Looking at the unusually irritable Schiller, Loki did not get angry. He smiled, sat down, placed the briefcase on his lap, and said, "Did neither of the two plans I gave you work?"
"Not just the two plans you gave me. The Sanctum Sanctorum held two meetings yesterday and came up with more than a dozen sales pitches. They only showed interest in two of them, and neither deal went through in the end."
Schiller covered one eye with his palm and sighed. "This is the most difficult client I've ever dealt with."
Loki sat down and patted Schiller's shoulder. "Hang in there. It's only one deal, anyway. Once it's done, I'll take you to soak in the hot springs beneath the World Tree."
Schiller took a deep breath and said, "Fortunately, they gave me a ready-made excuse to stay here and sleep all day. Otherwise, if I had to work at S.H.I.E.L.D. during the day and do sales pitches in my dreams at night, I'd be worked to death."
"But it looks like they might have misunderstood something..." Loki looked up at the door Steve had left through. Schiller shook his head, dispelling the drowsiness of having just woken from a dream, and said, "Who cares? Once I close this deal with Death, they'll forget all about it a few days after I'm discharged..."
Loki opened his mouth, looking as though he wanted to say something but stopped himself. He wanted to point out that the serious expression on Steve's face before he left did not look like something that would be forgotten in a few days. But seeing Schiller's irritation from being repeatedly rejected in his sales pitches, he ultimately said nothing.
"...Are you really all right?" After hesitating for a long time, Loki finally asked.
Because Schiller's