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“The beginning…?”
“Yes, keep your eyes on it.”

With only that short reply, old man’s voice faded away. The only ones left were me and the countless dying people who filled the room. I reached out, desperate to do something, anything—but my hand simply passed through them, unable to touch.

“…Just like the old man.”

This room, it must be nothing more than a projection of the past. A phantom meant to show ‘how the ghost ship came to be,’ one that I couldn’t interfere with.

All I could do was watch helplessly, unable to change anything—either the sights before me or the events yet to unfold.

“…It can’t be helped, but what a stench.”

As I wrestled with the frustration gnawing at me, someone opened the door and entered the room. It wasn’t the old man. This person wore a mask like a crow’s beak, likely to guard against the stench of decay, making it impossible to see their face.

Perhaps they were soldiers from this world. A sword hung at their waist, and they cast a brief glance at the people lying around before clicking their tongue in irritation.

“Damn it, right before lunch, too. This scene is enough to kill anyone’s appetite. What if the stench sticks to me?”
“Ugh…ah…”

The soldier kicked aside a groaning figure at their feet and advanced to the center of the room. There, they inserted something into the floor. It looked like a needle tipped with a red gemstone. If Master were here, she might know what it was, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

“This is Room D-4. Installation complete. Evacuation will be finished within five minutes. Ugh, these shoes are a lost cause.”

After completing their task, the soldier carefully navigated the room to avoid tripping and left.

I approached the needle now embedded in the center of the room, observing it more closely, but I still couldn’t discern its purpose.

If I had to describe it based on appearance, it resembled a golf pin topped with a crimson stone. The gem, cut like a precious jewel, revealed a faintly visible magic circle etched inside.

“Hmm, I bet Master would know what kind of magic circle this is.”

The magic circle was far more intricate than the one Master had drawn when creating a water golem. It was so complex that there was no way I could commit it to memory.

If only I could have brought my smartphone—I could have snapped a photo and saved it easily. As I mulled over this, the red stone abruptly began to glow.

“Whoa—!? What, what, what!? Did I accidentally trigger something!?”

Panicking, I tried to stop the glow, but my hand simply passed through the stone. I couldn’t touch it no matter what I did. The light only grew stronger, spreading rapidly until the entire room was bathed in red.

“Ugh… aaah… aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!?!?!?”
“W-what!? Are you okay!?”

The glow intensified to the point I could no longer look directly at the stone. Around me, the people lying on the floor began to writhe in agony.

Their bodies convulsed violently, their eyes bulging and bloodshot as they darted around uncontrollably. Foam bubbled from their mouths as they let out tortured screams.

It was anything but normal. At this rate, they were all going to die—and the cause was undoubtedly that stone.

“Stop, stop, d-don’t take me—don’t take me, me, me, don’t take meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”
“D… Die… Let me die, d-d-die, die!!! Kill meeeeee!!!”
“…!”

My hands passed through everything—through trembling fingers I tried to hold, through the stone at the root of it all. I couldn’t stop anything. I knew this was all something that had already happened, a story long since finished. But if that were the case, then why?

Why make me watch this? Why force me to stand here, powerless, and witness this horror?!

“——Ah.”

The screams stopped, abruptly cutting off like a dead battery. The people who had been writhing in pain began to melt. Their bodies blackened, dissolving into a thick, viscous sludge. As they liquefied, the boundaries between one person and another disappeared.

Eventually, the living and the dead alike fused into a single mass, spreading out across the floor like a black, endless puddle.

“W-What… is this…?”

What had been living beings moments ago was gone, leaving behind only a pool of black liquid.

The unspeakable horror of the scene made bile rise in my throat.

“Disgusting, isn’t it? This liquid is what remains when the virtuous aspects of a sinner’s soul are stripped away, leaving only their malice distilled.”
“So… it’s like water boiled down from the evil hearts of bad people? But why would anyone…?”
“To create curses. By condensing human malice, they could produce a more potent and refined curse. Humanity of this era must have had some purpose for it.”
“A purpose…? What kind of purpose would—?”
“Questions later. The next part is beginning.”

The old man’s voice faded again, and the black puddle on the floor began to bubble violently. It boiled more and more aggressively until thin, writhing tentacles emerged from within.

They looked eerily familiar—the same ghost ship appendages I’d seen during the Aldebaran incident.

“Kill me.” “Why?” “Forgive me.” “No.” “Kill me.”
“Stop.” “Kill me.” “Why?” “I won’t forgive.”
“It hurts.” “Kill me.” “No.” “Just me.” “Forgive me.” “You too.”
“Kill me.” “I’ll kill you.” “Kill me.” “Stop.” “Why?”

The writhing tentacles reached out as if searching for something, and with them came voices—voices that shouldn’t exist anymore.

Men, women, children—their tones varied, but all of them echoed from the depths of the liquid, surfacing like bubbles only to vanish again.

“It may sound like a cry for help, but anyone who extends a hand to those voices ends up consumed by the ghost ship. It’s a trap, preying on humanity’s sense of camaraderie.”
“…Isn’t there any way to save them?”
“Isn’t trial and error one of humanity’s strengths? The fact that no solution has been found by modern times tells you everything, doesn’t it? …Or so it was supposed to be.”
“…Supposed to be?”
“Yes. Amid this grotesque Kodoku, which persisted into the present, humanity finally discovered a tiny loophole.”
“—Waaaah.”
“…That sound is the key.”

The old man slid into view beside me, as if emerging from the air itself, and pointed at the bubbling black pool. Following his gesture, I saw a tiny baby’s arm rise to the surface amidst the foam.

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