"Thank you."
The young woman spoke softly. Shade shook his head.
"It's getting late, so I'll be leaving first. Ms. Brooke, I'll have to trouble you to look after these two. And of course, if anyone else comes here, please keep them here as well. Next time, I'll take all of you away with me."
The Thirteenth Order Witch agreed as she warmed herself by the fire. The three of them then watched Shade stuff the cat into his breast pocket before stepping curiously onto the rippling water at the end of the beach.
Shade had not expected Water Surface Walking to work here. Out of curiosity, and because he did not have much time, he crossed the pier and small boats on foot, walking deeper into the waters.
Facing that boundless black expanse of water, the loneliness and fear were even more pronounced than when he had ridden the boat inward earlier. Shade was actually quite curious about what lay beneath these waters, but even though he was about to leave, he had no intention of causing trouble for himself by investigating.
So he simply kept moving forward. After taking more than fifty steps, he turned back toward the bonfire by the pier and smiled, waving at the three people watching him.
"See you next time."
When he turned back again, his eyes widened in astonishment. The black water shrouded in thin white fog was already covered with densely packed corpses.
The corpses floated one after another on the water's surface, with not even a gap between them. Looking to either side and ahead, floating bodies filled everything within sight.
A waterlogged, rotting hand reached out from beneath the water and grabbed Shade's right foot. Then, something enormous beneath the surface seemed to awaken, and two eerie red points