...
The fear on Estrid's face gradually gave way to a ruthless determination.
She suddenly snatched the swaddled Loki from the stunned guard's arms. Ignoring her postpartum weakness and the horrified protests of the guards, she clutched the infant and staggered out of the room…
She ran madly toward the place known as the "underworld"—the bottomless cliff!
"Lady Consort! Where are you going?!"
"Please put the child down! That's the prince!"
"Maybe he's just sick—there might be a way to cure him!!"
…
Anxious shouts came from the guards behind her, but Estrid turned a deaf ear.
She reached the edge of the cliff. The howling wind whipped her long hair into disarray.
She looked down at the still-crying infant in her arms. Those vertical pupils looked especially glaring under the dim sky.
Without the slightest hesitation, a flash of ruthless resolve passed through her eyes. Her hands loosened…
The tiny Loki in the swaddle fell straight down like an insignificant discarded stone, plummeting into the deep, dark, chilling "underworld" below.
A newborn Loki suffered this calamity!
Everyone outside the light curtain who witnessed this scene was truly shocked. None of them had expected Estrid to be so heartless…
Ida covered her mouth with both hands to stop herself from screaming. Gloriosa, Shakky, and Stussy all felt their hearts tighten.
After doing all this, Estrid seemed to have exhausted every ounce of strength, but her eyes remained ice-cold. She turned and harshly ordered the guards: "Shut up! He is no prince!"
"No one is allowed to speak of today's events to anyone! Do you hear me?!"
"Y-Yes…!"
"As you command…"
"We understand…"
…
Seeing the consort like this, the guards panicked and agreed in unison. None of them dared to refute her.
Estrid forced herself to stay upright and began returning to the castle. She even started hurriedly packing her belongings, preparing to return to her natal home in the brewing village…
As she packed, she muttered under her breath that she would never bear children again in this lifetime—as if the earlier Loki had merely been disposing of unwanted trash.
However, things did not "end" as she had hoped.
Just as Estrid was packing her things, anxiously thinking of how to weave her lies…
A guard who had been ordered to scout near the cliff came scrambling back, face deathly pale, voice distorted from extreme terror: "L-Lady Consort! He… he from the underworld…!!"
Estrid whipped around. The previous beauty on her face had already been replaced by ferocity and a barely concealed trace of guilt: "From the underworld?… What?!"
The guard pointed toward the cliff, tongue-tied: "He… he climbed up!! That infant… he climbed up from the underworld!!!"
The scene instantly switched!
On the steep, slippery cliff wall of the underworld—covered in sharp rocks and eerie vines!
A tiny figure was clinging desperately to the rock crevices with small hands already covered in scrapes and frostbite!
Little by little, little by little, he stubbornly climbed upward!
…
The freezing wind sliced across his tender skin like knives. Below the cliff lay bottomless darkness and the faint, hair-raising low growls of beasts.
Fear, cold, helplessness, despair…
These emotions perhaps could not yet be clearly understood by an infant.
But what he could feel was the icy abandonment coming from above—from the place that should have been the warmest.
He didn't understand why "mother" didn't want him.
Yet the instinct for survival, along with a certain tenacious vitality deeply rooted in his bloodline…
Drove this abandoned infant to begin an astonishing climb in such desperate straits!
Not far below him on a snowy ledge, several fairly large underworld creatures could even be seen lying motionless on the ground, defeated.
Clearly they had tried to attack this "intruder" just moments ago, only to be beaten back. Even as a mere infant, Loki's extraordinary strength and innate fighting talent were already showing their first signs in this life-or-death situation!
The light curtain abruptly ended on the image of little Loki stubbornly climbing, his vertical pupils fixed unblinkingly on the distant light above.
Outside the light curtain, dead silence fell.
In reality, Loki's body began to tremble violently, uncontrollably. He bit down hard on his lower lip until he tasted blood, but he didn't let a single sound escape.
Seeing Loki in such pain, Ida forcefully suppressed the anger in her heart and went straight to him, grasping his hand despite the obvious size difference between them…
"Loki-kun, it's all over now!"
Ida didn't know how to comfort him. She held Loki's hand tightly and refused to let go. Loki, controlling his strength, gently grasped Ida's hand in return…
Harald's heart had already been shattered into dust the moment he saw little Loki abandoned and then struggling on the cliff face.
Overwhelming pain and self-reproach nearly drowned him. He reached out, wanting to touch Loki, but his hand froze in midair.
He didn't know how to comfort this son who had endured far more pain than he should have.
Rocks, Hajrudin… everyone in God Valley fell silent.
Hajrudin looked at his "little brother" who had gone through such things. Though he had hatred in his heart toward Loki, he seemed to understand something now…
Everyone present—even the most ruthless pirates—put away their teasing expressions and showed looks of sorrow and regret.
To throw one's own newborn son, still in swaddling clothes, into such a deadly place—merely because of a pair of "different" eyes…
This cruelty coming from the closest kin was colder and more bone-chilling than any enemy's blade.
And for the countless ordinary people around the world who saw this scene through the light curtain—even if some had felt an instinctive fear toward Loki's vertical pupils at first…
At this moment, the overwhelming emotions were shock, anger, and deep sympathy.
"How could… how could she do that?!"
"That's her own flesh and blood!"
"Just because his eyes are different?!"
"Too cruel… what did that child ever do wrong…"
"No wonder Loki destroyed the brewing village for Ida—it all makes sense now."
…
Condemnation of Estrid, sympathy for Loki's tragic birth, and complicated feelings toward Harald once again surged in countless hearts.
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