Debuff Master

Chapter 251

Brunhilde looked for Siegfried in hopes of touring him around Elondel, and she overheard what the other elves were saying about her by pure coincidence.

“I’m sure humans have eyes too. Why would he marry the princess?”

“But humans have different beauty standards from us, right?”

“Yeah, but the princess is too hideous… no?”

“I agree… I’m sure he can pick from a lot of women since he is a king. There’s no need for him to settle with the princess…”

Their words were knives that pierced her wounded heart. She had already gotten used to hearing such words, but she couldn’t afford to feel indifferent upon hearing those words this time around.

‘Is Siegfried-nim going to reject me as well…?’?

The sadness and pain that had accumulated inside her for centuries welled up all at once at the thought of being rejected by Siegfried.

Tak! Tak! Tak!?

Then, she ran away.

She ran, ran, and ran to the only place she could cry alone…

***

‘Damn it! She definitely got hurt by them!’?Siegfried gritted his teeth and ran after her.

He understood her feelings, so he didn’t want to leave her alone.

“Excuse me.”

Before that, Siegfried decided to walk over to the elves and give them a piece of his mind.

“Y-Yes?!”

“Omo!”

The elves were surprised when Siegfried approached them.

“Is it true that the elves are kind forest-dwellers that value nature and life above everything else?” he asked.

“Y-Yes, why do you ask?” an elf replied.

“I don’t think so?” he retorted.

“Excuse me…?”

“Why do you guys have so many comments on how someone looks? Are you guys that great? So great that you can put others down based on their appearance?”

“…”

“Kind, my ass. You guys are just a bunch of trash,” he said in a chilling voice. Then, he put his +15 Gaia’s Fist on his shoulder and added, “I’m going to bash the skull of whoever speaks ill of Brunhilde-nim in front of me from now on, you got that?”

It was a warning, and it was quite a serious threat. The tone of his voice made it clear that he was dead serious.

“I’m not just saying this to threaten you guys, so you better watch your mouth from now on,” Siegfried said before turning around to chase after the princess.

***

Right after Siegfried disappeared…

“Kyu!?Give it to me!” Hamchi said. He popped out of a bush and extended his hand.

Lohengrin took out a large pouch and passed it, “Here you go.”

“Kyu!?The walnut growing in the Eternal Forest is truly a delicacy! Kyuuuu!?This was an excellent trade!”

“Hoho! I agree with you. I think this was an excellent trade,” Lohengrin said as he let out a satisfied laugh.

“But how did you know things were going to turn out this way, Great Spirit of the Forest?”

“Kyu!?Hamchi knows owner punk the best!”

Hamchi proudly proclaimed himself as an expert when it came to Siegfried.

“He’s quite blunt, but he’s quite the softie inside! He will never cave in if you threaten him, but he’s quite easy to convince otherwise! Kyu!?He can be quite the jerk who stabs others in the back, but he’s still a nice guy!”

“It seems that you know King Siegfried very well, Great Spirit. I have learned a lot from you.”

“Just let me know if you need anything from now on! Kyu!?But don’t forget to pay me! Hamchi likes straightforward deals!”

“Hoho!?

“We have completed the mission, my king.”

“The mission has been completed.”

The elves that were gossiping about Brunhilde approached Lohengrin and bowed.

“Great work, all of you. You displayed excellent acting, even though you were not trained for the task.” Lohengrin praised the elves.

“Not at all, my king. We did not really have to act—ah!”

“It was refreshing to speak the truth—Heok!”

The elves failed to control their tongue and blurted out the truth. They immediately ran away after seeing their king’s face darken.

Indeed. The mission wasn’t that difficult for the elves because they had always been gossiping about Brunhilde.

“Leave…” Lohengrin muttered in anger at the remaining elves.

The remaining elves escaped after sensing their king’s foul mood.

“Sigh…?I can’t punish them since it’s an elf’s natural instinct to be repulsed by red hair… even I, her father, sometimes feel repulsed by her hair…” he muttered under his breath.

It was inevitable for the kind elves to be so cruel toward Brunhilde, and it was all because of their instinctive hate for the color red.

***

“Sniff… Sniff… Sniff… Sniff…!”?Brunhilde hid in the forest of the elves and cried. She would always go to this part of the forest whenever she wanted to cry, and it had always been her sanctuary.

The whole thing was a plot hatched by Hamchi and Lohengrin’s shady deal, but Brunhilde was unaware of what happened behind the scenes, so the elves’ words hurt her deeply.

“Sniff… Sniff…?Waaaaaah! Waaaaah!”

She cried her heart out for the first time in five decades.

“W-Why…! I don’t have any friends… and even Siegfried-nim will… sniff! sniff! sniff!”

“Brunhilde-nim! What are you doing here?!” Siegfried shouted after finally catching up to her.

“S-Siegfried-nim!”

“Why are you crying? Who made you cry?”

“Siegfried-nim… aren’t you repulsed by me? Are you going to abandon me, too…?”

“What are you talking about?” Siegfried grumbled. Then, he hugged her while thinking, ‘Sigh… why would they do this to her? She’s such a nice person…’

His reaction was normal. He didn’t need to be in love or infatuated to hug a crying woman.

“Siegfried-nim…”

“Stop crying, why do you have to cry, Brunhilde-nim? They are the bad ones.”

“W-Will you really not go out with me? Is it true? I… I really like Siegfried-nim! I fell in love with you at first sight!”

“T-That’s…”

Siegfried found it difficult to answer.

“I see… So it was true… You don’t want me… sniff… waaah!”

“No! That’s not it! You should listen to what I have to say, too!”

“Hmm…?”

“I…” Siegfried consoled her before explaining why he was against seeing anyone right now. Of course, he could not tell her that this world was just a fake world and they were all NPCs, so he came up with a different story that still matched his thoughts.

“I see…”

“In return, I’ll be your friend, Brunhilde-nim,” Siegfried said and held her hand tightly.

“So please don’t cry. You’re no longer alone,” he added.

“Siegfried-nim…”

“I don’t dislike you or abhor you like the others, so you don’t have to get hurt anymore. Do you understand?”

“Yes…” Brunhilde felt better.

‘You’re truly kind, Siegfried-nim… You’re too sweet… Ah… Is this what love feels like? I feel like I’m about to go crazy and drunk from this…!’?she exclaimed inwardly after feeling the affection of the opposite gender for the first time in her life.

Kwak!

Siegfried hugged her tightly, and her face was buried in his chest.

Pat, pat, pat…

He patted her back and did his best to console her.

Ten minutes later…

“Uhm… C-Can you get off of me now…? I can’t breathe… Hahaha…”

“Omo! I apologize!”

Brunhilde quickly let go of him after seeing his pale face.

“You’re quite strong… Hahaha!”

“I apologize for being too…”

It was then.

Rumble!

The entirety of Elondel rumbled, and the magic speakers installed across Elondel blared to life.

—Warning! Warning! All forces prepare for battle and assemble at once!

—I repeat! All forces prepare for battle and assemble at once!

—The dark elves have mobilized their army! Warning! Warning!

War.

The dark elves of Niflheim had mobilized the army to attack Elondel.

“I think I have to go, Siegfried-nim!” Brunhilde exclaimed. She was the captain of the flying squadron as well as one of the elite soldiers of Elondel, so her presence was crucial in battle.

“Don’t worry about me, and go!” Siegfried replied. He knew how important she was to the elves, so he had no problem sending her away to battle.

***

“Hmm… I should go look for the Terramorg, then…” Siegfried decided to look for the ancient monster instead, as the war was between the dark elves and the elves.

“But where the hell is that monster…? I don’t have a clue where it could be at…” he grumbled and pondered for quite a while until he met up with Hamchi, Gringore, Seung-Gu, and Cesc.

“We’re now going to focus on our main objective for coming here, which is hunting the Terramorg—”

Rumble!

The ground trembled once more, interrupting him.

“W-What’s going on?” Siegfried tilted his head in confusion before he laughed and said, “Don’t tell me the Terramorg is going to save me the trouble and show up here? Haha…?No, there’s no way—”

Boom!

A loud explosion echoed across Elondel as a portion of the city walls crumbled.

“Gwuooooook!”

A monster that looked like a combination of a rhinoceros and a turtle let out a deafening roar. The monster was bigger than any buildings in Elondel, and its entire body was surrounded by flames and sulfur smoke.

The monster went on a rampage and destroyed everything in its path.

“Y-Your Majesty…? I believe we no longer need any clues to locate the ancient monster…” Gringore muttered.

“Y-You think so, too…?” Siegfried replied in a daze.

“I hope it was not Your Majesty that summoned the monster…?”

“No way… Hahaha…”

Both of them were certain that the humongous monster that suddenly appeared out of nowhere was the ancient monster, Terramorg.

Siegfried didn’t even have to use the Rune of Insight on it.

“Well, I guess it turned out for the better. We’re technically outsiders, so we shouldn’t get involved in the war against the dark elves. In other words, we should focus on the Terramorg while the elves are busy with their war,” Siegfried said with a shrug.

Most of the elves had left to face the dark elves, so Siegfried led his party to hunt the Terramorg.

***

‘It’s a strong enemy, so I need to debuff it first…!’?Siegfried immediately placed down Blaze Field and Shadow Swamp to kickstart the raid. A powerful blaze shot up from the ground, and a black shadow that looked identical to the Terramorg rose up.

“Gwuoooook!”

The Terramorg did not stay within the debuff fields after spotting Siegfried.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

It ran at Siegfried at unbelievable speeds, which betrayed its size.

‘Huh??It?left the Shadow Swamp just like that?!’?Siegfried was shocked.

The Terramorg was so powerful that Shadow Swamp failed to tie it down.

No, it was more accurate to say that the Shadow Swamp had done its job perfectly and slowed the ancient monster down, but the ancient monster was simply too fast that Shadow Swamp seemed like it hadn’t done its job.

Terramorg moved like a steam locomotive after leaving the confines of Shadow Swamp.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

“Huh…? Eh…?”

Siegfried was flabbergasted at the sudden turn of events.

“We’re fucked!”

He immediately jumped to the side to avoid getting squashed to death.