Ball of Nothing

To appear externally hardworking, Zero employed five spare PMs to take his place in copying talismans. He had about an hour to prepare them before the first offering. The magic trick that Zero readied himself for was going to be a huge blast by the time Magnus Hilda became plague free. Not to mention, Zero would probably never have to worry about food supplies ever again on his travels. Right now, the doctor didn't want to trouble Zoe to cook for his meals on the go because the zashikiwarashi was already extremely busy with helping Zero manage his household matters in the village.

Zero reported the good news to his best friend using the party call function and explained to the wood elf his brilliant plan to secure food supplies for their journey.

"And all the offered food will go straight to the shared inventory," Zero bragged and waited to be praised.

Truen was silent for a while. On one hand, the archer was very impressed by how resourceful and cunning Zero had turned out after two years of training, on the other hand, he was appalled by how naive Zero can still be.

"You understand that the offering will be in giant portions, right? Like literally giant-sized meals that will feed a village of dwarves and a huge party of humans. I'm not worried about you seeing as you have an appetite that rivals three grown giants. However, I don't think I will be able to eat any of those offerings. You should save that for yourself."

Zero's jaw fell in shock when Truen rejected the food offerings. "Why?! Don't do that, I can downsize the portion for you... there is a pharmacy dimension, I can also create other dimensions now using the system. I can make a kitchen!"

Truen sighed. "Don't waste resources like that. Besides, it's not very important. I can live solely on nutrition pills and mana potions. My body is much like a plant, I don't need much to survive. Not eating for a week is fine as well."

Zero thought about it. Indeed, Truen ate very little and the elf doesn't really like eating meat for some reason although he humours Zero and eats it with him. Zero didn't force the matter and agreed to let it be. Then, he brought up the issue about needing to run an errand for the royal family and get a new statue of Freya made for the shrine.

"My persuasion has gone through successfully but I'm now being made to work extra! I can understand why Baal abhors the concept of working. I'm a doctor, shouldn't it be enough for me to just save people's lives? Why do I have to draw talismans and run errands for them as well? Isn't this a little too much? I've been taken advantage of..."

Truen thought about it. "Well, the plague is going to take some time to fully disappear. We might as well treat this as part of the adventure. Besides, the royal family will compensate you well for your efforts so we have nothing much to lose. Are you in any hurry to go anywhere in particular?"

Zero shook his head. Now that he thought about it, he had no real plans after escorting Camie back to her home. Zero originally intended to go with the flow so why was he getting so worked up? His main goal was to gain enough experience and resources on Earth so that he could prepare for intergalactic travels. Planet hopping wasn't easy but it was still manageable. Zero hasn't even found a proper way to navigate and open wormholes to accurate locations so finding the other divine entities would be difficult for now.

"I guess we can take it slow and easy for now," Zero grumbled. "We've only settled the food issue here. There's a concern about money that you had, right? Do you think the royal family will give us more than the merchants?"

Truen laughed. "Zero, Magnus Hilda may not be wealthy when compared to some of the other territories but I can assure you they have more than six hundred binnites in their treasury to spare. Even if they didn't have money, I'm sure it would be something of great value."

Hearing that, Zero was suddenly reminded of his earlier curiosity. "Oh yes, Truen, do you happen to know why Queen Rosalind only wears a steel crown? Don't royal members usually wear golden crowns decorated with a lot of sparkly gems?"

"Magnus Hilda is special," Truen explained. "I heard this from Camie but the royal family of Magnus Hilda are appointed by people. King Richard is a merchant and Queen Rosalind is a warrior. It is a tradition in Magnus Hilda for one ruler to be the protector of the land and one to be the strategist. The strategist ruler wears the silver crown and the protector ruler wears the steel crown. Only the gods can wear gold so I'm going to assume the Freya statue they want you to make will cost quite a bit."

Zero was amazed to hear that the giants were very humble. They didn't even adorn themselves in gold and left the best for the gods. Hyndla and the other Norse gods must have been very loved. Still, Zero couldn't understand why nobody worships Freya. She was a Great Goddess after all. Truen apologised for not being able to help. Neither Madeline nor Joseph knew about Freya either and Zero decided to call Freya to clarify her relationship with the other Norse gods.

"Hello, Zero. How is everything?"

Zero smiled and greeted Freya warmly. "I'm currently in Magnus Hilda, the land of giants. There is an interesting story here saying that Hyndla is the goddess who founded this land. The giants also worship the Norse Gods like Odin, Loki and Thor but it is rather strange that nobody here knows about you. Did you have a bad relationship with those gods mentioned?"

Zero's question was rather direct and Freya flinched when she heard it. It took a while for the Great Goddess to come clean about it. Odin was her husband but it didn't happen until the late Aesir-Vanir war. Before the war that earned her war goddess status, Freya didn't have a good reputation. Many goddesses and gods were jealous of her beauty and Odin was an oblivious fool. Loki didn't like her very much either and was the one who spread rumours about her promiscuity. On the other hand, Hyndla was like the shining maiden that everybody loved before the war.

"I-I'm so sorry, I didn't know..."

Freya laughed. "Don't worry about it. It's all in the past now. Ever since humans slew the gods I've lost all my kin. They're probably somewhere in the void and resting while I guard what remains of Valhalla. These giants you speak of must be Hyndla's children. They're very good children. That Queen you speak of sounds very much like a Viking warrior. It's rather rare for Vikings to use swords rather than axes, she must be very skilled."

Zero launched into the tale about his meeting with the royalty and explained to Freya that he needed to borrow her name to save this land.

"Hence, I would like to create an apparition using your name to convince them when the shrine is built. This way, you can get the prayers to strengthen your domain while I get the food to fuel my journey. How does that sound?"

Hearing that she was going to have a new group of very pious worshippers made Freya very happy. "Why would I reject such a deal? Do you have any idea how hard it is to spread faith nowadays? Being the only Norse God remaining, I don't have a lot of time to make my journey across the world to create miracles and spread my name. If the things you say about Magnus Hilda are true then I can definitely make an appearance and bless that land in my name in return for their faith. You don't have to create an illusion using my name at all. Just offer me a prayer when it is done and I shall appear."

With the deal finalised, Zero ended his call in the mindscape and checked on his progress. The PMs were working hard and nobody had disturbed him in the meantime. Zero decided that making fifty talismans in the past hour was good enough and switched places with his PMs. It wouldn't be long before someone came to invite him to the offering hall. Already, Zero could smell many amazing things coming from beneath the crack of the door.

Two minutes later, a knock on the door alerted Zero that it was time. He stacked the talismans neatly into stacks of ten each and rearranged the unused blank talisman papers. Once he was ready, he told Lawrence to enter.

The royal butler saw the fifteen stacks of talismans and smiled widely. He thanked Zero for the hard work and told him that the offering ritual was ready.

"Also, her majesty would like you to teach some of the guards how to use these talismans and the cure that the goddess will present us over lunch. Do you have any preference for food? I shall inform the royal kitchen to make preparations."

Zero thought about it. Being treated to a meal by the queen after working hard didn't sound like a bad thing. However, he didn't know what kind of food the giants ate and frowned.

"What are some of the things special to Magnus Hilda? Also, don't worry about the portions, just make them as usual. I will need to eat a lot after using a lot of magic for divination and talisman writing to replace my energy."

Lawrence looked slightly surprised but nodded. "Magnus Hilda is rather humble so we don't have a lot of fancy signature dishes to brag about. However, I will recommend our potato broccoli pancakes and mixed meat meatballs. The royal chef is also very good at making corn stew."

Zero drooled hearing the names of those dishes. "They sound delicious! Are those the things that you prepared for the offering as well?"

Lawrence shook his head in horror. "How could we offer the goddess such food? Although it is expensive, the chefs in our kitchen used up every single expensive item to make the grandest dishes they could to show our sincerity to the goddess."

Zero suddenly felt bad when he heard it. "H-How expensive are we talking about?"

Lawrence smiled warmly. "You will know when you get there. However, in Magnus Hilda, anything related to the sea is expensive because we are far away from it."

Zero blinked. "How do you get your salt?"

The butler carried Zero steadily on his palm and allowed the doctor to hold onto his thumb to stabilise himself. "We get them from rock salt that Rocket Mountain sells. Salt is just the only thing we don't have to spend too much money on. However, seafood is very expensive. We hope that your goddess isn't allergic to anything like prawns or shellfish..."

Zero shook his head. "Gods don't have food allergies... at least I've never heard of such a thing. Still, you don't have to offer such expensive food all the time, the offering of food should be about the goodwill of the people. I don't want anybody to starve just to fulfil their offerings. The gods will understand."

Lawrence looked at Zero and smiled kindly. The healer in his eyes might be a genuine magician with the gift to really listen to god's voice. Her concern over the people of Magnus Hilda wasn't something that could be faked although she did display reluctance to do more than what she was meant to do. The royal head butler knew that they were exploiting her but there was really nobody else they could rely on. Queen Rosalind did give the order to make Zero work for them until the country is completely plague-free but she also insisted that Zero was to be treated with the treatment befitting of the country's benefactor.

Giants were loyal creatures and when somebody helps them, they will always be there for their saviours in times of need. Just like how the dwarves have always treated them well, Magnus Hilda will not forget it. The masks that they wore and some of the sterilising alcohol they had were given by the dwarves on a regular basis to help them tide through their dark years.

Zero and Lawrence finally reached the dining hall and Zero's jaw fell when he saw the lavish spread of food for the offering.

"Are you sure these are for the offering? You could feed a hundred giants with this! I don't think the goddess can produce so many cures even if I offered everything... she is very weak at the moment."

Lawrence blinked. "Don't worry, there will be more of such offerings as long as we can afford it. All we ask is for at least one cure to be created. At this moment, we need our King back more than anything else. Queen Rosalind has been carrying the burden of both the protector and the strategist of our land for the last two years ever since King Richard fell asleep. However, it has taken its toll and our country is slowly falling apart. The queen is a great warrior but not the best strategist. She has done her best and our ministers have tried but without our King, we are lost."

Zero felt his heart hurt. For just one cure, the giants had gone all out. That was how desperate they were and their sincerity moved him. Looking at the lavish spread of food on the long dining tall, Zero knew that it wasn't just the royal family and its treasury but also the farmers, the royal cooks and servants who were working hard to make this happen.

With his mind made up, Zero told Lawrence to get him chalks and coal. He also requested for a few people who were good at taking instructions to help him out. The doctor wasn't going to be able to draw such a huge array all by himself and to hasten the process, he would require assistance. The array wasn't meant to absorb everything into his inventory although it would cause glowing lights when it was activated. More importantly, the array was a communication channel that would open a link from Magnus Hilda to Freya. Each time he activated it, the sentiments of prayer through the offerings will reach the Great Goddess.

Zero watched as the maids busied away under his instructions. Since the giants have proven their sincerity, Zero will grant their wish.