After staying in Elbaph for roughly a month, Harald once again set out to sea.
This time, he took Loki with him.
The Giants of Elbaph were practically moved to tears.
The God of Mischief was finally gone.
Loki’s reputation in Elbaph wasn’t particularly good, and that had everything to do with how he constantly brought beasts up from the Underworld and ran wild with his pranks throughout the kingdom.
Thor, on the other hand, enjoyed an excellent reputation.
After all, he regularly went fishing in the sea.
A single enormous Sea King was enough for the entire population of Elbaph to hold a feast.
Whenever King Harald was away, any important matters in Elbaph were decided by Elders Jarul and Jorul.
Thor was still too young.
No matter how highly Harald thought of him, there was no way he could let a child serve as regent.
With Loki gone, Thor suddenly found life much lonelier.
The main problem was that Loki was the only person in Elbaph who could still trade blows with him.
The ordinary Giant warriors were no longer his opponents at all.
“Thor, train me too.”
“Oh?”
Thor looked at Hajrudin, who was only about half his height, with some curiosity.
“Big bro Hajrudin, weren’t you planning to stay in Elbaph? You still want to go out to sea?”
“Even if I don’t go now, I’m definitely going someday. And I’ll take Gerd with me!”
“Sure.”
Thor barely suppressed a laugh.
Hajrudin had spent an entire night agonizing over whether or not to go to sea.
In the end, he had finally realized—
Why not just take Gerd with him?
“But my training is too intense. There’s no way you can handle it right away, so…”
The scene changed.
In Elbaph’s Underworld, Hajrudin was sprinting for his life while Fenrir and a pack of Mountain Lords chased after him, snapping at his heels.
Tears and snot streamed behind him as he ran.
“So we’ll start with stamina training. Don’t stop. Keep running for another hour.”
“WAAAAAH—!”
And so, Hajrudin’s hellish training began.
…
Time passed quickly in Elbaph.
In the blink of an eye, another three years went by.
During those three years, Loki continuously sailed with Harald.
Had he become mature and dependable?
No.
He was practically becoming a pirate captain.
“Those human pirates seriously overestimated themselves. One swing of my hammer and I sent both them and their ship straight to the bottom of the sea to feed the fish.”
Inside Ida’s tavern, Loki enthusiastically bragged to Thor about his overwhelming strength.
After taking Loki out to sea, Harald hadn’t simply let him sit around.
Instead, he gave Loki a mission.
Several human nations that had once helped Elbaph were currently suffering from constant pirate raids and were in dire straits.
At a time like this, the Giants of Elbaph naturally had to repay their debt.
Harald had brought quite a few Giant warriors along on this voyage.
It was practically as though the Giant Warrior Pirates had returned to the seas.
The task Harald gave Loki was simple.
Lead the Giant warriors in protecting Elbaph’s human brother nations and wipe out every pirate who attacked or plundered them.
He had to admit, Loki was extremely well suited to the job.
And judging by the results, he had done it exceptionally well. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“Humans are way too weak, though. It’s boring. Dad keeps saying there are humans strong enough to rival him. Was he just bragging?”
Loki had spent three years at sea without encountering a single truly dangerous opponent.
Thor wasn’t sure whether that made him lucky or unlucky.
“Oh, right. Thor, when are you planning to head out to sea? When you go, I’ll come with you.”
Loki suddenly brought it up.
He knew Thor had always intended to set sail.
For the past three years, Thor had also been making preparations in Elbaph for exactly that.
“No. When I go to sea, you’re staying in Elbaph.”
“Huh?”
Loki stared at him.
What the hell did Thor mean by saying that when he left, Loki had to stay behind?
“You’re also a prince of the Giants. Who knows what might happen to me once I’m out at sea? We can’t exactly both die out there, can we?”
Thor spoke half-jokingly.
Loki scoffed.
“Are you kidding me? I’d sooner believe I could eat an entire Sea King in one meal than believe you’d die out there.”
“Thor is right.”
At that moment, Harald pushed open the tavern door and entered.
After observing and training Loki during three years of voyages, Harald had come to realize something.
Loki might not be the ideal candidate to become king of Elbaph, but he undeniably possessed both the strength and qualifications to lead the Giant race.
“If anything really does happen to Thor, then Loki, you will inherit the throne of Elbaph.”
“I don’t give a damn about being king!”
Loki had no interest whatsoever in listening to his father.
Annoyed, he pushed open the tavern door and left.
Only after Loki was gone did Harald sit down and turn to Thor.
“Thor, why did you ask me to tell Loki that? Don’t you want to become king anymore?”
“No.”
Thor shook his head.
He absolutely intended to take the throne of Elbaph.
It was an important part of his plans.
“It’s just that in the future, the strongest Giants in Elbaph will probably be Loki and me. If both of us leave the kingdom at the same time and something happens here, I’m worried there won’t be anyone strong enough to protect our home.”
“Hahahaha!”
Harald burst into laughter.
“With your father here, you don’t have to worry! I’ve still got another hundred years of fighting left in me!”
‘Damn it…
You’re exactly the reason I can’t relax.’
Thor kept that thought firmly to himself.
If Harald still ended up being controlled by Lord Imu in the future, then Thor might have no choice but to personally reenact Arthas’s legendary display of filial devotion.
Of course, Thor had no intention of letting that happen.
But it was still better to take precautions.
What if someone really did attack Elbaph while Thor was too occupied elsewhere to return?
“Anyway, you should just enjoy your time alone with Mom Ida. Go travel the seas on a honeymoon if you want. Leave Elbaph to me.”
“Now that sounds good.”
Harald happily took another drink.
Having a son like Thor really did save him both trouble and effort.
Not long afterward, Harald once again left Elbaph.
This time, however, he didn’t take Loki with him.
Thor would soon be preparing to leave as well. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
According to their agreement, whenever Thor was away at sea, Loki had to remain in Elbaph.
That was their responsibility as princes of the Giant race.
“I’m pissed!”
“Be pissed, then. What do you want me to do about it?”
“I want to beat the hell out of you!”
In Elbaph’s Underworld, two enormous warhammers collided.
Neither brother was even using Haki, yet the sheer force produced by their monstrous strength triggered a massive avalanche across the snow-covered Underworld.
“You’ve improved quite a bit after three years at sea, Loki.”
“You’re not bad either.”
Loki talked tough, but the hand gripping Gleipnir was trembling.
It had gone completely numb.
Gleipnir was the second hammer forged by the Giant blacksmiths.
Thor had already given the name Mjölnir to his own hammer, and he couldn’t think of another fitting name.
Loki, being practically illiterate, couldn’t come up with anything good himself and kept pestering Thor to name it for him.
After thinking about it, Thor simply called it Gleipnir.
Gleipnir—the fetter used to bind Fenrir in Norse mythology.
It was a magical cord said to have been made from six impossible things, including the sound of a cat’s footsteps, a woman’s beard, and the roots of a mountain.
Loki already had a giant wolf named Fenrir as his underling.
So naming his weapon Gleipnir seemed fitting enough.
“If you want to go to sea, then go! Why the hell do you have to leave me stuck in Elbaph?!”
“With me and Dad both away, you’ll be the strongest warrior in Elbaph. Of course you have to stay and protect our country.”
“What a joke! I’m not interested.”
Loki didn’t hold some extreme belief that the weak deserved to die, but he also had no interest in protecting weaklings.
Ida was naturally an exception.
Because Thor had meddled, Harald had gone to sea without Loki.
Loki was furious.
So he vented his anger by fighting Thor in the Underworld.
The battle between the two Giant warriors eventually attracted an unexpected visitor.
“Hey, hey, hey! So this is Elbaph? Even the Giant children here are this strong? That’s ridiculous.”
A human man stepped onto the land of Elbaph’s Underworld.
His face resembled Blackbeard Teach.
His voice resembled Blackbeard Teach.
In fact, practically everything about him resembled Blackbeard Teach.
And behind him followed a group of people, every one of whom looked anything but ordinary.
‘He’s finally here.’
The moment Thor saw the humans before him, excitement surged through his heart.
He had deliberately remained in Elbaph until the age of fifteen.
This was the moment he had been waiting for.
“Hey! Who the hell are you humans?”
Loki was already in a foul mood.
Seeing a group of humans suddenly appear only made his temper worse.
He raised Gleipnir and slammed the hammer violently into the ground.
BOOM!
The entire Underworld shook.
“If you don’t want me to smash you to death with one blow, then start talking. What are you doing in Elbaph?!”
“Hohoho! What an incredible Giant brat. But—”
The man at the front drew his sword.
Then he swung.
“Who the hell gave you permission to speak to me like that?!”
A mountain in Elbaph’s Underworld was severed cleanly in two by a single slash.