Debuff Master

Chapter 294

The old captain’s name was Alfred, and he was a veteran pilot with twenty years worth of experience under his belt. Siegfried knew that this pilot was quite skilled, but he also knew that—

‘Why is this irresponsible old man here?!’

—Alfred was unreliable.

Why?

This old geezer was the reason that Siegfried crashed into the island where the World’s Greatest Survival Tournament was taking place, and it was all because he hadn’t been maintaining his airship.

Of course, things turned out quite well for Siegfried as he received the Proatine Kingdom because of it. However, Siegfried didn’t feel better at all. He still felt quite nervous being in an airship Captain Alfred was driving.

“What can I do when I have so much on my bar tab?!”

“Do you really think that I didn’t want to maintain my airship?! Ha?! I was aware that the bearing on my right engine was cracked! I knew it, but the bar threatened to tell my wife if I failed to pay my tab within the week!”

Captain Alfred was a skilled pilot, but he was far too irresponsible and stingy when it came to maintaining his own airship.

‘Is this airship going to crash again…?’ Siegfried thought nervously.

“Hoho! Long time no see! You look good! I heard that the emperor bestowed you a territory?” Captain Alfred said. The way he said it made it sound like they were best buddies for some odd reason.

“You’re still alive?” Siegfried grumbled in response.

“Ha! Look at this guy! Is that the way to greet someone you haven’t seen for a long time? Why do you sound so bitter?”

“Are you really asking that right now? How can I not be bitter at the airship captain who nearly killed me just because he’d rather his money on booze than maintaining his airship? Ha?!”

“Ahem!”

“You should’ve just died that time instead of putting others in danger.”

“Aren’t you still alive!” Alfred retorted.

“Ah, sure, whatever…” Siegfried sneered before asking, “But what’s this airship? Didn’t your airship break into pieces in the crash?”

“Ah, this one? I used up all of my savings to buy it. I think it’s around seventy years old? It’s old, but it’s still quite dependable.”

“I think it might’ve been better if you didn’t have any savings…”

“Shut up! Its engine does turn off by itself from time to time, but it’s still quite dependable!”

“T-The what turns off?! You’re flying this junk despite knowing that?!” Siegfried exclaimed. His face turned ghastly pale as the sound of the old engine rang in his ears.

“Haha! Don’t worry! I’m the best pilot on the continent, and I’m capable of gliding this airship to safety if it ever shuts down!” Captain Alfred confidently said while waving his hand.

‘This damn old geezer is crazy! He’s insane!’ Siegfried cried out inside.

He could not help but feel extremely nervous since he already experienced crashing once in the captain’s airship.

“Don’t worry~ Be happy~ Kekeke!”

Captain Alfred seemed to have read Siegfried’s mind as he nonchalantly laughed.

A chill traveled down Siegfried’s spine as he sensed something ominous foreboding.

***

“Let’s talk,” Siegfried said.

He then explained what happened to calm Ingrid down.

“That’s how I ended up getting married by force. Do you understand now? I’ll say this again, but my pet cast a spell on you that time to…” He made sure that his explanation was as detailed as possible to make her understand that the steamy night that made her go crazy was actually an illusion created by Hamchi.

“Lies! Did you really think I would be fooled by such a sorry excuse?” Ingrid retorted.

“AAARGHHH!” Siegfried screamed out of frustration.

“Do not force me any lower than I am right now.”

“Hey… Excuse me…?”

“You’re coming with me somewhere nobody will find us.”

“…”

“I’ll make you happy,” Ingrid added with a smile.

However, her warm gentle smile somehow ended up sending chills down Siegfried’s spine.

‘S-She’s insane!’

Ingrid could no longer be convinced by words.

“Do you really have to do this…?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because you kept avoiding me and stuck to another bitch.”

“I already told you that’s not what happened! You’ve misunderstood!”

“Do you really plan to make a fool out of me until the end?”

“Damn it!”

“Sniff… Sniff…”

Ingrid suddenly started crying.

“E-Excuse me…?”

“Bastard… You made me go crazy… Enslaved me… But you ended up choosing another woman…?”

“What the hell did I do?!”

“If only you stopped avoiding me and just went out on a date with me…”

Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff!

An ominous sound could be heard from the airship engine.

Puff…! Prrrt! Prrrt!

The engine stopped running.

“This piece of junk!” Captain Alfred shouted as he tried to turn the engines on again.

Prrrt! Prrrt! Puff…!

.

However, the engine refused to come back to life.

“Damn it! Turn on, will you?! Hurry up!” Captain Alfred shouted out of frustration as he kept pressing the engine ignition button.

“Stop pressing that! What if it explodes?!” Siegfried screamed in horror after seeing what the captain was doing.

He had just said what if, but a blast had already echoed from the side of the airship.

Boom!

The engine that the captain was trying to start exploded just as Siegfried feared.

[Alert: Warning! Warning!]

[Alert: The airship’s left engine has exploded due to age and poor maintenance!]

Two messages popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

The airship started tilting to one side.

Whiiiiing…!

“Ah… We’re fucking crashing again…” Siegfried muttered as he realized what was going on.

“D-Don’t worry! Just trust me!”

“Trust, my ass! How can I trust you? And look! We’re heading into a storm!” Siegfried shouted while pointing in front of them.

Whooooosh!

Dark clouds bringing forth rain and powerful gusts of winds were fast approaching the airship.

[Alert: A storm is raging up ahead!]

[Alert: The airship is about to crash!]

[Alert: The airship is going to crash soon! Brace for impact!]

Additional messages popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

“This is seriously…” Siegfried muttered as he closed his eyes.

Whiiiiiing!

The old airship with its busted left engine spun like a top as it was dragged around by the storm.

***

“I’m logged out again… Damn it…” Tae-Sung grumbled after having to wait twelve hours before logging in again.

“That damned old geezer… Should I just kill him?” Tae-Sung considered killing the captain with his own hands, but he decided that it was probably not necessary. “He’s probably dead, so how can I possibly kill him again.”

Tae-Sung was certain that Captain Alfred had perished in the crash, but the problem was Ingrid.

“I didn’t die. I just fell unconscious, so she’s probably fine, right? I mean, she’s an NPC, but she’s way stronger than me.”

However, he could not be certain. He could have been lucky, and his character simply got knocked unconscious, but there was no guarantee that Ingrid had survived the crash.

“Ah, forget about it. I should just get some sleep until I can log into the game again.”

He sent a message explaining what happened to Seung-Gu before going to bed.

“Why is it so difficult to just enjoy the game… darn it…” Tae-Sung grumbled and let out a sigh before closing his eyes.

***

Seung-Gu hurried over to the emergency council after receiving Tae-Sung’s message explaining what happened.

‘It’s a mess over here…’ he thought right after he opened the door.

Both Lionbreath and Lohengrin had huge black eyes and bloody noses after brawling with each other, but it seemed that they finally calmed down, judging by how both of them were sulking in their seats.

“Sniff… Sniff… Sniff…”

On the other hand, Brunhilde was crying in one corner in her wedding dress after convincing herself that Siegfried had abandoned her for another woman.

“Ughh…” Michele groaned. He looked ready to pass out from the stress.

“I’ve received word from hyung-nim!”

Everyone’s eyes darted toward Seung-Gu the moment he made the announcement.

“What happened? Did His Majesty really run away?!” Michele jumped up and asked.

“No, he was abducted.”

“Oh?”

“Is the culprit Ingrid as expected?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“I see…” Michele muttered before he stole a glance at Brunhilde. He was quite quick-witted, so he immediately followed up with another question in an attempt to save the royal union.

“Then, His Majesty did not run away, nor did he elope with the Nordic Princess? Is that correct, Sir Seung-Gu?”

“Yes, Sir Michele.”

“As expected… Well, that explains a lot. I mean, His Majesty would have eloped before the wedding ceremony if he really wanted to, right? I doubt he would have dared to do that when he had invited his master as well.”

“Were you asking me if hyung-nim eloped with her or not despite knowing that?”

“Ahem…” Michele faked a cough instead of replying.

‘It’s not my fault that he’s not trustworthy…’ he thought.

Michele was a genius, so he was able to connect the dots that Siegfried hadn’t run away from his own wedding, but he still decided to ask because he had truly lost all trust in Siegfried.

“T-Then… Siegfried-nim did not abandon me…?” Brunhilde asked as her voice trembled. Well, he also asked so that Brunhilde would overhear their conversation. Of course, he still didn’t trust Siegfried.

“Alright, we have confirmed that His Majesty has been abducted, so let us convene again twelve hours later to come up with a rescue plan,” Michele said as he finally found the time to take a breather.

***

Twelve hours later.

“Where… am I?” Siegfried muttered after opening his eyes on some beach. He looked around his surroundings and instantly felt nervous as it felt scarily similar to his experience when the World’s Greatest Survival Tournament started. “Is this the end of the continent? Don’t tell me I crashed on some island again…?”

Fortunately, he didn’t hear of another tournament being hosted, so he decided to open the map and figure out where he was, but…

“Huh?”

There was nothing on the world map aside from a single red dot, which was him. It was as if the entire map was wiped clean or there was a bug.

[Eternal Isles: Immoral Island]

The only clue he got from the world map was that he was currently in a place called Eternal Isles.

“What the? Where the hell am I…?” Siegfried muttered and felt his stress level go up. “The name of this place alone is telling me that it’s going to be extremely difficult to escape… the world map is not working, too… Argh! This is driving me crazy…!”

Siegfried started walking along the shoreline to try and shake off the ominous feeling creeping up on him. However, the problem was that the shoreline seemed infinite, and there was no end in sight to the coast on the horizon.

He continued walking for around three hours until he finally noticed something strange.

“Aren’t these my footprints?!”

Siegfried noticed that he had returned to where he first woke up.

“I walked in one full circle? I don’t think so… I’m sure I was walking in a straight line…” he muttered in disbelief. His instincts were sharper than an animal’s, so he was confident he would have noticed it if he had been walking in circles.

“Let’s try walking again…”

Siegfried opened his map this time and paid attention to the compass located in its lower-right corner while walking.

Three hours later…

“I-I’m back here?!” Siegfried freaked out.

He was certain that the compass hadn’t moved even 0.001 millimeters in the last three hours, but he ended up arriving at the same place.

“I wasn’t walking in a straight line, but the compass actually never moved? And I’m back here? What the hell… This is driving me crazy! Is there some sort of spell cast on this place?”

Siegfried decided that there was probably some spell cast on the coastline, so he decided to leave the coastline.

“Let’s go straight into the island this time.”

The island was covered in lush vegetation, and he could tell that the island was massive, judging by how a huge mountain towered in the distance. In the end, he was forced to venture into the forest.

“Oh yeah, where’s that old geezer and Ingrid?” Siegfried wondered.

The bush in front of him moved the moment he entered the forest.

He gripped his +15 Gaia’s Fist.

However, what emerged from the bush was a white rabbit.

“Eh? It’s only a rabbit. I got tensed for noth—”

“Die!”

A humanoid monster suddenly jumped out from the bush and attacked Siegfried.

“What the?!”

Siegfried jumped out of the way while flashing his Rune of Insight to check the monster’s information.

[Low-rank Demon Race Scout]

[A warrior of the demon race that usually carries out reconnaissance missions.]

[Type: Monster]

[Race: Demon]

[Level: 200]

The monster that had jumped out from the bush was none other than a demon.