"Are you sure this is the lifeboat deck and not some kind of football field at sea?" Sno looked at the vast, empty platform before him, spacious enough to host a sports meet, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
Hearing Sno's words, Light helplessly spread his hands.
"I inspected it on my first day aboard. Back then, this place was filled with lifeboats. There must have been at least thirty."
"Mm, I checked when I boarded too. The lifeboats were all still here then." Sera nodded, confirming that Light was right, then frowned. "But if the lifeboats had been lowered, there's no way no one would have noticed!"
"Only the promenade deck and the third deck can see the lifeboats being lowered. If they were lowered in the dead of night, they might not have been noticed." Light froze slightly as he spoke, then said at once, "Do you think that thing crawling over the doors of the first-class cabins one by one at night was trying to frighten the first-class passengers and draw our attention, so the lifeboats could be lowered?"
"It's possible... but knowing that doesn't mean much. We don't even know whether those lifeboats were destroyed or set adrift." Sera shook her head, her tone somewhat stiff. "If the crew ran away, that at least means escape is possible. At worst, we can tear up some planks and build a raft. As long as we get out of the mysterious interference, we can call for rescue through all kinds of communication methods. What I'm afraid of is that those lifeboats were destroyed to keep the people on the ship from escaping. If that's the case, then the crew's disappearance isn't so simple."
"No matter what, we can't stay here any longer. Light, did you check the