The Undead Captain Takes No Living - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I almost answered.

I really did. I was that close.

People can be so pathetic sometimes.

You know perfectly well there might be a trap ahead, but when the other side looks at you with the face of family, all that reason in your heart starts to shake.

The Captain’s hand was still on my shoulder.

Through the fabric, I could feel how cold his hand was.

Not the kind of cold that came from seawater.

The kind of cold only dead people had.

Fake Leon took a step forward.

A trail of water marks dragged beneath his feet.

“Lia, why aren’t you coming over?”

I bit the tip of my tongue.

The pain cleared my head a little.

“You’re not my brother.”

He stopped.

The smile on his face slowly faded.

“How do you know?”

That tone was too unfamiliar.

My brother would never ask that.

If I exposed him, he would curse me for having no conscience first, then blame the whole thing on the bad weather.

I took half a step back.

“Because my brother would never complain that he’s cold.”

Fake Leon tilted his head.

I said, “He would only tell me to wear more clothes.”

The Captain turned his head and glanced at me.

Very slightly.

But I saw it.

Fake Leon’s face began to split open.

Not like flesh tearing apart.

More like a sheet of paper soaked until rotten, with a slit ripping open from the center of his brow.

Black water showed through the crack.

Gloria dragged her injured leg and leaned against the wall, her voice tense.

“It’s a Face-Stealing Ghost.”

“It has eaten Leon’s memories.”

My fingers trembled.

“What do you mean, eaten?”

The Captain didn’t let me keep asking.

He held his narrow blade horizontally in front of him.

“Back to the cabin.”

I didn’t move.

“It knows where my brother is.”

“It also knows how to make you die.”

“Then you tell me.”

The Captain fell silent.

I suddenly laughed once.

“See? You won’t tell me either.”

His brows drew together slightly.

“Ilya.”

“Don’t call me that.”

I stared at the Red Cord around his wrist.

“Seven years ago, you told me not to forget. I didn’t. Now it’s your turn.”

Something shifted in his eyes.

Fake Leon suddenly lunged at us.

The Captain shoved me backward, and the edge of his blade cut through the fog.

The Face-Stealing Ghost was struck in the shoulder, but there was no blood.

Its body scattered into a puddle of water, then gathered itself back together a few steps away.

This thing couldn’t be killed.

At least, not by an ordinary blade.

Gloria shouted, “It borrowed the thoughts of the living! You have to sever the thought!”

“How do we sever it?”

She looked at me.

“Stop thinking about Leon.”

I almost laughed from anger.

“You’re telling me not to think about my brother right now?”

“Then hurry up and die.”

She was even more anxious than I was.

The Face-Stealing Ghost changed back into Leon’s appearance.

This time, he looked even more like my brother.

Even the old scar over his left eyebrow was there.

That scar was from when we were little. He had tried to snatch candy for me and got hit with a rock by the boy next door.

He stood in the black water and said softly, “Lia, it hurts.”

My chest felt like it had been twisted hard.

The Captain stepped in front of me.

His back was thin, but he stood very steadily.

“Don’t look.”

I asked, “You knew it would turn into my brother, so that was why you wouldn’t let me board at first?”

“Yes.”

“Then why did you let me on?”

This time, he didn’t answer.

The Face-Stealing Ghost laughed instead.

It looked at the Captain, its voice turning into a wet, hoarse male voice.

“Because he wants to see Leon too.”

The blade in the Captain’s hand paused for an instant.

In that instant, black water sprang up from the floor and wrapped around his wrist like rope.

Without thinking, I threw myself forward and used my little knife to cut at the water.

It was stupid.

How could water be cut?

But when the little knife in my hand touched the black water, a faint red light actually flared from the blade.

The black water screamed and shrank back.

Gloria froze.

The Captain looked at me too.

“Where did you get that knife?”

“From home. We use it to cut salted fish.”

“…”

In a situation this dangerous, he actually seemed speechless for a moment.

I tightened my grip on the knife.

The handle was scorching hot.

Patterns that had originally been covered by oil and grime surfaced on it.

It was a tiny seabird mark.

After Gloria saw it clearly, her expression changed.

“A Soul-Crossing Blade.”

The Captain said in a low voice, “Leon gave it to you?”

I shook my head.

“My father left it behind.”

The Face-Stealing Ghost suddenly stopped smiling.

It stared at my knife, its gaze turning from greed to hatred.

“Someone from House Melowen.”

Its voice became a chaotic mix, like many drowned people speaking together.

“Someone from House Melowen still dares to come aboard.”

My mind went blank.

House Melowen?

I had always thought our family just ran a salted fish shop.

The Captain stepped forward and blocked me from view.

But the Face-Stealing Ghost moved around him and looked at me.

“Your brother didn’t go missing.”

The corners of its split mouth pulled upward.

“He stayed willingly.”

The hand I had around the knife stiffened.

“You’re lying.”

“He begged the Captain to take him in.”

The Face-Stealing Ghost’s laughter grew sharper.

“He said that as long as he didn’t go ashore, Ilya could live.”

The Captain’s expression went completely cold.

“Shut up.”

The Face-Stealing Ghost wasn’t afraid of him.

It retreated along the floor, its body melting bit by bit into the black water.

“You want to find Leon?”

“Ask the dead man beside you.”

At the very end, it changed back into my brother’s face again.

That face looked at me, and there was actually something like real sadness in its eyes.

“Lia, don’t trust him.”

The black water exploded outward.

All the brass bells in the corridor shattered.

By the time the fog scattered, the Face-Stealing Ghost had vanished.

Only a soaked copper tag was left on the floor.

I picked it up.

The front of the copper tag was carved with the mark of the Ghost Ship.

The back was carved with a name.

Leon.

Below the name was another line of small words.

Not a Death Debt.

Not cargo.

Crew.

I raised my head and looked at the Captain.

He didn’t avoid my gaze.

He only looked at me, his eyes like they were pressing down an impossibly deep sea.

My voice was hoarse.

“My brother is on the ship?”

Gloria lowered her head.

The Captain was silent for a long time.

So long that I thought he wouldn’t answer again.

Then he said, “He used to be.”

I clenched the copper tag tightly.

“What about now?”

The Captain looked at the Soul-Crossing Blade in my hand.

“Last night, someone used his name to open the Ghost Port.”

“Ilya.”

“Your brother may already have gone ashore.”