5 minutes earlier.

[I can serve. I can obey, Master.]

The answer to Tie’s question of whether he could help her was short and perfectly clear.

Tie did not hesitate long.

“Then I... I need a boat right now.”

[...If it belongs to the abyss of the sea god — anything. Anything.]

What happened next was, she swore, the most thrilling and heart-pounding event in Tie’s entire life.

“Squad Leader......?”

“King of the Dead! What is that supposed to be?!”

Tie, standing among people calling out to her all at once, could only gape.

From the depths of the black, shimmering water, something slowly rose.

At first, it wavered no bigger than Tie’s palm, but soon, together with white foam, it emerged completely from the sea.

“The King of the Dead summoned a ghost ship!”

It was an enormous vessel, rising so high that its end could not be seen.

“A-a ship of the dead! Those are spirits!”

As people said, dark, murky, soul-like silhouettes roamed ceaselessly across the deck.

[Master.]

[Master.]

[Master.]

Listening to the voices circling around her, Tie swallowed hard.

Then she gave her new friends — no, her subordinates — the next order.

“B-b-board Tie!”

The empty ship, without a single living person, creaked as it lowered a gangway.

Black figures gathered around Tie as if guiding the way.

She hesitantly followed the spirits, ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) then secretly glanced back.

The people on the pier stared at her with eyes wide in terror.

Tie carefully asked:

“Will anyone go with Tie?”

Of course, no answer came.

Tie shrugged.

“Then Tie save them herself.”

To ordinary people, the spirits looked like dark, blurred silhouettes.

But not to Tie.

She could see their hair and the color of their eyes.

She could see how they looked, where their faces rounded when they smiled, where wrinkles appeared.

“They’re nice......”

And just as Tie, as if deciding everything was fine, stepped onto the gangway—

“Let me come with you!”

Marianne hurried out from the crowd.

Stopping before the gangway, she said with trembling hands:

“I... I want to board too. We have to save Raul and Enzo......”

Tie looked at the ruler in surprise, then nodded.

“Mm!”

And, letting the adult go first, stepped aside.

Marianne took a deep breath and stepped into the ship where the dead rushed about.

At that moment, the rumor was born that the leader of Agavert, the King of the Dead, summoned not only skeletons but also spirits of the abyss.

The ship of spirits summoned by Tie.

The so-called “sailboat” reached the Magic Stone in an instant.

And drew up alongside the passenger vessel purchased by Des Hound.

“What the—!”

Kal Worben, who had been trying to kill Basto together with his subordinates, noticed the shadow looming overhead and lowered his sword.

An unbelievable sight unfolded before him.

He stared blankly at the ominous hull that pressed down with its mere presence.

“W-what is this supposed to be......”

Each time the torn, ragged sails snapped in the wind, a sound like the wailing of ghosts could be heard.

The three masts holding the sails stood at such an angle that they looked ready to snap at any moment.

When something darted sharply behind the cracked, perforated railings, Kal Worben flinched and dropped his weapon.

“Squad Leader! They say it’s the King of the Dead’s ship!”

Lecar, who had run up, shouted.

Kal Worben, his face pale, snapped back:

“What nonsense are you spouting? How could the King of the Dead even get here!”

Before departure.

In case Agavert decided to suppress the Magic Stone, he had slightly damaged every ship in the village.

He had made holes in the lower hulls of some, removed or damaged the ballast that maintained the center of gravity in others.

Basto had managed to pull out the last ship Kal Worben had not reached, but that did not matter.

Such a small vessel could simply be rammed by the ship he had purchased.

‘I decided that the remaining two ships would not be enough for help to come from shore.’

And the ship before his eyes was far larger than the rescued passenger vessel.

Old, grim, as if from another era, and yet somehow it did not rock even in the storm.

“It seems we acted too openly! W-we should have considered that the King of the Dead could summon spirits!”

Lecar fell into panic.

His eyes darted, his face turned bluish.

His hands trembled so much that the bracelet on his wrist rang with metal.

“Lecar!”

“W-we’re all going to die! We’re all going to die, die......”

“Lecar, you—!”

Kal Worben shook him by the shoulders, then suddenly froze.

There was something strange in his subordinate’s eyes.

Lecar’s pupils were unfocused.

And for some reason, his body was growing colder and colder.

“......Lecar.”

At that moment, something dripped from his hair.

Kal Worben flinched and pulled his hand back.

He stared in disbelief at the moisture on his palm.

Lecar’s body was soaked through.

Water ran from his hair.

Cold, as if from the very depths of the abyss.

“That can’t be......”

Kal Worben spun around sharply.

Indeed, the other subordinates who had been fighting Basto were now lying scattered across the deck.

Some curled on their sides, some lay staring at the sky, repeating the same thing:

“We’re going to die, we’re all going to die......”

All of them had unfocused eyes, and their bodies were wet like Lecar’s.

“You bastard!”

A shout rang out from above.

Kal Worben lifted his pale face.

On the railing of the ghost ship stood the King of the Dead.

Black spirits swirled around him.

“My Uncle Basto... ah, no, Basto is the iron supreme commander!”

Because of the childish distortion of words, Kal Worben involuntarily sneered.

On the pier, it had sounded simply ridiculous.

Annoying, yes, but nothing more.

But—

“Around my sailboat flows the current of the dead! And if you touch the silent abyss......”

As he spoke, the King of the Dead turned slightly aside, as if asking, “Ready?”

One of the spirits shifted grimly.

After it nodded, the King of the Dead looked down at Kal Worben again.

“The cold of the deep sea will sow fear in your souls! You will not be able to move and will meet the dead!”

Kal Worben’s face froze.

His subordinates were not themselves. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Especially the fact that their bodies were becoming wet even though they had not touched the water.

[Fear more—]

Someone whispered in his ear.

“Damn it! What the—!”

He looked around in horror.

[Yes, like that.]

An icy wind blew against his other ear.

“A-aaah! Get away!”

Kal Worben shook his head violently, clutching his ears.

Then he turned toward his comrades.

But there was no one there anymore.

“......L-Lecar?”

Kal Worben trembled.

Cold water was now dripping from his own hair as well.

And something slowly crawled upward along his leg.

“......Help.”

He did not dare even to look down.

Gradually, it grew quiet around him.

The rain stopped, the noise of the waves, the roar of the Magical Beasts.

How much time passed in that silence—

“S-save......”

[Kal Worben—!!!]

A crash tore through the air.

Kal Worben flinched, squeezed his eyes shut, then opened his bloodshot eyes again.

Something was forming before him.

[Well? Are you satisfied?]

Someone in a strange posture was holding his arms.

Clothes soaked in blood, a body covered in scars, sunken eyes and cheeks.

[When you sent my husband to his death and made us food for monsters, how did it feel knowing only you survived? I’m asking.]

......It was Eve.

Basto’s wife. Dead.

The one Kal Worben had abandoned in the half-ruined Ban Anla village, overrun by Magical Beasts.

Eve’s face came close.

Her expressionless lips slowly stretched sideways and split into a horrifying smile.

[Vile.]

“Li, Livi......”

[It seems you are ready to suffer for my husband and for our Livia.]