April 11, 870 AD
"Shadow" Sven was completely annoyed as he looked out the window.
In this miserable city of Paris, it was snowing without end. It was entirely gray and depressing. Even though thick clouds covered the sun, Sven did not need to see the sky to know the exact time.
He used the Frankish palace guards to judge the hour.
Every single morning, regardless of the freezing weather, the palace guards would march around the stone courtyard outside his window at exactly 7:00 AM.
There were exactly fifty guards. They marched in a square formation for exactly thirty minutes. Sven thought this group of armored idiots was completely ridiculous.
If they simply stayed inside their barracks and rested, they would conserve their body heat and save the empire's grain supply. Instead, they stomped around in the wet mud for no tactical reason at all.
However, thanks to this bunch of idiots, Sven could now determine the perfect time to leave.
