"Strange things happening at sea are not strange."
That was what the innkeeper, whom I had gotten to know while staying in Semeln for several days, said. Since I had never heard it before, it seemed to be a proverb or saying used only at sea.
"No matter how peaceful the blue sea is, no matter how shallow the coast may be, the sea is still the sea. You are not the only one who has encountered something strange."
"I told you, I saw a ghost."
"If you saw something that bizarre, your knees must have gone weak. Still, if you got away with your life, that is enough."
The innkeeper shrugged as though it were nothing of consequence, then set a cup he had dried with a cloth upside down.
"Some people think the sea is dangerous because of sea monsters, but those people are always the ones who lose their lives to things other than sea monsters."
"By other things, do you mean storms?"
"No. Things that can neither be observed nor defined. We call them the Unknown. The sea has things like that. For example, what do you think is inside this cup?"
I looked down at the cup the innkeeper had placed upside down.
"You just cleaned it, so there shouldn't be anything inside."
"Perhaps. But if this were the sea, a sword could suddenly spring out of it and cut off your head."
"That's strange. I just saw that there was nothing inside."
"That is what the sea is like."
The innkeeper spoke as though it were only natural.
"If you intend to go to sea, it is best to be careful in everything you do. You will encounter every kind of strange thing there is."
Watching the cup like a cat, I lifted it and set it upright. There was nothing inside.
"There's nothing in it."
"This is land."
The innkeeper clicked his tongue, as though he disliked that I had lifted the cup to look beneath it.
"Tsk. Judging by the way you behave, you won't live long."
"The ghost did say something ominous, as it happens."
"You said it had no head. If it has no head, it has no mouth or tongue, either."
Now that he mentioned it, that was true. But there was no reason to think about it logically. Ghosts did not exist in the first place.
"It can happen at sea."
Nothing would be strange if it happened at sea. It was an unknown space where common sense did not apply. I did not know whether only the innkeeper thought that way, or whether sailors generally shared that outlook, but it was not something I could easily dismiss.
"So what did that ghost say?"
I recalled the ghost's voice. It was like a cold wind passing through a deep, narrow passage.
"It told me to be careful."
***
At sunset, I boarded the ship again. The captain's-cabin door was tightly shut, as though I had never opened it. Even the chain I had definitely broken had been restored.
‘No. It wasn't a dream.’
Though I had cleaned it thoroughly, the ship still felt eerie. Perhaps I felt that way because I had seen a ghost. Once the sun set, I would not be able to see anything, so I intended only to check before leaving.
CLANG!
I broke the chain locking the captain's-cabin door. Just as I remembered, the rusted chain snapped easily. Before opening the door, I took a moment to steady my breathing.
‘What if the ghost is there again? Should I run? Or should I try talking to it?’
I did not deliberate for long. There was also the chance that, when I opened the door, there would be no ghost at all. It might have been nothing more than a dream I had while dozing off.
‘Still, just in case.’
I took the pistol from inside my clothes and carefully opened the door.
‘It's the same.’
It was just as I remembered. An elegant desk and chair stood alone in the captain's cabin, clean as though someone had swept it.
Creak.
Then a strange sound came from behind me. It sounded like someone stepping onto the ship's deck.
‘A ghost?’
No. A ghost could not possibly make footsteps. When I turned around, an unfamiliar man was standing there.
"Who……?"
Before I could finish speaking, the man viciously kicked me in the back.
THUD!
The sudden attack sent me sprawling facedown on the captain's-cabin floor.
"Urk!"
I thought my back had broken. He had attacked me without warning. I could not understand it. Then the ghost's warning flashed through my mind.
THUNK!
I frantically rolled half a turn to the side, and a sword plunged into the spot where I had been. The large man pulled the sword from the captain's-cabin floor and stared at me. Even seeing him again, he was a complete stranger.
‘A robber?’
I aimed my pistol. I had neither the time nor the will to negotiate. Kill or be killed. The man raised his sword to bring it down on me, and the instant I aimed at him, I pulled the trigger.
BANG!
Sparks flew with the gunshot. Gray smoke, thick with the smell of gunpowder, rose into the air. Still holding his sword aloft, the man looked down at his chest.
"Urk."
Then the man's large body toppled backward.
THUD!
After the sudden fight, my heart hammered like a pair of mallets. But there was something I had overlooked.
"You son of a bitch!"
There was more than one enemy. The problem was that I was lying down, with only my upper body awkwardly raised. And to reload the pistol I had already fired, I needed at least ten seconds.
THUD!
I tried to find the gunpowder and pour it into the barrel, but someone rushed at me from behind the fallen man and kicked the pistol away. My wrist was violently bent backward, and the pistol slipped from my suddenly weakened grip.
Scrape.
My only weapon slid across the floor.
"Urgh!"
I had no spare pistol. I was not a sailor or a sea monster hunter in the first place. Desperate, I tried to seize even the sword of the man I had just killed, but—
Squelch!
A dagger pierced my right wrist, stopping me. Pain surged up as the sharp blade went through my wrist, and a scream welled in my throat.
"Aaaagh!"
The man pulled the dagger from my wrist, then pressed his knee into my chest and roughly covered my mouth.
"Mmph!"
"Shh. Be quiet, and stay still. Or I'll put a knife through your other wrist, too."
Unlike the man who had attacked me first, this one was somewhat thin and had a scar on his face. Like the man I had just shot dead, he was a face I had never seen before.
‘Why? Why are they doing this to me?’
Injustice, confusion, anger, fear. The storm of emotions was soon crushed beneath the pain in my wrist.
"Sir, you should have been more careful."
Someone stepped out from behind the man. He, too, was unfamiliar, but his face and voice lingered vaguely in a corner of my memory. Before long, I remembered who he was.
‘The beggar?’
The beggar I had met before the ship graveyard on my first day in Semeln. He rolled a copper coin between his fingers.
"Wearing clean clothes in a slum. You even seem to have some money. And if you keep coming and going from a deserted place like this."
I tried to shove away the scar-faced man straddling my chest with my uninjured left hand, but the beggar stopped me by stepping on that hand.
CRUNCH!
As though putting out the last ember, he ground his foot from side to side, crushing it beneath his heel. The pain felt like my finger bones were breaking.
"Nngh!"
"This is what happens. Don't resist any further, unless you want all your limbs cut off."
The scar-faced man pinning me down spoke through spittle, apparently worked up.
"This bastard killed Hutton!"
"That only made your share bigger."
Answering calmly, the beggar crouched down while keeping his foot on my broken left hand.
"You said that a ship was not dead because it could not go forward, but because it had given up going forward, did you not?"
Then he drove a knife into my left wrist as well.
CRUNCH!
The beggar slowly twisted the knife as though turning a key. Pain like the wound was being torn apart and crushed. It felt as though fire had exploded in my head.
"Nngh!"
"You were wrong. When it can no longer go forward, that is when it is dead."
Both arms were pinned by knives. The man straddling my chest was pressing down on my upper body with his weight, so I could not even rise. And because my mouth was covered, I could not scream. Therefore—
CRUNCH!
I suddenly thrust my head forward and bit the palm of the man covering my mouth.
"Aaagh!"
At the same time, I lifted my leg and drove my knee into his back. It was a pitiful struggle, but it was not entirely ineffective. The startled man rose unsteadily, and my upper body was freed.
"Haaah!"
I wrenched my left hand, still pierced by the knife, upward and twisted my body, throwing off the man who had been straddling me.
Crash!
The beggar was the problem. Stepping back to avoid the fallen man, he was holding the blade he had driven into my hand. I tried to push at the beggar's leg with my wounded right arm, but—
"Ah, seriously!"
Before I could, the beggar's knee flew toward my face.
CRUNCH!
His knee struck me squarely in the face, and I fell backward. For a moment, my vision spun, and I saw the ceiling.
"You fucker! You bit me! Me!"
The scar-faced man, already on his feet, rushed in and drove his foot into my abdomen. All the air in my lungs fled in an instant.
"Urk!"
But the kicking did not stop.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Only after kicking me over and over did the enraged man seem to calm down enough to let out a breath.
"Whew. That's enough. Shall I kill him?"
"No. No. No. Still, he killed Hutton and bit you. We can't let him die that easily."
"Then what?"
Smiling as though he were looking forward to it, the beggar declared,
"Let's cut off his head while he's alive."
***
They were not executioners, and there was no guillotine. Their knives were dull, too, so they could not sever my neck in a single stroke.
Slice, slice, slice.
That was why they sawed through my neck. The blade moved back and forth, cutting into my neck from each side in turn.
"Nnggggh! Ngh!"
Even twisting my body, I could not move.
‘I don't want to die like this! Not like this!’
The helplessness and injustice lasted only a moment. The violent pain crushed my consciousness. Blood poured out and soaked into the deck beneath me.
"Search him. Is there anything?"
"Fuck. Blood got everywhere."
The man and the beggar felt through the clothes on my dead body, taking anything that might be worth money. Strangely, I was watching them.
[I told you to be careful.]
When I lifted my gaze, I saw the ghost. The headless woman stood beyond the chair, looking down at me with her hands folded together. Her voice was still cold, yet somehow sounded reproachful.
[But this has qualified you.]
The ghost approached slowly and picked up my head.
[You wanted to possess me, did you not? I shall give myself to you.]
What did that mean? I had never thought that I wanted to possess the ghost.
[Will you please become my captain?]
I moved my mouth. My head had been cut off and I was dead, but somehow I could still see and hear. Had I become a ghost as well? If so, perhaps I could speak, too.
"But I'm already dead."
The ghost answered at once.
[I shall restore you to life.]
Bringing the dead back to life. The ghost spoke of the taboo as easily as an everyday greeting.
"Are you saying you'll make me a ghost now? Like you?"
[No. A decision is the privilege of the living. If you are to become a captain, you must live.]
"My head's already off."
[I shall reattach it. However, the resurrection will be incomplete.]
"Incomplete? What does that mean?"
[I am gradually losing my strength. Even if I reattach your severed head, six months will probably be the limit.]
That meant I would have only six months to live even if I came back to life. Naturally, it was better than dying, but still.
"Then what do I have to do to come back completely?"
After a brief pause, the ghost whispered as though voicing an old wish she had kept hidden.
[You must recover my lost head.]
The ghost had no head. If she returned my severed head to me, it would only be fair for me to recover hers in return.
‘Is accepting this the right choice?’
I could not be certain that it was the right thing to do. But I had only two choices: accept the ghost's suspicious proposal or accept death. One thing was certain.
‘At the very least, I can't die like this.’
I had not even gone to sea yet. It was too unjust to die like this.
"All right. I'll do it."
At my answer, the ghost smiled. I could see neither eyes nor the corners of her mouth, and I heard no laugh, but there was no mistaking that she had smiled.
[Will you tell me your name?]
My consciousness slowly faded. For the last time, I forced out the words.
"Howell Crave."
The ghost replied.
[My name is Salkenia.]
In the darkness that completely filled my vision, a waterlogged voice reached me.
[I am a ghost ship.]
***
The beggar held the pure-white, gleaming coin up toward the setting sun.
"A platinum coin!"
"You idiot! He brought this much money to a place like this! Hahaha!"
The man laughed in electrified delight. A platinum coin. A sum worth a hundred gold coins, money no one in the slum could even hope to see. The death of his companion had already vanished from his mind.
"Even split between two, that's fifty gold coins. Since we don't have to split it three ways, it turned out better."
"That is true enough."
A subtle tension formed between the man and the beggar. Dividing it between two meant more than dividing it between three. And possessing it all was better still.
"Ahem."
The sum was so large, so far beyond anything they had imagined, that their thoughts naturally went that far. As they watched each other warily, the beggar changed the subject.
"Could there be more hidden away?"
"Yes. Let's check first."
Still covertly wary of one another, the two went back into the captain's cabin. They had only come out onto the deck to hold the platinum coin to the light and make sure it was not silver. They had not even recovered the dead Howell's pistol yet.
"Huh?"
Once inside the captain's cabin, the two frowned. Howell's corpse, which had been sprawled on the floor, was gone. No, to be exact, it had moved. A creepy chill swept through their bodies.
"……Why is that over there?"
Howell Crave's corpse was slumped in the chair at the center of the captain's cabin. The captain's seat. But that was not the only strange thing.
"Why is his head attached?"
Then Howell lifted his head.