Wizard of the Abyss - Chapter 19

WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 19 - Rising Above (2)

There was no such thing as a noble who couldn’t use magic.

It’s been said that supposedly there had been some like that in the past, but that was nothing more than history now. Some ignorant commoners even think that "noble" is just another word for someone who can use magic…

In a way, they were right. In fact, that was precisely what the nobles of the past were aiming for.

They wanted to show that they couldn’t even be considered the same species.

Just as horses and oxen had different hooves, they tried to force everyone to just accept that they were inherently different from birth. That was the greatest advantage a ruling class could have.

Magic was proof of a bloodline’s purity. A simple explanation for why one party was holding the branding iron and another was getting burned by it.

That was the reason why Elisia Rakshania absolutely had to be able to use magic.

"...I’m sorry."

"It’s not your fault."

Aletus patted his crying daughter’s head.

The room was filled with numerous shattered vials, various grimoires, books, and parchment.

And yet Elisia couldn’t grasp any of it.

...even though she had gone through Soul Fever.

'If only she hadn’t gotten the fever at all.'

Aletus turned away his face so that his daughter wouldn’t see the somber expression on it.

If she hadn’t gotten it, he could have just told himself that she was a late bloomer.

But to show results like that even after her awakening…

"F-father. Am I not a wizard?”

"...That can’t be. I'm sure you’ll become just as great a mage as your mother. Just wait a bit longer.”

No one must ever know. If the truth behind this were to be exposed, the consequences it would have, would be far too obvious.

So Aletus just pulled his daughter into a warm hug, gritting his teeth.

For the family’s sake, and for his daughter’s sake.

He had to find a way somehow.

* * *

"But everything we tried simply failed.”

I glanced at Elisia, who was hugging her drawn-up knees, muttering gloomily.

"I see."

"I mean, no matter how I think about it, I… don’t think I’m a wizard.”

"Hmm."

How ridiculous.

I tilted my head back, looking at the sky, watching the sun slowly setting.

Her words weren’t all that surprising to me. Honestly, I wasn’t even listening all that attentively. Everyone had their share of embarrassing family drama after all.

But even while just half-listening to her, I still figured out who Elisia’s gardener was having an affair with.

It felt like new information was poured into my brain without a single second of rest for three hours. In other words, this girl…

Was a total chatterbox.

How the hell did she manage to hold all of that back up until now? Well, it wasn’t all that bad, though. There were some useful bits of info that I wouldn’t have been able to dig up myself so easily in all of that.

‘Guess I got enough to work with now.'

Or at the very least enough to form my own judgement. Her family was decent enough, with strong influence, and most importantly, Elisia was an only child.

Dercia told me to stand out, right?

She never specified it in what way. So maybe this could work.

As I was thinking about how to bring this up, Elisia let out another deep sigh.

"So now I don’t even know what to do for the upcoming field exercise…”

"Field exercise?”

That was the first time I ever heard of that.

Elisia sullenly nodded.

"Yeah. We’re supposed to demonstrate the elemental magic we’ve learned in front of everyone. The others probably already figured it out, but… this time I’ll definitely be completely exposed.”

She let her head droop.

"...Exposed that I’m nothing but trash.”

So now I was supposed to comfort her or something, right?

I almost patted her head out of habit but froze before I could touch her. Doing something like that to a noble girl as a commoner only spelled disaster.

"It’ll be fine…”

No, that’s not it. I just wanted to touch her head. After hesitating a bit, I opted to awkwardly pat her back.

"Don’t be so hard on yourself. Is it possible that you just have some sort of hidden talent, Lady Elisia?”

I mean, she did actually have something like that.

The talent to prevent the manifestation of any elemental magic.

Not even Spell Paper could have revealed something like that. In fact, it would have reacted even less to her than to an ordinary person.

So, in a way… Hughins was right.

She was really guilty of something. Disrupting the spells of wizards around her.

Seeing that it didn’t affect my Abyss Realm at all, maybe it only affected young, fledging wizards.

It didn’t sound all that promising, but perhaps it might help me once she developed this skill.

My gaze lingered greedily upon Elisia’s silver hair, gleaming like treasure in my eyes, until she shook her head.

"Wouldn’t I know by now if I had something like that? And even if I did, what does it matter? If I fail the demonstration during the field exercise, I’ll be branded a failure forever.”

"Sounds terrible.”

"Because it is. If I could just somehow skip it… Maybe I could get away with faking sickness or something… Well, not like it would actually work. If I could just use magic half as well as all the others—no, even less—I wouldn’t have to worry about this stuff.”

"One could never know. Why not give it one more try?”

"...What?"

"I might only be a mere janitor, but I believe you’ve been working incredibly hard to manifest your magic.”

"Umm, yeah.”

"Then perhaps that hard work could pay off right now, you know? How about you try it just one more time right here and now?”

"What are you even talking about?”

Elisia looked at me with a bewildered expression.

It was more than understandable that she reacted like that, since she probably tried thousands, or even tens of thousands of times, and experienced failure, so why would now be any different just because I told her to try again?

I guess persuading her would go faster if I set the right stage. I tossed my broom I was still holding in front of the bench.

"I’d really like to see what true magic looks like. Please, could you try for me?”

"...I told you, it’s not going to work."

Even though she was still grumbling under her breath, she still put on an earnest expression and raised her hand.

"I’m only doing this because I owe you for saving me once. This is so embarrassing… Hnng!”

Elisia, glaring at the broom with a cute grunt, poured everything into her attempt to cast her spell.

Or well, that was what it looked like anyway. Nothing really happened, so how could anyone know what she was doing there?

"Hnnnnngh...!"

She was concentrating so hard that her face flushed bright red.

Well, it did seem that she was trying her best even though it was just a request from a lowly janitor… That made it seem oddly touching to me.

Of course, I had to help her out a little. Standing a slight distance away, I cast a spell myself.

"...Huh? Huuh!”

A wind started to blow.

It wasn’t the natural kind since it made the broom jerk upright, awkwardly tugging it towards me.

Elisia covered her mouth in utter disbelief.

"I-I cast magic…!”

The broom slowly moved towards her. Noticing that Elisia reached out to it with trembling fingers, her expression filled with various emotions.

-Tap!

And then it landed in a hand.

Into mine, of course.

"...Huh?”

While her hand still hung midair, having lost her target, Elisia stared blankly at the broom in my grasp.

It didn’t take long for her eyes to climb up and lock with mine.

I could see a small star swimming in them.

Seeing something similar in my eyes, the unmistakable sign of a wizard, her expression seemed to go through several changes.

"You...!"

First a triumphant expression, as if she thought something like, “I knew I could do it!”

"But…”

Then a confused frown as if she wanted to ask, “But how could a mere janitor…?”

"No way!”

Then it made way for fury as if she was about to yell, “Are you mocking me?!”

I couldn’t help but admire that display a little. To express such a variety of emotions in only three seconds. She would probably make one hell of an actress.

However, since it seemed like the last emotion she showed was the strongest, I quickly bowed my head to apologize.

"I’m really sorry. That was rude of me.”

Originally, I had planned to simply tell her that I was doing it, but her reactions were simply far too amusing, which made me end up crossing a line.

Fortunately, Elisia only stood there with her arms crossed and her glaring eyes boring holes in my head, probably because she didn’t want to admit how angry this had actually made her.

"I-it’s fine. But what’s with you? Are you actually a noble?”

"That would be great. Then I wouldn't have to sneak around like this to eavesdrop on those lessons like this.”

"...So the reason you’ve been around here all this time was to eavesdrop?”

"Yes. I do this with the other children’s classes as well.”

Since I had already told her that I was a wizard, there was no need for me to hide anything else.

Elisia tilted her head before asking another question.

"But why? Do you want to learn magic that badly?”

"Yes. More than anything.”

Because this was my last desperate attempt to struggle for my life.

Elisia gave me a small, sympathetic nod as she studied me.

"I think I get that. I’m actually the same… But wait, that means you’re a wizard even though you’re a commoner. Haah, then just what does that make me…?”

"You’re not upset that I’m a wizard, right?”

"I’m really annoyed. I mean, seeing that even a commoner can use magic, while I can’t, is really frustrating.”

"I mean more like, upset enough that you want to kill me.”

"...?"

Elisia looked at me, as if she couldn’t understand what I was saying.

"Erm… And why would I want to kill you for that…?”

The look she gave me was the same someone would give a complete nutcase, which was oddly relieving. This made it clear that she wouldn’t reject me for something like this, at least.

Though actually, this wasn’t normally something one would feel relieved from. I cleared my throat and continued.

"Lady Elisia. Forgive me for asking this on only our second meeting, but would you consider making a deal with me?”

"What deal?”

"I’ll use magic in your stead at that field exercise.”

As I said that, I lifted the broom dozens of meters into the air using my currents before slamming it back down, manipulating it freely.

Elisia looked at me with a completely shocked expression as I showed off this intricate high-speed maneuver.

"Y-you’re a complete genius… aren’t you?”

Not really. But if that was what she thought, so be it.

That was more advantageous for me anyway.

"And I’ll make absolutely sure that you’ll be able to use magic yourself.”

"...Hmpf."

I had been completely serious, but Elisia just let out a dismissive snort.

"Do you know how many wizards had come before you claiming they could cure me? All of them, without exception, failed.”

"But I’m not trying to cure you.”

She wasn’t sick, so what was there to cure?

And besides, the problem was that her little quirk didn’t work on wizards of a high level.

Unless one was a beginner wizard like me, they wouldn’t have any trouble casting spells even though they were exposed to it.

"Of course, you might not believe me right now. But the fact still stands that you need to get through that field exercise, right?”

"But the teachers will notice…”

"Then just use your family’s power to shut them up. I mean, what could they possibly do? Pick a fight with a powerful house by calling you out? It’s more likely that they’ll simply keep quiet.”

Elisia’s expression turned pensive.

From what I could gather from her earlier talk, she really wanted to get through that field exercise without any issues.

"Then…”

This had been the first time I had revealed myself as a wizard before a noble.

I felt incredibly nervous inside, and yet I waited calmly for her answer, but her voice seemed to contain the same kind of anxiety I felt in my heart, mixed with a tiny bit of anticipation.

"Wh-what do you want from me?”

"It’s nothing much. Just an introduction.”

"?"

I gave her my friendliest smile before I elaborated.

"Could you please let me meet your father?”

* * *

"Hey, what kind of world do you think this is?”

It was a torture chamber.

Rotten water was dripping from the ceiling, while the walls bore the brown stains of dried blood left by desperate scratches of fingernails.

Amid the nauseating stench, a man holding a saw with some fresh blood still dripping from it asked in a really friendly tone.

"Hey, answer me.”

"...Wh-why are you doing this..."

The prisoner, tied to a chair, his appearance hardly recognizable as human, begged for some final mercy.

"Just, kill me…"

"No, what are you even saying, huh? You shouldn't give up on life so easily. Just answer my question, and I’ll definitely spare you.”

The unfittingly cheerful tone of the man made the prisoner writhe.

"I-I..."

"What kind of world do you think this is? Come on.”

"What… do you..."

"Ugh, this is so frustrating!”

The man tossed the saw in annoyance.

-Clang! The unpleasant metallic sound made the man tied to the chair flinch and groan.

"U-uurgh…”

Grumbling, the torturer grabbed the saw again, getting a bucket filled with rotten water.

"Pull yourself together. This won’t end unless you give me a proper answer.”

Splash! He threw water on the prisoner’s face, to which his vision, which had gradually reddened, cleared. He was now able to see the other man’s face again.

Red hair that looked like it had never been washed or cut before, emotionless eyes that had a cold glint to them, and skin turned red by the sheer number of burn marks.

The prisoner, faced with something more akin to a monster than a human, seemed to have lost all hope as he bowed his head.

"Ah, aah…”

"Damn it. Another one broke."

Muttering, the man scratched his head and swung the saw with a heavy sigh.

Thud. The head that had once been attached to the prisoner’s body had come off far too easily.

Letting out yet another sigh, the man unceremoniously pushed aside the chair the corpse was still tied to. There was no meaning behind that gesture. He knew from experience that letting the corpse bleed out by just leaving it like that would make things easier for him later.

"How do people even fall into the Abyss? It’s so damn hard.”

He was carrying out his new master’s orders… but it couldn’t be said to be going smoothly.

Maybe he should have followed the instructions more carefully, even if the danger was considerable.

Grabbing a sheet of paper from the table, he left the room.

[...Therefore, the younger the target, the better.]

He ignored the tediously annoying parts that came before that. He couldn’t really understand them.

It seemed like an older wizard just wouldn’t do.

"Well, I’ve already made my preparations…”

He was planning to completely disappear anyway once this job was done.

So—no matter how furious those nobles would get, it wouldn’t matter much to him.

Humming slightly, the man left to get ready.

He didn't even need that many. Just making two or three fall would be more than enough.