Chapter 83 - Witch’s Forest 3 (1/2)

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.

“...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.