Chapter 133
[The Legitimate Ruler of the Battlefield, the Sand Eater, the Ruthless Slave Lord, the King of Deception…]
With a grand fanfare, sound burst from my flag.
150 decibels.
A noise rivaling a jet engine.
“Uuugh?”
“My ears, my ears...!”
The sailors screamed and clamped their hands over their ears.
The beautiful song of the siren was erased in an instant.
[Honorary Elf, Honorary Dwarf, Memory Bearer, Pirate King, 72-Hour Gallery Shift, a Child in Need of Love and Attention…]
The flag, tirelessly reciting my achievements and titles.
My face burned with embarrassment.
Fortunately, it worked.
The half-dazed sailors’ eyes began to clear. Teech frowned and clutched his head.
“Damn, my head... Huh? Captain?”
“Back with us?”
“What on earth is that sound? It feels like my ears are being torn apart...”
Teech looked around with a dazed expression, then spotted the flag.
“What is all this supposed to mean? Slave lord?”
Teech's eyes went wide.
“No matter how you look at it, slavery is a bit...”
For a pirate, he sure was saying something out of the blue.
No, didn't he clearly say last time he'd steal the ship and use the crew as slaves?
The other sailors, one by one, got to their feet and started spouting nonsense.
“We are not slaves!”
“We will become the masters of the sea!”
“There are a lot of other weird phrases too. What’s this about a bracelet thief...”
My face reddened. I had to change the subject, even if I had to do it shamelessly.
“Quit dawdling! Can’t you see those things?”
I shouted and pointed toward the shoal of reefs.
Jagged rocks had come right up to us without us noticing.
On top of them, half-naked monsters with flustered expressions could be seen.
Apparently shocked by the sudden noise pollution, they had stopped singing and were covering their ears.
“Siren!”
“Damn it, we were bewitched!”
“My first love was a monster... I’ll never forgive them!”
The sailors got to their feet, spitting curses.
“All hands, prepare for battle! Open the gunports!”
“Gunports open!”
Teech repeated my order. He swept his staff as if firing a gun, and the gunports of the ghost ship opened on their own.
Black haze rose around the cannon barrels.
[Necromancer’s Wand]
[Black Magic Power +200%]
Thanks to the wand's effect, the cannons’ power had doubled.
“Aiming complete!”
“Fire!”
KWA-BOOM!
The cannons all belched flame at once.
The shells, imbued with the power of curses, sliced through the air far faster than ordinary cannonballs.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
The cannonballs struck the reefs dead on. The rocks exploded and vanished into dust.
“Kiiieeek!”
The sirens sitting on the rocks shrieked and tried to leap into the sea, but the cannonballs were faster.
The sirens were ripped apart helplessly.
“Keep firing!”
The sea turned upside down. Before long, the entire reef was engulfed in black smoke and pillars of water.
“Wow...”
I gaped at the sight.
The bombardment looked more destructive than most mages' area-of-effect spells. This was the power of items.
A moment later, the bombardment stopped and the smoke cleared.
Nothing was left. Not the reefs, not the sirens. Only debris floating about.
A perfect victory, through and through.
“Phew...”
I cut off the flag's voice, which was still reciting titles.
“Time to go collect the loot.”
I pointed at the objects floating on the sea and ordered them to be recovered.
There was no need for me to move personally. A captain had no business doing this sort of work.
The sailors diligently hauled up the items with landing nets and hooks.
Most were useless junk, but there were a few useful ones too.
“We picked this up, but we don't know what it's for. It definitely looks unusual...”
Where the largest siren had been—probably the leader, though it had been swept away helplessly by the bombardment.
There was a single pink, translucent glass bead. Slightly larger than an egg.
When I picked it up, its item information appeared.
[Siren’s Vocal Cords]
[Legendary]
[You obtain the voice of a siren.]
[On use, it is absorbed into the throat.]
“Another unhelpful description...”
As befitting a legendary item, the description was short, simple, and maddeningly vague.
To gain the voice of a siren... was I supposed to sing or something?
I crouched in a corner of the deck and examined the item from every angle.
“Do I eat it?”
It said it would be absorbed on use, so probably.
Like the gem I had eaten out of the fish's belly earlier, this looked like another ingestion-type item.
And if it wasn't?
“I'll try eating it, and if it doesn't work, I'll just pull it back out.”
Since I could freely turn my body into sand, maybe I could retrieve an item from my stomach too?
Though I didn't particularly want to test it.
After a moment's hesitation, I swallowed the bead.
“Cough, cough...!”
Trying to swallow an egg-sized bead in one go was agony. Tears welled up in my eyes.
“Mmmph...”
Gulp.
I barely managed to get the bead down my throat.
Strangely enough, the bead vanished like melting snow at that very moment.
“Mm...”
My throat itched.
It felt like the inside of my throat was stinging, like I was right on the verge of catching a cold.
I cleared my throat a few times.
“Ahem, ah, aah.”
It was my voice as usual. Nothing had changed. Only, it felt a little clearer.
“What, a defective one?”
I couldn't hide my disappointment and grumbled. There was no way a legendary item would be this lame.
I focused a little harder, as if channeling mana into my throat.
I felt something like a switch being flipped on.
“Aaah—.”
It wasn't my usual voice.
Much clearer, higher-pitched.
It was similar to the siren's voice I had heard earlier.
“I-I just heard an amazing voice, didn't I?”
“Is there still a siren left?”
The sailors looked around in shock.
A satisfying reaction.
“Ahem, is my voice that good?”
After clearing my throat a few times, I put more strength into my voice again.
This time, in a slightly thicker, lower voice.
“I’m the boss now!”
A gravelly male voice, heavy with authority. It was exactly the same as Teech's voice.
A passing sailor turned around in surprise.
“What is it, former captain? A mutiny? ...Huh? New captain?”
“Is that all you ever think about?”
I couldn't even guess how much of this Teech had to put up with.
“So it's a voice-changing feature...”
I nodded. A pretty amusing effect.
But it was a little lacking for something legendary.
Simple voice modulation could be mimicked well enough with a machine.
“I feel like there should be something else.”
I decided to keep experimenting with other functions.
As expected, the first things that came to mind were singing and charm.
I cleared my throat.
I was originally close to tone-deaf. I'd never even been to a karaoke room. That was true both before this body and after.
“Forever unbreakable~.”
I sang a line from a popular song. Then I couldn't believe my ears.
“This is my voice?”
Perfect pitch and timing. Was this really sung by me, the tone-deaf one?
On top of that, there was a strange resonance that moved the listener's heart.
Every sailor on deck was staring at me with dazed expressions. Their reactions were similar to when they'd heard the siren's song earlier.
Even the parrot looked at me with tears in its eyes.
[Squawk....]
“Captain... why are you so good at singing?”
“It makes me think of the land and my hometown I left behind ten years ago...”
“What is wrong with these guys?”
I hadn't even sung a sad song, just one line, and this was their reaction?
It seemed that this didn't just let me sing well—it also had the power to stir the listener's emotions.
'No way, could it also do mind control?'
I decided to try a slightly more dangerous experiment.
The siren's allure. Or mind control.
I pointed to the dumbest-looking sailor.
Then I infused mana into my voice and gave an order.
“Sit.”
“Yes!”
The sailor plopped down on the floor without hesitation.
“Roll left, roll right, stand up.”
The sailor rolled around on the floor as I said. The sailors nearby snickered, but he himself seemed not to know what he was doing.
“Gasp! What am I doing?”
Once I stopped giving commands, the sailor shuddered as if his senses had returned.
I decided to test it on Teech too.
“Teech, try resisting my orders.”
“That's the easiest thing in the world for a pirate.”
“Sit.”
“...Hngh!”
Teech instantly bent his knees and took a half-sitting, awkward stance.
But Teech quickly stood back up.
Apparently, this was the limit of my commands' effectiveness.
“It's not hugely strong. More like hypnosis.”
Apparently, commands like 'hurt yourself' weren't possible.
“Not bad.”
I smiled in satisfaction and wrapped up the experiment. It was about time to head back.
[Congratulations on clearing the 44th Floor EXTREME difficulty.]
[First-clear bonus applied!]
[Rank 1 bonus applied!]
***
After returning home, I fell into thought for a moment.
New abilities: voice modulation, singing ability, and a mild level of hypnosis.
“No matter how I look at it, this is for crime.”
An ability more useful for utility than for combat.
For sure, if I did voice phishing with this voice, it would be devastating.
“Should I just try one prank?”
The target was the broker.
The reason I chose him was that there were only three numbers saved in my phone.
I loosened up my throat a little.
“Ah, ah. One, two.”
As I infused mana, my voice changed into the sound of metal scraping.
A gloomy, unpleasant voice—perfect for a kidnapper.
I called immediately.
[Boss? What brings you to call at this hour...]
“I kidnapped Kim Hanbyeol. If you want the kid to live, prepare 1 billion won.”
[...]
Silence hung over the other end of the line for a moment.
Did he catch on?
“If you tell the police, I'll start with one of the kid's fingers...”
[Hey, you son of a bitch. Who the hell are you?]
“...Huh?”
Without realizing it, I made a stupid sound.
Because the voice was so ferocious it was hard to believe it came from the broker.
It was also the first time I'd ever heard him swear at me.
[You punk, do you know who you're messing with right now?]
“Uh, no, I mean...”
[Lay a finger on that kid, even a single hair, and I won't let you get away with it. Doesn't matter if you used to be a hunter or whatever, I'll find you and destroy you.]
The voice was filled with genuine murderous intent, and I shrank back.
“Wait! It's me, me!”
I hurriedly dropped the modulation and shouted in my original voice.
“I-It was just a prank.”
[...What?]
“I'm really safe! I'm an A-rank Hunter, so who would even kidnap me?”
[......]
A terrifying silence fell.
I swallowed hard.
A moment later, I heard a deep sigh.
[Haaaaaah....]
“I-I’m sorry...”
[Don't play pranks like that. I almost had a heart attack for real.]
His voice sounded utterly drained.
He'd even dropped his usual playful polite speech.
[Did you get some other weird thing? Voice changing?]
“...How did you know?”
[Come on, I can read you like a book.]
The broker finally burst out laughing.
[Anyway, don't pull pranks like this again.]
“Yep, I'll reflect on it...”
I answered, looking thoroughly shriveled.
Even after that, I had to apologize several more times before hanging up.
“Let's not do this kind of thing anymore...”
Still, it hadn't been a complete loss.
“Looks like the mental interference affects even over the phone.”
Seeing the broker flinch immediately, it might have unconsciously applied a weak hypnotic effect.
Now it was time for the next experiment.
“I should stop with people and look for an animal instead.”
I decided to look for an easy target.
Just then, I heard a meowing sound from a corner of the backyard.
When I went outside, I saw the stray cat that sometimes played with Chohogi.
“You're not feeding it, are you?”
Chohogi nodded. Probably thanks to the strict training I always gave it.
Hiss—!
The cat bristled and hissed. It looked ready to throw a paw-slap at any moment.
I cleared my throat and issued an order.
“Lie down.”
In an instant, the cat's pupils relaxed. Its fur and tail settled down calmly.
It quickly rolled over and lay on its back.
A posture that looked as if it had entrusted everything to me.
I tried a slightly more difficult command.
“Paw.”
The cat placed its front paw on my palm.
“The other one.”
It lifted the other paw too.
“Bang!”
When I mimed firing a gun with my finger, it meowed and flopped over onto its side.
“Isn't this a dog, not a cat?”
“!!!”
Chohogi, watching from the side, had stars in its eyes. It even clapped for me.
As if wanting to try it too, Chohogi mimed shooting the cat.
“Kyaaang!”
“...”
Naturally, it had no effect at all.
Chohogi seemed shocked, growing visibly dejected.
Understandably so. A creature he'd played with for months wouldn't listen to him, but at my word it immediately rolled over on its back. He probably felt like he'd been NTR'd.
“From now on, this one's your owner.”
I commanded the cat with my voice. Sure enough, only then did the cat start obeying Chohogi's orders too.
“Definitely.”
I'd confirmed the performance well enough.
It seemed like I could control monsters with low intelligence, or neutral monsters whose hostility was ambiguous.
Maybe monster taming wasn't just a dream.
“Should I try singing again too?”
If I was going to do it, I might as well record it somewhere with a microphone.
For the first time in my life, I headed to a coin karaoke room.