WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 116 - Using One Evil to Fight Another (6)

To make a plan, certainty was essential.

So I returned to the lodgings and gave orders to Vile Blood and the others.

"Eat and drink as much as you like. Act like a group that’s about to get its hands on 700,000 World-Sealing Elixirs.”

"?"

"???"

The members, who had been expecting something like ‘We’ve killed her. We’ll escape, so sacrifice your lives to open a path.’ all wore bewildered expressions.

They looked to Vile Blood, their leader, expecting an explanation from him, but he was looking at me with a similar expression.

"There’s nothing else we need to do?”

"There is. Just not yet.”

"...You do know the deadline is only a week away, right?”

A week and not a day more. If I had asked for even a little more time, she would have used force to detain us.

Even this one week had only been possible because I had insisted on the radical stance of revenge and because she seemed to truly like me.

More precisely, she liked how vast my world was.

"Of course."

No one was more aware of that fact than I was. I answered casually, and perhaps because of the sheer nonchalance of my answer, Vile Blood nodded as well.

"Well, you’re not the type to gamble with your life. I’ll trust you.”

"Thanks. To be honest, when Nightfall named 700,000 World-Sealing Elixirs, I thought you might betray me.”

"I did consider it. But after hearing that other stuff…”

Vile Blood furrowed his brows, wearing a disgusted expression.

"I finally understood why the mind-reading Fallen killed themselves. I wouldn’t be able to die peacefully as long as that thing stays alive.”

"Hmm, is it really that bad?”

From my perspective, Nightfall was obviously a nightmare of an opponent since I had to get rid of Scarlet Abyss.

But from the perspective of Scarlet Abyss members, she shouldn’t be that horrifying…right?

I mean, losing one’s sense of self was terrifying, but looking at others who had their burdens removed, they seemed to maintain some degree of consciousness.

At that question carrying those implications, Vile Blood spun this index finger close to his head in bewilderment.

"Undercurrent, are you crazy? You think that’s all it is?”

"I’m not denying that it’s horrifying. I’m just saying, wouldn’t it be better than dying?”

"That’s a peculiar viewpoint. At the very least, I want death to be an escape. I think the others feel the same.”

The other members nodded as well, their faces equally weary.

...Was I taking this too lightly?

Well, either way, if they saw Nightfall as something truly horrifying and cooperated, that worked in my favor.

"Um…then.”

In the middle of the discussion, Sunken Mire cautiously raised her hand.

"So I’m completely useless, right? I can just rest here, right?”

"No. I need you.”

"Huh?"

I took the bewildered-looking girl and headed outside.

Into this horrific, grotesque city.

Surprisingly, Sunken Mire only looked a bit uncomfortable at first. Once we actually started moving, she didn’t seem to dislike it that much.

Maybe her condition had improved a bit after resting for a while since she looked almost like a tourist, busy looking around and letting out little exclamations of admiration.

"Wow…Th-the city really is pretty… There are so many people here.”

"..."

I almost told her the truth, but when I saw her smiling a little bitterly while watching a laughing family pass by, I decided against it.

"Yeah. It’s definitely not a place for people like us.”

"I know that. We usually get missions to burn places like this down, right? Not that I was ever included, but the World-Sealing Elixir I took was probably made from the blood of people like this.”

"Is that so? You don’t look all that guilty, despite what you’re saying.”

"Piglets are cute, and salted pork feet are tasty. I learned that, in Scarlet Abyss, the way to survive is to accept things as fragments and not think about them too deeply.”

Sunken Mire replied calmly. Since I had no intention of adopting that worldview, I ended the conversation there and left her behind as I started working.

"Wh-what are you doing?”

"Gathering information.”

Building styles, clothing, gestures, and even the way they articulated words.

I collected every piece of information I could and tore a few things loose to toss into Sunken Mire’s swamp.

"W-won’t they say something if we do this…huh?”

Sunken Mire stared in amazement as the shopkeepers calmly repeated their preset lines, regardless of whether we smashed their stalls or not.

She must have mistaken it for my power’s doing.

"So you can do things like this too…”

"...Yeah."

"But what are you actually doing?”

"Fact-checking. Don’t you think this city is a bit strange?”

"Well, I guess you could call it that. There doesn’t seem to be a single conflict even though so many different people are gathered here…”

"The fact that they’re gathered at all is strange.”

"Huh?"

After spending the entire day silently exploring this city, I came to a conclusion.

At the very least, I heard hundreds of languages spoken and saw just as many ethnicities here, naturally including those from the Empire.

That could only mean one thing.

It wasn’t just the citizens of Manganji. She had bound people from other places as well.

Different races, different cultures. She had gone out of her way to capture them herself. Purely for the sake of diversity.

Why she pursued Fallen was easy to understand. To expand her Realm. Then why did she go so far as to bind ordinary people like this?

Because it was of some use to her.

"...I’ll act alone for a bit. Go back to the lodgings."

I climbed up to the highest spire in the city and looked down over it.

Just as Sunken Mire had said, it was beautiful. So many cultures blended together, creating a charm that could only exist in Manganji.

After pondering for a while, I swallowed a few World-Sealing Elixirs and activated my Tide Sense.

At first, I saw nothing—but then, as the sun set, its last light refracted unnaturally, dyeing the sky over the city in rainbow hues for a moment.

All those vibrant colors became individual threads, each connecting from the palace to the heads of these people.

"Hah."

The sight of the entire capital embroidered like that forced a breathless sigh from my lips. It was, quite literally, breathtaking.

And yet, the awe was crushed beneath terror.

If one thought about it, it was simple. The growth of this pyramid scheme, a world that endlessly expanded, and with it the ability of its user, naturally hinged on how many followers it created.

The most terrifying thing about Puppet wasn’t the nearly undetectable threads, nor the almost infinite potential size of the Realm.

It was the fact that even ordinary people who were neither wizards nor Fallen could be consumed as nourishment to fuel its growth.

That was the truly frightening part.

What was nothing more than a nuisance to other Fallen could be directly converted into power by her.

"How the hell am I supposed to deal with something like this…?”

I scratched my head roughly.

If the opponent were a wizard who controlled earth, there would be countless ways to counter them.

But what if it were a wizard who grew stronger by eating earth?

It might sound less powerful at first, but once you realize that half the world is made of earth, you’d have to stop looking down on it.

Unable to find any clear solution, I climbed down from the spire and walked along the darkening street when the shoe-shining boy I’d seen earlier trotted up to me energetically.

"Mister, want your shoes shined?”

"..."

He looked up at me with the same bright eyes as before, holding a piece of cloth so old that I worried it might make my shoes dirtier instead.

In reality, our eye levels were the same.

On a whim, I held out my boots and nodded.

"Go ahead.”

"Yes!"

As I watched him diligently scrub my boots with his rag, I steeled my resolve.

If I was still going to attempt anything, then first, I would have to deal with all of these things.

The Puppet world, as Nightfall had constructed it, was simply too strong. Using thousands, tens of thousands, or perhaps even hundreds of thousands of threads, it could block even the Abyssal Sea.

In that state, attacking her was impossible. Somehow, the Puppet world had to be weakened before a fight that still held meager chances of victory could even begin.

And to achieve that, every single puppet produced by her threads would have to die. Not just those in the capital, but all of Manganji.

'Should I just leave that to Vile Blood?'

I felt no real guilt at the thought. These things were already dead and were just moving through the power of that Puppet world.

If anything, not freeing them would be the greater disrespect. I quietly closed my eyes and reached toward the back of the boy’s neck.

I had planned to save this one first, before moving on with the plan.

"...Ah!"

And then…

The boy’s sudden exclamation made me flinch.

Of course, it wasn’t because he had noticed what I was about to do.

"These aren’t shoes, but boots! I couldn’t tell because it’s dark!”

"...What?"

"It’s okay, I’ve got a brush for boots too!”

The shoe-shining boy pulled out a coarse brush hanging from his belt.

Staring at him in a daze, I hurriedly activated my Tide Sense.

But no, there was still a single thread extending from above the boy’s head. He definitely wasn’t human but a puppet.

Then...?

"Hey, wait just a moment.”

I quickly took off my boots.

The boy looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"Why are you taking them off?”

That settled it. The boy was communicating with me.

I hesitated for a moment, then hastily made up an excuse.

"...When you clean them while I’m wearing them, the brush will prick my feet. Clean them like this instead.”

"Ah, okay!”

"And starting now, I’m going to kill you. Try resisting as much as you can.”

"..."

At my sudden, murderous threat, the boy didn’t respond.

He wasn’t frozen in fear, nor was he trembling in terror, and he most certainly heard me.

He simply tilted his head, as if he’d heard the words but couldn’t understand them, then went back to polishing the boots.

"Pay special attention to the soles.”

"Yes!"

"Ah, right. The apples on that tree look quite ripe. If you pick me an apple right now, I’ll give you a fortune in return.”

"..."

After several tests, I learned a few things.

The bound puppets could communicate properly as long as the topic stayed within the bounds of its assigned role.

However, anything outside that was met with something close to complete dismissal. If they acted like fully wound-up clockwork dolls, the capital itself wouldn’t be able to function, so this must have been a compromise.

Which meant that Nightfall, the master of these puppets, selectively returned fragments of their memory and could fine-tune even the smallest commands.

"Hah, damn it.”

The boy didn't react to the curse. It wasn’t relevant to his task, so that made sense.

The reason I had sworn was because of the brilliant idea that had just appeared in my mind.

"This is…”

It would be a somewhat difficult and tedious process. The simplest option would be to kill every puppet in the country and then fight Nightfall after she had been weakened.

But that was only simple in theory. Practically speaking, it was pretty much impossible.

However, the method I had just thought of…

'This might actually work.'

A possibility that lay just shy of impossible.

* * *

I immediately returned to the lodging.

Vile Blood, who seemed unable to hide his impatience, looked up at me—and then noticed my expression.

Seeing the confident smile, he slowly curled his lips upward.

"Undercurrent, judging by that look, you’ve come up with something brilliant.”

"Yeah. But I need your consent for this.”

"Consent?”

"Vile Blood. Do you trust me?”

"As I said earlier today, I do. Honestly, trusting you is the only option I’ve got. I don't want to end up under that bitch Nightfall’s thumb. Never.”

"No matter what it takes?”

"...?"

Vile Blood, tilting his head in puzzlement, nodded as he gave me his answer.

"Yeah. No matter what it takes.”

"Can I assume that you’re fine with falling into hell as long as you can avoid becoming hell itself?”

"Huh.......Yeah, I guess? But what are you even trying to say here?”

"I wanted to get a clear answer on whether you truly have no intention of becoming one of Nightfall’s puppets.

"Hmm, if that’s all.”

Vile Blood nodded with a serious expression.

"Of course. Like I said before, the reason I even considered supporting you, the reason I was ready to kill an Upper Tier member in the first place, was because I didn’t want to work under that crazy bitch.”

"Good. I’ll remember that.”

"Then can I finally hear the explanation?”

"Of course. Take a nice nap for now.”

"What the—”

-Bang!!!

The tin bucket crumpled.

Vile Blood’s bewildered eyes rolled upward toward his skull, and his body slammed face-first into the ground.

"H-haa…Haa…”

Sunken Mire, who had knocked Vile Blood unconscious with a blow to the back of his head, trembled violently as she looked down at him.

"Wh-what did I just do…? Even if it was Sir Undercurrent’s order, knocking out the leader of Scarlet Abyss’ strongest assassination squad…?”

"Sunken Mire. Hold onto this.”

"Wh-what is this?”

"You don't need to know. Just think of it as something precious, and never look inside. If you do, you’ll die in agony. Blood will pour out from every pore.”

"Eek…yes…”

"And the other members—”

"Y-yes. I mixed something into their food. They should all be sound asleep by now…”

"Good job. Now tie them all up with rope.”

1 hour later.

I dragged Vile Blood and the members, who were tied together like dried pollack, toward the palace.

"...W-what is the meaning of this?”

A shocked, uhm, who was it again?

Uncle, or whatever, clutched his head in disbelief as he looked at the bound figures.

"My goodness… What have you done?! Untie them at once!”

I hesitated briefly.

"I came to see my little sister.”

"E-excuse me?”

"Open the door.”

"...You insolent wretch!”

As he snapped back, threads burst forth from his body.

"Do you think you can so easily gain an audience with her?! She is not someone you may meet just because you wish it! You will pay the price for this insolence!”

Oho? Even someone like that uncle can handle the burden and use that word, huh.

I whistled lightly and prepared to fight when he suddenly clutched his head in pain.

"...U–ughaah…Agh…”

"?"

"U-understood. Completely…”

His attitude flipped a full 180. He reeled the threads back in and opened the door.

Even while gripping his head as if suffering from a headache, he didn’t forget to glare at me and spit out the following words.

"D-don’t think you’ll stay in that person’s favor forever…”

"Sure. But aren’t you her uncle?”

"...Pardon?"

"What kind of uncle calls his niece that person? Don’t you think that’s a little strange?”

There was no reply.

-Thud!

The door slammed shut.

And then.

"What? It only took a day?”

That soft voice echoed through the dark corridor.

Tap, tap…

The sound of heels resonated through the hall, approaching me.

"..."

I slowly turned around—she was there, without a single window around her.

"Did your revenge go well? How do you feel?”

This leader of murderers who had killed millions was—

"Surprisingly more ordinary than I thought."

She really was.

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