The seventh day since Night of Walpurgis had passed.
The bus-ship was still floating over the Great Lake's shoreline.
Line 2 had also been cleared somehow, with the help of Faust's new personality from Night of Walpurgis and the many personalities we'd obtained over the course of this journey.
Well, we did spend a full three days just dealing with that.
What a damned railway that was. We thought we'd finished it for good, and then it looped us back to the very first station...
Ugh, I shouldn't even think about it. That structure was truly hideous.
In any case, after that, the number of Sinners with nothing to do kept growing more and more listless, and by the time most of them had ended up sleeping in the cabin...
"..."
Faust suddenly headed for the ship's helm.
...!
"Faust."
"Yes. A signal has come."
A signal, meaning!
"Faust?"
"Uup... Fuh. You mean the contact we've been waiting for has finally arrived?"
"Ohhh! So the adventure on the Great Lake is finally beginning!"
"What sort of signal was it? I didn't hear an alarm, and nothing appeared either..."
"It isn't visible to the eye, but Mephistopheles detected a smoke signal from far away."
"Smoke... So they lit a beacon, then. That's what we were waiting for."
"Voyage begins, splash splash."
So this is the real start of the voyage.
Even so, we'd probably still have nothing to do for a few more days. We were likely heading for one of U Corp's ports... and considering the distance from the shoreline, I wonder how long that'll take.
"We're about to leave the shoreline sector and enter what could be called the Great Lake's threshold. From here on, I will activate the automatic navigation function."
"What?! So this whole time we weren't even on the Great Lake?"
"Strictly speaking, we have been on the Great Lake, but since there were no special threats present, I described it in a way that matched the information Don Quixote was perceiving."
"Such... things happened, and yet there was no threat..."
Hm? Was there anything up here that could really be called a threat... Ah.
Not from the Great Lake itself, but maybe a few things did count?
"That person over there has been clinging to a bucket the entire voyage..."
"I... am fine... It's just... uup..."
"We've run out of medicine too, so this is bad... I told you to just stay in your room."
"I'm saying it again... how could I possibly do that alone..."
Tsk, far too considerate for no reason... Should I have forced him to stay in his room?
"At first I thought he was just bailing water, but now he's bailing out something else from inside his stomach, so there's nothing to be done... And! That... Walpurgisnacht? It only just passed!"
"It's Night of Walpurgis. And none of those things... were caused by the Great Lake, were they."
"That's a false-cause fallacy."
"...There are too many difficult words, so I shall simply go back to sleep..."
Don Quixote, cowed by the teamwork between Meursault and Faust, closed her eyes.
If things kept going like this, the ship would finish its voyage without issue and arrive at the port in a few days... but!
"No! If we've entered a dangerous zone, then we should compose ourselves and enter a state of alert."
"Otis?"
"All hands, take defensive positions!"
One of the Sinners who always caused trouble and would not sit still, Otis, suddenly sprang to her feet and shouted at everyone!
...At a volume loud enough to wake everyone who was asleep.
"Gah!"
"...What?"
"...Damn, I thought my heart stopped."
Of course, whether they reacted or not, Otis and Faust didn't even glance that way.
What cold people.
"Otis, this ship is operating automatically. It will avoid dangerous situations, and if it cannot avoid one, an alarm will sound."
"Hah... honestly. Just how much am I supposed to trust some incomprehensible function like that? Besides, that device was only hastily attached by those Boat Center Fixers at the very end!"
"...Indeed, Faust did not install it herself. Its reliability is not 100%."
"Well said. After all, voyages are full of unknowns. In the end, someone has to step up!"
She even managed to persuade Faust? That tongue is the devil's own.
With Otis raising the tension to the limit with her specialty, Don Quixote, who had been about to fall back asleep, opened her eyes with a bright gleam and joined in.
"Then you mean to lead this ship, do you!"
"Since the Manager does not possess any memories of navigation, that would be the proper course. I happen to be someone with experience leading many."
Well, let's see how far this goes.
A person who's going to personally operate the ship on their first visit to the Great Lake, as if possessed by madness.
"Ohoho... Captain!"
"I am not a captain! I am a helmswoman! Manager! I shall temporarily take on the role of captain as your proxy."
Otis, with her tension fully spiked, kept going without even listening to Dante's reply.
"Now, listen! Sailing is..."
All right, all right. I'm skipping from here.
I have no hobby of relaying people making grand, supposedly profound speeches that amount to very little.
Well, it wasn't completely worthless, considering she was a veteran and all, but on the Great Lake, it was useless information.
"Dante, Dante."
"Hmm?"
"She's definitely going to cause an accident. Let me make a prediction."
"..."
Don't look at me like that. You thought it too.
I'm not telling you to stop her, am I? If that's what your clock hand means, then turn it the other way.
"...That is to say. The basics of sailing are! Have you all taken proper notes?"
"Poke poke."
"Ohhh! The more I hear, the more astonishing this becomes! It's almost like an adventure! Cutting through storms amid rough waves... that was one of the 863 dreams this body once had!"
"How can the number be so specific..."
Seriously, what is Yi Sang doing, not sleeping and not going below deck either?
If this keeps up, should I force her into her room by strength alone?
...No. She'd hate that. Let's not.
"Otis, I-I have a question!"
"Good, I permit it."
"What is that complicated-looking lever?"
"...Hmm."
Otis fell into thought as she looked at the lever on the wall Sinclair had pointed out.
Yep. If someone just nudged her a little, she'd get swept up in the mood and do something stupid. Obvious as day.
"I was curious too! What on earth does that do?! C-could it be that if you pull it, cannons go clack-clack! out of the ship and then go boom-boom-pow!"
"A transformation lever, perhaps. If it were real, it would be rather splendid."
"..."
A transformation lever... Romantic, sure, but if there were one, it probably wouldn't be that lever. And the bus doesn't seem to transform in some clacking, mechanical way either.
By the way, why does Otis look like that? Is something bothering her?
"...Hmm..."
"Otis...?"
"Hmph. Lately, things that are all flash and no substance, with no real core to them... have been appearing under the laughable name of 'modern technology.'"
Wow, what a boomer line.
"If you chase convenience alone, danger only increases. Rely on such modern technology, and before long it will all collapse! The heat forged in screws and oil, like the blood and sweat of machinery... within that, the commander's cool-headed leadership and the subordinates' solid loyalty create the true combination."
"Blood...?"
"A proper workshop device with genuine tradition and history is meant to work that way! That is the moment when comradeship is born!"
It's persuasive, but wildly anachronistic... Since the speaker is competent enough, it'd usually be fine to act like that, though.
This is the Great Lake. It's not a place where such flimsy common sense applies.
The only ones who seem to truly understand that, aside from Ishmael, are Faust and maybe Faust alone.
Both of them are the type to keep their mouths shut and speak in maddeningly roundabout ways, though.
"I don't really get it, but it's cool... I can feel something stirring in my chest...!"
"Captain! No, no, helmswoman! This modern technology keeps making suspicious noises! What should we do!"
"..."
Ah, is it about time?
Should I stop her? Or not. If I stop her now, there won't be any immediate problem, but there may be a nuisance later in the voyage. If I don't stop her, there will definitely be a nuisance, but she'll probably learn something from it.
Hmm... let's leave it to Dante's judgment. What am I supposed to be, anyway.
"I, Otis... will prove it. That even without this so-called modern technology, there is absolutely no problem with sailing! Now! Crewman Don Quixote! Open the output handle to maximum!"
"Maximum opening of the handle! I shall!"
"Crewman Sinclair! Set the key to the center and switch!"
"Set the key to the center and switch, set the key to the center and... s-s-switch!"
"Let's go!!!!!"
With Otis's thunderous cry, the ship shook violently!
Gugugugung.....
"The engine has fallen completely silent... it has."
Yep. Just as Yi Sang said, the engine had shut down completely.
I knew it. I deliberately didn't stop her, but still.
"The automatic navigation function has been disabled. Since it is an old module, rebooting will take about five hours."
"A punishment for abandoning the driver."
"Wait, then the ship won't move anymore?"
"Of course not. Since the automatic navigation function has been integrated into Mephistopheles' engine, it will be difficult to start the engine, but the ship itself can still move."
Ah, hold on. I'm suddenly regretting not stopping her.
Even at a glance, this doesn't seem very efficient...
"We only need to switch to manual operation."
Damn it, I should've stopped her. Now I'm the one who's going to be worked to the bone.
Life...