Chapter 1101

"Actually, I know that Loki has all sorts of problems." Odin frowned and began to speak to himself again. He said, "Because his body is relatively frail, the Asgardians do not accept him, and Frigga spent more time teaching him, so he is more like a girl, with a sensitive mind."

"But in fact, this is not a shortcoming at all. Anyway, he doesn't need to be the God King of Asgard; he doesn't need to bear responsibility, so he doesn't need to pursue perfection."

"Or rather, the Asgardians don't actually discriminate against him that much. The main reason he feels the Asgardians discriminate against him is that the Asgardians do not revere him as much as they revere Thor."

"However, the reason the Asgardians revere Thor is not because the hot-headed Thor of that time was much stronger than Loki, but entirely out of respect for me. He is the heir I designated; how could they dare not to respect him?"

"But I couldn't just tell everyone, 'You must also revere Loki,' because he felt sad about this. Wouldn't that shake the authority of the heir I had previously established?"

Odin waved his hand vigorously in front of him and said, "I know that bunch of brutes in Asgard too well. They wouldn't bother to observe subtle nuances. They could sit in front of me for a year and only notice that I'd grown a few more whiskers. They can only understand the literal meaning of orders."

"If I say Thor will inherit the throne in the future, they treat Thor like the God King. If I were to say, 'You must treat Loki the same way you treat Thor,' then they would think that Loki might also be the God King in the future..."

Odin helplessly pressed his fingers against his temples and said, "Frigga often tells me that I never care about Loki, but I cannot care for Loki the same way I care for Thor. I am not afraid of the Asgardians mistakenly thinking he still has a chance; I am only afraid that he himself will misunderstand."

"I know you might want to accuse me of not giving him the throne and not compensating him elsewhere, but believe me, if I really compensated him elsewhere, certain Asgardians and he himself would definitely think they were capable again."

Schiller touched his lips with his finger and discovered that this really did form a closed loop.

Regarding the struggle for the succession, Odin not giving Loki any hope was actually correct. As long as one holds no hope from the beginning, one will not be disappointed.

But if he were to give no hope, he had to keep it that way. If he gave it halfway through, it might make the other party even more miserable and cause all previous efforts to be wasted.

Yet, this kind of paternal love—characterized by low recognition and low concern—could not be understood by Loki in his youth. He could only interpret it as Odin not loving him and would only think that Odin was biased.

The root of this deadlock is that, in royal family relationships, in a certain sense, bias is correct. Treating everyone equally might actually lead to greater disaster.

Some might think, wouldn't it have been better if he hadn't picked Loki up in the first place?

But at the time, Loki was nearly dead. Comparing death to his current situation, the current situation is certainly better. Even if he didn't receive recognition from his father, he at least still had his mother and brother.

The biggest problem in the father-son relationship between Odin and Loki is that Odin made the right choice, but Loki is also a victim.

"Actually, I didn't expect Thor to ascend to the throne so quickly." Odin spoke with some hesitation: "I thought he would stay on Earth for a few hundred years."

"Without Thor's foil, Loki might have felt better, but I didn't expect everything to happen so fast. Thor suddenly ascended to the throne, and Loki didn't have any opposing emotions. I had already prepared myself to deal with Frigga's crying and fussing."

"Afterward, Loki suddenly turned into a goddess, and I was overjoyed. Loki is worthy of being my smartest child; he came up with a better solution than I did. If she marries Thor, wouldn't she be able to enjoy the same honor as the God King?"

"I thought that was what Loki was thinking, so I wanted to go discuss it with Frigga, but I didn't expect that he himself didn't seem very willing..."

Odin shook his head and said, "To this day, I still haven't figured out what that was all about."

While Odin was feeling puzzled, Schiller had already begun to laugh in a low voice. Finding that Odin had fallen silent, he continued with a smile: "Has anyone ever told you? Your family is truly absurd."

"You don't turn at every place you should turn, and you make sudden turns at every place you shouldn't." Schiller gently rubbed his brow with his fingers and said, "Inexplicable, a total mess. A few people have created scenes more interesting than dozens of people... Is this what royalty is?"

"As a doctor, aren't you laughing a bit too happily?" Odin looked into Schiller's eyes and said, "Isn't it a basic professional ethic of yours not to gloat?"

"Theoretically speaking, that is the case." Schiller couldn't help but laugh again. He said, "But you should be glad that I can laugh, because your family's situation is, at best, just a joke. If I were serious, you would know how severe the situation is."

"Alright, stop laughing. I came here, actually, because I intend to make some changes." Odin poured himself another full glass of wine, gulped down half of it, wiped his mouth, and said:

"Thor's rule is already very stable, so I don't need to worry about the Asgardians having any other ideas. However, recently, I've discovered that I might have been overcorrecting before."

"Although Loki is not the heir, he is still a noble prince of Asgard, but some people seem to..."

Odin's expression did not change, still smiling, but his tone gradually carried some killing intent.

"Regardless of whether Loki is my biological son, regardless of whether he is frail and sickly and cannot inherit the throne, regardless of whether he meets the Asgardians' expectations for a prince, regardless of how much trouble he has caused..."

Odin sat up straight. Schiller felt an indescribable sharp aura emanating from the old God King. He knew that if Thor wanted to cultivate such an aura, he still had a long way to go.

"I say he is my child, I say he is a prince of Asgard, then everyone must respect him sufficiently, because that is respecting me."

"I don't want people to revere him more than they revere Thor, but they had better not take the opportunity to provoke me by being perfunctory toward him..."

"They should obey Loki, and they should revere Thor even more. Assessing the situation and grasping the scale is not something I should do, but something these ministers should do. If they haven't grasped it well, it proves they are unqualified; this has nothing to do with us as father and son."

As the topic shifted here, Schiller revealed a smile and looked at Odin: "You intend to purge them?"

Odin shook his head and said, "In terms of politics, I have nothing to purge. It's just that those who don't use their brains, or rather, are too lazy to use their brains, really should go home and retire."

"Then have you ever thought that their habit of not liking to use their brains is actually something you cultivated?" Schiller leaned back in his chair, resting his hands on the back of the sofa, and said.

And Odin's answer surprised him somewhat. Odin said righteously: "Yes, that's right, it was me who cultivated it."

"In the past, I required them to be like an arm directing a finger. Wherever I pointed, they would strike. Do not think too much, do not raise questions, completely obey me, and view me as their only father."

"But now, I require them to think independently and learn to observe the situation, otherwise they will be eliminated... Do you think I am being excessive?"

Odin looked at Schiller. Schiller did not nod, because right now, Odin's aura held the upper hand. Giving an answer Odin didn't like to hear would be tantamount to a minister defying him and would only lead to a more passive situation.

"But this is what an emperor is."

In Odin's voice, there was an undisguised coldness and cruelty: "This is a quality necessary for a good emperor."

"When I need them to bite, they must be extremely fierce, crazy, and cruel. And when I need them to stay put, they had better be docile and quiet, and not even make a sound. Otherwise, there will be no seat for them in the future."

"Furthermore, I firmly believe that there are no meritorious officials in this world. I don't have a single minister; it is still me, and without me, they are nothing. It is they who need me, so they had better understand everything—the principles I want them to understand."

Schiller placed his wine glass on the table. At this moment, he saw the long river of time spanning thousands of miles in Odin.

In it, there were countless towering figures who, perhaps, had also used their words and actions to interpret what it means to be "the most ruthless is the emperor."

Tyrants are not mediocre rulers. They may be cruel, cold, and even ruthless, but if viewed solely from their achievements, they may still be good emperors. Or rather, in feudal society, the more arbitrary and powerful one is, the more one contributes to the present and benefits the future for thousands of years.

Schiller sighed softly. If there was any aspect he was truly not good at, it might be the so-called "emperor's art of the mind."

This discipline, which sounds very mysterious, can be summed up in one sentence: "Learn to be arrogant, learn to be ruthless."

And this is precisely turning oneself into a criminal and a patient. One must learn to cast aside morality and emotions; it is artificially creating a madman, which is the exact opposite of what Schiller does.

The conversation reached its end. Not much wine was drunk, but both felt a bit tipsy. It was the first time Odin had said so much to one person. Besides glory, an emperor is also lonely.

It was also the first time Schiller had truly faced a monarch who could be called great, and in his exchange with him, he faced more emperors of the ages.

And likewise, he understood why Odin is called the "All-Father." He is as powerful as a father, but also as authoritative as a father.

In the end, Schiller could only ask one question:

"You say Thor is like you, and if he becomes you, will you really feel happy?"

"Who am I?" Odin asked: "Actually, I am not Odin; I am the father of Asgard. Asgard is my child..."

"A boy who wants to become a father must go through the process of abandoning his self. He needs to constantly strengthen all the qualities he possesses that can shoulder the family: diligence, effort, and courage to take responsibility..."

"But is he really such a person?" Odin shook his head gently and said: "Perhaps not."

"But as long as he gains more happiness from this identity as a father than he would have alone, then it doesn't matter who he really is."

"One day, Thor will become a father, and so will Loki." When Odin's words fell, Schiller saw a trace of pain on his face for the first time.

When the voice of this white-haired God King fell in the room, Asgard was at sunset.

"I only hope that on that day, they will be able to understand that the pain I gained from those decisions that seemed not to love them was no less than what they felt."