I raised a hand and touched my neck. There were uneven ridges, perhaps scars from where it had been reattached. I could still vividly feel the sensation of a blade sawing through my neck.
‘My wounds are healed. Not just my neck—my hands and face have recovered, too.’
No, I could not call this recovery. I had come back to life. I raised my head and looked at my enemies. Looking flustered, the two muttered in low voices.
"He's alive? How?"
"……It's the sea."
The scar-faced man took a step back from the incomprehensible, bizarre situation. The beggar drew a dagger. The man also pulled out his bloodstained dagger a moment later. Behind me, Salkenia spoke.
[They are the ones who brought their filthy feet into the captain's cabin without permission.]
I was facing the two people who had killed me once again. I felt a faint fear for only a moment, but strangely, as I listened to Salkenia's calm voice, the trembling vanished. The unpleasant, skin-crawling feeling I had felt when I first heard her voice was nowhere to be found.
[If you wish it, I shall drag them out.]
I pulled my voice up from deep in my stomach. I was afraid my head might fall off if I spoke. But it was not a question I could leave unanswered.
"Do it."
Though she had received my answer, Salkenia did not move. Instead, a commotion began to rise from outside the captain's cabin. The man and beggar turned around.
Clatter.
A skeleton stood there. Gray-white like a dry shell bleached by the sea wind, it reached its arm toward the beggar and the man.
"Eek!"
The man swiftly swung his dagger and knocked away the skeleton's arm. But because the skeleton had nothing but bone, the dagger cut through nothing. A blade was meant to cut flesh, not bone. Perhaps it was not especially strong, for the skeleton's arm was knocked aside.
Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter.
But there was not just one skeleton. More than ten skeletons stretched their arms toward the man. There was nothing in their pitch-black eye sockets.
"Aaaah!"
The man fought back, wildly swinging his dagger, but both he and I knew it. It was difficult for one person to defeat many.
[They are Salkenia's skeleton sailors. From now on, they will faithfully obey the captain's commands.]
Moving skeleton sailors. Strangely, I was neither frightened nor afraid of them. It was not that I had lost my fear. Somehow, I could feel that they were my allies.
"Tsk!"
"Ugh!"
The beggar, who had been watching me with an anxious expression, shoved the man in the back. Perhaps because the push came from a direction he had not expected, the man, who had been holding his ground, lost his balance and fell toward the skeleton sailors.
"Aaagh! You son of a bitch!"
Numerous skeleton sailors surrounded the man. Through the opening that formed between them, the beggar fled the captain's cabin. I picked up the pistol from the floor and chased after him.
‘That sly bastard!’
When I left the captain's cabin, the beggar had already jumped onto another ship and was crossing its deck. Several skeleton sailors tried to pursue him, but they could not bring themselves to leave the ship.
[The skeleton sailors cannot stray far from Salkenia.]
It seemed they had restrictions. I aimed the pistol at the beggar's back and pulled the trigger.
Click.
But the pistol was not loaded. I hurriedly stuffed gunpowder and ammunition into the barrel.
[How would you like the captive to be dealt with?]
Salkenia's voice sounded beside my ear. When I turned around, I saw the man subdued by the skeleton sailors.
"S-Spare me! Please!"
The man who had sawed through my neck begged me for mercy. If he had simply kept his mouth shut, I might at least have mistaken myself for someone doing evil.
"Take anything useful off him, then throw him into the sea."
Afraid the beggar might escape, I answered hurriedly, vaulted over the railing, and leaped onto the ship beside ours.
‘It'll be hard to hit him while chasing him.’
The abandoned ships in the ship graveyard were tangled together in a complicated mass, and their decks were not all flat. Making matters worse, it had grown dark, making it difficult to aim properly at the beggar.
‘If I want to kill him for sure, I have to get close and shoot him properly.’
The beggar escaped the ship graveyard with nimble movements. I followed after him and landed on the filthy beach. My long shadow, cast by the setting sun, reached the beggar. Seeing it behind him, he screamed.
"Get away! You monster!"
Who was he calling a monster? In any case, the beggar could run. He seemed to understand very well that he would die if I caught him.
"Hahaha!"
The absurd situation made me laugh. I had run like this when I first came to Semeln, too. Back then, I had been the one being chased, not the one chasing. How in the world had things ended up like this?
"Crazy bastard!"
The beggar spewed curses as though terrified. His back grew larger and larger in my sight.
"Huff, gasp!"
I could hear the bastard panting now, yet somehow I was not out of breath. He seemed close enough to touch, so I reached out my hand.
Grab!
I caught the beggar by the nape. Snatched while running, he lost his balance and fell.
Crash!
But something was strange. When he turned around, the beggar wore a faint, wry smile. For someone who had seemed terrified as he fled only moments ago, he was remarkably relaxed.
‘What?’
The beggar immediately raised both hands and shouted.
"Please, spare me!"
I had been so single-mindedly pursuing him that I realized only then that I was in the middle of a street where people passed by.
Murmur, murmur.
The sun had set completely, but it was still early evening, and there were quite a few people on the street.
"Please! Somebody help!"
The beggar's desperate voice drew people's attention.
"What? What's going on?"
There had been no witnesses at the ship graveyard. That was why the beggar and his companions could kill me without hesitation. But this was a street beside the harbor. With so many people around, I could not carelessly aim my gun. And besides—
"Isn't that blood?"
My clothes were soaked in blood. It was the blood that had flowed when my neck was cut. The beggar, on the other hand, had only proposed cutting my head off. He had left the actual cutting to the scar-faced man and stood back, so his clothes were a little dirty but unstained by blood.
‘This has gone wrong.’
A blood-drenched man holding a gun on a beggar. To people who did not know what had happened, the victim and perpetrator would appear to be reversed.
"Eek!"
The beggar backed away as though frightened, but I could clearly see that he was smirking.
‘He planned this.’
He had deliberately run into the crowd. He was meticulous and quick-witted.
"What is going on?"
At that moment, someone emerged from the building beside the beggar. Judging by his well-tailored coat, he seemed to be a young noble. Only then did I notice what building it was.
‘The Maritime League?’
It was an organization even I, someone who was not a sailor, knew: an organization as much a law as any that ruled the sea. But even if I explained what had happened to me in the ship graveyard to that young noble—
‘I'm at a disadvantage no matter what.’
No matter how much I claimed I had been murdered by robbers, there was no chance he would believe that I had come back to life. If testimony surfaced that I commanded skeleton sailors, I would be the one saddled with the crime.
"That man tried to kill me! He has already killed two of my friends! Do you see the blood on his clothes?"
Pointing at me, the beggar screamed. He was playing the part of a completely innocent victim. As the people began to murmur, he grinned.
‘See? Now you can't kill me.’
His triumphant expression seemed to say exactly that.
Click.
I aimed the pistol at the beggar. He was close enough for me to hit him precisely.
"Huh?"
Fear flickered in the beggar's eyes as he realized something had gone wrong. I aimed between his brows and pulled the trigger.
BANG!
The beggar took a bullet to the head, then crumpled backward and died. Startled by the gunshot, people scattered in wild panic.
"Aaaah!"
"Murder!"
The noble, looking flustered as well, stumbled a step back. I glanced at the corpse with a hole in its head, then crouched down and searched its clothes.
Jingle.
I found a pouch containing money. My platinum coin was inside. Having come to his senses only then, the noble bellowed,
"W-What do you think you are doing?!"
I looked up at the noble. Wondering whether I would have to fight, I poured gunpowder into the pistol barrel, and the noble fled into the Maritime League building.
"You bastard!"
Perhaps he was trying to preserve his dignity even then, because he shouted at me. Taking the beggar's money pouch, I slipped into the chaotically scattering crowd.
***
‘What do I do now?’
I fled to the ship graveyard. More than one or two people had seen my face, so I had to hide for the time being. With nowhere else to go, I returned to the ghost ship, where a horrifying sight awaited me.
[Following the captain's command, the useless body was thrown into the sea.]
The head of the man who had killed me was impaled atop a sword.
"Why did you do that with his head?"
I had meant for them to strip the body and roughly throw it into the sea. But Salkenia seemed to have interpreted it a little differently.
[I judged it suitable as an ornament, because displaying an enemy's head like this might be effective at intimidating other enemies.]
One skeleton sailor shook the impaled head up and down as though proudly showing it off. Perhaps because he had died terrified, his eyes were wide open even in death.
"……I think this is a little too much."
I did not feel sympathy for the man. After all, he had killed me once and was a criminal who committed robbery and murder without hesitation.
Splash.
The skeleton sailor dropped the man's head into the sea. Then it clicked its teeth together.
‘Was that a laugh just now?’
It seemed that way. Counting the skeleton sailors on deck, I turned my eyes toward Salkenia. She was wearing her veil again.
"Is this all the skeleton sailors there are?"
[Yes.]
Fifteen. It seemed like a lot at a glance, but considering the size of the ship, it was too few. I had looked into hiring sailors, and a ship this size needed at least fifty people to operate it.
"Can we operate the ship with only these skeleton sailors?"
An unexpectedly positive answer came back.
[We can. Skeleton sailors are weaker than human sailors and cannot think, but they can work without stopping. However, they cannot perform precise steering or plot a course.]
They could work without resting. Well, they were skeletons, so perhaps that was possible. Even if their abilities were somewhat lacking, it was enough that they could put the ship to sea.
"How can they move if they can't think?"
[I issue commands to them at my discretion. Furthermore, though they cannot think, they can perform sailor's work and carry out simple orders, so I recommend that you give them direct commands. If that is inconvenient, you may entrust it to Perero.]
I frowned.
"Who is Perero?"
One skeleton abruptly raised its hand. It was the skeleton that had just been bobbing the impaled head up and down. Looking closely, unlike the other skeletons, it wore a yellow headscarf.
[Perero is Salkenia's oldest sailor. Unlike the other skeleton sailors, he has a sense of self and can think.]
Perero stepped forward and clicked his teeth together.
[He says that he looks forward to working with you.]
I had no idea what he was saying, but Salkenia apparently could interpret him.
"All right, Perero. I look forward to working with you."
As though telling me to rely only on him, Perero thumped his chest—or rather, his ribs.
"Salkenia, can we set sail like this?"
To be honest, the ship was not in a condition to sail. It had no holes, but it was a complete wreck otherwise. Still, because it was a ghost ship, I placed my hopes on the possibility that it might be able to sail.
[We can. However, I need time to make several preparations through the sailors.]
"Then get ready. Perero, I'll leave the preparations to you."
Perero nodded vigorously, then went clacking across the deck. The skeleton sailors began to move in perfect unison. I quietly watched the unreal sight.
[Are you confused?]
Standing to my right—more precisely, just behind my right side, as though assisting me—Salkenia asked. If she was asking whether I had sorted out my thoughts, the answer was no.
"Of course I am. I was already flustered when I got robbed while cleaning a ship. Then my head was cut off and I died. I became the captain of a ghost ship, had my head reattached, and even came back to life."
I touched my neck. The uncomfortable scar remained. Uneasy, I put a hand over my heart, but it was beating properly. As I felt relieved, I noticed something I had not seen before.
"Huh?"
A blue circle I had never seen before shimmered on the inside of my wrist.