Chapter 416: A Green Apple
The cold wind swept through the town square of Ribe, but it did nothing to cool the boiling blood of the Danish crowd.
The people of the port town found themselves feeling a new kind of angry.
It was one thing to see a foreign army march through their roads and set up a massive camp outside their walls...
It was a different thing to see a Frankish Marshal standing on their execution platform, holding the iron axe...
"This is wrong." Halfdan whispered, "Even if Torsten broke a law, the Frankish are the ones who will execute him? A Dane must be judged by a Danish Jarl, not a southern dog."
"They cannot just march in here and control the lands like they own it." Knud hissed back.
He looked around the tightly packed square, seeing the same fury reflected in the eyes of every single local fisherman, blacksmith, and merchant.
However, the panicked questions were whispering everywhere through the restless crowd.
What just happened to their King? Where was King Horik while this southern arrogance was taking place in his own lands?
Did he just hand the keys of the kingdom to Emperor Louis out of pure fear?
If the Franks could execute a respected timber merchant without a single Danish guard stepping in to stop it, were they even a free people anymore?
The confused, angry questions everywhere abruptly stopped.
Up on the wooden platform, Marshal Gauzlin didn’t just raise the axe to give Jarl Torsten a quick, honorable death.
Instead, the Frankish commander let out a mocking laugh and threw the axe down onto the planks.
"You northern savages think you are so brave," Gauzlin sneered.
He stepped closer to the kneeling Torsten and kicked the bound man right in the ribs.
Torsten groaned in pain, coughing heavily as he collapsed sideways into the mud coating the planks.
"You worship mud and trees!" Gauzlin shouted to the crowd, drawing a steel dagger from his belt.
"You think your pagan gods give you strength? Look at this man!
He tried to slit the throat of one of my captains, and now he grovels in the dirt like a pathetic animal!"
Gauzlin reached down and grabbed Torsten by his braided hair, yanking his head back.
The Frankish Marshal pressed the steel blade against Torsten’s bruised cheek, slowly slicing a bloody line across the man’s skin.
"Damn, let him go!" someone screamed from the back of the crowd.
"Fight him like a real man, you southern coward!" Halfdan roared, taking a half-step forward before Knud grabbed his arm to hold him back.
Though the Frankish knights instantly drew their long swords, forming a tight ring of steel around the platform, the Danish crowd didn’t back down.
The local men were reaching for their hidden hunting knives and belt axes.
A riot was just seconds away from exploding, and it would undoubtedly bathe the muddy square in blood.
"I will skin you alive..." Torsten spat a mouthful of blood onto Gauzlin’s boots, grinning despite the pain. "My brothers will feed your southern entrails to the crows..."
"Your brothers are nothing but unwashed heathens." Gauzlin laughed, kicking Torsten in the stomach again.
He dragged the dagger across Torsten’s shoulder, cutting deeply through the fabric and into the flesh.
"...and your King is a weak old man who bent his knee the second we showed him our cannons. You have no one left to save you."
The crowd pushed forward, the front row of locals pressing close to the sharp tips of the Frankish swords.
The knights yelled nervous orders at each other in their southern tongue, raising their painted shields and bracing for a brutal impact.
Right at that boiling point, a strange disturbance rippled through the back of the furious mob.
People were getting pushed aside, but not by armored guards.
They were naturally parting, stepping back into the mud to make a wide, respectful path.
Knud turned his head, confused by the sudden shift in the crowd’s energy.
Riding slowly and calmly down the center of the muddy street was a man on a horse.
But the strangest part wasn’t the horse or the man... it was the kids around him.
"Hmm?" Knud squinted, trying to make sense of the highly bizarre sight.
Nearly a dozen dirty, barefoot street children were jogging happily alongside the horse, laughing and ignoring the lethal tension of the execution square.
The man on the horse was tossing wooden carved toys and half-eaten pieces of sweet bread down to them as he rode.
He looked like he was taking a peaceful afternoon stroll through a friendly village, unbothered by the fact that he was riding into the middle of a military standoff.
"Who the hell is that?" Halfdan whispered, his grip on his axe loosening slightly in confusion.
The man sitting in the saddle wore asimple gray wool cloak with the hood pulled back.
A broadsword was strapped to his back, the hilt wrapped in worn dark leather.
People were getting clearly out of his way for a reason... there was an undeniable aura of authority rolling off the stranger.
The street children finally stopped near the edge of the square, stuffing the sweet bread into their mouths and pointing at the shiny Frankish knights.
The man on the horse nudged the dark beast forward, walking right up to the defensive ring of drawn southern swords.
A Frankish guard stepped forward, pointing his blade at the broad chest of the rider.
"Halt!" the guard barked.
"No one approaches the platform!
By order of Marshal Gauzlin, dismount and step back right now, or I will cut your horse down!"
Even so, the man calmly reached into a small pouch resting on his belt, pulled out a green apple, and took a bite.
Up on the wooden platform, Gauzlin paused his torture, frowning deeply at the ridiculous interruption.
The man swallowed his bite of the apple... he slowly lowered his hand, resting it near the pommel of his broadsword.
"Tell me something, boy..." the man on the horse asked quietly.
He pointed his half-eaten apple at the armored Marshal standing on the execution block.
"Who is this Frankish?"
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A\N: I have adjusted the Privilege tiers to 3 Chapters only. This means that at the start of next month, there will be 17 new locked Chapters.
Hope this works better, see you in the next Chapter :]
