Voyage Of The Villainess

"You\'re... You\'re both beautiful!" 

Both Malaya and Oliver were almost stupefied since the first thing that came out from the unknown man\'s voice was something like that which the both of them didn\'t expect..

"Ehem.\'\' Malaya tried to clear her throat so she didn\'t make any weird noise coming from her mouth. "Ehrm. Thank you for the compliment." Malaya said with a smile. "But that is not what I want to know."

The unknown man growled at them with rage. "I will not tell anything to beautiful people!"

\'I know that I\'m beautiful. But based on his words there is some sort of discrimination here?\'

Malaya wanted to hold her head. However, a whine of the dog was suddenly heard. When Malaya and the unknown man looked in its direction, they saw the dog hovering in the air with electricity surrounding it.

"Ark!" The man struggled through his binds.

Oliver looked at the man. "I see, but let me remind you again that this dog called us in order to save you. Or in other words, to help you keep \'alive\'. And our friend is someone kind enough to heal someone like you who is unknown to us. However, she almost exhausted herself using her magic a bit much."

"Wait, are you trying to manipulate and force me to do something that I don\'t want? First, let me also remind you that this is not my fault if you decided to heal me that made your friends feel exhausted. That is my responsibility to follow whatever you say and let all of you control my life." The unknown man said with eagerness in his voice. "So now, what are you going to do?" The unknown man asked with hatred and contempt in his eyes.

"Control your life, well you can do that. However..." Oliver grinned. "If something happens to this dog, I wonder if he will be still alive for our kind friend to heal if she wakes us."

Malaya shook her head inwardly. \'As I expected to someone like him. But...\' She looked at the dog with worry. Seeing her expression, Oliver leaned closer to whisper through her ears. 

"I just made him sleep," Oliver said. Then he glanced back towards the unknown man.

"If you want to save your dog, tell us everything we want to know. Let\'s begin first, what is your name? Then follow up by the answers to Milady\'s questions."

\'He is rather more polite now. And I admit, he is quite a scary interrogator.\' Malaya also returned her gaze to the man. His hair was unkempt and long. His beard had already grown long as well, as he was skinny all over his body. 

The man\'s fists clenched. But then he looked at his dog, Ark. "Fine, I\'m Seth." The man finally gave in. "Why do you want to ask this place? Is it not beautiful to have someone who has the most knowledge above everyone else?"

\'Again with these beautiful people.\' Malaya sighed inwardly. 

"You are not allowed to ask a question. We are the only ones who will ask any questions here." Oliver said as more electricity came out from his hands. "I hope you get it that easily."

\'If I didn\'t make that safety contract with him, I\'d be in constant fear of suddenly being struck by lightning.\' Malaya thought as she continue to observe first.

"Give us the information we want to know, that\'s it. So now, what is this place and this world?" Oliver said.

Seth could only grit his teeth. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. He looked directly at Malaya and Oliver started from the head to the feet. He tried his best to examine their intentions and appearance.

\'All we want was all about this place but this man-made everything hard for us.\' Malaya thought as she also look at the unknown man

Oliver didn\'t know the intentions of these people but if he thought about it, there was nothing dangerous to their question since this was a piece of common knowledge to everyone living here. Unless they were not living here. 

"I think there is nothing for me to keep shutting my mouth since all they want to know is all about this place." The unknown man thought.

"This world is called Illahayah."

"I see." Malaya directly looked at him. \'So this is the same world. Thank goodness, it is still like that.\' "Please continue."

"We are currently in the continent of Kregos, and currently we are in the kingdom of Baslon ruled by King Vohari II."

For the first time, Malaya felt that half of the burden in her shoulders had been lifted. Her worries that she was not able to make it past the Red Current, was finally gone. Kregos or Baslon were new places for her that she heard just now.

"Have you heard about the Continent of Heliyas?" Malaya asked.

"No." Seth simply said.

And as she expected, just like the Sun Island, the continent of Heliyas was a continent that was isolated. 

"Seth, right? Do you have a map for this whole place?" Malaya asked. "If ever that you have any, can I have one map if you have one? Don\'t worry, I\'ll also pay for it."

"Yes, I still have it," Seth said. "And what will you pay me? Do you think I will be swayed by beautiful people like..."

Malaya brought a small pouch containing blue pearls that made Seth stop and stare at the sparkling blue pearls. "Will this be enough? Another thing, I also want to know more about is the economy and everything that is happening in this continent." 

\'Just how many items does that bag contain?\' Oliver wondered as he looked at Malaya\'s bag. 

\'Is she being serious? Those pearls look very expensive.\' Seth thought as he kept staring at the pearls in front of him \'Besides just who are these people and where in the world do they come from? Their clothes as well were not something in this place.\'

After a few threate... ah persuasion rather, Seth told Malaya and Oliver everything they wanted to know. 

One hour had passed and they finally got everything they wanted to know. But there was still something that bothered Malaya.

"It seems you have a strong prejudice against beautiful people? Why is that? Can you also tell me about it?" 

This question triggered something inside Seth as he broke again in rage. "You. Your kind, abused everyone just because they are not as beautiful as them. My family-just because they are mixed races and humans were considered perfect creations, they were humiliated and hunted down," he paused a bit to gain some energy.

"You all deserve to die! I will decapitate all your heads and display it in front of everyone just like what you have done to my family!" Seth was releasing strong dark energy. But before he could go on anymore, Oliver hit the back of his nape with precision. And he immediately lost consciousness, which made his body imbalanced. He also placed the sleeping dog beside Seth. 

\'My kind. Beautiful, Humans. Ah, I see, so this is something with race as well. Hah.\' Malaya thought. \'This is really a common trope to worlds like this. But it seems compared to Heliyas, the discrimination here was more extreme given his reaction to us. And that hunting part was quite foreboding.\'

"Now that you finally gained the information that you need," Oliver looked at Malaya directly into the eye, "What will you do?" he paused for a few seconds."Are you going to play the hero based on what he said?"

"No," Malaya said. "I always only work for my own gains as well as for the sake of people important to me. However, if someone close to me wants to intervene, I guess I lend some helping hand as well. What do you think, Hyun Jae?"

Hyun Jae who had already awakened for some time now was eavesdropping on them behind the door. 

"I-I want to investigate more about the situation first." Hyun Jae said, startled that Malaya called her all of the sudden. 

"It will be better as well if we make some huge name and fame for ourselves at this place. That way wherever our other crewmates are, they can track us as well so it will be easy for them to find us." Hyun Jae and Oliver were just moving their heads and patiently listening to her. "We can also know more about this place," Malaya said. "This is hitting three birds with one stone."

"It seems you have already decided," Oliver said with a grin on his face. He opened the map that was in his hands. "Let\'s head now to the nearest village and see the situations for ourselves for now."

"What will we do about Seth?" Hyun Jae looked with worry about Seth who was unconscious.

"Well," a smile escaped Malaya\'s lips. "I think he will be quite beneficial for us.. I decided that he will be the perfect tour guide for us."