The Wind Rises

"Senile?"

"Clear-headed?"

Beckett could not help finding it strange when he heard Hela associate those two words with Odin.

"Because of that peace treaty?"

"Yes." Hela admitted it readily.

The father she remembered was the domineering conqueror who could swallow mountains and rivers, the God-King who had raised her from childhood to become Asgard’s executioner—not the coward before her now, suddenly wanting to give up his unification campaign and call it quits.

To wage war for Asgard—this was the belief, or perhaps the dream and ideal, that Odin had personally carved into Hela’s bones over the past twenty-odd years.

And the decision Odin had told her after summoning her back was undoubtedly a betrayal of that ideal.

Hela felt that her father Odin was merely confused for the moment.

She, Hela Odinsdottir, future heir of Asgard and daughter of Odin, had to use her actions to bring the temporarily muddled Odin back to his senses and make him reclaim the ideals he had held not long ago.

"So you want the Mind Stone?"

"What are you planning to do?"

"Put on an act of filial love with your father?"

Beckett stopped twirling his pen. His brain, hollowed out by self-criticism reports, immediately found something capable of stimulating his cerebral cortex.

"My current strength is too weak. I cannot possibly achieve my goal of reminding my father."

"So I need the Mind Stone, Beckett."

Hela spoke with utter seriousness.

Her father Odin would be heading to Jotunheim tomorrow to discuss the so-called peace treaty. With her current strength, even if she went there to cause trouble, she would not be able to make any real impact.

But if she had the Mind Stone, everything would be different.

The power the Mind Stone had granted her on Planet Hala was plain for all to see. Hela was confident that, if she possessed that power again, she would certainly be able to lead her army in awakening her father, who had somehow been bewitched, and polish his heart—once devoted to expanding territory and forging a supreme empire—until it shone spotless and bright.

"Sounds good." Beckett listened with great interest.

"But I refuse."

Strictly speaking, the Mind Stone belonged to his adoptive father, Thanos. It was merely being kept in his care for the time being. Beckett did not think he had the right to decide to lend it to Hela on Thanos’s behalf.

What if she did not return it?

His father had once said that one should never let down one’s guard against others.

Even if this Hela had already—

"I’ll help you write your self-criticism reports."

Hela directly cut off Beckett’s unspoken words.

"What?"

"If I’m not mistaken, you went to Planet Hala without permission, got confined by your father, and were ordered to write self-criticism reports, right?"

"Judging from the amount of paper, there should be ten of them."

Hela crouched before the desk. Her projection passed through the sleeping orange cat’s body as she counted the sheets and stated it with certainty.

"I’ll write them for you, and you lend me the Mind Stone for one day."

"I only need one day."

Hela rose to her feet and raised her right index finger to indicate that the loan period would be short.

"I can guarantee they’ll be heartfelt and sincere. I know someone with plenty of experience in this area."

"After one day, I will personally return the Mind Stone to you."

Beckett narrowed his eyes, appearing to consider it. The lazy orange cat on the desk yawned in its sleep, rubbed its face with a paw, then rolled over and continued sleeping.

Sleeping was its only pleasure in this barren place.

"We’ve fought side by side before. This is the first time I’ve formally asked you for something, Beckett."

"Pleasure doing business with you."

Meanwhile, because of the last time they had ghostwritten Beckett’s graduation project, The Other and Woz—two species with entirely different physical structures—were now sitting beneath the same roof on Chitauri Prime, sighing in despair.

"His Highness Beckett was already good at academic subjects, and Lord Thanos wants ten reports too. What are we supposed to do…" Woz the robotic cat’s round face was filled with worry. His normally endearing features were nearly scrunched into a knot, while The Other beside him was equally miserable.

Outside Asgard’s royal hall.

After reaching an agreement with Beckett, Hela finally took the initiative to leave her chambers. Frigga, who had been keeping people stationed to watch over her, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Especially after she saw Hela take the initiative to order someone to prepare dinner for her.

"Have Kyl Mashah come see me. Now."

Only after finishing dinner did Hela begin the first step of her "awakening plan."

She summoned Kyl Mashah, one of the subordinates she trusted most, to meet her.

Or rather, one of her former subordinates.

Ever since Malekith, king of the Dark Elves, had been beheaded by Thanos with a single stroke, Kyl Mashah, leader of the garrison in Svartalfheim, had been promoted by Odin into a general entrusted with guarding an entire region.

The kind who commanded a massive army.

Thirteen minutes later, Hela’s chambers.

"Your Highness Hela."

Though he was no longer Hela’s adjutant, Kyl Mashah still held immense respect for her in his heart.

"Mashah, take your army and depart for Jotunheim tomorrow." Hela’s attitude toward Mashah had not changed in the slightest because of his position.

"Jotunheim?" The man froze upon hearing that, unable to make sense of what Hela was thinking.

"Your Highness Hela, the king is going there tomorrow to—"

"Mashah, let me ask you: do you want this kind of humiliating peace?" Hela mercilessly interrupted her former adjutant’s question.

The question struck directly at the heart of the matter.

"Your Highness Hela…" Mashah opened his mouth and stared blankly at the woman before him, unable to say another word for a long time.

He vaguely sensed what Hela intended to do, and cold sweat involuntarily seeped out.

"Don’t worry. I merely want Father to wake up. I want him to cast aside this unrealistic idea and become the supreme monarch he once was."

She would seize this opportunity and, with the power of the Mind Stone, lead the army to take Jotunheim, that tough bone, in one stroke.

Once Jotunheim had fallen, she believed her father would return to normal.

"I believe you won’t refuse me, will you?"

"Of course, Your Highness Hela. Mashah will forever be your most loyal adjutant, unchanged for all eternity!"

Moved by the future Hela had painted, Mashah—who had already held objections to the peace Odin had suddenly advocated—dropped to one knee and offered his loyalty.

In this regard, he borrowed a little from The Other, whom he had met several times before.

"Go make preparations."

Hela neither confirmed nor denied it. She waved away the holographic projection before her, then took her military seal and headed toward the barracks of her personal guard.

"Asgard’s peace was won through war. Father, that was what you once taught me. Why have you suddenly forgotten it now?"

Beneath Asgard’s starry sky, Hela’s murmur drifted away on the wind.

"Thor, what are you looking at up on the roof?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to see what Asgard looked like two thousand years ago, that’s all." Thor, gazing up at the stars, raised his bottle toward Rocket beneath the eaves and narrowed his eyes as he felt the wind brush across his face.

The wind had risen in Asgard.