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Ubermensch – Chapter 97

97

Chapter 97

Everyone was just looking at each other. Then Gorm drew his sword and glared at us all.

Gorm spoke with bloodshot eyes.

“I set the price of the smoked whole pig and then cut it again.”

Tall Erik opened his mouth.

“I cheated with the dice at the gambling house.”

Magni, the bear’s belly, said.

“While her husband was at sea, I took his wife.”

Strong-armed Roald said.

“On the last voyage, I lied to the Jarl about the profits.”

It was my turn.

“Your turn, lad.”

“I, I…”

When I hesitated, Gorm pointed his sword at me.

Then Roald stopped Gorm.

“It’s his first voyage, a boy barely with a beard. He can’t have sinned.”

“That’s true.”

Gorm thought for a moment and then looked at the others, excluding me.

“Then let’s discuss. Who have the gods been angered by?”

Gorm looked at Magni.

“Did you make her drunk and take her, or did you take her by consent?”

“By Thor’s beard, she only had a cup of mead. If I had raped a woman who was not in her right mind, I would die without a shield or a sword, and I would be scorned by Hel until the end of all things.”

Gorm looked at Erik.

“How much did you profit from the loaded dice?”

“Two silver coins.”

Gorm looked at Roald.

“How much did you deceive the Jarl?”

Roald hesitated. Gorm held his sword to his throat.

“Speak straight. The gods are watching!”

“Three… silver coins…”

Everyone looked at Gorm with tense eyes.

Gorm was resolute.

“Roald, take your weapons and shield.”

“It was only three silver coins!”

“Last chance, Roald. Die empty-handed, or take your weapons.”

Roald looked up at the sky with a devastated expression, then at the sea.

People handed him his axe and shield, and each grabbed their own weapons and shields.

“Ullr! Take me!”

Roald was brave, but he was alone.

There were four of us.

Watching Roald sink beneath the waves, blood flowing from his neck, Gorm said.

I asked Gorm.

“What happens now?”

“Pray that the storm stops. If it does, give thanks to Ullr’s fairness.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

Gorm looked at Erik, his sword gripped tight.

“We’ll have to offer another prayer.”

๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑

Fortunately for Erik, the storm stopped the next day.

Everyone acted as if nothing had happened, unfurling the sails and preparing for the voyage. Gorm used the sunstone to calculate their course, which had been thrown off.

“Lad, count the remaining water and food.”

I searched the storage as Gorm instructed.

“If we ration, it will last ten days, five if we eat well.”

Gorm looked at Erik and Magni.

“Shall we return to our original course? Or shall we go straight ahead?”

“Where will we go if we go straight ahead?”

“Northumbria.”

It was a rich and powerful kingdom, even among the seven kingdoms of England. Rich, making it a good target for raids, and powerful, making it a bad opponent in battle.

“Even counting the beardless lad, there are only four of us. Wouldn’t it be better to return to the East Anglia route?”

“If we had Roald…”

Roald was an archer. A battlefield with an archer and a battlefield without one were completely different.

Gorm looked at me.

“Lad, what’s your opinion?”

“I… want to go to Northumbria.”

“Why?”

“Because their enemies are stronger.”

“You speak like a warrior.”

“I am a warrior.”

“Not yet. Not until you are proven by the blood of your enemies.”

Gorm looked around at us.

Originally, this longship carried ten warriors. We lost five to the storm, and sent one away. That left four. Less than half our original strength.

Of course, we could raid a village. Maybe even a monastery.

As long as there were no soldiers.

Gorm had to gamble.

Return as we were, or strike quickly and escape before the soldiers came.

“…We can’t go back empty-handed.”

“Then you’ll go to East Anglia?”

“No.”

Gorm gripped his sword tightly.

“We’re going to Northumbria.”

The men tried to speak, but Gorm said firmly.

“If the gods weren’t watching over us, would they have sent the storm? We’ve already been tested, would they abandon us now?”

Gorm’s words carried more than reasonable persuasion.

The gods must have sent us here because our fate lies in Northumbria.

So we headed for Northumbria.

๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑

Gorm, a seasoned sailor, landed the ship with the tide.

“We’ll loot before the tide goes out, and retreat with the ebb. Understand?”

“Yes.”

Unlike the other two, Gorm added a word to me.

“I swear by Odin’s name, I will give you only one command, and you must obey it.”

“What is it?”

“Retreat.”

Gorm spoke, half admonishing, half warning.

“Don’t miss the time to retreat. If you lose yourself in the intoxication of blood and plunder, even if the gods don’t abandon you, we will. Understand?”

“Yes.”

Gorm led us to a nearby village.

It was an ordinary fishing village. About eight families lived together.

“V-Vikings!”

“Light the beacon!”

As soon as they saw us, they prepared to light the beacon.

Then Gorm shouted.

“Erik!”

Erik threw his dagger.

But the dagger only hit the beacon keeper’s thigh, and he was still alive, running towards the beacon.

So I threw my axe.

With a thud, the axe lodged in the beacon keeper’s back, and he shuddered before stiffening.

The first kill of my first battle was planting an axe in the back of an unarmed man.

‘I wish it had been more honorable.’

Seeing me inwardly disappointed, Gorm said gruffly.

“Well done.”

And the slaughter began.

We killed everyone. Men and old men, women and children.

There was no need to spare them, and there was a reason to kill them.

We couldn’t let them run to the lord and call the soldiers.

Then we had to kill them.

After slaughtering everyone in the village, we leisurely searched the houses. There wasn’t much of value. They were just farmers after all.

Sacks of grain, dried meat, and a few iron pots. Finding a silver cross in the house of what seemed to be the village elder was all we got.

“Not much of value here.”

“We’ll have to go to the monastery for valuables.”

Monasteries had ritual objects and decorations. Especially, Bibles. Bibles handwritten by monks and bound in gold, leather, and silver were priceless to the Jesus worshippers.

The men looked at Gorm.

A village like this was patrolled at best once every three or four days.

But churches were patrolled at least once a day, and among the monks were former fighters who could wield a heavy quarterstaff.

If we were unlucky, we’d face the army, and if we were lucky, we’d still have to fight the monks.

“Are we going?”

Our ship had plenty of space for cargo. Too much.

Gorm made up his mind.

“Let’s go.”

So we attacked the monastery.

If what happened in the fishing village was a massacre, what happened in the monastery was a fight.

Most of the twenty or so monks were scholars. But among them were a couple of former soldiers with broad shoulders and thick forearms.

One of them even carried a longsword with decorations on the pommel.

He must have been at least an elite soldier, or… a Thegn.

We fought. Each opening resulted in a burning wound, and each worthy enemy felled brought a thrilling joy of battle.

The curses they spat out meant nothing.

We had passed the test our gods had given us to get here. If their god truly existed, he shouldn’t have let us in.

I felled my share of monks, as did Gorm and Magni. But not Erik. He had fought the monk with the longsword and lay fallen, a deep wound in his belly.

Gorm would surely tell me to look after Erik.

So before he could even open his mouth, I charged towards the longsword monk.

The longsword monk was indeed a skilled swordsman. He parried my axe with his sword and tried to disrupt my balance with agile footwork, pushing and pulling me.

Undoubtedly, the longsword monk was trained in swordsmanship. He was a cut above me in skill.

But the important thing was, all he had was a single longsword.

I blocked his longsword with my shield and struck his shoulder with my axe.

Fighting a warrior without a shield was easier than fighting a warrior without a weapon.

I kicked him to the ground and smashed his skull with my axe as he mumbled something I couldn’t understand.

Looking at the monk lying on the floor, Gorm looked at me.

“Excellent, Thorkel.”

He no longer called me lad.

It was a prize as valuable as gold.

Gorm took the monk’s scabbard and sword and handed them to me.

I shook my head and pushed the sword back to him.

“I prefer an axe.”

As much as Gorm loved swords, I loved axes. Actually, the more important reason was that to wield a longsword that required two hands, I would have to abandon my shield.

I’d rather give up a fine sword than my shield.

Gorm seemed impressed by the respect I showed, or perhaps my reasoning.

He picked up a Bible and handed it to me.

“This should be worth giving up a longsword, right?”

I looked around and saw the others nodding in agreement.

I picked up the Bible.

The cursed book that would come to dominate my life.

“Right, let’s loot quickly and get out of here!”

We searched the monastery.

The monks didn’t live particularly lavishly. But their ritual objects were crafted with no expense spared on gold and silver, and above all, many of the things they produced were valuable.

“It’s a cask of wine.”

I didn’t know why, but wine seemed essential to their religious rituals. Monasteries either stocked plenty of wine or brewed their own.

This one seemed to be the former.

A cask of good wine. It would be a fitting offering for the Jarl.

“Let’s go, before the soldiers arrive.”

We retreated, laden with loot.

As we set sail, we looked at each other.

“…”

An unpleasant task remained, one we had put off, but could no longer ignore.

As the youngest, I prepared a meal of soup made with onions and white bread looted from the monastery.

The first bowl of soup went to Erik.

Erik drank the soup with a wry smile, and Gorm sniffed at Erik’s wound.

“…”

Silence fell for a moment.

But Gorm shook his head.

“I smell onions.”

It meant the blade had reached his intestines.

Erik looked at me and Magni pleadingly.

Magni reluctantly stepped forward and sniffed, shaking his head with a grim expression.

Now it was my turn.

I approached Erik.

Even though he was clenching his jaw, the faint smell of onions wafted out from amidst the stench of blood.

I shook my head.

Erik was silent for a moment, then uttered a short groan.

“Oh, Frey.”

With somber faces, we handed him his weapons.

And the survivors on the ship became three.

Gorm looked at me and asked.

“Thorkel, what god do you serve?”

“I serve the mighty Thor.”

“Offer a sacrifice to Thor when we return.”

“What should I pray for?”

“Pray that you die fighting your enemies.”

Gorm said with a calm expression.

“Instead of relying on the hands of your comrades…”

“Yes.”

As I pushed Erik into the water, I prayed.

‘Mighty Thor. Please, let me die fighting my enemies.’

I made quite a lot of money on that voyage, and with my share of the loot after offering to the Jarl, I bought plenty of mead and enough food for the winter.

That was the oldest memory I had.

And… it was also the beginning of everything I would experience.


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(🇰🇷)Ubermensch

🇰🇷)Ubermensch

Score 8
Status: Ongoing Released: 2023 Native Language: Korean
Mason Park, a "Barbarian" bioengineered for space exploration, is sent back in time from a decimated 28th century to find hope for humanity. He lands in a war-torn Seoul where monsters roam freely and the remnants of society cling to survival through the Player System, a program that empowers soldiers with monster cores. Gifted with extraordinary strength, regenerative abilities, and the advanced technology of his time, Mason becomes a beacon of hope against the monstrous threats. He joins the Holy Knights, a band of players dedicated to selfless service, and quickly rises to prominence. However, Mason's idealism clashes with the reality of human conflict as he gets caught in the struggle between the benevolent but struggling Holy Knights and the ambitious, power-hungry Heavenly King Yekaterina who controls the Player System. Torn between the conflicting ideologies, Mason forms his own raid team, the Revengers, determined to carve his own path. He faces increasingly powerful monsters, including the Lich and the Ghost Dragon, battling not only for humanity's survival but also for his own sanity as he grapples with the darkness within him. His past trauma and his monstrous strength threaten to consume him, but he finds solace and support in the Healer Eun Yuri and the enigmatic Seo Yeonhee, both women drawn to his unique power and burdened by their own past. As Mason's fame grows and the world's eyes turn to him, he faces a choice: to be a tool of power used by others, or to be a symbol of hope that transcends human limitations and unites humanity against a common enemy. His journey is one of self-discovery, where he confronts the complexities of human nature and the meaning of true heroism in a world teetering on the edge of oblivion.

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