16
My Villains Chapter 16
5-2. Maintenance (1)
I sat in front of the computer as usual.
Right after work... Huh, work? Did I go to work today? Is it the weekend?
On the monitor, a low-level Blood Knight was rampaging like mad. He was moving erratically, killing enemies, drinking blood, and shuddering.
Seems crazy.
Click, click, tap, tap.
No matter how much I tapped the keyboard and mouse, the Blood Knight was still moving on his own.
What's this?
Thinking there might be a problem, I picked up the mouse to check its underside.
Hup!
I flinched in surprise. The LED characteristic of optical mice was glowing dark red as it met sticky blood.
Looking closely, the hand holding the mouse was rough, long, and thick. This isn't my hand, is it? No, it's not my hand?
...Who am I?
Looking again, it was indeed my hand. The hand was familiarly soaked in blood, but it was almost like someone else's.
Then, shouts erupting from all directions.
Uwooooh!
Death to!
Aack, what am I thinking about? In the middle of a war!
I quickly raised my shield. Then I moved the blood covering my hand to wrap around the falchion.
Oh, ohh.
The blood blade emitting an ominous light grows larger. It gets longer, thicker, more monstrous.
Just then, the bastard pirates were running in a single file. From the front, it looked like one person, no, it is one person. No, it's multiple people.
They're not pirates?
Ellen? Who is the ones behind? Indian, Hollywood actor, track and field athlete, naked skinny person, black and white film heroine, idol, white-haired old man, monk, no answer. Can't be helped.
I thrust out the blade that had grown long enough to touch the horizon. As the pirate split in two with a laugh, an intense feeling of relief came over me.
Kim Seung-soo, I, the office worker, the murderer, the Blood Knight, K-2 410997, K-2 410997, good son, nuclear bastard, pervert, Uncle to Ji-won, Deulpul vice president, Phoenix, gritted my teeth and suppressed it.
I suppressed it, but failed.
Encouraged by the killing of hundreds of pirates, the lord of South Harbor dispatched a fleet. The purpose of the expedition was to drive out the remaining pirates and lift the sea blockade.
Despite the great victory, they were still outnumbered, so the lord requested cooperation from civilian ships docked at the port.
It was an unavoidable situation as many warships had burned and many sailors had died when the dock was attacked.
Numerous archers and sailors boarded the warships in succession and raised anchor. As horn trumpets and drum sounds began to ring out, large sails unfurled one after another.
There were only about twenty warships, but thirty captured pirate ships and conscripted civilian ships were added. In addition, nearly a hundred small boats with less than thirty crew members each lent their strength.
Since there was no such event during gameplay, I watched the fleet's departure with mixed feelings of expectation and worry.
Expectation that the blockade might be lifted and peace would come to the city, and worry about deviating from the scenario I knew.
Anyway, when the naval battle began, South Harbor's side was quite advantageous at first. The leading warships carrying mages broke through the entrance of the bay, and the fleet instantly deployed its formation.
Whether by the lord's order or not, the civilian ships left the bay at the very rear and took position on the left wing. Just like how mercenaries were assigned to the left wing in the dock battle.
However, the situations on land and sea were worlds apart.
Thinking back to the battle at the dock... Since the city was surrounded and under attack, the mercenaries including myself, or the guards of the merchant group, had nowhere to run.
If we ran away and the army lost, we'd be captured by pirates and become slaves, and if the army won, we'd be imprisoned by the lord's order.
There was no choice but to fight desperately.
However, the situation was a bit different for civilian ships. Unlike on land, once they passed through the narrow entrance of the bay, a vast sea stretched out, and the pirates' encirclement was unexpectedly loose.
In the end, some merchant ships chose to become cowards but survive for certain, rather than die fighting for the besieged city.
As soon as the warships began engaging with the pirate ships, they fled straight west.
At first, only a couple of ships fled, but that was enough to shake the fleet.
Moreover, the pirates cleverly opened a path for the fleeing merchant ships, and upon witnessing this, other civilian ships threw the liaison officers dispatched by the lord into the sea and fled.
Centered around the warships, the remaining fleet fought hard in its own way. But in the end, South Harbor's fleet was almost annihilated, and the pirates' blockade remained firmly in place.
Thus, the atmosphere in the city gradually became grim.
"Heuup!"
I opened my eyes with a start and barely swallowed a scream, catching my breath. In that state, I rolled my eyes to look around.
Seeing the faint blue light seeping into the room, it seemed to be dawn.
The rags and straw sticking out of the bed, the blackened rotting wooden floor, and the snoring mercenaries came into view one by one.
At a glance, it was a scene completely different from the place I saw in my dream—an unfamiliar yet familiar sight of the four-person room at the Ship's Horn Inn.
I let out a deep sigh of inexplicable relief.
"Whew."
What was that? I couldn't remember exactly, but it felt like I had an exhilarating dream...
I tilted my head and rummaged through the bag placed next to the bed.
Because of the battle a week ago, I had to leave all my clothes at the bathhouse. They were completely soaked in blood, and no matter how much I washed them, the bloodstains kept coming out. Since I earned some money, I paid a coin to have them cleaned.
I couldn't stay naked while my laundry was being done, so I bought two sets of clothes from a secondhand clothing store.
They weren't the sturdy leather clothes worn for adventures, but just ordinary cloth.
I wanted to buy several types if possible, but there weren't many that fit me in the first place, so I didn't have many options.
That's because Phoenix's body was a head taller than ordinary people.
Naturally, the clothes here were completely different from those worn on Earth. The underwear was a piece of cloth that looked like white shorts, but it wasn't bad if you thought of it as wearing a roomy pair of trunk underwear.
No, it was quite comfortable because it had strings at the bottom that could be tied to tighten it. It didn't ride up inside the pants.
But the pants looked a bit weird.
I'm not sure if it's like this in all of the Middle World or if it's how people in the Kingdom of Milanol dress, but the socks and pants were integrated.
If I explain it like this, you might think of tights, but the material was just cloth, and it was roomy enough to be comfortable.
This also had strings that could be tightened at the ankle, knee, thigh, and waist, so it could be adjusted to fit your body shape. So even though it was a bit inconvenient to put on and take off, it wasn't that uncomfortable to wear.
The top, well, it was a style where a cloth that hangs down to the thighs is secured with a belt.
The front was quite open, which made it feel a bit empty... But eh, whatever. I have a good body anyway.
Still, it was a bit disappointing not to have fluffy socks.
Oh, and I chose two sets of tops and bottoms, underwear, and things like belts, but they only charged me five coins.
I was amazed at how cheap it was, considering there probably aren't any clothing factories here. Of course, it might be cheap because it's secondhand.
And thanks to these cheap clothes, I decided to stop comparing the value of the currency used here with Earth.
I had been trying to roughly convert how much one coin was worth in Korean won while paying for accommodation, meals, etc... But I couldn't do it.
The value of goods and services was so different from my common sense that I couldn't calculate it at all.
I was thinking about this while picking up and putting on my armor.
"Ugh."
The man lying on the next bed woke up and rubbed his face.
His face, filled with bushy beard and scars of various sizes, was all crumpled up with a hangover.
...He's not good-looking to begin with, but looking like that, he's no different from an orc.
"Khung, you're up already?"
"Sleep a bit more, old man. Your breath stinks of alcohol."
"...Really?"
Then the man put his hand to his mouth and sniffed, trying to smell his own breath.
This drunkard's name is 'Gillius', a mercenary.
He's the kind man who talked to me and somewhat covered me with his shield when I was dazed during the dock battle.
The two young men sprawled on the other beds are also Gillius's colleagues. They originally had one more colleague, but he died after being stabbed by a pirate's spear.
"Old man, why are you living so recklessly when your wound has barely healed?"
"Recklessly? What did I do?"
"Are you really asking because you don't know? If you live like that, you'll die soon from either alcoholism or syphilis."
"You disrespectful bastard, picking a fight first thing in the morning."
The old man opened his bleary eyes and grumbled while fumbling at his bedside.
Sigh, look at him fumbling around.
"Old man, here."
The old man took the water flask I handed him, gulped it down, and wiped his mouth with a "Keu-".
"Are you going to have a sword fight with the captain today too?"
"It's not a sword fight, it's sparring. Sparring for training!"
"Come on, what's the use of training? You're as strong as a bear. A bear should fight like a bear, not try to fight like a fox."
"Ah, stop talking nonsense and just go back to sleep."
I snatched the water flask from the old man's hand as he was muttering something and left the room.
Gillius seemed like a good person in his own way, but half of what he said was nonsense or drunken ramblings, so there was no need to listen to him.
As I was about to head to the backyard, the door of the room across opened abruptly.
The one who appeared opening the door was a small girl whose crown barely reached my solar plexus, Ellen.
"What? You're up?"
"Yeah. Good morning."
She greeted me with a hoarse voice while rubbing her eyes. Her face was haggard, covered in fatigue.
As she walked away yawning, I followed her, worried about her appearance, and asked, "Hey, are you okay?"
"Yeah."
"You look like you're about to collapse. Get some sleep."
The girl had been deeply immersed in meditation for the past week.
While meditation to focus the mind is considered an essential routine for mages, she was overdoing it lately. She would sleep only about two hours a day and spend the rest of the time meditating.
Despite my worried advice, she shook her head with half-closed eyes.
"I'm better than I look. And if it's about the sewers, don't worry, I'll sleep early today."
It had been about a week since the battle at the docks ended.
Neither Ellen nor I had been idle, but it was a bit frustrating that our planned sewer exploration hadn't taken place yet.
We were planning to go down to the sewers tomorrow... But if she keeps up like this, we might need to reconsider.
"Is the sewer the problem? What if you end up bedridden?"
"It's not that bad, I'm telling you."
She deliberately avoided my worried gaze and tried to change the subject.
Actually, I had an idea why she was pushing herself so hard.
She seemed to be hung up on not being able to participate in the battle at the docks.
She also seemed a bit miffed at me for lying that she was a student, not a mage, when we were almost caught by the army.
Feeling a bit sorry for her, I tried to maintain a stern expression as I spoke.
"Anyway, don't act foolishly and take care of yourself. You're still young..."
"Ah, nagging again. Hurry up and go warm up. Grania should be out soon."
"Oh, really? Then I'll go ahead."
I headed to the backyard at a quick pace following her words.
As I glanced back, Ellen was just yawning with a sleepy face.
"Are you really okay?"
"Aish."
"Ah, okay."
Guess she's fine.