On Saturday morning, a chill wind blew from the Sonia Sea, causing the two old men fishing at the pier to shiver.
"Joseph, you old geezer, you're freezing. Have some wine," an old man with silver hair tossed a tin flask to his companion, who was wearing a felt hat.
The man in the hat caught the flask and chuckled, "Who's cold? I'm still strong! Just the night before last, a girl at the Wild Horse Bar even said I was as fierce as a wild horse."
The two old men chatted and laughed, then Joseph suddenly made a sound of surprise and stood up.
"What did you see?" The old man in the felt hat took a sip of wine and looked at his friend, puzzled.
"A ship, a strange ship," Joseph pointed forward.
Following the direction of his finger, the old man in the felt hat soon saw a sailboat drifting in the distance on the Sea.
All the sails on the ship were unfurled, catching the wind, and it was sailing towards the pier. The two old men narrowed their eyes and saw that there seemed to be no one on the ship's deck.
The two old men exchanged glances, both seeing the unease in each other's eyes.
"Perhaps we should let the Police Station take a look," Joseph said, packing up his fishing gear. "You watch it here, I'll go to the Police Station and be back soon."
"Alright."
Thirty minutes later, a team of Frank police arrived at the pier. The sailboat had already docked, but its sails remained unfurled. Even though the bow was against the shore, no crew members appeared to furl the sails.
The police officers looked at each other, then an Inspector made a decision: "Board the ship."
They first boarded the gangway and came to the deck. A police officer found a rope and threw it down for his companions on the pier to tie it securely.
The Inspector led the other police officers into the cabin. As soon as they entered, they couldn't help but cover their noses.
They couldn't be blamed, because the entire cabin was filled with a strong smell of blood, mixed with the foul odor of rotting flesh.
A younger police officer couldn't help but rush out of the cabin, leaning over the rail and vomiting.
Putting on white gloves, the brown-haired, blue-eyed Inspector took out his revolver: "Get your guns out."
Several police officers took out their revolvers and followed the Inspector to the first wooden door. The Inspector made a gesture, and an older police officer rushed over, kicked open the wooden door.
Inside the door was a spacious room. Tables were overturned, cups, cutlery, and oil lamps were scattered on the floor. There was even unfinished, rotten food.
Additionally, there were two bodies in the room, one male and one female. The male body appeared to be a middle-aged man, dressed in a formal suit, adorned with expensive cufflinks and a tie pin, suggesting a good financial status.
The female appeared younger, under thirty, with a beautiful face, wearing a lace-decorated dress. Because there were heating pipes in the room, the lady was not wearing heavy cold-weather clothing.
Now, lividity had appeared on both bodies, and the cause of death was obvious: open wounds in the abdomen.
"Damn it."
The brown-haired Inspector squatted on the ground, examining the male body: "Looks like something burst out of his stomach."
"Check the other rooms," the Inspector stood up and gestured.
They checked the other rooms, and from the cabins to the kitchen, everywhere they went, there were bodies. All the bodies had the same manner of death: a hole in their abdomen.
Finally, they found a Sailor in the warehouse. The police had hoped this Sailor could tell them what had happened on the ship.
But this Sailor was clearly having a mental breakdown. He held his head, laughing one moment, crying the next, and screaming frantically, completely unable to communicate.
"Take him away first."
In the end, the Inspector could only make this decision.
Just as the police were moving the bodies out of the cabin, at the bottom of the sailboat, a wriggling mass of flesh detached from the ship. It wriggled and grew in the Sea water, gradually transforming into a beautiful, exotic-looking woman with jet-black hair.
The lady opened her eyes and looked around with her amber pupils, as if searching for something.
Finally, she locked onto a direction and began to swim.
At this moment, a sailboat from the pier sailed out, passing directly over the lady.
Sunday evening.
Lex sat on the edge of his bed, opened his pocket watch, and released a strong thought: Christie, you can come back now.
A moment later, a black phantom appeared before Lex's eyes. It leaped into the photo in the watch case, transforming the lady within into Christie, dressed in a black hat and black dress.
Lex then took out a cheap, elf-themed oil painting he had bought in Grand Town: "Parasitize this."
Christie in the photo reappeared, her phantom, holding her skirt, lightly leaped into the oil painting, and then one of the elves in the painting transformed into Christie.
"Show me your gains from the past two days," Lex leaned the oil painting against the wall by the table, pulled up a chair, and sat down.
He saw the oil painting in front of him begin to change in color blocks. They recombined, and soon, Lex saw Danitz.
In the oil painting, Danitz was picking up the shredded paper on the table, frame by frame, like a slideshow.
At the same time, lines of text appeared above his head.
'The Captain likes me'
'The ship doesn't like me.'
Lex's mouth twitched slightly as he watched, then he couldn't hold back and let out a full smile: "Is that so? Danitz really likes the Captain, to the point of being anxious about gains and losses, so he has to use this kind of 'divination' to gain psychological comfort."
The oil painting continued to change. Lex saw Danitz take out a suitcase from under the bed, pull out Edwina's photo from under the clothes, and kiss the photo.
Lex raised his hand to cover his face: "It seems the Boatswain is quite brave, to actually hide the Captain's photo..."
"Next."
The oil painting transformed into something like a tablet computer, familiar from Lex's previous life, showing him one pirate after another on the ship. Many of these could be described as major public humiliation scenes, which made Lex laugh while also allowing him to learn their private matters.
At the same time, it also put Lex's previous idea into practice.
Madam Christie's mutated parasitic ability could completely make her an excellent spy!
At this moment, a new scene appeared in the oil painting.
A pirate with yellowed beard took out a black paste-like substance, separated a small piece, and smeared it on a palm-sized mirror.
In the next scene, a figure vaguely appeared in the mirror, looking like a female.
Lex frowned slightly and said in a deep voice: "Christie, can you make the figure in the mirror clearer?"
Christie did not respond, but the color blocks in the mirror changed, the blacks became blacker, the reds became redder, and thus the figure also became clearer and sharper.
Lex saw that it was a very beautiful lady, with black, charming curly hair casually scattered, and blurred blue eyes. It was none other than the owner of the Black Death.
Admiral of Ailment Tracy!