Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

Within the vast organization known as the Crimson Circle, the role Damyu was assigned was,

A Warehouse.

To store and conceal things. The word that referred more to a location than a person became the foundation of her identity.

Damyu accepted that. Beyond that, she was proud.

Although she was not the only one to play the role of a warehouse, she had the most in her possession.

Each time the Crimson Circle’s possessions piled up one by one in her Swamp, she felt a sense of belonging and accomplishment.

Among them, the rarest and most expensive would be the World-Sealing Pill.

This pill, which looked like a white pearl, had such potent medicinal effects that it could halt the Burden of a world, and most members followed the Crimson Circle for the chance to consume this pill.

Hundreds of such pills. The fact that they were sleeping inside her Swamp made her delude herself into thinking that she might not be just a cog in the machine, but something important. Yes, a delusion.

“Take out all the World-Sealing Pills.”

“…What?”

The hill behind a small city. Where Damyu’s hometown used to be.

Having been suddenly summoned, Damyu knelt and questioned in confusion, then hurriedly bowed her head low.

Though they belonged to the same organization, there was a vast difference, like heaven and earth, between those who gave orders and those beneath them.

Between the regular members whose sole purpose was to survive, and those who taught them how to survive.

Some members feared or hated those people whose motives they didn’t even understand.

But the majority respected them, for they had taught them how to survive in hell.

Damyu was also in the latter group. That was why, rather than resolving her doubt, she first retrieved the box from her Swamp and handed it over.

As Decay lifted it and was about to leave, Damyu, after some hesitation, called out to him.

“L-Lord Decay.”

“…”

Decay did not reply but glanced down briefly at the kneeling Damyu.

It was closer to a cold reaction of “You’re still here?” rather than a response to her question. Even as her lungs froze from the chill, she firmly continued speaking.

Because among those World-Sealing Pills, some were intended for her own use.

“The next batch of World-Sealing Pills will arrive in a month. If you take them all, then the amount left to distribute to the regular members…”

“Don’t use them.”

“…?”

Leaving the bewildered Damyu behind, Decay replied lightly and turned his back.

“Fight the world. If you can’t even fight for a month without the pills, then you were never capable of fighting to begin with.”

“B-but.”

She couldn’t finish her words. Because there was no one left to talk to.

Decay hadn’t had a conversation, he had issued a command. All that remained where he had stood were frozen footprints.

Damyu returned to hell for a month.

The ground was no longer a place she could step on.

No matter where she climbed or what she held onto, it liquefied. Even humans did.

She walked without rest, ran, fainted, and awoke choking, only to find her shoulders submerged. It was as if she were reliving the shock and terror of the first time she sank into her world.

When she barely managed to survive for a month, she overheard rumors among her comrades.

“They say Decay took all the World-Sealing Pills to give them to some newbie?”

“Newbie? Who?”

“Dunno, probably some damn heaven-blessed bastard.”

At the time, Damyu was in such agony that she didn’t think too deeply about it. It was closer to being unable to.

She recalled the fact again just one hour ago.

Because of a direct order that came from Decay.

“…So it was him.”

Squeeze… Damyu crushed the letter paper that described the one called Jern in detail.

Decay was not the kind of person who would go as far as to send a letter for a mere member.

So this piece of paper carried an silent pressure, saying that he’s someone important.

Damyu had no such intentions.

At the very least, she wanted to rough him up a bit. She could guess his strength from the fact that Decay vouched for him, but still…

‘He’s only eleven?’

That meant it hadn’t even been a year since he awakened his world.

At a stage where he hadn’t even figured out how to overcome the Burden and was probably just running around in fear.

No matter how vicious his world might be, he was at the perfect age to torment.

If she really killed him, Decay might get furious, but giving him a beating to show who’s on top, that much should be fine.

With that thought in mind, Damyu waited atop a tree with a piercing gaze.

Completely unaware of the kind of person she was about to meet.

*

“Th-That’s impossible…”

As I lightly emerged, pushing aside the Swamp, Damyu stared at me in shock.

It seemed she couldn’t believe that I had escaped, even more than the insult I had just thrown at her.

Was it really that surprising? I tilted my head, and her gaze shifted to the top of mine.

“You-y-you’ve only been a fallan for a year.”

“So what?”

“But how are you using your world at will?!”

“…Using the world?”

“Yes, you’re handling it freely…! Since when has that been possible!”

I tilted my head again. What was she talking about?

If by using the world she meant using the power of the world, then that had been from the very beginning when I first lifted a book in the orphanage library.

“Since I had the Awakening Fever. Doesn’t everyone?”

“No! A Fallen who gets submerged in their first world either dies or suffers until the brink of death, they can’t control their world at will! You have to survive at least three years before you can barely create something like magic with your own will…”

…Was it like that?

The only Fallen I know who hasn’t been fallen long is Ren.

And Ren, hmm. Considering she tried to breathe fire at civilians, she could handle it.

“Maybe you’re just incompetent.”

“No, if a Fallen who’s only lived a year moves their world, they’re bound to die. How are you… alive?”

Watching Damyu’s genuinely flustered expression, I recalled Ren’s situation.

She was practically dying. Was that the backlash from forcefully using her world?

As I felt things fall into place, I nodded.

“So basically, someone my age would usually die from bearing this Burden.”

“Y-Yeah.”

A world reversed to endure pain.

The only thing not reversed inside is the world’s owner.

Naturally, every movement would come with excruciating pain and the threat of death.

Through my Water Barrier, desperate struggle to survive, and Dersia’s help, I was managing to hold on with various means, but not everyone could do that.

Ordinary Fallen who pulled on the world’s power would meet the same result as Ren.

I had known it to a certain extent, but now I was sure.

Not every Fallen is a monster like Lump or Decay.

Most are just prisoners barely scraping to survive their own path.

“Thanks for the advice.”

I tightened Water Pressure around Damyu’s neck.

“Gh-!”

And then lifted her straight up.

Damyu flailed, looking at me in pain. With confusion and fear in her expression, I explained the reason.

“You told me to survive for a month. But surviving in a world like this wouldn’t even count as a test. I think you need to raise the difficulty.”

“Kh-Khakk… G-Great World…?”

“Try facing me.”

I muttered with cold anger.

Guilt? As if. These bastards are human trash whose goal is kidnapping and torturing children.

“If you’re a member of the Crimson Circle, you should have at least that much power. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

-Thud. I grabbed the flailing one and slammed her into a nearby tree.

But something about the sound was off. Rather than the sound of a human body colliding with wood, it felt lighter.

I narrowed my brow as I saw the tree Damyu crashed into melt with a sticky consistency.

I could tell just by looking. That texture and thickness was the same Swamp I had just stepped into.

“Khek, cough…”

Instead of replying, Damyu coughed and struggled.

Watching her arms and legs slowly sink wherever they touched, I was dumbfounded.

She had put on such a grand act, but in reality, the moment she lost focus, she was sinking to death.

That tough front, that act of strength, must’ve been to hide this weakness. As I stared at her with contempt, she trembled and pulled something from her clothes.

It was the pearl-like pill I had received from Decay.

As if it were a lifeline, she trembled while trying to put it into her mouth with precious care.

-Tok, roll…

“Ah.”

But her trembling overcame her, and she dropped the pill.

It rolled to my feet. Damyu’s eyes trembled as she stared at it in despair.

I waited silently. Waiting for her to take out another pill, swallow it, get back up, and come at me.

If I was going to establish the hierarchy clearly, I needed to break her at full strength. That much, I could wait for.

“…”

But Damyu simply stared at the pearl-like pill that had rolled to my feet with a look like her world had just collapsed.

…No way, is that the only one she has?

She carries just one of those around? Why?

Is she just not well-prepared? While I was thinking that, Damyu continued to sink.

Her mouth was twitching, like she wanted to say something, but her pride must’ve kept her from speaking.

“Hmm.”

What should I do? I had control of the situation.

If I left her like this, she would probably die, but then it would be hard to know what might happen next.

From my perspective, it would just be a self-inflicted death, she acted out and got killed. But from Decay’s point of view, he might think, “Ah, this guy came to ambush the Crimson Circle~.”

“…S…”

Just as half her body sank into the Swamp, she began to tremble and spoke.

“Please, p-please spare me…”

…Guess I have no choice.

I picked up the pill and tossed it toward her mouth.

“Gack-”

It was practically shoved straight into her throat. Damyu, who gulped it down quickly, stopped sinking not long after.

I restrained her arms and legs with Water Pressure, pulled her out of the ground, and asked,

“You only carry one of those pills at a time?”

“…Th-The World-Sealing Pill is valuable. We only get one a day. If we carry them all around, we become targets.”

Damyu replied in a much lower voice than before.

She even used honorifics now. It was a clear sign of submission, so I narrowed my brows and asked,

“Targets?”

“Y-Yes…”

“By who?”

“By other members…”

“What are you talking about?”

“Since the World-Sealing Pills are always in short supply, the members kill each other over them.”

“What?”

I was momentarily taken aback.

Why would they do something like that? Maybe sensing my confusion, Damyu hurried to explain.

“Low-ranking members like us can’t survive without the World-Sealing Pill. We all joined the Crimson Circle just to get that pill… me too.”

“Alright, I get that you can’t live without it. But the Crimson Circle only gives you a little bit?”

What’s the point of that? If they die like Damyu just almost did, wouldn’t that be cutting down their own strength?

And on top of that, they kill each other over it. Is this even an organization or just a jar of crabs?

Damyu continued, cautiously watching my expression.

“A-At first. I mean, before we join the Crimson Circle, we get a set amount. And as we keep taking it, we start to feel like normal people again, and our world quiets down… so we gather up whatever money we have to buy more.”

“They sell it to you?”

“It’s super expensive, though. Then they slowly raise the price, and eventually, we hit a point where we’ve spent everything you have, and from then on, we can’t live without the pill. A world without the pill is just too harsh…”

“So that’s when they lure you with recruitment, huh.”

“Y-Yes.”

The picture was becoming clear.

To Fallen living in hells they call their world, they show a path to living like normal people.

Once those Fallen spend everything they have and become destitute, the organization steps in with an offer, join them, and get a pill every time you follow orders.

“…I see.”

I could guess why the Crimson Circle adopted this method.

In the end, Fallen live terrible lives. So many believe it’s better to die, and many actually choose that.

Most of them are utterly broken, with no morality left, and fear nothing in the world. What could frighten someone already living in hell?

So they made the World-Sealing Pill.

Made it seem like there was a way to escape hell, to put a leash on them.

To turn those who fear even death into obedient sheep. And the more the members fought amongst themselves, the higher the value of the pill would rise, making the remaining members even easier to control.

It was a cycle built with clear thought. How many thousands of years had this system been running?

“The ones who came up with this system must be the higher-ups.”

“Yes. We call them Upper Tier. If we complete the missions assigned by the Upper Tier, we receive a few World-Sealing Pills. If we don’t… we die, soon after.”

“Upper Tier? Then you guys are Lower Tier?”

“Yes…”

“I… see.”

I now had a rough understanding of how the Crimson Circle operates.

A massive trap built to control the Fallen. A multi-tiered organization composed of exploiters and the exploited.

That is the Crimson Circle. But if this is true, achieving my goal becomes more difficult.

“Do you know about the Three Evils?”

“Ah, yes, I’ve heard of it…”

“What is it?”

“A vicious Great World…?”

As expected.

Looking at how this organization is structured, most important information and resources are monopolized by the upper ranks and never shared.

Upper and lower classes. There is no middle. Which means, to obtain the information I want, I must stand at the very top.

That means things just became much more troublesome than I thought.

“Is there a way for a Lower Tier member to become Upper Tier?”

“Y-Yes. I’m working toward that myself. If you become Upper Tier, you can get unlimited World-Sealing Pills… I heard if you keep completing missions, you’ll be summoned by one of them, and after passing a few tests, you can be promoted. Recently, a member named Lump became Upper Tier that way.”

“Alright. That’s enough.”

I nodded, having decided on a plan.

First, I need to get into the Upper Tier.

“Did Decay leave any other message?”

“Ah, yes…”

Damyu replied with a nervous expression.

“H-he told me to prove that my eyes hadn’t been mistaken…”

In other words, the parachute only got me this far.

“What missions are available?”

“Here’s a collection.”

Damyu politely handed over a mission booklet with both hands, and as I looked through it, she spoke again.

“Um, by the way…”

“What is it?”

Maybe because I showed her the difference in power, Damyu’s attitude had completely changed.

“Y-you handle your Great World so freely… is there a specific method you use?”

“Method?”

“Yes. When you move it like that, you should be experiencing at least some Burden…”

Damyu glanced over me with a gaze full of astonishment.

“But you look completely fine…”

“I don’t know either.”

“…What?”

The policy I would take regarding my world inside the Crimson Circle.

I had decided on that as well.

“Come to think of it, you might know. Try guessing what kind of world I have, based on the traits I describe.”

“G-guess it? I don’t know much about Great Worlds…”

“Is that so?”

I pulled out two World-Sealing Pills I had been carrying with me.

“That’s unfortunate. Helping me identify my world is worth about this much.”

As I watched Damyu’s greedy eyes fixate on the pills, I laughed inwardly.

The Current Sense of the Deep Sea, along with the Current and Water Pressure, has freedom close to limitless.

If it’s vast enough that even Decay can’t sense it,

“A-actually, if it’s a Great World, I do know most of them!”

Then I’ll just pick one that sounds about right and imitate it.