Sylvie cried uncontrollably, her body trembling. She didn't even know why she was crying.
Perhaps, every wanderer who left their homeland sheds tears in their numb, exhausted midnight dreams. They store these tears away, like scooping up splashing waves from the great rivers on their journey home.
"We really have been looking for you for a long time." Thor began, her voice carried a touch of exhaustion, and a significant amount of inexplicable regret. She said: "You don't know how much we regret it, that day, Odin and I shouldn't have left, then, you wouldn't have experienced all these."
Thor's voice caused the dust in the afternoon light of the Fairy Palace to shiver. Loki, standing nearby, slowly reached out her hand, as she watched the tiny lights dancing between her fingers, her gaze became vacant again, as if lost in her thoughts.
"Do you know? That night, I thought about disappearing forever, never coming back, making them regret forever, always in sorrow. But do you know why I didn't do that?"
Loki murmuring to herself, she blinked and continued:
"Because I'm scared, with my absence, nothing would change here. They would still be a happy family of three, as if nothing happened..."
"I know, that's why Sylvie didn't come home."
Helen, who was being held by her, looked up at her expression, wrapped her arms around Loki's neck, and said: "Mom, we haven't seen this Asgard yet, let's go out and explore!"
Loki, somewhat dazzled by the shaking, looked at Thor and Sylvie holding each other with deep sisterly love in front of her and felt that she was somewhat redundant here, so she turned and glanced at the attendant.
Thor keenly noticed her action, so while hugging Sylvie, she reached out her other hand and said: "Since you are also a Loki, you can walk around here, but, it would be best if you don't look as you do now, it might cause panic."
Loki nodded. Her feminine guise shared a few similarities with Sylvie, but her masculine form was different due to the significant differences in male and female skeletons, Loki's temperament was also entirely different from Sylvie.
Thus, Loki transformed back into a male, carrying Helen, he left the gates of the Fairy Palace, planning to explore the capital star zone of the Asgard Empire.
The Asgard Mainland hadn't changed much, it was still an island suspended in the cosmos. However, there were a few more Armed Sky Islands nearby, and the coming and going of the ships were much more frequent, making it feel more prosperous than the Asgard Loki knew.
However, upon arriving at the market in Asgard, Loki didn't feel the usual hustle and bustle.
Although, it has been a long time since he has last strolled around Asgard, he remembered that Asgard had a very strong flavor of common life, even more heartwarming and lively than human modern society.
The Asgardians didn't like mechanization, thinking that cold machines shouldn't invade their lives. Hence, on the regular streets of Asgard's civilian blocks, they still preserved the style of the Middle Ages and even the primitive ages.
Looking down the main street of Asgard Commercial Street, the first thing one would see would surely be the signs of the taverns. As Asgardians were obsessed with drinking, anyone whose home was too far from the tavern would be the subject of laughter.
On the huge wooden signboards, exaggerated fonts were written, some still retained the style of pirates - with Skull Flags and animal bones hanging, and barrels and crates were stacked high at the entrance, and bags of wheat were on hand carts.
Men wearing traditional Viking outfits carry things around. The women, wearing white aprons and checkered headscarves, walked through the streets carrying baskets. Besides the interspersed Old Norse calls, one could hear the "rumbling" sound of horse hooves and drunkards' cries.
Thor loved this lively atmosphere, but Loki always found it noisy. Therefore, every time they went out for a stroll, Loki would try every means to take Thor to magic item shops or bookstores, keeping him away from the tavern to waste an entire afternoon.
Just as he thought of this, Loki noticed that there was a magic item shop on his right. As far as he could recall, it seemed that he had visited this shop before, he just didn't know whether the shopkeeper was still that somewhat rude Big Beard.
He walked into the shop carrying Helen, the shopkeeper who was bending over hammering nails behind the counter straightened up. At a glance, Loki noticed that the young man in front of him looked somewhat like the shopkeeper he knew, but he was not the same person.
He seemed much younger, his hair was not wildly scattered, nor did he retain the Big Beard that everyone in the neighborhood envied. However, he still had red hair and brown eyes, a typical Celtic race.
Not all Asgard natives belonged to the Northern European gene pool, they also mixed with other European races. The Aesir had a more pure lineage, but the other god clans, especially the Warner, liked to intermarry with other races. They had all kinds of appearances.
"Little Roland?" Loki tentatively called out, the young man behind the counter appeared somewhat surprised as he looked at Loki, "How do you know my name?"