Episode 38/Chapter 1: Ratatoskr (1)

TL: Tsubak

ED: Julsmul

There were three beasts living in the World Tree, Yggdrasil.

The black dragon, Nidhogg, that lives in the roots.

The white and huge King of Birds, Hraesvelgr, that lives in the highest roots.

The only existence that can freely come and go between the highest roots and the roots, Ratatoskr.

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The oldest one among the three was Nidhogg, that has shared its beginning with Yggdrasil.

The oldest dragon.

The dragon that started with the world.

That was why people called it the ancient dragon.

—

‘Hey, are you fine?’

It was after he checked the green words above Nidhogg’s head. Tae Ho blinked at the urgent voice that rang in his head.

“Cuchulainn?”

‘What is that tranquil look? Do you know how long you have been passed out?’

Cuchulainn spoke as if it was absurd.

Tae Ho blinked a few more times and finally got a hold of himself. Time seemed to have continued unabated for Tae Ho, but he suddenly began to feel like quite a long period had actually passed.

“How long was I sleeping for?”

‘Almost nine days. Do you know how worried I was? The one that was suppressing the dragon collapsed suddenly and shows no movement for nine days.’

Nine days.

Tae Ho gulped dry saliva and then he could understand.

‘So that was the case indeed.’

His memories started to pop little by little. The meeting Tae Ho had with Nidhogg wasn’t short.

Tae Ho could connect his consciousness with dragons with the ‘One that Controls Dragons’, and he got to control Nidhogg from within its consciousness. Precisely speaking, he made it into an ally through communication.

Tae Ho had grown familiar with Nidhogg’s life, although his efforts were just the tip of the iceberg. He could feel the loneliness she had been living in directly through the connection.

And this kind of interaction wasn’t normal at all.

‘How did it turn out? It seems like it went well.’

Cuchulainn, who was stating how worried he was, asked with a voice mixed with expectation and worry. Tae Ho turned his head and answered while looking at the green words above Nidhogg.

“Yes, somehow.”

‘What happened? Speak in more detail.’

“So…..”

Tae Ho paused for a moment and then started to explain the more detailed possible.

Cuchulainn heard everything and said with a sigh.

‘In other words, you entered the house of a guy that was always trapped in it; you beat the hell out of it to cut off its will and forcefully made it into your slave? You really are trash, huh?’

“Hey, I didn’t say it like that!”

If you lined up the cases that happened in a different way, it was indeed right, but Tae Ho felt it to be unfair.

If a chain procedures hadn’t existed, it would have been impossible to enter through Nidhogg’s solid consciousness.

Cuchulainn laughed and then said with another tone,

‘It’s a poor guy, anyways. For the loneliness to have suppressed the pain. How poor.’

Nidhogg had certainly received a great shock for the first time in its life.

But it wasn’t comparable to the loneliness it had accumulated for thousands of years.

Cuchulainn thought of Nidhogg that seemed to be enjoying the moment when it first clashed against Tae Ho.

It was only Cuchulainn’s guess, but perhaps it may have felt a bit of joy inside the pain it suffered from Tae Ho. Looking at it broadly, it was also a direct interaction with another being.

‘Is it because its an ancient dragon?’

Cuchulainn admired the strength of Nidhogg while thinking.

Regardless of being hit three times by the dragon-massacrer rune Odin had made personally, there didn’t seem to be any danger to its life.

Not only that, it expressed its loneliness first when it’d faced Tae Ho instead of pain.

Just like Cuchulainn had said, the loneliness had suppressed its pain.

You could think of it in two ways.

The loneliness was so overbearing that it took the terrible pain as a moment of loneliness or was so strong that it could take Tae Ho’s attacks.

‘Whatever it is…..it’s poor but amazing at the same time.’

It would probably be both the two cases.

“Perhaps……It would have been better to try to converse with it.”

Tae Ho had felt Nidhogg’s loneliness directly, different from Cuchulainn.

He couldn’t not feel ashamed from his actions.

But Cuchulainn spoke bluntly.

‘No, your judgement wasn’t wrong. Not even Odin knew what temperament Nidhogg had, and how it was feeling. I’m not saying that the process doesn’t matter as the results are good, but you acted rationally. Just like you said, you were able to enter through Nidhogg’s flaw because there was a process for it. Remember. We…or at least Odin, must return to Asgard.’

There was a moral that had to be accomplished.

Even in this moment, the giants and evil spirits would be stepping on Asgard and Midgard.

Tae Ho nodded heavily.

But it was at that moment. Nidhogg’s essence, that was lying down while Tae Ho and Cuchulainn spoke, twitched and its head split.

Cuchulainn yelled.

‘Huk! So it was a female! I knew it would be like this!’

The thing that appeared from the head of the essence of Nidhogg was a woman with long hair that Tae Ho had seen in its consciousness.

The woman, that could be said to be the essence of the essence of Nidhogg, turned around dangerously and smiled brightly when she saw Tae Ho.

“Tae Ho, master.”

The woman, who was wearing a cloth that seemed like a blanket instead of clothes, approached Tae Ho with quick steps, but she stopped at about ten feet and hesitated on approaching anymore.

Tae Ho understood why Nidhogg was acting like that. Because of that, he spread his arms open and nodded, and Nidhogg grew relieved only then and ran towards him.

It was the first time Nidhogg had hugged someone. She pulled Tae Ho with sloppy movements and stuck her cheek to his chest.

Nidhogg’s heart beat quickly. It seemed like she couldn’t control herself because she was too excited.

Tae Ho hesitated for a moment but then decided to stroke her head. When he patted her back slightly, Nidhogg rubbed her cheek and said,

“Keep touching me. Keep stroking me.”

Those were childish words. Tae Ho felt compassionate and embraced Nidhogg a bit softer, and she closed her eyes and mumbled.

“It’s warm. I feel good.”

It was also the first time she felt the heat of another being.

‘You trash-like bastard.’

Cuchulainn said. Tae Ho became bewildered at the sudden remark and blinked.

‘No, why?’

‘Just so. You are trash from now on. You don’t need any other reasons! No, I thought of something. To attack this beautiful and good kid in such a cruel way! You really are trash. From now on, you are Idun’s trash, so take that into account.’

‘You just said that I was being rational!’

‘Back then, I didn’t know it was a cute, sexy, and beautiful beauty like this! I just thought that it was a big guy!’

Cuchulainn spoke words that were more trash than anyone in a shameless manner and then clicked his tongue.

‘But anyways, my eyes opened up at a new charm. Her voice and her looks are that of a beautiful woman, but her actions and words are so childish….ahh, this is a good thing.’

‘Instead of Prince of Light, aren’t you the Perverted Prince or the Lecherous Prince?’

As Tae Ho spoke as if it was absurd, Cuchulainn snorted.

‘Hmph, how can someone like you understand my aesthetics? But anyways, it seems like it ended up well. Let’s return then. Odin will be waiting.’

There was a high probability that he would think that Tae Ho had failed as nine days had passed already.

Tae Ho agreed to his words and then lightly patted on Nidhogg’s shoulders, that was still rubbing her cheek and playing affectionately.

“Nidhogg.”

“Huh? Yes, yes. Why?”

Nidhogg spoke with a really happy face. Because of that, Tae Ho could speak only after a moment of hesitation.

“There’s somewhere I have to go. I will return soon so can you wait for a moment?”

At that moment Nidhogg’s face stiffened and her white face paled even more.

It seemed like the face of a person that had heard that the world was ending.

“Te-Ten days……n-no, more than that…..I can wait for a hundred nights. Yes, yes. No, I can wait for even more. So just return, okay? It’s a promise, yes?”

Nidhogg stuttered with a voice that sounded as if she would cry at any moment.

And Tae Ho could think of the reason why she mentioned ten and a hundred nights.

One of the several interactions they had shared the past nine days. A case of the past that had become a big wound for Nidhogg.

Ratatoskr, that was the only other being Nidhogg knew, enjoyed ridiculing and bothering Nidhogg with words.

Ratatoskr knew what kind of existence it was to Nidhogg.

Nidhogg, that waited for it endlessly even though it only got hurt by its words.

Because of that, Ratatoskr had spoken with Ratatoskr.

‘I will return right after ten days. Ten days.’

Nidhogg learnt of the joy of waiting for the promised day at that time.

But Ratatoskr didn’t show up even though ten days had passed. Nidhogg thought that she had counted the days wrong and that she was a fool.

And when close to a month had passed, when Nidhogg bursted out crying as she was exhausted of waiting, Ratatoskr appeared once again.

‘I said that I would come after ten days, but you really are a fool as you can’t even count that. The next time, I will come in a hundred days so count it well, understood?’

Nidhogg said that she would do so.

She waited and expected for the hundredth day and counted the days.

And a hundred days passed once again. Nidhogg waited anxiously for Ratatoskr to come back, but it didn’t show up.

It just looked at Nidhogg being pained by the piled up expectation and disappointment from a far place.

Ratatoskr laughed at that and didn’t visit Nidhogg for tens of years.

It only appeared slightly after Nidhogg thought that she became completely alone and that there was something she had wronged and fell in despair.

It once again infringed on Nidhogg.

‘That trash……no, Tae Ho-like squirrel.’

Cuchulainn said that as a joke, but his voice was really cold.

It was because Ratatoskr’s actions had touched Cuchulainn’s rage. It’s actions were really childish, but it was also really cruel.

Tae Ho was the same as Cuchulainn. He pressed down the unpleasant feeling he had towards Ratatoskr and said to Nidhogg,

“I will come back the fastest I can.”

“Yes, go. I will be waiting for you.”

Nidhogg put on a forced smile.

—

Tae Ho didn’t turn to look around when he left the heart room. It was because he thought that he wouldn’t be able to leave easily when he saw that Nidhogg was standing like a statue and looking at him.

He passed the heart room and got out of Nidhogg’s body. He then turned into a hawk and flew towards the place Odin was at.

And after flying for a while, when they reached a place not too far from Odin, Cuchulainn said casually.

‘Hey, you know, right?’

He had taken out the context from his sentence, but Tae Ho could understand what Cuchulainn was talking about.

The words Odin had said.

What they spoke about before going to suppress Nidhogg.

‘Nidhogg can’t leave the roots with its own strength.’

Because of that, it was impossible to climb on it and leave the roots. In the first place, the reason they had suppressed it was to receive help from it to catch Ratatoskr, the only one that could freely move over the World Tree.

Nidhogg wouldn’t be able to accompany them.

They had to leave behind Nidhogg.

Tae Ho didn’t reply to his words, and Cuchulainn also didn’t urge for an answer.

Tae Ho fluttered his wings. He could see the root Odin was sitting at.

< Episode 38 – Ratatoskr (1) > End

TL note: Thanks for reading~