Waltrautesan no Konkatsu Jijou - Chapter 2 - Part 8

After receiving advice from Loki, the boy parted ways with the male god and headed further into the cave.

And up in the heavenly world of Asgard, Waltraute was wrapped in self-hatred after awakening from her anger.

“How much effort am I going to give for that boy…?”

“Well, you are married to him, so it isn’t wrong to react somewhat.”

The boy stopped to eat his snacks, drink from his water bottle, and fill his empty stomach with hard rye bread, but he finally made it to the end of the cave.

He had arrived at the entrance to the underground world of Niðavellir where the dwarves lived.

“So he has safely arrived at the other world. Ha ha ha!! I win the bet!!”

“Yes, yes. I’ll make sure the boy gets tons of asparagus. I’ll give him a forest of asparagus.”

“…Why do you not seem the least bit upset that you lost?”

(Because this means the project to strip you of your armor is well on its way to success. Hee hee hee.)

The goddess of beauty Freyja hid her true intentions and instead said, “Wasn’t the difficulty level of the previous challenge to climb the world tree just too high?”

“H-hmph! That was a competition officially arranged with a Valkyrie to manipulate her fate in the form of marriage! It was only natural for it to be that difficult!!”

“Can you make up your mind over whether you want to be hard on him or soft on him?”

The boy entered the underground world of Niðavellir.

Unlike the damp cave, the inside glowed with gold. Literally. All the buildings and roads were made from pure gold. That glow seemed a bit gaudy to the residents of the heavenly world, but it was an excellent scene for stimulating human greed.

The dwarves were only about half the height of an adult human and their skin was dark. They all mined and forged metals as both miners and blacksmiths.

But…

“Excuse me. Where is the blacksmith?” asked the boy.

“I don’t know,” replied a dwarf.

“I need the blacksmith. Y’know, the guy who heats up metal and then beats it.”

“?”

“No, no. That isn’t going to work at all, boy,” said Waltraute as she held her head, but her voice could not reach the boy. “All dwarves possess skills as a blacksmith, so there is no specialist known as ‘the blacksmith’. The person you are looking for is right before your eyes, but you will never find him if you do not know how to ask.”

“…You sound more like a mother speaking to her child than a newlywed.”

After repeating that failed exercise a few times, even that boy realized something was off. He grabbed one of the dwarves walking along the golden path and asked him a question.

“Tell me which dwarf can make me a tool.”

“Y-yes,” said Waltraute. “That’s right. That is what you must say. It certainly took you some time to figure out something so simple. You really are hopeless…”

“That look on your face says quite a lot, you newlywed wife. Should I repeat out loud what that grin of yours is saying?” said Freyja.

The dwarf led the boy to his workshop.

The dwarf asked, “What would you like made?”

“Um…Mrs. Frigg said I could enjoy my next date more if I had a tool to remove a Valkyrie’s armor.”

“Ah!?” exclaimed the Valkyrie in realization. “I was so caught up in that competition that I forgot success means having my armor removed!!”

“So you finally caught on, hm!? But it’s too late now!!”

As Waltraute frantically tried to cover up her chest with both hands, the dwarf’s next question reached her ears.

“Can you pay?”

“But…wait. Wait a second!” said Freyja.

“What?”

“Can we really have that dwarf make this golden tool?”

“O-of course not!! It is simply unthinkable to have my armor stripped off! B-but…I suppose… I suppose if that boy gets this tool made and earnestly asks me, I will have no choice but to go along with it…”

“That’s not what I meant, you exhibitionist,” spat out Freyja coolly. “The tools created by the dwarves are of such high quality that not even the Æsir can copy them. Even the lightning god Thor’s Mjölnir and the head god Odin’s Gungnir were made by the dwarves.”

“What is your point?”

“They put a curse on the gold they use,” continued Freyja with a serious expression. “Especially when it comes to those that shirk the bill like Loki suggested he do. Even the tools we use have a dwarf curse on them. The reason we remain unharmed is because our properties as gods repels the curse. But if a human who cannot repel it was to hold them…”

“…”

“Loki stole some gold from the dwarf named Andvari and gave it to the human Siegfried. It became one of the reasons behind the death of that hero who even sliced the dragon Fafnir in two. The magic sword Dáinsleif is usable by human hands, but it is also said to be one of the triggers for Ragnarök. Surely you have heard the stories. It is often said that humans cannot fully use the weapons of the gods, but that is a lie. In truth, the humans cannot withstand the curse put on the weapons by the dwarves.”

“Th-th-then…” Waltraute asked a question in a trembling voice. “What will happen once that boy accepts the golden tool the dwarf makes?”

“Hmm.” Freyja looked straight upwards. “He’ll probably die.”