HTWBB Chapter 27

Like the promise made earlier in the cave, he intended to reveal nothing until the job was finished. Rietta found herself liking this companion's now somewhat familiar approach.

His silence resembled hers. A distance born from experience rather than premature fear. He had never seen anything good come from revealing things first.

She felt something like kinship for the first time in a long while. After a brief pause, Abel spoke again.

"Did you leave that impertinent nymph behind?"

"It's too late to be asking that now."

"Small children like that don't catch the eye easily. So what's your answer?"

"I left him behind. He can't withstand the sea."

"Ah, so you still have him with you."

"What do you mean?"

Having resumed walking and reached the last step, he replied indifferently.

"I tend to discard bothersome things quickly."

"He's not bothersome."

"Is that so?"

I suppose so, he muttered before closing his mouth. Rietta also focused on her surroundings. The further down they went, the hazier the view became—not from simple spray, but from smoke.

No, not smoke but fog. Rietta stared intently at where the corridor should be. The moment she followed Abel down to the lower floor, the temperature changed.

She thought it was her imagination, but the seawater was warming at a rapid pace. Rietta glanced at Abel, who hadn't moved a single step since entering this place.

"Not the atmosphere for small talk."

"Right. First time seeing fog underwater."

"I've never encountered a sea where the temperature differs from place to place either."

So she wasn't the only one feeling it. Rietta surveyed what she could still make out in her surroundings. The fog hung thick, as if trapped, starting from about two steps away from the stairs.

At least she could make out a cylindrical box that appeared to be a barrel right in front of them, and the wooden wall the barrel leaned against. Based on typical ship structure, the cabins would start from there.

She guessed there would be cabins on both sides with a long corridor running down the middle.

"This is another first."

With a deeply intrigued expression, Abel thrust his arm into the fog without hesitation. It was a natural movement, as if water resistance didn't exist at all.

After moving his arm around in the hazy vapor, he withdrew his hand and looked down at it with his usual emotionless expression. He seemed dissatisfied.

"I don't feel anything."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing except a light sensation."

Rietta tried the same action, suspicious of his words too. Then she immediately pulled her arm back.

"What's wrong?"

She rubbed her perfectly unblemished skin. Abel's words were completely wrong.

It was incomparably heavier than what she'd felt when opening the door on deck. The moment she touched it, a very faint tingling sensation pricked her entire skin.

At first she thought it was simply magic, but it wasn't. This energy causing minute pain was unmistakably demonic energy.

If he were normal, he should have felt sensations similar to hers. The energy of this land and demonic energy were qualitatively different, so saying it felt light or that he felt nothing at all was close to impossible.

Instead of answering the calm Abel, Rietta headed into the fog first. This suspicious man's identity wasn't an urgent problem. This level of pain was merely irritating, so exploration took priority.

"Follow me."

"No."

Abel gently grasped her shoulder and stopped her. His slightly furrowed brow showed an expression of displeasure.

He stared intently at her, who had been led as he guided, then spoke as if sighing.

"Is it more comfortable to walk or swim?"

"Doesn't matter."

"You don't know what might be inside. Tell me which is easier to move in."

"Walking."

"Come here."

Releasing her shoulder, he now pulled Rietta's hand toward him. Standing face to face, Abel pulled her other hand as well, positioning them the same way, then closed his eyes.

Abel muttered to himself about not knowing why he was doing this, then mumbled a few words of an unknown language under his breath. The brief words were soon completed.

Rietta thought her body felt somewhat heavier the next moment. And suddenly struck by the weight, she reflexively stepped forward, forgetting they were underwater, trying to steady her swaying body. Oops, she thought, but she didn't fall.

"Careful."

Abel naturally supported Rietta's arm to keep her from losing balance. Looking down, she was standing close enough to touch him. Without fully placing her feet on the floor.

"What are you doing?"

"If you're thanking me, don't bother."

"Didn't you hear me?"

This time he let out a genuinely light sigh.

"That nymph kid's going to have a hard time."

Meeting her cold blue gaze, Abel seemed to sense her thoughts and released the hand he was holding.

"Fine. I wasn't trying to keep you from going in."

"Then why did you do this?"

"So I could go first."

"Not necessary."

"You really don't know how to take care of yourself, Rietta."

Having stated that calmly in a single sentence, Abel entered the fog before Rietta could say anything. Staring at his retreating figure in bewilderment, she soon barely managed to remember the wound she had been forgetting. The wound she had somehow managed to keep from bursting open with magic.

Then Abel's reaction made perfect sense. Since they didn't know what might happen, it would be extremely troublesome if she, taking the lead, got injured.

'He's telling me not to be a burden.'

An injured companion. If the situation were reversed, Rietta would have refused even a brief partnership. That's why Abel's reason for following her made no sense at all.

The grounds for deliberately reaching into such troublesome business were extremely weak. While it was ultimately good for Rietta, if the situation became one that was difficult to escape from, she couldn't expect his active help.

She was used to being alone. Rietta took a bold step forward, following him as he became hazy wrapped in the thick fog.

With the fog so dense, as expected, she had to give up on securing visibility. She could barely make out the hem of the person two steps ahead, and whether from the mixed demonic energy or not, despite the lack of air, her throat felt acrid enough to scrape. Rietta slowly moved forward, matching Abel's pace.

"There are rooms on both sides. Will you open the left one?"

"Sure."

"Ah, wait a moment."

A low murmur flowed from Abel once more. The lights that had been floating around him lined up in a row as if threaded on string. Linking like a chain, they gradually drew closer before circling around near Rietta's right wrist. Then they stuck to her skin with a snap, like a bracelet.

She raised her arm to eye level and shook it once as if shaking it off. The light that rippled cheerfully was severed at the place bound in the same manner. It was Abel's arm. Even between the fog, she could clearly see where it extended to.

"We can't have us stabbing each other."

"That's a good method."

Rietta groped to the side with her left hand. As he said, the texture of waterlogged wood transmitted through her palm. Imagining a typical door shape and moving her hand to about the middle, she felt a bumpy handle.

"Get ready."

She spoke quietly, then a moment later pushed open the door while simultaneously drawing her dagger and aiming it forward. She thought she might need to break it down since it had been submerged in water. But with only a slight creak, the door easily opened to reveal the interior.

The cabin was silent, making her sharply honed senses feel pointless. Rietta quickly shifted her gaze. Fortunately, perhaps because the door had remained closed, the place with only very faint fog drifting about was like a single masterpiece painting.

Bedding disheveled as if someone had just gotten up, a table beneath a small window, and an old lamp on top of it. Like an abandoned room with ancient dust heavily settled, the cabin existed in suspended time, gently floating. It was completely different from the deck that resembled a battlefield.

"So it's not an ordinary shipwreck after all."

Rietta nodded. A ship that had been violently tossed while sinking couldn't possibly look this intact. Since it didn't seem to be a hallucination, someone's hand must have touched it.

Making that assumption, she began examining the narrow cabin before the thick fog rolled in. With so few objects, the search was brief. It was the expected result.

Compared to the corridor, the demonic energy didn't feel particularly thicker, nor was any particular flow of magic detected. Only faint traces of magic remained on the lamp.

"Abel."

Rietta pointed at the lamp with its wick not fully burned. The light-made chain swayed lightly. He approached with long strides and carelessly picked up the lamp. Then he tapped it upward and spun it with his finger.

The floating lamp slowly rotated like a music box figurine. Watching with indifferent eyes, Abel caught the floating lamp and checked its base. A complex magic circle was engraved very thinly in intaglio.

"It's preservation magic."

"Preservation?"

"Yes. I think there's probably something similar in each cabin."

"What happens if we break it?"

"There are traces of time reversal throughout the ship. Since the lamp is the medium, if we break it, well, at least it won't look like this."

Meaning unlike now, which maintained its appearance from hundreds of years ago, it would change to scenery befitting the name shipwreck.

Rietta was finally certain. This grounded merchant vessel wasn't abandoned but hidden. By someone formidable enough to use magic like time reversal.

Then there was sufficient possibility that the 'Mermaid's Heart' was truly hidden somewhere here.

"...Understood."

She breathed in deeply, then exhaled. As long as nothing was confirmed, it was best not to get excited prematurely.

She'd experienced this kind of disappointment enough. Having set the lamp back in its place, they emerged back into the corridor. And as promised, they threw open the right cabin door.