Chapter 2
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 2: Destroyed
Thinking back on it now, my relationship with Ratatoskr was the worst from our very first meeting.
Do you know what she said the first time we met, when I hadn't fully taken on the form of a dragon yet and my wings and legs were still short?
'What's this? I came down wondering what was on the ground, and it's nothing but a pig lizard that can't even walk properly?'
The joy of meeting an intelligent being I could converse with for the first time was short-lived; my mind went somewhat blank from the endless stream of verbal abuse, and I couldn't even give a proper reply.
Ratatoskr, who had mocked me for a long time, left with a swoosh along the roots just as she had appeared, and our first meeting concluded terribly just like that.
After that, it was impossible to feel any friendly emotions toward Ratatoskr, who would repeatedly come down to where I was whenever she had the chance, either to mock me or say whatever she wanted before running away.
Leaving the brief reminiscence behind, when I looked forward, Ratatoskr's outward appearance was nothing but cute, despite her extremely angry expression.
Oh God, why did you give such a foul-tempered rodent such a cute appearance?
If you were going to give her one, you should have given her the appearance of a sewer rat.
Since reincarnating as a dragon, I've seen beings claiming to be gods who are sickeningly human, so I don't believe in God, but I let out a lament inwardly.
"What's with that unpleasant look in your eyes?"
"It's nothing."
"I bet it's not 'nothing.' Pig lizard, you imagined something unpleasant again, didn't you?"
"Do you have any proof I did that?"
"Hmph, so shameless. You sneaky pig lizard."
She's pointlessly quick-witted.
Clicking my tongue inwardly at Ratatoskr, who was staring at me with a gaze that hadn't let go of her suspicion, I changed the topic of conversation.
"More importantly, what brings you down here today? Are you trying to cause a rift again? Or perhaps you're lonely because you have no friends?"
"Hey! I have lots of friends too!"
"Pfft!"
"A-are you laughing? Did you just mock me?"
"Ahem. Ah, Ratatoskr. That was the funniest story I've heard recently."
To have a lot of friends with that personality.
Yeah, right.
Unable to hold it in, I chuckled and wheezed for a long time, and Ratatoskr, her face flushing red, pulled out a round acorn from somewhere amidst her chest fur and threw it my way.
It seemed she threw it with all her might in her own way, but my scales are too tough for me to feel pain from an attack of that level.
"It only tickles, so stop throwing them."
"Eek! You pointlessly tough pig lizard! Just you wait! I'm going to tell on you to the eagle lady who lives at the top!"
"Ah, that's a bit..."
The target Ratatoskr tries to cause a rift with, as I mentioned a moment ago.
If I reside at the lowest tier of this giant tree, she is the lofty being who has built a nest and sits at the very top of Yggdrasil, completely opposite to me.
When I first saw her, I wondered why on earth an eagle was so huge, and I even felt a threat to my life seeing how strong she was, capable of engaging in hand-to-hand combat head-on with me, a dragon.
If Ratatoskr seriously causes a rift and makes us fight, I too will have to risk my life.
Therefore, I stopped mocking Ratatoskr and spoke awkwardly.
"Please go easy on tattling to the ahjumma."
"Hmm... did you just say 'ahjumma'?"
"Oh, fuck."
"I know very well what you, pig lizard, think of the eagle lady. I'll go and tell her all about it!"
As soon as she finished speaking, giving me no time to reply, I raised a leg and covered my face at Ratatoskr's action of instantly climbing up the root.
During our last fight, my temper flared and I called her an ahjumma, but that stuck to my mouth and I made a slip of the tongue.
It seems a storm, different from a blizzard, will be hitting this place soon.
Time flows helplessly.
Quite a lot of time has already passed since I teased Ratatoskr and filmed a monster battle with the eagle ahjumma.
Just what kind of rift Ratatoskr had caused, the fight with the eagle ahjumma—who came down to the lowest tier of Yggdrasil furious to the top of her head—lasted for over a week, and my entire body was left in tatters, forcing me to focus on recuperation for a long time.
Anyway, what an ignorantly strong ahjumma.
At that age, she shouldn't have anything to say even if I called her a grandmother instead of an ahjumma.
Dragging my battered body, I lay near the roots, repeating a cycle of sleep, eating, sleep, and eating to recuperate, and during that time, Ratatoskr also visited a few times and mocked my state.
I didn't have the energy to reply, and afraid that saying a few words might unnecessarily summon the eagle ahjumma again, I gave no response and focused solely on recovery.
As time passed like that, all my wounds have now healed, leaving no scars.
Perhaps because I'm a dragon, it was nice that most wounds didn't even leave a scar.
I moved my fully recovered body this way and that, checking my condition.
"No abnormalities."
Realizing there was nothing wrong with my body, I was tearing off and eating Yggdrasil's roots, pondering how to take revenge on Ratatoskr for putting me in this state, when it happened.
Sniff, sniff-
Something about the taste of Yggdrasil's roots was strange today.
It's not that they tasted bad.
However, rather than fresh fruit, they tasted somewhat like evenly cooked, baked fruit?
At the taste of the root, which possessed a strange warmth that could never be found in this lowest tier of Yggdrasil, I raised my head and looked at the massive root stem connecting to the trunk.
"No, fuck. What is that?"
I was so startled that a curse popped out without me realizing it.
Because black smoke was rising from the root connecting to the trunk of Yggdrasil that I looked up at.
Just what in the world happened?
To see with my own two eyes what had occurred, I hurriedly spread my wings and prepared to soar into the sky.
And right before taking off.
Piercing through the fog of the snowfield, someone approached along with countless dead.
Sitting on something resembling a palanquin led by the dead, she has the appearance of a beautiful woman.
However, in contrast to the upper body of an ordinarily beautiful woman, her lower body is dyed in a dark blue color similar to my scales, indicating that she is not an ordinary being.
I thought it was a familiar voice, and it turned out to be an acquaintance.
"Do you have a moment?"
"Hel? What brings you all the way here?"
The lowest tier of Yggdrasil.
The rightful ruler of Niflheim, the hell of the dead where snow and fog rage, and one of my few conversation partners, Hel.
At her appearance, I paused my attempt to take off.
"You're planning to head upwards, aren't you?"
"Of course. Look at that root. It seems something major has happened above."
"If so, could you take these with you?"
Hel pointed at the dead she had brought with her and said.
Since it was a request from a being I was usually friendly with, I wanted to grant it if possible, but...
"Putting the dead on my back is a bit..."
"You don't need to put them on your back. Like this."
A mystical pattern drawn in the air following her hand gesture.
I once saw an arrogant old man living above use it in the past.
I believe it was called a rune.
Light shone from the rune character she drew, and a massive ship made of pale ice appeared, and the dead boarded the ship one by one.
"Please take this ship and drop it in another world on your way up."
I wondered what kind of request a neighbor who rarely asked for favors would make, but it wasn't a difficult one.
Yggdrasil, the tree and the wedge supporting the world.
Among the nine worlds entwined by Yggdrasil, the place we are currently in is the lowest tier, Niflheim.
As I climbed up the roots anyway, another world would appear, and moving a single ship on the way isn't that hard of a task.
"Hmm... it's not a particularly difficult request. Does it just have to be another world, anywhere?"
"Yes. That will be sufficient."
"Then I'll do that."
I just need to appropriately drop it in Midgard.
"Thank you. It feels a bit lacking to call this a reward, but..."
She pulled out a fist-sized orb from her embrace and handed it to me.
Inside that orb, the power of Niflheim, where I had lived my entire life, was swirling.
The essence gathered from a part of a world.
Ordinary items wouldn't even affect me, but that might be able to increase my power.
To me, it's an item akin to wild ginseng.
"Eyy, you shouldn't have."
"No. Since you granted my request, it's only right that I repay you."
"Is that so? Then I'll gratefully accept it."
I took the orb she handed me and popped it into my mouth.
The essence of Niflheim tasted strangely similar to a peppermint candy.
Encountering a new taste for the first time in a while, I rolled it around in my mouth appropriately before swallowing it with a gulp, and as expected, my power increased a little.
Gathering my strength, I prepared to take off.
As I flapped my massive wings, the wind drove away the surrounding snow, ice, and fog, and after lightly lifting my body, I grabbed and hoisted the ship the dead were riding on.
For a ship boarded by countless dead, it wasn't that heavy.
"I'll be going then."
"Yes, I do hope we can meet again next time."
"??"
I expressed doubt at her incomprehensible words, but Hel simply waved her hand and saw me off.
With the black smoke growing increasingly fierce, I climbed upward, thinking I should ask what she meant by 'meeting again next time' when we did meet.
And piercing through the smoke, as soon as I arrived in another world, I unconsciously dropped the ship full of the dead I was holding in my foot at the sight of the burning world.
W-what in the world is going on?
Fwoosh! Fwooooosh-!!
A fire giant, his entire body ablaze and more massive than a great mountain, raised a sword fitting his size and swung it at the world.
A fierce blaze originating from the fire giant was burning the endlessly massive tree, Yggdrasil, and the nine worlds hanging from it.
Retreating to a suitably warm spot due to the heat that scorched my skin just by getting close, I gaped and watched the spectacle of the world and the tree going up in flames.
"Wow... so that can burn too."
Seeing the world in ruins, the tone of voice I usually forced to sound somewhat solemn disappeared.
Not to brag, but the roots of that tree are my staple food, and I know from occasionally using them as a punching bag substitute or for grinding my teeth when my temper flared up, that as something supporting the world, it's not an ordinarily tough tree.
A resilient tree capable of withstanding even my poison.
But to think such a tree is burning without being able to resist.
Soon, unable to withstand the blazing fire, one world falls from the tree and collapses.
Blankly staring at the spectacle of the worlds perishing one by one in turn, I muttered.
"The world is fucking doomed."
What do I do now?