Since that day, mjolnir had become almost like Thor's shadow.
During meals, the hammer rested beside the dining table; during study, it was placed under the desk; even when sleeping, he had to place the hammer by the bedside, resting one hand on the handle to fall asleep peacefully.
The maids often complained that there were always faint crackling electric arcs in Prince Thor's bedchamber, which had nearly set the curtains on fire several times.
Loki scoffed at this.
"You're practically like a dog guarding a bone." During an afternoon magic class, Loki looked at Thor, who was dozing off while hugging the hammer, and commented coldly.
Thor opened one eye: "You're jealous because Father also let you go to the treasury to choose a weapon, but you only picked two small daggers."
"The size of a weapon has nothing to do with its power." Loki twirled a finely crafted dagger between his fingertips; it vanished instantly, only to reappear in his other hand.
"And what I need isn't brute force, but wisdom. Of course, that might be too difficult for you to understand."
"Who are you calling unwise?!" Thor sat up, the head of mjolnir slamming into the floor with a dull thud.
"Whoever answers is the one I'm talking about."
"You—"
"That's enough." Mavuika's voice came from the doorway as she walked in carrying two cups of honey fruit juice, a helpless smile on her face.
"Arguing again? You're both so grown up, why are you still acting like children?"
Thor and Loki turned their faces away simultaneously, but both accepted the juice their sister handed them.
Mavuika sat down between them, watching them.
Thor's golden hair was messy, and there was still a red mark on his face from sleeping face-down; he was clutching mjolnir tightly in his arms. Loki sat ramrod straight, the dagger in his hand already vanished, his expression returned to calm, though a hint of defiance still lingered in his eyes.
"You are both very special," Mavuika said softly. "Asgard doesn't need two identical princes; it needs Guardians who can complement each other."
Thor looked down at the hammer in his arms and muttered, "But he's always saying I'm stupid."
"And you're always saying I only know how to play cheap tricks," Loki countered.
"That's because you really do—"
"Thor." Mavuika gently interrupted. "Do you remember when you were little, the first time you tried to lift a training stone and fell, who used an ice surface to catch you so you wouldn't break your nose?"
Thor froze and looked at Loki. Loki looked away, but the tips of his ears turned slightly red.
"Loki." Mavuika turned to her younger brother. "Do you remember the first time your fire magic went out of control, who rushed over to shield you with their body, leaving their back burned for an entire week?"
Loki pursed his lips and didn't answer.
"You are brothers." Mavuika said, pulling their hands over and stacking them together.
"The Asgard of the future needs Thor's thunder to clear away external enemies, and it needs Loki's wisdom to guard internal affairs. You can compete, you can argue, but never forget that when a true crisis comes, you are standing behind each other."
Thor and Loki exchanged a look, and this time, they didn't immediately look away.
After a long while, Thor said awkwardly, "Actually, those two daggers of yours are pretty cool. Last time I saw you use them to trim off half of Uncle Hogun's beard."
The corners of Loki's mouth lifted slightly: "The sound of your hammer smashing training dummies is too loud. Can you be quieter next time?"
"That's a sign of strength!"
"That's noise pollution."
Seeing they were about to argue again, Mavuika shook her head with a smile, stood up, and left, leaving the space to this awkward pair of brothers.
As she walked out the door, she heard Thor's enthusiastic voice behind her: "Hey, Loki, want to go to the training ground and spar? I won't use the hammer, and you don't use magic—let's just compare sword skills!"
"...Your sword skills are terrible."
"That's why we have to compete! Come on!"
The sound of footsteps faded away.
Mavuika stood at the corridor window, watching the eternal sunset of Asgard outside, feeling a sense of peace in her heart.
Time continued to flow, like the never-ending waterfall outside the Golden Palace.
The growth rate of Thor and Loki exceeded many people's expectations.
By the time Thor was fifteen, he could already skillfully wield the thunderous power of mjolnir. With a single swing of the hammer, charred cracks would be left on the training ground.
His fighting style was wide-open and filled with a sense of power, bearing some resemblance to Hela in her younger years, yet it also carried an added measure of Odin-like majesty.
Loki, however, took a different path.
He really didn't have much interest in weapons; those two daggers he had taken from the treasury were used more often as spell mediums rather than for melee combat.
He became obsessed with the dust-covered ancient scrolls in the Golden Palace library, learning lost arts like illusion, spatial magic, and shapeshifting.
Sometimes he would suddenly vanish in the hallway, only to step out from a mural the next moment; sometimes he would transform into the appearance of a maid, running Thor ragged with his pranks.
The most extreme instance was when he transformed into Odin to attend a military meeting, nearly causing chaos. Of course, that time, he was punished by Odin to clean the training ground for a month.
"Can't you learn some proper magic?" Thor complained while helping his brother wipe down the weapon rack.
"Yesterday, a group of talking mice suddenly appeared in Mother's garden. Was that your doing?"
Loki waved his wand, and a rag flew on its own to wipe the high places. "That was a byproduct of a magic experiment, and the philosophical questions they were discussing had a lot of depth. You should have listened."
"Mice discussing philosophy?" Thor rolled his eyes. "Loki, you really are a freak."
"Thanks for the compliment." Loki said, his expression unchanged.
Despite their vastly different personalities, the brothers gradually began to show a tacit understanding when handling affairs of the Nine Realms.
Their first independent mission was to resolve a border dispute between Vanaheim and Alfheim.
The cause was a dispute over the ownership of a mining area rich in magic crystals; both sides held their own opinions, nearly leading to an outbreak of conflict.
Odin entrusted this matter to the sixteen-year-old Thor and Loki, only sending a small squad of Valkyrie to accompany them.
"Remember, you represent Asgard," Odin instructed before they departed. "You are not going to pass judgment, but to mediate."
The mission process was full of twists and turns.
At first, Thor tried to use Asgard's authority to directly demarcate the border, but the result only incited resistance from both sides.
Loki investigated in secret and discovered that an ancient crystal beast was actually sleeping deep within the mining area. Its awakening was the true root of the conflict, and both sides had assumed the other was causing trouble.
"Do you see?" Loki said to the dejected Thor. "Sometimes the problem isn't on the surface."
"Then what do we do now?" Thor asked, shouldering mjolnir and looking at the two armies confronting each other in the distance. "Tell them the truth directly? Will they believe it?"
Loki pondered for a moment, a flash of cunning appearing in his ice-blue eyes. "It needs a little... drama."
That night, when the representatives of the Vanir and the Light Elves were arguing again in front of the mining area, the earth suddenly shook violently.
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