A faint light seeped through the night sky. The lighthouse at Semeln Harbor had been lit.
‘Have they come to catch me?’
I focused every bit of my attention on turning the ship's wheel properly. If we collided and became wedged between the ships of the graveyard, there would be no hope.
[It is an armed sailing vessel with a blue flag and a lion figurehead. It is presumed to be a galleon.]
Salkenia assessed the situation for me. A blue flag. Even I, who knew little about the value of ships, could not have stayed in Semeln for about a week without learning what that flag meant.
‘The Maritime League!’
The transnational organization with the greatest influence on the sea was coming to capture me. I was certain no one had tracked me, yet I did not know how they had pinpointed my location.
GRIND! GRIND!
Perhaps because my mind was in turmoil, the ship that had been moving smoothly scraped against a derelict vessel and shuddered. The sudden jolt that followed the sound of wood grinding threw me sideways.
THUD!
I barely recovered my balance, then quickly turned the ship's wheel and righted the ship. Cold sweat ran down my spine.
‘I almost ran aground.’
It stopped at this because we had only scraped the side at a slow speed. If I had turned the ship's wheel even a little later, the ship might have been severely damaged. I had to stay alert. I was no experienced helmsman.
[Captain, will you fight?]
"If it is an armed sailing vessel, that means it has cannons ready, right?"
[Perero says that it does.]
Unfortunately, there were no cannons on Salkenia. Aside from the captain's cabin, Salkenia had been completely empty. And a ship without cannons fighting a ship with cannons was like rushing barehanded at someone holding a gun.
"I don't think we can win."
When I glanced to the side, the Maritime League ship began to come into view as well. It was pouring out a bright light and coming straight toward us, so it could not have been otherwise.
‘It's fast.’
At that speed, it was certain to reach the ship graveyard before long.
[What about negotiating?]
Settling this with words. It could be an option. But even if I told them that my severed neck had been reattached, they would not believe me, and they did not seem likely to let the captain of a ghost ship full of skeletons live.
"Haha!"
The hopeless situation made me laugh.
"Let's just run!"
Salkenia had not even escaped the ship graveyard yet. We were gradually moving out of it, but it was too slow. Running seemed the better option, but I doubted even that would be possible.
"Salkenia."
[Yes, Captain.]
"Can you give the skeleton sailors orders on my signal?"
[Salkenia is the captain's ship, and the skeleton sailors aboard her are the captain's sailors. It would be more effective for you to command them directly than through Salkenia.]
I had to get quickly out of a narrow maze where even a slight change in the ship's direction would make us collide with a derelict vessel.
‘Can I do it?’
Only I could answer my question, but if I knew the answer, I would not have asked myself in the first place. In other words, I did not know whether I could do it. One thing was certain.
‘I have to.’
If I did not, I would die. Even now, the Maritime League ship was drawing nearer. The moment I made my decision, I felt a strange sensation I had never experienced in life. It was a sense of oneness.
Creak, creak.
The warping of the old deck. The rocking of the sea. The wind blowing from land. It felt as though I had become the enormous ship, Salkenia. I lifted my head.
‘Now, maybe!’
If I went straight through the narrow passage and made a hard turn to the right, I should be able to leave the ship graveyard. As I turned the ship's wheel, I shouted to Perero, who was perched atop the mast.
"Unfurl the sails!"
Whoosh!
The old, tattered sails cascaded down, sending an enormous cloud of dust flying on the wind. Caught by the wind, Salkenia sped through the narrow gap between ships.
Rrrrrrk!
I spun the ship's wheel with all my strength. The sharp turn sent Salkenia's hull tilting hard to one side. Several skeleton sailors rolled across the deck. I held fast to the wheel.
Creeeak!
The hull, which had tilted sideways, sprang back under the buoyancy of the water and recovered its balance. Having successfully made the turn, I spun the ship's wheel back the other way.
Rrrrk!
At last, the sails caught the land breeze blowing from behind and swelled forward.
WHOOM!
The ship shot forward. The speed was enough to make it feel as though my body would be pushed backward through the air. I gritted my teeth to control the ship's wheel.
‘Please!’
The moment I opened my eyes after briefly closing them.
Rush……!
A horizon so long it would not fit in my field of vision. The smell of water and salt. A cool night wind brushed past my cheek. In the night sky spread above the horizon, stars glimmered like grains set into it. This was the sea.
"Ha!"
I was moving toward those stars.
"Hahahaha!"
Liberation. An exhilarating shiver of pleasure ran through my body. Perero, up on the mast, sharply raised a thumb.
[Perero praises your impressive skill.]
Honestly, I had not thought I could do it. But I only had a moment to savor the afterglow.
‘I cleared a storm only to face a tidal wave.’
The Maritime League ship had already drawn close.
***
"A little farther and we will reach the sea of waste in front of the slum."
The Blue Lion of the Maritime League patrolled the coast of Semeln at irregular intervals. But there was one place excluded from its patrol route: the sea of waste by the slum.
"Should we not turn the ship around soon?"
The sailor Jerry watched Leon's reaction. No sailor wanted to go to the murky, foul-smelling sea. The slum was not even a protected area, so there was no need to patrol it in the first place.
"It appears you do not want to clean."
"Yes."
Jerry nodded vigorously. To uphold the Maritime League's dignity, the Blue Lion had to be kept clean at all times. The moment it entered the sea of waste, they would have to scrub the ship's lower hull until morning.
"We cannot see anything, can we? If a ship were afloat, we would at least see its lights."
"No. We will search as far as the interior of the ship graveyard."
Jerry, who had been about to voice his objection, closed his mouth when he saw Leon's resolute expression. He knew that, with this look on his face, Leon would not abandon his insistence regardless of what anyone said.
"Why are you searching that thoroughly?"
"The dead man was a beggar from the slum. Besides, I heard there had been a sound like a gunshot from the direction of the ship graveyard before the incident."
"Is that all? Hearing phantom sounds at sea is common."
Leon gripped his wrist. Between the fingers covering it, a blue circle rippled fiercely. Watching the faint darkness, Leon spotted something and held out his hand to Jerry.
"The spyglass."
"You should carry one with you."
"You do not have one?"
"I do. Does a lookout go about without a spyglass?"
Leon snatched Jerry's spyglass and lifted it to his eye. Faintly revealed beneath the moonlight was a ship that could not possibly be afloat.
‘A derelict vessel carried here by the current?’
Faded sails, masts that looked ready to snap at any moment, and rotten ropes. There was no flag. Leon soon turned the spyglass toward the deck and recoiled in shock.
"Good heavens."
Skeletons clattered about on the deck. Leon squeezed his eyes shut, then put the spyglass to them again, but the skeletons had not vanished.
‘A ghost ship!’
The ghost ship that had been passed down only in legend was there. As Leon swallowed hard, Jerry showed his curiosity.
"What is it?"
"Wait."
"I am not a dog."
Leon had no time to concern himself with Jerry's grumbling. Slowly moving the spyglass to the side, Leon found something alien aboard the ghost ship.
‘A person?’
A young man stood atop the poop deck. The man was laughing heartily, apparently delighted by something. A man smiling brightly among skeletons. Leon shuddered at the incongruous sight.
‘Was I frightened? Me?’
Leon tried to deny his feelings as he studied the man's features. Pale sand-colored hair and water-colored eyes. His shirt was red with blood. They exactly matched the description given by the noble.
‘It's him.’
At that moment.
Whoosh.
The man, Howell, suddenly turned his head toward Leon. When Leon met Howell's gaze, he reflexively lowered the spyglass. Far away in the darkness, a faint outline of a ship was visible.
‘Did he just see me? From that distance?’
A chill ran down Leon's spine.
‘He is not a prisoner. He was on the poop deck in the first place.’
Only people of high rank aboard a ship could be on the poop deck. Howell stood before the ship's wheel. It was most plausible to think he was the helmsman, but he might have been the captain.
‘Should I retreat for now?’
It was an Unknown in itself. Leon forced out his trembling breath and bit the inside of his cheek. The salty taste of blood brought his senses back.
"No! I, Leon Dias!"
Leon clenched his fist. His fist trembled from the excessive force he put into it.
"A lion cowering before its enemy!"
Ever since being assigned to Semeln, Leon had fought only winning battles. The pirates sometimes found along the coast of Semeln were all minor fry, so victory had been the only natural outcome.
"C-Captain?"
The enemy's combat strength was a complete unknown. But until he took charge of the Semeln Branch of the Maritime League, Leon had always fought unknown enemies.
‘They are moving straight from the ship graveyard toward the sea. Are they trying to take our side? What is their firepower? I cannot see cannons on the gun deck, but they may be hidden. Their numbers? The skeletons are not armed. Could there be an ambush? They saw me, so they will have prepared for something.’
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind. Jerry clicked his tongue at the sight of Leon he had not seen in a very long time.
‘The mad lion has woken from sleep.’
Leon Dias roared.
"All hands! Prepare for battle!"
***
"Why are they suddenly doing that?"
The Maritime League ship, already approaching quickly, suddenly accelerated and began to close in at a furious speed. I had only looked over at it once because I had a strange feeling, and it reacted like that.
‘They're charging in so recklessly?’
Salkenia was a ghost ship, so she looked eerie enough even at a glance. If a ship in that state were sailing, one might cautiously check it first, but that ship looked determined to fight no matter what.
‘Fortunately, there's still some distance between us.’
Because we had escaped the ship graveyard quickly, we had avoided the worst-case scenario of being trapped inside it.
‘Salkenia is a little faster while she has the land breeze, but that ship is moving that fast without even catching the wind properly. If it catches the same wind, it will catch us. Should I run farther out? No. Its armament is better, so it will quickly close in. That would only put us in greater danger.’
There was no chance of winning if I fought, and the enemy ship was too fast to escape. This must be what it meant to have a sea monster seize your anchor line.
[What about hiding for a while?]
At Salkenia's suggestion, I looked around. Now that we had moved away from the ship graveyard, the ship was floating alone in the middle of the sea.
"There is nowhere to hide. Where would we hide?"
Even if there were somewhere to hide, now that we had been noticed, we could only briefly leave the enemy's sight. It would be impossible to hide completely.
[If you command us to hide, we shall hide.]
But Salkenia spoke as though she could do it. Since Salkenia had already brought me back to life once, she might have a way. I decided to trust my ship.
"Then let's hide."
[Then please hold your breath. You must hold it as long as you can.]
As Salkenia asked, I drew in as much breath as I could and stopped breathing. Confirming that, Salkenia slowly raised her gloved hand. It was an extremely gentle, elegant motion.
‘What is she doing?’
She appeared to be stretching out her hand to cover the sky. Then Salkenia slowly moved her arm, as though she could control it. As though wiping away the stars in the sky, she pushed her hand to the side.
‘Huh?’
I doubted my eyes. The stars spread above the horizon were going out one by one. The faint light that had been brightening the night sea slowly receded. And when even the moonlight was erased by that gentle hand.
Whoosh.
Perfect darkness settled over Salkenia.