Caw. Caw.
I raised my head at the sound of gulls crying. A salt-laden wind swept through my hair. As the jolting wagon crested the hill, a panorama of a white city came into view. We had arrived at Semeln, the port city.
"Wow."
The sea glittered between the buildings. Captivated by those immense waves, I let out an exclamation without thinking.
"Huh?"
The merchant driving the wagon turned his head. My gaze met his as I poked only my head out from the cargo bed. An awkward silence passed amid the rumble of wheels.
"What are you?"
"I'm Howell Crave. Don't you remember me?"
The merchant, who had been studying my face, widened his eyes.
"……You! You're the bastard who asked me to let you ride in Wingteoneom!"
"That's right. I rode along for a while."
"You crazy bastard!"
With the veins in his neck standing out, the merchant pulled out the stick he had hung from the mule's saddle. I sprang down from the wagon. It wasn't as if I had asked permission before climbing aboard.
"Stop right there!"
"Come on! Do you think I'm going to stop just because you tell me to?"
I ran. The merchant chased after me, but he couldn't catch up to me after I had spent the whole time lying down and resting. In Wingteoneom, he had spat at me and insulted me. Seeing him outraged now was deeply satisfying.
"You damned little bastard! If I see you again, I'll kill you!"
"Thank you for the ride! Hahaha!"
Laughing, I ran toward Semeln. Far in the distance, the sea was calling me.
***
"You can't buy one with that much money!"
The ship broker gave a firm answer. His bulging eyes and tightly pressed lips left no room whatsoever for compromise.
"Not even the cheapest ship?"
"Where do you think you are?"
"A ship brokerage."
"No! This is the largest ship brokerage in the port city of Semeln!"
The ship broker thrust out his chest, as though he took immense pride in both his city and his workplace.
"Our brokerage deals only in the finest vessels."
"That's why I came here to buy one of the finest vessels."
"You don't have enough money to buy a fine vessel. Money, that's the problem."
Soon, the ship broker lined up pebble-sized ship models on the desk before me. The little carvings varied in size and shape, but they were so elaborate that I wondered who had carved them.
"You see the largest ship here? A ship like that sells for a hundred platinum coins. Even the smallest one here costs ten coins."
One platinum coin was worth a hundred gold coins, and one gold coin was worth ten silver coins. So ten platinum coins was the enormous sum of ten thousand silver coins.
‘If I work all day like an ordinary person, I can earn one silver coin…….’
Even ten platinum coins was an outrageous amount—more than twenty-seven years of working all day without spending a single coin.
"It's that expensive?"
"Yes. What did you say your budget was?"
"One platinum coin."
One platinum coin was by no means a small sum, but ships were dozens of times more expensive than I had expected.
"Then you can't buy one. You said you wanted to cross the sea, right?"
"Yes."
The ship broker pushed the smallest model—the one that cost ten platinum coins—to the side.
"To begin with, don't even think about buying a small vessel."
"Why not?"
"Small ships like these are used for coastal patrols or as fishing boats."
"Then I can't cross the sea in one of these?"
"You might be able to make the attempt on the blue sea. Unless you're a sea monster hunter, though, you'll soon become food for sea monsters."
"I see. How much does a ship a little bigger than a small vessel cost?"
"You'll need at least twenty coins."
Double. Twenty-seven years had become fifty-four in an instant. It was daunting.
"But I have to go to sea."
The ship broker, who had been watching my expression, began to offer advice.
"Buying a ship alone won't get you out to sea. You don't sail a ship by yourself. You need to hire sailors and have enough to pay them properly. If you want to provision food, weapons, and navigational equipment correctly, you'll need at least another ten or twenty platinum coins."
His tone sounded almost reproachful, but once I heard him out, it was very practical advice.
"It doesn't look like you've ever worked on a ship, so let me give you some advice. If you seriously want to become a captain, you should learn more first."
"Yes. Thank you."
"Well, um, yes. You're definitely not a man of the sea."
"Huh? How could you tell?"
"……People born and raised at sea are hot-tempered. Even when you do them the favor of giving them good advice, they often get angry. In any case, there is no ship here for you to board."
The ship broker waved his hand as if to tell me to leave. It was an order to depart.
"Is there any way to get a ship cheaply?"
"No. At least, not here. Good things are expensive."
"It doesn't have to be the finest ship."
"Then go to the ship graveyard."
"The ship graveyard?"
***
Not every ship that set sail made it into port. Even when one barely managed to dock, it often returned too damaged to repair. If a ship was in usable condition, it could be repaired and used again, or dismantled and sold for materials. Ships beyond even that were abandoned. There was a place called the ship graveyard because abandoned ships had gathered there to form a graveyard.
‘They say the brighter the light, the deeper the shadows.’
Behind the clean port city lay a filthy slum. The smell of fish mingled with the stench of waste, creating an indescribable reek. The water was murky as well, and derelict ships lay tangled haphazardly across its surface. A few people in dirty clothes watched me warily. Beggars were not an uncommon sight, either.
"Sir, spare a copper coin."
Someone grabbed my ankle from below. I gave a copper coin to the beggar sitting with his palm turned toward the sky. Fearing someone might steal it, he snatched up the coin and repeatedly bowed his head.
"Thank you. Thank you."
"Save your thanks and answer one question for me."
"Yes. What is it?"
"Are all these ships ownerless?"
"Dead ships have no owners."
"Dead?"
The beggar looked at the ship graveyard with cloudy eyes.
"A ship is born to put out to sea. If it cannot put out to sea, it is dead."
"That's what you meant. Hmm. But I see it a little differently."
"Pardon?"
"A ship isn't dead because it can't go forward. It's dead because it has given up going forward."
I turned toward the ship graveyard.
"At the very least, those ships are still on the sea, aren't they?"
The beggar blinked at my words. They might've sounded a little fanciful, but I just wanted to say them. Leaving the beggar behind, I headed for the ship graveyard.
‘It's a treasure hunt!’
I crossed from ship to ship, searching through the graveyard for my own vessel.
"Oops."
Several times, moss or a listing hull nearly made me slip, but I barely kept my balance and continued searching. After wandering through the ship graveyard for quite some time, I reached one particular ship.
"Oh."
Its hull was blackened as though it had burned. Dust lay thick across the rotten deck, and its sails were torn and frayed beyond use.
‘It hasn't been wrecked, but it's no different from a wreck.’
Compared to the other ships, its only saving grace was that it had no holes.
‘This figurehead.’
What stopped me was the grimy marble figurehead decorating the prow. Its identity was hard to make out because its head had fallen off, but it was certainly a woman. I quietly stared at the headless female figurehead standing with both hands braced against the bowsprit.
‘All right. This is the ship.’
At the sight of that eerie yet mysterious figurehead, I felt destiny.
***
"I'm almost done!"
I flopped down onto the deck. My entire body was soaked with sweat and uncomfortable, but I could not have felt better.
‘I can't believe I cleaned a sailing ship by myself!’
I had cleaned the ship day and night, first wiping away the filth so it would at least look presentable. After putting in a week's work, the ship was unrecognizably clean.
"Wow. It really is beautiful now."
But there was still one place left to clean. At the stern of the ship—that is, the rear—there was a high deck called the poop deck. Beneath the poop deck was normally used as the captain's cabin, and I had not yet been able to clean it. The door was locked with a chain.
‘Once I clean the captain's cabin and make repairs, I won't envy any pristine ship. Huh?’
Suddenly, a creepy feeling made me turn around. The sensation that someone was watching me. Something had definitely been there, but no one was there now. A gull perched on another ship's railing cocked its head.
‘I've been like this for no reason lately.’
Perhaps it was because of the desolate atmosphere, but I had been having these illusions more and more often. I shook my head to rid myself of the uneasy feeling, then broke the chain locking the captain's cabin.
CLANG!
Perhaps because it was rusted and old, the chain broke more easily than I had expected. When I opened the captain's-cabin door, a chilly breeze seeped out. I had only a moment to frown before I was confronted with a sight I had never expected.
‘What is this?’
The interior was clean and neat. An elegant solid-wood desk and chair stood near the window. There was not a speck of dust, as though someone had just cleaned the room, and a candle was even burning. Its eerie incongruity with the filthy, chaotic exterior gave me a chilling sense of dissonance.
‘This doesn't make sense.’
The ship had been abandoned for a long time, and the chain locking the captain's-cabin door had been rusty as well. Then who in the world had cleaned the captain's cabin? I slowly stepped inside. Other than the chair and desk, there was no notable furniture. Perhaps because of that, the space felt even more spacious and empty. The instant I approached the desk.
‘Something's here.’
An icy shiver ran through my entire body. Though there was no wind, the candle flame swayed. I reflexively drew my pistol and aimed it.
Click.
At its muzzle stood a woman in a black Gothic dress. Black clothes covered her from head to toe, but her face was hidden by a hat and veil.
‘Since when?’
The woman stood behind the chair, watching me with a proper posture. She had definitely not been there only moments ago. When I lowered my gaze, I noticed something strange.
‘She has no shadow.’
A chill ran down my spine. My instincts screamed out a warning. At the very least, she was not human.
"Who are you?"
Her straight back and hands politely folded together. Her bearing alone made it clear that she was a being of high station. She stood directly before me, yet I felt as though I were looking up at her from below.
[…….]
The woman answered me, but her voice came through muffled. It was as if she were speaking underwater. Ready to fire if necessary, I rested my finger on the trigger.
"I can't hear you."
The woman, who had been saying something over and over, seemed to realize that her words were not reaching me and stopped speaking. She appeared to ponder for a moment, then raised both gloved hands and slowly removed her veil.
"……Gasp."
I was cold. Bitterly cold. It was hard to breathe, and I forced out a breath. The sound of my pounding heart struck at my temples.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
The moment the woman lifted her veil, one thought filled my mind. I had to run. Fear tried to crush my reason, but I gritted my teeth and faced her. Beyond the fully lifted veil was—
‘There's nothing……?’
There was nothing where her head should have been. The woman had no head.