Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

I made a sort of pact with Decay.

It was a pact that if he left without killing me, I would not inform Dersia that he had come.

Of course, I had no intention whatsoever of keeping a pact with a murderer.

“-So he left behind this bracelet and the chest.”

“I see.”

After about 20 minutes of babbling, I conveyed about 95% of what Decay had told me.

Dersia examined the pearl placed in the chest closely, then rubbed its end.

“It looks like a pearl, but it’s not. It feels more like some kind of medicine…”

“Medicine?”

“Yes.”

Saying so, Dersia picked up one of the pearls and swallowed it.

“?”

I stared blankly at the sight for a moment before snapping out of it and rushing toward her in shock.

“Wait, are you out of your mind? Spit it out!”

I tried to grab her shoulders but hesitated to lay a hand on the master as lofty as the sky, so I just voiced my protest.

Dersia looked down at me with a look of disdain, rolling the pearl in her mouth.

“Why are you making such a fuss?”

“Why did you… eat it?? How do you know what kind of medicine it is?”

“To determine a medicine’s effect, you have to consume it.”

“Can’t you just crush it, soak it, dry it, and go through some process to analyze the raw ingredients? That seems safer.”

“It is possible, but it’s difficult and takes a long time. Eating it is quicker. And my body is immune to all poisons. Have you ever seen an Elf die of poison?”

“…I’ve never seen an Elf besides you, Master.”

No, I just learned for the first time that Elves are immune to all poisons. Maybe it’s because she’s always eating stuff like poisonous mushrooms.

Anyway, since she said she was fine, there was no more I could say.

As I watched her anxiously, Dersia swallowed the pearl with a gulp, tapped her chin, and nodded.

“This is the effect, hmm…”

“What is it?”

“Other emotions dull, and the mood slightly lifts. The sense of lethargy diminishes, and the world appears a bit lighter. That’s about it for now. More importantly, there are definitely no side effects.”

“You can tell all that from just one dose?”

“It’s not difficult. This is something you, as an Abyss Realm Wizard, should try.”

“…It’s safe, right?”

“I assure you. Even if it’s poison, if you get poisoned in front of me, I can treat you.”

I swallowed the pearl with a suspicious face.

The taste, was like a slightly bitter candy? At some point, it melted instantly and turned into powder.

After swallowing and letting time pass, I felt a bit dizzy. Should I say it was hazy? It didn’t really hinder movement, though.

I moved my body around and shrugged.

“I don’t think it has that much of an effect?”

“That might not be the case.”

“Huh?”

Dersia walked up to me and suddenly flicked my forehead.

“Ouch.”

Thud, I fell on my butt. The thick carpet on the floor kept it from hurting too much, though.

I stood up, rubbing my waist.

“What was that all of a sudden?”

“You fell.”

“Well, that’s because you pushed me, huh?”

That’s when I realized.

I don’t usually fall. I can’t drop fast enough to feel pain.

I got up and swung my arms around. The difference wasn’t huge, but I could definitely feel less resistance.

“…The burden has been reduced.”

Just like that, so easily?

These Crimson Circle bastards, just how much did they research… I thought as I looked at the chest.

But Dersia, staring at me intently, spoke of something else.

“Try using Abyss magic.”

“Okay.”

I tried to lift the chest with currents, but failed.

The chest only rattled a bit.

“Huh?”

I applied more force, enough that I should normally be able to fling a boulder, and only then could I barely lift the chest, and even that was unstable.

“It’s… not working very well?”

“-Huh, Crimson Circle made something incredible.”

Dersia looked at the chest with a slightly changed expression.

“It’s not a medicine that reduces the Abyss burden. It’s more like an artifact, in the form of a medicine, that affects something more fundamental.”

“Could you explain that in simpler terms?”

“It’s a drug that lowers your perception of the world.”

“I see. I understand completely.”

When I nodded with a confident expression, Dersia sighed and began to explain in simpler terms.

“It means it interferes with your recognition of the world called the deep sea. It’s probably the only way to lower the burden for a certain period of time without side effects. I can’t even imagine how many hundreds of years they must have spent developing this. Even from my perspective as an Elf, it must have taken a long time to research.”

“So basically, it’s difficult to make. Then… if we have this, are we almost done?”

“Of course not. There’s also the issue of resistance. In the end, it only seems to reduce the burden by about one-third or one-fourth. That might make a difference in another world, but in the Abyss, even if you take it for a lifetime, it would only slightly delay the end. And this isn’t even a lifetime’s supply.”

“Still, wouldn’t it be useful in the Deep Fusion state?”

“It might be. But that’s a state you should avoid in the first place. This would only be used when making a final desperate move.”

Dersia gave a more reserved evaluation than expected as she fiddled with the necklace.

“And this clearly, it’s an artifact that transmits the wearer’s location to a fixed place the moment it’s worn. I will dispose of it.”

“Ah. Wait a moment.”

I instinctively reached out my hand.

Dersia tilted her head ever so slightly and asked back.

“Is there a problem?”

“Well… uhm…”

I had shared 95%, but 5% remained.

After a moment of hesitation, I just asked directly. No point worrying about it, nothing would change anyway.

“Master, do you perhaps not want me to survive?”

“Of course not. Did Decay say something like that?”

An immediate answer.

Dersia spoke without the slightest change in expression.

It didn’t look like a lie, so I nodded and apologized.

“I figured. I’m sorry. You’ve been trying so hard for me-”

“It doesn’t matter if he spouts nonsense. But if the Jern I know judged it to be worth trusting, then there must be a reason. I’d like to hear it.”

“It’s really nothing much. He said, if you truly wanted to save me, you would’ve made it so I wasn’t Human.”

“…”

“It’s nonsense. I should’ve just ignored it… but.”

“……”

Dersia was silent for a long time.

I got worried that I might have provoked her unnecessarily and cautiously looked at her face.

An emotion I had never seen before was on her face.

It was unmistakably confusion.

“Jern.”

“Yes.”

“That’s… not entirely baseless, it seems.”

“Sorry?”

“I don’t really know why I never considered that possibility. Why… how…?”

Deep in thought, she murmured to herself, then suddenly sat down and started scribbling something.

The lines soon formed into a script I couldn’t recognize, covering the paper. Though I felt uneasy, I stood there for more than twenty minutes, but Dersia, as if she had completely forgotten I existed, focused solely on her writing.

“Um, Master?”

“…”

No response came back. Dersia had her nose practically buried in the paper.

I wondered if I should raise my voice, so I rang the bell nearby.

Still, no reaction.

Now it was my turn to panic. What is this.

“Goodness… she’s escaped again.”

At that moment, a gentle voice came from the side.

Startled, I stepped back and looked, an attractive woman in a maid outfit sighed and looked down at Dersia.

I had been in Dersia’s house constantly lately, yet I had never seen another person. I instinctively went on high alert and stepped back.

“Who are you?”

Crimson Circle? If so, this was the worst-case scenario. And right at the moment when Dersia had suddenly gone out of her mind.

But the maid gently lifted her skirt and bowed her head, greeting me, a child.

“Ah, I’m sorry for the late greeting. I’m Ciel, the maid and Head Maid of this mansion.”

“…I’ve never seen you before.”

“That’s because my master, Sia nim, ordered me not to reveal myself.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

“Or did you perhaps think that Dersia nim does her own cooking, cleaning, and laundry?”

Absolutely not.

Well, the hallway was clean. As I let my guard down a little, Ciel looked down at Dersia, who was scribbling like a madwoman, and let out a sigh.

“Still, this is just… really, tsk tsk…”

Judging by the way she spoke, she must be a maid.

She clicked her tongue at Dersia as if looking at a shut-in who required excessive attention.

“Even if you stay here, Sia nim won’t be back for a while. For now, let’s go to my room. You have a lot of questions, don’t you?”

“…”

I was still slightly suspicious, but there was no other choice.

I followed behind Ciel, who carried a lamp, and we headed to the room right next door.

…Wait, so she’s been right next door this whole time.

And it was much larger and cleaner than Dersia’s room. At this point, it was hard to tell who was the master and who was the maid.

As I sat on a clean wooden chair, Ciel simultaneously set down a teacup and poured the tea.

I took a sip, and well, it might be rude to say this but…

It had a far deeper flavor than what the Director made.

This was a level unattainable unless one had dedicated a significant portion of their life to tea ceremony. I spoke in admiration.

“You really are a maid.”

“Did you think I was something like an assassin?”

“Hmm, yes.”

“You’re honest. Just like the stories I heard.”

“Stories?”

“Yes, Sia nim often talked about her troublesome disciple.”

“Ah, right. What’s wrong with Master, anyway?”

“She’s, uh… in a escaped state. Sadly, I think it’s going to take quite a bit of time before Dersia nim comes back to her senses.”

“…Will she be like that for about a week?”

“You should be prepared for at least a few months. It might even take years.”

“What?!”

Thud- I stood up without realizing and hit the table.

Realizing my rudeness, I quickly sat back down.

“No, what kind of state is she in to be like that?”

“Don’t worry too much. Sometimes when she gets countered by herself, she ends up like that.”

“What… does that even mean?”

“If something she did based on her own theories ends up looking irrational, even to her, then she throws everything else aside and focuses entirely on that problem. She always ends up creating a masterpiece afterward, but from what I can see, she still hasn’t outgrown some of her childhood habits. If she doesn’t find a solution, I fear she might fall.”

Ciel sipped her tea as if it were nothing serious.

But I couldn’t treat it like that.

Without Dersia’s help, a lot of things would come to a halt. I sighed and rubbed my head.

“I really have no idea what’s going on anymore…”

“Fufu. Indeed.”

Even I, her disciple, was this worried.

But Ciel actually smiled. I was already a bit on edge, so I couldn’t let it slide.

“It might not seem like a big deal to you, Ciel-nim, but for me, it’s a very serious matter.”

“I’m sorry. It just felt like watching Sia nim in her younger days.”

“…Are you an Elf?”

“No, I’m not talking about her actual childhood, I mean when she had just come here.”

It was a story that piqued my interest.

Ciel spoke as if reminiscing about the past, her eyes drifting into the air.

“When she left the Black Magic Tower on her own and came to the Capital to read books, search, and scribble strange things in alleyways, Sia nim was more beast than Human.”

Was this a roundabout insult?

Apparently not. Ciel’s expression looked more like she was recalling a fond memory.

“Isn’t it funny? An Elf closer to a beast than a Human.”

“Did you take her in, Ciel-nim?”

“That’s not something you should say in front of Sia nim unless you want to get hit, but yes. You could say that.”

I roughly understood the situation.

Dersia didn’t treat her own body with much importance, so she would’ve needed someone like Ciel to care for her.

And besides, since Dersia wouldn’t have wanted that kind of care, someone must have volunteered to take care of her despite that.

If she volunteered to care for an eccentric like Dersia, then chances were high that this maid wasn’t in her right mind either.

As I slowly began to pull my head back in reasonable judgment, Ciel smiled even more brightly.

“The way you stop thinking and just act on instinct, it’s really similar. I could believe it even if someone said you were her son.”

“…If that’s a compliment, thank you.”

“It is a compliment. I’m grateful to you, Jern-nim.”

“I haven’t really done anything, though.”

“Just by existing, Sia nim has changed a lot. She talks with nobles now, she’s cut ties with the Black Magic Tower… She’s gone from an unidentifiable monster to a grumpy wizard with a disciple. I think it’s a really good change.”

Ciel looked at me, beaming like something truly delighted her.

“So I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t misunderstand. Dersia nim truly treasures you and is doing everything she can to keep you alive.”

“You heard that.”

“I’m sorry. The rooms are right next to each other, so even if I didn’t want to hear it, I did.”

…Even hearing it from someone else’s mouth made me feel embarrassed.

I cleared my throat and stood up.

“Sorry for saying unnecessary things. I guess I should look for something to do until Dersia nim comes to her senses.”

It was a shocking revelation, but when I thought about it, nothing had really changed.

The struggle to survive, that had been the same even before Dersia came into the picture.

If anything, I now had some direction. If the Crimson Circle gave proper advice, then the suggestion to find a Knight might not have been entirely off the mark.

As I stood up from my seat, Ciel handed me a piece of paper as if something came to mind.

“Oh, Jern.”

“Yes?”

“This is a book Sia nim had been diligently collecting to show you. It might help in your training.”

“Oh, thank you.”

I opened the magic tome.

“…?”

But there wasn’t anything like advice written in it.

What was there were just standard mid-tier spells, ones you could only attempt starting from 4-Star and were absolutely impossible to use as a 1-Star.

In short, it was a magic tome filled with very difficult spells.

Naturally, someone like me, limited to 1-Star, couldn’t learn a single one. Tilting my head, I asked.

“Um, did Master ever say anything else while putting this book together?”

“What do you mean by ‘something else’?”

“She once told me my limit was 3-Star, but the spells in here can only be used from above that level.”

“Huh?”

Ciel tilted her head like she had no idea what I was talking about.

“She said she was going to teach you everything, though?”

“?”