"But I won't return it to him!" Loki said proudly.
"Won't he seek to reclaim it?"
"But he can't beat me!"
Thor slapped his forehead, listening as Loki continued, "The Eye of Agomoto was stolen by the first wizard of the Nine Realms. Neither the Sanctum Sanctorum nor S.H.I.E.L.D have the ability to get it back. If that's not a loss, what is?"
"Furthermore, to prevent similar events from happening in the future, the Sanctum Sanctorum should strengthen its security. In addition to adding a security team of a hundred thousand personnel, the existing staff should also be trained..."
"What does that even mean?" Thor was at a loss, "Even if... even if Nick and Strange want money, what does that have to do with you? You don't even need human currency!"
Loki sighed, "But I helped them secure the funds they wanted, and even got them compensation from you. So, shouldn't they return the favor when distributing profits, sending magical items and energy equivalent to Earth assets to Asgard?"
Thor's eyes widened as he looked at the list in his hand. After scouring it carefully, he admitted, "You have a point. There are some good items in there, like the Demon-guiding Molten Gold and Star Spirit fragments. These must be the Ancient One's haul, right? How did you manage to get the stingy humans to part with these treasures willingly?"
Loki rolled his eyes, "Because these items aren't of much use to them. The main purpose of Star Spirit fragments is to create transmitters between starships. But humans neither have starships nor need transmitters, they have suspension rings."
"Demon-guiding Molten Gold is used to forge magic wand circuits, but mages from Kamar-Taj do not need wands, let alone the Ancient One. Only we, the God Clan, who have a surplus of divine power, need wands to control magic potency and precision..."
Loki sighed, "These are just scraps that the Ancient One collected from everywhere in the cosmos. She dumped her excess in Kamar-Taj; but now, even Kamar-Taj's warehouses are overflowing..."
"They want to move these things out, but they aren't just going to simply hand them over to us for free. You said it yourself - humans are stingy."
"That's why I swapped the Time Gem, having you compensate them with the starship bridge and monitoring equipment technologies they needed. Then, they handed these materials to us in what was called a 'Christmas gift'..."
"But why can't we just make a direct exchange?" Thor asked.
"If we exchanged directly, it would just be a bargain." Loki spread his hands on the table, "Do you really think the Asgardians would accept... a fair trade with the feeble humans? They only want to accept human tributes."
"Besides, these weak humans aren't keen on trading with Asgard either. Even if all these items are really useful to us, they would still keep a pile of junk in their warehouses forever, just in case they might need them one day."
Loki looked into Thor's eyes, "Thor, you're not just a general and a king now. You're also a politician. And the first thing a politician needs to learn is how to avoid responsibility to your voters."
Thor's eyes went wide, but Loki continued confidently, "Not many in Asgard can comprehend what we're facing, the pressure that compels us to support and even curry favor with humans..."
"If we were to disclose all our plans, the result would not be support, but endless condemnation and protest. However, if we were to reveal the truth about Ragnarök, we would face panic and rebellion."
Hearing this, Thor sighed and reluctantly nodded, accepting Loki's point. After all, he knew that to fight Ragnarök, they had to rally all forces including the immensely potential humans.
However, the lofty gods of Asgard would never accept the fact that they needed the aid of humans. As long as the truth about Ragnarök was concealed, everyone would think that Thor was taking advantage of his position for personal gain.
If the truth were to be revealed, setting aside whether the Asgardians would believe it, acceptance would only cause panic and unrest, as evidenced by the majority of the extremely martial faction who accepted only victory and would not accept failure.
If they knew that Asgard was doomed to fail, Thor knew without thinking what kind of turbulence it would cause.
Even if every god in Asgard was loyal and willing to fight with Thor till the very end, their long-standing thought habits lacked political awareness. This could lead to Asgard being disadvantaged diplomatically. At such times, Loki's role was indispensable.
"That's how it is, we made a trade, each got what we wanted. Simultaneously, the Earth factions close to Asgard got more funds, reducing the distance between the Sanctum Sanctorum, S.H.I.E.L.D, and Asgard..."
Loki summed up the gains from the small Time Gem theft case. Thor couldn't help but exclaim, "Among all of Asgard, only you could pull off something like this. If it was up to me and Sif, we couldn't even come up with such a complex plan..."
Loki shook her head, "It's not that difficult. It's just that you all don't think in this direction. Or rather, there was no diplomacy in Asgard before. Our only means of diplomacy was cannons. However, times have changed..."
"Don't say that, Loki. What others can't do, but you can, is definitely your strength." Thor leaned back, looking up, "I can't even imagine how miserable it would be if I had to face the inevitable doomsday alone."
But Loki shook her head, "Even till the end, you won't be alone. Humans might be stingy when it comes to money, but they have an abundance of emotions. They can't help but share it with everyone."
Thor thought of many people, including those who had helped him when he was stranded on Earth. He nodded and said, "I'm going to Earth to spend Christmas with my friends, what about you?"
"I don't have any friends." Loki, holding a book, stood up.
She turned her gaze to the horizon, where the silvery tip of the Fairy Palace looked majestic, the curling smoke from the training ground, and the silhouette of towering pine trees standing guard against the land.