There are a few things I can infer from the conversation up to a moment ago.
The man's polite speech and manners.
Those are nothing but thorough affectation.
What lets me infer his true nature is that look in his eyes as he watches me.
That is not the look you give an equal.
It's the look you give something lower than yourself, a look with a kind of ease in it.
A being with eyes that arrogant accepted, meekly, a promise to pay the price ten years later, and from a lowly human at that?
Bullshit.
He must have needed this 'compass' so badly that he had no choice but to put it on credit.
"You don't seem to care what becomes of the two held below."
As if responding to the man's words, the mass of flesh in the tank writhes.
A tentacle comes winding around my arm.
'Right, so that's the nerve you're going to show?'
When I put strength into my hand, the monster thrashes in the tank as if in agony.
The tentacle's grip on my arm grew stronger, but I ignored it and squeezed harder.
This sticky, slippery sensation of flesh in my hand.
With the sensation of the small things embedded in the flesh bursting, a fishy smell rises.
My gorge rises.
If I let my guard down even slightly I'll bring everything back up.
I clenched my molars and desperately kept my mouth shut.
I can't let a single sign show.
What I have to show him is resolve.
The monster's thrashing grows worse and the black water in the tank overflows.
Seeing that, the man moved to lunge, but.
"You don't seem to care what becomes of your sibling and the compass either."
At my warning he stops.
"Stop this at once."
"Take one step and see. I'm past caring about anything too."
"......."
"And what was it? Stay on this boat forever or have the compass torn off? Look, if you're going to threaten someone you should keep it reasonable. Corner a person like that and they're forced to be brave."
"Let go of that hand first and then let's talk."
"And if I let go? So you can tie me up with a belt too?"
I can see his pupils contracting into long horizontal slits as he looks at me.
Then, as if giving up, he raises both hands.
"Name what you want."
Good, now we're finally talking.
"Let us go. And don't follow us."
"I'll release the two below. I won't pursue them either. But you, no. I told you earlier, didn't I? The price has to be paid."
"Then collect it from the person who owes you, it's got nothing to do with me."
The blood isn't reaching my tentacle-wrapped arm.
But maybe because it experienced 'Submergence' earlier, the grip doesn't grow any stronger than that.
He looked back and forth between me and the tank and shook his head as if it were absurd.
"Then how about we do it this way?"
"If you're going to talk nonsense......."
"You seem to have no intention of backing down, and neither do I, so let's make a fair wager."
"A wager? Why would I.......?"
"It's true that I love my sibling dearly, but."
His octopus-like eyes look at me, precisely at the back of my hand.
"I need that compass no matter what."
"......."
"Besides, do you have the leisure to be standing around like this?"
His gaze goes out the window.
When I followed it, I could see Cops boarding the excursion boat.
I'd briefly forgotten they existed.
They advance across the deck.
Where they're headed is the cabin.
Ryu Do-ha and Jang Seo-yun.
The two of them are in danger.
"What wager?"
I forced my eyes off the window.
I mustn't look rushed.
But he must have caught what I was thinking; he snorts a laugh.
"Do you trust your companions?"
"What?"
"I asked whether you trust the two held below, deep in your heart."
"Stop circling and tell me what the wager is."
There's no time.
Even at this moment they're getting closer to the cabin.
"Anyone becomes my possession the moment they become a passenger of this vessel. Body and mind, all of it. I can see even their thoughts and memories."
"So?"
"But you, ah! It's a bit awkward to keep calling you 'you.' Might I have your name?"
"If you're planning to stall......."
"Not at all. If something happens to those two it puts me in a fair bit of difficulty as well."
"...... Kang Do-yul."
"Do-yul. I see. My name is......."
"I'm not curious about your name, so hurry up and state the wager!"
"Woo-heon. Well, returning to the wager...... one of the two people below is deceiving you."
"What?"
"All of it was deliberate. The meeting, and the process of being together."
...... What is he talking about?
"Guess which one is the liar. If you guess correctly, I'll release all three of you. If you fail, you set out on a long voyage with me."
One of the two is a liar?
If the meeting was a lie too.......
She approached me deliberately from the start?
No.
There's one more possibility.
Everything this Woo-heon says could be a lie, couldn't it?
"How am I supposed to believe you? You could be the liar instead."
"Hahahahaha."
He suddenly burst out laughing.
"Haa...... humans, truly...... you always think your own yardstick is the world's yardstick."
"......."
"I hold promises and oaths dearer than my life. So believe me. If you still can't believe me when I say that, it can't be helped. My sibling would probably understand. My sibling watched from beside me all along how badly I've wanted that compass."
.......
This arrogant being who considers himself something higher.
Right now I have no choice but to trust that the arrogance itself will keep the promise.
"You're really swearing it? That if I win the wager, you'll let us go."
"I swear it. I'll send you off without touching a hair on your heads."
If what he says is true.......
Ryu Do-ha and Jang Seo-yun.
One of the two is a liar.
If I had to pick between them, it's unquestionably Jang Seo-yun.
She was the one who told me how to use the pen at a desperate moment, and there have been plenty of suspicious things about her behavior since.
If she approached me deliberately from the start.......
What is her identity?
The likeliest thing is that she's also one of my mother's people.
Then everything is explained.
The Pond Snail's confident assurance that there'd be no problem.
Shoving me into a place like this and then suddenly going silent makes sense too.
It must have figured there'd be no real problem since I had a helper at my side anyway.
Besides, the expression she wore when she first saw this excursion boat is still vivid.
That expression full of surprise and exultation.
But.......
It's so obvious that it's suspicious.
This being called Woo-heon.
Why, out of countless possible wagers, did he propose this one?
And by his own account he's a being who can read the memories of anyone who has become a passenger.
Which means he's seen everything I've been through since coming here, through the memories of those two.
In that case he could also have predicted that I'd naturally pick Jang Seo-yun.......
This is a wager over an object he'd sacrifice his own sibling to get his hands on.
When I glanced out the window, the Cops were only a few steps from reaching the cabin entrance.
There's no time.
"Your answer?"
He asked in a leisurely voice.
That expression.
Not a trace of impatience in it.
It's the face of someone truly waiting for me to pick Jang Seo-yun.
If this wager is a trap.
If Ryu Do-ha is the one deceiving me.
Why on earth?
There's not a shred of reason to suspect Ryu Do-ha.
.......
Right, there's not a shred.
The answer is Jang Seo-yun.
"You've decided, by the look of it."
"......."
Then a question suddenly surfaces.
Earlier he said he could look inside the heads of anyone from the moment they became passengers of this vessel.
Does simply boarding this boat make you a passenger?
Under that assumption I'm his passenger too.
Which means he can read my thoughts right now.
Am I overthinking?
.......
No, he can't read my thoughts.
Right, if he could read them, he'd have stopped me before I took his sibling hostage.
And what if the very claim that he can read memories and thoughts is a lie?
That one of Ryu Do-ha and Jang Seo-yun is a liar.
That statement itself is the lie.
Because whichever one I choose, he wins by simply answering the opposite.
Why am I believing his word so firmly?
Merely because of the oath he mentioned?
That speech and those manners are affectation from the start.
He's acting the part of something refined.
Because he isn't human to begin with.
So why was I trusting something as flimsy as that oath?
"Before I state my choice."
I pointed at the ship's log sitting on the instrument panel.
"Write the answer in there."
"I do not lie."
"Enough talk, just write it."
He frowns as if put out, then walks to the log.
He lifts it and looks at me with eyes tinged with dissatisfaction.
"Write it."
When I put strength into my left hand, his sibling thrashes.
He sighs quietly as if there's no help for it, then writes something with the pen attached to the log.
"There. I've written the answer."
"Bring it here."
Woo-heon walks over holding the log.
He stood in front of me.
"Cover the answer with your hand and open the log facing me so I can see it."
He covers the answer with his hand and opens the log toward me.
The variables in this wager are gone.
What remains is my choice.
A contest with a fifty percent win rate.
Is there no way to make it a hundred?
"You have no trust in me."
"......."
"If everything I say is a lie, what use is this wager? I could do as I please whether you win or lose."
He isn't wrong.
So at the least I should pretend to trust him.
"I do trust you. That's why I'm taking this wager seriously, isn't it?"
He snorts at my answer.
"Is that so? Then hurry and tell me. Who the liar is."
His gaze goes out the window.
They've reached the cabin door.
"The time limit happens to be up."
I have to give the answer now.
Fifty-fifty.
Even guessing, my odds of being right are half.
But.......
I absolutely cannot be wrong.
If I'm wrong, Ryu Do-ha and Jang Seo-yun and I are all finished.
Who do I choose?
Jang Seo-yun?
That was the most reasonable deduction, but what if he knew that and wrote the opposite in the log?
They're going into the cabin!
I have to give the answer quickly!
Then the answer I'll give is.......
Right, go with the first instinct.
"Jang Seo-yun. She's the liar."
At my answer Woo-heon's smile deepens.
'Why is he smiling like that?'
"Then I'll reveal my answer as well."
All my attention focuses on the hand covering the answer.
His hand moves slowly away from the log, and when he removes it, the answer showing is......
-Jang Seo-yun.
I got it right.
I won!
"You're letting us go, right?"
He nods.
The tentacles winding my left arm sink back beneath the surface.
Woo-heon points at the entrance as if to say I may leave.
Not a shred of regret shows on his face.
Strange.
It's the compass he wanted so desperately, isn't it?
He was going to sacrifice even his sibling to get it, wasn't he?
And it really ends like this?
If I let go of this monster now, aren't I throwing away with my own hand the only card I had left?
SCRRRAPE
Woo-heon drags a chair over.
He sets it in front of me and sits down on it.
"From the very beginning, you see."
He even crosses his legs and looks at me.
"You never believed a word I said, Mr. Do-yul."
"......."
"Even after I swore an oath."
A faint anger showing through in his voice.
"No, I believed you!"
"If you believed me, why can't you step away from that spot? Even with your companions in danger."
He snapped his fingers in the air.
Outside the window.
The Cops running toward the cabin all stop at once, and then burst apart.
Cops turned to bloodwater in an instant.
"I have not lied a single time. Everything aboard this vessel is my possession."
"Then......."
"I could have looked inside your head, Mr. Do-yul, but I didn't. That isn't courtesy toward a conversation partner, and besides, a wager made while peering into the other party's head isn't a wager, it's a swindle."
"Then...... since I won the wager, you'll let me go, won't you?"
At the pressure in his words and expression I found myself slipping into polite speech.
"That was my intention."
Past tense.
My heart shudders.
Gooseflesh rises over my whole body, because I can predict what he's about to say.
"Your failure to take a single step even after winning the wager struck me as deeply insulting."
"But......!"
The moment I put strength into the left hand gripping his sibling, he waves a finger as if to say don't bother.
"Threats no longer work. I'm looking inside your head right now."
"......."
"You don't have the courage for it, do you?"
He rises from the chair and comes toward me.
"The courage to use that power called 'Submergence' and die together with my sibling never existed in you to begin with."
He stood in front of me.
He looks down at me.
"The wager is over. From here on, this is the realm of my feelings."