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Section 1
## Illustrations
## Chapter 1: The Background of Jack and the Beanstalk Is Norse Mythology
Taiwan edition. Reprinted from Light Novel Kingdom. Image editing: Dudu 1 A Valkyrie descended into the human world of Midgard. Golden hair and pale skin. Her frame was longer than an ordinary woman's, yet slimmer than a man's. A soul born of a mother of the human world could never have kept a figure so perfectly proportioned. That astonishing beauty was not meant to seize the hearts of the opposite sex. It was more like a funeral flower offered to the enemy she cut down with her own hands, and it sent a chill through anyone who looked upon it. To the eye she seemed only twenty or so, but human years cannot measure a Valkyrie. In truth, the time she had already given to battle was immeasurably long. The armor on her body was green, but this was only one of the many armaments she possessed. The true nature of this armor was magical plate that could freely change its material according to the situation. The aurora drifting across the northern sky was precisely the radiance given off by a Valkyrie's endlessly shifting armor. The weapon in her right hand looked, from its appearance, like a blue-white spear, yet in essence it was no different from a thunderbolt falling out of the sky. Once this weapon was brought to bear, all who dared defy heavenly Asgard were doomed to die. Their souls would be destroyed, and they would not even be able to join the forces of the underworld. This heavenly punishment was called the Spear of Annihilating Thunder, and it possessed a destructive power worthy of the name. "So this is how it is." A whole expanse of rubble. At the center of the charred landscape, the girl shining with brilliant light was named Waltraute. Her figure was tall, yet it did not go beyond the range of an ordinary human woman. Even so, in this moment she stood at the summit of all things, because she had already...
## Chapter 2: The Weapons of the Gods Were Not Made by the Gods Themselves
1 On this day, at Runway No. 3 of the Rainbow Bridge, the entrance and exit of heavenly Asgard, Waltraute, one of the Valkyries, was still peering down at the human world of Midgard. Not long ago this Waltraute had married a boy who lived in the human world, but for certain reasons the two were forced to live apart. Lately Frigg, wife of the chief god Odin and goddess of marriage, had also become a regular at Runway No. 3. (It was not that she had any interest in the boy of the human world. She simply watched, smiling, this quarrelsome pair of Waltraute and the boy.) Because of that, Runway No. 3 of the Rainbow Bridge could no longer be opened for use. Word had it that Idunn, the goddess who grew the apples of immortality, meant to come and set up a stall here. Heimdall, who served as both guard and controller, had slipped into a state of half-resignation. At that moment a goddess with no sense of the situation whatsoever arrived. To look at her, she was about the same age as Waltraute. "Yahoo—! Little sister Freyja, the number-one beauty goddess in the rankings of heavenly Asgard, has arrived—! How are all you dim stars doing, blotted out beneath this sun of mine—?" She had come to make a nuisance of herself while someone else was busy. Waltraute clicked her tongue without hiding it. "...So it is the sow." "Valkyrie little sister, you are far too direct—! I'll grant that my nickname, Hild, really does mean sow, but a fertility goddess is a symbol of food and abundance to begin with. Being set equal to pigs and wild boars really can't be helped, can it—?" "What didst thou come here to do?" "To congratulate you, of course—! It isn't every day Walbentraute walks into the grave of her life—! Yaha..."
## Chapter 3: The Difference Between the God-Clan and the Giants Can Be Called Extremely Unfair
1 On a certain day of a certain month. The boy and Waltraute had a fight. It happened in the middle of a date. Incidentally, this date (on the surface) had also been brought about in the form of the boy issuing a challenge to an unwilling Waltraute. The two competed at fishing by the sea. From beginning to end the boy caught only boots and buckets. Disappointed, in the final moment before time ran out he hooked the clothes of Rán, goddess of the sea, and won the contest the other way around. (As for Goddess Rán, when she was reeled in she was half-naked, which made Waltraute thoroughly displeased.) As for the cause of the fight that everyone was so concerned about... "Waltraute, you're so tall—" "Mm. However one looks at it, a somewhat larger build is still more advantageous in battle. I was designed this way." "No matter what I eat, I can't grow any taller. Your legs are so long—so nice—" "Nhya! Th-thou, what art thou suddenly touching there for, you idiot!" That was not the cause. "It's so hot—" "Ngh, mm. Probably because Freyr the fertility god is especially full of vigor today." "Doesn't Waltraute get hot, wearing that armor all the time?" "Once one grows accustomed to such a thing, it is nothing." "Hmm—there wouldn't happen to be some contraption inside that armor for staying cool, would there." "Uwaaaaaaah! Where art thou sticking thy hand aaaaaaah!" That was not the cause either. "Mountain yam—!" "Hah—hah—hah—hah—ngh, mmph. If thou wilt not eat it, do not go touching it at random. It makes the skin itch." "Yam, yam—" "………"
## A.E.01 Now Is Not the Time to Be Discussing Swimsuits
1 As usual, today Waltraute was still at Runway No. 3 of the Rainbow Bridge. Under the occupation of Frigg the marriage goddess, Freyja the beauty goddess, and the other Valkyries of the same line as the four maidens, Runway No. 3 had long since changed from a hub of traffic into a banquet hall. Guard Heimdall had abandoned his futile resistance. "Simply gather every nuisance onto Runway No. 3, and keep the remaining runways clear" seemed to have become his new principle. Just then, yet another new goddess arrived at Runway No. 3. Idunn, the fertility goddess who raised the apples of immortality. A cloth wrapped about her head, dressed in plain country-style clothing, got up like a maid—the fertility goddess Idunn (the grandeur of her chest entirely worthy of the title of goddess of abundance) held a large basket full of apples and said in a timid voice: "Um—it's about time to eat the apples." "Mm. So it is already that hour." From the basket held out to her, Waltraute took one apple of immortality. It was a red fruit, bright and clear as a ruby. Scrape away the skin and what lay inside was white flesh rich with moisture, firm and full. Crops raised by the gods were indeed out of the ordinary. The reason the gods could remain forever young was not any function of their own bodies. They depended upon the help of these apples. When Idunn, the only goddess who cultivated them, was kidnapped by the evil god Loki, the gods of heavenly Asgard had once become a super-aged society made up entirely of old men and old women. So long as they ate these apples regularly, the gods would never grow old. Only, as for the concept of age...
## Afterword
Hello again, everyone I have not seen in so long. To everyone meeting me for the first time, I am glad to meet you. I am Kazuma Kamachi. Once again, a new series. This time I wrote the story on the premise that it would be serialized in a magazine. A Certain Magical Index holds science and magic in balance. Heavy Object leans toward science. This work leans thoroughly toward the fantasy style. The theme is learning Norse mythology with pleasure! What looks foolish at a glance—"win the contest and make a Valkyrie one's own bride"—actually has meaning! That is what this work wants to express. Only, in the process of arranging those ideas into the form of a novel, many places were adapted quite considerably, so I hope everyone will simply treat this work as an "entrance." If you can make out "which places differ from actual Norse mythology, and what was obtained through the adaptation," then you have already stepped into a deeper level. A Valkyrie stands in the position of a god and looks down at the human world from the heavens, while the reader looks at such a Valkyrie from a level still higher. The structure is a little complicated, but depending on whether the reader takes Waltraute or the boy as the heroine (?), I think the target readership of this story will turn one hundred and eighty degrees. Which side did everyone prefer the first time they looked? Regarding Chapter 1. As the title shows, the material of this chapter is taken from Jack and the Beanstalk. Did you know that this story has Norse mythology as its background? The boy's name appears only here. Although it is quite an exaggerated story, in Norse mythology, in fact, "the man, of his own accord," toward a goddess, a Valkyrie, or a...