Chapter 9: A Trap in Distant Seas

In Streymoy, one of the Faroe Islands, Askeladd's men drink and torment a Christian friar, wagering axe throws at his head while horrified villagers look on. One of them mocks the silent Jomsvikings for refusing to join the revelry. Inside a nearby house, Floki lays out the terms: a hundred gold coins for Askeladd's band once they produce the corpse of Thors, the celebrated Troll of Jom. Floki insists the man was condemned not for heroism but for deserting his comrades in battle more than fifteen years earlier. Askeladd finds the timing suspiciously fussy and asks why the Jomsvikings did not simply execute Thors themselves when they located him in Iceland.

Told to mind his own business, Askeladd instead demands another hundred coins up front. Floki accuses him of overreach, and the two lock eyes until a spear hurled from outside whistles between them and buries itself in the wall hanging beside them. Bjorn calls out a sheepish apology about a slipped grip. Askeladd laughs it off and reminds Floki of his demand, which the merchant grudgingly accepts. Askeladd asks after Thors's appearance and fighting style, but Floki says only that Thors is no longer a warrior.

Stepping outside, Askeladd overturns his men's drink and declares the drinking done. Floki then tears away part of the tapestry to reveal that the spear killed one of his own men hidden behind it, confirming the band is more than boastful talk. As the crew boards their longships, Askeladd tells Bjorn the job stinks of a lie, deducing that Thors was never truly sentenced and that the killing serves some private aim of Floki's. He guesses the Jomsvikings avoid the task themselves out of fear that heavy losses would betray their failure to their chief. On Thors's own vessel, the warrior hauls a stowaway Thorfinn down from the mast and spanks him as Hakon and Magni laugh.

Floki contracts Askeladd's band to kill Thors for a hundred gold coins, claiming a fifteen-year-old desertion sentence. Askeladd demands and wins an extra hundred up front, proving his crew's threat when a hurled spear kills a hidden man behind the tapestry. Askeladd concludes the job is a private assassination scheme of Floki's rather than an official execution. Aboard his ship, Thors punishes the stowaway Thorfinn.

The chapter belongs to Volume 2 and is divided across the anime's Episode 2 and Episode 3. Its Japanese title, Zekkai no Wana, translates as a trap in the remote seas. The featured quote is Askeladd's deduction to Bjorn that Floki lied about the death order and is pursuing an assassination of his own design.