“Don’t Worry Too Much. It’ll Work Out.”
“You’re the one who started this mess!”
Rufo swallowed the thought.
“You said you already gave them advance notice, right?”
“Yes. I did, but pirates aren’t exactly trustworthy... they break promises as casually as they eat meals.”
“Well, if it falls apart, it falls apart.”
“Do you at least have some kind of backup plan?”
“Huh? I was just gonna run. If we have that ship, they probably won’t bother chasing us.”
“...”
For a moment, Rufo nearly grabbed the back of his neck.
He was talking about ditching it so casually just because it wasn’t a ship he’d bought with his own money...
“If pirates are stuck living boxed in like this, they’re bound to be short on a lot of things.”
With that, Tae-hyun jumped down.
Beside the McCraney Merchant Group’s ship was a small boat. The plan was for the two of them to board first and head over for negotiations.
“Let’s go.”
“Wait just a moment. We need to turn this on first.”
A small engine created by the Magic Tower of the Erangs Kingdom, powered by mana.
It can’t move a massive vessel, but it’s more than enough to push a small boat.
You have discovered a Mechanical Engineering item.
Your Mechanical Engineering skill has increased.
You have discovered a magic item.
Your Mechanical Engineering skill is too low to learn the crafting method.
Your magic skill is too low to learn the crafting method.
The notification windows popped up in rapid succession.
Tae-hyun smacked his lips in disappointment. His Mechanical Engineering skill had gone up a little, sure—but with something like this, the real prize was figuring out the recipe.
Looks like you need both magic and Mechanical Engineering to reverse-engineer it...
“You are not taking it apart!”
“...How’d you know?”
Caught in the act, Tae-hyun pulled his hand back.
Rufo let out a sigh of relief. He’d only said it on the off chance, when he saw Tae-hyun reach for it—but to think he’d really been planning to take it.
“That thing’s expensive! The Magic Tower doesn’t even sell them to just anyone!”
“Okay, okay. I said I won’t take it.”
Bwoooong—
The boat shot forward, cutting through the water.
Not long after, a massive ship appeared beyond the horizon. Unlike a merchant vessel, cannons jutted out from its sides.
It was a pirate ship.
“Stop right there!”
The pirates on deck spotted Tae-hyun and Rufo and shouted. Then they tossed down a rope.
“Climb up! Slow and easy!”
Rufo turned to Tae-hyun, his face tense.
“You have to be careful up there. Understood?”
“I know, I know.”
“The way you say that is not reassuring at all! And whatever happens, you absolutely must not mention anything about being an Avatar, or gods, in front of them.”
Pirates were greedy by nature.
And the Caterand Pirates were no ordinary pirate gang.
Their captain was an ambitious man.
“I said I got it.”
While the two bickered below, one of the pirates snapped in irritation.
“What are you doing? We told you to come up! If you try anything funny, I’ll—”
“We’re coming, so calm down!”
Tae-hyun waved, grabbed the rope, and climbed.
Thunk—
The moment he landed on deck, he was met by a sea of eyes.
The pirates stared at Tae-hyun and Rufo without blinking.
They stood there with their arms folded, but nothing about their posture was friendly.
Their whole bodies said, Let’s see what you two try.
Rufo’s fingers twitched nervously. It felt like even the smallest provocation would have them drawing blades on the spot.
Tae-hyun cleared his throat once and opened his mouth.
He’d been in situations far more dangerous than this dozens of times over. Something like this didn’t make him nervous.
“Greetings, great lords of the high seas.”
“...”
“As you may already know, we’ve come to make your fortress a little more lively, a little more dynamic, and—”
“You?”
“And why should we trust you?”
“You sure you’re not scheming something?”
The pirates cut in all at once.
Their faces made it clear—they didn’t believe a word of it.
“What is there not to trust? One look at the ship we came from tells you everything. There are no armed soldiers aboard, no stockpile of weapons. The only thing on that ship is a group of people who want to help you great pirates.”
Your Speech skill has increased.
You receive a favorability adjustment through the Avatar’s charm.
The pirates believe your words.
“Why would the McCraney Merchant Group bother doing that for us?”
“To be honest? Money.”
Tae-hyun’s words flowed smoothly, without the slightest hitch.
“Money?”
“Yes. As you know, merchants are the sort of people who’ll do anything if there’s money in it. Whether that money’s legal or not doesn’t matter all that much to them. And you great pirates happen to possess quite a lot of things worth money, don’t you?”
The goods the pirates stole during their raids were varied—precious metals, trinkets, all kinds of items.
But disposing of that loot was a problem in itself.
“You’re saying you’ll handle the goods we stole?”
“Of course, we’d need to be paid too.”
Listening from the side, Rufo was dumbfounded.
There he was, lying that boldly just because he thought there was no chance of getting caught.
Sure, there was a lot of profit to be made by fencing stolen pirate goods.
But if that ever came to light, it would be beyond dangerous. The kingdom might investigate the merchant group directly.
No matter how huge the profit, it was the kind of thing nobody in their right mind would risk.
And yet Tae-hyun was spinning lie after lie as if none of that mattered.
It doesn’t matter. Once we get past this, we’ll never have to deal with these pirates again anyway.
It wasn’t as though they could sail onto land later, furious that they’d been tricked.
“So the McCraney Merchant Group wants to join hands with us... is that what you’re saying?”
The man who muttered those words was tall, dressed sharply in a pirate coat that somehow managed to look elegant.
The moment he spoke, the other pirates parted to either side.
At a glance, he radiated the unmistakable air of a pirate captain.
“Lord Denelson!”
“Lord Denelson!”
Rufo jabbed Tae-hyun in the side and whispered quietly,
“That’s the captain of the Caterand Pirates.”
“He’s handsome.”
“What?”
“I said he’s handsome.”
“...Is that really what you’re paying attention to right now?”
Denelson’s face had a slightly dangerous cast to it, but he was undeniably handsome—like some movie star.
While Tae-hyun and Rufo murmured to each other, Denelson spoke again.
“The McCraney Merchant Group wants to work with us? That’s unexpected. They played the respectable type for long enough. And now they want to join hands with the likes of us?”
Hearing that, Tae-hyun murmured to Rufo,
“Why’s he so petty? He’s basically whining that they ignored him until now, right?”
“...Please watch what you say.”
Tae-hyun looked at Denelson and answered,
“Circumstances can change at any time, can they not? The past is the past. The present is the present.”
“Hmph. I don’t know how much trust that deserves.”
Wow. Seriously petty.
He had a face like that, yet all he did was grumble.
Of course, Tae-hyun didn’t say that out loud.
He was the one who needed something right now.
Keeping his smile in place, Tae-hyun continued.
“You may trust us. We happen to be in urgent need of money ourselves.”
“You need money badly? For what reason?”
“Ahem. This is confidential, but the owner of our merchant group, Lady McCraney, lost a great deal of money gambling...”
“?!”
Rufo whipped his head around to stare at Tae-hyun in shock.
No, seriously, what is wrong with this man?
“McCraney lost money gambling? She’s even more pathetic than I thought.”
And just like that, it was McCraney’s reputation taking the hit.
Without even knowing it, she was steadily becoming a woman who had endangered her entire merchant group by blowing a fortune at the gambling tables.
At last, Denelson nodded.
“Fine. I’ll see what you can do.”
Denelson, captain of the pirates, has accepted your proposal.
Your Speech skill has increased.
The pirates’ reaction will vary depending on how you decorate the island.
Perfectly Decorate the Pirates’ Island
The Caterand Pirates are infamous marauders, but even they have their troubles.
Because the kingdom has them firmly blacklisted, they struggle to acquire necessary items and the people needed to maintain their stronghold.
The proposal from the McCraney Merchant Group is enticing even to them.
Decorate the pirates’ island to perfection.
Then even these violent pirates will reward you.
🎁 Reward: Increased favorability with the Caterand Pirates, ?, ??
The Caterand Pirates had no reason to refuse the McCraney Merchant Group’s proposal.
After all, it meant getting all kinds of supplies—and even people to work on the fortress—for free.
Tae-hyun turned to Rufo and said,
“See? Worked out fine.”
“I can only hope everything else goes this smoothly too.”
“Huh? What’s with that ship?”
“Feels like I’ve seen it before. It’s even bigger than the one we’re riding.”
Lee Ji-na, who was playing as a painter class, looked at her friend Choe Yeon-jeong and asked,
“That’s a combat ship, right? It’s got magic cannons mounted on the sides too...”
“An escort frigate?”
“Th-that...”
“Hm? What is it?”
When her friend started trembling and pointing, Ji-na tilted her head.
“That flag!”
“What about the fla—gasp!”
Similar reactions began breaking out all across the merchant ship.
Because they had seen the flag on the vessel that had drawn alongside them.
A pirate flag.
The flag of the Caterand Pirates.
“It’s a pirate ship?!?!”
“Run! We have to run!”
“Why are we just sitting here?! I said we have to run! The pirate ship is right next to us!”
The players, panicking, grabbed the sailors and shouted at them, but the sailor simply shrugged in calm indifference.
“There’s no need to panic. They’re not attacking.”
“What do you mean, not attacking?!”
“Why the hell would pirates not attack?!”
“This ship is headed to where the pirates are, ladies and gentlemen.”
“?!?!?!”
The passengers stared, mouths hanging open in shock.
What had that sailor just said?
“Wait, what?”
“I heard that wrong, right?”
“This ship is going to Caterand Island. Where the Caterand Pirates are based.”
“Th-then the fortress we’re supposed to work on is...”
“The pirates’ fortress.”
“And the NPCs we’re supposed to get quests from and solve things for are...”
“Pirates.”
The sailor answered with maddening simplicity.
Hearing him, the players looked as if they’d been hit in the head with a hammer.
“What do you mean pirates?!”
“Where’s that guy? The one who gathered the quest party!”
The deck grew noisy with angry complaints, and Tae-hyun stepped forward.
He stood in front of the players—of course with the McCraney Merchant Group guards flanking him.
“What seems to be the problem?”
“What is this?! You said it was a good quest!”
“I said I was sharing a quest from the McCraney Merchant Group. Did I ever lie about that?”
“We’re going to Caterand Island!”
“So? What’s wrong with that?”
“There are pirates there!”
“Exactly. So what if there are pirates? Is that some kind of problem? We just have to clear the quest and collect the reward. It’s not like the pirates are going to lock us up, so why are you all making such a scene?”
His shamelessness was practically plate armor nailed to his face.
On top of that, Tae-hyun was wearing a mask anyway. No matter how much the players complained, it didn’t bother him in the slightest.
He pointed at one of the players standing at the front and asked,
“Then let me ask you this. You accepted a quest tied to a force as big as the McCraney Merchant Group—did you seriously think you’d clear it easily, without any risk, without any effort? Isn’t that trying to mooch a little too hard?”
“N-no, that’s not...”
“Or is it that your problem is just that they’re pirates? What’s so bad about pirates? We go there, do the quest properly, and get the reward. That’s it.”
“...”
Their mouths shut all at once.
It wasn’t like they could start a riot here. The McCraney Merchant Group people on board were high level.
And if you were being strict about it, Tae-hyun really hadn’t lied.
He’d said he was sharing a quest from the McCraney Merchant Group, and that was exactly what he had done.
No one had imagined that the McCraney Merchant Group would be heading for Caterand Island, that was all.