Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

Right after departure. The carriage.

If it had been just Dersia and Brimdal, it would have been a more comfortable journey than expected, but…

Of all things, there was an uncomfortable companion along for the ride.

“…”

A companion who had a great deal of interest in me.

Clatter, clatter. Balkan kept watching me from inside the moving carriage.

Thinking he might have something to say, I casually met his eyes, and he threw out a question without preamble.

“You said you’re a Fallen?”

“Yes.” “What did you do before that?”

“Pardon?”

“I’m asking where you were before you came to be called a Fallen. You must have had family.”

“I didn’t. I was an orphan.”

“…Then who raised you?”

“I grew up in an orphanage. Oh, an orphanage is a place where orphans are gathered together…”

“That’s not what I’m asking. No, did you actually expect me to believe any of that?”

Balkan furrowed his brow and looked at my shoulders.

“You, boy. At the very least, you’ve endured the grueling training of a first-rate knight. Your physique may be nothing to look at, but… the level of your Enhanced Mana Body makes no sense.”

“…Pardon?”

“How bizarre. A boy’s body, yet an Enhanced Mana Body of a knight who’s lived at least a hundred years… And it’s not even a normal Enhanced Mana Body.”

Receiving Balkan’s bewildered stare, I suddenly recalled. Enhanced Mana Body. Right, there was that.

It was one of the knight’s arts, nourished by pain. The suffering I had endured was far from ordinary, so it must have grown tremendously without my knowing.

“Who taught you, and how?”

“I’m sorry. I’d rather not give my master’s name.”

“Hmm…”

Behind Balkan, who was eyeing me with suspicion, Brimdal was awkwardly chugging rum.

Thick as thieves though we were, at least for the duration of this expedition, we couldn’t openly show that Brimdal and I knew each other.

Because the Princess had given strict instructions.

Before departure.

Sharmia had called me aside and advised me with a slightly uneasy expression.

“Jern. You mustn’t let Balkan find out that you and Sir Brimdal know each other.”

“Is something the matter?”

“Sir Balkan is, well… one of the few members of the Pro-Emperor Faction.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“They’re the people who say they find it unacceptable that I hold all the power and wield control over the Empire… In other words, you could call them the Lumia faction, I suppose…?”

“Wait, there’s actually a faction like that?”

I asked back in genuine surprise.

Because anyone with functioning eyes and a sound mind who had seen both Lumia and Sharmia could not possibly choose the former. I bore no particular ill will toward Lumia, but the gap between them was like diamond versus carved glass.

Sharmia averted her gaze as if she’d been stung and continued.

“To be precise, it’s a faction that opposes me. There used to be quite a lot of them, but I conducted a very slight? Minor? purge, so not many are left. That’s not the important part, though. Anyway, the point is that Sir Balkan won’t be particularly fond of you, Jern.”

“I-I see.”

“It’s not just Sir Brimdal. You shouldn’t appear too close with Dersia either. Sir Balkan seems to be quite fired up about this expedition. I couldn’t care less, personally, but I’m worried it might cause problems for those two later on…”

“Understood. That’s not a difficult task.”

I chose to conveniently forget the word purge.

Back to the present, there was only this dreadfully rattling blackwood carriage.

Expedition Force, that was the name given to it, but in reality it was closer to an assassination squad.

The finest knights and wizards the Empire could field, plus me.

So unnecessary personnel would only hinder movement. Especially in this winter, resupplying was exceedingly difficult.

The result was a small carriage that Dersia moved with mana, one that was packed full with just four people.

Supplies were inside the Workshop, and our weapons amounted to two swords and a single fountain pen.

By anyone’s standards, it was laughable, yet it was a band of vicious reprobates capable of killing anyone in the world.

Creak, grind…

The carriage window rattled. The only thing picked up by Current Sense was the endless white snowfield.

Just as I sighed and slumped, wondering if I’d have to endure this uncomfortable silence the whole way…

“Hm.”

Something was detected.

When I sprang to my feet, Balkan looked at me with a strange expression.

I immediately reported to Dersia.

“Wi… Wizard-nim. Something has been detected.”

“What is it?”

“Sit down. Stop making a fuss.”

Balkan suddenly crossed his legs and snapped in a curt tone.

As I wondered what he was on about, he turned to Brimdal and spoke.

“Nothing’s showing up on my senses. Sir Brimdal, what about on your end?”

“Hmm… doesn’t seem like there’s anything in particular.”

“And Dersia over there is a far more accomplished wizard than you think. Do you really believe you noticed something that all of us missed? Your role is just to guide the way…”

“It’s some kind of strange-looking creature.”

I casually ignored Balkan’s words and felt the thing squirming beneath the snow.

“A worm… yes, it’s like a worm. The protrusions inside its mouth all appear to be teeth. Judging by how it’s holding its breath and watching us, it detected us from the carriage’s vibrations.”

“Why you little, can’t you keep quiet?”

“How large is it?”

“?”

Dersia also ignored Balkan and immediately addressed me.

“Standing upright, it’s about the size of a small fortress. How does something like this even exist?”

“A Snow Maw, perhaps…”

Brimdal gripped the hilt of the sword strapped to his back and cracked his neck.

“I used to hunt those a lot in my younger days. They’re creatures that are supposed to live only in the far eastern snow mountains, but it seems they’ve come down this far taking advantage of the heavy snowfall. The world truly is going to ruin.”

“…No, are you all actually believing this boy? It sounds like nonsense to me.”

“There’s nothing to lose. If we trust him and he’s wrong, we simply don’t next time.”

“What a bunch of fools…”

Balkan grumbled but still grabbed his sword and crawled out of the stopped carriage.

Whoooosh!! Outside the carriage, the blizzard was dozens of times fiercer than what they had imagined from inside.

In the cascade of snow so thick it was nearly impossible to see ahead, Balkan gritted his teeth.

“As I thought, I don’t sense a thing.”

“Snow Maws conceal their presence to an extreme degree. A failed hunt means starvation for them. You wouldn’t know, being a Guardian Knight who’s never set foot outside the capital.”

“What did you just…”

Before Balkan could even get angry, Brimdal, who had locked his gaze on a spot and charged, plunged his sword into the ground.

SCREEEEECH!!!

“?!”

“What a thoroughly revolting-looking thing.”

With Dersia’s scathing assessment, a massive worm with something attached to its mouth thrashed about, spewing blue blood.

It seemed to be fighting through the pain, trying to resist, but it was hopelessly outmatched.

As the Snow Maw was sliced into five pieces in an instant, Dersia asked offhandedly.

“Did you detect any others?”

“Quite a lot. It seems they’ve migrated here in large numbers.”

“I see. Stopping to eliminate all of them would delay us too much, but leaving them be risks damage to the carriage. If you could call out precise locations each time you detect one, I’ll handle them from a distance.”

“Understood.”

“…No, wait, h-how…”

They loaded Balkan, who stood there with his jaw genuinely dropped in shock, back onto the carriage and set off again.

But compared to what unfolded inside the carriage afterward, that was nothing.

“Five minutes ahead, two on the right side of the carriage.”

“Handled.”

“Seven minutes ahead, ten just went into ambush position directly in front of the carriage.”

“Yes, handled.”

“Ten minutes ahead, there are some on standby on the mountain to our side. They seem to have detected us.”

“That’s outside my range. I’ll handle them once we’re close enough.”

“Hold on…”

I relayed coordinates to Dersia, and she intercepted them with long-range magic.

It was an efficient method that minimized the use of Water Pressure, but Balkan apparently couldn’t take it anymore and stared at me with an incredulous look.

“Ten minutes away by carriage means it’s beyond the reach of the naked eye. You’re saying you found worms with camouflage abilities so good that even I couldn’t detect them, at that distance? And even beyond the range of that wizard who’s reached the 9th Circle?”

“My World happens to be one specialized in detection.”

“…Even so, how does that make any sense? That’s practically the level of a single person surveilling an entire city.”

“And that is precisely why I was entrusted with the vital role of guide.”

“…”

There was no hiding Current Sense’s capabilities.

As I deliberately avoided Brimdal’s proud gaze, continuing to call out the Snow Maws’ locations, Brimdal suddenly grabbed my shoulder.

He wore an uncomfortable expression.

“Hm, it’s chilly.”

“It is a bit cold. Would you like to go inside the Workshop?”

“That’s not what I mean. The fact that I feel chilly at all is what’s strange.”

“Huh?”

“…He’s right about that.”

Balkan rubbed his arms as if something had just dawned on him.

“I can feel the cold. How is it possible that I’m cold?”

“Well… we’re in the middle of a blizzard, aren’t we?”

Thinking they’d all lost their minds, I spoke cautiously, and Brimdal offered further explanation.

“Balkan and I are boiling our blood.”

“?”

“Literally. We’re vibrating our muscles to forcibly generate heat. We should be hot if anything, never cold. Our bodies are actually burning up right now.”

In other words, they had turned themselves into human heat packs.

Knights really aren’t human. While I was inwardly marveling, Brimdal gazed out the window with a puzzled expression.

“I can’t fathom what sort of anomaly this is. Do you have any idea what might be causing it?”

“I do. Yes, I have a pretty good sense of what it is.”

I nodded, recalling the time I had lit a fire in the deep sea.

“What the knights are feeling right now isn’t coldness caused by the weather outside. It’s cold because it is cold.”

“What kind of wordplay is that?”

“What I mean is, haven’t you noticed that the snow isn’t melting?”

“…True.”

I explained to the irritable Balkan, step by step.

“That isn’t snow. If it were real snow, it would have melted when exposed to heat. What you’re seeing is the negative concept of snow, having snow’s shape. Cold, accumulating, heavy, and nothing more.”

“Snow that isn’t snow?”

“Yes. The reason you all feel cold is that you’re under the influence of the World of Decay. No matter how much you heat your bodies, even if you were to pour boiling oil over yourselves, you would still feel cold. Because this frozen expanse is a space that is cold. So it must be cold.”

“…What?”

“This place is now within the World of Decay. That World is cold, so you feel cold. It’s easiest to understand it that way.”

“Is that all?”

“No. What do you think would happen to a person standing naked in a snowfield?”

“…”

“The closer we get to the epicenter, the more intensely you’ll feel that sensation. I’d appreciate it if you could prepare accordingly…”

As I was saying that, I noticed something odd.

‘But why am I less cold?’

To be precise, I was cold. But it wasn’t enough to bother me.

It had been that way for a while. Specifically, ever since I received that procedure to escape the deep sea’s cold…

That procedure had been performed by Dersia. What had she said again, something about it being a minor procedure with no real issues.

When I turned to look at her, she oddly averted her gaze.

“Mmm…”

I had sensed it back then too. She hadn’t done something extra, had she?

Harboring a sliver of suspicion, I continued moving the carriage along when something other than a Snow Maw was detected.

“…Hm.”

“Sooner than I expected.”

“Hoo…”

This time, it wasn’t only me who felt it.

Balkan, Dersia, and Brimdal all let out low murmurs at the same moment, each reaching for their respective weapons.

They had seen it. That structure.

“…We’ve arrived.”

I had been tracing my memories to get here, and it seemed I had arrived at the right place.

I clenched my fist as I confirmed through Current Sense the Spire that stood tall enough to pierce the sky.

For the second time,

I had reached the Crimson Circle’s stronghold.