“Papa, Einar!”

All the orphaned children screamed who, using their little feet, ran towards Einar.

Einar smiled at his two wives and his mother, who understood what he wanted to do, so they parted ways with Einar.

In doing this the little children took advantage and pounced on Einar, who almost immediately dropped one knee to the ground and hugged them.

Laura, who had been fortunate to be among the first children to jump, rested her small head on Einar’s shoulder.

With tears and some snot, she cries with joy, “Papa Einar, I …

I am very happy that you have returned; we miss you so much. ”

Einar ruffled Laura’s hair and with a face of joy he looks at her “Thank you for waiting for me Laura, but I’ve already returned”

After saying these words, Einar took it upon himself to hug the thirty little orphaned children, whom he had taken care of months before.

Many of the children, unable to contain their emotion, cried inconsolably, so Einar took some time to reassure them and with the help of Aila.

She arranged for the children to do some little chores for the festival that would take place in the afternoon.

When he finished organizing the children, Max walked over to his mother and gave her a big hug.

Elin, who was happy to see that her son had become a warrior, proudly and tenderly brought her fingers to her son’s forehead.

“Einar, what you have achieved is something that even your grandfather did not try, but my son.

It’s okay to be reckless, but you shouldn’t be stupid, try to avoid situations that put you in danger.

For even though you are Odin’s herald, I don’t want to have to bury my son. ”

The attitude of his mother surprised Max, so he told her how the fight with the white bear had happened.

Elin who heard Einar’s story only showed different faces because of the significant amount of feelings that the story provoked.

When Einar finished, Elin knew her son was just unlucky and hadn’t done something stupid, so she kissed him on the forehead

“Einar, there are many things to say to you, but first I must see your father, besides Kassia, and Helmi should want to spend time with you.”

When she finished speaking, Elin left her son and walked towards the warehouse where Sven was. For his part, Einar went to where his wives were waiting

Upon arrival, he took them by the waist and gave them a big kiss to later start talking as they walked to the tent that served as an infirmary.

Because Kassia wanted to check Einar completely, wanted to make sure he didn’t have any problems.

In the infirmary, Kassia, who was next to Einar, used her finger to carefully touch Einar’s forehead wound.

“It is a blessing that you could survive the attack of that white bear, Einar, please promise me you will not do such risky things again.

If something happens to you … ”

Max caressed Kassia’s cheek and gave her a loving look “I promise I’ll be careful next time.

I want to know what you think of the way I treated the wound; I have been taking care of it the best I could and at the moment I do not see any trace of pus or anything that shows that it is infected. ”

Kassia gave Max a smile and from the table took an earthenware jug containing small pieces of cloth dipped in alcohol.

“The way you cooked the wound completely fascinated me.

However…”

Kassia carefully cleaned some areas of the wound which had dirt.

“Even though you have been taking good care of your stitches, you have neglected some small areas where dirt has accumulated.

Although I understand that it must be a bit difficult to maintain hygiene in the middle of a snowy wasteland and with the threat of being attacked by white bears.

Either way, starting today, I will take care of you so you can be sure that none of your scars will get infected. ”

Helmi, who was next to Einar, also took a piece of cloth from that clay jug, and following the same example of Kassia cleaned the wounds on Einar’s hand.

Einar felt a bit of pain when the fingers of his handcuffs slowly tightened all his scars.

With which he felt so comfortable that he ended up closing his eyes and almost unconsciously fell asleep.

At that moment Felipa, who was cleaning some minor wounds of one warrior, could only see how her mother and Helmi tenderly pampered Einar.

This caused her to give a little laugh as she turned around so she could look at Peder.

“Don’t you think it’s kind of funny to see my mother like that?”

Peder scratched his chin “It’s too great a contrast to the attitude your mother used to have a few months ago.

Although I would be more curious to know, what do you think of your next brother or sister who will be born in the next few months ”

Felipa was silent for a few seconds and looked back at her mother as she tried to think about the question Peder had asked her.

‘Why did you have to ask something so complicated, Peder.

I am happy to see my mother happy and I am even excited to see her behave as she was when I was a little girl.

But it causes me a bit of conflict to see her with Einar, who is 19 years younger than her, although maybe it’s just jealousy. ‘

Felipa sighed and stretched her hands to later give Peder a serious look. “I really don’t know how to answer the question you asked me, but I’m sure it’s independent if it’s brother or sister.

I will take care of him with all my strength, as he will be another member of my family. ”

Peder smiled because of Felipa’s words, however, his smile did not last long because when he felt a hand on his shoulder his smile faded.

“Peder, I’m glad you’re having a good time, but I need you to help my father-in-law Asgot.

It seems that it requires some extra hands to create the runestone that recounts our exploits on the expedition. ”

With some fear, he turned around and nodded at Sven’s words, so without wasting time he left the makeshift tent to where Asgot was.

“I hope you didn’t mind me sending Peder to help Asgot.”

Felipa shook her head “There is no problem, Jarl Sven, taking advantage of being in this place.

I would like to ask you if you still have any beer mugs in your possession, as we will need a little more to be able to make alcohol. ”

Sven stroked his beard and walked to the outside of the tent where he could see Aila who was organizing the children while helping out as much as they could.

“Aila, can you come please?”

Aila who listened to Jarl Sven gave a few words to the children and after that, she ran to where Sven was.

“How can I help you, Jarl.”

“I would like you to send the two monks to fetch four kegs of beer and bring them with Felipa.

I also want you to tell them that one of them will have to come to see me at the warehouse because I need you to support us with the writing while we distribute the loot among the warriors and their families. ”

Aila nodded and headed over to where the city walls were being built, as that was where Duncan and Angus were serving as foremen.

Duncan, who was sitting, held his nose as he looked at the numbers he had written.

“Angus, you must check the amount of cement the slaves are spending. In just one week we have gone over our quota of cement carts by three.

We have to be careful because if Einar or Jarl Sven give us an audit we might end up being punished and I remind you that that means being in a completely dark room.

Where we will hardly receive food and they will deprive us of our ability to pray to God in the morning. ”

Angus just sighed and pointed towards a small unevenness “That damn unevenness can explain the three wheelbarrows.

If we do not reinforce that place, the wall could collapse, but I accept that I forget to write it in the week’s report.

As for the punishment, I think we will only need to abandon our beliefs in order to get our freedom. Remember that it was a promise from Einar. ”

Duncan looked seriously and slightly annoyed at Angus “You can’t be serious!

You know that the monastery gave us everything when our village turned its back on us, you must very well remember that if we turn our back on God.

Our only result will be to remain for all eternity in bloody hell, where our souls will burn and we will be remembered as traitors! ”

Angus shook his head and turned his head to the sky “Duncan if only you had heard the gospel according to Judas that Einar personally told us.

Perhaps you would have a completely different perception, what you call hell is just an absurd creation of the church.

Even they silenced one of the apostles’ voices just because they needed Judas to be treated as a traitor. Do you know that God asked Judas to do all that? ”

Duncan stood up in a fury and slammed the table “How can you be sure of his words when he is only a pagan and you don’t even know if he is controlled by any demons!”

Angus opened his arms and pointed to the city. “You have not observed what he did and is doing to turn this frozen wasteland into a real city!

If he were a demon, then why would he help his people?

Also, Duncan, remember what the stupid man we once called king did, supposedly had the blessing of God, but the son of a bitch, what was he doing!

That son of a bitch raped our mothers because according to him it was his divine right!

Even Aila who was her daughter was about to suffer the same fate. If her mother had not hidden her in the monastery, maybe she, she… ”

Duncan knew that all of Angus’s words were true, so he just clenched his fist and held back the helplessness he felt.

Aila who was leaving the village could see in the distance how Angus and Duncan were standing with their backs so she could assume that they had argued.