TL/ED – Miso

“We have known from the very beginning that you would come.”

After being exposed to my Deep Sea, the leader of these fools became meek as a lamb and prostrated himself flat on the ground.

“Of course, our organization’s history spans less than fifty years, a rather short time, but even so, when the Empire first shed blood, we knew what we had to do…”

“Less than fifty years?”

“Ah, yes. It has been about that long since our previous leader deciphered the ancient texts and gathered us together.”

“What happened to that leader?”

“Regrettably, he passed away before he could witness the arrival with his own eyes. However, when that day finally comes, the boundary between life and death will lose all meaning, so it is perfectly fine!”

In other words.

Listening to this grinning fool talk, it sounded like some historian-type who stumbled upon the fact that Crimson Circle actually existed had used that knowledge to found a cult.

These people were the byproduct of that, and it just so happened that Crimson Circle’s actual invasion attempt coincided with a period when their faith had grown strong enough for them to become active.

What a bizarre turn of events. Having grasped the general situation, I got to the point.

“I see. Good work. So what’s this relic you mentioned?”

Regardless of anything else, it was clear these people knew information that I didn’t.

The leader asked back with a puzzled expression.

“Which one do you mean? Surely you must have some idea…”

“I have no idea at all. I’m a new recruit who only joined Crimson Circle recently. I’d appreciate it if you filled me in.”

“B-but that world of yours…”

The man trailed off, seemingly unable to believe I was a newcomer, but soon nodded vigorously and began wringing his hands together.

“Of course! After the calamity of the Eye descended, we were seized by a certain anxiety.”

“Anxiety?”

“Yes. We worship you, of course, but… given our short history and the fact that we’ve never been acknowledged, we feared that if we ever actually met you, it would be difficult to prove our worth.”

The leader, trembling slightly as he spoke, was absolutely right.

These people really were useless.

“That is why, based on the information we possessed, we endeavored to handle even the most trivial tasks, so that we might earn even the smallest measure of your favor!”

He pointed proudly at the severed sewage pipe.

“Our ultimate goal was to eliminate every person in this city. If we cut off the water supply temporarily and introduced a sufficient amount of poison into the water source, we could finish them all off at once when it was reconnected!”

“…To protect the relic?”

“Yes! Precisely! The people living in this city keep digging deeper and deeper underground! At this rate, those despicable dogs of the Empire would strip the relic away in no time, so we were doing everything in our power to buy time until you arrived!”

The way he proudly declared his plan to kill every person in the city was a fresh reminder that lunatics are drawn to lunatics.

When I sighed and rose from my seat, they all flinched.

“Lead the way. Let me see this relic. If you went to all this trouble, you must have its location pinpointed.”

“Of course! I will guide you there at once!”

I followed the excited man deeper underground.

And as we walked, I couldn’t help but tilt my head in confusion.

‘Are they planning to betray me?’

The place they were heading was the dead end, the very bottom of the underground tunnels.

All that was there was a pile of blocked-off dirt. There was no relic in sight, so the thought crossed my mind that they might be planning to stab me in the back as soon as we arrived.

But having felt my power firsthand, most of them, including the leader, were thoroughly terrified and in no position to attempt a counterattack.

I swallowed my doubts, and when we reached the dead end, the leader displayed the mound of dirt as if showing off a treasure.

“Here! This is the relic that our Martial Training Corps has been guarding!”

Good grief. Had I underestimated the possibility that they were simply a group of lunatics?

As my expression gradually twisted, the man hastily added an explanation.

“T-to be precise, it’s this root!”

“…Root?”

Only then did I notice a tiny tree root, no bigger than a finger, poking out from between the dirt.

A truly unremarkable tree root. Dumbfounded, I asked again.

“How is this a relic?”

“Allow me, I’ll just use a blade for a moment.”

Saying this, he pulled a small pair of scissors from his pocket and carefully snipped the tip of the root.

…Snip!

Red liquid gushed out in an instant.

“?”

The tree root poured out red liquid as if it were a limb of a living creature.

And it wasn’t just some red water, either. The narrow tunnel was instantly filled with such an intense smell of blood that it made my head throb.

An unbelievable amount of blood for something that came from a small tree root gradually pooled across the floor, until it reached my robe.

Trickle.

“Oh, ohhh…!”

“This is… the Ritual!”

And then something bizarre happened.

The hem of the robe began greedily drinking up the blood as if it were alive.

The tree root could at least be categorized as a living organism, but the robe I was wearing was just a piece of clothing. That robe that had been buried away in Alletus’s underground chamber.

‘Ah.’

Come to think of it, there had been an explanation that this was the robe of The First Wizard. It had even reduced my Burden to some degree.

[Mo, more, more…]

“What now…”

[More, mor…!]

On top of everything, the robe that had started drinking the blood began making strange sounds.

It was such a grotesque noise that I couldn’t tell whether it was asking for more or if it was just the sound of liquid being absorbed.

As I debated whether I should try to stop this or not, the leader dropped to his knees on the floor, tears streaming down his face.

“To think that someone as lowly as I could witness even a portion of the Ritual with my own eyes… I am simply overwhelmed… Ugh, huhh…”

“What’s that supposed to mean? This is safe, right?”

“Th-the Ritual is, sniff, sniffle.”

The man, practically sobbing, continued.

“It refers to gathering all the Holy Relics in one place to resurrect The First Wizard.”

“Resurrect?”

Now that was another absurd claim.

Crimson Circle despised The First Wizard.

He was the one who erased all the other worlds and excluded everything beyond the Celestial Realm, the world we currently live in.

And Crimson Circle would go out of their way to resurrect their sworn nemesis? I couldn’t comprehend the reasoning behind it.

“Wait, why would they resurrect that bastard?”

“Because you can only kill him once he’s alive, can you not!”

“…What?”

The leader seemed so overcome with emotion that he didn’t even notice my question was a bit strange for someone who was supposedly a member of Crimson Circle.

“Kill every wizard, then resurrect The First Wizard stripped of all his power, and kill him too. That is the true salvation we yearn for!”

***

“Honestly, when did those vagrants even sneak underground…”

“They must have been eating and relieving themselves in there. Think the water quality’s been affected?”

Iabon.

In the heart of the city, I watched the Martial Training Corps being led away in shackles and let out a sigh.

Even as they were being hauled off, they seemed to think this was all part of the plan, and the pitiful way they tried to wink at me was hard to watch.

“Hey, what are you lot smiling at? Line up single file!”

“Tch, idiots.”

“What?”

“In the end, the Prophecy is unfolding! I saw it with my own two eyes. The savior has come, and your pathetic lives don’t have much time left. Enjoy them to the fullest, so you have no regrets when that day arrives!”

“…Are they mentally ill?”

“Seems like it.”

While the guards led away the Martial Training Corps with uncomfortable expressions, other guards were bowing to me repeatedly.

“We truly don’t know how to thank you enough. To think that a guest like yourself would go so far as to deal with street thugs like those…”

“It’s fine. Just lock them up in prison for life and make sure they never get out.”

“Would we do any less? Those wretches will never see the light of day again.”

After receiving firm assurance from the guard, I turned around and found that evening had already fallen.

I gazed at the sunset slowly sinking below the horizon and sank into thought.

‘So he didn’t tell me everything after all…’

Crimson Circle, and Void in particular, had spouted off to me that the world would end immediately once all wizards were dead.

But it seemed this world, the Celestial Realm, wasn’t so easily destroyed.

In the end, The First Wizard, the master of the world, had to be completely defeated for the true collapse, the apocalypse, the rapture, whatever you wanted to call it, to come. That was what it meant.

So killing the wizards was to drain The First Wizard’s power before eventually resurrecting him…

“What’s changed about this thing now?”

If that were the case, then this robe should have advanced a stage by merging with the other Holy Relic, but for the moment its color was still just as dull, and it blocked about the same amount of Burden. The only difference was that it felt slightly softer to the touch.

Even the bizarre sounds from earlier had completely vanished.

Thinking along those lines, just as I was about to conclude that nothing had really changed, something flashed through my mind.

“…Huh?”

If Crimson Circle’s goal was to resurrect The First Wizard,

then why hadn’t they been collecting the Holy Relics?

‘It must mean the relics are useless to them for now…’

That was the most likely possibility.

From what I’d seen, the Holy Relics seemed to simply merge into one when brought close together.

Or perhaps, beyond being useless, there was a reason they couldn’t afford to do so.

“…Does it mean The First Wizard must not be resurrected right now?”

That line of thinking resolved most of the questions.

If The First Wizard was the problem, then instead of going through the tedious process of killing all the wizards, they could simply resurrect him and kill him.

The fact that they couldn’t do that meant… if The First Wizard were resurrected while wizards were still alive, Crimson Circle wasn’t confident they could defeat him.

So Crimson Circle actually couldn’t afford to combine the Holy Relics. It was better to leave them scattered and untouched.

…Especially the ones hidden away in places no one knew about, left to remain unfound forever.

Then, what if.

What if I resurrected him first…

“Jern?”

My train of thought was interrupted right then.

A familiar high-pitched voice came from behind me. I turned to find Elysia standing there, tilting her head curiously.

“Where have you been? You weren’t around when I woke up, and I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

“I had something I needed to take care of. Are you still tired?”

“Nope. Oh! Right, let’s hurry! There’s something I want to show you!”

“Show me?”

Elysia grabbed my hand as if there wasn’t a moment to spare and headed toward the center of the city.

“The prettiest thing here is the fireworks show at night! I really wanted you to see it!”

“…Is that so?”

Fireworks. Did this world even have those?

…It did, apparently. However, the city square was filled with disappointed people and guards wearing helpless expressions, explaining something.

“We are truly sorry. Tonight’s event cannot be held.”

“All the trees on the hill behind us have dried up and died, so if any sparks land there, they’ll catch fire immediately…”

“??”

Confused, I extended my Current Sense toward the hill behind the city.

The mountain where the hot spring I’d visited first was located, every tree there had completely withered and dried out. It did look like even the slightest spark could start a wildfire.

…Could it be related to the blood that root had spilled? As I stood there caught off guard by this sudden development, Elysia drooped her head sadly.

“…Aww.”

“…”

She must have been really looking forward to it. To be precise, more than the fireworks themselves, she had probably been looking forward to watching them with me.

“It’s okay. We can see them another time.”

“But you won’t be here then, Jern…”

“…I’ll come back with you.”

After spending a while consoling her, I was idly sweeping the area with my Current Sense when a good idea suddenly struck me.

“Come to think of it, you have that magic that suppresses worlds, right?”

“Hm?”

“You said it works better the more you know about a world, right?”

“Yeah! Actually, I’ve been wanting to ask you more about what kind of world you live in!”

“How about seeing it for yourself?”

“Huh?”

I’d already tested it on the Martial Training Corps leader.

Gently taking hold of Elysia’s shoulders, I covered her with a Water Barrier and pulled her into the Deep Sea.

Drawing on the hint from last time, I made sure to have a glimmering light ready on my hand beforehand.

“Wh-what…?”

The world inverted, and in an instant everything was submerged in seawater. She gripped my hand tightly, looking anxious, but then her mouth fell open as she saw the galaxy spread out before her eyes.

“Wow…!”

“What do you think? Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Y-yeah!”

Of course, there was no sky, let alone a water’s surface, in the dark depths of the Deep Sea, so stars were an impossibility.

The moving lights were Luminescent Squids migrating somewhere, but from a distance, they looked like jeweled stars sewn across a dark night sky.

As I watched Elysia enjoying the Deep Sea with a warm feeling in my chest, she turned to me with sparkling eyes and asked.

“Jern, why do you want to leave this place?”

“…”

“Can’t you just stay?”

“No.”

Right now, even a silly question like that had a way of putting my heart at ease.