Late at night, nearly dawn, someone knocked on the door of the sleeping cabin, breaking the silence. Though the knocking wasn’t particularly loud, Ban’s eyes snapped open.
Thud… thud…
The sound ringing at regular intervals was as precise as a machine. It was strange that the sound continued even though there was no response from inside. Eventually, as Ban half-raised his body, Orma, who had been sleeping beside him, also opened his eyes.
“……I’m sorry. Did I wake you?”
“Why? Did you have another nightmare?”
“No.”
It must have been quite shocking when he got angry that time. Ban smiled awkwardly and carefully patted Orma’s chest to soothe him. Yet the knocking sound continued to be heard. Could this be auditory hallucination? Am I the only one hearing it?
“Let’s go back to sleep.”
“There’s a sound of someone knocking on the door outside……”
But as soon as he said that, the sound abruptly stopped. The moment Ban, who got goosebumps, stopped talking, Orma furrowed his brow slightly and lightly grabbed Ban’s arm, pulling him into his embrace. Then he spoke in a firm voice.
“Don’t open it.”
“……So it wasn’t just me hearing it.”
“You don’t need to worry about it.”
It was as if he knew who had knocked on the door. Orma soon placed his hand on Ban’s waist, embraced him, and closed his eyes. Ban hesitated at that sight but eventually swallowed a sigh inwardly and closed his eyes again to try to sleep.
If his God said that much, it must not be a big deal. Wasn’t it something a drunk did? They mistook their room, or were drunk and disorderly, or maybe it’s a side effect of drinking Blue Tears. Whatever it is, I can just check tomorrow…….
* * *
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
From the morning, Jaena’s scream rang out loudly. It echoed as resoundingly as the military wake-up bugle he’d heard in his past life, enough to completely chase away sleep. As Ban jumped up in surprise, a small curse was heard from beside him. At that short and thick single phrase containing the inner thoughts of ‘That noisy thing is making a fuss over nothing from the morning and waking me up too,’ Ban smiled awkwardly and got up from the bed.
“What’s wrong, Jaena-ssi?”
“L-look at this!”
As if he’d been about to go outside the cabin, Jaena pointed to the outside of the wide-open door. However, this time Jaena’s scream wasn’t just simple exaggeration. It was because the door, which had certainly had nothing on it until they returned from the ship party yesterday, was covered in blood. As if someone covered in blood had knocked on the door, there were handprint-like marks all over it, making even Ban turn pale.
“This is……”
“It’s, it’s too horrible! Surely there were no marks like this until we entered the cabin yesterday?”
Then it must have certainly happened after that, and in the dead of night for sure…….
“Does Lord Ban have any idea?”
“Didn’t you hear any sound last night, Jaena-ssi?”
“What sound? ……D-don’t be scary like that!”
But Orma had also heard the knocking sound last night. Well, if Jaena was sleeping deeply, he might not have heard it.
However, Orma, who seemed to know about this whole situation, just hugged Ban’s pillow from the spot beside him that Ban had left with a displeased face.
“Mm……”
“C-could a murder have happened?”
“If this much blood got on it, that might be possible. Could you go find out what happened, Jaena-ssi?”
At Ban’s words, Jaena’s eyes rolled around. Seeing that an answer saying he would do so didn’t readily come out, he seemed to be quite frightened. Ban began to soothe him by gently stroking Jaena’s head.
“It probably won’t be a big deal. Just roughly find out if some incident happened, or if someone disappeared…… wouldn’t that be enough?”
“A-alright.”
As if he’d received a tremendous special mission, Jaena put strength in his eyes and firmly closed his mouth, making a resolute expression. Not knowing whether he knew his chin was getting wrinkled like a walnut from tension, he clenched his fists tightly, took a deep breath to make his chest look as puffed up as possible, then strode out. His tail raised high had not even a bit of swaying.
Ban watched that retreating figure, finding it cute inwardly, then glanced at the door.
There were things that looked like handprints, but the strangest thing was the blood stain clumped in a circle below. A mark darkly made at Ban’s knee height, or a bit lower than that…….
Generally speaking, if it’s a position for knocking on a door, shouldn’t one raise their hand and knock at a position above the chest? But rather, there were no particular marks there, which made it even more bizarre.
“Ban.”
“Are you going back to sleep?”
“No.”
For saying he won’t sleep more, he’s still lying in bed rubbing his face on Ban’s pillow. As Ban slowly approached, Orma said in a low voice with a languid face.
“Should we go outside?”
“Outside?”
What brought Orma to suggest going out first? As Ban tilted his head, Orma got up giggling and hugged Ban’s waist. He looked strangely in a good mood, so Ban looked at him curiously.
“I noticed yesterday that you like the sea breeze.”
“It’s cool, and it feels like complicated thoughts get swept away by the waves too.”
“Yeah, so.”
Ban looked at Orma with eyes that said this was strange, but didn’t particularly open his mouth. If there are days like this, there are days like that too. Wouldn’t it be good if he who found everything in the world bothersome got motivated?
When Ban slowly nodded, Orma immediately grabbed his robe, pulled the hood down deeply, and headed outside with Ban.
“In the morning there’s actually no one trying to come outside because of the sunlight.”
All that was visible were sailors moving ropes or carrying various items with their faces scrunched up. Even they were hiding to avoid the sunlight, or running around busily sweating profusely trying not to get hit by the sun as much as possible, so it was already amazing that this ship was heading to Yeru at all. All ship services could have been cancelled long ago.
“That’s why it’s even better. It’s good that there are no people too.”
“Mm…… weren’t you coming outside to do something?”
“There was something I wanted to find.”
Something to find? As if to prove those words weren’t a lie, Orma looked around here and there. Is he looking for a person?
“If you tell me what you’re looking for, I’ll look together.”
“No, I’ll just look around roughly and let it go if it’s not there.”
“Still……”
“Hello?”
Ban thought that he and Orma would be the only passengers who came to get the sea breeze this morning, but someone greeted them with a beaming smile. When he turned his head, there stood a man with fresh green eyes smiling with curved eyes, his light brown hair fluttering in the wind.
‘The son of the Kinsha Trading Company head……?’
Wasn’t he the protagonist of yesterday’s birthday party? However, the man looked clean with no aftereffects at all from drinking Blue Tears last night. That made him even more suspicious. He drank that alcohol but is this fine?
“……He was attached to a strange guy.”
“Pardon?”
Orma had certainly said something. When he turned his head to glance at Orma, he crossed his arms as if he didn’t want to talk with the man, stepped back, and even turned his head away.
“You attended my birthday party yesterday, right? I hope you had a good time. Ah, my name is Lev Kinsha, please feel free to call me Lev……”
“Ban, let’s go back now.”
“Is your name Ban? Since we’ve met like this by fate, if you come to my cabin this evening, I’ll treat you to delicious alcohol.”
“No, I……”
“Ah! The cabin I’m staying in is located to the right, second from the cabin where Ban-ssi is staying. I happened to see the cabin you two are staying in while passing by, so I know where you’re staying.”
That beaming smiling face is burdensome. Moreover, he surely knew that Orma had interrupted uncomfortably, yet he stubbornly said everything he wanted to say. But this is strange. This man called Lev kept talking to Ban, but his gaze was directed toward Orma standing behind. It was like Ban was a front, and he actually wanted to get close to Orma.
Ban rolled his eyes to gauge Orma’s mood, then appropriately declined. Since he was a person who had been off-putting from the first sight, there was absolutely no reason to get close.
“I’m sorry, but I’m part of the religious order so I can’t drink alcohol. I appreciate the goodwill, but……”
“Then what about the person behind you?”
He asks Orma readily as if he’d been waiting. Ban also ended up frowning slightly. If he bothered Orma just a little more, it seemed like there would inevitably be bloodshed.
“This person is……”
“Let’s go, Ban.”
“Leaving already? Anytime is fine, so please come visit my cabin! I want to become friends.”
Orma turned his back and walked away without even answering. Ban also roughly bowed his head and hurriedly followed Orma, but Lev kept calling out from behind in a laughing voice, saying to come visit anytime. Because he has a smiling face, but his personality seems to be no joke.
“Acting friendly when we just met, it’s disgusting……”
“Mm…… please show your broad generosity, Orma-nim.”
They had to stay on this ship without being able to budge until arriving at Yeru, so it would be troublesome if a murder really happened. Especially if they killed Lev, who was said to be the son of this ship’s owner…….
Ban said it meaning he didn’t want to get tired by being involved in unnecessary matters, but Orma, who had been striding ahead, sharply turned his head toward him. The golden eyes visible only to Ban were revealing his displeased mood.
“Do you like that human?”
“No.”
When a quick answer came out, Orma didn’t bother to say more either. He shrugged his shoulders and returned to the cabin, tormenting Jaena who had returned first and was sprawled on the bed instead.
