The Villain Saint is my secondary account

With the two countries merged, it was clear that the Kingdom of Valen, located west of Loren and separated by a strait, had to be visited.

However, Ella did not intend to make too much of a show of the Holy Temple on this trip, so she deliberately dressed as a rich young lady and covered her face with a light veil. The attendants who accompanied her to take care of her daily life were all from the Holy Temple, and there were even a few Holy Temple knights traveling with her, but they were all dressed as ordinary noble servants.

The members of the Septian Society bowed to Ella as was customary, after which Ella opened the portal again, leading directly to the harbor of Storm Harbor.

There, Count Eileen, who had informed them of the matter earlier, had already booked a large merchant ship for everyone to go to Valen.

This ship belonged to the Malz family's caravan, so naturally it was accompanied by a guard and other merchants and travelers who needed to travel to the Kingdom of Valen.

To them, Ella and her party were simply a group of nobles traveling abroad and a mercenary group responsible for their security.

Led by Eileen, the group followed the wooden planks in the harbor to the bottom of the ship's cabin.

The towering ship was enormous and magnificent, like a mountain range stretching across the harbor, while the passengers beside it looked as tiny as ants at the foot of the mountain.

Li Cheng looked up and couldn't help but exclaim from the bottom of his heart when he saw the towering mast: "Wow, that's much bigger than my dad's yacht."

"Why do you always sound so slick when you talk?" Ye Xiao said irritably.

"Hmph, you scoundrel, it's only been a month since we last met, and you already have so many more female companions." Eileen pouted slightly as she watched Ye Xiao with Ella and two maids, along with Lucyville and Freya by his side.

"There's no way around it. Mature men always attract discerning young women, and I can't bear to abandon them," Ye Xiao shrugged.

"Good grief, how come you're just a 'normal adventurer' when it comes to me!" Eileen crossed her arms. "Be careful on your journey, I've heard things aren't very peaceful overseas these days. Have a safe trip."

"Hahaha, I will, thank you, lovely Miss Eileen." Ye Xiao made a farewell gesture next to his forehead and then entered the cabin with the others.

“You scoundrel…” Eileen muttered under her breath, then stood by the harbor until the sailors on the ship cut the ropes securing the vessel and pulled up the anchor.

After a while, she indeed saw Ye Xiao's figure reappear on the deck. He saw her and waved to her.

She waved in response, and then, a resounding horn sounded, and the captain's distant voice echoed from the horizon:

"start sailing!"

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Gale of Aeolus

As the distant harbor gradually sinks below the horizon, all that remains in sight is the boundless ocean.

Snow-white seabirds swept across the horizon, disappearing into the layers of clouds.

Ye Xiao leaned against the railing on the deck, looking at the azure sky and feeling the sea breeze blowing through her hair, feeling quite sentimental.

"Is it only because we've been away that we've started to miss it a little?" Li Cheng chuckled. "After three months, Loren is slowly starting to feel like home."

"Are you sure you're not reminiscing about your many different lovers on Anstan Avenue?" Ye Xiao raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, you can't just say things like that. Every relationship I've had has been genuine, it's just that I've had a lot of them." Li Cheng straightened up. "I'm planning to go to the banquet hall to find some new love. I think they're having a dance party there. Want to come along?"

"I'll pass," Ye Xiao waved her hand.

"That's true, you need to protect your kidneys and spend more time with the Holy Maiden."

After hearing this, Ye Xiao prepared to turn around and give Li Cheng a whack, but the kid had already run away.

The sailors were still busy on deck, and the merchant ship was sailing at almost full speed, following the wind.

A middle-aged man wearing a navy blue cloak and a triangular hat noticed them and walked over with interest. "You must be Mr. Ye Xiao?"

"You know me?" Ye Xiao sized up the newcomer. Judging from his attire, he must be the captain of this ship. "It's an honor, Captain."

“Mr. Ye, you flatter me. The Earl and I specifically mentioned you.” The captain removed his hat and bowed. “I was supposed to go and greet you after we set sail, but since I saw you on deck first, I decided to greet you then.”

"There's no need for honorifics with me, Captain. I'm just an ordinary mercenary, not some knight." Ye Xiao smiled and waved back at the captain.

“Haha, good. Most of the noble mercenaries I’ve encountered before have temperaments similar to the masters they serve. Mr. Ye is so amiable, so his master must also be gentle and kind.” The captain put his hat back on. “The Earl sent a letter in advance saying that your group is of particularly noble status, and I was afraid of neglecting you.”

“Miss Eileen is worrying too much. My employer is just on good terms with her. She’s not the kind of arrogant noblewoman who would threaten the death penalty at the slightest disagreement,” Ye Xiao said. Having experienced the Maltz family’s arrogance in Storm Harbor, he roughly understood the captain’s concerns. “Captain, you don’t need to be so cautious. Just do things your way normally.”

"Thank you, Mr. Ye. You can just call me Gabriel." The captain pulled a hookah pipe from inside his coat with two fingers. "Goods from the Tedeh Federation, want to try it?"

"I don't need to," Ye Xiao said with a wave of his hand and a smile.

Afterwards, Captain Gabriel gave Ye Xiao a brief introduction.

The ship is named "The Gale of Aeolus," after the name of the wind god Anoi, which is associated with a nursery rhyme in the coastal province.

The first leg of the journey will see the merchant ships arrive at the Mansa Islands near the coast by noon tomorrow. After staying there for half a day to exchange supplies, they will sail out to sea the following morning.

If the weather holds out for the next three days, you will reach the Magala Sea. After crossing that sea and following the Champagne Route for about a week, you will see the port of the Kingdom of Valen.

Of course, this is only the ideal situation. In the captain's experience, the weather in the Magala Sea is often unpredictable, and it is already fast if it takes half a month to reach the Kingdom of Valen on average.

Fortunately, their large merchant ships traveled the regular routes, and the imperial frigates would escort them along the way until they reached the coast of the Kingdom of Valen, so they didn't have to worry too much about pirates or anything like that.

Besides nobles and wealthy merchants like Ella and her companions who lived in the upper section, the ship also had middle and lower sections, which were respectively provided for accompanying servants and ordinary passengers.

Since this is the first batch of merchant ships to set sail after a long period of closure, it sounds like there are probably quite a few player guilds from different regions on the lower and middle ranks, probably to avoid the terrible penalties from the system regarding the Royal Selection mission.

Ye Xiao suddenly felt a strange sense of guilt. After all, there probably weren't many players who would choose the eldest princess in that mission, so it was quite an undeserved disaster for those players.

……

The first day at sea was uneventful, and the brightly lit banquet hall was filled with singing and dancing under the night sky.

The craftsmanship of humans in the magical age was sufficient to construct large and sturdy ship hulls, while the ore smelting from dwarves and goblins provided ample power.

According to Ye Xiao's observation, although it is not as extravagant as the modern cruise ships of Blue Star, it is still comparable to the level of modern steamships.

The medieval-like architecture and cultural style of Loren seem more like a remnant of the old society caused by the existence of magic.

But the technology tree in this world is actually more unconventional and diverse than imagined—for example, the architectural culture of Valen, which we are going to next, is more in line with the social style of the Victorian era on Earth, and is different from Loren.

At this moment, in the middle cabin, Ye Xiao was carefully studying the documents about Susie Yun that he had previously obtained from the Aslan Embassy at his desk.

He compared the maps copied from the Loren Grand Archives one by one, but so far he has not been able to find any that match those scribbles.

Greta lay on the bed to one side, her two little feet, wrapped in white stockings, swinging up and down listlessly.

A comic book drawn by one of her subordinates was spread out in front of her, but the girl, who was resting her chin on her hand, was clearly not thinking about the comic. Her golden eyes kept sneaking glances at Ye Xiao, who was concentrating on studying the pile of papers.

The cabins for the attendants on the middle deck were small, not as luxurious as the aristocratic suites for Ella on the upper deck. However, though small, they were fully equipped, with gleaming floors, clean and soft beds, and a sliding window offering a sea view, making them quite comfortable.

I thought the long night would pass peacefully with the flickering flame of the oil lamp, but suddenly I heard hurried footsteps outside the door.

The knocking was particularly noticeable, and Ye Xiao didn't intend to pay attention to it. However, not long after, she heard the door being knocked on as well.

He casually placed a metal paperweight on top of the pile of paper, then got up, walked to the door, and opened it.

Outside the door stood a middle-aged man with a tense expression, dressed in a neat brown linen shirt. Upon seeing Ye Xiao open the door, he immediately asked anxiously, "Hello sir, have you seen a little boy who is about waist-high and has brown curly hair?"

Looking past the man's shoulder, Ye Xiao also saw another young woman in a blue dress knocking on the door opposite. It seemed that she was looking for someone with the man, but the two looked very different in age and did not seem to be a couple.

Ye Xiao then shook his head. "I haven't seen it before. You might as well go to the entrance of the corridor and find the patrolling guards. They might know... This ship is quite big, but the entrances connecting the various areas are guarded. There's no need to be in a hurry."

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Coffin House

"Okay, thank you, thank you!"

The man hurriedly nodded his thanks, but before he could close the door, the woman across the hall suddenly began banging violently on the door of another guest room.

"He's here! He's here!! Vince, come quick, I can hear his voice!!"

The middle-aged man immediately let go and ran back. The two of them kept knocking on the door, but surprisingly, no one answered the door.

"Hello?? Can you open the door?!" the man shouted at the door.

Such noise naturally attracted the attention of the other guests in the other rooms on the same floor. Everyone opened their doors to see who was making such strange noises in the night.

Two guards patrolling nearby were also drawn over. After listening to the two men's story, they looked at the guest room with a troubled expression.

"Borian is inside! Open the door quickly!"

“No, ma’am, this is another passenger’s room after all. Doing this is against the rules…”

"What are you talking about! My child is locked up in there!" The woman was extremely agitated. "I don't care who the passenger in this room is, he kidnapped my child! How can you allow such a thing to happen!?"

"But you can't prove your child was in the room..."

"I heard his voice!! Why don't you just open the door and see if he's in or not?!"

The two guards looked at each other in bewilderment. To be honest, not only them, but even Ye Xiao, whose senses were extraordinary, couldn't hear any sound from inside the house.

The woman's hysterical behavior seemed somewhat unreasonable.

But it's getting late, and all the guests should have already gone back to their rooms. It's quite strange that no one is opening their doors in such a noisy environment.

Unable to resist the woman's persistent nagging, the guard agreed to report the matter and hurriedly ran away down the corridor.

A moment later, he returned to the door of the guest room with several guards and the guard captain.

The captain of the guard first calmed the woman down, but after seeing the room number, his expression changed slightly, and he whispered a few words to the guard next to him.

"Why can't you open the door yet! What are you waiting for??" The woman became impatient upon seeing this.

"I'm sorry, please be patient... I need to consult with them again."

"Why are you constantly asking for instructions? When will you ever stop?!"

The woman's piercing, sharp screams echoed through the corridor, attracting more and more passengers to come out and see what was happening.

"Just open the door and let her see." "I can't sleep at all with all this noise!"

The onlookers began to complain, but the captain of the guard simply wiped the sweat from his brow and ordered the guards to protect the entrance and not allow anyone to approach.

This strange situation piqued Ye Xiao's interest, and he leaned against the doorframe to observe. A fluffy pink head peeked out from under his arm, looking disgruntled. "What are you doing, you humans?"

"Why is it always something that keeps Ye Xiao from getting to bed?" Greta thought with a displeased expression.

A short while later, a man who looked like a butler and Captain Gabriel appeared in the corridor and walked all the way to the guest rooms.

"Is it really okay?"

“The councilor says it’s alright, Captain, please open it for this lady.”

Member of parliament?

The familiar yet unfamiliar term entered Ye Xiao's ears, making him suddenly curious. This person was actually from the Federal Duchy of Tedeh.

The social systems of the three major human nations in this world are vastly different.

The Loren Empire leans towards the feudal system of the Western Middle Ages, with the king as the main ruler and the lords of various fiefdoms as the secondary rulers; Aslan, due to its royal family's mixed bloodline with elves, is based on a clan system based on blood relations; the Federal Duchy of Tedeh, which has the shortest history compared to the previous two countries, has developed a unique parliamentary system.

Ye Xiao hadn't deliberately studied the history of human development in his previous life, so he didn't quite understand how the social systems of these countries had evolved into their current completely different forms.

However, it is clear that the existence of magic and pantheon allows individual power to play a significant role in the history of this world, making some social systems that seem quite retro on Earth a viable development path in this world.

Returning to the present event, with the butler's permission, the captain of the guard took out the key to the guest room across the hall and finally opened the door.

What came into view was a clean and tidy guest room, but a rectangular, dark wooden cabinet stood out conspicuously on the floor in the center of the room.

The corridor lights reflected on the cold, dark paint, casting a faint glow that sent a chill down the spines of the passengers watching the commotion outside.

Calling it a wooden cabinet is a bit of an exaggeration, because to the passengers present, it clearly looked like a... coffin.

A pale-faced boy with brown curly hair, wearing overalls, sat against the coffin, his eyes closed and motionless.

"Borian!?" The woman cried out in panic as she rushed into the room and picked up the boy.

"By the God of Light, what is that?" "Am I seeing things? Someone put a coffin in the guest room?!" "Oh, God of Light, please bless me, God of Light, please bless me..."

The unexpected and bizarre scene was like a bucket of cold water poured on the passengers watching the spectacle outside the door. Now, everyone felt uneasy and lost all interest in enjoying the show.

"Everyone, please calm down." Just then, Captain Gabriel raised his hands and said, "This is just an accident, don't overthink it..."

"How could I not overthink it?!" a male passenger angrily exclaimed. "I'm separated from this room by only a wall, and there's a fucking dead body right next to me?! Do you think I can sleep at night now?! Are you going to tell me that this dead body bought its own ticket to get on board???"

“No, this room was… reserved by someone.” Captain Gabriel took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his forehead. “It’s true that our inspection was inadequate, but according to regulations, there’s no rule prohibiting guests like this from staying in guest rooms…”

"Are you kidding me?! How am I supposed to stay here if I don't get a room changed? I can't close my eyes at the slightest sound in the middle of the night!"

"By the God of Light, how did that little boy get into this room and get locked out? There's clearly a dead person in this room!"

"Oh dear, the more you talk, the more scared I get, Captain. I also request a different room..."

As the commotion grew louder, the butler patted the captain on the shoulder and looked at the group. “I’m sorry, everyone. This room was reserved by us. The person in the room is a relative of my master. He passed away unexpectedly in Loren a few days ago, and we wish to send him back to his hometown. I am truly sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.”

"In this way, we will cover the travel expenses of all passengers staying around this room as a small compensation for the trouble caused to you. Please understand my husband's difficulties."

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Great Nobles

As the saying goes, money makes the world go round, and this proverb is clearly applicable in any world.