144

They say nine accidents, ten out of ten at home ... and they're right, I found out the hard way. In a few weeks at home, I got more injuries than in all the wars I've been to. Mainly because of my children's toys... it must have been some universal law.

If you want to go from A to B and there are small children in the house, the probability of stepping on a toy increases in proportion to the number of children in the house... and every day it felt like the universe was telling me "fuck you". If I were more paranoid, I would have suspected they were trying to kill me.

In Kattegat itself it got very boring, I delegated most of my duties to others, telling them what I expected, what effects I want and when. I was a King, and I wasn't going to personally deal with the number of toilets, slave quarters, or tax collection ... the second reason was my desire to improve the administration. With two kingdoms, it was hard to manage them on your own, and if I plan to expand my territory, the difficulties will only increase.

The only things I did not neglect were introducing new laws or promoting certain behaviors. One such law was to change the status of children born of slaves and local men. In the past, children had the status of slaves from birth, now they were treated as free people ... it was not without resistance from a few people, but in the end I got my own way.

I encouraged and tried to promote men to have more than one wife, I could not force anyone to do so, but people who had more wives and children got better land, lower taxes. The most important thing for me was the population, money was never a goal for me, but only a means that made it easier to achieve the goal, especially since money can always be earned... especially if you trade slaves.

Every few weeks I also got reports from Leif regarding the number of new settlers in and around Jorvik, captured Anglo-Saxons, attacks on Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Cornwall. It was clear from the reports that the number of slaves this year could exceed 25,000. I was convinced that there would be too many of them to be sold only in Lisbon, so my fleet will have to visit more ports ... maybe even visit ports in Morocco.

It was the spring of 789 and I turned 28 and for the first time in this life I was getting ready for vacation, there were years when I worked less, but it was never a typical rest, I always did something.

- Why this sudden decision? (Lagertha)

- Thought we might need a break from Kattegat. You were with me in the Frankish Kingdom, but that was before Yrsa was born ... and it was work, not rest. (Ulf)

- Why do you want to go east? (Lagetha)

- Because my mother came from there and I want to make an alliance with the Slavs, but we will not spend much time there. (Ulf)

Everything I told my wife was true, though not the whole truth. I wanted to see Podolia, so well known to me when I lived there in the 17th century, I planned to hunt Tur, which became extinct before I had the opportunity to kill and try one and I wanted to surprise her and take her to Constantinople to see the greatest city in the world ... the greatest at the time. I also wanted to show my children what people can achieve... maybe Arne in the future will change Kattegat or Jorvik into Constantinople of the North ... I can only build the foundations for the future of my children. The rest will be in their hands.

As I did not intend to go to war, I had only two ships prepared for the expedition, one warship and one merchant ship, the number of crews did not exceed 80 people. I also took several pounds of silver and gold ... I did not expect that I would need gold and silver among the Slavs, but I will certainly find some interesting things in Byzantium.

I was not sure whether to take Hild and Ulfhild with me, our daughter was only a few months old and even though a several-day journey by ship was not a problem, reaching the Black Sea from the Baltic Sea by rivers was more difficult. In the end, I decided that both of them would go with me, Ulfhild had my blood in her, so I knew she could do it ... and Hild has to feed her, and me too.

- I have to take a few more things, I don't know how long we will be gone ... (Lagertha)

It took me less time to prepare for the war than it did for my wife to prepare a few things for the trip.

- Certainly not that long ... and if we need something, we can plunder some settlement when we are there. (Ulf)

- We're taking the children, you won't endanger them. (Lagertha)

Before our exchange turned into an argument, Hild entered the room, handed me Ulfhild, and began to undress herself. Only now I noticed that her dress was wet ... probably from our daughter's vomiting. I looked at Hild as she was changing, then I looked at my daughter and said softly.

- Thank you daughter, you know what daddy likes. (Ulf)

A few days later, when Lagertha was sure she had taken everything she needed ... and everything she didn't need, we sailed out of the port of Kattegat and headed east, our first stop was the island of Rügen and the temple in Arkona. Żywia and Mira came from this area ... and maybe my mother.