Odyssey of the Blind God

The mood and general atmosphere in Nial's wooden hut was great. Everyone was laughing at Nial's stupefied expression and there didn't seem to be any tension in the room.

Meryl seemed to have grown accustomed to being around humans, especially around Miranda, Nial, and Mathias. She had revealed her true personality to them, which shattered the image Mathias, and Nial's parents had had of the Elves.

They were supposed to be elegant, powerful, knowledgeable, and aloof in their opinion but Meryl's behavior was more similar to a young, somewhat childish, and spoiled woman.

"It seems that my worry for Mathias' well-being was unfounded," A familiar noise reached the people inside the wooden hut as the Midnight Elf Valvian, and the Old Elf Crevian appeared in the doorframe.

Master Crevian walked around with a wooden crane and a set of formal clothes. Even the bandages around his eyes looked more like decoration. They were white in color and had a golden tree symbol embedded in them. The golden tree symbol was right above the nose bridge for everyone to clearly see.

Nial perceived it as well and he was a bit stupefied by this.

'All of his clothes release a sensation as if they're alive…' He nearly blurted out.

He was not sure what Master Crevian was planning to do but it seemed to be something important.

"And it looks like I miscalculated the time of your return, Nial. I'm glad that you're already back," Master Crevian spoke calmly and he turned in the direction of Nial's parents, who flinched the moment Master Crevian started to pay attention to them.

Master Crevian may not be powerful anymore but his presence was still imposing, whether he was old and weak, or back in his prime.

"You raised a good boy. He is very talented," Master Crevian remarked while looking at his parents before he turned around to leave.

The sudden appearance of the Old Elf was a bit weird and exactly the same could be said about the fact that he wanted to leave after speaking three sentences.

It actually looked like he only wanted to make sure that Mathias was alive before he left.

Maline and Miles put a forced smile on their lips before they thanked Master Crevian, who had already turned around.

"Why is Master Crevian so tense? Did something happen when I was not here?" Nial asked suddenly, attracting Meryl's attention.

"What do you mean? He is not tense…or is he? Nothing happened…at least, I didn't hear anything…" Meryl doubted Nial's words at first but she began to get suspicious a moment later. She felt flustered, and Meryl was not sure what might have happened.

"He is just nervous because he will activate the Portal to go back to Yggdrasil for a few days. He has to prepare some lessons in advance to teach Nial properly for the next 13 months. The U21 Runicier tournament is very important for us and he doesn't want to make a single mistake," Valvian explained without going further into details. There were some things he didn't tell but that was for everyone's best.

Not everything had to be shared, and some things were never supposed to be known by other races.

"Yggdrasil…as in THE world tree of Norse mythology?" Mathias suddenly exclaimed. His voice cracked at the end and his eyes gleamed brightly as he stared intently at the Midnight Elf, who could hardly smile when he saw Mathias' expression. It was creepy.

"I don't know what the Norse mythology is or what it actually says but Yggdrasil is the most important place for us Elves. That is everything I have to say about it," Valvian merely answered before he prepared to leave as well.

He halted in his tracks for a moment and looked at Nial as if he wanted to say something. However, in the end, he only opened his mouth and closed it before he walked off as well.

"Weird…" Meryl mumbled at the behavior of both Valvian and her master. She quickly got back to her senses and began to act as if she was not actually bothered by what had just happened but one could clearly sense that something was odd and bothered her.

"Tell me about Yggdrasil! Please!!" Mathias emerged next to Meryl all of a sudden. He grasped her hands tightly and looked at her with puppy eyes.

Nial, his master and his parents looked at this with a mixture of confusion and pity. They were pretty sure that Mathias knew how Meryl would respond to his pitiful attempt of getting to know more information but Mathias did so nonetheless.

It was as if he actually liked getting beaten up by women, and it was only his pained expression, which made everyone believe that Mathias was not a masochist.

"You don't need to know anything about Yggdrasil!" Meryl tried to put some sense into him as it looked like Mathias would get away without sustaining any injuries, or so everyone thought at first. All of a sudden, she pulled her hands out of Mathias' grasp and kicked out with all her might.

"Ooof" Miles flinched the moment Meryl's kick landed right between Mathias' legs. He instinctively covered the area of his crotch, while Mathias slumped to the ground with tears in the eyes.

"Don't touch me, bastard!" She snarled and pointed her fingers threateningly at him.

Nial swallowed his saliva as he pitied Mathias in his mind.

"Well it's not like he could have expected something like this to happen…" Miranda said though she clearly meant the opposite. She shook her head, not sure whether to praise Mathias for his stupidity or to punch some sense into him herself.

Meryl took a few deep breaths and walked towards Nial when she was done.

"You need to improve as well. The U21 Runicier tournament will be hard for you to win. I may be talented but there are even better Runiciers who would be participating in the tournament than I am. You have to win!!" Meryl said, with fiery eyes. She was clearly jealous of Nial but she still wanted him to win.

His victory was important and Nial slowly started to believe that Master Crevian's first comment about everything being 'fine' even if he wouldn't win the grand prize was a blatant lie.

"Great…no pressure at all…" Nial mumbled and he shook his head.

'I wonder how much I can improve in 13 months…'

"Nial, I think you have something you need to tell us…or am I wrong?" Maline's voice reached Nial in an instant and his lips twitched in response.

"Yeahh..I guess," Nial mumbled resignedly as he began to tell his parents about the U21 Runicier tournament, that he would leave Jundra in around 13 months and that he was not actually sure when he would return.

He expected his mother to throw a fit and start crying because she didn't want him to leave so soon.

However, contrary to his beliefs, she was quite calm, nodded her head, and gave him a thumbs up.

"You're getting more popular by the day, I like it. Bring us some souvenirs from the other planets then!" She said flashing a faint smile, which caused Nial to stare at her with a wide open mouth.

Even Miles was a bit dumbfounded at his wife's response and when she noticed that her son and husband were confused, she just forced herself to laugh.

"I am already happy that we reunited. I never expected him to stay with me forever. 13 months is a long time and we will be able to do lots of things! In my life; I never wanted to hold back my kids and rather than guilt-tripping them in any way, I should support them!" Maline said, clenching her fists tightly.

It was obvious that she didn't want to separate from Nial once again but it was not as if she would stop her son from advancing further and stagnating his progress.

He wanted to become stronger, learn more and become a better human and for that if it was necessary for him to leave Jundra for an unknown amount of time, she was ok with it.

As long as he was alive and unscathed, everything would be fine!

Maline's reaction was unexpected but Nial was happy that it worked out like this. He felt much better after telling the truth as well.

He talked a bit with his parents, and revealed a few more pieces of information he had held back, while Meryl looked down at Mathias, who was still lying on the ground.

When Nial noticed this, he felt a bit bad for Mathias. His friend was just very lost and overly excited about all kinds of things. He had heard a few things about Yggdrasil but he had never thought that it was real. Nial would be lying if he were to say that he was not interested in getting to know about Yggdrasil as well.

He didn't know much about Norse mythology but it was a necessity for him to know some facts about it. After all, his Curse [Hodur's Heir] was also something related to Norse mythology. It wouldn't hurt to get to know more pieces of information about Norse mythology, the connections between the Yggdrasil in Norse mythology and the Yggdrasil Valvian had mentioned.

However, Nial was more patient than Mathias and he could read the room much better. He helped his poor and oblivious friend get up from the ground. Mathias was still holding his hurting crotch but crying and playing pitiful didn't help either.

"You really need to fix your bad habits…" Nial could only say as he added, "...and I'm not only talking about your runic constellations…"

Mathias frowned because he thought that Nial was making fun of him but he shut his mouth when he realized that Nial's expression was serious.

He wanted to force himself to smile but Mathias could only sigh before he nodded his head.

"I will try to fix my bad habits then…but the ones related to my runic constellation engravings…" He trailed off without saying anything else.

Meryl looked at Mathias' retreating figure and she started to feel guilty.

"Argh…just what is wrong with him? I cannot leave him like that…." Meryl grumbled before she ran after Mathias.

Basically, Meryl's behavior was like that of an older sister's right now. She may be a bit brutal but other than that, she was trying hard to force Mathias' talent as Runicier to awaken. Mathias was not a bad Runicier but his bad habits were holding him back.

This was something Meryl wanted to fix because she could tell that Mathias had a bright future. If she were to hate or actually dislike him, Meryl would never try so hard to help Mathias.

That was something everyone in the wooden hut could understand. Miranda smiled at her oblivious disciple before she followed him.

"I need to keep practicing as well, otherwise, this foolish disciple of mine will improve faster than I do and leave me behind. I cannot allow both of my disciples to be better Runiciers than I am!" She declared, leaving Nial and his parents alone in the wooden hut.

Miranda was actually not worried that Mathias would become a better Runicier than her. She knew that this would happen, especially with the preferential treatment he received from Meryl. There were other things she was more concerned about than her pride, for example, their safety.

Miranda knew that her potential had already been used up and that it was only a matter of time before she wouldn't be of any use to Mathias and Nial anymore. However, she wanted to give her utmost to support them until that day would come.

This was her responsibility.

"Your friends are great. They're fun." Maline said with a gentle smile when she saw that Miranda had left the wooden hut.

"Fun? Really… you think so?" Nial asked while flashing the same gentle smile as his mother.

"They're nuts, but they really care about each other. That's all that matters," Miles replied while ruffling his son's silky silver hair.

"Yeah…we care about each other…"