WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 153 - Past (3)

With the crack in the mirror, someone other than me was reflected on its surface.

Naturally, it was Sharmia. The Sharmia I knew at the age I remembered.

Her expression, however, how should I put it…

[?]

She looked utterly dumbfounded.

Rubbing her large eyes several times as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing, she finally grabbed a nearby sheet of paper and wrote something down, holding it up to the mirror.

[Why are you there?]

It seemed she couldn’t send her voice through the mirror.

"Can you hear me?"

[Yes. But…?]

"I have no idea either. Just where am I?”

Sharmia scanned the area around me with genuine confusion, as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

[I don’t really understand how you could be there at all. How did you even get there…? How is this possible? I mean, what on earth happened?]

"Well, isn’t it obvious? There must have been an error in Lady Dercia’s spell.”

[No, even if something went wrong, you shouldn’t be able to be there. Are you really Jern? You’re not a fake, right?]

What? She was saying this even though she was looking right at me?

Was this someone else who just looked like Sharmia? As my gaze sharpened with suspicion, she hurriedly waved her hands.

[Ah, sorry. I’m just so confused.]

"I still don’t get what you’re talking about. What exactly is this palace that you’re reacting like that?"

[Hmm...]

After hesitating for a moment, Sharmia made a troubled face, then finally wrote a single sentence to explain everything.

[Well, this place is inside my memory.]

"?"

...that just sounded ridiculous.

* * *

When I froze in place, Sharmia added more to her explanation.

[You thought this was the past, right? You’re not wrong. It is the past. If you do something there, like scratching a wall, it would still be there in the present palace.]

"Then why did you say this place is inside your memory?"

[This is… Hmm, honestly, I was afraid you’d think I was crazy, so I didn’t say anything before. But before I explain, I can assure you that I’m mentally healthy, okay?]

"Go on."

I crossed my arms and answered curtly as she poked the paper with her finger repeatedly as if she was writing down excuses.

I highly doubted anything could surprise me more than this anyway.

[Actually, I’m the one maintaining the world. If I die, this world disappears too.]

"...What?"

It was the kind of statement that made my head tilt automatically.

What was she on about? Was she actually insane? As if she expected that reaction, Sharmia sighed on the other side of the mirror.

[So, the way I return to the past is a bit special. I was chosen as the one who keeps this world from collapsing. If I die, it collapses. But that makes no sense, right? That the death of a single person would destroy the world? I mean, who is one human to be more important than the world itself?]

"Then does the world rewind to the past and erase the moment you died, Your Highness?”

[Good guess, but not quite. If I die, another chosen one appears. That’s much simpler, right?]

It sounded like that ‘chosen one’ was the position Scarlet Abyss called the shrine maiden.

Whether she knew that or not, Sharmia picked up another sheet of paper, her expression bitter.

[But no matter how I look at it, it seems like no one else can be chosen. So in the end, I become the axis that maintains the world again.]

"But then, the moment you die—"

I frowned.

A realization had struck me all of a sudden.

"...That’s how you regress, right?”

[Yes!]

Unlike her, who wrote her answer in bright, cheerful handwriting, my thoughts froze, even though I understood the situation perfectly.

"That’s..."

In other words…

When the present Sharmia dies, someone else must inherit the role of shrine maiden to maintain the world. But no one other than Sharmia is accepted as the shrine maiden.

That was why Sharmia would be chosen again. The living past Sharmia that is.

"That’s horrifying.”

[Is it? I’ve gotten used to it.]

I couldn’t understand her casual reply at all.

And at the same time, I finally understand what the shrine maiden—-the title Scarlet Abyss used—really was. I had only vaguely thought of it as someone who could see the future and possessed the ability to regress.

Heaven. The world we were currently living in needed a medium to interfere with the present world.

Just like how, without me, the Abyssal Sea would be nothing more than a discarded fake, unable to affect reality at all. If the Abyssal Sea had a will, one could say it had chosen me.

And Heaven had chosen Sharmia. As its anchor and means to affect the present world.

And trapped her in purgatory.

'Maybe even this…’

…was a scheme created to prevent its shrine maiden from falling into Scarlet Abyss’ hands.

I had wondered before if a world could possess a will.

Of course, cases like Puppet existed, but that was something Great Void had forcibly created.

But judging from Heaven’s actions, it was impossible to see it as anything other than a being moving with intent…

As I sunk deeper into thought, the mirror cracked again with a sharp sound.

[Excuse me? Jern?]

"Ah, sorry."

Whatever the truth was, it wasn’t something I could figure out now.

The most urgent issue was escaping Sharmia’s memory—the past.

Wait, was that even necessary though? A sudden thought struck me, which I immediately voiced.

"Then wouldn’t it be better to just deal with Scarlet Abyss here? If this memory really is the past, then—”

[Ah, you thought of that too. I tried several times.]

"...And the result?"

[Tampering with the past never results in anything good. The act of trying to change the past itself gives birth to the tragic future. I tried a few times, and the results were so horrible that once I realized there was no escaping it, I gave up.]

...So a Greek prophecy.

In other words, no matter what I did here, the future wouldn’t change within the range I knew, and worse, it might be because of me that it happened.

If the birth of Scarlet Abyss had been caused by me…A chill ran down my spine, and I pulled my hand away from the dressing table.

I hoped that the thing with the guards earlier didn’t change anything.

As I fretted, Sharmia hurriedly lifted another sheet of paper.

[I don’t know why you’re inside my memories, Jern, but honestly, this is a really dangerous situation. I’ll try to find a way to pull you out somehow. But there are a few things you absolutely have to be careful about.]

"What are they?"

[Don’t die.]

Her usual playfulness was gone, her expression dead serious.

[If you die there, you probably won’t be able to come back. It’ll become history. No matter what I do, that’ll be the end.]

"Yes. Understood.”

Death was death.

That much was simple enough. When I nodded, she seemed a bit relieved but then wrote something that left me a bit puzzled.

[And you can’t let the me there die either.]

"Why? That doesn’t seem like such a big problem, though."

[... I mean, it’s me! Why would you say that?! W-wait, are you planning to kill me?]

"Ah, sorry. I just wanted to know if that was the only reason.”

[More precisely, if that child regresses…that becomes fixed as history too. You probably wouldn't be able to get out. It would lead to similar results.]

"Understood."

So, don’t die, and don’t let Sharmia die.

That was all I had to keep in mind.

"Were there any major incidents during this period?”

[Major incidents…I don’t think so. Ah, assassination attempts were quite frequent. The Empire was in to~tal chaos back then. It was bad enough that even I, the princess, was being targeted.]

Assassinations weren’t major incidents…?

[To be honest, back then, I wasn’t really afraid of dying.]

"Because you knew you’d come back?”

[Even before I came to know about that.]

"Seems like you were pretty cynical."

[Well, um, there was a reason for that…]

As I watched her tilt her head as if she were trying to remember, another thought suddenly surfaced in my mind.

"Have you ever seen me there? Didn’t I change history?”

[No. And even if you were there, I probably wouldn’t remember. It was so~ long ago.]

"That long…"

I was about to ask just how long ago, but then remembered she’d repeated this cycle countless times.

...She might even be older than Dercia. I swallowed the rest of my word and nodded.

"Alright. Anything else?”

[Yes! There’s one really important thing left!]

"?"

[Um, well… This should work.]

Suddenly, Sharmia picked up a croissant from the desk.

Then, with a perfectly serious face, she held it up in front of the mirror.

[Remember this croissant.]

"Hmm."

Just as I was starting to seriously suspect she’d lost her mind, she hurriedly explained further.

[If I'm not holding a croissant, then absolutely, absolutely do not believe anything I say. Run away. No matter what I say, don’t listen. Refuse it. This is really important.]

"Okay, I get that. But can you at least tell me why?"

I asked because, if nothing else, this was just too bizarre to just accept as is. Sharmia wrote with a serious expression.

[This is my memory. I have a hobby of looking at forgotten things, happy memories, things like that. And I’m not the only one with that hobby.]

"Someone else can look into Your Highness’ memories?"

[That’s right. No one except me can look at them, so it’s the future me who’s glimpsing back at them.]

"...? Then isn’t that fine?"

[...]

The princess went silent for a moment.

Then, with an expression like someone confessing a terrible secret, she wrote as if crawling into a mouse hole.

[The thing is…the future me. Um. You see.]

"What?"

[...This is the first time I’ve ever told anyone this…]

I had no idea how many unbelievable things I could learn in a single day.

[I, erm…joined Scarlet Abyss.]

"...Are you completely out of your mind?”

[Ehehe…]

I couldn’t just dismiss that statement.

"This isn’t something you can just laugh off. Didn’t you say the future can’t be changed?”

[That’s right.]

"Then that means someday, you’ll inevitably join Scarlet Abyss.”

[I-I guess that's how it’ll turn out..]

"No.”

What the hell is this?

What is Sharmia—even fighting against?

....Why is she still trying so hard?

What does a superhuman feel when they know the future they want to avoid will definitely arrive?

When she sees that her future self, carrying all her memories, feelings, and will, still makes that choice?

The words raged in my chest, but their weight kept them from leaving my throat. I just stood there, stunned, as she awkwardly added more.

[Anyway, please remember what I said, okay? The future me will definitely try to make you and the present me submit. You really have to be careful.]

"...Understood."

I couldn’t ask more. Now wasn’t the right time.

So I simply buried all my questions in my heart and nodded slowly.

As I looked at her, suddenly something else came to mind.

"Then that croissant…doesn’t that mean the future…Scarlet Abyss Sharmia already knows about it?”

[Yes. She probably does.]

"Then doesn’t that make it meaningless? She could just bring the same kind of croissant.”

[Ah, that won’t work.]

"Why not? It’s just bread.”

If it was just a croissant, then she could make as many as she wanted, right?

When I asked her, she gave me a bitter smile and wrote her reply.

[In that future, you can’t make things like bread anymore.]

"..."

For the third time today…

My common sense packed its bags and left home.

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