WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 147 - Connection (8)

After dealing with the Linmel incident and returning to the spire…

I planned to rest for a day to think things through, but before long, Heavenly Balance summoned me again.

This time, it wasn’t for a mission.

"We don't have much time. Let’s resume the deciphering.”

"...It’ll take a very long time with just the two of us.”

Deciphering.

Ever since we learned that the deep-sea creatures were constantly communicating using some kind of language, Heavenly Balance had insisted this was something that had to be done.

It wasn’t a bad thing. But translating a completely unknown language, especially one that only I could hear, within a short time frame was more than daunting.

And honestly, even if it was fascinating—it didn’t feel like it would change much.

For example, even if you could talk to starving tigers, what would that change? You could beg them not to eat you, but they wouldn’t care.

In other words, I thought deciphering was important, but not top priority.

Heavenly Balance, however, firmly shook her head.

"You still haven't set your priorities correctly. Didn’t I tell you last time? The biggest difference between the Three Calamities and other worlds is their scale.”

"Yes. You did.”

"Then you didn’t understand what I meant. That scale matches this world exactly.”

"...That is incredibly large. But what does that have to do with anything?”

"In this world, many races coexist, no, intermingle. Your world is the same size, which means that besides the deep-sea creatures you’ve encountered, there must be other life forms.”

"?”

That was quite sudden.

As I tilted my head, Heavenly Balance tapped her pen against the desk, lost in thought as she continued.

"The reason you must learn this language is simple. There is a very high chance that those other beings use a similar linguistic system to these deep-sea creatures. Of course, right after your fall, the water pressure and breathing are your biggest problems, and no matter how much you get used to it, it won't change that…but it becomes possible to make some predictions at least.”

Watching her speak, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

"Come to think of it, you said you’ve seen another one of the Three Calamities before.”

“Yes.”

"What kind of world was it?”

Heavenly Balance looked at me for a moment, then elegantly put her pen away.

"You're trying to run before you can walk. What you should focus on right now is mastering that language. It will be directly tied to your survival.”

"I mean, even so, how are the two of us supposed to decipher a language we know absolutely nothing about?”

This was like swimming in an endless ocean.

The metaphor might be a bit off, considering I was actually living in one, but even with Heavenly Balance’s abilities, this wasn’t her field of expertise. If we invested in this seriously, it wouldn’t just take a month, but at least half a year to see any progress.

"Two of us?”

Heavenly Balance scoffed, seemingly finding my words ridiculous, and glanced at the leather bundles that had been sitting beside her since I arrived. Something was inside of them.

They were still writhing faintly, so they seemed to be alive.

"What is that?”

I asked, grimacing. She just shrugged, as if telling me to see for myself. So I loosened the bindings using my water pressure and—

"Mph, ummph! Hmmuumph!”

Nearly ten old scholars were bound together, writing on the floor.

Their faces were filled with despair and agony, but they didn’t seem like wizards or Fallen, which made me tilt my head in confusion.

"W-why are you doing this?! I don’t even own anything of value! I'm already dirt poor! What use could you possibly have for a beggar professor like me…?”

"..."

Professor.

At that word, a terrible suspicion crept in as I slowly turned to Heavenly Balance.

She looked so utterly unapologetic, confidently justified even, that I somehow felt embarrassed to reprimand her. With a sigh, I turned back to the man who had called himself a beggar professor.

"Excuse me, may I ask what subject you specialize in?”

"I-I currently teach ancient linguistics…”

Son of a—

When I removed the gags from the others, they all shouted similar things.

"So you’re telling me you kidnapped me because I assigned my students to invent an entirely new sign language even a gorilla with average intelligence could master in three days and hold a conversation for 5 minutes?! Anyone who attended my lectures properly could do that!”

"I-I’m over 40 and don’t even have a spouse, let alone close friends! I have nothing for you to take!”

At that point, I turned to Heavenly Balance and protested.

"Did it really have to come to this?”

"Isn’t this the fastest way? You leave specialized work to specialists.”

Of course, Heavenly Balance was also a member of Scarlet Abyss.

She felt not a shred of guilt about using methods like these, so explaining the situation fell on me.

With no other choice, I gathered the professors together and spoke quietly.

"Greetings, Professors. I am Undercurrent, a member of Scarlet Abyss’ Upper Tier.”

"What…? S-Scarlet Abyss?”

"Yes. Unfortunately, this place is the center of the most notorious terrorist organization that the Empire is currently trying to erase with all its might. And you have all been kidnapped and brought here.”

Even professors who only paid attention to their own research knew the name Scarlet Abyss.

A few of them looked ready to faint, so I quickly added,

"Of course, we did not kidnap such high-ranking personnel to drain your blood and grind you into pig feed. If you cooperate and perform your duties faithfully, you will be returned safely to the place where you last fell asleep.”

"H-how can we trust that?”

"This is truly unfortunate, but if you refuse to cooperate, high-ranking personnel will turn into low-ranking personnel. In other words, the pigs will get to feast on you.

"..."

Scarlet Abyss didn’t actually raise pigs, but the message got through.

Heavenly Balance whistled and applauded at my smooth delivery.

I felt sick to my stomach, but if I hadn’t stepped up to persuade them with words, she might have started cutting off their limbs.

At least now they believed they’d survive if they helped. The professors, their faces pale and gloomy, slowly nodded.

"What do you want us to do?”

"So, what we want you to do is decipher a completely new language…”

And then about three days later.

I had no choice but to admit that Heavenly Balance kidnapping the professors was the most rational approach.

"This word must mean ‘food.’ Didn’t Undercurrent say the creature used it while looking at a corpse?”

"No, I believe it means ‘Death’. According to the observation log, Subject 89 formed a strong bond with Subject 45 before its death. That implies emotional capacity. If they had a sense of companionship, they would never refer to a corpse as food—”

Knowing this was their only way to survive, they joined forces and began deciphering the language system of the deep-sea creatures.

I sat in a chair, using Tide Sense day and night to track every deep-sea creature they had classified and named, making sure none of them slipped away.

Fortunately, it wasn’t meaningless work.

"Then this sentence should mean, ‘The time has come, and the hunt is over.’ Does everyone agree?”

"The time has come. The hunt is over. Yes, that interpretation works.”

They say that too many cooks spoil the broth, but these were skilled cooks, and their lives were on the line, so they cooked quickly and without incident—

Amazingly, they succeeded in compiling a small dictionary in just one week.

They even scratched their heads apologetically as they spoke.

"Unfortunately, this is the limit of what we can do without direct interaction. From here on, you’ll need to use this to communicate, then report the results back to us so we can analyze and expand the system.”

"...It’s pretty thick, isn’t it?”

"Is it? We estimate we’ve only deciphered about 10 percent.”

10 percent.

I flipped through the rather thick dictionary, finally understanding the weight of that statement.

"It’s a truly bizarre, grotesque language. There’s no proper structure, no consistent rules, nothing. It really feels like a language…from another world.”

After dismissing the professors, I read through the dictionary with Heavenly Balance until our eyes met.

"What if there’s a phrase saying ‘come and kill me’ in there? We did kidnap them after all, so they might have put something like that in there out of spite.”

"You worry too much. If that’s the case, I’ll make sure to get proper revenge. But, well, you’ve been listening to their conversations, right? You’d know better than anyone.”

She was right. Even if I didn’t fully understand the language, I could tell the professors had been sincere.

Now it was time to test that sincerity.

I searched through the dictionary, combined the words, and ran a few tests, trying to produce the proper sounds, then addressed a jellyfish drifting nearby.

[This area is very dangerous.]

[----?]

The jellyfish, lacking any vocal organs, didn’t respond. It simply stopped swimming and curled its tentacles.

But it only lasted for a moment. As it resumed its drifting, I tilted my head.

"Did that work?”

"Try speaking to those who can talk.”

That was a little scary.

Even trying to find the weakest one was difficult. Every creature had terrifying, vicious teeth that made my skin crawl.

Still, I chose the most harmless-looking one, an anglerfish with six frog-like limbs that swam awkwardly through the water, and spoke to it.

[This area is very dangerous.]

I wanted to say more, but with my current vocabulary, that was all I could manage.

The anglerfish’s reaction was clearly different from the jellyfish’s.

[...Dangerous...----...----?]

It pulled its limbs close, scanning the surroundings with its glowing eyes. After realizing nothing was there, it spoke a single word.

[Who.]

At the same time…

A deeply unpleasant current spread through the area.

...Tide Sense.

[Who? Who, who? Who? Who.]

The creature repeated the same word over and over as if wildly scanning the surroundings using Tide Sense.

I knew I was safe. If something like that could find me, I would’ve been eaten on my very first day in the Abyssal Sea.

Unless I directly disturbed the Abyssal Sea itself or entered it physically, there was no danger.

[...--.......]

In the end, unable to find anything, the anglerfish-like creature muttered a phrase that wasn’t in the dictionary and swam away.

It was a truly chilling experience.

"...At least we know communication is possible.”

"..."

"Miss Heavenly Balance?”

Heavenly Balance had been staring intently at the shadow of the deep-sea creature I had fixed in place.

"It’s nothing. Still, now we know that conversation is possible.”

"Yeah. At least it wasn’t pointless.”

"...I think this is enough for today’s first attempt.”

"Huh?"

All we’d done was say a few words to an anglerfish.

Yet Heavenly Balance, who hadn’t even done anything herself, looked more exhausted than I had ever seen her.

She waved her hand dismissively and sat down heavily on a chair.

"We’ll go into more detail tomorrow. Today…today I need to rest a bit.”

"Ah, yes."

Had she done something else while I wasn’t looking?

It was the first time I had ever seen her this tired, so I didn’t press her and decided to head up the spire.

Even as I walked, my ears still picked up the voices of the deep-sea creatures. What once sounded like noise now sounded like words.

[...It’s coming. Coming...---? It’s…coming…]

[Happened-----Happened...----]

"..."

Most of it was like that, and it was almost painful to listen to.

Maybe I just needed to study more. Flipping the dictionary, I left the basement.

"L-Lord Undercurrent…!”

"...?"

The moment I stepped out, Sunken Mire was waiting, hopping anxiously in place.

Since I had told her I wouldn’t be able to take responsibility for anything that happened if she came in, she must’ve been waiting outside. My Tide Sense had been focused on the deep-sea creatures, so I hadn’t noticed her.

"Did something happen? Wait…”

Someone was kneeling beside the trembling Sunken Mire.

At first, I didn’t recognize him, but then I realized he was one of Vile Blood’s subordinates.

"Hey, what’s wrong? Why are you here alone?”

As I asked, I noticed his body was shaking like a leaf.

It was clear that something bad had happened.

"...L-Lord Undercurrent..."

The man looked up at me, trembling—

"Sir Vile Blood has passed away…”

My fears had become reality.

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