"..."
"..."
Silence fell over the square. Not a single person spoke. They merely gaped wordlessly at Ragnar.
The stillness was so profound that even the sound of a pin dropping onto the snow might have been heard. Finally, someone managed to break the silence.
"Ch-chief."
Rogain, who had just descended from delivering his speech, spoke in a trembling voice.
"Why…?"
That single question captured the sentiment of everyone present: the northern nobles, the gathered common folk, and even the barbarians under Ragnar's command.
Ragnar gazed at the sky and began to speak.
"I had a dream."
"..."
"A dream where I ran alongside legendary heroes, where the ancient glory of the past was reborn in the present. A dream where my name spread farther than theirs ever could."
As a child, others dismissed his dream as nonsense. While the elders of his tribe found it admirable, they assumed it was a fleeting whim that would fade in time.
