The caravan entered Izana once the drawbridge was low.

The place was full of ruins and rubble, yet a beautiful palace rises imposingly to the center of the city.

Lynette, Raul, and Olga who came from the capital of the kingdom held their breath for several seconds. That palace was bigger and much more beautiful than the king’s palace!

「Let me show you the way」

While everyone admired that palace from a distance, Harlan appeared riding a horse and four Izana Knights accompanied him.

「Please…」

Raul could barely respond upon seeing those four horsemen accompanying the butler, all four wearing beautiful full-body mytril armor.

Unlike Olga and Raul were intimidated, Lynette’s eyes sparkled with excitement when she saw the butterflies engraved on the mytril armors of those four knights, and on the armor of the soldiers on the wall. No was a secret to anyone in the entire kingdom that Völundr Bela signed her creations with a butterfly. Lynette was not wrong, Bela must be in Izana next to the Valkyrie.

Following Harlan, the caravan arrived in front of the palace gate. Everyone be intimidated to see forty black-armored soldiers alienated in front of the palace.

Thanks to Harlan taking care of going to Dur and Lendolf to sell the mytril weapons and buy materials and everything required, Elena had used most of her time and her supply of magic cores to create steel soldiers and Izana Knights. There were ten Izana Knights and three hundred steel soldiers in Izana.

Regarding construction work, the Palace construction had already finished, so Necro and his skeleton soldiers are focused on the underground necropolis. Regarding the fort, it had also been having completed, and the golems had returned to work on the building the enormous warehouse intended for them.

Harlan and the Izana Knights dismounted, so Olga, Raul, and Lynette got out of their cart.

Before Raul could speak a single word to Harlan, the forty black-armored soldiers moved in perfect coordination to form two columns that formed a path to the palace gate.

Seeing a youthful woman emerge from the palace in the company of an elegant middle-aged man, the members of the caravan once again gasped. No doubt it was she, the Izana’s Valkyria. Immediately all the mercenaries dismounted and bowed their heads, but keeping their eyes on that youthful woman.

For the first time, Olga could see how Lynette’s eyes widened with surprise as she saw another woman. Olga could not blame Lynette, she herself had difficulty accepting that such a woman was real and not an effect of her lack of sleep. How could a woman who did not carry elven blood be so beautiful?

As for Lynette herself, she had indeed stunned. Lynette had heard of the rumors that Elena Izana was a beautiful woman, but that only described a little of what she was seeing right now with her own eyes.

Elena Izana’s beauty was unquestionable, her golden hair seemed to emit its own light similar to that of the sun, her face was as beautiful as that of an elf, her eyes were a magical violet color and her pink lips looked like soft petals of a rose. However, that was only on the surface. Elena Izana exuded an aura of absolute confidence that filtered through her immaculate gaze, it was as if this Valkyrie fully trusted both her strength and her own righteousness.

In Lynette’s mind, a peculiar thought took shape. What would have happened if Elena Izana had been a man instead of a woman? To Lynette’s own surprise, just imagining this caused his heart to beat faster.

Lynette was brought it back to reality by the action of the black-armored soldiers, who fell down on one knee under perfect coordination, and the members of the caravan could not help but imitate them.

「My Lady Elena, my Lord Armand, Miss Lynette Lilstar」

The presentation offered by the butler brought Lynette back to reality.

「I-it’s quite an honor, my lady, my lord」

For the first time in a long time, Lynette made a formal greeting. She rarely did it even for other nobles in the capital. She was still trying to get out of that strange thought that made her heart beat faster seconds before.

「Lilstar from kingdom capital’s magic item craftsmen?」

「Thats right my Lord, my father is Stuart Lilstar」

Elena and Albert exchanged glances upon hearing this, even Elena had heard about the Lilstar family, all the knights of the kingdom dreamed of carrying a magic weapon created by this family.

「What is it that brought Miss Lynette to Izana?」

At Elena’s gaze over her and hearing her voice, Lynette flinched slightly. She even felt that for a second her knees tried to give way.

Elena looked at Lynette and she was slightly surprised, leaving aside the theme that this girl was quite cute, she had slight features similar to the women in the world of Kaname, was this girl a descendant of Kaname or one of his companions? That ghost from the past who drowned in bitterness and rancor had created a lot of offspring for the sake of her plan. That Lynette Lilstar was an offspring of Kaname would not be something to be surprised about, Elena herself was a descendant of Kaname.

「Elena-sama, I wish to collaborate with Völundr Bela to make a magic mytril sword worthy of wielded by you」

Overcoming her strange thoughts and the reactions caused by them about her body, Lynette did not hesitate to reveal her first purpose. She was sticking to the plan she had previously worked out. Otherwise, Lynette could not speak given how affected her mind was by those strange thoughts.

If there was anything above a weapon made of mytril, that was a magic weapon made of mytril, as simple as that. Lynette’s plan was to appeal to Elena’s greed to fulfill her own goals.

As for what a magic weapon was, it was basically a magic item shaped like a weapon. A weapon in which a spell or some magic runes are it engraved, which can be used repeatedly as long as it administers magic power and until the magic core used to manufacture it breaks.

「It’s an interesting target, but why?」

「Out of admiration, collaborating with the best blacksmith on the continent to make a magic mytril sword that will be wielded by the only woman worthy of being considered a Valkyria, is the romance of this craftswoman, Elena-sama」

Lynette truly wanted to create that sword for this woman who was causing her thoughts to be so strange.

「Once you make that sword, what will be your next goal, Miss Lynette?」

Being clear, Elena was not interested in a magic sword, she could use a wide variety of spells without conjuration and runic magic, what use would a magic sword have for her? However, if it was a matter of handing out magic swords to her steel soldiers and Izana Knights, that was something that truly interested Elena.

For a second Lynette’s chaotic thoughts finally stopped, that Elena would not be tempted by the possibility of acquiring a mytril magic sword, this was something that was totally beyond Lynette’s expectations. Anyone would forget other topics and gladly accept such a gift, but apparently the Valkyrie could not be judged in the same way as other people.

「Elena-sama, do you plan to revive this city?」

「That’s one of my goals, and I already have a way to do it」

「I-in that case, it would not be of great help to your city if a magic item craftsman from the Lilstar family were installed in your city?」

Lynette had no choice but to throw a second hook. She improvised this.

Elena raised one of her eyebrows upon hearing Lynette’s offer. What did this girl really want? That was what came up in her mind.

「Of course, I would never reject such a person under normal circumstances」

「Under normal circumstances?」

「That’s right, I’m afraid for the time being it will be impossible for you to stay in Izana, Miss Lynette」

Lynette was speechless. Had her second hook failed? However, far from feeling angry about the rejection of her proposal that would turn even other kingdoms upside down, Lynette’s interest in staying in Izana only increased. Lynette wanted to know more about this Valkyria who could reject all her proposals so easily. Was this beautiful woman human and not a divine being?

「Elena-sama, can I ask about the reason I can’t stay in your city?」

How could Lynette just give up when she had finally found something interesting, or rather, someone as interesting as Elena Izana?

Elena narrowed her eyes and was silent for a few seconds.

「The answer is simple Miss Lynette, war」

Lynette’s eyes widened.

In the capital even after the victory in the battle over which the Valkyria rise gloriously, people continually spoke of an impending war. Was Elena Izana preparing to take part in that war?

「In that case, all the more reason you should allow me to stay in your city, Elena-sama, me and Völundr Bela can create magic weapons for your troops 」

Lynette clasped her hands and to the surprise of Olga and Raul, the selfish and vain lady was almost pleading when saying those words.

Elena and Armand, they both had intrigued at Lynette’s insistence. Neither could deny that such a proposal was tempting, but there were two quite problems. First, Völundr Bela did not exist, second, the unknown intentions of Lynette.

「I have in my possession one SS+ core and three SS with which I guarantee to create four high-quality magic items for you, Elena-sama」

Faced with Elena’s silence, Lynette put the rest of her cards on the table. There was no way Lynette could just turn around to leave, Elena Izana was too interesting.

Elena could see out of the corner of her eyes how her father’s body trembled slightly upon hearing that, Armand had been doing his best to get a single SS core, but although Harlan had searched for it in Dur, Lendolf, and Lutrel, he had been unsuccessful, and yet this black-haired girl tied in two pigtails possessed not one but three SS cores and even an SS+ core. The magic cores above grade A were treasures that magical item craftsman and alchemists snatched from the hands of merchants with heavy sacks of gold, that Lynnete had such treasures was to some extent understandable.

「I think it’s late Elena, for now, let’s welcome Miss Lynette and tomorrow we can continue discussing this topic, what do you think?」

Elena could only smile in response to her father’s words. She realized he was genuinely interested in obtaining an SS core to create a warp to be used by his family in Lutrel in case of an emergency.

Lynette practically resisted the urge to jump with happiness when she saw in Elena’s gaze that she would not refuse her father’s words.

Elena readily accepted her father’s suggestion and invited Lynette into the palace. As for the mercenaries guarding Lynnete, these were asked to occupy the fort to rest.

Once inside the palace, Lynette met the rest of the people who lived in Izana, Erin, Teo, and Bryn, who wore white robes like those that any knight’s apprentice would wear, Nia and her beautiful mother, as well as the two maids. Although Lynette was fascinated to meet an elf woman, her greatest wish was to meet Bela. Would that person be as interesting as Elena Izana? However, considering that she still not be accepted in Izana by Elena, Lynette had to contain the desire to request to meet Bela.

After dinner, Lynette was assigned a large room that had an adjoining room to be occupied by her two servants, Olga and her husband Raul. In her room, Lynette was sitting on a luxurious bench in front of a large window while Olga was brushing her long black hair, something that Olga used to do daily without fail since Lynette was a little girl.

「This place is strange, miss」

Olga finally allowed herself to voice her concerns.

「What do you mean by that?」

Lynette had too focused on her goal of meeting Elena and Bela to pay attention to Izana, Olga was sure of this, so she could only smile bitterly. Her junior master was in a certain way incredible.

「All of those soldiers… I’ve seen no one be able to wear full-body armor for that long, and they don’t seem exhausted, I mean, I haven’t even seen them try to chat with each other…」

With Izana filled with those black-armored soldiers, Olga, who had always been very observant, noticed those simple but important details.

「As for this place, some mercenaries swore that a year ago they came to this place chasing a fugitive and that there were only ruins here. Not two months ago since this land was has handed over to Elena-sama, and she has already built that imposing wall and this magnificent palace, and both constructions surpass the palace and the wall of the capital 」

Through the window both Olga and Lynette looked outside, the dim lighting from the stars being the only source of light, yet it was enough to allow them to see those black-armored soldiers silently conducting rounds of surveillance.

「Miss, those men are not normal…」

Olga pointed that out in a trembling voice. Those black-armored soldiers weren’t using torches to their surveillance. It was as if they could see perfectly in the dark.

Lynette was silent for several seconds as she processed everything she had missed because of her enthusiasm.

「All this don't that make Izana much more interesting?」

As someone who could have anything she wanted thanks to the substantial fortune and influence of her family, Lynette was someone who suffered constantly from boredom. For some time this boredom led her to become interested in the love gossips and infidelity among the nobles in the capital, but she soon became bored with it. The next thing that attracted Lynette’s interest was love, and intending to fall in love, she agreed to meet all the suitors her father presented to her, but those people, whether they were noblemen or wealthy merchants, none of them could arouse not a bit of Lynette’s interest, these men were extremely boring from their personal point of view.

In these circumstances, after escaping from her home to meet the figures of her most recent interest, Elena and Bela, Lynette ended up in this place surrounded by mysteries

Besides, all those contradictory feelings and chaotic thoughts caused by the mere presence of Elena totally fascinated Lynette.

With all that, how could Lynette not be extremely excited?