Foolish Brother Odin

Chapter 358 Six Kings
Regardless of whether these technocrats will have selfish motives or cause any trouble in the future, at least their professional skills and abilities are extremely strong.

Towns' move this time was essentially a facade, allowing his sons, who possessed strong domestic political abilities, to rise to power.

Enki is one of the few gods who can see through Towns' thoughts.

The problems of the Aesir gods have become quite significant as the world continues to expand.

Simply put, administrative capacity cannot keep up with the expansion of territory.

You can't just leave many things to capable people and expect to have peace of mind.

Many similar incidents have been reported in the Celtic realm—the knight lords were illiterate, entrusting tax collection and internal affairs to their stewards. These stewards, however, deceived their superiors, levied exorbitant taxes, and wreaked havoc on their territories, then shifted the blame onto the lords. This forced the lords to execute the stewards as a sacrifice, but the embezzled funds had already been transferred away, leaving their territories barely alive.

If these lords weren't under the king's authority, and the king weren't surrounded by gods, they would have fallen long ago.

Advisors can offer suggestions, but the final decision rests with the leader.

This places extremely high demands on the leader's qualities in all aspects.

The problem with the Aesir gods was that the core group of gods were almost all uncultured and rough.

The union of a pure-blooded Aesir god with a giant certainly resulted in offspring with an exceptionally powerful divine body, which undoubtedly provided a significant advantage in small-scale battles.

Human or god.

When the numbers reach a certain level, the actual combat effectiveness will be reflected in [organizational ability].

This is not an exaggeration.

Just imagine, if dozens of gods were all scheming against each other, thinking only of 'betraying their teammates' on the battlefield, and even their subordinate gods and servants had the same idea, then what would be the point of fighting?
While the Aesir themselves are powerful, now that they have accepted a large number of new gods and descended gods, how to integrate them and unleash their full fighting power is itself a very profound art of governance.

This is what surprised Enki the most.

Towns, a half-Aesir and half-giant, didn't even have a tenth of his brains, let alone his giant mother who knew nothing but fighting.

Why did Paul give birth to such a prodigy, a god-king who was both a scholar and a warrior?

Normally, every person and every deity has limitations in their wisdom and insight, and cannot transcend their divine duties, let alone a particular era.

The Aesir gods, faced with the choice of appointing people based solely on merit rather than blood ties, would certainly benefit their rule over the smaller worlds beneath them. However, this would violate the customs of the Aesir gods and would inevitably not be supported by all the established deities.

Towns has now managed to select several individuals with considerable domestic political abilities from among his own direct descendants, playing a clever trick of 'nominally bestowing titles of kings, but in reality, bureaucrats'—that's brilliant.

To counter any potential complaints from the gods, they even erected Sumerian deities as targets—a truly ingenious method of checks and balances.

If Enki weren't a victim, he would also applaud.

Of the five new kings, two were of Sumerian descent.

Although everyone knows that in the orthodox Aesir pantheon, Thor is the crown prince and Baldr is the new king, people will selectively ignore Thor and only see that Sumer has two kings.

The Celtic deities, in particular, were quite envious.

Despite Arthur's immense popularity and the heavy responsibilities entrusted to him in every major battle, he lacked sufficient foundation. Firstly, he was not of Danu's lineage; secondly, he did not possess Aesir blood, making it impossible for him to be crowned king despite not being of Aesir descent.

However, at this very moment, news suddenly came from the Silver Palace—Scáthach had given birth to a goddess for Downs.

This news would make the Celtic gods very happy.

His Majesty Downs named the goddess Bridget and declared that when Bridget came of age, she would be made Queen and ruled over Midgard.

Only Downs knew that Bridget held a significant place in Celtic mythology, being the supreme goddess worshipped by both the Briguntii and the Brigantes. She ruled not only mortals but also the gods themselves, the one who nurtured the gods, the land, the crops, and the animals. With this, the six-king system was established, and news came from the Golden Palace once again: in principle, this coronation of kings would end here. Except for the still-growing Bridget, the other princes would take up their posts ahead of schedule, serving as apprentices to govern the world in Downs' place.

They call it an "internship"!
Only by successfully navigating the internship period without causing any major trouble will one be recognized as the God-King.

This satisfied all the major factions within the Great Asgardian race.

Only the most intelligent core deities realized that almost all the gods were being manipulated by His Majesty Downs.

Towns is like the most skillful fisherman, luring the gods to bite, then loosening and releasing the line, until no fish can escape his control...

And then, that damn internship lasted a full ten years!

Only after ten years, and after Towns determines that the candidate has passed the assessment, can the formal coronation ceremony be prepared.

For gods who have virtually unlimited lifespans, ten years is nothing.

But for a ruler, ten years is enough to expose far too many problems.

Whether it's a mule or a horse, we'll find out once it's out for a spin.

You can pretend for a while, but you can't pretend for ten years.

During this process, Downs had ample time to adjust the policies of his six children, and if necessary, he could even revoke their title of God-King on the grounds of their poor governance.

Meanwhile, preparations for Towns' coronation ceremony have begun in earnest.

This is no exaggeration. Preparing for the coronation ceremony of the God Emperor would take ten years or so, and the gods really don't see any problem with that.

After all, this is an absolutely grand event, and we cannot afford to be careless in the slightest.

Various proposals were submitted, and then a "bidding" process was held, with the gods voting. Each principal god had two votes, and each minor god had one vote. The proposal with the most votes was adopted.

It should be noted that this is the ascension of the God Emperor after the ascension of six God Kings.

The ascension of the God-King cannot be too shabby. The God-King of his own lineage will certainly want to outdo the one of the other lineage, but he must also leave enough room for Downs' ascension later.

This truly troubled the gods.

The Sumerian gods were alright, as they had Enki.

The Celtics also had Arthur, who was quite intelligent.

The pure-blooded Asgardian is in trouble.

After going around in circles, Frigga and Bader were surprised to find that they had no choice but to beg Loki for help.

Correct!
Frigga's most disliked representative of the Titan lineage was Loki!
On the surface, Hela is smarter and more reliable, but unfortunately, Hela is Loki's daughter!

Frigga was already upset enough that she couldn't secure the crown prince position for Baldr. Having to beg Loki for help didn't make her happy at all.

The thought that those minor mortal gods below might be superior to her son made Frigga even more unhappy, and she finally gritted her teeth and went to find Loki.

I don't know what Frigga and Loki talked about, but for the next few days, Towns saw Loki smiling all the time, and the pure-blooded Asgardians would all fawn over Loki.

Don't even mention how smug Loki is.

(End of this chapter)