"Hmm? What mermaid? Are you talking about the mermaid story in the Aegean Sea?"
Paul was completely confused by Jobtran's sudden reaction. He had never heard of the legend of the mermaid on the Cyclops.
Paul, who has always been cautious and taciturn, has always maintained an isolated and independent style of doing things. If he had been more enthusiastic in his dealings with others, the position of first mate would have been in his pocket long ago.
This is one of Paul's character flaws, but it is also the reason why he is not qualified for a higher position.
“The clues are connected, let me guess.
Did the humanoid creature transform into a very beautiful woman?"
Jobtran speculated.
"How do you know that?"
Paul asked in surprise.
"Ah. History always repeats itself in a surprising way."
Jobtran sighed and began to tell Paul the mermaid story he had heard from the first mate.
The more Paul listened, the more similar it seemed to him. The only difference was that the people from the Skull and Rose Pirates later released her.
This also explains why members of the Skull and Rose Pirates must undergo a cleansing ceremony before leaving the group.
Because that group of adult men were influenced by that stunning beauty and did things they shouldn't have done.
A group of sinners are naturally not qualified to continue guarding the seal, and they also do not have the ability to continue guarding the seal. Naturally, the Skull Rose Group has no reason to continue to exist.
That woman became the fuse for the disbandment of the Skull Rose group.
After Jobtran told Paul about the Cyclops's experience, he suddenly remembered a question and asked Paul,
"Did that woman give birth to a child?"
Paul thought for a while and shook his head.
“I don’t remember.
I was still a teenager when that happened, and I don't know why I was not tempted by the charm of that woman.
All I know is that soon after that absurd incident happened, all the participants died.
Everyone died in a different way, but they all died in strange ways, as if they were cursed."
Joe Butran suddenly remembered the death of the captain and the security captain. Their deaths were a bit strange. Perhaps they were related to the punishment of the Skull Rose Pirates. Then he asked Paul,
"Can you tell me about the other three types of punishment?"
"To repent, the criminal is required to carry a 60-kilogram cross and walk across red-hot charcoal for 33 meters. If he fails to walk the entire distance, he will be burned to death by the flames.
Kneeling and begging for mercy means putting a tough rope around the criminal's neck in the room, with the other end tied to a beam. The criminal is then forced to kneel on the ground for a day and a night, and the criminal will often die of suffocation.
The "carrying thorns to plead guilty" practice is to have the criminal wear a plate made of thorns and be tied to a pillar, then left in the hot sun for three days. The barbs of the thorns will cause the criminal to lose a lot of blood, and the exposure to the sun will quickly cause dehydration and death.
Although the other three cruel punishments mentioned by Paul sounded horrifying, Joe Butran quickly associated them with the deaths of the captain and the security captain.
"Reform your mind and beg for mercy on your knees."
It turned out that in Jobtran's reasoning, the two were just suffering from revenge from the Deep Ones, but now it seems that the situation has become more complicated.
"Anyone from Skull Rose still on board?"
asked Joe Butran.
"As far as we know, there were no crew members, but the same cannot be said about the passengers.
It's such a big passenger ship with hundreds of passengers, and it's possible that some of them are retired from the Skull and Rose Group."
Although Paul didn't quite understand Jobtran's doubts, he still answered Jobtran's questions honestly.
"If you were given the passenger list, could you recognize any of the names associated with the Skull Rose?"
Jobtran asked, frowning.
Paul nodded hesitantly.
“But I think it’s very likely that he used a pseudonym like me. After all, none of us want to talk about the past.
But it’s worth a try.”
So Jobtran took out the notebook he brought out of the captain's room from the small leather bag. According to his judgment, he thought it was a sailing diary. In theory, a standard sailing diary should record the passenger list and related travel information.
Jobtran flipped through a few pages and, as expected, the captain had recorded a lot of information related to the voyage in this thick notebook.
The entire logbook is about five hundred pages long, recording various trivial matters from the time the captain was a sailor on the Cyclops.
"March 16, 1845, sunny day.
Today is my first day as a sailor, I must do my best!
I finally found a decent job, but in this world it is so difficult to find a job that can make a living!
However, life on the boat did not seem as thrilling as imagined, but just a boring fishing life.
March 17, 1845, cloudy.
Today was my second time going out to sea. The waves on the sea were so rough that it was really scary.
I was standing on the deck and nearly fell off the boat!
I swear to God, that wave was as high as a five-story building!
But I heard from the old captain that such bad weather is rare, and maybe it will be better tomorrow.
March 18, 1845, a rainy day.
Rain! Rain! Rain!
It had been raining all day, and the heavy rain hitting my face felt like pebbles!
Days like this are too hard to bear. For the sake of the Gold Mark, I swear I will persevere!
March 19, 1845, cloudy.
Thanks to the holy light, it finally stopped raining today!
We caught a lot of fish that can be sold at a high price in today's good weather!
We also caught a huge octopus today! It tastes really delicious after being sliced!
Thank you for the gift of the ocean!"
The first two or three hundred pages are all about this content, but from the text you can see the captain's growth day by day.
He recorded his sailing career and interesting things that happened on the ship.
There are many wonderful stories hidden under the seemingly calm text, such as the life of fishermen fighting with narwhals, catching five-meter-long sawtooth sharks, etc.
If such material falls into the hands of a novelist, he will definitely be able to write an excellent literary work.
Jobtran flipped through the pages quickly and found the relevant records of the most recent voyage - page 369.
“On July 14, 1881, the sunny sky turned to rain.
Today we are sailing from Cuxhaven to Boston. Before departure, I had a bad feeling, which reminded me of that night.
My intuition told me that this trip might be dangerous, but it was a mission assigned by my superiors and I couldn't shirk it.
Damn, that guy Stuart actually told me he saw that woman come back.
Why do you have to mention her at this time
This made me even more panicked.
I hope there won't be any accidents on this trip. The weather on the sea appears to be normal.
After this trip, I will retire.
If you live in fear all day long, you will drive yourself crazy sooner or later.
After I retire, I will definitely buy a house in California, and then go to the beach every day to see all kinds of beauties! "
This page was the last page written by the captain, and the passenger list and some navigation data were copied on this page.
It is not difficult to see that the captain's premonition was correct, but it is a pity that he no longer has the opportunity to enjoy his later years.
Jobtran noticed the name Stewart, and after flipping a few pages he learned that Stewart was the name of the security captain, so he handed the log to Paul.
Paul looked carefully at the names on the passenger list and finally shook his head at Joe Boutrang.
"None of the names are familiar to me, and I don't think the people of Skull Rose would put two innocent people on trial."
After hearing this, Jobutran had an idea.
"What did you just say? The last sentence?"
"Ah? I don't think the people of Skull Rose would put two innocent people on trial. What's wrong?"
Paul didn't quite understand what was wrong with this sentence, but Jobtran snatched the captain's logbook and began to read the front contents.
As he turned the pages, he muttered to himself,
"Innocent, how can he be innocent? There must be clues here."
Then in the middle part of the notebook, Jobtran discovered that the handwriting on one of the pages looked a little different from the previous ones, and there were even a lot of bloodstains between the lines. However, due to the passage of time, the bloodstains had turned dark brown.
The dark brown bloodstains looked like drops of ink naturally falling from a pen tip and splashing onto paper. They looked quite natural and if Jobtran had not had relevant investigative experience, he might have overlooked them.
The words above were written in a crooked manner, as if they were written in a state of extreme panic where the hands could not help shaking.
The dates and details were blurred, like a note written in bad weather, but with some deliberate scribbling.
"The old captain still insisted that we couldn't go out to sea today, but he just wouldn't tell us why.
It felt like his expression today was rather morbid. He had been behaving very abnormally ever since he came into contact with a weirdo sent by a charity organization calling themselves EOD a few days ago.
I still remember clearly the EOD messenger, who was a patient with Innsmouth syndrome and looked disgusting.
Since that day, the old captain has not come out of the cabin for six days.
As the first mate, I felt it was time for me to do something for the ship, so I decided I would go in and take a look today!"
Jobtran felt a bad vibe about this suddenly appearing EOD organization. From reading between the lines, Jobtran couldn't understand why a charity organization would contact a fishing boat.
Jobtran's intuition told him that there must be an unknown conspiracy behind this charity organization.
Thinking of this, Jobtran continued to read what the captain wrote. He felt that he might be able to find some secrets between the lines.
“It was late at night and everyone on the ship had gone to bed. I successfully opened the captain’s door lock with a metal pin, but I couldn’t believe my eyes when I entered the door.
When I think back on it now, I still feel that it was all fake.
I swear to God, that was the most gold I had ever seen.
The gold filled an entire wooden box, and under the light of the kerosene lamp, the glittering gold almost blinded my cigarette.
On the opened lid of the wooden box was a strangely shaped statue, which seemed to be holding something in its hands.
No matter which angle I look at this wooden statue, I feel like it's staring at me.
It’s creepy just thinking about that feeling. I know it’s just a statue, but it feels like the statue has its own life.
I finally understood why the old captain was not in a hurry to go fishing. With so much gold, why bother fishing
The old captain stood in front of the wooden box wearing a thin coat, cut his index finger with a knife, and dripped the blood from his index finger onto the statue drop by drop.
Even though his face had turned gray and bloodless, he still did it.
I remember very clearly that although he looked like he was dying, his eyes were shining, a greedy light.
There was a sickly blush on both sides of her face, and she kept muttering to herself, I want more, I want more.
The blood dripping from his index finger was absorbed by the strange statue, and pieces of gold appeared out of thin air, so many that they could not be stuffed into the wooden box.
A deep blue light seemed to appear on the statue, and I was discovered!
So I ran away, and the old captain picked up the knife beside him and chased me all the way, muttering to himself like a madman, I will kill you and use your life to complete the sacrifice.
In desperation, I could only pick up the statue and fight back.
I didn't expect it... Well, let all the secrets sink to the bottom of the water.
This little stone will serve as a final memorial."
The content of this page ends here, but Joe Butran has already understood the captain's sin.
Even though it sounded like a form of self-preservation, the old captain should have died at his hands.
Jobtran read the subsequent content briefly. He was not interested in how the captain explained the accident, but was more interested in knowing where the gold and statues had gone.
The problem is that in the subsequent content, these two objects were not mentioned. Instead, some miscellaneous work items after the successor to the captain were hastily recorded. Presumably, the captain must have thrown the old captain's body, gold and statue into the sea together as she said.
Jobtran was not particularly satisfied with this result. There was no more information about EOD or the statue in this log, but Jobtran had already understood from these words that the captain was indeed a guilty man.
The puzzle in the Palace of Mind is becoming more and more complete, but it seems that several key clues are missing.
Behind the death of two key crew members, there seemed to be a huge net, tightly covering the Cyclopes sailing in the sea.
Is the murderer a human or a mysterious monster
Is the woman who escaped from the Skull and Rose Pirates the same woman the Cyclops encountered
Is the little security guard the child born by that woman? Or is he an orphan taken in privately by the captain
Are the pins on the world map marking routes a kind of murder warning? Will Aldridge be the next victim
At this point, Jobtran had enough clues to investigate the past, but time was ticking away. Continuing to dwell on the past might just be a waste of the next victim's time.
Jobtran decided to make a passionate gamble with the god of death and the murderer, and the stakes would be the lives of the people on the ship.
One wrong step could result in the loss of life, and the first step that Jobtran needs to take now is to accurately predict the other party's next move and plan a series of measures.
This is a chess game where you can never regret your move, and only the winner is qualified to go ashore.