Chapter 65
[Cruise Disappearance Investigation]
[This request was handed over to the Cartel by the Bureau, which is currently short on manpower. Its goal is to investigate the cause of the ongoing disappearances of passengers aboard the cruise ship, locate the missing persons, and rescue them. The first reward will be paid if either one is completed. If both are achieved, a second reward will be paid.]
[First reward: 20,000,000 won]
[Second reward: 60,000,000 won]
[Notice: Although this request was transferred from the Bureau, no information about the person carrying it out will be passed on to the Bureau. Also, the cruise ticket will be issued as soon as you accept the request, so do not spend your own money.]
[This request is first come, first served.]
[Accepted so far]
[0/2]
A notice much longer than those for other requests. After carefully reading the contents of the request, Ian let out a low hum and replied to Lee Seo-ah’s text.
[Me: You want me to do this?]
[Lee Seo-ah: Yeah. Isn’t it fine? The reward’s pretty good, and it’s a free cruise vacation.]
[Me: It’s not a bad request, but isn’t the second reward basically impossible to get?]
Finding the cause of the incident might be manageable, but figuring out the missing persons’ whereabouts or condition and rescuing them was absolutely not easy. It would take quite a bit of time, and even if he poured that time into it, there was no guarantee he could save them.
It wasn’t for nothing that the second reward was three times higher than the first. It wasn’t as difficult as exploring the library, but it was still a hassle.
[Me: Are you sure the supernatural is involved?]
[Lee Seo-ah: Yeah. I summoned the soul of one of the missing people to check, and he said he died without even knowing what hit him.]
……A spirit, huh.
She must have already confirmed it through necromancy long ago. Ian took off his coat, tossed it carelessly aside, and tapped away on his keyboard.
[Me: Let’s talk by phone instead of text. Call me.]
As soon as the read receipt appeared, the phone rang. Just in case, he checked the number once more before pressing accept and taking the call.
“Hello.”
[It’s been a while.]
A young girl’s voice flowed through the phone speaker. Ian chuckled softly and leaned back.
“Yeah, long time no see. You doing well?”
[So-so.]
“How’s school?”
[It’s vacation. And anyway, I’m graduating this year. I won’t really be going to school in February.]
“Don’t you have any friends?”
[…….]
There was no answer. Ian immediately changed the subject.
“So you summoned a spirit. Necromancy, I’m guessing?”
[……Yeah. It was hard to summon a specific target, so I had to use quite a lot of materials, but I managed to succeed.]
Fortunately, it seemed Lee Seo-ah no longer wanted to talk about friends, so she answered right away.
[Age is 35. He boarded the cruise with his family and died in his sleep without anyone noticing.]
“Could it have been a simple murder case?”
[No. There’s no way the ship’s defenses would be that lax, and the room this man stayed in was famous for being one of the best rooms on board the cruise ship. Naturally, the security was quite tight too.]
“Hmm…….”
[What’s more, the time he fell asleep and the time he died are different. He fell asleep on the first night, but he didn’t actually die until the afternoon of the third day.]
“……Yeah, that is strange.”
If he fell asleep on the first day and died on the third, then what happened to the second day in between? And why does there not seem to be any memory of it?
It was something that couldn’t be explained by common sense. Even if it were narcolepsy or sleepwalking, it was the kind of bizarre incident that would make you scratch your head.
It seemed certain that the supernatural had interfered.
Ian let out a low hum and idly swung his legs.
“Anything else?”
[No. Even this much was hard to get. As for the other missing persons, whether they’re dead or alive is completely unknown.]
“Hmm…….”
[Anyway, so are you in? I’m planning to accept it for now.]
At Lee Seo-ah’s question, Ian didn’t answer right away and mulled it over for a moment.
Honestly, it wasn’t that difficult of a request. If it was just a simple disappearance case occurring inside a cruise ship, then it was more likely to be a ghost story than a true anomaly, so compared to a spatial anomaly, the difficulty would be significantly lower.
Of course, that didn’t mean it was an easy request by any stretch, but it would be far better than the theme park, the library, or the general hospital. If that was the case, the reward wasn’t all that bad either.
‘Even just taking the first reward would be a profit.’
Twenty million won was definitely not pocket change. He had earned over 200 million won from the library request, but that was because the reward for that request had been absurdly high. It was only natural, considering he had been thrown into a spatial supernatural with no rules discovered. Ian would have had a hard time too if he hadn’t had the Knowledge-Eating Paper.
Anyway.
There was no need to turn down a request with a difficulty level that wasn’t all that high and a possible extra reward of 60 million on top of the base 20 million.
He was starting to plan on taking proper requests again, the way he used to, so getting back into the swing of things with this one didn’t seem bad.
Having sorted out his thoughts, Ian smiled and spoke.
“When and where should we meet?”
[……Heehee.]
Along with the reply, a sly laugh spilled through the speaker.
*
The day after accepting the request, a cruise ticket arrived at Ian’s front door.
An elegant ticket listing the cruise ship’s name, service instructions, and the cabin number. Ian left the house, picked up the ticket he had expected to arrive, and headed down to the parking lot.
Vrooom.
He started the bike and let it warm up.
While doing so, he carefully checked the contents of the ticket in his hand.
“…….”
There didn’t seem to be anything special about it. Apparently, unlike the theme park, the ticket itself wasn’t the trigger for the supernatural. Most likely, the anomaly would reveal itself once something inside the ship served as the trigger.
If possible, he wanted it to be a simple, brute-force anomaly. If the target could be physically killed, things would go much faster. It was much better than having to solve some gimmick or follow rules.
Still, he wasn’t about to be blindly optimistic.
Since when had the supernatural ever been so kind to humans?
It was always better to move while assuming the worst. Thinking that way, Ian checked his own condition while the bike was warming up.
His condition was…… pretty good. Thanks to sleeping soundly, his mind was clear, and his body wasn’t in bad shape either. Since he had been exercising steadily lately, he’d built up a little stamina too, so even if things got physically intense, he probably wouldn’t go down easily.
He had brought all his gear without forgetting a single thing.
The revolver tucked inside his coat, and the spare rounds he had brought because he didn’t know how long he’d have to stay on the cruise.
His bag was packed full of alchemy supplies, and he had also stuffed in plenty of finished products. He had even brought some blood, just in case.
‘Rather than cutting myself every time I use magic, it’s way better to store some in advance.’
Unless he made a major wound, only a limited amount of blood would flow. Rather than using that to draw a magic circle, it was better to bottle it up and use as much as needed.
‘I’ve got enough dying eyeballs on hand too, and I have three knives, two lighters, and only one Knowledge-Eating Paper, but I brought a mirror, so there shouldn’t be a problem.’
With this much, he had prepared everything he could. Ian put on his balaclava, pulled his helmet down low, and closed the visor.
His vision darkened slightly.
He put on his gloves, climbed onto the bike, and lifted the side stand. Warm heat began to rise slowly from the engine block.
The warm-up was sufficient now. Ian sent Lee Seo-ah a message saying he was leaving, then twisted the throttle and set off immediately.
The cruise was scheduled to depart from Incheon and visit Southeast Asia and Japan one after another.
Lee Seo-ah had already come up to Incheon yesterday, so there was no need to wait for her.
Vrooooom!
The engine roared fiercely and spewed smoke through the exhaust.
Since it was lunchtime on a weekday, the roads were fairly quiet. Ian wiped the dust off his visor with his hand and turned the handlebars.
Without needing any fine control, the bike automatically found the optimal route and moved by adjusting its speed and path. Apart from Dae-mo’s magic, that was thanks to the bike’s own AI.
‘Worth the money.’
Ian smirked and twisted the throttle even harder.
The wind blowing against him felt pretty good.
*
Fortunately, there was a parking lot near the harbor where he could park for free for the duration of the cruise. Ian parked the bike there, grabbed his bag, and headed for the pier.
Since he hadn’t brought a suitcase or anything like that, there was no need to check in luggage. After a quick inspection of his belongings, he slowly went deeper into the waiting area.
The revolver and alchemy supplies didn’t seem to set off the metal detector.
A Cartel-made revolver wasn’t going to be caught that easily. The alchemy supplies were a given.
The waiting area was packed with people. It was a broad space, roughly the size of an airport hall, so he wasn’t being jostled too badly, but it was still somewhat stuffy.
Ian pushed through the crowd, spotted a familiar face, and headed over. Seated in a chair and sipping coffee, Lee Seo-ah noticed his presence and looked up.
“Ah, you’re here.”
“Been waiting long?”
“No, I just woke up a little while ago too. I’m a bit tired.”
Seo-ah shifted over slightly to make room. Ian sat down beside her.
“The stuff you brought? Is that all just a bag?”
“If you’ve got clothes for a few days, that’s enough. And you... wow, you really packed a proper suitcase.”
Ian stared at the black suitcase in front of her with a sour look. Lee Seo-ah snorted.
“You have to prepare thoroughly. I brought everything I need.”
“Anyone would think you were going on a trip.”
“If we’re doing it anyway, it’s better to enjoy it.”
“……That’s true.”
Ian gave a bitter smile and hugged the bag to his chest. The second grimoire in the bag stirred, instinctively recognizing his embrace.
“What’s the plan?”
He asked casually, as if making ordinary conversation. Lee Seo-ah also answered casually while tapping on her phone.
“First, exploration. We’ll move together.”
“Necromancy, are you going to use it?”
“I have to. We’ll go in, unpack first, then gather what we need and meet in front of the rooms. We’re right next door anyway.”
“Right. But let’s not bring too much luggage. Exploration comes before combat.”
“Yeah.”
After answering, Lee Seo-ah gave a faint smile and glanced at Ian.
“You really do look like a veteran now, don’t you?”
Instead of answering, Ian just chuckled and took out his phone.
There was no more conversation between them. They quietly waited until boarding time, listening to the voices of the people around them.
“Passengers boarding the cruise ship, please come this way.”
Before long, the time came. The two of them sprang to their feet and followed the guide.
They showed the ticket provided by the Cartel to the guide and boarded the ship without any trouble.
It was Ian’s first time on a cruise ship, so he’d been tense at first, but it was less of a big deal than he expected, and he quickly relaxed. Seo-ah wasn’t much different.
After boarding the cruise, the two of them checked the map, walked along, and stood in front of their assigned rooms.
“See you later.”
“Yeah.”
After the brief exchange, Ian went into his room.
The cruise suite was as nice as a decent hotel room. A large bed and an open terrace. A round table for meetings filled one entire section of the room, and a wine cabinet and a luxurious bath were set up on one side.
The Cartel clearly hadn’t just grabbed a room at random.
Ian let out an exclamation of admiration, inspected every corner of the room, then put the bag he’d brought on the table and started picking out only what he needed.
He took out only the Hand of Re-Creation and tucked it into the inner pocket of his coat.
[Mmm!]
The Deep Sea Chronicle pouted as if asking why it wasn’t being brought along, but Ian had no choice.
It wasn’t as if he could just unleash a summoned creature in such a confined space.
In a place like this, with walls, ceilings, and all kinds of objects everywhere, the Hand of Re-Creation was obviously far more useful than the Deep Sea Chronicle.
Unless it was a spatial anomaly, which it wasn’t.
Ian stroked the cover of the Deep Sea Chronicle, which was complaining on the table, and smiled wryly.
“Stay here for a bit. I’ll look around and come back.”
[Mmm……. ]
“I’ll be back soon. Don’t be too upset.”
[Mmm……!]
Leaving behind the Deep Sea Chronicle flapping side to side as if shaking its head, Ian left the room.
The Hand of Re-Creation buzzed smugly, as if it were saying it served him right, and the Deep Sea Chronicle sprang up in a huff, but because the door was closed, the two grimoires never came into conflict.
Ian pulled out the key card, effectively the room key, slipped it into his pocket, and wiped his face once.
Just then, the neighboring room’s door clicked open and Seo-ah stepped out.
She grinned while zipping up her hoodie.
“Shall we go?”
“Yeah.”
Ian and Seo-ah walked side by side down the cruise ship’s corridor, setting out to explore.
And so, six hours passed.
…….
…….
The two of them, having found nothing, slumped down in the cruise lounge.