The sea breeze that was hitting my face felt great. My hair was pushed back, dancing in the air. It had gotten a bit longer than I liked; I should cut it soon.
I stood on the beach, looking around curiously. No one was here at this time, as the sailors had already sailed to get fish from the sea.
Anyway, where was my minotaur lover?
I checked my <Presence Detection> radar and looked around, trying to find the pink dot belonging to Cecil. She wasn't in the city, so I extended my search to the sea. And then, I found her.
"Hmm?" I hummed, narrowing my eyes in confusion.
It was either I came at the best or worst time, but it seemed like many red dots surrounded Cecil. They belonged to humans, probably a pirate.
'Now I am worried. Let's go over there.'
I took out [Clad of Ice Sea], a dark blue armor with a silver accent, and equipped it. Its passive ability to turn water into ice when I stepped on it would greatly help me reach Cecil without renting any ship.
As soon as I equipped the armor, it fitted perfectly with my body, and the water near my feet froze.
"Perfect," I muttered and began to run to the sea.
Crack!
The ice underneath me cracked as I kicked it. The momentum from my movement itself caused waves. However, I didn't stop and kept running.
I was confident to say those pirates wouldn't defeat Cecil. They were only around Level 17 to 20, while Cecil was above Level 50. Not to mention, Marny and Gon were there. They were apparently above Level 30, so they could fight the pirates with Cecil.
The problem was the sea monsters trying to get close from the distance. There were at least a hundred of them, and Cecil apparently didn't notice it yet because they were swimming deep in the sea.
'That one is not good.'
If possible, I'd like not to defeat those monsters. More specifically, I didn't want to defeat the monsters around the World-End Waterfall for now, as they could work as the natural repellent for monsters from Hell if the entrance appeared near the border.
So I summoned Scylla as I ran toward where Cecil was.
"Master… What… You… Need?"
The half-human, half-tentacled monster asked in a broken speech.
"Stop the monsters going after Cecil and ask them to turn around. Can you do that?"
"I… Can…" Scylla nodded her head in confirmation.
"Good. Do it."
Just as I commanded her to do it, Scylla jumped into the sea and began to swim toward the monster. Her figure slowly turned bigger and bigger to the point she was as big as when I fought her back then, being over 50 meters long tentacles.
'I feed her a lot of high Level monsters. If she hadn't recovered her energy yet, that would be strange.' I thought as I saw Scylla swam at a fast speed and created big waves. It made it harder to run on the sea, but I could still maintain my speed at this level of disturbance.
The monsters would be taken care of easily with Scylla. They surely wouldn't defy their boss, no?
Anyway, I saw five ships in the distance, rocking on the waves created by Scylla earlier. Four ships surrounded a smaller one, and I saw the ongoing battle on top of the ship. The defender was outnumbered by a lot.
"3 vs 16, there are some people lying on the deck already. Cecil did well to hold on."
On the ship, Cecil beat the pirates' asses with the [Ogre Club] I gave her. Thanks to her size and STR, swinging that giant club looked easy. She didn't hold back and crushed one man's head with a feral smile on her face.
Gon and Marny were also able to hold their feet together. The former was using his fist, while the latter used dual daggers. They had a hard time dealing with two opponents at once, and their bodies were riddled with wounds.
It seemed like they were in a pinch.
'Let's enter with a bang.'
I poured MP into my armor, and the passive effect was amplified. The frozen water wasn't just around my feet, but it even spread to the area where the ships were. Not only that, it became thicker and tougher.
Boom! Crack!
A shockwave was sent when I jumped. A loud sound rang from the cracking ice, and the people on the ship looked in the direction at once.
Bam!
When I landed on the deck, it cracked and destroyed the ice holding it. Cecil looked at me in disbelief, but then her grin widened when I asked.
"Do you need help, beautiful?"
"That would be perfect. Just leave that one with the hat on. Old man Gon will get information from him before handing him to the kingdom knight."
"Alright." I nodded at Cecil and took out an iron sword. Then I glanced at old man Gon and smiled, "It's nice to meet you again, old man. Just wait for a minute."
"Much appreciated, lad." The old man nodded.
Marny looked confused and scared of me, although I didn't do anything to her. I just hit her with my bloodlust back when I got my refund after she gave me the false information. Did she remember that feeling and get scared?
'Well then, let's kill them.'
I rushed to the nearby pirates and swung my sword. Then I went to another one and killed him too. It happened so swiftly that no one was able to move even an inch when I finished killing 14 people. Only Cecil seemed to follow my movement slightly, but that was only at the start.
When I was done, a fountain of blood sprayed around the surroundings as the pirates' bodies fell one by one. They died, and because they were just lowly pirates with no revival chamber, they probably would revive in the nearby church. We could snitch on the kingdom knights to jail them later.
I stood behind a middle-aged man wearing a hat with a skull symbol; my sword was on his neck.
"I guess this is a checkmate, eh? Throw your weapon away, or I will cut your arm."
"P-Please don't do anything to me!" The pirate captain obediently put his sword down, and it fell on the deck with a metallic sound.
"Good." I nodded, smiling satisfiedly. I turned at Cecil and said, "It's done. Do whatever you want with him."
Then I kicked the pirate captain, pushing him down.
Thud!
"Ugh…" He groaned in pain but had no courage to curse at me or even raise his head. He was at our mercy.
"Thank you, Arthur. You're the best when it comes to fighting." Cecil approached the pirate captain and kicked his head, rendering him unconscious. She then walked toward me and gave me a light kiss, smiling as she backed away with a bashful face.
Both Gon and Marny were speechless. I managed to round the pirates that they had trouble fighting in under 5 seconds.
They probably understood the severity and my kindness in letting Marny off without punishing her too much.
Gon recovered first from his shock and approached the unconscious captain, followed by Marny behind him. She looked so nervous and averted her gaze from mine.
"She's scared of me, huh?" I muttered, and Cecil, who stood by my side, heard it.
"Seems so." She answered with a nod. "You were pretty scary, boy. No one can beat 15 people in under 5 seconds, and I can't even follow your movement."
"I can't blame her then." I chuckled in amusement as I took off my armor and put it in my inventory.
The old man took the pirate captain on his shoulder and approached us.
"That was pretty impressive. Was that one of Paladin's skills? Or do you need to be that good to be a Paladin? I am curious, but you don't need to answer me. I will keep what I see in my head no matter what people say or threaten me." He said, looking at me seriously.
This old man was so serious. But I guessed that was what I could expect from an information dealer.
"Do as you see fit, old man Gon," I answered and took out two [Teleportation Gems] to my mansion, handing one to Cecil.
She looked at me confusedly, tilting her head slightly.
"I am here to take Cecil back because there is a party tomorrow, and she will attend it with me," I explained, and her face lit up in realization.
"I don't need to attend that party, boy. I bet it's stuffy. Besides, I have no dress. Those nobles and high people will mock me."
"Don't worry about that." I smiled brightly at her.
"Vivian had taken care of it when you were having fun here, hunting the pirates. Your dress will be ready tomorrow for the party. Also, no one will mock you. You are my lover; they know best what would happen if they talk shit about you."
"Vivian did?" Reluctance was clear on her face as she imagined the dress prepared by Vivian, "I hope it's nothing too gaudy."
"Just give up… I paid a lot for the dress, so I hope you wear it." I said, turning to Gon and Marny. "That's how it is. I hope you can return safely."
"No need to worry about us," Gon answered with a nod. "There are many ships here. I can just take one and return."
"That's good."
