“Are you hurt?” Ragna held the girl’s hands. “Is everything okay?”

The girl nodded. In her shock, she couldn’t say a word. Her eyes still stared at the glass tile that had splintered the harpoon.

“Thank Twice.” Ragna exhaled, and her body relaxed.

If anything had happened to her, she would never forgive herself. Without question, she would brand herself as a Nidingir. Valkyries were supposed to protect people, not hurt the innocent. She wouldn’t accept anything else.

Ragna lifted her hand, caressing the girl’s cheek. “I know this doesn’t mean much, but I’m really sorry for what just happened. If there’s anything I can do to make up for it, don’t hesitate to ask.” Ragna smiled. She drew the girl closer to her as their eyes met. “I’m just glad that you’re fine.”

The girl blushed.

Ragna let go of her and looked at the persons to her right and left. “Yo.” She pointed at them. “Take her to a doctor, and make sure she takes a psyche checkup. If I find out she didn’t, I’ll turn your social lives into a nightmare.” Her eyes returned to the girl. “You’re following me on Insta, right?”

The girl nodded.

“Please send me a message once you’ve been to the doctor. And I meant what I said. You can ask anything of me.”

Ragna turned her back and jumped on the bridge.

Hopefully, she was going to see a psychiatrist. Most of Midgard’s society frowned on them, seeing them as a waste of time and a sign of weakness. But she should have given her companions enough enticement to convince her.

In the circle’s center, Altera was hugging her legs. Her wings had disappeared, and her eyes looked on the glass. Murmurs left her lips in the same intervals, like the words of a broken doll.

“What the fuck was that?” Ragna’s voice dropped several octaves, turning into a contralto. As she glared at Altera, she stomped towards her, and her boots thudded over the glass floor. “You could’ve killed her.”

Altera didn’t react.

Ragna ground her teeth. “Look me in the eyes. I’m talking to you?” Ragna reached for Altera’s dress, forcing her to meet Ragna’s gaze. “You almost killed that girl and didn’t even bother to check on her. What the fuck’s wrong with you? Do you have anything to say?”

“I…I…” Altera tried to answer, but only syllables left her lips. Then, her eyes widened. Her fingers moved to her lips, brushing over them. “That wasn’t me.”

“Huh? Ragna let go and tilted her head. “What do you mean, that wasn’t you? Who else could it be?”

“I can’t summon metal stakes.” Altera got up on her feet. The panic on her face disappeared, and her facial expression hardened. “I haven’t seen any soldiers, so that would leave only … Cadet Erikson.”

“Come again?” Ragna arched her brow.

“Cadet Erikson is the only other person who can.”

“Seriously?” Ragna sighed. “Well, fuck me.” She turned towards the audience. “Sven. Get your fucking ass over here. Now.”

Her voice roared throughout the dome. The audience froze, their jaws dropping from the force and ferocity of Ragna’s words. Looking at their faces, one would believe they had seen a dragon.

And out of the audience, a man with auburn hair walked forward. He was hunching his back, his head half-starring at the ground and half at her.

“Due to interference, the duel’s been canceled.” Eli stepped into the circle as well. “Please, leave the area. There’s nothing else to see.”

֎

The spectators had all left the arena, and Eli had departed as well since she was going to leave for a week to help out those living in the less developed areas of their continent, Viking.

Only Ragna, Altera, and Sven remained within the glass dome.

Ragna took a deep breath. She clenched her fist, trying to control her anger. “Sven, what the fuck are you doing here?” Ragna forced a smile on her face to prevent herself from exploding at him.

“Your actions nearly led to a fatal accident.” Altera crossed her arms. “Explain yourself. Why did you decide to interfere in our duel? Such behavior is completely unacceptable for a Valkyrie Candidate.”

“I…” Sven gulped and looked away from Ragna. “I couldn’t let Ragna lose.”

“Lose?” Ragna facepalmed. “I wasn’t losing, and it wouldn’t justify almost killing someone. If my gravity manipulator somehow didn’t activate earlier than it should, she would have died.”

That was why she had tried to keep the duel from him. If it concerned her, Sven tended to blow situations out of proportion. But with so many other cadets hearing about their match, it had to reach Sven’s ears as well.

“I know she’s your girlfriend.” Altera’s eyes shifted towards Ragna. “But when it comes to her, you tend to blow matters out of proportion.”

Sven’s rugged face turned salmon and began to resemble his hair color. “W…We aren’t like that. I…I mean, we’re living together, but not together-together. We’re just friends.”

Ragna clicked her tongue.

“I don’t agree with her assessment of the duel either, but I have to say that your relationship to Cadet Griffin clouds your judgment.”

“Don’t worry.” Sven lowered his eyelids. “You can always trust my judgment.”

Altera narrowed her eyes. She looked at Sven in silence for several seconds until she opened her mouth. “We both have been chosen to become Valkyries. This is a big day, so just this once, I’ll let it slide.” She picked up her partisan and let it float millimeters behind her back. “But if this happens ever again, I’ll make sure you’ll pay for this.”

“Don’t think this is over yet.” Ragna pointed her saber at Altera. “We will duel again until one of us has lost.”

Altera didn’t answer. Without saying a word, she turned her back and left the arena.

Ragna and Sven were alone, and Ragna sheathed her saber.

“I’m really sorry.” Sven lowered his head. “I didn’t –”

Ragna jumped at him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and he swallowed his words. His body and expression arched up at the sudden body contact, and his face turned red.

“I thought you were mad at me?”

“Don’t be silly.” Ragna shrugged her shoulders and stared right into Sven’s mahogany eyes. “You only did it cause you were worried for me. It was an accident, and no one got hurt.”

She was mad at him, but Sven was leaving tomorrow. The last thing she wanted was to spend their last day together arguing. Sven should be at his happiest today. So, for his sake, she would be as well.

Sven’s face became redder. He started to smile and returned the gesture.

Arm in arm, they stayed like that for a minute.

“Eh…” Sven tried to say again. “May…Maybe we should let…Ehm…go…?” His eyes bounced through the room, trying to look anywhere but Ragna’s face or her body. “It’s getting a bit…Ehm…waaa…rm?”

Ragna tilted her head. “You think so? I like it here. We should stay like this…hmm…let’s say for the rest of the day.”

Sven froze, his mouth staying open.

Ragna giggled.

Sven’s face was priceless. His roughness had disappeared. So unbelievably cute. One could see how his entire system had shut down. Like, Sven.exe had stopped working.

“We…We…can’t…parade…Drake…lunch…today…”

Ah, right. They were supposed to watch the peace parade and meet her father.

Ragna let go of Sven and slipped through his arms. “But weren’t we supposed to meet in an hour?”

“I wanted to see you now,” said Sven, and Ragna gulped.

Why was he so earnest? She was defenseless. How could she respond to that? Should she kiss him? Yeah, that would be great...No. Sven had to confess first…She had to think of something.

Ragna’s lips formed into a smirk. “Ignoring duel customs and dates. You’ve become such a baaad boooy.”

“I know, right.” Sven giggled and grinned like a child.

Perhaps Sven wanted to compensate for his previous blunder and tried to act as cool as possible, but a second later, he pouted. “Wait, you’re making fun of me.”

Ragna stuck her tongue out. “Anyway, just let me shower really quick, and we can go, okay?”

“I’ll wait for you at the entrance.” Sven stretched his arms. His tight shirt didn’t even pretend to hide his well-trained body.

Ragna leaned forward. Standing on her toes, she drew a line on his cheek with her finger. Her lips formed a devious smile, and she whispered into Sven’s ear. “You know, I will allow you to peek.”

Ragna chuckled, and Sven’s face had reached maximum redness, turning him into a cherry.

“Just kidding,” she said before Sven could come back to reality – let alone say a word – and left the room.

Ragna left the arena. She pressed her palms against her sternum and smiled.

Spending the remaining two years at the academy without him as her senior would be tough. Well, it would be awesome if he became a Valkyrie. And after him, it would be her turn. The whole family would be Valkyries.

֎

“She knew that I needed her, okay, and she let me fail.” Ragna puffed and clung herself to Sven’s arm as the two strolled along the streets of the goblin alley. “And then, blamed it on me even though her lessons sucked.”

“I can’t judge her lessons, but everything she did was allowed,” said Sven. “But really, lately, you’re only talking about her.”

“I wouldn’t be if she weren’t my supervisor. Why couldn’t I get you?”

“She’s our best student, and your entry exam had the highest score. It sounded good on paper. But there’s no use in getting angry now. She has graduated anyway. I think you’re overreacting.”

“Now, I can’t get into the Valkyrie Program. Had she let me pass, I could’ve gotten the extra training to boost my career. Like, do you even know how few have become a Valkyrie without being in the program in the last hundred years?”

“It’s not impossible. Drake never even entered the military academy. You’ve your entire life ahead of you. I mean, you’re just twenty-one and just finished your first year.”

“Altera’s only two years older. She hadn’t even completed her final third year, and Captain Fran already chose her to join her team.” Ragna sighed. “If only she didn’t exist. How can you even be friends with that stuck-up Miss Perfect?”

Sven chuckled. “She has a sweeter side. Once you get to know her better, you can see it too.”

“Yeah, hard pass. I would rather get an enema than be her friend.”

“What?” Sven looked at Ragna aghast. If he had a drink, he would have spat it out. “Ehm, doesn’t matter. Let’s watch the parade.”

“Fiiiine.”

The two had reached the end of the goblin alley where the sidewalk crossed the main roadway.

Midgard’s citizens had gathered and occupied almost every speck. Eric and Ragna squeezed through them until they found two empty spots near a raised platform on which children could catch a view of the parade without adults obscuring them.

Ragna stepped on it, leaving Sven on the lower part of the street, and rested her head on his shoulder.

Stags marched on the streets: mechanical marvels that towered over the audience. Their silver bodies gleamed in the sun, fragmented the light into its base colors, and in the same instance, reflected them as rainbows.

Ragna sighed.

How ridiculous. The kingdoms celebrated a thousand years of peace between them while sending soldiers on missions to the battlefield. How many soldiers had died during this peace? Why didn’t anyone honor them? They wanted to enjoy this fucking pretend-peace? Then, they should remember whom they had to thank. Once she became a Valkyrie, she would make sure the world remembered every name.

On each stag, a rider sang a hymn. Musicians and low-ranking soldiers followed behind, accompanying the singer’s voices with sound, loud, and solemnity. Drums and trumpets harmonized with the rhythm of their march and drilled hype into the spectators’ ears. Dancers performed to the music in scantily and pompous white costumes.

But for that, she had to defeat Altera. A recording of the duel should exist as well. If she analyzed her moves, she could develop a counterstrategy. And then, Altera had to acknowledge her.

How ironic, when she first had heard that the Altera Xion was going to become her supervisor, she could have jumped in the air. Receiving supervision from the academy’s superstar was a dream come true for any first-year cadet. But dreams didn’t always translate into reality. A robot could have cared more for her than Altera did.

Ragna looked at Sven. His face was glowing, and his eyes jumped from one spot to another.

It was hard to believe that he was a twenty-three-year-old man about to become a Valkyrie. Right now, he resembled the young boy he used to be twelve years ago when Drake adopted him. But wasn’t that great about him? He had suffered so much, but that young child inside him continued to live.

“Do you like it?” she asked Sven, trying to remove any traces of bias or prejudice from her voice.

“It’s just amazing. I mean all these talented people together, all these colors and effects. It’s easy to forget, but humans can be awesome.” Sven turned to her. Tears had built in the corners of his eyes. “Sorry, I’m rambling. You didn’t have to come with me. We could have gone somewhere else.”

“If you like it, then I like it.” Ragna tightened her hold. “Anything’s fun if you’re with me.”

Immediately, Sven averted his face and concentrated on the parade. He was fast, but not fast enough. His face had gotten red again.

Ragna chuckled and looked back to the roadway as well.

Teasing Sven was fun, but she should start to enjoy the parade for Sven’s sake.

Doves and corvids flew from all corners of Midgard. Thousands of birds beat their wings and turned the sky into a transient black-and-white mosaic. With every passing second mutated the image until it had gone through enough permutations that the resemblance to the original had stopped.

Yeah, okay. The parade looked pretty, and coordinating the birds took effort.

“See,” said Sven. “First, you hate it, then, you’ll like it. Remember how often we had fought when your parents brought me in?”

Ragna grinned. “I remember that I always won. You were so small and scrawny back then. And every time you cried and ran to mom and dad.”

“I didn’t cry.” Sven’s protest was as convincing as the existence of a flying dodo. He moved his palm horizontally from his forehead and stopped when it floated far above Ragna’s head. “And now I’m tall and strong.”

Ragna chuckled and let go of her hold. She jumped down from the platform, skipped towards the ice vendor a few meters behind them, and performed a pirouette. “Since you’re so tall and adult, you can buy a few scoops for smol little Ragna, right?”

Without wasting a second, Ragna had made her order.