WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 161 - Past (11)

"Ugh...!"

Even as she looked at the wounded Knight, Sharmia didn’t rush toward him.

She hesitated and backed away instead before I could stop her, asking with a distraught expression.

"It’s a trap, isn’t it?”

"Yes.”

If the intent had been to kill him, the Knight would already be dead.

And yet, the traitor Knight was still alive. Worse, he had been left there deliberately, still breathing, placed along the path we’d have to pass.

It was a fabricated hope that he could still be saved.

A lure meant to draw in the soft-hearted Sharmia.

When I glanced up at the thick branches of the tree the Knight was leaning against, a woman wrapped completely in a black robe dropped down from within.

She fell headfirst, but just before her head hit the ground, her body twisted unnaturally in midair, landing upright. Then she bowed.

"This lowly assassin greets Her Highness the Imperial Princess.”

"...Do you not even know that assassins are forbidden from showing their faces to those of imperial blood?”

Given the circumstances, it was obvious that the woman who called herself an assassin was the one who had done this to the Knight, so Sharmia’s words were covered in thorns.

The assassin bowed again, her movements elegant, reminiscent of the daughter of a noble family.

"I apologize for showing you such filthy things as blood repaid with blood. However, I am currently carrying out the command of the most exalted being in the Empire…I ask for your understanding.”

"I do not grant it. Leave.”

"I was well aware that Your Highness is a person of brilliant intellect. However, the qualities of a ruler are not determined by one’s personal brilliance alone.”

The assassin replied with words that didn’t quite fit, then glanced at me.

Even through the veil, I could still see that her eyes didn’t hold even a shred of killing intent.

If hiding one’s killing intent was the mark of a first-rate assassin, then what should one call one who can kill without any at all?

"A ruler is one who can make the optimal decision even in sudden circumstances. Only one who can still mind their grip on the blade while staring at blood and death earns the right to hold another’s leash.”

"Wh-what are you suddenly talking about?”

"I was merely saying that the Empire you would rule one day must be quite beautiful. Would you not consider returning with me? I would be deeply concerned if even the smallest blemish were to remain on your precious body.”

"..."

The words were polite, but their meaning was anything but. ‘Stop resisting, or I’ll kill the one beside you, and you might get hurt as well.’ That was what she meant.

Sharmia swallowed dryly as she looked at the assassin’s curved blade, then shook her head.

"I'm sorry. Please tell my father that I was eaten by wolves.”

"Hmm. If I were to report something like that, I’d likely be eaten alive by wolves myself. As such… I regrettably can’t."

The assassin threw her curved blade while she spoke.

Straight toward Sharmia’s neck.

Perhaps due to shock or anger, I crushed the dagger instinctively. I applied too much force, leading the metal to bend slightly under the pressure.

"Oh?"

Seeing the dagger frozen in midair, Sharmia stiffened completely. She had clearly seen its trajectory. That it had been meant to hit her.

"Are you out of your mind?”

Throwing a dagger at the princess. Of course, if the Emperor had ordered her assassination, it wasn’t all that strange, but even taking that into consideration, it was a disgracefully crude attempt.

The assassin wore a sly smile and tugged on the dagger. The blade, suspended in midair, slowly began to slide back toward her.

When I focused, I could see a thin, transparent thread linking her wrist to the dagger. What kind of absurd control was that?

"And who are you to speak? You’re the traitor who deceived His Majesty, are you not? A crime of the highest order. One life will hardly suffice as atonement. How do you intend to repay it?”

"I’ll pay for it later. Get lost now.”

"Then I sadly have to collect immediately. Let’s see. If you truly can use magic without mana, now would be the perfect time.”

"?”

-Crack!

Something burst out from the ground right before where I was standing.

A small-framed Knight clad head to toe in black armor. I turned in shock and immediately expanded my Tide Sense, but even up to the instant the blade reached my neck, the Abyssal Sea reported that nothing was there.

A Knight of Heavenly Retribution. And a monstrous one, frighteningly close to one of the highest tier.

In that split second, countless calculations raced through my mind.

If I deployed my Realm, the princess beside me would be caught in it as well. That would be digging my own grave.

I couldn’t crush something I couldn’t perceive with my pressure either. There wasn’t enough time to repel them… It was too perfect an ambush, so I had no solution.

Should I allow one hit and plan my next move? Just as that thought formed in my mind, I saw a grotesque anglerfish, all teeth and maw, swimming between me and the Knight.

Before I could even think, a word fell from my mouth.

[Bite.]

"...?"

The Knight of Heavenly Retribution tilted his head ever so slightly upon hearing that nonsensical sound.

-Crack!

"What...!”

Shock replaced confusion in less than a second.

Just before the blade could sever my neck, it twisted violently out of shape. The warped sword created an opening.

Boom!

I drove them back with my currents. The impact was so violent that the tree behind them shook as they slammed into it, twitching, unable to rise.

Was their body relatively fragile? As I exhaled, puzzled as to why the creature had obeyed my command, I glanced toward the anglerfish—

It was convulsing, belly-up, dying.

...Poison?

"Who taught them this?”

That I was a Fallen.

That camouflaging beneath the ground could make them evade my Tide Sense.

To use a Knight of Heavenly Retribution for a close-range assassination.

And poison to ensure a single, decisive strike.

It was an ambush so deeply infused with malice it felt as though someone who knew me extremely well had designed my perfect counter. I already knew who it was. I turned my gaze to the assassin, who sighed and took a step back.

"Even if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”

"—The mirror.”

"Hm? You know each other?”

It was a strategy devised by Sharmia of Scarlet Abyss.

As expected, her target had never been Sharmia, but me.

To kill me in this world. She intervened so that the end of my life would be anchored in the past. Knowing that I would have no choice but to protect Sharmia, she kept driving me into a corner.

I don’t know whether any of this had meaning. I was simply doing what Sharmia told me to do.

"Didn’t you hear this as well?”

I immediately seized the assassin with water pressure.

"Ugh, kgh..."

It was a good move. But if it hadn’t worked, it would have been over.

I pushed my Tide Sense to its limit, preparing for any additional ambushes, while tightening my grip so she couldn’t move at all.

Her body slowly lifted into the air. I could probably crush her to death just like this.

"I-I didn’t hear much… She only said strange things.”

"What did she say?”

Groaning in pain, the assassin forced out some words.

"She said—you were stopping her from escaping…"

"...?"

What kind of nonsense was that?

As I tilted my head, Sharmia suddenly widened her eyes and stumbled backward.

"...Stopping?”

"Ah–"

Seeing her expression harden, I clenched my teeth.

The Knight’s perfect ambush had only been a smokescreen.

The real dagger Sharmia had thrown at me was herself.

I sharply shook my head, denying it at once.

"That’s a lie. Don’t fall for it.”

"B-but that person…knows my future self.”

"..."

Mentioning the woman in the mirror had been a mistake. That meant the assassin had somehow made contact with the Sharmia of Scarlet Abyss.

And since the assassin couldn’t possibly reach the mirror on her own, it meant the contact had come from Sharmia herself…which, from Sharmia’s perspective, could only be interpreted one way.

Would she believe if I said, ‘Your future self has fallen. She’s lying to kill me.’ Of course not. Even to me, it sounded like a desperate excuse.

Seizing the opening, the assassin spoke again.

"She said you were trying to turn her into a cog in a machine…Kgh!”

I immediately tightened my grip around her throat, cutting her off.

But it was already too late. Sharmia seemed to have realized something.

"So my future self couldn’t escape."

"...”

"That’s why she told her past self to run away. She wanted to change the future, right?”

"The future cannot change the past. It can only overwrite a fixed future with a different one.”

"But I’ve already made a different choice. And you…”

She was good at reading people.

Sharp-minded as well. By now, she had surely followed the chain of logic to its most reasonable conclusion.

"You’re someone who came to stop me. To reset the future.”

A trap laid out with unsettling precision.

So it wasn’t me whom the Scarlet Abyss Sharmia was truly targeting, but herself.

She knew exactly how her own judgment and thought process flowed, and she leaked information accordingly in a natural way. She laid a devious trap.

So it really was the real future Sharmia. Watching her slowly step backward, I clenched my teeth and shook my head.

"It’s hard to explain, but I came here to help you, Sharmia. There’s a reason why your future self is saying something different.”

"...I’m sorry."

Sharmia bowed her head deeply.

She didn’t look angry or betrayed.

If anything, she looked like a sinner drowning in guilt.

"I can’t bear it. I really can’t. The future that’s coming is far too heavy for me. I know this is selfish, but I don’t think I could live in hell…”

"Sharmia. You don’t have to do this.”

"If, if…my future self had ever said, ‘I’m glad I lived this way,’ then maybe I could find the strength to go on. But she regretted it. She wanted her past self to walk a different path.”

"That wasn’t your future self.”

Words alone weren’t enough to stop Sharmia now that she had begun to retreat.

With no other choice, I suppressed the panic and anger boiling inside of me and gripped the Abyssal Sea.

It looked like I might need to stop her, even if it meant using some forceful means.

"B, ite!”

At that moment…

The assassin, who shouldn’t even have been able to speak, spat blood and forced out a word.

It was the same word I had just used. For a split second I almost thought she had entered the Abyssal Sea as well, but it was Imperial language she spoke.

She wasn’t commanding a deep-sea creature but a loyal hunting hound.

"U-Uwaaaaaaaah!!”

With a feral scream, the Knight who had been embedded in the tree shot forward like an arrow.

A bent sword, cracked armor, and a limp from what was likely a broken leg.

None of it slowed them down even slightly.

"Tsk!"

There was no room to think, confronted with an attack fueled by suicidal resolve.

They were a Knight of Heavenly Retribution. That earlier counter had only knocked them out briefly. If I let my guard down for even a moment, my head could be gone instantly.

I could see Sharmia running back to where we came from using my Tide Sense.

Toward Azrael.

What would happen if her memories disappeared? Could they be restored later if asked for? As those thoughts crossed my mind, the Knight of Heavenly Retribution, who had been attacking me relentlessly, suddenly steadied their stance and leaped forward.

Straight toward Sharmia.

"Don’t even think about it!”

I had no intention of letting them pass. Since they’d shown me an opening, I clenched my fist, feeling the other person’s guts being crushed.

"Kgh–ugh…”

Like a raging beast, they forced themselves through the water pressure and kept running toward Sharmia. He was slower now, but clearly determined to keep going no matter what I did.

Seeing that, I was about to press down with pressure again and shatter at least one of their legs when…

"You shouldn’t ignore me either.”

The assassin, breathing heavily, had broken free of the pressure and was staring at me with bloodshot eyes.

I slightly tilted my head, wondering how she had escaped.

-Gulp

She swallowed something.

"Haah…much better."

I felt the pressure slip across her body, blurring and dispersing, and let out a quiet sigh.

"Just die already.”

"What an honor to give me life for Her Highness the Princess.”

It seemed I had underestimated the Sharmia who had been driven far enough to actually join Scarlet Abyss.

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