BXBX NOVEL Chapter 379 Who Is Reider? PT. 1
"It is a boy!" A lady said, raising the baby high and the mother was far too exhausted to speak.
She couldn't speak because childbirth had taken a lot from her.
The baby's cry echoed and this seemed to worry the mother even though the crying of a baby was considered a good thing, even a necessary thing
The lady with the baby in hand noticed the mother's worry and tried to make the baby quiet.
Voices outside could be heard talking, and the mother's face turned to one of panic.
She had given birth in the middle of an enemy's raid, this was the worst-case scenario for anyone and the woman's panic only increased the moment they heard people running in their direction.
"G-Go," The lady that just given birth used her last strength to command the lady with the baby, she knew what would happen to the bedridden lady if she left
Vikings were cruel and these particular warriors were especially known for that.
She left the tent but not before doing one final thing.
A few minutes passed and she was running through the woods, she was being chased by two Vikings to be exact, and arrows flew past her.
She knew she could not keep it up because these men were fast and were gaining in on her.
They also knew she had a baby so there was no escape, they would kill her and the baby if they caught up and this was something she couldn't afford.
An arrow soon found her lower back but the woman powered through the pain with sheer resolve and kept up her pace, the adrenaline pumping through her veins as this was her last act. Fight or flight, she chose flight because she could not fight and defend the baby.
The men had put up resistance but they could not hold out for long and the fact that they held out for as long as they did was impressive.
She needed to save the baby because this was just a baby that was yet to even live life but another arrow found the back of her head, dropping her.
Her lifeless body hit the ground head first, this was an instant kill and the men gathered around her corpse, they looked excited about their kill.
"Hey! I will go first!" One of the men nudged the other as he unfastened his trousers but the other one protested, he wanted to go first.
These men wanted to have sex with the recently deceased body, her body was still warm so they had no problems doing this.
But a muffled cry rang out beneath the lady, and then the men remembered that there was a baby.
They wanted to kill it and proceed with violating the corpse of this woman but a stern voice rang out behind them.
"Stop!" The voice was commanding enough to make these two degenerates panic as he walked slowly in their direction.
They immediately stood at ease as a frightening man came into view, he had no nose implying he had lost it in battle and made no effort to hide this deformity.
The man arrived at the tent where the birth was and met the woman dead already as the woman with her baby had killed her before fleeing but he recognized her, she was not a lowborn and held quite the reputation.
He gave chase the moment he realized what had happened because he knew how depraved his men were and the baby would most certainly die.
He was not going to allow this because this baby had the blood of someone renowned.
This man was Eiríkr and he had an imposing figure. He walked to the baby covered in blood.
The baby stopped crying the moment it saw him and smiled instead.
This surprised Eiríkr because he was used to disgusted looks because of his face yet this baby was smiling at him.
He shoved the two warriors aside and grabbed the baby, who kept smiling.
He did not say a word to the warriors and turned around to leave.
They did not care that the baby got to live because now they were alone with the corpse.
They stripped it naked and the bulge in their trousers was noticeable as they proceeded to violate it.
-
A few years passed ever since this massacre and the baby grew to recognize these people as his family. He called the man father and adopted their way of life which was not much different from the one he would have had if his mother lived.
The boy was approximately six years old when the men of this little tribe bit on something more than they could chew and that was an assassination attempt on King Xenophanes of Kattegat.
Xenophanes showed them why he was King and effortlessly killed his attackers before the rest retreated.
King Xenopahes, however, chose to chase them down in a rare form of cruelty because he recognized their crest. The boy hid and did not dare come out when the attack on his settlement began.
The people were slaughtered but he watched King Xenopahes discuss with the man he called father but his distance did not let him hear anything.
Ultimately, the man was cut down by Xenophanes after pleading and this was when the boy lost his cool and charged at King Xenophanes with a sword in hand.
A Viking stood in his way, prompting the child to bump into him and fall on his ass.
The Viking was about to cut him down but once again, the man that was about to take this child's life was stopped by someone of higher authority.
King Xenophanes unmounted his horse and walked towards the grounded child.
He anxiously reached for his sword and Xenophanes gestured for them to stay their hand.
The Vikings around were on guard because they knew one mistake was all it took for even the greatest of warriors to fall.
King Xenophanes crouched and the boy gulped, he thought that he would be sold into slavery and even he had heard tales about how slaves were treated.
He turned his dagger on himself but Xonphanes just watched, he had no intentions of stopping him because taking one's life to preserve their honour required an iron-clad resolve.
Xenophanes wanted to see if this child had it so he allowed him to choose how he died.
The child gulped but he dropped the knife, he did not have the resolve and Xenophanes looked somewhat disappointed even though he was a kid and the fact that he even considered ending his life was as extreme as he got.
He began to sob, his eyes looking at the man he referred to as his father and Xenophanes followed his eyes before getting to his feet.
"I see…" Xenophanes realized he had just taken someone important from him but this was the world they lived in.
Kill by the sword, and die by it. There was no other way and the boy was taken in as a captive.
It would have been a lot easier to kill him because a man that craved vengeance was a man that would have the resolve for power.
This boy pleaded not to be sold into slavery but Xenophanes had no interest in doing this.
He was a child and should be given a chance at life and this was where his alliance with Asmund came in handy.
The boy was sent to Vestfold for Asmund to incorporate as a citizen, Asmund made him a worker because according to Xenophanes, he wanted him to live a life as normal as possible.
Birger, however, had other plans. Birger used his status as Asmund's brother to gain the impressionable child's trust and painted him in whatever colour he desired.
Birger began to feed him his extreme ideology but these ideologies were not against his brother nor Xenophanes but his enemies in general.
Birger had a belief that only extremists would stand to the end and burn their Kingdom down before they let the enemy have it. This was his belief.
"You are a strange child. You have flexibility that surpasses even mine," Birger praised him and it was because of this flexibility that he helped him develop a fighting style unique to himself.
"T-Thank you," The child was glad to hear this compliment from such a great man and over time, Birger kept feeding him more compliments until it was only Birger's validation he sought.
Xenophanes met with Amsund soon after in person.
"What do you think you are doing Xenophanes!?" Asmund was livid because he did not know where this child came from but he knew that Xenophanes must have had his reason.
This was why he helped him first before questioning.
"I can explain Asmund," Xenophanes said and the fact that his playful attitude was absent showed Asmund that he took this seriously.
Xenophanes went into details and Asmund listened carefully.
"Go on," Asmund said, calming himself in the process.
"Here is what happened…"