65.
65.
[Heung! Heung! Keung-keung- heung! heung!]
The snorting reindeer were smaller than I had expected. The massive specimens I'd seen in documentaries must be difficult to domesticate.
The beasts, which came up to about an ordinary person's waist, looked sturdy enough, but they made it abundantly clear why they had never replaced the horse.
They felt a bit more like... donkeys than horses.
But these animals were not what mattered at this precise moment.
"It is an honor to meet you, Konungr Helgi Ragnarsson. My name is Eret. I travel between the lands of the Sámi and the lands of the Konungr, procuring and selling necessary goods..."
The man who introduced himself as Eret was a Sámi man entering middle age.
Built a little differently than us, with a somewhat smaller frame, and clad entirely in furs so that only his face stood out distinctly.
But gradually, I lost my attention for his voice, his appearance, and all other things surrounding me, my gaze utterly stolen and fixed upon one place alone.
"This is my daughter, Inga."
Iiiip- niii- deuaaah-
When my transcendent sixth sense concentrated entirely on a single sense—sight—time itself seemed to slow around me.
A being that made me forget smell, hearing, and touch, asserting only a searingly intense visual presence upon my mind.
Standing beside a reindeer that snorted like an ox, the hair of the woman stroking its nape with her pale fingers was the gold of a late-summer wheat field.
Blonde hair that seemed to scatter blazing life all around it just by standing there. The features set beyond it were arranged in an intricately exquisite, almost miraculous distribution that delivered extreme pleasure to my advanced eyesight.
'Pleasure? Can this even be called pleasure?'
No, perhaps gratitude was the better word...?
The mind I'd been so confident would never waver in any situation seemed ready to scatter to the winds, and the sensations of my entire body, starting with my heart, slowly began to raise my physical temperature as if on the eve of battle.
I had never enjoyed things like boyhood comics, nor believed in romance films.
Yet there was a phrase for this state I was in.
"It is an honor to meet you, Konungr Helgi. My name is Inga."
Below her rounded nose, the sight of her red lips parting, revealing white teeth and the red tongue moving within, filled my entire field of view.
The voice that flowed from her throat was soft, and at the same time, trembling slightly.
"It is a pleasure to meet you like this, Inga. And..."
What was this person's name again.
"It's Eret, Konungr."
"Forgive my discourtesy, Eret. It is a pleasure to meet you."
"Hm-mm?"
At my mistake, a rare sight, a puzzled interjection drifted in from Björn, who was standing behind me like an escort.
When I glanced aside, my brother's eyebrows were bent in an inverted V, and the moment our eyes met, a trace of amusement began to spread across his face—a look exactly like the one he wore right before teasing Ivar and Hrólfr.
"What beautiful reindeer, Inga."
"Yes... pardon? Thank you, Konungr Helgi."
Oh dear, I meant to ask Eret, and instead I ended up asking Inga. Inga. I-N-G-A. A gentle name.
"Ah... my daughter and I run a small reindeer farm, my Konungr. If the Konungr wishes, I shall offer you several reindeer at any time."
Björn, who was beginning to laugh silently at my strange behavior, and Eret, who had begun to break out in a cold sweat.
But those two drab men had long since vanished from my sphere of interest.
I barely managed to detach my optic nerves from Inga, who bowed her head to hide cheeks slightly flushed from my question, and promptly invited the awkwardly standing Eret to proceed to the longhouse.
"Your words alone lift my spirits, Eret. Let us proceed to my longhouse together; it seems we should discuss the details there."
"Thank you, Konungr!"
"Thank you, Konungr."
[Heung- heung-! Keung-! Heung-!]
Displeased with the chattering of the humans who merely stood still, two reindeer noisily snorted, and suppressing the gaze that kept drifting to Inga's fingers as she soothed them, I turned my back first and headed for the longhouse.
*****
Did the flesh dominate the spirit? Or did the spirit dominate the flesh?
In truth, this was a foolish question. If the mind was generally the work handled by the brain, and the brain was itself part of the body, then the spirit was the flesh, and the flesh was the spirit.
Thus, it was an entirely natural outcome that my spirit, housed in a hot-blooded, nineteen-year-old body, kept gravitating toward Inga.
"—And so, on our way back after concluding our business as usual, suddenly the very world seemed to split in two with a sound, and the dark night sky grew bright as broad daylight...! My daughter and I swiftly hid ourselves with the reindeer beside the nearest trees, but the phenomenon, as if incessant thunder and lightning were raging, would not end...! Rather, it intensified...! May Hel protect us...!"
Perhaps because his tense body had been sufficiently calmed by the mead, Eret's tale of his night's adventure, which he launched into in earnest, was gripping enough, but I was paying it only half a mind, distracted by something far more interesting than any mere story.
Of course, everyone except me—Björn, Refil, Strolf, Leon, even my mother—seemed utterly captivated by this man, whose talent as a bard overflowed, but... Halfdan, who had already departed for Roskilde to see his own prospective bride, was not present here.
'A tremendous relief; I could easily have been the target of two brothers' teasing.'
Pleased by the audience's rapt attention fixed on him, Eret hastily wet his throat and continued his story.
"Even while Thor ceaselessly struck down with his hammer, my daughter and I did not lose courage, but silently watched the spectacle...!"
"..."
At this part, Inga's soft eyes, framed by her impressively long lashes, narrowed slightly, but Eret paid no heed whatsoever.
"And then, like a hundred reindeer crying out at once, a shrill scream of [Eeeeeek—!] rang out, and then... KUNG—!"
"Hup!"
Eret, modulating the tempo of his tale, presented a gesture at the climax as if something was bursting between both hands. Strolf, more absorbed in the story than anyone, swallowed a dry gulp, and Eret's lowered voice, relieving the heightened atmosphere, adorned the finale of his story.
"That phenomenon, as if it had stained the entire night white, vanished in an instant with a dull sound...! At the same time, not even the birds cried in that vicinity, and no shadow of any winged beast could be seen. The world held its breath in silence, and even my daughter, I, and our two loyal reindeer were gripped by terror...! But I had to move. I had to protect my daughter and the two reindeer."
"..."
Now, Inga's gaze had gone beyond narrowing and turned decidedly cold, but still, Eret paid no mind at all.
"Cautiously, I traversed the scorched ground on all sides and approached. A foul odor and heat enveloped me, but a man of the Sámi does not give up easily! At last, the moment I peered into the great pit through the rising smoke, I was able to discover it."
A star that fell from the sky...!"
"Ooooooh—! O Hel...!"
"Seutorolpeu, where in the world did you direct your ears while the Konungr spoke over this past week? This is something governed solely by the laws of nature, bearing no relation whatsoever to the old gods."
"...That is only a manner of speaking, Jarl Refil...! Had Hel not watched over us, might it not have fallen upon Árós instead?"
"That is true."
'A star that fell from the sky... was this ore?'
Whether its composition was stone or iron would be the crucial point... The thought flashed through my mind that the object brought before me by the Sámi reindeer merchant might hold even greater value than I had supposed.
Refil, faithful to principle, and Seutorolpeu, faithful to instinct, had at some point become a bickering double act, a comedic duo. As their time of entry into service was similar, they seemed to have become friendly rivals of a sort.
I silenced their squabbling and spoke to Eret, to satisfy my own curiosity.
"Valiant Eret of the Sámi, might I now behold this fallen star?"
Whether from pride at being acknowledged by a king of such renown, Eret rose with a snort, his bearing full of confidence.
"Of course! Konungr! My two faithful reindeer hauled it here with all their strength...! I shall guide you to it at once!"
"My thanks, Eret."
"This way..."
Soon, every person in the hall followed behind Eret, moving toward the sledge he had brought.
*****
Today too, winter claimed a victory. What did it matter if the waterways froze over a little? It had scattered the snow that guided such a beautiful treasure into my hands.
Had the environment not been fit for a sledge to run, a reindeer sledge would have had no cause to travel, and had that not happened, I would never have met Inga.
And now, this meteoric iron before my eyes was no different.
"Oh—"
"This... is a star...? Are the stars hung in the sky all this ugly...? It does not even shine?"
'Hm? Seutorolpeu capable of that level of insight?'
"Ahem—! Ahem! Is this not precisely what the Konungr spoke of—shattering superstition through reason!"
"Oh—"
When I stared at Seutorolpeu with surprised eyes for his uncharacteristically rational deduction, he looked abashed, coughed dryly, and shrugged his shoulders.
Yet those who heard Seutorolpeu's words wore expressions of unmistakable disappointment.
"All this time, I thought stars would be a bit more... a bit more splendid and glittering."
Even setting aside Björn, who seemed unexpectedly the most disappointed of them all, most wore the look of men whose childhood dreams had collided with the cold wall of reality.
I, however, knew well that the value of this meteoric iron was not something to be so steeped in disappointment.
'Let me take a closer look...'
Drawing nearer, I saw that the object, still retaining some warmth, was an overall dark gray and bore a smooth sheen.
The smell—a faint sulfurous odor akin to rotten eggs—wafted from it, and here and there, a deep green luster seemed to flow across its surface depending on the angle.
'Wasn't this... the sort of thing they made weapons from?'
In my memory as a Romance of the Three Kingdoms devotee, the blade Cao Cao used when he attempted to assassinate Dong Zhuo was said to be made of meteoric iron, a treasure beyond price... Though that was the romance, of course. A treasure that never rusted and could cleave even the finest steel.
I hardly expected anything out of a manhwa or novel; even if it only yielded armaments sturdy enough to withstand my strength, Eret would receive immense gratitude. He had already scored highly simply by seeking me out the moment he discovered the meteorite.
"—According to the words of Konungr Helgi, that too is ultimately drawn by the force with which this world we live in pulls—"
"—Indeed, in the end, the burning smell and the scorched marks lingering upon it—might they not be the traces of a battle against something...! It is the blessing of what the Konungr called 'air' that shields us...! O ever-waking one, O Hel, illuminate the darkness...!"
While the priests, who delighted in imparting meaning to any phenomenon, and Leon, who by nature loved to explore the unknown and elucidate logic, fell into whispered accord, I spoke to Eret.
"Honorable Eret, herder of reindeer. You may not know this, but as I see it, the worth of this meteoric iron is no different from its weight in gold. I shall pay a price to match it, and should you desire anything more, pray tell me."
My weighty voice overrode every other sound in the chamber, and when the eyes of those who had been somewhat disappointed grew wide as lanterns and turned once more to examine the meteorite—
Eret, equally startled, waved both arms at me.
"What words are these...! Konungr Helgi. Though my daughter and I are not people of plenty, and though ours is but a humble household that tends to reindeer herds, we are not the sort to offer something to the Konungr in expectation of payment...!
If there is one truth I have learned in all my years of living, it is that everything in this world has its fitting master. I brought this to the Konungr without knowing whether it was a precious thing or a harmful one, so if you would but grant me a little grain to feed my reindeer as wages for that labor, it would be enough.
The rest belongs to the one who recognized the thing's worth."
"Huh—"
"Eret, you are a most honorable Sámi indeed."
At Eret's words, which were rough-hewn yet brimming with wisdom, all of us, myself included, let out exclamations of admiration and looked upon him with eyes of respect.
'They said he was a merchant, but he is a man who well understands the art of gaining by not grasping.'
At such reactions from the people, Eret—who seemed, unlike when he had been spinning tales in high spirits, to feel a touch of embarrassment—waved his hands in dismissal and declared that he and his daughter would now take their leave, having delivered the object into its owner's hands...
Unexpectedly, the one who stopped him was his daughter, the beautiful Inga.
"Father, the reindeer must be very tired as well—would it not be good to rest from the journey for a few more days...?"
"Hm? What do you mean? If anything, we should leave now if we are to—"
[Huff! Huff! Snort! Huff-huff!]
[Huff! Huff-huff-huff!]
At Inga's words, two reindeer and one father rose up as one in revolt.
"I said, let us rest from the journey a little before going...?"
"Ah, yes... They do seem a bit tired at that...!"
[Huff— Huff—]
[Snort]
Yet the expressions of the two animals and the one human who looked upon Inga as she subtly turned her back to me shifted in an instant from puzzlement to something akin to terror.
Turning back to me, Inga spoke with a smiling face.
"It seems we must impose upon your hospitality for a few days... I worry it may be too great an inconvenience. Konungr Helgi."
How was it that even her voice could be so beautiful.
"Of course, Inga. The doors of my home shall ever be open to you."
I too smiled gently.
A warm breeze blew from somewhere, passing between the two of us, and neither of us paid the slightest mind to the ever-shifting expressions of those who encircled us.
It was spring.