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

Chapter 71: The Captain and the Realm of Silence

"Tony," EeDechi tapped the table, signaling the mouthy guildmaster to look her way, "How about I join the Warrior Captain selection instead? I guarantee I could easily get elected as the Warrior Captain."

Old Tony shook his head. "We're entering the martial tournament just to clear out the obstacles in Brain's path. Every elite adventurer who could go toe-to-toe with Brain in the arena wouldn't bother chasing after the Warrior Captain post. The Warrior Captain demands absolute loyalty to the royal family—you have to spend your whole life protecting the king and the royals at all costs. That's not the kind of gig we adventurers go for."

"Besides," Old Tony went on, "you know full well that women can't enter the Warrior Captain selection. It's the rule."

Old Tony's words were clearly meant to talk EeDechi out of stirring up trouble, but he didn't expect her to blow her top.

"What! What kind of bullshit rule is that! This is straight-up discrimination against women!!!"

Old Tony froze for a second, then waved his hands in a panic. "No... no, that's not what I meant. It's tradition—the Re-Estize's never had a female Warrior Captain since it was founded."

EeDechi fumed, jumping to her feet and yelling, "What outdated tradition? I'm going to break that tradition today! Princess Renner hires you guys to manipulate these rigged contests and says she's stirring up the already murky waters even further? I'm going to filter, settle, and distill this murky water and give the world a clear and pure one!"

Barrett poked EeDechi in the side with his finger, whispering a reminder, "Captain, Princess Renner is our employer too. She pays us twelve flower gold coins a day."

"Oh," EeDechi paused mid-rant and sat back down in her chair. "Yeah, that does ring a bell."

Seeing EeDechi's cocky attitude simmer down a bit, Old Tony quickly chimed in, "Even if you beat all the contestants, including Brain, and came in first, the old king wouldn't let you become the Warrior Captain. The final say on who gets to be Warrior Captain is still in the old king's hands."

"That makes sense." EeDechi nodded, for once agreeing with someone else's opinion. "The root of it all is with the ruler."

"In fact, if you want to become a general, you could head to the Roble Holy Kingdom in the east of the continent," Old Tony suggested. "I've heard there are many female generals there, and the Holy Queen, heh heh, they're all stunning beauties with slim waists, long legs, and fair skin..."

EeDechi shot him a furious glare.

"Ah, no, I mean they're all burly, broad-shouldered, muscle-bound, battle-hardened iron women." Old Tony backpedaled immediately.

The three of them talked for a long while, and during that time, other adventurers who knew Barrett joined in. They gathered around the table, sipping malt beer and chatting about anything and everything.

The night grew late—there is no feast that does not come to an end. The meeting had wrapped up ages ago, and after the booze-up, the adventurers in the tavern started drifting away one by one. Some were plastered, staggering on their own two feet, while hauling their passed-out buddies over their shoulders, weaving this way and that toward their inns.

Others were so drunk they couldn't even walk, so they just shoved a few chairs together into a makeshift bed, flopped down, and crashed right there in the tavern for the night.

EeDechi and Barrett had gone toe-to-toe with a bunch of adventurer boozehounds that evening, but neither was the least bit tipsy. Barrett had an iron liver, though his face was flushed bright red, like a ripe apple in late autumn.