Chapter 6 - The elders

Having reassured Sif, Leif left the room, and Hati fell asleep soon after. Even if his mental age was nearing fifty, his body was still that of a baby. His mental age and abilities were able to stave off sleep a little, but after the emotional turmoil, in addition to playing with his mother, he had no energy left in his tiny body. 

Noticing this, Sif decided to leave her son alone and started absorbing energy to increase her strength, an action that Einherjar, like her, usually did anytime they had nothing else to do. After all, as an Ace-ranked Einherjar, she didn't need much sleep.

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Meanwhile, in a tall tower in the middle of the Fenrir clan compound, five men and women, ranging from middle-aged to elderly, sat around a table with their eyes closed. These were some of the elders of the Fenrir clan. The other elders weren't there, as they were content letting the five of them deal with it.

Suddenly, they all opened their eyes at the same time, and one of the men spoke up, "The barrier is down again, but now little Sif is just gathering energy while the boy sleeps. Was anyone able to hear anything while that barrier was up?"

One of the two women in the room answered, "I doubt any of us heard anything, Erik. Our Sanguine Wolf Arts are our pride and joy, but in this case, its ability to seal off an area is biting us in the ass. The only way for us to hear them would be if we destroyed the barrier, but that would have been the same as telling them we want to hear their conversation, and they would simply stop talking about anything important."

One of the three elders who had yet to speak asked, "So what do we do? We still know next to nothing about the boy's father, and personally, I'm none too keen about letting a boy with unknown loyalties just roam around in our compound."

The first elder who spoke, Erik Fenrir, narrowed his eyes, looked at the elder who asked the question and said in a threatening tone, "Careful, Heraldo, that almost sounds like you are thinking something nefarious. You know very well that I won't allow the boy to come to harm before it is proven he is a danger to the clan. I may not trust his parentage, but he is still my great-grandson, and that means he is innocent until proven guilty. Understood?"

The two men were stuck in a staring contest until Heraldo looked away and said, "Fine, I suppose we'll wait until he actually harms the clan before we do something." He decided to give up on the direct approach because his personal power was lower than that of Erik. 

He also knew that Erik could drum up plenty of support among the other, more temperate, elders. "But we still need to keep an eye on him, and I also suggest we confine him to your family residence for the foreseeable future."

Ignoring Heraldo's attempt at getting a rise out of him by suggesting his approach would mean they'd be too late to stop Hati from harming the clan, Erik instead calmly responded to Heraldo's words, "Why are you so hell-bent on pushing the idea that the boy will harm us? 

I agree that he can't become the next patriarch without us knowing who his father is, but there's no reasonable proof the boy presents a danger to the clan. In fact, I refuse to believe that little Sif would ever bring something into our home that could harm the clan."

One of the other elders who had not spoken now responded to Erik. "Hmpf, not everyone has as much unconditional faith in your granddaughter as you do. I understand that she and her brother are all you have left of your son, but the fact is that Sif's actions have been suspicious from the moment she was born. 

She refused to follow the clan's tradition, snuck out secretly to 'travel the world' for many years, and then suddenly returned with a baby in her stomach. I agree with Elder Heraldo; neither Sif nor her son should be so easily trusted. 

We won't harm them, but neither of them will be free to roam the compound. They are to stay in their home, at least until the boy awakens and any racial signs start showing. We can revisit the issue when we have at least determined that he has properly inherited the blood of Fenrir."

Erik narrowed his eyes at the man and said, "You may be the strongest among us, Steffen, but you still don't get to make unanimous decisions. The matter will be put to a vote." He said this despite knowing that most Elders would likely agree with this measure. Steffen also knew this and thus smirked as he said, "Fine, we will put it to a vote, but I'm afraid you will be disappointed."

And indeed, disappointed he was. Obviously, Sif didn't take it very well when she received the news, but neither Erik nor Leif could do anything about it. When Hati heard this, he immediately held a grudge despite their relatively fair decision, at least, fair for Asgard's generally low standards.

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Like this, time passed quickly as Hati grew up in isolation while rapidly learning the local language. He already had the basis of various Scandinavian languages, giving him a fragmented understanding of this new language and allowing him to learn it quickly. The house he lived and was confined in belonged to his family as a whole and was quite large. 

Unfortunately, at the moment, only his mother and his uncle lived there. His grandparents had died in a war with the kingdom of Sól and had had no other children, while his uncle had never married, or at least Hati had never seen nor heard of a wife. His great-grandfather Erik also technically lived there, but he spent most of his time in the central tower, like the other elders of the clan and only occasionally visited. 

Erik seemed to Hati like the typical grief-stricken grandfather who wanted to compensate for the loss of his child by doting on the descendants his child left behind. At first, he wanted to dislike the man because, so far, the Elders as a whole didn't seem like they had his best interests at heart. But as the old man kept visiting and playing with him, he eventually decided that this great-grandfather didn't seem so bad.

Honestly, this whole experience of being a baby was very new to him. In his past life, he was first shunned for being a menace, and later, there weren't really any moments where he wasn't busy and/or in complete control of the situation. He still preferred to have something to do and be in control, but being doted on for a while didn't feel so bad either, especially with his stable emotional state.

That being said, it wasn't all sunshine and roses. His weakened pride ability was unable to constantly suppress both his other abilities and his feelings about the loss of Luna. This meant that, occasionally, his pride would lose control of his emotions about Luna. 

His pride seemed to prefer suppressing his wrath and lust rather than his own feelings. Unfortunately, whenever this happened, he was hit with depression. Luckily, these bouts weren't strong enough to stop him from acting. After all, he still believed he could grow powerful enough to start searching for a possibly reincarnated Luna.

Even so, whenever he was hit with one such bout, he would be a lot more gloomy and entirely uninterested in playing with his mother, which obviously worried her to no end. Eventually, though, these bouts always ended when his pride managed to get everything under control again. 

Sif would always be extremely relieved when he returned to his 'normal' self, but she still couldn't stop herself from worrying over him. This was exacerbated by Hati not talking to her about it, even after he learned to speak the language. Whenever she asked, he would just give her his signature adorable smile and tell her he was fine.

Right now, he was three years old, and for the past month, he had finally started holding conversations with his family. They were amazed at his progress, of course. After all, learning to speak complete sentences and even hold a conversation at the age of three was an incredible accomplishment, and they were immediately convinced he was a genius.