Roaring Heroes Battle the Overlord (Ainz) - Part 1 (Chapters 1 to 200)

Chapter 65: The Captain and the Cheaters

Barrett wanted to steer the conversation away from the unpleasant past. He casually asked about the captain of the Magical Gorgon squad, curious about his current situation. "How's the captain doing now? He's not an adventurer anymore, right?"

"The captain, he..." Hank straightened up and took a deep gulp of red wine. "The captain really isn't an adventurer anymore. He joined the Re-Estize's army and became a cavalry lieutenant. Then, in that war against the Sorcerer Kingdom, he died in battle. You must have heard about it—the one where the Sorcerer Kingdom's king slaughtered over a hundred thousand Re-Estize soldiers in a single go."

Barrett's heart sank, and his hand suddenly clenched the handle of the oak mug. He had no family or ties in the world. Though he'd vaguely heard about Ainz Ooal Gown's atrocities, he'd always been indifferent to them. He figured even if some demon lord ruled the world, it wouldn't affect him. But now, it seemed that wasn't the case.

"The captain took off his leather armor and put on the Re-Estize's standard plate—sure enough, his luck ran out. The Sorcerer Kingdom's king summoned a few black monsters as big as mountains, and the soldiers got trampled into pulp. Blood, flesh, shattered bones, and mud all mixed together—nothing could be told apart. Me and another old buddy wanted to collect the captain's remains, but we couldn't even do that."

Hank tilted his head back to stare at a copper candelabra on the ceiling, recalling the hellish sight from cleaning the battlefield. He seemed to lose all interest in drinking.

Barrett lifted the mug high with both hands, threw his head back, and chugged the red wine in one go, gulp after gulp, until it was empty.

Hank glanced at the drained mug in front of Barrett and waved it off. "Let's not talk about that depressing stuff. It's rare for us to meet up like this—this is my tavern, drinks are on me!"

He turned toward the counter and shouted, "Honey, my old friend's here! Do me a favor and bring out a bottle of wine, yeah?"

A middle-aged woman's voice grumbled from the counter. "Drink, drink—all you do every day is round up your no-good drinking buddies. You're lucky to have black rye beer, and you still want wine!"

Even so, the grumbling voice drew closer from afar, and a bottle of light red wine was plunked down in front of Barrett and Hank with a thud.

Hank forced a grin on his beefy face for the middle-aged woman who brought the wine, saying, "Thanks, honey!"

Once the middle-aged woman had walked off, Hank whispered to Barrett again, "Heh, women—they don't get it. If I didn't keep treating those wheat merchants to drinks and buttering them up, how else could we score such cheap malt for brewing?"

He popped the cork and poured the wine into Barrett's large oak mug. He eyed Barrett's gear and the sword at his side, then asked, "You're still adventuring, right?"

Barrett nodded and laid out his adventures from the past few years. He covered everything from his explorations in Mistwood to his first encounter with EeDechi, right up to being hired by the Re-Estize's Princess Renner to guard her safety. Of course, Barrett deliberately skipped over a lot of details.

"You're working for the Golden Princess?" Hank said in surprise.

"What's the matter? The pay's decent—she hands out 3 gold coins a day." Barrett noticed Hank's brows knitting together, his expression turning dead serious all of a sudden. And that was rare for the laid-back, hefty "wine connoisseur."

"If I'm not wrong, Princess Renner must have her eye on your captain. If those stories you told weren't blown out of proportion, your current captain's a real powerhouse!"