Book 4 Chapter 83 - Witch’s Forest (3)

‘Sieg?’

Woohyuk tilted his head when he heard the unexpected name.

That name belonged to a character from the Nibelungenlied known to have died with Brynhild.

The original copy of the Edda Chronicles had been damaged, so the true ending was actually unknown, but he couldn’t help but feel surprised upon hearing this name.

‘Now that I think about it, Tinia’s version never mentions Sieg’s death.’

And the person who told her of that version was none other than Rael, the young man with fiery red hair and matchless sword skills.

As Woohyuk’s unpleasant presentiment was about to materialize,

Clomp. Clomp.

A young man emerged from the abandoned monastery.

Upon seeing his appearance, Tinia and Silvia couldn’t hold back their surprise.

“Wha... Rael?”

“Impossible…”

The young man had the exact same appearance as the person they knew, with the exception of his dark and gloomy expression and the black aura emanating from his body.

“Long time no see, Tinia. You too, Silvia.”

Rael, no, Sieg greeted the two sisters.

Then, he grabbed the longsword residing in his scabbard on his waist and brandished it. Immediately, monsters began gathering from all around them.

“How…”

Tinia’s eyes shook like an earthquake trembling her pupils.

Silvia was in no better state.

They were shocked after finding out their benefactor was working with the witch.

“Haha… Sieg is my lovely husband. And you people are uninvited guests. So please get to the point. You may not be aware, but my patience has its limits.”

Kriemhild pointed at Woohyuk with her staff.

At the same time, a system message appeared before his eyes.

[New Quest]

Name: The Mercenary who Disappeared with the Wind

Type: Chain (2/2)

Content: Listen to the end of the Niebelungenlied from Sieg himself and help Tinia fulfill his request. You fail the quest if Tinia perishes before then.

Other: Once failed, cannot be repeated.

‘It’s asking me to find out the truth.’

The chances that the reward this time would be related to the restoration of the fable’s original copy was high.

The potential value of the Edda Chronicles was extremely high, so he could not fail this quest.

Woohyuk pondered for a while and spoke up.

“I have a great interest in literature and tragedies. According to these two ladies, there is a very interesting story in which the two of you are featured in. Could I ask more about it?”

“Oh~ Are you also interested in human arts and literature like Loengreen? Well, I’m not really interested, so I’ll let my husband make the decision.”

Kriemhild turned around and looked towards the abandoned monastery’s entrance.

She was asking Sieg what he wanted to do.

And so, Sieg broke the silence and responded.

“...Then I will tell you. It is a story I’ll have to tell Tinia and Silvia anyways.”

He began his story, and Woohyuk sheathed Grandia and began listening.

“I was once a hero everyone admired. As the world already knows, I slew Fafnir who had been corrupted into an Evil Dragon, and gained the Mysterious Ring of the Nibelungen.”

The contents of the former part of the story were exactly the same as in the original Edda Chronicles.

Woohyuk continued nodding and waited for him to reach the latter part of the story.

“...Brynhild was traumatized when she learned that I had gotten married to Kriemhild and had a daughter with her. Soon afterwards, she committed suicide right before my eyes. As I was still unaware of everything, I tried to bury her in an area where the sun shone brightly.”

As he was moving Brynhild, Sieg saw the ring she was wearing on her left ring finger.

He reached for it out of curiosity, and upon touching it, his memories returned.

“So why did you not take revenge? According to your words, didn’t Kriemhild make your and Brynhild’s lives miserable?”

“Kriemhild was trying to save me. She knew the fact that the ring I had given to Brynhild had the curse of Andvari of the Nibelungen Tribe.”

When the Wind God was taking all of his treasures, Andvari secretly placed a powerful curse on his ring, the Andvaranaut.

Anyone who possessed it would have a life of misfortune and fall into ruin.

Upon learning that, the Wind God gave the Andvaranaut to the Green Dragon Fafnir.

Fafnir kept the ring away from everyone, but got corrupted by the curse and ended up fading away into bubbles.

“Couldn’t you just tell Brynhild to throw the Andvaranaut away?”

“Unlike me, Brynhild had been warned multiple times by the Wind God. However, her mind was already captured by the Andvaranaut.”

The power of the Andvaranaut’s curse varied depending on the owner’s obsession with it.

Therefore, Brynhild had been exposed to the Andvaranaut’s curse at a greater magnitude than Sieg.

‘That seems plausible.’

Woohyuk nodded as he listened to Sieg’s explanations.

Sieg only considered the Andvaranaut as a beautiful ring, whereas for Brynhild, it was her engagement ring.

The moment she was given the ring, her misfortune and ruin had already been set in stone.

If Kriemhild had not intervened, the next victim would’ve been Sieg.

“So, what did you do with the Andvaranaut?”

“I buried it with Brynhild in the ground. We’ve layered the highest level barrier around it, so nobody has touched it ever since.”

After the War of Gods and Demons, Sieg was asleep in the underground ruins for an extended period of time.

The Witch of Envy Kriemhild had hidden him away in a safe place right before getting sealed.

“Then when did you wake up?”

“About 100 years ago. The world had changed a lot when I woke up.”

Sieg was reborn as a demon, but he had no goal in life or reason to live.

He wasn’t a complete human anymore due to his contract with Kriemhild. Moreover, he also believed that he did not have the right to live a happy life.

And so he started wandering around the lands.

He aimlessly journeyed through the Eeth continent, acting as an independent mercenary.

However, one night, Sieg came across a village getting attacked by monsters and met Tinia and Silvia.

And through his abilities as a demon, he instinctively realized that the two sisters were descendants of Brynhild and himself.

“You had children with Brynhild?”

“Back then, I didn’t know since Brynhild hadn’t told me.”

Sieg was about to leave the house to specialize himself, so Brynhild didn’t want to want to burden her husband unnecessarily.

Therefore, she had kept it a secret.

“Why did you not tell this story to Tinia and Silvia?”

“I thought that they were better off not knowing it. Honestly speaking, I was afraid the two of them would resent me after learning the truth.”

No matter his decision, Tinia and Silvia were precious to Sieg, more so than his own life.

They were simply distant descendants of his, but they were still the fruit of his love with Brynhild.

Sieg looked after the two girls until they reached adulthood and handed Tabris down to the eldest

It was one of the treasures the Evil Dragon Fafnir was hiding.

Tabris held the power of the Green Dragon, and it was now wielded by Tinia, the descendant of the Valkyrie Brynhild.

“But why did you leave their side? Don’t you need to protect them until the end if they mean the world to you?”

“There were people who were persistently tracking my whereabouts. They are an association of fanatics called Pronoia. I had to erase all traces of myself before they found out about Tinia and Silvia.”

In the end, Sieg returned to the location where he had awakened, the Witch’s Forest.

Soon afterwards, Kriemhild emerged from her seal and the two of them reunited.

“The ruins where you were sleeping, is it Medusa’s Temple?”

“That’s right. That’s also where Brynhild’s tomb is hidden.”

Its location was right beneath the abandoned monastery, where the witch’s original chapel was located.

The monastery was built when people expanded the chapel after the War of Gods and Demons.

‘He doesn’t seem to be lying.’

After listening to Sieg’s story, Woohyuk slowly nodded.

Many complicated incidents and events were linked, but everything still made sense.

There was just a single question left now.

As Woohyuk opened his mouth to ask, Tinia took the lead and began speaking first.

“So, what is this request you have for me?”

“...Please forgive me, Tinia. You too, Silvia.”

Sieg stabbed his longsword in the ground and got down to his knees.

Seeing her husband, Kriemhild made an irritated face.

“Why are you demanding their forgiveness? You should be asking for their gratitude instead since you saved them from monsters and raised them yourself.”

“The reason Silvia and Tinia went through all those hardships is due to my mistake.”

A tragic story that began when he offered Brynhild the Andvaranaut.

It was already too late, but he wished to demand forgiveness now, or else he would never receive it.

As Sieg continued keeping his head down in front of the sisters, Kriemhild’s face gradually turned red in anger.

“Seriously… The things you do really annoy me, as if you’re doing it purposefully. Remember when you asked me if you could bury Brynhild’s coffin beneath my chapel? I found that absolutely sickening, but I endured it. And now, it’s the same with these girls. I really want to lock them up in the torture room and torment them until their last day, but I’m enduring it. Just when can I stop living like this?”

Kriemhild had always been jealous of Brynhild, even to this day, mainly because Brynhild still lived inside Sieg’s heart.

But now, even their descendants had trespassed in her house, and this dramatic scene was happening before her eyes.

“Kriemhild, I…”

“Shut it! Don’t forget that I’m the Witch of Envy! As long as I wish for it, I can commit all kinds of acts! I only behaved obediently this whole time because of you!”

As emotions took over her reasoning, Kriemhild raised her staff and aimed at Sieg.

The mana that was surrounding Sieg was immediately absorbed into the staff.

“Are you planning on killing these kids, Kriemhild!?”

Sieg was stupefied and asked as he lost his strength and fell to the floor.

“Yeah, that’s right. I don’t want to live in Brynhild’s shadow anymore. Tell me honestly. Don’t you also wish to free yourself from her? Don’t worry. I’ll soon liberate you from her chains.”

As she raised her staff high in the air, the corners of Kriemhild’s mouth rose.

Mana was instantly released and expanded outwards.

The mercenaries who were silently waiting outside all gained a headache and one by one, they pummelled to the ground.

“Urgh…”

“This pain! My head is splitting apart…”

They had been debuffed by Kriemhild’s magic.

However, having used the Saint’s Potion in advance, none of them fell into a confused state nor did they faint.

“Huh? Why aren’t they attacking each other? Is it because I overused my skill right after waking up?”

“Those weak attacks won’t work on us, Kriemhild.”

“So it indeed is your handiwork. Alright. Since we were both allies, I tried to deal with things without resorting to violence as much as I could. But now that things have come to this…”

Kriemhild dropped her head and began whistling.

Soon afterwards, a ground-reverberating sound rang out and a gargantuan silhouette appeared beyond the bushes.

‘A cyclops…? No, is it a nephilim?’

A monster born from a fallen angel and a female giant.

They were outrageous beings that would eat anything they could put their hands on.

“Grrrrr…”

The nephilim roared and raised its trident. The surrounding monsters abruptly began attacking the mercenaries.

“Kyaaak!”

“Kiiiek!!”

However, the mercenaries were still barely resisting Kriemhild’s debuff magic.

The only members who could freely move around were the descendants of Valkyrie Brynhild, Tinia and Silvia, along with the successor of Asura, Woohyuk.

“There are too many of them!”

“What do we do?”

“Don’t worry.”

As Tinia and Silvia began to panic, Woohyuk summoned an army of undead soldiers.

Seeing that scene, Kriemhild’s expression showed interest and curiosity.

“A necromancer? Don’t tell me you are that pathetic Nakron’s successor.”

“Unfortunately, that is the case.”

Nakron was a spirit that belonged to the Divine Throne system, and he was also Woohyuk’s patron, despite the fact that he had only met him once till this day.

“Goodness gracious… You’re planning to challenge the Divine Thrones even as a demon? Never have I ever heard of such a ridiculous plan. Do you even think it’s possible?”

“It is. It’s definitely possible.”

Amongst the empty thrones, there was a single one that demons could challenge.

The Demon God’s Throne.

To reach that seat, he had to deal with small fries like her with ease.

As he steeled his heart, Woohyuk slowly parted his lips.

“Switch.”

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