WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 152 - Past (2)

Death didn’t feel that unusual.

My body was dragged deep into the sea, into the familiar state where consciousness and sound disappeared entirely.

I found myself wondering what the difference between a living person and a corpse in the Abyssal Sea was. Since my ability to even think about these kinds of things would vanish soon anyway, I concluded that it was about 90% the same. As that pointless thought disappeared into the void—

"...Gah!”

I jolted upright on cold ground, my entire body drenched in sweat.

"Cough, gasp. Ptoo, ptoo…”

Having experienced it firsthand now, I could confidently say that dying was surprisingly tolerable.

Coming back to life, on the other hand, was absolutely horrible.

For some reason, seawater filled my lungs, which I retched out while clutching my hurting head, then looked around.

"I’m alive."

It seemed the princess’ contingency plan had worked.

It definitely had, but...

...something seemed off.

"...Where am I?”

I was sure that I was somewhere inside the Imperial Palace.

But it didn’t quite look like what I knew.

Since I didn’t end up in the underworld, I absolutely wasn’t dead. But no matter how I looked around, this didn’t seem like a place the princess had prepared for me.

If I had to describe it, it was more like a shared bedroom for servants, with multiple beds laid out.

I was sitting on a chair, holding something in my hand.

It was dark, slimy, and smelled like fish guts. Disgusted, I threw it out the window and extended my Tide Sense.

"The palace…yeah, it definitely is.”

Only then did I relax. The layout perfectly matched my memory. This really was the palace I knew. Maybe there had just been a small error in setting the location.

I casually stood and walked through the halls. There was a lot I needed to say to Dercia. Now that I knew their true objective, there wasn’t a second to waste. 

But—

"?”

"...?"

As I walked through the palace, patrolling guards looked at me strangely.

They exchanged glances, then approached and politely lowered themselves to my eye level before asking,

"Excuse me, but which house do you belong to?”

Since I was wandering the palace alone, they probably assumed I was a noble’s child.

Did Sharmia not tell them? I answered casually.

"Jern, Jern Aspandil. You should know if I say this much.”

"Aspandil…? I don’t recognize that family name..."

Tilting their heads, they called over other guards to confirm.

When they returned, they shook their heads with stern expressions.

Seeing that, the guards in front of me also showed their disapproval.

...What?

"Excuse me, but are you sure you’re not mistaken about your family name?”

When their expressions hardened even further as they questioned me again, I hurriedly pulled a key from inside my clothes and held it up.

"I'm affiliated with the Dark Magic Tower. Please check again.”

"The Magic Tower..."

"I mainly studied wind magic.”

When I created a breeze in my palm, the suspicion in the guards’ eyes visibly faded.

"I see. We’ll verify it again.”

I still couldn’t relax.

Something…something had gone incredibly wrong. The feeling wouldn’t go away, and cold sweat trickled down my back.

Unfortunately, whenever I had a bad premonition—

"...Hmm. So that’s how it is.”

I was never wrong.

I let out a sigh as I watched spearheads press up against my throat.

"Requesting backup! An assassin capable of using magic has infiltrated the palace!”

"No, I’m saying…”

"No excuses!”

The guards didn’t loosen their formation for even a second, surrounding me, a mere child, and threatening me with spears.

Showing them magic had been a mistake. In modern terms, I had basically admitted I was carrying a rifle.

"The Magic Tower has no apprentice like you, and no child is listed in the entry records! Where did you infiltrate from?!”

"I didn’t infiltrate. The princess summoned me for official business. Just pass my name to Her Highness Sharmia.”

"You’ve lost your mind. Her Highness is not yet of an age to perform official duties!”

"Tsk, no matter how fierce palace intrigue gets, to use a child as an assassin. Just who would…”

I couldn’t understand a single word the guard muttered as he clicked his tongue.

I was in dire need to assess the current situation a bit further, even if it meant risking a small loss.

"Hmm, this doesn’t seem like much of a problem.”

"What did you say?”

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, my surroundings were still dark and cold.

I lightly clenched my fist—

-Whooosh!

"W-what?!”

The guards cried out in shock, scrambling to grab their spears as they were hurled upward.

They were actually quite strong. The title "imperial guard" wasn’t for show, it seems. However, unfortunately for them, their might wasn’t enough to overcome the Abyssal Sea.

Their ironclad rule to never let go of their weapon created the opening I needed. I threw my small body through the gap, rolled once, and sprang away.

"Hey…! Catch him! Do not let him escape!”

"Where’s the backup?”

They were already here.

The palace’s maze-like structure, designed so intruders could never escape, closed in from all sides—

But again, unfortunately for them, my Tide Sense was far too good in situations like this.

"Where did that little bastard go?!”

"...He vanished?”

"He ran to another wing. Chase him!”

Knowing every safe route made hiding more than easy.

For now, there wouldn’t be any guards chasing after me in this area. Sighing, I extended my Tide Sense to look around more carefully this time.

Beyond this palace wing, to another and even beyond that…

...After searching for a long time.

"What is this…?”

I found Sharmia.

[Your Highness, I think you should return to your quarters for today. An intruder has entered the palace, and they say he knew your name.]

[Really? But I haven’t finished picking the peaches yet…]

[I’ll have the maids collect the rest for you.]

[No, it only has meaning if I pick them myself. Make sure no one touches them.]

[As you command.]

That beautiful appearance, her name, and that presence. It was definitely her.

But she was small.

Her hands, her feet, her height…well, her eyes seemed a little bigger, but overall.

She was only a few years apart from me. No, she basically was the same age as me.

"What the hell—”

Only then did I understand what was going on.

I was in the past.

And not just any past, but a rather distant past inside the imperial palace.

* * *

[How long do I have to stay here? If the intruder is an assassin around my age, how can you still not have caught him?]

[Yes. My apologies. He is extremely fast and capable of high-level magic… it seems he has escaped the palace grounds, but please bear with us until the search is fully concluded.]

I watched Sharmia through my Tide Sense from the roof of the palace and evaluated the current situation.

"What a complete mess."

There was no other way to put it.

I knew dying and coming back to life wasn’t easy.

But being sent into the past like this? That didn’t match what Dercia had explained to me, and it didn’t make any sense either.

Only then did I remember Great Void’s last words.

[Of course, that must not be allowed.]

"Looks like I got played..."

I rubbed my chin and sank into thought. The most reasonable guess was that Great Void had done something to me.

Come to think of it, that bastard knew that the shrine maiden, Sharmia, possessed both prophecy and regression.

That was why he had created Heavenly Balance, the fake shrine maiden. Of course he would have prepared countermeasures…Did he use them on me?

No, if he could do that, he could’ve just assassinated Sharmia.

Something didn’t add up here. Maybe this was still inside Heaven. Maybe I only thought I had died.

After thinking for a long while, I finally sorted out my thoughts.

If I truly, really was sent to the past…

Then this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

No, it was actually an insanely good thing. Because I could prepare for everything that was going to happen.

However, staying by Sharmia’s side would’ve let me do that indirectly anyway, and the biggest problem was that this was Great Void’s doing.

That mad man wasn’t just some third-rate villain acting on simple malice, hatred, or spite. He was the worst kind of enemy, who moved according to unwavering conviction.

That only made it more certain. This man, who could hold his own against Sharmia and even managed to push her back, did something good for me?

For someone he had already decided was no longer usable?

"There’s no way."

No matter how long I thought about it, this situation felt deeply wrong.

My first priority was finding a way back.

But how?

There was only one answer.

[It’s raining...]

I had to use the young Sharmia.

I was carefully observing her through my Tide Sense.

Her shorter blonde hair, her innocent-looking eyes, gazing out the window at the peach tree outside the window.

Her way of speaking wasn’t that different, but the way she tapped her feet and puffed her cheeks was the kind of childish sulking you’d expect of someone at that age.

If this really was Sharmia—

[It’s fortunate, though. If it rains today, it means that Her Highness’ 10th birthday next week will be sunny, right?]

After awakening, she could see the future.

And in the process of seeing the future, that would inevitably include images of me.

There was no way they wouldn’t be.

So if I approached Sharmia and asked her how I could return…

...No. Then that would mean Sharmia had known me for a long time already?

She hadn’t shown any sign of that. As questions piled up endlessly in my head, young Sharmia made a gloomy face and asked the maid,

[Do I really have to wear makeup that day?]

[Huh? Of course you do. It’s a public occasion, after all. Even a light touch of blush…]

[But there’s a weird lady living in the mirror.]

?

What was she talking about?

It was something Sharmia had never once mentioned to me before. I focused my Tide Sense more deeply, seeing that the maid let out a long sigh.

[That mirror woman again? But, Your Highness, we’ve already changed the mirror 9 times. We replaced the dressing table 13 times and even moved the room 3 times. Or if it’s this room…]

[Then she’ll come here too. I don’t want that.]

It seemed like something she’d been complaining about for a long time.

The maid treated it like ordinary childish grumblings, but from my perspective, knowing that this girl would someday become the a superhuman who’d save the Empire, this wasn’t something I could ignore.

"...The dressing room.”

One week until the princess awakened.

It was worth a try at least.

I extended my Tide Sense and located a room not far from hers.

A small dressing table with a mirror in front of it. A room made for makeup, with maids busily cleaning it.

Once all the maids were gone, and I confirmed the patrol routes of the guards, I quietly opened the door, and entered.

Thankfully, the imperial doors were well-oiled so they didn’t make a single sound.

"...Hmm."

The low ceiling, the soft, cute color palette, and the unmistakable feeling of a forbidden space made me hesitate for a moment, but this wasn’t the time to care about that.

I slipped inside and stood before the mirror in the center of the dressing table.

Since the room was dark, nothing was reflected in it.

I considered lighting a lamp but didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention, so I formed a small light ball with magic.

My reflection appeared in the mirror. A boy exactly my age.

The woman young Sharmia had spoken of wasn’t there.

"Tsk, waste of time.”

Just as I turned around to leave.

-Crack!

"?”

Suddenly, the mirror fractured.

I hadn’t touched it. For a moment, a stupid thought crossed my mind, like, ‘Maybe it was weak to light?’, but quickly shook my head and stared at the mirror again.

This time I even used Tide Sense, but still saw nothing.

Even so, I didn’t give up. After waiting for about 5 minutes.

-Craaack...!!

Like a scene from a horror movie, the cracked mirror formed letters.

[Jern?]

...It seemed like I had found the right place.

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