just like Master Danbulf.」

There was still a lot to process, but he could come to terms with the idea that being the sovereign of Valhalla would result in such a welcome.

At the same time, with Mira being their sovereign, it also meant that Alfina and her sisters were the leading Valkyries there. The three who had just formed a Contract with Bruce served directly under them. In other words, even if those three were not Alfina’s sisters, they still had to follow Alfina’s training regimen.

「By the way, which Valhalla is this one?」

That was a question borne out of curiosity. All of the Valkyries present appeared exceptionally well-trained, so Bruce could tell this was a rather prestigious place.

Thus, he asked which Valhalla it was, as there happened to be multiple ones, each composed of floating islands where Valkyries trained and studied. All of them could be reached in the same manner as this one, with the visitor’s traits determining the specific destination once they arrived at the end of the staircase.

This happened to be the first one, having existed the longest and with the Valkyries there being considered the elite amongst them. And where Mira was considered their sovereign.

It was also because of Mira’s presence when going up the stairs that Bruce had essentially been forced to end up there as well.

「Wait… Those there, they look so familiar…」

As Bruce looked around in wonder, he noticed the seven sisters kneeling in front of Mira, led by Alfina. The look in his eyes slowly changed, as he recognized who they were.

「Never mind that, let’s just—」

Mira tried to change topics as soon as possible, realizing things were headed in a dangerous direction with how much Bruce knew about Danbulf. But she was a little too late.

「This is the First Valhalla.」

The guide girl replied with a polite voice.

It was common knowledge amongst those who knew about Danbulf that he was the sovereign of the First Valhalla. Hearing that, Bruce’s surprise suddenly turned into a profound realization.

「Thank you all for taking the trouble of coming to meet me. Alfina and her sisters can take care of the rest, so please return to your usual duties, and sorry for taking your time like this.」

After the solemn greeting by all the Valkyries, Mira gave them permission to leave, and they began giving respectful bows before flying away, one after another. Many of them left a few words, like 「It’s been an honor to see you,」 before leaving, so it took around twenty minutes before the area cleared.

In the end, the only Valkyries left were the guide girl, the seven sisters, and Helcune with her two sisters. Having seen all of that, Bruce slowly and nervously turned to look at Mira and asked, 「You’re Master Danbulf…are you not?」

「…」

Mira did not reply right away, but she knew she could not keep dodging the truth anymore. There was very little room for her to escape that question after everything that had happened.

Only one person could be the sovereign of the First Valhalla, and that was a position that could not be handed down to others. The only possible way was for the sovereign to no longer exist, or in more explicit terms, to die. That offered a very small window for Mira to run away through, but as she was determined to return to being Danbulf one day, she could not let him die like that.

But at the same time, she could not bring herself to reply affirmatively, wanting to preserve Danbulf’s dignity. And before she could think of what to say, someone else spoke.

「Please be mindful when speaking to our sovereign, she goes by the name of Mira now, so address her that way from now on.」

As Mira desperately clung onto a very faint hope of clawing her way out of that situation, Alfina unwittingly finished killing it off.

Alfina stood as a proud servant, caring for even the smallest issue, but her master was cursing her own fate.

On the highest island of Valhalla, where Alfina and her six sisters spent all their time training, there was also a palace. Inside, Mira was sharing her story with Bruce, including the fact that she was currently on an important mission assigned to her by Solomon.

Alfina and the others had returned to their usual training, or rather, Mira had sent them away to do that. They had really wanted to stay by her side to serve her, but as all she was doing was telling a story, there was virtually no reason for the sisters to stick around.

「Well, there you have it. This is a state secret, so don’t even think about telling anyone, you hear me?」

Mira finished telling everything to Bruce, except that she was not fully truthful when it came to her current appearance. Instead, she came up with an excuse that seemed plausible, claiming that she would not be able to move freely without attracting much attention as one of the Nine Wisemen, so she had done that for her mission, for her country, and there was no deeper reason behind it.

「So you did all of that, for Arkite…! I wouldn’t have expected any less from you, Master Danb… Mira! I swear I’ll never say a word about any of this!」

Bruce was overtaken with emotion and admiration, bowing deeply to Mira.

She had not expected to have her cover blown like that, but she felt like she could trust him to keep his mouth shut. Bruce’s overflowing joy and excitement told her that much.

Overall, Mira felt like her cover story had been convincing enough. But somehow, she had expected him to have a much stronger reaction to the fact that she was a girl now.

She could not resist her curiosity, so she decided to ask him, and he replied like it was the most normal thing in the world.

「I mean, I’m already aware that you, Lord Solomon, and Lady Luminaria are all Celestials.」

Apparently, there were plenty of stories about Celestials suddenly transforming into completely different people. So while it was a surprise to find out Mira was Danbulf, it was not something too strange for Bruce to hear.

「Hmm…I see.」

People in this world referred to former players as Celestials, and plenty of them had used Vanity Cases to alter their appearance. But knowing that it was more common than she anticipated, Mira still had no intention to announce her identity as Danbulf whatsoever. She did not want to corrupt the history of that ideal persona she had crafted.

「Ah… speaking of which, I have to confess that I’ve been using a fake name as well…」

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