Chapter 159: The Valkyrie [2]
She paused for a moment as her stoic expression showed a small trace of astonishment as he spoke.
“Even I could not help but be surprised; I almost thought that I was mistaken. So, I continued to listen and analyze the phenomenon more thoroughly, but it turned out I actually wasn’t mistaken. You were holding back, and you were holding back greatly at that.”
She continued, “Do you know why I hate all men, Axel?”
He was a bit caught off guard by the sudden question. He wanted to answer that he didn’t know, but he did know, and for some reason, he didn’t want to lie to her on that.
“Because all men are blinded by lust when looking at you?”
She tilted her head and said with a chuckle, something that almost looked alien on her divine and breathtaking figure, but her face only remained stoic even now,
“Well, most only answer with, ‘I don’t know.’ I’m surprised you chose to answer honestly.”
“Not long ago, you were also the same, but now I don’t see that same lust everyone has for me in you.”
She paused and said with a sigh, looking in a certain direction with unfocused eyes,
“I didn’t want to be graced with this beauty, Axel, I never did, it is but a curse that alienates me from everything. Even other females cannot help but be enamored by my beauty, and that is the curse this world has placed upon me, the valkyrie, all the Valkyries.”
A small surprise found its way to Axel’s mind, again?? This was something that was never mentioned in the story, and why was she even sharing all this with him? No, she wasn’t even this open with Lucien until far later in the story. So, why?
But she continued unbothered by the raging turmoil in his heart,
“Unless a person has a big gap in power with me, the effect of my beauty is almost absolute, only the members of the royal family are somewhat less effected by it, but that is largely because the royal family is basically descendants of the previous Valkyrie after all, and that is the destiny of all of the valkyries, to marry the next king and sire children with great potential compared to the common people. After all, I am nothing but a slave of the king.”
“But the only ones I found who were totally unaffected by my charm were Lucien and Lumina, and now there’s also you, though you’re still a bit affected by it, not totally immune to it yet. I don’t know how you did it, but it’s a welcoming change nonetheless.”
Axel remained stupefied as he thought, so in the end, even that mighty divine beauty feels loneliness in her heart. A trace of pity flashed through his eyes as he looked at the Valkyrie.
He….still didn’t know who she exactly was or what she was or her motives, or why she always gave him a bad feeling in his heart. And that violence in her eyes, but he did know of one thing, that is, she wouldn’t lie about anything to him. Unlike Lucien, she would not try and stab him in the back or try to manipulate him.
Because she was far too strong to resort to any petty tricks, it was simply beneath her to do such a thing. If there was something she wanted, she could get it one way or the other; if there was something she did not wish to share, she wouldn’t, except for the direct orders of the king who summoned her, no one could command her to do anything. And the status of the Valkyrie was only beneath the ruling king.
Seeing the trace of pity in Axel’s eyes, she seemed almost… amused, somewhat. She stated to him in brutal honesty, “Axel Nomrad, you do not need to pity me.”
She paused for a moment as if correcting her statement, “Let me rephrase that, you’re not worthy to pity me, you simply do not have the strength to pity someone like me.”
Axel wasn’t surprised by that statement; she was someone who valued strength above everything else. She added again, “Well, that is beside the point anyway. Let me rephrase my request. Axel Nomrad, I need you to make the best runic weapon possible for me. Can you do it?”
Axel closed his eyes and turned around. He paced around for a moment, thinking to himself in his mind, ‘While there are obvious benefits to forming a connection with the Valkyrie, he would only get used by her. And making it so powerful would draw obvious attention towards him, and it would reveal his true capabilities. Not to mention that unnerving bad feeling she always gave him, it’s like his instincts always warned him to stay away from her.’
He finally said to her after much deliberation of pros and cons,
“Sorry, miss Valkyrie, but I don’t think I want to.”
She looked at him with slight surprise for a moment, but she didn’t understand him, to be honest. She totally expected him to agree, even if Axel is almost not affected by her charm anymore, any man would always still try to win her favor, or have a very good impression of her, which would be firmly placed in their mind, thus forcing them to always try to win her attention. Even disregarding all that thought, did he think that she could not do something equally valuable for him in exchange??
That thought made her chuckle internally. She couldn’t help but think how interesting this man was. And why was he always so apprehensive of her or cautious of her?
What was the reason? She kept thinking, just what could she offer to him, something that he wouldn’t be able to refuse? And there was actually another reason she called him here, to inspect something, something that she found very, very odd about him, something very wrong. She didn’t understand or know what it was, perhaps he also felt the same way about her.
And maybe they were more similar underneath than what they let on.