Episode 25: Slave

In a quiet farming settlement in northern England, Einar swings his axe against a tree, drawing a scolding from his mother who fears it will fall on the house. He insists he is training for battle so he can defend the home they rebuilt after an earlier burning, still stung that his father died protecting them. His mother laughs off his fears and reminds him that not everything has been lost.

Soon raiders descend on the village. Einar flees toward the woods with his sister Lotta and their mother, but an arrow strikes the mother in the back. She begs the children to run and dies moments later. The attackers seize Lotta, knock Einar aside when he resists, and kill the girl after she stabs one of them with her hairpin. Deciding a captive is worth selling for drink, they haul the raging Einar away.

Aboard a slave ship, Einar watches a sick woman thrown overboard once the traders judge she will not survive. On land the captives are fed and washed to look healthy for sale. Spotting a gap in the guards' attention, Einar bolts, breaks into a house for food, and is dragged back and beaten, then made an example: with no money and no home to return to, running is pointless. Einar accepts that there is nowhere left for him to go. A trader presents him to Leif Ericson, who is searching for his blond, small kinsman Thorfinn and leaves disappointed, apologizing to Einar as he departs.

Next comes Ketil, who questions Einar about his name, origin, and past. Pleased to hear he farmed in northern England, Ketil buys him and takes him to his estate. Walking the land, Einar is reminded of his lost home and family and resolves that obedience to a decent master at least means he will not starve. Ketil then leads him to meet the farmhand he will work alongside, Thorfinn, found chopping wood.

Einar's home village is destroyed in a raid that kills his mother and his sister Lotta. Captured and shipped abroad, he is sold into slavery and, after a failed escape, resigns himself to his fate. Leif Ericson, still hunting for Thorfinn, briefly inspects and passes on him. The landowner Ketil purchases Einar for farm labor and brings him to meet Thorfinn.

Slave premiered on January 10, 2023, launching Season 2, the Slave Arc, and the studio handoff to MAPPA. It adapts chapter 55 with a large body of anime-original content, expanding a backstory the manga only touched on in chapter 58; the episode names Einar's mother Emma and his sister Lotta and dramatizes the raid, capture, and escape attempt in full. Nobuyoshi Arai and Yousuke Yamamoto directed from Shuuhei Yabuta's storyboard.