Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

“…”

I cautiously approached the corpse.

I didn’t know what unknown method it might use to attack, so I exercised maximum caution and scanned it using Current Sense, but—

No matter how many times I checked, it was just a corpse.

“Why is this here.”

I was simply bewildered. Could everyone I’d killed be stored in here?

With that speculation in mind, I searched through the Deep Sea for a while, but the only one there was Dark Night. Wihwa and the others. I couldn’t find even a trace.

After confirming it was only Dark Night, I examined the corpse more closely.

The Deep Sea Creatures showed no interest in Dark Night’s corpse floating about. Seeing them pass by as if they couldn’t see her, it seemed they couldn’t perceive her existence at all. I rubbed my chin and recalled what made the battle against Puppet different from other fights.

“…I killed her inside an Inner World.”

But that was the same for Wihwa.

If there was something different about that battle.

“She had also declared her Inner World… is that it.”

If that was the only difference, I could grasp what had happened.

An Inner World is the act of overlapping the Material Realm with my world.

However, if Puppet had done the same, then three worlds would have been overlapping.

My Deep Sea. Her Puppet. And the Material Realm.

The victor in that three-way battle was my Deep Sea.

The problem was Dark Night. She had become one with Puppet. But the world she should have belonged to, Puppet, had been destroyed, and as a result, she was transferred to the world that had overlapped with the most territory—

which was my victorious Deep Sea.

In other words, if I had to put it into words.

“She’s a refugee.”

A remnant left behind by a defeated world.

More precisely, it would be accurate to call it a Refugee corpse.

With a slightly uncomfortable expression, I poked at it. If my guess was correct, it wouldn’t cause any particular harm.

But that didn’t mean having it here would be helpful either…

“…?”

That was when I was thinking up to that point.

Something glinted in the water. More precisely, on my finger.

Slowly, as I lifted it, there was a ring.

A ring made of thread.

“This can’t be…”

I pulled a long thread from the ring in shock.

At the same time, I felt a burning sensation in my head.

“…Ugh.”

Knowledge from an entirely different Realm shook my mind.

This thread was contract. It was the world’s ability to move marionettes.

The same kind of thread that Puppet had first offered me. Something that forced unbreakable contracts.

It was so short that I couldn’t pull out more than a few dozen centimeters, but— it was definitely Puppet’s ability.

I gritted my teeth. This was absolutely not good.

“So you’re still alive.”

I immediately kicked Dark Night’s corpse.

Right now, Puppet hadn’t been completely destroyed. It still remained in my world in the form of Dark Night.

This thing swaying limply from my kick wasn’t completely dead either.

If I had to describe this, then she would be a refugee, but instead of a normal refugee, she came here as the king of a world. Unless I completely finished her off, she would keep influencing me like this.

Of course, being able to use Puppet’s abilities was a good thing. The ability to control Deep Sea Creatures matched my Deep Sea extremely well.

The problem was that I would likely have to bear its Burden as well.

I, who felt like I could die from the Deep Sea’s Burden alone, couldn’t endure this.

I wanted to crush it with water pressure right now and be done with it, but that would be a bad move.

A world doesn’t die even if it loses its form. If I crushed it here, it would just dissolve into the Deep Sea. That would only make the situation much more complicated.

I had to find a way to expel it while it still maintained its form.

“Hey, wake up.”

In the end, I tried waking it by tapping the corpse.

“I don’t need any of this crap, so get up. Can’t you hear me?”

“…”

“Don’t pretend to be asleep.”

“…”

I tried strangling its neck, poking its arms and legs, and even putting its head in a shark’s mouth and pulling it out, but— there was no reaction.

After trying for a while, I was about to just slice it into pieces to keep it from dissolving into the Deep Sea when—

Warmth was felt from my chest.

It wasn’t a simple heat source. It felt as though a small hand was placed on my chest.

Only then did I realize that my body had almost no warmth to it. When warmth touched my body in such a state, I could even feel its shape.

Only when I could distinguish each joint of the fingers did I let out a sigh.

It seemed my fate wasn’t to dissolve and die just yet.

***

In the pitch-black Deep Sea, outlines slowly began to appear.

An oak ceiling gradually appeared above my head, and I felt something soft touching my fingertips.

Then came the sensation of being constrained by gravity. My body was gradually being pulled toward the ground— I realized I was lying down.

A cough escaped on its own.

I pushed aside the blanket and sat up, my entire body burning like fire. Resisting a headache, I looked to the side…

“?”

Someone who shouldn’t have been there came into view.

This small young lady, snoring softly.

This girl—

“Elysia?”

No, this wasn’t supposed to happen.

After scanning the lavishly decorated room, an uneasy feeling drove me to hurry to the window.

-Whoosh!

Instead of Manganji Kingdom’s terrible hellscape, beautiful and familiar fortresses and spires came into view.

The Empire. The Capital.

“…What?”

I couldn’t find words for a while from the sheer absurdity.

It would take quite a while to fly from Manganji Kingdom to the Empire even on a dragon.

Did Master do something? No, she shouldn’t have…

First, I laid Elysia, who was sleeping uncomfortably, properly on the bed where I had been.

“Mmm… Jern…?”

“It’s fine. Get some rest.”

It seemed Elysia hadn’t been able to sleep out of worry for me.

The dark circles under her eyes were so severe that she looked no different from Dersia.

I roughly took off the patient gown and put on my robe that was hanging nearby, and only then did my aching head feel a little better.

But the confusion remained.

When I hurried to open the door, I almost screamed.

“Oh.”

“Hm?”

A maid was standing right in front of the door.

It was Ciel. She seemed quite surprised too, lightly covering her mouth as she asked.

“Jern-nim? You’re up already. Are you feeling alright?”

“Probably. Um, so. Why am I in the Empire?”

This was the most urgent thing I needed to ask.

I had barely caught the Upper Tier, and had only just found a way to get close to those bastards. Coming back to the Empire would mean all that progress would be lost.

Ciel answered in a calm tone, as if trying to reassure me.

“I understand your concerns. But not even three days have passed, so there shouldn’t be any setbacks to the plan.”

“Oh, that’s a relief…”

After letting out a sigh of relief, I was now curious about something else.

“So— why was I brought here?”

“Because the renowned physician capable of treating your condition was only in the Capital.”

“Do you mean Master?”

“No. Weren’t they in the room with you just now?”

“…?”

There was no one in the room except Elysia.

As I tilted my head in confusion, Ciel shook her head as if to say this wasn’t the time.

“My lady has instructed me to bring you to her immediately once you woke up.”

“Um, if it’s not urgent, could I hear about it later?”

Three days. Not much time had passed, but there were many follow-up matters to attend to.

I had to deal with Piercing Blood, who had regained consciousness, and if the Crimson Circle tried to contact me through a new member of the Upper Tier, they absolutely couldn’t find out I was in the Capital.

Ciel, who knew all of this, stated flatly.

“It’s urgent.”

“If that’s the case, understood.”

If she was saying this knowing all of that, it must not be ordinary business.

I followed behind Ciel as she walked briskly, looking around the corridor.

Only then did I realize this was the Imperial Palace. Why was I being treated at the Imperial Palace?

When we opened the door to a conference room and entered—

“No matter what happens, everything must be sealed off. This is my direct order! Remember, Her Highness Sharmia has given these instructions!”

“It doesn’t matter. If food is scarce, open all the storehouses! For one month, the people must absolutely not be allowed to leave the territory!”

It was pandemonium.

Haggard-faced nobles were stamping seals on countless documents, urgently handing them off to messengers with repeated warnings. It was so chaotic that I could have mistaken it for the middle of a marketplace.

“Damn it…! Can’t we use this mountain path?”

“Isn’t it too dangerous to move without lighting fires? If we make a single mistake…”

Seeing them stamp documents with bloodshot eyes, completely oblivious to us, I understood that “emergency” was no exaggeration.

Only after passing through that conference room and opening a larger door could I meet with Dersia.

“…Jern.”

“Ah, you’re here.”

Sharmia was also there.

The sight of those two sitting at the same desk made me slightly dizzy, but their serious expressions told me this wasn’t the time, so I hurried over and sat down.

“What is all this? Do I need to give up the Crimson Circle infiltration and help?”

“No. Quite the opposite.”

Dersia shook her head with a troubled expression.

“It seems… your task is about to become much more critical.”

“Huh?”

“First of all, I heard you took down an Upper Tier member. You did very well.”

“Ah, yes. There was quite a bit of follow-up work to do, but…”

“I’ve handled that on my end.”

Dersia replied with a shrug.

“You brought in something unusual. Damyu, was it?”

“Yes. She provided some assistance in this Dark Night subjugation.”

“Using her, I’ve spread word throughout the Lower Tier that you defeated Dark Night. The one called Piercing Blood has also declared his support for you, so the information should reach the Upper Tier soon.”

“They haven’t discovered I’m here, have they?”

“I don’t handle things that sloppily. I’ve set up a story that you’re lying low due to severe injuries, and anyone who wants to contact you must go through Damyu—”

Dersia held up a small orb.

“When she receives contact from the Upper Tier, I’ll know immediately as well.”

“Is Damyu… cooperating well?”

“There was some resistance. It was meaningless.”

Looking into Dersia’s emotionless eyes, I silently offered a moment of prayer.

At least she wasn’t dead.

“But that’s not the problem.”

She glanced at Sharmia with those eyes.

“I’ll explain from here.”

Instead of her usual cheerful tone, she spoke with a slightly furrowed brow.

“The Calamity has come far too early.”

“…Calamity?”

“Yes.”

With a serious expression, she casually dropped something absurd.

“Have you noticed that nights have been getting slightly longer recently?”

“??”

“Oh, well, I suppose the rapid progression has only been recent…”

“Wait. What about the nights?”

“They’ve gotten longer. Physically.”

“Uh…”

As I struggled to process something that made no sense either scientifically or logically, she handed me a piece of paper.

“This is a timetable tracking the hours of day and night over the past ten years. If you look, night hours have been gradually increasing since the start of this year… and in just the past three days, the sun has been setting three whole hours earlier and rising later.”

“That’s… um.”

I gave up on understanding and asked instead.

“I understand it’s a major problem, but… is there anything else?”

“During those lengthened nights, things that shouldn’t move are moving.”

“?”

“It’ll be faster to show you. I’ve captured one.”

Sharmia raised her hand beneath a lamp.

The light created a shadow. At first, it was just an ordinary shadow cast by her hand.

Until it started to squirm.

Sharmia didn’t move her hand at all. The shadow moved on its own, then suddenly leaped out and grabbed her hand.

“…!”

Before I could jump up and do something, Dersia sliced through the air.

The shadow was cut away as it was, then crumbled to dust and vanished.

Sharmia, whose wrist had been grabbed, shook her hand nonchalantly and replied.

“This has never happened once in the history of the Empire. I asked Lady Dersia about this situation…”

“Jern, I believe you already know.”

“…Yes.”

I answered through gritted teeth. As a Fallen, I could tell.

Even if I weren’t.

“So they chose something else entirely.”

The Crimson Circle had imposed their Burden upon the real world.

A little earlier than we had anticipated.