Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

“Ugh…!”

Sharmia did not rush over recklessly, even as she looked at the injured Knight.

She had lifted her feet and hesitated, but before I could even stop her, she stepped back on her own and asked with a troubled expression.

“It’s a trap, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

The Knight in his current state could have been killed at any time if someone had intended to.

But the Knight, who was likely a traitor, was still alive. In fact, he had been left there, still breathing, right in plain sight along our way back, as if on display.

It was designed to lure out hope that he could still be saved.

So that the soft-hearted Sharmia would rush straight to him.

When I glanced at the thick branches of the tree where the Knight lay, a woman wrapped head to toe in a black robe dropped down from within.

She fell headfirst, but just before her head hit the ground, she twisted around in a grotesque motion, landed upright, and bowed her head deeply.

“This lowly Assassin greets Her Highness the Princess.”

“…Are you not aware that Assassins are forbidden from showing their faces to those of Imperial blood?”

Given the circumstances, it was certain that this woman who introduced herself as an Assassin was the one who had done that to the Knight, so thorns crept into Sharmia’s words.

The Assassin bowed her head deeply in apology, her mannerisms as elegant as those of a noblewoman’s daughter.

“I apologize for showing you such filth, where blood is washed with blood. However, I too am carrying out the orders of the most exalted person in the Empire… so I humbly ask for a small measure of understanding.”

“I will not permit it. Go back.”

“I was well aware that Your Highness is a brilliant person. However, the qualities of a ruler are not determined by one’s own excellence alone.”

The Assassin, having given that non-answer, glanced at me.

Even through the veil, I could tell clearly enough: not a trace of killing intent.

If concealing killing intent with skill was the mark of a first-rate operative, then how should one classify an Assassin who could kill without any killing intent at all?

“A ruler is one who delivers the optimal judgment even in sudden situations. Only those who can mind the grip on their sword even while witnessing blood and death earn the right to hold the leash of others.”

“Wh-what are you suddenly talking about?”

“I meant that an Empire ruled by Your Highness would surely be beautiful. Would you please consider returning with me? I am deeply worried that even the smallest blemish might be left upon your Royal Body.”

“…”

The words were polite, but the meaning was closer to, “I’ll kill the guy next to you and you could get hurt too, so stop making a fuss and come quietly.”

Sharmia swallowed hard as she looked at the Assassin’s Curved Blade, then shook her head.

“I’m sorry. Please tell my father that I was eaten by wolves and died.”

“Hmm. If I delivered such news, I would be the one fed alive to the wolves… Unfortunately, that won’t do.”

The Assassin threw her Curved Blade mid-sentence. It was the very instant she said “unfortunately.”

And aimed precisely at the Princess’s neck.

Is she insane? I crushed the dagger in shock, right where it was. I had put so much force into it that the dagger bent slightly.

“Oh?”

Sharmia froze when she saw the dagger fixed in midair. Because its trajectory had unmistakably been aimed at her.

“Are you out of your mind?”

Hurling a dagger at the Princess, of all things. Granted, the Emperor must have ordered the Princess killed, so it wasn’t exactly surprising, but even accounting for that, it was a thoroughly undignified assassination.

The Assassin smirked and pulled the dagger back. The dagger suspended in midair gradually drew toward her.

When I turned my Current Sense up for a closer look, there was a thin, transparent thread linking her wrist to the dagger. What kind of absurd tensile strength was that?

“Look who’s talking. You’re the very traitor who deceived and led Her Highness astray, are you not? Your single life would hardly suffice as atonement, so how do you plan to repay that debt?”

“Put it on my tab. I’ll pay later. Get lost, now.”

“I’m afraid I’ll need to collect right now. Let’s see, if you truly use Magic without Mana, then now would be perfect.”

“?”

-Crack!

Right in front of me. Something burst out of the ground where I had been standing.

It was a small-framed Knight clad head to toe in black Armor. I whipped my Current Sense around in shock, but even until that sword touched my neck, the Deep Sea had judged there was nothing in front of me.

A Heaven’s Judgement Knight. And a monster endlessly close to first-rate at that.

In the briefest of instants, countless deliberations flashed through my mind. If I declared my Inner World, the Princess beside me would be caught up in it. I would be digging my own grave.

I couldn’t use Water Pressure to pin down an opponent I couldn’t even detect. There wasn’t enough time to push the Knight away… Having been hit by such a flawless ambush, there was no answer.

Maybe I should take one hit and look for the next opening. Just as I was reaching that conclusion, I saw an Anglerfish, its teeth making up half its body, swimming between me and the Knight.

Before I could even think, words assembled themselves inside my mouth.

[-Bite.]

“…?”

The Heaven’s Judgement Knight heard the scream, the plea, the word that was none of those things, and tilted her head ever so slightly.

-CRUNCH!

“Wha…!”

It took less than an instant for that puzzlement to turn to shock.

She was thrown off balance by the sight of her sword, grotesquely bent just before it could sever my neck. The bent sword created an opening.

BOOM! Riding that gap, I blasted the Knight away hard with a Current. I had pushed so forcefully that the tree behind shuddered from the impact as the Knight slammed into it, trembling and unable to rise.

Was the body on the frail side? I let out a sigh, and as I turned toward the Anglerfish, wondering why on earth it had obeyed my command…

It was trembling all over, belly turned up, dying.

…Poison.

“Where did you hear about this?”

That I was a Fallen.

The underground concealment to evade Current Sense.

The point-blank ambush spearheaded by a Heaven’s Judgement Knight.

And even the poison, designed to end things in a single strike.

It was an ambush laced with such deep malice that it felt like something crafted by the person who knew me best in the world, devising a strategy to take me down. I had already guessed the answer, and when I glared at the Assassin, she let out a sigh and stepped back.

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”

“-The mirror.”

“Oh? You two know each other?”

It was a strategy devised by the Crimson Circle’s Sharmia.

As I thought, her target was not Sharmia, but me.

To kill me in this world. She had intervened so that the end of my life would belong to the past. Knowing that I had no choice but to protect Sharmia, she kept driving me into corners.

I didn’t know whether it held meaning or not. I was simply acting as Sharmia had told me to.

“Did you not hear about this?”

I immediately seized the Assassin with Water Pressure.

“Ugh, gah…”

A good choice. But if it hadn’t worked, that would have been the end.

I pushed my Current Sense to the absolute limit, bracing for any other possible ambushes, and squeezed tightly so the Assassin could do nothing at all.

Her body slowly rose into the air. Perhaps I could even crush her to death just like this.

“N-no, I didn’t hear about that… She only said strange things.”

“What did she say?”

She groaned in pain as she forced the words out.

“That you… were stopping her from running away…”

“…?”

What kind of nonsense was this now?

As I tilted my head in confusion, Sharmia suddenly went wide-eyed and stumbled backward.

“…Stopping her from running away?”

“Ah-”

I clenched my jaw as I watched the expression on her face harden.

The Knight’s flawless ambush had been a smokescreen.

The real dagger Sharmia had thrown was herself.

I hurriedly shook my head in denial.

“It’s a lie. Don’t fall for it.”

“B-but. That person knows… the future me.”

“…”

Mentioning the woman in the mirror had been a mistake. It meant that the Assassin had made contact with the Crimson Circle’s Sharmia in some way.

And since there was no way for the Assassin to initiate contact with the version of herself inside the mirror, it must have been initiated from Sharmia’s side… and from Sharmia’s perspective, that was highly likely to be interpreted differently.

Would she believe me if I explained that her future self had become corrupted and was lying to have me killed? There was no way. Even to my own ears, it was nothing more than a flimsy lie.

Seizing that opening, the Assassin spoke again.

“She said you were trying to turn her into a cog, something like that… gkh!”

I immediately strangled the Assassin to keep her from saying another word.

But Sharmia already wore the expression of someone who understood.

“The future me couldn’t escape.”

“…”

“So she told my past self to run, wanting to change the future. Isn’t that right?”

“The future cannot change the past. It can only alter the determined future into something different.”

“But I’m already making different choices. And you…”

She was good at reading people.

She was sharp, too. By now, her thoughts must have already branched out and arrived at the most logical possibility.

“You came here to stop that version of me. To turn back the future.”

A trap meticulous enough to be infuriating.

What the Crimson Circle’s Sharmia had targeted was not me, but herself.

She knew exactly how her own judgment and thoughts flowed, and she had leaked the information naturally. She had laid the trap.

So it really was the future Sharmia. Watching the present Sharmia step further and further back, I gritted my teeth and shook my head.

“It’s difficult to explain, but I came to help you, Sharmia. The reason the future you is saying otherwise… there are circumstances behind it.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Sharmia bowed her head deeply.

It was not the expression of someone who hated me or was reproaching me for deceiving her.

Rather, it was the look of someone burdened with guilt, like a sinner.

“I can’t handle it. I just can’t. The future that’s coming is far too heavy for me. It’s selfish of me, but I don’t think I could survive in a hell like that…”

“Sharmia. You don’t have to.”

“If, if only… the future me had said something like, ‘I’m glad I lived through it, in the end.’ Then maybe I could have found the strength. But the me who walked that path regretted it. She wished her past self had taken a different road.”

“That is not the future you.”

Words alone, merely thrown out, could no longer stop Sharmia, who had already begun to retreat.

Left with no choice, I forced down the rising turmoil in my chest and grasped the Deep Sea.

It seemed I needed to stop her, even if it meant using somewhat forceful measures.

“Bi, te!”

Just then.

The Assassin, who should have been unable to speak at all, coughed up blood and forced a word out.

The very word I had just formed. For an instant, I nearly mistook her for someone who had been in the Deep Sea, but it had been in the Imperial tongue from the start.

What she had commanded was not a Deep Sea Creature, but a loyal hunting hound.

“AAAAAAAAGH!!”

With a shrill scream boiling over, the Knight who had been slammed into the tree launched forward like an arrow.

A bent sword, cracked Armor, a leg dragging from what must have been a break.

Such trivial details did not slow the Knight down in the slightest.

“Tch!”

Under an attack imbued with a spirit that seemed willing to defy even death, there was no room to pay attention to anything else.

This was a Heaven’s Judgement Knight to begin with. The ambush had been flawless, so the equally flawless counter had only knocked the Knight out momentarily. One lapse in focus, and even someone like me could have my head taken off in an instant.

Through my Current Sense, I could tell Sharmia was running in the direction she had come from. The direction where Azrael was.

What would happen once the memories were gone? Could I just ask her to undo it again? While I was lost in such thoughts, the Heaven’s Judgement Knight, who had been raining down a barrage of attacks as if to kill me, suddenly stopped, reset her stance, and bolted.

In the direction Sharmia had headed.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

I had no intention of letting the Knight go easily. Since the Knight had dared show an opening while still in front of me, I clenched my fist and gave a light squeeze, and the sensation of innards being crushed traveled back to me.

“Kh. Gg….”

The Knight, who had been snarling like a wild beast, eventually shook off the Water Pressure somehow and kept running toward Sharmia. The speed had dropped, but the Knight seemed intent on running no matter what I did from behind.

I was thinking about at least crushing one leg and started pulling up the Water Pressure again when,

“You, shouldn’t ignore me either.”

The Assassin, breathing hard and heavy, had broken free of the Water Pressure by her own strength and was glaring at me with bloodshot eyes.

I tilted my head, wondering how on earth she had escaped the Water Pressure.

Crunch. She was swallowing something.

“Whew… much better.”

I let out a sigh as I felt the Water Pressure sliding off her body, growing hazy and diffuse overall.

“Just leave before I kill you.”

“Laying down one’s life for Her Highness the Princess, what an honor that would be.”

It seemed I had greatly underestimated the Sharmia who had been driven far enough to join the Crimson Circle.