Chapter 139
Chapter 139. The Golden Ship on the Open Sea
After Lucian concluded a contract with the people of Snorheim in the Arctic and set course for the next route.
Lucian stood aboard the Strellock, cutting across the vast Great Azure Ocean, feeling the wind.
The place where Yul’s main body was said to be buried. He was curious about what kind of place it was. According to Yul, there was only an underwater temple above it, and nothing existed above the sea surface.
There were no islands or places to stop in this area, so only a wide horizon greeted them.
“Huh? The lookout sent a signal. He says to look to the right?”
At his subordinate’s words, he turned his head, and a new sight immediately came into view.
“The color of the sea’s boundary has changed.”
The sea’s color was subtly closer to gray. His adjutant, Corman, saw it and spoke.
“It’s truly strange. It looks as if someone painted a boundary line with dye.”
“That’s the Outer Ocean. Record it. According to Yul, it’s a sea we must never approach. It’s filled with unimaginably dangerous creatures.”
“That seems likely. It’s a truly dreadful color. Cowin, Coren, record it.”
While the second and third mates recorded the location and appearance of the Outer Ocean on the sea chart, Corman continued observing that sea through a telescope.
“I don’t see anything in particular for now.”
“Don’t let your guard down. We’ll only be on a route adjacent to the Outer Ocean for a short while.”
After coming down from the Arctic, they would briefly travel along a route bordering the Outer Ocean before soon turning toward the southern Great Azure Ocean.
As the ship moved away from the boundary of the Outer Ocean, Lucian relaxed slightly.
Nothing special would have happened.
The anomaly in their voyage occurred several hours later.
“Huh? Boatswain, there’s a ship over there, sir.”
“…Why is there a ship?”
Shortly after, the Strellock discovered a small boat. It was about the size of a dinghy.
Lucian also came out after hearing the report and examined it. It was a completely unfamiliar style of boat, neither the style of Aragon , Frangia , nor Britain.
It had only one mast, its hull curved smoothly, forming graceful lines as if flowing along waves.
At the stern, a silver ornament resembling a snake’s head gleamed.
“First, retrieve the boat.”
“Yes, sir!”
To check what was inside, they used the installed crane to haul the boat up.
“It’s full of gold inside!”
“What!?”
Navigator Corman rushed over and inspected the boat. It was filled with an enormous number of golden ornaments.
Golden crafts that looked to weigh at least 100 kilograms.
The exotic style of the ornaments made it certain that the owner of this boat was either incredibly wealthy or a high-ranking noble.
“W-who does this treasure belong to?”
“Is it a king’s ship?”
Not only Corman but most of the crew had their eyes turn red with greed. Only Lucian stepped forward calmly and spoke.
“Is there anyone inside?”
“There’s no one!”
“Where did this boat come from? There weren’t even any islands around here.”
Lucian felt uneasy. There were several reasons.
This area was near the Outer Ocean, which Yul had repeatedly warned them to be extremely careful of.
And the fact that such an immense treasure was drifting ownerless on the open sea.
However, Lucian was also a practical man.
If he told them to abandon a boat full of gold simply because it felt ominous, he would likely face a mutiny from the dissatisfied crew.
And Lucian himself needed money. There were investments to repay, as well as the ship’s maintenance costs.
Letting out a sigh, Lucian spoke.
“The treasure from the boat will be divided equally by headcount. Recover everything into storage.”
“You heard the generous captain! Move the treasure, all of you. If anyone skims even one piece, I’ll take your hand.”
The boatswain said this with a wide grin. The crew obediently began moving the items.
Though the crew stared wide-eyed at the gold inside the storage, no one noticed that a faint black mist was slowly, very slowly, seeping out from it.
Meanwhile, Lucian declared the equal distribution of gold and returned to the captain’s cabin, only to soon face dissatisfied navigators.
“Captain, were you serious about what you said earlier? You just said that to calm the crew, right?”
“We should take more. Their wages and our pay aren’t the same to begin with.”
“Th-that… I think so too.”
Lucian sighed. It was only natural that problems would arise, starting with how to distribute the treasure.
When they first set sail, he never considered such a detailed allocation of side income, thinking the chances of retrieving absurd amounts of gold at sea were nonexistent.
To think such a ridiculous situation would occur.
“I’ll think about it for now.”
“Captain.”
Lucian pressed his forehead. It would have been a great help if Yul were here, but if he couldn’t solve things alone in his absence, he wouldn’t be able to achieve anything.
“The principle won’t change. It will be divided equally by headcount.”
“…Understood.”
The navigators left the captain’s cabin in disappointment. And in their hearts, the black mist that had seeped from the gold began to take hold.
One day. Two days. Three days. Four days.
The first to make a move was Corman. He summoned his subordinates, Cowin and Coren.
While casually drinking and playing cards, Corman suddenly spoke.
“Hey, you two. Are you just going to sit still?”
“Pardon?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m talking about the gold.”
“….”
“So what do we do?”
Cowin fell silent, and Coren asked back.
“Cowin, are you good at common magic?”
“Decently. What about you, Coren?”
“I-I can do some, too.”
“What about creating water?”
“A little.”
“Me too.”
“Well, no need to worry. If we run short on drinking water, we can use the captain’s hidden artifact.”
“…What?”
“There’s the captain’s artifact beneath the ship. The one made with magic engineering.”
“No, what are you talking about? Don’t tell me a mu—”
“Shh. Keep it down.”
Corman said this and pointed at the drunken, noisy sailors in the distance.
He spoke quietly.
“I’ve already recruited a few of them. Asked if they’d like to get a bit more gold.”
“…!”
Corman was talking about mutiny. Even those who acted loyal could change in front of 100 kilograms of golden crafts.
He began explaining when they would start the rebellion.
“First, we have to make sure the captain can’t get close to that bizarre magic engineering armor.”
“I-is that even possible?”
“He usually wears magic engineering gloves, right? There’s a time when he takes them off. When he bathes.”
“W-we could force it by dirtying his clothes.”
Listening to the conversation between the first mate and third mate, the second mate Cowin felt something was clearly wrong and rubbed his bald head.
‘Something’s off. Why?’
Corman was greedy. That’s why he even gambled and fell into debt, and boarded the ship to pay it off.
But no matter how greedy he was, he wasn’t the kind of man lacking loyalty enough to incite a mutiny.
After agreeing to a plan involving catching squid at sea and using its ink to dirty the captain’s clothes, Cowin left his seat.
And that evening, when no one was around, he planned to head to Lucian’s cabin and report the mutiny plan.
That is, if one of the crew hadn’t suddenly gone missing that very evening.
“Captain! A crew member has gone missing!”
“What?”
At Corman’s words, Lucian stood up and began investigating the crew.
The first person he found was a large sailor wearing a shabby shirt.
“I-it’s like this, sir. We were just urinating side by side, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone.”
“Did he fall into the sea?”
“No, sir. He said he’d go in first and headed back to the cabin.”
Lucian continued trying to find the missing crew member, but failed. It became certain that he wasn’t on the ship.
After that, the strange disappearances continued.
At times one person, at times two, and at worst, even ten crew members vanished.
The more it happened, the more a black mist began to fill the ship.
The peak came when Corman’s mutiny plan reached its final stage.
“He should be bathing by now, right? We’ll provide the water! Kill the captain!”
“Waaaaaah!”
“The treasure is ours!”
“Huh?”
“W-what?”
There was no one in the captain’s cabin.
The black mist continued to thicken across the ship, and soon it completely engulfed it.
“S-steer the helm!”
“It’s not responding!”
Cowin, who had been heading toward the helm, was swallowed by the black mist on the spot and disappeared.
Corman, who followed behind, and Coren as well—all of them vanished from the ship.
And so, enveloped in black mist, the ship quietly became a silent ghost ship drifting across the open sea.
“……”
After washing off the ink-soaked clothes in the shower, Lucian realized that everyone on the ship had disappeared.
Looking at the empty vessel, he tried to operate the helm.
The wheel didn’t respond. It felt as if the ship had completely stopped.
“We haven’t left the golden sea route yet.”
But if things continued like this, it was certain they would drift off course.
He searched for the other crew members to resolve the situation, but there was no one.
“What should I do?”
Lucian had no idea how to deal with this unprecedented situation.
Just as despair began to take hold—
Someone tore through the darkness and entered. It felt as if a strange vortex lingered within his eyes.
“This is completely messed up.”
“Yul?”
“Lucian! So you were here.”
Yul appeared before him with his arms crossed, frowning.
“That’s a relief.”
“What happened here? Why did the ship end up like this while I was gone?”
“I’ll explain how it started.”
Yul listened carefully to Lucian’s account.
“Hmm. I get the general idea. It started with that treasure, right? Let’s check the storage first.”
Yul and Lucian headed to the storage where the treasure was kept.
The storage was filled with pitch-black mist. The fog was pouring out from the gold.
“This isn’t ordinary mist. It’s magically created. Feels like a unique magic.”
“Yul, then how did you get through the mist?”
“I awakened my third Demon Eye. It’s called the Demon Eye of Distortion.”
A strange vortex had formed within Yul’s eyes. After saying that, Yul explained the current situation.
“This ship right now… hmm. It’s layered.”
“Layered?”
“Should I call them dimensions? Ever since the mist made contact, this ship has become a tangled state of multiple dimensions. The reason I found you so easily is because we’re connected, so I could pinpoint your location.”
“The being that created this treasure doesn’t seem to possess ordinary malice.”
“Looks like it. You said it started near the Outer Ocean, right? If something drifted in from there, it’s possible.”
Yul spoke while recalling the Hive. In the Outer Ocean, it wouldn’t be strange for some insane monster to appear.
“From here on, I’ll tear through all this mist and find whatever’s hiding behind it.”
Yul’s eyes gleamed.