Introduction

Join me in this first episode from Assassin’s Creed the Odyssey, Just a Mercenary. Enjoy a good story, audio and video and learn some English from it from DanRPG by English Plus Podcast.

Audio Podcast

Full Episode Video

Comprehension Check

Narration Script

It might not be easy for me to fathom the world I live in. I am in the middle of a nation torn apart; everyone is at each other’s throat. Athens and Sparta are tearing the Greek world apart, but who am I to complain? I am just a small-time mercenary on Kephallonia Island, away from the war, and my name is Alexios. But even in the most remote and peaceful islands of Greece, I cannot find a moment’s peace. After all, I am a mercenary on an island full of thugs with their heartless leader whom we call the Cyclops.

…

Phoebe is my weakness. She’s a sweet little girl scratching a life in a brutal world, and for some reason, I have taken it upon myself to keep her safe. Maybe, I see my lost sister in her. The one I could not save. I was on my way to see Markos, the weasel, but those thugs I spared. That was a mistake. They ambushed me on the way there, but they were small-time thugs. I dealt with them and went on my way to see Markos. What has the fool done this time?

…

All Markos cares about is his money, or maybe I should say the money that he owes me and the other money that he owes almost everyone on this island. But there was no time for this, Phoebe was taken and there is nothing I wouldn’t do for this little girl. I had to go save her immediately. I can wiggle my way out of the troubles Markos put us in, but not Phoebe. She’s still a little girl, but what can I say. I owe Markos big time. I owe him my life, and I have to believe that at heart, he is a good man.

…

I did save Phoebe because after all, she is right. She and Markos are my only family, but that didn’t save me from the memories of my true family. The one I lost a long time ago. Those memories are so strong that a lifetime of being a mercenary far away from home could not erase the memories of my father, Nikolaus, my mother Myrrine and my poor little sister, Kassandra. But now it is not a time to dwell on these lost memories. It’s time to pay Duris a visit and get my money back.

…

I managed to get the money back from Duris and I went to see Markos who always seemed to be in trouble whenever I saw him.

…

I know I am right every time I talk to Markos. He always makes bad decisions, and I always tell him about it, but he is who he is. He will never change, but I cannot hate this man. He was the one who saved my life when all the world abandoned me when I was just a kid. Without him, I would have starved and died on the streets of Kephallonia.

…

Markos has done it again. He always throws me into problems I have to solve for I don’t know why, but I do hate bandits and the fewer they get in this world the better. But I came across Talos, or should I say that he found me, and with the money the Cyclops offered him to kill me, there was no point in postponing the inevitable. I had to fight him. And Talos is worse than those small-time bandits; He is a mercenary, just like me.

…

Drucilla wanted her wood, and I don’t know if I’m doing it for Markos, for Drucilla or just to keep myself busy, but I have to track down those bandits, kill them all and recover the wood Drucilla needed to make those legendary bows she was talking about. Maybe, after all, I’m just a mercenary and that is the only life I will ever have.

…

I managed to track down the bandits and killed the very last one of them. That was an easy job, but I wonder, has it really become that easy for me to take life? I am very good at it. Maybe that’s the only thing ever I’m good at. Doesn’t that make me like those bandits I just killed. No, I would never hurt innocent people. I’m just a mercenary in a world that has gone mad. And now it was time to return the wood to that crazy woman and deal with other, bigger problems.

…

I went to see Markos, and as usual he has one of those foolish plans of his. I’m pretty sure one of those would kill one day.

…

So now I’m poking the hornet’s nest. Markos suggested that foolish plan to steal the obsidian eye of the Cyclops, and I was even a bigger fool to say yes. I know this is a dangerous business, but I also know that sooner or later, someone has to stop this Cyclops, and knowing Kephallonia, I know that person is going to be me, so why not stir some trouble and aggravate that one-eyed boss.

…

It was a hell of a fight. The Cyclops’ lair was not just like an everyday bandits’ camp. His thugs are much stronger and far too many, but I managed to get that eye. I am not sure that little rock would pay all Markos’ debts, but maybe as he said, it was a way to hit two birds with one rock, or if I know Markos, and I do know him very well. It’s more like throw too many rocks at one single bird and not being able to hit him, not even once. But I got the rock and I went back to see Markos to see about his next grand scheme.

…

I was on my way to that abandoned house when I saw the only person on that god-forsaken island that I couldn’t say no to. She always comes first.

…

I know I said to Phoebe that I would help her friend’s family, but I don’t know the first thing about diseases and plagues. I guess I should start to say no to Phoebe, but I gave her my word, and I might just a mercenary, but when I give someone my word, even if that person is a little girl, I can never break the promises I make. I went to that village to see what I could do, but then I saw the village burning, and there was that priest who wanted to kill every last person in the village to control the plague instead of finding a way to cure them, so I couldn’t just watch and do nothing.

…

That was a nasty business back in the village, but I think I did the right thing. No one can take the place of the gods and condemn people to death whenever he chooses. Even the gods should not do that. But I was happy to see Phoebe happy. I saved her friend’s family and now she is calling me a hero, but I am no hero, I am just a mercenary.

…

Now it was time to go to that abandoned house and see what I could salvage. If it belongs to the Cyclops, I wouldn’t be too sorry to do anything that would weaken this monster. But those thugs didn’t seem to work for the Cyclops; they were working for a man I hadn’t seen before.

…

Elpenor seemed to be playing a much bigger game than our local Cyclops. There was something suspicious about this man, but I’m just a mercenary and he just wants me to retrieve Penelope’s shroud from Ithaca, and the money was good. Maybe I should cast my doubts about this shady figure aside for a little and make some money that may help me and Markos wiggle our way out of this pit he had thrown us into. Off I went to Ithaca, which was but a shade of its glorious past from the time of the great Odysseus, and it was not fully abandoned. Wherever there was an abandoned place, bandits seemed to be the first to claim it.

…

I retrieved the shroud, but I found a young woman imprisoned there by those bandits. Every time I kill people even if they are bad people, I try to do one little good deed that would make me feel better and kind of justify the massacre I just caused. And what a coincidence! I saved Odessa in the house of the great Odysseus.

…

So, it was no coincidence after all. It seems that Odessa is a descendant of the great Odysseus, or at least that’s who she claims to be. But she didn’t strike me as clever as her ancestor. What did she thought she would find here after all these years? Odysseus’ palace in Ithaca was just in ruins.

…

I don’t know what was so wrong in what I said that offended Odessa that much. She seemed to be a nice person, but I have been just a mercenary for a long time, and I am not used to being nice to people. And she also believes she is of royal blood, while I am just a mercenary. Anyway, now that I have had the shroud, it was time to return it to Elpenor and get my reward.

…

So all of that was just a test, and now I have to find myself a ship to sail to Megaris and kill that general whom they call the wolf, whoever that may be. I am not an assassin, but in the time of war, maybe that is the only job left for mercenaries like us. But I need a ship to be able to sail to Megaris. I have no idea how to get enough drachmae to buy a ship, or maybe destiny is waiting for me just around the corner.

…

Maybe I was just dreaming that Telemenes would just give me the ship, but I know that’s impossible. However, he was right about the Cyclops. Maybe, this time, I would really be able to kill two birds with one stone. I rid Kephallonia of that monster and I get myself a ship. I know that killing the Cyclops is not going to be easy, but it has to be done.

…

Once again, I didn’t just kill too many bad people, but I saved a poor man from getting drowned by the Cyclops, and I finally rid Kephallonia of that monster. What I didn’t know that I happened to save just the man I needed. I don’t know if the gods are helping me, but Barnabas happened to be a captain with a ship and crew. What are the odds?

…

So now with a ship and a crew, I can go to Megaris, but I had absolutely no idea that the wolf I was going to kill was my own father, Nikolaos, and knowing this brought back the worst memory I have ever had in my life.