WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 211 - Blade (5)

We sank the boat.

More precisely, we flipped it upside down in the lake and moved along using the air trapped inside it.

Linmel, stepping along the damp lakebed, looked at me in disbelief.

"A-are we really walking in the right direction right now?”

"Yeah, we are.”

Using my Tide Sense to lead us, we were heading straight toward the base of the lighthouse. But Linmel still looked uneasy, glancing around the cramped, wet air pocket inside the kayak.

"What if we suffocate before we get there?”

"We won’t."

I didn’t need to breathe. Only Linmel needed air.

And since she was still young, her breathing wasn’t that heavy.

"This feels so dangerous! What if we’re just drifting with the current?!”

I was the one who created this current.

-Thud.

The overturned kayak hit a stone wall. Just like that, we arrived at the lighthouse.

Linmel blinked in surprise.

"Huh? We’re here…?”

"I told you it’d work. Ah, can you break it?”

"Alright!”

Linmel carefully drew her sword and lightly sliced through the outer wall of the lighthouse.

We slipped into the basement, then sealed the hole behind us and looked around the damp interior.

"Looks like some sort of storage area.”

"Wait, Jern. I sense people upstairs.”

Linmel stared at the stairs cautiously, but I had already checked.

"I know. But there aren’t many.”

"Huh?"

"...There really aren’t."

There were suspiciously few guards.

Even though this was where they were holding an enemy nation’s princess. Were they trying to avoid drawing attention?

Even while feeling slightly uneasy, I quietly used the currents and strangled them one by one.

[U-ugh...]

[Huh, what’s wrong? Ugh!]

"Done. They’re all unconscious."

"J-Jern…?”

Even Linmel, who usually trusted me completely, seemed unsure at first, staring into empty space as I claimed I had taken care of the guards.

But when she saw them actually collapsed on the floor, her eyes filled with awe.

"So this is what a wizard can do…! Jern, you’re amazing!”

"Thanks. Let’s rescue Lumia before they wake up.”

"Okay!"

We made our way to the very top of the lighthouse without any great interference.

The door was locked. But the moment I grabbed the handle, the lock clicked open.

"Princess Lumia.”

"U-uhm...?"

The top floor of the lighthouse was furnished, likely because she was a valuable hostage.

A soft bed, wardrobe, marble floor, dining table, and so on. After confirming there was no one hiding anywhere, I approached Lumia, who looked confused, and knelt before her.

"Vice Commander of the Waxed Wing Unit, Jern Aspandil. I have come under orders to rescue Your Highness.”

"Jern? And…Linmel??”

"Lumia! I came to save you too!”

"A-ah, understood.”

She got up from the bed, still looking somewhat dazed. It seemed she hadn’t expected us to come to her.

"We are still deep in enemy territory. I’ve already planned the escape route…”

"Hm, wait a moment.”

Lumia suddenly stood up and stretched her body and yawned.

I stared at her in disbelief.

"What are you doing?”

"Unng… We have been lying down for too long, so We are stiff.”

"You’ve been treated quite well for someone who was kidnapped.”

I thought she might be trembling in fear, but she was surprisingly composed.

She just shrugged as if all this was not a big deal before replying.

"We were surprised, yes, but this was bound to happen someday.”

"Do you have a lot of kidnapping experience?”

"There have been many attempts. This is the first successful one.”

She frowned slightly and glanced outside.

"The Knights around me were elite even among the imperial guards…yet they didn’t notice anything. We were only a few steps apart.”

"Does that even make sense?”

"It does not. We cannot even begin to imagine what sort of formidable individual they employed to abduct us."

"Hm, you’re still using that way of speaking, I see."

"...I knew the palace would send someone to rescue us eventually, but I didn’t expect it to be this fast and for it to be… you and Linmel.”

Lumia tilted her head and looked at me.

"It seems my sister truly values you.”

"Well, actually, we weren’t ordered to come. We realized the one replacing you was a fake, and moved on our own before things could spiral out of control.”

"...How did you realize the substitute was an imposter?"

"Linmel is close to you. As for me…it seemed like you didn’t recognize the dagger I gave you.”

"Ah, I see.”

Lumia answered with a stiff expression and turned her gaze out the window.

It didn’t look like she was joking at all, so I asked again, confused.

After nodding to herself, she let out a sigh and looked outside the lighthouse.

"If my kidnapping hasn’t been announced yet, that is fortunate. For them as well.”

"How merciful of you. Worrying even about those who kidnapped you.”

"I’m not worried about them. I pity them. My sister loves me, so if this is exposed, this city will be destroyed.”

"That’s a bit…”

"She will annihilate it. And it will all be dismissed as a tragic incident in a remote region, reduced to a single line in a report.”

Lumia looked down through the lighthouse glass and slowly closed her eyes.

"Even if I have no ties in politics, I am still a princess. Various secrets reach my ears. Do not assume I am ignorant of what my sister has done.”

Even now, Sharmia was destroying countless citizens and cities.

Of course, it wasn't just meaningless slaughter. She was preventing futures where they would side with Scarlet Abyss or stage coups of similar scale.

But only a very small number of people knew this. Even her own sister didn’t know Sharmia was a prophet.

So how did Lumia see her sister and her efforts?

"Jern.”

"Yes.”

Lumia, frowning slightly, spoke in a pleading voice.

"If this incident ends without being discovered—could my kidnapping be treated as if it never happened? If their plans failed within a single day, I doubt they would attempt something like this using the same method again.”

I thought for a moment, then nodded before adding something.

"I have two conditions.”

"What are they?”

"First, after returning to the Empire, you must provide a convincing explanation.”

"I can do that. And the second?”

"You must not be afraid of me.”

"Ugh..."

Lumia’s face flushed red, then she let out a soft sigh and smiled gently.

"Very well. I will try.”

"Understood. Then…”

"—Move!"

Linmel suddenly shouted.

My reaction was fast. The moment I heard her voice, I pulled Lumia into my arms.

But the attack was even faster.

-Slash!

"!"

Hot blood splattered across my face. She had grabbed the sharply flying dagger with her bare hand.

Yet Linmel, as if she felt no pain at all, casually knocked the dagger away and drew her sword.

Looking toward where it came from, I saw the wardrobe at the edge of the room standing open. Inside, a thin man with sharp features spat to the side and scratched his head.

"Tsk, why are there two monstrous brats here?”

—Different. I instinctively felt it.

I had seen many Knights before, but this guy’s presence was completely different.

He was neither a Fallen nor a Knight, and I couldn’t detect him using my Tide Sense.

As I slowly stepped back and raised a current, Linmel handed Lumia off to me and pointed her blade forward.

"He’s a Rakshasa assassin!”

"No need to shout that loudly…I already know…Shit!”

-Crunch!

I seized the space around him perfectly with the currents, but he dodged it as if it were visible to him.

As I narrowed my eyes, he looked at me in disbelief.

"Are you with Scarlet Abyss? Why is a Fallen working for the Empire?”

"They pay well.”

"...Ah, so you’re that cursed child the Empire took in.”

He grinned as Linmel glared at him with eyes burning with fury, lunging forward.

"Don’t run your mouth just because you have one! You filthy assassin!”

A burst of acceleration with no preparatory step.

By the time anyone could react, Linmel’s sword was already at the assassin’s throat.

"...Ohoo."

A distance that made evading impossible. At least, that was what it should have been.

However, the assassin simply spun his body, performing an acrobatic twist. The blade traced perfectly along his neck, yet not a single drop of blood was drawn. He landed lightly a few steps away, staring at Linmel with clear interest.

"I get that that one over there is famous, but what exactly are you? Archiving this much at that age.”

"Ugh...!"

Linmel immediately twisted her blade and surged forward again.

-Clang!

Her lightning-fast strikes stabbed toward him dozens of times, forming a dazzling sword dance.

Every single one of her movements was lethal. A single mistake would cost him his life.

Even equipped with my Tide Sense, I could barely track fragments of it.

Yet the assassin effortlessly dodged every strike, his gaze still fixed on me.

He was an absurdly skilled assassin.

...Of course. There was no way they’d leave Lumia alone in the lighthouse.

"Th-that’s him! The one who kidnapped me…!”

Hearing Lumia’s trembling voice, I quietly clenched my teeth.

'Tsk, of all times, when Lumia’s right next to me…’

Speed itself wasn’t my problem. If I unleashed the Abyssal Sea even a little, I could detect him instantly and kill him.

The issue was that this princess was right beside me. If I activated and failed to finish him instantly, the pressure would crush Lumia to death. Linmel might be able to withstand it, though.

To make matters worse, Linmel’s sword dance was reaching its limit.

"Kgh...!”

-Slash.

Her shoulder was cut slightly, blood spraying out.

Linmel immediately retreated several meters, clutching her shoulder. The assassin scoffed.

"Still just a child.”

"...What did you say?”

"If you know your enemy is an assassin, you should also assume they use unconventional weapons. Yet you reacted to such a shallow wound like that?”

"..."

"And instead of cutting off the shoulder or taking out an antidote, you just step back? What a foolish decision.”

"There’s no poison. It didn’t hurt.”

"There are poisons that don't act immediately, you know? Are you so afraid of losing flesh that you’d wager your life? Ah, though…to be fair, there really was no poison on it.”

He smiled lightly. His breathing hadn’t changed at all.

The difference in skill was obvious. As Linmel gritted her teeth and glanced back—

"Hmm. Where do you think you’re looking?”

"?!”

Before anyone could blink, he closed the distance and kicked her in the stomach.

"Kgh...!"

-Crash!

Linmel rolled across the floor, slamming into the wall and coughing up blood.

“...Linmel!!”

As Lumia cried out, the assassin gave a mocking bow, imitating noble etiquette.

"My introduction was late. I am Aksha of Rakshasa. Though it seems that little lady already knew that from the very start."

"J-Jern…run…”

I rushed over to her, but Linmel, trembling, still tried to force herself up and warned me.

"Knights of Heavenly Retribution are created by the teachings of a Rakshasa assassin. This is someone I can’t win against…”

Drip, drip.

On her clenched face, I could see both helplessness and sorrow.

"Don’t try to talk. It’s fine.”

I reassured Linmel and slowly stood up.

When our eyes met, Aksha gave a light smile and stepped back.

"Hmm, you there, Fallen. To be honest, I don’t really know much about the ‘Fallen.’ The principle of our Rakshasa is if we don’t understand something, we don’t touch it unless it's absolutely necessary. So, if you leave the princess and the little Knight girl behind, I won’t chase you.”

"Why Linmel?”

"I’ll be honest. With that kind of talent—”

"Ah, you can stop there. I get the idea.”

Come to think of it, I’d rarely seen Linmel in pain.

Since the time her leg was broken as a young kid, she had always been smiling. Except for the day she left the orphanage.

So in a situation like this…

Especially when she got hurt because I failed to respond properly, it was natural for anger to rise inside of me.

"You said you don’t know much about the Fallen, right?”

"...Huh? I did."

"Then let me teach you."

-Snap

I snapped my fingers.

-Crrrraaaack!

At the same time, a grotesque tearing sound echoed.

In the most literal sense—the attack landed the instant it was made.

"Oho."

Drip, drip.

Blood flowed, mixed with shattered bone, turning into a murky slurry.

As that filthy blood reached my shoes, Aksha looked down at his crushed arm without much concern and muttered,

"They say old sayings are never wrong. This time I didn’t even see it—”

"Don’t worry. You won’t see it next time either.”

"Is that so…Wait, the princess—”

-Kyaaaaaaah! Splash!

Just as Aksha realized something, a small scream and the sound of something falling echoed from beyond the shattered window.

He paused, trying to piece the situation together, then shouted in disbelief.

"You crazy bastard! Did you just throw the princess into the lake?!”

"Hm, I guess you’re not understanding the situation.”

-Crack!

Aksha’s left arm twisted like a rope.

"This isn’t the time for you to worry about someone else.”

At that moment, his face finally twisted slightly.

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