I Became a Tin Knight
Chapter 113: The Tin Knight and The Land of Sea Breeze (2)

Outside the monitor, you burst into laughter.

While Franka clutched her head, saying there couldn’t be a case of worse timing, to you, this was the natural course of events.

No, how could a ship depart without any problems after arriving at a port city?

Whether the weather was terrible, a sea monster rampaged, or even if pirates were causing trouble, something was bound to happen.

In a game, this was expected. Of course—uh, that was…

You inside the Tin Knight suddenly looked around.

You saw…

Dorothea

Adel

You in front of the monitor also looked around.

You saw a solitary, empty room.

A small question arose in a corner of your mind.

Is this really a game?

Are they all just characters?

What if it’s not a game? If they’re all real, what about this situation? This mysterious small room? My condition?

You felt somewhat stifled.

The more you engaged in serious contemplation and deep thought, the more you felt like you were sinking into deep water with shackles on your feet.

You stopped thinking.

The more frivolously, impulsively, and spontaneously you acted, the more the stuffiness disappeared.

Once again, the sensation of dreaming—of floating—returned.

You even forgot what you had been agonizing over until now.

You decided to simply enjoy the adventure unfolding before your eyes.

***

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks which of the three should be dealt with first!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that since we’re at sea anyway, he wants to change his weapon to something like a pirate sword!]

At the Tin Knight’s words, Adelaide tilted her head, “Are there special weapons just for pirates?”

Sophia answered, “I think he might be referring to a cutlass. You know, the curved one.”

“Ah.”

Dorothea, who had been watching the somewhat bizarre scene of a 500-year-old sealed vampire explaining weapons to a modern knightly family girl, let out a deep sigh.

Usually, in any situation, those who had experienced it before responded faster than those experiencing it for the first time.

While Franka couldn’t easily regain her composure in a situation where her carefully tuned plans had been shattered, Dorothea, who had already gone through similar experiences several times, forcibly grabbed and pulled out Franka’s mental thread.

“Hey, funny hair.”

“…Are you referring to me?”

“We’re not close enough to call each other by name, are we? More importantly, how much time do we have left? I mean, how long will it take for the Witch of the West to realize you’re gone and respond?”

Franka momentarily showed an upset expression, but perhaps because she thought it was an important issue too, she soon answered seriously, “Considering the time it took to get here and the time it will take to get to the island where my master is, at least until tomorrow morning. Even if we dawdle, we need to leave by evening.”

“Is there any way to extend it?”

“If there was, I would have used it already.”

“So we have to resolve everything by the end of the day.”

Dorothea fell into contemplation.

She couldn’t tell if this was simple misfortune or someone’s machination, but what was certain was that there was nothing good about dragging out time here.

“First, let’s divide the personnel… No, never mind.”

Dorothea had initially tried to resolve the issue quickly by dividing the personnel as usual, but after thinking a bit, she changed her words.

It’s dangerous to scatter with the Witch of the West nearby. We don’t know when Algind might show up, either. Even considering the time limit, it’s better to stay together.

“You said pirates, sea monsters, and weather were the problems, right? Leaving aside the others, for the pirates, wouldn’t it be faster to just pay the ransom and get the hostages back?”

Thud.

The Tin Knight beside her looked at Dorothea with disbelieving eyes.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ is shocked!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ refuses to submit to dirty hostage-taking!]

Dorothea nonchalantly ignored the Tin Knight’s words, and Franka couldn’t hear them in the first place.

Franka showed a thoughtful expression for a moment, then asked her subordinate nearby, “So, how much did those trash demand?”

“Well, that…”

When the subordinate nervously stated the amount, Adelaide, who heard the sum, hiccupped.

Even Dorothea, who had an attitude of “What does it matter, it’s not my money, anyway,” flinched for a moment.

Sophia, with her fingertips to her lips, said, “Hmm, according to the prices I’ve seen in books, you could build about two new galleons with that. Even considering it as ransom for several skilled sailors, it’s an unreasonable profiteering.”

Franka also frowned, showing displeasure, as if it wasn’t an amount she could easily hand over.

The subordinate bowed his waist as if ashamed, “…I apologize for not properly managing the personnel, Miss.”

“Forget it. I’ll deal with the reprimands later, just prepare the money for now.”

Strictly speaking, Franka wasn’t an employer who cared that much about her people.

The reason she readily agreed to the deal wasn’t because she valued the sailors, but because if something happened to the sailors’ safety now, it would interfere with the operation to rescue her children.

She considered it an investment for the cute golden-winged monkeys.

***

However, there was one thing she didn’t expect, “Why are there only half the people?”

That criminals, when victims responded “diligently”, didn’t appreciate it but rather thought they had found a good mark and became even more brazen.

To Franka’s voice, suppressing anger, the pirates boasted, “Of course, that’s because the market price has changed.”

“We immediately demanded ransom, but you kept dragging out negotiations with this and that talk, right?”

“We need to recover all the money we spent feeding, clothing, and housing your subordinates, so keep that in mind.”

Franka’s subordinates were outraged.

“Stop talking nonsense! Didn’t you say before that you’d release everyone without any conditions if we brought the agreed amount?”

“Even if you talk about food costs or whatever, how much could that be in just a day or two!?”

Above all, seeing the worn-out appearance of the hostages bound with gags and ropes, it was all too obvious that they hadn’t sincerely cared for the hostages’ health.

“Ah, enough chatter. For now, with that amount, we can only release half of the people we brought here. For the remaining people, if you bring the same amount once more, we’ll release them then. You’ll need time to prepare new money too, so let’s meet again in about 3 days.”

But the pirates were brazen.

Their confident attitude even exuded leisure.

“Let me warn you in advance, it’s better not to have any foolish thoughts. If even a speck of trouble happens to us, the half of the hostages left at our base will absolutely not be safe!”

No matter how powerful Franka and her subordinates were, they couldn’t touch hostages in a different location.

Of course, once those hostages were released, then it might really become dangerous, but…

We just need to not meet these guys again in the first place.

From the beginning, the pirates had no intention of carrying out the deal sincerely.

The true value of this method was to pretend to extort money once more using half of the hostages, making the other party mistakenly believe they had a second chance.

By doing so, whether due to concern for the remaining hostages’ safety or thinking they could catch them next time even if they let them go now, they would let the pirates go without any problems for now.

But once they let them go like that, that was the end.

By the time Franka’s entourage realized they had been deceived, the pirates would have already fled far, far away to another place.

At least in terms of catching people off guard and backstabbing them, they were excellent in their own way.

However, what they failed to calculate was…

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that if they’re pirates too, don’t they have the ability to handle ships anyway!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if we can’t capture those guys and make them work!]

That a witch, who had been watching the situation with a crooked posture, clearly displeased by the preceding events, listened to the crazy idea of some madman.

Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, an alchemist who wasn’t particularly concerned about the hostages’ safety immediately called out in agreement with the necromancer’s whisper.

Thus, the Tin Knight started to rampage.

Clank!

“W-what?! Where did this guy come from—urk!”

“You bastards! Now you’re saying you don’t care what happens to the hostages—“

“Hii, hiiieek!”

Although the Tin Knight was rampaging with bare hands without even drawing his sword, it was enough of a disaster for the pirates.

The violence unleashed by a full-body iron mass over 180cm tall was not something mere villains who couldn’t even draw out sword energy could handle.

Watching the pirates being subdued one by one, Franka gave orders to her subordinates, “Bring me some wood and metal plates.”

Franka’s subordinates faithfully carried out the order, and soon wood planks and metal plates were prepared.

In front of the kneeling pirates, Franka reached out to the prepared materials.

The materials touched by Franka’s hand were broken apart and combined, then soon changed into something like a rectangular plate about the width of a person’s shoulders.

There was a hole in the center of the plate for a person’s neck to go through, and devices for opening and closing on the edges.

At Franka’s signal, her subordinates fitted these plates onto the pirates’ necks.

In front of the pirates’ eyes, Franka inserted a long wooden stick into the hole of the plate before flicking  her finger.

Snap!

The blade installed inside the plate moved, cutting the wooden stick in half in an instant.

The pirates’ faces turned pale.

“If anyone disobeys orders or causes trouble, be prepared. I’ll tell you in advance, I don’t have much patience.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses satisfaction, saying it’s the right outcome!]

Adelaide, watching from the side, made a sour expression, “Um, is this really okay? It feels like there are various other things we should be concerned about…”

Sophia answered, “With not one but two witches here, isn’t this a cheap price to pay for challenging them?”

“But still, what about those remaining hostages…?”

“As for that, since we’ve secured the pirates, Franka’s subordinates should be able to resolve it.”

“Ah, that’s good then.”

Adelaide was convinced.

Perhaps due to past experiences, she was quite merciless towards bandit-like groups.

Hostages captured by pirates (1/1)

Rampaging sea serpent (0/1)

Ceremony to calm the weather (0/1)

First mission. Resolved.

***

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