A month had passed since Van's encounter with the Aesir known as Hermod; they had been waiting for the Aesir to respond, but there weren't even any signs of an Aesir's hair landing on the Branch or Muspelheim.
Van was starting to think that they might not have actually received Hermod's head, but Gerald assured him that it did… as his accuracy was almost godly, he said.
Suffice to say, Van's life had become monotonous after the encounter. Charlotte's tavern was being taken care of by Queen Nori and the other forest giants; Vanya was the one handling the talks with Surtr and the fire giants in the perimeter of Muspelheim. As for the Branch, it does not seem to have any plans of moving anytime soon.
Van had also come to know that the Branch was loosely created by Artemis herself, so he had been trying to see if he could find a way to control it... but alas to no avail.
And so, the only thing he had been doing the past few weeks was practically talking with Gerald, hearing stories about his stay in this world.
Beatrice and Edward were the first ones to get married.
Harvey met her wife in one of the villages they rescued from the forest giants under Ymir.
Victoria remained vigilant and aloof as always, never letting anyone near her. It would seem that Harvey tried to make a move on her before he met his wife, but Victoria did not even give him time.
Beatrice and Edward were also the first ones to have a child-- a boy. Sadly, he died along with them during the war against Ymir. Violently gutted by the progenitor himself. Harvey's wife met the same fate.
She was gutted by Ymir... along with the baby she was carrying in her womb. Gerald described it in detail; Ymir mutilated the stomach of Harvey's wife, decapitating the baby inside her; as if that wasn't enough, Ymir pulled the baby out and threw it straight towards Harvey, before putting an arrow straight through its already still heart, skewering it to a tree.
Harvey was never the same since, and no one could really blame him.
As for Gerald, he stayed by his brother's side until what happened to Xinyan came to pass. After that, they haven't even seen each other in the flesh, or even talked through Charles.
"Did you know Charlotte was here?"
"No. If I did, then I would have probably challenged her to a duel. But still, to think that Charles hid her from all of us… maybe your lover didn't have to die. Maybe no one would have died if she was on our side."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"...Yeah, I think so too."
"It wouldn't have been fun, though," Gerald then let out a small chuckle as he jumped from the roof, "I'll go check on Xinyan. Smell you later, allibeggar."
"..." Van did not really have time to refute as Gerald already disappeared from his spot; the only thing he could do was let out a sigh as he leaned on the roof, looking towards Vanaheim.
Just what did the System want? It seemed to be giving him Objectives on the go, only ringing as soon as something was revealed to him. As for the EXP rewards being given to him, as well as the penalty-- how does it actually work?
How could his System provide itself with the very same thing that makes it stronger in the first place? It seemed contradictory; impossible, even. If the System could level up just by the simple act of meeting someone, then why not just give the EXP to him outright and get it over with?
The only thing that Van could think of was that something or someone is tampering with his System-- a third party.
With all the revelations that have been happening lately, the obvious suspect for the change in his System was Evangeline. She is Azrael's extension, the very being that gave birth to the System Holders in the first place.
If there was anyone capable of controlling his System, it would be her. If so, then where exactly is she leading him?
Although Van felt annoyed and uncomfortable that each of his movements could possibly be predicted and determined by Evangeline once again, he couldn't really do anything about it either.
"Father, I have brought Surtr with me."
"Hm?"
Van's thoughts were then disrupted as Vanya appeared beside him.
"Does he need something?"
"Only that he wishes to stay in the tavern from now on," Vanya quickly replied, "He had also brought around ten thousand fire giant warriors on the Branch, we are already preparing a subdivision for them to live in."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"10 thousand? There were that many of them?" Van could not help but comment. But after thinking about it a bit, it made sense. Van had only seen a fraction of Muspelheim, and considering almost all of its inhabitants lived underground, there should be a lot more of them than Van had initially thought.
"Yes, they are a rather… heated race."
"I could see that," Van nodded, "You can tell Surtr he could stay in the tavern… but wouldn't Queen Nori and he have a problem?"
"Not at all. Besides some competitiveness of trying to determine who is the greatest giant race, the fire giants and the frost giants are actually quite friendly with each other."
"Alright then, check him in."
"There's actually one more thing, father. The inhabitants of the Branch are quite curious and had been asking questions. With the appearance of the fire giants, some of them are now aware that we are trying to build an army against the Aesir."
"Are they causing trouble?"
"Not at all… as a matter of fact, some of them want to join us. Should we just ignore them?"
"...No."
Hearing Vanya's words, Van quickly sat up from the roof as he looked her straight in the eyes, "How many of them are there?"
"I don't know the exact amount, father. But there should be more than a hundred, that is for sure."
"Tell Queen Nori to close up the tavern," Van smiled.
"Father?"
"If they want to join, then let them. But we will be choosing who is actually worth our time," Van then leaped from the roof, "Finally…
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})...something to do."
***
"What… the fuck is going on?"
Gerald's eyes widened in surprise as soon as he returned from visiting Xinyan. He was only gone for an hour, and yet the place he just left was now totally different than it was before.
All of the windows of Charlotte's tavern were closed, and there was a long line made of different races leading to it. Gerald quickly wanted to go inside to see what was happening, but the forest giant that was guarding the tavern did not let him in.
But as soon as they were able to identify who he was, they quickly let him in.
"Fail, next!"
"What!? But I haven't even done anything yet!"
"Exactly, next!"
"..."
Gerald could only move to the side as an Earth Giant stomped his way through the door; the giant's sighs of frustration were enough to almost push Gerald away.
"What… is going on?" Gerald once again repeated his question as soon as he saw all of the tables lined up on one side of the tavern; Van, Surtr, Vanya, and Queen Nori sitting at their own respective tables.
Once again, Gerald could only move to the side as another individual entered the tavern. This time, it was a dwarf.
"A dwarf?" Queen Nori quickly breathed, "Your race is loyal to the Aesir, fail. Ne--"
"I have no love for the Aesir!"
Before Queen Nori could wave her hand, the male dwarf suddenly kneeled on the floor, "I can prove useful. Please let me join your cause!"
"You--"
"It's fine," Van waved his hand as he gestured to the dwarf to stand up,
"The test is simple," Van then said as he snapped his finger. And as soon as he did so, the dwarf quickly blinked his eyes a couple of times, "Did you see what just happened?"
"You… disappeared?"
"Pass, next!"
"T… that's it?"
"He already said you passed, dwarf. Now go before he changes his mind!"
"Thank you! I will prove to be of use to this cause!"
Seeing this, Gerald finally realized what was happening, the four were basically having an audition for the people to join their ranks. And the test was pretty simple-- one should be able to notice Van's movements. The dwarf probably didn't see it fully, but Gerald saw Van moving back and forth from his chair and the other corner of the room.
"Hm, you seem to be up to something interesting here," Gerald muttered as he jumped to one of the bigger tables, deciding to watch on the side.
Besides a few others, most of the people couldn't really see Van moving-- and they failed each and every one of them with no exemption. After all, if they couldn't even see Van running, then they wouldn't even have any chance against the Aesir. Heck, they wouldn't even last a second against Harvey and his army.
Gerald could not help but yawn as even after an hour, there wasn't anyone strong or agile enough to even notice Van moving. He was about to leave the tavern, but before he could jump from the gigantic table, his eyebrows lowered as he turned his head towards the robed individual that just entered the tavern.
"Another dwarf?" Queen Nori rolled her eyes, "Remove your robes so we could see--"
"Long time no see, Van."
And as Queen Nori ordered, the individual did remove his robe; revealing the golden locks of hair on his head, as well as the almost greying beard that fadely littered on most of his face.
"...Harvey."
