Chapter 5000: Advance to York Advance (Thirty-Six)

Sif had long since learned not to listen to Loki's nonsense. She looked at the crystal knocked to the ground and asked, "What is that?"

"I don't know either. But it might make the baby in your belly turn black-haired." Loki shrugged, "By then it might be Asgard's only black-haired heir."

"It's not an heir." Sif discovered Foster seemed trapped in some kind of nightmare, so she gently laid Foster down and probed her condition with divine power, "Helen is."

"Helen?"

"Helen Loki Dottir. Although some firmly believe it should be Helen Stark, I've always sided with Asgard."

After hearing that name, Loki's expression went blank for a moment.

This brings up the naming rules of Nordic countries, which differ from the surname rules of most regions in the world. Nordic surnames come from one's own father's name.

For example, Thor's full name is Thor Odinson, where Odinson is his surname, and this "son" actually means "son," so the surname literally translates to "Odin's son."

And although the comics and films never mention Hela's full name, her full name is most likely "Hela Odinsdottir," where "dottir" actually means "daughter," so literally it means "Odin's daughter."

Loki is special: his official full name is "Loki Laufsson," meaning "Laufey's son," because his biological father is the King of the Frost Giants, Laufey.

Generally, this surname rule only applies to the biological father. That is, if parents divorce and the child has a stepfather or adoptive father, the surname does not change to theirs; it remains the biological father's name.

In other words, basically only biological brothers who share the same father will have the same surname; stepbrothers or adoptive brothers will not share a surname.

But the Loki of the Center Universe is different: Odin once personally called him "Odinson," and his surname was changed to Odinson, meaning that, from Asgard's legal standpoint, he is Odin's biological son and Thor's biological brother.

This is actually very important, because Asgard has no noble class; Asgardians have rank distinctions, with generals and officers, which are their duties, but there are no dukes, counts, or similar titles; no matter how great their military achievements, they are not ennobled.

The only exception is royal kin. Only members of the royal family with blood ties to the God-King can possess noble titles. And precisely because Thor and Loki share the same surname, Loki's princely title is rightful and proper.

But if they remained adoptive brothers with different surnames, Loki would be a foreign-surname prince, which would easily spark disputes like "should more foreign-surname nobles be ennobled for military merit?" Especially, at that time Loki had no outstanding contributions, making it easy to provoke questions like "why ennoble him but not me?"

Under normal circumstances, naturally no one dares to defy Odin and Thor, but lack of action does not mean lack of complaint. They dare not confront Odin and Thor directly, so they only exclude Loki more; but if they shared the same surname, this problem would not arise, hence before the coronation, Loki's surname was changed to avoid most legal disputes.

And the name "Loki Dottir" already indicates Helen is Loki's daughter, which is nothing unusual, and no one has stipulated that Loki cannot have children.

But Sif said Asgard's heir surnamed Loki Dottir—is there something wrong with that?

Loki's expression looked as if, after traversing billions of timelines via the Time Variance Authority, he had been overloaded with too much information, his brain bursting, and he enacted a "everything everywhere all at once" with his face.

Known, Thor is the God-King, his child should be the next God-King, and it is known that the next God-King's surname is Loki Dottir. Question: who are Helen's parents respectively?

"I know what you're thinking," Sif said, "afraid you'll be disappointed. Helen's father is Stark, that's right, that Tony Stark, Iron Man."

Loki's brain, which had just recovered a little, exploded again.

After staying silent there for several minutes, he finally spoke: "You mean I have a child with Iron Man, and you and Thor decided to let her become Asgard's next God-King?"

Sif nodded.

"I can ask……what exactly are you considering……" Loki spoke incoherently, "this child isn't even of the Aesir, she doesn't even have divine blood……"

"No, she does. Her divine power indeed comes from Thor, the process is very complex, I can't explain it clearly, but she is a good heir, bringing destruction and rebirth to Asgard."

"You're really crazy." Loki evaluated.

"No, this just skips over you killing Thor to take the throne, then passing the throne to your own child." Sif offered another new explanation, "this saves you trouble, isn't it?"

"Then you……you are the goddess, the heir to the throne isn't your child……"

"In your universe, isn't the heir to the throne also not the goddess's child?" Sif said, "Thor's biological mother is Gaia, not Frigga, and that didn't affect anything, did it?"

Loki was speechless.

Sif rose from the bedside, came to stand before Loki, and said: "From you thinking black hair is worthy of mockery, to you thinking Asgard's heir surnamed Loki Dottir is crazy, Loki, why are you so insecure?"

Loki seemed to have heard a huge joke: "I'm insecure?! Ha……"

But Sif merely stared at him, watching the mockery and ridicule flicker in his green eyes, and calmly said: "You seem to dislike yourself, from your appearance to your identity, you take these things as shame, avoiding expressing praise and recognition toward them. Why do you do this? Just because you're not of the Aesir?"

"Shut up, you crazy woman!" Loki lifted his upper lip, squeezing sound from between his teeth, "Does Thor know you're vilifying me like this?!"

"I'm not vilifying you." Sif said, "It seems you and the Loki of my universe are very different. He wouldn't self-loath like you. Why would this be?"

"Don't act like you understand me." Loki stepped back, his gaze icy to the extreme, "If you dare provoke me again, I'll put you and that little……"

"Crack!"

A bolt of lightning fell, Loki collapsed again. Sif placed Mjolnir to one side: "I really don't understand you, but your brother knows you well, so he gave me this."

After saying that, she no longer paid attention to Loki, but went to check Foster's condition. Foster had basically stabilized, her breathing became calm, then she slowly opened her eyes.

"Sif……is it you? Sif?"

Sif nodded and said: "It's me, you've regained your memory?"

Foster still seemed a bit dazed, she blinked and said: "I feel like I had a very long dream."

"That wasn't a dream." Sif sighed, "It's what you truly experienced. I know this universe's gods have caused you great harm, but……"

Foster suddenly gripped her hand, turned her head to look at her and asked: "Thor? Where is he?"

"You……" Sif hesitated a little, she wasn't sure of Foster's attitude, although from her experience she might have reasons to love or hate, but if she truly still harbored deep resentment, Sif also lacked confidence she could persuade her.

Foster lay on the pillow, her eyes somewhat unfocused, but soon she looked again at Sif and said: "You saved me, for Thor."

"That's also……" Sif didn't really want to bring this up, could only say this universe's self really does have a bit of love-brain.

"I'm glad I recovered this part of my memory," Foster said, "forgetting Thor might be happiness for me, but then I'd never know you sacrificed yourself to save me."

Sif breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed Foster's love-brain had improved considerably, or perhaps she was just exhausted from too much ordeal, finally looking like a normal person.

"It's like this, Jane……" Sif briefly explained the current situation, adding, "Asgard owes you much, but Thor also has his duties. I won't ask you to forgive, I just don't want you to be exploited by ill-intentioned people, which could greatly affect your future life."

"I won't say wrong about Thor," Foster slowly sat up from the bed, "I think, from the very beginning, the problem was Odin."

Sif wanted to speak to comfort, but upon hearing the name "Odin," a flash of insight went through her mind.

Yes, Odin, this name that normally wouldn't appear on Sif's suspect list, so abruptly appearing here, yet made Sif unable to ignore it as before.

Sif instinctively would not think the Father of Gods was wrong, for two reasons. One is loyalty to the Father of Gods is the instinct of every Asgard warrior, they've been educated this way since childhood, and the concept is hard to change. The other is Odin indeed never made a mistake, his life is nearly perfect, at least in Sif's eyes it is perfect.

So when she pondered this universe's Thor's emotional experiences and Loki's actions, she didn't consider Odin's aspect. But now it seems Odin might be the source of all this tragedy.

The so-called discord between children is often due to the parents' lack of virtue—this saying applied to these three people is truly fitting. Sif cannot imagine how this universe's Odin raised Loki into this state of both inferiority and arrogance, nor how he managed to stir up his son's emotional life into that state, ending with no one gaining happiness—choosing all wrong options in a multiple-choice question is also quite difficult.

"But even so, I won't say more." Foster said, "I quite like my current peaceful life, I don't plan to change it, nor do I want to have anything more to do with the gods. Ah, except you, Sif, we can be friends, but others are still out."

"As for those who want to use me to slander Thor, I won't let them succeed. During the time superheroes fought wars, I and my family were all anxious and fearful, we truly couldn't endure another round. I only hope Thor can be a good lord, not let ordinary people fall into war again."

I'll help you pass along his message, Sif said.

To avoid drawing attention from the Foster family, Sif quickly took Loki away, and before leaving, she also took that strange crystal, intending to investigate what it was, perhaps to uncover the mastermind behind it.

She left Loki in the alley behind the hotel, returned to her room to wash up, and after lying down on the bed, she remained deep in thought. Thor turned over and put his arm around her, asking: What's wrong? Why do you seem so troubled?

I've been thinking, Sif said, do you think the Allfather shows favoritism?

What? Favoritism toward what?

Sif also turned to face him and said: From your perspective and Loki's, do you each feel that the Allfather has shown favoritism?

Thor seemed somewhat surprised by her question, he thought seriously for a moment, then said: I think we would only feel that he has already done his best.