Chapter 7

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the forest canopy. After crossing a small stone bridge, Lan and I arrived one after the other at the source of Mimir’s Spring. I sat down on a rock beside the water and began the final step of crafting the wand, while Lan leaned against a tree behind me to rest.

Perhaps what I had done earlier really was impolite and had made him uncomfortable, but I didn’t think I was wrong. Even without knowing anything about Lan’s romantic history, anyone with eyes could tell that he was the kind of man who knew very well how to charm women and clearly had plenty of experience. Approaching someone like him as a member of the opposite sex would bring me no good—I understood that much.

Xiya often said that, to men, the least attractive kind of woman is the one who constantly fears being abandoned—lacking confidence, always anxious that the man might leave, endlessly questioning and clinging like a well-behaved but insecure girl. She also had a catchphrase she’d repeated so often my ears were nearly calloused from hearing it: when a man says something sweet, just enjoy how it sounds and never take it to heart. If he tries to enchant you with pretty words, answer with something even sweeter to enchant him back; once he’s the one who’s captivated, he won’t have the energy left to deceive you.

I knew she was right. But someone at Lan’s level—surrounded by women throwing themselves at him, and not particularly inclined to refuse—had probably seen every type imaginable. Dealing with someone like me was likely as simple to him as one plus one equals two.

So it was better to treat him the way I always had: purely, simply, as an idol.

Even ambiguity was not allowed.

Thinking this, I quickly finished crafting the wand.

Looking at the staff soaked in the spring water, the enormous Tear of the Moon Goddess set upon a snow-white diamond mount, I felt that this must be the most valuable wand in all the Nine Worlds today. Perhaps I would never again have the chance in my lifetime to work with materials this fine.

After wiping the wand gently with a soft cloth, I stood up and turned around—only to find that Lan had already fallen asleep.

His head tilted slightly to one side, and his light blond hair fell playfully across his forehead. His breathing was steady, and his face looked like that of a child—if someone tried to tie him up now, he probably wouldn’t even resist.

For a moment, a mischievous impulse surged through me, and I almost wanted to pick some wild herbs to tease him—but I managed to restrain myself. Just as he stood up, a voice called loudly from the forest: “Blue—” followed by words in the giant language, which I couldn’t understand at all.

Blue suddenly opened his eyes. “Someone called me?”

“Ah, yes.” I hid to the side, feeling guilty.

Blue stood up and quickly walked toward the direction of the call. It was a group of female giants he had mentioned before coming to Mimir Spring. Although the aesthetic standards between our races were vastly different, I could still tell that these women were considered beautiful among giants.

But female giants who were attracted to the gods were rare, and even fewer liked non-giants. The reasons were simple: first, many goddesses favored giant men; second, giant women seldom liked anyone outside their own kind. I had studied this for a long time but could never figure out why. Shi’a, however, immediately hit the point: as long as a man is a giant, no matter how weak he seems in front of giant women, he always appears bold and confident in front of goddesses. Conversely, if a godly man could attract giant women, that would mean he was truly…—she finished with a thumbs-up.

In short, giant women have always felt that goddesses were stealing their men, and they had always been hostile toward us.

So, at this moment, Blue was chatting with a group of beautiful giant women, looking extremely confident and radiant. I stood behind him, like a follower. But I have a decent temperament and plenty of patience, so listening to them speak in their unintelligible language didn’t bother me.

Later, one of the women suddenly pointed at me with her chin. I heard Blue mention “Ina” and “Waner.” The woman nodded, then said something in a comical tone, making everyone around burst into laughter.

I felt a little uncomfortable and was about to move aside when I suddenly heard that female giant speak in broken Waner language: “How’s it going, Gulveig?” Her pronunciation was mocking, and the others laughed again.

Blue thought for a moment and continued to respond in the giant tongue. I caught the word “Wanerheim” somewhere in the conversation.

After chatting for a while longer, Blue turned to me and said, “I’m going back to the city with them. You can’t return on your own, so wait here for me.” He took a couple of steps, then turned back: “I’ll give you your processing f*e when we return.”

Before I could reply, he was already gone.

So I sat by the small spring, bored, for three hours.

Three hours later, Blue returned, accompanied by several men and women. He clapped shoulders, exchanged handshakes, and said his goodbyes. I couldn’t help feeling a bit frustrated after waiting so long, but he didn’t even glance at me.

Finally, he opened his spellbook and brought me back to the tower in the Hainil Palace.

Leaving didn’t take long, but it felt like several months had passed. Once out of the tower, we spiraled down on the wyvern, and I roughly pointed Blue toward the way home. Countless buildings, bathed in the soft golden light of the sunset, rushed past us.

Finally, we arrived at the foot of my building, at the entrance of a backlit alley.

“Alright, this is as far as I go.” I jumped down from the golden-winged wyvern. “Thank you, I’ll head home from here.”

“I’ll have someone bring your payment tomorrow, including the three hours just now.”

“No need.” I waved him off. “If possible, I’d like to exchange it for Shi’a’s job opportunity. If not, I’ll keep trying in the future.” Saying this, I turned to go upstairs.

“Wait.”

I paused and looked back at him. He had dismounted the wyvern and walked up to me.

“I’m sorry for keeping you waiting for so long.”

“It’s alright.”

The dusk painted the entire capital city with a golden blush. Blue turned his face slightly away, his eyelashes catching a faint golden glow. “I don’t even know what’s wrong with me… I keep doing things that make you dislike me.”

“How could I dislike you? No one would ever dislike Blue.” I smiled. “You’re the pride and savior of our tribe, after all.”

“That’s good.” He gave a wry smile. “You must be tired after all this. Go rest now.”

---

Just as I opened the door and stepped inside, an earth-shattering crash sounded from within the room. I immediately put down what I was carrying and rushed to Shi’a’s door. “Shi’a, what’s going on?”

Inside came the sounds of windows being opened and shut. I knocked a few more times, then heard the noise of someone tidying up before the door finally opened. Shi’a smiled at me awkwardly, then quickly shook my shoulders. “Wait, where have you been? Why are you only just back?”

I tiptoed inside and glanced around, smirking. “Hmm… something seems off.”

“What’s off? What could possibly be off?”

“Are you hiding a man?” I said, then realized how ridiculous it sounded. Shi’a bringing men home was nothing new; she often acted completely unconcerned, even near me.

“Of course not. My room was just messy, that’s all…”

“When has a messy room ever stopped you from being seen?”

“Today it was extra, extra messy.”

“Really…”

“Of course.” Shi’a brushed a strand of her golden curls back and smiled at me seductively. “And what about you? Where did you go? Our Lady Ina never leaves without telling anyone, you know.”

“I went to collect materials to make a wand.”

“Does making a wand take this long? And you even had to collect the materials yourself?” Shi’a’s eyes narrowed. “You’d better be honest and tell me everything.”

“It’s for Blue. He needs some special, ready-made materials, so we went to gather them.”

Shi’a stared at me, unblinking. “Helping Blue?”

“Yes…”

“Oh my… why does that guy never go away?” Shi’a groaned, tilting her head back to stare at the ceiling in despair. “Forget it, forget it. Come in and sit. I get it—you completely ignore everything when work is involved. But Miss… you’re already forty-seven. Can you stop acting like you’re thirty-eight or thirty-nine, fresh-faced and overly innocent? In a few years, you should start thinking about marriage…”

“Stop!” I sat down beside her and gestured sharply. “I’m not marrying anyone before seventy.”

“Seventy? Why not just wait until eighty?”

“Do you want me to get married in my fifties or sixties?”

Shi’a opened her mouth, but after a long pause, she didn’t say a word. “…I don’t know. Sometimes, getting married isn’t that easy, I guess…”

Did I just hear that right? The woman who’s always been impossibly youthful and independent, hating any kind of restriction, actually said, ‘getting married isn’t easy’? Has she fallen in love? No. I’d sooner believe Odin would propose to me than believe she’s developed feelings for someone else.

“That’s not like you at all,” I sighed, collapsing onto the bed. Then I noticed a scent.

Everyone has a unique scent. I’ve known Shi’a’s fragrant, feminine scent for nearly twenty years.

This… wasn’t her scent.

Something’s wrong. I sat up and carefully observed her expression.

“We haven’t gone out in ages,” Shi’a said, patting my shoulder. “Tomorrow’s the weekend—come with me, Sister Shi’a, and we’ll go enjoy ourselves on Frochen Street.”

I clenched my fists, holding back for as long as I could—but finally, I couldn’t resist. “Alright!!”

Even though I knew that this wand-making job earned me not a single penny, and I even spent some of my own materials. Even though I knew that the money I made making the Evil God gloves was already spent renovating the West District branch, leaving me utterly broke.

But there’s a thing in this world called passion. And that is the love of Frochen Street.

That love made me forget everything I had to focus on before. I immediately began discussing tomorrow’s shopping plans with Shi’a, along with the latest fashion trends—shoes with a strong, rich vintage style.

The next day, the two of us woke up earlier than anyone else. With pockets stuffed full of silver coins, we went through every corner of Frochen Street—the street that gathered the most beautiful women in the world—and sampled everything it had to offer. By the time we returned, not a single penny remained on either of us.

Looking at the huge pile of things I had brought home and realizing that I had spent the last month’s food money, I looked up at Shi’a with infinite sorrow. “Shi’a… for the next month, my life depends on you.”

Shi’a had just retrieved some letters from the mailbox downstairs. At that moment, she was staring intently at the thickest and most elaborate one. “Oh my god.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Guess what I got?”

“What?”

She handed me the thick, gold-edged booklet. I opened it and read:

Presented to: Miss Shi’a

For Blue’s Birthday Celebration Dinner and Ball

Godly Calendar, July 29, 3017

8:00 PM – 4:00 AM

Gathering Address: Hainil Palace Sky Altar

Banquet Address: Hainil Palace Hall of Radiance

“This is weird… I even got an invitation,” Shi’a said in disbelief, staring at the invitation. “I don’t want to go to that jerk’s birthday. You go for me.”

“That would be rude,” I replied.

“Then you can go with me. Otherwise, I might lose it right there.”

I shook the invitation in my hand. “This is a red invitation.” Red invitations mean only the invited person can attend. Silver allows three guests, gold allows ten.

Shi’a flopped onto the sofa. “Still almost two months away… we’ll worry about it later.”

Not exaggerating, this invitation was like a ticking time bomb for her. It wasn’t that she truly disliked Blue—she just didn’t want to face the fact that she had lost her most important job. But since the invitation had arrived, I had a feeling that Blue’s birthday would hold a surprise.

Fifteen minutes later, I went downstairs to take out the trash and checked the mailbox. Inside were two advertisements, a letter from an old friend in Watterheim, a rent reminder, and a new work order. That was all.

---

It had been at least ten years since I had crafted anything by hand. The wand I made for Blue was the first in a decade. I suddenly felt a pang of nostalgia for the time when I first arrived in Wanerheim, working for others, being forced by my boss to make five to seven pairs of boots or six hundred magical arrows every day.

The next morning, I handed the newly received work order to Gefi and asked her to watch over the shop. I bought some materials and went home to work overtime, making leather gloves and boots for various professions. For the next three days, I didn’t go to Ina’s craftsman room at all.

Perhaps because I had decided to take things a bit slower, these past few days, Shi’a seemed much gentler whenever I saw her. And I started wondering if sometimes I had been so focused on my own affairs that I neglected her.

Although she was busy with work too, on Odin’s Festival, Friends’ Day, Goddess’ Day, Smile Day, Waner Day, and even my birthday… she always thoughtfully sent me flowers or hand-blended incense, sometimes even with a small card. Yet, I only spent more on gifts for her on her own birthday.

Shi’a was the typical kind of woman who cared about appearances, not money. She understood romance, knew how to dress herself to perfection, and could buy herself a silver-winged dragon worth four million… Yet she didn’t have Ivida’s wealth, and someone had left the alchemy room this month.

A woman like her most needed a responsible man to take care of her. Yet she didn’t mind at all, still rushing through life like a whirlwind, enjoying the attention of men with their flowers, jewels, and new clothes—yet she would never accept a ring.

Sometimes, I guessed, she was probably just very afraid of being hurt and lonely.

Thinking this, I decided to personally cook something for her. Even though the likely result would be her screaming and demanding to take me to the hospital.

I took a set of utensils from the cabinet and, unexpectedly, noticed a strand of hair on them. I plucked it off and held it up in the sunlight, straightening it to inspect it. It wasn’t blond, it wasn’t black.

It was deep blue.

I recalled Shi’a’s reaction when I came back, the scent in her room, and then looked at this hair. My heart leapt to my throat—the kind of deep, cool-toned hair, no matter how mixed-blooded, could never belong to a Waner god.

My mind went blank, and I slumped down in my chair.

This was why Shi’a refused to let me know who that person was?

Because… that man belonged to the Asir gods?

But after a few minutes of careful thought, that seemed impossible. No Asir god could have infiltrated Wanerheim. Shi’a was an extreme patriot; her hatred of the Asir gods was no less than mine. The possibility was almost zero.

Aside from the Asir gods, only a dwarf could have hair of this color. Could it be that Shi’a had gone through all the races and was now… trying dwarves? But she had spoken contemptuously about dwarves many times before—so perhaps she was just too embarrassed to admit it in front of me…

For my own safety, I decided not to ask further.

I had intended to return to the kitchen to continue cooking, but my feet seemed to move of their own accord, carrying me downstairs.

Once again, I opened the mailbox. Inside were a simple flyer for the Water Magic School enrollment and another advertisement claiming that you could earn a silver-winged dragon with only three thousand Vida. I crumpled the two papers and tossed them into the trash.

I sighed at the empty mailbox, only to hear Shi’a’s voice beside me: “Three days, and you’ve completely fallen into the life of a housewife.”

I rolled my eyes and muttered to the mailbox, “Yes, yes, I’m a housewife. Happy now?”

“You’ve got quite a temper too,” she clicked her tongue. “A distinguished guest has arrived, and look at what you’re wearing.”

“I… Ina was planning to cook for you today…” I said, annoyed, turning around—and froze when I saw Blue standing behind her.

“Ina, long time no see,” Blue smiled at me.

I parted my lips slightly. Shi’a shrugged. “Lord Blue has come to the craftsman room to look for you four times, and you weren’t there.”

“I… nobody told me,” I said, suddenly realizing how harmonious they seemed together. I couldn’t help laughing. “Shi’a, is there good news today?”

“Of course. Thanks to Lord Blue, I’ve been reinstated,” Shi’a said, raising her eyebrows.

“No, this was all thanks to Ina’s efforts.”

“I don’t think Ina is the type to bother with such trivial matters.”

“Alright, Shi’a, stop pretending.” I patted her shoulder. “Actually, it was me throwing your perfume bottle out the window that got you fired. I know.”

“Don’t bring up perfume! As soon as you mention it, I want to kill you,” Shi’a ground her teeth. “Do you know that took me half a month to create? The ‘Lover of Hainil,’ and you smashed it!”

“Wait…” I paused, speaking slowly, word by word. “That… wasn’t an important solution for your work?”

“How could it be a solution? It’s the ultimate perfume—any man who smells it would be completely enchanted.”

I felt a little dizzy and leaned against the wall. “…Anyway, Blue… thank you.”

“Why don’t you ask why I came?” Shi’a said, exasperated.

“Oh, right. You came today to…?”

“I want you to attend my birthday banquet.” Blue handed over a small, gold-bound booklet.