Vikings: Nordic women

Chapter 29 The Boomerang Flies Back

Outside the Lord's Hall, Ouni held the cup tightly, and put the bottom of it close to her ear. She used the resonance principle of the inner wall of the cup to eavesdrop on the quarrel in the hall.

Her brows were furrowed, and it was obvious that Ralph's attempt was not going well.

She understood that to win the support of the lords, concessions had to be made. In the long run, she believed that the lords should be deprived of the right to tax and govern, retaining only the right to recruit and mobilize troops.

All internal affairs of the territories should be handled by designated personnel. She firmly believes that people have limited energy, and only professionals who specialize in their profession can better handle government affairs and maintain this war machine.

Moreover, holding both military and political power in one person can easily breed ambition, which is not conducive to governance in the long run.

But there is a price to pay for taking power, and she is also thinking about what benefits she can offer in exchange?
If this policy is opposed by the lords and fails to be promulgated, their morale will be greatly boosted, directly threatening her ruling position. It will become more difficult to promulgate subsequent decrees.

She fell into deep thought: "What should I do?" She recalled the concessions she had made in order to quickly ascend to power and stabilize her rule. Now, she felt that the boomerang she had thrown flew back and hit her nose.

Of course, if she hadn’t backed down, she would have likely been killed along with Harold.

Who can say for sure?
Although she could now enforce this policy, it would likely cause dissatisfaction among the lords and leave the potential for rebellion.

Ouni walked into the noisy lord's hall, having made up her mind.

She knew that to get the lords to voluntarily surrender their power, she would have to devise a clever plan, and that would require the right bait. She wondered what she could offer.

She did not invite the high priest, but found an excuse to let Xina take him to the mountain to collect herbs, because she believed that clergy should not interfere too much in government affairs.

Moreover, the promised temple had not yet materialized, and she feared that the high priest's arrival would cause more trouble.

When she returned to the hall, the room suddenly became quiet. She pretended not to know and asked, "What are you talking about?"

Lord Ludwig expressed his dissatisfaction in an obscure way: "Madam, we are against the selection of ruling officials. They are endangering our interests! Please think carefully!"

Ouni tried to gain their understanding: "Well, I understand. I am just considering everyone and think that we should train some talents who specialize in handling trivial matters to share the affairs of the territory with us. In fact, it is equivalent to a butler!"

However, Lord Magrus rejected his proposal outright: "Madam, we have our own people to manage the territory."

Ouni glanced at the lords present with some annoyance and found that no one was willing to stand up and support her.

She was disappointed, realizing that the loyalty of the oath was just a superficial pretense and could not be truly trusted.

But even so, she still tried again and again to believe in human hearts.

As for others, such as Ralph and other junior officers, since their interests were not involved and their status was not high enough, they had no say.

However, she also understood that if she were these lords, they would probably refuse, unless she could provide greater benefits and make them willing to support her as the absolute leader's confidant.

A flash of enlightenment came into Ouni's mind. She realized that in order to successfully issue the decree, she must offer greater benefits to attract the lords.

She waved at the maid, then picked up the barley cake on the table, broke it into six equal pieces, and pointed it at the six little lords present: "Distribute it to them!"

The maid followed Eunice's instructions and distributed the separated cakes to the lords one by one.

Magrus looked at Ouni in confusion, but Ouni raised her hand to signal him to be quiet: "Listen to me!"

"Now, we have a barley cake, and I will divide it into six portions and give it to you. If there is no other food, can you be full?" Ou Ni's question made everyone silent, they didn't know what she wanted to express.

"Ludwig, you said that you only have that small piece of barley cake for every meal. Do you think you can be full?" Ounnie began to count the heads.

"No, ma'am. I have to eat a leg of lamb every day now. I can't eat barley cakes anymore." Ludwig politely bowed to Eunice and replied.

"Magurus, what about you?" Ouni looked at the other lord.

"No!" Magrus stared down at the barley cakes, "I'll starve to death. I can at least eat five barley cakes!"

"What if there is not enough food?" Ou Ni continued to ask.

"Go rob?" a lord answered tentatively. "What if we can't win?" Ouni's question made the lords look at each other in bewilderment.

Ouni raised her hand, intending to smash it on the table, but hesitated and retracted her hand: "Then why do you still make such a stupid decision to prevent us from becoming stronger? Why can't you think about snatching more barley cakes?

Remember, what we need to do now is to strengthen ourselves. We must do better than others, so that our territory will be prosperous, our population will be larger, and more people will be willing to join us.

By then, we will have conquered a lot of territory, and you will all become great lords. Why are you still arguing over these petty gains?"

Ou Ni became more and more excited as she spoke. She stood up and her chest heaved violently.

"Now, vote! Who agrees and who opposes? Let me see. Those who are willing to support the decree, raise your right hand. Those who are unwilling to support it, I will not force you, let them do it on their own!"

Ouni sat back on the Yar throne, let out a long sigh, and waited for the lords' reactions.

The lords looked at each other, and the atmosphere was tense. Finally, Lord Joachim, who had been silent all the time, raised his right hand and said, "You are right, Madam. This small piece of barley bread is not enough to fill me up, so I am willing to believe you!"

"And me!" Sven also raised his right hand to show his support.

Ouni looked at the remaining four lords and said, "What about you? Do you object? If you do, I will not issue any decrees to your territories. I will allow you to govern independently!"

"You have always been generous, I am willing to trust you!" Magrus raised his hand, and his decision made Ludwig anxious.

"Magurus, you..." Ludwig looked at him anxiously.

"Stop talking, Ludwig, I am willing to follow in Madam's footsteps, because everything we have is given by her!" Magrus answered firmly, and praised Eunice by the way.

"I agree too!" Seeing the one-sided situation, Sigrun, who had been wavering to begin with, raised his hand to show his support, fearing that he would be targeted if he fell behind.

Now only Frederick and Ludwig were left. They hesitated for a while, feeling uneasy. In the end, they did not raise their hands and chose silence.

"Okay, since you two have made your choice, I now announce that the four lords, Joachim, Sven, Magrus, and Sigrune, will join the system of decrees I have promulgated..." Ouni held back the second half of her angry words. She said that she could speak freely and could not go back on her word, and she could not get angry, otherwise no one would dare to speak in the future.

She must manage her anger, stay calm and rational so that she can better rule these people.

This is an extremely difficult thing to do. After all, she is a normal person and she also feels angry.

"Madam, now that you have made the decision, I remember that I still have some things to deal with, so I request to leave first!" Ludwig said nothing, looked deeply at the lords, and said goodbye to Eunice and left.

"Madam, I also need to take care of some things!" After Frederick saluted Eunice, he turned and left, standing with Ludwig.

"Wait a moment!" Ou Ni called the two of them, her voice soft as she suppressed her anger, "Come and join our celebration party tonight. It's a happy day after all. We are all family. There's no need to be unhappy because of a disagreement!"

Although her heart was filled with anger and dissatisfaction, she knew that as a leader, she had to remain calm and rational, and not show her emotions.

Hearing this, the two lords looked at each other and stopped. "Yes, ma'am!" they replied, then turned and left.

Ouni praised the others, painted a big picture, and then let them go.

"Ma'am, should we kill them?" Robert came closer. "We don't know when Yael from Sloms Falls will come back. If the two of them betray us, we might be in danger. We can't afford the risk."

Ouni pondered for a while, then shook her head: "I have anticipated this possibility, but I would rather they betray me first than kill them based on speculation! Strengthen the defense of the territory!"

She thought a lot about it, and although it might be safer to kill them, if she really did that, all the men who followed her would be uneasy, and she might be in bigger trouble soon.

Feld, what should I do? I was pushed step by step onto an unexpected path, and I have never felt so difficult!

She glanced at the reliefs of the gods on the wall and silently prayed in her heart. She put her hands together in front of her, crossed her fingers and clenched them into a hammer, and pressed them against her forehead: "Feld, please give me strength!"

Ralph watched this scene silently. He pulled Robert away and said, "We must do something!"

(End of this chapter)