My Villains Episode 051
14. Berserker (2)
The voyage, which began peacefully, faced a crisis when the night sea turned black.
It was none other than my shouting that broke the peace.
“There are pirates!”
Under the dusky moonlight, a sailboat appeared.
The sailboat that appeared from the southwest had its sails retracted – but
it’s insanely fast, isn’t it?
Dozens of pairs of long oars lined up on both sides were pushing the sea as if rowing by one person.
My jaw dropped at the sight of a huge ship that seemed to be well over 40 meters in length approaching like a hurricane.
“Go to land to land!”
Randell and Grania, who were on the starboard side, gritted their teeth and rowed at the urgent voice of the skirmisher Romet.
The boat quickly turned and started heading towards the beach.
The high tide had passed, but the waves were still strong, so the boat was faster than expected.
However, Arnal, who was sitting on the aft side, shouted with a stiff face.
“Damn it, I’m going to catch up! sooner!”
The reason Arnal showed his impatience was that the sailboat followed us, turning and setting sails.
But isn’t that something to worry about? Is the coast already in front of you?
The moment I thought,
“Uh-uh-huh?”
The sailboat riding the wind sped up tremendously as if it had a motor.
“I’m going to catch up… a little faster!”
In my heart, I wanted to row myself right now, but I had to hold back.
It was because the breathing of the four people who had rowed so far was not bad, and the boat could have turned over if I interrupted my impatient mind and used too much force. In the meantime, the distance to the sailboat was gradually narrowing.
Damn, isn’t this going to get under the bow?
If I had driven the boat closer to the shore, I would have been able to escape right away, but regretting it is useless. In the first place, it was also something that was not planned since the pirates appeared so quickly.
There’s no way they knew our plan in advance, so it must have been a patrolling ship… It seems that the siege at sea was tighter than expected. Or just bad luck.
“Chi it.”
As the sailboat approached, Arnal sighed and strung his bow.
Seeing that, my spine felt chilly, so I quickly lifted the shield I was wearing. It was because he remembered being an arrow holder in the first battle he fought after coming to this world.
The shield he requested and received from the prince was different from the ones he had used before.
It was commonly called a ‘heater shield’ on Earth, and it was a shield commonly used by cavalrymen on horseback.
The size was barely enough to cover my upper body and the weight was light, so I wasn’t satisfied with it, but it wasn’t a bad thing.
“Here Ellen.”
He pulled Ellen while inspecting the pirates standing on the deck of the sailboat. He stood next to me without saying anything and whispered a little.
“trunnion.”
” hmm’?”
“Once we reach the ground, let’s look at the situation and run to the north.” “…what’?” What kind of nonsense did he suddenly come?
“There’s no compelling reason to go back to South Harbor.”
“Why are you even saying that now?”
“Now there is no need to worry about the lord of the castle or the prince. We have other options.”
…That’s right.
Not to mention the lord of South Harbor, Prince Ulkar must have been busy fighting the bandits.
Since the given mission was also completed, even if it was secretly taken out in the midst of confusion, there would not be a bounty.
I looked down at the blue eyes for a moment, then hesitated before opening my mouth.
“I won’t forget that there are options.”
“then…?”
“But let’s do as much as we can for now.”
At my words, Ellen frowned as if in frustration.
“Are you kidding me? There is a certain level of risking your life to gamble, but if you run away as far as you can, they say that pirates or magicians will let you go.”
“Fuck off petty heroism. We did our best.”
be heroic
that’s not wrong The reason I can’t run away is because I recognize myself as a hero, or a ‘player’.
Considering the scenario in the game, the role of the main character in this world was mine no matter how much I thought about it.
If I run away, will another character appear and solve the scenario instead? No, I didn’t think so.
A vague belief that if it wasn’t for me, South Harbor would get better and the world would perish. What is this if not presumptuous heroism?
…Haha, suddenly it’s coming.
It’s like thinking that I’m the only one who can save the world. It’s not a second grade disease, but it’s 30 years old.
To be honest, I don’t have the courage to go through the devil’s realm to save the world.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to run away just to save my own life. It would also be scary to watch the planned end without hands.
Even if it’s not a big deal, to comfort yourself by doing something right now. That was the life my Kim Seung-soo lived.
“I-”
I was just about to answer.
Wedge liquid! Raising my head in the direction of the sound, I pulled Ellen in and raised my shield.
Kwajak!
The blue arrowhead pierced the shield and poked his head out.
“Eug”
What kind of crazy guy’s shield is pierced right away by a single arrow?
Even with the heroic resolution, the desire to run away for a while surged up.
The pirates who had gathered on the bow of the sailboat poured down a rain of arrows. Most ‘Pong!’ It made a small foam with a sound and disappeared to the bottom of the water, but some of the arrows pierced the boat.
“Damn it, pick up your shield!”
“No, just go a little further!
Grab the paddle!”
Romet, who was drawing a bow from the bow, shouted as if in a fit of fuss.
However, he is in the midst of an arrow shot from behind and getting stuck at his feet. Rowing while looking ahead in this situation was next to impossible.
When the soldiers threw away their oars and raised their shields, Grania, who was standing alone, had no choice but to let go of the oars.
Naturally, the speed slowed down, the distance to the sailboat got closer, and the number of arrows hitting the boat increased rapidly.
I too, who was blindly looking up at the night sky to block the arrows, had no choice but to put my head down while holding Ellen in my arms.
Fortunately, the speeding boat reached the beach before being trampled by the sailboat.
The unfortunate thing is that during the brief shooting battle, the prince’s personal soldier Mayer, middle-aged skirmishers Romet and Arnal were shot by arrows.
“Lo Romet!”
“Guheugh.”
Having been hit by an arrow in the middle of his chest, Romet died without even being able to properly scream.
Scratching the railing of the ship, my fingernails broke and turned over, but the pain seemed so great that I couldn’t feel it.
“How can I do this…
Aibo, the pimpled skirmisher, felt the wounds of the dying gunner with a bewildered look on his face.
“It’s too late! in action!”
Aibo regained his senses only after Mr. Randel kicked his butt and yelled at him.
Arnal, whose right forearm was pierced by an arrow, was rather better off.
“Arnal!”
“Ugh-”
she shouted as she broke the arrow shaft with Grania’s help.
“What are you doing! run!”
As if Arnal’s shouting was a signal, we immediately jumped off the ship.
The waves crashed at the knees, but the party desperately used their legs to get on the white beach.
Nearby, a strange-looking boat was doomed with a broken sail. I took a quick look, but I couldn’t feel anyone, and the situation was urgent, so I immediately gave up my interest.
On the other hand, the sailboats the pirates boarded could not get close to the beach because the bottom was deep and pointed.
Thanks to this, even though they wanted to take a breather, the naked pirates put their swords in their mouths and jumped into the sea all at once.
Those in iron masks rode on small rafts from sailboats or swam to the beach relying on oak barrels.
At first glance, the oarsmen were also throwing themselves over the railing holding their weapons. Even at a cursory glance, it seemed to be well over fifty.
Ha, these guys are quite tenacious.
I led my party and climbed the shore. It wasn’t until I climbed a small rocky mound and looked around that I realized where I was.
“This crazy.”
The stream of water flowing to the left of the group was clearly the Sogeumgang that they encountered after coming out of the secret passage.
He struggled to cover a distance that would have taken less than 20 minutes on horseback, rowing for over two hours.
Well, it wasn’t something very pointless. It was a great achievement just to cross the salt river without being noticed by the pirates.
Of course, it was not very comforting because he had a lot of pirates on his tail.
“Huh, that probably won’t work.”
It was Mayer, a middle-aged, self-sufficient man, who uttered his anguish.
Having been shot in the thigh by an arrow, he shook his head after shaking off Randel and Aibo who were supporting him.
“It is impossible to run away any longer.”
“Randel mission, please. I’ll find a way to live separately, so I’ll go first.”
Of course, it was bullshit to say that a wounded soldier would find a way to live alone in a place teeming with bandits.
Mr. Randell, who could not have known this, just nodded without saying a word. This was because if he delayed his steps, he would be caught by the pirates.
My stomach twisted for some reason and I looked back at the beach.
The number of pirates chasing them seemed to be around 6 to 70 people. No one seemed to be carrying a bow as they swam.
It was honestly worth trying. As long as Ellen supported her with magic, at least she wouldn’t die.
If the rest of the party protects Ellen properly, they might win. In any case, Mr. Luke can use the ‘Scream from the Abyss’ spell.
“trunnion.”
As if sensing my thoughts, Ellen pulled the hem of her cloak. When our eyes met, the brow furrowed, indicating that I should not be fooling around.
yeah that’s a crazy idea Now was the time to run away, not the time to fight.
“Let’s go.”
“…huh.”
After taking a glance at Mayer, who was perched on a rock with a hole in it, he moved on. The sound of the footsteps of the six following followed landed on my shoulders.
Did you run for 20 minutes?
For now, it seems that he has distanced himself from the pirates to some extent.
At the beach, it seemed like they were chasing after them, but as I ran along the Sogeumgang River, they were nowhere to be seen. Well, it might be following from afar, but it didn’t seem like it would catch up right away.
Of course, that wasn’t a situation where you could put your mind at ease.
The plan I’m going to do right now- maybe ‘Plan B-4’? I didn’t discuss it with the party, but it was a case of thinking that this could happen.
We were running towards a secret passage.
“Are you alright?”
“Whoa whoa- uh.”
He breathed heavily and nodded, but Arnal’s face was already pale.
The arrow stuck in his arm didn’t get caught because the stem was broken, but because he couldn’t treat it properly, it was constantly spurting blood.
Since the violent movement was added to it, it was at the level of having to worry about excessive bleeding.
I glanced over at Ellen.
Is it because of the overall increase in body stats? The guy was somehow struggling to keep pace with the group. I was breathing very hard, but not to the point of collapsing right away.
As soon as I knew that Ellen was in good shape, I lifted Arnal up.
“Oh damn. Let go of this-”
Arnal muttered something for a while and twisted his body, but then grabbed onto the wound with his back on his back. I was glad I was able to avoid a fuss.
In the distance, I see a small mound that I climbed to avoid poison smoke. The secret passage was getting closer, and with it, the feeling of anxiety soared.
Unless the bandits were idiots, they wouldn’t have left the secret passage empty. It must be crowded like a pack of dogs or guarded by elites.
Can you break through them?
What if you knocked down the aisle altogether? Enemies are everywhere, so I can’t just
shovel.
“Wait a minute!”
At my low voice, the party stopped all at once. Leaving behind the doubtful eyes of the party, he carefully lowered Arnal to the ground.
Only then did the party discover the scenery on the hill and mumbled in surprise.
“This is…”
“It’s terrible.”
Countless bodies were lying on the low hills along the river bank. Looking at the traces, it seemed that the fight hadn’t been over in a while.
Most of the bodies belonged to bandits, but at first glance, there were a few people with exotic looks and clothes.
The one that stood out the most was a woman with an arrow stuck in her throat, leaning against the trunk of a tree. She wore a flower-and-grass hat and a long geometric-printed coat. The lips were painted red, the face white, and the long black paint across the forehead and cheekbones gave a somewhat eerie impression.
There were also a few men with long black hair braided into pigtails. All of them were wearing armor made of leather or bones, but their skin was reddish and their noses were low, which was a race I had never seen in this world.
The last one was a man so old that I couldn’t guess his age. The old man with long side splits said with his eyes wide open, “Oh, what a surprise!”
Is this grandpa alive?
“Are they the savages of the West?”
“West? But in the west-”
“It is said that after passing the corridor beyond the highlands and Mittergerland, there is a vast expanse of grassland. I heard that the savages who live there dress just like that.”
Leaving Luke and Grania’s conversation behind, I approached the old man who was out of breath.
The old man was bleeding from his mouth with his back leaning against a small tree.
It was terrifying to see him covering his intestines with his hands before the blood was about to spill out, but his eyes were as sharp as those of a tiger. He had black tattoos engraved on his deep wrinkles and saggy skin, and he was wearing a fancy hat on his head.
The reason I stopped walking was because the hat was an item I saw so often that I was bored while playing Dark World.
A warbonnet, aka ‘Warbonnet’, a battle hat made from dozens of feathers spanning a span and a half.
This bizarre object was maintaining its splendid color and majesty even while its owner was in a state of disrepair.
But why- why is a dying old man wearing this?
The old man looked up at me with wrinkled eyes and opened his mouth.
“Are you a thief too?”
As I heard those words, a strange feeling rushed through my head. It was definitely the first language I heard, but it has become this year as if it were natural.
This is ‘Geland’.
“no. I am a mercenary.”
“A cool mercenary?”
“yes. You are on a mission to save the city from the bandits.”
In the midst of the party following me, Mr. Randel spoke in an impatient voice.
“I don’t know what they’re talking about, but he’s already late. We have to move.” “for a moment. please wait for a moment.” I hurriedly asked the old man a question.
“That hat. Are you really old?”
“Oh, of course.”
The old man let out a dry cough several times and closed his eyes.
“Who else could be the owner of this item if not me, ‘Rikuwa’s Hatanka’?”
‘Rikuwa Hatanka’? this old man?
…I can’t do that. The name ‘Hatan-ka’ must have been –
“Aqun-ta!”
A roar erupted not too far away. It seems that it is not a human being, but even if it is the sound of thunder, it is believed.
“O”
The others shrugged their shoulders involuntarily and I looked back at the owner of the voice. Then I opened my mouth.
The Hatanka I knew was there.
