Chapter 6
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 6: Deal (2)
A deal. A deal, huh...
It's the first time in my life seeing a human propose something like a deal to me.
She looks like an ordinary human, but... still, since she says she came to make a deal, should I at least hear her out?
"So, what are you saying you'll trade with me?"
"..."
"Hmm?"
"Nidhogg! I've come to make a deal!"
"Uh...?"
"Nidhogg! I've come to make a deal!"
A woman repeating the same words like a broken radio.
Looking at her now, her pupils are unfocused; it doesn't seem like she's in her right mind.
Unable to watch any longer, Ratatoskr smacked the back of my head again.
"Stupid lizard. There's no way an ordinary human could maintain their sanity in front of you, right?"
"What?"
That makes no sense.
Then what about all the humans I've seen so far?
I briefly recalled the humans I had met in the distant past.
Humans draped in beast hides with muscles that looked like they'd burst.
'Valㅡhalㅡlaㅡ!!'
Humans holding greatswords and wearing armor.
'I will subjugate the evil dragon right here-!!'
They all charged at me letting out tremendous battle cries.
"Those guys were perfectly fine, though?"
"Ah, seriously! In what way are they ordinary humans!"
"To me, those humans were the average, though?"
"Anyway, they aren't!"
Smack! Smack!!
I pondered to the rhythm of her striking my head with her palms, but from my perspective, I really don't know the difference.
Perhaps it's because I've spent too much time as a dragon.
Other than their gender, there seems to be no difference between those humans and this female human.
"Phew. I'll treat her, so you just focus on controlling that power."
"Yeah. I'll leave it to you."
I entrusted the unnamed woman, who didn't look well, to Ratatoskr, and focused on reducing the power leaking outwards.
Perhaps because it was something I didn't usually do, I had quite a hard time gathering my power.
At first, even holding back the power was difficult, but as I kept at it, before I knew it, I was able to gather the power that had spread outwards back inside.
Having somewhat successfully gathered my power, I opened my eyes to see that in the meantime, Ratatoskr had come down from my head, laid the half-out-of-her-mind woman on the ground, and was taking care of her.
"Is she okay?"
"She just lost consciousness from being crushed by your power. She'll wake up soon."
I wondered what I'd do if she died like this, but fortunately, there won't be a need to clean up a corpse.
If she's going to die, she should at least tell me what deal she came to make before dying.
As I waited for the woman to wake up like that, a question arose.
"It's rare for you to help a human."
"What?"
"You don't like humans, do you?"
"......"
Perhaps I hit the mark, as Ratatoskr gave no reply.
She possesses the ability to roam freely across the various worlds connected to Yggdrasil.
Because of this, she always traveled freely to other worlds, and whenever she visited me at the bottom of Niflheim, she always brought up stories of her travels to other worlds.
Since opportunities to hear stories about other worlds were rare, I also listened to them with interest, and even now, I remember most of the stories she told.
And humans never failed to appear in her stories even once, and in most of the stories, humans were portrayed as greedy and selfish beings.
But look at her now.
Isn't she personally treating and nursing a human she supposedly hates so much until they wake up?
"...It's not like I hate all humans."
"For someone who says that, didn't you always talk shit about humans?"
"Hmph. What I hate are greedy and selfish humans, not desperate humans like this one who stand before you prepared to die despite being weak."
"Hmm..."
Setting aside whether standing before me is such a grand feat, if Ratatoskr says that much, I suppose I can place some expectations on her.
Since we had nothing else to do, we sat quietly and waited for the woman to regain her senses, and just as Ratatoskr said, she woke up not long after.
"This is..."
The woman, who pressed her forehead as if she had a headache and sat up, looked around and met eyes with us, who were waiting for her to wake up.
"N-Nidhogg!"
"Oh, seeing you full of energy, you seem somewhat fine now?"
"Of course she is. Who do you think treated her?"
At first, she seemed panicked seeing me right in front of her nose as soon as she opened her eyes, but she quickly gathered her senses and spoke with a resolute expression.
"Nidhogg! I've come to make a deal!"
"Yeah. I'm starting to get curious about what that deal is too, you know? I'll hear you out, so go ahead and tell me."
I really want to know now what she plans to trade with me and what she plans to take.
Perhaps thinking she had obtained permission, she hid her tension and conveyed the terms of her deal to me.
"Currently, this world is being threatened by numerous entities. Therefore, in order to protect the world... no, even just this land I live on, a great power is needed."
"And that's me?"
"No. I'm not shameless enough to ask you to protect the land I live on, nor do I have the ability to pay a price commensurate with that."
"Then what do you want?"
"I know that you possess numerous rare treasures."
Wait, how did you know that again?
Just as she said, I have the treasures I secured from the perishing world before crossing over to this one.
However, since that was information no one could know besides the eagle lady or Ratatoskr, her knowing this fact somehow gave off the scent of a famous fraudster.
Things that see the future or prophesize exactly gave off this vibe... Does this woman also have such an ability?
She doesn't look that smart for someone with such an ability.
Perhaps reading the suspicion in my eyes, she swallowed her saliva with a slightly more tense expression and continued speaking.
"Aren't you curious how I know that fact?"
"Are you a prophet by any chance?"
"I am not."
"Then how do you know I have treasures?"
I asked while looking at the woman with sharp eyes and a solemn expression, but inwardly, a bottomless curiosity about how on earth she knew that was bubbling up.
"If you're curious..."
"If I'm curious?"
"Make a deal with me."
"Wow, you're twisting it like this?"
I was amazed by the unimaginable development and her capability.
She's really fucking good at making deals.
Just as I was pondering while secretly throwing high praise her way so she wouldn't hear, she instead made an offer.
"If you make a deal now, I will specially tell you everything for one set of standard Valkyrie equipment."
"Don't tell me you even know exactly what's in there?"
"Of course, I will tell you that after the deal as well."
"Wow... seriously. Fine. You win."
She reeked heavily of a fraudster, and her deal-making skills are extraordinary.
Unable to overcome my curiosity in the end, I opened the magic pouch and took out the standard Valkyrie equipment.
The armor, a mix of silver and gold, was something you could tell was no ordinary item just by its outward appearance.
The woman, who had been staring at the standard armor from the moment I took it out as if she were about to drool like a beast with prey in front of it, drew her sword the moment I handed her the armor, lightly pricked her thumb, and dropped a drop of blood onto the armor.
"You even knew how to use it?"
"If I didn't know, I wouldn't have asked you to give it to me."
The armor, upon which the drop of blood fell, shone brightly, turned into particles of light, and disappeared into her body.
The ownership ritual was complete.
Now, that armor from a moment ago will be with her until the moment she dies.
"Good. Now that I've given you the armor, it's your turn to tell me how you knew such a fact."
"Wait. Before that, you haven't given me the weapon yet."
"I'll give you the weapon after you tell me the story."
"...Understood. Since you've yielded this much, I will also tell you the truth."
And then, the truth that came out of her mouth was something truly unimaginable.
Shin Su-ah.
She is a regressor.
She doesn't know why she regressed, or how she regressed, but she regressed from a future 10 years from now.
And the future 10 years from now that she regressed from was a state where the word "disastrous" wasn't enough; humanity was heading toward extinction.
Monsters that constantly threatened humanity. Gods who thought of humans as mere toys. Wars that broke out between humans.
Each and every one of these drove humanity into a crisis.
Before regressing, she was facing death.
And by the very hands of Nidhogg, whom she was making a deal with just a moment ago.
An unmeasurable Gate that appeared along with a sudden Gate Mutation one day.
The Association prohibited entry into the Gate, but human greed fundamentally knows no bounds.
After several Guilds put pressure on the Association, the Gate was opened, and the Guilds that pressured the Association jointly pooled their forces to form an expedition team.
The 1st expedition began like that.
The expedition team was able to return without a single person dying.
In addition, it's unknown where it leaked from, but information about the friendly dragon 'Nidhogg' began to spread through word of mouth.
Not long after that, the Association and the Guilds prepared for the 2nd expedition.
The 2nd expedition team was spectacular, incomparable to the 1st expedition team.
From Association branch managers to Guild executives.
Famous people whose names alone were enough to identify them entered the Gate.
And three days later, the returning 2nd expedition team held a press conference and announced their massive achievements.
They proclaimed that they had met the dragon called 'Nidhogg' and obtained all sorts of rare equipment and treasures through deals, and as a result, the world's attention focused on South Korea.
Numerous foreign Guilds inquired, saying they also wanted to enter the Gate, but the South Korean Guilds, having already tasted the sweetness of the so-called Nidhogg Gate, firmly united as one and blocked the entry of foreign Guilds.
For 5 years after that, the South Korean Association and Guilds saw massive profits through the Nidhogg Gate, and South Korea was reborn as an undeniable powerhouse of Awakened.
However, nothing lasts forever.
The 6th year since the Nidhogg Gate appeared.
A week after the expedition team entered the Gate with goods for a deal, as usual.
A Gate Break occurred.