Chapter 34 - An important talk

"Master? Are you alright? You've been staring ahead for a few minutes now."

As Hati heard the voice of a slightly worried Astrid, he shook himself out of his memories. Meeting Luna again in this world had caused him to remember his first meeting with Luna.

He smiled at Astrid and said, "I am fine, Astrid. I was just thinking about some things. How are you, though? You almost died just now." 

He shook his head and continued, "I shouldn't have acted so impulsively. It's not like I couldn't have waited until that braindead simp was done. I simply didn't account for his escort to immediately go for the kill."

Astrid smiled genuinely and responded, "It's okay. Master. It's my duty to protect you!"

Hati smiled wryly and said, "Yeah, but I don't want you to give your life for me, especially not when it involves my own mistakes." 

His expression became serious as he continued, "I want you to protect and serve me, but only up to a point. Don't get yourself killed if you can help it, Astrid. You can consider that an order."

Hati was pretty callous when it came to the lives of those he didn't care about, but he did care about Astrid; she was the closest thing to a childhood friend he ever had or would have.

In response, Astrid chuckled and stuck out her tongue, "Hehe, I refuse! Too bad for you!"

This response actually shocked Hati as he looked at her and thought, 'Has her love for me now outgrown her obedience? Maybe I still need to train her more…'

Astrid giggled at his look and said, "Sorry, Master. If you want to punish me for disobedience, I will take it like a good girl. But when we first met, you promised me autonomy regarding decisions that would have life-changing consequences, and I'm pretty sure choosing whether or not to lose my life qualifies."

While Hati enjoyed knowing she cared so much about him, when he gave her autonomy for life-changing decisions, he just wanted to give her the illusion of choice, not an actual one. 

After all, he planned on training her obedience so she wouldn't want to disobey even the life-changing decision. Unfortunately, he had allowed a large part of her obedience to stem from her love for him, which was not biting him in the ass.

Still, he couldn't find it in himself to punish her for this. The fact is that he enjoyed her love for him, so he just sighed and said, "Fine then, just… remember what I said. I don't want you to die, no matter the circumstances."

Smiling cheerfully, Astrid said, "Understood, Master!" Astrid was quite happy currently, as she had always wanted to pull one over on her master for once.

Meanwhile, they were walking towards the house alongside Sif, who was looking fondly at her son and his maid, caring about each other.

  Leif was still back at the event in his capacity as the patriarch, while Erik was trying to smooth things over with Mia a little. However, they decided it was best if Hati and Astrid returned home after all the commotion they caused. 

As they walked, Hati thought back to meeting Luna, 'Luna missing our memories from Earth is worrying and something that must be dealt with somehow, but for now, I have other priorities. 

Next year, the Fenrir clan contest to determine those worthy of gaining a spirit companion will be held, and afterwards, Luna will become a spirit companion to someone. I naturally won't allow her to become anyone's companion except mine, but I currently have no way of winning that contest. 

This means I need power, but for that, I need to solve my elemental dissonance and to solve my elemental dissonance,' As his thoughts reached here, he looked at his mother walking in front of him, 'I need my father…'

******

Meanwhile, at Mia's home, Mia had managed to extract both Luna and herself from the event. If she couldn't find out more about what caused Hati's behaviour from the man himself because of Erik, she could at least find out from Luna.

They were currently inside a well-furnished living room inside Mia's house. Mia looked at Luna and directly asked, "So?" 

Luna pretended ignorance and looked away while saying, "So, what?", causing a vein in Mia's forehead to start throbbing. Despite her dominant nature, Luna could be quite playful when she relaxed with someone she trusted, and Mia was such a person.

Putting her hand on her forehead to stop the throbbing, Mia said, "You know what, you brat! 

And don't tell me that was all him; I saw how you looked at him the whole time he was here, even when you pretended not to care anymore. You can't hide from my soul sense; Erik probably noticed it, too."

Luna sighed and said, "Fine, Fine. The truth is that I really don't know why he was acting weird or how he knew my name. Part of it was probably the same reason as mine, but I felt like there was more."

Mia narrowed her eyes, "Don't stall; what reason are you talking about?"

Luna shrugged in response, "He holds the other half of my pride shard."

This caused Mia to gawk. She was well aware that Luna had a pride shard; after all, she was the one who discovered it when Luna was young, causing her to take the girl into her own home.

Luna's parents were fine with it because Luna's prideful and emotionless behaviour as a child had ensured there was not much love lost between them. 

Of course, Mia had kept quiet about the real reason, so she was currently the only one in the clan who was aware of Luna's shard, aside from Lisa.

After all, Mia had found out about sin shards from Lisa, whom she considered a friend. It was also Lisa and Mia who had suppressed Luna's pride shard. However, Lisa never told Mia where she gained the knowledge from.

She had been planning on helping Luna find her other half so Luna could offset the negative consequences of her shard and hopefully become the most powerful Bönd clan matriarch yet.

Finally finding the mental capacity to respond, Mia asked if Luna was sure, "Are you sure? Finding your other half on our doorstep is a bit too much of a coincidence. Not to mention his weird behaviour makes me suspicious."

Luna nodded, "All I know is that I felt a powerful instinct to dominate him; combined with the fact that he ignored my shard's ability, I really don't think it could be anything else."

Hearing this, Mia sighed and closed her eyes for a moment before responding, "I see. This complicates things; I can't imagine his family doesn't know about his shard since they are close to Lisa, and he surely showed signs when he grew up. 

But how did they suppress his shard without him gaining a soul core? At least, I assume it's suppressed; he didn't seem particularly emotionless."

Every sin shard had negative consequences in the form of extreme emotions, which were obvious in most cases, but with pride, it was different. Instead of acting out emotionally, an excess of pride would seem like emotionlessness.

Luna nodded and said, "I think so, too. Either way, though, setting aside the issue of his family, he won't be as easy to put under my thumb as Garth was. I mean, that guy did most of the work himself; I barely talked to him and just used my ability a little."

Mia seemed to make a decision at that time, "Right, let's do this. I will go talk to Lisa; we can use her as a go-between with Hati's family. Since we figured out he holds a pride shard, they surely figured out you do as well. Instead of escalating this issue, let's talk to them about it."

***********

Meanwhile, at Hati's home, he and Sif sat in the library. They had left Astrid in her room because Sif wanted to talk to Hati alone. Sif intended to learn about the connection between Hati and Luna, and the conversation was eerily similar to the one in Mia's house.

"So?" Said Sif with a raised eyebrow.

Hati looked away while answering in the same way that Luna had done, "So, what?"

But unlike Mia, Luna took a more emotional approach. Suddenly, she looked sad and said, "Am I really so untrustworthy, little Hati? You won't talk to me about your temporary moments of depression, and now you won't talk about this either. Am I a bad mother?"

She didn't even need to fake this to extract information. She really did feel like this. And when he heard it, Hati felt a little ashamed. It seems he had been underestimating the impact his silence had on his mother.

He cared about Sif a lot, and the fact he had hurt her did not sit well with him. Still, what could he do? The truth would likely hurt her even more."