Chapter 4 - Arrival in Rimun

It was midday and they could already catch a glimpse of the lighthouse of Rimun. He had decided to anchor 'The Survivor' about two miles outside of the city. This was decided after the princess had told him about the fact that Roble was a highly human supremacist State, he had immediately seen the problem and thanked the princess.

"Shacklegear."

"AYE."

"When I'll be sailing with the others into the harbor I want you to load the canons once we're halfway there and be ready to fire at my command. I'll try to not spark conflict, but I can't be sure if the soldiers won't say something and they'll attack."

"AYE CAPTAIN."

"Good, take the helm. I'll talk to the girl." With that he left and went below deck, to make his way to the girl's room. They had not bothered to get her into a new room since they would arrive the next day. He also didn't want to have to make sure that she wouldn't see any of his more inhuman crew members. It would be enough of a hassle to clear the way later and only have human-looking, as well as dwarven, and elven members on deck. But before he went to the girl he had to make a little trip to the brig.

"Stilg."

"How can I be of service, my Captain."

"You'll come with me later. I need you to sit on my shoulder and when we encounter nobility or such shit to see to it I'm talking acceptably. We'll keep it a secret for now that you can talk."

"As you wish my Captain. But you are right to do so, your manner of speech is most often most unacceptable, were this a nobles court."

"Yeah, but this ain't a nobles court with people who have sticks up their asses, but my ship. I'll probably avoid talking with those arrogant pricks." He nodded to Peete who was happily smoking his pipe and turned around. Stilg fluttered onto his shoulder and with that, he was on his way to meet the girl.

He met the same Doppelgänger from yesterday carrying a tray with some soup and a bit of bread. Heading in the same direction. "For the girl?"

"Aye, Captain."

"I'm on my way to her, give it to me." Now with the food held in his one hand, he arrived at her room shortly after. Only to realize he didn't have a hand free to knock. He decided to just use his voice. "Hey Girl. I'm coming in." He gave her enough time to answer before he opened the door using his elbow.

The girl was sitting on her bed, both arms beneath the blanket. What immediately caught his eye was that one of the two stools standing beside the table was completely broken and a leg was missing. He sighed and put the tray down on the table.

"Look, I'm here to tell you something and bring your food, so you can put the chair leg away. It wouldn't help anyway." The girl seemed shocked that he had been able to recognize the missing leg of the stool this fast. He took a few steps back and gestured for her to go to the table.

She reluctantly got up and walked towards the table, not letting him out of her eyes. The hand she held the leg in was clamped shut, not letting the piece of wood go. He reached into his coat and accessed his inventory.

"If you think you gotta have a weapon on you at least have a decent one." He handed her an ordinary steel dagger that a low-level player would use. He went to the bed to sit down, ignoring her completely baffled look that he had handed her a weapon. "We still don't know who you are, since you have told us nothing, but I assume you're from Roble. We'll arrive in Rimun in a few hours. So you'll have to decide if you want to disembark or stay on board. If you tell us where to drop you off, we might be able to help you more, but again you'd have to open your mouth for that. One of my crew will come to pick you up later, should you wish to get off. She'll be a dwarf named Vera."

He waited a few minutes while she ate to see if she was going to answer him or not. After he thought he waited long enough, he got up and went towards the door. The moment he opened it he heard a whisper behind him, coming from the girl. He turned his head to see if she wanted something. She held the dagger in his direction, but with obviously no intention to harm him.

"Y-Y-Your Dagger." Her voice was barely audible.

"Keep it. I don't need it and if it really makes you feel safer you should have it." Her eyes widened. It's just some level 15 dagger. Why is she so surprised?

"T-T-Thank y-you."

"Don't sweat it. I got dozens of those." And he really did. After all, one shouldn't just focus on having merchandise appealing to the high-level players. Even after twelve years of runtime, there were still new players joining. He had even met a new Player on the last day of service. That guy had somehow never heard of Ygdrasil and just stumbled upon it. The moment he had told him it was the last day of service the guy had logged out, he probably had a total of three minutes playtime in one of the top games of the last decade.

"Um." He hadn't noticed that he had spaced out, thinking about the boy.

"Hm, yes?" He shook his head a bit to get a clear mind again.

"..."

"Sorry?"

"Neia."

He smiled. "Nice to meet you Neia. Now eat up." As soon as he shut the door the smile faded from his voice. "I hope her family is still alive and we can find them."

"That would indeed be most pleasant."

He had no idea of the value that simple dagger had in this world, not yet at least. And also not the slightest clue of the gratitude Neia was feeling towards both for the dagger and for treating her like he did.

"{Hows it looking Shacklegear?}"

"{WE WILL BE ANCHORING IN TWO HOURS CAPTAIN.}" He winced back at the volume, even though he had already gone down the hallway to get back onto the deck, Neia would probably still be able to hear the golems voice. He really needed to add some switch to control his volume.

"{We made that much distance?}"

"{WE WERE LUCKY AND HAD STRONG TAILWIND, ALLOWING US TO ARRIVE FASTER THAN ANTICIPATED.}"

"{Good.} {Vera, how did the girl do the last one and a half days?}"

"{Well, not gonna lie, she hasn't been a great help, because she knows squat about sailing, but she did her best. She is currently cleaning the canons we used against the pirates. She wasn't a great help, but she really tried.}"

"{Yeah, that has to be enough. Never planned to keep her here longer if she did a decent job. We'll be anchoring in about two hours. Give her armor and shit back to her about fifteen minutes earlier.}"

"{Aye Captain.}"

He had just told Vera to get Neia on deck, and everyone else that the nonhuman crew members are to be below deck like planned.

"Captain Grayhate. May I ask why your crew is so sparse on deck at the moment?"

"Vera is getting the girl right now. Don't want her to freak out."

"And you don't want her to tell anyone that your crew consists of nonhumans." He looked down at the crimson cloaked girl.

"So what if I don't want my crew to be attacked, just because they aren't human. That so wrong Miss 'I'm-over-200-years-old'?"

"Hey don't call me that." He chuckled at her little tantrum she had every time he had called her that these past days. They were only waiting for Neia, so they could board the other ship and sail into the port.

"But why do you have a parrot?"

"Oh, Stilg? He is something like a censor you could say. When I speak to the nobility that got a stick up their-" He felt Stilgs Claws tightening. "That have other social standards he warns me so I don't anger someone and they want my head. Works moderately well."

"Why only moderately?"

"Because I ignore him more often than not. I mean the princess didn't seem to mind since I saved her life, but I don't know how that will be with the stuck up- with the oh so generous people of Roble."

Except for the Princess, Evileye, and himself, everyone had already gone over to the 'Swallow', in his opinion a boring name for a ship, and it wasn't even a small fast one, then it would have been somewhat acceptable. He turned around as he heard steps on the deck, Neia and Vera were just coming out from below deck, deep in conversation abouta what he could make out was Veras Blunderbuss. This surprised him, did they not have guns here? Not even Flintlocks? They had canons after all, from there it wasn't so far to get simple guns.

"Oi Vera, what you two talking about."

"The lass was interested in me Blunderbuss. So I told her how it worked." Neia blushed.

"How? You're a fighter, not a crafter. You know squat how it actually converts your mana. All you now is to point that end at someone and then pull the trigger."

"Aye, and that is enough knowledge for me." Both of them chuckled.

"Come on Neia, let's get you onto the 'Swallow'. Then we can go to Rimun."

"W-Why are we changing ships?"

"Because I have no idea how that harbor operates and I also doubt they can hold a ship as big as 'The Survivor'."

With that, they climbed down the rope ladder onto the smaller ship that was still of impressive size for a warship. But next to 'The Survivor' even this warship looked more like a fisher boat. After they had started sailing again he turned to Neia, who was sitting against the railing so as to not to disturb anyone.

"So, where in Roble you from?"

"H-Hoburns."

"Hm. Where is that compared to Rimun."

"It lies to the east of Rimun."

"Great, then how about I'll try to find you someone who'll take you there and you wait here on the ship?"

"Y-You would do that for m-me?" She looked up at him.

"Sure why not. I plan to establish business connections in Roble. Maybe I'll just send you with a caravan that goes there and sell them my wares at a cheaper price. Won't be that hard."

"You're a merchant?"

"Yeah, where I'm from 'The Sailing Survivors' were one of the biggest businesses." He leaned his back against the railing.

"And where are you from," She hesitated "Captain Grayhate?"

"Far away kid, very far. And you don't have to call me Captain. You're not part of my crew."

"But she also calls you Captain." Neia said while pointing towards the Princess.

"Yeah but she's a princess, so she can't really be informal, you however are just a kid. So you don't have to." It took Neia a few seconds to process this information. He could almost see the gears turn in her head like with Shacklegear before it made click and she jumped up.

"She's a princess?"

"Yeah. Princess Renner Something Something, of Re-Estize." He could feel Stilgs claws press against his shoulders. Neias jaw dropped at that comment.

"You can't call her that. She is the Golden Princess!"

"It's alright, she can't hear us."

"That's not the point. She is royalty."

"Yeah, royalty with a long-ass name, so I asked her if I could just call her Princess and she said it would be fine."

Neia eyes were filled with complete disbelief, her mouth still wide open. Not able to understand how someone could be this rude to royalty and still be alive, not even remotely punished. He looked at her and couldn't help but chuckle.

"This isn't funny. What if her father finds out?"

"I'm sure he could forgive the savior of his daughter."

"Savior?"

"Yeah, her ship had been struck by lightning and was sinking when I came across her." He couldn't help but smile, Neia was finally acting like a girl her age should, although be it because he was acting disrespectful towards royalty, but he didn't care about that right now.

They had already reached the harbor and he saw a small squad of soldiers in full plate armor, lead by a middle-aged man with light-grayish brown hair, with a ridiculous little goatee.

"Captain Grayhate." He turned his head to see the princess looking at him.

"Just wait here on the ship, I'll find a way to get you back home." He turned away from Neia and walked over to the princess. "Yes. What can I do for you Princess?"

"Yes, I will have an audience with the Holy. I would like for you to accompany me."

He frowned. "With all due respect and all that, No. I'm a simple Captain, not a diplomat. Also, I told Neia I'd find a way to get her home, so I'll have to do that."

"I understand. Then please at least accompany me to meet my escort on the pier. I'm sure they'll be able to tell you where you can get the bounty for the pirates." He really didn't like that smile she had, while saying that. It was as if she was planning something.

"That is not a problem. I need to get off the ship either way, so sure I can accompany you."

Only a few minutes after that they arrived at the pier and disembarked. They were led by the princess, directly flanked by Blue Rose who was stationed beside and behind her. And himself a bit to the left behind them. The man who was obviously the leader of the squad bowed while the soldiers all stood at attention.

"I am Gustav Montagnés, Vice-Captain of the Paladin Order." Paladins? Should have expected that from a religious country. "I shall escort you to the Holy Queen."

"It is a pleasure to meet you Gustav-dono. These are Blue Rose who pose as my guards and Captain Bill Grayhate of 'The Survivor'. I hope you will allow them to accompany me." Of course, she had this planned.

"Of course your Highness. But may I ask, that ships name is 'Swallow' if I'm not mistaken so which is this 'Survivor' you speak of"

"It's the big one of the coast." He pointed towards his ship. "I didn't know if it would fit into your harbor so we anchored there. And that was obviously the right decision looking at the size of all the other ships here. Also, its name is 'The Survivor' not 'Survivor'."

"Ah, I apologize Captain Grayhate."

"Don't worry. Also," he took one of the flags out from under his coat "we met some unpleasant company on our way here. There wasn't perchance a bounty on them?"

"You sunk a ship of the Demihuman Pirates?"

"Yeah, I also got the head of their captain. But I thought it would be quite inappropriate to carry a severed goat skull into town."

The man took a few seconds to process this. "Of course. We will reward you appropriately. It is impressive that you managed to sink one of their ships. If you will just hand the flag to one of my paladins, we will be able to confirm its legitimacy later."

"Sure." He went over to the man Gustav had gestured to. He handed him the flag and took out the other four to hand them over as well. He heard the man in front of him gasp in surprise.

"What is it palad-" Gustav words were stuck in his throat as he saw that Bill had not handed over one but five flags.

"What?"

"You have sunken five of their ships?"

"Yeah."

"Please do not be offended but that is rather unbelievable."

"I can assure you Gustav-dono, Captain Grayhate did sink five of their ships, leaving not a single pirate survivor. He took out the flagship all on his own. Both I and Blue Rose can attest to this."

He didn't understand the situation. They were all weak, you wouldn't even have to be a high-level player to take them out. Wait, is the average level of this world that low? That must be a joke, even a level 50 wouldn't have had a problem with those pirates.

Gustav bowed deeply. "I apologize Grayhate-dono. I didn't know you were such a formidable warrior. Please forgive my rudeness."

"Don't sweat it." He waved his hand. "I'm just a merchant that wishes to establish connections, not some renowned warrior. You however are the Vice-Captain of the Paladin order. There is no need for you to bow or address me like that."

The Paladin was baffled, as he raised his head. He furiously thought what could have happened to drive such a warrior to pursue the carrier of a merchant.

"A merchant?"

"Yes. Currently, almost all of my wares are just materials or food, with a few exceptions."

At this, the man perked up. "Food you say?"

"Yes, we currently have about seventy tons of food available. Not including alcoholic beverages, or stuff like flour and the likes."

Even the princess and the adventurers seemed shocked at these numbers.

"S-S-Seventy TONS?"

"Give or take."

The paladin once again bowed. "Please I beg you. Sell us at least a few tons of food."

"Sure. I don't see why not. But why are you so desperate. Is there a drought?"

"You don't know?"

"No, I've come from very far away and this is the first time I have visited this continent, so I know next to nothing it." He wasn't really lying.

"If that is the case." He cleared his throat. "You see to the east of the Holy Kingdom are vast grasslands occupied by Demihumans. We built a wall long ago to defend ourselves, but about a month ago they managed to breach it during the night using sheer numbers. They have continued to push inland and have almost reached the capital."

"They have almost reached Hoburns?"

"Yes, Princess. The situation is quite dire."

"I'm sure we can strike a deal that will be beneficial to us both, as long as you lead me to someone who has the authority to strike said deal."

"Of course, please follow me to the holy queen." With that, they were off to see the queen. He was not looking forward to having to deal with royalty, but it was more important that the people of the kingdom had enough food to survive. So for that, he would manage to endure all that pompous shit.

The city looked like one would imagine a city that was part of a country experiencing a hostile invasion. There were almost no people on the streets. Only leaving their homes if they had to buy groceries. So it surprised him, even more, when a door flew open and a man in Leather Armor, wearing a black Cloak and a bow in his hand came out, but what caught his attention was the peg leg the man had. It was obvious that it was rather new, no marks on it. Promptly another man came out behind him, trying to stop him, but the first one just continued to walk into the direction of the harbor, until the second man held him back.

He couldn't make out their heated conversation, but he heard the first man shout something.

"She is my DAUGHTER, I will find her. Now LET GO."

"Gustav-dono, who is that man with the peg leg?"

"That is Pavel Baraja. One of our kingdom's finest warriors and one of the few survivors of the breach of the wall, unfortunately, he lost his leg in the battle. If that wasn't enough when he came back he was told that his daughter, a squire who was stationed at a coastal city, had been kidnaped by the Demihuman Pirates."

At this point, he got his first good lookout the man's eyes. Mad eyes that would make any normal foe piss themselves. Eyes that he had seen before.

"Excuse me Gustav-dono. I'll be right back." He walked towards the archer at a rather fast pace so the man wouldn't leave before he could reach him. "Pavel Baraja?"

The man turned his head to look at him, staring directly into his eyes. He stood unwavering under the mans piercing stare.

"Your daughter, her name Neia?" The furious look gave way to an expression of surprise and shock, then worry.

"Why do you ask?"

"Find the ship named 'Swallow'. It's the one from Re-Estize." With that, he just left the man alone with his compatriot. They just looked at him completely confused at what just happened, until Pavel realized something and limbed towards the harbor as fast as he could.

The rest of the group looked at him confused when he returned, none of the paladins understanding what just happened. Until realization dawned on Lakyus face.

"You think the girl..."

"Of course, did you see that man's eyes?" It seemed no one else understood what he meant. Except for the princess who had a knowing smile. "Well Gustav-dono, shall we continue."

Hey there, new chapter.

So yeah, Roble was overrun by the Demis, the time is about two years after Ainz would have arrived. I mean, if you look at the numbers the Demis had when Demi got to them, it was inevitable that this would happen. There are also some things going on in Re-Estize, but that will come later.

Honestly, for this story I tried to have every chapter have at least 3k words each, after writing the first one, and I struggled a bit with the other chapters. And then comes this chapter and suddenly I have 3.7k, honestly, I have no idea how I wrote this much, I thought I would have to put the upcoming audience into this chapter to reach that 3k, but now it's gonna be put into the next chapter and its gonna be a challenge to write with all the important dialogue.

This was fun to write, I hope you had fun reading, but since you are one of the very few people who read this, I assume you have since you have decided to come back to this story

Have a great day.