WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 138 - Turbidity (14)

"Let’s confirm a few things first.”

Illusion pulled a chair over, sat me down, and reclined the back as far as it could go leaving me posed like someone about to undergo dental surgery.

"What exactly happened to you? How were you made?”

"What are you talking about?”

"Ah. You wouldn’t know. I tried everything imaginable to create you.”

Snap.

He flicked his fingers, and the wall behind me lit up.

The wall wasn’t just a wall. It was a glass wall stained black with shadows.

And beyond that glass wall, I saw a familiar current. The depths of the sea with fish swimming through it.

...Was this tower built on the ocean floor? They’d even installed a glass wall to observe the outside.

As I marveled at Scarlet Abyss’ technological prowess, something strange entered my field of view.

Something hard to believe, even while looking straight at it.

"What is that?”

"Like I said. I tried everything.”

Unlike Illusion, who answered calmly with a shrug, the sight itself was impossible to dismiss so lightly.

Between the seaweed swaying in the current, there were diving suits chained firmly to the seabed, clanking as they resisted buoyancy.

One, four, eight… I silently controlled the current. Lighter seaweed drifted away, revealing the complete truth.

"Ooh, so that’s the power of the Abyssal Sea!”

"..."

Thousands, tens of thousands of diving suits, fixed to the ocean floor.

If that were all, I might have dismissed it as merely surreal...

Unfortunately, the suits were doing exactly what they were designed to do.

—Every single one of them contained a person.

Illusion gazed at the horrific scene with pride and spoke as if showing off.

"If I threw them straight into the Abyssal Sea, they’d just die. So I put in some thought. What do you think?”

"Who were these people?”

"Hmm? My people.”

"...Your people?”

"Yes. I may not look like it, but I am the king of a nation.”

Now that I thought about it, Vile Blood had mentioned that all members of Scarlet Abyss’ Upper Tier were rulers of nations.

This layabout-looking bastard was a king, and those people bore nothing more than the crime of having such a ruler. I pushed down the rage surging up my chest. There was no undoing this. No one inside those suits was alive. It was nothing more than a grotesque mass grave. I didn’t know why they had been left there, though.

"So you’re also a world that mimics humans?”

"Did Great Void even tell you that? He must trust you quite a bit.”

Illusion let out a small chuckle, circling me with a satisfied smile.

"In any case, even after all this, I couldn't produce results anywhere close to yours. So I marked it down as impossible…and then, out of nowhere, the Abyssal Sea appeared, alive and intact? No matter if it came from Heavenly Balance, it was just very hard to believe.”

He stopped directly behind me.

"Until I saw it with my own eyes."

"...Was there a reason you tried to make me?”

"I don’t mind telling you, but first... Excuse me.”

His hand touched my head.

I suppressed the reflexive flinch and stayed still, but then an unpleasant sensation washed over me. It felt like a new sense was being carved directly into my brain.

"The lifeforms that live in your world, you call them deep-sea creatures, right?”

"...Yes."

"Look at the ground they swim above. No matter how dark the Abyssal Sea is, shadows are always cast. You should be able to feel them.”

He was right.

From the moment Illusion placed his hand on my head, a strange sensation had come over me, allowing me to perceive the shadow of a jellyfish swimming before my eyes.

"Good, good. Now show it to me as well. All you need to do is recognize that those shadows exist in this world.”

"I’ll try."

It wasn’t difficult.

I focused and did exactly what he told me to do—

"So these are the inhabitants of the Abyssal Sea…"

Surprisingly, the jellyfish’s shadow was projected cleanly into the physical world.

Illusion watched in rapture as the shadow drifted around the room before slipping away and vanishing. He nodded, deep satisfaction on his face.

"Yes, remember that sensation. If you do, you’ll be able to call forth the afterimage of anything from your world into this place. If you wish, you could even show others the world you live in.”

"...Is showing someone this shadow really going to do anything?”

"Heavenly Balance is a shrine maiden. Simply seeing these shadows will be enough for her to pierce straight through to the essence. She’ll be able to manage.”

After several more minutes of summoning various deep-sea creatures’ shadows, the floor was filled with silhouettes.

Illusion observed them with fascination, then smacked his lips in regret.

"I’d love to take a closer look and hear about how you fell—but Heavenly Balance wouldn’t be pleased. She told me to send you back as soon as the task was done.”

"Is Heavenly Balance scary?”

"She is.”

Illusion didn’t deny it, admitting it plainly.

"Even if she is a fake shrine maiden, she is still a shrine maiden. I have no desire to disobey her. Besides, we’ll meet again soon.”

I very much hoped we wouldn’t.

The moment he showed signs of sending me away, I stood up without hesitation. I wanted out of this grotesque viewing room as quickly as possible.”

However, there was still one thing I hadn’t asked.

"By the way, there’s something I wanted to ask.”

"Hmm? What is it?”

"What did you mean when you asked if there were corpses in my Abyssal Sea?”

"Aah, you mean that?”

Illusion shrugged, as if it were nothing important.

"The worlds known as the Three Calamities aren’t just extremely vast. They also devour those who fall into them.”

"Devour them…?”

"Yes. They literally devour them. That’s why the Three Calamities accumulate the corpses of the Fallen.”

At that, the image of Nightfall’s corpse sinking into my Abyssal Sea flashed through my mind.

"...I’ve killed plenty of people so far, but none of them piled up in there.”

"That’s because you didn’t kill them while your Abyssal Sea was open, and you allowed them to enter."

"That’s horrifying.”

"It’s not only horrifying. There’s a rumor, you know.”

Illusion crossed his arms casually and muttered.

"They say if enough corpses pile up in the world of the Three Calamities, the world becomes polluted and changes.”

"Changes? Does that mean it’s possible to escape?”

"Change doesn't necessarily lead to escape. A more accurate way to put it would be that even more dreadful burdens will be borne from it.

"Then you’re saying I shouldn’t let corpses accumulate in there?”

"...Haha, that’s how I can tell you’re still a newbie.”

He chuckled lightly and offered some advice.

"Discard the idea that burdens are merely suffering.”

“That’s not just an idea but the truth.”

"They aren’t only suffering. You must have started to realize this by now. Burdens are shackles, but they are also ourselves. They are strength, authority and chains.”

Illusion opened the door filled with shadows, seeing me off.

"Stronger burdens mean a stronger world. You, of all people, should understand that best, Abyssal Sea.”

His face was filled with a lingering, sincere smile.

"I look forward to the day the world is dyed in your colors. That day will surely come.”

"...Who knows.”

I replied coldly, and stepped into the shadows.

That day will never come, even if I die.

* * *

The Imperial Capital inside the Palace.

"...Ugh."

Deep within, Sharmia opened her eyes.

Her entire body was soaked in cold sweat, before she softly exhaled and sat up.

She hadn’t been lying on her bed, but on her desk. As she looked at the mountain of unfinished work still waiting for her—

"Ah."

Her eyes met Carose’s, who had just entered quietly with a blanket in her arms.

After hesitating for a moment, Carose coughed lightly and hid the blanket behind her back.

"I’m sorry. Did I sleep too long?”

"No. You slept for only 10 minutes. If anything, I’d prefer you rest a bit longer.”

"How could I sleep more when the Empire is in chaos?”

"Most of the major problems have already been resolved. That’s because Your Highness refused to give up.”

Carose knew her words weren’t empty.

Shadows erupted and started killing their masters. Livestock was slaughtered, and humans nearly met the same fate. In the midst of all that, Sharmia had mounted a defense bordering on perfection.

Thanks to her, this disaster, if not completely halted, had at least been contained to a manageable scale.

And yet...

'How many times has she gone back?'

Every time she saw that near-perfect sight…

Every time those who should have died, those who should have been erased, were spared…

Carose couldn’t suppress the unease growing inside of her.

How much had she already sacrificed? And how much more was she prepared to give?

"There’s still so much to do~”

Sharmia sighed playfully and picked up her documents once more.

"And besides, it doesn’t feel right to rest. There’s a cute kid out there right now, working himself to the bone for my sake, you know?”

"I cannot agree with the term ‘cute’. And I don’t think he’s doing it for Your Highness either."

"...His face is cute though. Very.”

Sharmia tried to argue, picked up her pen, and then dropped it.

"Ah.”

Her trembling hand failed to hold it properly.

Carose, who had seen the pen roll across the desk, quickly ran over, picked it up, and glared at Sharmia fiercely.

For her, that was the strongest form of protest she could muster.

"You need to preserve your health. Please take a rest immediately."

"No, this isn’t physical exhaustion. I just had a nightmare.”

"...A nightmare?”

"Yeah, nothing serious.”

Sharmia shrugged and looked out the window toward the capital.

"Other disasters aren’t as easy to deal with as this one.”

"This is considered easy?”

"It is, though? In the end, we can still somehow manage to contain it.”

"Then…what exactly was the difficult one you saw in your nightmare?”

"Hmm…”

Sharmia fell silent for a moment, thinking.

Then she pointed outside the window.

"You see the capital?”

"Yes."

"It’ll fill to the brim with water.”

"What?"

"It just becomes submerged. A sudden surge of water comes rushing in, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”

"W-wait a moment.”

Faced with a disaster on an entirely different scale, Carose clutched her head as dizziness set in.

"Why didn’t you tell us about this earlier?”

"If I had, everyone would have only worried. But now that these disasters are truly starting to arrive, I don’t think I can keep it hidden anymore.”

"Is it a flood?”

"Something like that. A massive wave crashes in and swallows the capital whole.”

"That’s..."

Carose hesitated, then suddenly looked up at Sharmia as realization dawned.

"Could it be… Jern’s world?”

"It seems similar, right?”

"And Jern is currently with Scarlet Abyss.”

"Yeah.”

"And in the prophecy, Jern becomes an executive of Scarlet Abyss.”

"Yep?"

"Then why didn’t you kill him?!”

"Hey, you’ll burst my eardrums like that.”

Sharmia winced and covered her ears.

"I-I’m sorry. I just don’t understand.”

"Y-yeah, it’s fine. And you don’t need to worry about Jern. He’s not the kind of person who would betray us.”

"Even if Jern doesn’t betray us himself, couldn’t he still be exploited? His mind could be eaten away, controlled…”

"Hmm, that could happen.”

"...I simply don’t understand."

Carose shook her head in denial.

"Just why—why do you trust that boy so much? I understand that he’s loyal and exceptionally capable. But even taking that into account, he is undeniably one of the disasters. The boundless trust you place in him is just incomprehensible to me, Your Highness. Why go that far? When you knew all of this from the start…”

Carose simply couldn’t accept that the brilliant Sharmia placed such unconditional trust in someone with such a clear causal link to the disasters merely because he was useful. She wasn't that foolish.

"There’s a reason for it.”

As if she had been expecting this question, Sharmia leaned in and whispered, like she was sharing a secret.

Naturally, Carose leaned closer as well.

"What is it?”

"Jern promised me he wouldn’t betray me."

"...What?"

"So he won’t fall for Scarlet Abyss!”

Carose silently picked up the blanket.

"Go to sleep.”

"...Ah, okay.”

Faced with Carose unshakable will, Sharmia was finally able to get some rest for the first time in a long while.

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