The Great Serpent Jormungandr

Calling the Sea Monster a maritime disaster would certainly bring an investigation afterward. Yano Michihiko might face a massive fine or even confinement, but at a time like this, who cared about the consequences?

"Besides, I can always shift the blame."

Yano Michihiko watched Old Gil make the call, his gaze dark.

Iceland, Iceland Coast Guard headquarters.

The dispatcher hung up and joked with his colleague. "James, you know what? Someone just called and said he'd run into a Sea Monster. He asked for help."

"A Sea Monster? What kind? A mermaid who turns to foam if you don't love her, or a Sea Siren singing for you to come closer? Did you ask him how it was? Whether he felt especially drained afterward? Ask if he needs backup, too. I could lend a hand."

"Pfft. James, if you don't buy me dinner tonight, I'm telling Hill what you just said. We'll see if she lets you into her room."

The phone rang again as soon as he finished speaking, and the dispatcher went straight back to work.

A moment later, he hung up, frowning.

"What's wrong?" James asked.

"It's the man who called earlier about the Sea Monster. He called back."

"He ran into it again?"

With work involved, James stopped joking.

"Not exactly. Now he says he's caught in a maritime disaster."

First a Sea Monster, now a maritime disaster. What did you actually run into?

James took one look at his friend and understood his dilemma. He offered a discreet reminder. "If he says it's a maritime disaster, just report it through the usual channels."

If the caller was telling the truth, there was no problem. If he was lying, falsely reporting a maritime disaster would cost him money or land him in confinement.

"Thanks."

The dispatcher nodded. He had nearly made a mistake. If he failed to report a distress call promptly and the caller really was in trouble, he would be the one left holding the bag.

The thought of being questioned by his superiors, hounded by the media, confronted by victims' families, and condemned by the public made him shudder.

After the dispatcher reported the situation, the Iceland Coast Guard confirmed that the call had come from the Yusenar and quickly sent the Open Ocean patrol vessel Odin to the rescue.

Weather reports showed nothing unusual in those waters, and satellites had detected no abnormalities. But Yusenar Fisheries Company was the largest fishing company in Northern Europe and wielded considerable influence. Now that one of its vessels, the Yusenar, had sent a distress signal, the Coast Guard responded at once.

Yet when the Odin reached the coordinates, the sea was calm and the weather fair.

The rescuers aboard the Odin stared at the undamaged Yusenar in the distance, stunned.

"Where's the maritime disaster?"

"Those damned fishing butchers! I knew they were making a false report. The satellites showed no unusual weather anywhere around here. Fine them. Fine those bastards until they're bankrupt," one rescuer said angrily.

"Finkdale, remember that you work for the Iceland Coast Guard now, not the Green Life Guardians. You're here to rescue people, not campaign against fishing. Don't bring your old feelings into the job. Leo, take us closer. Something feels off. The Yusenar is too quiet. That's not normal."

"Don't tell me the Yusenar's turned into a ghost ship," Leo said with a laugh over the radio as he steered.

"Though it doesn't look anything like one. When I think of a ghost ship, I picture a rotting hull covered in vines and seaweed, a deck stained with blood, and fog rolling in around it. The whole thing looks so creepy that anyone except the leads in a movie would know something was wrong at a glance."

"You're right. A ghost ship came to mind for me, too, but not one from a movie. The Saintess."

Winnie Leonard smiled.

The Saintess was a three-masted ship. Usually laden with cargo, carrying nautical charts, and with a pot of soup simmering aboard, she sailed the Atlantic Ocean in the late nineteenth century.

From the outside, she looked just like any ordinary ship. There was even an adorable black cat aboard, mewing plaintively.

Of course, if you could overlook the fact that she had sailed for decades without a single crew member aboard, she was perfectly ordinary.

"Captain... now you've said that, I'm getting a little scared."

Leo felt a sudden chill after hearing his captain's words.

It wasn't that the legend of the Saintess was especially frightening. He had seen horror films far scarier than that. It was that the Saintess and the Yusenar had something in common.

Both drifted on the ocean. Both were silent.

"All right, enough joking. Leo, lower the underwater search-and-rescue radar probes and check for anyone in the water. Broadcast a message to the Yusenar, too. Try to reach them and ask why they falsely reported a maritime disaster."

"Finkdale, you and Nelson come with me in the lifeboat. We'll take a look aboard the Yusenar. If they're fine, I promise they'll be fined into bankruptcy."

"You got it."

Finkdale eagerly helped Nelson lower the lifeboat. Leo, meanwhile, grinned as he dropped all the underwater search-and-rescue radar probes into the water and let the current carry them away.

Then he returned to the control room, switched on the public address system, and hailed the other vessel.

"This is the Iceland Coast Guard search-and-rescue vessel Odin, an Open Ocean patrol vessel. This is the Iceland Coast Guard search-and-rescue vessel Odin, an Open Ocean patrol vessel. If you can hear us, please respond. If you can hear us, please respond."

As he spoke, he activated every probe he had lowered.

The moment the underwater search-and-rescue radar probes came online, the emergency alarm system began blaring a ship's-horn warning.

The piercing sound went on and on.

"What's wrong?" Winnie Leonard asked gravely over the radio. "Have you found survivors?"

"I... I don't know."

Leo stared at the dense mass of bright dots on the radar display, his throat bobbing. "The radar's showing returns, but there are so many they've merged into one. They don't look like survivors. It looks more like some kind of gigantic creature. But that's impossible. How could anything be that big?"

"How big?"

"At least several hundred meters!"