Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

“Nice to meet you. Could you perhaps clean this up?”

I stepped back a few steps so that the flowing blood wouldn’t touch my feet. It was clear that he had learned magic that dealt with blood.

Parse looked at me and let out a hearty laugh, then snapped his fingers.

“Ah, don’t worry. You deserve to be treated well.”

Srrrk… The living, moving blood instantly seeped into the floor and disappeared.

“Stabbing and cutting like this, such tasteless rituals don’t suit you. If done well, you could probably even create a Great Lineage.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

I spoke up to distract him.

Fortunately, he didn’t seem to notice.

“This is what I mean.”

With a malicious smile, two mummies walked out from behind Parse.

Drool was dripping from their mouths, and fresh blood was still dripping from their hands.

…Of course. Facing that guy meant fighting all the mummies.

I could only hope the teachers had fought hard.

“Treat him well. Don’t kill him under any circumstances.”

“Krurrk.”

I let out a sigh as I watched the mummies slowly approach and began to speak. I needed a little more time.

“Um, just a moment. Did you say the group you’re affiliated with is Crimson Circle?”

“Hmm? Ah. Yeah. It’s an employer-employee relationship, though.”

“It’s nothing much, but… I was wondering if I could ask why that Crimson Circle group kidnapped us. If it’s difficult, you don’t have to answer. I’m just curious, that’s all.”

A polite, businesslike question.

Parse tilted his head, then smiled deeply.

“Man, the more I see you, the more I like you. Why not. Kids like you fall so easily.”

“…Fall?”

“Yes. The world you created comes to hate you. It’s a kind of self-torture. We’re making those kinds of fallen ones.”

“…”

I furrowed my brow in shock.

What he said was something far too familiar.

So, those Crimson Circle bastards were artificially creating people like me.

…Why?

“I don’t really know the reason either. Like I said, I’m just an employee. So, since I answered your question, you should answer mine too. Is there anything you’re afraid of?”

“There is.”

“Tell this mister. A world doesn’t get created so easily. You’ll have to go through the most horrific experiences you can imagine, several times over. I’ll make it quick.”

“Hmm…”

As Parse’s sadistic gaze fixed on me, the mummy came close and grabbed my arm roughly.

Even through the pain that felt like it would tear my arm off, I answered honestly.

“First of all, I’m most afraid of drowning. Dying unable to breathe after falling into water is the scariest thing.”

“Oh ho, how honest of you. What a good kid.”

“Yes. I still experience it a few times these days, and it’s really horrifying every single time.”

“…?”

“Next would be being crushed to death. Having your whole body smashed, also terrifying.”

“I see. That one might be a bit hard, though. We don’t have the proper equipment for it.”

“Really? Freezing to death is also scary. Dying slowly in an empty place, freezing all alone, that’s really terrifying, isn’t it?”

“…Oh ho.”

“I’m also afraid of being eaten alive by some unknown monster, and in the process, still being alive while dying in pain. There’s nothing I’m not afraid of.”

Parse looked at me like I was some crazy bastard.

“Hey, you stupid little brat. I’m fine with it, but are you sure it’s okay to just tell me everything like that? These are all things you’re going to go through?”

“Yeah. But even if you don’t do it, those things will come anyway.”

“…What?”

The signal came.

Current sense confirmed Elysia waving her hand right on the floor below.

Perfect timing. I looked straight at Parse and responded.

“Well then, shall we experience being crushed to death first?”

“!”

Kuwa-gwaang-! With a massive roar, the ceiling collapsed.

Parse looked up in shock.

But this time, he had no time to respond either.

*

Kuwa-gwaang, Kurung!!

Only after the thunderous noise that had continued for some time came to a stop did one child cautiously poke their head out from the prison.

Then, staring at the utterly wrecked path, they muttered to themselves.

“He really got buried…”

The children, who had been holding their breath while watching the conversation between Jern and Parse, stared blankly at the collapsed passage.

“…Do you think he’s okay? He must’ve fallen all the way to the third basement floor…”

“Idiot, come on, like there would be a problem? We just did exactly what we were told.”

“Yeah, true…”

The children still couldn’t easily accept the idea that Jern might be in danger.

Of course, they had seen more powerful wizards before.

But, if such accomplishments came at their own age?

That kind of talent doesn’t even stir jealousy.

His ability to calmly choose only the correct answers in the same situation, without even a hint of panic, inspired more than just trust, it created the illusion of omnipotence.

“He knew exactly which pillar to destroy to make it collapse where he wanted, right?”

“And he never once got caught by a trap…”

While most of them had naturally begun using polite speech, one child murmured their honest thoughts.

“…He really is like a wizard.”

Only then did the children realize the meaning behind what their teacher had told them.

Is conjuring fire or spraying water from your hands really what makes magic?

Perhaps, true magic is the ability to freely control realms of the incomprehensible.

“…Let’s go!”

Before even fully realizing that silent understanding, Elysia shouted.

“We have to get out of here fast! Our parents must be waiting for us!”

“Ah, right. We’ve got to go!”

“Ugh, I really can’t stand this dampness anymore…”

Snapped back to reality by Elysia’s yell, the children began to escape from the underground prison one by one.

Elysia started to follow them, but before she did, she looked once more at the massive hole where rubble continued to fall.

“…”

Unlike the other children, she knew the truth.

That the boy who had fallen to the floor below wasn’t particularly remarkable compared to them, just an ordinary 1-star wizard.

That the boy, whom Huins had mistaken for the crown prince, was actually someone who entered the Academy as a janitor, just to get a glimpse of the classes that the rest of them found so boring from hearing them all the time.

“…Just wait a little longer!”

But Elysia knew an even more important fact.

‘I’ll come to save you soon!’

A favor, no matter how it was received, must be repaid.

*

The current still pushes me around these days.

When I awakened to magic… That is, when I realized I had fallen into the Deep Sea, my first concern was whether I might fall from the sky once I came back up again.

Because of that, I trained myself to the point where I could be sure of at least one thing.

Drowning, freezing, being crushed, I don’t know what you call the one where you get eaten by fish, but I’ve prepared for all those deaths.

Among them, falling to death doesn’t exist.

“Hoo…”

I pushed aside the pile of rubble and stood up.

There was a bit of dust on my body, but no external or internal injuries.

Brushing off the dust, I stood fully. This area was roughly the third basement floor, and above me was the massive hole we had fallen through.

Thanks to having the children create those cracks beforehand.

Truthfully, I had wanted their help, but their mental state was the problem.

I couldn’t expect kids to stay sane when dealing with someone like that.

“…Kid.”

That kind of monster doesn’t go down from a little trick like this.

From between dim torches, Parse, covered in blood, emerged from the rubble with an annoyed expression.

He literally gushed out.

For a moment, the man was in a liquefied state. Then he became human again.

Now perfectly fine, he sat on the pile of rubble and looked down at me, letting out a deep sigh.

“I think I’m starting to get scared of you. Why the fuck is a kid your age pulling all this crazy shit? It’s fucking terrifying.”

Yeah, I suppose there might be magic like that.

The world of magic is vast, and there’s still a lot I don’t know.

But the blood flooding this sea is different.

“By any chance, have you also fallen?”

“Yeah, I did. That’s why Crimson Circle caught me.”

Parse waved his hand, splashing blood around.

I quickly dodged, but it didn’t matter much.

-Pwak!

“Ugh…!”

From a single droplet of falling blood, a long spear was drawn and thrust straight toward me.

If it hadn’t been for the wind pushing my body at the last moment, my thigh would have been pierced through. Even so, a chunk of flesh was torn off, and blood streamed down.

I counterattacked immediately.

“Cut!”

The wind magic I had honed over several weeks sliced perfectly across Parse’s lower abdomen.

“…You’re a really strange one.”

Parse didn’t dodge. He didn’t defend himself either; he simply took the hit silently and bled.

For an ordinary human, that wound would have been instantly fatal, but he looked unfazed. So even the hypothesis of damaging his spine, was a dud?

Still, I’d bought myself some time during his regeneration. Dripping blood, I fled and turned the corner of the prison corridor.

“I’ve noticed since earlier, you don’t have even a hint of a childlike flavor.”

But Parse also seemed familiar with the prison’s layout; he followed at a steady pace, unbothered.

Of course, it was soon a dead end. Tearing a piece of clothing, I tightly bound my thigh as I replied.

“Would begging and crying for my life change anything?”

“No, but just the idea of it pisses me the fuck off.”

“That’s unfortunate. I’ll try to make it less unpleasant for you.”

How about this.

I had prepared lanterns in advance, scraping together all the oil from them into a small oil container.

And the moment Parse turned the corner, I lit a spark and threw it.

Fwoosh-! Flames roared up instantly.

“How should I say it, you’re like my old self.”

And instantly, the fire went out.

His blood was near infinite. He’d sprayed blood to extinguish the flames.

Every attempt came with a price.

Pwak!

Spears formed from blood flew at me. I hastily used currents to pull surrounding stones to block them, but I couldn’t stop every strike.

“Khck…!”

This time, it was my left arm.

I dragged myself into the final passage, hastily wrapping the wound with another strip of clothing.

The pain was beyond anything I’d imagined, making my arm tremble violently. When was that damned adrenaline going to kick in?

“…That comment alone is more than unpleasant.”

“It’s a compliment. Well, unlike you, I fell on my own.”

“On your own? You weren’t caught by Crimson Circle?”

“Crimson Circle had nothing to do with it. I was a natural-born in the countryside.”

Step, step.

I looked at the filthy green stone wall that blocked my way and let out a small sigh.

I shoved all the remaining pills into my mouth and chewed them so the effects would kick in faster before swallowing.

“Of course, I didn’t even know I was a wizard. Awakening Fever? I thought it was the flu. I had it for a day and then went right back to shoveling pig shit. Even then I got beaten. My father, what can I say, used me like a substitute slave.”

“Should I cry for you?”

“No need. If you think of it as a father-and-son relationship, it was the worst, but if you think of it as a master-and-slave relationship, it wasn’t that bad. The problem was after my mother irresponsibly ran away. Maybe because there was no one left to beat after coming back drunk, he started beating only me?”

Even without him saying it, his conduct already made it obvious that he’d “self-studied” his upbringing. But Parse wasn’t really telling me, he sounded like he was explaining to himself.

He stopped a few meters away, looking down at me with a satisfied expression.

“Once, while he was choking me, I grabbed a shard of a broken bottle and stabbed him right here in the neck. He collapsed without even being able to speak.”

“What a warm family.”

“Right? But my father lived quite a while. He kept struggling for hours, not dying. I was curious when it would end, so I just watched from the bed…”

Parse flicked his hand, splattering blood everywhere.

The walls became a dizzying red. It meant I didn’t know when or where a spear might be drawn next, my death, in other words.

Or torture worse than death.

“He only died at sunrise after all the blood in his body drained out. What lesson do you think you can take from that?”

“Hmm, that discipline isn’t the right solution?”

“That’s true too, but what I learned was different.”

Parse lowered his voice as though sharing a secret no one knew.

“In this world… actually, there are no humans.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? Then what are you and I?”

“Blood.”

“…?”

“When a person’s blood is completely drained, they die, right?”

“Yes. Usually, that’s the case.”

“In the end, the body is just a container for blood. The heart pumps it, the blood vessels hold it, the lungs put oxygen into it. Blood is the essence. You, me, we’re all trapped. Inside this fucking body.”

Parse’s hand was instantly crushed into a lump of flesh and blood.

But the flowing blood quickly reshaped itself into a hand again.

Parse watched that grotesque scene with a proud look in his eyes, as if he were witnessing the truth of the world he had discovered.

“This is the essence. You and I are both lumps of blood. The only difference is whether you accept it or not.”

“Hmm…”

Isn’t there a saying that arrogance is one of a wizard’s traits?

He certainly looked the part.

But…

What is this?

I rubbed my chin and asked a question.

“Is that all?”

“What?”

Parse tilted his head, as if he didn’t understand what I was saying.

“I’m asking if ‘everyone in this world is made of blood’ is your revelation, and that we’re trapped in the World formed from that… Is that what you’re saying~?”

“…That’s right. But you seem to know it in detail? Did you hear it somewhere?”

I met Parse’s slightly displeased gaze.

Personally, I couldn’t understand it.

“That’s really all?”

“Yeah, that’s it. Why? Do you have some romantic notion about the Inner World? Well, that’s great. You’re about to experience it anyway…”

“No, I’m just surprised how unimpressive it is.”

“…?”

My world is the Deep Sea.

And the Deep Sea is still slowly reaching for me, even now.

Each time I breathe, I can faintly feel something entering that’s not air. Every step I take occasionally feels like I’m walking underwater, facing subtle resistance. My vision is dim, and even though it’s summer, my body is cold.

Everywhere I look, everything is the Deep Sea.

A world that hates me, with no way to escape.

And yet.

“That’s it? Humans are blood. Is that your world?”

“What…”

“A tiny-ass world made by killing one person. You don’t even understand what having burden means. And the ‘hatred of the world’, what, it just means you’re stuck as blood and can’t return to being human? That’s it?”

“…”

This is what you call a world?

…Can it even be called a world?

A world formed from an epiphany no more disconnected from reality than ‘humans are just lumps of blood’?

“It’s kind of… hmm, small.”

It wasn’t meant as mockery.

It was closer to genuine curiosity. There was even a tinge of envy mixed in.

“…Ah, I see.”

The one receiving the words didn’t seem to take it that way, though.

The cheap grin that had been plastered on Parse’s face all this time vanished.

“Then let’s see what kind of wonderful world you’ll open up. I’ll watch from the side.”

I casually replied to the voice dripping with hatred.

“No need. I’ll show you now.”

“-?”

I took one deep breath.

Then, raised the water pressure to the maximum level I could manage.

“Ku, Kraak…!?”

“Nggh…”

The crushing force hit in an instant.

Even I, who had prepared for it, and Parse, who hadn’t, both collapsed to the ground.

“A-Aaargh…!!!”

It was like being restrained and slowly pressed under a hydraulic press.

The air in my lungs was automatically forced out. Forget breathing, I couldn’t even move a single finger joint.

“You, this, what…!”

Parse looked at me in panic, then glanced at his arm beginning to crumple and suddenly had a realization.

“Y-you already…?!”

“…”

I couldn’t even respond.

Even at the same water pressure, a child’s body and an adult’s body bear different loads.

Not that I was unharmed. Parse’s body was gradually collapsing, turning into blood.

Yet he tried to smile as he stared at the trembling mass of blood.

“…Ugh, ha, khaha, fuck…! Fuck…! This is insane. One of the Three Evils those Crimson Circle bastards were so desperately trying to create has emerged naturally…? Life really is something else… Khak…”

His eyes were filled with raw desire as he scanned me up and down.

Spears slowly, bit by bit, began forming from the surrounding blood droplets.

“Khh, lucky… so damn lucky…!”

It was on a completely different level than when drawn from a stable state, but it was definitely aimed at my throat.

Kneeling on the ground, I could do nothing but watch the scene unfold.

I couldn’t move a single finger.

All I could do was wait.

“This… I don’t need anything else if I have this…! I can…”

“Fu… fuck…”

I squeezed the air out of my lungs and somehow forced out the words.

“S-so fucking slow… you asshole…”

“It’s enough… to pierce your throat…”

“Not you…”

“…?”

Confusion spread across Parse’s face.

-Crack!

His shoulder was gouged out.

“…Huh?”

Parse looked at his own shoulder with a face that showed he understood absolutely nothing.

There, a large circular wound had appeared, as if something had taken a bite out of him.

Of course, even seeing it didn’t mean he could immediately understand what had happened.

…That he was being eaten.

“What the hell, what is this-”

It was luck.

More precisely, it was a favorable matchup.

Blood mixes. I hadn’t splattered it everywhere during my escape for nothing.

He stepped on all my blood while coming, and just mixed in during the process of turning into blood.

I made Parse aware of my blood attached to his body.

Deep Sea Creatures know what blood is. And as long as I mixed in just a hint of my scent, which is a delicacy to them…

[~!!!!!!~~~~~]

“N-no…”

This is what happens.

Crack, crunch, rip!

Parse thrashed about, trying desperately to escape.

But it was meaningless. I had no intention of releasing the pressure until I confirmed he was neutralized.

Deep Sea Creatures, still invisible, gathered around Parse with grotesque giggles.

Ah. There was just one feature I could distinguish.

Their endless hunger and razor-sharp teeth.

“Don’t… you fucking bastard…!”

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

To an outsider, it would’ve been a nightmarish sight.

Parse’s body was vanishing, little by little, in midair. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

To me, who could see it, it was clear just how horrific the scene truly was.

All sorts of Deep Sea Creatures swarmed him, crying “just one bite, just one bite,” as they tore him apart.

“…You. You crazy son of a bitch.”

It wasn’t long before.

With only his bitten head remaining, Parse mumbled as he looked at me, his face showing nothing but resignation.

“…What kind of world do you live in…”

At a loss for words, I gave a meaningless answer.

“…Who knows.”

Crack!

*

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