Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

“…! What on earth happened here??”

Some time later, Damyu returned to the Cathedral and couldn’t hide her shock at the grotesque scene before her: bloated bodies with reddened skin, collapsed all around.

I wasn’t exactly in pristine condition myself. I swallowed down the bitter taste while feeling like my body was being crushed. At least I couldn’t taste metallic tase in my mouth. That was something to be grateful for.

Even so, I managed a smile as I watched the Threads slowly snapping away from them one by one.

“It worked.”

“What, what did you do?”

“I made Dark Night fulfill her Contract.”

Those people had offered their lives in exchange for dumping all their Burden onto Dark Night.

I gathered everyone bound by such Contracts in one place and applied my Burden to them. The Burden goes to Dark Night first. Dark Night then transfers that Burden to the Livestock…

So then.

How long could the Livestock endure inside my World?

“…Huh?”

With Damyu supporting me, I stepped outside the Cathedral. An unbelievable sight greeted me.

The Capital was silent. Even accounting for the late hour, not a single footstep could be heard. Considering that every street was lit by lanterns, it was an unsettling scene that could only have been created deliberately.

Based on my experience so far, those Livestock should still have been active and moving around at this hour.

Just two minutes.

In that span of time, simply letting them experience my World had caused most of the Capital’s Livestock to cease functioning.

This exceeded my expectations.

“The results are far better than I thought.”

I clenched and unclenched my fist, recalling the sensation from before.

So this was my Burden. The feeling was somewhat ambiguous. It was difficult to make any optimistic guesses about my lifespan.

I didn’t know how I’d ended up falling into this kind of World, but one thing was certain: it was the perfect hidden blade for countering Dark Night.

Only then did a sudden curiosity arise.

“You. Your name was Damyu, right?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Do you happen to know anything about my past?”

“…Yes. Undercurrent-nim, you were originally from a capital city called Jern.”

Jern?

Just as I was trying to dig up information about my past—

Suddenly, I heard the pattering sound of rain.

“Wait.”

The noise of rain relentlessly pelting the ground continued, yet we didn’t feel a single drop.

Damyu couldn’t even hear the sound at all, tilting her head in confusion.

“…”

I slowly surveyed the Capital and looked up again.

Countless Threads stretching toward the sky were snapping one by one, creating the sound of rain.

A Chain Reaction had begun.

“…This is too fast.”

I hadn’t expected things to progress this quickly. I hurriedly snatched a spear from a nearby guard and handed it to Damyu.

“I’ll have to hear about that later. Something’s come up.”

“Wh-what is it?”

“Dark Night’s Ponzi Scheme is about to collapse.”

“…Ponzi Scheme?”

“Yes. Did you say the Burden of having to uphold Contracts was too weak? It’s the opposite. A Burden that absolutely must be upheld is an absurd amount. It’s a kind of rental fraud… ugh.”

A strange phrase suddenly came to mind, accompanied by a throbbing headache. It seemed I was being affected too.

I clutched my pounding head and continued.

“…Anyway, it’s fraud. But unlike a con artist who can run away, Dark Night can’t escape. If the Livestock can’t handle the Burden and die, eventually a time will come when Dark Night has to bear all the Burden of every Family member herself.”

“You inflicted that much Burden all by yourself?”

“My World is harsh, but not that harsh. It’s just that the timing was terrible for Dark Night.”

“What?”

I had created that terrible timing.

Recently, Dark Night had accepted an unprecedented number of Fallen all at once, pushing herself into a situation where the Livestock had to bear more Burden than they could handle.

It wasn’t that Dark Night hadn’t tried to respond. She’d been planning to send out other Fallen soon to increase the number of Livestock. If that had happened, crushing and killing every Fallen under my control still wouldn’t have been enough.

So I knew the time to act was approaching.

And right at that moment, this girl—prepared by my past self—arrived.

“Wow…!”

After hearing all that, Damyu nodded with an amazed expression.

“S-so then—is it over?”

“What? What did you think I was saying?”

“Huh?”

“This is just the beginning.”

The Livestock die. A time comes when Dark Night alone must bear the Burden of the entire Family.

When that happens, can she endure it?

No. Absolutely impossible.

“It’s not just the Capital. This entire massive kingdom couldn’t even handle distributing the Burden of barely five hundred Fallen among themselves. There’s no way Dark Night as an individual could endure all this Burden, no matter what.”

“…So doesn’t that mean it’s over?”

“She refers to Family members by Numbers.”

Why would she assign numbers based on when someone joined?

The reason was simple.

Because there was exactly one way to uphold a Contract without paying the price.

“The Pruning is about to begin.”

*

At the same time, in the castle corridors.

Dark Night’s Family members walked toward the Royal Hall with bewildered expressions.

“What could be happening at this hour?”

“I’m not sure. But where does this sound of rain keep coming from—”

“Number 1-nim. Do you know something?”

“…”

“Number 1-nim?”

“Not me, not me…”

“What?”

They could sense it instinctively.

Something was off tonight. Number 1, who was always cold and composed, was anxiously chewing at his nails, and the servants were nowhere to be seen.

But no one had the guts to ignore Dark Night’s summons just because they felt uneasy.

In the end, the Family gathered in the Royal Hall.

“Ah, everyone’s here?”

“Yes!”

Fortunately, Dark Night didn’t seem to be in a bad mood.

With a somewhat languid expression, she sat casually in her chair, smiling as she began counting her Family members.

“Uncle, little sister, nephew, Mother…”

After that incomprehensible counting, Dark Night let out a sigh.

“Haah, Oppa isn’t here after all.”

“…?”

Only then did the Family members look around.

Indeed, Undercurrent was nowhere to be seen. He hadn’t answered the summons.

Dark Night drummed her fingers on the armrest with a pouty expression.

“I thought Oppa would understand me. How disappointing.”

“…Ah! If it’s Undercurrent, he’s probably at that Cathedral right now, brainwashing the other children. Shall I go fetch him?”

“No. The moment he didn’t come here, it was already over.”

“Pardon?”

“But still, hmm…”

Then she smiled.

Very deeply.

After muttering to herself, Dark Night looked at her bewildered Family and began explaining as if it were nothing.

“It’s not a big deal. It seems Oppa has betrayed me.”

“…Are you saying Number 33 has committed treason?”

“Yes. His plan was quite elaborate. I never imagined he’d act exactly the same way even after losing his memories. That should be impossible. But apparently, he knew he would.”

“Haah, terrifying!”

“We’ll go arrest him immediately!”

“That would be difficult.”

She shook her head and replied quietly.

“Oppa seems to be quite strong. I thought he’d be able to digest any reasonable amount of Burden, but… Should I have noticed when the Puppet gave up? Haah, this is hard. So hard.”

“Th-then what should we do?”

“Hmm. Would you sacrifice yourselves for me?”

“Of course! We would sacrifice anything!”

“Really?”

“Yes. For the Family, we would sacrifice any—huh?”

Threads coiled around the head of Number 17, who had said those words trying to score points.

That was the last thing he ever knew.

With a wet crunch, his head burst.

“…Wha, what?”

“What the—”

Number 17’s body swayed without its head, then collapsed forward.

The Family members, splattered with blood mixed with fragments of his skull, still hadn’t grasped what was happening. Only Number 1 watched the scene with clenched teeth.

Dark Night looked down at her Family and made her request as if nothing had happened.

“Don’t worry. I’ll find another nephew soon.”

“…”

Only then did the Family realize.

To Dark Night, a nephew was a nephew.

Male or female, child or adult. Human or not. None of it mattered.

Even if it was a different person, if she called them nephew, they became the same person as before.

Family was simply that kind of thing.

“…Aah, aaaah…!”

Number 20, reeling in horror, rushed toward the door.

But the door was sewn shut with Threads and wouldn’t budge an inch.

Dark Night hadn’t done it.

“Number 1! Open this damn thing right now! Now!”

“…Shut up.”

Number 1 gritted his teeth.

‘I can’t believe I have to go through this madness again.’

Deeply unsettled, he dragged down the other Family members trying to escape through the windows and recited what he’d been told long ago.

“You’re not dying. Dark Night-nim never abandons Family no matter what. She’ll find new Family members soon and remake them into you.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit! I’m not some fucking grandfather, I’m me! Open the door!”

“Since you seem to have trouble understanding, let me put it more simply. If you don’t die, I die.”

“What…!”

That was his true feeling.

And besides, even if he opened the door, they wouldn’t be able to escape.

The Threads descended like divine judgment from the heavens, lovingly binding the Family members lost in despair.

“No, please…”

Thwack, thwack-thwack!

Blood sprayed and flesh scattered.

In the midst of what looked like a slaughterhouse for livestock, Number 1 squeezed his eyes shut.

When he came to his senses, he was the only one left.

“…”

Standing there drenched in blood with his fists clenched, he watched as small Threads were drawn out from the corpses and flowed into Dark Night’s fingers.

She smiled contentedly and let out a light breath.

“Haah, this breaks my heart. Why does everyone suffer so much? In the end, memories are just memories. In the end, bodies are just bodies. We’ll be Family no matter when or where.”

“…Indeed.”

“That’s why I don’t want to lose Oppa even more.”

Dark Night waved her fingers, unwinding the coiled Threads.

The Threads clung even more tightly to Number 1’s body, constricting him.

“Number 1. While I go persuade Oppa, release the other children for a while.”

“Yes.”

How many would he have to kill?

Number 1 couldn’t even begin to guess.

*

“Huh…? Wh-what is that?”

While I was tightly binding my body to a pillar with rope, a vortex appeared in the night sky.

More precisely, a vortex made of Threads was drilling down into the center of the castle.

Even Damyu could see it.

Which meant—

“She’s deployed her World.”

“D-Dark Night-nim has declared her Abyss Realm??”

“Is that the term for it? No, actually, I think I’ve heard it before…”

Memories felt like they were on the verge of returning, yet remained just out of reach. This was a new symptom.

From this alone, I could deduce that the effects of Dark Night breaking most of her Contracts were reaching me.

Damyu stamped her feet in disbelief.

“Wait, shouldn’t she be taking damage right about now? She can still do something like that?”

“It’s complicated. She’s deploying her Abyss Realm precisely because she’s taken damage. She’s finally been brought down to a level where we can fight her, so she’s trying to fight. If I win now, it’s all over.”

“Um… can you win?”

“She made exactly one mistake. Though calling it a mistake isn’t quite right. How could anyone have predicted this?”

I let out a small laugh.

“Even my past self probably didn’t know. I have a real chance at winning.”

“Then I’ll run and hide!”

“No. I have a favor to ask.”

“What?”

After considering my words carefully, I simply asked sincerely.

“Dark Night will probably keep one Family member alive and have them try to kill everyone in the Cathedral. I need you to stop that.”

“You want me to fight one of Dark Night’s executives?”

Damyu shook her head with an incredulous expression.

“No, I can’t! And aren’t the people in the Cathedral the ones who’ll die if Dark Night tells them to?”

“The unconscious ones can be moved, but the ones who’ve been broken can’t move. Their joints are completely severed, so even if they try to move, they can’t. From Dark Night’s perspective, she’ll definitely try to kill them to reduce the Burden she receives. If you stop that, I’ll have the upper hand in the battle.”

“Even so…”

“Please. My past self must have trusted you to entrust you with that letter.”

“…”

I threw out bait to sway the hesitant Damyu.

“Even if I defeat Dark Night, there’s no guarantee I’ll recover my memories.”

That was indeed a possibility I found uncertain.

What if Dark Night died without returning my memories, leaving me like this forever?

“If that happens, I’ll have no purpose left. I’ll use what remains of my body to take responsibility for your Burden.”

“…Mine?”

“Yes. I swear on my life.”

Only then did a look of resolve flash across Damyu’s face.

“I-I’ll try.”

“Thank you.”

It seemed she trusted me enough to believe in my promise, at least.

Of course—if I truly failed to recover my memories.

“…Tch.”

It was a meaningless promise anyway, since I’d be dead soon enough.