Vinland Saga IF – The Tale of the Other Queen, Rím
Rím, the woman who served as King Canute's shadow and devoted everything to him, now gets her own tale, a story that never came to be in the original saga.
Just as he is about to unify England, Canute is poisoned and falls into a deep coma. In her despair, Rím holds onto one secret knowledge: the dream of Vinland, the ideal land that Canute secretly yearned for deep in his heart, a legacy of the man named Askeladd.
"I'll show him Vinland myself!"
With that wild declaration, Rím secretly organ
Vinland Saga IF – The Tale of the Other Queen, Rím - The One-Eyed Madman Summons a Storm
The Broken Oar Tavern was wrapped in a heavy silence.
Normally, the hall would have overflowed with the roars and laughter of roughnecks, but now only the rattling of the salt-breeze-rusted window frames echoed through the room. At the counter, the innkeeper Inga watched the back of her sole customer with worried eyes.
"…No one's coming, huh."
Rimu sat at a table against the wall, her hands tightly clasped together. On her left arm was the leather bracer Sverting had given her. The pain from the burn had eased somewhat, but now the ache in her chest was far greater. Before her lay a single sheet of parchment. *Navigator — Urgently Needed.* The scrawled letters seemed to sway futilely in the empty tavern.
A full day had passed since then. The men hired with Lord Hervor's silver had fled, every last one of them. The rumors of a black sorcerer drifting through the harbor were more than enough to make superstitious sailors tremble. All that spread around her now was ridicule, fear, and above all, the overwhelming void of utter solitude.
"Looks like my bet on you's gone sour after all, eh."
Gudrun sat down across from Rimu with heavy footsteps. She set two rough-hewn tankards on the table with a thud. The contents were the cheapest cloudy ale in the harbor. The gold ring on her left hand glinted dully in the dim lamplight. She pushed one toward Rimu.
"Speaking without business in mind — you've got no choice but to steel yourself now. I don't know how long the fleet crews will hold out either. If we don't set sail before the storm hits, that'll be the true end of it. But a ship with no navigator and no captain putting out to sea — I know better than anyone what comes of that."
Her voice seemed to gaze somewhere far away. Perhaps she was remembering the winter storm that had stolen her husband and son from her.
Rimu summoned her strength and took a single sip of the ale. The cheap spirits flared hot at the pit of her stomach, then quickly went cold.
(*What would he have done, at a time like this?*)
The only thing that surfaced in her mind was the sleeping profile of King Canute. It was always like this. No matter how deep the despair, the compass of her heart always pointed toward him.
"But, he…"
"Enough about Canute!"
Gudrun's open palm struck the table with a dry crack.
"I know it in my bones that you're in love with the king. I've heard enough of your lovestruck rambling in a place like this. The question is — what are *you* going to do now, right?"
Rimu bit her lip.
(*What am I going to do…*)
At that moment, the door behind her creaked slowly open.
A cold sea breeze poured into the tavern.
Every gaze in the room fixed upon the entrance.
Standing there was an old man. The white hair at the back of his head, nearly all gone, was braided into a thin tail that hung down behind him. His left eye was clouded white, as if it had sealed away a winter ice-sea within it. But his right eye alone was an unnervingly youthful blue, and it surveyed the room with a serpentine glare, as if hunting for prey. His back was bent, and his shabby fur cloak rustled dryly.
Most bizarre of all was the large stone that glinted dully at his chest. A transparent calcite. The tool sailors called a sunstone, used to read direction beneath clouded skies.
The old man looked around the tavern with an air of curiosity, then slowly walked over to Rimu's table.
"…Are you the one looking for a navigator?"
His voice was a hoarse, low rasp, like stone scraping against a gravestone.
Rimu caught her breath for an instant.
Gudrun stared at the old man with sharp eyes.
"Aye, that's right. Though it's not the sort of voyage you'd ask an old-timer like you to handle. It's a one-way ticket to hell."
"The sea lies. Judging a man a dotard by his looks is the shallow wisdom of harbor rats."
Thorkell pulled out the chair in front of Rimu and sat down heavily. The motion carried an oppressive weight that belied his age. He peered into Rimu's face without reserve. One clouded eye, and one too-sharp young eye. The dissonance sent a chill down Rimu's spine.
"The Fireball Sister, eh. Ho, I see. Your eyes aren't dead yet. Something still flickers and burns deep within. Good, good. If you mean to go to Vinland, you'll need at least that much madness."
"…You know of it?"
Rimu's voice trembled.
"Know it I do. I gave this left eye of mine to that moving forest. The strait east of Vinland — Stormgard. A place where, one step more, just a little further, and you could reach out and touch that land of grapes."
He tapped his clouded left eye with a gnarled finger. There was no sorrow in the gesture, no regret. Only a searing obsession.
"That day, the icebergs moved. We lost our ship, and my comrades became food for the sea. I alone returned, with this stone and one eye. Twenty years since then. Everyone laughed at my tale as a tall story. But — I only passed by this tavern on my way here, yet I can tell from the draft of your ship and the amount of supplies you've loaded. You mean to cross the northern sea, don't you? And not for mere transport. You've prioritized speed above all. Which means — I thought you might be the only one who wouldn't laugh at my story."
"Um, about your payment…"
"I've no need for coin."
Thorkell cut her off sharply. Gudrun's eyes widened in shock, and she made a show of fiddling with her gold ring.
"Hold on. The going rule is that nothing costs more than what's free. What is it you want?"
"What lies beyond that sea."
He leaned his elbows on the table and brought his face close to Rimu's. The white-clouded left eye was right before her.
"I haven't much time left. This eye does not lie. My body can no longer endure the sea. But this heart of mine still weeps, wanting to see the green forests beyond that strait. I will board your ship, and see what lies beyond that sea — just one glimpse is all I ask."
It was madness.
Not for gold. Not for glory. Nothing but sheer obsession.
Rimu felt goosebumps rise across her entire body.
*This is me.*
The same as herself — the one who had thrown everything away, if only to bring him to Vinland.
"…Can I trust you?"
"Of course you can!"
Suddenly, Gudrun burst into hearty laughter. She pounded the table with the gold ring on her left hand, laughing until tears came.
"I can tell just by looking at your eyes. Those are the eyes of a man who's been thoroughly made a fool of by the sea. So reckless I can't take my eyes off you. But — my husband had the exact same eyes. It's fine. This one's the real thing. Speaking without business in mind."
She clapped Rimu on the shoulder with a heavy thump.
"Now then, the contract's sealed. Let's hear what you've got to say right away. How do you plan to put out to sea in a situation like this?"
Thorkell pulled a crumpled sheet of parchment from his breast and spread it out on the ale-soaked table. It was an ancient, hand-drawn sea chart.
"Simple. Tomorrow, just before dawn — a storm is coming."
"A storm?! Oi, oi, have you gone mad too?! Putting a ship out in a storm is suicide!"
"No. *Before* the storm."
Thorkell's right eye gleamed.
"Look at this chart. Here is the mouth of the River Ouse. The watch is stationed at this cape, at intervals. However — before a great storm, there always comes a single moment of calm. The instant when the tide churns backward and the sea swallows the air. At that moment, if we slip past the tide-rip at the cape and put out to sea, the patrol ships — who think no vessel can sail against a headwind — will be completely off guard. By the time they panic and give chase, our ship will have the storm front at its back, and we'll break through to the northern sea in one stroke."
Rimu felt as if she had been struck across the head.
Everyone called it impossible. They laughed, said it was as good as going to die. And this old man had overturned that common sense head-on.
(*Askeladd once said it. "Desperation is the only path to survival."*)
This had the same scent as that time.
"…We'll do it."
She said it clearly, without hesitation.
"We'll do it. My bet is on this man alone."
A mad flame kindled once more in her hazel eyes.
That was when it happened.
A heavy thud sounded behind her.
Before she knew it, Sverting was standing imposingly at Rimu's back. His massive frame looked down upon the old man like a wall of iron. His iron jaw clicked.
"Sister."
In a low voice that seemed to rumble from the depths of hell, he issued his warning.
"This old man is not normal. He's hiding something."
The mercenary's instincts told him so. His gray eyes appraised the old man — the white-clouded left eye, and the strangely youthful right.
"Aye, that I am. I am not sane."
Thorkell laughed dryly, not the least bit perturbed.
"I may have left my sanity behind in that moving forest. But you are the same, are you not? Within you too, there is a madness you feel you must protect — with that borrowed jaw of yours."
Sverting's killing intent froze the air around them.
"Hold on, both of you!"
Gudrun stepped between them.
"I understand what you want to say, Bear. But listen — he's right. The sea can't be crossed by sanity alone. My husband was the same. I believe in this old man. It's not just harbor profit and loss — those eyes are the eyes of a true man of the sea."
Rimu slowly rose to her feet.
"King Canute once placed his trust in a single man whom everyone doubted. That man was Askeladd. And Askeladd alone showed the king a future. I will do the same. Even if this one-eyed man is truly a madman — I will stake everything on him."
There was no longer any hesitation.
Sverting gazed at Rimu in silence for a moment.
"…Understood."
He said only that single word, then said nothing more, once again standing guard behind her like a wall of iron.
The negotiations were settled, and it was the very moment they moved to leave the tavern.
There was a noise outside. Not just the wind. The presence of someone.
Sverting moved like a hawk hunting prey.
With a speed unimaginable from his massive body, he dashed into the back alley. And in the next instant, he had seized a dirtied man by the scruff of the neck and slammed him against the wall.
"Gyah…!"
The man was the spy, Rorik. In his hands, he clutched a small carrier pigeon cage. He had been about to send information to Lord Hervor.
"Let go! If you don't release me, this pigeon—"
That was when it happened.
*Fweeeeeeeee.*
A shrill, grating sound echoed through the back alley.
It was a whistle.
The source was Thorkell. He had placed his fingers to his lips and was producing an eerie, high-pitched tone, as if summoning a storm.
"Y-you… what are you doing?! That's — any sailor knows it — the forbidden whistle that calls storms!"
Rorik's face contorted in terror.
Thorkell stopped whistling and smiled a twisted grin. His expression was no longer that of a good man.
"This will do. Even without sending a carrier pigeon, they'll know the storm is coming. But let them watch, trembling in fear. Deliver this message to that rotten eagle's nest."
He brought his face close to Rorik's, his blue right eye glaring, and pronounced it like a death sentence.
"The Fireball Sister will ride the storm I have called, and at dawn tomorrow, she will row out into the hellish sea. She has taken the king. She is no longer in any place where your landbound logic can reach her."
"H-hiii…!"
When Sverting released his grip, Rorik scrambled away on all fours and vanished into the darkness.
Gudrun scratched her head in exasperation.
"Well, by tomorrow the whole harbor will know that the Fireball Sister summoned a storm and set sail. Ahh, my trading company's reputation's going to plummet for this."
"I don't mind. If anything, it's convenient. Enemy and ally alike will all be trembling, with no choice but to stand by and watch us put out to sea."
Rimu w
Novelia is an AI-powered platform to read original light novels and fan fiction, create your own in just a few taps, and chat with the characters. New, illustrated episodes arrive daily — free to start.