Tris turned around and looked toward the deck.
Because of the Sea Monster's appearance, the two sides that had been exchanging fire temporarily stopped fighting.
Everyone hid in separate corners, fearfully watching the tentacles slither across the ship and occasionally tear off a plank.
Crying, wailing, and cursing continuously reached his ears.
As an Instigator who had long since abandoned his conscience, he did not find those sounds pitiful in the slightest.
He only found them noisy.
As the shouting rose, Tris noticed that the tentacles became even more violent.
"Damned idiots!" Tris cursed inwardly and rushed into the crowd.
He passed straight through the tentacles and arrived at the center of the deck.
"Everyone! Listen to me!" Though the ship rocked violently, Tris stood as steadily as if he were on solid ground.
"Don't be afraid," Tris's voice spread throughout the ship. "This is a very special Sea Monster. As long as we act as though it doesn't exist, it can't hurt us."
Tris mobilized the Beyonder Ability of an Instigator, infusing Spirituality into his voice so that everyone could hear it clearly.
"Calm down. Everyone, calm down." There was an extraordinary effect in his voice that made people unable to resist believing him.
Quite a few people turned their eyes toward him.
Most of them did not believe him, but under the influence of his ability, they began to waver slightly.
After all, he was a Sequence 8 Instigator.
Tris took the initiative to step onto a tentacle, allowing one of his legs to pass through it.
"See? As long as we don't believe it exists, it can't even touch us."
With proof right before their eyes, coupled with Tris's Instigator ability, more and more people began to waver.
As more people gradually wavered, the Sea Monster truly became somewhat more transparent.
That made even more people believe what Tris had said.
Very good. It was a positive cycle.
A bunch of idiots!
The corners of Tris's mouth could not help but curl upward.
With only a few words, he could manipulate their emotions.
Tris loved this feeling too much.
Although the current situation was extremely dangerous, he had encountered quite a few similar incidents before.
A true Assassin naturally had to remain calm at all times.
"Calm down, everyone. Follow me and imagine that this Sea Monster doesn't exist..." Tris coaxed them patiently.
However, imagination was beautiful, while reality was cruel.
Human emotions could not be soothed with just a few words.
Especially negative emotions like fear.
A horror movie alone could frighten plenty of people, let alone a gigantic Sea Monster right before their eyes.
Smack!
The Sea Monster raised a tentacle and slammed it forcefully onto the sea.
A massive spray of water erupted, violently churning the surface as the ship was thrown up and dropped back down.
"Ah!" Screams rose one after another.
"Hee." Laughter was mixed in as well.
The atmosphere Tris had struggled to calm was ruined in an instant.
"Calm down... everyone..." Tris still wanted to struggle, but he was interrupted as soon as he spoke.
"Save meeeee!" One of the rioters was precisely caught by a tentacle and dragged into the air.
As if showing off, the tentacle swung the rioter around above the ship, drawing everyone's attention, before throwing him into the water.
Splash.
This proved one thing.
It could touch anyone.
The lie collapsed on its own.
"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you." Morien's voice sounded in Tris's mind once more.
"An Absurd Creation that cannot be seen or believed in will naturally die alone."
"Clearly, it doesn't want to die."
Tris clenched his teeth tightly.
Damn it, so this Sea Monster had intelligence and would actively try to "survive."
No wonder, just after he had spoken, a tentacle had slapped the water and made the ship rock.
"Hahaha." Morien's mocking laughter echoed in Tris's mind. "You stirred up these emotions, so you have to calm them down yourself."
"It's no good if you only know how to start a fire but not put it out. You'd better remember that in the future."
Tris gritted his teeth so hard that blood seeped from his gums.
When people lost their composure and reason to panic, they could not listen to anything.
Much less such ridiculous nonsense as saying that the Sea Monster killing people right in front of them did not actually exist.
He would not believe it either if he were in their place.
Tris thought anxiously.
He did not care in the slightest whether the people on this ship lived or died, but he did not want to die here.
"Idiots! Idiots! Idiots!" he roared helplessly.
But he quickly calmed down again, attempting to stir the emotions of the panicked crowd and "instigate" them.
"Heh."
Watching Tris's comical struggle below, Morien sat atop the cabin roof and let out a delighted laugh.
Not far from the Clover, a somewhat old three-masted sailing ship rapidly approached.
This ship looked far behind the times, not one of the more advanced steamships.
At the bow stood a blue-haired man, looking at the Clover not far away.
He wore a long robe embroidered with lightning patterns. His body rose and fell with the waves, yet he maintained his balance with ease.
About twenty minutes earlier, the man had just dealt with the ship's captain and come onto the deck for some air and to calm down.
However, what truly required him to calm down was not the fact that he had killed the captain.
It was something that had happened even earlier, before he made his move against the captain.
Alger stood at the bow and lightly rested a hand on the railing.
"Fool..."
He silently repeated the word.
About half an hour earlier, a mysterious powerhouse calling himself the Fool had pulled him into a majestic palace filled with Gray Fog and invited him into a secret organization called the Tarot Club.
This made him somewhat worried, yet also stirred up certain calculations he should not have had.
They were the Church of Storms' white gloves on the sea. Unfortunately, the former captain had made the wrong choice and betrayed the church.
Thus, Alger secretly killed the captain and told the other sailors that the captain had jumped overboard out of guilt.
That was good. After all, no one would specifically investigate a traitor.
As the only Sequence 8 currently on the ship, he had just been chosen as the temporary acting captain.
It made the corners of his mouth rise uncontrollably, so he had needed to avoid the others for a while and compose himself.
Alger looked into the distance and saw chaos aboard the passenger ship nearby, though he did not know what had caused it.
It looked as though a riot had broken out.
He could go over and take a look.
His fleet might be the Church of the Sea God's white gloves, but they occasionally worked as pirates too.
It was even better when they came across a passenger ship in the midst of a riot.
They gained wealth, while the crew gained lives.
A win-win situation.
Very fair.
"There's a passenger ship ahead in the middle of a riot," Alger shouted as he turned around. "Everyone, get ready."
His voice was extremely loud, piercing through the curtain of rain and swiftly spreading through most of the ship.
At once, sailors ran excitedly onto the deck and looked in the direction Alger pointed.
There was no need to say it outright. The sailors immediately understood the captain's meaning.
They had done this far too often and were already used to it.
Not only did they not hesitate, they were eager to get started.
Because a ghost ship did not need sailors and had few crew members, they never had to worry about supplies. Every day, they could enjoy fresh food and clean water.
But the day-after-day voyage and scenery that almost never changed still left their bodies and minds exhausted, as though they were constantly suppressing something and enduring something until they could no longer control it.
They needed an outlet.
That was precisely the current situation.
They were saving people. Even if an Archbishop came in person, he would not be able to find fault with them.