Infiltration [Guide/Sentinel] Chapter 58

"Wow, this is so cool," he said.

The slight grievance he had felt toward the older sister who had eaten half of his flatbread instantly vanished into thin air.

With a short dagger clenched between his teeth, the boy plunged into the water with a splash.

When he resurfaced, his smooth, seal-like tail whipped up a spray of water that splashed everyone on the boat right in the face.

Little Mu, half boy and half seal, waved to everyone and then plunged headfirst into the deep sea.

Lin Yuan closed her eyes and sat down on the boat.

She saw the bubbles in the deep sea, endless bubbles swirling and floating upward.

The light grew very dim, and she saw the boy's stroking arms intermittently appearing in her field of vision.

Tiny schools of fish swam past nearby.

She shared Little Mu's vision, and through the eyes of the steadily descending boy, she looked upon the world of the deep sea.

The seawater always brought her a familiar and affectionate feeling, as if she had lived in the depths of the ocean since childhood. Yet the deep sea also constantly brought her a sense of danger, as though in its very lowest depths, infinite secrets awaited her own hands to unlock them.

Not long after, she saw the ship that had sunk into the abyss.

That colossal behemoth of a bygone era now lay quietly in the silt at the bottom of the sea. The deck and railings were encrusted with layers upon layers of barnacles, the window glass was entirely shattered, and the empty window frames gaped like open mouths as countless tiny schools of fish swam in and out of them.

Little Mu approached a porthole, pressed his hands against the frame to peer inside for a moment, and then wriggled his tail to swim nimbly within.

The seabed was pitch black, with almost no light whatsoever.

Yet Little Mu's eyesight was able to adapt to this place.

His eyes had become identical to those of a seal, with large, round crystalline lenses that focused the underwater imagery onto his specialized retina, allowing him to see the hazy sights within the cabin.

Following his line of sight, Lin Yuan swam all the way into the cabin, following the pre-arranged plan: swimming past the dining hall overgrown with algae, passing the decayed wheelhouse, crossing the deck, pulling open a bulkhead door, and descending along the mottled staircase.

Along both sides of the dim, long corridor, all the cabin doors had already been pulled open, and the crew members' quarters drifted with scavenged debris.

Many, many searchers had been here before.

Swimming past those ransacked cabins, one could catch sight of one or two skeletons of dead crew members.

These skeletons all lay upon their beds, as if they had sunk while in the midst of dreams, never waking up, and thus sleeping forever within this silent, deep sea.

***

We have arrived; this must be the place.

Little Mu reached the very end of the corridor and grasped the door handle of the innermost cabin.

He pushed open that door without expending much effort. A school of bright blue neon dartfish rushed out from inside the cabin to meet him.

Accustomed to deep-sea diving, Little Mu avoided the school of fish and looked into the cabin he had just opened.

This was the captain's bedroom.

The interior of the bedroom had long since been thoroughly plundered.

The remains of the dead captain were still there, with a pale skull seated before a desk. Both the desk and chair were bolted to the floor.

The captain's corpse seemed to have been fixed there as well, maintaining a crooked posture of holding a pen, sitting thus through countless years of silence.

Previous searchers had swept through and taken everything of value that could be carried away from the cabin; the tabletop and drawers were completely empty, and even a tiny gemstone from the captain's cap had been pried off.

"Bring back a relic belonging to the captain of the Marie."

Little Mu recalled the mission he needed to fulfill—an assignment also delegated by the Special Research Division.

It seemed quite simple.

What should he bring back?

There was nothing left to take. Little Mu thought he might as well just bring back the captain's cap.

He had no idea what material it was made of, but it hadn't rotted even after soaking in water for so many years.

Things from the old era were truly superior. Even the fabric used to make the hat was extraordinary.

[The fountain pen.]

Suddenly, he heard a voice.

The sound was very strange; it did not sound like a human speaking, yet it transmitted clearly and unmistakably into his ears.

He sensed his perspective split for a moment: while viewing the gloomy seabed, he simultaneously beheld the sky above the ocean.

It was the older sister sitting on the water's surface, briefly opening her eyes which had been closed all this time.

So it was Sister Lin Yuan who was speaking.

***

Following that voice, Little Mu reached out and touched the fountain pen held in the captain's hand.

That metallic fountain pen, having soaked in seawater for many years, was covered entirely in green patina and had lost all value.

Consequently, it had failed to attract the attention of any previous explorers who had entered before.

Little Mu retrieved the fountain pen from the captain's hand.

[Insert it into the small hole on the tabletop.] That strange voice sounded once more.

True enough, Little Mu discovered a very inconspicuous small hole on the lower right corner of the desktop.

He tentatively inserted the rusted fountain pen. To his surprise, it fit perfectly.

With a gentle twist, the body of the fountain pen could no longer bear the strain and shattered. However, a drawer popped open from beneath the thick, solid wood tabletop.

Neither he nor Lin Yuan heard the sound that occurred the moment the drawer opened.

It was as if from the even gloomier depths of the ship's hold, a mysterious sound originating from the deep recesses of the ocean echoed from an ethereal void.

It sounded like a departed soul's reluctant sigh toward the mortal world, or perhaps the cryptic mutterings of a deity.

Something awakened the very instant the drawer opened.

In Little Mu's eyes, he saw only that the drawer was filled to the brim with gleaming gold imperial coins and a weathered, mottled small wooden box.

Whoa. Little Mu was dazzled by the brilliant luster of the gold coins.

[Take only the wooden box.] The voice in his mind rang out again.

Yet, those golden hues seemed capable of seducing human hearts, their beautiful luster flowing deep into the young boy's soul.

With so many imperial coins, if he only took a handful, his mother would no longer have to worry day after day, and his younger sister could buy a new pair of shoes.

Perhaps he could even buy himself a somewhat decent short sword.