Lorenzo asked me to give him time to think. He was exhausted after staying up all night, and it was not a decision he could make easily, so I told him to give me his answer by tomorrow afternoon before returning to the ship.
Rattle.
When I dumped the weeping skeleton from the sack onto the deck, Perero looked rather flustered and raised his sword warily. Salkenia ordered the skeleton sailors to put it back together.
Clatter, clatter.
The sight of the skeleton sailors assembling the scattered skeleton on the deck was grotesque enough to resemble the scene of some black magic ritual performed long ago.
“But Salkenia, can every skeleton become one of your sailors?”
[That is not the case. There are three conditions for becoming Salkenia’s sailor.]
Come to think of it, Salkenia had mentioned conditions when I died, too.
“Three? What are they?”
[They must be completely dead. They must have been sailors in life. Lastly, they must have the will to work as Salkenia’s sailor.]
I had thought that I could add to my crew if I found skeletons somewhere, but the conditions were stricter than I expected.
“How can someone have the will to work as a sailor when they’re dead?”
[Most lose all will with death, but there are exceptions. There are those who carry out their will even in death. Are you not one of them, Captain?]
“If you hadn’t made me the offer, I would have just died.”
[Salkenia could make the offer because you wanted to become a captain until the moment you died.]
I suddenly remembered the time a bandit cut off my head in Semeln. Had I wanted to become a captain even then?
“Do you think this skeleton wants to become one of your sailors, too?”
[Seeing that it remained guarding that place even after death, I inferred that it has some purpose. Purpose is always accompanied by will.]
The weeping skeleton joining the crew would be welcome. It seemed more capable in battle than the skeleton sailors, so it could take on the role of a fighter that Salkenia, who had no sea monster hunter, needed.
‘It might even know something about Salkenia.’
In many ways, it would be good if the weeping skeleton joined Salkenia. But as with Lorenzo, that was not a foregone conclusion. Since there was nothing else I could do, I decided to sleep.
“Fuuu…… This is nice.”
I had put a small bed in the captain’s cabin. It was a sailor’s bed with raised rails along the sides to keep the sleeper from rolling off when the ship swayed.
‘Having a bed really does make a difference. Sleeping on the floor was hard.’
When I had sailed from Semeln to Lindana, I had no choice but to sleep on the floor. Sleeping aboard a rocking ship was not especially pleasant. I would often roll to one side.
‘Salkenia will handle the weeping skeleton.’
I took out the Key That Opens the Night. Its reddish-brown handle fit my hand as though it had always been mine. It was extraordinary at a glance. Were all Relics like this? Kalena’s harpoon had felt the same way.
‘Will I have to give it back if it becomes a sailor?’
I stared at the Key That Opens the Night. Unfortunately, the Relic did not work. As an experiment, I tried to open a piece of jerky in the shadows, but even when I turned my wrist as the weeping skeleton had, the jerky remained intact.
‘It seems like it would pair well with Salkenia’s Hiding.’
Salkenia could bring about darkness. The Key That Opens the Night grew stronger in darkness. It could compensate for its only weakness, light, while dramatically increasing my firepower for a moment. It almost felt as though it were a Relic prepared for me.
‘I have it, but it feels like I don’t.’
I tucked the Key That Opens the Night beneath my pillow and lay down. I was too tired to think clearly. It seemed best to sleep first and think when I woke. Weariness ran down my back and flowed onto the bed.
***
I was crying endlessly in the darkness. I held the Key That Opens the Night in my hand. Overwhelmed by a horrifying sense of guilt, I threw it away and screamed. Tears would not stop flowing.
‘It should not have happened.’
My body was stained with an unforgivable sin. I had committed something I could not atone for even if I tore off all my flesh.
‘I had no choice but to do it.’
My hands trembled. After crying for a long time, I picked up the Key That Opens the Night. I held it to my own neck, but I could neither cut nor stab myself. Death would be nothing but escape.
‘Ah, ah……!’
The grief that swept over me choked off my breath. There was no way to escape this sin. I could only keep shedding tears, praying for salvation. I waited for a savior who would come hundreds of years later and take this sin away.
***
Cry, cry.
I woke to the sound of seagulls and frowned. My whole body was soaked in sweat. I seemed to have had a terrible nightmare. But as was always the case with dreams, I could not remember its contents.
“……Damn it! You startled me!”
The moment I stepped out of the captain’s cabin, I saw a skull. It was the weeping skeleton. My hand reflexively went to my pistol, but the weeping skeleton only stared blankly at me and did not attack.
[Captain, did you cough?]
“Uh. Yeah. Is she one of your sailors now?”
[That is correct. Her name is Ines.]
“Ines?”
I thought it over, then frowned.
“She was a woman?”
[That is correct. Did you not know?]
I had thought her frame was a little different from those of the skeleton sailors, but I had not known she was a woman. Though I did not know whether gender had any meaning once someone became a skeleton.
“There’s a lot I want to ask. Come in.”
I led Ines into the captain’s cabin. Salkenia followed as though it were only natural and stood in her usual place. Salkenia’s place was behind my right shoulder. Except when I slept, she was generally there.
“Ines, why were you in that place?”
I thought Ines might originally have been one of Salkenia’s sailors. The chest had contained greenstone with an aura similar to Salkenia’s, and that seemed very deliberate.
[Ines says that she does not know.]
But like Perero and Salkenia, Ines had lost her memories. This made my guess more credible.
“Then why are you crying? Did you forget that, too?”
[Ines says that she did.]
“You don’t know anything. Why has everyone lost their memories?”
[Humans forget what they ate three mornings ago, too.]
“She’s a skeleton, and you’re a ship.”
[You are discriminating against skeletons and ships.]
Ines lowered her head as though she felt ashamed. She was still crying even now, so I could not help feeling as though I had scolded a child and made her cry.
“Forget it. She seems to have a sense of self, so she’s in a state similar to Perero’s. Can she work aboard a ship?”
[She is less skilled than the skeleton sailors, but she possesses the minimum abilities. She appears to be specialized for combat rather than shipboard work. While you slept, Captain, I held mock battles with the skeleton sailors and found that she could subdue up to five of them by herself.]
Salkenia was capable. Had she assessed our combat strength in the meantime, too?
“Good work.”
The addition of a fighter was encouraging. After a brief hesitation, I handed the Key That Opens the Night to Ines. Since Ines was kneeling, it made the scene look as though I were bestowing something important. In truth, I was merely returning what I had taken for myself.
“I’ll give this back. It would be better for you to use it.”
It was not as though I did not want it, but if it was an item I could not use anyway, it was better for Ines, who fought well, to have it. Ines took the Key That Opens the Night, then held it back out and bowed her head.
[Ines offers the Key That Opens the Night to you, Captain.]
I stared at it.
“I can’t use it anyway. That’s why I gave it to you.”
[Ines says that only you, Captain, can take the Key That Opens the Night.]
“Only I can take it?”
What could that mean? I could not grasp Ines’s intent. Salkenia relayed Ines’s words.
[Ines says that the Key That Opens the Night is her sin, and that she sincerely wishes for you, Captain, to take that sin from her.]
“If you’re giving it to me, I’ll take it.”
I took hold of the Key That Opens the Night. At that moment, I felt a piercing pain from the blue Brand on my wrist. When I turned my hand over, the Brand was flickering intensely.
“Huh?”
And I knew. I had truly come to possess the Key That Opens the Night.
***
That afternoon, I bought and moved a few more things we needed. Going straight to the green sea from here would be unreasonable. Since I planned to stop at several more ports, I gathered supplies in moderation.
‘Shall I go?’
After that, I went to the farmland where I had agreed to meet Lorenzo. I did not know what answer Lorenzo would give me. That made me look forward to it even more.
‘It won’t be easy to find a navigator I like that much.’
When I reached the farmland, I saw a group of young men trampling something. I wondered if a mole had come out, so I looked closer. The thing being trampled was a familiar boy.
‘Lorenzo?’
He was curled up with his head covered and surrounded by the men, but it was definitely Lorenzo. The young men, too old to be called boys but too young to be called adults, mercilessly stamped on Lorenzo.
“Huff, huff!”
The beating stopped before I intervened. One of them, who appeared to be their leader, squatted down and spat in Lorenzo’s face.
“Hey, I said where did you get this?”
Something in his hand glowed olive. It was a piece of greenstone. Lorenzo looked up at him. His golden eyes were full of venom.
“Why should I tell you that?”
“Aw, that’s cruel. We worked together, even if it was only for a little while.”
“Is stealing a job? Drop dead, you fucking idiot.”
At Lorenzo’s curse, the man struck the back of his head hard. Lorenzo’s face was driven into the ground.
“I took you in because I pitied you. For a begging bastard, there’s nothing you can’t say.”
“Should we kill him?”
“Come on. We have to find out where he got this first.”
The man holding the greenstone shook it, grabbed Lorenzo by the hair, and forced him to raise his head. Lorenzo’s mud-caked face was bleeding from the nose.
“So where did you steal this?”
“I didn’t steal it. I got it as a bonus.”
“Bullshit. What work have you ever done besides begging?”
“……Navigator.”
“You’re on about that again. You think there’s really a captain crazy enough to make a kid a navigator?”
With tears welling in his eyes, Lorenzo glared at the man and spat out his words.
“I got hired. Don’t treat me like trash like you, who don’t know how to do anything except extort money from other people.”
“Ha! You had a dream? I’m telling you, there’s no captain crazy enough to hire a kid like you!”
I smiled and walked toward Lorenzo.
“Hello. I’m the crazy captain.”