It was not a loud voice, but everyone heard it.
Zod closed his mouth, which was wide with a smile a moment ago. Then, he slowly turned his head and looked at Lee Sungmin.
“You… No wait, I mean…What was your name again?”
“Jeong Hyun-soo.”
Lee Sungmin answered Zod’s question. It was an alias, but Lee Sungmin was still planning on using it.
“What the hell are you talking about?!”
The mediator yelled at Lee Sungmin with a hint of killing intent as he strode towards Lee Sungmin.
Yang-Suk and other mercenaries were glancing at Lee Sungmin with a perplexed look because they had never imagined Lee Sungmin would say such a bold statement.
“Let’s just keep the schedule the same. The destination was Belador in the first place, so let’s just go there first. Is that really so difficult?”
Lee Sungmin asked the mediator. Engray, who was standing behind the mediator, frowned.
Engray, Zod, and other sailors saw nothing but an idiotic mercenary who couldn’t grasp who had the power in this situation.
“This ship will be setting its new course to Lockebos. If you don’t like it, get off the boat right now.”
“No, I don’t plan on getting off this boat and I don’t intend to change the course to Lockebos.”
“You don’t understand!”
“Neither do you…”
Lee Sungmin grumbled.
The mediator had enough and swung his sword without further ado. Everyone on the ship knew it was the end of that silly mercenary’s life since nobody on board would dare pick a fight with a Peak Realm expert.
Lee Sungmin glanced at the sword, moving slowly in his eyes. The mediator’s sword stopped in the air without swinging fully to the end.
“Huh…?”
The mediator’s eyes opened wide and so did everybody else’s on the ship. The sword wouldn’t move. It was like an invisible hand had gripped his sword and would not let him move it even if he poured all his strength into it. Lee Sungmin raised his hand slowly.
Pak!
The sword split right down the middle in two.
“I will be going to Belador.”
Lee Sungmin said once again.
Was it magic? The mediator’s face turned pale white. No, even if it was magic then he would be able to swing once more. Perhaps it was wrong to assume this man was simply just a C-Class mercenary, perhaps he must be also be a wizard!
The mediator took a few steps back with those thoughts, and shouted at Lee Sungmin.
“You’re a Wizard!”
“No, I am not.”
Lee Sungmin gave an honest answer, but the mediator did not listen to him at all.
A blue and black aura shot up from the broken sword. The mercenaries made a sound of admiration. The spatial skill Lee Sungmin was using was not composed of magic nor internal energy. It was something no one on the ship had ever witnessed before
The mediator shouted and kicked the ground towards Lee Sungmin.
There was no reason for Lee Sungmin to even pull out his spear. Lee Sungmin simply twirled the blue and black aura, which was the spatial essence that only Transcendent Realm masters were able to use.
Whoo-hoo!
The intangible energy was swirling around Lee Sungmin. It completely shattered the second sword that the mediator had pulled out from his spatial pocket and coated in internal energy.
The mediator’s body was thrust down like a nail getting hit by a hammer, unable to move anymore and vomiting blood. It wasn’t only the mediator. Everyone on the deck fell to their knees under the pressure being exuded from Lee Sungmin.
“I’m going to Belador.”
Lee Sungmin looked at the people who had fallen and spoke. Simply by being in the Realm of Transcendence, Lee Sungmin could subdue weaker foes than himself by circulating his massive amount of internal energy and letting it permeate in the space around him.
For Lee Sungmin, who had entered the Realm of Transcendence, if he truly wanted to kill them, it would have been as easy as stepping on bugs.
“Don’t think about refusing at this point. I’m not trying to persuade you, I’m threatening you. It’s easy for me to kill all of you, and it’s easy for you to save your lives by simply following what I say.”
Lee Sungmin looked at Engray while saying so. Engray, who was collapsed on the floor, was staring wide-eyed at Lee Sungmin in a cold sweat.
“Just because you are part of some family in a merchant guild doesn’t matter to me. If you really want to take the course to Lockebos, then you can go right back down into your rowboat and take that to the city.”
“You…! Do you know who I am…?!”
“I just told you, who you are, or the merchant guild themselves, are none of my business.”
“As long as I live in this world… You won’t be able to rest easy… Do you even know what it means to make an enemy out of the Merchant Guild?….”
“Are you threatening me?”
Lee Sungmin asked in a low voice. If he not only had a falling out directly with the Murim Alliance but also the Merchant Guild, it would truly become difficult to live in Eria for him.
At least that would be what most people thought. It was inevitable if he really would have a falling out with them, since the Merchant guild was part of a lot of commerce within Eria. But there was one thing they overlooked here.
Lee Sungmin, a member of Erebrisa, could handle all of his trades and necessities through them and did not require himself to rely on the Merchant Guild solely.
“How about this? I’m going to kill you here. But the story will be that your ship sank after being attacked by pirates, and you were unable to find any help and ended up dying to a pirate in your little rowboat.”
“But this ship’s crew…wouldn’t dare….”
“Then I can just kill all the sailors on this ship. We can still get to Belador if I only kill the ones that feel like they might talk, only the ones who won’t make a noise will remain alive and do our work for us.”
“That… But…what about… pirates….”
“If I meet a pirate, I can merely kill them. Do you still not understand the situation? You can’t threaten me.”
Lee Sungmin said with a smirk. Engray’s eyes trembled as he listened to Lee Sungmin’s cruel logic, but could not refute it since it was truly logical, sadly enough.
He hesitated and put his hand in his pockets quickly.
“If- if you go do take the route to Lockebos, I have…money…….”
“I’ve got plenty of money. I’m going to Belador, and it’s not for the money.”
That was enough. Lee Sungmin stared at Zod, not Engray. Without realizing the situation, Zod had his mouth half open with his jaw dropped in confusion at the series of events that just happened in front of him.
“Set the course back to Belador and give the commands to the crew.”
Zod was frightened at that moment, and felt the lower half of his pants get wet. It seemed he had a bit too much wine to drink last night.
Zod said with a crying face covering his lower body with both his hands, where his urine was dripping.
“Be…… Let’s go to Belador.”
Not only was his joy at landing a connection fading away but so was his ambition at that moment.
Everyone knew through the events that had just transpired on the deck. Their lives were not in the hands of pirates nor were they in the hands of monsters.
Their lives were in the hands of this C-Class mercenary named Jeong Hyun-soo. The mediator, who fainted after throwing up blood, came to his senses and tried to attack Lee Sungmin again, but this time again, he collapsed without as much as brushing Lee Sungmin’s hair in the wind.
Since there was no more luxury time to spend in his room, Lee Sungmin came out on the deck.
No one stopped Lee Sungmin or talked to him. Yang-Suk, who had been trying to pretend to be close to him earlier, did not approach Lee Sungmin.
He realized that the world in which the man in front of him with the alias of Jeong Hyun-Soo was a world miles apart from a C-Class mercenary like himself.
“You… who the hell…… Who are you really?”
Engray approached Lee Sungmin, who was looking at the sea on the deck.
Lee Sungmin turned his head and watched Engray. Perhaps Engray had finally grasped the situation at hand and wanted to find answers from the source directly.
“I’m the C-Class mercenary, Jeong Hyun-soo.”
Lee Sungmin replied. He had no intention of revealing his real name or any other kinds of information about himself.
So far, Lee Sungmin had not wanted to kill Engray, and he had also not wanted to reveal his real name and risk getting involved with the Merchant Guild later.
“What nonsense. A C-Class mercenary overpowered all of us with only their sheer aura…?”
“That’s definitely a possibility.”
“Can’t you just be honest with me? Who the hell are you…….”
“-There are a few things I don’t understand.”
Lee Sungmin completely turned around and cut off Engray’s questioning short.
Engray was amazed by Lee Sungmin’s fierce gaze and golden pupils aimed at him. He hesitated for a moment and then lowered his head.
Lee Sungmin opened his mouth while looking at Engray’s lowered head.
“I don’t know the sea very well. However, I do know that pirates do not touch the merchant guild’s trading ships. Your ship was also not just any trading ship, it was a ship of the Derrand family. I don’t believe any pirate would dare attempt to instigate a matter with the Derrand Family matter how wild they are.”
Engray shut up and remained silent. Lee Sungmin continued to talk.
“The ship you were on. It must have been bigger than this ship, right? That means plenty of people must have been riding on it. Therefore, there must have been people who could fight as well. But, according to you, they were all wiped out, and the ship sank.”
“Yes…they….”
“A man with Derrand’s family name would have been worth a lot of bloodshed and would be quite difficult to even raid. But they wiped out your ship and crew, you said, but somehow also failed to catch you?”
“That’s because the guards sacrificed their lives… so that I could escape…….”
“Let me share a bit of information that I know for a fact.”
Lee Sungmin glanced at Engray.
“Engray Derrand did not come out to traverse across the sea this entire time we’ve been travelling.”
Engray’s face hardened at Lee Sungmin’s bold statement.
“He was last seen in Belador yesterday. So if you are truly Engray Derrand, then how are you here?”
Lee Sungmin noticed something odd when Engray had come aboard and was wondering what Engray was doing out at sea, so he asked for information about him through Erebrisa when he was in his room.
Even if the information was not available to others while aboard a ship, Lee Sungmin, a member of Erebrisa, could find information about any of the things going on in the world, whenever he wanted, through them.
And through this information, he found out that Engray Derrand was in Belador. That was also a definite fact.
“I was curious at first. I didn’t know who you were, but now I’m wondering why you got on this ship spouting all this nonsense? At first, I thought you might just be trying to steal the ship and use it for your own goals. But, I don’t think that’s correctt. This ship is not worth all this trouble, and it’s not even worth that much to sell, comparing it to other ships on the sea.”
Engray’s eyes trembled lightly. Lee Sungmin reached out slowly. The intangible force of spatial essence wrapped around Engray’s body.
Engray’s body was slowly being lifted up by Lee Sungmin.
“I did my own research.”
Lee Sungmin grabbed Engray’s wrist. Engray’s face turned pale white at Lee Sungmin’s sudden actions.
“Among the pirates operating in the sea. I heard there’s a certain pirate named Baek-Myun. What’s interesting about this specific pirate is that he knows a technique that allows him to change his bone and muscle structure at will. Of course this also applies to being able to change his face. “
“Wait, please… stop…”
Lee Sungmin’s internal energy flowed through Enngray’s blood as he moaned and begged Lee Sungmin to stop what he was doing.
Engray’s body began to create a rumbling sound. Lee Sungmin watched until the end as Engray’s body, which in the figure of a young boy, changed.
It was his first time to meet a person who learned body modification techniques that wasn’t some Dark Wizard like Frescan or Arbeth, but it was still disgusting to the point where he didn’t want to see it any longer.
Lee Sungmin let go of Engray’s, or the actual person hiding as ‘Engray’s’, hand that he was holding.
The person was a middle-aged man who was about as thin as a mummy. He fell down on the floor once Lee Sungmin’s internal energy stopped the reverse body modification process.
“From here on out…If you lie, I will kill you.”
Lee Sungmin said. Baek-Myun shuddered as he looked up at Lee Sungmin and listened to his cruel voice.
“Why did you ask the crew so fervently to go to Lockebos and not Belador? Also tell me why someone like you with a perfectly fine pirate ship would want to get on this one? Tell me everything you know.”
“It was…an…at- attack.”
Baek-Myun stammered.
“We had been attacked…… the pirate ship……my ship was destroyed and my men are all dead.”
“So what happened?”
“I managed to escape with those two women, and I was able to use the body modification technique as you said, and changed to take the figure of Engray Derrand…… that’s what I used to get on this ship.”
“But why did you want to stray from the course to Belador and go to Lockebos which is in the exact opposite direction?”
“If you go to Belador, you’ll meet those monsters we saw!”
Baek-Myun shouted with a frightened face. Lee Sungmin stared at the old man where he lay trembling like a leaf in the wind.
“Okay, I need you to be clear. What monsters? Who attacked your ship?”
“Well, I don’t know that. Suddenly in the middle of the day, the clouds darkened and it became night right before my very eyes…… when I came to my senses and found my ship in the middle of the fog, I started to hear screams everywhere. As you said earlier, I am a well-known pirate around these parts, but my men were exterminated without being able to put up a fight.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying at all.”
Lee Sungmin grumbled and reached out to grab Baek-Myun. Baek-Myun stumbled back as Lee Sungmin’s hand had turned towards him.
“I’m not lying! Really, it suddenly became night in the middle of the day! I know it sounds ridiculous! But I really am not lying…….!”
It was before Baek-Myun could finish his sentence.
Lee Sungmin looked back as he felt a chilly breeze all of a sudden wash upon his skin. A dark fog was approaching in the distance.
It expanded greatly in front of Lee Sungmin’s ship and covered the entirety of the sky. The sun was still high, and there was still a long time left until nighttime. But, the setting around the caravel was exactly like Baek-Myun had just described a moment ago
“Wait, what’s happening?!”
Mercenaries and sailors on the deck sounded shocked and frightened at their sudden and ominous surroundings. Lee Sungmin stood still and expanded his internal energy to allow his senses to spread out.
Lee Sungmin had various experiences in both of his lives, but it was his first time to experience such a weird phenomenon.
“Oh.we’re all doomed… here it comes…….”
Baek-Myun sat down, wrapping himself into a ball and covering his eyes and head.
Wuhhhaha-
Lee Sungmin heard a voice cutting through the noise of the sea. Lee Sungmin approached the railing and looked in the direction of where the voice could be heard.
The darkness was so thick that even Lee Sungmin could not see clearly from a distance.
However, he could tell something was approaching, albeit only vaguely making out a figure.
It was a ship.
It looked like an abandoned ship on the verge of sinking, but it was approaching with a wide spread of ragged sails, sailing and cutting through the waves smoothly.
There was a hideous statue made of a monster hanging from the head of the boat. Before Lee Sungmin knew it, the ship had come close to Zod’s caravel.
Gahahaha!
A dark and eerie voice screeched out. The maids brought by Baek-Myun trembled in fear, just like Baek-Myun was doing
Thump
Something leaped from the abandoned ship and fell on the deck of the caravel.There was a rattling sound every time the figure moved its body. It was the sound of armor bumping against uneven flesh and bones. A bright and eerie red light shone from the eye sockets of the monster in front of Lee Sungmin.
“…A…Death knight?”
Lee Sungmin murmured in a surprised voice.