The Sage of Einar

Chapter 459: Ansgar’s Road to the Kingdom of Athlone 2/2

A few days later and after having burned all the corpses of that castle, Ansgar advanced towards the barony of Adragh, which was the next place before reaching the kingdom of Athlone.

The road was quite calm and free of any kind of danger, so it did not take long to reach the barony of Adragh.

Upon entering that territory, the army lookouts could find traces of a human presence, so they quickly prepared their weapons and notified the main army.

When Ansgar walked the trails of human presence, he ordered everyone to be prepared for combat, as he did not want to be ambushed.

After advancing for a few hours, they reached the first town where they could see people. The vanguard, not knowing what to do, simply circled the town silently waiting for the arrival of the main army.

When the army arrived, Ansgar sent a representative to the village to find out how those people had survived the famine.

The messenger quickly approached the village entrance and asked to speak to the village leader, however no one seemed to respond to his requests.

Ansgar, seeing that, had a bad hunch, because somehow he remembered the event that had happened in his return to the tribe on that snowy white road with nothing.

With an order, a group of special forces soldiers approached the door of the town’s wooden wall and when they opened it they realized that the town was in poor condition.

Not only that, but there were also quite a few corpses. The place where there seemed to have been fire was completely covered by snow for a long time.

All the soldiers of the special forces felt irrational fear because they had no idea how to react to these situations.

However, because of the strong training they had received, they stood firm and continued advancing through the village, hoping that perhaps they could find someone alive.

As they did so, one of the special forces soldiers noticed that a boy ran past him and headed for one of the houses.

The soldier gulped and walking slowly through the snow came to the house where he opened the wooden door, however there was only the corpse of a seated child who was staring at the door.

This left completely marked the soldier who, aiming his crossbow, was about to fire but was interrupted by one of his companions who shook his head.

“This place is cursed. It is likely that the spirits of these people have attracted us to this place in order to give them a sacred burial.

Don’t hurt corpses and don’t steal anything unless you want to be cursed by them. “

The soldier nodded and after the special forces had completely scoured the village; they informed Ansgar of what had happened.

Ansgar who had also seen people inside the village simply had a chill running down his back, so he quickly gave the order that the dead be buried.

This to prevent them from cursing them, unfortunately there was no priest in Ansgar’s army however there was a Godi apprentice.

So after the bodies were buried, Godi’s apprentice performed a Norse ceremony, in which he requested that the souls rest in peace.

After this, the army left that place because they were afraid of approaching that village or passing near that place at night.

For those who, after advancing for a few hours, found an excellent place to camp.

When they did so and were getting ready to sleep, the army could see in the distance a large number of torches, the soldiers who were nervously prepared their crossbows, and the snipers prepared their Nordic carbines.

All were ready to shoot, however the torch lights seemed to advance through the forest without wanting to approach the army.

Ansgar who was looking at that gritted his teeth and looked at his soldiers. “Does anyone know what the hell is that in the forest.”

One of the soldiers who looked haggard turned his head and looked at Ansgar seriously. “It should be a procession of souls. Somehow we are saved in this place but unless someone wants to die.

We should not go near them, although for safety we should put salt around the camp. My grandfather said that it was the only way to prevent the souls from hurting us.

Ansgar took a deep breath and ordered the soldiers to put room around the entire camp. When the soldiers finished placing salt all watched as the torches continued to advance.

Until suddenly they could see how the torches were approaching the place where they were. However, from among the trees, only a man came out carrying a box.

While the torches disappeared, the man simply kept walking and completely ignored Ansgar’s camp, before heading back into the trees.

Where the torches were re-lit that night, all the soldiers had trouble sleeping.

When they woke up, they took their things and went to the castle of the barony of Adragh. Fortunately for them it only took a few hours to arrive.

Upon reaching the castle, they realized that it was completely abandoned, unlike the castle of the barony of Longford.

Adragh Castle was completely empty. When the special forces soldiers searched it they found no one.

However, if they could find the diary of the leader of the defenders of the castle of Adragh, when Ansgar began to read it he felt a chill because the defenders of that place had lived the same as Ansgar and his army.

This caused Ansgar to give the order to advance and leave that castle completely alone, because he did not want to endanger the lives of his soldiers because of the strange things that were happening in that place.

After this, the soldiers advanced at full speed towards the border with the kingdom of Athlone, because they did not want to continue spending time in that place.

That is why they decided to continue advancing even at night in a forced march where their willpower and the fear that place caused them made them advance without stopping.

It was not until the second day that they were able to reach the border with the Athlone kingdom, so after crossing a small frozen river they established a camp.