Chapter 77: Disgrace

Slumped over a table, Olmar stews over his humiliating failure to cut the pig before Canute. Nearby, one soldier asks a hooded man toying with coins whether he may go deliver the news that Olmar has been rejected, and the stranger waves him on. Once the group is out of earshot, the hooded man kills a passing butterfly with a single flicked coin and privately dismisses the soldiers as far dumber than the boy they intend to taunt.

The lead soldier introduces himself as Brodd, a veteran of the late King Harald's army, and relays Wulf's formal refusal. When he reaches the rejection, he and his three companions burst into mockery, jeering that Olmar was bested by a dead pig and suggesting he try cooking instead. Remembering Thorgil's plea not to shame the family, Olmar nonetheless draws his sword, demanding they settle it with blades. The men only laugh harder as a weeping Olmar swings wildly, and Brodd parries with ease.

Word of a lopsided sword fight reaches Thorgil, who is eating nearby. Brodd disarms Olmar and knocks him down while the hooded man frets that the boy's clumsiness threatens his plan. Thorgil strides over, hauls his brother up by the collar, and declares that a warrior who has been insulted has only two roads, to kill or be killed. He forbids Olmar from fleeing, orders him to picture a bloody victory, and shoves him back toward Brodd.

Olmar charges with fresh resolve. Brodd, unbothered by so obvious an attack, readies a finishing blow, but the hooded man flicks a coin that lodges in Brodd's eye. As Brodd turns and clutches his face, Olmar's blade drives through his neck. The crowd erupts while Brodd's friends draw to avenge him. Thorgil congratulates his brother, then cuts the remaining soldiers down himself. Kneeling in blood, a stunned Olmar grapples with the fact that he has killed a man.

The hooded schemer manipulates Brodd and his companions into taunting Olmar. Thorgil urges his brother to answer the insult with death. A hidden coin strike blinds Brodd at the crucial moment, letting Olmar land a fatal thrust. Thorgil slaughters the rest of Brodd's group, and Olmar is left shaken by his first kill.

Published September 24, 2011 in Volume 11, this chapter adapts into Episode 36. The hooded man's coin trick engineers the killing that Canute's faction will exploit, turning a schoolyard-style taunt into the legal pretext against Ketil's family.