Storm
What the hell?
That can wait until tomorrow.
I-It's not my decision.
In any case, the mistress insisted.
Damn hag.
Normally, they leave security up to us.
Maybe it's about the three horses being offered as a reward.
You mean she wants a share?
That greedy hag...
Aw, man.
Mr. Snake, will you allow me to see my husband—Gardar?
No.
He's injured, isn't he? How...
How are his wounds?
I don't give a shit.
Why should I tend to someone who killed one of my men?
Boss, your horse.
Right. I'm going to see the mistress.
You guys take Arnheid back to Gramps' house.
Hey, wait. We don't have any more horses left.
Does he seriously expect me to walk you back?
Please let me see my husband.
I swear I'm not planning to help him escape.
I simply want to tend his wounds.
What? But...
But the boss said...
Whoa, whoa.
What the hell is going on here?
That's Ketil's precious girl.
Uh, the boss gave her permission to treat Gardar's wounds.
It's true.
Gardar...
Arnheid.
They beat you.
Cut the ropes, Arnheid.
Let's go home.
Hey.
It's all right.
She doesn't have anything to cut the ropes with.
That's fine, then.
Hey, Arnheid. Your husband traveled all the way here to get you.
Why don't you tend to more than just his wounds?
I can't treat him when he's bound like this.
Could you temporarily untie him?
No way. Besides, his junk isn't tied up.
You can still take care of that.
Yeah.
Arnheid.
I'm sorry.
I'll never leave your side or Hjalti's again.
Never again.
I was wrong.
Forgive me, Arnheid.
I put you through so much pain.
Let's start over. It'll be like it was before.
Release my bonds.
I'm sorry, Gardar. I'm sorry.
What are you talking about? I should be begging for your forgiveness.
Come on, Arnheid. Pull yourself together.
Well, that spoiled the mood.
It's starting to come down hard.
I'm gonna go rest indoors.
Hey, we were told to keep watch.
One man's enough.
You're the one who brought her here.
It's your responsibility to watch her.
Seriously?
Hey.
Hey, Arnheid. You done over there?
You got what you came for, right?
Aw, man. My only flaw is that I can't say no to women.
Time's up.
Come on, stand up.
Arnheid, there's a knife on that man's hip.
Use that to cut my ropes.
Quickly, Arnheid!
Hey, this is fucked! He's dead!
What? He's dead? What the hell is he doing?
Pull yourself together!
Quickly, the ropes!
Hurry!
They're going to kill us.
Ready? Let's go.
Arnheid!
Bad news, boss.
They're all dead.
Those idiots...
I told them so many times not to let their guard down.
Boss, come look at this.
It's his sword.
Look at the tip.
The rain's washed the blood away, but there's grease on it.
He stabbed the enemy.
It must've been deep.
Yeah.
He's got a new injury on top of his existing one.
There weren't any horses here.
After him!
He can't have made it far!
We're going to settle this while he's still on the farm!
As soon as we find him,
we'll kill him.
Couldn't sleep, Einar?
You can't have slept either.
You didn't groan in your sleep, and you came to wake me.
Yeah, I guess.
Were you watching me?
Did you think I'd do something reckless during the night?
I wouldn't do that.
I don't want to cause trouble for Arnheid.
It doesn't make sense.
All we were doing was living quietly.
It's wrong for freedom to be taken away by violence.
It's wrong.
I've spent most of my life at war, so I have no right to say anything.
But it's wrong. I was wrong.
I don't think Arnheid knows you were a warrior.
It's pathetic.
I'm afraid of someone like her finding out about my past.
How was I not bothered by hurting all those people?
I can't even imagine you acting like that.
Thorfinn, what you told me the other day...
Were you being serious?
What?
You asked if it was possible to eliminate war and slavery from the world.
It sounds like a fantastical dream to me,
but as someone who's experienced both, you must have some ideas.
What should we do?
How can we eliminate war and slavery?
I can only speak about my own experience,
but war always produces lots of slaves.
Those defeated in battle become slaves.
Like you and Arnheid.
The line between warrior and slave trader is blurry.
Slaves come from other places too, but I think war is the number one source.
If the number of wars decreased, so would the number of slaves.
But Norse men don't think war is a bad thing.
A Norse man's worth is determined by his valor and wealth.
The more enemies you kill and wealth you bring back home, the more you're respected.
So fathers teach sons to fight, arm them, and send them off on warships.
It's what the Nords have done since ancient times, without questioning it.
It's always difficult to stop doing what you think is natural.
But there are men like you, too.
Is it really so strange for someone to swear not to hurt people?
In Norse society, cowards can't survive.
But that's fine.
I'd much rather be an outcast than be burdened by any more of them.
"Them"?
The dead.
The people I killed.
Their ghosts appear every night to torment me.
"Why did you kill us?"
"You felt so much anger and hate when your own father was killed,"
"and yet you killed so many fathers, brothers, and sons."
I need to atone for these people.
I need to take them someplace they can rest peacefully.
I can't take on any more.
I can't take on a single additional person.
I've been thinking about what I can do to make it up to them.
You couldn't call simply not killing or destroying anymore atonement.
I need to grow more wheat than I trampled underfoot.
I need to rebuild more houses than I burnt down.
I still don't know how to eliminate war from the entire world.
But just a single village would do.
I want to create a place where people don't need swords.
But how are you going to defend that land?
I don't like war, either.
But Vikings eventually show up everywhere.
Sometimes you have to fight to defend peace and freedom.
But that's not good enough.
There's no point if you fight for peace.
You'll never escape from that bloodthirsty hell that way.
So it'll never be more than just a dream.
You'd have to travel beyond the ends of the earth.
Somewhere even the Vikings can't reach.
A land for the outcasts.
If I run away to the other side of the ocean, then what's there?
There's probably nothing there, right?
No matter how far I go, it'd be the same as here.
Just filled with wars, and slave traders.
Far to the west, beyond the sea...
Beyond the reach of any authority, unknown to slave traders,
there is a land far beyond the horizon.
Does a place like that exist?
There is. I'd forgotten.
When I was a child, a sailor named Leif told me about it.
On the other side of the sea to the west, there's an untouched, fertile land.
That's amazing.
Then... Then if we go there...
No.
He said it was incredibly far away, and I don't even know its exact location.
And we'd be establishing a nation.
We'd have to take lots of outcasts with us.
It'd be a huge undertaking.
I see.
But...
That's the first bit of good news I've heard in a while.
Be careful. He's strong.
Got it.
Wh-What's going on? It's still so early.
He doesn't seem to be here.
There's so much crap, it's hard to tell.
Throw it all out.
What the hell are they doing?
He escaped.
What?
Gardar escaped.
What other reason would they have to search our shed?
Arnheid!
Great Purpose
"Great Purpose."