Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

“…Anyway, there’s still something I need to do.”

I had to watch Karos and Decay fight, making sure things didn’t spiral out of control.

Given Karos’s personality, if problems arose, one of them would see the other dead. That wouldn’t be good.

I sat Linmel down on a nearby staircase and gave her instructions.

“Stay here for a moment.”

“No.”

“…Why.”

Linmel, who had easily brushed off being told to abandon the sword, grabbed my sleeve with a sulky expression as if being told to wait was the one thing she couldn’t accept.

“Jern, if I take my eyes off you, you’ll disappear again! I won’t let you get away this time.”

“No, I won’t disappear. I’m just going to check on things, but if they find out you’re with me…”

“Don’t worry. I’m confident in my stealth skills!”

Linmel confidently wrapped her cloak around herself with a flourish.

I thought she was just playing around, but at the same moment, her breathing and heartbeat stopped entirely.

My surprise was brief. Though she stood right in front of me, her form had become so faint that it was hard to confirm her presence visually, and a familiar scent wafted from the cloak.

“Master gave you that, didn’t she.”

“Ehehe, you caught me.”

It seemed Dersia didn’t fully trust Karos, which was why she had gone so far as to create a Magic Artifact like this for Linmel.

If she insisted on staying by my side this much, there was nothing I could do. In the end, I sighed and gave her a warning.

“Never take that off.”

“Got it!”

Having received a clear answer, Linmel smiled brightly and started walking ahead.

In her gait, I could see the light footwork distinctive of those who had dedicated their lives to the sword.

Just how much had Linmel trained to be able to walk like that without even thinking about it?

Curious, I reached out and took Linmel’s wrist.

“Before that, let me see something.”

“U-uh, okay?”

When I took Linmel’s hand as her face flushed, I felt soft skin.

There were some calluses, but whether she had put in effort worthy of possessing that kind of strength… I had my doubts.

“W-what are you doing?”

“…Nothing.”

Talent.

It wasn’t that Linmel hadn’t worked hard.

It was just that while others swung at empty air ten thousand times to perfect their Sword Path, she could achieve the same with perhaps ten swings, so she didn’t need as much effort.

Karos must have decided it was better to treat that talent like a glass marble, protecting it from harm, rather than demanding blood-soaked determination in the time that remained.

Looking at things like this, the world felt rather unfair.

“Let’s go. Karos is probably fighting someone from the Upper Tier.”

“Upper Tier?”

“Think of them as executives of Crimson Circle.”

“Executives?”

Then again, looking at this, it seemed like there had been some effort to balance things out.

After all, during what should have been her prime studying years, she’d been handed off thanks to Karos’s cunning sweet talk and sent on a Martial Journey. I decided to take it up with her later and headed through the alley toward where Current Sense was guiding me.

“…Hm.”

As expected.

Even from this distance, I could feel my Deep Sea slowly freezing over.

It seemed he had declared his Inner World. Then again, without doing at least that much against Karos, his throat would be slit in an instant.

“Jern, this place…”

“Hm?”

“It feels cold somehow.”

-Shiver. Linmel trembled, her voice dropping low.

Her animal-like instincts must have sensed the Abyss Realm of Extreme Ice.

…Cold.

Of course, the applications were broad, but could something that simple really work against Karos?

I found the answer after passing through the next alley.

“W-what the hell! This thing is completely useless!”

“Damn it… what are we supposed to do against a knight!”

Karos was facing off against a group of nobodies.

That much wasn’t strange. After all, the Upper Tier’s direct involvement in this performance couldn’t be discovered.

The problem was that those bandits were still alive.

“…”

Karos was glaring at them while clutching her head.

It was strange. A quick look at the bandits showed they weren’t wizards, just genuine third-rate street thugs. The Karos I knew should have dealt with them in ten seconds, then been ripping out fingernails and toenails while interrogating them about who was behind this.

I couldn’t understand why she was standing still, tilting my head in confusion.

“B-but…”

One of the bandits made the first move.

“Didn’t it work? She’s not moving.”

“…I-is that right?”

“But her eyes are open…”

“M-maybe she’s stuck like that…”

“Shit… it’s not like we can stay here forever anyway.”

One of them carefully approached Karos, holding a large Ice Crystal from his pocket.

His expression, a mix of tension and fear, gradually shifted to joy as he took several steps closer and she showed no reaction.

“See, I was right! This bitch can’t mo—”

A flash of light.

“Huh.”

Splat! The severed head tumbled comically across the ground, creating several pools of dark red blood.

Watching the bandit’s body twitch and collapse, Karos muttered in a slightly slurred tone.

“Who’s, next?”

“W-what…!”

The bandits looked ready to have seizures.

But my suspicions only grew stronger.

If she could do that, why was she continuing this meaningless standoff?

It wasn’t as if she was completely frozen.

“They’re not easy opponents.”

Meanwhile, Linmel whispered while watching them.

This too made no sense. I lowered my voice and asked.

“What are you talking about? They’re just ordinary bandits.”

“Their movements are ordinary, but they’re incredibly fast.”

“What?”

“Look, their instantaneous footwork is strangely fast.”

Frowning, I looked outside once more.

The bandits were hastily backing away—

“…Huh?”

Just as Linmel had pointed out.

Their speed was somehow off.

As if a video were being played on fast-forward, at tremendous speed…

Speed.

Something clicked in my mind.

“Linmel. Can you hear me?”

“…U-uh? Yeah.”

“I can’t do it for a reason, but try dropping this.”

I quickly picked up a pebble from the ground and handed it to Linmel.

The chances were slim, but in case the Deep Sea was involved, it was better for Linmel to run the experiment.

“Drop it?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

Though bewildered, Linmel lightly let go of the pebble.

-Tap.

Almost simultaneously, the pebble shot down to the floor.

The speed was absurd. The ground should have been cratered, but despite that collision, only a small puff of dust rose and settled.

“W-what is this??”

“…Huh.”

Watching Linmel’s shock, I became even more certain.

Decay couldn’t just freeze bodies.

Cognitive ability.

His Inner World drastically slowed the entire process of perceiving, thinking, and reacting to stimuli.

“So that’s why he’s called Decay…”

Thinking about it, the name had been a hint all along.

It was a terrifying ability, made worse by how difficult it was to notice.

If you didn’t know from the start, even if you realized mid-fight, the odds were too high that your death was already assured.

My expression darkened as I thought this far.

Why didn’t Dersia mention this?

It was a kill-on-first-sight ability. An attack where seeing it meant death. Yet Dersia, who had fought Decay twice herself, hadn’t said a word about it.

She wasn’t the type of elf to withhold such information. While I was tilting my head in confusion, something changed on Karos’s end.

“…”

She took her first step, agonizingly slowly.

Having been in Extreme Ice far longer than us, I couldn’t even imagine how much her cognitive functions had deteriorated.

Karos probably knew this too.

Yet she pressed forward without a hint of hesitation.

“S-she’s com—!”

From reality’s perspective, it probably wasn’t that fast.

But with those movements, she cut down the bandits one by one, their forms now barely visible blurs.

The bandits tried to flee. But Karos wielded her sword like a spear, her perfect reach allowing not a single escape.

After casually taking the Ice Crystal into her hand, I saw her speed up slightly.

Was the time Decay had bought now over? Just as I was thinking that—

“Did you think I’d fall for such a trick?”

-Crack!

Without a moment’s hesitation, Karos crushed the Ice Crystal.

“Hup!”

With a sharp kiai, she swung her sword at a building.

It was like trying to break a rock with an egg, but unfortunately for the building, the one holding that egg was Karos.

-Crash! The first floor split clean through, and the building toppled to the right.

…There were no people inside, but I wanted to believe she knew that before she destroyed it.

Instead, something that wasn’t human was there.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever met.”

From the rubble of the collapsed building, Decay rose to his feet with a less-than-pleased expression, dusting himself off.

Karos glared back with an equally displeased expression, hostility dripping from her words.

“An ability like this isn’t something a mere Magic Artifact can create. How many Fallen do you think I’ve beheaded over the years?”

“Hmm. I didn’t underestimate you, but the Priestess’s sword exceeded my expectations.”

Decay twisted his wrist as he stepped back.

The moment his identity was exposed, his plan had lost much of its effectiveness.

Seeing him try to flee, Karos gritted her teeth and charged.

“How dare you sully your mouth with such a filthy title for Her Highness!”

“…”

-Crack!

The sword aimed at Decay’s neck was blocked by transparent ice that erupted from the ground.

But it didn’t stop. Slowly cutting through, the blade drew closer to Decay’s neck.

“If I said I have no intention of fighting…”

“I’ll make you have one.”

…This is bad.

Karos had no intention of stopping. She was prepared to finish this whether it was the middle of the city or anywhere else, and Decay was also gradually freezing my Deep Sea.

I didn’t care if Decay died, but the opposite would be a problem.

No choice then.

I drew Linmel’s sword.

“I’ll borrow this for a moment.”

“What? Why? Kyaah!”

Linmel screamed, and blood splattered.

Of course, I wasn’t such a vile piece of trash that I’d hurt Linmel.

What I cut was near my own thigh. Blood seeped out instantly, and I smeared it on Linmel’s wrist and around her knight’s uniform.

“Done.”

“W-what do you mean done? Doesn’t it hurt? Are you okay?”

“Worry about yourself first. You’ve been kidnapped.”

“??”

Before she could respond, I grabbed her neck and put on the mask.

Then I stepped forward and whispered.

“Don’t say anything. Please. Just pretend you’re hurt.”

“…O-okay!”

After taking a breath, I lowered my voice as much as possible and shouted.

“That’s enough, you dog of the Princess.”

“?”

Having hidden so well until now, Karos was visibly startled.

She hurriedly turned around and—

Tilted her head upon seeing me.

“…Huh? Je—”

…Ah, right.

She was the one who gave me this mask.

“—do you know who I am?”

Watching her expression twist, I let out a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, she had at least some sense of reading the situation.