Shrouded in Veil

After parting ways with the woman, I continued a more thorough investigation into her.

"By the way, she defused a bomb. That means there really was one planted in the engine room, doesn't it?"

How she had known about the bomb in the engine room was a secondary concern. The real question was why it had been planted there in the first place.

Only by understanding how—and why—a bomb had been installed aboard a Sirius Academy passenger liner could I begin to grasp the shape of whatever was unfolding.

"Has anything turned up on the dark web? Threats of a terror attack on a Sirius Academy liner, recruitment posts for manpower, bomb purchases—anything like that?"

"...None? At all?"

"Hmm... Maybe I should just ask her directly..."

Anyone bold enough to move against Sirius Academy—an institution with power rivaling that of a nation—could not be operating on a small scale.

"A bomb attack..."

If they had decided on a bombing, it would never end with a single attempt. There would be more strikes, layered and deliberate.

I was still turning over the questions—why a bomb in the engine room, and who exactly this person calling herself Yeon-woo really was—when the ship's public address system crackled to life.

A storm zone.

A place where mana storms, born of the Earth's magnetic field, raged without rest.

Two days into the voyage, the ship carrying us was walking straight into that violent weather.

I had expected something—anything—to happen by now. Yet, surprisingly, almost nothing had.

Through the second and third days I had been certain an incident would break out, but aside from the two-day storm that had battered us, the voyage had proceeded with almost unnatural normalcy.

"Strange business, all of it."

I walked the corridors, their atmosphere dimmed by the storm that had lasted two full days. Morning of the fourth day had already arrived, and still the same gray monotony continued. Outside, the storm still howled. The last time I had set foot on the open deck had been the morning of the second day.

I had slipped out once under the pretext of collecting genetic samples, but one look at the waves thrashing through the night had told me my swimming ability would never be enough. Even with the newly acquired Sea Serpent abilities, simply keeping my body under control would have been a struggle. Heading out in that state to hunt sea beasts would have been a fine way to lose the path back to the ship entirely.

And I still have no idea what that woman is doing.

Over the past two days I had not neglected surveillance of the woman who called herself Yeon-woo. I had not tailed her in person; I had simply hacked the cruise ship's CCTV network and analyzed her movements. Even that had been enough to yield results—though the interpretation of those results proved maddeningly opaque.

Why does she keep going up and down the stairs like that? And how many times does one person need to visit the bathroom?

If she had at least shown me another bomb-defusal performance like the first time I found her, I might have understood. Instead, for three straight days she had wandered every corner of the ship, putting on one bizarre display after another.

"Come to think of it, today is the fourth day they've told us to stay off the deck."

I had no idea why the prohibition against going on deck had been issued specifically on the fourth day of the voyage, but curiosity pricked at me all the same. Meeting someone this thoroughly veiled in mystery was a first for me, and that alone was enough to stoke my interest.

With Laplace around, I usually already know most of a person's background before I ever meet them.

Yekaterina had been one of the rare exceptions—someone whose information Laplace struggled to dig up. If I met that woman now, I was confident I could pull every scrap of data registered about her on the internet within two hours.

Honestly, I'm ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not even sure Yeon-woo is her real name.

She had introduced herself as Yeon-woo, and the civil registry listed her under that name as well. There was not a single trace of broker-forged identity work. If such traces had existed, Laplace would never have missed them. That was a fact I would stake my life on.

And yet...

My instincts whispered that the truth was something far removed from the facts I currently held. Without solid evidence, though, it was a problem I would have to set aside for now.

While I was lost in these thoughts, Laplace reported that the target's movements had turned abnormal. I was about to snap that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her usual movements were already abnormal enough, but Laplace warned me this was completely different from anything before.

"Completely different from usual? What is she doing?"

When I finally asked, Laplace showed me a video that appeared to have been recorded only moments earlier. The instant I saw it, my face hardened.

"That's... an explosive."

In the footage, she was on the ship's deck, planting the explosive.

"You have got to be kidding me...!"

I had left her alone through all her previous eccentricities, but this I could not simply watch. I prepared to head upstairs and stop her.

Yeon-woo... No. That is not my name.

That was the name of my dead older brother.

The woman tightened the black collar of her coat and stepped out onto the storm-lashed deck. No one else stood there. No ordinary person could remain upright in a storm zone that felt ready to tear flesh from bone.

"Haa..."

Once she finished planting the explosive on one side of the cruise ship, a simulation of the blast and its aftermath several hours from now unspooled through her mind. When the bomb detonated, nearby objects would shatter into shrapnel and spray in every direction. Fragments flying at speeds rivaling pistol rounds would bury themselves in flesh of unknown thickness and inflict serious bleeding on the monster. The cult had laced the charge with various chemical agents to amplify its power; killing the thing outright would be impossible, but forcing it to flinch—even for a moment—was well within reach.

From inside her coat she drew a heavy hwando, the weight of it solid and reassuring in her hand.

Do your utmost and await Heaven's will.

Six characters were carved deep into the blade, black as pitch as though they had drunk their fill of blood. Among the weapons she could obtain at this point in time, it was the finest. It was also indispensable for dealing with the monster that would rise from the deep. Ordinary blades would not work on it. Physical force might shove it back, but to sever its life required weapons like this one.

How much time is left?

She started to take out her pocket watch to check, then stopped. What she carried was indeed a pocket watch, yet it could not perform the function of a clock at all.

Come to think of it, why design it like this?

It wasn't the nineteenth century. Why a pocket watch of all things? If you were going to bother, at least make it digital.

While her mind wandered through such idle thoughts, she suddenly looked up at a colossal wave rising in the distance.

Ah. It's here.

There was no longer any need to check a watch. The scene before her eyes was startlingly identical to the one she had once seen beyond the veil of memory. The only real difference was the absence of the Eroder's minions that should have been present.

Her expression hardened with resolve as she raised the hwando. She gripped the sword in the stance of a man she had watched long ago and fixed her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gaze on the massive wave surging toward them from afar.

The wave was distant, yet to her eyes it was crystal clear. Within that onrushing wall of water, tens of thousands of demonic beasts crushed one another as they charged.

"Brings back old memories."

She felt as though she had lived through something very much like this once before.

Belatedly realizing the approach of the beasts, the ship's horn blared three long, thunderous blasts. The moment the sound rolled through the entire vessel, the barrier that had already been deployed intensified. What had been nearly invisible unless one looked carefully now revealed itself in a vivid blue light—the crystallization phenomenon that occurred when the density of flowing mana exceeded a certain threshold.

Once a barrier reached crystallization, it became almost impossible to breach short of a nuclear detonation. The mana consumption was enormous, of course, but with the reserves stored aboard the ship they could hold for a full hour. Last time, for various reasons, they had failed.

She wouldn't actually come up on deck trying to do something, would she?

A sudden worry for Seo-hyun flickered through her mind. Knowing that woman's personality, she would almost certainly force her way outside no matter the risk. The woman was aware Seo-hyun's combat power was far from ordinary, yet she could not quite suppress the concern.

Well... it should be fine.

With that thought she closed both eyes. At the same moment, blue frost began to spread outward from beneath her feet.