“To Bethany.”
If a person has ten fingers, then a Pirate Lord has ten officers.
They are not only exceptional in skill but also have pirate-like personalities and behaviors.
For the pirates, this is like an incomparable medal, recognized by the Pirate Lord as a true sea man.
But two of them have already died.
Jesant and Bethany.
The other officers around were either laughing about their rival’s disappearance or mocking the two, but for the Pirate Lord, it was no laughing matter.
His own fingers had been cut off.
“Cough cough.”
His fingers gripping the beer mug throb with pain.
Glug glug.
As the cold beer slides down his throat, the lord finally feels alert, as if he had taken a stimulant.
After a long voyage, sometimes beer would get warm or in serious cases hot.
However, the Pirate Lord’s ship had a magic freezer that kept the beer cold.
And every time the lord drank beer from there, he became aware of his own position.
It made drinking cold beer possible on a ship.
He felt his tenacity and greatness in every little thing like this.
“Wow! It tastes good! Alright, let’s go!”
The other officers looked at the Pirate Lord who suddenly stood up.
They had been hastily summoned due to Bethany’s death, but they hadn’t heard a word yet.
Amidst this, the Pirate Lord suddenly declared to march forward.
“Jesant, that idiot, died on land. That’s not our territory.”
But Bethany was different.
For the Pirate Lord, this vast sea was entirely his.
Was there someone bold enough to cut off the lord’s fingers on his own land?
This was not just about avenging an officer.
For the lord’s honor, this couldn’t be left alone.
“Let’s show them what a true sea man is, and what the cruelty of pirates is!”
The pirate officers had signals to communicate their positions on their ships. The map spread out showed where Bethany’s ship was anchored in a blue light.
Though the map depicted an endless sea without anything.
The greedy nose of the pirate sensed the sweet smell of gold.
“That sweet scent is really hitting the nose. I might get another hole.”
There was bound to be treasure overflowing over there.
Even if there wasn’t, just gathering Bethany’s pirate ship would be enough.
It was a ship made with money saved with difficulty after being looted by a fool. They could think of it as tribute.
“It sucks that my finger got cut off helping the Chokugen Faction.”
But he had received a lot of money, and through this incident, he maintained a sort of relationship with the Chokugen Faction.
“Let’s go, fine men of the sea!”
He raised his beer mug without caring too much, and the pirates cheered in response to his lead.
However, it was still the cold winter sea.
As the Pirate Lord thought of how cold drinking beer on the deck was, a shadow appeared above his head.
The shadow was moving rapidly, covering half of the pirate ship.
“What is that?”
At first, he thought it was a cloud because of its size.
Then, because of its speed and shape, he mistook it for a bird, but ultimately, it was neither.
So what was it?
“Hey, what is that?”
“Hmm.”
When he asked the other officer, Doom, next to him, he pulled out a long monocular and looked up into the sky.
“Wow, it’s a wyvern!”
“Wyvern?”
Not a seagull but a sudden flock of wyverns flying over the sea.
The Pirate Lord never imagined that their destination was the same as theirs.
*
In her second life, Rin was destined to defeat Shakallim.
To bring the end to the continent, she first devoured the Forest of the Demon Realm.
Countless magical beasts lurked beneath her feet in an impenetrable darkness.
In her right hand was Kurika, and in her left was Sharcarl.
It was strange that they couldn’t destroy the continent, and even more so as Kurika and Sharcarl could resurrect even if they died.
‘Shakallim died tragically.’
When facing Rin in her second life, Shakallim awakened and resisted.
Yet, in the face of the joint assault of the king and the tyrant, no one on the continent could withstand it.
I was just a mere Sherpa, neither a king nor a tyrant.
– Kraaaaahhh!
I could at least make it a fair fight.
The telepathic communication pouring in from close range was not just bursting my eardrums; it felt like my brain was about to explode from the shock.
Thus, I twisted the knife that I had forcibly embedded in his nose.
Stopping the telepathic communication, I twisted in agony. It tried to shake me off, but I instantly drew my sword and dashed across Shakallim’s face.
The most important thing was the other sun hovering in the sky.
I had to block the blue mana sun that Shakallim was trying to drop. If that fell, whether king or tyrant, they would turn to dust in an instant.
– How dare a human like you ascend above a god!
“You’re not a god. You’re just a lizard who lived a long time.”
– Are you mocking me?
Shakallim’s giant talons flew toward me. Just like when a fly lands on our face, trying to swat it away.
He intended to simply crush me.
– ……!
The creature’s eyes were trembling excessively.
“I was wondering if it might work.”
The giant talons of his sat still above me. Though I was one move away from death if he chose to strike, he couldn’t.
“Being big means you can just stop your hand.”
Time manipulation can widen its range, but it can’t narrow down targets or use it precisely.
However, since the dragon’s body was so gigantic, it seemed possible to stop only its hand like this.
Of course, there was a price to pay.
A pounding headache echoed in my head, causing my legs to weaken momentarily, and I stumbled forward. I rolled onto the long dragon’s mouth but still pressed on.
Finally, I reached the space between his brows.
– You dare!
The mana swelled.
The surrounding atmosphere felt like it would set me ablaze, it burned fiercely against my body as if on fire.
“I’ll give you just one thing.”
Crack!
Amid the blazing circumstances, I shoved my sword into his eyes, which were beautiful as jewels, gazing into unfathomable depths.
Kraaaaahhh!
“I’ll show you how much you cherished your life.”
The voice that had only conveyed through telepathy resonated for the first time. The Dragon God Shakallim twisted his body in pain from the sharp, long-awaited pain.
The mana sun that had been floating green on his horn began to naturally dissipate as its owner lost control.
The sword planted in his eye slipped out smoothly.
His body became weightless.
No matter what, I couldn’t remain standing if the dragon was twisting its body in agony with all its might.
‘Oh hell.’
I hadn’t realized how high it was until I fell.
During my fall, a man appeared beside me.
“Wow, I never thought you’d take on a dragon alone.”
A mercenary who could use warp magic, an eccentric.
Though he was a remarkably annoying man revealing himself now as part of the Chokugen Faction instead of a mere mercenary.
“Want me to save you?”
The fall felt lengthy, and so he must have a moment to spare, casually striking up a conversation.
“I thought you were going to help?”
As I answered somewhat gruffly, the eccentric chuckled while grabbing his glasses with one hand.
“If you forgive what happened in Nirva, I’ll save you.”
“……”
“There were suspicions about Nirva suddenly appearing in the Forest of the Demon Realm. So, I thought I’d check it out when you guys were headed to Nirva.”
After the Tudogs had disappeared.
The Chokugen Faction, chasing down how they had inexplicably gained power to such a level in such a short time, learned that the source was the Forest of the Demon Realm and attempted to advance there.
They had reached a place piled high with countless corpses and sacrifices. There was a false Nirva created by Sharcarl, and we were sent to confirm its identity as the fake Nirva.
“So, what? Deal?”
“……Deal.”
Honestly, I was in a position where if I crashed to the ground, I’d be considered incapacitated, so I was a bit pressed.
The eccentric handed me his staff with a bright smile, and the moment I grasped it, I found myself on the ground.
“Ack!”
Just a moment ago, violent winds battered my entire body, and suddenly it calmed, almost losing my balance and almost falling.
The eccentric caught me with a grin.
“Now we’re totally ordinary friends, right?”
“Right.”
I grabbed the eccentric’s hand that caught me, gaining strength. He gave a gasp as he twisted away to escape, but a mere mage couldn’t get away from my jaws.
“What the heck! You promised! ”
“So this is how I end it.”
As I let him go, seeing him nearly in tears from the pain, he glared at me.
The approaching Chokugen Faction and my group.
Somehow, we ended up in a standoff facing each other, but there was no luxury to fight amongst ourselves.
The Dragon God had flown up into the sky, groaning in pain as he flapped his wings.
“……What will you do, Daniel?”
Sen, glancing at the leader, asked me.
She looked like a kid trying to force herself to look indifferent as if she didn’t care about the Chokugen Faction at all.
“I didn’t expect them to flee like that.”
Honestly, I hoped they would stay grounded a bit longer.
It seemed the pain was too much for them.
“For now, we should hide. Shakallim’s bombardment is about to start.”
Even with the eccentric’s warp magic, we couldn’t pursue Shakallim, so I intended to take a defensive stance first.
“Huh?”
A flock of wyverns slicing through the sky appeared.
Familiar faces riding atop them.
“Elders?”
Zane exclaimed in surprise.
Just as she was about to shout why the elders were here.
The enraged Dragon God unleashed his breath toward the wyverns and the elders.
