When I climbed the stairs after the man, a long corridor appeared.
Unsuited to the modern exterior of an excursion boat, the second-deck corridor was finished in wood and gave off a gloomy, old-fashioned Gothic atmosphere.
"This way."
I follow the man down the corridor.
"There's one thing you'll need to be careful about."
The man said it as we walked down the corridor.
At the word 'careful' my shoulders go stiff.
"What is it?"
"This vessel is operated by me and my twin sibling."
"Twin......."
"But we're fraternal, so we look nothing alike. I take after our mother, and my sibling after our father."
"And?"
"We divided the roles. I handle guest reception and facility maintenance; my sibling handles navigation."
The man stops.
He looks at me with eyes gone grave.
"We're on our way to the wheelhouse, which is my sibling's domain. Since we're going to talk anyway, it's nice to have my sibling join in, isn't it? Truthfully, my sibling has been waiting for you a great deal."
"......."
Waiting for me?
Why on earth??
"But depending on how you look at it, my sibling's appearance...... may be somewhat shocking."
"Appearance......? You mean ugly......?"
"Well, I don't think so at all...... but everyone's standard is different, isn't it? So please brace yourself thoroughly."
Just how ugly are we talking......?
A moment later, when we reach the end of the corridor, an enormous iron door comes into view.
The whole door is covered in rust, and the word 'WHEELHOUSE' written on it is so buried in rust that only its outline barely remains.
Putting his palm to the door, the man asked me.
"Are you ready?"
Instead of answering I steadied my breathing and nodded.
When he pushes, the iron door begins to open slowly, letting out a hideous scream.
Black mist seeps out through the gap.
HSSK...... HSSK...... HSSK.......
And from beyond the mist comes the sound of regular breathing.
That sound, like a rusted bellows forcing air in.
The door opened fully.
"Please come in."
The man gestures to me.
When I followed his lead into the wheelhouse, the first thing that came into my eyes was the color suffusing the interior.
A wheelhouse sunk in a bluish darkness, as though the middle of the deep sea had been transplanted whole.
Partly because the lights were off and it was dark, but also because the ceiling, floor, and walls were all painted a deep blue, giving off this strange atmosphere.
Jazz-style music flows from a turntable set in a corner, and when I turn my head, an instrument panel comes into view.
It's covered in rust and sea creatures to the point where you'd doubt it functions properly.
And in front of the instrument panel sits the ship's wheel.......
It has a white, unpleasant form, as if made by bending a human spine into a circle.
And at the center of the wheelhouse.
There stood a tank so enormous that three grown men with both arms fully spread could barely encircle it.
The water was black, so the inside of the tank isn't visible.
Each time the boat swayed faintly, the water rippled inside, and something's shadow swayed within it.
At first I wondered whether it was a giant jellyfish.
But the moment the lights came on, I had no choice but to instinctively hold my breath.
The form revealed under the light was—neither human nor sea creature but something grotesque.
Squelching masses of flesh stretched out like tentacles and swayed limply, and between them, organs shaped like crustacean legs rap against the tank wall with a clacking sound.
The skin was densely covered with black parasites of unknown kind, and every one of those small things was writhing of its own accord and burrowing into the flesh.
HSSSK...... SCREEEEK...... PHOOF—.
A grotesque sound rang out from a metal pipe that pierced the tank's surface.
The pipe was connected to a device suspended from the ceiling, and it was pushing air in at regular intervals, like an artificial lung.
As air was injected down the pipe into the tank, the monster's torso swelled and then sank, and the mass of flesh struck the tank wall with a THUD— and peeled away again.
HSSSK...... PHOOF...... HSSSK.......
"It's a breathing apparatus."
The man approaches the tank.
Laying his palm on it, he murmurs with a tender face.
"The respiratory organs take after our mother. Because of the skin, my sibling has to stay in water, but in water my sibling can't breathe."
As if in time with his words, the machine injected air again, and bubbles burst one after another inside the tank.
'You said twins...... that's really your sibling......?'
At the sight, every muscle in my body seems to seize up.
A monster whose flesh sticks to the tank wall and peels away each time the device injects air.
"Come closer. Give my sibling a kind greeting."
The extreme revulsion that comes from its appearance.
I can't bring myself to take a step.
"Come on. My sibling is waiting."
The man urges me gently.
This isn't a situation where I can defy him.
"My sibling has been waiting for you so long."
Air being injected again.
Bubbles rising to the top of the tank again.
Steadying my breathing, I approached the tank.
"Is that...... no, is that person really your sibling......?"
"Of course! It's just that you haven't seen the eyes yet. Look at the eyes and you'll see we're the very image of each other."
I went up to the tank and forced my head down.
"H...... hello?"
Something in the tank begins to move, as if responding to me.
And beyond the glass, a yellow eye comes into view.
A slit-shaped pupil, like an octopus's.
That eye looks at me.
"See! Look at the eyes; we look a lot alike, don't we?"
Only then do the man's own pupils register.
Not entirely the same as the being in the tank, but a pupil of a shape too unusual to call ordinarily human.
"Y...... yes, you do."
"When we were children I envied my sibling. Being a man, I wanted to take after our father."
He sits down on a chair set at the front of the wheelhouse.
"My sibling, conversely, wanted to take after our mother. She's a woman, as you can see."
'Where exactly......?'
"But living a while, I came to understand. That for accomplishing my purpose, living with a form that takes after our mother is the more advantageous."
"I see......."
"Now then. We've exchanged greetings with my sibling. Shall we begin our talk?"
A talk.
Right, I came all this way in order to talk.
I'd briefly forgotten, thanks to the shocking visual.
"Please, sit."
The man points at the chair in front of him.
For now I sat down obediently.
"Before we get into the talk, I'd like you to make me one promise."
"What kind of promise......?"
"From now on, when you look at my sibling, please look with kinder eyes."
.......
So it showed after all.
He must cherish his sibling greatly; unlike before, he looked at me with every trace of a smile wiped from his face.
The back of my neck goes stiff with tension.
"My sibling is a delicate child, contrary to appearances. And has lived a whole life trapped in that tank."
HSSK... HSSK... HSSK....
The grotesque breathing from the tank, as if agreeing with him.
"Opportunities to meet people are scarce as it is. How much would it wound my sibling if the person met looked upon my sibling as though my sibling were repulsive?"
That lump of flesh is really...... delicate......?
No, does it even have a heart to be wounded......?
But what I said was the exact opposite of what I was thinking.
"Yes, I'll be careful."
"Very good!"
When the man snaps his fingers, a table rises out of the floor.
A table of a milky white color, as if carved from bone like the ship's wheel.
"Where should we start the talk? Hmm......."
He props his chin on the table and looks at me.
"Shall we begin with the promise?"
"The promise......?"
"In the past I made a bargain with a certain woman. What she wanted was clear, and I was in a position to give it."
A certain woman.......
"The problem was that the price she offered me fell woefully short. So she made me a proposal. That she would pay the remainder exactly ten years later, by human reckoning of time."
.......
Too neat a coincidence.
The mass-disappearance case presumed to have been caused by my mother happened roughly ten years ago.
At this point there's no way it's a coincidence.
"So I agreed. Ten years may be a long stretch for a human, but for me, with a little exaggeration, it's no more than an instant."
The man chuckles as he says it.
"What was it the woman said she'd give you?"
Instead of answering, he lays his hand on the table.
There's a blackened, scorched mark on his palm.
Looking closely, beneath the scorch mark a picture shows through.
A compass-shaped picture, similar to the one on the back of my hand.
"The very compass carved on the back of your hand."
"......."
"My sibling and I wandered for a stretch of time truly like an eternity in order to find our father. Because through my own fault I lost the compass given to me."
.......
I've been deceived.
A mother who abandoned her child in childhood suddenly leaves him an officetel as a gesture of atonement?
That kind of thing doesn't happen in reality.
Because people who abandon their children are usually thoroughly selfish beings.
There's only one case in which they later come looking for the child of their own accord.
When it's to fill their own desires, whether an organ donation or an insurance payout.
Now I understand clearly.
Why I came to the officetel.
I was nothing more than a price.
Nothing more than a courier, for paying the price that went unpaid ten years ago.
Hahahaha.
So what?
Do you think something like this would wound me?
If anything, I'm glad it's clear now.
From here I'll go off the rails without a single regret.
I put my hand on the table.
With the back of it clearly showing.
"So you're saying you'll take this?"
"That's right. It's mine, after all."
"And how do you intend to take it? It's carved into my hand, as you can see."
At my question his red lips draw a deep arc.
"That's precisely why I proposed we talk like this."
Slit-shaped pupils like an octopus's eyes look at me.
"There are two methods. I'll extend you the courtesy of letting you choose."
When I jerked my chin to say go on, he snorted a laugh and continued.
"The most peaceful method is for you to become this vessel's navigator. To roam that sea together with me and my sibling, in good company."
"And the other method?"
"Well, tearing it off by force. Don't imagine it would end with one arm. It isn't torn away that simply."
"......."
"Personally, the latter is more convenient. But do that and the compass might be damaged. So for both our sakes I rather favor the first method."
"For both our sakes, is it......."
"And who knows? Perhaps you and I will become truly close friends. A voyage with a friend. Doesn't your heart race at the very thought?"
I looked out the window.
I can see Cops surrounding the excursion boat's entrance.
"Could I have a moment to think it over?"
"Of course, as long as you like."
I got up from the chair.
Walking slowly around the wheelhouse, I put my thoughts in order.
If I set my mind to it, I could use 'Submergence' and get out of here.
The problem is Ryu Do-ha and Jang Seo-yun, held by this thing.
With the two of them as hostages, I'm in a position where I have to pick whichever option he offers.
But.
'That isn't fair, though.'
I looked at the tank.
The tank holding the sibling that man cherishes so much.
'For a fair conversation to hold, shouldn't I have a hostage too?'
When I glance toward the man, he's watching me with a smiling face.
I answered that smile with a smile of my own.
Then ran for the tank without hesitation.
Carrying the speed of my run, I leapt and put my hand into the tank.
And it closes on something.
A slippery mass of flesh, like touching an octopus.
"What are you doing?!"
The man leaps up in shock.
I raised the corners of my mouth at him.
"You said your sibling can't breathe in water, didn't you?"
Tentacles and pincers wind around the hand I've put in the tank, as if to sever it.
I held my breath.
At which the compass begins giving off a faint light inside the tank.
And my vision ripples.
The sibling in my grip thrashes tentacles and pincers wildly, apparently in agony.
When I exhale again, that monster barely draws breath through the air-injection device.
"Wave a tentacle at me one more time and I'll stuff you right back in there."
At which the tentacles winding my arm go slack.
I turned to the man.
The composure he'd had until now vanished from his face long ago.
"Shall we start a proper conversation over?"
At my words his face twists.