After provoking Cecil, we went onboard the ship, and I stood near the door of the captain's cabin, looking at Cecil walking toward the unsuspecting Isabelle with a heavy step.
It seemed like the minotaur girl was angry after I praised Isabelle, and the latter still didn't know about it and only looked at the oncoming danger with confusion. Once she saw my smile and me waving my hand, her expression immediately changed into a troubled one.
"Do your best." I moved my lips as her gaze landed on me, and Isabelle frowned deeply.
Just as I finished warning Isabelle, Cecil stopped in front of the girl and looked down at her. Due to their different stature, Isabelle needed to look up, trying her best to hide her dissatisfaction from the minotaur girl.
"Get to the main deck. I will see if your strength is enough to sail with us."
Cecil pointed at the open area behind Crane without explaining anything and glared at Isabelle. The minotaur guy looked rather confused, and so were the other thugs. But then, he also couldn't do anything as that was something Cecil had decided already.
So he only told the other thugs to move aside, giving them space.
"Why should I?" Isabelle asked with a displeased tone. "I read the recruitment is for all people and you just need numbers."
"It's a new rule," Cecil responded back shortly, not wanting to back away. "Prove your strength, or I will kick you from my ship. The one in control here is me. My brother only acts as the captain because he knows the direction."
"What an unreasonable rule."
"My ship, my rules."
Both girls didn't want to back up against each other and exchanged glares. While I was the one who set up this situation, I couldn't help but feel the tension between them.
The others could feel it too. Their glares contained their resolution, creating sparks between them. Cecil wanted to kick Isabelle because I praised her, and Isabelle wanted to stay because I was here, and she didn't want to be ordered around.
No one wanted to back away as both were headstrong, and the cause of that was the innocent me who stood a bit away from them and enjoyed this situation.
Why shouldn't I? I wanted Isabelle to get off the ship because my preparation wasn't over yet. And besides, back in Horizon Online, she put me in a lot of similar situations. So it was my way to pay her back for something she had done to me.
And then, I decided to add fuel to the fire. Of course, without pissing Isabelle too much.
"Cecil! You don't need to do that. The girl in front of you looks scared!"
It worked wonderfully as Isabelle's ear twitched in anger. She looked up to face Cecil straightly and declared.
"You just want to see my strength?"
Isabelle asked, to which Cecil replied with a predatory grin.
"Yeah. Let's have a bout."
"Fine."
Both of them glared at each other for a second before moving down toward the empty area on the deck near the ship's main mast.
Isabelle unsheathed her [Night's Edge], while Cecil got a 1 and half meter spiked club given by Crane that he took out from behind the wooden boxes stacked near where he stood.
'A staple weapon for a minotaur, huh?' I thought as I got closer to the group to watch the fight together.
The other girl that came along with the thugs, a short Elf girl with dirty platinum hair and eyes, was nimble. She climbed up the rigging and got a position near the crow's nest, having the best spot to see the fight from above.
"That girl is good." Crane nodded in approval. A dangerous smile plastered on his face, and I immediately knew what he was thinking without even asking.
'Thank Goddess, I didn't bring Milea, or I will be unable to act innocent like this and just destroy Crane and this ship.'
"Hey, girl."
Cecil noticed the girl who nested near the crow's nest and called out to her.
"Give us a sign to start."
"Aye'!' The girl roared and raised her hand. "On three, matey."
"One…"
"Two…!"
"Three!"
As soon as the Elf girl shouted three, she brought her hand down, and both fighters moved at the same time. Or rather, it was Isabelle who moved first with a fast speed.
She didn't hold back and activated her weapon's effect, controlling the shadow under her and created five shadow swords that flew toward Cecil at a fast speed.
"Hmph!"
The minotaur girl didn't flinch at all at the sight of those swords flying at her. Using her spiked club, she crushed all the shadow swords and grinned.
"Is that it?!"
"Why don't you look down?"
At that moment, Isabelle had already gotten closer to Cecil and swung her sword up. It was fast and sharp.
However, Cecil managed to react to the attack. Using the weight of her spiked club, she swung backward at a moment's notice. Her body sprung backward and managed to dodge Isabelle's slash by a hairbreadth; thus, the sharp edge only ripped her hat off.
"That's my favorite hat, you bitch!" Cecil roared and brought her club down.
It missed as Isabelle had already jumped away to safety. Without any target, the club landed on the wooden deck and destroyed it, creating a big hole. The destruction showed how much force was behind that attack and how high Cecil's STR was.
'She should be around Level 30 if she can do something like that.' I thought as I watched the battle unfold once again.
With her fast movement, Isabelle was attacking restlessly, forcing Cecil to be in a defensive position, blocking her attack with her spiked club.
If it went like this, Isabelle would win, and Cecil would have no choice but to let her board the ship together.
'But I can't allow that to happen. Isabelle shouldn't be on this ship. Looking at her reaction yesterday, she's not ready yet.'
So I stepped back, hiding behind the unruly thugs' shadow, and took out a certain magic item from my inventory. It was shaped like a white letter and came with a feather quill pen.
This was the closest magic item in my inventory that worked similarly to <Telepathy>. It could send a message to a certain person in mind, and nothing could interfere with or even look at the message. The downside was the message showed up as a floating window, and it would disturb Isabelle's sight.
'She will be unscathed because of [Night's Armor]'s passive, so I am not worried about her getting hit by Cecil's club.'
And so I wrote the message, a long one with an explanation and a bit of scolding because she acted recklessly even though she still had a trauma of monsters.
Firstly, I explained why I was in this place and asked her to return to where Garcia was to protect the nun. Of course, that was only an excuse, as I knew Garcia needed no protection.
Secondly, I scolded her for acting out of my instruction, making my plan almost go awry. Currently, I was her superior in her job, so she should be following my instructions.
Thirdly, I added some spam words telling her how much I loved her and how much I treasured her and just copied the same words to fill up the letters.
After it was done, I sent it to Isabelle, and the effect could be seen immediately.
"Huh?" A surprised voice came from the deck as Isabelle suddenly made a mistake on her footing, causing her to slip.
It was a chance that Cecil didn't waste. She grinned and swung her club hard, hitting Isabelle's body cleanly and blowing her away to the sea.
"That's what you get from messing with me," Cecil exclaimed as she struck a victory pose.
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