“Hey. Are you all right? Wake up!”
“Over here, someone collapsed!”
“What should we do? Should we move him to our room?”
“My lady, please do not say such things.”
People gathered in a circle around Luman, who had collapsed on the deck, and stared down at him. Interest, curiosity, and faint concern poured over him.
A sailor came running after hearing the passengers and scattered the crowd.
“We will move him to a cabin. We need to lower a stretcher, so passengers, please step aside.”
A sailor, his skin darkened by the sun, pushed the people back and loaded Luman onto a stretcher. Luman let their hands carry him. With his eyes open in a daze, he was placed on the stretcher and moved to a cabin.
The man’s gaze followed him again. His face looked somehow relieved.
“Is he seasick? That’s damn severe. This is why land people...”
The sailors moved Luman onto the bed in his cabin.
Seeing his pale face and the way he had been vomiting, they seemed to assume it was seasickness. The sailors clicked their tongues and all left, but one of them lingered, then approached Luman.
He gestured for his companions to go ahead and walked to Luman’s bed.
“Seasickness medicine.”
Clicking his tongue, the sailor held out medicine, claiming it was for seasickness. Luman had been about to refuse, but simply accepted it and told him he would take it in a little while, so he could leave.
“Make sure you take it. Frail-looking gentleman.”
The sailor even fetched water for him himself. He seemed intent on watching him take it, but someone kept calling him from above, so he could not. From his pocket came the jingle of coins.
After the sailor in the white uniform left, Luman stared quietly at the medicine, then chewed only the corner of it.
A hallucinogen.
His long-trained sense of taste identified it precisely.
A hallucinogen that put the victim into deep sleep and made them see dreamlike visions. If taken, one would be unable to come to their senses for three or four days. In three or four days, this ship would have more than enough time to leave the kingdom’s waters.
Who had done this?
Was it the man with that relieved face?
Or.
Was it the red-haired man who had attached himself to him?
What did it matter who?
Luman waited for dawn.
Quietly lowering his breathing as if asleep.
He had no need to pretend he had taken the hallucinogen.
Because he dreamed a nightmare.
It was the dream of the day Dell Belkerman attacked the carriage and Ren threw himself off the cliff.
The sharply gleaming blade and Ren forcing his body into its path were carved over and over into Luman’s mind.
When Luman opened his eyes, he checked the sky with bloodshot eyes.
There was no moonlight, only black night.
Hiding his presence, Luman left the cabin and quietly searched for the man who had been watching him.
There were no people on the hull. In the silent dawn, only the repeated slap of waves striking the ship’s side echoed.
Seka came into Luman’s sight as he cut through the night. He, too, was moving quietly. Luman followed behind Seka.
The place Seka headed was the innermost cabin on the first floor, the most expensive room a commoner could buy.
Luman hid in the shadows and watched him.
Seka broke the doorknob.
It was quiet, clean work.
Without noticing the Hero who had hidden his presence, he silently disappeared into the room.
Creeeak.
After Seka hid himself inside, Luman followed him into the room.
Then, the moment he stepped in, he struck the back of Seka’s neck hard and knocked him unconscious.
A heavy sound rang once. Catching Seka’s falling body from behind, Luman killed his presence, lowered him to the floor, and moved his hand. A cluster of light moved with his hand and locked the door firmly.
Click.
The room had no window, and with the lamp out, it was darker than outside.
In the place where not a single point of light entered, a black shadow seemed to flinch.
Luman opened his mouth.
“I know you are awake. It would be best if you came quietly in front of me.”
It was a low warning.
His soft, composed voice rarely carried a blade.
The sound of someone swallowing came from across the room.
A dim interior.
A pitch-black room where nothing could be seen an inch ahead.
Before the man’s eyes could even adjust to the darkness, he lunged at Luman.
But all his effort was useless. The man could not so much as touch Luman with a fingertip.
Because he was overwhelmed by golden eyes shining like a beast’s.
In the black space, only Luman’s two eyes burned like torches.
At that flashing gaze, like the eyes of a feline predator, the man froze with his arm outstretched and ended up wetting his pants.
The faint sound of urine dripping could be heard.
The man trembled and could not even breathe aloud.
The blazing amber eyes facing him held no human emotion.
The man knew eyes like those.
Those were the eyes of someone who did not care what method they used to reach their goal.
The worst sorts of people always had eyes like that.
“P-please...”
They were also the eyes of a murderer.
The man barely managed to open his mouth. Desperation clung to his stammering voice.
Thud.
Luman answered by driving his fist into the man’s face.
“Guh...”
The man crashed to the floor, choking for breath, then curled in on himself and trembled. Only drool spilled from his mouth. Fear kept his voice from coming out properly. As he struggled and tried to move his lips, Luman grabbed him by the collar with one hand and hauled him up, then looked into his face.
Watching the man, who could not even open his eyes, Luman spoke.
“Did I not tell you to come quietly in front of me?”
“P...”
Luman’s reason had evaporated.
“A boy in his mid-to-late teens, blond hair and green eyes. You must have seen him. No. You have to have seen him.”
It was a chilling warning.
If he had not seen him, he would die. And even if he had seen him, the man could not be sure his life would be spared.
“P-please... p...”
The faint voice leaking from him held only the will to survive.
It did not contain the message Luman needed.
It seemed this man had clearly failed to understand Luman’s warning.
“It seems you did not properly understand what I said.”
“Ghk. Cough...”
The man’s eyes widened as though they would burst from his skull.
The fist driven deep into his solar plexus knocked the breath from him, and his consciousness seemed to grow distant.
Luman looked expressionlessly at the man as foam bubbled at his mouth and his eyes rolled back.
He shook his head.
“That will not do. Not already.”
Light flowed from Luman’s hand.
The glow faintly pushed back the darkness and silently swallowed the man’s face like a net.
“...!”
The man’s eyes rolled back into focus. He shuddered and glared at Luman.
His eyes were full of terror.
The soundless pain did not even allow the man to faint.
Luman looked down at him without emotion and explained in a calm, coaxing voice.
“Now you understand, don’t you? You cannot even faint as you please.”
“......”
“Please remember that this is the last of my patience. It is not as if you are the only person I can ask. People are everywhere.”
“......”
The beautiful man, wearing a fishy smile, opened his mouth again.
“Have you seen a boy with bright blond hair and green eyes?”
“Y-yes...”
The trembling man could not answer properly and only nodded.
His feet, dangling in midair, kicked uselessly. Clutching at his chest to breathe, the man forced out a servile smile.
“Wouldn’t it have been better if you had done that from the start?”
Luman lowered the man to the floor. With no strength left in his legs, the man collapsed with a splat and looked up at Luman. The corners of his mouth were raised awkwardly, his eyes were wet, and his sweat-soaked forehead gleamed.
Kindly, Luman bent one knee in front of the man and matched his eye level, then patted his shoulder.
“It will be in your best interest to tell me everything, without leaving a single thing out.”
“I-I’ll talk, I’ll talk... so, so please, spare, spare me...”
He had mistaken the man. Because the blond hair and his features looked strangely similar, he had assumed Luman was the older brother of that insignificant boy and had ordered the hallucinogen. That must have provoked this man. This man was not someone like that.
“Guuuuugh...”
Luman put strength into the hand gripping his shoulder.
The sensation of bone crumbling was vivid. Foam and blood spilled from the man’s mouth as his eyes bulged with shock. Unable to endure the pain, he had bitten into his own flesh.
The man realized.
This was not a matter of life and death.
What depended on his answer was not whether he lived or died.
It was what kind of death he would meet.
This man was prepared to drive him into pain worse than hell if he did not give the answer he wanted.
What kind of human being was he?
The man’s lips opened. Trembling, he poured out everything he ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) knew, everything he had done.
It felt as though he stood before a devil.
He could not run. Yellow light wrapped the room densely like a spiderweb. No matter what sound he screamed, no one outside would hear.
As the man confessed all his sins, he called for God.
And then he realized the identity of the man before him.
Several years ago, when the war had swept through the kingdom in a storm of blood, this had been the light that illuminated the battlefield.
He begged that light for mercy, but what returned was merciless judgment.
By the time the floor was slick with blood, someone grabbed Luman by the foot.
