The Undead Captain Takes No Living - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

After the white light faded, half the opera house had collapsed.

I sat among the ruins, still clutching that Salt Crystal.

Leon rushed over, feeling my head first, then my arms.

“Are you okay? Does it hurt? Are you missing anything?”

I slapped his hand away.

“You’re the one who’s missing something.”

He breathed a sigh of relief.

“Still talking back. Good, you’re not stupid.”

I punched him in the shoulder.

His face went white with pain.

Startled, I quickly grabbed him to steady him.

“Sorry.”

Leon gritted his teeth.

“Why do you hit so hard?”

“You used to say that if you’re going to hit someone, you have to make it count.”

“I taught you to hit other people, not your own brother.”

I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time.

Cedric stood a few steps away.

He did not come over.

I saw the wound on the back of his hand split open, black blood dripping to the ground and slowly seeping into the wooden planks of Ghost Port.

I walked toward him.

He took half a step back.

I stopped.

“Why are you hiding?”

“I’m dirty.”

I glanced around us.

Ghost Port, ruins, black water, scraps of paper effigies.

“Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about what dirty means?”

Leon coughed behind me.

“Lia.”

I turned back.

He was sitting beside Gloria, his face looking awful, yet he was still trying to put on the airs of an older brother.

“Don’t stand so close when you talk to the Undead Captain.”

Cedric lowered his eyes.

I asked, “Why?”

Leon choked.

Victor said coolly from the side, “Because your brother had a big mouth back then and said that if Captain Lu ever dared to like you, he’d sink the Ghost Ship himself.”

Leon: “…”

Gloria immediately perked up to watch the drama.

“Really?”

Leon glared at Victor.

“No one will think you’re dead if you keep your mouth shut.”

Victor adjusted his cuffs.

“I brought my death certificate anyway.”

I looked at Cedric.

His eyes were still lowered.

Only the base of his ears looked even stiffer than before.

I suddenly realized that the line from the opera house, “You’re not my brother-in-law,” might really have been something Leon said.

Cedric simply refused to admit it.

The ridiculousness of it pushed aside a little of the heaviness in my chest.

But soon, a bell rang from the depths of Ghost Port.

Dong.

Water began to seep up through the planks of the harbor.

The Red-clad Woman was not dead.

Her voice came from every direction.

“The Melowen Salt has opened.”

“The Soul-Ferrying Blood has awakened.”

“The Port Gate must change hands.”

Leon’s expression changed.

Cedric looked toward the Harbor Heart.

Over there stood a black lighthouse.

There was no light at the top of the lighthouse, only a door.

The door hung in midair, half open.

Behind the door was the pier of the living world.

I could even see the fish-selling auntie kneeling on the shore, burning paper offerings.

Many people stood behind her.

If Ghost Port went out through that door, the whole of South Seven Pier would become like this place.

Leon braced himself and stood.

“To the Harbor Heart.”

I held him up.

“Can you still walk?”

“Even if I can’t, I have to.”

He pushed my hand toward Cedric.

The gesture was completely natural.

After doing it, he froze for a moment himself.

I looked at him.

Leon started coughing even harder.

“What are you looking at? He walks steadily.”

Cedric caught my wrist.

Very lightly.

As if he was afraid I would shake him off.

I did not shake him off.

Victor led the way.

He said there was an old Navy accounting office at the Harbor Heart.

Three years ago, his father Auguste had been responsible for sealing off Ghost Port.

After that, the Sea Patrol Navy was wiped out, Leon became a traitor, Cedric became the Undead Captain, and Auguste was promoted to Coastal Defense Lord.

After hearing that, I asked Victor, “Do you trust your father?”

Victor was silent for a moment.

“I used to.”

“What about now?”

He looked ahead.

“I came to Ghost Port because I don’t anymore.”

Leon sneered.

“Took you long enough to stop trusting him.”

Victor did not argue.

“Yes.”

That one word left Leon with nothing to say either.

The road to the Harbor Heart was lined with stalls.

Some sold lifespans, some sold names, and some sold old dreams.

One stall owner held a bowl of hot soup and chased after Leon.

“Customer, buy a bowl of Forget-Your-Sister Soup. Drink it, and it won’t hurt anymore.”

Leon snapped, “Get lost. My sister isn’t ugly. Why would I forget her?”

He made me laugh despite my irritation.

Cedric suddenly pulled me closer to his side.

A hand reaching out from under a stall brushed past the hem of my dress.

There were many eyes growing on its fingers.

My scalp went numb.

“Thank you.”

He gave a quiet mm.

After a while, he said softly, “He doesn’t really dislike you.”

I froze.

Only then did I realize he was talking about Leon.

I could not help laughing.

“I know.”

“He cares about you very much.”

“I know that too.”

Cedric was quiet for a moment.

“That’s good.”

He sounded as if he had relaxed.

I looked at him.

“Are you not very good at comforting people?”

“Mm.”

“Then why are you still trying?”

He looked at me, his gaze very serious.

“You were sad just now.”

My heart suddenly softened.

People like him were troublesome.

Quiet, cold-faced, like a stone at the bottom of the sea.

But the moment he said something seriously, it became impossible to pretend you had not heard it.

I looked away.

“I’m not sad now.”

“Mm.”

“Don’t just say mm.”

“Okay.”

He really stopped saying it.

That made me want to laugh even more.

Leon turned back from up ahead.

“What are you two talking about?”

I said, “Talking bad about you.”

He immediately relaxed.

“Then that’s fine.”

Gloria muttered under her breath, “Your family is really hard to understand.”

We reached the Harbor Heart.

Under the black lighthouse stood a man.

He wore the gold-trimmed cloak of the Coastal Defense Lord.

His features looked seventy percent like Victor’s.

Victor stopped in his tracks.

“Father.”

Auguste turned around.

He held a lamp in his hand.

Blue fire burned inside it.

The firelight illuminated South Seven Pier beyond the Lighthouse Gate.

He looked at me and smiled gently.

“Ilya.”

“Your father hid you very well.”