Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

In an instant, terror settled in the eyes of the child left all alone.

But it soon gave way to resignation. She must have realized there was nothing she could do.

“What should we do about this child?”

“…”

Instead of answering, Sharmia looked at the child’s bare feet, stained with blood.

She saw the result of running across a rocky field on those bare feet and shook her head.

“The child is innocent.”

“Not entirely innocent. It’s because she saw the gold coin and reported us to that man that things came to this.”

“I’m the one who showed her the gold coin. Let her go.” “If she did it once, she can do it twice. What will you do if the Imperial Palace finds this child and asks whether she’s seen the Princess?”

Of course, I had no intention of actually killing an innocent child either.

I had only said it out of curiosity, wondering how the young Sharmia would act in a situation like this, but…

“Please don’t do that.”

“…?”

“Please don’t tell anyone that you saw us.”

Surprisingly, Sharmia said this while looking at the child.

Naturally, the child listened with a dumbfounded expression before nodding her head vigorously.

“See? It’s settled.”

“Not at all. Not even a little, I’d say.”

I furrowed my brow, thinking she still held that lukewarm notion that people don’t break their promises, when she unexpectedly came out with something rather pragmatic.

“It’s not like we can cut out her tongue, can we? Besides, even if they learn we came to this city, they won’t be able to track where we go from here.”

“And for that reason, you’d leave a loose end?”

“My very existence is the loose end. This all happened because I escaped, so I can’t blame the child. More importantly, you’re thinking about this the wrong way.”

“Huh?”

“Even without a warning, this child won’t want anything to do with us. Well, more precisely… with a wizard like you.”

Indeed, the child kept flinching every time she looked at me. It seemed the sight of me snapping that thug’s neck in one motion had left quite the impression.

“If we can’t kill her, and she doesn’t want to be involved, then our interests align. I think all we need is a simple agreement.”

If I had to be honest, I thought this was a decision straight out of a head full of flowers, but…

“…Ngh, nnngh…”

The child looked like she was about to faint if we stayed any longer, so I had no choice but to nod.

“Go. Before this monster twists your neck too.”

The child heard Sharmia’s little slander and immediately bolted out of the inn.

Watching her go, Sharmia lowered her head as if she felt sorry for her.

“That child, she can’t be more than a year or two older than me at most, can she?”

“As you’ve seen for yourself, Your Highness, being young in the Empire today makes you not a subject of consideration, but of exploitation.”

“Is that so? It does seem that way.”

In a sense, it was a pointed remark jabbing at the Empire’s reality, but Sharmia didn’t deny it and simply agreed.

“There are people living in hell even before the Calamity arrives.”

It was a realization far too early for someone her age.

But it was the truth.

***

Whether Sharmia’s judgment had been right or wrong, I couldn’t say.

But in the end, no Pursuit Squad caught up to us before we reached our destination. It was possible they were already tailing us and biding their time. But at the very least, nothing registered on my Current Sense.

The knight who served as our driver deserved much of the credit. He drove the carriage while barely sleeping, and as a result, delivered the Princess safely to our destination.

“Your Highness, we’ve arrived.”

“Ah, yes.”

The knight, his expression resolute, opened the rear door of the carriage and escorted her to a dilapidated manor deep in the forest.

However, unlike the wretched exterior, the inside was remarkably refined. Dust-free marble tiles, spaces divided by staircases. Above all, the furnishings were recent.

It was proof that Alletus had been preparing this plan for quite some time. As Sharmia looked around the manor with curiosity, the knight knelt and bowed his head deeply.

“Forgive my presumption, but if you could remain here for just a short while, I will bring your ladies-in-waiting to you.”

“You’re bringing ladies-in-waiting too?”

“Yes. I shall return within a week, so please, take care of yourself. No matter what happens, you must not step outside this manor.”

If he was even bringing ladies-in-waiting, it meant he was prepared for the long haul.

The knight left the manor with a look of steely determination, and…

Unfortunately for his loyalty, the moment Sharmia confirmed he was gone, she immediately tried to open the door and leave.

I had been watching her and called out from behind.

“Didn’t he just say not to go outside?”

“…! You scared me…”

Sharmia pressed a hand to her chest and turned to face me.

“When did you get inside the manor? No, were you listening the whole time?”

“This manor has quite a lot of secret passages. Between the exterior and everything else, it seems like a facility built specifically to protect someone like you, Your Highness.”

“I-is that so? I’m curious how you found the secret passages, but… more than that, I’m curious why a place like this was built in the first place. And why they sent me here… Do you happen to know?”

“I can’t think of anything.”

It was the result of Alletus’s resolve to keep the Princess from being killed by the Emperor.

But I played dumb. It was a truth she was better off not knowing.

From Sharmia’s perspective, not knowing the cause and effect of it all, it must have been quite bewildering. One moment someone mentioned something in passing, and the next she was whisked out of the Imperial Palace and stashed away in a secret hideout.

The Princess pondered what the knight’s resolve at the end had meant, then her expression turned slightly bitter as she shook her head.

“Whatever the answer is, it’s not something I should be worrying about, having chosen to run away.”

In the end, Sharmia’s decision never changed, right up to the last moment.

She gripped the door handle, swallowed dryly for a moment, then turned to me with a tense face.

“A-are you coming with me?”

Her expression practically begged me to say yes.

No matter how hard I was to trust, it seemed the emotional burden of traveling alone at her young age was simply too great.

I considered pretending to think it over just to tease her, but seeing the desperate look on her face, I lightly raised both hands in surrender.

“You don’t need to tremble like that. I have no intention of abandoning you. Set your worries aside.”

“…I wasn’t trembling.”

Sharmia narrowed her brow as if trying not to let on that she’d been scared, then opened the door and stepped outside.

I followed after her. Sharmia headed deep into the forest.

But after walking for quite some time, all she did was check her compass and keep heading in one direction, so I couldn’t help but ask.

“Where are we going?”

“I’m not really sure either. She just told me that if I kept walking north, I’d get there.”

“What wonderfully detailed instructions. And you believed that?”

“…Just follow me.”

It wasn’t as though we were heading anywhere dangerous. And even if it were, I could handle most things on my own.

As I silently trailed behind the Princess, something about the trees began to feel familiar.

At first I dismissed it, thinking trees were trees wherever you went. But the further we walked, the stronger the feeling grew that I had seen these particular ones somewhere before.

Sensing something was off, I spread my Current Sense wider, and…

I found someone.

…Someone I knew, at that. Someone I never expected to encounter in a place like this.

Strictly speaking, they weren’t a person, though.

Swish! Before long, the figure emerged, batting away the underbrush with a small staff.

“I heard noise, so I figured I’d caught a rabbit or something. What the hell are these?”

“…An, an Elf?”

Deeply etched wrinkles. Eyebrows raised in a way that screamed foul temper at a glance.

And more striking than anything else, a pair of elongated ears proudly announcing their owner’s existence.

The cantankerous old Elf tapped his crudely made wooden staff against the ground, surveying the two of us with a voice dripping with irritation.

“How did humans get in here? You shouldn’t even be able to enter my Formation without a guide.”

Azrael.

A deranged Shaman who sealed away his own kind because they were, in his words, too far gone.

What was he doing here? Stunned, I stood there with my mouth hanging open behind my mask, when I noticed that what set the nearby trees apart from normal ones was their abnormal size.

This had been an Elven forest from the very start. Just as I was thinking that explained the sense of familiarity, Sharmia, who seemed to be seeing an Elf for the first time, gulped and cautiously held up her compass.

“I followed this compass to get here.”

“A compass…? What are you on about? You think some trinket like that can get you through a Formation?”

Suspicion filled Azrael’s gaze.

He looked the two of us over for a moment, then his eyes suddenly locked onto me.

Suspicion turned to hostility. Azrael stood his staff upright and dragged it along the ground, drawing a line, then spat to the side and muttered.

“That one… you’re a fallen one, aren’t you. And a badly broken one at that.”

“You needn’t worry. I have no ties to the Crimson Circle.”

“And pigs might fly. Why would I believe that?”

Despite the situation, I was almost impressed by his crass manner of speech and profanity.

How had he not changed one bit in all that time? I let out a sigh, and perhaps taking it as an invitation to fight, Sharmia quickly stepped between us to block our path.

“I, I came here looking for the Ark. Do you happen to know where it is? If you tell me, we’ll leave right away.”

“…The Ark?”

The moment he heard that word,

Azrael paused for a beat, then let his guard down and broke into a wicked grin.

“Must be a hundred years since I last heard that, and now it’s coming from a human? Life sure is full of surprises.”

“What?”

“Fine. If you’ve come here to survive, I’ll take you in. Follow me.”

Azrael suddenly turned and headed off somewhere.

Sharmia looked at me, her eyes silently asking, “What do we do?” so I gave her a shrug.

Azrael himself wasn’t much of a problem. Even if we followed him, I was confident I could keep us alive on my own.

“U-um, are we heading to the Ark?”

“Well, you could say that.”

But the place Azrael led us to was a campsite with a small fire crackling away.

He scooped the stew that had been simmering over the fire into a bowl and wolfed it down greedily.

Then, with his mouth still crammed full of stew, he smacked his lips and continued.

“Tch. We’re here. So, what exactly do you need me to do?”

“…This is the Ark?”

“Huh? No, this is the Ark.”

Azrael tapped his own head.

“It was a bit cold there, so I came here. Now tell me what you need.”

“…”

At that point, I realized what the Ark truly was, and my expression hardened.

Unlike me, Sharmia obviously had no idea and tilted her head in confusion. Azrael smirked and explained.

“The Ark is what the Elves call me. Because they believe that my mind is the only place where they can survive.”

“Your mind…?”

“That’s right. Their memories live inside my head. The memories I sealed away.”

Sharmia blinked a few times.

Then, as the meaning of his words sank in, she slowly let her jaw drop.

“S-so, it’s not actually a place, but more of a… figurative thing?”

“I wouldn’t even call it figurative. It’s literally just sealed memories sitting inside my head.”

“…”

“I don’t know who you are or where you’re from, but if you’re looking for the Ark, it must be pretty urgent. You’re saying if you don’t forget, you’ll die, right?”

“Something… like that.”

“Then forget.”

Azrael held out his hand as if it were nothing.

“I’ll seal whatever memory you want. It’s nothing to me, so I can afford that much kindness.”

“…”

Sharmia stood there, dumbstruck, unable to make a decision.

The method was completely different from what she had expected when she heard “escaping to somewhere safe”, so her confusion was understandable.

But.

‘Not bad, actually.’

I found myself nodding without thinking.

In my subjective judgment, it was close to a perfect solution.

Ultimately, the most horrific thing about the Prophecy was being forced to carry the knowledge that an unavoidable Calamity would inevitably come, for your entire life.

The best response to a truth that could only break a person was to forget it.

Of course, under normal circumstances, no one could simply forget something as monumental as the Calamity, but if one borrowed Azrael’s Memory Seal…

At the very least, there would be no more suffering over something that couldn’t be stopped.

“…”

But.

Sharmia, who must have arrived at a similar conclusion to mine, agonized over it and couldn’t bring herself to extend her hand.

Azrael shrugged and withdrew his.

“Well, it seems you didn’t even know what the Ark was in the first place. I suppose you’ll need time to steel yourself. Come back when you’re ready.”

“…Thank you.”

Sharmia bowed her head with a gaunt face and turned to leave.

“What are you looking at?”

I shot Azrael one last glare before following after her.

“Why did you refuse? It seemed like a good solution.”

“I… came here thinking I’d run away, but I didn’t expect this kind of method.”

“It seems like an even better one, though.”

“I know. I know, but… I can’t bring myself to do it.”

“Either way, it would be best to reach a conclusion sooner rather than later.”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

It seemed I had said it too casually.

Even without using Current Sense, the sharp, metallic scent of blood reached my nose. I frowned and scanned our surroundings, and Sharmia tilted her head.

“Is something wrong?”

“Stay close to me. From this point on, you must not leave my side.”

I left those words and immediately kicked off the ground.

“What?… Wh-what’s going on all of a sudden?”

Sharmia tilted her head but broke into a run after me.

We must have sprinted for about five minutes without stopping to breathe. With the Princess’s frail body, she had pushed herself to the limit, and the moment we stopped, she staggered as though she might collapse.

“Hah, haah… What on earth…”

“Guh, ghk…”

Whatever she had been about to say died on her lips. Her face went white as a sheet when she saw where the agonized groan was coming from.

The knight who had escorted Sharmia all the way here, the one who was supposed to bring back the ladies-in-waiting, was slumped against a tree with a dagger buried in his stomach, barely clinging to consciousness.

A pool of blood had already formed around him. The knight, clutching what little life he had left, looked toward us and forced out words with every ounce of strength he had.

“R-run…”

“Step back.”

I picked up where he left off, directing the rest to Sharmia as I shielded her behind me.

“The Pursuit Squad has found us.”

It seemed the Emperor had no intention of letting his daughter go so easily.