WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 114 - Using One Evil to Fight Another (4)

"Follow me."

The man staggered as he said that and then collapsed flat on the ground, dead.

Literally dead. Staring at the sight of him sticking his tongue out unpleasantly, we looked at each other in a daze.

"Is she telling us to die?”

"Maybe there was some kind of mistake—”

Before we could even figure out Number 9’s intentions, the man stood back up.

But this time, instead of standing properly as before, his limbs flailed about grotesquely, like a puppet hanging from strings.

Seeing the man lift his foot up to his chest and wobble forward, Vile Blood stared with his mouth hanging open.

"This is ridiculous. To perform a new binding…”

"Is that what you call binding?”

"Yeah. Looks like Number 9 didn’t have the leeway to guide us personally.”

"Hmm. Is that difficult?”

"Whether it’s easy or hard, you’d know better than me. You have Puppet as well. What surprised me is the fact that she even managed to do a binding.”

Vile Blood looked up at the sky, his eyes twitching.

"It’ll take about a month from here to Manganji even on horseback. And yet she influenced things all the way out here.”

"...What?"

It sounded absurd. I frowned in disbelief.

"That makes it sound like Nightfall’s world is as large as the continent itself.”

"That’s exactly what it is. Otherwise, how do you explain this?”

"..."

If that were true, the scale was on a completely different level.

Her world was, quite literally, a world.

As I stood there in shock, Vile Blood patted my shoulder as if he had expected this reaction.

"It can’t be helped. Even if it’s the same type of world, there’s no rule saying they have to be the same size. If it’s just wide, then well…”

"Right."

No. Vile Blood didn’t have a Great Realm. He didn’t fully grasp just how absurd this was.

If Nightfall truly wished for it, she could exert that power on us as well.

Not only that. It meant she possessed the power to extend her hand at any moment, quite literally, to every person in the Empire—that was the kind of power she held.

"..."

Now that I knew this, there was no longer any room for choice.

Before even considering the Three Calamities or anything else, I couldn’t begin to imagine just how great a threat she was.

I stared coldly at the staggering man and steeled my resolve.

I had to kill her, no matter what.

* * *

The man was slower than expected. We followed him for nearly an entire day without sleep, yet he never exceeded the speed of a running human.

Naturally so. Even if he was bound, a human wouldn’t suddenly turn into something other than human.

In the end, the place we arrived at wasn't Manganji, but a massive cavern. Before us lay crumbled skulls, dried bloodstains turned brown, and numerous signs planted into the ground reading “Do not Enter!” I picked up a rusted sword hilt and saw how its tip had melted and hardened again. I looked back into the cavern, where not an inch ahead was visible in the darkness.

It was a cave whose very appearance made one unwilling to enter.

"Is she telling us to go in there?”

"The one she bound is dead again now, so…this should be the place.”

Vile Blood glanced down at the collapsed man and let out a sigh.

With no other choice, I stepped forward first and spread my Tide Sense.

And then…

"...!!"

My heart nearly dropped. Seeing me freeze, Vile Blood tilted his head.

"What is it?”

"...Ah, no. It’s nothing…”

Right.

I had forgotten, but this wasn’t just some medieval world.

I sighed and replied.

“There doesn’t seem to be any danger ahead. Let’s go.”

"? Sure."

Vile Blood and the others entered, with Sunken Mire, who looked like she really, truly didn’t want to, the last one to enter.

We hadn’t gone far before we couldn’t see anything anymore. There wasn’t even the smallest crack for sunlight to slip through.

"Light it.”

"Yes."

One of the members took out a wooden stick and lit it.

As a result, they saw what I had already seen, albeit vaguely, with my Tide Sense.

"U-uwaaargh...!"

"Shit! What in the world is that?!”

At first, we saw the eyes.

Pale green eyes blinking slowly. They were just larger than those of any normal human.

Black scales gleamed as if they had been polished with oil. Claws capable of easily shredding several oxen, and massive membranous wings.

A winged lizard. In other words, a dragon.

It was silently looking down at us.

"Tsk. What is this crap… Kill it!”

Vile Blood clicked his tongue and prepared for battle, but I immediately stopped him.

"That won’t be necessary.”

"What?”

I carefully reached out and touched the dragon’s face.

It didn’t resist, nor did it react.

That confirmed it. This one, too, was a bound being.

...So it wasn’t just limited to humans.

"It seems this is our means of transportation.”

Turning back toward Vile Blood and the others, I saw them blankly staring up at the dragon, muttering one thing at a time.

"Damn…”

"How in the world did she tame something like this? Even back when I was a mercenary, I never hunted anything like that.”

"You were a mercenary?”

"A long time ago. Anyway, how do we ride it?”

-Crack…

The dragon, which had been trembling slightly, suddenly stepped forward with one of its massive feet.

"Ugh…”

Seeing the massive body move, Vile Blood raised his hand in alarm, but when it became clear the creature was simply heading out, he stepped aside and let it pass.

Once outside the cave, the dragon looked twice as large as it had inside and three times as menacing.

Behind its fully spread wings was a saddle that people could sit on. However, there was no safety belt or proper seat, only something like a low ridge meant to keep you from sliding off, making it look incredibly unsafe.

"..."

"..."

Vile Blood glared at the creature as it lay down as if telling us to mount it, then climbed on first.

"Get on. We don’t really have any other choice.”

At his words, the other members swallowed hard and climbed onto whatever could barely be called a seat.

Sunken Mire, the last one remaining, looked up at me with a desperate expression.

"I-I’m scared of heights…”

"Then it seems today is the day for you to overcome that weakness.”

A keeper was incredibly convenient just by having them around. Unlike workshops, which had a capacity limit, one could stuff things like massive wagons inside them without restraint.

Over the past year alone, I had already stored a great deal inside Sunken Mire’s swamp. Leaving her behind was never an option.

"Uweeh..."

Whether she cried or not, I grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and forced her to sit beside me.

-Grrrrrr…

Once everyone was seated, the creature let out a rumbling sound from deep in its throat and then…ran forward.

"?"

Thud, thud, thud, thud—it sprinted across the ground like a horse while flapping its wings, leaving everyone quite dumbfounded.

I had assumed it would just immediately take off—but right when I was thinking that, I saw pure white clouds.

"Kgh…Kyaaaaah!!!”

There was a cliff.

A 90-degree plunge that felt no different from a freefall. Gritting my teeth and clothing the leather, I reminded myself that falling couldn’t kill me anymore—when the spread wings began to catch the wind, slowly pulling us upward.

Before long, it alternated between gliding and flying, the sun gradually drawing closer.

"Fuck…everyone, stay flat!”

Flying atop a dragon was not romantic in the slightest.

To survive the overwhelming wind and cold, you had to lie completely flat, shivering as you clung to the leather.

It wasn’t that bad for me actually. It felt less cold, and I could use water pressure to firmly fix my body in place.

"This is actually prettier than I expected…”

Clouds lay beneath me. Unlike an airplane, where you could only look out a window, I could take in the view in all directions. It was a completely different experience from anything on Earth.

The others didn’t seem to agree.

"Kyaaaah… I-I’m falling…!”

The dragon’s flight lasted about 3 days. At night it flew a bit more slowly, giving me some time to rest.

"W-we can’t sleep like this.”

"Just hang in there a little longer. Judging by the terrain below, we’re almost there.”

Of course, hardly anyone was strong enough to fall asleep easily in midair.

By the last day, everyone had grown somewhat accustomed to it to the point that some people were vomiting over the dragon’s back.

"Ugh, bleeeergh…”

Why were they vomiting if they got used to it? Well, before, they would just throw up directly in front of themselves.

"I'll kill them… I’ll kill them!”

Unfortunately, the one who did it was Vile Blood. Motivation was more than sufficient, at least. The members, even Sunken Mire, had a murderous look in their eyes.

As he wiped his mouth, the dragon slowly began to descend.

That was when the kingdom of Manganji came into view.

My first impression of it was, well.

"Hmm, it’s diverse.”

This place that seemed to be the capital of Manganji had no city walls at all.

Instead, countless buildings built in wildly different styles stood side by side, and from afar one could see innumerable races with different skin colors and appearances. It looked less like a single nation and more like a borderless city where many different people lived together.

It was a beautiful sight made real. One that every person on Earth had probably wished for at least once.

The dragon sat down on the ground and then closed its eyes.

Liberated, the members stretched their stiff bodies and muttered one after the other.

"It feels like the ground’s still shaking…”

"To think I’d get seasick, let alone dragon-sick, in my lifetime."

Including Vile Blood, the members looked terrible. If there had been a child among us, it wouldn’t have been strange if they’d fallen just from that experience.

With no city walls, there were no guards either, so we could naturally observe the people of Manganji.

"Fresh cutlassfish just arrived today! Cheap, cheap!”

"Hmm, how much?”

"Lately the neighbor’s been banging on the wall every night, so…”

"Mister, want your shoes shined?”

The last one, the shoeshine boy, looked up at me with a bright smile.

I shook my head.

"No thanks."

"Keh, cheapskate.”

As I watched the boy puff out his cheeks and walk away, Vile Blood warned me.

"Remember. There isn’t a single living person here. They may all look human, but…”

"I figured that out from the conversation just now.”

"...Hmm."

He glanced down at my footwear and nodded.

I was wearing leather boots, not normal shoes.

The people spoke, traded, and lived as if alive, but it was only just one big performance.

The only living beings were us and Nightfall, who was somewhere in this city.

Watching the back of the boy, who had likely died and become Nightfall’s puppet, I suddenly grew curious and asked.

"Why make a country like this? You said she was already a ruler. Even without all this, the masses would have worshiped her.”

"Undercurrent. You seem like the type who prefers rationality, so let me give you one piece of advice.”

"?"

"Never try to understand the inner workings of the Upper Tiers. You’ll go mad too.”

In other words, there was no reason.

After walking for a while through this country that was beautiful on the surface and horrific underneath, someone stepped out wearing a refined butler’s uniform that seemed quite out of place.

"Welcome. Are you visitors?”

"Yes. We’ve come to see Lady Nightfall.”

"I am her uncle.”

After introducing himself in a way that made us unsure how to react, he bowed elegantly and guided us forward.

"Please follow me. I will show you to your lodgings.”

After walking for a short while, we arrived at a massive hotel. Seeing the soft beds, warm water, and fruit laid out on a table, Sunken Mire walked over without a moment’s hesitation and collapsed.

"I-I think I’m really going to die…”

"Hmm, it seems the journey has been quite tiring.”

Everyone kept their silence. They all knew that if they opened them, curses would spill out endlessly.

The man who had introduced himself as ‘uncle’ lightly handed bundles of keys to the members.

"Please choose one room you like and rest comfortably. However, Lord Vile Blood and Lord Undercurrent will need to meet with her.”

"Understood.”

Vile Blood replied as if it were obvious, rubbing his tired eyes.

He glanced at the other members. They too nodded and returned to their rooms with stiff expressions. Judging by that, it seemed they wouldn’t be granted a moment’s rest. Except for Sunken Mire.

I calmed my slightly tense chest and followed behind him.

Surprisingly, the castle was not large. It would be more accurate to call it a small mansion, not much different from Aletus’s. After entering and walking a little, a massive oak door came into view, opening wide.

"Please enter."

-Creak

Beyond the opened door stood countless butlers lined up.

They silently bowed their heads, motionlessly staring at the floor, like mannequins. Beyond them hung a white cloth curtain.

A shadow was visible across it. The silhouette of a small, half-reclined woman.

"I’ve brought them.”

"Yes, good work, Uncle. You may leave now.”

"Yes."

The voice, far gentler than I expected, sounded rather young.

It was the sort of tone one might expect to hear from a simple country girl, enough to make one forget that this was the notorious villainess who had killed an entire nation’s people and turned them into puppets.

"Now then—Hmm. Vile Blood, you say that one is worth 350,000 World-Sealing Elixirs?”

"Yes."

"I don’t really get it. What is he to be worth that much?”

Should I kneel?

I could see Vile Blood hesitating as well, debating whether to do it or just bolt, but I stopped him.

A clearer opening would come. To recognize it precisely, I pushed my Tide Sense to its limits.

And it didn’t betray me. True to being the greatest ability I received from the Abyssal Sea, it revealed everything in an instant.

The fact that we were completely screwed.

"Oh?”

I heard a small exclamation slip out. Then Vile Blood quietly whispered into my ear.

"Should we go?”

"..."

Instead of answering, I wrote words on his back.

[Vile Blood, the assassination plan is canceled.]

He flinched but realized it was me and blinked, silently asking why.

I gave a brief explanation seeing him like that.

[We’ve already been subdued. If we act strangely, we die.]

"?"

It seemed he wanted a detailed explanation—but that wasn’t possible.

How could I even begin to explain this?

Threads.

They were so thin, impossibly thin, that they were almost invisible, yet faintly pink strands were descending from the air, wrapping around our arms and legs.

Even so, we were the lucky ones.

"..."

A glance at the servants lined up behind us revealed that for them, it didn’t stop at their limbs.

The threads were burrowing into their ears and eyeballs, kneading their brains.

That was the true nature of binding—the way those puppets operated.

If we made a single wrong move, we would probably end up just like that.

'...What is this?'

I clenched my teeth in shock.

I hadn’t noticed it at all. Not even slightly.

Until I focused my Tide Sense properly, I hadn’t even known the threads existed.

But looked at another way…

'She has to suffer from some absurd burden.'

By common sense and by my instinct as a Fallen.

It was easy to tell that the price for using an ability like this would be enormous.

And the moment I saw those threads, I could roughly guess what that price was. Abandoning the plan of directly attacking her, playing along for now, and withdrawing.

That had a far higher chance of success.

Seeing the firm resolve reflected in my eyes, Vile Blood nodded and stepped forward.

"Ahem, Lady Nightfall. It seems he may not be worth quite that much.”

"..."

"I asked for 350,000 World-Sealing Elixirs, but now that I think about it again, I believe I may have demanded too much. Would it be acceptable if I lowered the price and stepped away briefly to discuss it with my subordinates?”

It was perfect diplomacy. Retreating once like this, then—

"No."

?

Suddenly, the shadow beyond the curtain stood up.

"I’ll make it 700,000."

"...Huh?"

"I'll pay double. Hand him over.”

Hearing her voice, thick with raw desire, I finally understood what Vile Blood had meant before.

That when dealing with the Upper Tiers, one must never look for reason.

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