77.
77.
The night and day of passion, regrettably, did not last long.
Even though we had stayed up all night, I was overflowing with energy come dawn. We had risen early and confirmed our love for one another, and that was the end of it—the little ladies acting as Inga's attendants came bearing an armful of food and knocked on the door.
[Thudthudthudthudthudthud-!]
"The sun has risen~! The sun has risen!"
'Damn it...'
Of course, the armful they carried in their tiny fern-like hands amounted to nothing more than two cups of water and a few slices of bread, but the Priest of Hel who had led the children here looked immensely proud.
"The children are remarkably fond of the Konungr. It is proof that the Konungr is a good man."
"Hm. Thank you, Priest."
The priestess who had worked long under my mother.
She had also been my nursemaid at times, so I could not speak carelessly to her, and I saw Constantinos among the girls, which seemed to show he was getting along well. He greeted me with a bow, but his attention was entirely stolen by the girls surrounding him, his face flushed red.
He was certainly Basil's son, yet why did Michael come to mind...
Beside me, resolving that I must instill proper views on romance (?) in the lad, Inga grew curious about the commotion outside and leaned on my arm, peering out.
"Drottning Inga."
Giggle—
Watching Inga bow respectfully to the priest, who bowed her head in turn, the children started chattering once more.
These little ones seemed to laugh the moment they laid eyes on a person. While I thought it fortunate that my mother's nursery was flourishing, I simultaneously wished these troublesome... little ones would just go away. The priest, reading the expression on my face, smiled softly and spoke.
"Konungr Helgi. Drottning Inga also requires rest. And does the Konungr not have duties of his own? It would not do to keep your guests waiting overlong."
Once again, I felt that the times I was most troubled were not when facing a powerful enemy, but when someone who knew me well quietly chastised me.
At the priest's words, which contained not a single thing wrong, Inga's face reddened once more, and the weight leaning on my arm grew heavier. Thanks to that, my hormones screamed out once again, but I, having already fulfilled their demands in full, raised the hand of reason this time and soon had no choice but to nod.
"Of course. Priest. Thank you for informing me. Well then, I suppose I must prepare."
"Do so, Konungr Helgi. Pray, do not rush your preparations; we shall wait outside."
"Yes... well then..."
[Creeeak- Thud!]
In the morning sunlight, the wooden door, which looked unmistakably makeshift upon a second glance, let out a strained shriek as it closed.
"Eek~!?"
I gently lifted Inga, who was still leaning against me, and headed for the bed. After laying her down, who had let out a chipmunk-like shriek, I stole a kiss from her lips.
Unlike in a film, there was no stimulating sound effect, but regardless of that, a soft sensation, feeling as though it might burst, tickled my lips and transmitted that feeling into my brain.
The hormone army, which had at last risen in revolt, manipulated vital parts of my body as it pleased, but I was a man possessed of cool reason.
Closing my eyes, I softly brushed the face of Inga, who was smiling like a child, and soon began gathering my clothes, which were scattered everywhere, and putting them on.
[Swish- Swish-]
'Why is this inside out...?'
It seemed I had been in quite a hurry yesterday.
Perched on the edge of the bed, grunting as I put on my clothes, Inga watched me and giggled, then raised her pure white hand, which possessed terrifying strength, and softly stroked my back.
Tracing that touch upward, I stole another kiss from her lips, pressed my forehead to hers, and spoke in a soft voice.
"Rest up."
"... I have no choice but to. It's hard to even move, you know?"
"..."
With such an alluring smile, such a provocative line...
After suppressing my hormones, which had risen in another grand revolt, I gave her a nuzzle at the tip of her nose as if I couldn't be helped and then stood up.
"Will you be long?"
I heard her voice behind me just as I was about to open the door and leave. Half playful, half expectant.
"I'll be back as fast as I can, no matter what."
"I'll be waiting."
Haha!
To Inga's embarrassed and refreshing laughter, I blew a kiss on my hand and slipped out the door.
I offered an awkward silent bow to the priest, who looked at me with a warm and proud smile. She then entered the room I had just exited to see to Inga's comfort.
Though technically a priest, she was the one who had largely handled Árós's internal affairs, assisting my mother. Two maids, who had appeared I knew not when, stood waiting behind her. The real maids. Not these little ones circling around me, laughing.
"Beware of the bear~ Bear! Bear! Wanderer, maiden~ beware of the bear~"
'Where on earth did they learn a song like that...'
After punishing these little fairies by poking their puffed-up cheeks, I soon headed along the neatly maintained path toward the longhouse.
Toward the place where the Konungr's work was waiting.
*****
"Haha! The new bridegroom has arrived! Congratulations! Konungr Helgi!"
"Truly the strongest...! His complexion hasn't changed a bit...!"
"Do you mean to say he was the strongest by day and by night...! This is unfair, Odin!"
"...Thank you, thank you."
Impudently, Halfdan and Sigurdeu did not show up.
These insolent brotherly vassals of mine. How dare they skip an assembly? If this were Joseon, I would have stripped them of their offices and twisted their limbs out of joint right away.
I walked through the hall where cheers and congratulations resounded, and when I finally sat upon the throne, the lords all at once took to the chairs assigned to them.
Amid the gradual settling of the cheering during the time needed to catch my breath, a voice, courteous but forceful, opened the Great Assembly.
"I am honored to meet you like this. Konungr Helgi."
A voice possessing the power to make one's spine straighten at once.
This person's name was said to be Black King Halfdan.
His hair and beard were jet black, so I understood at once where that nickname had come from. In a Norse society teeming entirely with brown hair, I even felt a welcoming heart toward a pitch-black head of hair, which was as rare as blond. As you know, I too was famously black-haired. Moreover, the number of people lately copying my style of slicking my hair back was growing. I originally did not grow out my mustache separately, but because Inga liked facial hair, I had been growing it for the past two weeks. For reference, Inga personally trims my hair and beard.
"Rumors do not do you half justice. Konungr Helgi. Seeing you in person like this, your majesty is yet more overwhelming."
The person who added his words from the opposite side of Black King was named Bagsecg. The father-in-law of my brother Halfdan and the Konungr who had become a powerful ally to our house through this marriage. The west and south of Roskilde could practically be considered his domain.
Seeing these two kings speak first, it indeed seemed that this society of warriors had a tendency to be even more closed-off. Though outwardly it appeared free and unrestrained, in truth there was an order to all things, and that order generally varied according to the degree of one's majesty and the respect commanded.
I glanced at the Lawmen seated in the corner of the space, each of them recording the conversations flowing back and forth here onto wooden tablets or parchment according to my instructions, and then answered the two Konungrs' praise.
"The honor is mine, rather. Konungr Halfdan. Konungr Bagsecg. To think I could meet such lofty names I have heard since childhood in person like this. I offer infinite thanks for celebrating the marriages of myself and my brothers."
As I gave each of them a light bow of the head, satisfied smiles came in return. These things were what mattered. Especially when every Jarl was watching the situation with keen attention, it was important to uphold one another's standing.
Now it would simply be a matter of exchanging pleasantries, killing some time, and then departing.
That was how it should have gone... it definitely should have gone that way.
The assembly of the Norse lords began to unfold in the exact opposite direction of what I wished.
The start of it was none other than Ivar Ragnarsson.
No sooner had the amicable greetings between the two Konungrs and myself concluded than Ivar rose to his feet with a broad laugh, as if signaling that the real game had begun. With eyes blazing bright, he swept his gaze across the hall and opened his mouth.
"Three Konungrs! And esteemed Jarls. I, Ivar Ragnarsson, have risen in this place to celebrate the marriages of my brothers and to discuss our future."
Given the nature of the occasion, Ivar was using far more refined language than usual, but that distinctive raw edge of his had not disappeared.
Thanks to this Norse warrior who simply did not know how to speak in roundabout ways, a strange silence hung over the hall, and Ivar slowly turned in place as though savoring that atmosphere, checking the expressions of the people around him.
'What's he going to spout now...'
As the crease between my brows deepened, his unrestrained remarks continued without pause.
"If there is truly anyone among the many Jarls gathered here who is seated in this place solely to celebrate Konungr Helgi's marriage, please raise your hand."
At those words, the Jarls began to eye one another. A few of the minor lords seated in the back started to raise their hands, only to use them to scratch the back of their heads or groom their beards instead, seemingly conscious of the looks around them.
It was a highly comical sight, but no one paid it any mind. They were all simply sinking deeper into Ivar's words.
"Among all of you here, there were surely some who half-doubted Konungr Helgi's renown and the feats that have already become the songs of bards. However, you have all now seen the split boulder at Uppsala. You have all seen Helgi Ragnarsson with your own two eyes."
Ivar grinned as he pointed at me. Following that gesture, the eyes of every lord seated there converged upon me, but I did not feel even an ounce of pressure. I was merely curious as to what my second brother was doing this for.
For among that multitude of gazes, one particularly familiar look was quietly telling me to stay still.
I could see an earnestness in Ubba's eyes as he subtly shook his head left and right.
'So the two of you were huddled together out west, scheming something.'
If Ubba, who had a sinister streak, and Ivar, who was simply a sinister person by nature, had put their heads together, it could be nothing harmless to me. Now there was nothing left but to watch and see, but I had a strong intuition that something deeply troublesome was about to unfold.
"In truth, you would all have known it even before then. This absurd, unprecedented growth of Árós. The babies who do not die. It has now been five years, ten years, since Helgi and High Priestess Asta settled here. Where else in the world exists a land that can surpass this place now?"
At this point, the expressions of the Black King Halfdan and Bagsecg clouded slightly. It was true, after all, that many people from the west and south were migrating to Árós as well. But it was not something I needed to feel sorry toward them about. Who would not wish to live better?
"So, how about we all make up our minds? Is it not perhaps time that the scattered people of our North stand beneath a single banner—that is what I am asking."
[Thud—!]
Not a sound had been heard, but no sooner had Ivar's rousing words ended than a colossal bell seemed to drop inside everyone's heart.
Jarls swiveled their heads back and forth between Ivar and me with intense stares. Even those who had not yet sobered up and could barely keep their wits were asking the person beside them what they had just heard.
While light flickered in the eyes of Bagsecg and the Black King Halfdan, Ivar, standing at the center of that attention, was grinning broadly, arms spread wide, looking only at me.
'Ah—'
Ah.
This... crazy bastard.
I had thought that with that trouble-making Sigurd gone, things might pass a bit more peacefully, but then Ivar had to go and detonate an atomic bomb.
*****
'Good lord.'
Björn had been skeptical of this morning assembly from the start.
He himself had spent a honeymoon before, and the reality was that the groom and bride usually could not even rise the next day. It had been strange from the beginning when Ivar, who certainly knew this as well, had thrown a fit of stubbornness unlike his usual self and fiercely insisted that they absolutely must hold this assembly.
Thanks to that, his hangover from drinking until dawn the night before had vanished in an instant.
Of course, in the midst of that, his own Konungr Helgi, who showed no difference from his usual self despite it being his first day of marriage, was impressive, but...
Seeing Helgi's face, looking as though his mind had been blasted out of him by Ivar's surprise attack, was both pitiful and funny.
'What a stroke of luck that I retired.'
Though he was still being bossed around by his younger brothers, Björn, whose mind at least was at ease, abruptly felt a prodding at his side.
"Hey, Björn. Did you know about this?"
"...What are you talking about, Hásteinn? Do you not remember drinking with me until dawn yesterday?"
"If it was a scheme to trick me, I must congratulate you on a splendid success."
"...Stop talking nonsense."
"Nonsense? Was it more nonsensical than what I just heard a moment ago?"
That was true enough.
Björn had known that Ubba and Ivar were plotting something. People said that Ivar resembled their father Ragnar the most, but that was only in his appearance and his way of fighting.
If anything, the minds of Ivar and Ubba... had more in common with their grandfather.
It seemed the image of that man, brimming with ambition and fighting spirit, flickered dimly before his eyes once more.
"...The problem, however, is that this nonsense sounded plausible. Have I drunk too much? Björn? Or have I gone mad?"
"You were already mad to begin with; if you have gone one step madder than that, then you have finally returned to sanity."
"Ha! That is a relief."
The funny thing was, just as Hásteinn said, this ludicrous and preposterous idea did indeed sound plausible.
Just look at the murmuring and the expressions of the Jarls right now. Not a single one of them was angry.
And these were the very men who were defiance incarnate.
'It is certainly a mad business.'
Not to mention the Black King Halfdan and Bagsecg; seeing the deep crease carved into Helgi's brow, Björn could only let out a hollow laugh.
'It is a mad business...'
They had sat him in that seat, extolling him as the Konungr of all Norsemen, and now, was he not about to truly become that?
Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing for him, Björn could not well say, but he felt the fiercely blowing wind of change.