Chapter 1
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 1: I Became a Dragon
The morning of my first day of work.
I purposely woke up early, finished getting ready, and headed out, but I never made it to the office.
It was because I couldn't avoid a vehicle performing acrobatic driving early in the morning, driven by someone intoxicated by either alcohol or drugs, and ended up in a traffic accident.
As I was hit by the car and sent flying through the air, something akin to a kaleidoscope of memories flashed through my mind.
Through elementary school, middle school, high school, the military, university, and even preparing for employment.
In those flashing memories, I was always living diligently without rest.
Perhaps if the accident hadn't happened, I would have become an office worker and continued to live diligently once again.
After reviewing all my memories, a sudden thought occurred to me.
'If I knew this would happen, I should have lived a little more leisurely.'
Leaving my belated regrets behind, my head smashed into the rapidly approaching asphalt.
Crunch!
Along with a brutal sound, my consciousness sank straight into some unknown depths.
I opened my eyes in a brutal cold that felt like my skin was being ripped off.
What I saw upon opening my eyes was a snowfield befitting the brutal cold.
A place where massive glaciers and blizzards raged.
Could this be hell?
I thought I lived a good life, making donations and doing volunteer work, but to think I'd fall into hell.
If I knew this would happen, I should have at least gone to a church or a temple on the weekends.
I tried to move my body to escape the cold, but it wouldn't move as I willed.
I couldn't feel anything that could be called arms or legs, and I could only crawl on the ground like a slug.
Since my body wasn't moving properly, I couldn't even accurately assess my current situation.
'Damn it. I'm freezing to death as it is, and I can't even move my body properly? This is truly no different from hell.'
Still, I felt like I would freeze to death if I stayed still, so I mustered all my strength to move my body, even if it meant crawling on the ground.
At first, moving was torture, but as I kept moving, I got the hang of it and was able to slowly advance in the direction I wanted.
How long did I crawl like that?
Trickle-
Amidst the sound of the mercilessly howling wind, I heard the sound of flowing water.
Having crawled for a long time, I was thirsty, and thinking that I had finally found something other than a snowfield, I changed direction toward the sound and started crawling again.
How long did I crawl like that?
I finally found the source of the sound, a place resembling a lake.
As soon as I reached the lake, I plunged my head in and drank the water.
Gulp, gulp-
"Ahhh. I feel alive again."
A glass of water after an intense cardio workout.
This is life.
After hydrating my exhausted body, some vitality returned.
And with my vitality restored, I had enough leeway to look around.
The lake was so massive that I couldn't capture it all in a single glance.
I took in the lake once and then lowered my head to check my reflection in the water.
It was to check my arms and legs that hadn't moved since I fell into this place.
And only after checking my reflection in the lake did I understand the reason why I couldn't move my arms and legs.
"A snake?"
A snake with navy blue scales and bright yellow eyes was there.
An absurd situation of turning from a human into a snake in an instant.
It was definitely something to be surprised about, but my mind quickly calmed down.
Because that wasn't what was important right now.
I was going to freeze to death first at this rate, so what did being a snake matter?
Originally, I had planned to make something like a makeshift igloo to escape the cold once I could move my arms and legs, but how was I supposed to build an igloo with a snake's body?
I pondered for a moment, but I couldn't think of a proper method.
Growl-
To make matters worse, my stomach now started clamoring for food.
Being cold and hungry made me resent the world for no reason.
Just what did I do wrong to become a snake and be dropped into a hellish place like this?
Today of all days, I miss my warm home and ramen.
Ah, I hate the world.
The world that suddenly stuffed me into this body, and the fate that made me die in an accident on my way to my first day of work.
Everything is so hateful I can't bear it.
The more I spewed out hatred, the deeper my emotions became, the more my head... itched.
Crack-
Piercing through the scales on my head, something sprouted.
It was still tiny, but it definitely looked like a horn.
But right now, I didn't care about that at all.
Just as I was going mad wanting to engrave this hatred onto the world.
A delicious smell brushed the tip of my nose.
The moment I smelled it, my mind, which had been buried in hatred, returned.
Where, where is this smell coming from? Just what could it be to give off such a delicious scent?
I moved my body, following the smell.
Fortunately, the source of the smell wasn't far from the lake.
After moving for a short bit, what was at the destination was neither a grand feast nor appetizing food.
It was a tree root more massive than my body.
The randomly stretching roots were hard to identify at first, but following them up to where they converged into one made it barely recognizable as a tree root.
Bewitched by the smell, I approached the root and opened my mouth.
Is it okay for a snake to eat something like a tree root? Such doubts didn't arise.
Right now, filling this empty stomach was the priority.
Crunch!
Contrary to my expectation that it would be as hard as it was huge, the teeth that had somehow sprouted in my mouth effortlessly tore off the root.
Munch, munch-
'Apple flavor?'
Unlike its appearance, the tree root tasted similar to an apple.
Its moderately similar texture made it feel like I was truly eating an apple.
I took another large bite out of the tree root.
'Mango?'
This time, it tasted similar to a mango, not an apple.
After taking a few more bites of the tree root, I realized that this root tasted different every time I ate it.
I ate the tree root without resting until I was full.
"Burp-"
Considering my size, I thought I had eaten so much I didn't know where it all went, but perhaps because the tree was unusually large, I couldn't even finish a single fine root.
Well, the more food, the better, so is this actually a win?
As my stomach filled up, drowsiness poured in.
It was hard to resist my slowly closing eyes.
However, it wouldn't be strange if I froze to death at any moment if I fell asleep like this, so I looked around for a suitable place to rest.
Then, the space between the tree roots I had gnawed on looked like a perfect fit for a nap.
"I'm lucky."
I moved my body, slipping between the roots I had hollowed out to avoid the wind, and closed my eyes.
Let's sleep first and think about what to do next after waking up.
A long time passed since I became a snake and fell into an unknown place.
Even I don't know exactly how long it has been.
I didn't have a clock to check the time, and because this place was constantly battered by blizzards and filled with dark clouds year-round, there was no way to even distinguish day from night.
Still, it's certain that a really long time has passed.
Because my size has grown so much that the lake, which initially seemed endlessly massive, now looks like a small spring.
Furthermore, my appearance has changed as much as my size.
I, who used to be a snake with ordinary navy blue scales, now have an appearance that can no longer be called a snake.
I thought it was strange since the moment horns and teeth first sprouted, but with legs and wings emerging and my horns growing larger, my appearance is now more fitting for the word dragon rather than snake.
Becoming a dragon instead of a snake is something to be happy about, but if there's one regrettable thing, it's that I can't shoot a fire-breathing breath, the ultimate attack of dragons seen in creative works like movies.
I can shoot something similar to a breath, but the breath I shoot isn't fire; it's a breath full of poison that rots everything.
Feeling hungry means it's about time to slowly wake up from my slumber.
"A strong and powerful morning."
I don't know if it's morning or evening, nor how long I've slept, but anyway, after waking up, I lightly shook my body.
Rumble-!
From my perspective, I just moved lightly to shake off the frost clinging to my body, but the aftermath caused an earthquake.
But I didn't care and moved my body toward the roots of Yggdrasil to fill my stomach.
Yggdrasil is the name of the tree that has provided my daily bread (roots) from the day I fell here until now.
I originally just called it a big tree, but an annoying little brat who comes here every once in a while mentioned in passing that its name is Yggdrasil, so that's how I found out.
As I approached Yggdrasil's roots, there were earlier arrivals already gnawing at them.
"Rainbows, nice to see you."
"Growl-" "Hiss-"
I offered a glad greeting, but what returned was a display of vigilance with deeply tensed attitudes.
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple.
Snake-like bastards with the seven colors of a rainbow.
I also learned these guys' names because that ill-mannered brat taught me, but it's annoying to remember them one by one, so I just call them Rainbows.
Coming from similar origins, I want to get along, but I don't know when we'll ever get close.
Ignoring the Rainbows who were fiercely guarding against me, I bit into the roots of Yggdrasil, which benevolently provided me with my daily bread again today.
In the past, I'd get full just eating a portion of a fine root, but now, a fine root doesn't even make a dent in my hunger.
Considering my size, it's only natural.
Slurp!
After slurping down tens, no, hundreds of roots like noodles, I finally felt somewhat full.
To have such good resilience that it quickly returns to its original state even after I eat this much.
If it wasn't for Yggdrasil, I would have starved to death long ago or gone mad and burst outside.
Now that I've filled my stomach, what should I do?
Should I carve a glacier for the first time in a while? Or should I go to another world and visit an acquaintance?
Just as I was pondering what to do, I felt a familiar presence.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
Hearing the sound of someone running while stepping on Yggdrasil's roots, I lifted my head.
Then, someone who ran at a speed barely visible to the eye landed on a root near me.
A giant rodent with a cute appearance featuring dark orange fur, a white belly, round black eyes, and a bushy tail—a squirrel? A red squirrel? Anyway, a giant rodent with that kind of appearance.
It's super big so it's super cute, but unlike its cute appearance, it has a completely inversely proportional personality, making it Yggdrasil's mascot that I absolutely want to smack at least once someday.
Ratatoskr made his appearance.
Ratatoskr, having landed in front of me, threw a temper tantrum as soon as he arrived, raising a hand and pointing at me with his fingertip.
"Hey! I told you not to slurp the roots like noodles!"