Chapter 115: A Night Visitor.
The two of them remained completely silent.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Outside the door, the footsteps continued to approach... then stopped.
Right in front of their room.
Knock.
Knock.
A soft knock suddenly sounded against the door.
Jake and Grace remained completely silent.
Neither of them moved.
And neither of them answered.
But then, a few seconds later, a familiar female voice drifted in from the other side of the door.
"Is anyone in there? Open the door."
It was Barbara’s voice.
At that familiar voice, Grace’s tensed shoulders loosened slightly.
A quiet sigh of relief almost left her lips as she began to lower her gun—
But then she noticed Jake.
He hadn’t relaxed at all.
His naked body remained locked in a battle stance, muscles tight, sword already partially drawn from its sheath.
The cold killing intent in his eyes hadn’t faded in the slightest, as if he was ready to unleash a powerful attack the moment the door opened.
"...Jake?" Grace whispered, confusion and unease flickering in her golden eyes.
Jake’s gaze stayed fixed on the door.
Without turning his head, he whispered back in an extremely low voice:
"That is not Barbara..."
Grace’s eyes widened slightly.
Outside the door, the voice spoke again, still carrying Barbara’s tone... but now that they were paying closer attention, there was something subtly off about it.
After all, if it were really Barbara, she would have called out their names.
She knew only the two of them were in this room, and she had been here before.
Grace looked confused for a moment, but she trusted Jake completely.
Without hesitation, she raised her gun again and kept it firmly aimed at the door, refusing to let her guard down even a little.
Knock.
Knock.
The same soft knocking sounded once more.
Then Barbara’s voice came again from the other side.
"Is anyone in there? Please open the door."
Jake’s eyes narrowed further.
Something felt strange.
Very strange.
Without making a sound, he slowly leaned down, lowering his body until his face was close to the floor.
Through the narrow gap beneath the door, he tried to catch a glimpse of whoever was standing outside.
And in the next instant—
His blood turned cold.
"...!?"
There were no legs.
Despite the clear sound of footsteps earlier and the voice speaking right outside their door... there was nothing visible through the gap.
No boots.
No feet.
No shadow of a person standing there.
Just empty space.
Jake’s grip on his sword tightened as a dangerous chill crawled up his spine.
He reached a conclusion.
Whatever was outside their door... was not human.
Jake returned to his position and remained completely still, his sword partially drawn and his eyes locked on the door.
For a brief moment, he weighed his options.
Should he attack?
He was no longer the same weakling from before.
With his current strength, even if something dangerous was standing outside, he was confident he could at least force a fight on his own terms.
A single decisive strike through the door might end things before the other side could react.
But then another thought surfaced.
Why...?
Why didn’t this strange creature simply burst through the door and attack them?
It had already approached them in the dead of night.
It could perfectly imitate Barbara’s voice.
Yet instead of forcing its way in, it kept knocking and politely asking them to open the door.
...As if it needed them to open it.
Jake narrowed his eyes.
’Could it be some kind of trap...?’
The more he thought about it, the more suspicious it became.
If the thing outside was truly strong enough to threaten them, there would be no need for this kind of act.
The fact that it insisted on waiting for the door to open made it feel less like a simple ambush... and more like a carefully set condition.
Something that only worked if they willingly opened the door.
Jake slowly exhaled through his nose, his grip on the sword never loosening.
Whatever was standing outside...
He would not open that door.
As if to prove his point, after a few more soft knocks, the presence outside finally shifted.
The footsteps slowly turned away from the door.
Then, step by step, they began to move down the corridor, growing fainter with each passing second until they completely disappeared into the quiet of the ship.
Silence returned.
Jake did not immediately relax.
He kept his sword partially drawn and his senses fully extended, carefully sweeping the area beyond the door for any lingering presence.
Only after nearly a full minute of complete stillness did the tension in his shoulders ease slightly.
Grace finally lowered her gun a little, though her golden eyes remained wary.
"...It left," she whispered.
Jake gave a small nod, still staring at the door.
"For now."
Whatever that thing was, it hadn’t forced its way in.
And that only made him more certain...
...Opening the door would have been a mistake.
Jake finally let out a quiet sigh of relief and slowly eased his grip on the sword.
He turned his head slightly toward Grace, who was still sitting naked on the bed with her gun half-raised, her golden eyes watching him carefully.
"It’s gone," he said in a low voice. "But don’t lower your guard completely just yet."
Grace gave a small nod, though the tension in her shoulders gradually softened.
She set the gun down beside the pillow and looked at him with a mix of residual caution and trust.
"...What was that?" she asked softly.
Jake shook his head, still glancing toward the door from time to time.
"I don’t know. But it wasn’t Barbara. And whatever it was... it wanted us to open the door on our own."
He reached over and gently pulled the blanket up over Grace’s bare body, covering her as he sat down on the edge of the bed.
"From now on, no matter who knocks at night, we don’t open it unless we’re completely sure."
Grace leaned against his shoulder without saying anything more, her warmth quietly pressing against him in the dark room.
_
_
_
Outside, the ship remained silent.
But the eerie feeling from earlier had not completely faded.
After settling Grace to rest, Jake remained seated on the edge of the bed, one hand still resting near his sword as his mind turned over the earlier incident.
There was something else that bothered him.
His skills...
There had been no warning at all.