Chapter 10, War Freya
The War Path was not an official Path of the Kingdom of Tarapaca.
It belonged to the neighboring Pentagram Alliance.
That was the real reason Freya had been so surprised.
How had a potion strictly controlled by another country ended up here?
The tavern owner, however, assumed Freya was a complete newcomer to the supernatural world. He thought she was confused by the name itself.
“The War Path is one of the twelve fully studied Paths,” he explained. “Even among those twelve, its combat power ranks near the top.”
“I can see that you crave strength, so I gave you strength.”
“This is only a first-stage potion. Naturally, there are second-stage and third-stage potions as well.”
His expression became serious.
“But before you drink the next potion, you must fully adapt to your current strength and learn to control it.”
“You need to completely digest the potion.”
“If you force yourself to drink the next one before that, the power you can’t control will tear your body apart.”
“You’ll become a mindless monster.”
Freya listened quietly.
“There are two ways to adapt to your current power,” the owner continued.
“The first is to keep using your abilities.”
“That takes time. Even under ideal conditions, it would require several months.”
“The second method differs from Path to Path.”
He smiled.
“For the War Path, you need to kill.”
“Kill one hundred people, and you’ll be able to drink the second-stage potion without any danger.”
“Go on, kid. Come back after you’ve killed a hundred people, and I’ll give you the second-stage War Path potion.”
Freya remained silent for a moment.
“Does the method matter?”
She gave him an example.
“Suppose I planted a bomb and detonated it from a distance, killing a hundred people. Would they still count?”
“Of course.”
The owner laughed.
“This is the War Path. War has no rules.”
“It doesn’t matter how you do it, or whether you kill them directly or indirectly.”
“As long as they die because of you, they count.”
He raised one finger.
“Indirect kills may be less effective, though. You might need a few more to make up the difference.”
“I understand.”
Freya paused before asking, “Should I return to the Broken Axe Tavern next time?”
The owner seemed pleased with her response.
“No.”
“Go to Trinity Row in the southern district. Look for an old blue warehouse.”
“I’ll be waiting inside.”
The owner had clearly begun to trust her.
More accurately, he had decided she was worth recruiting.
Based on the hunger for power Freya had shown, he had every reason to believe she would follow his instructions and begin killing.
If she murdered a handful of homeless people in forgotten corners of the city, she might avoid attention for a while.
But the War Path required one hundred deaths.
That was far too many.
The moment Freya seriously attempted it, becoming a wanted criminal would only be a matter of time.
After that, there would be no turning back.
Even if she no longer wanted to join Obsidian, she would have nowhere else to go.
The owner could never have guessed that Freya had already shot Rex in the middle of a crowded street.
By now, she was probably wanted already.
That meant she could no longer return home.
The police were likely surrounding her apartment.
Even with her new supernatural strength, living in Auxerre while being hunted by the police would be extremely difficult.
Regular officers might respond first.
Once they realized she was no ordinary criminal, the Special Affairs Division would take over.
Freya knew exactly how dangerous that would be.
Captain Nolan followed the Law Path.
He had already chosen his specialization and advanced to Rank Four as a Punisher.
Fight Captain Nolan?
Was that a joke?
He would probably put her down in seconds.
Freya decided it was time to end this run.
She looked at the tavern owner.
“So the old blue warehouse on Trinity Row is an Obsidian base?”
The owner froze.
Shock flashed openly across his face.
He had never mentioned the word Obsidian.
In fact, Obsidian was only the name the Special Affairs Division had assigned to the organization.
How could an ordinary civilian possibly know it?
The owner’s expression gave Freya the answer she needed.
Before he could react, she issued a command inside her mind.
“End simulation.”
[Simulation complete.]
[Duration, eight hours.]
[Save this simulation file?]
Freya immediately overwrote the old Save Slot 01.
Then she renamed the new file.
[War Freya]
When she opened her eyes again, she was back at the academy, eating lunch with Amy.
Future Simulation had entered a one-hour cooldown.
Freya wanted to summon War Freya immediately and test her abilities.
The crowded school cafeteria was clearly not the place for that.
Instead, she continued eating with Amy and chatted about recent events at school and amusing stories from around the city.
At the same time, Freya organized everything she had learned during the simulation.
Rex’s contact, the owner of the Broken Axe Tavern, was deeply suspicious.
Would an ordinary contact really have the authority to choose which potion to distribute?
Almost everyone else had received Demon Path potions.
Yet the moment the owner took a liking to Freya, he had apparently replaced hers with something much better.
There was another problem.
This world had no cell phones or telephones.
How had the owner sent a message and arranged for someone to deliver a newly packaged War Path potion so quickly?
During Freya’s second simulation, Nolan had led an operation to capture the tavern owner.
Freya had still been a new recruit and had not participated, so she did not know the details.
She only knew that the operation had succeeded.
Before the interrogation could begin, however, the owner had suddenly died.
The same thing had happened to every other contact the division had captured.
Special Affairs believed the contacts might have hidden poison somewhere in their mouths.
Perhaps biting down on it caused immediate cardiac arrest.
Another possibility was a supernatural curse that killed them the moment they were about to reveal information.
Freya now had another theory.
What if the contacts were something like duplicates?
Perhaps the person who had taken an interest in Freya was not the tavern owner at all.
Maybe it was the mastermind controlling him from somewhere else.
Whatever the truth, Obsidian’s current objective was becoming clear.
They wanted to create as many supernatural practitioners as possible and fill Auxerre with supernatural incidents.
That would keep the Special Affairs Division overwhelmed.
It was probably why the owner had given Freya a War Path potion.
He had seen her apparent hunger for strength and her willingness to kill as casually as if it meant nothing.
By revealing the War Path’s digestion method, he hoped to push her into murdering people across the city.
The final goal was the same.
Create more chaos.
Of course, Freya had only behaved so recklessly because she was inside a simulation.
She would never act that way in reality.
She still had no idea what Obsidian hoped to achieve after distracting the Special Affairs Division.
Whatever it was, it could not be good.
The War Path potion raised another disturbing possibility.
Was Obsidian’s leader an agent sent by the neighboring Pentagram Alliance to destabilize Tarapaca?
After lunch, Freya returned to class as usual.
When the cooldown reached zero, she did not begin another simulation immediately.
She waited until the lesson ended, then went to the restroom.
Once inside a private stall, she quietly gave the command.
“Begin Future Simulation. Fourth run. Select Save Slot 01.”
To everyone outside, Freya entered the restroom looking perfectly ordinary.
When she emerged, her clothes had changed.
Her right hand was wrapped in layers of bandages, and the faint metallic scent of blood clung to her.
As before, Freya found Amy first.
She asked Amy to tell the teachers she had to leave, then hurried out of the academy.
Freya broke into a run toward her apartment.
The moment she pushed off the ground, her body felt frighteningly light.
The scenery rushed backward around her.
Freya easily overtook a moving carriage without feeling the slightest strain.
Pedestrians only felt a sudden gust race past them.
By the time they turned to look, Freya was already far down the street.
“This is incredible!”
She could not contain her excitement as she ran.
The journey from the academy to her apartment usually took close to an hour on foot.
Freya covered it in less than ten minutes.
When she reached her front door, her breathing was still perfectly steady.
She looked down at her hands and considered how to test her new abilities.
Her speed and endurance were already obvious.
Next came strength.
Freya entered the apartment and looked directly at her bed.
She walked over, bent slightly, and placed both hands beneath the frame.
Then she lifted.
Freya barely felt any resistance.
Raising the entire bed felt no more difficult than picking up a bag of groceries with one hand.
“Unbelievable…”
She looked at her arms.
They remained pale and slender, exactly as they had always been.
Who could imagine that such a small body contained this much strength?
It defied biology.
Then again, her physical abilities were supernatural.
Biology had no authority over supernatural power.
Finally, Freya removed the bandages from her right hand.
The injury had healed completely.
A scar remained in the center of her palm, and it was not especially attractive.
After considering it for a moment, Freya took out fresh bandages and wrapped the hand again.
Then a strange idea suddenly entered her mind.
She raised her bandaged hand in front of her face and struck a dramatic pose.
“Heh… The demon sealed within my right hand must never be released…”
Halfway through the line, her cheeks turned bright red.
Freya covered her face with both hands.
“What am I doing?”