Chapter 4
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 4: Journey
It was a truly fruitful time.
I was able to get my hands on countless treasures while roaming around the perishing world.
There were particularly many treasures acquired from Svartalfheim, where the dwarves live, and Vanaheim, where the gods live.
There were actually so many treasures that I lacked a place to store them, but a magic pouch I found in Vanaheim, which can hold an unlimited amount of items, solved this problem.
Thanks to that, the magic pouch, which increases space but doesn't reduce weight, became so heavy that it would be too much to carry unless you belong to a species with strong physical power like me.
I completely robbed the treasures gathered by humans who are as greedy as dragons and slipped out of Midgard.
"Is Asgard the only place left now?"
I looted 7 worlds, and since Niflheim, where Hel and I resided, is a resting place for the dead and has nothing that could be called a treasure, the only place left is Asgard.
And since it's Asgard, which has held supremacy among the nine worlds without exaggeration, there must be a lot of things to loot.
I turned my gaze and observed Asgard.
Perhaps the fighting ended while I was looting treasures, as it was only filled with burning palaces and the scattered corpses of gods and warriors.
There should be no problem going there with it in that state.
Flapping my wings, I flew into Asgard.
And as soon as I entered, I found a useful item.
"Oh, this is."
It looks like an ordinary sword.
It has no particular decorations and is a common sword you could see anywhere.
However, unlike its ordinary appearance, this sword possesses the ability to fly freely, protect its owner, and cut down enemies.
Freyr, the original owner of this sword, was a guy with nothing special besides his useful magical abilities, but with the power of this single sword, he became strong enough to be counted among the top ten strongest gods of Asgard.
-Vwoooom!!
When I picked up the sword, I felt resistance just like when I picked up Gungnir, but this time too, I suppressed it with force and put it inside the magic pouch.
Starting with Freyr's sword, I acquired various treasures as I ventured deeper into Asgard.
The horn Heimdall used to carry, fragments of the collapsed rainbow bridge, the spear and armor of a Valkyrie, golden apples that grant eternal life, a cup that endlessly produces mead, and so on.
As I picked up treasures and went further into Asgard like that, there was a broken chariot and the half-burned corpse of a woman.
Outwardly, it looked no different from the corpses of other gods I had seen on my way here.
However, having seen Odin's corpse once, I could tell immediately.
"This bitch is a fake corpse too. Did she collude with Odin?"
Freyja.
The most beautiful goddess across all nine worlds and the god of magic who leads the Valkyries.
Her corpse was also a fake similar to Odin's, and unlike Odin who even abandoned the real Gungnir and fled, the extravagant necklace she carried around, Brísingamen, had been swapped with a fake.
Looking closely around besides her, the corpses of a few major gods had also been swapped with fakes.
They said it was a doomed apocalypse destined from long ago, but it seems they prepared a way out.
Since my goal was to recover the masterless treasures anyway, and I didn't need to care where they went, I just picked up the remaining treasures and slipped out of Asgard.
After putting all the treasures in the pouch, I stored the pouch under my sturdy scales so I wouldn't lose it.
And I returned to the outskirts of the world where the eagle lady was and landed.
"You certainly picked them up frugally."
"Were you watching?"
"You were roaming around looking very happy."
The eagle lady's gaze briefly lingered on the scale where I hid the magic pouch before moving away.
It seems she was watching until the end.
"I won't give it to you even if you look at it like that."
"Do I look like a shameless bitch who would take away kids' toys?"
"For toys, there were quite a lot of dangerous ones."
"Even so, compared to my feathers, they are no different from toys."
Is that so.
I nodded in agreement as she naturally flapped her wings, showing off her feathers as if boasting.
Speaking as the one who has been hit the most by the eagle lady's feathers, and the one who survived being hit like that, I know best that those feathers are far tougher and sharper than my dragon scales.
While conversing with the eagle lady, Ratatoskr, who had been hiding among her feathers, emerged with a somewhat resolved face instead of her slumped figure.
"Have you sorted out your feelings?"
"Yeah, Yggdrasil is Yggdrasil, and I am me."
"Then what are you planning to do now?"
"I'm going to find a new home and go to another world."
"Not a bad idea."
Another world?
A question arose at Ratatoskr's words.
Yggdrasil, which supported the world, had burned down, and naturally, most of the nine worlds Yggdrasil supported collapsed along with it.
But another world?
Where was she saying she would go?
Looking at the two of them with that implication, Ratatoskr turned her head this way.
"Stupid lizard. There are nine worlds supported by Yggdrasil, but that's not all of the worlds. Even excluding the worlds it supported, Yggdrasil is connected to countless worlds by extending its branches and roots. I'm thinking of looking for a decent world among them."
Oh.
Thanks to her, I learned a new fact.
To think there was such a secret in the endlessly extended branches and roots of Yggdrasil.
I was usually too busy tearing them off to eat, so I had no idea.
As Ratatoskr finished explaining, the eagle lady raised one wing and pointed at me.
"That works out well. If you're going to another world, take this guy with you."
"The stupid lizard?... Hmm, I feel like he'll just be a burden instead of help."
"Still, he's ignorantly strong to make up for being stupid, isn't he? I'm sure he'll be of help."
Wait, why bring me into this all of a sudden?
Furthermore...
"Why are you deciding things as you please without even asking my opinion? I have a home to return to, you know?"
"A home? Where do you mean?"
At the eagle lady's question, spoken with a scoff, I raised my arm, pointed towards the spot below Yggdrasil where Niflheim used to be, and turned my gaze, but there was nothing there.
"Well, obviously... over there, eh?"
"Hahaha! You let your guard down thinking the resting place of the dead wouldn't burn. Yggdrasil burned down, so naturally Niflheim moved elsewhere too. Did you think it would stay in that spot forever?"
"Wait, my house!"
In an instant, I became a homeless person who lost their house, just like Ratatoskr.
It's because I let my guard down, thinking the fire wouldn't head towards Niflheim.
At that moment, Hel's words flashed through my mind.
She hoped we could meet again next time?
Did she really foresee even this far?
"Haa..."
"Well, it's not like it burned down like the other worlds, so won't you find it someday? Just travel with this child in the meantime."
At the eagle lady's consolation, my eyes met Ratatoskr's.
Then, both Ratatoskr and I frowned at the same time.
Travel with that guy? I'd be lucky if my scales didn't fall out from stress.
Wouldn't it be better to just hear the method of going to another world and go alone?
Of course, that was nonsense.
"An adult is speaking, so what's with that insubordinate gaze? Anyway, just go when I tell you to go."
Smack!
"Ugh... why only me."
While I bowed my head after getting smacked in the back of the head by the eagle lady, a gentle breeze blew, moving Ratatoskr's position to the top of my head.
"I must be leaving now too. I need to look for a place to build a new nest."
"Then you can just take this guy with you, lady."
"This guy, until the very end... Phew. As an adult, I should endure it. Where I am going from now on is not suitable for that child to go. So you take her."
As soon as she finished speaking, the eagle lady flapped her wings and disappeared along with a storm.
It seems she has already decided on a candidate location for her nest.
With the eagle lady gone and just Ratatoskr and me left, it felt needlessly awkward.
I wonder if I should just leave her behind even now, but if I do that and get caught by the eagle lady later, or if this guy tattles on me, I'll just get beaten up again.
I carefully opened my mouth.
"So. Where do we need to go?"
"...Are you really going to go with me?"
"Yeah. So tell me where we need to go. I'll fly that way."
"Hmph. We aren't physically connected by Yggdrasil, and there's no way going to another world is possible with ordinary wing flapping."
"Then how are we supposed to go?"
"Wait. I'll open a passage."
I usually think of her as just Yggdrasil's mascot or a troll squirrel, but Ratatoskr is connected to Yggdrasil and possesses the ability to stroll between worlds.
If she didn't have such an ability, she would have been caught by me and become a one-bite meal a long time ago.
A cluster of light spewing from her body soon created a round hole in front of me.
"Phew, it's hard without Yggdrasil's assistance unlike usual. Now, you just have to go in there."
"Mmm..."
"What are you doing not going in?"
"Well, isn't the hole too small for me to enter?"
The door itself connecting to another world is fascinating, but aside from being fascinating, the size of that hole is exactly the right size for Ratatoskr to enter alone.
And I am so massive it's hard to even compare me to Ratatoskr.
"Eek! You ignorantly massive lizard!"
"It's not like I'm this big because I wanted to be."
"You're that big because you eat like a pig usually! Wait!"
Ratatoskr focused again, just like when she opened the door, and then the door connecting to another world gradually increased its size.
After increasing the door with all her might, the width of the hole finally became large enough for even me to pass through.
"Pant, pant... I can't maintain it for long. So go in quickly!"
"Understood, so rest."
While being careful not to let Ratatoskr, who was lying flat on my head, fall off, I quickly entered the wavering door.
Like that, I left behind my hometown of this life where I had lived for countless hours, and crossed over to another world with my bitter frenemy.