[Cruise Disappearance Investigation]
[This request was handed over to the Cartel by the Administration Bureau, which is currently suffering from a manpower shortage. The objective is to investigate the cause behind the ongoing disappearances of passengers aboard the cruise, determine the whereabouts of the missing persons, and rescue them. Even if only one of the two objectives is completed, the primary reward will be paid. If both are achieved, the secondary reward will also be paid.]
[Primary Reward: 20,000,000 won]
[Secondary Reward: 60,000,000 won]
[Notice: Although this request was transferred from the Administration Bureau, no information regarding the request takers will be passed on to the Bureau. In addition, cruise tickets will be provided the moment the request is accepted, so please do not spend your own money.]
[This request will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis.]
[Current Accepted Personnel]
[0/2]
The notice was far longer than those of other requests. After carefully reading through its contents, Ian let out a low hum and replied to Lee Seo-a’s text.
[Me: You want to do this?]
[Lee Seo-a: Yeah. Isn’t it fine? The reward’s pretty good, and it’s a free cruise trip too.]
[Me: It’s not a bad request, but isn’t that secondary reward basically impossible to get?]
Determining the cause of the incident might be manageable, but finding out the location and condition of the missing people and rescuing them would absolutely not be easy. It would take a considerable amount of time, and even if they poured that time into it, there was no guarantee they would be able to save anyone.
There was a reason the secondary reward was three times higher than the primary. It wasn’t as difficult as exploring the library, but it was still undeniably troublesome.
[Me: Are you sure a Mystery is involved?]
[Lee Seo-a: Yeah. I called up one of the missing people’s souls to check, and they said they died without even knowing what was happening.]
……A soul?
It seemed she had already finished confirming it through necromancy. Ian took off his coat, tossed it aside, and tapped on his keyboard.
[Me: Let’s talk on the phone instead of texting. Call me.]
The moment the read receipt appeared, a call came in. Just in case, he checked the number once more, then pressed accept.
“Hello.”
[Long time no see.]
A young girl’s voice flowed out through the phone speaker. Ian gave a small laugh and leaned back.
“Yeah, it’s been a while. How’ve you been?”
[So-so.]
“What about school?”
[It’s vacation. And I’m graduating this year anyway. I’m not really going to school in February.]
“Don’t you have friends?”
[…….]
No answer came back. Ian immediately changed the subject.
“When you said you called up a soul, that was necromancy, right?”
[……Yeah. Summoning a specific target is on the difficult side, so I used quite a lot of materials, but I succeeded anyway.]
Fortunately, Seo-a seemed to have no desire to talk any further about the matter of friends either, and answered right away.
[He was thirty-five. He boarded the cruise with his family, but after going to sleep and waking up, he was dead without anyone knowing.]
“What are the chances it was just an ordinary murder case?”
[None. There’s no way the cruise’s security would be that lax, and the room this man was staying in is famous for being one of the best rooms on the entire cruise. Naturally, the security there is pretty high too.]
“Hmm……”
[On top of that, the time he fell asleep and the time he died are different. He fell asleep on the first night, but he actually died during the day on the third day.]
“……That is definitely strange.”
If he had fallen asleep on the first day and died on the third, then where had the second day in between gone? And why were there no memories of that time?
It was something that could not be explained by common sense. Even if one brought up narcolepsy or sleepwalking, it was still a bizarre incident that made one tilt their head.
It seemed certain that a Mystery had intervened.
Ian let out a low hum and bounced his leg.
“Is there any other information?”
[No. Even this was hard to obtain. As for the other missing people, whether they’re dead or alive is completely unknown.]
“Hmm……”
[Anyway, are you going to do it? I’m planning to accept it for now.]
At Seo-a’s question, Ian didn’t answer right away and thought it over for a moment.
Honestly, it wasn’t that difficult a request. If it was a simple disappearance case occurring inside a cruise ship, there was a higher chance of it being an urban legend rather than an anomaly, so the difficulty would clearly be far lower than that of a spatial-type Mystery.
Of course, that didn’t mean the request was outright easy, but it would still be far better than the theme park, the library, or the general hospital. Considering that, the reward wasn’t bad either.
‘It’s profit even if I only get the primary reward.’
Twenty million won was by no means pocket change. He had earned over two hundred million from the library request, but that was only because the reward for that request had been abnormally high. It was only natural, since they had thrown him into a spatial-type Mystery where no rules had been discovered whatsoever. Ian would have had a fairly hard time too if he hadn’t had the knowledge-eating paper.
In any case.
There was no need to turn down a request with a not particularly difficult level of difficulty, a base reward of twenty million, and a possible additional reward of sixty million.
He had been planning to start taking proper requests again like before, so using this as his comeback didn’t seem bad either.
Having organized his thoughts, Ian smiled and opened his mouth.
“When and where do you want to meet?”
[……Heeheehee.]
Along with her answer, a sinister laugh flowed out from beyond the speaker.
*
The day after he accepted the request, a cruise ticket arrived in front of Ian’s house.
It was a luxurious ticket with the cruise ship’s name, service information, and cabin number written on it. Ian left the house, picked up the ticket he had known would be arriving in advance, and went down to the parking lot.
Vroooom.
He started the bike and waited for it to warm up.
As he did, he carefully examined the contents of the ticket in his hand.
“…….”
Nothing about it seemed particularly special. It didn’t look like the ticket itself was a trigger for the Mystery, as had been the case with the theme park. Most likely, the structure was such that if some causal action was carried out inside, the Mystery would reveal itself.
If possible, he hoped it would be a simple, brutish anomaly. If it was something that could be killed physically, things would be quick. That was far better than having to solve some specific gimmick or follow rules for no reason.
Well, that didn’t mean he was going to be blindly optimistic.
Since when had Mysteries ever been that friendly to humans?
It was always best to move while assuming the worst. Thinking so, Ian checked his condition while the bike warmed up.
His condition was…… fairly good. Perhaps because he had slept deeply, his mind was clear, and his physical state was not bad either. Thanks to having continued exercising until recently, he had gained a little stamina too, so even if he had to move violently, he didn’t think he would collapse easily.
He had also packed all his equipment without forgetting anything.
The revolver tucked inside his coat, along with spare bullets he had brought because he didn’t know how long he would have to stay on the cruise.
His bag was filled with alchemy supplies, and he had also packed many completed products. Just in case, he had brought some blood as well.
‘It’s much better to prepare it in advance than to cut myself every time I use magic.’
Unless he made a large wound, the amount of blood that flowed out was limited. If he was going to use that to inscribe magic circles, it was better to store it in bottles and use as much as he needed.
‘I have enough Dying Eyeballs, three knives, two lighters, and only one sheet of knowledge-eating paper, but I brought the mirror too, so there’s no problem.’
At this point, he had done everything he could. Ian put on his balaclava, pulled his helmet down firmly, and closed the visor.
His vision turned slightly black.
He put on his gloves, climbed onto the bike, and kicked up the side stand. Hot air slowly rose from the engine.
This was enough warming up. Ian left Seo-a a message saying he was leaving, then immediately twisted the throttle and set off.
The cruise was scheduled to depart from Incheon and visit Southeast Asia and Japan in sequence.
Seo-a had already come up to Incheon yesterday, so there was no need to wait for her.
Vroooom!
The engine roared fiercely, spitting smoke beyond the exhaust pipe.
Perhaps because it was a weekday afternoon, the roads were fairly quiet. Ian wiped the dust off his visor with his hand and turned the handlebars.
Even without precise control, the bike moved on its own, finding the optimal route and adjusting its speed and path. Apart from the Godmother’s magic, it was thanks to the performance of the bike’s own artificial intelligence.
‘Worth the money.’
Ian gave a small laugh and twisted the throttle harder.
The wind blowing against him felt rather nice.
*
Fortunately, there was a parking lot near the port where he could park for free during the cruise period. Ian parked his bike there, grabbed his bag, and headed for the pier.
He had not brought a separate suitcase, so there was no need to register any luggage. After undergoing a simple item inspection, he slowly entered the waiting room.
Neither the revolver nor the alchemy supplies were caught by the metal detector.
There was no way a revolver made by the Cartel would be sloppy enough to get detected. The alchemy supplies went without saying.
The waiting room was packed with people. It was as spacious as a decent airport hall, so he wasn’t being jostled by the crowd, but it still felt a bit stuffy.
Ian pushed through the crowd, then spotted a familiar face and changed direction. Lee Seo-a, who had been sitting in a chair and sipping coffee through a straw, sensed his presence and raised her head.
“Ah, you’re here.”
“Did you wait long?”
“No, I was asleep until just a little while ago too. I’m a little tired.”
Seo-a shifted aside slightly as she spoke. Ian sat down in the seat next to her.
“What about your luggage? Is that bag all you brought?”
“As long as I have clothes to wear for a few days, that’s enough. You, though…… You even packed a whole suitcase properly.”
Ian stared with a doubtful expression at the black suitcase placed in front of her. Lee Seo-a snorted.
“You have to prepare thoroughly. I brought everything I need.”
“If someone saw you, they’d think you were going on a trip.”
“If we’re doing it anyway, we might as well enjoy it.”
“……That’s true.”
Ian smiled bitterly and hugged his bag to his chest. The two grimoires inside the bag, instinctively recognizing his embrace, wriggled.
“What’s the plan?”
He asked casually, as if they were having an ordinary conversation. Seo-a, too, answered normally while tapping on her phone.
“Exploration first. We move together.”
“Necromancy. Are you going to use it?”
“I have to. Once we go in, unpack first, each of us grab what we need, then meet in front of the rooms. They’re next to each other anyway.”
“Got it. But let’s not carry too much. Exploration takes priority over combat.”
“Yeah.”
Seo-a answered, then smiled faintly and glanced at Ian.
“You’re starting to look pretty veteran now.”
Instead of answering, Ian gave a small laugh and took out his phone.
No further conversation passed between them. They simply listened to the sound of people talking as they waited for the time to board the cruise.
“Those boarding the cruise, please come this way.”
Before long, the time came. The two of them sprang up from their seats and followed the guide.
They showed the guide the tickets provided by the Cartel and boarded the ship without any particular trouble.
It was Ian’s first time boarding a cruise as well, so he was inwardly tense, but it turned out to be less special than he had expected, and his tension quickly drained away. Seo-a was no different.
After boarding the cruise, the two of them looked at the map, moved along, and stood in front of the doors assigned to each of them.
“See you in a bit.”
“Yeah.”
After the brief exchange, Ian entered his room.
The cruise’s suite room was as nice as any decent hotel room. A wide bed and an open terrace. A round table for meetings filled an entire room, and a wine display case and a luxurious bath were prepared on one side as well.
It seemed the Cartel hadn’t booked the rooms carelessly.
Ian let out an admiring sound as he checked every corner of the room, then placed the bag he had brought on the table and began taking out only the things he needed.
Of the grimoires, he took out only the Hand of Re-Creation and placed it in the inner pocket of his coat.
[Wooong!]
The Records of the Deep Sea whined as if asking why he wasn’t taking it along, but even for Ian, this was an unavoidable choice.
It wasn’t as if he could release summoned creatures in such a limited space.
In a place like this, with walls and ceilings and all sorts of objects overflowing everywhere, the Hand of Re-Creation was far easier to use than the Records of the Deep Sea.
If it were a spatial-type Mystery, that might be another matter, but this wasn’t one.
Ian smiled bitterly as he stroked the cover of the Records of the Deep Sea, which was sulking on the table.
“Stay here for a little while. I’ll look around and come back.”
[Wooong…….]
“I’ll be back soon. Don’t hate it too much.”
[Wooong……!]
Leaving behind the Records of the Deep Sea, which flapped left and right as if shaking its head, Ian left the room.
The Hand of Re-Creation vibrated as if gloating, and the Records of the Deep Sea sprang upright as if bristling, but because the door had closed, no clash occurred between the two grimoires.
Ian pulled out the keycard that was essentially the room key, put it in his pocket, and rubbed his face once.
As he did, the door to the room beside his clicked open, and Seo-a walked out.
She zipped up her hoodie and grinned.
“Shall we go?”
“Yeah.”
Ian and Seo-a walked side by side down the cruise corridor and set out to investigate.
And then six hours passed.
“…….”
“…….”
Having found nothing at all, the two of them slumped in the cruise lounge.