Crimson Servant

Fierce storms churned up the waves, and sailors ran up and down the decks, tightening ropes, hauling supplies, and doing whatever they could to get their ships through the storm. Although their faces were wet from the wind and rain and looked slightly anxious, as long as they looked in that direction, the anxiety would temporarily calm down and not affect their agile actions.

In the captain's cabin, the hanging oil lamp's light and shadow drifted due to the rocking of the ship's hull. The captain sat upright in his chair, his feet seemed to have roots, and his body swayed with the waves. The waves did not affect his ability to draw accurate marks on the chart. Occasionally he would stop writing and listen to the shouts of the sailors outside the door. The still precise and clear orders would always turn his attention back to the work at hand.

He glanced out of the corner of his eye and quickly reached out to catch the pendant that was about to slide off the table. The brass-cased pendant opened under the captain's pressure. Inside was a piece of paper that had not been wetted. A crooked charcoal drawing depicted a little girl with a smiling face.

The captain looked at the picture in the pendant, and the tenderness in his eyes almost melted into water. Putting the pendant back on, the captain resumed his work.

"Boss!!!" The loud shout almost drowned out the storm. The door of the captain's cabin was pushed open, and a strong and strong sailor with a triangle scarf on his head pushed in.

The sailor looked at the people behind the table. The disturbed captain gave his boatswain a resentful look.

"Should I knock first?"

The captain sighed, "Forget it, emergency times are treated differently. Dillon, you'd better be really busy, otherwise I will be very angry."

Dillon took a step back, and the big, muscular man felt a little uneasy. Seeing the captain's face getting darker and darker, Dillon could only tell him the news he had heard.

"Boss, the boatman who repaired the bilge reported that a monster got into our storage room!"

The captain narrowed his eyes, stood up and took his tricorn hat.

"Have you seen it with your own eyes?"

Dillon shook his head, "No, but you said that if you can't make up your mind and think it's important, I'll come to you first."

The captain passed Dillon and opened the door.

"No one has come to report that the situation has worsened yet, which means there is no big problem. But Dillon, you are the boatswain now, and you cannot copy what I said before. Now you are also the leader, and you have to stand with your sailors at this time. together."

"Boss!" Dillon stopped the captain and pointed to the sword placed next to the table. "Aren't you going to bring your weapon?"

He turned back and looked at the tall Dillon.

"Will you stand by while I fight the enemy?"

Dillon flushed and shook his head desperately, "No! Boss, I will not let go of any scum who dares to draw a sword against you."

The captain put on his three-cornered hat and said to Dillon:

"Then why should I take that burden? This is my ship, and you are the strongest weapons worthy of my trust."

The captain did not carry a sword, and the emotional Dillon followed the captain as if on stimulants, looking at everyone passing by him with an oppressive gaze, making other crew members tremble and feel confused.

The captain was a little helpless with Dillon's excessive energy. This boatswain with savage blood would never let go of any opportunity to show his loyalty.

They came all the way to the bottom cabin. When the crew members guarding the storage room saw the captain's arrival, they breathed a sigh of relief and greeted him one after another.

"Who discovered it?"

"It's me, boss." A short man with a frightened expression came out. He had dark skin and when he looked up at the captain, the wrinkles on his forehead were very obvious. "At that time, I was checking whether there was a leak in the storage room. I felt a gust of wind blowing behind me. I was a little puzzled. When I looked back, I saw a pair of glowing eyes looking at me in the dark. I swear, boss! Those are definitely not a pair of eyes. With normal eyes, he is not a normal person, he must be a monster, a monster that sneaked onto the ship!"

"Relax, Ginnie, my old friend." The captain patted him on the shoulder. "Even if it is really a monster, it will let you go once."

"I am very happy to see that you were not injured when Dillon reported the news to me. Now, gentlemen, I need a few warriors who dare to face the monster to accompany me in and find out the truth."

Almost everyone responded to the captain's call. It was as if they had found a backbone and had unprecedented courage. Even the frightened old Ginnie applied to join after the captain reassured him. He seemed to think that his previous timidity was contrary to his identity as a Norbrion crew member, and wanted to prove his courage again.

The captain selected the young men, including Dillon, and the others were assigned to continue the repair work on the ship. Simply because there is not enough room in the storage room for everyone.

They walked into the storage room, and under the captain's order, they moved the piled goods that blocked their view little by little. Finally, they successfully found the "monster", or special stowaway, in the innermost part.

Dillon and the others took a deep breath and drew out their weapons.

"A black-skinned elf?! A monster from the underground!"

Dillon immediately rushed to the captain, his tall frame almost blocking the captain's entire field of vision.

The Dark Elf made a sound, but the unintelligible language only made the crew more wary. They stared closely at the scimitar on the dark elf's waist, and would swarm them if anything went wrong. They were waiting for the captain's order.

"Step aside."

"Boss?"

"You're blocking me, Dillon."

"Feel sorry."

The tall boatswain gave up his position, and then the captain and the tall dark elf opposite met their eyes. Compared with the well-dressed captain who was guarded by sailors, the dark elf looked embarrassed and lonely. His hair was disheveled, his body was slightly bowed, and he was leaning against the wall, like a beast that was cornered, and he was whispering evilly.

"Your eyes are beautiful." The captain uttered the same evil whisper, which belonged to the language of the dark elves.

The dark elf was stunned for a moment. He was surprised that the other party actually understood his own language. The dark elf, who had just arrived on the ground, looked back at his vocabulary with some restraint, but found that he could not find a suitable word in the dark elf's dictionary that could express gratitude without any irony.

The dark elf fell silent.

"Thanks."

Francis raised his head and fixed his marvelous eyes on the captain's lips as they pronounced the word.

"I think you need this." The captain explained in Dark Elf language, "If you want to survive on the surface, you have to learn Common Language."

Francis nodded and repeated the pronunciation like the captain.

"Thanks."

The situation de-escalated, and the sailors put away their weapons under the captain's orders.

"Boss! Do you know the Dark Elf language?" Everyone looked at the captain with admiration.

The captain smiled proudly.

"Although I don't like to carry weapons, I have many weapons just to avoid situations where we can only fight with swords. We make a living at sea, but we rely on connections."

The captain's eyes returned to the dark elf. The word the dark elf first spoke was not actually a dark elf language. That's a place name.

Waterdeep, that's where the dark elves want to go.

It is also the final destination of this ship. There are not many fleets crossing the South China Sea directly to the Northland. The dark elf may have heard the sailors talking about their destination on the dock.

The captain said to the dark elf.

"This particular passenger, I'm glad we can clear up the misunderstanding, but the fact that you are a stowaway has not changed, so I have to ask you to go somewhere."

"I hope you won't make things difficult for us, Mr. Dark Elf."

The dark elf nodded. The captain's dark elf language used some ancient grammar that was no longer used in his hometown, which actually seriously interfered with his understanding of the meaning. The dark elf understood about half of it. Faced with the only situation where people on the ground did not attack him, the dark elf could only tense up and repeat the only common language he had just learned to express his goodwill.

"Thanks."