Viking: Master of the Icy Sea

Chapter 160: The Prince and the Royal Guard

At the same time, in Sweden.

After landing in Gothenburg, the Royal Guard led by Oleg became Halfdan's lifesaver. Faced with fifteen hundred armored soldiers, the Allied Forces besieging Gothenburg fled in panic, suffering heavy casualties.

"Good, good, this is exactly how it should be! Let these barbarians see our majesty!"

Halfdan and his berserkers shouted and hollered, causing a certain officer of the Royal Guard to roll his eyes. He complained inwardly:

'Who the hell is 'we' with you barbarians? A bunch of idiots draped in animal pelts, getting beaten up in your own backyard, forcing us to cross the sea and deal with this mess.'

Having repelled the Allied Forces, Halfdan proposed chasing them down to seize East Coast towns like Kalmar and Stockholm in one fell swoop.

"Where is the map?" Oleg reached out his hand to ask. He received a hastily scribbled map that only marked the locations of a few medium and large settlements, with no roads, rivers, or lakes indicated as water sources.

Was this it?

He could not help but ask, "Your Highness, the members of the Swords of the North have been roaming the countryside for nearly two years. Why didn't anyone take the time to draw up a proper map?"

Oleg raised his gaze. The group of berserkers was currently looting valuables from the enemy corpses, occasionally reaching out to snatch spoils from the Royal Guard soldiers. They acted like a pack of uncouth bears, completely untouched by civilization.Recording the terrain and drawing maps was indeed asking too much of them.

Oleg did not waste any more breath. He rode his horse around the area, judging by the footprints that the defeated Allied Forces must have fled southeast. Checking against the map, their destination was roughly Kalmar.

After resting for a night, the fourteen hundred men of the Royal Guard set out on their expedition. Halfdan, unwilling to miss the opportunity to thrash his enemies, brought along over five hundred berserkers to accompany them.

Two days into the march, some berserkers spontaneously broke rank to pillage nearby villages. Worried that they would corrupt the army's discipline, Oleg ditched the prince and set out ahead.

Following the chaotic trail of footprints, the Royal Guard pursued them to the outskirts of the town of Kalmar. The palisade had been recently renovated, with a deep moat dug outside and filled with sharpened wooden stakes. Defending archers stood behind the battlements. A messenger sent to demand their surrender was driven back by a volley of feathered arrows.

They actually dared to resist over a thousand armored soldiers?

Oleg was very curious about what exactly the Swords of the North had done to make the locals so resolute.

With the demand for surrender having failed, the soldiers of the Royal Guard walked into the forest with axes and saws. Each division had clear tasks, and before sunset, they erected a makeshift camp, preparing for a long siege.

As Ragnar's trump card for controlling the entire nation, the recruits of the Royal Guard had been carefully selected. Many had participated in the wars in West Francia and Wales. Subtly influenced by Viggo, they were exceptionally skilled in making camp and laying siege.

Over the next few days, the Royal Guard busied themselves with logging and requisitioning supplies from nearby villages, completely ignoring the provocations from Kalmar's defenders.

"Ignore them. The sooner we finish this mission, the sooner we go home."

Estimating their progress, Oleg planned to conquer Kalmar within a week, followed by Stockholm and other areas, aiming to return home and report back before winter arrived.

Having gathered enough timber, the Royal Guard began constructing siege engines. Oleg discarded the idea of trebuchets and siege towers, instead investing their resources into battering rams and scaling ladders, which had shorter construction times. As long as they breached the walls, the enemy would be absolutely powerless against the armored soldiers of the Royal Guard.

However, the day before the equipment was finished, the gods played a massive joke on him.

"What did you say? Gothenburg is gone?"

Oleg looked at a dirt-covered Halfdan and hundreds of berserkers, unable to believe what he was hearing. "You cannot blame me. The enemy was simply too cunning, even more sinister than Viggo." Enduring the contempt of the Royal Guard, Halfdan recounted his experiences over the past few days from the beginning:

After being ditched by the Royal Guard, the berserkers were more than happy to enjoy the leisure, pillaging wantonly along the road. The more loot they gained, the more lax their discipline became. In the end, they neglected scouting entirely and were ambushed by the Allied Forces.

Following the ambush, the Allied Forces interrogated their captives and learned that Gothenburg was left undefended. Thus, they marched through the night, using the prisoners to trick the guards into opening the gates of Gothenburg. Without much effort, they seized the town—the "Land of Dragon's Rise" for Ragnar's faction.

After the Prince finished speaking, Oleg could not think of anything else to say. He silently walked to the side and sat down cross-legged. Now that things had come to this, what else could he possibly say?

The next morning, having sat in dry silence all night, Oleg summoned his officers. "We only have enough food for three days. Our only option is to capture Kalmar, seize their rations and ships, and then send someone to contact the Commander. We must find a way to persuade him to come and clean up this mess."

Spurred by their commander's encouragement, the Royal Guard erupted with astonishing willpower. Braving the showers of feathered arrows loosed by the defenders, they shouldered their scaling ladders and furiously assaulted the palisade.

Thanks to the protection of their iron armor, some men took five or six arrows and still continued climbing the long ladders, charging onto the battlements to hack and slash wildly.

The defenders were no match for these well-trained armored soldiers. They were driven back from the palisade to the streets, and from the streets to the docks. Aside from a small fraction who fled by ship, the rest chose to surrender.

While inventorying the storehouses, Oleg found that rations were abundant. They lacked nothing in wheat, iron ingots, or ale.

"Excellent. Even if the ships in the harbor were taken by the defenders, we can just build new ones from scratch. As long as we have food to eat, the Royal Guard will not collapse immediately."

Currently, Halfdan still had hundreds of men left, but Oleg decided to treat them as thin air. No, more accurately, as a bunch of useless gluttons who only consumed rations.

'Back when Halfdan led a large army into the mountains to exterminate bandits, he suffered a huge loss from a Welsh night raid despite holding the numerical advantage. He clearly has not learned his lesson, getting ambushed again by a small remnant of the Allied Forces and losing Gothenburg in the process.

'Looking at it this way, does mingling with berserkers actually make one's intelligence drop?

'Forget it. With his level of stupidity, he likely will not win the throne anyway, so there is no need for me to flatter him. I must figure out how to build ships, seek reinforcements from Niels, and combine our forces to retake Gothenburg before slowly tangling with the Allied Forces.'

Norway, Oslo. The back garden of the Royal Palace.

At the suggestion of the craftsmen, a vast number of cold-resistant, heat-averse marigolds were planted here. They were currently in full bloom, over a thousand square meters of golden flowers blossoming together like cascading waves of gold, attracting large swarms of wild bees to gather nectar.

Draped in a loose nightgown, Erik sat alone on the steps, staring blankly at the marigold fields before him, as well as his daughter Eve and his infant son Heath, who were playing amidst the flowers.

'Marigolds truly are beautiful. Their bright colors serve to highlight the grandeur of the royal family. Wait, why did my mind wander off all of a sudden?'

In his daze, Erik remembered that he had been pondering the chaotic situations in Denmark and Sweden. It seemed the shaman was right; growing older made one prone to losing focus.

Refocusing his thoughts for a few minutes, the old King decided to dispatch the palace guard to garrison Zealand Island. If his brother was still organizing a resistance, it would not hurt to sponsor him with a batch of armaments and silver.

If Hrolf had fled, then he would seize the opportunity to take Zealand Island. The island's location was crucial, capable of controlling the shipping lanes of passing merchant vessels, making it perfect for collecting tolls.

Furthermore, the Allied Forces in Sweden were urging for their next shipment of supplies. Perhaps he should delay it for a while to prevent them from completely crushing Halfdan. If that happened, it would draw Ragnar's massive army, which would be extremely troublesome.