Death Knight Orgilrian

"Phew..."

I stared down at my blood-stained palms and let out a shaky breath.

The second murder I had committed since arriving in this world.

The shock of my first kill hadn't even faded yet, but I had to do it to survive.

Don't go soft on me, Doran. You swore to be ruthless.

He was just one of many wicked men.

I clenched my bloodied hands, trying my best to stop the trembling.

The vivid, sticky sensation on my knuckles felt as though it would linger forever, haunting me.

Yet, deep down, a part of me felt as if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all of this was entirely familiar, which only added to my confusion.

This was definitely the first time I had ever killed someone. So why was my inner self accepting the situation so calmly?

Whose impulses and déjà vu were these, boiling up from within?

Was this really just a game world?

But now was not the time for idle thoughts; it was time to make a decision.

Compared to what I was about to pull off, killing a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠man or two was nothing.

"...Disguise."

I vividly pictured the captain I had just killed.

His authoritarian tone, his habit of twitching his mustache at the end of every sentence, his condescending gaze.

Before long, I confirmed in the mirror that my appearance had changed. I hid the captain's corpse in the wardrobe, changed into his clothes, and stepped out of the cabin.

Outside, the battle was still in full swing.

Shouts and screams erupted from all directions, and the metallic stench of blood hung thick in the air, mingling with the rain and wind.

Their numbers have thinned out quite a bit...

I didn't care if the pirates died, but I needed them to complete my objective.

Having made up my mind, I slowly walked out onto the deck. The first mate, who was practically the only one keeping his sanity on this ship, shook off a skeleton and yelled at me.

"Captain! The undead assault is too fierce! We're all going to die at this rate! And some bastards already took the escape rowboat and fled...!"

"Take the helm."

"The helm...? But trying to flee against the headwind right now is impossible!"

"We aren't fleeing. ...We are heading straight for the Mary Celeste!"

"What...? Are you out of your mind, Captain?! We should be looking for any way to survive, and you want to sail straight into the undead's nest?!"

"Silence. This is the only way we survive. Or do you... have a better idea?"

At sea, the captain's word is absolute law.

Faced with my overbearing command, the first mate gritted his teeth after a brief struggle and steered the ship.

I walked past him and bellowed so that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠every crew member on deck could hear me.

"Listen up, everyone! Lower your weapons!"

"What...? What do you mean?!"

"I won't say it twice. Anyone who fights from this moment on will be deemed mutinous and executed on the spot. ...Lower your weapons!"

Even if I had to rely on the slimmest of chances.

I would survive and get out of here.

It didn't take long for Doran to confirm that his judgment was correct.

"They... they really stopped attacking..."

As they steered the ship toward the ghost fleet, the skeletons stopped their assault as if by magic.

Once the madness that had swept the ship subsided and the gruesome aftermath was revealed, the pirates huddled on the deck, shivering in sheer terror.

The undead horde, which had been lunging as if to tear them apart just moments ago, now stood right before them, clacking their teeth and glaring.

However, not everyone was so lucky...

On the decks of the other captured ships, executions were in full swing.

"P-please...! Spare me! I have a wife and child at home...!"

Slash!

"You damned undead bastards! Even in death, I'll curse you—"

Slash!

With every swing of a massive halberd, human heads rolled with surreal ease.

If not for the grief-stricken faces and wails, it would have looked like an ordinary harvest of fruit from an orchard.

Meanwhile, because only Doran's ship remained untouched by the undead, the first mate and the pirates—who had initially doubted his orders—now looked at him with eyes brimming with awe.

"C-Captain... only our ship is safe from the undead... How is this possible...?"

"How on earth did you think to sail straight into the middle of the undead...?"

"..."

Doran, disguised as the pirate captain, ignored his crew's chatter and kept a vigilant eye on his surroundings.

By nature, the undead possessed little intelligence and merely chased the warmth of life.

They were monsters stripped of reason, driven to the extreme by the instincts carved into their physical forms.

It was their tragic fate to crave the flesh and blood they lacked in death, inevitably harming the living.

But everything changed when a Lich, one of the highest-tier undead, was involved.

The Lich's aura effect.

In addition to boosting the stats of the undead, a Lich's aura had the effect of granting them intelligence.

Using the Lich's power—the very pinnacle of intellect—the undead could regain a fraction of their past memories.

While this was originally meant to raise undead commanders to manage massive armies easily, it could also be exploited as a bargaining chip if used correctly.

Doran's decision to sail straight into their midst was a calculated move to stimulate the Lich's thirst for knowledge.

To a Lich, who greedily sought to understand the laws of all things, those who willingly dove into the abyss of death would seem like an incomprehensible anomaly.

If teaming up with the skeletons to kill other crew members was just individual troublemaking by the pirates, this decision was stirring up chaos on an entire ship-wide scale.

"Captain, how in the world..."

"Shut up and watch."

Because the real show was about to begin.

In that tense moment, a Death Knight leaped down onto the deck where Doran stood.

When Doran dropped to one knee to show respect to the Lich's proxy, the dazed first mate and pirates hastily followed suit, awkwardly lowering themselves.

Ignoring the pirates, the Death Knight walked straight toward Doran.

From inside the Death Knight's helmet, a chilling voice rasped out, sounding like nails scraping against an iron plate.

"Human... what were you thinking, approaching us...?"

"..."

A face-to-face encounter with a high-tier undead.

My survival depended entirely on how I answered here.

I quietly scanned the knight standing before me, taking in his appearance.

Armor tattered with peeling gold leaf, a golden aura seeping through the crevices, and accessories made of strung-together gold coins.

The commander of the 3rd Fleet of the Mary Celeste, Golden Orgilrian.

Thank goodness.

If the one who showed up had been Mordred the Destroyer or Arcturus the Masochist, I would have been slaughtered instantly without any room for negotiation.

Still on one knee, I spoke in a calm, steady voice.

"Barbo, the humble captain of the Barba, greets the Golden Scourge of the Sea, Lord Orgilrian. To witness a past glory and a living legend with my own eyes fills me with awe!"

"A past glory... You speak as if you knew me when I was alive."

"Of course. As a man who once pursued martial prowess and justice, how could I not know the legendary knight, Lord Orgilrian? Your achievements are inscribed on the Teuton Knights' memorial monument, preserved for all eternity!"

"What...? You know of the Teuton Knights...? That is the order I belonged to in life!"

"Haha... I visited it last year. Though my martial skills were lacking, and I failed to join..."

"Hmm..."

The Death Knight looked down at me with an intrigued gaze.

Though he still gripped his greatsword, I could clearly feel his hostile edge softening.

...Nice, it's working!

I suppressed a smirk.

In Velheim, brute force wasn't everything.

To survive in a place where endgame bosses occasionally strolled into starter villages to play poker, one had to master various social skills.

In that sense, having complete knowledge of Velheim's history and faction dynamics gave me a massive advantage.

My deep understanding of this Death Knight was thanks to the thorough research I had done while raiding the Mary Celeste back in my days as a top-ranked player.

"But... you are far too weak to aspire to knighthood. And a pirate, no less. How could one who dreamed of being a knight fall so low?"

"You speak the truth, Lord Orgilrian. However, this ship is no mere pirate vessel."

"...Then what is it?"

"We are privateers! We target and plunder the ships of the Kingdom of Novenheim, a wicked pagan force and the sworn enemy of the Teuton Knights! In normal times, we escort warships and rescue stranded vessels!"

"Hmm... I rather like the sound of that."

The Death Knight looked down at me with a slightly approving gaze.

Since I had made it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up on the spot, he would realize it was a lie the moment he saw the looted goods piled in our cargo hold, but...

...Now's the time!

I slowly stood up and slipped an object into the Death Knight's hand.

As his hand slowly opened, the gold coins I had retrieved from Captain Barbo's cabin lay in his palm.

"...What is this?"

"It is a humble token of my respect. Please accept it."

"What?! How dare you offer tainted gold to a knight! Did you think a petty bribe would save your life? I will sever your head this instant and strip the flesh from your—!"

Clink.

"...bones. Though, this is a rather substantial sum. No, but still, a knight's pride..."

Clink. Clink.

"...pride doesn't put food on the table. Indeed... Wait, but I could just kill you and take the gold from your corpse anyway..."

"But if you did that, wouldn't you have to hand it all over to the Lich? If you pocket it now, no one will ever know."

"Mmm... Is that so? No... you have a point. You definitely have a point..."

With every gold coin I slid into the gaps of his armor, the Death Knight's attitude grew visibly warmer.

There was a reason this undead was called "Golden Orgilrian."

He's a total gold-digger!

Actually, it wasn't that strange.

When the undead regained their intelligence, unnecessary memories were filtered out, causing their worldly desires from life to intensify.

And this undead's keyword was "greed."

Even when raiding the Mary Celeste in the game, the standard strategy was to lure Orgilrian away with a bribe and backstab him.

Indeed, his reaction right now spoke volumes about his state of mind.

"...Thank you. To tell you the truth, even the undead need gold. Lich Mortemius demanded we hand over every single coin to buy reagents for his magic..."

"...Again? Did his experiment fail? Summoning a Kraken takes an immense amount of mana, so it would be wiser to try a different summon first. Like a Ship-Swallowing Serpent, perhaps..."

"My thoughts exactly! I kept telling him that summoning a high-tier monster with our current budget is impossible, but it's like he has fish bones shoved in his ears! He just kept babbling nonsense about how tentacles are romantic! Wait, hold on! How does an outsider like you know about that?"

"I deduced it from the ambient mana and the monsters lingering around the ghost ship. Given how unstable the mana is from a recent powerful summoning spell, the number of beasts is surprisingly low."

"Ho... you have sharp eyes. You must know a thing or two about magic. It feels like a waste to just let you go. Any interest in joining our fleet?"

"Haha... come now, let's not be hasty."

Clink. Clink.

"Hmm... perhaps there is no need to kill you. If you labor on our ship for about a hundred years..."

Clink! Clink! Clink!

"On second thought, letting you go seems like an excellent idea!"

Orgilrian grinned with satisfaction as he swept up the gold coins.

Yet, in stark contrast to his jovial expression, the soul fire flickering inside his helmet watched Doran intently.

...What a peculiar human.

Undead were naturally sensitive to souls.

Having already experienced death and still keeping their feet dipped in the River Styx, it was impossible for them not to be.

This was especially true for high-ranking undead like Orgilrian, who fed on terror-stricken souls for nourishment.

Yet, he felt absolutely no trembling from this human's soul.

Normally, an ordinary human would shake like a leaf and struggle to breathe under his gaze.

It seemed impossible, but the man carried himself as if he had been dealing with entities like him for a very long time.

Just how immense was his courage to stand so bold and tall?

O Three Fates, I offer this gold. Weigh his soul upon the scales and reveal the truth.

Sensing something bizarre, Orgilrian activated his authority.

It was his unique skill to discern the essence of an opponent's soul.

And his jaw literally dropped in sheer shock.

W-What...?! What is this absurdly powerful soul...?!

It was a soul burning so brightly it could evaporate the surrounding sea.

Within it lay the intellect of an archmage who had mastered the laws of all creation.

The ferocity of a yaksha harvesting heads on the battlefield.

And the freedom of an explorer roaming mountain ranges, coexisting with the honor of a noble lord.

Hmm... but why are the timelines so jumbled up...?

Moreover, there was a blood-soaked monstrosity mixed in, making it look as if multiple souls were layered on top of one another...

"...Very well! Our business on this ship is concluded. All forces, return to the fleet! I will speak to Lord Mortemius myself, so do not harm this man."

"W-What about... the rest of the humans?"

"A few small fry won't matter. I will hear no objections. All forces, withdraw!"

The undead gathered their loot in perfect order and headed back to the ghost ships.

Just as Doran was breathing a sigh of relief as the undead departed, Orgilrian turned back and spoke.

"Wait. I have some business with you, so come to my cabin later. It is the galleon with the gold-plated figurehead."

"Of course. I will visit you as soon as I finish organizing the ledger."

Doran bowed politely, seeing Orgilrian off.

Thinking about the gold coins he had been completely cleaned out of made his stomach churn, but he had to be grateful just to be alive right now.

And there was an unexpected discovery he made through this conversation.

So this skill works on boss monsters too...

Actually, it made sense when he thought about it.

Just as Loki in Norse mythology fathered Fenrir, Antagon of Velheim was a deity closely associated with boss-class monsters.

When he had obtained the [Rune of Antagon] in the game, he never had a chance to converse with monsters, so he hadn't known. To think such an unexpected utility existed.

Wait... does this mean a completely different build path is possible compared to before...?

Like covering a mage's Achilles' heel—tanking—with monster summons... or supplementing a warrior's weakness in crowd control with a beast like the Kraken...

He had thought it was a completely useless rune, but if he looked closely, there might be plenty of ways to exploit it.

As he was reviewing his skill effects, the pirates lined up on the deck stared at him as if they had seen a ghost.

"Hey... did you see that...?"

"The Captain talked to that terrifying Death Knight like it was nothing...! He's definitely not the kind of guy who could do that..."

The pirates crossed themselves, making a huge fuss.

Doran let out a sigh and spoke.

"...That's enough, all of you. And until this situation is fully resolved, no one is to enter my cabin... First Mate!"

"...Yes?"

"Make sure the crew doesn't do anything stupid to provoke the undead."

"Y-Yes, sir! Understood!!"

After giving the first mate a stern warning, Doran entered the captain's cabin and bolted the door shut.

He closed his eyes and opened them again, and a blue window floated into his field of vision.

In the softly glowing skill window, a new set of text had appeared where none had been before.

Now, it was time to stir up some trouble inside the ghost ship.