Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

Karos looked extremely flustered.

The sight of me suddenly appearing and threatening Linmel with a grip on her neck wasn’t exactly easy to accept.

Of course, given the situation, there wasn’t time to explain things kindly.

“Take another step and your attendant dies.”

[Please play along. I’m in the middle of a mission.]

“Make a wise decision.”

[We can’t fight right now.]

Contrary to my harsh words, Current carved different letters onto Karos’s back.

“…Fine. I’ll give you time. Step back.”

In the end, Karos furrowed her brow but released the tension in her sword hand, and Decay took the opportunity to retreat several steps.

Only after Decay had a clear chance to escape did I release the pressure on Linmel’s throat.

“Go to your master.”

“…Ugh—”

And before Linmel could say anything, I sealed her lips shut with Current. To prevent her from saying something strange.

She was startled for a moment, but soon realized it was my doing and nodded.

Karos, taking Linmel into her arms, touched Linmel’s arm as she limped along. Confirming there was nothing wrong other than the blood, she let out a sigh of relief.

I understood the sentiment, but her acting skills were rather lacking.

[No, you need to look more upset.]

“…Tsk.”

She clicked her tongue in annoyance at being given instructions one by one, but thanks to that, she now looked like a master whose beloved disciple had been injured.

It came together quite well. I glanced at Decay, who was silently watching this side, and quietly threatened.

“If you don’t want your disciple unable to hold a sword for the rest of her life, you’d better retreat now and get her treated.”

[Let’s meet at the outskirts this evening. If you wait there, I’ll find you.]

Karos, holding Linmel in a princess carry, gave me one last glare before leaping backwards over the collapsed buildings.

While dust still hung thick in the air, Decay let out a sigh.

“I hadn’t heard of any knight who could perceive another’s World. So this is the kind of person the Priestess places her trust in.”

“Looks like your plan went awry. Did I arrive at just the right moment?”

When I spoke with a straight face, Decay slowly turned his gaze toward me.

“Indeed. Since this isn’t yet the place to spill blood. You’ve been helpful.”

“Still, I did sever the wrist tendons of the attendant that woman keeps with her. Despite what I said, I cauterized it with fire, so she won’t be able to hold a sword again.”

“I see. You did quite well considering the weak words you spoke. But why didn’t you kill her and instead led her here?”

“Like I said, the gap wasn’t overwhelming enough for me to dominate. She seemed to be getting pushed back a bit, so she fled here. I just followed.”

These were all things I had already thought through.

I responded lightly to his sharp questions and gauged his reaction.

“Is that so. Turning misfortune into fortune, then.”

Fortunately, Decay didn’t seem to find it suspicious and let it pass.

I breathed a deep sigh of relief internally. Now, truly, unless someone was an extreme paranoid, they wouldn’t suspect that I had any connection to Linmel.

Just as I was finally relaxing, Decay clicked his tongue as if in regret.

“However, with things having come to this, the Priestess will realize that we’ve been damaged by Wax Wings enough to take direct action ourselves. This is close to the worst possible outcome…I’ll have to summon Lump after all.”

An unexpected name popped up all of a sudden.

“Lump? Why him?”

“If we can’t take this to a war of public opinion, we’ll ultimately have to crush all of Wax Wings completely. I don’t want to expend resources on something like this for too long, but—I can’t just watch while all our limbs are being severed.”

“…”

From Decay’s calm tone, I could feel a heavy killing intent.

Using Lump to kill every active member of Wax Wings—the reason it didn’t sound like empty talk was because I had faced that guy myself.

This wasn’t the kind of thing I could stop. If I stuck my nose in needlessly, I might reignite the flames of suspicion I had barely managed to extinguish.

In the end, I could only continue doing what I needed to do in my position.

While I was thinking bitterly, Decay suddenly turned to look at me.

“Anyway, you did well. Undercurrent. Thanks to you, we avoided an unnecessary fight.”

“I wonder. It’s still a failure either way.”

“No. I’ll tell Cheon-hwa that you handled things perfectly but we failed due to my shortcomings. It’s not exactly a lie either.”

As if he had never been lost in thought, Decay looked at me again with a smile.

“If there’s anything you want, tell me anytime. I’ll be happy to help.”

“…Really? Actually, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask since I joined.”

“Hm, what is it.”

I stared at Decay and muttered.

“What exactly does this organization exist for? Just killing wizards and repeating terrorist attacks?”

“Hmm, what we’re trying to do right now is—the annihilation of everything that can be called magic, I suppose.”

“And after that?”

“After? I haven’t thought about such things.”

Decay answered readily.

“Why not?”

“Haha…”

Decay laughed. As far as I knew, it was the first time.

“What a funny question. Many speak of heaven, but is there anyone among them who explains what comes after reaching it?”

“…”

Unfortunately, it seemed I hadn’t yet been corrupted enough to understand the conversations of madmen.

***

Before returning, that evening.

I walked along the outskirts of the city wall. We hadn’t set a specific meeting place, but by scanning the surroundings with Current Sense, I eventually found Linmel and Karos standing near the wall.

As I pondered how to approach them, a good idea suddenly came to me, and I used Current to cut nearby grass and stones.

“…Hm? Master. Something’s strange over there.”

“Linmel, step back.”

Karos immediately reached for her waist and gripped her sword. Perhaps because of what happened today, she was overreacting more than necessary.

It was quite a long distance, but—I hadn’t just been playing around all this time.

Current, honed to its limits, could be used like this.

“Huh?”

The branches and stones swirled within a controlled flow of Current and took on a human shape.

There were limitations to expressing detailed facial features, but—anyone who knew me would be able to recognize me.

“…You’ve learned some strange things.”

“When did you become an Archmage??”

The reactions split exactly in half.

Karos sighed as if I was doing something pointless, while Linmel’s eyes sparkled as she poked and prodded my body (the fake one) from all sides.

[I just wanted to try it once. Isn’t it amazing?]

In the end, I had to use the primitive method of writing letters on their backs to communicate.

Linmel, with sparkling eyes, touched my stone-composed body here and there until she knocked it all down. I rebuilt it while bowing my head.

[I apologize for today. It was my first mission, and I never expected to run into Sir Karos…and Linmel. Because of that, I handled things a bit hastily. I hope I wasn’t too rude.]

“That’s fine. But what was with suddenly kidnapping Linmel?”

[The thing is, they can’t find out that Linmel and I know each other.]

I briefly explained this incomprehensible situation.

Karos had been nodding lightly while listening at first, but as time passed, her expression gradually twisted into something bizarre.

“So…the Crimson Circle’s executive and leader know you’re a traitor, but they’re letting you act freely?”

[That’s exactly right.]

“What do you think their goal is for doing this?”

[I can’t even begin to guess.]

“I’d like to say there’s no way to know what goes on in the minds of those who’ve lost their sanity, but…this is excessively strange. Why would they do that?”

As Karos and I were exchanging information, Linmel cut in with an incredulous expression.

“Jern, you infiltrated the Crimson Circle as a spy? Why didn’t you tell me!”

“If I had, you would have tried to follow me in. This mission is top secret, known only to the Princess and a select few. The fewer people who know, the better.”

After scolding Linmel, Karos immediately took on a serious expression and replied.

“Anyway, I understand the situation now. However, there’s something I want to warn you about as well.”

[A warning?]

“Yes. It’s about what I felt when I clashed with Decay, that man, this morning.”

Karos paused for a moment, then suddenly brought up something very strange.

“By any chance…do you remember what his World was?”

[…Pardon? Isn’t it something that impairs cognitive ability?]

“Was it? I only have very vague memories.”

Karos continued with a serious expression.

“I remember fighting that man, meeting you, Jern, and then protecting Linmel and escaping. But I can’t quite recall what kind of battle we had. Even now it feels hazy…like I had a daydream.”

[…What you’re saying is.]

“Yes.”

She nodded quietly as if confirming my thoughts.

“Just a few minutes of exposure did this. It seems there’s an undisclosed secret about his World.”

[…]

“Please be careful. This is just a feeling, but…I have a dangerous premonition. An extremely dangerous one.”

We weren’t exactly close, but the concern in Karos’s warning was genuine.

[…Thank you. Oh, and please make sure Linmel can’t hold a sword for a while.]

“How long?”

[About a month. It should be over by then.]

“…”

Karos, knowing what that “over” meant, frowned for a moment.

But she soon relaxed her gaze and nodded in acknowledgment.

“Understood. I wish you good luck.”

[Please take care of Linmel.]

“Ah!”

Clatter…Before Linmel could say anything, the Current puppet I had created collapsed lightly.

I returned to my real body, and before heading back, I went to the headquarters of the underworld organization that once ruled this city and looked at the scene of carnage Decay had left behind.

Ice-cold statues, their faces begging for mercy, gathered in a pit and gazing up at the sky—a grotesque sight.

According to Decay, he had done this because if they were already discovered, it was better to eliminate them.

“Hmm…”

It was horrific, but I had seen plenty of terrible things since joining the Crimson Circle, so I could bear it.

They hadn’t been frozen for long. As an experiment, I picked up one of the ice statues and placed it in front of a campfire to melt.

Since frozen frogs and humans are different, melting them wouldn’t bring them back to life—but it was just personal curiosity. About how thoroughly they could be frozen.

Perhaps if there was a heater nearby, they might survive—just a casual thought.

But surprisingly.

“Ah, ahh…”

“?”

The melted statue came back to life enough to produce some kind of sound with a cracked voice.

This would be absolutely impossible if they had frozen normally. As I furrowed my brow, those unfocused eyes trembled. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“Who…”

Those were his last words. After that, he became a corpse.

Just in case, I melted all the statues, but more than half were already dead, and the remaining half left only death rattles before departing.

The curious thing was that their death rattles were all the same words.

“Wh-where is this…”

“Who…are you?”

“It’s hot…”

The last one seemed like an odd thing to say for a corpse that had just come back from the brink of death, even if they were placed in front of a campfire.

Looking down at what was now just a pile of unpleasant corpses, I let out a sigh.

“Still a long way to go.”

The abyss of the Crimson Circle seemed far deeper than I had thought.