Chapter 1591

Hela arrived a bit earlier than expected, but she still complied with the regulation in the public announcement created by S. H. I. E. L. D. and the Sanctum Sanctorum outside Earth—which was invisible to ordinary humans—that all extraterrestrial visitors must wear Earth clothing. And it looked like she did more than that, because her outfit was clearly coordinated, rather than just using magic to conjure up something barely passable like Thor and Sif.

The slender Goddess of Death wore a form-fitting black dark-striped turtleneck sweater on her upper body, a vest with the classic Louis Vuitton pattern, and a lotus-style hip-hugging long skirt on her lower body. The matte leggings with a slight fine fluff were a new Chanel style this year, and on her feet were pointed-toe professional-style high heels.

Most eye-catching was the gorgeous pure white mink shawl she draped over her shoulders. The shawl was wide in the middle and narrow on both sides, looking like a bamboo leaf when spread out. Gorgeous gemstone tassels hung from both ends of the bamboo leaf, and she held the end of the shawl in her arms. Even her nails had a black and gold manicure, slightly longer than her fingers, carrying a sharp aggressiveness.

Her black hair was pinned at the back of her head in a semi-circular bun, with a curved hairpin inlaid with rubies pinned underneath. Two strands of curled hair rested on both sides of her cheeks, and her skin had a sickly pallor.

"Don't look at me like that; I often came to Earth to play when I was a child." Hela's voice was very hoarse. When she opened her mouth, that tone, as if scorched by fire, was first squeezed out as breath, and only then was it a substantial tone squeezed out with great difficulty, making people subconsciously want to shiver.

"Very beautiful, Miss," Nick praised sincerely, then patted Thor's shoulder and said, "Look at her. Every time I ask you to coordinate a human outfit, it's like it's killing you."

"Forget it, every time I'm almost at Earth, I remember your troublesome regulations and can only use magic to conjure up an outfit," Thor also complained. "You should put the announcement at the entrance of the solar system, or at least at the entrance of your dimension, shouldn't you?"

"You want me to return to Asgard? Interesting." Hela's tone was very flat, with only a slight rise at the end.

"We are discussing this matter," Thor lowered his head and stomped his boots on the ground, saying, "I know this is a bit abrupt, but recently Asgard's troubles have been one after another. None are major, but they occupy too much energy from too many people."

"I never felt Asgard was such a complex country before," Thor shook his head and frowned. "And I never felt ruling Asgard was so difficult."

Hearing a ruler describe the difficulties they encountered was actually quite rare. Most monarchs were accustomed to showing their strength and perfection, displaying a confident posture of having an answer to any problem. Thor had done the same in the past.

But clearly, the recent situation in Asgard made him feel a bit lost. Just as he said, the endless troubles were like bone-attached gangrene, yet there wasn't even a single enemy to fight among these things.

He could no longer raise his weapon and charge at the enemy like before, killing to his heart's content. Instead, he had to sit in the government hall all day checking balance sheets, staring at the progress of engineering construction, listening to intelligence from the economic society, and observing the movements and reactions of various departments after the reform.

Under this mode of rule, Thor had no one to refer to. The first half of the Asgardian civilization was spent fighting, but when it came to him, he had to look at sociology and interstellar situations. Civil rule and martial rule were completely different, and Thor couldn't master it without a teacher.

Of course, Hela hadn't practiced civil rule either, but at least she had gone to the extreme of martial rule, so her opinion was still worth referring to.

"At any time, there are many contradictions within Asgard. This country has never been simple," Hela's voice spread, more rational than imagined. "War eliminated these contradictions because when expanding outward, everyone was busy fighting for external interests."

"If you abandon the path of war, you can only let them check and balance each other, constantly consuming themselves in internal contradictions, to stabilize your rule."

At this time, Nick spoke: "If there is only one interest group within a class and group, they are destined to come and find trouble for you. If you split them into two, they will go and find trouble for each other, and what you have to do changes from dealing with the trouble they find for you to constantly balancing the confrontation between the two sides."

"The problem the Immortal Palace faces now is that Frigga withdrew too early. She and Sif didn't produce any confrontation, and power was handed over to Sif entirely. As a result, the interest groups that originally obeyed Frigga were busy finding trouble for Sif."

"You mean, I should let them split into two?"

Nick shook his head gently and said, "You should build another team outside of them, and then let them form a check and balance. This is also why I advised you to find Hela. If Frigga cannot play the leader of another group, then let the eldest princess of Asgard do it."

Thor widened his eyes slightly, but Nick said as calmly as usual, "There will inevitably be conservatives who lean toward Sif out of fear of Hela, while those who feel there is more future in following Hela will naturally unite around her."

"It's the same for Loki. Doesn't she have no followers? With only her, everyone can choose to follow or not follow her. But if Hela is there, they can only choose to follow Loki or Hela, because those who don't take sides might be cleared out by Hela."

"Then there will inevitably be a group of people who stand with Loki because they hate or fear Hela. Following out of interest is much more stable than following out of emotion."

Hela listened to Nick's narrative like a bystander, appearing quite interested. Finally, Nick concluded: "Countries after the war are like stagnant water. Without external support, the hungry wolves will start to trouble the master. You must introduce living water, let the people below bite each other, and let them solve the trouble themselves in competition."

"Sounds very evil," Thor frowned and said.

"Power struggles are all evil," unexpectedly, Steve spoke. "It has always been like this since ancient times, so I always avoid participating."

Hela's gaze fell on Steve's face. Steve frowned slightly and then turned his head away. Captain America rarely made this kind of evasive gesture; he was frank and fearless in the face of the vast majority of people.

But Hela's gaze was truly too aggressive. It wasn't the slightly charming look Natasha had when teasing Steve, but a very pure scrutiny or even a staring gaze, as if looking at some toy in a display window, conveying only the information: "I am interested, so I will get it."

Of course, Hela didn't really want to get Steve. She seemed just accustomed to looking at men with such a gaze. Considering she was a royal princess in a completely traditional patriarchal society like Asgard, this was even more shocking.

The more he contacted Hela, the more Thor could understand why even Odin felt Hela was too extreme. She was a strange flower growing in a barren field, as if completely uneducated and unsocialized, not subject to anyone's gaze—the wilder, the stronger.

"Loki, she is a bit..." Thor took the initiative to bring up this topic, but he also knew Hela and Loki had some conflicts in the past, so he didn't know how to start.

Finally, Sif tentatively said, "Love life seems to make Loki and Frigga a bit worried. She seems to have developed a confrontation with certain parts of herself. Can you go talk to her?"

What surprised Thor and Sif was that Hela nodded after a little thought. She agreed so readily that it made Thor a bit suspicious. Thor's state now was "there are always villains trying to harm Loki."

"Loki sent Gwen to Dr. Schiller, but she should be returning to the cabin to put down the things she bought. You should be able to meet her there," Nick pointed his chin toward the lakeside cabin and said.

Just as he said, when Hela walked up the steps in front of the cabin, she met Loki, who had just come out after putting things away. Loki was startled by her; if there hadn't been a wall behind her, she would have already darted to the other side of the lake.

Hela turned around, not even looking at Loki, but said to herself, "Let's go for a walk by the lake."

Loki looked at her retreating back, stood in place and pondered for a while, but still followed her.

The two walked to the reed marsh on the pebble beach, staring at the boundless lake. The heat of the sun caused a layer of mist to float above the thick ice, and the shadows of the distant mountains appeared even more cyan in the gradually darkening sky.

"Why didn't you choose to continue being a prince?" Hela asked.

Loki smiled as if she knew she would ask this, and then said, "Because Frigga wanted a daughter. She didn't want to force me, but I could see that having a princess to accompany her made her very happy."

"Do you think this is because of me?"

Hela's question was too direct and hit the nail on the head, making Loki silent for a long while before saying, "Perhaps at the beginning, yes. She wanted to make up for your regrets, but actually, you are more like Odin, and I am more like her. Which mother doesn't want a daughter exactly like herself?"

"But you feel the going is tough because the difficulties faced by a woman with status in Asgard are too many, and what is gained is too little."

Loki pursed her lips and looked into the distance, saying, "I don't want to describe this too much. In fact, this isn't the greatest difficulty I've encountered in my life. It's just that what makes me a bit lost is that it seems you all do very well, only I can't."

"Because you still stand from a male perspective to look at problems," Hela tilted her head slightly and looked down at Loki. Hela was naturally very tall, almost the same as Thor, while Loki was shorter when she became a female, so there was a height difference between the two.

"I don't understand," Loki shook her head, somewhat lost.

"Males don't have natural reproductive functions, so they will sow as many seeds as possible, chasing every suitable female in their prime years. Their primitive instincts are telling them that this can give them more opportunities to leave descendants."

Hela's tone was deep, even a bit muffled, as if the cold wind near evening couldn't blow it away, just falling heavily on the ground and piercing into the soil.

"And females are the opposite. We possess reproductive capabilities ourselves, but we must be responsible for safety during the reproductive period and the quality of the descendants, so we must find the strongest among all males."

"Males are promiscuous, females admire strength; the essence is the impulse to reproduce urging us to do so. This is the primitive instinct that allows a civilization to continue, and no one can blame it."

"We are all looking for the best within the range we can seek, not the most suitable for ourselves. They covet us, we select them, all following such laws."

"Sounds so... barbaric."

"Instinct is always barbaric, simple and direct, completely driven by desire. This can make reproduction more efficient and allow civilization to continue longer."

Hela turned her head back, staring into the distance as well, and said.

"Don't feel that them affirming your reproductive value is insulting you. When they gaze at you as an object of reproduction, you should also follow this law to gaze at them."

"When they consider whether you can give birth to descendants with their genes, you should also consider: can they provide good genes? Is there a sufficiently safe environment and abundant assets to ensure the safety and comfort of you and your descendants?"

"If there are none, it proves that his optimal object is a hundred thousand miles away from you. This gaze, full of fantasy and unreality, can be gently put down; there is no need to care."