CH-24

Back at Ragnar's house.

Rollo had no idea his brother had been visited in his dreams by a meddling but wise old god.

If he knew, he would be thankful.

He had lost patience, and selfishness was growing in his heart as a result of his new and beautiful servant.

She was a sadist, so Rollo could feel the vicious movements in her heart.

'She wants Lagertha to taste a bitter defeat and learn a valuable lesson she will never forget. She wants to shame her…'

Rollo thought.

Scarlet wanted to chew on this and make Ragnar's wife remember her shame for a long time after this, as well as the fact that as a woman, she was on a lower scale.

The tall woman wanted Lagertha to be humbled and realize that there was no place where she could shine brighter and gain superiority or advantage.

Not even in a fight.

She had yet to become acquainted with this distinctive Viking-like combination of a sword and shield, but she was a fighting expert and would not be held back by any of this.

The fight began after Rollo gave the signal.

"Hyah!"

Scarlet chuckled as Lagertha took off and lunged at her like a smug and overconfident yelling beast, intent on retaliating for all the previous insults.

She said, easily dodging the heavy thrust of the shield with an unnaturally big sidestep,

"You turn out to be as slow and boorish as you are in choosing a man of value... If you're only that swift, this fight seems to already have lost its meaning. This is only going to be a formality. Prepare to face your life's most crushing shame."

Her footwork was agile and fast, exceeding human limits.

Lagertha scowled in response to the disdainful and taunting mockery, charging again, like a furious slab of stone, this time piercing and thrusting at Scarlet with her sword rather than the shield.

She raised her voice at the same time,

"This was a lucky dodge; I'll see how long you can keep that smug smirk on your annoying face! I have the fortitude to stick with this for a long time!"

"How long do you believe you can keep up with my relentless attacks?"

Lagertha was not weak, and she possessed a great deal of fighting ability and power that could not be conveyed in a simple television show. She was strong enough to survive so many fights against strong and lifelong-skilled warriors, men and women alike, so she was neither frail nor ordinary.

Whoosh!

The blow was ineffective and struck nothing but air.

Scarlet, like a quick-footed devil, had taken cover again as the stinging sword's whooshing gusts whizzed by her right side.

She cracked a charming, graceful smile in complete disdain at the enraged boar.

"..."

Lagertha lost her cool after seeing the snarky, irritating expression and screamed in frustration, ire, and consternation at her own previous words. She then swung her sword from low to high, aiming to hit Scarlet in the shoulder.

She said, ashamed and argumentative, treating Scarlet as an idiot,

"Woman, come face me if you have the skill; do you only know how to dodge??"

"..."

Rollo lost his cool after witnessing and hearing that. He was laughing, unlike Lagertha, who was incensed.

Lagertha gave off the sense that she had met a long-lost older sister who was more talented than her. That was the feeling Rollo had since the two girls met. There was a comedic dynamic.

One was a beautiful, shameless woman, and the other was a highly skilled sadist.

Scarlet was not bothered.

Not in the slightest.

Rollo noticed her harder grip on her sword handle, as she replied,

"Dodging is also an art, very critical in the field of warfare, but since you insist... Allow me to set about teaching you the lessons you are so adamant on suffering. Your body shall remember those from this moment forward. I'll make sure of it."

Her tone carried a strong hint of scornful sorrow for her opponent.

Lagertha chuckled as she waited, not moving,

"Ha! I'll finally get to witness if your fighting skills are as razor-sharp as your tongue. Don't disappoint me with bedbug-like blows."

Scarlet scoffed as Rollo realized that she was tired of offering words of wisdom in vain to that dim-witted and overly enthusiastic swine.

'Oh, oh…'

Rollo ruminated as he watched Scarlet smirk like a possessed person.

She took off the next moment, lunging like an arrow released from its bowstring. Rather literally.

She was as fast as Rollo had been a few days before.

"What!"

Lagertha was stunned and passive, as she had no time to react or even raise her shield to parry the intruding, imminent, and extremely violent charge.

Speed appeared to be weight and power at a certain rate of acceleration, particularly in worlds beyond Earth. Scarlet was not a weak person either.

If her current pure and raw, heavy strength were to be compared to something from Rollo's previous world, it would be that of a heavy-lifting male bodybuilder.

A reigning and award-winning varsity champion.

She had the strength of a couple of men, possibly one more than Lagertha did now.

In terms of endurance, there was no need to mention it… If Lagertha's stamina was compared to that of three men, Scarlet would probably be ten or twelve.

Rollo possessed numerous passive skills, including the ability to sense his opponents' strength and skill.

Thud!

Thump!

Lagertha, who had barely had time to raise her shield to her upper waist level, was hit hard by the rushing blow.

It was more accurate to say she felt the force and nearly fell down. Her body was pushed several feet back, leaving two crevices and long lines of sand behind her feet.

She raised her gaze to face Scarlet with widened eyes and a big shocked scowl, who was not courteous or kind enough to wait for her to regain her balance on her feet.

Scarlet did not appreciate her opponent's tenacity in remaining half-standing.

She did not speak or stop; instead, she began to charge again, leaving Lagertha with no chance to defend herself this time.

"How do you move so fast! This is not human at all!"

Thud!

Lagertha only managed to blurt out a few words before being hit with an inescapable force, as if a steed had collided with her left shoulder. She tumbled down in a chaotic and jarring fashion, her face and body rolling in the sand.

Her entire body flopped and crumpled, crash-landed on the sand, and she wobbled, rolled around in it for a while before landing on her ass again, spitting sand out of her mouth, her eyes closed and covered in grains too.

She appeared comical despite her pathetic and sorry appearance.

Scarlet who was not done teaching lessons by a long shot straightened her body in a prideful and elegant way, like a supermodel overlooking, marveling at the sorry sight.

She said, laughing mockingly but in a wonderful and charming way, the hand holding her sword concealing her mouth,

"You finally look to be in your element; this slouching and slumping appearance will most likely grab the attention of my master."

"As a very supportive word of advice, while you're groveling like this, take advantage of the rare opportunity to ask him to accept you with tenderly open arms. I won't be jealous. I promise."

"..."

Lagertha didn't appear to have accepted or understood her first lesson yet. After ending up speechless for a brief moment, during which she was refreshed and given a new perspective on Scarlet's hurtful, blistering personality, she stood up and stomped furiously on the sand, having gathered her arsenal of tools.

Her demeanor and extremely perturbed face reflected her enormous frustration and unwillingness to accept the reality of her insurmountable, unavoidable defeat.

She went utterly insane with it, but it didn't matter because she ended up losing all the same. In fact, she drained, exhausted her stamina faster after becoming completely enraged.

Lagertha lay disillusioned on her back, arms spread, and her absent, shocked, and stupefied face gazing up at the night sky after suffering the most shameful loss of her life.

Losses.

You would think that Scarlet would have taken a break and allowed the poor swine-like woman's brain and heart to process the difficult experience.

But no.

The exquisitely proportioned creature, fighting beast, still had words and blunt, abrasive insight to offer.

She spoke even more sternly than before, but this time with softness and warmth, desiring, hopeful in making Lagertha better.

She said corrosively,

"The bet is lost, but Lagertha, before you even consider what my master will ask of you, don't you have an odd feeling? Why do you think he let me teach you such a mean-spirited lesson?"

"How strong do you think your husband is in comparison to you? Unless you're extremely deluded, you'll quickly realize that the person I call master is naturally much stronger… Why do you think he is so patient with you, given all the disrespect you show him?"

"..."

She did not let Lagertha, the humbled and flattened Lagertha, think of an answer. She had an answer to her own rhetorical question.

She said,

"My master loves you in ways you cannot even imagine. He holds the strength to end your entire lineage, but has never done so. I doubt I would have acted similarly in his situation... In such a set of circumstances, what do you believe is more important? Your life or obstinacy?"

"Haven't you betrayed and taken selfish advantage of a brother before? What can't you do again?"

Rollo wanted to say,

'Don't speak for me, you sadist woman,'

But Scarlet turned to face him without a smile and said,

"Master, let us end the farces and welcome this debauched woman into the fold. I believe she will self-sabotage and commit suicide if you spend too much time making the ill-considered move to give her a choice in this matter."

"As a strong woman myself, I understand that she would never choose the weaker man... You've already earned her respect; now it's time to take the reins of her heart. This is a night to saddle and make a child."

Her tone was unusually fertile, resulting in an unusual phenomenon right away: Rollo was not the first to take a step.

It was Lagertha.

As she suddenly stood, god knows when, she had a rosy expression that sparkled under the luminescence of the moon.

It was a maddened, vengeful expression.

Rollo sensed confusion in her.

Romantically.

The woman was not only defeated, but also completely thrown off balance…

Rollo sighed and suddenly said, one brow wrinkled,

"Woman, I understand you like to break promises, renege on bets, and revel in shame, but what do you have in mind to do now? Surely you're not taking into consideration what I believe you are?"

She snorted and said,

"What do you take me for? I only want to speak privately; away from this odd servant of yours... Let's go inside the house, just you and me."