Rise of Rurik

Rumia's mind gradually became sober, and her body felt cold again.

"I...I, cold..."

She was already in a trance, and her face was haggard.

"Don't think too much, just drink the hot porridge."

Rurik dug up a spoonful of wheat porridge in a wooden bowl and looked at the so-called porridge. It wasn't cooked well at all, it should have been cooked. He blew the porridge in the spoon to cool a little and stuffed it into the girl's mouth.

Rurik was indeed stronger than the average child, and he was therefore more tolerant of the cold. The two children worked hard on the roof for a long time, and Rurik was still in good spirits, although he was tired.

The fleshy Mairen was stuffed into her mouth, Rumia's confused mind was like an electric shock, and her eating instinct drove her to chew quickly.

Rurik finished feeding a spoonful and filled another, and soon half the bowl was filled.

Otto and Niya watched the scene in front of them, not knowing what to do for a while.

"Really, I really don't know who is the servant and who is the master." Niya mumbled helplessly, with doubts in her eyes.

"It seems that Rurik is her servant. I admit that this girl has a very honest job, and the care she is getting now has crossed the line." With that being said, Otto did not stop his son's actions.

"Alas, the precious wheat is for our son, and it turned out to be cheaper for this girl. It would have been a good reward to give her a little shark liver, but I really can't think of it..."

Rurik fed Rumia, and he heard all the words of his parents.

A bowl of wheat porridge was poured into it. He flattened the girl's body, which was shaking from the cold, and handed the empty bowl to his mother: "Mom, let's put another bowl."

"You still want to feed her? Child, she's just a servant."

"Yes! So I can't let her die."

"But..." Niya was very dissatisfied, and she filled the bowl again while muttering.

After eating high-calorie food, the animal skins on her body were also heated by the bonfire, and Rumia's icy body gradually recovered.

It has been ten years since she was born, and she has never eaten as much wheat as she does today in her short life.

Even for a Sami like her living in the Arctic Circle, the chances of eating wheat are slim.

But the wheat is very delicious, even if it is barely shelled wheat kernels boiled in a fierce fire, it is very comfortable to chew.

Her spirit recovered a little, and she lightly hooked her head to bake a bonfire.

It was only at this time that Rurik picked up the wooden bowl and shoved Mairen into his mouth.

Niya directly accused the huddled girl with dissatisfaction: "Hey! You poor servant, you should thank your master. You should also thank me. You are only worthy of eating some dried fish and moss, and I let you eat it. Arrived at Maizi. Listen, if you dare to disobey the order in the future, I will tear your face!"

Rumia, she heard harsh threatening words in this lengthy Norse sentence. It's still a commonplace thing, disobeying these people's orders, you will be executed.

Rurik also sounded particularly piercing. In his opinion, although his mother was not young, she was a gentle presence on weekdays.

How can you suddenly have a fierce face when facing your servant?

The sudden change is truly staggering.

Rurik put down the half-eaten wooden bowl,

Looking at his mother in surprise: "Mom, are you threatening her?!"

"Yes! It's a threat. My child, we don't have any extra food. Have you seen how precious the wheat is?"

"So, it was wrong for me to feed her?"

"It's a mistake! Child, you are noble, this girl is a humble servant, how can you..."

Seeing that his wife was quite agitated, Otto hurriedly stretched out a big hand full of calluses and caressed her back: "Alright, alright, after all, he is Rurik's servant, Nia, don't be too demanding."

Mother's words are quite realistic. The best food in the family is the tribute received from the Novgorod people, a large bag of yellow wheat kernels, and a small bag of rye, the total amount is not much.

The most important tribute to the Novgorods was wheat, which was also collected by Otto himself. In recent years, they have indeed exchanged genuine items such as amber with them to obtain wheat, but the wheat provided by the other party is also limited. It would be unwise to ask for excessive command and cause them to resist to the death.

Southern shepherds also do not shave their wool in the spring, along with the sheepskin.

Rurik felt that it was obviously unrealistic to talk about human rights and personality equality with his mother now.

In the eyes of others, servants are inferior beings, especially such foreign servants, whose ranks are even lower.

If this situation is to change, the entire society must be reshaped, and that is the hardest work.

Rurik didn't mean to criticize his mother in the slightest. He cropped: "Mom, you should treat her well! Rumia is very pitiful, her parents are dead, and you have to blame her. You should know her parents. How did she die. I'm good friends with her now, we're studying together and she's like my sister."

"Is this what you're saying?!" Niya asked.

"Yeah." Rurik raised his head and looked into his mother's eyes: "I had two older brothers who died unexpectedly. Originally we had two more members in our family, but now I have only one child, and I'm a little lonely. I don't have a brother, it would be nice if I had a sister."

Saying that, Rurik deliberately supported Rumia's arm in a friendly manner: "She is very obedient, as long as you treat her well, she will be willing to fulfill your orders. She is earnestly sweeping snow today, I almost froze to death without realizing it, but fortunately I found it in time. For such an obedient servant, it would be too bad if she really froze to death.

I think I still need a sister, Mom, maybe you want a daughter too. "

Does Nia want a daughter? Do not! She actually didn't want to.

As the leader's wife, Nia also has a huge burden, that is, to give birth to a son for the leader, only the son is eligible to participate in the competition for the next leader.

If a girl is born, Niya's attitude is actually very clear, that is, marry her out early, and the son-in-law will become a supporter of the son who becomes the leader.

Niya neither denied nor affirmed. She understood that her son wanted to treat this girl kindly from the bottom of his heart, and there was obviously a plot of redemption here.

Indeed, it was her husband who was the leader who easily leveled the camp of the deer breeders, which also caused the girl to become an orphan.

It seems that Rurik felt that this was a great sin.

kindness? Kindness is very important to yourself and your allies. Kindness is foolishness towards hostile aliens!

Niya's attitude never changes, and as she gets older, her thinking becomes so-called pedantic.

She broke a piece of hard rye bread and threw it directly to Rumia, who said nothing, and said in a flat tone: "Eat it, servant, this is your reward."

Seeing the brown bread at her feet, Rumia looked at it like she saw gold. She didn't care whether it was dirty or not, she just picked it up and devoured it.

After the snow-sweeping work was finished in Rurik, he climbed up to finish the work. During the day, most of the residents had completed the snow-sweeping on the roofs of their houses.

The days are getting shorter and shorter and Hanukkah is not far away.

Only after lying down did Rurik feel the pain in his muscles, and he slept in his own house for a rare night.

The family slept under the same roof again, and Rurik naturally moved to his parents' bed.

Rumia didn't leave either. She was roasting the fire again and eating a lot of wheat bread. After the body temperature returned, she was still very tired.

She slept in a warm corner wrapped in a deerskin.

She didn't say much, just curled up, thinking too many things in her mind.

"I actually slept in the same room as the enemy who killed my father. What can I do? But the enemy's son is really good to me. Want revenge?"

"Maybe if I get up and take a meat-cutting knife, I can cut the wicked man's neck. But Rurik will be very sad if he loses his father."

"The big villain's family gave me food, and they didn't want me to die."

This is Scandinavia, and Roseburg is only a two-day flight from Svealand by water.

Rumia suddenly didn't feel that her father-killing enemies were really evil people, maybe they were good people on weekdays, just for some reason...

Rumia, she has a sudden Stockholm Syndrome attack.

If she sleeps in this longhouse, she realizes that she always has many opportunities for revenge, and it seems that she can easily revenge.

She gave up, because only giving up this idea would be in the best interest of herself.

At least, Rurik, the son of the wicked, is really a good man.

Rumia is very happy to have such a younger brother. If she can get his blessing in the future, life will not be so bad...

She felt groggy and her arms and legs were sore, apparently from working too hard during the day.

Instead of thinking about it, she fell asleep while clutching her stomach, which had been stretched for the first time in her life.

This night, almost all families went to bed early.

Knowing that the snow on the roof or the snow in front of the house is a matter of physical exertion.

People will be weak because of this, and weakness will bring a strong sense of fatigue, and diseases will also come to you. Strong people can withstand the cold, and the low temperature outdoors also eliminates most of the virus, but the weak are still prone to disease.

Because of the virus, it cannot be killed without extreme means!

The sky was getting brighter, and many residents had already woken up before that, and they were more willing to stay in their sleeping dens because of the cold outside.

Sleeping bags made of animal skins are extremely comfortable, and although they have no beds and no pillows, generations of people have liked to rest like this.

A long life has also made people find that as long as they sleep for a long time in the long winter, they can't eat too much every day.

Of course, as long as you go to sleep, your energy consumption will be extremely low. In contrast, a full day of heavy physical labor consumes three times as much energy as a day of lethargy!

Some families keep hounds to help them hunt small animals, especially ferret hunting. Hounds eat raw meat, and the protein in the meat can be quickly consumed, providing the hounds with a steady stream of energy.

Humans can’t. People can only get energy quickly by eating sugar. It takes time to turn the meat in the stomach into energy.

And the energy of wheat is three times that of venison.

Rurik was the first to get up, only to see the bright outside, the cold wind blowing into the house through the cracks in the wooden door, and the cold forced him back into his sleeping bed.

Hunger still urged him to push his mother awake.

"Huh? It's already dawn. Kid, are you hungry?"

"I'm hungry, give me something to eat. Mom, it's dawn."

"All right."

Nia sat up slowly, grabbed the beard of Otto who was sleeping comfortably, and woke him up.

As the leader, Otto was not idle. He would visit some friends, especially to sit at the houses of his most loyal subordinates, and to see the situation of his eldest nephew.

Only embers remained in the bonfire at home, and it was already a pile of burning white charcoal. Niya threw in a few more black coals, and soon the coal fires started.

Wheat is precious, and baked bread is even more precious.

She began to boil a piece of pickled salty wild boar, boiled the pickled salt, and the family ate the piece of meat for breakfast. As for the boiled brine, drink it directly.

She glanced at the girl curled up like a kitten again, and with a little sigh, she still took out the unpalatable shark meat.

After all, it is a servant, and it is the favor of the master to not starve to death.

After Rurik regained consciousness, he first looked at the pieces of meat boiled in the iron pot, and subconsciously drooled. He didn't notice that his mother also prepared shark meat, and now he just wanted to pull Rumia up and share the meat for a while.

"Rumia, don't sleep anymore."

Rurik called the girl softly, but the other party was indifferent.

He was reaching over, expecting to pat her on the body to wake her up. As a result, his little hand was touching a hot object.

"What's the matter?! Fever?!"

A bad thought came to mind, Rurik touched his armpit to feel the temperature, and then put his hand on the girl's forehead, it was obvious that her head was hotter.

In shock, Rurik simply shook her body, and finally the girl opened her eyes.

She was very haggard, and when she looked closely, Rurik saw that her lips were white, her eyes were confused, and her whole body was loose.

"Oops! It's just a fever!"

How can this be good? In this distant ancient times, a fever was enough to kill a person.

In fact, a tablet of amoxicillin, plus some other fever-reducing tablets, can restore her body temperature in just an hour or two. These medicines do not exist in this time and space, and only some herbs can slowly treat diseases such as colds and fevers.

In general, the effect of medicines is quite limited, and almost all of them rely on the patient's own resistance to survive.

She has a fever, and everything must have something to do with yesterday.

Still in the mood to eat? Do not!

Rurik shook Rumia's body in a panic, trying to keep her awake.

Son's strange behavior immediately attracted the attention of Alto and Nia.

"Child, what's the matter? Your servant she..." Otto questioned.

"Dad, she's sick! It's very sick! She'll die without treatment."

Otto, he hasn't sat in cold blood to watch the death of a servant, not to mention the servant was very obedient yesterday.

He came over to see the situation, his thick palms grabbed the back of the girl's neck, and he could easily feel the terrifying heat.

"Dad! What should I do?"

"Don't panic, child. Only one person can save her now."

"Who?"

"Priests. Only priests, Veria. Don't panic..."

There was no doctor in the tribe at all, and the priests assumed the responsibility of the doctor, and this was another major job for these priests who refused to marry and spent the rest of their lives serving the gods. They have indeed mastered certain medical techniques, and they have indeed cured the diseases of some tribesmen, which is one of the reasons why they are highly respected.

Otto squatted down, and to be honest, seeing a child who was terminally ill and haggard, his heart was also strongly touched.

There should have been three children in this family, and he was deeply touched by what his son said from the bottom of his heart yesterday.

a daughter? Maybe it would be nice to have a daughter...

Otto reassured his son: "Don't worry, the priest will cure her."