>

Nile didn’t try to go after him. Instead, he spoke to the girl, who’d fallen to her knees and was trembling like a leaf.

“Hmm. Are you all right?”

Just as Sylvie got to her feet and was about to say something…

“Hi there, you two. You okay?”

As Nile offered his haughty consideration, from above his head they heard a voice that was completely wrong for the situation.

“Guess I didn’t even need to check; you look fine. That’s great, that’s really fantastic. Sylvie and Nile… That’s wonderful. All right, I know this is abrupt, but c’mon and smile. Show me your teeth; give me a big ol’ grin.”

When the pair looked up, they saw a man whose beaming face didn’t betray the slightest sense of danger.

The guy, who’d poked his head in from the top of the stairs, had hooked his fingers into the corners of his mouth and pulled, forming a big grin.

“Goan, aiuhl, aiuhl. (Go on, smile, smile.)”

“Elmer. Does this look like an appropriate time for jokes?”

When Nile reproached him, the man he’d called Elmer responded by shrugging. The smile on his face showed no sign of fading. However, strangely, the expression didn’t strike him as sarcastic, so Nile made no attempt to force him to stop.

“I’m not joking. When you’re panicking, for starters, it’s better to smile. Smiling will cool your head.”

“You are the only one foolish enough to smile in this situation,” Nile replied. “If you can hide, you should do so immediately.”

At that, Elmer quietly shook his head. “No, I’m going to try to talk old Szilard down, so you two wait here.”

He had said the words pragmatically. However, Sylvie and Nile objected, eyes wide, as if they couldn’t believe their ears.

“Let me just say this: It’s useless. Even supposing you did manage to talk him down, Maiza would never be satisfied with that,” Nile insisted. “If he’s going to die anyway, the rest of us will take less damage if we kill him immediately.”

Elmer shrugged. “If that happens, I’ll try to talk Maiza down, too.”

“How naïve can you possibly…”

“Yeah, I agree that it’s naïve. That’s why I’m gonna talk him down first. If I fail and get eaten, then the rest of you can do whatever you want.”

Elmer spoke as if he were merely going out for lunch, and in spite of herself, Sylvie cried out:

“You can’t! You’ll never stop him! He—when he tried to eat me, he smiled! As if he was really enjoying himself—! There’s no way you’ll get through to a man like that!”

However, when Elmer heard that, his answer was even stranger:

“So old Szilard was smiling? I see… In that case, it’ll work out somehow.”

“What…?”

Ignoring the young woman’s mystified expression, Elmer grinned. “C’mon, Sylvie, smile! You have to smile!” he called down enthusiastically from the top of the stairs, only to laugh as he withdrew his head from view.

Sylvie and Nile were left behind, and before long, the young woman fearfully asked a question.

It wasn’t about Elmer’s abnormal personality. It was about something Nile had said in their conversation, something she hadn’t been able to understand.

“Listen…Nile? You said Maiza wouldn’t be satisfied… What did you mean by that?”

“Hmm…”

Nile’s face clouded.

“It… It can’t be… Can it? No, it couldn’t possibly…”

As if trying to confirm something, Sylvie shook Nile’s brown arm fiercely.

“Tell me it isn’t; say it isn’t that! Nile, please!”

Before the tearful Sylvie, Nile only kept his silence.

“Dammit, where did the old man go?!”

“Found him! He’s up on deck!”

“Heeey, Old Man Szilard! Over here, look at me, listen to me!”

“What’s that? Is that Elmer?”

“Wh-what…is…he…do…ing? Why…is…he…up…there…?”

“Aaah, look out—!”

“Elmer!”

A splash. Then silence.

Elmer’s mind was enveloped in infinite darkness.

And then…he heard a voice.

<Are you all right?>

At the sound, Elmer’s consciousness began to return, dimly.

He felt a strange sensation, as if he’d lain down in midair. Opening his eyes a crack, he saw a man’s vaguely familiar face. Aside from that, there was nothing except endless blackness.

<You’re a foolish fellow. Doing a flip on the prow of the ship to get that old man’s attention… Well, never mind. After all, because you fell into the ocean, you escaped being eaten.>

That “Well, never mind”… Of course. I remember. This guy’s the demon.

The demon who’d given them immortality. Elmer had just assumed he’d gone away. What was he doing down here? Even as Elmer fuzzily pondered, the demon indifferently continued.

<I’d intended to leave, but I saw something interesting on my way out… Well, never mind. More importantly, I hear you meant to talk that old man down. Did you think that would be possible?>

The demon asked his question quietly, looking at Elmer as if he were some sort of strange life form. After giving it a little thought, Elmer spoke with a smile that didn’t go past his lips.

“I thought it might be. After all, Sylvie said Szilard smiled.”

<He smiled?>

“…If you can smile, that means you’re still at least a little human. Even if the smile belongs to a murderer right after he’s gratified his desires, I’ll never say it doesn’t count. No matter what shape it takes, as long as someone’s able to smile, there’s still a chance that you can resolve the situation by talking it out. Maybe wars are different, but this case is still about the feelings and wants of individuals. No matter how small the possibility is, I want to try.”

<Oho. From the way things looked, though, I’d say what you were attempting was very close to impossible.>

“Even so. It felt like eating Szilard immediately wasn’t the happiest ending for that situation. Letting him get away would have been worse. Talk the old guy down, have him give a genuine apology, then make him atone for his sins through eternity until, someday, everybody else forgives him.”

<You’d ignore the people he already ate?>

“The dead don’t smile anymore. They don’t feel joy or anger either. That’s what dying means. If there are ghosts in this world…well, you can’t say they’re really dead, as far as I’m concerned. Anyway, I think it’s important to respect the dead—but they don’t really interest me.”

After a brief silence, the demon’s voice echoed directly into his brain.

<Hmm. I thought you were just softhearted, but there are surprisingly strong elements of villainy in you. Well, never mind… You’re an interesting man. All right; there must be some sort of fate at work here.>

At that, the demon made him an unbelievably tempting offer.

<Let me grant you some sort of power. Tell me what you’d like. Do you want me to take from you the ability to devour and be devoured, giving you perfect immortality? Would you prefer the power to see over vast distances? I could give you the art of stopping time, or the power to bend humans to your will. Anything.>

“You’re like an Arabian djinni.”

<That’s not far off. Although I’m only offering one wish, not three.>

With an ironic expression, the demon shook his head slightly.

After thinking for a little while, Elmer smiled and spoke:

“I’ve made up my mind, demon.”

<That was fast.>

The voice in his mind sounded surprised.

Then, with no hesitation, Elmer named the power he wanted.

“Listen, demon, I—”

“Hey, Elmer! Are you all right?!”

“Oh, he’s awake!”

“Good, that’s great.”

At the sound of someone smacking his cheeks, Elmer realized his view was flooded with light.

When he looked around, he saw that he was on the deck and that the rising sun was warmly shining down on him. Putting the facts in order, he pieced together that after he’d fallen into the sea, someone had pulled him back out.

“…What happened to old Szilard?”

“Huey and Denkurou cornered him, but he threw himself into the ocean and got away.”

“I see…”

Hearing the outcome from his companion’s lips, Elmer responded with a brief murmur.

Complicated thoughts filled him, and although he’d begun to sit up, he lowered himself to the deck again and gazed at the sky. The morning sun shone into his eyes, but stars still gleamed in the highest part of the heavens.

When he happened to glance up, the companions around him were watching him, sighing with relief.

As he watched their smiles, Elmer fell back into sleep again.

However…just before his mind shut down, his ears caught sobs coming from somewhere on the ship. When he heard them, Elmer gave a truly sad smile.

“You mustn’t do that, Sylvie. Smile, you’ve got to smile…”

He murmured as if in a delirium, and this time his mind did plunge into the depths of the darkness.

And—time passed.