Chapter 58: The Men You're Allowed to Kill

Einar jolts awake to Thorfinn screaming in his sleep and shakes him free of a nightmare the smaller man cannot recall. At the well, they encounter the blond woman last seen riding with Ketil. She greets Einar, who fumbles his words, and when she praises his face he grows flustered and claims his racing heart makes him unwell. Washing beside them, Thorfinn wonders why his own pulse is pounding and feels there is something in his forgotten dream he must not lose. The woman introduces herself as Arnheid, marvels at Einar's fluent Norse, and learns he hails from an English village whose Nordic ancestry left everyone bilingual. To his surprise, she reveals she too is a slave, serving as Ketil's personal maid rather than the daughter he assumed.

Fox and Badger ride up, collect Thorfinn and Einar, and lead them toward the guests' fortress. Einar, giddy over Arnheid's compliment, quietly asks Thorfinn whether the armed men are dangerous; Thorfinn identifies them as hired protectors of the farm. Fox smiles that the pair look perfect for the job. Inside, Einar is stunned to find Olmar clutching a sword, and Fox tells the boy to start swinging with Einar.

Einar erupts, demanding to know why they should die having done no wrong. Fox answers that their lives belong to their master, not themselves, and that being cut down by the young master should be counted an honor. Einar retorts that they are Ketil's property, not Olmar's, and warns of consequences. As Olmar wavers, Fox goads him. Einar shoves Olmar to the ground and screams for Thorfinn to flee and fetch Ketil, but Thorfinn stays still. When two guests cross their swords before his face and order him to watch, Thorfinn instead tells them to cut him down, arguing they need only one victim and should send Einar back to work.

Thorfinn suffers another nightmare he cannot remember but senses is important. Einar and Thorfinn meet Arnheid, who reveals she is a slave and Ketil's personal maid. Fox and Badger bring the pair to the fortress, where Olmar is meant to kill them as his rite of passage. Einar resists and knocks Olmar down, while Thorfinn calmly volunteers to be killed in Einar's place.

The fifty-eighth chapter continues the Slave Arc in Volume 9 and was adapted in Episode 27. The epigraph comes from Fox, articulating the mercenaries' view that a slave's life is entirely the master's to spend.