‘A corpse?’
The thought that it was a drowned body crossed my mind only briefly. Soon, I had no choice but to revise that thought.
‘No.’
Looking closely, there were too many things strange for it to be a person. Its bloated face had nothing that could be called a nose or ears. On top of that, its skin was covered in transparent slime.
‘What is that?’
The thing that had been holding its face above the water as still as a crocodile began to flail with a splash. I had thought it was dead, but it was alive. Kalena, who had come up beside me, looked at it and spoke in a low voice.
"A Drowncatcher."
"A Drowncatcher?"
"A sea monster. It pretends to be someone who fell into the sea, then drags you underwater when you come close to save it. A vicious bastard."
"That is a sea monster?"
I had imagined sea monsters would look more like fish. I observed the first sea monster I had ever encountered. Though it splashed about as if drowning, the Drowncatcher kept its eyes fixed on me. There was an unpleasant gap between its movements and its intent.
"Yes. It must have come because a large ship stopped."
Kalena lightly sprang up and crouched on the ship's railing. Her sense of balance was impressive.
"I'll kill it."
It was neither a suggestion nor a request for confirmation, but a notice. Keeping the Drowncatcher in sight with her right eye, Kalena turned her harpoon half a turn and gripped it upside down.
THUNK!
A throw without hesitation. The harpoon, plunging down like a shower of rain, pierced straight through the Drowncatcher's head. The Drowncatcher died and slowly sank into the sea with the harpoon.
"Is it all right to throw it away like that? It's a Relic."
"It's fine. A Relic is bound to its owner. Even if you want to throw it away, you can't."
Kalena curled the ring finger of her right hand inward. Then the harpoon shot up from the surface of the sea and was drawn into Kalena's grasp.
‘Convenient. Is that a Relic's power, too?’
As an experiment, I wiggled the ring finger of my right hand. Salkenia did not move at all. I was glad I had tried it secretly. Kalena shook the slime from the tip of her harpoon overboard.
"Howell, get ready, too."
"Get ready for what?"
"Drowncatchers do not travel alone. If the one on the surface fails to lure in prey, the ones beneath the water will try to board the ship."
The instant I heard Kalena's words, I looked below the sea again. One by one, Drowncatchers with their faces above the water were clinging to the outer hull. There were easily more than a dozen of them.
"Then why did you kill it?"
"It would have been the same if we had left it alone. Those are sea monsters that target sailors, not ships."
"Spread out along the railing! Knock down anything that comes up!"
The skeleton sailors scattered in perfect order around the edge of the ship.
"Don't those skeletons have weapons or anything?"
"Do they need weapons?"
"It's better if they do. Once they grab hold of something, they'll drag it straight into the sea. You need weapons or tools."
Unfortunately, the skeleton sailors had nothing that could be called a weapon. The only things we had were the two swords taken from the robbers. I carried one, and Perero carried the other.
"You! Bring anything you can find!"
The skeleton sailors rushed into the cabins and returned with the cleaning tools I had used while cleaning Salkenia.
"Is there nothing else?"
The skeleton sailors nodded brightly. Skeleton sailors armed with mops and wearing buckets on their heads were not very reassuring, but what could I do? It was fortunate that Kalena, who was obsessed with killing the Drowncatchers, did not see that sight.
Whoosh!
Each time Kalena threw her harpoon, a Drowncatcher fell like a cicada whose life had run out. The instant she pulled the harpoon back with her finger, she threw it again, killing one every few seconds.
‘Why are there so many?’
Even so, the Drowncatchers only continued to multiply.
Clack! Clack!
The skeleton sailors were spreading out and pushing back the Drowncatchers, but there was a limit to how many they could repel.
Gloop.
One Drowncatcher finally climbed onto the deck from port. It grabbed the wrist of a skeleton sailor at the railing, then put its weight into it and pulled toward the sea.
Click.
I turned and aimed my pistol at it. Half of the skeleton sailor's body had gone over the railing. Even if it was only a skull-head, I had no intention of giving up one of my sailors easily.
BANG!
The gunshot rang out, and the Drowncatcher's arm was torn off. Freed, the skeleton sailor pushed the Drowncatcher into the sea, then used that recoil to get back onto the deck.
"Tsk!"
If we only knocked them away like this, they would try to climb up again. Even if we wanted to kill them, the skeleton sailors had no proper weapons. Other than me, only Kalena and Perero, who had a sword, could kill sea monsters.
"I think we should get out of here for now!"
Kalena seemed to think the same.
"What about your boat, Kalena?"
"My boat……."
Kalena checked on her boat. On the starboard side, the Drowncatchers were using Kalena's small boat as a foothold to climb Salkenia's outer hull.
Wriggle, wriggle.
Because of that, Kalena's boat was completely covered in Drowncatcher slime. I did not particularly want to ride it. Kalena said without hesitation,
"I'll abandon it. Give me a ride."
"I don't mind. We're going to Lindana. Is that all right?"
"That works out well. I came from Lindana."
She had taught me about Relics and even shared her water with me, so I did not want to turn away my benefactor. She would also know the way to Lindana, so there was no reason not to take her aboard.
"You, you, and you! Go lower the sails!"
Thanks to Kalena skewering the Drowncatchers, I assigned several skeleton sailors from the relatively clear starboard side. The skeleton sailors who received my order moved more briskly than usual.
Clatter, clatter!
Even as I pushed gunpowder and bullets into the pistol barrel, Drowncatchers climbed onto the deck one after another.
THUD!
I kicked one that came close. But even as it was kicked away, it caught my ankle and tipped its body toward the sea as though falling into it.
‘H-Huh?’
For a moment, cold ran down my spine. Losing my balance, I almost got dragged in with it, but—
Squelch!
Fortunately, Perero appeared in time and plunged his sword into the thing's face. The Drowncatcher's grip weakened. Perero raised a thumb bone sharply and clicked his teeth together.
[He says that he is ready.]
When I raised my head, the skeleton sailors had reached the mast. Kalena's voice called out.
"Howell!"
Several Drowncatchers had climbed aboard at the stern, where fewer skeleton sailors had been placed. I shouted,
"Lower the sails!"
The sails fell like a waterfall.
***
Two skeleton sailors were covered in slime, and we lost several cleaning tools, including mops, but fortunately, we shook off the Drowncatchers without serious damage.
[This is unpleasant.]
Salkenia's voice was still calm, but it was rare to see her express emotion even in words like this.
[The body you finally cleaned has been dirtied.]
"When you put it that way, it sounds strange."
[What do you mean by strange?]
"Never mind. You are a ship."
Kalena, who was wiping slime from her harpoon, glanced at me.
"Howell, are you hearing things?"
"No. I was just talking with my ship for a moment."
"Can a Relic talk, too? I can't hear it."
Kalena looked interested. I was just as interested.
"Can your Relic talk, Kalena?"
"It can't. It's not as though the harpoon has a mouth."
Strictly speaking, Salkenia did not have a mouth, either.
"Then you cannot see a ghost, either?"
"A ghost?"
"Yes. My ship appears in the form of a ghost."
"This is the first time I have met another Relic owner, but I have researched Relics in my own way. At least in the records, I have never seen anything about a Relic speaking in the form of a ghost."
Was Salkenia able to take form like this because she was a ghost ship? Even as her captain, I had many questions about Salkenia. Kalena looked around as though searching for her.
[Captain, may I add one point?]
"What is it?"
Kalena suddenly looked at me, then turned away when she realized I had not been addressing her. It seemed she had not completely lowered her guard around the skeleton sailors. Perhaps she thought I might not be able to control them properly.
[It would be vague to say that I have regained a memory, but I have learned one new fact.]
"You learned something?"
[If Salkenia absorbs that woman's Brand, Salkenia can become stronger.]
"Absorb her Brand? How do we do that?"
The instant I finished speaking, Kalena immediately widened the distance between us and lowered her stance. Salkenia answered.
[By killing the one who bears the Brand.]
***
"Your Relic is telling you to kill me?"
"No. I do not intend to kill you. I am not a pirate."
"Even pirates would run if they saw this ship……."
That was true. Kalena rolled her one eye and studied the placement of the skeleton sailors. She was ready to fight if necessary.
‘So this is what she meant when she told me to be careful of other Relic owners.’
Thinking back, it was strange. The moment Kalena realized that I was a Relic owner rather than a sea monster, she had asked if I had come to kill her. She had even warned me about other Relic owners, but she had not told me why.
‘It makes sense if Relic owners grow stronger by killing one another.’
People craved power. Anyone who crossed the dangerous sea would have to crave it even more. Why else would sailors arm themselves with better pistols and mount more cannons on their ships?
"As your ship said, Relic owners can grow stronger by killing other Relic owners. More precisely, it is the power of the Relic they own that grows stronger."
Holding her harpoon at the ready, Kalena stared at me.
"Are we going to fight?"
Facing Kalena, I shook my head. It was not that I had no desire for power, and it would be a lie to say I had no desire at all for her Relic, but—
"I do not intend to fight. You do not either, Kalena."
Judging from the circumstances, Kalena had known from the beginning that killing a Relic owner made one stronger. She had even noticed that I was a Relic owner while I was completely exhausted. If she had wanted to kill me, she would have.
"I am not someone who forgets a favor."
"……Is it because you are not a sailor?"
"Do sailors forget favors?"
"Not all of them, but many are selfish. There is no way to know what will happen at sea."
I was the one who had set off toward a port city with my entire fortune on a whim, saying I would go to sea despite not even knowing the price of ships. Perhaps I had a sailor's disposition, too.
"In any case, you do not need to be so guarded. I do not think I could beat you even if I tried to kill you."
I had seen Kalena kill Drowncatchers. She repeatedly threw and retrieved her harpoon several times faster than firing a gun. And judging by how she pierced only between their brows with such precision, her accuracy was remarkable as well.
‘If I try to fight, my head will probably be pierced before I can even draw my pistol.’
Even if every skeleton sailor joined in, victory was not guaranteed. More than anything, I did not want to fight my benefactor. Kalena finally lowered her harpoon completely and spoke.
"You are too soft. You will not live long."
"I think that is the second time I have heard that today."