Chapter 133: Ch. 133 - The North

King of the Ironhold Kingdom, Rodric, stared at the celebrating Vikings in front of him. Most of them had ransacked his castle and taken control, taking his jewelry, gold, and even the food in his kitchen, forcing the servants to cook for them. He clenched his hands into fists in anger.

Thankfully, he had already sent his wife and children out to hide, he'll have to bear this entire situation alone.

As a matter of fact, most of the people who've heard of what happened, assumed that he had betrayed Lioncrest Kingdom and allied himself with the North. But only a few know that he was blackmailed, and forced to accept them into his Kingdom and castle not as intruders but as so-called friends.

Especially the people of Ironhold, who assumed the worst and are now declaring him a traitor not just to the Central Lands but also to his own people, they were smearing and cursing his name without knowing the entire story.

The reputation and image that he painstakingly built for years as a King were stomped down hard by the Vikings.

As for the blackmail material used against him?

Everyone in the Central Lands knows that copulating and having relationships with minors, which used to be a norm, became the most heinous crime that warrants the death penalty. Now just imagine when the entire Central Lands were subjected to such a rule, most, if not all, nobles were furious.

As for who declared it as such? No one but the Noble Slayer himself, Henry Charming.

Slave traders, child traffickers, and most nobles who had child slaves were instantly hunted down overnight that spanned for a whole year.

The response was immediate. Knowing it was impossible to fight against a Great Kingdom such as Lioncrest. Child slavers or what Henry calls pedophiles decided to bring down their businesses from the surface and to the black market.

The Black Market. A market that spans the entire continent, something that not even someone as big as the Lioncrest Kingdom could casually disturb without amassing the anger of all the Kingdoms in the entire continent.

Now, what does this all connect to his blackmail? It's pretty obvious after all that explanation. The King of Ironhold had attempted to secretly buy a child slave for himself, to satisfy his urges.

For people like him, who had already tasted everything there is to sex, would visibly grow exhausted from the usual women, be it the skinny ones, the sexy ones, or even the fat ones.

Before he knew it, he started to crave exotic experiences. And what else is the best exotic experience there is in the world but the illegal one?

And who would've known that arranging an invite to the so-called slave trader who was supposed to sell him the child he bought would lead him to a trap set by the Vikings?

When people hear about Vikings, they instantly think of them as brutes and barbarians who use their muscles rather than their brains.

Well, they're kind of right but not all Vikings are brutes. To lead those sorts of brutes, you need more than just being more brute than them, you need the smarts to handle their antics.

Without it, you'll just be leading a lost cause of a group that wouldn't last a few months before dying out of starvation or being absorbed by a stronger group.

That's where the Jarls come in, also known as the chieftains. Unlike the other sides of the continents who uses Kings, Queens, Princes, and Princesses, along with the noble titles of Grand Dukes, Dukes, Marquises, Earls, Viscounts, and Barons as ranks, the North uses a different class system.

At the lowest level, there are the Thralls; enslaved laborers at the bottom of the society, in other words, they are the slaves among Vikings.

Then there are the Karls, Free men and Women, the ones with the highest count, basically, they are the citizens. After that are the Huskarls; the elite soldiers and guards that are sworn to certain nobles of higher ranks.

After that are the Thanes, basically landowners whose status is between the Free men and Nobles, they exist in the middle of those two.

Then, there's the Hersirs, almost the same as Thanes, but Hersirs are mostly used for the military commanders, the so-called right-hand man of the Jarls.

And then the Jarls, the chieftains of their own Kingdoms and groups. In the north, each Jarl has their own respective society that solely belongs to them. They are known to be the strongest, smartest, and greatest among the Vikings.

But are Jarls the highest in rank among the Vikings?

No.

Above them is the High King, the Jarl among Jarls. Each Jarl must answer to the High King who rules them all. Unlike Jarls, High Kings aren't chosen just by their strength or intelligence.

Instead, they were determined by blood. The first High King and the next generation after him are believed to have been blessed by the Nordic gods themselves, Thor, Bor, and Odin.

And it was believed that each High King possessed certain abilities that made their rule undisputed. The first High King for example, was rumored to wield the strength of a thousand boars who can't be bested by anyone, while the next High King after him was said to be capable of shouting so loud that he can throw people off their feet and even uproot several trees.

Many more High Kings after them have unique abilities that also serve as proof of their bloodline.

As for the current High King, not many know the man but there are whispers that the current High King might be the strongest of them all, said to be able to wield lightning itself, blessed by the strongest Nordic God, the God of Thunder, Thor.

Of course, those are still rumors, at least that's what Rodric heard from the whispers of the drunken Vikings who were now splattered all over the floor, passed out with their bellies full and faces filled with drool.

Meanwhile, their Jarl had already occupied his bedroom, doing whatever he wanted there, probably sleeping on his bed with his gold and jewelry.

In the meantime, Rodric stayed in the throne room, watching over the Vikings as they slept and snored while others were outside, patrolling the streets, the only good thing they've done is that they aren't causing chaos and disturbance among the populace.

Perhaps the Jarl was smart enough not to provoke millions of enraged citizens while knowing full well they're about to welcome the Lioncrest Army, whom they assumed were going to besiege them.

Even though Rodric doesn't know what their Jarl was planning to do, he had an inkling that this entire thing was merely a test against Lioncrest.

Vikings are great battle strategists and not to mention, 10,000 of their men are simply a drop in the ocean compared to their full force back in the northern lands. This entire facade was nothing but dipping their feet in the ocean, if they wanted a full-scale war to conquer the Central Lands, they would've mustered hundreds of thousands of Vikings armed to the teeth.

The fact that it didn't says otherwise.

'If Lioncrest responded to this attack with an army, that would show the world that Lioncrest themselves initiated the great war first since Vikings were purposely welcomed to my Kingdom without any signs of force or being conquered.' Rodric kept biting his fingernails, wondering what would be the reaction of Lioncrest's Fledgling King, or at least that's what the people call him as such.

Rodric wiped the sweat off his brow, conflicted about what to do. He wanted Lioncrest to help him, to take these Vikings off his land but at the same time, he didn't want to because of the blackmail they held over him.

No doubt if Henry caught wind of it, he'd be dead, replaced either by his children or whoever the boy deemed worthy to sit on the throne.

"Alright. Let's just leave things be. It would be best if both sides got off my damn back." He silently whispered under his breath, deciding it would be best to do nothing at this point. If Lioncrest wins and manages to take the Vikings out of his Kingdom, he would do his best to bury the real cause behind all this.

Which also makes him wonder, Ironhold Kingdom is not the only Kingdom that fell under the control of the Vikings, there's also the Cinder Kingdom whose territory is actually the closest to the North—so what could be the reason they're now flying under the banner of the Thorgard Kingdom?

While the King of Ironhold Kingdom was deep into his thoughts, and the Vikings were fast asleep except for a few, they failed to notice that deep in the night sky, there was a person floating with crossed arms.

Henry had been staying afloat for a good while, observing the entire situation with his own eyes. One thing he noticed was the glares that the citizens were throwing towards the patrolling Vikings.

Not only that but there were also whispers of curses towards their King regarding his supposed sudden betrayal to the Central Lands. The last nail in the coffin was the presence of Thorgard's Jarl in the royal chambers and Rodric's silent whisper in the throne room.

All in all, Henry's assumption turned out to be correct. Ironhold was being held hostage by the Vikings without anyone knowing, under the disguise of Ironhold's allies.

"And besieging them would've risked killing many innocents who had no idea they were being manipulated by the Vikings. This Jarl seemed to be quite adept at strategy and manipulation, fascinating."

Which also made Henry wonder. What could be the reason why King Rodric of Ironhold Kingdom allowed his Kingdom to be treated like this?

If it is indeed blackmail, what kind of material could it be that a King would willingly surrender his Kingdom to the hands of brutes?

"Only one way to find out." Henry raised his index finger, a flicker of blue flame lit on its tip.

Slowly but surely, the small candle-like flame grew bigger as seconds passed.

Down on the ground, the Vikings were oblivious to what was going on in the starry night sky above them until a few more seconds had passed and one particular Viking atop the walls finally took notice.

"What is that? A Blue Sun?"

"Are you dumb? The sun is yellow, not blue!"

"Is that right? But doesn't it turn blue every night?"

"That's because it's nighttime! The Sun sleeps in the night, so she turns her flames off!"

"Ohh! I see!"

Unfortunately for the Vikings, their comical dialogue wouldn't spare them from what was about to come.

As the blue flame grew bigger than before, many finally took notice. People came out of their doors to see the commotion while others were confused about why the night had suddenly turned into daytime.

The last few who noticed it were those who were inside the royal castle.

King Rodric's mouth fell agape at the sight beyond his windows, he heard footsteps hurrying behind him, probably belonging to their Jarl who rushed out to see what was happening.

When Jarl Ulfred finally arrived outside, it had already turned into a large ball of blue fiery flame whose sheer width was almost as big as half of the entire Kingdom.

In the air, Henry stared down at them with glowing eyes while his left arm was raised, taking hold of the ball of flame.

He silently whispered, more to the masses below than to his attack, "Burn only those who hold great malice toward me in their heart."

And the flame was brought down.