"So we just cross that bridge made of tendons."
As Gregor took the lead with confidence, Queequeg suddenly stepped in front of us.
What now... huh?
"Uh. What. Is this?"
"The floor here. Made of thin blood vessels."
"This way. Original route."
"Looks like a path, but it's not. One person goes, and when it's another, it collapses."
<...What?>
So that was it. I hadn't checked carefully enough. Failing to notice something I normally would have caught meant... my condition really was awful.
...Tch. Not good. I should have considered why Ahab had deliberately attached one sailor to us, but I hadn't.
She was probably planning to use that blood-vessel bridge to crush us all in one go.
Still, Queequeg had stopped us. What was she plotting... no, was it just simple goodwill? Judging from her behavior so far, it was hard to think she had some bizarre ulterior motive. If she intended to follow Ahab's orders, she would have killed us already. She could have just shoved Dante aside.
"I think I get the gist. Originally, you'd cross alone, and the rest of us following behind would all step on that blood vessel and fall to our deaths. Right?"
"Right. Sacrifice, necessary. A place where someone had to fall for us to go forward."
I casually waved one hand to stop a few of the Sinners from flaring up.
That she hadn't done it meant we had more than enough reason to hear Queequeg out.
"But since you didn't, that means... you changed your mind, right?"
"Yes."
"Why... did you change your mind?"
"I wanted to know. Me too."
"Know what...?"
"The direction I want to go."
The direction you want to go. Not bad. A good goal. It would be great if you could find it.
...If it could be found.
In an instant, hot air entered the damp space.
Only then did everyone realize something and turn their heads. The Abnormality. The thing everyone had momentarily forgotten.
"Form up!"
The battle with the second Abnormality began rather abruptly.
It's dark. Unnaturally so.
The second Abnormality. As Faust had named it, the Skin Prophet.
We had been holding it at bay for quite some time.
Perhaps it was one of its abilities, but the surroundings were so dark that both sides were reduced to cautious exchanges.
One unusual thing, though, was that even in that darkness, it kept endlessly writing something with a quill from which a faint flame rose.
In this bizarre environment, only timid attacks were exchanged.
Weak flames and dripping wax attacked our side, while the Sinners tried to stack damage onto it however they could in the dark.
Fighting in a place like this must be maddening.
Well, I could see everything from the start, so it didn't matter to me. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I blocked half of its attacks.
Probably the extinguished candles around that Abnormality were the key to the gimmick... but since I didn't know exactly what would happen if we lit them, I held back for now.
Heathcliff looked like he was itching to do something, though.
How many minutes had we maintained that standoff? It suddenly lit every candle at once.
Fwoosh!
The area brightened all at once. And now we could see each other clearly.
So it lights them itself after some time... I should remember that. If we attack the candles, maybe we can light them ourselves too.
Once the fire was lit, it looked straight at us and began attacking. But since we were also clearly facing it, the fight wasn't difficult after that.
scritchscritchscritchscritchscritch, whoosh!!
It was a strange enemy that could only attack after diligently writing something in a book.
Once you learned the timing, you could handle it immediately.
After that, we exchanged blows for a while and then it ended. Nothing particularly special.
What mattered was the wave of memory that swallowed me again right after.
This is tiring. I'm tired of this...
This situation looked rather serious.
There were quite a few injured people on the ship, and the deck itself was a mess, slick with a mixture of the mermaids' various fluids.
The Pequod's boy, Pip, seemed to have gone completely into panic.
"I got bitten by the whale trying to save Pip. Trying to save Pip, the whale..."
"Damn it, why did the oarsman suddenly get drenched in that whale oil... This was already nonsense from the moment they used that kid as a stand-in."
From Starbuck's words, it seemed the oarsman had been drenched in whale oil, and when Pip stepped in as a substitute, disaster struck.
The one who got bitten by the whale was...
"Captain, tell Pip. Is Stub dead now?"
"..."
So it was Stub. No wonder I hadn't seen him in Pequod Town.
Ahab fell into thought for a moment. If this man was the one I thought he was, there was no way he'd do something like memorialize the dead here.
"I told you. On my ship! Without my permission! No one is allowed to close their eyes. I have not yet given you permission to die."
"Th-then... what am I supposed to..."
"The Pequod has nearly reached the whale of pale hatred! All that's needed now is the right compass. The mermaid before our eyes will make a splendid compass."
"Wh-what do you mean... Captain... I'm not a mermaid..."
"...!"
Starbuck seemed shocked, as if he had realized what Ahab was aiming for.
Wow... I expected it, but he really is a madman. Yes. The chance of that man betraying them is zero. The chance of him keeping any promise to save the Pequod's crew is also zero.
We'll definitely have to turn hostile after this. Annoying. Queequeg and Starbuck are not easy opponents.
"You know that being eaten by that whale means becoming a white mermaid. Lock the mermaid in the large tank in the basement. Instinct will drive it to swim only toward the whale of hatred and loathing."
"..."
"Captain... Captain... please..."
Stub clung desperately to Ahab. It didn't seem to work at all.
"Starbuck. Lower a rowboat."
"...Suddenly?"
Right. Suddenly?
My thoughts matched those of Ishmael from the past.
Whether she cared or not, Starbuck faithfully carried out the order.
- Splash!
By the time Starbuck lowered the boat carrying Stub, all the Pequod sailors who had sensed the commotion had come onto the deck and were staring at Ahab.
When everyone's attention was fixed on the captain, there...
Ahab shouted loudly.
"Ohhh! I hear it from somewhere! Stub, Stub's voice!"
"...?"
"What are you talking about..."
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Wow, hahahahaha!! What an incredible madwoman.
She's going to use someone's death like that as morale fuel? For sure. That woman is something else. The kind of person born to do exactly this.
The people on deck until a moment ago would know the truth, but would the sailors who just came up know it too?
No. Absolutely not!
"Everyone! Listen carefully!! The voice of the great sailor Stub, who gladly threw his life away to kill that whale, is drifting somewhere across that lake!!"
"...I... great..."
Stub's voice from beneath the rowboat began to ring out on the wind and waves.
The sound spread in all directions, soon making it impossible to tell where it had come from.
"We could not bring him back to life for this urgent voyage!! But he is not dead! Though, after a desperate struggle for his life, he could not return to the ship and now drifts here, he will soon board the rowboat I lowered and go to safety!! He cries out! He screams for our success!! That voice tells us to look and move forward!!"
"What the hell is this insane speech..."
Anyone who watched the whole situation from the deck would think that.
And if you actually picked apart each word, you could feel how contradictory and absurd it was.
But when has the human heart ever moved according to reason alone?
"...We move forward."
"...Queequeg?"
"I will successfully finish this voyage and find the nearest port first!! There, Stub will be waiting for us with a happy face. I will give him a fitting reward. And we will spend a long night talking about our stubborn voyage!!"
"I will... happily..."
"You will be there too! All of you will be there!! In Stub's name, we will buy drinks for everyone in the tavern that night!! When this voyage ends! Everything! Will be! Guaranteed!!"
Appeal breeds persuasion, and sweet words with persuasive power paralyze doubt.
When doubt is paralyzed, reason begins to go numb as well...
And numb reason soon gives birth to madness.
"...If only this voyage ends."
"If this voyage. Ends."
"If the voyage... ends... then the whale of hatred... at last... right in front of us... we can kill it, Captain...?"
"Let us answer his cry! Kill the pale whale of... hatred!! Everyone, join in! Join in the work of erasing that hateful evil that the world and the City have held, the evil driving you all to the brink!! Every hardship, every absurdity, every parting was carried out by the evil that whale gave form to... so we will kill it and watch everything return to its proper place!!"
"...Yes!"
Once there are people who answer, madness catches a current. A wave of irrationality swells like a snowball, and what people made devours the people themselves.
"Shout! Cry out!!!"
"Yes, Captain...!"
"Heehee! Goodbye, Stub!! See you again! Again, again!!"
"...Yes!!!"
And once madness begins to feel natural, even someone who seemed rational is no exception.
Humans cannot resist the tide.
"That's right. If we just kill the pale whale, everything ends. If we kill that whale of all evil..."
Everyone is swallowed by madness. The rational, the ones who know the truth, none are exempt!
The moment that happens, a place worse than hell begins to unfold in reality.
Madwoman. In the closed space of a ship, she used the position of captain to produce the maximum result.
I admit it. I can't not admit it. That woman can only be called top-tier when it comes to inciting people on a ship.
And I could already tell we'd be reunited with Ahab soon enough.
Because an artery had appeared before us.
Ishmael's eyes flashed...
And the story began to race toward its climax.
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