Chapter 753 - Bodyguard

Eisen left the meeting room, having accomplished a few positive things. He managed to discuss some rough matters relating a proper relations.h.i.+p between the giant country and Asgard. While it didn"t seem like it was possible to set up permanent trade relations between the countries at a governmental level until the council decided that it was alright, they at the very least decided that a cultural exchange was going to happen relatively soon. Some of the people living in the giant country would come to Asgard, where they would be able to work alongside the craftsmen, which had mostly gathered in Asgard"s capital, Prototype, at this time, which would be a good chance for Eisen to directly teach them a few things here and there as well.

At the same time, Eisen would send a few promising craftsmen over to the fire giant clan, where they would be able to learn new, somewhat more unique techniques compared to what could be found just in Prototype. Not only was this going to help improve the craftsmen of both Asgard and the giant country, this cultural exchange would also help the efforts of improving the general climate surrounding the giant country. As long as he could find a way to fully put a stop to the war that was most likely going to happen in the future, between the giant country and the central continent, then Eisen would succeed in his plan of removing Samuel"s control over this world that had been built up over such long time. And of course, this cultural exchange was going to help with this quite a bit, or at least that"s what Eisen was hoping.

Each of the giant clans had their own area of expertise. While the fire giants were renown craftsmen, the forest giants were known to be excellent hunters and farmers, and the cloud giants, while being low in number, were the most scholarly of the giants. Of course, while the council was trying to properly balance the power that each clan held within the council itself, their influence was actually quite imbalanced, especially in these sorts of matters.

The cloud giants were the clan that held back from interacting with non-giants the most, so when they actually happened to approve of a non-giant group and tried to actively build up contact with them, that held a lot of merit within the country. As for the fire giants, they were known to be particularly proud of their skill not only in craftsmans.h.i.+p, but combat as well. And that was why, after the fire giants admitted defeat to Eisen and his retainers, before then asking in a.s.sistance of improving the skill of their craftsmen, that showed the power of Asgard just the more. It would be impossible for the council to deny the fact that there was great value in dealing with them, while giving them a more positive view of Asgard"s opinions in regard to combat and war.

While this hadn"t directly been planned from the beginning, now that things had turned out this way, Eisen was of course going to make use of this just the more. Now that they had built up this, albeit unofficial, connection in regard to the cultural exchange, Eisen could use the current grandour in order to sway the opinion of the council before he actually went out to meet them. It would certainly make it easier to convince them that Eisen"s story was true, and that he really was who he claimed to be. While Eisen doubted that the other clans would be in just as aggressive disbelief as the fire giant clan, he still wanted to avoid any unnecessary conflict with the people that he really just wanted to cooperate with.

Once he stepped outside of the room, Eisen could hear a whisper from his shoulder. He slightly turned his head, looking out of his peripheral, seeing a layer of mist cover his neck like a scarf. And within that mist sat Kirisho, trying to speak to the old man. And even though she was speaking in nothing but a whisper, despite the size difference, Eisen seemed to be able to hear her clearly. That"s when he noticed a slight gust pa.s.sing by his ear, and he figured that Kirisho moved some of her mist into his ear ca.n.a.l, so that they could speak easily like this.

"What is your plan now? You did what you came here for initially, right?" She asked curiously, as Eisen smiled lightly, "Right, but it doesn"t seem like we"ll be able to leave this country anytime soon. For now, the grandour is going to call for a meeting of the council, so we have some freetime until then. I was thinking about just taking a look around the area during that time."

"Will you be alone, or will you be carried by Askr again?" Kirisho asked curiously, glancing over to the side at the giant golem that was accompanying them, while Eisen was slowly understanding what she was getting at, "Don"t worry, we"ll be able to get some time alone together." He told her with a slight smile on his face, before feeling a slight rub on his cheek, as if someone was nuzzling him. As it turned out, Kirisho was a lot more touchy than Eisen initially thought, not that he really minded though.

For now, Eisen made his way to the bedchambers that had been prepared for him here in the building, where the others were currently waiting for him. As soon as he stepped into the room, he was met with the figures of eight people standing in front of him. And these eight figures were of course the partic.i.p.ants of the ten-round tournament that they had won. The gigantification was still in effect, although it should run out for the first of the group, Sky, soon.

"How"d it go?" He asked, laying on the bed on the other side of the room. Eisen smiled at him as he walked over toward one of the seets carved into the wall beside him, sitting down with a loud groaned sigh, because of how long this day had been to him, "It went alright, I would say. We made some proper progress in there. I"ll explain everything to you all later, but first... how are you all feeling? The gigantification potions are powerful, but you should be pretty exhausted at this point, right?"

"Yeah... you can say that again..." Bree admitted, sitting at the edge of the bed, right next to her brother, "I feel like I could sleep for a week right about now..."

"You can go ahead if you want. Your potions should run out pretty soon, so we"ll just bring you to bed if you happen to fall asleep here." Eisen told them with a light smile, running his fingers through his beard with a light smile, even though the twins didn"t particularly seemed inclined to follow up on that idea in front of everyone here. The half-dragon knights were clearly trying to not let their exhaustion show either, with the exception of Kiron who Eisen had practically forced to rest after literally being poisoned just earlier. And of course, Askr couldn"t really get exhausted either, and he was the only one that didn"t drink one of those potions in the first place, his body already having been large enough in the first place, and all. So, Eisen slowly directed his concern toward the one person who seemed the most out of place right now. And not just from Eisen"s own perspective, it seemed like that individual themselves felt weird about sitting amongst everyone in this room.

It was, of course, the common soldier that Eisen had take part in the tournament. At first, he apparently wanted to wait outside the meeting room together with Askr as an extra bodyguard, since he was currently this large, but Eisen had also made sure that he was resting properly. He didn"t really want to overwork him, especially after the show he put on today. He had beaten his opponent at an extraordinary speed, to the extent that Eisen still couldn"t fully believe that it actually happened, "How about you, how are you feeling?" He asked the guard, who simply flinched in response at first. He was clearly rather tense right now.

"Ah, I- I"m alright, don"t worry about me..." He replied awkwardly, practically sinking in as the eyes of everyone in the room slowly focused on him for a few moments.

"You did a great job out there today, by the way," Kiron told him with a light smile on his face, "I knew that you were skilled, but I didn"t expect it to be to this extent."

"Right, I was actually thinking about something." Eisen added, looking at the guard curiously, before asking something that the others clearly didn"t expect, "Would you like to be my fulltime bodyguard?"