Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

It took roughly a week to reach the place called the Dwind Mountain Range, barely managing to arrive after driving the carriage without rest.

Of course, during that time, the Burden of Extreme Ice had grown far worse. Brimdal’s fingers, which had only been tinged purple at first, had blackened at the tips by the time we arrived.

The condition was unmistakable. Necrosis.

His flesh was gradually freezing and falling away.

Even facing something more terrible than death for a knight, the inability to grip a sword, Brimdal seemed utterly unbothered.

He was so nonchalant that I felt foolish for worrying, casually peering out the window and muttering to himself.

“Hmm, this is it, if my memory serves. Though I’m not sure it’s right.”

“…I can’t see anything at all with the naked eye.”

How can he be like that? I hid my shock and answered, and he shrugged before saying something completely out of expectation. “Didn’t I say my memory isn’t exact? Try spreading that sensing magic of yours out a bit wider.”

“?”

Tilting my head at Brimdal’s cryptic words, I did as he said and extended the range of my Current Sense further.

And immediately grimaced.

“We’re already at the foothills.”

“That’s right.”

The road we were climbing had a very gentle, but definite incline.

Following it to its end, it led into mountains.

-Mountains tall enough to touch the sky.

“This is… this is supposed to be a mountain range? A single mountain looks like it rivals entire other ranges in size.”

Crunch, Balkan stepped down from the carriage and planted his feet on the frozen, hard-packed snow, looking around with an expression of awe.

Even the single mountain we stood on was immense enough to dwarf the Capital, and the sight of such mountains stretching on endlessly was beyond majestic; it stirred a feeling that this might be some kind of deliberate design.

Even Dersia seemed dumbfounded, shooting a glance at the mountain range before scooping up snow from the ground.

“I’ve read the records on the Dwind Mountain Range. ‘Immense’ was a common descriptor, but none of them suggested anything on this scale. Most likely, over eighty percent of this is accumulated snow.”

“E-even so, this is excessive…”

“For now, let’s test whether it’s even possible.”

-Clap.

The moment Dersia clapped her hands, Damyu came shuffling out of the carriage.

As soon as she stepped out, she shivered and hugged herself, then took one look at the massive mountain range and went pale, muttering to herself.

“Th-this really is Lord Decay’s domain… if he finds out I’m here, I’m dead…”

“…’Lord’ Decay?”

Balkan wasn’t one to let that slip by. He immediately furrowed his brow and glared at Damyu.

Balkan hadn’t taken kindly to Damyu throughout the entire journey. Granted, considering Damyu’s personality was rather awful, that wasn’t particularly strange, but…

“I’d like an explanation now. What the hell is that thing? Why do Fallen keep popping up left and right in the Capital, both this one and the other?”

Balkan wasn’t fixated on her character. He was obsessively fixated on the fact that Fallen had appeared in the Capital.

I wasn’t entirely sure, but it seemed like an occupational hazard of being a Guardian Knight.

“As I said, they are some of the Fallen that were being experimented on in the Capital.”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing. All Fallen were supposed to be quarantined. Are you telling me there were experiments being conducted without authorization from me, a Guardian Knight?”

“It was carried out by Her Highness the Princess.”

Dersia stepped in with a sigh.

Invoking the Princess’s name usually turned even the most cantankerous knight into a silent, nodding yes-man, so I had assumed it would work on a Guardian Knight too.

“Then I need to know all the more. What exactly were these experiments that Her Highness the Princess was conducting?”

But Balkan pressed on without stopping.

Perhaps it was because his relationship with the Princess wasn’t exactly amicable. He showed no intention of backing down over something like this.

Seeing Dersia’s brow begin to narrow, clearly growing irritated at being challenged over trivialities when time was of the essence, I quickly cut in.

“It was less of an experiment and more of an infiltration.”

“…Infiltration?”

“Yes. A year ago, I received orders and infiltrated the Crimson Circle. I spent a considerable time gathering intelligence from the inside and relaying it to Her Highness the Princess.”

“Wh-what did you say?”

“As a Guardian Knight, you must be aware. Hasn’t an enormous amount of information on the Crimson Circle been released over the past year or so?”

“…”

“That was all me.”

At the sudden confession, Brimdal shot me a slightly worried look.

But people like Balkan wouldn’t back off unless you threw them a bone. And besides, I didn’t care if he slandered me or treated me as an enemy. The problem would only be if those around me got dragged in.

Simply talking about my own activities didn’t bother me in the least.

“I operated within the Crimson Circle for a year before recently returning to the Imperial Palace. I was about to go back when this incident occurred, and I ended up serving as a guide.”

To be precise, after that I had borrowed the power of Regression to infiltrate the Crimson Circle again.

But that was a future that no longer existed. He wouldn’t believe it even if I told him, and there was no reason to. While I kept that to myself, Balkan stroked his chin and glanced at Damyu.

“So you’re saying you picked that thing up from the Crimson Circle.”

“I-I wasn’t picked up… I came of my own free will.”

Damyu’s meek protest didn’t seem to register with him at all.

“I hope that satisfies your curiosity. We’re pressed for time at the moment.”

“…That’s sufficient.”

Balkan seemed satisfied and withdrew with an expressionless face, and Damyu approached and placed a hand on my shoulder.

“Undercurrent-nim, you really want to go under this mountain range? It’s going to be really dangerous… are you sure??”

“Yes. And if possible, I’d like to be able to move around freely. Can you manage that?”

“I-I can. But there are a few things to keep in mind.”

Damyu held up her fingers with a serious expression.

“First, you can’t hit me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Starting now, I’m going to apply the maximum Burden I can muster onto you, Undercurrent-nim. Once I do, every bit of ground you step on will melt away, and you’ll sink downward. Forever.”

“Really, that long?”

“…Actually, about two hours. That’s my maximum output.”

“Then what was the ‘forever’ about?”

“…Anyway, while in that state, you need to have a way to move your body on your own. Otherwise, no matter how you walk or swim, you’ll just keep sinking. Can you do that?”

“Easy. Don’t worry about it.”

For me, with Water Pressure and Current at my disposal, Damyu’s conditions were so trivial they were practically yawn-inducing.

Not knowing my abilities precisely, Damyu fussed and cautioned me further.

“And if the surrounding dirt starts to harden, you need to get out. Otherwise you’ll be buried alive. Oh, but you said you don’t need to breathe, so… maybe you could just dig your way out.”

“Understood.”

I patted my shoulders and readied myself.

“I’m all set, so go ahead and sink me.”

“…I did warn you, okay? If you say something different later…”

“Want me to take you down there too?”

“See you in two hours!”

-Squelch!

The instant Damyu glared at me, the ground beneath my feet began to squirm and shift.

The plunge was so violent it made clear that what she’d done to me when we first met had been nothing more than child’s play.

When I came to my senses, dirt and dust coated my face, and I couldn’t see a thing with my bare eyes.

‘Is this a Swamp or a sewer…’

Checking with Current Sense, I had already descended roughly ten meters underground.

Gritting my teeth, I used Water Pressure to halt the Swamp around me, then waved my hand to test Damyu’s ability.

“Hm.”

The result was far more impressive than I’d expected.

Of course, I hadn’t dismissed it just because it wasn’t a Great World, but still.

Seeing the earth, which had been frozen solid as steel, transform into something sticky and soft like pudding drew genuine admiration from me.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was effectively liquefied.

As a test, I slowly pushed my body forward with Current.

“…Oh.”

It was thick and sluggish, but I could move far faster than I’d anticipated.

I was swimming underground.

It felt like I’d become a mole. Considering I had no vision either and was relying solely on Current Sense, the comparison was actually quite apt.

After savoring that peculiar sensation for a moment, I shook my head and snapped back to focus.

‘This isn’t the time for that.’

Two hours. Short if you think of it as short, long if you think of it as long.

I cleared my mind and darted through the mountain range using my Current Senses.

Simply passing through the underground of a single mountain, my Current Sense perfectly detected every last insect within it. It took barely five minutes.

Through repeated time savings that would have been absolutely impossible by climbing on foot, I explored more than half the Dwind Mountain Range and constructed a rough map in my head.

It was an achievement accomplished in just an hour and a half. Factoring in the time I needed to return, I was about to head back and have Damyu apply the Swamp Burden again, when…

“…?”

A sudden pain struck my abdomen.

Something sharp had jabbed into my stomach mid-transit.

Fortunately, it wasn’t sharp enough to pierce through my clothes and skin. Wondering what it was, I probed it with Current Sense, and…

I confirmed that the Swamp hadn’t been able to melt all of the ice fragments.

I paused and surveyed the area around me, noting that the earth was frozen in an abnormal pattern.

-Just like my Deep Sea had frozen when Decay drew near.

‘Found it.’

I’d achieved my objective far too easily.

I immediately scoured the entire mountain with Current Sense, but unfortunately, I couldn’t detect anything.

Did he have some means of evading Current Sense?

Hiding my disappointment, I hurried back. At least I’d pinpointed which mountain Decay was in.

All that remained was the ambush.

“-Pah!”

Returning to where I’d entered, I forced my way up through the earth.

Brushing dirt off my body and crawling out with effort, Balkan, who had been sitting nearby tending a campfire, flinched in surprise and scowled.

“You crazy… you could’ve said something before popping out. Nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“I found Decay’s location.”

“…Already?”

“I’m certain. It’s about a thirty-minute walk from here. Taking the carriage would be faster, but we might be detected.”

“So the time has finally come to escape this midnight sun.”

Brimdal, who had been brushing the dirt off me, let out a sigh and gripped his greatsword.

“I don’t know much about this Decay or whatever, but I’ll make sure he lives up to his name. He’ll be sleeping, won’t he? Or should we catch him off guard and go now?”

“This is the assassination of an Upper Tier member. We need a plan.”

Dersia, having shot a withering look at both Balkan and Brimdal who seemed ready to charge off at any moment, stopped them.

“A plan? We sneak in and kill him. Isn’t that enough?”

“How will you sneak in, and how will you kill him? And when fighting a Fallen, you must always have countermeasures prepared for their world. You’re already struggling to cope with the ambient Burden, aren’t you?”

Dersia glanced down at Balkan’s gauntlets and continued in a flat tone.

“If it comes to a direct confrontation, you should assume that Burden will be dozens of times stronger. Surely you realize you can’t win with no hands or feet?”

“Hmm…”

“Ngh…”

Indeed, their fingers were already necrotizing. If they actually encountered him, there was no telling what might fall off.

“But I haven’t thought of any other approach. Cut off his head before my fingers fall off. How about that, Elf?”

“That is, letter for letter, exactly the answer I predicted. For all of your sakes, I’ve prepared a solution myself.”

Wearing an expression that said she hadn’t expected anything more, she produced two bottles of clear liquid from the carriage.

“Drink.”

“…? What is this?”

“I’ll explain after you drink.”

Balkan and Brimdal swallowed the liquid with deeply uncomfortable expressions.

Before long, their eyes went wide, and they removed their gauntlets.

“Ooh…! This is incredible.”

Color was gradually returning to their once-purple fingers.

Even Brimdal, who had disparaged Dersia for being an Elf, nodded with a rather pleased expression and said approvingly,

“I never thought an Elf could actually be useful. What is this?”

“It’s blood extracted from my kin.”

“?”

“It’s Elf blood.”

“Wh-what did you say???”

“I anticipated that reaction, which is precisely why I didn’t tell you beforehand. You would have refused.”

“No, why the hell would you make us drink something like that!”

Dersia calmly explained to the apoplectic Brimdal.

“We Elves have the longest lifespan among the Long-lived Races, so our metabolism is slowed to the absolute minimum. Using components extracted from our blood can significantly delay the Burden. A Burden is, after all, merely something that progresses. And it clearly helped, did it not?”

“No, even so, that’s still…”

Watching Brimdal’s aghast expression, I held out my hand to Dersia.

I could drink Elf blood without any hesitation. If I could survive within Extreme Ice, what was a little blood?

“Could I have some as well?”

“…Hm.”

But Dersia.

For some reason, she avoided meeting my eyes as she replied.

“Jern, you don’t need it.”

“Pardon?”

“You don’t need to take this.”

“…”

…Something felt…

deeply, terribly wrong.