WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 22 - Rising Above (5)

At least ten figures emerged from the forest.

No, could those things even be called people?

Except for the man at the front, they were limping, their whole body wrapped in bandages, looking just like walking corpses.

"Wh-who are you?”

The teacher was the first to step forward. They obviously didn’t look like a group with any pure intentions, but the man leading them seemed like a proper Knight at a glance.

Red hair and flawless skin. It was the man I had seen yesterday.

"My name is Faris, Your Grace."

He introduced himself and bowed with a smirk.

It was a perfectly normal and polite greeting.

Except for the unmistakable mockery in his voice.

"..."

This situation wasn’t anything that could be taken lightly. Unsure what was going on here, the teachers slightly looked at each other before stepping forward, herding the bewildered children behind them.

"There should be Knights stationed close by to guard this place.”

"Ah, those guys? Wanna see them?”

Faris slightly flicked his hand to which the mummy lookalikes behind him crawled forward, spitting something out.

"Gweeeck..."

-Roll.

Then several severed fingers rolled out. Judging by how thick they were, they definitely belonged to an adult man.

"...It seems they’ve lost their minds.”

The two teachers, now fully prepared to fight, stomped the ground hard.

Ruuumble… then stone hands rose from the ground, reaching for the sky as if they had been yearning for freedom, before they pulled the rest of their body up.

Several golems, each at least two meters tall, were now standing there.

"Do you have any idea who you’re facing?”

One of the teachers next snapped their fingers to which a hole seemed to open in the air from which a liquid similar to molten gold flowed out.

Then the gold, as if sentient, moved to cover the golems, turning into armor, and the remaining liquid turned into shining spears.

There were three stars floating in the teachers’ eyes.

Even though they were just teachers of the children’s classes, they were still nobles. They definitely weren’t just ordinary wizards.

Faris rubbed his chin, reacting to this with some feigned intimidation.

"Two 3-star wizards? How scary… In the Calm Sky Realm, too.”

"We are nothing. What you’ll have to answer to are the parents of these children. Tell us who ordered you to do this and give up your weapons immediately. Otherwise I can assure you, death would be…”

"That’s easy enough. I’ll tell you. One.”

Faris interrupted the teacher’s words, raising one index finger.

"?"

"The Scarlet Abyss. That’s the name of the organization that gave me my orders.”

"Now isn’t the time for jokes.”

"I’m serious though? Well, not that I expected you to believe me. They aren’t just burrowing the name either. It seems like it’s really them… I’m still a bit skeptical as well.”

Faris shrugged as he raised his middle finger next.

"Two, if we were scared of those nobles, did you really think we would have done this in the first place? They won’t be able to catch us anyway.”

"..."

"Three. You might misunderstand something here, because I might seem all right, but let me tell you, the state I’m in now is far worse than dying already.”

He casually tore off the skin covering his face.

Crrrrrk-!

"Eeek!!"

"Wha-what is this?!”

The children, who were only slowly beginning to understand the situation, were horrified by the sight of his face.

A melted face, oozing pus. Not a single part of his skin seemed untouched.

I imagine a leper cursed with immortality might look like that.

However, Faris just laughed at their reaction, as if it delighted him.

"However, that doesn’t mean I want to die. Even like this, life is still more than bearable.”

"...You’ve fallen… So that’s why you ended up like that!”

"Hey now, isn’t that a bit harsh? Calling this my end… I’m still a young man with a long life ahead of myself. Ah, and four.”

Faris, spreading another finger, continued to speak cheerfully.

"This is a tip for you greenhouse-flower like wizards, the next time you find yourself on a battlefield, don’t just stand there and listen to your enemy talking. They’re just stalling for time.”

"Wha–"

As soon as he finished his sentence, I could feel something dense pressing in using my Tide Sense.

The number of beings was seriously overwhelming. Twenty, thirty, fifty, eighty…

Only when I felt well over a hundred did I notice a part of the group crawling forward to surround the children.

An endless sea of mummies blocked off all escape routes. Only then could Faris breathe easily, scratching his head lightly.

"Dang, how many Knights did you actually station in here? Scared the shit out of me. I almost thought we were screwed. Anyway, thank you very much for waiting. I’ll take care of the aftermath so just hand over the kids, okay? Making you fall is too annoying since you're 3-stars, so I don’t need you.”

"You filthy devil…! We have not the slightest intention of handing over these children to you!”

"Hey now. Let’s keep things simple here. You should already know how this will go. The only difference you two resisting will make is that you’ll end up as two fresh corpses. Just let this go, hurt yourself adequately and tell those parents or whatever that you did your best but the enemy was just too strong. That’s the best for all sides…”

Swish… Bang!

Before he could even finish his sentence, one of the teachers shot a flare into the sky, adding some color to the black.

It obviously was a distress signal. At least one person should have seen this.

Faris spat in annoyance when he saw it.

"Ah, looks like we’re running out of time. Hey, just get as many as we can and run.”

Then, with a snap of his fingers–

"K-kyaaaargh!! Teacher!!! Help!!”

"Unhand me! D-do you even know who I am??”

The mummies rushed forward and began to snatch up every child they could.

Those who dared to resist were knocked out with a blow to their necks.

Even though the teachers immediately rushed forward with fierce looks in their eyes–

"Kids!!”

"Now, now, dear teachers, you should be playing with me.”

"Urgh…!”

The mummies began to even swarm the golems.

This magic was truly extraordinary. With a few swings of their spears or punches they managed to blast away several mummies at once.

However, their sheer number was far too overwhelming. Even with two 3-star mages working in tandem, they were helpless against this endless wave of monsters.

"I’ll take care of this! Teacher Yuli, please save the children!”

"Understood!"

One of them steeled themselves to risk their life to take care of all these mummies on their own.

"Didn’t I just say that we all should stay here and play?”

"What the…!”

Then something bizarre happened.

The blood that had been dripping from Faris’ hand moved as if it were alive, slithering forward to grab Yuli’s ankle with it while laughing viciously.

"Not that it’s my place to say this, but… Don’t you think that this world is a truly awful place?”

It was a truly monstrous smile..

"G-get away from me…! Gyaargh!”

Meanwhile, Elisia got snatched up by one of the mummies.

Those that succeeded in catching a child quickly fled into the forest without wasting any more time.

They seemed faster than even horses, hardly seeming human.

What should I do now?

I folded my arms. They managed to break through every Knight that was supposed to guard these noble children with ease and started this mass abduction. I couldn’t even have imagined something like that happening.

Of course I wouldn’t. This was no different from suicide after all.

If the noble guardians of these little kids were to join forces, no matter how fast those mummies could run, they wouldn’t be able to escape their grasp. They’d definitely get forced to swallow down boiling liquid metal until they begged for death.

I just couldn’t understand why anyone would do something so stupid. Were they sick or something? Did they want to be euthanized?

Well, whatever their notices were, it already happened. No matter what decision I made now I had to do it quickly.

"...But why bother?”

Perhaps my best option was to just stay hidden and do nothing.

Those mummies hadn’t notice me yet. If I stayed like this, there was a good chance that I’d get through this incident without much trouble.

But.

"S-save me!! Dad!!”

"No…! Please help me!”

"..."

Listening to the fearful screams and struggling of little kids this body’s age I couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh.

...Thinking about it a little more, if I let this kidnapping happen, I would literally gain nothing from this.

I’d suffer an absolute loss. Why the hell did I pay that expensive carriage and the entry fee twice to not get anything out of this?

And if things ended like this, they might discover information about a certain unknown noble child that arrived a bit earlier during their investigation.

Elisia probably wouldn’t escape from all of this unscathed either…

Yeah, that was good enough.

After successfully convincing myself, I left the burrow.

It was now time for me to act.

* * *

Even though I did say that with quite some confidence, that didn’t mean I could actually beat those mummies.

Those two 3-star mages were just wiping the floor with them as it was nothing, but considering that those things managed to bite off a Knight’s fingers, I definitely wasn’t a match for them.

I didn’t really want to use this, but I didn’t have any other choice here.

"Huh?"

"Hey there."

I stepped out and stood before one of the mummies about to run off with a child.

When the mummy’s gaze met mine, I spread my arms wide.

Come on, there’s a child dressed in noble clothes before you.

Kidnap me already.

"..."

But the mummy just stared at me for a moment, before it turned to leave.

...What the hell was wrong with that thing?

"Where do you think you’re going, you bastard?”

"Gyaaargh!!”

Thwack! I tapped its head using some wind magic. Only then did that thing finally turn to look at me, howled and grabbed me.

Then, it tried to hit my neck, with quite some precision I must say.

However, because I was already expecting it, I had already placed a few branches around the nape of my neck to prevent from being made to faint.

At that moment I came to a realization.

'Are these mummies stupid or something?'

It seemed like they were like machines, only capable of performing actions they have been ordered to do. I could use that.

Pretending to have fainted, I carefully memorized the way those mummies were taking us.

After about 30 minutes of nonstop walking, crossing over several mountains that no horse could climb, the mummy stopped, placing some sort of steel shackle around my neck.

Then it dragged me into a small well.

"...?"

Was it trying to drown me or something? It didn’t have to go out of their way to do that, since I’d die like that one of these days anyway.

I braced myself, expecting to hit some water, but that didn’t happen. There was not a single drop of water in this well.

Instead, there was a crawl space in the wall big enough for a single person.

I dragged myself through that narrow, stinking passage for several minutes.

The place I ended up in next was what seemed like a prison cell made out of rotting stone with a single almost extinguished lantern hanging from the ceiling.

The mummy shoved me in there and sealed the hole I had entered through shut.

-Thud!

"Urgh. Dammit..."

It shoved me so hard that my head slammed into the opposite wall.

Rubbing my aching head, I heard a commotion coming from a corner.

"L-light! Burst, burn…”

"No… my magic won’t activate!”

Looking around the cell from the corner I was sitting in—

I saw the children who had been captured earlier huddled together in the center, screaming.

They couldn’t activate their magic?

I tried to sink even deeper into my corner, trying to avoid the kids noticing me, and tried to cast a wind spell.

"Blow."

Nothing happened.

Was it because of the shackle around my neck? It probably was some sort of artifact.

Next I tried using my Tide Sense.

Fortunately, it worked. The currents I immediately urged to spread all around the palace showed me the exact structure of my surroundings.

Analyzing what I was sensing, it seemed like this was pretty much an underground prison. There were a few damaged parts, which suggested that those guys hadn’t built this themselves, but were actually using an already existing structure.

"Urgh,,, Damn it! Do you guys even know who I am? Open the door this instant! I’m going to tell all of this to my father!”

"We’re all going to die…”

Okay, so what now?

First, I should probably do something about those bars.

They seemed to be solidly planted into the ground, but even they couldn’t escape the passage of time, so every time I shook them slightly I could see dust flakes falling off of them.

If I could just rub them together, then…

"Elisia! Y-you called those guys, didn’t you?!”

"How does that make any sense? Why would I call them?!”

"You didn’t want others to find out that you can’t use magic so you made those guys kidnap us!”

"Stop spouting nonsense! Then why would they take me as well?!”

"To avoid suspicion…”

Oh, nice.

I injected currents into the joints of the bars, grinding away at the stone until I felt them loosen.

This was similar to picking a lock. The only difference was how I used the currents.

The key to this was to pour water into the small cracks in the rock and widening them. I wouldn’t be able to completely destroy them, but if given enough time, it would work eventually.

"Do you still not get it? We’re going to die…”

"Wh-what do you mean?”

"They kidnapped all of us. If they just took one, they might be out for ransom, but all of us…? They are practically shouting that they have no intention of letting us live! This is just an act of terroris!”

"Then why didn’t they kill us right away?”

"They want to show our mothers and fathers our slow deaths… They’ll probably starve us, cut off our fingers, and send us to them cut into pieces…”

"Stop saying scary things! We can just get out of this cell!”

"How? Without being able to use magic, we’re just kids!”

"..."

Clang—

The bottom-half of a bar came off..

The top part was still firmly planted in the wall, but removing it as well would take too much time.

When I pulled at it, a small gap opened up. This should be enough for us to get through.

"Elisia, just let us out!”

"And how am I supposed to do that?! I was kidnapped as well! Did you guys go crazy??”

"Uurgh… I can't die here.”

Clap-

I slipped through the gap, standing outside now, and clapped my hands to draw the arguing children’s attention.

"Children."

"...?"

All the noble children’s eyes gathered on me.

Even Hughins’, who was holding Elisia by her collar, and Elisia’s.

I was still wearing the noble attire, so I probably looked like one of them in their eyes.

Hughins clung to the bars, his eyes wide as if he had just witnessed water catching on fire.

"W-who are you? How did you get out?”

"It’s nothing really. It’s actually quite easy. I’ll let you out if you promise me one thing.”

"...What?"

With all the kids silent, their eyes glued to me, I made my plea.

"Just keep your mouth shut for five minutes. Please.”

"?"

Fucking hell, I was this close to a nervous breakdown.

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