"Loki, how dare you say that!"
Bragi, the god of poetry, was livid with rage, his hair practically standing on end as he abruptly stood up and furiously bellowed.
However, Loki just looked at him, first giving an inexplicable scoff, then bursting into hearty laughter.
"Oh Bragi, among all the gods, you're the most cowardly. Every time there's a great battle with the giants, you only know how to shrink back trembling. This drink is a toast to warriors, not to cowards."
Hearing Loki's words, the faces of the gods all turned unsightly, revealing displeasure. Bragi, pushed to the forefront by Loki, seemed to find the insult unbearable, arguing back red-faced and shaking with fury,
"Whether in daily eloquence or imposing might on the battlefield, I have never lost. Loki, if you keep spouting nonsense, I will certainly lop off your head!"
"Oh come off it, Bragi, you've always been all bark and no bite. When grandly expounding, you certainly appear more heroic than anyone, but once you see a giant in person, just a yawn from them and you'd be shaking in your boots, immediately turning tail and fleeing. Yes, you've indeed never lost, but that's because you've never truly fought."
Loki sat back down on the wicker chair, lazily lounging on it as he mockingly proclaimed.
He reclined indolently, placing his feet rudely on the long table, smugly glancing at Bragi, the god of poetry, across from him.
Before him, Bragi was so furious his teeth were grinding, his eyes bloodshot and bulging, looking ready to tear into him. His fists were clenched tightly, yet he didn't truly lash out.
At this moment, beside Bragi, Idunn, the fair goddess of youth, first angrily glared at Loki, then turned to her husband and gently tugged at his sleeve, softly saying,
"Let it go, Bragi. For the sake of all the close kin and children here, why bother stooping to Loki's level, arguing back and forth?"
Hearing this, Bragi looked around at the gods, and the gloomy, furious expression on his face gradually faded somewhat.
Whether it was Bragi or Idunn, they were both among the twelve principal gods of the Aesir. If, on an occasion like this, they got into a huge row with Loki, it would truly be humiliating.
Yet at this time, Loki, who had been coldly observing from the side, suddenly scoffed again,
"Idunn, you'd best shut your mouth! I can outright declare in front of all the gods that you're just a wanton harlot. One look at a robust man and you can't control yourself, even going to seduce the enemy who killed your brother."
Loki's words were acerbic and scathing, incredibly cruel. But these words directly caused Idunn's face to turn ashen.
"You… You…"
Idunn abruptly stood up, trembling with rage, pointing at Loki with a quivering hand. But on her fair, youthful countenance, she couldn't say a word, only silently shedding tears.
Loki just laughed coldly from the side.
Loki had been in Asgard for tens of thousands of years. Few paid him any heed, so many behind-the-scenes secrets weren't really hidden from him. It was precisely because of this that he knew more than most about the gods' dark sides.
Behind the seemingly glorious veneer of the gods, there was definitely no lack of all sorts of sordid and unsavory affairs. Loki saw it all, but said nothing.
Until this day, he had intended to make one last effort to get Odin to agree to his plea, yet in the end, he could no longer endure the gods' contempt for him. The discontent and resentment suppressed for tens of thousands of years finally erupted on this day.
The quarreling between the two major gods and Loki was truly embarrassing, finally causing one goddess to be unable to hold back.
The goddess Gefjun stood up, chuckling,
"Your three-way argument is quite amusing. Loki is clearly just mocking and talking nonsense. Why must you keep bickering?"
These shameful matters were ultimately unsuitable to be spoken aloud, so Gefjun spoke up intending to smooth things over, at least to not make the atmosphere so awkward.
"Gefjun, you also needn't pretend to be virtuous here. You're one to admire vanity too. You're adept at prophecy, knowing past and future events. How could you not know if what I said is true or false? Or are you playing dumb here? Or perhaps Idunn's matter made you recall your own? Made you recall how you, in order to obtain those lands, even stooped to coupling with a mortal, thus sympathizing with Idunn?"
Loki looked at Gefjun, speaking while unable to hold back his laughter.
What Loki spoke of was precisely a past affair of the goddess Gefjun.
Gefjun had once disguised herself as a witch, coming to Sweden. After several trysts with King Gylfi, she asked him for a small plot of land. The king readily promised to gift her the wildlands she could plow in a day and night.
That night, Gefjun took up a plow. Her four sons transformed into oxen to pull the plow. They plowed away a large piece of land from central Sweden, moving it to Denmark. This land thus became Zealand, Denmark's largest island. The hollow left behind in central Sweden, after being flooded by seawater, then became Lake Mälaren, Sweden's largest lake.
In this Norse world, gods and humans alike had the seven emotions and six desires. Or rather, humans were created using the gods as templates, jointly shaped by Odin and Loki. The seven emotions and six desires of humans originally stemmed from the gods.
Just as humans pursued gold that could not be eaten, drunk, or worn, showing off and comparing the sizes of their territories and prestige was also widespread among the gods. It was just that the goddess Gefjun chose to couple with a mortal to obtain her territory and power in the mortal world.
This absolutely counted as a huge blemish on Gefjun's past. Although normally quite a few knew about it, because Gefjun was versed in prophecy, the other gods feared her holding a grudge and scheming against them, so no god had ever dared to directly bring it up.
Only Loki, the resentment and discontent suddenly erupting after being suppressed in his heart for tens of thousands of years, now dared to speak of Gefjun's dark history without reserve.
The goddess Gefjun was nearly speechless with rage, her face ashen. Grasping the chair beside her, she furiously cursed,
"Loki! I swear, you will be bound to a rock and subjected to torture!"
Her tone was sinister. Fate would prove her curse true, showing her words were not empty threats.
At this point, Frigg, the goddess seated at the very top, could no longer remain seated. She slightly furrowed her brows. Gefjun was her handmaiden, so she naturally could not sit by and watch her reputation be tarnished. She couldn't help but speak up,
"Your old scores from years past should not be aired out for all to see. Loki, shut your mouth now. For the sake of past bonds, the gods can still forgive you."
"Bonds? What bonds?"
Unexpectedly, Loki showed not the slightest appreciation, his serpentine eyes staring at the queen before him as he mockingly retorted,
"Is it for the sake of the bond of you seducing me and Odin's brother Ve that you're forgiving me?"
The moment these words emerged, the entire banquet erupted into an uproar. Frigg's face instantly turned deathly pale…