The Hunter Strikes, Then the Monsters Come
Capella neutralized Dimer's two hands.
The villain's ability involved touching a mark engraved on his palm to an object, then sending mana to duplicate it. But with the prepared blade, she had carved a wound on his palm that would be impossible to heal normally. Even if he recovered his hands, without rewriting the mark, the ability remained sealed.
Of course, cutting off his wrists would have been the safest option, but... she couldn't afford that risk. Any A-rank awakener could bleed out and die from excessive loss of blood.
Still, she had succeeded without a single mistake.
If she had slipped up even slightly, his right arm would have been severed instead. And Dimer would have been impossible to ambush in the first place if he hadn't been drinking.
She had moved according to the plan anyway.
“...Ugh, what the hell are you? Why are you targeting me? Did you come all the way from Hero City?”
Capella finally regained her senses and gritted his teeth as he asked.
Hmm. So even without the original Capella's mind-rotting drugs and surgeries, it was hard to drop a guy's sanity.
“I told you. I'm hunting people like you.”
Plain and simple.
If she had been a hero, she would have dragged Dimer straight to Hero City by now. But she wasn't one of them.
“Hunting...? Do you mean the bounty hunter?!”
What a nauseating nickname.
“They say you sell every famous awakener on the Regulus side to the black market. I never believed it... until now!”
Dimer muttered in despair.
It was the first time she'd heard this story, but it didn't interest her at all.
No need to waste energy on it.
All she had to do now was load the bastard onto the boat and get out. But first, she'd knock him out properly.
Creating unnecessary variables was inconvenient. She didn't want her face known.
CRACK!
“...?”
At that moment, Capella's body gave a violent jolt.
A chill raced across her skin. She had a sort of danger-sensing ability in her original body, but why was it reacting now?
There were no approaching footsteps nearby, and Dimer didn't seem to be doing anything special.
More importantly, she had no means to resist at this point.
“Ugh... what is this...?”
Even Dimer seemed to sense something late.
Did someone else besides her have their eyes on Dimer? Wait... this feeling...?
BOOM!
A massive sound rang out.
“Ugh!”
Her stomach lurched violently.
The passenger ship had probably collided with something like an iceberg while sailing, sending her body flying and slamming her against the wall.
She hit her head and felt dizzy.
“Damn it! I have to get out of here!”
Dimer was even trying to escape to the deck.
She had been thrown against the wall by the impact, but Dimer had been fixed to the bed, so the blade had only slipped out of his hand.
The situation had turned into a complete mess.
She had calculated every possible variable, including the villain's hidden tricks and outside intervention, but she hadn't planned for the ship to break down.
“Where do you think you're going?”
“Kk!”
Of course, she wasn't stupid enough to let a captured prey escape.
Capella kicked Dimer in the neck to knock him unconscious.
“Now's the time to counterattack. Turning your back and running?”
Ugh, my head...
Realistically, if Dimer had lunged at her with that blade a moment ago, it would have been extremely dangerous.
He had chosen to run instead.
It was strange that a veteran mercenary would do something so foolish, but the man had been terrified. Proper judgment might have been impossible.
More than that, what had caused that huge impact?
If this massive passenger ship was swaying that violently, there had to be something like a giant iceberg out there, right?
It couldn't be sinking, could it?
“If it had sunk, I would have known about such a huge incident... but first, I'll tie up the unconscious Dimer tightly and go out to check the situation.”
She also planned to change her clothes while she was at it.
She had learned something today: dresses were extremely inconvenient for movement.
Remember this: everything you see in comics and movies where characters sprint around in dresses is fake.
“Everyone, stay calm! The ship is still intact! If you try to escape recklessly, you'll only attract more danger from the monsters!”
Monsters?
“Kyaaaaak! The ship—the ship is sinking!”
“It isn't sinking!”
“Hey! Bring a first-aid kit over here quickly! The bleeding is too severe!”
Once she stepped into the corridor, the passengers were in total chaos.
Some passengers sat slumped or lay bleeding, clearly having suffered the same fate as her. The crew members were frantically carrying medical kits everywhere.
“What's happening?”
“A sea monster attacked the ship. That shock just now was caused by it hitting something.”
A sea monster attacking the ship?
That couldn't be.
Sea monsters existed, but the ones in the ocean were relatively gentle. They rarely attacked first, and if provoked, they usually fled.
Especially since this ship carried thousands of people. The creature would have to be enormous to threaten it.
Yet no matter how large the sea monster was, it had no chance of matching the size of this luxury liner and still managed to attack?
This was definitely not normal.
“Moreover, the Hero City side can't communicate because of weather issues, and this ship couldn't possibly have carried any weapons to repel a monster. That's why this happened.”
Sea monsters attacking ships wasn't new...
Capella didn't feel this situation was just an accident.
If it had been another ship, maybe. But this passenger liner had the ominous name of the Titanic. It was impossible for it to be a simple collision with a passing monster.
“But don't worry. This ship was designed by Belir Federation technicians. It won't sink even if monsters ram it hard. It can withstand attacks from S-rank magic-type awakener.”
Considering the original Capella had a villain who could control monsters among the characters...
It could have been even worse.
“The ship is definitely safe...?”
“Yes, that's right.”
Still feeling the chill spreading through her body, Capella slowly turned her gaze outward.
Of course, the deck where passengers shouldn't be.
A significant number of presences were beginning to register there.
This felt real.
“The people aren't safe.”
“Huh?”
The crew member gave a dazed reply.
An unexpected event had occurred.
She didn't know if this was an incident that had happened in the original story or something triggered by a small change from her own actions, but...
At the very least, one thing was clear: the villains on this ship were not just Dimer.
SPLASH!
They had just emerged from the sea, and the deck was already wet.
“Eh, eh...?”
The crew member she had been talking to froze solid the moment he saw the deck.
“W-what are those?!”
One passenger looked outside and turned deathly pale.
On the deck stood mermaids.
Not the beautiful figures from fairy tales, but something horrific created by gods with lewd urges crossing with fish.
They had climbed the outer hull and onto the deck. Some were licking the blood dripping from the corners of their mouths, as if they had just devoured someone who fell into the sea.
Eventually, they rushed toward the cabins.
It was no different from a beast spotting prey.
“Everyone, evacuate! Quickly!”
Accompanied by the mermaids' singing, screams began to rise from the people.
[Prophecy line 1]
[Prophecy line 2]
Inside one of the first-class cabins of the Titanic, a woman looked out at the scenery and smiled faintly.
The mermaids that had climbed the deck immediately swarmed the passengers. The voice coming from the hidden listening devices sounded beautiful.
The A-rank awakeners who were ship security guards tried to respond, but with fewer than fifty of them against hundreds of mermaids, they were no match.
Even if they had S-rank awakener specialists in volume-based abilities, they couldn't use them freely on this ship.
Of course, the passengers were caught in the chaos, and if the ship was destroyed from the inside, the situation would be even worse.
They might all be wiped out together.
But there was one thing she was worried about: support from Hero City...
“It seems that man was better than I thought...?”
“Yeah. The explosion's power was ridiculously weak. In the end, we succeeded in gathering everyone's attention.”
“The night is dark, and there's fog. Even in Hero City, we can't fully understand the sea situation. So support will be hard to expect.”
“What should we do? There are thirteen high-ranking officials from Hero City and external celebrities and tycoons on this ship. Should we kill them all?”
“Of course not. Turn the bow and bring them here. And for the bodies and ransom of the captured ones, it's better if they live as long as possible.”
“They are rats in a trap. Rats adrift on an ocean with nowhere to run.”
“Did you hear that? Mirzam.”
“That's too bad, huh. If you say so, I'll do it. But... killing them all and burying them feels a bit off. The ordinary people should be killed too, of course. Including that pathetic Dimer.”
“...Keep around one hundred of them.”
“I'll try.”
After Mirzam, the A-rank villain and monster tamer, smiled while hugging his shoulders in joy.
She was starving for blood.
It wasn't common to have days like today, so Mirzam was determined to feast to her heart's content.
“...Then, Dimer. Shall we find that boring man first?”