novelraw Chapter 84
Chapter 84
Ch.84 You’ve Messed Up My Hair!
We chatted over coffee in a café aboard the passenger liner.
Was it just my imagination? Lately, Selena had changed.
How should I put it…?
“Hans, say ‘ah’!”
“Ahh!”
She scooped a spoonful of ice cream and fed it into my open mouth.
“How is it? Delicious?”
“Yeah. It’s good.”
Not to be outdone, Nephert scooped ice cream onto her spoon and offered it to Nekhuf.
“Nekhuf, say ‘ah~’!”
“Huh? I’ll eat it myself.”
Watching Nekhuf ignore her spoon and take the ice cream directly, I couldn’t help but click my tongue inwardly.
Nekhuf, you really don’t understand a woman’s heart.
Maybe now that he could accurately sense object positions—unlike before—he simply preferred doing things himself.
“Hans, give me a bite too.”
Selena gave me a sly, twinkling-eyed smile.
Why did she suddenly feel… off-putting?
She was still undeniably beautiful and kind-hearted as ever, yet now I sensed a strange distance between us.
Come to think of it, just yesterday she’d been in a low-pressure mood, and I’d tried hard to cheer her up—but nothing worked.
Then, all of a sudden, she’d turned completely cheerful. It felt almost unreal.
Though suspicious inside, I kept it off my face and smiled as I fed her a spoonful.
“Here, say ‘ah~’.”
“Ahh~ Mmm!”
Seeing her nod brightly, as if my ice cream were the best in the world, I wondered:
Was it just my imagination?
Maybe she’d simply resolved some recent worries.
Still, Selena’s sudden clinginess felt a bit overwhelming.
She’d never been this openly affectionate before—except maybe at the very start of our journey. Usually, I was the one initiating; she rarely did.
Setting aside whether our relationship had genuinely improved, I still couldn’t fathom women’s hearts.
Nekhuf gave a thumbs-up and said cheerfully,
“You two really look great together!”
The ever-clueless Nekhuf.
But Selena seemed pleased by his comment and giggled.
“Really? You two look great too. How did you two even meet?”
I answered Selena’s question.
“They’re childhood friends from the same village.”
The romance between Nekhuf and Nephert in the ‘Dragon War’ DLC was an undeniably tear-jerking, moving story.
But… how had it ended up like this?
Knowing how Nekhuf overcame immense trials through pure love, I felt deeply disappointed that their story had reached such a slapdash conclusion.
Any true ‘Destiny’ fan would probably feel the same.
Unaware of my thoughts, Nekhuf’s eyes sparkled as he spoke.
“Brother, I have a favor to ask.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“Could you spar with me again?”
His sudden request for a duel left me dumbfounded.
“Huh? Right now?”
—Nod.
Was he still bitter about losing last time?
There he stood, wearing that bright, sunny smile—clearly dreaming of a rematch.
After defeating Set, he probably felt confident enough to seek revenge.
But I had zero intention of sparring with him.
This guy had ‘three’ special traits.
His previous weakness was gone, and if I fought and lost now…
My current win record stood at 1–0. A loss would make it 1–1.
And since the last victor is traditionally declared the true winner, I wasn’t about to risk it.
“Nope.”
Nekhuf and Nephert looked genuinely shocked—I’d refused so bluntly.
“Why not?”
“Why? Is it really that hard to fight just once?”
I scratched my head and replied to the two of them,
“Do we really have to fight?”
Nephert seemed offended and snapped,
“You’re not refusing because you’re scared of losing, are you?”
“Hey, come on! Brother Hans is super strong—don’t say stuff like that!”
Truthfully? Yeah, I was scared of losing.
My weapons came with serious restrictions—either guaranteed kills or forbidden in crowded places, and my dark magic put me at a clear disadvantage.
“Exactly! How strong is Hans, anyway?”
Selena took my side…
When was the last time that happened?
“Khh….”
Her recent coldness had made this sudden support so unexpectedly touching that I nearly teared up without realizing it.
“Brother Hans?”
“Huh? Why are you crying?”
“Hans? Are you okay?”
I wiped my eyes and smiled.
“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just… just really touching, khh!”
Everyone gave me a deeply unimpressed look.
“What on earth?”
“Touching what?”
“What’s so moving?”
To their confused faces, I explained earnestly,
“Khh… Selena didn’t scold me just now!”
“Th-that’s it?”
Lately, everything I did earned me a scolding from Selena.
The atmosphere had been icy…
So her suddenly taking my side felt genuinely moving.
“Hweeeng! It’s emotional!”
I hugged Selena while crying, and she pushed me away, her face flushed.
“No, seriously! Why are you being so pathetic?! Don’t cry over something like that!”
Her voice echoed loudly through the café.
***
Meanwhile, on the ship’s bridge, the captain and crew were gathered in distress.
“Damn it! Why won’t the speed drop?!”
The captain clutched his head in despair—the liner’s speed far exceeded all expectations.
He’d dropped anchor to stop the ship, yet it only slowed slightly and kept moving forward inexplicably.
Worse, it was veering off its original course.
‘Am I possessed… or is the ship haunted?’
Unbeknownst to him, this was all due to Hans’s Trident of the Sea God.
Hans had redirected the ship—not to its intended port, but to the exact spot where his own vessel had sunk.
Using the Trident’s oceanic authority, he’d tried to retrieve sunken gold and Concept Artifacts…
only causing chaos for everyone else.
‘At this rate, I’m really going to get fired… Wait—where the hell are we even heading now?’
The ship behaved as if alive—furling its sails and dropping anchor on its own, yet still sailing forward.
This eerie, unnatural situation left the captain and crew deeply unsettled.
“Captain… shouldn’t we inform the passengers?”
Johnson spoke up.
The captain hesitated, then shook his head firmly.
“No! That’ll only cause unnecessary panic!”
He feared passenger hysteria would escalate the danger further.
Still clinging to hope, he refused to give up on safely reaching port.
‘If I handle this well, I can bury this incident quietly.’
With his children’s weddings coming up, he couldn’t afford to lose this high-paying, stable job—not even a little.
But despite his resolve…
“What should we do, then?”
At a crewman’s question, deep wrinkles formed on the captain’s brow.
He had no answers.
“I don’t know… I’ve spent nearly 50 years at sea, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Everyone’s faces darkened.
They all knew the sea was fickle—but this was beyond anything they’d experienced.
“It’s strange, but it won’t last forever. Until then, keep the passengers quiet!”
With that order, the captain silenced the crew.
Staring at the nautical chart, he trembled inwardly.
‘Please… let this end well.’
***
Meanwhile, the Hero Party chasing Hans.
Leah’s expression brightened slightly—she could sense Hans over the ocean.
After all, his ship was now much closer.
Seeing Leah’s confident face, Cecilia asked cautiously,
“Are we really getting closer?”
“Yeah, we should catch up in a few days if things go well.”
Scarlet immediately chimed in,
“Then it won’t be long! This time, we have to catch him.”
They’d felt utterly hollow last time—losing Hans right before their eyes.
Mia, worried Hans might suddenly accelerate again like before, spoke up.
“It’s too early to celebrate. He might start moving at that insane speed again.”
Mia had been pushing hard for days—her face looked exhausted.
She’d been squeezing every ounce of power from mid-tier spirits daily to boost their speed.
But if Hans resumed his unnatural pace, all her recent efforts would be wasted, and the gap would widen once more.
Her sobering words made everyone exchange uneasy glances.
“No way… it won’t happen again.”
“Yeah, impossible.”
“If it does, I’ll break his legs.”
Leah spoke like a parent scolding a disobedient child—so convincingly that anyone might mistake her for the master and Hans for the disciple.
“That’s exactly why you shouldn’t get your hopes up yet.”
Cecilia smiled gently at Mia’s weary face.
“It’s okay—we have spirits on our side, right?”
Every day, Mia summoned spirits for over eight hours straight.
Spirit summoning drained mental stamina heavily—even for a high elf, maintaining a mid-tier spirit for that long daily was exhausting.
Yet Mia couldn’t stop.
Because…
“You look really tired. Heal!”
Cecilia cast a Holy Magic spell on Mia—with a wicked little smile.
‘That’s exactly why I said stop exploiting me!’
Proud and unwilling to show weakness in front of humans,
Mia bit back a torrent of curses, clenching her lips tightly.
“Sigh… Enough.”
She vowed to grab Hans by the collar and shake him senseless the moment they met.
***
“It should be about time to arrive.”
I’d set the ship’s course for the spot where my vessel sank during my first arrival in the New Continent.
Blessed by the Trident of the Sea God, we should’ve arrived long ago—yet we hadn’t.
That struck me as odd.
“Strange?”
“What’s strange?”
At the familiar voice, I answered flatly,
“Well, thanks to the Trident’s effect, we should’ve arrived ages ago—but we haven’t.”
I was starting to get tired of life aboard the ship.
I’d seen all the shows and circus acts, and even the pool had grown boring.
“And when we arrive?”
At Selena’s question, I replied,
“I need to retrieve the money and items I dropped in the sea.”
She gave me a knowing smile.
“Hehe… Are there any super amazing items down there—like the Trident of the Sea God?”
“Yeah. Two major ones. I absolutely have to find them this time.”
The shipwreck held the Sword Saint’s Blade and the Arbiter’s Armor.
The Sword Saint’s Blade was a Concept Artifact that unlocked all sword skills and passives, while the Arbiter’s Armor was a broken-tier item on par with Equality or Altarion’s Staff.
Her eyes widened in shock.
“Seriously?”
“Yep. For real.”
She frowned deeply.
“How on earth did you get something like that?”
I’d just gone to the same spot as in the game and found them—but Selena wouldn’t believe that easily, so I gave her a small, mysterious smile.
“Secret.”
“Tch. That’s so unfair.”
She turned her head away, acting like she was sulking.
“Hehe… Are you pouting?”
Finding her adorable, I reached out to ruffle her hair—but she raised her hand and blocked mine.
“I’m not pouting! So don’t pat my head.”
“But I want to! I’m gonna pat it anyway!”
I vigorously ruffled her hair.
“Ugh! You’ve messed it all up!”
Selena grumbled, but looking at her, I couldn’t help smiling.
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