Chapter 197: Thousand Year Voyage Part 6

After Ivar's blade takes off Miskwekepu'j's hand in a single stroke, the severed limb drops to the ground and shock ripples through the onlookers. Thorfinn reacts at once, stripping off his belt to bind the wound and halt the bleeding, even though the injured man had just come at him. Cordelia collapses at the sight of the blood, and Einar pleads for others to lend a hand. The crowd holds back, and when Einar demands to know why, Ivar throws the question in reverse, baffled that anyone would aid the attacker. Plmk lifts the detached hand and marvels at how cleanly it was severed, wondering what sort of weapon Ivar carries.

Ivar frames the Lnu as enemies who must be seized, but Niskawaji'j struggles through the unfamiliar Norse tongue to insist they mean no hostility. Thorfinn orders everyone to hold still and let the visitors go, studying Miskwekepu'j's face as he departs. Hild rounds on Ivar, calling his strike pointless and demanding to know why he moved after Thorfinn had told them all to stay put. Ivar believes he rescued Thorfinn, yet Hild counters that Thorfinn is far the stronger fighter and could have taken the axe away without a scratch. Thorfinn then tells Einar what he noticed: Miskwekepu'j wore a smile as he withdrew, which convinces him the man never meant to kill at all but rather to be killed, an aim he counts as fulfilled.

As bystanders argue over whether the clash was simple self-defense or a fight the visitors picked, Hild reframes the whole encounter. She asks which side truly ends up hurt, the injured or the injurers, and concludes that today the pain settled on the Lnu, who feel they have lost. In her reading, Miskwekepu'j intends to wound his own people to serve a purpose he keeps concealed.

Ivar cuts off Miskwekepu'j's hand, and Thorfinn immediately works to stop the bleeding while Cordelia faints. Plmk studies the unnaturally clean cut left by Ivar's sword. Niskawaji'j, straining with the Norse language, pleads that the Lnu are not enemies, and Thorfinn lets them leave. Hild rebukes Ivar for defying Thorfinn's order and argues that Miskwekepu'j deliberately sought to be struck down, having smiled as he walked away.

This chapter closes the six-part Thousand Year Voyage run and belongs to Volume 27. It appeared on September 24, 2022 across sixteen pages, carrying the Japanese title Sen nen Kōro (6). Hild's closing distinction between the injured and the injurers points to Miskwekepu'j's concealed motives among his own people.