Wizard of the Deep Sea Chapter 57

TL/ED – Miso

“What on earth happened to you…?”

“Nothing happened. I just trained.”

The first place I visited was Alletus’s mansion.

In the drawing room, Alletus had a baffled expression, torn between calling a doctor or summoning the guards, so I told him to do neither.

“It was more effective than I expected. Would you like to try using magic? A wind spell, and make it graze past my ear.”

“…Alright.”

Alletus summoned a gentle breeze that brushed past my ear.

I could see it, and yet I couldn’t.

It seemed the Enhanced Mana Body I had acquired was exclusive to Abyss Realm Magic.

The training method might have been the same, but the source of the difference was clearly the mana.

Training in a place overflowing with ordinary Mana.

And training in a place filled with ‘unusual’ mana. That brought about a different outcome.

“Hmm…”

At least, in my personal opinion, this was much better. Once I became able to sense the mana of the Abyss Realm, it also seemed possible to perceive distortions caused by foreign mana.

The wind Alletus had just released wasn’t visible in itself, but I could see it disturbing the deep sea, so I was able to dodge it.

If you paint white paint on a white canvas, nothing is visible.

But if you first coat it with dark blue paint and then apply white paint, you can see what’s approaching.

It feels like that. Though I might have become less resistant to attacks. Or maybe not?

As I was considering various possibilities, Alletus withdrew the wind with a curious look.

“You really can see it? It’s still elemental magic, but to react like this is fascinating. Karin said it would take at least a year to master the Enhanced Mana Body, and that you’d die before then from being melted down…”

“These wounds weren’t completely meaningless.”

I lightly tapped my eye, now bruised in a dark blue color.

“…I can’t deny it, but I still can’t understand why you had to use that method. Wasn’t it practically a gamble with death?”

“Isn’t that just what training is like?”

“No, not at all. What do you take knight training for? If you forced a child your age to go through something like that, ten out of ten would have their spirits broken and give up the path of the knight. Unless the child has a body of steel and a heart of diamond, they’d lose even their talent.”

“My training with Dersia nim was quite similar.”

“Wait, what?? I thought you were learning magic?”

“Uh… yeah.”

It was magic, but I learned it while getting beaten up.

Of course, I knew it wasn’t normal, but because of that, I hadn’t found Brimdal’s training all that strange either.

Alletus sighed as he responded.

“Sir Brimdal is certainly a remarkable knight. Despite being a Dwarf, he bore no deep animosity toward human culture, refining himself and achieving many great feats. But ever since his retirement, all he’s done is take in eager youths and crush their hopes, over and over.”

“You didn’t try to stop him?”

“…Well, usually, it’s the children who dream of knighthood and the parents who try to stop them. So if Sir Brimdal beats that dream out of them… though it’s a crude way to put it, it works out well for both sides.”

“Being a knight is an honorable thing, isn’t it?”

“Only for commoners. For nobles, the prevailing thought is, why waste your time when you could just learn magic instead? On the other hand, commoner parents are usually willing to accept some risk if their child can train under the best knight.”

I had always wondered why no one had labeled Brimdal as a public enemy, even though he broke so many hopefuls. Now I knew why.

Either way, the results were finally starting to show, so I had no intention of giving up.

As I sipped my tea, I thought I might stop by the orphanage before heading back, when I suddenly felt something missing.

The noisy silver-haired furball was gone. I asked with a puzzled look.

“Come to think of it, where is Elysia?”

“Ugh…”

Alletus lowered his head deeply.

It wasn’t a very reassuring reaction.

“Of course, it’s not your fault, but she insisted that Jern abandoned her after saying he’d come every day, so I had no choice. I allowed her to go out. She probably went looking for you, so you must have missed each other.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry. Since that day, I’ve secretly attached a tracker and shadow knights to Elysia. Even if the worst situation comes, I can at least evacuate Elysia.”

It seemed he had thoroughly prepared after his daughter had suffered two major incidents.

“And since I know you’re also doing your best to survive, I can’t say anything against it. Life is the most precious thing, after all. Ah, and this is something I was going to send by mail…”

Alletus handed me a small dagger.

It didn’t look like it was made for actual use, instead adorned beautifully with gleaming jewels and ivory.

I accepted it, still confused.

“What is this?”

“The year is nearly over, isn’t it? I’ve never heard when your birthday is.”

“…Ah.”

“Sorry if it’s late, but it’s your birthday gift.”

That’s exactly what it was.

Since I was an orphan, I couldn’t be sure when this body’s real birthday was…

But, I should have turned eleven by now.

“Thank you.”

I accepted the dagger and tucked it into my pocket.

How should I put it?

The fact that I had already survived a whole year in deep sea felt strangely surreal.

Dersia was still asleep.

Though I wasn’t sure if “asleep” was the right word. She was mumbling to herself like she was possessed, scribbling something down on the table, but I still couldn’t understand the characters she was writing.

The time was around one o’clock. If I visited the orphanage and came back, it would probably be around three.

I was thinking of buying some treats for the orphanage using the Magic Tower’s interest-free loan card and had stopped by a bakery when.

The air suddenly grew hot.

“…?”

A sharp wave of heat swept over me directly.

Since my world was like the deep sea, I didn’t feel heat easily, even sitting near a bonfire. Looking around, I spotted a child in a hood, dripping blood as they walked.

Their breathing was rough. Just by looking, I could tell something was seriously wrong. I cautiously kept some distance as others approached the child with puzzled expressions.

“Hey there, are you alright? What’s with all this blood?”

“…”

“Let me see…goodness! Your body is like a fireball!”

“Oh no, she must be sick. Shouldn’t we call a doctor?”

“……”

This wasn’t good.

Clicking my tongue, I watched as people gathered around the kid.

Right in the middle of the Capital, and a kid no less.

That drastically lowered everyone’s guard.

I scanned the area, but there were no knights nearby. Even if there were, at that distance, they’d be too far to act in time.

A fruit vendor peeked under the girl’s robe and went pale.

“W-Wait. Isn’t this the kid that was being dragged away earlie-”

Feeling the water around me begin to lightly boil, I sighed.

No matter what, this had to be stopped.

“Ah-”

“There you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you. What are you doing here?”

Before the vendor could scream, I cut in, grabbing the girl’s by her shoulder.

It was literally burning hot. The girl exhaled sharply as if she had been running, fumbling through her clothes.

“This is my younger sister. She hurt herself badly while playing and caught pneumonia. She even needed several stitches, but she insists on running around. I’m sorry for the trouble.”

“Y-Your sister? But…”

I calmly showed the vendor a key as he stammered.

“Jern Aspandil, apprentice of the Black Magic Tower. If this child has caused any problems, please contact the Tower. We’ll handle it promptly.”

“Ah, y-yes! There’s no problem at all.”

The name of the Magic Tower really carried weight.

The crowd dispersed as quickly as it had formed. Keeping my hand on the child’s shoulder, I led her into an alleyway.

“Follow me quietly.”

“…Ugh!”

Something flickered beneath the hood.

Resistance. But weak.

When I covered it with a current, the flames were instantly snuffed out and turned to smoke. The smoke was consumed, unable to rise into the sky.

I shifted the current and lightly gripped the child’s neck, then let go.

To remind her who was holding her life.

“…!”

“Because that’s better for you too.”

Maybe it was because of the overwhelming difference that left no space for resistance.

Or perhaps it was because she realized I was the same as them.

After that, she followed me without resistance. I pinned the her to a corner of the alleyway, confirmed several times with current sense that no one was around, and then asked.

“How did you escape?”

The Heaven’s Judgement Knight who commanded them wouldn’t have been an easy one to slip away from.

The girl opened and closed her mouth a few times under the hood, then cautiously answered.

“The one who captured us… went to make a report…”

She must’ve used the brief moment when the knight was reporting to escape.

But surely the security wouldn’t have been so lax as to allow someone to slip away that easily.

“A-And then, Greg… he was crushed and died.”

“Greg?”

From the context, it sounded like another Fallen companion.

The girl clung to the worn hood as if it were her only armor and trembled violently, then spoke with tears creeping into her voice.

“My… big brother…”

“I see.”

“He said he couldn’t hold on any longer. That he gave up trying to endure it… All the other knights passed out. That’s how I was able to run away…”

“Hmm.”

So in the end, the Fallen couldn’t endure it and went berserk, knocking the knights unconscious.

This was another horrific situation. If I were a Heaven’s Judgement Knight, I’d probably be losing my mind at this absurd coincidence.

What should I do? Now that I’d seen it, I couldn’t just walk away.

As I was thinking that, the girl who had been crouched down suddenly stood and grabbed my shoulder in desperation.

“P-Please help me.”

“Help you?”

“I’m scared. I don’t want to stay like this anymore. You… you’re an apprentice of the Magic Tower, right? And you’re fine, aren’t you? Please, I know there’s no reason you have to… but give me a chance too! I’ll do anything, anything at all…!”

“….”

I looked at the face beneath the hood.

It was horrifying. Burns layered over burns. If not for that hood, most would have realized she was a Fallen at a glance.

But above all else, those eyes filled only with despair.

I slowly nodded.

I hadn’t become so broken that I needed a reason to help a child.

“…Alright. I’ll help you.”

“R-Really?”

“Yeah. I actually brought some medicine with me. Not sure if it’ll help though.”

I pulled out an ointment from my coat and handed it over. The child looked at it with a puzzled expression.

“What… is this?”

“Medicine. It should help at least a little if you apply it.”

“N-Not this… I’ve tried using things like this so many times, and it never really helped…”

“Still better than nothing, right?”

“But-”

“Let’s start with this, and then look for something better.”

I carefully glanced out of the alley and muttered softly.

“We’ll need to apply medicine every day, then we’ll need to look into procedures for replacing the skin with artificial material. After that, we’ll have to work on changing your constitution. Not sure if it’ll work, but maybe by cooling your blood-”

“W-Wait a second!”

The girl suddenly stopped me, as if what I was saying didn’t make sense.

When I turned around to look, she had a confused expression, like she thought I was hiding something, and asked,

“That’s just… layering temporary fixes on top of more temporary fixes, isn’t it?”

“Well… yeah.”

“What is that even… You’re saying we just have to endure it?”

“Hmm…”

I scratched my cheek for a moment and shrugged.

“Yeah. That’s all there is.”

“…Don’t lie to me!”

The girl’s gaze flared with anger.

Thud! She rushed at me, slammed me against the wall, gripped my neck tightly, and shouted in frustration.

“You’re fine! You know the way out of this, don’t you? You know how to escape from here! Tell me! I… I want to live too…!”

“There’s no such way.”

I didn’t get angry. Because I understood how she felt.

Just because someone drowning grabs at anything nearby doesn’t mean they want to drag others down with them.

I simply met the girl’s eyes calmly and spoke the truth.

“All there is to it is enduring the current moment, holding on, and when the next burden comes, enduring that too. Even if it hurts, you bear it. Even if it feels like you’re going to die, you still bear it.”

“…?”

The girl looked puzzled by how normal my tone was when I should have been struggling to breathe. Then, as if realizing something, her eyes widened.

“Yo-you’re not… breathing…”

“Right. In my world, it’s not easy to breathe. I’ve replaced my respiratory system.”

“ㅡ”

The strength drained from the girl’s hands, and she lowered her head deeply.

Because I had proven with my own actions everything I had just said, she had lost the will to argue.

“…How long do I have to keep doing that?”

“Until you start thinking dying would be better.”

“What…?”

“When you’ve resisted enough, and feel like you’ve done all you could. When living desperately has lost all meaning. That’s how long you hold on. There is no end. There’s no escape.”

“…”

Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to sugarcoat things with comforting lies.

Even if I did, giving false hope to a Fallen is not something one can do with a human heart.

You can survive right now. Maybe you won’t die next time. That’s about the only comfort we’re allowed.

The child slowly lifted their head. Whether my words held meaning or not, there wasn’t a trace of hope in their eyes.

“Then why do you keep living?”

“Because it’s fucked up.”

“…?”

“I can’t say living is better than dying. That would probably be a lie.”

The Abyss is horrible. Sometimes, I think several times a day that dying would be better than going on like this.

And yet I don’t give up. If I had to pick a reason…

“I don’t want to lose to the world I created.”

That’s probably the biggest reason.

“So, what are you going to do?”

“…”

I left the decision to the girl.

“If you want to struggle, I can help you. It’s not even that hard.”

“…Mom.”

Suddenly, the girl said that and lifted her head.

Unlike before, there was fear in her voice, but also a trace of determination.

She seemed to have found something in my short words.

“If I’m going to die anyway, I want to see my mom one last time.”

“That’s not hard. Where is your mom?”

“I-In the Imperial palace…”

“…?”

Perhaps-

This girl wasn’t just any ordinary natural-born wizard.