It was a skeleton sailor. A skeleton standing with its form intact. But judging from its small frame, it was not one of Salkenia’s sailors. To begin with, I had never brought any skeleton sailors here.
“Stop.”
The skeleton sailor staggered toward me. A strange unease came over me, and I tried to stop it, but the skeleton sailor did not stop.
[That is not a sailor, Captain.]
Salkenia corrected my misunderstanding. A sailor boarded a ship and followed a captain’s orders. But that skeleton was not following my orders.
Creak.
The skeleton’s jaw opened. Then I was met with a strange sight.
‘Tears?’
The skeleton was crying. Tears leaked from eye sockets filled with darkness. Where could those tears possibly be coming from?
[Captain, it is dangerous.]
Salkenia warned me. She had not warned me when an armed ship of the Maritime League approached, nor when a Drowncatcher climbed onto the deck. Instinctively, I stepped back.
[It says, “You covet what you should not covet.”]
Something I should not covet. Had trying to open the chest I had just seen been the problem?
“Wait! I didn’t know it was private property!”
The skeleton charged at me. It was faster than the skeleton sailors. I immediately drew and aimed my pistol.
Click.
The skeleton charged in a straight line. I aimed for its head.
Bang!
When I pulled the trigger, fire burst from the muzzle. Smoke drifted to the side with the acrid smell of gunpowder, revealing the skeleton. Its shattered skull left it frozen in place.
Clack, clatter.
The fragments of bone that had been scattered into the air returned to their original places and reattached, as though by magic. The skeleton tilted its head as if it had seen something strange.
“Ugh!”
I hurriedly rammed gunpowder down the barrel, but the skeleton gave me no opening.
“Salkenia! Try talking to it!”
The skeleton began moving. It repaired itself faster than I could reload.
[It appears that it cannot hear me.]
The skeleton charged at me with tears streaming from its eyes. A skeleton rushing at me while crying was grotesque beyond measure. Feeling threatened, I quickly ducked behind the ruins.
‘It shares the same traits as the skeleton sailors.’
It would not follow my orders, but otherwise, it was like the skeleton sailors. Skeleton sailors did not die from a hole in the forehead or even a blown-off skull. A pistol might hold the skeleton back for a moment, but it could not kill it.
“Salkenia. How do you kill a skeleton sailor?”
[Skeleton sailors are already dead, so they do not die.]
“Right. I was asking how to disable one. Would it be restrained if I tied it up with something like rope?”
[Even if it is bound, it will pull out its bones and reassemble itself, so that would be useless. Crushing and sealing it, or dissolving it in water, are the surest methods.]
“Crush it? How?”
Judging by its rate of repair, even dozens of pistols would not be enough. Salkenia answered.
[At present, it is impossible to crush that skeleton.]
“That figures.”
While Salkenia and I discussed how to disable the skeleton, it drew something it had been hiding. It immediately caught my eye. It stood out enough to make me forget this urgent situation for a moment.
“Huh? Wow.”
It was a dagger. The black blade looked as though it had been forged in starfire and quenched in moonlight, and it swallowed light like the Unknown I had just passed through. It was perhaps a handspan long. A large hole had been gouged out of its upper section, as though someone had taken a bite from it. The elegant reddish-brown wooden handle looked as though it were barely holding that strange blade in place.
Scrape!
The skeleton drew the dagger across the large stone pillar I was using as cover. No matter how unusual it looked, that short dagger could do no more than scratch a hard, thick stone pillar. Or so I thought.
‘No. Would it?’
Salkenia had clearly warned me. That thing was dangerous. Just as I lowered myself, the skeleton rotated the dagger it had swung sideways as though turning a key.
Crack!
And the stone pillar opened. I could not call it a cut. If it had simply been severed, the upper part of the pillar would have slid or shifted. Instead, as though something had forced its way into the gap and pried it apart, the severed upper section rose into the air in an instant.
Boom!
The raised pillar fell again, and its severed upper portion toppled to the side. I threw myself away and avoided the fragments of stone that burst upward like spray, then looked back.
“Haha! I almost died!”
There was the fear that I could have been cut apart with the pillar, and the relief of having avoided it with a split-second decision. And after that came something else.
‘I want it!’
An insane desire to possess that dagger surged through me. Greed overwhelmed fear.
Clatter.
I emerged from behind the ruins and faced the skeleton head-on. It rushed at me while shedding tears without end. The dagger was still in its right hand.
Bang!
The skeleton’s hand bones shattered with the shot. The threat was not the skeleton, but the dagger. That was why I intended to stop the skeleton from holding it.
‘I hit it!’
Of course, the skeleton would repair its shattered bones soon. But it could not use that hand for the moment. The dagger it had dropped was falling toward the ground.
Tap!
I leaped forward to catch it. I thought that if I could take the dagger, it would no longer be much of a threat.
[Captain.]
But that was a mistake. An ordinary person would have writhed in pain, but my opponent was a skeleton. It was unfazed even with one hand blown off. And besides.
“Ah.”
Naturally, the one closer to the dagger was the skeleton that had been holding it. Before the dagger even touched the ground, the skeleton caught it in its left hand. I had already lunged forward to take it. I tried to jump back too late, but.
Shing!
The skeleton thrust the dagger in at once. I drew a dagger on instinct. It was the dagger one of the bandits in Semeln had used. The skeleton was aiming for my brow.
Clang!
The two daggers struck, sending sparks flying. Given the surface area of the daggers, it was a miraculous defense born of chance and luck.
‘What? It didn’t break?’
The dagger had easily split the stone pillar. But when I actually blocked it, my dull dagger was able to stop it, and the skeleton itself did not seem especially strong. The skeleton twisted its dagger.
Click. Clang!
At the same time, the blade of my dagger shattered and scattered in all directions. I lost my weapon in an instant. In the meantime, the skeleton repaired its right arm and readjusted its grip on the dagger. It had been a completely losing trade.
‘Does it open when you turn your wrist?’
It was like a key. Deciding that I could not win, I quickly retreated. The problem was that I could not turn my back on the skeleton.
‘It’s faster than I am, and it’s lethal. If I show it my back, I’ll die.’
I did not have eyes in the back of my head, so escaping while watching the skeleton was nearly impossible. But I could do it.
“I’m backing up to the Unknown! Watch the path for me!”
Understanding what I meant, Salkenia gave me directions as Lorenzo had.
[Eight steps south at 173 degrees.]
“Correct me immediately if I seem to lose my direction!”
[I will obey your command.]
I jumped in the direction Salkenia gave me. If things went wrong, I would fall beneath the cliff, but there was no choice except to trust Salkenia here.
Clatter!
The skeleton rushed at me again. It was merely closing the distance and swinging its dagger, but since it did not die and its dagger could break anything, it was not an opponent I could take lightly.
‘I have to avoid being slashed or stabbed!’
The important thing was keeping my distance. I had to stop the skeleton’s charge somehow.
“Damn it!”
I hurled my dagger, which was now only a handle, at the skeleton. The skeleton raised an arm and batted it away. It was not an effective blow, but it was enough that it stopped its advance for a moment.
[You have gone off course. Four steps southeast at 140 degrees.]
The skeleton lengthened its stride as though it were trying to close the distance that had opened between us. I no longer had a dagger. All I had left was my pistol.
Click.
The skeleton was dead, so it did not die. But it had clearly deflected the dagger handle. That meant it tried to block attacks.
Clatter!
Perhaps because it had already experienced the power of the gun twice, the skeleton hid its dagger behind its ribs and protected its head with its remaining hand.
“Bang!”
Perhaps to brace for the impact, the skeleton stopped for a moment in that position before lifting its head. I had clearly pulled the trigger, but no bullet came out.
“Fooled you?”
I had not been able to load the pistol. I had not had time. Naturally, an unloaded gun could not fire. Perhaps because it had lived before the age of firearms and gunpowder, the skeleton did not understand how a pistol worked.
Clack, clack!
The enraged skeleton drew the dagger it had hidden behind its back and prepared to swing. I was jumping backward, so the skeleton, which was faster than me, reached me in an instant. It was a chase along a cliffside path where one bad step would send me falling.
[One step south at 180 degrees.]
At the moment the skeleton swung its dagger, I slipped into the Unknown.
***
“Phew!”
Fortunately, the skeleton did not follow me into the Unknown. I had bought a little time, but that did not mean I had found a way to disable it.
“……What should I do about that thing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Ah! You startled me!”
I could not help jumping when Lorenzo’s voice came from right beside me.
“How are you here?”
“I got curious, too. Was there anything there? Anything that might be worth money?”
Lorenzo being here meant that he had crossed the cliffside path alone in darkness so complete that he could not see an inch in front of him. I had been scared myself, and for a child, he had astonishing courage.
“A cool dagger and a skeleton swinging it.”
“……A skeleton is swinging a dagger?”
“Yeah. I almost died.”
I was not merely saying that. I really had almost died. If Salkenia had not warned me, I would have died.
I thought for a moment.
“Salkenia.”
[Yes, Captain.]
“That thing looks like a Relic, doesn’t it?”
[Without a doubt.]
It was not simply a sharp dagger. It did not feel magical in the way an Artifact would. The conclusion I naturally reached was that it was a Relic.
“Are Relics usually this common?”
[Salkenia has been in the ship graveyard until now, so it is difficult for me to give you an accurate answer.]
“I want it.”
I recalled the dagger in the darkness. Its unusual appearance and aura had caught my eye, along with its ability to break stone and steel. It was impossible not to covet it.
‘If I can just take that, I might be able to disable it somehow.’
The skeleton’s immortality and the dagger’s destructive power. I thought I might be able to do something if either one was gone. On the other hand, the weeping skeleton was dangerous precisely because it had both. The ideal approach was still to take the dagger away from it. As I considered this, Lorenzo asked a question.
“Captain, who have you been talking to this whole time?”