Chapter 114
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: Uninvited Guests (2)
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3.
Besik, leader of the Great White Shark Pirates and the 6th Hero of the Empress, was drinking in his captain's quarters, his face twisted into a scowl.
He was not in a good mood.
This was something our pirate crew could have handled alone. Did she really have to send that bastard Edward along?
Just a simple raid on a small elven village by the coast.
He had thought it was a good chance to claim all the glory for himself.
Above all, wasn't it an opportunity to monopolize the precious spoils of war that were the elves?
If he could have monopolized those spoils, expanding the size of his pirate crew wouldn't have been just a dream.
But his sweet dream was shattered by the Empress's command.
-You're just my dog. Bark when I tell you to bark, lie down when I tell you to lie down. Don't even think from the start. You're a muscle-brained idiot. Got it?
Damn it!
CRASH!
Recalling the Empress's insulting words, Besik slammed his fist on the table and ground his teeth.
The table shattered under his fist, but his anger did not subside easily.
It was infuriating enough that she'd sent another man along, claiming she couldn't trust him, but of all people, it had to be Edward.
The very man who was openly competing with him under the Empress's command.
A hatchling, or whatever it is, what do I care?
The Empress had ordered him to search for a 'hatchling.' And as a means to find it, she had given him a palm-sized scale.
Besik fiddled with the scale the Empress had given him, his brow furrowing.
A pirate should just think like a pirate and plunder. What the hell is that bitch thinking?
The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he became.
The anticipation he'd felt when he first joined her ranks was long gone.
He was sick and tired of the Empress treating him like a common errand boy.
As Besik was drowning his anger in alcohol,
Creek.
"Captain! The pursuit team that went after the elf has returned! But..."
The door to the captain's quarters flew open, and his first mate rushed inside.
Besik glared at his first mate, his face contorted in a deep frown.
"But?"
"...Only one man came back. And he's in a strange state. He keeps rambling nonsense, insisting that he has to report to you directly..."
"Ha, these worthless maggots are finding all sorts of new ways to fail."
He had sent a separate pursuit team of about ten men to catch a single elf.
And it wasn't even an elf in good condition.
That elf had been struck squarely by a paralysis needle he, Besik, had thrown himself. It meant she should have collapsed before long.
"Bring me that bastard who came back alone. Now."
he said in a low voice.
A simple mission to slit the throat of a paralyzed elf and returna mission impossible to fail.
Hearing that they had failed even that, a thick wave of displeasure rose in his throat.
"I had him wait outside the captain's quarters, just in case."
The first mate immediately went outside and dragged a man into the room.
Besik watched the man, his hand gripping the massive battle-axe resting beside him.
"Why do you look like such a mess?"
His face was a deathly, dark pallor.
That wasn't all. The man was constantly twitching. Drool streamed ceaselessly from his mouth, and the reek of urine was so strong he must have pissed himself.
"C-Captain."
the man said, his voice trembling.
"Please... s-save... me. I think... I'm going to die."
"What happened to the rest of the bastards?"
"They're all... d-dead."
"By who!"
SHLIIICK!
Besik's axe mercilessly severed the man's right arm.
Blood gushed from the stump.
"You worthless sons of bitches! You couldn't even handle such a simple mission..."
Besik stopped mid-sentence and stared at his subordinate.
Despite having his arm chopped off, not even a scream escaped the man's lips.
"...Ha!"
He glared at his subordinate.
Something had felt off.
The fact that he was the only one to return alive was suspicious enough, but seeing him in person confirmed it.
"Stupid bastard. You should have just died back there."
WHOOSH!
Once more, the axe sliced through the air.
THWACK!
His axe ruthlessly split the subordinate's neck.
Then, a moment later,
Slither!
something black began to ooze from the man's body and squirm.
A pitch-black darkness.
The darkness quickly coalesced, forming a black sphere.
A dense mana emanated from the sphere.
Besik immediately grabbed the sphere roughly. Then, with a grotesque smile, he spoke.
"Now I get it."
A sphere pulsing with someone's mana.
He wasn't sure if it was magic or dark magic, but one thing was certain.
"My boys weren't killed by the elf."
The caster had planted something inside this man and intentionally sent him back alive.
Elves would sooner kill every last human than resort to such a cruel method.
This was less the way of elves and more the way of pirates.
"...An interesting bastard has joined their side."
Besik grinned, looking at the sphere.
He could feel someone's gaze from beyond the sphere. It wasn't just his imagination.
Intuition. An intuition honed over many long years told him that the opponent was watching him through the sphere.
"They wouldn't have gone to all this trouble just to play peeping tom."
As he was examining the sphere with interest,
CREAK!
the first mate who had been waiting outside the door rushed back into the captain's quarters, his face urgent once more.
He flinched at the sight of the corpse on the floor but quickly spoke to Besik.
"Captain, the men who came into contact with that corpse are all acting strangely! They're all curled up as if possessed, terrified!"
"You mean it's contagious?"
"...It seems so."
Hearing his first mate's report, Besik looked at the sphere and gave a vicious smile.
"Just as I thought. You're one of us."
Vile, willing to do whatever it takes to win.
He could feel a thick malice in his opponent's methods.
"Behead all the ones acting strangely and throw them into the sea."
He gave the order to his first mate, then infused his hand with mana.
CRACKLE!
The sphere shattered, scattering without a trace.
"Perfect. I was just getting bored."
They killed pirates of the Great White Shark crew, so that debt would be repaid in full.
VWOOOM!
Mana befitting a 7-star began to shimmer from Besik's body.
4.
Flicker.
The vision shared by Pluto was cut off.
Karron dismissed the clearly exhausted Pluto, then chuckled and muttered to himself.
"For a guy who looks like a bear, he's sharp."
What he had planted in the man named Hugo was a clone of Pluto.
He had expected to be able to use Pluto in various ways, but seeing it in action exceeded his expectations.
"I'll have to use this more often."
While it was difficult to use freely in places without shadows, he now knew it could be applied in this way.
It seemed Pluto could fill many of the gaps in Karron's own abilities.
Looks like the information that pirate gave me was more or less true.
Thankfully, that pirate Hugo had done his part.
The moment he was free of Karron, he had headed straight for his fleet.
Thanks to him, he was able to roughly cross-verify the information about the fleet.
Most importantly, the 6th Hero, Besik.
Being able to gauge the man's level was the greatest achievement.
A 7-star, for a mere pirate?
A skill level that could easily overpower most knights.
As expected of one of the powers that dominated the Southern Sea.
"Karron. The elf is awake."
As Karron was organizing the information he'd seen through Pluto, Rion approached, supporting the elf.
Karron glanced over at the elf.
Her complexion looked decidedly better than before.
"It seems I always meet elves in urgent situations."
From Poina to Neria, Orion, and now this elf.
Come to think of it, none of them had been ordinary circumstances.
And this time was no different.
"Can you speak the human tongue?"
Karron asked the elf casually.
The elf then muttered something in Elvish.
With no one able to converse in Elvish, Karron couldn't help but look perplexed.
But just then,
-She's saying, 'Thank you for saving me, my benefactor...'
Guillotine translated in a weary voice.
"Can't you do two-way translation?"
-How would that work? She can't hear my voice, you stupid master.
"If you can't, then make it work. For a magic sword, you're surprisingly useless."
Karron shot an irritated thought at Guillotine before turning back to the elf.
Would he have to resort to gestures again?
"Leave it to me!"
Suddenly, Utulla pulled something from his waistband.
A book with a brown leather cover appeared.
"Could you please keep things like books in your backpack?"
Leo said, his brow furrowed.
But Utulla thumped his chest and replied proudly.
"A great warrior always keeps a book close. Leo. You need to read more."
"I'm not stupid, you giant oaf."
"No, you lack knowledge. Have you not heard that knowledge is power?"
It was a heavy-handed rebuke from Utulla.
At his rebuke, Leo froze, his mouth agape. Utulla paid him no mind and spoke to Karron.
"This is an Elvish textbook. I bought it last time I was in Gallard. I studied it in my spare time during my secluded training, so I can use some simple vocabulary. Ah, but I still have trouble understanding spoken Elvish! I can only speak it."
"...Utulla."
"What is it, Karron?"
"You're smarter than you look."
Utulla usually spoke with a slow, halting speech pattern, which made him seem a bit dim-witted.
Plus, he was the size of a house.
Anyone who saw Utulla would inevitably think he was dull.
"Giants must travel all over the continent to carry out their tasks! To do so, we must learn many languages."
A giant skilled in linguistics.
It didn't quite fit, but Karron decided to see how it played out.
"I'll handle the listening part... Just ask her how she ended up being chased by pirates."
"Understood."
At Karron's request, Utulla approached the elf. With the Elvish textbook in one hand, he began to speak, mixing in hand and foot gestures.
The elf, seeming to understand Utulla, replied in a small voice. Guillotine immediately translated her words.
-I witnessed the ships of the Naga alongside the ships of human pirates. I tried to return to my people immediately, but the pirates caught up to me in an instant.
"...Naga?"
The beings Orion had warned him about before.
The enemies of the elves, who dominated the waters of the Great Forest.
He'd heard they were a race that hated humans as much as elves did, so why would they join hands with human pirates?
This was a problem that went beyond mere pirates.
This was clearly a serious threat.
Why, of all places, is Kerua hiding here?
The dragon's lair he'd passed earlier, the pirates, and now the Naga.
The location the Regent had given him as Kerua's hiding place was also conveniently not far from the village.
One coincidence might be overlooked, but several had overlapped.
Could all of this truly be dismissed as mere coincidence?
No.
It couldn't be.
This was,
"inevitable."
It was as good as proof that something was unfolding, centered around the southern part of the Great Forest.
Karron nodded slowly, then looked at the elf and said.
"Take us to your village. Right now."
There was no time.