WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 33 - Growth (8)

Elisia might one day become my savior.

"I-I’m ready! It’s fine, I can do this…!”

"...No, take off those goggles. It’ll be fine.”

But I couldn’t say that she seemed all that trustworthy right now. We were in the garden of Elisia’s castle.

I forcibly removed the goggles she was wearing over her trembling eyes, on the verge of tears.

"No, I can’t! Water will get into my eyes if I don’t have them!”

"What… are you even talking about?”

"...Don’t I have to go into the water?”

"Why would you?”

"But that’s how you’ve been learning magic, right?”

"..."

It seemed like she misunderstood something after seeing me learning ‘Purge’ magic.

I hesitated a little, then just cut straight to it.

"That’s… because I’m a special case. Lady Elisia, you don’t need to do that.”

"Really??”

Watching her face instantly lighting up, I tried to collect my thoughts.

I actually didn’t have much confidence in teaching her magic, of course.

All I knew about normal magic was the stuff I caught while eavesdropping on the Academy classes. I also bet that the countless tutors she had before me tried all the conventional stuff already.

There was only that much I could do.

"But why are you suddenly speaking politely to me again? Weren’t you supposed to be my teacher?”

"I’ll be using honorifics in formal teaching settings. I’d appreciate it if you did the same, Lady Elisia…”

"Yes! I will!”

"...You can just speak however you feel comfortable. Let’s try working on control today.”

"Control?”

"Yes. I think that the reason you can’t use magic is because you’re unconsciously blocking it yourself.”

I stirred up a small gust of wind. Naturally, since Elisia was next to me, it scattered a little.

That wasn’t enough, so I pulled Elisia to sit beside me.

"Come sit a little closer.”

"Huh, okay?”

She was close enough for our breaths to touch. Her silver hair brushed my cheek.

Elisia seemed quite startled by the sudden closeness. Realizing my mistake, I pulled back slightly.

"Ah, I’m sorry. Nobles and commoners aren’t supposed to touch, right?”

"No! It’s not like that, not at all!”

"...Is that so?”

I was slightly concerned about her over-the-top reaction, but even at this distance the interference on my wind magic, strong enough to make it difficult to even manifest it, was more than clear.

"Now, try to calm yourself and regulate your power.”

"...Okay!"

Elisia took a deep breath to regain her composure and earnestly tried to do something.

"Unngh..."

But it seemed like she had no clue what she was even supposed to do. So, nothing had changed at all.

I gently soothed the trembling Elisia.

"Don't try to use magic.”

"...Huh? Then what am I supposed to do?”

"Just think of magic as something natural, a phenomenon that just exists. Even if you can’t do it right now, just trying is enough for now.”

"Is doing just that much really okay?”

"Of course."

If the world she created was shaped to reject magic, then she, as its creator, had to change first.

Well, I was already someone belonging to a completed world, but Elisia was still young.

She should still be able to reshape it with her own power.

Elisia blinked, thinking for a bit.

"Hmm, I don’t know. Isn’t magic a natural phenomenon? I think of it that way at least.”

"...Really?"

"Yeah. Before, I didn’t really realize it, but everyone uses magic, right? So of course it exists. It’s natural.”

I tried to use my magic.

There was no change. It was still unmoving, as if it had been sealed away.

Well, I hadn’t expected an issue as deeply rooted as this one to unravel just by trying to change her perspective a little.

I looked around. No one was watching.

"Miss Elisia.”

"Yes!”

"Shall we go on a walk?”

"A walk? Where?”

"Just outside.”

Seeing her tilt her head in confusion, I explained further.

"I need to stop by my home for a bit.”

"?"

The orphanage was also in the capital, so it didn’t take that long to get there.

"Hello, Director.”

"...J-Jern?”

As soon as I got there and waved, the director, who had been busy playing with the children, immediately came running toward me, surprise in his eyes.

The look in his eyes was like that of someone seeing a prodigal son return after weeks of being away.

Well, technically that was what happened.

"Hey, Jern! Where have you been all this time?!”

"...? Didn’t you get my letters? I sent one almost every day.”

"I did see them, but you never told me where or what you were doing! You only ever wrote things like, "I'm fine," "I'm safe," and "I'm happy." How am I supposed to believe any of that just from those words??”

"Well, how should I put it… It’s a bit complicated and hard to put into words. But I really am fine, so please don’t worry.”

"Haah… I’m glad you’re okay, but still…”

His exasperated gaze quickly turned to my side.

Looking at my companion’s obviously well-kept clothes and pretty face, the director frowned in puzzlement.

"Hmm, and who might this child be?”

"A new friend.”

"I-is that so? If you had enough spare time to make new friends, I wish you could have just spent some of that time to come here and properly explain your situation instead… Anyway, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Albus.”

"Ah, yes…!”

Elisia grabbed the director’s large hand and shook it enthusiastically.

However, even while she did that, she kept looking around curiously. It was pretty obvious that this was her first time in an orphanage.

"I’m the director of this orphanage.”

"Huh, this is an orphanage?!”

"?? Hmm, indeed.”

Elisia clapped a hand over her mouth in surprise.

"Then all these kids here…”

"Are all orphans under our care."

As they were talking, the kids, having noticed the commotion, came running one by one.

"Huh? It’s Jern! Where have you been?”

"Who’s that next to you?”

"A new friend I made. I was away doing some work.”

"Right, and while you were away Shakh messed with your bed and…”

"I told you not to tell anyone!”

Watching the kids erupting in noisy chatter, I whispered to Elisia.

"Sorry for bringing you to such a shabby place, but this is my home.”

"Jern… I knew you were a commoner, but…”

"Yes, I’m an orphan.”

"Really??”

Elisia’s eyes widened, as if she could have never imagined it. Apparently, Aletus hadn’t told her.

After a brief moment of shock, she furiously shook her head.

"N-no, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing! It’s just, I knew you weren’t a noble; I thought you’d turn out to be the hidden son of one, or the heir of a fallen house, or something like that.”

"Are you disappointed?”

"...No, what do you think of me? Of course not! I’m just surprised. That’s all.”

"There’s no secret to my birth. I’m just an ordinary kid.”

"That’s a lie.”

Noticing that Elisia was strangely stubborn about that, I simply led her inside where lessons were underway.

Since the children were busy studying, I kept my voice low as to not disturb them and asked,

"What do you think?”

"Wow…”

Elisia’s eyes sparkled as she eavesdropped on the lesson.

It was quite the amusing sight. Seeing her basically copy what I did at the Academy.

Showing a hint of excitement, she gave me a reply.

"It’s not much different from what we learn as kids, is it?”

"Lessons on reading and writing are the same no matter where you go. The difference only starts appearing once we grow older. Kids like you, Lady Elisia, go on to study magic, while the kids here will choose whatever skills or trades they want to pursue.”

"...Ah."

Her expression darkened slightly after hearing those words, probably reminded of her struggle to properly learn magic.

I cleared my throat and continued.

"But honestly, I don’t think it’s that important.”

"Huh?"

"I think you’re taking magic far too seriously, Lady Elisia. As my master said, magic is just a tool. To assign more meaning to it than that is nothing more than self-torture.”

"..."

Dercia once said that fearing tools was nothing short of foolishness.

I didn’t quite agree with that. If you saw something like a chainsaw tearing apart a man, wouldn’t you also feel quite a bit of fear of it even though you knew it was safe?

This wasn’t something I could solve for her. She had to overcome it herself. No matter how much help I offered here, if she didn’t even try to fight through it herself, it would be meaningless.

All I could do was try to remind her that chainsaws weren’t made to cut through people, but wood.

"Magic and what the kids here are learning are essentially the same. Even if one has greater power than the other. They are just a means to not lose to others, to score higher tomorrow, or to achieve their dreams… That’s all. I only wanted you to understand that.”

"So you’re saying it’s not the goal?”

"Yes."

"But I can’t just take it so lightly. A noble who can’t use magic is—”

"Still a noble. They might sneer at you and slander you, but Lord Aletus is still your father. That fact will never change.”

"..."

Elisia looked at me with clear eyes, her lips opening and closing a few times without saying anything.

I quietly waited for her to find her words.

And what if she never did? Well, then I guess I’d have to beg Dercia to help me out.

For the record, my magic still wasn’t activating.

"...Jern."

"Yes."

Elisia finally spoke up, albeit hesitantly.

"...Could you… come with me somewhere?”

Our roles had reversed.

* * *

Elisia led me to a broad hill.

The fence, decorated dazzlingly, seemed to be guarding something, but I couldn’t see anything beyond it.

There was just a single sword driven into the ground.

"Where are we?”

"This is where my mother sleeps.”

"---"

There was no gravestone, so I didn’t realize.

Elisia calmly placed the flowers she had brought before the sword, then turned around as if she was done.

Feeling like I was sitting on a bed of nails, I stood at attention and asked as politely as I could,

"Erm, is there some kind of proper etiquette I should follow?”

"What? Pffft..."

Elisia burst into hearty laughter.

"There’s nothing like that. My mother was a really, really forgiving woman. She’d even let you dance on her grave.”

"She must have been really kind.”

"Yeah. She passed away when I was 8.”

"I see."

This felt extremely awkward. Elisia, wearing a mischievous expression on her face, jabbed me with her finger.

"I felt exactly the same when you suddenly dragged me to the orphanage. I thought we were just going to meet your parents when you said that we were going to your home, but then you revealed such a huge secret about yourself. How was I supposed to react, right?”

"...Let’s just call it even then.”

"Sure, haah.”

It seemed like Elisia came here often, seeing her hop onto the fence and precariously walk along on it, speaking to me in a calm voice.

"If my world really was built wrong somehow… I think I know the reason.”

"What is it?”

"My mother died because of magic.”

"..."

"But the spell that brought an end to her life was the most beautiful magic I’ve ever seen.”

Elisia tilted her head back, looking up at the sky, as if she were reminiscing.

"By the time I was 8, everyone said that my mother didn't have much more left, maybe a few more years at best. Then, one of the most renowned mages came to see her. I don’t know who it was, but I remember he said that even magic couldn’t cure her and that it might even kill her if he tried. But my father insisted…”

"...What kind of magic was it?”

"I don’t know. It was just… so beautiful. All I remember is that Mother stood up one last time and hugged me.”

Elisia let out a sigh before continuing.

"So I don’t know. How am I supposed to hate magic for that? I don’t particularly feel any ill feelings toward it. I’m just grateful that my mother's last moments were happy ones.”

"The human heart isn’t something that fits together as neatly as a machine.”

I was certain her mother never wanted Elisia to hate magic.

But I didn’t tell her that. Even if it was well-intended, trying to guess a loved one’s thoughts felt more akin to violence.

"And besides, I don’t think you have to overcome it.”

"...What do you mean?”

"I don’t really get it, since I’m just an orphan. But losing a parent is the same as letting go of someone you love. If learning magic means you have to forget these painful memories and move on… Hmm. Honestly, I think that would be a loss. If it were me, I’d just give up on magic and hold onto those memories instead.”

I spoke without blinking.

Elisia just stared at me blankly for a while, then smiled brightly.

"What kind of nonsense are you talking about? Moving on doesn’t mean forgetting, you know?”

“I see. I’m sorry. I guess I made a mistake.”

"Jern, you’re really smart, but when it comes to people, you’re pretty lacking, huh? Hehe…”

Whoosh—

A soft breeze rippled across the hill. Elisia looked up at the horizon and muttered.

"Yeah, it doesn’t mean forgetting…”

I watched her silver hair flutter in the wind, smiling quietly while clenching my right hand behind my back.

I could definitely feel it—

My spell worked.

* * *

"Today was fun. It feels like we just skipped class and just played around, hehe.”

"No. We actually made great progress.”

"?"

I waved as she climbed into the carriage, still appearing slightly bewildered.

Even after she was completely gone, I kept standing there for a while, lost in thought.

'It worked.'

A gust of wind had blown, if only for a moment.

It wasn’t really my place to say it, but the world of magic was truly mysterious. With these thoughts in mind, I returned to the library.

"...?"

But what I found when I reached it was an open door.

That alone couldn’t be called particularly strange. Perhaps Dercia just forgot to close it or something.

However, what was strange was that there were five incredibly luxurious carriages embroidered with gold thread parked outside, so well… clearly something was going on here.

I wasn’t really worried though.

After all, Dercia was inside of there.

"Excuse me.”

Creak, I pushed the already open door further open, announcing that I was entering.

But the people inside seemed to have been too absorbed in their conversation to notice me coming in.

"...So, you’re saying it was purely that boy’s talent that moved you?”

"I’ve already repeated myself thirty times.”

"It’s just hard to believe. If you were the kind of person who would be swayed by something like that, then…”

Several men, clad entirely in black robes, which made them seem like a group of typical villains, surrounded Dercia, interrogating her.

Judging by the swords at their hips, they were probably Knights. But what startled me wasn’t the fact that this situation seemed kind of dangerous but the fact that Dercia just sat there, visibly irritated, and didn’t pulverize them instantly.

"Ahem."

"...Who goes there?!”

Only when I loudly cleared my throat did they finally look my way.

They were incredibly tall. About twice the size of an average man.

I had a pretty good guess as to who they were, so I walked forward, knelt, and bowed my head.

"I’m Jern, disciple of Dercia. I greet the Imperial Knights.”

"...What?"

The Knights stared at me, their puzzlement clear on their faces, then turned to glare at Dercia.

"What exactly did you tell him?”

"You’re the ones who made it impossible not to realize.”

"...How did you know we’re Imperial Knights?”

The man who appeared to be their commander approached me, his tone menacing.

Not intimidated by his demeanor, I simply shrugged.

"The carriages outside were quite eye-catching.”

"They shouldn’t have held the Imperial crest.”

"And you’re also surrounding my master like this and are still alive. That made it clear you must be from quite the Knight Order.”

"...But why did you assume the Imperial Knights out of all of them? You probably don’t know much about Knight orders!”

"My master has quite the fiery temper. If you were from just any ordinary knight order, no matter how strong, she’d have left nothing but bones to collect. Yet the fact that no blood was shed even after she answered your questions thirty times… I can only assume it’s because you’re the kind of people she can’t simply erase without bringing the whole country down on her.”

"..."

The Knight Commander was left speechless.

Dercia simply let out an amused laugh.

"I hope that answer suffices.”

"...The boy openly mocked his master, yet you don’t seem to mind.”

"That is for me to take care of at another time.”

"The Assembly will make the final decision.”

They left the library without another word, radiating a menacing aura as they went.

Bang! Their last act was to slam the door, their faces twisted with irritation.

Only after they were gone did Dercia let out a longer-than-usual sigh and lift her coffee cup.

"This is going to be troublesome…”

"What exactly is going on here?”

"The princess seems to be a little upset. Something along the lines of, “How dare you refuse me, only to choose some lowborn commoner instead?!”

"Aha. Understood. But if you even turned down the princess, shouldn’t that mean that you don’t intend on taking any other disciple?”

"That’s not something the ‘other disciple’ should be saying, now is it?”

Dercia poured coffee into another cup and pushed it towards me.

"And this is your problem as well.”

"My problem? Why? I’ve got nothing to do with the Imperial Family. I’m far too small to matter. So, I’ll be leaving it all to you, Master.”

"As you have probably heard, I claimed that ‘the commoner I chose was just so brilliant that I couldn’t help but accept him’ to justify my actions. But what if that commoner were to fail to perform well in this upcoming combat exam…? They would gain plenty of excuses to cause trouble.”

"Don’t you always say that the law can’t bind you?”

"Even I can’t do anything against someone whose very word is the law.”

I took a sip from the coffee and nearly coughed up blood.

What the hell. This wasn’t coffee but poison.

Dercia calmly downed the entire cup of poison, massaging her temples, and declared.

"To prevent any future troubles, you’ll need to win. And overwhelmingly at that.”

"Well, that’s just great. But I can’t say I’m confident I can do that.”

"Why?”

"I mean… the only magic I learned is this after all.”

I silently activated ‘Purge’ and wrapped its effects around me.

"It’s nice and all, but this magic just turns me into a resilient punching bag. If I have to fight without using Abyss magic, shouldn’t I learn something that lets me move past being a living punching bag at least?”

Dercia looked at me with a pitying gaze one usually would give a clueless kid.

"...Jern. Did it ever occur to you how strange it is that you, who aren’t by any means a genius, managed to master even ancient magic like Growth, Form, and Purge so quickly?”

"Hmm…can’t say it did.”

"It’s because I prepared you for it.”

"Huh?”

Dercia spoke with complete nonchalance, her voice cracking.

"Growth, Form, and Purge. It seems that this magic originally came from a tribal chieftain who awakened as a natural-born wizard deep in some jungle and passed it down through generations. The way they interpreted magic was through great suffering.”

"Just hearing it makes it sound awful.”

"And it was. The chieftain probably didn’t even realize that he had become a wizard and just went through the ‘rituals’ like he usually did. Those rituals were nothing short of torture. Cutting, tearing, and crushing their own flesh. When their body went through this torturously slow death, brimming with pain and desperate desire… it became magic.”

"..."

I immediately stopped using Purge. My appetite vanished along with its effect.

"Surprisingly, Growth and Form managed to be developed into refined, sophisticated techniques that left their mark in history. Purge, however, that could be seen as their foundation is incredibly crude. Even the very basic conditions to learn it are completely absurd.”

"Let me guess… Is it spreading mana through one’s entire body?”

"That is the first step. The second is training in Body Reinforcement techniques. And what follows is the final and greatest drawback that prevents most from learning Growth, Form, and Purge.”

Dercia smiled brightly as she looked at me.

"You cannot breathe while using Purge.”

"...It did feel too good to be true.”

It carried an absurd risk.

Not for me, though.

I didn’t breathe the conventional way anymore.

"Growth, Form, and Purge are certainly powerful. But the drawbacks made it not worth learning. That was why it was abandoned. I dug it back up for you.”

"So you really did have a plan, Master.”

"...It seems you only call me Master when it suits you. Anyway, the important part is that even with Purge alone, the elemental magic those children will be flinging around won’t be able to touch a single strand of your hair.”

"I see..."

It was true.

It seemed that Dercia was supporting my growth much more systematically than I had expected. None of her actions aimed to achieve just a single goal.

Looking at those perpetually frozen, foggy eyes, I asked a question.

"But right now, I can only use Purge against the cold. So, what about the other elements—"

"Don’t you worry. I’ll make sure that you’ll be able to use Purge against all elements before the combat exam.”

"...Thanks.”

So she practically just declared that she would thoroughly torture me.

I gritted my teeth but still managed to press out a thank you, but then another question appeared in my mind.

"Wait, but…”

"Yes? Do you still have any questions?”

"I get that Growth, Form, and Purge, or well, Purge in particular, are perfect for defense. But how exactly am I supposed to attack?”

No matter how I thought of it, I really didn’t have a proper way to attack.

"Just continue training with Form: Rupture and Form: Acceleration cast on your body. That should solve the problem.”

"Why?”

"Your body will be at its absolute peak, so just walk up to your opponents and beat them bloody until they surrender.”

"Isn’t this supposed to be a competition between mages?”

"And what does that matter?”

"...What?”

Looking into my bewildered face, Delica answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Victory is what matters most.”

... Just thinking about what the people would say at the tournament gave me headaches already.

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