Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

My arm was broken, my entire body was covered in wounds, and my internal organs were crushed.

But I was standing. That was the most important fact.

I looked down at Lump, who had collapsed clutching his stomach, and spat out phlegm mixed with blood nearby.

“Ptui.”

It wasn’t out of mockery or anything like that, something just kept rising up inside.

My vision was spinning. The Water Barrier was already close enough to almost cling to my skin, and the medicine’s effects were starting to take their toll with side effects demanding their price.

Before I could savor the joy of victory or anything, I sat down with my head spinning.

I felt like vomiting. How long had I waited, about 10 minutes, kneeling with my hands on the sand while gasping for breath?

Footsteps rustling in the sand overlapped. I let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, I hadn’t passed out before then.

“…You’re late. What happened with Decay?”

“In the end, I couldn’t capture him. I came as quickly as possible after that, but…”

Cold fingers touched my head.

My churning stomach calmed down a bit. As I barely stopped retching, there was a hint of admiration in Dersia’s voice.

“Unlike me, you actually managed to do it.”

“So you didn’t believe in me… Then why did you send me?”

“You don’t seem to remember, but I wasn’t the one who tried to send you. And I also thought, at the very least, you wouldn’t lose.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Lump isn’t part of a Great World, and the methods it could use were limited to simply borrowing bodies. It was a bit lacking to think it could kill someone like you, who had been able to fully unfold your Great World. However…”

With a subtle expression, Dersia pulled out the fountain pen and drew swiftly through the air.

Lump was painted black, and then disappeared as if he had never existed.

She probably didn’t kill him. She must have imprisoned him somewhere so he couldn’t commit suicide.

“To think you would not only survive but also defeat and capture a high-ranking member of the Crimson Circle… I truly didn’t expect that. Jern, you always exceed my expectations.”

“I did my best. If I had failed, it would’ve all been for nothing.”

As I said that while somehow fixing my broken arm, I suddenly remembered the earlier conversation.

“Come to think of it, that guy said something strange.”

“What was it?”

“He said he never tortured me… he just threw the doll’s original into the river? And that was me.”

“That’s probably a lie.”

Dersia lightly shook her head, dismissing it.

“At first, I also thought you were just an unbelievably unlucky child. But rather than a lightning strike hitting a needle, the hypothesis that they did something to you during your infancy is far more reasonable.”

“Is that so?”

“The only unknowns would be why they tried to make you fall into the Abyss before you turned ten, and what it was that you lost, those kinds of things.”

“I thought maybe another executive, someone Lump didn’t know, was the one who did it…”

“This one held quite an important position in Crimson Circle. The possibility he doesn’t know is small.”

That certainly made more sense.

As I was nodding, Dersia looked down at me and narrowed her brow.

“…But you’re too severely injured. What happened?”

“He was using the bodies of top-class knights.”

“Is that a problem? I’ve heard that your Current sense gives you overwhelming superiority in battles with knights.”

“…Even if I know it’s coming, there are attacks I can’t dodge.”

“Let’s focus on treatment first. We can talk about the rest later.”

Dersia examined my injured parts closely, then suddenly lifted her fountain pen and dropped ink onto the wounded area.

“Ow. Won’t dropping ink on a wound cause infection?”

“This isn’t ink.”

Swish – when she rubbed the dropped ink, the wound had disappeared.

“…Huh?”

I was flustered. Wasn’t healing magic supposed to not exist?

I looked at Dersia with a slightly suspicious face. My trust in Dersia had been slightly chipped away since the last kidnapping incident.

“Wait… Are you sure you’re not healing me by cutting into my lifespan or something?”

“Look at my arm.”

Dersia extended her pale, slender arm.

On that arm was a cut identical to the one that had just disappeared from his.

“This isn’t healing. I’m transferring your wounds onto my body.”

“…I don’t know what it is, but let’s stop this.”

I tried to refuse in shock, but Dersia paid no attention and dropped more ink on my other wounds.

“Think about it rationally.”

The wounds on Dersia’s arm healed in the blink of an eye.

“The recovery ability of an Elf and that of a Human child are not even comparable. If someone has to bear the injury, I should be the one to take it.”

“Elves have exceptional recovery abilities too?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t know?”

It seemed that Elves being good at recovery was common sense in this world.

I had received help, but-

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Pain is something I’m accustomed to.”

I couldn’t shake off the unpleasant feeling.

*

After receiving appropriate emergency treatment, I returned to the kingdom and made my way to the topmost floor room that had been assigned to me.

It was already dawn.

“Seeing that both of you returned safely, I guess things went well.”

“What about the prince?”

“He’s sleeping soundly right now.”

Ciel was playing with Rahan’s hair as he slept deeply.

“I didn’t notice it when he was awake, but now that he’s asleep, he really looks exactly like you, Jern-nim.”

It was true. With his expression relaxed in sleep, the resemblance was uncanny.

As I was caught in a strange feeling, Dersia snapped with an exasperated tone.

“He’s still just a doll. Once this matter is over, it’s right to dispose of him and tell the king the truth.”

“What? No, that’s not right.”

I quickly shook my head in surprise.

“Why dispose of him? Even if he’s a doll, he can think for himself and helped me. I just want to leave him be.”

“Jern, that doll stole your life.”

Dersia added, as if she couldn’t believe it.

“You could have lived a life with nothing lacking as a prince of a small kingdom. That doll is in a place that should rightfully be yours.”

“It wasn’t Rahan who took it, it was the Crimson Circle.”

“That’s true. But regardless, that doll is in a position that should rightfully be yours, and it is also a clear fact that you deserve to reclaim it. Are you really planning to leave things as they are?”

“Things ran smoothly without me. There’s no reason to step in and stir up conflict.”

“What about your parents? Are you okay with them never recognizing you, and living the rest of their lives thinking the doll is their son? You’re really fine with that?”

“It’s a little sad, but we have to think about their side too. How devastated would they be to learn that the one they’ve loved and cherished as a son all their life is just a doll, and their real son has been wasting away with some deadly illness? Let’s just leave things be.”

“Jern.”

Dersia’s gaze cooled.

“Just say you don’t want to be a prince.”

“Yes. I don’t. I really don’t.”

I hated positions with responsibility, but I hated positions with nothing but responsibility even more. That was the most horrible thing in the world.

When I showed my genuine disgust, she sighed and gave in.

“If that’s how you feel, I won’t force you. Honestly, even if you did become a prince here, there would be more losses than gains.”

With that, Dersia pulled a small book from inside her robes.

“Then let’s begin the interrogation.”

“Ah, right.”

I focused, forgetting the pain in my body.

I was strangely excited, mixed feelings of anticipation at finally learning fragments of my past, and anxiety over just what might have happened to this body to end up in such a state.

Then I noticed something strange and asked,

“Wait… are we doing it here? There are people outside, and since it’s night, things could get noisy and annoying. Shouldn’t we go to, like, a dungeon or something?”

“This interrogation will use a slightly different method. Don’t worry.”

What’s that supposed to mean?

As I wondered, Dersia opened the small book and dropped some ink onto it.

“Where is Lump?”

“It’s right here.”

At first, I didn’t understand what she meant.

But as I stepped closer and looked into the book, I saw the ink squirming as if it were alive, forming letters, then words, then sentences, then breaking apart again.

Eventually, a single sentence appeared.

[Wh a t th e f u ck is th i s h ell h o le]

“…Master?”

I called out to Dersia, uneasily.

She responded as if it were nothing.

“I turned it into a Record. It was difficult, but doable. No matter how much it yells, there won’t be any sound, so there’s no need to worry.”

A Record, huh. I looked at her with pity.

“When did you fall into the Abyss?”

“…It’s proper magic.”

“No, no matter how you look at it, this feels like an Abyss Realm ability…”

“This is the highest-level magic I can use. I have already placed one of my feet firmly in the Celestial Realm, and didn’t I tell you before that the only difference between the Abyss Realm and the Celestial Realm is whether you are the ruler of your world or its prisoner?”

With that said, I had nothing left to argue.

Still, it was truly a chilling ability, so I scooted a bit away from her.

To seal someone inside a book and turn them into a form of record… In a way, it did feel like the perfect magic for Dersia.

“Let’s begin with the first question. I have to ask it before the digestion is complete, so we don’t have a lot of time.”

Dersia lightly flipped through the book and began writing several commands in a language I couldn’t understand.

“What did you ask?”

“I asked for memories related to your existence. Soon, all related records will surface.”

Before long, dialogue records appeared in the book, as if transcribing a conversation between certain individuals.

[We need to take over the cities? What’s the point of that? Just kill everyone.]

[There needs to be a sustainable base.]

[Why?]

[Because it’s necessary.]

A conversation between Lump and another executive.

I couldn’t tell who the executive was. All I could do was guess that it might have been Decay.

[That prince guy, we knocked him out and brought him. Anything else you want done?]

[Hmm… Good work.]

[What, you’re just gonna toss him in the river? Then we could’ve just killed him and brought the body.]

[I couldn’t trust you that easily. I had to check personally.]

And that was the end.

“…?”

“?”

We stared at each other, bewildered.

“That’s it?”

“…I asked it to share everything it knows about you. This must be all there is.”

“So, if we summarize…”

I was just kidnapped to help create a sustainable base.

And after the kidnapping, meaning after they made room to insert the doll called Rahan, I was no longer needed, so they just tossed me into a nearby river.

In simpler terms.

“I guess I really was nothing.”

I was connected to the Crimson Circle, yes, but only just to that extent.

They never tortured me, never paid me any mind.

In other words, when they failed to recognize me, it was simply because they really didn’t know who I was.

All they did was throw me into a river, so how could they remember me?

“…I don’t understand.”

Dersia stumbled and sat down, looking confused.

“I thought that even if you weren’t deeply connected, at the very least, the Crimson Circle had tortured you and discarded you when they didn’t get results, that was the logical assumption. But if that never happened…”

“…It just got even harder to find out about my past.”

I let out a sigh as I looked at the deep sea creatures swimming around us.

Trying to figure out why these things were created had become even more of a mystery.

“Then what do we do now?”

“This isn’t over yet.”

She shook her head and began writing more into the book.

“Even if we can’t find the cause, it doesn’t mean we don’t know how to find a solution. There must be clues. I’ll try to find everything related.”

With an eerie expression, Dersia wrote something down.

For nearly ten minutes.

“-! I found it.”

At that moment, another dialogue record began appearing in the book.

[Creating the Three Evils. That is the current top priority.]

“…Ah.”

The Three Evils.

I’d heard the term a few times. They had been going back and forth, saying I was one, then that I wasn’t, so all I could deduce was that one of them was related to the Deep Sea.

The Crimson Circle member, identity unknown, continued speaking in a tone as if explaining to several others.

[The stimulus applied to force a wizard to fall into the Abyss is ultimately an artificial Burden. You have to grind down hundreds of wizards. And they have to be children, only then does one barely emerge. Even so, it’s far from enough. It’s impossible to reach it this way.]

[Not sure about that. I’m against it.]

[Why?]

[I get it, you’re trying to apply minute Burdens across the entire world.]

“…”

“…”

Even though the dialogue record was still playing, there was no way I could just let it pass.

Faced with a story on a completely different scale, we looked at each other.

“Is this… even possible?”

“…It’s impossible. But, it’s clear that this is their goal.”

Regardless of our shock, the dialogue record continued on.

[But why the Three Evils of all things? That’s just some legendary tale. Is there really a reason we need their Burden? I mean, if we just spread that bastard Decay’s Burden across the world, a thousand people would fall into the Abyss every day.]

[Lump, you stupid son of a bitch. Minor Burden. Minor! Do you think spreading Inner World across the entire world is something easy, you fuck?]

[Yeah, so what? It’s any different with the Three Evils? Are they really that much stronger when you spread their shit across the world? Even the Ocean wouldn’t cause more than a slightly slower fall when you leap into it, so do we really have to go chasing after those guys?]

[Lump, I understand your doubts. Perhaps your kind haven’t lived long enough to know, you’re lacking knowledge about the Three Evils.]

[Of course. I don’t even know if they’re real. Even if they are, I don’t get what makes them so special.]

[Then I suppose it’s best I explain simply, considering your intellectual level.]

[What?]

The dialogue record continued.

[You’re right too. Even if it’s the world of a Three Evil, if we forcibly stretch it out and spread it across the world, it wouldn’t become a particularly strong Burden.]

[Then what’s the reason?]

[In the worlds of the Three Evils, living beings exist.]

[…Living beings? What kind?]

[What kind, you ask…]

[If their Burden spreads across the world, regardless of how strong or weak the Burden is, the world itself transforms into a place where merely existing is a Burden.]

[Because those things will roam the world.]

[That is the kind of existence the lifeforms from the worlds of the Three Evils are.]

“…”

Silently, I looked at the deep sea creatures swimming through the air.

Even if I wanted to deny it.

No matter how I looked at it…

…it really did seem like they were talking about me.