The Rise of Rurik

Otto’s words were filled with profound meaning. How to become a qualified leader? Rurik was full of curiosity.

The current Rurik, indeed like any child, was curious about everything, and this was evident in his behavior. However, Rurik was different. His body housed a personality named Liu Li. Liu Li was inherently intelligent, but his small and tender body limited his ability to create things to improve the tribe’s life.

Even at the age of two, he had already started to devise things, contemplating the tools seen and observed from the tribe’s craftsmen making and repairing ships, to think about what could be made under the tribe’s existing conditions.

To Rurik, what the tribe called a dock was hardly a dock at all. All the ships were small, and moving goods was time-consuming and laborious, leaving much room for improvement.

He even felt that everything he saw and heard could be improved! They had wooden longhouses strengthened against the cold but lacked the concept of making wooden bedsteads. Every night, they simply laid several layers of thick animal fur on the ground and wrapped themselves in fur to sleep.

They stored a lot of food to survive the winter but did not process it finely. Eating was always simple and rough. They had the capability to make many fine daily necessities and already had decent weaving skills, but their requirements for housing remained simple.

They were inherently clean people, bathing often in summer, but the long, cold winter nights only allowed for washing faces. Tattoos were popular among them. In the warm longhouses during winter days, lit by seal oil lamps, Rurik noticed strange characters tattooed on his biological father during his northern journey. He guessed it was the runic script, symbolizing a blessing.

In Rurik’s view, Rosburg, where he lived, was not a good place to live, even a thousand and two hundred years later.

Another quiet and long night, Rurik continued to surprise his family. He knew he was seen as a treasure by his parents, especially by his father Otto, who considered him the hope of the entire tribe. Indeed, this was the case.

Thus, every night of the winter of 823, Rurik was not in his mother’s arms but was forced to cuddle close to his biological father Otto, sleeping alongside his cousin Arik.

According to Otto, it was so that the two children could absorb his valiant aura. Rurik couldn’t feel any valiant aura, only Otto’s body odor, which wasn’t very pleasant. Over time, Rurik had gotten used to it.

On this night, the outside was still extremely cold, and Rosburg was covered in a layer of snow, even with a lot of floating ice on the sea.

Inside the longhouse, it was warm. Otto, lying on his side, faced a quiet and boring night, naturally having plenty of time to talk to his family. Almost every night, he introduced his glorious battle life to the two children, especially his great journey to Novgorod.

It was from Otto that Rurik fully understood the word “Novgorod” – a Russian city with a very ancient history. Otto always said the people there were affluent but lacked combat prowess. The men of the Ros tribe could easily make them hand over their treasures with mere presence.

Finally, Rurik, who had been holding back his words for a long time, couldn’t hold back anymore. “But Dad, are we going to keep plundering them?”

“Hmm?” Otto was curious. He couldn’t have imagined his son asking such a question.

Not only Otto, but Arik, who was listening to the story, and Niya, who was sewing leather gloves by the lamp, also looked surprised. After all, Rurik, just over two years old, asked something clearly beyond his age.

Otto looked into his son’s wide eyes and hesitated for a while: “You think… we shouldn’t plunder them? You should know that they are just a flock of sheep, and we are merely shearing them.”

“Hehe, maybe my brother is a very kind person,” Arik joked.

Otto shook his head, “We don’t need to be kind to them, just like the Danes in the south are not kind to us. You two should understand, if it weren’t for our strong bodies, sharp swords, and many warriors, we would be the ones being plundered. It’s like meeting a bear in the vast forest. If you have an axe, the bear becomes your bear skin; if not, you are the prey.”

Rurik didn’t agree with this survival of the fittest philosophy, but considering the Ros tribe’s harsh living conditions in the freezing fjords, their simplistic thinking wasn’t surprising.

“But maybe we could trade peacefully with them,” Rurik continued.

“My child,” Otto stroked his son’s forehead, “If your great-grandfather heard you say this, he would be very happy. But those people have already submitted to us. We just need to take their rich tributes. Child, you should know, the people there live more prosperously than us and it’s not as cold as here.”

“Since… since it’s not cold there, and we are strong, why don’t all of us move there and live together with them?”

“Ah? Rurik!”

To be honest, Otto had never thought about moving. He had heard many rumors that some tribes in the south had migrated on a small scale, but the idea of a whole tribe moving was unheard of.

“We are fine here. Rosburg is too cold! The twice-yearly tribute journeys are long, and since those people provide the tribute, wouldn’t they give it to us every day if we lived with them?”

Otto stared at his son, who spoke with logical reasoning, astonished that such words came from a child just over two years old. It seemed unbelievable to him.

But then again, didn’t this prove that Rurik was truly extraordinary?!

Otto fell silent in shock, indeed, his son’s words made some sense. But could they really move the entire tribe? Obviously not!

Otto couldn’t stop some small families in the tribe from settling in unknown areas, but the tribe’s core must stay in the cold fjords of Rosburg, considering other factors.

He stroked his son’s forehead, explaining like to a confidant: “Child, we can’t move.”

“Is it because of our ancestors’ graves here? Or even though it’s cold, everyone still loves our Rosburg?”

“Not just these, but also because of a covenant.”

“A covenant?” Rurik was shocked, as he had never known about any such agreements involving the Ros tribe. “What covenant? I know what a covenant means.”

“It’s our covenant with the Svegians, our friends to the south. We are a whole, and as our leader, I must adhere to this covenant. We can’t move away at will, as doing so would make us eternal enemies. Because we all hate betrayal.”

At this moment, Rurik felt Otto’s seriousness, and his young body also broke into a cold sweat, realizing the enormity of the situation.

Rurik calmed down and said with wide eyes and an unshaken expression, “Dad, what if our destiny is to leave?”

“The result would be friends turning into enemies. I think that would be the case,” Otto replied, feigning calm.

“Ah, if destiny is such, as long as our Ros tribe becomes stronger, even if the so-called Svegians unite, even if the more powerful Danes come, we don’t have to fear them.”

“Child, are you serious?” Otto continued seriously.

“Yes. I think, when I grow up, I will leave here. I don’t want to be the chief of the tribe. I want to be something greater. To be… to be a king, the king of the Ros Kingdom.”

Otto gasped, unsure what to say. He fell silent for a while, feeling the extraordinariness of his son and his ambitious goals at just two years old.

He didn’t say anything more in the end. Compared to his son’s life ambitions, his “great achievements” might seem insignificant.

Otto finally patted Rurik’s body, “Child, you at least need to grow up. At some point, you will inherit my ‘Destroyer’ sword. Only when you grow strong enough to wield the sword, will you have the chance to show your extraordinary ambition.”

“I understand. It’s not too far in the future. Dad, I think I believe in Grandma Vilia’s prophecy now.”

“You can believe her. Now, sleep quietly.”