Chapter 161 Reidar, The Pacifist
Reidar was unbothered by his current situation, he was on a different level than these people and Tyr might have overestimated his ability in this situation.
"I do not know why you have turned your sword against Birger but I am willing to look the other way if you all leave Kattegat. Enough blood has been spilled today," Reidar said, he did not try to unsheathe his blade and genuinely tried to have a dialogue.
"Where are Birger and my mother?" Tyr asked, and Reidar looked surprised by his request as one would think he would be interested in Liv, she was right there after all but he welcomed Tyr's lack of interest as it meant he was more open to accepting dialogue.
"Queen Lagertha is…." Reidar said, pausing as he pointed in the direction he just came from.
".... there but you better hurry," Reidar, who had continued his march forward, had said.
"What do you mean…" Tyr asked but all Reidar did was smile.
"No one can fool Birger…." Reidar was cryptic, something Tyr could not decipher at that moment but he did not need to.
Liv's eyes looked like they begged to be saved but Tyr did not even acknowledge her existence, he was certain that Reidar would resist and was surprised that he was this cooperative.
But this decision did not go unnoticed by the people under him, should Liv not be their priority?
Reidar walked past Tyr, with the men carrying Liv following suit and Tyr going in the opposite direction to where his mother was said to be.
"They are alone…" Reidar offered one final clue and the kid in his path was overwhelmed by the gore and carnage that came with Tyr's appearance. He stumbled to the ground, he did not have the stomach for it.
"Um… Tyr, should we not save Queen Liv?" A man asked.
"Kattegat is in this state because of her incompetence, she is not my responsibility. She had never been, I am going after my mother. If you wish to follow me, you are free but if you do not want to, you may go after Liv…." Tyr said in a seemingly indifferent tone but his aura changed suddenly as these words left his lips.
"If anything happens to my mother…. I won't be as understanding as I am now with you," Tyr said but the moment he said this, he stumbled to the ground.
The recoil of pushing his body resulted in fatigue, he could not even stand up straight without his legs shaking, he need to rest and this was a good enough time to do so.
Tyr knew he needed his strength and he was just moving on willpower at this point but there was only so much his body could do in this state.
"You need to rest, you have not rested since coming back to Kattegat," The man said, they had gathered vital information regarding Lagertha but they lacked the strength to act on it.
And no one knew how accurate this information was, to begin with, no one knew who Reidar was but for some reason, they knew his words were not lies.
Tyr was carried away by his men and they disappeared from the streets of Kattegat.
-
Ulrik regained consciousness, he found himself close to Herfjötur and Karl, who was still unconscious. To his left, he saw Bjorn injured, the injury looked a lot worse than it was but Ulrik was dazed. He did not know what happened but he knew they had been moved.
Bjorn had managed to knock out the people transporting them within a minute and back up his brother. He had circled the house to intercept them but this set of individuals were bound because they retained their loyalty to Brynjar and were visibly distraught by his death.
They were not exposed to Bjorn's selfless sacrifice nor the speech by the brothers so in their eyes, these were the enemies.
"What the fuck happened!?" Ulrik was confused, dazed as he had hazy recollections of what happened, the last he could remember was being in a burning building.
"The sons of Ragnar saved you," The man said and Ulrik could not believe that children came to their rescue. Herfjötur regained consciousness soon after and the first thing she saw was the corpse of the man she had fought earlier.
She was surprised, she wondered if they turned on him and killed him but this was the least of her worries, she wondered why they turned around and killed him.
"Why?" Herfjötur asked, holding her head in her hands.
"Why did you kill him?" Herfjötur sought to feed her curiosity, she wanted to know the reason for their betrayal.
"We? We did nothing, it was the sons of Ragnar," The man standing over her said and Herfjötur's face portrayed her disbelief, she darted her head left and right to search for these boys but her eyes met the wounded Bjorn.
"T-That is impossible!" Herfjötur muttered but no one could blame her for her skepticism as she was not aware of the development that these boys underwent away from Kattegat.
Brynjar was a smart fighter, she also noticed the tactic he used against Karl, he did not confront him one on one, he had injured him first.
Herfjötur was certain he underestimated the children of Ragnar but this did not take credit away from their feat.
"We are out in the open…. We need to retreat…" Herfjötur said, getting to her feet and taking command of these men.
"I have just the place to go," Ulrik muttered, and this drew an end to their participation in the recapture of Kattegat for that day as Bjorn alongside Karl were carried gently as they retreated.
But while they were packing up and covering their tracks, Linnea could pick up on any clue or trail left behind and they had to be thorough. Tyr was exhausted and Herfjötur instinctively knew why, this boy had been fighting non-stop with such a frail body and the recoil was sure to take its toll even though Tyr looked a lot better than he did a few months back.