The boy and girl had lost all their earlier composure. Anyone could see they were terrified. People nearby watched them curiously, and a restaurant waiter who knew them asked what was wrong, but the two huddled in a corner beside the door, pale-faced and covering their ears, giving answers that had nothing to do with the questions.
"The sound, the sound is so scary!"
"I'm scared! It's coming again, again! So close, so close!"
A waiter from the restaurant looked puzzled. He crouched and touched the boy's forehead. Apart from a palmful of fine sweat, he found no sign of a fever.
"What sound? Are you two sick?"
Unlike the curious onlookers, the waiter was on fairly good terms with the boy and girl, one of the very few people genuinely concerned about them. Just as he was about to say more, a voice rose above the surrounding chatter from beyond the crowd.
"What you're hearing-is it singing?"
The voice belonged to Mulan, who had approached them. Murmuring apologies as he passed the others, he reached the boy and girl and handed the waiter a banknote bearing the king's portrait.
"Settle my bill for me. This is for my meal."
"Uh, certainly, sir."
While the waiter instinctively took the note, Mulan had already half-crouched in front of the boy and girl. Looking into their frightened eyes, he asked again.
"Are there no words, just a sort of humming?"
The boy's and girl's pupils widened slightly. Their attention finally settled on Mulan, and their voices grew agitated.
"You heard it too? You heard it too, didn't you?"
"It's singing, singing!"
Mulan nodded.
"Beautiful singing, but somehow it makes your skin crawl. Is there anything you can tell me?"
Although Mulan addressed the boy and girl, his voice was not so quiet that it went unheard. The onlookers nearby heard their conversation too.
"Singing?" "What singing?"
"I don't hear anything." "Neither do I."
The people nearby began talking, and some tilted their heads to listen. The boy and girl's earlier incoherent rambling was one thing, but hearing it from someone like Mulan was another. Yet clearly, apart from the restaurant's hubbub and the storm and waves outside, they heard nothing.
One guest listened for a while without hearing anything either, but then something occurred to him, and he could not help speaking up.
"There's certainly no singing, but it does remind me of a rumor."
Mulan had still been quietly questioning the boy and girl, who only covered their ears and shook their heads, looking dreadful. At the guest's words, he turned sharply toward him.
"What rumor? Please tell me in detail."
The guest glanced at the storm outside the cabin window and thought for a moment before speaking.
"Six months ago, the Higgins lost its bearings in a storm. It was supposed to go to Mary Harbor, but when it finally turned up, it was far off course, at the Glen Peninsula. Nearly half the people aboard were gone. They said it was because of the storm, but some crew members and passengers told the newspapers they'd heard beautiful singing in the storm..."
Before he could finish, a bearded man in a deerstalker beside him blurted out a question.
"Are you talking about a Sea Siren?"
"That's what the newspapers printed at the time. I'm not the one saying it. But it certainly brings that to mind, especially out at sea in weather like this."
It was rather like telling a ghost story late at night in just the right atmosphere.
Their exchange sent a shiver through some of the nearby passengers. Even the restaurant's chatter seemed caught in a chain reaction. Those close by rubbed their hands, while people farther away noticed the silence in that area and instinctively stopped talking to watch. Gradually, the entire restaurant fell quiet.
Of course, although most felt uneasy, some of the younger people were morbidly curious. After all, while the rumors about Sea Sirens were never good, the legends also described them as exceptionally beautiful.
"A Sea Siren?"
The name meant little to Mulan; apparently, he had never paid attention to such things before. But he immediately realized something. He took the coat off his shoulder, laid it across his knees, and reached into its inner pocket with his right hand, drawing out a round metal object resembling a pocket watch. A light press flipped its lid open.
It was a direction finder, a device much like a compass. During the war, it had been standard equipment for Dierjia officers, helping them keep their bearings during military deployments.
At that moment, its north-pointing needle aligned with the restaurant bar, which was also in the direction of the bow.
Everyone who could read the direction finder and understood what it meant, Mulan included, felt their scalp prickle.
"Our ship has gone off course! It should be sailing northeast along Bodia Bay!"
"When did that happen?" "Then where is it heading now?"
"I don't know. It's heading north!"
"What's ahead? What's to the north?"
The passengers nearby began to panic. As if answering their fear, another clear burst of humming reached Mulan's ears.
Mulan drew a deep breath, then slowly released it. Thanks to his experience on the battlefield, he remained remarkably calm and could keep fear from clouding his judgment.
His instincts told him this was most likely a supernatural incident, one that could very well threaten his safety.
By the time he finished exhaling, Mulan had lifted the sling supporting his left arm over his neck and flung it to the floor. He flexed his still-bandaged left hand, then rose and swung his coat on.
"I'm going to the bridge to take a look. Anyone coming?"
At Mulan's question, the people around him exchanged glances. It took a while before anyone answered.
"I'll go with you."
"Me too!" "Count me in!"
The speakers were a young man in a sweater and suspenders, a casually dressed man wearing a knitted flat cap, and the bearded gentleman in the deerstalker.
"Who knows where the bridge is?"
"I-I do." "We're coming too!"
The terrified boy and girl finally came to their senses and spoke up in turn. Mulan no longer bothered with anything else. He hauled them up from the floor, one on either side, then left the restaurant with a final remark over his shoulder.
"Anyone who wants to come, follow me. The rest of you should stay together. Don't split up. Who knows where the bridge is?"
Those who had offered to go followed him. The bearded man in the deerstalker hurried back to the table where he had been eating, picked up his silver-handled cane, then rushed after the others.
If there really was a Sea Siren, they were undoubtedly in danger. Even if there was not, the ship was certainly off course, and it was only reasonable to go to the bridge and find out why.
Mulan led the way with the boy and girl, the others following close behind. Their party of eight or nine hurried through the ship's passageways. Some stretches were quiet; in others, they could still hear the bustle from other cabins and halls.
They did not go from room to room warning everyone about the situation. They only mentioned that the ship had gone off course when they happened to meet someone along the way. By the time they climbed from the central cabins toward the upper part of the ship, their group had grown to over a dozen.
The bridge was just ahead.
Whoooo, whoooo... splaaash... rumble...
The Princess Niseriel's bridge stood high on the bridge deck. In the passage leading to it, the storm outside sounded especially fierce, in stark contrast to the silence in the surrounding cabins.
Everyone, Mulan included, felt tense. He steadied himself and reached for the door handle, but before he could touch it, the bearded gentleman in the deerstalker offered him a cane.
"Sir, you're an army officer, aren't you? Take this. There's a silver short sword inside the cane. Just turn the handle gently to draw it."
Mulan glanced at him and accepted without protest. Taking the cane in his left hand, he gently turned the door handle with his right and opened the bridge door.
The group peered in from outside. All was quiet within. The kerosene lamps gave a rather dim light, and only the occasional flash of lightning illuminated the bridge clearly. The room seemed rather empty, with just one helmsman standing at the helm, gripping the wheel.
Just as Mulan was about to step inside, lightning flashed to his left, casting a long human shadow across the doorway. Almost simultaneously, alarm flared within him.
"Someone's hiding beside the door!"
The next instant, a figure darted out through the bridge doorway. But Mulan reacted faster. Before the other person could even raise a hand, he lashed out with a vicious kick.
The tremendous force lifted the attacker clean off the floor and sent them crashing into the console behind them with a clang.
Almost at the very moment the attacker slammed into the console and drew everyone's attention, Mulan charged into the bridge and caught the pistol falling from the attacker's hand.
In the split second he glimpsed it from the corner of his eye, Mulan's battlefield instincts took over. He raised the pistol and fired at the dark figure hiding on the other side of the doorway.
Bang, bang, bang!
The three gunshots were more frightening than the thunder, sending everyone outside the door ducking down. Inside, Mulan had already lowered his body, scanning his surroundings while keeping an eye on the person he had kicked away. The attacker was clutching their stomach in agony, unable to move for the moment.
Mulan's whole body was on high alert, the intense tension making his breath come in slight pants. As an officer who had survived a brutal battlefield, a soldier with considerable confidence in his marksmanship, he had no doubts about the accuracy of those three shots.
Yet where Mulan had fired, there were only three bullet holes close together in the wall.
Was it just a shadow? Was there no one there at all?
No. Impossible. I couldn't have mistaken it!
"Mmm~~~~ ah~~~~~"
Another beautiful melody drifted toward him. Mulan's hair stood on end. He turned toward the singing and saw a figure pressed against the glass outside the bridge, watching him.
It was a woman, her entire form hazy, wrapped in a thin mist amid the rain. Even so, he could tell she was completely naked, with an exquisite face and figure.
If not for the five conspicuous bloody holes in her body...
Blood was still seeping from those holes, forming a spiderweb of crimson threads that stained the glass red.
"Mmm~~ ah~~~~~"
The woman parted her lips slightly and released a beautiful melody. Similar melodies answered from the sea.
A Sea Siren?
Mulan's pupils dilated slightly, then contracted sharply. He saw the woman reach toward him. The sensation that she was about to seize him was so strong that he leaped backward in an instant, throwing away the pistol as he drew his own sidearm.
A searing sensation of iron and blood flowed through the revolver into Mulan's entire body.
I grant you death!
Bang-
At the gunshot, flames burst into bloom.