"Looks like we need to find the key first before we can get out."
Natsuki said.
"Maybe you just don't have enough strength?"
Kitagawa Marin stepped forward, cracking her knuckles. "I'm pretty strong. Let me try."
The blonde girl gripped the doorknob and took deep breaths. Her pink cheeks quickly puffed out.
"Nngh—!"
A moment later.
"No good—I can't open it."
Kitagawa Marin dejectedly released her grip.
Natsuki had already started searching for the key. "Hurry up and help look for it."
Hayasaka spoke quietly:
"Um, I'll help too."
"..."
The three began searching for the key.
The captain's cabin wasn't large. There weren't many things inside—aside from a chair, there was only a square table.
As a spy, Hayasaka had received professional espionage training. She naturally focused her gaze on the table.
Navigation log.
Sextant.
Compass.
Parchment...
"The table has no drawers." Hayasaka thought to herself. "If it were me, I'd put important things..."
The spy maid's heart stirred slightly. Without showing it, she reached her hand beneath the table and soon felt a protrusion.
"There really is something."
However, as a newbie—and one pretending to be meek at that—Hayasaka decided to maintain her disguise. Her eyes shifted, landing on Kitagawa Marin.
"Um, I saw a pirate movie before where someone secretly hid things on the underside of a table."
Hayasaka reminded them quietly.
"Under the table? Let me check."
Kitagawa Marin was super action-oriented—saying was doing. She immediately knelt and looked beneath the table's underside.
Natsuki glanced over, his gaze drifting slightly downward.
The clothes on all three of them were from reality. Kitagawa Marin wore the standard summer outfit of a short skirt and blouse. Kneeling on the ground now, looking from behind, one could clearly see a faint peach shape.
"There's something on the underside."
Kitagawa Marin perked up and quickly felt around. Before long, she sprang up with a cheer: "Found the key!"
Natsuki said flatly:
"Look carefully at whether that's actually a key or not."
"Eh?"
Kitagawa Marin looked closely and realized what she held was actually a strange piece of paper.
"The texture feels so weird..." Kitagawa Marin said curiously. "It doesn't feel like ordinary paper."
"Of course not." Natsuki reached out to touch it. It felt soft with a comfortable texture. "It should be parchment."
"Eh eh—is it really paper made from sheepskin?"
"Correct answer."
The blonde girl couldn't help but say:
"Crab sticks don't have crab in them, so I thought parchment was a type of paper that resembled sheepskin."
Parchment, as the name suggested, was paper made from sheepskin—soft, delicate, easy to fold, and if well-preserved, could even last thousands of years.
If there was a downside, it was probably that it was extremely expensive.
"Maybe the key is wrapped inside the parchment." Kitagawa Marin wouldn't give up. She unfolded it, only to be greatly disappointed. "There's nothing inside."
"There's a drawing on it."
Natsuki took the parchment and examined it carefully.
Hayasaka curiously leaned closer. Borrowing the faint moonlight, she looked at the parchment. "...It looks like a ship?"
Natsuki said: "It should be the ship beneath our feet."
"The name next to it must be the ship's name, right?" Kitagawa Marin planted her right hand on her hip, her tone subtle. "The Flying Henan Man... this name feels kind of weird. Isn't that Blackbeard's ship from Pirates?"
It's clearly Davy Jones. Whether in reality or the manga, the Flying Dutchman has nothing to do with Blackbeard.
"It looks like a treasure map?"
On a certain room in the parchment, a treasure chest symbol was clearly drawn.
"Whether or not it's a treasure map, it's definitely not the key." Kitagawa Marin looked around. "Where could the key be?"
Hearing this, Hayasaka furrowed her brow slightly.
She'd originally thought the key would be on the underside of the table. Now that it wasn't there, where else could the key possibly be?
"I think I know."
Natsuki folded the parchment. "See those two marks on the floor?"
Kitagawa Marin's eyes widened as she looked at the floor. Sure enough, she saw two faintly indented scratches on the floorboards—as though something had frequently rubbed against them, leaving traces. "...I see them. What do they have to do with the key?"
Natsuki tried pushing the table. As expected, it was quite heavy. "Help me push the table."
"Coming."
"Push along the scratches."
"..."
The three combined their strength and soon pushed the table. The heavy solid wood table began moving along the scratches. Before long, it reached the wall.
[After careful observation, you discover the wooden board above your head is highly suspicious]
Natsuki braced himself and jumped onto the table, then reached up to feel around. He quickly discovered a gap at the edge of one wooden board—just wide enough to insert his fingers.
With a light push of his fingers, the board quickly slid inward, revealing a pitch-black space the size of a fist.
Natsuki reached his hand inside. After briefly feeling around, a key appeared in his hand.
"Found it."
Besides the key, Natsuki also found a piece of paper.
This thing wasn't parchment—the texture was quite rough. Natsuki unfolded the paper. On it was clearly a monster.
"Eh?" Kitagawa Marin blurted out. "A kobold?"
That's right.
The monster depicted on the paper was indeed a standard kobold—though the body shape was quite elongated.
"There's a scale next to it..." Hayasaka pressed her pink lips together and speculated: "It should be Anubis, the Egyptian god of death, right?"
Natsuki nodded:
"Looking at the costume styling and the scales, it's definitely Anubis."
Ancient Egypt's Anubis, also known as the "Guardian of the Scales," liked nothing more than playing with scales—placing a dead person's heart on one end and a feather on the other. If the heart was heavier than the feather, it would be swallowed whole, and the deceased's soul would suffer torment in hell. Otherwise, the deceased could proceed to heaven.
He didn't know what use this thing had for now, but the prompt before his eyes was crystal clear.
[You have discovered a hidden hint]
Unfortunately, it didn't provide the specific content of the hint.
Natsuki put the paper away, took the key, walked to the door, inserted it, and successfully unlocked it.
"Let's go. We're heading out."
Kitagawa Marin suddenly had a bold idea: "Wait—for hide and seek, what if we block the door and hide in the room without coming out, pretending no one's here? Would that work?"
Of course not. How could they let you clear it so easily?
Natsuki sighed: "If it's a ghost, it doesn't need to open doors to enter rooms."
"I forgot." Kitagawa Marin slapped her forehead. "Ghosts and such can pass through walls—they don't need to push doors to get in... Hiding in a room is a dead end."