Chapter 234: Goodwill
──Slosh. Slosh.
A half-crushed corpse wandered the ship’s passageway like a ghost.
──Slosh. Slosh.
A monster, limping onward through seawater risen to its waist.
Beyond its charred-black eyelids, its bare, exposed pupils twitched ceaselessly, glinting as they searched for the warmth of ‘the living’.
──Slosh. Slosh.
The monster climbed out of a flooded section where corpses bobbed adrift, and crossed the sodden corridor.
“Uh, sir! Are you all right?!”
A crewman came running from behind, calling out. The monster’s steps stopped dead.
The moment the crewman drew close and tapped his shoulder, the thing’s head twisted around at a grotesque angle.
“!”
It happened in an instant. The monster’s hand seized the crewman’s entire face.
Crrrunch──!
The sound of bone crumbling. The skull shattered, brain matter spattered, and the crewman’s blood and life force were drawn into the monster.
“…….”
Behind the corpse, now shriveled and dried like a mummy, stood two people the crewman had apparently been guiding, frozen in terror.
The young man called ‘Yan’, and the noble young lady who had, at some point, become his lover.
“Wh-what are you?!”
──Slosh. Slosh.
As the monster closed in, the noble lady hurriedly raised a pistol and fired.
Bang!
The bullet lodged in its shoulder, but the monster was unfazed. If anything, its eyes went bloodshot.
“Run!”
Yan grabbed the lady’s hand and pulled. The two of them raced down the corridor, and Jace Arshtel briefly deployed ‘Restoration’.
His ruined heart and other internal organs were restored first, and then the muscles of his legs swelled taut.
“The liv…….”
Reason was shelved for later. On instinct alone, the instinct that demanded survival, he moved his own body.
“……ing.”
He tore down the corridor to devour the living.
…….
“Bread! Take some bread!”
Up on deck, the head chef and his assistants hurled loaves of bread into the lifeboats descending toward the water.
“Take the bread!”
The people climbing aboard the lifeboats clutched great hunks of bread to their chests.
“……Isn’t there any cake? Instead of this hard stuff.”
At somebody’s tactless grumbling.
“Who said that just now?!”
Sharp-eared Halbert Goering jabbed a finger in that direction and bellowed.
“Cake? Is this crazy bastard itching to get himself killed?! Chef! Ignore that garbage and keep handing out the bread!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
They loaded bread and drinking water onto most of the lifeboats.
“Thank you for your hard work!”
They handed a loaf of bread and a bottle of water to each of the crewmen keeping order as well, and one crewman brought out a barrel packed with Mana Stones and passed them around as makeshift heaters.
“Pack them in tight! Get even one more person aboard!”
Following Halbert’s shouts, the only verdicts to be heard on deck were ‘It’s genuine’. The corpses of those already summarily executed lay sprawled across the floor, and so the ‘fakes’ didn’t dare submit their Genealogy Certificates for inspection.
“…….”
First Mate Lecen watched the situation closely. The evacuation was moving faster than expected. Partly it was thanks to the Appraiser Eli’s exceptional skill, but above all, it was discipline giving rise to order.
But some people backed away, unable to come near the lifeboats.
Lecen could see them.
Most likely those who weren’t Aran, those without Genealogy Certificates, or those carrying forgeries.
The only space on this sinking ship where survival was possible, and they had no choice but to give it up of their own accord.
“Second Mate Jekin.”
Lecen called his junior over.
“Y-yes, sir?”
“I’m leaving this to you. Just keep things exactly as they are.”
“Yes, sir! Understood!”
Nils, the agent from the Agency, might justify the selection by invoking the「Imperial Citizenship Law」, but a sailor’s duty was to see to the safety of every passenger he possibly could.
Which was why, on the other side of the ship, there had to be a way out for the abandoned.
First Mate Lecen turned and descended into the ship’s interior.
“──It’s genuine.”
Eli was still in the middle of appraising Genealogy Certificates.
A woman appeared before his inspection post. She set down her Genealogy Certificate.
Eli’s gaze faltered for a moment, and Halbert spoke with a strained smile.
“Ah~ haha. Lady Grossman! For you, Lady, your face is identification enough, same as mine, so you may simply board-“
“Is it genuine, or is it fake? Go on, appraise it.”
Charlotte’s eyes settled on Eli. She had gone icy cold at some point, and Eli pretended not to notice as he scanned the Genealogy Certificate.
─Tap.
At some point, Eli’s hand came to a stop.
He answered.
“It’s a forgery.”
“……What?”
A brief commotion broke out. The corner of Nils’s mouth twisted slightly, while Charlotte remained composed.
Flustered, Halbert cried out.
“Wh-what is he talking about?! Lady Grossman! Please, get aboard! The Appraiser is simply too exhausted right now-“
“No.”
Charlotte shook her head and tucked the Genealogy Certificate back inside her coat.
“It really is a forgery. I lent the original to someone, you see.”
After fixing Eli with a glare behind a false smile.
“And since it’s a forgery, I can’t board, can I? Rules ought to be fair, after all.”
Without a backward glance, she turned and made her way toward the lower decks, where the others remained trapped.
“L-Lady!”
Halbert trembled like a baby chick, but not Nils. He stared after her retreating figure, then laid a hand on Eli’s shoulder.
“Well done. It really was a forgery.”
A strange sort of acknowledgment.
…….
Day four of the Titan’s voyage.
Inside the ship, in the telegraph room.
[ Requesting rescue. Requesting rescue. Requesting rescue. ]
[ This is the passenger liner Titan. This is the passenger liner Titan. ]
[ Position, 320 nautical miles northwest along the Razen Route. Bearing south-southwest of Lapero Lighthouse. ]
[ Engine room explosion. Flooding in progress. Three thousand one hundred souls aboard. ]
[ All vessels in the vicinity, respond. Come at full speed. ]
Even as seawater seeped in and soaked his ankles, the telegraph operator did not stop sending the distress signal.
“This is the passenger liner Titan. This is the passenger liner Titan. Position, 320 nautical miles northwest along the Razen Route. Bearing south-southwest of Lapero Lighthouse. Flooding in progress following an engine room explosion. I repeat, flooding in progress. Three thousand one hundred souls aboard. Insufficient lifeboats. All vessels in these waters, come at full speed……”
Bam!
Just then, the door flew open from outside. His fellow crewmen.
“Jensen! What are you doing?!”
“You go on ahead.”
“This is no time to-“
“I’ve got a job to do, too.”
[ Requesting rescue. Requesting rescue. Requesting rescue. ]
[ This is the passenger liner Titan. This is the passenger liner Titan. ]
If he stopped for even a moment, the signal might be cut off.
So that these waves might reach the receiver of some ship that happened, just maybe, to pass through these waters.
Crack!
Not far away, the rending sound of the ship’s frame being crushed. The telegraph operator held his trembling breath and tapped away at the key.
“Ah, ah. All ships, all ships, to any ship that might be hearing this transmission──”
His voice, and the signal spilling from the telegraph, stretched endlessly out across the night sea.
…….
──Slosh-slosh-slosh!
Charlotte ran down the corridor with a child in each arm. Behind her followed the children’s mother, a boy and his little sister who had lost their father, an elderly couple, and fifteen or so other third-class passengers.
“This is it!”
The moment she stopped before the Section B passage leading up to the deck, someone blocked their way.
The figure, shrouded in deep shadow, asked them urgently.
“Genealogy Certificates, do you have your Genealogy Certificates?!”
First Mate Lecen. At his shout, Charlotte let out a ragged breath.
“What does that have to do with-“
“It matters! I asked whether you have Genealogy Certificates! Do you or don’t you?!”
Lecen looked over the passengers. The children’s mother shook her head weakly. Everyone behind her did the same. It seemed they weren’t even imperial citizens to begin with, and after an instant’s deliberation, Lecen changed course.
“Then come this way!”
He led them in the exact opposite direction from the lifeboats, toward the stern of the deck. Here and there stood rows of rafts, made of doors torn from their frames and lashed together with rope.
“Right now we’re rigging pulleys to lower the rafts.”
The crewmen were busy weaving ropes into a mechanism for lowering the rafts, and the area was crowded with third-class passengers.
Charlotte nodded.
“……You’re doing so much. I’ll leave them in your care.”
“It’s our duty. Stay strong, Lady Grossman.”
After handing the passengers over to Lecen, Charlotte turned back toward the ship’s interior.
Slosh─ Slosh─
As she waded through the rising water in search of survivors.
“──You there! Run!”
A scream-laced shout rang out from up ahead.
“Run! Hurry!”
Flicker-flicker. Flicker-flicker.
Under the strobing emergency lights, a man and a woman came running, terror on their faces.
Beyond them, gunfire rang out.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A crewman, mad with fear, was firing his pistol wildly.
“S-stay back! You fucking monster!”
─Whoosh!
A hand shot out of the darkness and seized the crewman’s face.
Crrrunch!
The crewman’s face crumpled as blood and Mana were sucked into the thing.
“……?”
As Charlotte froze at the grotesque scene, someone grabbed her shoulder.
“Charl!”
It was Viktor Haim.
“……What is that thing?”
Charlotte asked, her voice trembling. Viktor Haim looked at her without a word.
“You’re going to keep hiding things, even now? I asked what the hell that is!”
Viktor bit his lip. A deep dismay clouded his eyes.
“……Zentra. You know of them, don’t you?”
“Ah, you crazy son of a bitch! You’re in bed with them too?!”
Instead of excuses, Viktor spat out the truth.
“Jace Arshtel. Alias, the ‘Undying’.”
The monster turned its head toward them. The pupils glinting beyond its burnt eyelids were grotesque.
“Though I never knew this was how he’d been surviving all along.”
To any eye, the wretched thing was clearly absorbing other people’s life force.
Was there ever a branch of forbidden magic like that?
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
It came charging, both legs flailing. A grotesqueness that sent chills crawling up the spine at the mere sight of it.
“Charl. We have to go!”
Viktor pulled at Charlotte, but a thought flashed through her mind.
Up this way─it leads to that makeshift shelter where the passengers were gathered just moments ago.
“No. You go up.”
She shoved Viktor away and sprinted down the opposite corridor. It was to draw the thing’s attention.
“Charl!”
She dragged her nails along an iron pipe, raising a racket. At the same time, she drew up the Mana within her body.
‘If I were that thing, I’d find the one with Mana far more appetizing.’
“……Khh.”
Fortunately, it seemed the thing agreed. Its gaze fixed on her, and it began to chase her, its half-detached jaw rattling.
* * *
The first- and second-class passengers had all boarded the lifeboats already.
All that remained now was third class.
“Good! Next!”
I loaded people onto the lifeboats as soon as their Genealogy Certificates checked out. Halbert Goering shouted again and again, veins bulging in his neck.
“Pure Aran! Any more Aran or imperial citizens with verified Genealogy Certificates?! If there are, step forward this instant!”
And so, by the time a fair number of third-class passengers had boarded the lifeboats as well.
“Next! Next! Anyone next?!”
The only sounds that answered Goering’s shouts were the heaving waves and the crowd’s low sobbing.
No one answered anymore.
Halbert clicked his tongue briefly and nodded.
“Fine, then children first! They don’t have to be Aran! Among those with proven Genealogy Certificates, board the children first! Hurry! Children first!”
Belatedly, parents came running. They gladly pushed their children into the crewmen’s arms.
Krrooooom──.
The hull lurched steeply once more. A short burst of screams rang out from everyone.
One of the crewmen whispered urgently into Halbert’s ear.
“……What did you say?”
Halbert’s face stiffened.
The report was that only two lifeboats remained.
“…….”
He quietly turned his gaze and came around behind my desk.
“Merin, listen carefully. And don’t panic.”
Gulp. He swallowed.
“Only two lifeboats are left. You, me, and Nils will take the one going down now. If we all board the last boat together, the ones left behind will catch on and it’ll turn into pandemonium.”
It was a plan he’d put some thought into, in his own way, but I set down my monocle and answered.
“……No. I will remain here until the end.”
“What? Are you insane? The ship is sinking, I’m telling you.”
Halbert’s flustered whisper. I shook my head calmly.
“If anything, people will grow suspicious if the three of us board together. Lord Goering, you and Mr. Nils should go first. I will stay here and keep order. That is the surest way to guarantee your safety as well.”
“……Whaat?”
For a moment, Halbert Goering’s expression grew complicated. The pupils fixed on me wavered dimly.
Krrrrooooom───!
The ship’s unearthly groaning grew louder. Halbert swallowed a sigh and gripped my shoulder tight.
“……Fine. Understood. You’re the finest Merin I’ve ever seen. Make sure you survive and come back. I swear I will not forget your service.”
Halbert hurried aboard the lifeboat.
Agent Nils set his pistol down on my desk.
“Good luck. If only every Merin were like you.”
Pat, pat. He clapped me on the shoulder, then followed Halbert onto the lifeboat.
Now only one last lifeboat remained. The people left on deck numbered somewhere around two or three hundred, but traces of Ezenheim were conspicuously few.
No, they were nearly gone.
They’d probably gone off in search of some other way to survive. Those things have a habit of clustering together like cockroaches.
“……Sir. I leave these people in your care.”
I said to the Mate who had stayed at my side.
“Please get even one more person aboard that last lifeboat.”
Just then, I noticed the large barrel sitting at my feet. The one a crewman had brought over, filled to the brim with low-grade Mana Stones.
……Wait.
Mana Stones?
“Everyone, one of these Mana Stones each. Take one each!”
Their quality was miserable, but Mana Stones react the moment they touch seawater.
The natural Mana inside gives off a faint warmth and light.
“The same goes for the crew! Even if you fall into the sea, this light will watch over you!”
I gave the crewmen a nod. They scooped up fistfuls of Mana Stones and handed them out to the remaining passengers, one by one, one by one.
“Now, board the lifeboat!”
“……”
But the people were silent.
No, they pushed one another forward, each yielding their place.
Before long, a couple came stumbling out as if shoved. A woman cradling a newborn, and her husband.
“I’m…… I’m fine. Just this child, at least the child…….”
There was no lie in their eyes. The Virus beneath my collarbone was silent as well.
They were not Ezenheim.
“……Is there some particular reason you mean to stay behind?”
They could not answer my question. They only clutched the child in their arms more tightly.
I can more or less guess the story. The Imperial Guard, or someone, must be after them.
“It’s all right. Get aboard.”
I handed them a small slip of paper.
“When you arrive, show this to Lord Goering. He will guarantee your safety. Now, get aboard.”
With trembling hands, she pressed the note to her chest and boarded the lifeboat.
After that, the people on deck each put others aboard the lifeboat in their place.
Not themselves, but a younger man. A bellboy they’d never met, a boy who worked in the kitchens.
And then, one elderly couple took a man by the hand and pushed him forward, saying.
“This young man saved us when we lost our way.”
“Ah, I, I just-“
“If not for you, lad, we would have drowned already. Most painfully, at that. Ho ho ho.”
At the old man’s kindly smile, the man fought back tears, and soon he was led by a crewman’s hand onto the lifeboat.
──Krrooooom!
The ship screamed and listed once more. And yet the deck remained as it was. If anything, everyone grew more composed.
One of them asked.
“Shouldn’t the crew be the ones to board instead…….”
“We’re fine. Protecting the passengers is our job.”
“…….”
Watching those people, I sank into deep thought.
What a strange thing it is.
When the ones styling themselves nobles and whatnot were howling ‘me first’, crying out about rank and race.
These people didn’t protest or resist. They didn’t tremble with rage at the unfairness. They simply, meekly, waited their turn.
And if it were mere fear that kept them from defying it, that couldn’t explain how the ones left behind carried themselves now, with the violence gone.
On this deck, where no muzzle is aimed at them and no rule remains to be kept, the ones left behind are instead holding down their terror and wishing for one another’s survival.
Even in this moment, with the catastrophe of the sinking bearing down on them,
people who lay their own lives on the scale and still push the counterweight toward someone else.
An arithmetic that defies all calculation.
……Perhaps, this is it.
The true face of the ‘humanity’ I’ve been trying to protect, through the running, the Regression, the killing, even through sinking this ship tonight.
It is not the continent, nor the Empire, nor civilization.
The foolish habit of calling out another’s name first on a sinking deck.
The sum of these miscalculating hearts that cherish their children above themselves, that can give away what is theirs.
Because this is what we are, those things will never overcome us.
Beings woven from nothing but the malice of ‘humanity’s extinction’ will never be able to understand what they see in us.
“Th-then I’ll board! Forgive me!”
Of course, a few can’t overcome their fear and leap aboard the lifeboat. But those left behind watch them with understanding in their eyes. And those who boarded seem to feel the shame of it too, pulling their hats down low and fighting back tears.
Somehow, I feel as though I could explain the reason quite simply.
Because they’re human.
Surviving with the knowledge of shame, and repaying that survival as a debt for the rest of their lives.
Because they are beings different from Ezenheim at their very root.
“……The last lifeboat.”
The question that a once-feeble moron, returned to the past, had never once asked, even while dirtying his hands this much.
Are we truly a species worth saving?
There was never any need to ask.
The answer had been with us from the very start.
“──Capacity. Filled!”
I must save these people, whatever it takes.
I must give them back a world where they can remain who they are.
And so I will gladly dirty myself. I will cover myself in blood.
I will go as far as I can possibly go, to the very end of myself.
“Are you sure you won’t board?”
One of the crewmen asked me.
“……Yes. I’m fine.”
I remained on deck. The crewmen offered their respects and lowered the final lifeboat.
Crrrreeeak——
The hull was now tilted so far that even the naked eye could see how precarious it was.
“Everyone, get to high ground! Climb as high as you can!”
“Move to the highest point!”
The ones left behind headed upward to live. But I chose the opposite. I turned my gaze away and descended deep into the ship.
There was still something I had to finish.
Their goodwill had to be repaid, without fail.
~~~
Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/cdZPxPVrXW