48 Because of that ?

To say it was useless would be an understatement.

My lesson was more an indoctrination than anything else. It was about the value of family, sacrifice, and bla bla bla.

At first I though he would at least teach me something about managing a business, or politicking, but no. He just wanted me more pliable to his opinion. Though at the time I couldn't understand why. He had been ignoring me for years, so why was it suddenly a problem if I wanted to disappear ?

And the 'lesson' didn't really gave an hint. I did realize he wanted something. Something that would need me to consider the family more than my own opinion. But what ? No idea.

So I just went along and became a yes man for a entire hour. Boring as heaven, but I was curious as to the why of all this.

In the end, my days went the same as before, since whatever 'punishment' father seemed fit to give me didn't stop me from visiting nobles to make portraits for them, and aside from that, I never went out of my room. So much to his growing frustration, I simply didn't care.

But the important thing happened half a month later, when Celina came back with my blessed stones. Finally !

During this time I had perfected the theoretical process to create the Valkyrie pieces, and I was ready to do it !

It turned out that everything went as predicted. It was almost sad that nothing special happened. No exceptional surge of magic to welcome my creation, no thunder and storm to make the event seem grand. The runic bracelet was created... And that was it. It almost made the event look lame.

It was with a certain amount of pride that I explained what I had created to Frigga though. And she was completely speechless. With that, I could create Valkyries without asking Odin. Sure, he could make them become normal again if he wanted, but still... That was a feat.

She took some time to realize the implication of my new creation, for Asgard as a whole. It could help ignite the faith of mortals toward the Nord pantheon again. Make living agent of the faith walking among them. It would also help bolster their number, which have decreased with every conflicts over the years.

Once she realized that she was ecstatic. She was even more happy when I told her I could link the first runic bracelet to her if she wanted. She'd have to ask someone to put the runestone into the mortal she wanted to convert, but aside from that, they would effectively be HER 'peerage'. And knowing that like all gods she was pretty bored, it would be a nice hobby to train Valkyries from various origins.

After my boasting moment, I told Celina to deliver my glorious trinket to Frigga's painting in Asgard. I did get a pledge from her to invite me for the very first conversion. If anything, it would allow me to be sure everything worked as it should.

After that, it was once again the time to dwell into my future game.

When Celina came back, she also came with some sand from the sandmans. It was a perfect material to create my very first magical server. It is kind of weird that some sand would work though. Contrary to popular belief, processors and the likes were NOT made with sand but silicon, which is NOT the same. But since the popular belief said it was sand, then magic said sand was OK. Magic was bullshit like that sometime.

Like a long beard wizard would say, "It's magic Harry".

So after a single day, I had finally created my server, dubbed 'First dream'. It would do for now since I had yet to automatize the creation of a magical VR helmet. And without them, there wouldn't be many people connecting.

It left me with three major roadblocks :

1) Creating a VR helmet and automatizing their creation,

2) Creating and optimizing the magical language that would be use for my game

3) Creating the game

And there was no shortcut here. It would just be time consuming.

I still intended to focus on the second point though. Since creating a few VR helmet would not be that hard, I would suffice at the very start. And I didn't have to create a completely finished game to tease what my technology would do.

So magical coding it was.

And thus my days passed comfortably.

There was no mention of the Valkyrie pieces, or the runic bracelet, like I preferred it to be called, but Frigga told me it was because they didn't want to advertise it before they were 100% sure it worked well. Something I understood. And she wasn't in a hurry to convert someone. Like she said, 'rushing is useless, one has to leave on time'. So she was taking her time to find her first Valkyrie.

On another note, I finally found out what my father expected from me. After a few months of being frustrated and annoyed by my lack of 'understanding' he finally let some information slip. It was just enough for me to connect the dot.

It turns out that my father, in all his glorious genius, though the best way to grasp more political influence would be by marrying me to Sona Sitri. Bad luck for him, he couldn't force me anymore. And since Sona was the heir to the Sitri family and the sister of a Satan, there was no way in heaven she was going to be able to visit Asgard without a protection unit.

So he was 'forcing' me to stay in the underworld so that I could forge emotional link with her. That would also explain why I was seeing her more often at our house.

The first problem with his plan was that Zekram Bael would NEVER allow that marriage to happen. Having a single family with ties to two Satans, and to the most rich house of the underworld (the Phenex)... As if he would let someone threaten his position as the shadow leader of the devils.

And the second problem ? I didn't like Sona this way.