Before the Long Voyage

The sailor had become a special new resident of the Witch's Mansion—but his arrival seemed to have had no effect whatsoever on the mansion's daily operations.

Most of the time, the mummified corpse could obediently stay in one place like a real corpse. He did not need to eat or sleep, and if no one spoke to him, he could go two or three days without saying a word. He always remained in his quiet corner as if contemplating something, staring blankly at a spot for an entire day without moving an inch.

This made the others in the house almost forget that there was an additional "guest" here.

Only when Lunie cleaned the house did she exchange a few words with the mummified corpse, and those exchanges mostly consisted of just a few lines—

"Ah, move over a little." "Okay." "All right, move back." "Oh."

The days passed one by one. On the third day, the mistress of the house finally could not bear it any longer—Lucretia found the "sailor" lying amid a pile of clutter in the basement storage room, pretending to be a corpse. "From what Father told me, you weren't like this on the White Oak. You made quite a bit of noise every day, jumping all over the place. Why are you so quiet here?"

"Isn't being quieter better?" The sailor sat up from the pile of clutter and stared into the witch's eyes in the darkness. "As far as I know, you are someone who enjoys peace and quiet."

Lucretia froze for a moment. "It's not... bad. No, what I mean is..."

But she was interrupted halfway through.

"I'm conserving my strength for the long voyage," the sailor suddenly said. At some point, the mummified corpse's gaze had turned serious. "We're about to embark