WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 196 - Journey (2)

Thinking about it now, ever since I fell into this world and became trapped in the Abyssal Sea, I hadn’t rested for even a single day.

Of course, when you’re walking around with a bomb collar around your neck, rest wasn’t exactly something you could think about. Still, maybe I had pushed myself a bit too hard. With that thought in mind, I stared out the window of the rattling carriage, feeling like it was strangely familiar.

'It’s that carriage.'

The small carriage Elisia often rode in, designed for children.

I had ridden in it before as well, but now the window felt much lower than I remembered.

—My eye level had changed.

They say a child could grow a whole inch if one just looked away for a single moment. Even with hundreds of millions of tons of seawater pressing down on me from above my head, it seemed my growth plates had been doing their job.

As I absentmindedly ran my hand along the window, lost in thought, I heard my traveling companion snoring.

"Snooore..."

"Looks like she grew as well.”

I chuckled bitterly as I looked at Elisia sleeping across the carriage seat.

The city called Iavon was one of the many cities governed by Aletus. Of course, a lord couldn’t possibly manage every remote city, so there was usually a deputy lord acting in their place.

Elisia had visited often when she was younger, so I decided to have her act as my guide.

They could have just assigned other attendants for the job, but Elisia had been so stubborn about it that they had no other choice. Even Aletus had given his permission.

I still wasn’t sure whether this was really the right time for me to be relaxing like this, but the moment I casually mentioned taking a break, Sharmia immediately called for a carriage. Apparently, the people around me thought differently.

'It’s probably nothing, but there are a few things I want to confirm.’

Convincing myself of that, I leaned back against the seat when the small window near where the coachman sat opened.

"Young master, we’ll be arriving in Iavon soon. Could you wake the young lady?”

"Alright…Oh, it’s quite a pretty city.”

"Pardon?"

When I let out a small admiring remark after hearing the coachman, he tilted his head in confusion.

"Hm, it’s still beyond the hill, so it shouldn’t be visible yet.”

"I’m looking at the guidebook.”

"Aha, I see.”

In reality, I had checked using my Tide Sense.

It really wasn't a very large city. Still, with its neatly designed buildings and well-maintained roads, it definitely had the feel of a resort.

At the main gate, there were several other people entering and leaving who looked like tourists. The line was rather long, and I wondered if we’d have to wait, but before we could even join the line, several guards rushed over and escorted us.

"Welcome, young lady! You must be tired. We’ve prepared hot water.”

"Haah…okay…”

Still half-asleep, Elisia mumbled out a reply. Another guard approached and quietly spoke to me.

"You're Sir Jern, correct? I’ve heard about you. You wanted to confirm something here in Iavon…”

"Yes. I heard there’s a red hot spring in the mountain behind the city. Is that correct?”

"A red hot spring…? Ah, you mean that one. Unfortunately, it isn’t red anymore.”

"?"

I tilted my head in confusion, wondering what he was talking about, before the guard hurriedly explained.

"The hot spring water is extremely clear and transparent, so you can see the bottom perfectly. But the trees around it drop leaves that are all blood-red, so in fall, the fallen leaves cover the bottom and make the water appear red. So in fall it truly looks red, but on other days it’s just a clear hot spring…”

"Aha."

Well, if the hot spring were actually red, nobody would go in it. People would probably consider it ominous and avoid it entirely.

I hadn’t really come here to soak in the hot spring anyway, so I nodded calmly and added,

"That’s fine. I just wanted to check it out. Could you guide me there?”

"Of course. All the soldiers and attendants have already been informed in advance, so please feel free to use it as you wish.”

As expected of the power of noble connections.

Elisia, who still looked really sleepy, didn’t seem like she’d be able to follow along, so I sent her to the lodging and headed toward the northern gate where the mountain path began, accompanied by a guard.

I could have taken a carriage, but I also wanted to see what kind of city this was with my own eyes.

As I walked slowly, taking in the scenery, the guard smiled and asked,

"Are you satisfied with what you see?”

"Hmm, it’s a beautiful city. Everyone seems happy.”

"That’s thanks to you, Sir Jern.”

"Huh?"

"Since our city survives mainly through tourism, that…incident with Scarlet Abyss hit us harder than anyone.”

"Aha..."

"The hot springs don’t cool down just because it’s winter, but the problem was that the snow wouldn’t melt. We were constantly worried all the springs might freeze over… Thanks to you, everyone can finally breathe easy.”

I see, that did make sense. Decay’s Absolute Frost hadn’t only covered the capital.

As I nodded in understanding, we reached the mountain behind the city. The guard opened a small gate and guided me to the hot spring.

"This is the red hot spring. As you can see, it’s still clear right now.”

It was a natural hot spring large enough for three or four people.

After glancing around, I extended my Tide Sense and said,

"Thank you for guiding me. Would it be alright if I looked around by myself?”

"Of course. I’ll be waiting below, so please call if you need anything.”

Once the guard left through the gate, I began examining the nearby trees one by one with my Tide Sense.

But I couldn’t find anything resembling the tree described as a staff, nor anything else unusual.

'So it really was just a fairy tale, huh?’

Just in case, I slowly pulled up one to the tree’s trunks using the currents and water pressure.

-Craaaack...

"...It actually works."

I hadn’t expected it to. Perhaps it was because the output of my water pressure had become absurdly strong, or maybe because the tree roots were simply weak.

As the roots slowly lifted from the ground, I saw that the soil clinging to them was completely brown.

If I pulled any further, the tree would probably die, so I carefully pushed it back into place, letting out a sigh.

If the tree Scarlet Abyss had possessed also existed here, the soil should have been white. Unless I had made some sort of mistake. So it must have just been just a fictional story.

'Though maybe that tree had originally been taken from here...'

But if that were the case, it was even more meaningless. It would mean anything useful had already been taken away long ago.

With nothing gained, I walked back down the mountain.

"Erm, just now…”

"Ah."

It seemed that that guard had seen me lift the tree just now.

"The trees weren’t harmed. I just needed to check something."

"That’s not…Ah, I understand.”

The guard swallowed and fell silent.

He looked like he had many questions, but he also seemed aware that they weren’t things a guard should be asking.

* * *

"Oh, you’re awake?”

When I returned to the lodging, Elisia was already up, puffing out her cheeks.

When I patted her head, the sulking expression quickly faded.

"Since you’re awake, want to take a walk around the city? We haven’t had the chance to hang out for a while. Ah, and how’s your magic training going?”

It had been quite a while since I’d seen Elisia as well. Even though the fairy tale had turned out to be false, I approached her warmly, intending to cheer her up for a little, but she shook her head lightly.

"Hmm. It's okay. Could we just stay in the lodging today instead of going out?”

"Hmm?"

The Elisia I knew would have begged to go out and play.

Though puzzled by the sudden change, I readily agreed.

"I’m fine with that. Is there something you want to do?”

"—Yes."

Elisia looked straight into my eyes with an expression as if she had made up her mind.

"I’ve been practicing magic. I want you to watch.”

"I-Is that so?”

Her sudden seriousness caught me off guard, but it also made me curious.

"Well, of course I can do that. But why didn’t you ask me at the imperial palace?”

"Because then they would have noticed.”

"...What?"

"My dad, that bad elf, and the other mages.”

As if sharing some secret, Elisia hurried around the room and closed all the curtains.

Then she came back and sat in front of me, speaking as though it were something extremely important.

"Jern. I heard you're a Fallen. That’s true, right?”

"Hmm..."

The conversation had suddenly become heavy.

But it wasn’t something that could really be hidden anymore. All the nobles already knew my identity.

"That’s right. Sorry for hiding it from you all this time. I’m not actually a mage…”

"You are a mage, Jern!”

"...Anyway, I’m a Fallen.”

After shouting that loudly, Elisia swallowed nervously and asked.

"So, what kind of world do you live in?”

"You probably wouldn’t find it very fun.”

"I want to know.”

She leaned so close that our noses almost touched, staring at me with wide eyes. With no other choice, I grabbed her cheeks and gently pushed her face back while answering.

"I live beneath the sea.”

"Beneath the sea?”

"In the Abyssal Sea. Hmm, how should I explain it…Ah.”

After glancing around briefly, I unfolded my Realm and slipped into the Abyssal Sea. I had found something nearby that would be useful for explaining.

When I returned to the real world, Elisia, who had been surprised by my sudden disappearance, jumped in shock.

"J-Jern? Why did you disappear?"

"I just went into the sea for a moment.”

"....Whoa! Can other Fallen do that too?”

"No. Only those with a Great World can…Anyway, look at this.”

I showed Elisia, her eyes sparkling, a small chunk of ice.

Inside the palm-sized ice block was a small clam that I had found there.

"Watch carefully."

-Crack!

Using water pressure, I shattered the ice and handed her the clam inside. Elsiia carefully received it with both hands.

The clam’s shell was tightly shut, but it couldn’t resist the flow of the current.

-Crunch.

As she stared at it with curiosity, she suddenly noticed something inside the clam’s flesh.

"A p-pearl…?”

Fortunately, this clam that had been caught in my Tide Sense happened to contain a pearl.

I guess I was lucky. Then again, thinking about it, most of the clams down there probably contained pearls.

"How is it? Pretty, right? Creatures like this live in the sea I reside in…”

"Jern, this… this isn’t just pretty.”

"Huh?"

I had only picked up the clam to explain that I lived in the sea, but Elisia examined the pearl from every angle and even looked inside the shell, astonished.

"Look at this. It’s the biggest and roundest pearl I’ve ever seen. Even the pearl necklace I got for my birthday had smaller pearls than this! This is the kind of thing that gets presented to the imperial family…”

"Ah, is that so?”

"And this shell too…what is this? How old was this clam? Even clams said to live three hundred years don’t have patterns like this…A-a thousand years, perhaps? Or did it live even longer?”

Was it really that valuable?

As expected of a noble, Elisia seemed extremely knowledgeable about gemstones. To her eyes, this ordinary pearl and clam must have looked like incredible treasures.

I watched her reaction without much interest in gems, but suddenly a thought crossed my mind.

'...Come to think of it, I can bring things out now, can’t I?'

Not just deep-sea creatures, but other materials from the Abyssal Sea could also be frozen and safely brought out.

Before, even a small calm would try to devour me the moment I placed it inside my Water Partition. It would be like putting a piranha inside a diving suit.

Since one bite would be fatal for me, I couldn’t risk that kind of gamble. And bringing out dead ones wasn’t possible either, because the moment they died, the water pressure crushed them into small spheres.

In a magical world, gems and rare materials had many uses.

Maybe I could find something even more valuable in the Abyssal Sea. While I was thinking about that, Elisia suddenly snapped back to her senses, quietly slipping the pearl into her pouch and clearing her throat.

"A-anyway. So you live very deep inside the sea. Okay, I get it.”

"Yeah. It’s more livable than you’d think.”

"But you still want to get out, right?”

Elisia asked again, returning to a serious tone.

"If I had to choose?”

"I can help you."

"Just hearing that is already…"

"No, really! I really can help!”

When I tried to brush it off with a gentle smile, Elisia shook her head.

"I was there when you revealed you were a Fallen. All those times you suddenly disappeared, or showed up injured, or fought strange people…I could never understand why this was happening.”

"That’s..."

"Yeah. I know. Even so, I felt really stupid. I kept asking you to play without knowing anything about what you were going through. You must have had your own circumstances, and I just…”

"No, it’s really fine.”

Just introducing me to Aletus had already been enough. I was about to say that…

But then Elisia met my eyes and gently took my hand.

"...!"

I was startled. Not because she grabbed my hand.

It was small and soft, but that wasn’t the problem here.

Elisia’s hand felt as though it were burning hot.

Yet it didn’t burn my skin. There was no reflexive reaction like when someone suddenly grabbed something hot.

Of course there wasn’t. In reality, her hand was just a normal temperature.

But in the Abyssal Sea, in this endless cold, everything I touched was first chilled by the freezing water before I could feel it.

Yet Elisia’s hand felt as if that process had been…

"Maybe the curse I received existed for this very moment."

...erased.

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